When you meet Caroline Hollar, you don't immediately think "industry veteran."
She's warm, a little self-deprecating, quick to laugh. She's also the longest tenured employee at Gifted Travel Network and one of TravelPulse's 40 Under 40 for 2025. Living proof that you don't have to wait until "later" in your career to shape an entire corner of an industry.
Caroline joined GTN as a marketing associate right out of college. There were six of us on the team. We were a small idea with a big vision to build a travel host agency that could change what was possible for travel entrepreneurs.
This year, not even halfway through Q4, we crossed $200M in sales.
Caroline has been in the room for nearly every chapter of that story. She's grown from marketing associate to Director of Marketing as GTN scaled from a scrappy start-up to a nearly 30-person company supporting a network of thriving travel businesses.
Caroline isn't a travel advisor. She's the person behind the advisors. The one building the funnels, testing the Facebook ads, helping people who never thought of themselves as marketers learn how to talk about their value with confidence.
On the podcast, I asked her what she wishes advisors understood about marketing.
Her answer was simple: Stop overthinking it.
Yes, you need the basics. A real brand. A professional website. An email list. Clear messaging. But Caroline has watched too many smart people stall out while they tweak the same web page for months or agonize over the perfect Instagram caption, instead of just sending an email, making an offer, or picking up the phone.
That perfection loop is fear dressed up as productivity.
What I love about Caroline is how honest she is about her own fear. She works in luxury travel and hates flying. Or at least she did. She'd reached a point where she was dreading incredible opportunities simply because the flight felt too overwhelming.
So, she did something I think every entrepreneur will recognize. She decided to stop letting fear drive, even if she couldn't make it disappear overnight. She tried hypnotherapy. She practiced new mantras. “I am safe.” “The pilots are trained.” She kept getting on planes.
It's not perfect. She still grips the armrest when turbulence hits and requires a glass of wine to smooth out the journey. But she's not letting that fear dictate her life or her career.
That's entrepreneurship.
You know what you want, you can see the vision... then the turbulence hits. The launch that flops. The slow season. The post that gets no engagement. Suddenly the voice of fear gets loud.
Caroline's story is a reminder that we can’t wait for fear to vanish before we move. We have to manage it as best we can and take the next aligned action anyway.
In a single decade, she's helped GTN evolve into a leading host agency, brought hundreds of new advisors into the industry through our Travel MBA program, and shaped stories behind the scenes of Travel Business Unpacked. She's represented GTN at Future Leaders in Travel, standing shoulder to shoulder with other under-40 professionals building the future of this industry.
Her TravelPulse 40 Under 40 recognition is a signal that thoughtful, values-driven marketing is a leadership role, not a supporting act. You do need to keep showing up when things feel bumpy. You do need to listen to the voice of truth more than the voice of fear.
Caroline is doing exactly that. And I'm incredibly proud to call her a colleague, a collaborator, and now, officially, one of TravelPulse's 40 Under 40.
If you love hearing stories like Caroline's, tune into The Travel Business Unpacked podcast! Each episode dives deep into the real stories, practical strategies, and transformational moments that turn travel dreams into thriving careers. Listen and subscribe on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and check out Caroline's full episode here.
