Episode 1 - Welcome to Travel Business Unlocked
Links mentioned in this episode:
EPISODE SUMMARY
Welcome to Travel Business Unlocked!
This episode is a quick intro. Hi, I'm Holly and I'm:
Owner and founder of HollyDay Travel - family-owned travel agency
Located in beautiful South Australia
25 years in the travel industry (not 23!)
Studied to be a travel agent straight from high school
Been doing this ever since - 25 years and counting
Mum of 5 beautiful children
I am also a Director on the Board of ATAC, the Australian Travel Agents Co- operative, where I'm proud to represent travel agents across Australia.
Why I Started This Podcast
Podcasts have helped me and my business SO much over the past few years and I wanted to share my journey with others
I get asked daily by agents:
How did you build your business?
What advice can you give me on ways I can improve my business?
Where do I even start and what steps do I take?
Who do I connect with?
... and so much more! So I thought this was the perfect way to help!
This podcast is about me being real:
Sharing everything I've learned along the way, not pretending to have all the answers but sharing real experiences, mistakes, lessons learned and success stories.
It's a resource for travel agents, small business owners, and anyone curious about building something meaningful
We will discuss things like:
How to build a remote team and how to hire them
Why systems are so important
How to use AI in your business
Customer service strategies that actually work
The Importance of having mentors
... and much more.
READ THE FULL PODCAST TRANSCRIPT HERE
Hello and welcome to the very first episode of Travel Business Unlocked. I'm Holly Velardo and I am so excited to be starting this podcast and sharing my journey with you. I am the owner and founder of HollyDay Travel, a home-based travel agency located right on the beautiful beach in Port Noarlunga, South Australia. I have over 25 years experience as a travel agent and I started this travel agency seven years ago when I had just had our twin girls which were baby number four and five.
So starting a business with five kids was absolutely not easy. The twins were only one at the time and this obviously came with some challenges. The juggling act was real! Oh my gosh. The school runs, sports, breastfeeding, running a business, being a wife, keeping up with the housework, all of those things. But honestly, it was the best decision I have ever made. My husband Angelo and I love raising our family and having the freedom to run my business while also being there for my kids. It's an incredible way to live.
Apart from HollyDay Travel, I also serve as a Director on the board of ATAC, which is the Australian Travel Agents Cooperative. And we represent travel agents across Australia and provide support, resources, and buying power for independent travel agents. I'm also honoured to be the South Australian Representative for the Travel Industry Mentor Experience Program. This role means a huge amount to me. I am a massive advocate for mentorship. I've done the TIME program twice. We'll talk about that more in another episode. But mentoring has been such a big part of my journey as well and my business life.
So the reason that I wanted to start this podcast and get this out to you is I really just want to give back to all of those people who really, really helped me succeed and support others in this industry as well. I often get asked by agents and other business owners and just think questions like, how did I build my business? What advice do I have for them? Where should they even start, what steps to take, who should they connect with? And so much more. I'm getting these questions through emails, social media, industry events and I know that I could never have got where I am in my business if I didn't have the help of people in the industry. So I'm here to share that journey, share what I've done and also just give back to others.
I thought this podcast would be the perfect way to help answer these questions and just get it all out there for you. So it's also about me being me, being real. I'm not here pretending that I have all the answers or that I know everything. I absolutely do not. But what I am offering is a chance to share real experiences, real mistakes, valuable lessons learned, so many success stories, so, so many practical how to steps and just ways that you can improve your business.
So we will have many episodes throughout this podcast and some of the things that we'll be talking about will be how I built my remote team and how I hired them, the systems that I've put in place and why they are so, so crucial. How we use AI in our business and how we can show you use it in your business.
Also, the customer service strategies that actually work. Because we have been through many and we've had some incredible people come on into our business and help us. So we will share that with you as well and have them on. We'll welcome so many special guests—mentors, industry experts… anybody who's helped me along in my journey. We will have them on here so they can also help you with yours.
I really truly wouldn't be where I am today without my mentors and these people that help me. So I really just want to give back to them and also give back to you and help hopefully transform your business into something that you can be really proud of. This isn't going to just be a one-way conversation, it's about hearing from you too!
I want to hear from you. What are your challenges? How can I help you? What topics or questions would you like covered? How can others in the industry help you? Who would you like to hear from? Who could my guests be? So many things that we can do together here.
So I really just want this to be an incredible podcast about helping each other, connecting with each other, learning from each other and helping so many people succeed in this industry.
So next episode I'll be sharing a lot more information about me, about the business, about HollyDay Travel, the steps that I took to grow my business… I'll break it down for you and talk about this in detail.
So please tune in in the next few days. This will be coming out! And I would also love it if you could share this podcast with anyone trying to build their travel business or any small business who's looking for guidance or inspiration at all. So thank you, thank you, thank you for joining me on the very first episode of Travel Business Unlocked.
I cannot wait to share this journey with you and I'll see you in the next episode!
