Episode 12 - I’m Back - Real Life, Real Business
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EPISODE SUMMARY
Episode Focus: Real Life, Real Business - Catching Up After a Long Break
Podcast sections:
The New Home
Travelling as a Mum
Isabella's Adventure
Perimenopause
Business Struggles
Hiring Claire
The Middle East Crisis
Team Stepping Up
Industry Support
Calabria and Sicily Tour
READ THE FULL PODCAST TRANSCRIPT HERE
Hello and welcome to Episode 12 of Travel Business Unlocked. I'm Holly Velardo, the owner of HollyDay Travel, a boutique travel agency based in the beautiful Christies Beach, South Australia.
Wow, it is so good to be back recording. To those of you who've reached out to me and for my loyal listeners, thank you so much. It means a lot to me. It has been quite a while since our last episode, and I thought I'd come on here and tell you all why and what has been going on.
This podcast is all about real business, real life, and sharing the good times as well as the struggles. And this year has been huge for me.
There have been so many highs and also quite a lot of struggles and stress in my personal life as well. And I'm here to tell you the honest truth, because I'm hoping by sharing my story and what's been happening with me, that maybe there's some others of you out there who have been feeling the same, just needing that little bit of a boost of confidence and to just keep going because things will get better.
The New Home
So basically, we have relocated. I am so excited. We are finally in our beautiful new home in Christies Beach here in South Australia. I have the most incredible beach views from my office and from our gorgeous living space as well.
So this has been an incredible journey. Building a new home has not been easy this time around. It is not the first time we've done it, but there was a lot of stress this time. The builders weren't the most amazing builders that we could have hoped for, but overall, we do have an incredibly beautiful home that I am so thankful for.
And without all of the hard work and everything that my husband and I, Angelo, have put in over these last many, many years, this would never, ever, ever have been possible. So even though I take a breather every minute and I look at this gorgeous view and I try and be extremely grateful for this home, it was an incredible stress to get here. Things were delayed, the cost of things went up. Just renting a house for me was just absolutely torture. And for most of you, or a lot of you, that is the only way that you can live, and renting, there's nothing wrong with it, but for me, it was the first time we've ever rented in our lives. And I know it's a huge privilege to be able to build our own home and have this incredible house, but having that invasion of privacy and people coming in and not being able to make our own decisions around the house and what we're wanting, that got stretched out from what we were hoping would be 18 months to over three years.
So also the cost of that, the cost of renting, the cost of building, cost of living, a lot of things happened in that period as well. So financially, the stress, it was real, it was there. But also the stress of not knowing when we're going to be in our home, not being able to plan, not being able to know really what was happening in the future.
But thankfully most of that is all behind us and we are living in this amazing home and we are just every day trying to add little touches to it so that it really, truly feels like ours and just appreciate and enjoy this beautiful, gorgeous place that we are in.
Travelling as a Mum
So another thing for me as well is we have travelled a lot this year already and that is always so amazing for me, but it also can bring a whole lot of stress. And being a mum of five, this is something that if you don't know me and you only see me on social media or you see what's out there and you see that we host these beautiful tours which I absolutely love doing. And yes, I travel a lot.
But one of the hardest things for me is leaving my children.
It is an incredibly hard thing for me to do. The anxiety, the struggles, the guilt, the gut feeling every single time leading up to a trip of what's involved and the coordination of what needs to happen with all the children while we're away, who can help out, who we can ask for help, who you know is going to put their hand up, all these things as well as getting extras in to help out where the family can't help us. It is a huge stress and for me this year I think I found it even more so.
Our youngest children are 10 year old twin girls, Zalia and Amelia. And you know, they have been used to me travelling these last few years, but they are very much more aware of world situations now. They ask a lot more questions. You know, the tears start a week before I go away and you know, this is pulling on my heartstrings. This is something that is one of the hardest things as a mum to do is to leave them, but also teaching them that this is about life, them seeing their mum achieve her dreams, live for the things that she's dreamed of for so much, but also understanding that it is really, really difficult for me to leave them.
And it's not only the twins—leaving the twins—it's leaving Isabella as well. Our 22 year old, Jo who's 20, and then Dom who is 16 as well. It's really, really hard to leave them, to not be there for their them. Missing out on their things. Whether it's a soccer game or a choir performance or, you know, a dance concert, that mum guilt is huge for me. And you know, it's something that I do really struggle with.
And I do question sometimes, you know, do I need to be going on this trip? But something that, you know, it's one of those struggles. And something I've realised is teaching my children that life is not easy. There are so many tough moments, but knowing that they are safe and they are fine when we're away is great.
But it's that leaving them, it's that night before we're going to be at the airport, it's leaving for the airport. It's those tears. And I used to hide those tears from them. I used to, you know, give them all hugs and then I'd get in the car and I'd be an absolute mess. But now I cry freely with them. I talk to them exactly about how I feel. I let them know that I don't like leaving them. I let them know that I'm doing this to give them a better life and also to teach them to live their dreams, because these dreams are amazing. And once I'm there and once I'm on these trips, I am fully present. I talk to the children every single day. We message, we video chat, but they also understand that I'm working and this is part of life.
And by having to leave them has made them so much stronger, so much more resilient and incredibly responsible human beings. I am so, so proud of my children and who they've become and who they are becoming.
Isabella's Adventure
And in saying that, another big thing for us this year was our daughter Isabella. She moved overseas, 22 years old. She has finished one medical degree and has decided to take a year off from that and travel and work and just fully immerse herself in life.
And she is having the absolute time of her life, living over… she started in London for a job that when she got there, didn't work out. So she has found another job very quickly and she's currently living on an island in Italy called Sardinia, working at a beach resort and living her best life.
And for me, seeing my children do this and have these opportunities and being free to absolutely love what they do and know that they too can make these choices in life, although they're not easy and although she's living away from me and I miss her so incredibly, she is living her dream and this is so important. And you know, we chat all the time and we message all the time, but you know, I'm also very respectful of her. And this is her living her dream. And you know, she knows where I am when she wants to chat. And we have really long video calls, and you know, I sit there with a glass of wine and the time she calls is always evenings here.
And I just love it.
I just sit down and I just hear all about her and everything that's going on in her world and how much fun she's having and seeing how happy she is and free she is, it means everything to me. And watching our children go through that as well, it's just amazing.
So that is another one of my struggles, but also a huge milestone to see Isabella living her dream and being so, so happy.
Perimenopause
And another thing for me as well is perimenopause.
I'm only 45, so for me, I didn't realise or completely understand that some of the reasons that I was really struggling with were because of perimenopause. I had so low energy, like incredibly low. And I thought it was all due to the stress of the new home, moving in, unpacking, 10 days later going on a trip to Japan, coming home two weeks later and hosting a tour to Italy.
And what I have recently found out is that that is not why I was completely exhausted. It was because I had extremely low hormone levels and a really huge sign of perimenopause. So I have realised that for at least 18 months, I have been struggling a lot emotionally as well as physically, and just not really sure of why I'm feeling a whole lot of things that I'm feeling or why I'm behaving in certain ways or why my brain just doesn't work. And I have literally had clients sitting in front of me and then I might forget their names. It's just crazy.
Like, my brain has been doing some incredibly crazy things, and I'm glad I've seen an amazing doctor and she has put me onto some HRT. And I know there's a lot of controversy out there and some people aren't huge believers in it, but I personally feel like for me, already just being three months in and onto this, I am starting to feel like me again. I'm starting to get my energy back. I had stopped going to the gym. I'm back at the gym. I feel like I am a better mum again. I'm not so snappy. I'm definitely a better wife. My poor husband Angelo has put up with a lot of moods and a lot of words and things that normally wouldn't come out of my mouth that were aimed at him. So I know now that there is hope and that there wasn't something seriously wrong with me and that I don't have to feel that way forever and that there is help out there. And there is so much more behind perimenopause than really I want to go into in this episode. But I know there's probably a lot of you out there who might not think you're old enough yet. And by just having this blood test done and filling out this questionnaire for the menopause society with my doctor has completely given me so many “Aha!” moments.
And I just felt this huge weight was lifted after this great conversation I had with my doctor. It was nearly an hour, she was on the phone, and she was unbelievable. And she just asked me all these questions, and I literally was like, “This is me. This is my brain. This is how I feel. This is my body. This is what's happening.” And it was huge. I just thought there was something wrong with me, and I just didn't know. And you know, I talked to some of my friends and you know, different symptoms and things like that. But having that conversation with my doctor was unbelievable. So I've now joined that group of women who are rubbing creams everywhere all over us, popping pills. But I must admit, I am starting to feel so, so, so much better in myself as well.
Business Struggles
And you know, also, it got me to a point where in my business, I just felt like everything was too hard. I didn't want to pick up that phone and talk to the clients, and I reverted to emails, and every day was a struggle. And I would sit here in my office and I would look at my to-do list, and I would just be so overwhelmed and so exhausted and just put on a brave face and pretend like everything was fine.
And I'd still see clients face to face, which I absolutely love doing. But even that was starting to feel like a struggle. And you know, and then the Middle East crisis hit, and for me, that created a whole lot of stress internally that I really didn't share with anybody. And I felt like, oh my gosh, this is COVID coming back again. We've just built this beautiful home. I've built this incredible business, and it's all going to fall apart. I'm going to lose it all because without my business, we can't pay the mortgage.
There was a whole lot of fears that came creeping in there and a whole lot of anxiety, which I don't normally suffer from. But there was a lot going on in my head. And this was all before I had realised that my perimenopause was so bad as well.
Hiring Claire
And the week before the Middle East crisis, I had hired another staff member. I had got to a point where the financial stress of running the business, moving house, not really knowing where we were sitting financially, with all the unexpected costs of the home coming up and all those things. But I got to a point where I physically could not work 16 hours a day anymore.
I couldn't work. I'd gone back and thought about it and you know, my beautiful mentor Kim, you know, she would always say to me, “Holly, it's not worth it.” My family was missing out. My husband was missing out, my kids. I was missing out. I couldn't do anything I wanted to do. I was just stuck working crazy, crazy hours.
I couldn’t cope anymore. I just could not cope with the workload anymore.
So I hired a new team member, Claire, and she's also in the Philippines. She is incredibly good. She came to me as a referral from one of my other team members, Bonn, and I've put her on—I'm going to spend so much time training her. I have a great onboarding system as well. Usha, my team leader, she runs the first two weeks of training. She goes through all of the programmes, how to use them all, all of our systems and all of those expectations. But she's not trained in airfares. So I had these amazing expectations that I was going to sit and train Claire with all the complex airfares that our clients love to come with us to book. And then the Middle East crisis started.
The Middle East Crisis
So Claire was left with the rest of the team. Bonn was amazing, stepped up, has taught her so much that she needs to know. Usha is there still being amazing and getting her absolutely perfected on all of our systems. And then we were also in Japan during all of this. We flew off to Japan for an incredible familiarisation trip that we went on with Cruise Traveller.
We went on the Mitsui Ocean Cruises in Japan and that was an incredible experience. I also took one of my good friends, Bec Morse, who some of you will also know. She has worked on Channel 10, she's been on the radio, she has a great podcast, and she does a lot of work with us as well. So her and her husband James came on that trip with us, and that is the first time we have travelled together. And we had an absolute blast. And we got to know each other a whole lot more and got to travel around Japan in an amazing way.
But I will have Bec on in another episode and we will go into much more detail about that great trip and also another one she has as she celebrates her year of turning 50 this year.
Team Stepping Up
So during all of that and the Middle East situation in the world, we were in Japan and I took my laptop with me and I did not open it. And this was one of the moments that I realised that I have built an incredible team. I was so grateful for my team. They all stepped up unbelievably. They were all able to talk to the clients. You know, if there was any anxiety happening, if there was any flights that needed to be changed, if we were needing to move them anywhere, then absolutely we were able to do that. They worked a lot of late nights, and I was constantly updated with messages from them of clients they'd fixed, things they'd done.
But I was also able to spend time really immersing myself in that cruise and that experience. Obviously being on a familiarisation, I'm there to have a look at it, promote it, sell it, but also have the real experiences.
So that was a really incredible and huge milestone and unbelievable feeling for me to go, “Wow. I was away for 11 days and did not open my laptop.”
So that was really, really incredible for me. And I was so grateful for my team. And when I got back, I bought them all a special gift and thank you. I celebrate my team so much. They work incredibly hard, and I wanted them to know that I was so thankful that they were able to take care of it all.
They were able to help the clients. You know, Bonn was reading up on every airline and all the rules and how we could change clients and what we could do. And for once I was like, “I don't actually need to know all of this. I don't need to know every rule, because as long as I know enough and I can help my clients and I can reassure them, I can then hand all this over.”
I'm not sitting there for hours physically looking for these new flights for clients. I'm not doing that. I can focus on what I need to, to get my business where it needs to be, but also have that time with my family and be available to the team if they need me. And that was huge. So that was a huge, huge, incredible milestone for me this year.
Industry Support
And while that situation has obviously got a little bit better, we are still living in a world where we don't know what's going to happen. We don't know if that's going to all blow up again and things will, the airports will get shut down and who knows…
But right now I'm staying incredibly positive, seeing that the “Do not travel” warnings have been reduced thanks to the amazing ATIA and all of their work that they did behind that and also CATO together to get all of that done and talking to everyone and getting it out there. I mean, I shared it on my social media, I know a lot of other people in the industry did. And really just helping it become a little bit less stressful for clients travelling through those regions. So, huge thanks to everyone in our industry who did amazing work there.
Calabria and Sicily Tour
And then, you know, just talking about something else amazing that happened. This year we took our first hosted tour—Angelo and I—to Calabria and Sicily. Now for any of you who follow me on social media, you would have absolutely seen this everywhere.
Everywhere that you could have seen this… it just was even better than we could have ever imagined. This was truly an amazing dream and something that warms my heart so much.
Italy is an incredible place for us. Angelo's family is from there. We have been there many times. The Italian heritage is big and strong in our family. We live our lives and raise our children with very strong cultures and beliefs from the Italian way of life. And to be able to take people to a place so special for me, when I first went there, I cried. Like, I just cried. And I could just see the love that Angelo has for this place, but also the warmth in the people that live there. And they embraced me like family immediately.
The minute we got there, I felt like I was part of their family. And that feeling has never gone. And every time we go back, it's the same. And to take a group there and introduce them to some of Angelo's family and show them the real side of Italy. You know, these towns, they're still living the real life. They're not full of tourists. There's not a million tourist sites. You can just wander the beaches. There's not people there. You can visit the gorgeous mountains as well. And there was just so many things. The food is incredible and that experience was just amazing.
But again, I will get Angelo on and we will chat about this in another episode. And you know, our 2027 tour is selling like hotcakes now because people are just so excited and they can see what it was all about and they want to join it. So I will talk about that and also talk about some of the struggles and what we had along the way and things that went right and things that went wrong and who we worked with and operators and all of that type of thing. Because I think it's really important to share that with you and be really open and honest about how that all works. So we will do that in another episode.
But thank you again for joining me.
These are just a few of the things that have been going on in my life that I wanted to share with you and I am back and I will, I'm not guaranteeing if I'm going to do weekly or fortnightly episodes at this point!
I think something for me right now with my life the way it is, is that I am absolutely committed to this podcast and I am committed to helping you and I want to share with you how I run my business, how things work, connections I've got in the industry. I want to connect you with amazing people in the industry.
But I'm not going to say how often it's going to be because it's time for me to do things for me as well.
It's time for me to realise that I can't do it all without putting myself first.
So I am making a huge, huge promise to myself that if I'm having a day and I'm not feeling it, I'm not going to jump on and record a podcast just because I said I'm going to. I'm going to do it when I feel amazing, when I really feel like sharing with you, and when I have something worthwhile sharing and I really feel into it.
So thank you again for joining Travel Business Unlocked. And remember, you can do this if you are running a travel business right now or any small business. Just remember there are people there cheering you along. Reach out if you have any questions at all. I would love to hear your stories, your struggles, what some of your biggest achievements for this year are. I would absolutely love to hear them. So until next time, thanks for joining us.
