Meet Our Amplification Allies
As Soul of Travel enters its fifth season, we are aligning ourselves with organizations that share in our mission to amplify the voices of women in travel and create communities for travelers and business owners to learn about the ways we can make travel more impactful for travelers and host communities.
We have created these special relationships with our Amplification Allies to broaden our community and expand the reach of these soulful conversations. We form these partnerships with women working to change tourism, create opportunities, educate leaders, and bring even more women together in the industry.
I am deeply connected to each community, and cannot wait for you to get to know them as well.
Meet The Soul of Travel Amplification Allies
Our current Amplification Allies are wmnsWORK, Women Travel Leaders, and The Travel Coach Network. I am a graduate of the first cohort of the wmnsWORK Accelerator, a member of Women Travel Leaders, and I am currently completing the coaching training with The Travel Coach Network.
I have interviewed each of these organizations’ founders as guests on the podcast, and I’d love for you to listen and learn more about the work they are doing now and the journey that led them to create these unique communities.
Meet wmnsWORK with Founder Iris Serbanescu
wmnsWORK is an award-winning 12-week virtual, global accelerator program for early-stage women and non-binary tourism entrepreneurs. Founded by Iris Serbanescu, this accelerator launched its fourth cohort in September of 2023. The program has connected women and non-binary tourism founders from around the world. Experts in their field mentor each cohort; wmnsWORK hires women and non-binary folks who are experts and mentors in their respective niches to offer education and guidance to each participant as they start or grow impactful travel businesses.
"It's important for wmnsWORK to support businesses like Christine's that share stories from real women in the tourism industry. Learning about other people's stories is how we create understanding, and understanding is the key to making the necessary paradigm-shifting changes to the systems within which we operate. When more people become aware of the inequities of the industry, there will be a greater call to action to change things that have previously held women back." - Iris Serbanescu, Founder, wmnsWORK
In addition to weekly workshops, peer support, and opportunities to connect with mentors and advisors, accelerator participants are encouraged to leverage the power of the wmnsWORK community to promote their own work, ask for feedback, and lift each other up. Many alumni would agree that the sense of togetherness is one of the most impactful aspects of wmnsWORK. In addition to sharing, we believe it is also crucial for us to share what the businesses in our community are working on, and we encourage them to tap into wmnsWORK's vast network.
Iris shares, “As a female-led young business, we are proud to say that over the course of a year and a half, we have spent a total of 36 weeks - that is over eight months straight - helping over 25 tourism entrepreneurs in the early stages of developing their businesses. We are honoured to have had our efforts recognized through the 2023 Bessie Awards, where we were granted the Wanderful Award, which is presented to a brand that has gone above and beyond to support, empower, and represent women in the past year.” And I am delighted to pass the baton after Soul of Travel received this award in 2022.
Meet Women Travel Leaders with Co-Founders Jennine Cohen and Catherine Gallagher
Women Travel Leaders is a professional association of high-performing women in the travel industry that seeks to elevate other female travel leaders through community connections, peer-to-peer coaching, tailored community-led learning, and masterminding.
Women Travel Leaders began in San Francisco in 2016 as a way to share best practices and build camaraderie between top women in the industry. At its onset, the group took camping trips, cooked meals in one another's homes, arranged intimate VIP events at local hotels, and facilitated group coaching and vision-boarding sessions.
The organization has grown to include chapters in San Francisco, Peru, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, the UK, New Zealand, Brazil, and beyond. In 2020, WTL started providing support virtually, expanding even further to bring together more women to share resources in a time of crisis.
“We believe that women leaders are essential to shaping the future of travel, and our world.”
WTL operates on a foundation of raising women up by giving them a safe space to have conversations, enabling them to feel supported, to not feel isloated, and to shine a light on them through media opportunities that they wouldn't otherwise receive (a space often reserved for the 'big boys' with big budgets).
Meet The Travel Coach Network with CEO and Founder Sahara Rose De Vore
The Travel Coach Network is a women-led global community of travel coaches empowering people to use travel as a tool for transformation, connection, healing, personal growth, and more. They are home to the ICF-accredited Travel Coach Certification Program, and humanize travel experiences by adding a human-centric approach to how and why people travel.
Travel Coaching is reshaping how travel is viewed. Travel coaching is a holistic approach to supporting travelers in achieving their travel goals, providing more satisfying and fulfilling journeys, and maximizing their overall travel experience.
There is more depth to why people want (or need) to travel. Travel Coaches are there to help them identify their motivating reasons for a trip while assisting them in setting specific intentions for the transformation, feeling, and changes they hope their trip will provide.
Travel Coaching is about the emotional, spiritual, mental, and intellectual well-being and transformative needs that drive our desire to travel in the first place. Every time we choose to go on a trip, it’s for a different reason. Travel Coaches are the experts who guide you through the entire travel experience, from pre-planning to post-trip and beyond. Travel Coaches exercise their coaching skills to help you get to the root of your desired trip so that you can have the outcomes, transformation, life changes, and feelings that motivated you to hit that search flights button in the first place.
A travel coach aims to guide, educate, and inspire travelers to make informed decisions, overcome obstacles, and create memorable journeys.
The Travel Coach Network empowers women in travel to think outside of the industry's career boxes, create an authentic business that aligns with their passions and interests around travel, and help others use travel as a powerful tool for transformation, healing, and growth, both personally and professionally.” - Sarah Rose De Vore, CEO and Founder, The Travel Coach Network
To learn more, download the Travel Coach Network’s Free Beginner's Guide to Travel Coaching and join their Facebook Global Community.
Interested in becoming a Soul of Travel Podcast Amplification Ally?
Soul of Travel Amplification Allies are our partners in visibility and promotion, and we value working with aligned businesses, communities, and organizations. Your visibility and placement are featured in kind. In exchange, Amplification Allies agree to offer a representative of the Soul of Travel team opportunities, memberships, or access to your community or platform. This allows Soul of Travel to continue connecting with guests and to stay on top of industry trends and important issues.
To apply as an Amplification Ally or to explore our episode sponsorship packages, reach out to connect@lotussojourns.com or browse Soul of Travel sponsorship and advertising information here.
For individual donations, visit our Individual Soul of Travel Donation Paypal Link.