Ever dreamed of hosting a retreat or planning a trip with your community, but felt overwhelmed by all the logistics? In this episode of The Traveling Therapist Podcast, we dive into the world of group travel with Heather Sutherlin, founder of The Travel Bug Girls. Heather shares how a transformational trip with her daughter sparked a thriving business that now helps entrepreneurs bring custom travel experiences to life.
Whether you’re a therapist, coach, or creative, group travel can be an incredible way to connect with your audience, grow your brand, and even create new income streams. Heather breaks down exactly how she helps business owners design travel that’s aligned with their goals, vision, and lifestyle.
In This Episode, We Explore…
Connect with Heather:
Website - https://travelbuggirls.com/
- https://travelbuggirls.com/heather
Podcast - https://travelbuggirls.com/podcast
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TravelBugGirls/
Connect with me:
Instagram: @thetravelingtherapist_kym
The Traveling Therapist Membership: www.kymtolson.kartra.com/page/travelingtherapistmembership
Revolutionize Your Private Practice with AI Course: www.kymtolson.kartra.com/page/ai
Signup to learn more about life as a Traveling Therapist: https://www.portablepracticemethod.com/free-training
The Traveling Therapist Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/onlineandtraveling/
Bill Like A Boss Insurance Billing Community: www.kymtolson.kartra.com/page/blab
Subscribe to the Podcast:
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Transcript:
[00:00:00] Kym_: Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Traveling Therapist podcast. Really excited today. We have a super cool guest that has a really interesting story and, you know, is particularly interesting to me because running the group of the traveling therapist running this podcast, really have wanted to do some group travel with the traveling therapist, but it, you know, it's on my radar i've never been able to do this. So,
[00:00:21] Heather, I would love if you could introduce yourself and just tell us a little bit about what you do.
[00:00:25] Heather: Sure. My name's Heather Sutherland. I am the owner of an agency called The Travel Bug Girls. We are a concierge level travel agency that specializes in group travel for women specifically. And we also have a podcast ourselves, the Travel Bug Girls podcast.
[00:00:42] And yeah, that's what we do. We build group travel,
[00:00:45] Kym_: I love that. Yeah. tell me about the name. I've gotta hear about this name. How did you come up with this travel bug? Girls?
[00:00:51] Heather: Well, it was really meant to be a lighthearted at the time when I was building my business, I was like, I want it to be fun. I want it to be carefree. I really wanna focus on working with women who have the travel bug. You really wanna travel and see more of the world, but feel like maybe they're not in a place where they have other people who can go with them.
[00:01:10] And so I wanted it to just be a really fun and lighthearted business and i t really has grown into something beautiful. I'm really grateful.
[00:01:17] Kym_: That's amazing. So part of what you were telling me before is you took a trip with your daughter, right? You were talking a little bit about that and. How that kind of, you learned a lot from that, and I think it kind of sounded like from your bias that that's what led into this to begin with, that maybe you could tell us about that, like how that came about.
[00:01:35] Heather: Yes. When my daughter was in high school, we had an opportunity to go to Australia and New Zealand together, and we were gone for three full weeks. It was an amazing, like once in a lifetime trip. That experience of traveling, just the two of us, we were in the middle of a very busy, stressful season in life.
[00:01:54] And to be able to really slip away completely into what felt like a different world, yeah. A part of the world, we had never been in and have that time, just the two of us. And the whole goal was like, let's have an adventure. It was life giving. It really was.
[00:02:10] But out of that came so much inspiration. We were entering a phase of transition, moving back to the United States from France.
[00:02:19] And we had had a lot of purpose in our daily life when we were working in France and we were moving back to the States and I was just feeling a little lost. But I kept thinking about that trip and all the ideas I'd had while we were traveling, like, Ooh, we should make it easier for women to do this. We should make it so that women can travel more like this because it's so energizing to leave your trouble behind for a few days or a few weeks and focus on adventure and play, and also that relationship with the person you're traveling with. We came back like solid best friends, which not every mom of a teenager gets to experience.
[00:02:57] Kym_: Yeah, that's for sure.
[00:02:59] Heather: It was amazing. It was such a gift, and it really shaped not only our relationship going forward, but ultimately my business. I built my business a year later,
[00:03:08] Kym_: Oh my gosh. That's amazing. so you were living in France just like randomly or like working in France. I think people that heard that are probably like, wait, how are you living in France?
[00:03:17] Heather: Yes.
[00:03:18] Kym_: probably would've did that.
[00:03:19] Heather: so our family ended up buying a small chateau, essentially in the French countryside, literally in the middle of nowhere,
[00:03:28] Kym_: Oh my gosh.
[00:03:29] Heather: France, like, you know, and it was beautiful and had never been lived in fully. And we turned it into a bed and breakfast for missionaries.
[00:03:39] So we have guests from all over the world who come and stay in the Chateau. We were there for three and a half years, and we went from, everything's broken and falling apart to having the house full of guests in those three years and then handed it over to my parents who were therapists. They were family, marriage and family therapists, and they needed that time to close down their practice so that they could move.
[00:04:04] They had been doing a lot of online therapy for missionaries all over the world and working with teams in Europe and Africa and different places. And so they really wanted this place that could be an outside space, an in-between space where people could come for extensive healing or even just downtime.
[00:04:23] Sometimes their work is very stressful if they're working in poverty groups and extreme situations. So really making sure they have a, a separate space that's in between home, which is often the US and their work. In whatever foreign country they're working in. So that's what we did. We set up that.
[00:04:39] And so yeah, so I'm also connected to traveling therapist. My best friend when we lived in France was the one other American, and she was a therapist working with an online program while she lived in this middle of nowhere village in France.
[00:04:53] Kym_: is amazing.
[00:04:54] Heather: So I'm kind of surrounded by all of you as well.
[00:04:58] Kym_: That is such a cool story. Oh my gosh. So, you know, I always see these like ads, like, move to Italy for a dollar. If you buy a chateau here or whatever and fix it up and we'll let you live here for, three years or something free or something like that. Um, So I think people have that dream to like, okay, we're just, I mean, how really cool is that to just be able to do that.
[00:05:17] Heather: Was very cool.
[00:05:18] Kym_: wow.
[00:05:19] So do y'all still, do you still own that
[00:05:21] or is it. Oh
[00:05:22] Heather: That's a running work still. It's called Restored and Renewed Ministry. Restored and renewed ministry.com. You can look it up. My mother manages it now. And so she's there full time and we just get to go every year. So, and spend a couple weeks, so.
[00:05:37] Kym_: That is amazing. Oh my
[00:05:38] gosh. So is your mom still a therapist or is she like totally out of the therapy world now?
[00:05:43] Heather: She's officially retired. But yes, that is her daily work. Aside from maintaining this, you know, ancient building.
[00:05:51] Kym_: Yeah.
[00:05:52] Oh my gosh. I bet that is like full time. Oh
[00:05:54] Heather: And she has a team there that, that she's trained to. They, my parents had both gotten to the point where they were training other therapists. They taught at John Brown University in the counseling department.
[00:06:06] And so my dad was on the licensing board in Arkansas. So they both had done a lot of work in training other therapists. So she has essentially trained her replacements and so they share that work there. Yeah. In France.
[00:06:19] Kym_: That is really interesting. I might have to ask them to be on my podcast.
[00:06:22] Heather: Yeah. Oh, I'm sure she'd love to. Yes.
[00:06:25] Kym_: that's so cool because part of what we talk about in this podcast is like entrepreneurship and, you know, other income streams for therapists to kind of get away from that one-to-one model and not be so burned out, having to see so many clients all the time. So I love hearing stories like that where therapists are like, no.
[00:06:39] Yeah, I mean, I'll do some therapy, but I'm also gonna like restore this chateau in France and. Just really interesting. That's so cool to just, to just let people know that you can just do anything really.
[00:06:49] Heather: Exactly. I mean once, once you let go of, I have to be in this office all day long, and you give yourself freedom to think creatively about what your life could be like. I feel like the doors just open wide up. that process of letting go of our life in the US really did make it possible for us to do a lot of different things.
[00:07:08] My husband was definitely a corporate lifestyle kind of guy, and being able to step outside of that has just made the rest of our life much more fluid and beautiful.
[00:07:19] Kym_: Oh my gosh. That's so cool. Yeah. 'cause that's like the next thing I wanted to ask you is were you always just into this type of stuff, or did you have a career and then you decided I'm gonna be a travel agent instead?
[00:07:29] Heather: I've had all the lives I've tried. I, I'm that girl who like couldn't decide what she wanted to be when she grew up. And really it was that I wanted to be everything. I wanted to have all the lives. So I went to culinary school. I became an author. I wrote 12 novels. I have a degree in education and so I've taught.
[00:07:49] On and off in between there. I also homeschooled my kids till they went to college which also enabled us to go to France, by the way, having that freedom. I've, I was a car salesman. I've done, I've done a lot of different things. But this has really been a beautiful thing for me because it brings together a lot of my passions.
[00:08:08] And what I really found was, what I was most drawn to was just owning my own business. Building something from nothing. And also building a team. So that's something else I've been able to do from the day I opened my business and it was just little old me. I was envisioning this time when I would have a group of women who all had different
[00:08:26] talents and specialties, and we work together to help clients build different kinds of trips. And so that's what I've gotten to do Now I'm getting to live in my dream and I have the incredible travel bug girls, all of this together. Um, There's five of us that are working together it is beautiful.
[00:08:44] It's a lot of fun. So I, I, I also get to travel the world and meet new people. So
[00:08:50] Kym_: so amazing. So what are their specialties? I think that's so interesting. They what? What do they all do? Like what's
[00:08:56] Heather: So we have Kara, she specializes in Europe. And then Cassie, she specializes in multi-generational family travel and also Disney Universal Studios. she does a lot of big family group trips. And then we have Tina who specializes in wellness travel. She's a yoga instructor, turned travel agent.
[00:09:18] And so she likes to bring all of that together and build trips that really make you come home refreshed in a new way. And then Kimmy was our cruise director, but now she's our podcast director. She's working now full-time in our podcast.
[00:09:34] Kym_: That is
[00:09:34] so cool. Oh my gosh. Wow. So, you know, this is a group of therapists and many of them are entrepreneurial and want to do like retreats and conferences and you know, like me, maybe a group trip with their audiences, that sort of thing. So what would that look like? Like if we wanted to work with you, like what is the process for this?
[00:09:54] Heather: I would love to help. That's what I, I used to be the European specialist and now I work almost exclusively with small businesses helping you do exactly that. We love to help business owners build something that they're gonna be very proud of. We want it to be aligned with your brand. And so we start by having conversation like this, we'll have a brainstorming session. What is it you envision? What do you wish could happen if, if I could make it happen for you? What do you wish could happen? And then from there, I'll probably bring some of my own ideas too, that maybe you haven't thought of.
[00:10:25] So that's really fun. That whole part is really fun. And then we start the strategy session. Okay, if we're gonna do this and you are hoping to have this kind of profit, then you're gonna need this many people to come in at this. Rate, you know, so you can have less people if you charge more, or you can have more people if you charge less, maybe.
[00:10:45] But we can, we work out the details then I start looking for venues that match your vision. Let's find the perfect place that is gonna host this beautiful thing. and that can be tricky because sometimes what people imagine is not always accessible or profitable, or there can be a lot of things like, you know, if you're imagining this beautiful castle up in the mountains somewhere um, because you really wanna go all out and make it unique, well that's great, but how are we gonna get them there?
[00:11:16] Because often people don't realize that those are very remote and you can't just fly in and, and show up. You know, you're gonna have to fly in two hours away and somehow get to this location. So there's a lot of details that go into the planning part, but that's where we can come in and really say, but we're gonna figure it out and we're gonna find a place that's just right for you.
[00:11:34] And then also handling all of the budgeting, making sure that you, we've thought through all the details so that you do end up with a profit, if that's what you're looking for. And if what you're looking for is just free work", vacation that you can write off on your taxes, then we can make that happen too.
[00:11:49] And there's a lot of ways we can do that. And sometimes there's some easy ways to do that too. Like cruises will give you a free room if you get a certain number of rooms. You know, a lot of resorts will do that too. So sometimes we can do something really more simplistic but fabulous and find a way to make it really something people go home and tell everyone else about so that you can have repeat customers that way.
[00:12:11] Kym_: Oh my gosh. So fun. So is it always like, one place or is it like, you could do tours because I've taken a couple of tours, like Portugal for example, I did with my mom and it was, the whole thing was planned. I loved it. It was like, you know, they pick you up at the airport, they put you on the transportation.
[00:12:25] Like you don't, don't even have to think, but we got to go to all these different hotels that they had already booked. They made sure our luggage was in our room. Like it was super, like concierge, I guess, where they just handled all that in the back end.
[00:12:36] Heather: Yeah, we, when we're putting, so if you go on our website, travel bug girls.com and you click on Girls Trips, most of those are gonna be something like that. We oh, okay. We'll put in once in a while, a cruise or something because we have a lot of requests for that. But mostly we're gonna have a lot of group tours and we work with companies that specialize in this and have been doing it for ever in that location so that they really have established relationships with the businesses that they're having to use, the restaurants, the hotel, the, the places where you're, you know, sightseeing, everything. They will have it down to a science. And they often will use a local guide. So you also have someone who speaks the local language.
[00:13:18] So if you are in Portugal and you speak no Portuguese, we have people who live there and are working there regularly, and they speak both English and Portuguese so that they can interpret and take care of you and protect you also. You know, and so that's a really beautiful way to do it.
[00:13:35] And definitely, and a lot of, a lot of those companies too. Offer some free time in the evening. So if you also wanna have your group meet together in the evening and do some kind of exercise or debriefing, or even just a social time, you can all have lunch together or you can all, you know, go after dinner and have drinks together or something.
[00:13:54] So there's plenty of room still for some flexibility, even in those tighter schedules
[00:13:58] Kym_: Oh, that's really cool. So what's a cool trip? Really like unusual one you've, you've guys have planned for somebody. I'd love to hear just like the most outrageous.
[00:14:06] Heather: Okay. The most shocking, which really opened my eyes and made me start thinking like I need to think out of the box in order to work better for business owners was I met a girl who owns a yarn shop. In Washington
[00:14:20] Kym_: Oh,
[00:14:20] Heather: and she works with knitters and crochet and weavers and all this day in and day out. And she discovered one day that she was telling a, a customer about her cruise, she was gonna go on that's a knitting cruise.
[00:14:34] And her customer said, oh my gosh. I love that kind of stuff too. I'm always trying to find a vacation that I can go with other knitters and do knit. And I always. Stop at the yarn shop wherever we are and every, and they plan their vacations around their hobby and she said, well. If everyone else is doing that, just like I'm doing it, why don't I offer that as part of my business?
[00:14:54] And we can all go together. And so now that's what we're doing. And so she's putting together, we are putting together like four trips a year that's a
[00:15:02] Kym_: Oh my gosh.
[00:15:02] Heather: of like a cruise, a local, you know, go down to the next town over and go to the yarn shop and stay for the weekend and go shopping and, they took a train trip together so they're all going and they're gonna be knitting on the train on the way.
[00:15:16] So, you know, it's just. It was amazing to me and I started thinking of like all the other people that are like that, you know, quilters and board gamers and all these different groups that have something in common that they would love to be with other people who love that too. You know, it's really not that different than before when I was planning culinary trips and literally the common factor is we all love food and we wanna try new food, and we wanna go to this.
[00:15:40] Source of the, you know, we wanna go to Italy and try the wine and the olive oil and the, you know, see how they make the pasta. And it's the same kind of concept. But it's, it's really fun to see how vacations and travel can be built around, just about anything.
[00:15:56] Kym_: That is so cool. Oh my gosh. I can't wait to go explore your website.
[00:16:00] Heather: Definitely. Please come and travel with us or gimme a call and I will help you plan your own amazing trip.
[00:16:06] Kym_: I love that. It sounds like, and what a cool job you've got. I mean, how fun to, plan trips for
[00:16:11] Heather: I get to meet the most amazing people. I
[00:16:14] Kym_: Oh my gosh.
[00:16:15] Heather: and I love, now that I'm working with small business owners, I'm getting. I mean, now I'm hanging out with my favorite people, you know, 'cause I'm a small business owner and so we get to talk business and strategy and like, how do I make this profitable and, still have people love me and not feel like I'm taking advantage of them.
[00:16:31] And like, how do I have enough leftover that I can do the next amazing thing in my business that I'm hoping to do? You know? So I get to, I get to hang out with people who, who are trying to build something beautiful in their own way. And I love that. I love it.
[00:16:45] Kym_: Yeah. And you feel like the type of person that, that we could just call you up and like pick your brain and say, gimme an idea. Like, I'm not sure what, what would be good. you know, I'm thinking like, how do you poll your audience? You know, I'd have to poll the audience and get ideas and you know, have them vote and that sort of thing
[00:17:02] Heather: that's definitely where I end up being the therapist. I'm like, I'm like the small business coach in that way. You know? Where I'm like, let's think a little deeper about this. What is it you're really hoping to gain? Are you looking for more followers? Are you wishing your people were closer to each other?
[00:17:16] Are you just looking for more money? Like, what is your real goal? And let's get to the bottom of that and then let's build, let's build to make that happen.
[00:17:23] Kym_: Yeah.
[00:17:24] Heather: it's so much more than just a trip usually.
[00:17:26] Kym_: Oh my gosh. You've got my wheels turning. So how does somebody work with you? What's the first step? Where do they find you? All
[00:17:33] Heather: Sure. The best place to find me is to go to our website, travel bug girls.com. You can click on my face and that'll open my page which is also travel bug girls.com/heather. And on there is a place that'll tell you more about business and how I work with business owners. And also where you can directly book a consultation with me that's free.
[00:17:55] So we can just have a conversation and see what you think about it. we also have a whole page that goes into a lot more ideas and explanation of how that process works. And that is travel bug girls.com/b. Two B, the
[00:18:09] Kym_: Okay. B2B. Okay.
[00:18:10] Heather: business to business. And that is where I've just dumped all the information so you can read through and see what other businesses we worked with, yoga studios and places like that so you can have a better idea of what's possible.
[00:18:22] And there's a form on there too. So that's the fastest way to reach me, but also feel free to stalk me. We're on just about every social media. I'm just now starting on LinkedIn. I haven't been very brave with LinkedIn, so probably all of you could teach me better how to
[00:18:36] Kym_: Yeah.
[00:18:36] Heather: LinkedIn.
[00:18:37] Kym_: So how much lead time would some, would you need for somebody if they're, they're listening to this and they're like, gosh, I'm gonna plan a trip for whoever. How much do you lead time? Do you recommend to get it
[00:18:46] all set up?
[00:18:47] Heather: I recommend at least six months because the hardest part of all of this is actually promotion. So unless you have a hot audience that is like clamoring for what you are throwing out there and they have plenty of money to spend, to hang out with you in whatever beautiful place you've picked, you know, unless that is your case, then you need at least six months and we really recommend to plan out a year in advance.
[00:19:11] It's going to help you. Have plenty of time to promote it in all of the places. And we know in marketing it takes people really like seven times to see something before they finally interact. Even if they want to the first time before they really commit or, or take that next step, they're gonna have to see it a few times.
[00:19:29] So we wanna make sure that they have that opportunity. And that's really where my agency is a little different than just a regular travel agency in that we can provide. Marketing packages for you too, where we can make all the graphics for Facebook and Instagram. We can do cute little videos if you want.
[00:19:48] We can write newsletter templates for you or blog post articles or whatever you think will be most helpful to your audience. And then we also can promote on. Website and on our podcast. And so there's a lot of other things we can add on. If you want more help with the marketing side, if you're like, I just wanna have the idea and then show up somewhere beautiful and I'll pay you to do the rest.
[00:20:12] So, you know, we can do the travel planning, but we can also do the marketing and you can choose what works best for you there. So
[00:20:18] Kym_: That's so cool.
[00:20:19] Heather: we try to make it easy for you to succeed.
[00:20:22] Kym_: Awesome. That's amazing. Well, thanks for taking the time today to share with us. I think probably the listeners are gonna be really excited about this episode and hearing everything that's possible and just know, I mean, you could do it with your family or a business or whatever.
[00:20:35] Heather: Of course, I mean, still call us about your own personal vacations if you need to get away, but all of you are already traveling and doing beautiful things hopefully. So we wanna help you have, you know, all of the things that you're looking forward to in building your business. But also feel free to stalk us just because you love travel and so do we.
[00:20:54] So we're, we can be your new travel BFFs.
[00:20:57] Kym_: I love it. Thank you so much for coming today.
[00:21:01] Heather: Thank you for having me.