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Achieving Your Travel Bucket List with Your Family: Strategies for Busy Working Moms
61 Plays2 months ago
Trying to achieve your travel goals while managing a busy career? In this episode, Leanna is joined by travel expert Christina Trotter. Together, they dive into strategies for moms who want to balance work, family, and memorable travel experiences. From choosing ideal destinations that meet your family’s needs to making the most of your vacation days, this episode is packed with tips to help you plan enjoyable trips that everyone will love.
Need help with your travel bucket list? Check out Christina’s website: https://www.destinedglobetrotter.com/
You can also follow Christina on Instagram and get even more inspiration from her on Pinterest!
Full transcript available here.
Connect with Leanna here.
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Transcript
Introduction to Executive Coach for Moms
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to the Executive Coach for Moms podcast, where we support women who are attempting to find balance and joy while simultaneously leading people at work and at home.
Meet the Host: Leigh Ann Alaski McGrath
00:00:19
Speaker
I'm your host, Leigh Ann Alaski McGrath, former tech exec turned full-time mom, recovering perfectionist and workaholic and certified executive coach.
00:00:30
Speaker
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the show and thank you so much for being here today.
Guest Introduction: Christina Trotter on Travel
00:00:36
Speaker
I'm really excited to announce today's guest, Christina Trotter. Christina is an expert in travel. I know that we all love to travel and maybe we traveled in the past more than we do now that we have kids. Maybe most of our travel is work related and we don't always think about prioritizing what we want to do in our travel lives. And so I've brought Christina onto the show today so we can just bring some attention to this topic and maybe give you some ideas for how you might think about or prioritize travel in 2025 and beyond. So welcome, Christina.
00:01:16
Speaker
Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it. It's great to be here. Yeah, it's so great to have you and I'm so excited for this conversation.
Christina's Career Shift and Passion for Travel
00:01:21
Speaker
So to start off, can you tell us all a little bit about yourself and your background? Sure. So I started out in the corporate world and I worked for PwC and IBM and I was a business consultant.
00:01:34
Speaker
and I actually worked for commercial airlines and I worked on things like the customer experience in the airport or on the aircraft and operational efficiency. so That kind of started from a career perspective, div my love for for travel. I'm sure as we get into discussion, you'll hear more about it actually started much before that. But I did that for many years and then I took a break when my husband and I decided to have kids because we were road warriors and we traveled 100 percent of the time.
00:02:02
Speaker
And then we started to have fertility problems and I needed to get off the road. And so so I did that. And then I went back to work after we had kids and I quickly realized that I just couldn't juggle the two things. My mind would never quite shut off from work. And so I took about a 10 year hiatus. And then during right before the pandemic started, I started a website about travel.
00:02:25
Speaker
And it started doing really well, but people kept asking me to plan trips. So now I do a little bit of of both.
Emotional Career Transition and Motherhood
00:02:32
Speaker
I work on the website, which is something that I'm really passionate about, but I'm also passionate about planning trips for other people and helping them overcome challenges to travel.
00:02:41
Speaker
Yeah, so tell me more about travel. like Why is it so important to you and what made you decide to start a travel website and they go in that direction? but you know There are certain things that you do that just like it just makes you happy. and Travel is one of those things that I've noticed. like Whenever I go on a trip, I've never come back and thought, man, I regret doing that.
00:03:02
Speaker
i mean we all know like all sorts of crazy stuff happens when you travel, and it's never how you planned it. But even those, to me, are good lessons in life. And I've found some of the most interesting people just when we travel, and it's really opened my eyes to how different people live and different cultures. And I've always been really fascinated in history and just people and places and animals in general. And so this kind of scratches that itch for me. ah Gotcha. Yeah. I just have to ask since, as everyone who listens regularly knows, I always love hearing people's stories. Memoir and autobiography is my favorite genre of all the books. And so I just want to Here a little bit more about so you took a 10 year career hiatus you said to focus on your kids. I guess I'm just curious like how that experience was for you as someone who was working so much and so hard as a consultant and traveling all the time and like work with your life and then deciding to make a big change where your kids were really your whole life for 10 years and then
00:04:14
Speaker
making another change where now you're kind of doing the self-employment, you know, building your own business kind of thing. Yeah, so that's something that really struck me hard. I knew I wanted to be home with my daughter when she was born, but you know that wasn't the plan. The plan was to go you know to go back to work. and when like One of the first times we had her in a daycare, and the daycare was I live in downtown Dallas, and so my daughter's daycare was downtown in a big building, and they had a parking garage. and
00:04:45
Speaker
I was double pumping on my way from my job to go pick up my daughter and the the arm for the parking garage was broken and there were two guys working on it.
00:04:58
Speaker
And um I literally had to roll down my window and take a ticket from two men that were standing there and I have like a breast pump on me. And at that moment I go up into the parking garage and I just started bawling and that was it. I actually didn't go straight to pick up my daughter at that moment. I went into the lobby of the area and I sat down and I asked for some paper and pen from someone and I wrote a note to myself And I called it dear stay at home mom. And I wrote a letter of all the reasons why I needed to leave my job just in case I ever doubted myself later. And then I stuck it in an envelope and I sealed it. And it turns out that I didn't need to open that ever.
00:05:43
Speaker
And um I actually just recently found it and opened it up and and read it, which
Adjusting to Domestic Life and Identity Struggles
00:05:48
Speaker
was very poignant for me. but um But I will say with that, I struggled quite a bit afterwards because this career woman who managed large projects and sometimes programs for companies, and now here I am at home and at like I don't really excel at, I'm not good. I'm not a tidy person. So it's just one of those things where it's like, you're used to being this, there's something that you're very successful at and then there's something that you want to do, but you're not.
00:06:22
Speaker
really that good at it and i felt kinda like a fraud to i'll never forget coming home or at the hospital actually the very first thing people said is hey mom or hey mama how you doing like you know moms always like to call each other mama and how you doing. and And that, like when I first heard it, I had major imposter syndrome. And so um so that was hard. And what I ended up doing is like a good consultant. I started creating spreadsheets of all this stuff. I was going to know all the activities in Dallas to do. I was going to solve this for everyone. I was going to figure out the work and you know all these things. I sent out a questionnaire to like, I don't know, 10 of my friends that were moms and my sister.
00:07:06
Speaker
And my sister responded back, you need to chill the hell out.
00:07:12
Speaker
And she was right. I did, you know, and now I laugh at that. But that's how it was. So yeah, that's so interesting. I think that I did the same thing whenever I decided to I took her to your career pause and I kind of took my.
00:07:27
Speaker
work brain, like how I had been thinking about work and approaching it and just like applied it then to this new job that I had. And so I bought a curriculum for two-year-olds and planned out all of our days and planned out these things and we were always doing activities. And I had this belief that I had to be 100% present, 100% of the time.
00:07:51
Speaker
You know, if she was awake, like I could not look at my phone. I had to like be there with her because I had no excuse, you know, at that point not to. So that's so interesting to hear. I think that that is a widespread experience. And so I guess I just have to know, like, then did you ever chill the hell out? Like, how did you do that? Oh yeah.
00:08:13
Speaker
Well, definitely by the time the second kid came around, so when my son Oliver was born by that point, you know, we all know like the next child, you know, you get progressively more lax as each, you know, child is born. So that definitely helped, but also just, you know, how kids are like they have their own personalities and it comes out pretty fast. You know, it's like. They go from being babies that sleep all the time to whatever their personality is going to be pretty quick. And and my daughter, certainly she's 12 now and I still like when I go back and and we have like ah our Alexa like shows us all sorts of pictures, but you know, big cycles through these things. And it's so funny when I see her young, sometimes I'm like, I don't really remember her like that because
00:08:59
Speaker
I can think of what she said that day and it was always something a little bit precocious or or whatever, just showing her her personality. so So she also just really helped me because she's almost, it's hilarious. Between my two kids, my my oldest daughter actually has like the youngest child sort of, you know, what they say the youngest child is supposed to be like. And then it's the opposite. My youngest child is like the the more responsible one. And so she schooled me.
00:09:28
Speaker
I love that. And so now your kids are nine and 12. Is that right? That's right. Yep.
Traveling with Children: Challenges and Benefits
00:09:34
Speaker
And how has travel fit into, or like, how have you changed how you view travel, you know, from before when you were a consultant and you and your husband were traveling a hundred percent of the time, you were gone Monday through Friday every week. And then you have,
00:09:51
Speaker
young children. And so what does travel look like or or how has it changed in kind of the different seasons of life? Well, I think he used the right phrase. So I'll start with that for folks that have young kids right now. And if you're mourning the loss of travel, I'll just tell you that it is a season of life and and things will change. So there was a part of me, too, that was, you know, I love travel so much. And I did all this corporate travel, which I enjoyed You know, before we had kids, you know, we, we got tons of points and we would meet up in different cities and we would go internationally for a few days and it was no big deal. And then, you know, to all of a sudden have that stop was pretty crazy. And I was very sad about that for a long time.
00:10:39
Speaker
But what I realized is like, it's kind of funny. Like I hated the movie growing up of Mary Poppins, but it's almost like the line where she says, you know, in every job that must be done, there's an element of fun. Like you got to kind of figure out that kind of stuff. And so what I found was that road trips and national parks were the answer for us. And so, you know, I grew up in a military family. We never lived close to my grandparents on either side or anyone else for that matter. So we always had to do a road trip.
00:11:08
Speaker
And to this day, I love them. And it's just, it's a great way to get out and to think and it clears my mind. And it's very intoxicating to me to see new places. Like I could be going to the middle of nowhere in Kansas and I'll enjoy it because there's different things like you know there might be a gorgeous ah gorgeous stars at night or whatever there's a there's always something if you look for it but you have to be open to it too and then i'll say like as time has progressed you know i'm also a big believer that you gotta get start getting the kids on the airplane soon some people are like right away and and we did just as a function of again our family is is spread out everywhere
00:11:51
Speaker
but get them you know get them on the plane. Kids are pretty resilient and I feel like we're all all of us parents traveling together try and help each other out and you know sit in the back of the plane with the loud people. You may be a loud person, you don't know, but just get out there and get started. and um And then also, you know as the kids get older, then you can pick back up. We're starting to do more international travel now. My kids absolutely love it. So do what feels right and what you're comfortable with. but Get your kids started early. And for heaven's sake, don't listen to everyone that's talking about screen time. Give the kids the screen if it gets you through the flight. Yeah, I remember pre-baby when I would travel and there would be like a baby on the flight. I was like, oh
00:12:34
Speaker
Babies should not be allowed on planes. I shouldn't say that out loud, but that's no it's yeah really how I felt as like a young single traveler. There should be like a baby section or something, you know? right And then for my daughter's first year, I traveled constantly for work and I was breastfeeding and she wouldn't take a bottle. So she came with me everywhere I went. And so she had a baby passport and that's awesome. She was a frequent flyer. She probably would have gotten status if it were possible for a one year old status.
00:13:09
Speaker
it really kind of, I think, changes your perspective of travel ah you know of traveling with kids or with babies and the reality of it. And I remember at first I was like, I felt so kind of like apologetic, I guess, you know, for for having a baby on the plane. And then I was just like, you know, like, what am I supposed to do? This is just what we need to do. And right it's not that I am wrong now, it's that I was wrong then.
00:13:38
Speaker
Yeah, no, I used to say to this day, like now I feel an obligation, you know, when I'm on a flight, or I'm in the gate area, if I see a family, and there's a lot of moms or dads that are traveling by themselves, and, you know, just help where you can. I mean, I always try and take a bag and, um and, you know, help them get it on the plane. I mean, you know, it's the least you can do so. Yeah.
00:14:02
Speaker
So whenever you think about traveling with kids, I know it can be really hard to kind of think about trying to prioritize it or fit it in amongst all the other things. You know, like maybe I'm traveling already for work and I just want to relax at home. Or maybe there it just feels like there's always something going on. Like the kids always have something at school or with their sports or whatever. And it doesn't feel like It's like, when would we do it? And so I'm just curious what your thoughts are, what advice you would have about, number one, why do you believe travel is important, to especially for kids? And then number two, like, how would we go about trying to fit it in, trying to prioritize it over all the million of other things that we have to do? Yeah, so I think you should give it some consideration in terms of what your travel goals are, but also like what you want
00:14:56
Speaker
your kids to experience. And so, of course, that kind of depends on the age. So when they're young, you know, you know, they probably won't remember too much before, let's say the age of four. But the reason why I think it's so important to get them going soon is because if you have kids, you know that, you know, people, kids get set in their ways. And so,
00:15:17
Speaker
If you get started early, it's just something that they've always done, you know, and then they may or may not like it, but they know it and they do it because as they get older, they get more, like I said, set in their ways, more obstinate about things and they may not be as likely to want to travel. And, and then you're, you know, you've got more obstacles to overcome. So I think it's important to get started, and started early. But for those that once they are, you know, four and whatnot, then you start thinking about like, what kind of trips would be meaningful for me to take with my children and there is a book that i actually haven't read because the whole topic depresses me so i shouldn't even bring it up but i will because it is true it's called eighteen summers and you know that's that's what you have with your kids while they're at home right and so we talk about wanting to live a life of intention a lot of times.
00:16:09
Speaker
And you know I think that's one of those things that a lot of people get to where their kids are in high school or about to graduate and they think, Oh man, I've never taken them anywhere internationally. It'd be really cool. And people stress out at night. So I have a lot of clients actually where I've done trips like that for them. And, you know, if you start when they're young, then, you know, you can, so what I like to do is I like to think of like kind of what they're learning in school and what they're passionate about. So as an example, my son's in third grade and last year they learned a lot about Roman gods and the Roman empire. So, you know, a trip to Italy would be great.
00:16:44
Speaker
or Greek gods go to Greece or um if they're really into American history or the Civil War or the French or the American Revolution rather you can you know go do a trip you know somewhere on the East Coast or or visit one of the battlefield sites or whatever so that's a way to get your kids you know excited about travel and it's also seeing something through your kids eyes that they're interested in or that they're, you know, learning in and they can learning about because the other thing too, we, you know, if you have kids, you know, they come home from school and you ask them, what'd you do today? Nothing. And the answer is always, yeah, nothing. I don't remember. I have a 12 year old and I'm still getting that response. So, um, but if you know that they're learning about, you know, Roman history and you go to Rome, they're going to start telling you, you know, when you get to a place like the Forum or the Colosseum, they're going to start telling you what they know about that place. And it's really cool to make some connections for them in their head and then also just hear what what they're learning about. so
00:17:50
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. I love the idea of kind of the experiential learning for kids, you know, that whatever they're learning in the classroom, that then they can go and see it for real. I think that's so cool. My my daughter is in, they do like culture club and they just did Egypt and today they're starting a new country. They do a country each month and so.
00:18:12
Speaker
She's so excited to find out what the country is this month, and but that's awesome it would be really cool to then go, I mean, we we aren't going to go visit all the countries, obviously, because they do one each month, but but it might be cool, you know, at the end of the year to figure out like which was her favorite, which one was she most interested in, and maybe go visit that one.
00:18:30
Speaker
Yeah, and you know and there's also some things like Disney. you know people People tend to have kind of polar reactions, like they're either totally into it, can't wait to do it, or they're totally against it. It is an expensive vacation. I was one of those where I love Disney growing up, so I did see the value in it, but then as an adult, I'm like, oh my God, we could go to Europe and we could have this amazing trip for the same price.
00:18:52
Speaker
So you have to kind of reconcile those things in your head. But I will tell you, it is so magical. And you get a window on that. Like, you know, if you have a daughter, for example, that that loves to wear princess clothes and, um you know, all the time, it's the perfect time, you know, and when, you know, when he or she sees, you know, a princess or or a prince or or whomever at Disney World, you know, their favorite character.
00:19:19
Speaker
and they just light up. It is absolutely amazing and you'll never forget it. The other thing I'll say about that, because now that my kids are older, you know there you have a window when this experiential learning is more successful than other times. So as an example now, we went to, or actually it was earlier this year, we went to Belize in Guatemala.
00:19:40
Speaker
And, you know, I mentioned that I'm interested in cultural experiences and authentic travel and so with the commercial airlines I used to do a lot of operational things and process modeling and stuff. I love a good tour. so We went and we did a tour of like a chocolate factory, a macadamia nut, barn, and um a coffee plantation, some different things. And, you know, to me, it was like, oh my God, this is like my dream tour because it had these five different experiences and all rolled into one.
00:20:13
Speaker
My kids, then when we went to Belize and I was suggesting, you know, going to see another chocolate experience or whatever, you know, kids love chocolate, right? Why would this not be enjoyable?
00:20:26
Speaker
My daughter looked at me and she said, if you throw in another chocolate tour, I am not going on this trip. And then my, my even killed son was like, yeah, I'm with her. You know, so you also have to kind of sometimes I try and sneak in some of the learning, but like at the end of the day too, like.
00:20:45
Speaker
they have their own preferences. And so what I found to be very effective div on that is one, to throw in something really fun like zip lining or something if you have kids that are of the age and weight where they can do that. But also, you know kids are really computer savvy very early now, thanks to the pandemic. But what they can do is they can help you plan the trip.
Educational Value of Travel for Kids
00:21:08
Speaker
So when we were planning the trip to Belize,
00:21:11
Speaker
I kept trying to get my family and involved and interested and and no one wanted to help. And then finally, I just looked at my daughter and I said, I know you love zip lines and there is a zip line experience, but I am not booking it until you come to you know put together your own itinerary of what you want to do. And then the next thing I know, I had actually her, my son and my husband all looking at at what to do. so and And we ended up having a ah great itinerary that we all love, that we all put together.
00:21:41
Speaker
Nice. So it sounds like for kids, a big benefit is kind of the experiential learning, just seeing other cultures and people and how they live and, you know, things like that. Anything else that you think is like really important about travel that kind of, again, like in our busy lives that would help us to say, yes, this is something I definitely needed to prioritize.
00:22:07
Speaker
I can think of a million reasons, both on the on the kids' perspective as well as well as on you know moms and dads themselves. and so if We just talk about kids one more thing. like you know When you get older kids, too, going off and looking at colleges and stuff, that's that's a great thing to do.
00:22:25
Speaker
but i think you really can give so many life examples and life lessons through travel. like is Connecting the dots is a big thing. so it's not even like you're necessarily You don't have to actively try and teach them on vacation, just go on vacation and have a good time and they will see that currencies aren't the same everywhere. And then they'll look at the money and they'll say, well, who is this? And, you know, and then you can have a conversation and, you know, sometimes you're not going to know who it is either, but you can find out the answer. um They'll learn about exchange rates. They want to buy something, but, you know, like how much does that really cost? You know, they'll hear people speaking in another language and they'll realize not everyone speaks English. There's just so many invaluable lessons that you know I can't stress enough how important. And also, like you know you'll go somewhere and they'll see these like textiles and you know you go into the the shops and the art and stuff, and it's all going to be different from where you live. yeah And so the architecture, the houses, the way people live, maybe you know in a lot of places, people don't have individual houses, right? They're either you know connected road houses or they're or they live in an apartment or they live in a small village. I mean, everything is and and or they live in somewhere that, um you know, that's hundreds and hundreds of years old, maybe even older than that. So it's I think it's great for them. But then, you know, for parents, I think let's be honest here, like traveling with kids, it's stressful. Nothing, like I said, is going to go exactly to plan.
00:24:06
Speaker
So a lot of times my husband and I are like on the trip, we're both like, ah, you know, and we're tearing our hair out or whatever. But then like, for whatever reason, you get home and a few months later, it's like, Oh my God, we took the greatest trip ever. It's like you forget, you know, it's like childbirth, you know, I highly recommend just, you know, doing it. And then not only that, but like, what are your goals? So let's get back to the identity thing. I continue to struggle with that. And I think there's different identities we go through in life and, um, I'm a breast cancer survivor, so that's that's a different identity that um that i I had to struggle with. But like you know when you're traveling, that's something that's always been important to you or it's something that you always wanted to do. You're fulfilling that for yourself. you know so So as much as I talked about, let's do Disney and let's do these other things, you don't have to do that. If you think about it, like my kids, Belize or Costa Rica or wherever, you could have gone whatever wherever. If I really wanted to take them on their first trip internationally, the obvious choice would have been like London or Paris or something. you know But I didn't want to repeat a country that I'd been to. So I went to two new countries for me because that's you know because I have a travel goal of going to 100 countries.
00:25:20
Speaker
And so, you know, that was 47 and 48 for me. So you can take your kids along for
Strategic Travel Planning for Families
00:25:26
Speaker
the ride. So don't give up your stuff because there like I said, everybody's getting something out of the trip. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think also there's an opportunity to take a look at, you know, if you step back and look at it from a macro level, like you said, like what are my travel goals?
00:25:42
Speaker
Also, what are my travel goals for our family, for our kids? And kind of looking at that, like Disney, for example, might not be at the top of my list for me. But also, like you said, there's a window and it's like, you know, do I want my children to have that experience?
00:26:01
Speaker
is a question that we get to ask and decide for ourselves, you know, maybe, maybe not. But, you know, I think there's an opportunity when we look at it intentionally is kind of what I hear you saying is like, how do you look at this in an intentional way and plan accordingly?
00:26:17
Speaker
then we can choose and feel good about our choices of why we're doing something, whether that's, you know, because I want to add countries to my list, whether it's because I want my children to have this experience or my partner wants, you know, to have this kind of experience or has this goal and kind of, you know, how do we make sure we meet everybody's needs. We can do that whenever we step back and look at it and plan it together. I guess like,
00:26:44
Speaker
What I would love to understand is everyone's so busy. Everyone's got so much going on. And so I think it's helpful to see the benefits and the value. But do you have any kind of practical tips or suggestions about how do I go about finding time to do this? I want to travel. I want to have these experiences. I want to take my kids to see these places. I'd love for them to have these this experiential learning, but like when?
00:27:12
Speaker
Well, if it's something that you enjoy thinking about, then I would say the first thing to do is compile a list. You can do a travel bucket list and you can have one for yourself. Your husband can have one. Your kids can have one. um Or you can, if they're not interested in the exercise, you do the one for yourself and then think about one just for your family. Because like I said, you know, it may be different. You may have different travel goals for each.
00:27:37
Speaker
And then I would say, you know, think about the time that you have and the budget that you have, because that's really going to dictate what you can do. So you look at the school calendar and you figure out you know exactly how much time, you know, that, you know, they're going to have summers off and you've got, you know, maybe a winter break and various breaks throughout the year. And so if you understand the time chunks you have and whether or not you and your spouse can take that time off, then you've got some windows of time, right?
00:28:08
Speaker
You need to think about things that you need to do, like maybe you've got a family reunion that you really want to go to or whatever. So get that stuff that you do every year, put that on the calendar and slot those in first. And then think about any other sort of things that you might want to do, like a women's trip or, you know, like moms need a break. go to a wellness hotel, you know take a weekend or whatever and do that. so Those are some things that you can add to your list, but then actively put on the calendar. and then you know Then there's bigger chunks of time, like I mentioned the summer and whatnot. so Think about what do you want to do? Where are the places that are really important to you? If there's something that's important to you now at this time of life, you know like Disney, you know there if there's something that there's windows, make those a priority. and Then the other stuff you can sort of wait on.
00:28:55
Speaker
If you don't know how much something is going to cost, you can do some research on that. One of the things that I really would love from my clients and that I'll be actively working on next year is just understanding what their travel bucket list is. So many people have it in their head, but they don't actually have it on paper. But the people that tell me like what they really want to do, I keep a list of that stuff. And when I see something come out, like ah a good airfare or a good, um, or I learn about a new thing, like Let's go to the the Disney example. You're saying you know you're not sure that you were you'd be that into Disney.
00:29:28
Speaker
Disney has a segment called Disney Adventures. You know how Disney is so perfect at at planning experiences. They do small groups to different countries and you get the whole Disney experience where they do everything end-to-end and it's like adventure travel. You're not going to see Minnie Mouse on that, but it kind of helps meet the seamless, wonderful customer experience. you know and It also gives you something you know that you're interested in where they like take the parents and they do um a wine tasting on their own and then the kids are all entertained by someone else and they'll take them and like they may teach them how to fish like in the local. So I mean, there's there's all sorts of cool things out there. So if you need, you know, but you need that list, you need to understand what you want to do and then you need to figure out how to slot them. And the best way to make decisions right is to to get as much information as you can. What's this going to cost? What do we have? You know, what do we have in terms of times and time and money and then go from there?
00:30:26
Speaker
Yeah. Makes sense. One of the things I was thinking about is how to make it easier. And that's one great example when I am trying to juggle everything and feel like my plate is very full to try and plan a trip. It's a double-edged sword, right? Cause it's like, I get to think about these things that I'm excited about and look forward to them. And also there's like the logistics of trying to figure everything out and how are we going to,
00:30:56
Speaker
figure out the schedule. and And frankly, sometimes when I take a vacation, I'm just like, I just want to like plan nothing and just show up and it's done and I don't think about it. And I think there are different options like that. And maybe that's where a travel agent or, you know, like you said, you help people plan things like would come into play.
00:31:20
Speaker
Yeah, so I think there's a couple things. you know Some people are very much under the camp of like, I love to print plan travel. This is what I want to do. And so I have so many people that say that they don't want to use an agent for that reason. What I would counter on that is it is really fun to to plan where you're going and maybe where you want to stay and the things that you want to do. What's not really fun is sussing out what the good tour companies are,
00:31:47
Speaker
Or is this Marriott that I want to stay at? Or is this boutique hotel near where I should be? And how does that relate to the activities I want to do? So all you know they say the devil's in the detail. It takes on average 16 to 20 hours minimum to plan a trip. If you're doing you know if you're doing something international and you're you know you're go you have to do accommodations, ground transportation, tours, passports, all everything. you know that's It's a lot of work. so That's another reason to use an agent, but also like the relationships that we have with suppliers. so
00:32:28
Speaker
We have such an extended network of suppliers that we can work with. So maybe you go to a site and you find this boutique hotel that you love, but you know you're just booking it. You're just so-and-so. Well, i'm a travel agent is usually part of a consortium where we have access to perks. So we have visibility into the same rates that you can have, as well as access to the same or better rates. And we can give you things like upgrades.
00:32:53
Speaker
and property credit, or in the case of a cruise, we can give you onboard credit above and beyond what you can get on your own. We can get you early check-in, late check-out, breakfast, comped. so So anyway, so that's that's some reasons to to use that. And even if you have to pay a service fee for a travel agent, I think you will quickly find the amount of work that it takes is well worth paying for but if you are still convinced you want to do something on your own and or maybe your budget is is very compressed that's fine go to pinterest pinterest is an amazing source of trip ideas and itineraries.
00:33:32
Speaker
and so I have a ah pretty good curated list of places ah by countries, by states, by major cities. so you can you know You can look at mine or you can look at other people. There's lots of people that are very active on Pinterest because it's just such a good visual platform to ideate and it's fun. so like Thinking in the beginning of 2025, what you want to do, if you're like, I don't really have a good idea, go to Pinterest, go have a you know It's fun, like it's a good thing to do. And then you can send your board or share your board with the travel agent if you want to go that route. Or if you want to self-plan, you can do that and that's fine too. And on my website, i I also have things like when you go there, I have a way to kind of go the self-planning route and then I have my travel services separately. So I'm happy to be a resource there too.
00:34:21
Speaker
Yeah, I always think about the option of the DIY, doing it myself or hiring an expert, hiring someone who does this for a living like day in and day out. So I mean, I think there are obviously pros and cons to to both, but the reality is is that if I DIY anything, like if I DIY a project in my home, you know, a renovation or something like that,
00:34:48
Speaker
then I'm doing something usually for the first time or I've done it a handful of times in my life. So I wouldn't call myself an expert at doing that. um And so naturally it's going to take me longer. It's going to take me a whole lot more energy and effort. And then if I decided to outsource it to someone who does that for a living, they're probably going to be able to do it a lot quicker, get me the result that I want.
Benefits of Using Travel Agents
00:35:16
Speaker
faster and obviously it's gonna cost more, most likely. But if I think about it in terms of how much time I save, then it really doesn't cost more. And I think especially as executive moms in this season of our lives, I tend to prioritize my time more than just about anything. um And when I have the option to outsource something or bring in an expert who does something for a living,
00:35:43
Speaker
where like they spend all their time doing that so that I don't have to spend that as much time and energy doing something that I'm not practiced at. I mean, I've done it before. I've planned travel before, for example, right? But like it's not something I do all the time. But if I'm working with someone who like that's their job,
00:36:01
Speaker
then they're probably going to be able to do it way faster than me. They're probably, as much as I hate to admit, going to find better things than I will because they'll know where to look. And so I think there's just, you know, any time we're making a decision about do we outsource something or DIY it, you know, those are just some of the considerations.
00:36:20
Speaker
Yeah, and and just to kind of add on that, so so one, the dollar amount actually may be less than you can do on your own. Like I said, you know when as we're putting these together, we have access, most of us anyways, should have access to the rates that you can get. And then also in our system, we can see some of these other rates that come with these perks.
00:36:41
Speaker
sometimes it It's usually at least the same price. It's not necessarily usually less, although sometimes it is, but then ah you know those perks obviously have a dollar value to it. so and Then in terms of a service fee, if an agent has one, and and some do and some don't, um like I do for some things and not everything. like If you know the hotel, you want a book and you just want perks.
00:37:05
Speaker
Book it through me and I will get you the perks and you can, you know, you know, the price that you you could get. And but that's the other thing. If you ever see something that's different, talk to the agent, don't book it yourself. See if we can get you, you know, match the rate if we haven't and also get you the perks. So it's always worth it to ask an agent. I don't charge for that because I get commission and it's an easy thing. It's when it's the things where people requires research or, or a lot of back and forth with a supplier that I charge for my time.
00:37:32
Speaker
And you should too. So think about, you know okay, so maybe it costs a few hundred bucks or whatever to use a travel agent, but you're planning this big trip. Think about all the stress that you've removed. You've saved yourself all these time you know all this time, 16 hours. like What is your time worth to you? So sometimes it's literally the dollar amount and sometimes it's the opportunity cost or the but you know the value of your time and and how you prioritize that. and I know how much we love to do laundry and cooking and all the other things we have to do around the house um and driving to soccer practice and stuff. Do you really want to, you know, be calling 20 times to, to get the best hotel rate or to, to see if these rooms connect or can you guarantee that they connect because we need two rooms and so.
00:38:19
Speaker
Oh, and but and if you're going to Europe, I will tell you that, you know, they're old buildings and nothing connects.
Considerations for Family Travel Planning
00:38:25
Speaker
So they're all different sizes and stuff like that. It's something that you really want to know but you know because you're going to spend a lot of time. Yeah. Well, is there anything else that you would want to advise people or recommend that we do as we're thinking about how do I meet my travel goals?
00:38:44
Speaker
Well, I think one thing that we didn't talk about that I do think is important is then you get into but we as long as as well as our spouse or our kids have anxieties or health concerns, allergies, things like that. So that's the other thing. And, and you know, we get When we have kids, where we tend to be at a season in our life when we also may have aging parents and then you know we end up taking on the responsibility of planning a trip, not only for kids, but also for our parents and you know maybe maybe a sibling and their family. and so you know It's important to know what people's
00:39:23
Speaker
but anxieties or fears are and also any allergies or or things that they just don't feel comfortable with because you know people have fears of flying, people have fear of heights, things like that. There's a lot of kids, they may be afraid by you know loud noises and stuff. So whether it's you or an agent doing it, the more information that you think about, the better your trip is going to be. And here's a here's something I would say just in general, like when you think about the trip that you want to take,
00:39:54
Speaker
I have so many people that come to me and they say oh my neighbor just got back from such and such a place and so we want to go there. That's fine. You may go there. You may have a great trip. You may not have time to think about it. so that's I'm not saying that's not always a good answer, but um what I would say is you know think about where you want to go and then think about and really think about what is the feeling when you while you're there and when you get home. What do you expect out of this trip? so If the answer is,
00:40:24
Speaker
We're all really stressed then maybe a big adventure trip or a place where you're going to multiple countries is not the answer. Maybe you do need to sit on a beach or if you want to to do something internationally but you also want to relax and do sit on a beach somewhere else you don't have to sit on a beach you know.
00:40:41
Speaker
in Myrtle Beach or or wherever, you know you can you can you can shake it up a little bit. so Think about that. Then you you can actively work towards your goals as well. If you're really stressed out but you know your spouse isn't, then maybe you plan a spa day and your spouse does something with the kids. you know so You know, we don't all have to do all the same thing. And that's the other thing, too. Like there's so many people that do group trips and they get really frustrated because um some people want to do some activity and other people don't want to do it or they don't want to pay for it. That's fine. Don't don't do it. You know, you you're already going on a trip together. You know, do what you want to do and you know what you want to pay for. um So be be very clear about that. um and And I think you'll have the trip
Christina's Travel Services and Family Bucket Lists
00:41:28
Speaker
that you want.
00:41:28
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. And Christina, where can people find you if they are wanting to plan their next trip and need some help doing it? And also maybe can you just tell us a little bit more about the kind of services that you offer? Sure, sure. I do a few different things. So one is if you have a hotel that you just are interested in finding out what, if any, perks there are.
00:41:51
Speaker
I can do a simple booking. There's no charge for that. I can't do anything points related. Most travel agents cannot. But if you really want to use points, sometimes you can talk to us and maybe we just put in an additional charge and and we can help you. I do end-to-end bookings. So if you do have a big trip, um you want to go to Asia or Europe or whatever, I can help you plan that. And then one of my passion projects, because again, it's, it's something that I want to do is I have a lot of soft adventure travel that I'm interested in. So one of my focuses for 2025 is also going to be I'm going to do a group trip to Antarctica.
00:42:29
Speaker
And I'm starting to plan that and figure out like who's going to go, et cetera. And then also like river cruising is ah is a big area of focus for me. So river and expedition cruising, as well as soft adventures. What are soft adventures?
00:42:44
Speaker
So I'm not going to climb you know Mount Everest, but I want to go to Costa Rica and I want to do a night safari or I do want to do zip lining or I want to you know hike this route or whatever. so it's it's things that um Most of us can do if you're if you're of average fitness level and you're looking for something more than sitting on a beach. So swimming with whale sharks in La Paz or snorkeling, things like that. Gotcha. OK, so like I probably won't die from this, but it'll be thrilling and fun. Right. There are no guarantees in life, but yeah.
00:43:23
Speaker
Wonderful. All right. Well, anything else that you'd like to share? And your website will, of course, link in the show notes. Anywhere else that you would direct people to find you? Sure. Yeah. So Destined Globe Trotter is my website, which we will put in the notes. But just a quick story behind that. My last name is Trotter. And my husband's name was Trotter, obviously, when I married him. And so um I always say that I was destined to be a Globe Trotter.
00:43:49
Speaker
and so that's the That's the genesis of the name, but um I have a lot of information on there for, like I said, self-planning as well as reaching out to me in the different services that I have. I also have a lot of stuff on planning a travel bucket list and lots of ideas on there. so If you're not sure where to start, that's a great place to start. I have a lot of US-based stuff as well as well as camping. You know, as you can tell, I'm obviously I'm interested in anything travel related. So I'm more of a generalist. But the good news is that I've been to lots and lots of places.
Episode Conclusion and Future Engagement
00:44:25
Speaker
So I also have the experience, too. But then the other places I would say, too, is on Pinterest. I do have a lot of boards and it's not just my stuff. It's it's other people's stuff on places for when I'm traveling or I'm planning a trip for someone to create these boards.
00:44:42
Speaker
And then finally on Instagram at destined underscore globetrotter. Yeah, I would love to ah to hear from folks. So, and one more thing I will add in to the show notes too, is I've done a couple of articles for the Dallas Moms blog around like intentional trips to take with your kids. And so i I'll give those to you too.
00:45:03
Speaker
Yeah, well, so many of us love to travel, so it's great to have a resource to be able to reach out to. So thank you so much, Christina, for all of your thoughts and wisdom about traveling. I know that and for probably everyone listening, it's maybe fallen down the list of priorities potentially, and so hopefully hearing from you will give everyone just kind of a renewed sense of excitement and passion of why maybe we were excited about travel in the past. You're welcome. I appreciate it, Leanna. Perfect. Thank you so much. All right. Well, thank you, Christina. All right. And thank you, everyone, so much for tuning in and we will see you all next week.
00:45:49
Speaker
Thanks so much for tuning in to the Executive Coach for Moms podcast. Please like, subscribe, or follow the show so you'll be notified when the next episode is available. I hope you'll join me again next time. Take care.