The Travel Business Unpacked

Lucie McLaughlin spent over two decades as what she calls the "family CEO," and when her kids grew up and life took an unexpected turn, she found herself searching for a new sense of purpose. In this episode, Lucie joins host Meredith Calloway to talk about trading the family-planner role for a career as a luxury travel advisor, and how a conversation with her mother-in-law led her to research host agencies and ultimately choose Gifted Travel Network.Lucie opens up about the emotional side of building her brand, Lucie's Luxury Travel, and how the process brought her back to childhood memories of her family's wine business and cross-country road trips. She and Meredith also dig into her Travel MBA cohort's tight-knit support system, her first Collette tour experience in Portugal's Douro Valley, and the unexpected way an Instagram connection turned into a recurring women's group-travel business, taking her from Charleston to Italy to a planned trip to Greece.📖 Free Chapter: https://tinyurl.com/GTN-Chap7🎓 Travel Business University: https://tinyurl.com/Learn-More-TBU🖥️ Lucie's Luxury Travel Website: https://lluxurytravel.com/👤 Lucie's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucie-mclaughlin-1698a7340

Nicholas Dintelmann spent over a decade in corporate retail before he let himself pursue the international, travel-focused career he'd wanted since childhood. In this episode, Nicholas joins Meredith to talk about the deliberate process of unraveling his corporate life before joining GTN's Travel MBA program in the February 2026 cohort and launching CARTE ATLAS, his luxury travel business built for servant leaders who've built full lives but haven't made space to explore them.Nicholas is honest about what those first few months in the program actually look like: building a brand from scratch, navigating the gap between booking travel and getting paid for it, and learning to trust himself when the certainty of a corporate paycheck disappears. He and Meredith dig into the emotional fitness required to run a business, where the name CARTE ATLAS came from, his FAM trip to Grace Bay Resorts in Turks and Caicos, which was his first time traveling internationally for work, and the honeymoon trip where he circumnavigated the world in two and a half weeks.📖 Free Chapter: https://tinyurl.com/GTN-Chap7🎓 Travel Business University: https://tinyurl.com/Learn-More-TBU🖥️ CARTE ATLAS Website: https://CARTEATLAS.com/👤 Nicholas' LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-dintelmann

This week on The Travel Business Unpacked podcast, host Meredith Calloway is joined by Pam Smithgall, owner of South Shore Travel and a longtime Gifted Travel Network member.Pam began her career as a music teacher before discovering a way to turn her love of travel into a business. Today, she brings the same attention to detail, sequencing, and storytelling that she learned through music into the way she designs travel experiences for her clients. She shares how she creates meaningful moments clients never knew to ask for, builds trusted relationships with travel partners, and has learned to see marketing as an opportunity to connect people with something genuinely valuable.Meredith and Pam also talk about the evolution of her business, from figuring everything out on her own to finding the education, community, and partnerships that helped her grow. Pam shares how her weekly newsletter, carefully curated website, and in-person travel events have helped her stay connected to both existing and potential clients, while reminding us that building a successful travel business takes patience, consistency, and a willingness to keep learning.Pam’s story is a reminder that the skills and passions you already have can become some of your greatest assets as a travel entrepreneur, especially when you learn how to bring them into your business in your own way.📖 Free Chapter: https://tinyurl.com/GTN-Chap7🎓 Travel Business University: https://tinyurl.com/Learn-More-TBU🎓 Travel MBA Program: https://tinyurl.com/TravelMBA-🖥️ South Shore Travel Website: https://www.southshore-travel.com/👤 Pam's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pam-smithgall-80430743

Shawn Lamphear and Jon Malpass of LM Authentic Travel went from corporate careers to a seven-figure producing, six-figure-earning travel business in under two years. In this episode, Shawn and Jon join Meredith Calloway to break down exactly how they did it: why referrals (not cold outreach) drove every client they've landed, how their software backgrounds shaped the systems and workflows behind their business, and where AI is filling in the gaps as they scale.Shawn and Jon also get real about what surprised them most, including how much more "sales" the job turned out to be, and share the biggest challenges they've faced around social media, marketing consistency, and educating clients on the true cost of luxury travel. Plus, hear their favorite "pinch me" moments from the past two years, including one unforgettable stay at the Mandarin Oriental, London.Tune in for practical takeaways from Shawn Lamphear and Jon Malpass on building momentum from day one, leveraging your network, and what it really takes to grow a seven-figure travel business.-📖 Free Chapter: https://tinyurl.com/GTN-Chap7🎓 Travel Business University: https://tinyurl.com/Learn-More-TBU-🖥️ LM Authentic Travel Website: https://lmatravel.com/👤 Shawn's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnhitspace/👤 Jon's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonmalpass/

This week on The Travel Business Unpacked podcast, host Meredith Calloway is joined by Lisa VanBuhler of XOOM Tours, a longtime Gifted Travel Network member who has built a thriving luxury travel business from an unconventional start in student and group travel.Lisa shares how her background in education led her to planning trips for students, eventually serving groups of up to 250 people, and how that experience became the foundation for her transition into luxury travel. At the heart of her approach is a simple but powerful belief: every client’s trip is a blank canvas. By listening closely, drawing on her deep destination knowledge, and working with trusted travel partners, Lisa creates highly personalized experiences designed around each individual traveler.Meredith and Lisa also explore how Lisa turned the uncertainty of the pandemic into an opportunity to bring people together through virtual destination experiences, why there is always a way to serve a client regardless of their budget, and how thoughtfully curated travel can become something much more meaningful than simply a vacation. Her story is a reminder that the skills you already have may be more transferable than you realize, and that passion, curiosity, and a willingness to keep learning can become powerful assets in building a travel business.📖 Free Chapter: https://tinyurl.com/GTN-Chap7🎓 Travel Business University: https://tinyurl.com/yz462bhx-🖥️ XOOM Tours Website: https://xoomtours.com/👤 Lisa's LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/zyje3472