LH World Travel-The Adventure begins!
It all began with a passion. A determination to follow my dreams, do what I love, which is travel and share my experiences so that it encourages others to see the world, but not through the typical vacation. No, I wanted people to see the world through my eyes, the eyes of a red-headed, middle child, LEO.
After deciding to retire from my career in education (which I had been blessed to have served as a public school teacher, administrator/leader, college professor of education, curriculum writer, early education Grant Manager in the Department of Pediatrics, early education professional development trainer, private school Early Learning Coordinator, and early education ed-tech School Relations Director), I wanted to take my passion for learning, for teaching and most importantly for TRAVEL and share it with others.
I have always loved traveling and have visited over 45 different countries (this doesn’t count the countries have have visited multiple times, no this is 45+ different countries around the world. So my quest began to start my next journey…my next adventure… Being a business owner and Travel Designer.
I knew I didn’t want to be in sales. I didn’t want to be cold calling, begging people to let me plan their vacations. I wanted to share my travels, my experiences, my traveling challenges, the places I loved, the places I would not visit again, the food I tried, the sites I saw and people who I crossed paths with. My goal was to encourage people to not only go on adventures but learn and appreciate how fantastic the world is! By sharing my amazing adventures and my travel mistakes I could help connect others to what’s missing now more than ever (in my opinion)… people valuing humankind, the cultures and differences which makes our world so unique.
As I began to develop my business plan and reflect on my passion and this new chapter in my life, I kept thinking and going back to a childhood experience…My mom loved the stars and whenever there was a meteor shower or a satellite going over the night sky, we would lay on the driveway and look up at the stars. I remember these moments fondly and loved that I would have my friends join us. I also remembered learning at an early age that ancient travelers would use the sun and the stars to navigate and explore the world, so what better way for me to represent my business then a symbol of my past experiences… a constellation. Then came the challenge of deciding which one best represented me? As I mentioned in previous posts, I am a red-headed, middle child, LEO. Therefor the logo for LH World Travel is the constellation Leo. While I wanted the name of the business to represent me, I didn’t want it to be my name or something that was a generic travel brand or theme. No a name needs to represent you and encompass not only what you will do now but that can grow with you… So what better way to brand my business than with a name that represents some of my strongest characteristics? Red-headed, Middle Child, LEO!
The LH stands for the Lion's Heart. The Leo constellation was the perfect image to represent my passion for travel and my take charge attitude. Leo is one of the most prominent constellations in the night sky and is visible from almost anywhere on Earth, except for Antarctica. It's also one of the 12 constellations that make up the zodiac. Leo appears in the early evening and is visible for most of the night. The heart of my business is my love of travel and for people. I put my heart and sole into everything I do…I don’t do anything half way, so the LH in my business name are not just letters, they are a representation of me!
I loved learning, so I was taking on a new learning challenge to learn how not only run a successful business, but how to plan and design travel. Even though I had always planned my own travel, now to do it for others, meant getting certifications, taking courses, learning about travel partners/vendors, learning the laws, and learning how to get my business plan out to the world and have people trust me to make their plans instead of booking themselves like I had always done. Lets be honest with the internet, its not that hard to login to any given website and book a hotel, rent a car, plan a crise etc. But what I have learned is there are so many benefits to having a certified person do it for you. After many, many, many hours of learning, attending trainings and taking courses, I am honored to say I have multiple tourism certifications and partnerships with many independent travel provider companies and Tourism Bureaus. I have learned so much about the travel industry in such a short time and I am loving that I am continuing to follow my passion of learning while traveling.
