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Jessica Grace Coleman 

Welcome to the Travel Transformation Podcast, where we talk all things travel and all things transformation. My guest today is Sahara Rose De Vore, a wellness travel coach and the founder of the Travel Coach Network, a global community of travel coaches. 

Sahara went from broke college student to travelling to 84 countries solo to becoming the CEO of her travel businesses. She believes that there is more to a travel career than just blogging and booking trips, which led her to creating the world's first and only ICF-accredited certification program for travel coaches. Sahara is a published author, global speaker, TEDx speaker, and has been in over 100 media outlets for her travel and business expertise, including Forbes Travel Weekly, Conde Nast, and USA Today. 

I am actually one of Sahara's students, having completed her Travel Coach Network's Travel Coach Certification Program, and I've learned so much just by being in her program and by taking part in the amazing online community she's curated. The work she's doing and how she's running her businesses motivates me to continue working on my own business, and seeing what Sahara has been able to achieve is just so inspiring. 

In this episode, we talk about solo travel, travel coaching, corporate wellness, how the travel industry is changing and what it is focusing on, and how travel can actually increase your happiness hormones, even just when you're planning it. And we talk about the importance of putting yourself out there and getting mentors to help you in your business. There is so much value in this interview, so let's get straight to it.

Hi, Sahara. Welcome to the Travel Transformation Podcast. Thank you for coming on. How are you today?

Sahara Rose De Vore

Hi. Good, I am great. Thank you so much for having me.

Jessica Grace Coleman

No problem! So, to start with, could you please give our listeners just a little bit of background about who you are and what you do and, in particular, what started your love of travel?

Sahara Rose De Vore

Yeah, absolutely. So now I'm a wellness travel coach and I'm also the founder of the Travel Coach Network. But before I started my businesses about five years ago, I was just a backpacker. I spent about ten years travelling around the globe to 84 countries solo. After graduating from university, I was on a mission to seek what kind of career path really aligned with how much I love travel and how powerful I knew travel was.

Jessica Grace Coleman

So you were solo travelling at this point.

Sahara Rose De Vore 

Yeah, I was travelling by myself. I'm an only child, so I have always been used to going on my own. And I've also been someone who never had to wait for anyone else to help dictate my life or my decisions. And so, because there wasn't really anyone who was jumping with joy to go backpack with me, I was like, that's totally fine. I'll go on my own. And I fell in love with travelling solo.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Yeah, I love that. Did you have any fears or anxiety about going on your own? Or is it – because of your upbringing – you were totally used to it, like you say, and you were fine?

Sahara Rose De Vore

Of course, the first time – so I would travel anywhere between… the shortest trips I would take, I would think was like two weeks. The longest had been six months, and I've done the six months a couple of times, but within there, I would still go for like a month and a half, two months and a half, three months to six months, usually. So on those longer trips, of course, when I touched down in the first country and I budget travelled… so I'd stay with, at the time, I was couch surfing with someone. So there was always an initial kind of culture shock or ‘what am I actually doing’ type of thought process. But soon that subsided, once I kept on going and I met new people and saw beautiful sights and stuff like that. 

Jessica Grace Coleman

Great. And I've never been couch surfing. So how was that experience? How does it work, and would you do it today, or is that something that you've done and you don't want to do that anymore?

Sahara Rose De Vore

Yeah, well, when I started travelling, I travelled before I had a flip phone, and this is before social media really amplified the travel industry and connections. There was a website called Couchsurfing.com, and I met a couple of people through that. But I remember it being very hard to find service because, again, this was before WiFi was everywhere, and I didn't have a phone that I could access connection to, and I'd have to borrow someone's phone or get to a computer and kind of be, ‘where are we meeting again’? So it was kind of hard to navigate. And I don't know, I had some good experiences with that. I met some really cool people, but then I've also met some odd people, and I didn't do it that often because, again, it was kind of stressful to be able to do that. 

Now there are so many apps and so many different types of opportunities to connect with people. So I don't actually know if people do couch surfing still. I'm kind of past my backpacking days now, but I'm sure that there are different ways. I also stay just with friends. If I posted on Facebook that I was going to a certain region, they'd be like, oh, my family lives there, my friend lives there. Here. Do you want me to connect them? So that was a great way too. So at least it was someone semi-familiar that I would stay with. So I would stay with people like that as well.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Yeah. I have not tried couch surfing, and I probably wouldn't now that I'm in my 30s, but I think back in the day, if you're trying to save money and meet new people, it's really great. And I love that about travelling as well, when if you're travelling for that long a time, you meet people who will say, oh, hey, come and stay with me, or I've got friends there, you can stay with them. And it's all about the connections you make and all about the people you know, as with anything in life, I think.

So, you mentioned the Travel Coach Network, which I am a member of, and I have been through the Travel Coach Certification Program. So can you explain what this is to people, especially to people who don't know what travel coaching might be, and why did you decide to start this element of your business?

Sahara Rose De Vore

Yeah, so when I was travelling over those ten years… I graduated with a degree in hospitality and tourism management in 2010, and I could have easily worked for any job out there. I was living in Chicago at the time, so it's a huge tourism-based, hospitality-based city. But no jobs that I had learned about in school or that I’d heard about were appealing to me. At 22 years old, I wanted to be able to travel more than I would have been able to do through a job. So that's why I started backpacking. 

But within that ten years, I was still searching to figure out what do I want to do with this love of travel? I became a pro at solo female budget travelling, and I travelled so many places, and I kept getting people coming to me, asking about how I did it and how do I afford it. And I love the empowerment side of it. I loved helping them understand that travel doesn't have to cost so much money, and it doesn't have to be something that you wish you could do one day; you could incorporate into your life. But there was not a job or anything that I heard about that enabled me to do that. 

I actually don't enjoy planning and booking trips for people. I had done that for friends and family and, of course, my own trips. But I've always struggled with an anxiety disorder, so being responsible for someone's itinerary… I never wanted to be a travel agent. And so all these jobs that I had heard about over the years, as the social media grew, as the technology grew, there were more jobs like travel influencers or making money online and travelling as a digital nomad or being a flight attendant or a travel writer or a blogger or, of course, a travel agent. I was like, none of those interest me. 

And then, when I gave myself time, I said, when I'm 30, I'll quote unquote figure out my life. I'll sit down and open a laptop and see if, by then, I had come across anything. And 30 came around and I didn't. And so I said, well, if I can't find what I'm looking for, I'm going to have to create it myself. Let me see what's out there. Because I knew that in my lifestyle, I didn't want to work for just a job, just to make money, but yet I couldn't travel when I wanted to or have the freedom with my time that I wanted to that I had already created for myself. Why would I want to go back to the workplace like that? 

So I came across the coaching industry online and how much it was growing, which was very foreign to me because I never had a business coach before, I never had a life coach before, but I saw how lucrative and also how quickly it was growing. So I put two and two together and I was like, I want to be a travel coach. That's it. So in my journey, I wanted to focus on the wellness side of travel, as in my journey of becoming a wellness travel coach and creating my business and figuring out what that looked like, I also wanted to create a platform where other travellers and travel experts could learn about becoming a travel coach, too, and figure out how they can build a business that was specific to their interests and their ideas and their knowledge and expertise in travel. 

Because every traveller knows and loves something so different from the next person. And I didn't want a career that solely focused on the planning and booking of a trip like the jobs already did. And that was the catalyst for starting the Travel Coach Network. And what it has blossomed into is, of course, the Certification Program that's now accredited through ICF. And, honestly, I didn't know where it was going to go. I was just creating something that I wish I had from the beginning. I wish I had come across the Travel Coach Certification Program when I was just a backpacker travelling the globe, and that I would have found someone like myself who is a mentor and helps with the business side of things. But I didn't have that, so I wanted to create that. And it has kind of just grown into what it is today and the global community that it is.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Great! And if people want to find out more about that, is that thetravelcoachnetwork.com? 

Sahara Rose De Vore

Yes, my newly launched platform, thetravelcoachnetwork.com, and then you can find out about the certification through there as well. And I guess I haven't explained to you what a travel coach is. I just kind of explained the journey, but travel coaching, like I said, it doesn't focus on the planning and the booking of a trip. Instead, it focuses more on helping people set intentions for their trips. Travel coaching believes in the idea that when someone can pull from within of why they want to travel, what are they actually looking to get out of a trip, then you can come up with better decisions on where to go, what to do, who to go with. Maybe it means you need to go alone. What kind of destination are you looking for? 

And really using travel as a tool to help us improve, whether it's our well-being, our relationships, our work productivity… and this is all based on research. There's so much research out there that talks about the benefits that travel has on our overall well-being and our human connection and all that fun stuff. So travel coaching really emphasises those elements of travel, and that's why we've seen a lot of travel agents and travel advisors come into the network as well, because they're combining travel coaching with what they already love to do, which is planning and booking trips.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Yeah! And we just touched on that a little bit with what you said, and this is a huge topic, but why do you think travel can be so transformative and how has it transformed you personally? Obviously, it's transformed your career and what you do with your life, but anything else that you want to add?

Sahara Rose De Vore

Yeah, absolutely. Well, travel transformed me as a human being. I always say two things. One, travel is my greatest professor, and two, that I honestly don't know who I would be today if it wasn't for travel. I have no idea what kind of person I would be or what kind of life I would have. 

Business aside, travel has just defined my life in so many good ways. And like I said, when I graduated university, I was not only struggling with lots of depression and anxiety, but I felt completely lost. I had no clue who I wanted to be, what kind of life I wanted to have, what mattered to me, what my purpose was. I was never someone who knew what my career path was going to be from high school, and I have a lot of friends like that. They knew they wanted to be doctors or teachers or nurses, and that just wasn't me.

So did I know that travel was going to help me find these answers? I didn't know, but I had a feeling that, some time, it would. And so it really just transformed me into realising what kind of human being I want to be by making us more compassionate and empathetic and understanding and accepting of all the differences among one another and places in this world and humanity and animals and wildlife and everything too. So it has really just transformed my perspective on life and what really matters and what doesn't. And then, of course, it transformed my career path as well. And then getting to learn from all of those in the Travel Coach Network on how travel’s transformed everyone else and everyone who's come on your podcast… travel really is such a powerful tool and so personal for everyone.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Yeah. And you mentioned feeling lost after university and that's what I felt before I started properly traveling again – and I think a lot of people can relate to that, especially after the pandemic, after the lockdowns, people are questioning what they're doing with their life and their careers and everything. So I think it's the perfect time, if people haven't started thinking about this kind of thing, to start thinking about it now that the world's opened up again. Definitely. So as well as the Travel Coach Network, you also do wellness travel coaching and consulting and, in particular, corporate wellness, is that right?

Sahara Rose De Vore

That's one of my angles, yeah. When I started as a wellness travel coach, where I was inspired for that was because, remember, I never took the corporate route in life; I ran away from it. I was like, I know that's not going to be for me. I know way too many people who are getting burned out and just settling for a career path, and so I was not familiar with it. But throughout my journey travelling, I had met a lot of travellers and also read in a lot of Facebook groups people who quote unquote quit the nine to five to travel or quit the corporate job to travel. I'm sure everyone has either known someone or seen that kind of tagline. Right? 

And I thought to myself, well, that must be a problem for companies, they need to keep their valuable talent. Yet people are leaving, so what are they doing in regards to travel? If travel is what people are turning to you for, what are they offering? And so I started researching for a couple of years and diving really deep into corporate wellness and I learned about the burnout epidemic that was happening and the lack of vacation that was being used, especially in the states, and just really a lack of embracing travel. And then that also led me to the burnout epidemic that was happening among business travellers. So I decided to focus on those two areas. 

First, in business travel well-being and corporate wellness, really what I do is educate and empower companies to embrace these different elements of travel. Meaning the cultural differences, of course, encouraging vacation days when it comes to business travel, incorporating these different aspects of travel… research shows it can be really beneficial for you, such as spending time in nature, connecting with the locals, spending time giving back, even like the smallest little thing, can really make a big difference on someone's well-being. Because as we know, for business, their goal is to be there for business and people will come in and out, but we're seeing more of this concept of ‘bleisure’ being integrated and extended stays and stuff too. 

So I essentially just took all this research that I found over the years and put structure to it. And now I speak with different companies and go to different events, and we're seeing some of that really starting to take effect in not only the bleisure aspect, but we're hearing more about sabbaticals. We're hearing more about staycations and companies creating outdoor types of workplaces or meeting spaces as well. And then, of course, there's the whole remote work industry and how they're adding to the overall experience for remote workers too.

Jessica Grace Coleman

I love that, because I had a couple of office jobs before I became a self-employed. And I don't know if it's a UK/US thing or if it's just because it was quite a while ago now, but we didn't have anything like corporate wellness, nothing remotely in that area. And I think that's such an interesting thing to go into and a great thing to help companies with. Yeah, I remember one woman in our office had a career break to go travelling for a few months and it was just like the strangest thing. No one had ever heard of it. It wasn't a thing. And yeah, especially now with remote working and everything, it's so important to encourage the employees to use travel and use their travel days like their annual leave, like you say, to actually help themselves. I found that really interesting because I didn't hate my office job, but it wasn't the most fulfilling thing, but I think if I had something like that incorporated in the job, it would have helped a lot.

Sahara Rose De Vore

Yeah. Some of the research that I was finding when it came to the vacation days, especially in the States… everywhere offers vacation, the States just happened to only offer two weeks. But where the problem was lying was centred around the company culture around it. So in many surveys, they found that employees were saying they didn't feel like their managers wanted them to take their vacations or they were not encouraged to talk about their vacations or they weren't allotted enough time in advance to plan a vacation, and also, not everyone's a travel expert. I mean we are, but we know how to book a trip on our own budget and what resources to use and stuff to do. But not everyone is an avid traveller, so therefore they're still going to think it's going to cost so much money to go on a vacation. Now they have to work overtime when they get back or they have to work while they travel, so why even go anywhere? Or they felt like they had too heavy of a workload to be able to hand it off or to put it to the side for a vacation. And so it was an accumulation of all of these problems. 

But those are really simple fixes if you just offer the proper guidance and support and policies for your employees. But now we are seeing this as a problem, which I knew was going to come, because when the pandemic happened, everyone just worked from home. A lot of people got laid off or they quit their job and they're not going back to this quote unquote great resignation that's happening, especially in the States. Well, it's a no-brainer. Of course people are not going to want to go back to the job that didn't value them in the first place and made them feel like crap, right? 

What the pandemic allowed us was time to re-evaluate our self-care, our time, our energy, our happiness, our mental health, our time with our families. And that's where we're seeing a lot of people either start businesses online, work for a different company, or just not work at all because nowadays we can make money online more than ever before. So companies are starting to wake up a little bit. 

So that's why we're starting to see different types of things being offered. Like bleisure, like for remote workers, they are having team meetings in different destinations so they can re-spark company culture. Corporate wellness is through the roof, so they're starting to wake up a little bit, but still, the dollar signs are hanging over their heads that they don't want to push the side yet. So we'll see.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Yeah, you mentioned re-evaluating during the pandemic. Did you do any re-evaluating or did you have to change anything in your business or did it give you time to come up with… when did you start the Travel Coach Network? Was that before the pandemic?

Sahara Rose De Vore

Yeah, I started the Travel Coach Network in 2018 and 19. So it was quite a few years or a couple of years before the pandemic. The pandemic actually amplified both of my businesses in so many great ways, which is very rare because I have travel-related businesses and everyone thinks that a lot of travel businesses struggled, or most of them did, but because I built business structures that are very different – and I don't know if it's pandemic-proof or something, but what I mean by that is the Travel Coach Network is an educational platform. So they had time to self-educate. So many people joined, people took courses, watched webinars. 

I know for myself, I've been to so many different webinars that were online. A lot of events that were usually paid for were now free that you could join and connect with experts and stuff. And then for my wellness travel coaching: sustainability, diversity, inclusivity. Those are three hot topics that have been catapulted to the forefront in the tourism/hospitality industries. I just happen to focus on wellness. 

So because I have a unique approach with my wellness and I don't fit in with the rhetoric of what everyone else does when it comes to wellness travel, I have a more holistic approach and I don't talk about gym spas, yoga retreats, and wellness centres like everyone else. That drew a lot of attention to me, too. So I blinked and I had worked through the entire pandemic and it did really well for my business. But I find that, despite all the bad things that happened during the pandemic, especially to the hospitality and tourism industry, so much good came out of it. And this is an opportunity for travel professionals, travel businesses, and travel brands to reshape and redefine their businesses moving forward because there's a lot more depth, personalisation, and humanity added back to the industry, and that's what we're seeing.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Yeah, there are so many more people now wanting to travel more again, and for the first time as well, and for all different kinds of reasons, I think, since the pandemic. So definitely. 

Okay, you recently gave a TEDx talk titled ‘How Embracing Travel Can Help Build United Communities’, which I loved. First of all, congratulations, that's a really great achievement. And secondly, I wanted to know, how did you choose this particular topic? Out of all the hundreds of topics I imagine you could have done a talk on, why is that subject so important to you?

Sahara Rose De Vore

Yeah, well, it kind of came a little easy just because the location had a theme. So the location that I gave it or that I applied to had a theme of community, and community could be seen in so many different ways. So I took what travel and community meant to me and tailored it towards that. But I also incorporated community in the workplace on how travel can enhance not only community outside of the workplace, but also within the workplace, too, because I know that company culture and team building is something that many companies are focusing on right now. So I wanted to get the message of embracing travel in there too and travel beyond just giving a vacation day or offering remote work. 

What my talk really was about were things like human connection and experiences and understanding. The more we can travel, the more we can understand our differences among one another and accept our differences. And that then itself can make, whether it's a community in your local community or your community workplace, a lot happier and healthier and more united of a place. Because we are just embracing that we're all different. And I think people struggle with that because… it's not that if you don't travel, you don't get that, but I always say if everyone were able to travel, the world would be a lot better of a place, a lot nicer of a place, because think about the times that you've gone somewhere and you're now in someone else's home town or country. You're in their place of culture and tradition and religion and belief systems and lifestyles. You're now in their comfort zone and you're out of your comfort zone and all you now want is to feel accepted, protected, safe, welcomed. 

And so now, flipping the script. When people come, especially to the States, we can be very close-minded sometimes and we judge people based off of their looks or where they're from or stuff we hear on the news or what word of mouth says. And I think that's so wrong because we're all human beings just living in this world and if we really just opened our minds to our differences, we would enrich our lives as well too.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Totally agree and I think it's the same with the UK as well, what you've just said, and I think sadly a lot of that – not to mention the B word – but led to Brexit as well. So I totally agree. If more people were able to travel and meet new people and experience new cultures, they would have a much better perspective and yeah, I think the world would be a better place too. Definitely. 

So in your talk, you also mentioned how travel has been medically proven to increase our happiness hormones, especially when it comes to having new experiences and even in terms of the anticipation of having those new experiences, which I can definitely relate to. Can you tell us a little bit more about this and why you find it so fascinating?

Sahara Rose De Vore

Yeah, part of my talk was talking about how travel can increase our happiness, and we can give an opinion anecdotally, but also there was a study that I find really interesting that said every time we anticipate a really exciting event or something that we really look forward to, it increases dopamine and serotonin and keeps these flowing within us. So that travel planning phase of a trip is just as important. So that's something for people to think about. 

Like, if you think about when you get to plan a trip, just deciding on what destination to go and writing your packing list and talking about it with your friends and family, and even if it's a year from now and you're picturing yourself there, all of this is part of the travel process as well. And we often overlook how beneficial the travel planning process is. And that's one thing that I never really agreed much upon within the travel agent industry was how much control was taken away from the traveller when it came to planning. And studies like this show that being involved in your travel planning process, to some degree, can really extend your trip and really help you with that overall experience that you're looking for, because let's face it, we travel to feel something different. We travel to feel happy again. We travel to be elated. We travel because we want something to look forward to. All of these emotions are there. So being involved in your trip and all these different aspects of it.

And it doesn't mean that travel agents can't plan trips. But get your clients involved, get the travellers involved – and beyond just telling them, do they prefer nightlife or what kind of cuisine do they like or what kind of mode of transportation do they prefer, that's very surface level. Those are just answering questions. Get them really to embrace and embody and envision themselves on this journey far before and give them tasks, let them explore certain things so they are part of the planning process. Because, like I said, science shows it can really boost those happiness hormones for you. And, therefore, that's just one more piece of the puzzle of when we're happier overall, we treat others better and we treat ourselves better. And I think the world needs a lot more happiness after the past couple of years.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Yeah, definitely. And I can definitely relate with that. I really love the whole planning process. I love creating massive itineraries. I go a bit overboard. So yeah, if I think someone else was to do every single aspect of that for me, I would feel like it was being stolen from me. I need that part of the trip to look forward to it as well. So, yeah, definitely. 

In your Ted talk, you also mentioned that the first place you went when you were traveling, you took a one-way ticket to Ireland, is that right?

Sahara Rose De Vore

Yes.

Jessica Grace Coleman

I was just intrigued because I love Ireland. Why did you choose to go to Ireland first and how was your trip when you got there?

Sahara Rose De Vore

I chose Ireland for a couple of different reasons. I was going to Western Europe first and I was obviously trying to find the best price that I could. And I found that Dublin, Amsterdam, London… those are some of the cheaper ones. And so I figured, well, Ireland is an island further out, so I'll just go there and then work my way to the mainland. So I thought about the route as well. But then also my mom, her friend at the time had a friend that was living in Ireland, a family, so I felt like that would be a nice kind of way to ease my way into travelling by myself for the very first time going abroad. So I stayed with them for just like a week or something and then took a ferry over to France and then continued my journey solo the remainder of the time and then worked my way back and then worked my way over to England before flying home at the end. 

And I still remember the very first time I got off the plane on that trip, and I was in Ireland ≠ because I hadn't really travelled to anywhere outside of the country before then. And I was like, I cannot believe I'm doing this. I cannot believe that I am travelling. I'm backpacking Europe by myself… because I always heard about people doing this. When I was in high school, I remember always just hearing about it. I had no idea what it actually was about, and I was just so excited. And who knew that that time getting off the plane in Ireland would be the catalyst to what my life and businesses and everything in my journey looks like today?

Jessica Grace Coleman

Wow, that's amazing. Do you have a favourite place of that first trip you went on, a favourite country or a favourite city you visited?

Sahara Rose De Vore 

Yeah, well, within that first trip, a place that I really loved was Lake Ohrid in Macedonia. I was posting that I was going in that region, and a friend from high school was in the Peace Corps there, and she messaged me, and I didn't plan what countries – I literally printed out on a piece of paper that part of Western Europe, and I was just winging it throughout the days, like, where do I want to go next? Where do I want to go? So I didn't plan it out, so I wasn't really thinking about going to Macedonia. And so she was like, it's a really beautiful place, you should go. And I was like, okay, that's cool. So I made my way there and fell in love with this tiny little town, and it was so quaint, and it was just beautiful, and I was going to stay for just a couple of days, and I stayed for a little over a week, and it made a big imprint on me. I just remember how beautiful it was.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Wow, that sounds so nice. I've not been there, so I'll have to add that to my list. So I talk a lot about comfort zones and the benefits of stepping outside them, and you mentioned it earlier as well, so I'm just interested for me, really – do you feel totally comfortable in the work you do, considering how much you have to put yourself out there online, doing speaking engagements, being in the media, going on podcasts. Do you ever get nervous or concerned about putting yourself out there? Was it something you had to get used to? Or do you take it all in your stride? How do you approach it?

Sahara Rose De Vore

Yeah, I do get nervous for speaking events. So of course I was nervous for my Ted Talk and I am nervous when I go on stage at big events and speak. And then I do get nervous when I do hold bigger live events online too. But I am not nervous to put myself out there. I knew at a very early stage in my Wellness Travel Coaching and the Travel Coach Network that I needed visibility in my business. So I'm a big believer in the power of publicity and putting yourself out there. I knew that I had two unique messages for the Travel Coach Network and for my Wellness Travel Coaching that needed more of a push than what I could do on my own on just the channels I had at the time, my social media channels, and so I love media publicity. 

I love opportunities where I could share my story and provide value and inspiration to audiences. And it's a really beneficial and free way for people to grow their business and get their message out there. And that's why I incorporate it so much into the Travel Coach Certification Program, just because it's so beneficial for your business. And it also gives you experience and practice to clarify your messaging and to show up. And whether you show up to an audience that's someone else's audience or you show up online to your own audience, visibility is really important for your business. Do I love showing up on social media? No, I am not a social media person. But just like when I was travelling and I was a different persona as a solo female backpacker and I had different responsibilities and different things, I had to be mindful of the same thing in business. I'm a different persona in my business than what I am in my daily life too. I'm not a social media type of person, but in my business I have to; it's where I can add value and help people the most.

Jessica Grace Coleman

So if there was someone out there listening now who has not heard of travel coaching before and they've heard this podcast and they're really interested in it, but they don't feel confident enough to do everything they need to do to become a travel coach, what advice would you give them? And you just mentioned the persona thing, which I think is really good. I talk about alter egos as well and sort of stepping into your alter ego when you need to get stuff done. Is there any other advice you would give them on how to get over their fears of putting themselves out there?

Sahara Rose De Vore

Yeah, it takes time and practice. And I find that mentorship is really helpful and community is really helpful. And that's why I've incorporated those as well in the Travel Coach Network and Certification Program. I know for me, working with mentors and advisors over the years – whether they were paid or connections I've made by putting myself out there at events or whatever it might be – has added so much value and expedited my businesses. And so any time that I'm able to work with people… so we have our group live coaching sessions in the certification program. And that's always an opportunity for people to ask me anything and get direct help, because it's nice to have that help from someone who either has been there or who has overcome it or who has faced the same thing or who has different insight or ideas or whatever it might be. 

But then also the community aspect, when you can find people who are feeling a similar way to you or you're on a similar journey or you have shared values, which people in the TCN have, whether you are accountability partners or you become friends like I've seen many people do in the network. I think that's really important as well, to surround yourself with people who support you, who get you, who understand you, who accept you. Because I know in business, it could be a really lonely world running your business, especially if you run it online, especially if you are running it by yourself. It can be a very lonely place where you feel like no one gets what you're doing, no one gets how hard you're working or what your vision is. Not everyone has friends and family in their personal lives that are that big of support systems. I can tell you now, my mom and my fiance still can't define what I do, which is totally fine; they don't have to. They just love and support me any way they can. But it's nice to have people who can add value by supporting you as well.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Yeah, so true. And yeah, I just wanted to thank you for creating the Travel Coach Network in the first place and the Certification Program because I've learned so much from the trainings, but I've also learned so much from all the other people in the community, like you said, in the Facebook groups that we have and everything like that. And I've had people from your groups come onto my podcast and I've met up with one of them from the States in Manchester. And you're so right, like community connection, networking, it just elevates your business so much and your life as well. Like you say, you don't feel as lonely and you have people to talk about your ideas with and all that kind of thing. Thank you for that.

Sahara Rose De Vore

Thank you for being with us!

Jessica Grace Coleman

Thank you. And we did kind of talk about this before, but you mentioned how mentoring is really important to you. So have you had many mentors in your business? And how has that helped you?

Sahara Rose De Vore

Yeah, I sought mentorship right away in my business. My very first mentor was David Meltzer. He's with Sports One Marketing, the CEO of Sports One Marketing, but he's also the founder of Elevator Pitch, which is kind of like Shark Tank, but it's on entrepreneur.com and he does a lot of different things. And despite him not being in the travel or hospitality space, I came across his content on Instagram when I was still just backpacking, just starting my business with an idea, and I sought him out to see if he offered mentorship. And again, this is something where putting yourself out there is really important. Asking for help and asking for guidance, even. He has a big following and has a very busy schedule. And I could have easily just not reached out to him, being like, yeah, he's not going to want to talk to someone like me, but he has programs and I didn't know that he did. He offered private mentorship and I didn't know that he did. And he's still a mentor of mine to this day. And that's been like four years now, four and a half years now. And his values resonated with me, and his messaging resonated with me, his resiliency resonated with me. 

But over the years, I would find mentors through a variety of things, whether they're online, or webinars I would watch and I would really admire someone. I would connect with them on LinkedIn or I'd send them an email. I would meet people at events, I would join groups as well that would bring in mentors, which is why in the Travel Coach Network Business Class Membership Club, which you have a year in as well, I'm bringing in mentors next year, scattered out throughout the year. Some of my favourite connections I've made in travel, wellness, hospitality, business, media and publicity and more, because it's just so valuable. You can just learn so much from people and you'd be really surprised who's willing to give you time and energy, and if not, then they can tell you maybe someone they know who has time or whatever it might be. 

So I haven't paid for all my mentors over the years because I've just reached out sometimes and said, I really admire what you're doing with X, Y and Z, do you mind answering a few questions for me? If I know someone is extremely busy or they do have some sort of offer, I'm like, do you have an advising program? Whatever it might be? And so I've worked with people in so many different ways, but I know a question that I get often is like, how do you know what kind of mentor you need? I would feel it out over time and ask myself, what am I struggling with most? What is resonating with me most? And what am I really feeling stuck with? 

One of the last mentors or advisors that I hired, I saw her on actually David Melter's podcast, or some group chat thing he was doing online popped up on my feed, and I’d never heard of her, but her whole messaging is to think bigger, to think bigger, go bigger, and that's always my mindset. I'm creating something big, I'm doing something bigger and I want to do it even bigger. And I aligned with that. And so I reached out to her and said that I saw you on this podcast, do you offer advising? She's like, yeah, absolutely. So she was my advisor for a month and really helped me. And then you can make connections through those connections too. So it all starts with putting yourself out there at least once and seeing where it goes.

Jessica Grace Coleman

That's such good advice because so many people, they just assume that people will say no or that they won't reply, so they don't even bother trying, or they think they might be bugging them or that kind of thing.

Sahara Rose De Vore

Yeah. Which I don't think it's fair at all to yourself if you feel like you're bugging someone, if you think you're not valuable enough for someone to respond to or to want to help. And even just the mindset of that, you need to flip that script in your head because even if they do say no, or you do hear crickets and they don't say anything, that's okay. You move on to the next person. That's okay, at least you tried. And I think, in business and in life, it's better to try something than to have regrets or to just not do it. Because if you carry that habit over in one aspect, you're going to carry it over in other aspects.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Yeah. And I think even if you do get a load of no's, like the more you do it, the more easy it will become and the less of a big deal it will seem in your head. And yeah, I like to think of it as collecting no's until you get to the yes. Sometimes it's just something you have to do and not everyone is going to say yes, then that's fine. Like you say, it's definitely a mindset thing.

Sahara Rose De Vore

You're going to get so many no's from clients, from opportunities. So it's like, so what? You're just not going to try? Well then, you shouldn't have an online business or you shouldn't have a business if you don't want to have no's and hear no's in any aspect; you're going to be hearing no's from people, clients… So I'd rather hear a million no's because it's going to get you to that yes a lot faster than have you just kind of stall and wait and then you're too afraid. 

Jessica Grace Coleman

And for people who have never tried it at all, I think sometimes just sending one message or one email can get you over that hurdle, over that mind block, and it's so much easier to go from there. So just get that first email sent. 

So, before we go, is there anything else you want to mention or talk about? I believe you've got a freebie that people can get online if they're interested in travel coaching.

Sahara Rose De Vore

Yes. There's the free Beginner's Guide to Travel Coaching link and you can find us on Instagram and Facebook @thetravelcoachnetwork. Or you can visit us at thetravelcoachnetwork.com. We have our newly launched membership, as well as, of course, the Travel Coach Certification Program.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Great, and I will put all those links in the show notes as well. Okay, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. I had a great talk, and I really appreciate you taking the time to come and talk to me all the way from the States.

Sahara Rose De Vore

Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me, and thank you for being in the TCN.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Thank you! 

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