Masters in Travel

Thousands of travel advisors research the same facts every day, and Whitney Shindelar sees that as a structural problem. The owner of Undiscovered Sunsets and creator of The Hive separates fact research from execution and explains why the judgment behind every hotel and routing choice has never had a home. Three habits change that. If your brain feels too full to show up fully, this one is for you...

You can hand someone a task, but you can’t hand them an instinct. In the second of a three-part series, Whitney breaks down the three layers of knowledge in a travel advisor’s head (facts, experiences, and reasoning) across destination, supplier, business, and client intel. The reasoning layer is why you stay the bottleneck. She closes with three habits she’s building herself: record everything, v...

A better CRM won’t fix a full head. Whitney opens a three-part solo series with the day she spent in the Atlas Mountains outside Marrakech, laptop braced on her knees, building a last-minute Japan invoice instead of enjoying the view she’d requested. She explains the two ceilings in a travel business, chaos and fullness, and why organized, efficient travel advisors still end up as the bottleneck....

Handing off tasks is easy. Handing off judgment is where most travel advisors get stuck. In this Shop Talk, Whitney and Brianna debrief their first PURE Life Experiences in Marrakech, from wrangling appointment requests to the hotel meetings that actually stuck. Then they get into the harder part: Brianna's biweekly meetings to transfer her thinking to her team member, and Whitney's $2,000...

The restructure fails when judgment never transfers. In part two of this two-part series, Brianna introduces what she calls the baton pass: organizing a team around the phases of the client journey instead of around who's on the roster. She walks through her own four-person structure, from intake to concierge execution, and uses a Michelin-star dining mishap to show why transferring judgment,...

Hiring help doesn't get you out of the middle of your business. Brianna breaks down the quality control trap, where a team member does the work, you check it, and the standard never leaves your head. She shares how she stopped double-checking final itinerary reviews and gave her client experience manager full ownership of arrival amenities. Then she asks three questions to find out whether you...

Most travel advisors have never read their own host agreement fine print. That gap can cost real money. Brianna sits down with Gunes Hopson, founder of GFH Law PLC and owner of Luxe Travel by Gunes, to break down real contract disputes she has handled, including hidden exclusivity clauses and non-competes that trap advisors mid-transition. Gunes also explains why AI cannot replace a lawyer's r...

In this month's Shop Talk, Whitney and Brianna reconnect after five months apart and compare notes on what shifted. Whitney shares the delegation ceiling she hit this summer, from moving her team onto a shared inbox to splitting her support roles at inquiry-to-deposit and pre-departure. Brianna talks through taking June and July mostly off in Portugal and Spain, then coming home to a 50-person...

In this conversation on DMCs, Whitney flips the script and chats with Hicham Mhammedi Alaoui, co-founder of Experience Morocco and The Travel Collection, to shine a light on the DMC side of working with travel advisors. They unpack how DMCs can create unique and memorable experiences without breaking the bank, how global expansion works behind the scenes, and what travel advisors should know to bu...

How can travel advisors create partnerships with DMCs that feel more like collaborations and less like transactions? Joining Whitney for Part 2 of a two-part convo are seasoned travel advisor Kate Sullivan and newer advisor Anna Tretter to explore the intricacies of working with DMCs. They talk about the role DMCs play in the travel industry, especially in crafting experiences that go beyond the t...

Sometimes you love them, sometimes they drive you crazy...this week, we're talking all about Destination Management Companies (DMCs)! Seasoned advisor Kate Sullivan and newer advisor Anna Tretter join Whitney to share their personal experiences, frustrations, and strategies when working with DMCs. Plus, they talk about the importance of transparency, effective communication, and how to build stron...

When a new inquiry comes in, how do you approach it? In today's episode, Jeremy Sulek of Jetset World Travel shares his less conventional approach to handling every inquiry and effectively booking clients. If you cautiously vet potential clients when inquiries come in, expecting them to prove that they are worth your time and energy, Jeremy will challenge your mindset. Learn how to maintain a...

We asked listeners on our Instagram what topics you want to hear on the podcast, and the topic of "incentive travel" was one. So today, Brittney Tromanhauser of Avery Travel Group shares about her journey as a corporate incentive travel specialist. She discusses the transition from leisure travel to focusing on corporate group travel and the ins and outs of that sector. For the next seve...

How to pitch the media is a topic our guest on today's episode knows inside and out. Listen in as Jenn Lee, now President and CMO of Travel Planners International, lays out an easy-to-follow formula for reaching out to different media sources. Pitching the media, when done right, can help legitimize you, your business, and the business of travel advisors everywhere. For the next several weeks,...

Join Brianna and guest Erica Carr for a conversation on their innovative approaches to scaling a travel business with an employee model, from implementing unique incentive programs to understanding the evolving roles within a travel agency. They delve into the significance of hiring ahead of growth, the shift in industry norms post-Covid, and the vital role of technology in adapting to change. Plu...

Love travel and planning it, but hate the sales part? In this episode, Brianna and guest Glenda from The Art of Selling Travel delve into the art of sales and client relations. Glenda shares her seasoned approach to pricing negotiations and reframing rejection, all while maintaining an authentic human connection. She provides invaluable insights on asking the right questions and building rapport t...

Mindset is a topic that we hear about in our personal lives and in our professional lives. It is a topic that lingers behind all decisions that we make, especially as an entrepreneur. If we asked ten people, or ten advisors, what mindset means to them we would get 10 different answers. On today’s episode of Masters in Travel, Whitney is joined by Lina Sutton and Danielle Gaerte. Three travel advis...

In this solo episode, Brianna closes the loop on her recent AmaWaterways Soulful Experience sailing through Portugal’s Douro River and reflects on what the trip taught her as both a traveler and a travel advisor. After previously sharing how to turn fam trips and personal travel into a marketing engine, she now pulls back the curtain on what actually worked, what surprised her, and how the experie...

You may be interested in being a travel advisor, but are you also interested in being an entrepreneur? Sometimes running a travel advisor business requires much more than just planning travel. You may have to ask yourself if you’d rather join a team to help with the workload, or go solo to control more of your business. On today’s episode of Masters in Travel, Whitney is joined by Korrine Johnson...

In this episode of Masters in Travel, Brianna sits down with Olivia Tambosso, a luxury travel advisor whose career began on the inside of one of the world’s most respected luxury hotel brands: Aman. After years in guest-facing operational roles in Morocco, Thailand, and Japan, Olivia brings a rare perspective to the travel advisor side of the industry. Together, Brianna and Olivia explore what tru...

In this solo episode, Brianna walks travel advisors through the exact mindset shift and planning process that turns a trip from a one-time experience into a long-term marketing asset. As she prepares for seven weeks in Europe, including a Portugal river cruise with AmaWaterways, she shares how she thinks through audience, intention, content capture, and post-trip visibility before she ever boards...

In this episode of Masters in Travel, Whitney is joined by Kate for a thoughtful and practical conversation about the wide spectrum of spa, wellness, and sport-focused travel. Together, they unpack why the simple question “Does the hotel have a spa?” often falls short, especially when clients have very specific expectations around relaxation, treatments, facilities, programming, or transformation....

Family-friendly hotels are often misunderstood, with many properties claiming the label without truly designing for how families actually travel. In this episode, Travel Advisor Lee Friedman of Mango Tree Travel shares firsthand insight into what makes a hotel genuinely work for families. The conversation dives into real-world considerations like room configurations, kids club quality, dining flex...

In this solo episode, Brianna reflects on what she would do differently if she were starting her travel business from scratch in 2026. With 10 years of experience behind her, she breaks down the foundational decisions that matter most, from choosing the right host agency to getting honest about your network, picking a niche early, investing in the travel business, and building systems before they...

There is a skill inside great trip design that nobody talks about enough, and it has nothing to do with knowing the best hotels or having the right supplier relationships. It is judgment. And judgment is hard to teach when it has always lived in your gut. In this solo episode, Brianna shares the frameworks she has spent years developing to articulate what once felt purely instinctive. She walks th...