Case Study: Launching a Travel Brand in a Pandemic
Meet Christine!
She is a slow traveler, bookworm, yogi and mom to three young girls, as well as the founder of Lotus Sojourns.
Through her guided global journeys for women, Christine designs transformational experiences that are a blend of personal growth and adventure. Each Sojourn is intentionally crafted to offer guests the opportunity to Connect, Explore and Transform through a combination of inner and outer exploration that offers travelers a rich and fulfilling experience while cultivating a sense of belonging to a global community.
As the group Sojourns, they explore the destination, meet women who live there, and connect with their inner landscape as well through guided practices built into each experience. Together, they transform their view of the world and understanding of each individual’s place in it while connecting to nature, each other, and themselves.
“I wanted to achieve my long-held goal of starting a business that allows travelers to travel the way I love to travel and create a business that allows me the freedom to travel as well as be home with my children and be involved in their daily lives.”
Christine and I met at an event, where she says she tucked my name away in case she finally decided to pull the trigger and launch her dream business.
She had the vision and knew the end-point; but she didn’t know where to start.
It took her some time to muster up the courage to go for it, and when she did, she enlisted our help to get started.
Highlights
Challenges:
Starting from scratch
Map out a plan to make money from the business
How to make sense of all her ideas and bring them to life
COVID-19 travel restrictions
Solutions:
Create a business model and brand from her big vision
Create a structured plan for growth with the right tools and strategies for her stage of business
Accountability and support
Create pivot plans as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic
Results:
Unique solutions to sustain the business during the COVID-19 pandemic, including an online community, t-shirt brand, podcast and book club
Finalist for the Wanderful Award in the 4th Annual Bessie Awards
Challenges
Starting from scratch
When we started working together, Christine had worked in tourism for nearly 20 years and was driven by a deep desire to create a global sisterhood. She was at the very beginning of her entrepreneurial journey and knew the type of business she wanted to create but had no idea how to get there, or even where to start.
“Just taking that first step to really get going is where I need to focus.”
Map out a plan for her new business
Christine knew that she wanted to guide mindful and responsible travel experiences for women that offered them a deeper sense of belonging and a connection to a global community of women, but she needed a roadmap for this experience.
Ideas weren’t Christine’s problem; she was overflowing with them and wanted direction on how to make sense of them in a way that could be both profitable and sustainable. She asked for a step-by-step plan.
Bring her big vision to life
Christine came to coaching with a business name, an idea of what she wanted her company to do and a big vision of how it could transform the way women worldwide connect.
“Building on the travel itineraries I really want to focus on gathering women and facilitating connection and community both locally and globally. I envision local, national and international experiences and opportunities for connection. I love experiencing a culture through the stories of the people I connect with. Story sharing is important to me and will fold into the bigger picture.”
The goal of our work together was to take that vision, refine it and turn it into something real and concrete.
COVID travel restrictions
Not long after launching her travel business, we began to see the rapid closing of borders related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Christine would need solutions to keep her business going and start to make money, despite the restrictions and inability to lead in-person trips.
Solutions
Through a combination of 1:1 coaching, group coaching and community trainings at REL Impact, Christine found the tools and solutions to get her business off the ground.
Create a business model and brand from her big vision
We took Christine’s big vision and transformed it into revenue streams and a brand that fully aligned with her ultimate mission.
She used my guided worksheets to identify her ideal client and learn more about what would inspire her clients to want to be a part of the Lotus Sojourns mission and vision. And then we distilled all of this into three succinct pillars of the brand: Connect, Explore, Transform.
“I loved the forms that I completed that were short but intentional, helping me to identify my ideal client, my mission and my vision.”
Christine set dates for her first trips: Peru, Morocco, Jordan - with a plan for how to price it and create a transformational and empowering experience for her travelers. She was ready to fill spots.
Create a structured plan for growth with the right tools and strategies for her stage of business
It’s common for newbie entrepreneurs to look too far ahead and feel confused, overwhelmed and stuck in analysis paralysis. This was no different for Christine.
Together, we created a structure and put clear systems and tools in place that best served Christine at her stage of business while allowing her to continue making progress, moving that needle forward towards her trips and goals, week after week.
The two most impactful tools Christine adopted into her business at this point were Google Drive and Calendly, and she began using them in a way that added tremendous value to her busy mompreneur schedule.
“Rachel taught me how to automate so much of my work to free up additional time for me to keep moving forward, almost as if I have employees in my one-woman business.”
Accountability and Support
“In my ideal lifestyle, I see myself working about 25-35 hours a week and ideally while my kids are at school. I would like to have most evenings and weekends available to my family and I want to be flexible to travel. I don’t really track my working hours now, but I probably work 20-30 hours a week and a lot of time is spent spinning my wheels and lost on social media with no real plan.”
Christine needed accountability and support to start taking intentional, productive action. She used to identify as a “VERY organized” person, but started operating more reactively once she had children, often turning to tackle things as the deadline loomed.
Christine knew that managing her time more effectively would be important in building a business, so we focused on creating space for her work, and identified the action steps and plan that would bring Lotus Sojourns to life, while ensuring that her schedule remained flexible enough for her family priorities.
“My biggest fear is that I will set out to achieve this life-long goal of creating a travel community and fail, or not have it be accepted or appreciated by anyone.”
Christine knew that to succeed was to be supported… So in my role as her business coach, I held the belief for her vision before she could see the extent of possibilities for herself. We worked through the fear and doubt, and established the foundation for what would become her most illuminated, empowered self, which ultimately led her to being able to step into her role as a leader and CEO.
Create pivot plans as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic
While Christine had to cancel all of the trips she had planned for the next year, she still found creative ways to offer her community something unique.
“I was able to look at those [restrictions] and ask myself how else I could serve my community and continue to be connected even though we could not travel.”
Results
Christine says that “this idea had been on a shelf for years and [Rachel’s] guidance helped me to fully realize its potential and bring it to life.”
A business that can sustain anything, including a pandemic
Christine credits the deep understanding she now has of her mission and brand values with the resilience she showed in the face of massive travel restrictions.
She created an online sisterhood… a t-shirt brand called Lotus CommuniTees supporting the organizations she travels with… a meaningful travel podcast called Soul of Travel that earned her a spot as a finalist for the Wanderful Award in the 4th Annual Bessie Awards… and a book club called the Lotus Book Sojourn.
This soulful book club has been her favorite initiative to unleash, featuring specially selected books written by empowering and inspirational female authors. Through this journey the books allow the members of the club to continue to connect, explore and transform in a community of like-hearted women.
You have a vision for your business and start somewhere, and you never know where you’ll land.
This Lotus Sojourns community is just getting started… We can't wait to see the impact of Christine and her team continue to blossom in the years to come!
Learn more about Christine and Lotus Sojourns:
Connect on Instagram and Facebook
Listen to the Soul of Travel Podcast
To learn more about getting these kinds of results in your business, schedule a call to speak with Rachel.