I was talking to a new Travel Sister on the phone the other day and she was just so excited to be a part of our network.  She came to our in person event at Panera this month and realized we were going to Greece and that that was a dream she had for her 60th birthday.  As we made plans to followup and everyone parted ways, she headed out to her car.  To her surprise, it wouldn’t start.  She realized it was the battery and she would need a service to come out and jump her car.  Two Travel Sisters saw her plight, helped her think through it, and then they decided to have lunch with her while she waited!  She said they had a delightful lunch and Barb and Caren were definitely the kind of people she would like to travel with.  Last night our group of nine going to Greece met on Zoom to make choices and share ideas about shore excursions and it was SO GREAT to see her beaming face!  We are going to have a blast!  

Meanwhile, while we were in Panera, one of our very first Travel Sisters was in . . . Antarctica!  She had a dream of going there and I helped her and a friend book the trip on a Viking Expedition voyage.  It was an AMAZING deal?!  Because she booked it with us, we will earn a commission (same price to her) and that will enable us to advertise and market the network as a whole!  We are finding (duh) that . . . marketing really works!!!  If we can funnel just $100 a month into digital ads we can grow the network pretty quickly.  As it gets larger, it gets easier to lift “niche” trips and meet very specific needs of Travel Sisters.  That’s ALMOST as cool as the videos of her next to calving glaciers and pictures of her surrounded by the cutest penguins EVER.  

Did I fail to mention we filled the Iceland trip and 20 women are booked and excited?!  Four Travel Sisters decided to add a post-trip to IRELAND that will be a great cost savings with Iceland Air’s stopover deals.  We've picked a perfectly located 4 star boutique hotel an some great tours and high tea at the Atrium!  A couple other Travel Sisters are looking at a post trip to NORWAY - cool train ride to see the fjords!  Our partners on the ground gave us a great price for solo accommodations and so Sisters can opt in as solo travelers for that portion.  

The goal of this project was HOPE and JOY and so far, I feel like we are meeting the mission and I could not be more pleased!  Teresa and I are putting our heads together at the end of the month to put together the February newsletter - look for big trips for 2024 in that edition!  In April, we will do another newsletter where we float out some weekend getaways for summer.  So much fun to come - thanks for coming along for the journey!

​

We had a Zoom meeting last night and it was FANTASTIC!  The seeds we have planted and collectively tended are starting to bear fruit! 

There were about 14 people in attendance and the “regulars” are really starting to know each other and be invested in the stories we can tell.  For example, one Travel Sister could tell us all about the trip to Peru we planned and it was AMAZING to hear how well it all went!  I loved seeing my roomie from the Italy trip and the Italy group is going to have a reunion in January; I’m so looking forward to it!  We’ve booked a trip to Antarctica for one of our “OG” Travel Sisters and we celebrated that dream becoming a reality for her. Just a lot of great updates that make it feel like our mission is really happening: the girls are getting together and GOING!  More and more every season!

We also had some new faces in our meeting last night and THAT was exciting, too!  I love the way people discover our group, follow all the “bread crumbs” to the meetings and then seem so pleased to find REAL people, REALLY building a functional network of amazing women that are full of energy, ideas, and hope and are busy being about that life!  It’s so fun to hear their stories and interests and see how connections can be made.  We launched some Facebook ads this week and we had one woman that found out about us, registered, attended our meeting last night and registered to go to Iceland TODAY!  It also happened to be the week that a major life transition finalized, and so as one door closed this window on the world opened.  I just love that.  
Speaking of Iceland - we have just FIVE spots left!  I would LOVE to fill those before Christmas and New Year’s so we could slide into 2023 with DEFINITE travel plans on the calendar.  I also love the idea of women giving themselves that gift of travel.  It really lays the foundation for a 2023 full of planning, going and growing.  And what could make for a better new year plan than THAT?!  
​
Hope to see you at our in person event next week if you can make it.  If you can’t, just know we are wishing you a fantastic holiday and we look forward to seeing you in the New Year!  

​

In Italia Andiamo!

We had been so busy with the other trips we had actually not spent a lot of time cultivating the Italy trip. I knew Teresa had put together a great itinerary and the price seemed right.  Tuesday morning we realized there were amazing women ready to GO!  Teresa and I talked it over and decided we could reinvest any profit from this trip back into the project and so . . I'm going too!  That way, we can start working to create a real sense of "we-ness" on these trips.  We now realize that's pretty critical. 

So - three "big" trips are happening in some form this year: Boston, Peru, and Italy!  Maybe not as big as we hoped in terms of size, but they are a huge sign of progress!  We sincerely thank EVERY woman that has helped us get to this point and we want to assure you we are just getting started!

With each of the trips we have tried to lift this spring, we have fine-tuned our processes and systems and now we can reflect on them and refine them.   It is clear we need to grow this network and we need to get many more people behind a trip before we drive it forward.  We need be much clearer about how "Crunch Week" works.  And we need to think about how we scale up those processes.  But it's been a great spring and we can't wait to send some of our "pioneering" Travel Sisters off on some amazing adventures!!

Tuesday was startling.  It was "Crunch Week" for Costa Rica and we had high hopes that 15 or so women would be on their way to Costa Rica in January.  Our supplier Daisy had created a great website for the group, the price was on budget, the destination was amazing - let's go!!!  

And then I opened my email on Tuesday and realized all the interest was dissipating.  By Wednesday we had to collapse the trip.  Teresa and I were kind if baffled.  What had gone wrong?  

One thing that is true but has never been the goal of this project is that if we get a large group of women to travel, Teresa and I can probably bargain for a low rate that will allow us to go with the group without breaking the bank of our fledgling business.  I like that idea because, in my previous life as a teacher, I know that sometimes you need a group leader who will create some norms and customs that make the group feel and act like a group.  Without that, you could feel like just a random group of people who happen to have the same itinerary. 

Teresa posited that maybe that was the issue.  Did we need the first few trips to be big, and have us along, to create that "group vibe" and make sure the norms and customs of Travel Sisterhood were firmly established?  Once established, we could let other women take the lead, having experienced it themselves.  They could be the "Moms" of the trips going forward, having seen at least once what a Travel Mom does on a Travel Sister trip.

Last night's live Zoom focused on that question and we got a lot of great feedback.  We realize a few things:

- Social media platforms are great for disseminating info and posting reminders but community is not going to be built and felt there.
​
- Email groups are great for organizing groups but community is not going to be built and felt there.

- Live Zooms are great for introductions and building community but we need separate, dedicated meetings specific to each trip.

- Until the network is larger, we need to build one trip, it needs to be be "big", and Teresa and I need to lead it, on the ground.
​
- For now, all our efforts, Zooms, emails and newsletters need to be driving towards that goal.  

The HARD question is - what trip will garner that kind of enthusiasm??  We need like 60 women to be interested and 40 to commit and go.  Is that possible?  There's only one way to find out - just try!  And keep trying. It's the American way . . . cue the Thomas Edison documentary, lol!

One thing that IS clear is there are a group of local women out there who understand the potential for this model and want it to succeed.  And they MIGHT even be willing to take a chance on a trip / destination that is interesting if not perfect and "vote with their feet" so this project can truly LAUNCH, grow and be sustainable.  

SO, we are going to start pitching ideas.  One every week or so.  A destination / a date/ a budget/ an itinerary.  And we are going to ask you to vote it up or down.  Share it with your friends, get them to register so they can vote on the next one.  I gotta believe, sooner or later, we will have that critical mass to do our first big trip and do it RIGHT.  Lots of excited women, lots of energy, and a true group experience.  

Thanks, team.  You keep voting with your feet, creating the story, helping us chart our next move.  We are listening and we are excited for what is next! 

We haven't had much time for blog updates as we have been working hard booking Travel Sister TRIPS!  Whoohooo! Reserving land packages and booking air takes a lot of time as we work with suppliers and consider all the flight schedules and options.  It's like a puzzle and every piece is important to get just right!

We've got Sisters going to Boston, Peru, and Sunset Beach!  Today we just got all the details for Costa Rica (January 2023) and "crunch week" for that week is April 18th.  We will move on to the Italy trip (occurring Sept. 2022) "crunch week" in early May.  

We have not had a lot of time to promote our Roads and Rails trips so we will do a bit more of that in April as opposed to putting out a new newsletter.  In May we will float out the "Unique and Boutique" edition with quirky and unusual travel opportunities.  

Recall that next week we are taking a week off for "spring break" - no online live events and our email groups will be kind of quiet.  

We've realized our in-person live event on 5/28 is Memorial Day weekend, and so we will need to reschedule that.  Same with the 7/2 event on July 4th weekend.  So, we will update the "ticker file" and post it widely when we do.  

Thanks for reading the update - Happy Spring everybody!  

Teresa and I always joked that Travel Sisters live events would get REAL comfy and casual, but last night we probably overshot the target?!

Three minutes before the meeting was supposed to start, I realized I had failed to send out the link via email.  Things are poppin' at the office and I was sitting on hold with Royal Caribbean until 4:52 and then it slipped my distracted mind.  A few faithful souls found the link in the MeetUp events tab or intuited that last week's link might work (it did!).  It was great to see them but I can't say by the end of the meeting the feeling was likely mutual!

One of the first beautiful women who joined was greeted by me lunging to right behind the camera as my dog threw up on my bed and carpet.  Then there was a series of technical glitches and delays, followed by Teresa and I going back and forth about calendar issues that really didn't need an audience.  We didn't create enough space for participation and so my takeaway was . . YUCK!  We gotta shape up!  

In that spirit I've spent all morning mapping out the Travel Sisters calendar through the summer and created a "one stop shop" document with all the meeting links and "need to know" info in one place.  We would post it on the website but we do like to keep the Zoom links behind at least one screen to increase security.  

That document WILL be emailed to each registered Travel Sister today and is posted in the MeetUp group "RDU Women With Travel Dreams."  Here's the key takeaways:

- We announce "crunch week" for the Boston, Peru and Costa Rica trips. 
- We are planning fewer Zoom events and more in person live events.  

We will be adding more Roads and Rails related info when each destination has more than 10 women interested.  Right now the only one meeting that standard is the Sunset Beach trip - so look for that email group to start Monday! 

Thanks for hanging in there with us - looking forward to a great spring and summer now that we've "shaped up!"

We had  a great time Saturday morning at Panera at Brier Creek - our first in person event for the Travel Sisters Network!  Such an easy and free flowing conversation - we touched on health, work life balance, work culture, and yes . . . travel!  We even brainstormed the topic for our next newsletter - Unique and Boutique destinations!  Definitely something we should do monthly until we can have a "big" event! There's really nothing quite like real-life interaction.  We really appreciate the folks who came out - it was a joy!