From Teacher to Entrepreneur: Lessons in Building a Luxury Travel Business with Ashley Carlson

[bell dings] All right, so let's talk about the, one of the first things you do in the Travel MBA program is the branding journey.

How was...

I mean, your brand is so beautiful, so if anyone wants to check it out, it's carlson travel co, C-O, .com, and Carlson's just how it sounds, C-A-R-L-S-O-N travelco.com. And use Ashley if you wanna use her for her travel services, 'cause she's excellent at what she does.

But your, your website is just, I don't know, it's just chef's kiss, as Kristen Matthews likes to say.

[laughs]

Yes.

I worked very hard on that.

Okay.

I was a-

So let's hear about it.

Like, what was the hardest part? Did it take longer than you really thought it was gonna take? What was easier than you thought it was gonna be?

I mean, I think I definitely struggled with the do I hire it out or do I not, you know?

Yeah.

I obviously came from public education.

I didn't need a website.

And so, um, going into that, um, once I came down to it, I did hire someone to help me build it that already had the templates, um, and that was well worth the, um, investment for sure.

I-

Mm-hmm.

Yeah

... and I've gotten a lot of good feedback from my website from clients, um, or just from anyone else that goes, and I was able to translate my style and my vision to the website developer, and I think she nailed it too.

She got-

Yeah

... understood me for sure.

You hired a copywriter, and how did you come to that decision to hire a copywriter to help you with your copy, and how did you find the right one?

[laughs] That was a struggle.