Every advisor knows the holidays bring a strange kind of contradiction. On paper, work slows down. Fewer client calls, fewer urgent requests, fewer moving pieces to keep an eye on. In theory, this is the moment when you finally gain that extra breathing room — the time you swore you’d use to catch up, organize, or think strategically.

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.

Today is the final day of our 7-Figure Travel Business Summit, a 3-day virtual event designed to help travel entrepreneurs who are various stages, from getting started to elevating their existing businesses.

One of the best things about Canva is that it's always evolving—constantly adding new features and tweaking the platform to improve the user experience. One of the worst things? Same answer.

As a travel advisor, one of your primary responsibilities is being an expert in your clients. Sometimes they may have a life that looks very different from yours, and it's your job to understand how their needs may vary from yours or your other clients.

After nearly twenty years running a successful doll-making supply company, Cathy Rowland was burned out. She was not failing, she was fully succeeding... and exhausted. So she did what any rational person would do: She Googled "how to become a travel advisor" and started over from scratch. No clients. No industry connections. Just an entrepreneurial track record and the willingness to figure it out.

At a recent Accelerate Coaching Call, a member raised a familiar challenge:

“I have quotes out with clients I know are going to book, but they’re dragging their feet. How do I get them to move forward?”

She’s not alone.

Mooresville, NC (October 14, 2025) – Gifted Travel Network (GTN) proudly announces its latest achievement, winning a Travel Weekly Gold Magellan Award. This new accolade brings GTN's total to an impressive 11 Magellan Awards.  With hundreds of entries from across the U.S. and around the world, the Magellan Award winners represent the best in the travel industry and salute the outstanding travel professionals behind it all.

The numbers tell a story most travel advisors are missing.

According to Skift Research, 78% of households earning $500,000 or more consider travel extremely important to their lives. Not just important. Extremely. Compare that to 60% of households in the $200K-$299K range, and you start to see a pattern emerging.

I recently had the privilege of representing Gifted Travel Network at the Future Leaders in Travel event in Anchorage, Alaska. Thank you to Northstar and TravelAge West for hosting such a one-of-a-kind event and to Visit Anchorage for giving us the perfect setting to experience it all.

Last week, the Gifted Travel Network (GTN) community gathered at the Conrad Orlando for the 2025 GTN Conference, a four day event that perfectly captured what we believe makes luxury travel professionals thrive: genuine connection, shared expertise, and collaborative growth.

Leadership doesn’t happen in isolation. It takes practice, perspective, and a community of like-minded professionals that both supports and challenges you to grow. That’s exactly what Megan Nielsen, GTN's Operations Manager, found at the 2025 Young Leaders in Travel Council presented by the Travel A.L.L.I.E.S. Society.

This is one of my favorite weeks of the whole year – I am currently in Orlando with over 200 incredible travel professionals for Gifted Travel Network’s 2025 Conference! The timing felt perfect for me to share Brittani Robertson’s success story from our conversation on The Travel Business Unpacked podcast, as she was one of the five advisor panelists who took the stage this past Monday.

This time next week, we will have just wrapped up our 2025 Gifted Travel Network Conference at the Conrad Orlando, and I will (hopefully) already be elbow deep in a bag of cotton candy while waiting in line for Space Mountain after Professional Lybbi clocks out and Leisure Lybbi spends a few days at Walt Disney World.

I’ve spent many years talking about the “accidental hobbyist” trap that many travel advisors fall into, but when Stephanie Goldberg-Glazer of Live Well, Travel Often joined me on The Travel Business Unpacked podcast, she summed it up perfectly with that one statement.  

Many years ago, on the first day of school, my science teacher gave us this homework assignment: Write down the instructions to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

If you haven’t ever heard of this exercise, take a moment to think about what you would write down. Go ahead, I’ll wait…

This week, five GTN team members and around 50 of our advisors are in Las Vegas attending Virtuoso Travel Week. This is one of the top events in the luxury travel space, bringing together top luxury travel professionals from around the world.

Instagram and other social media platforms show us the glossy side of business: a client’s dream trip, a perfectly branded logo, a glimpse of “success.” But what doesn’t often make it to the feed? The behind-the-scenes work that makes that success sustainable. At Gifted Travel Network, we believe the strongest businesses are built from the inside out. That’s why professional development isn’t just a bonus: It’s our foundation.

Imagine spending your career making split-second decisions with millions on the line. While Stuart Marra’s twenty years in the high-stakes world of equity derivatives and risk arbitrage gave him financial success, he felt the absence of what was missing from his life. Things like freedom, creativity, and a sense of purpose that went beyond profit margins.

Life's been a whirlwind ever since we welcomed our little guy, Rowan, this past New Year's Day! I've always been someone who loves to travel, and honestly, I wasn't about to let having a baby change that. So far, we've done a few flights and road trips as a family of three, and I'm here to tell you that it's totally doable.