In this week’s episode, I am joined by the remarkable Amanda Klima— the President and Co-Owner of Largay Travel, a luxury travel company recognized for over a decade by Conde Nast and Travel + Leisure as one of America’s top travel agencies. With over 30 years in the industry, Amanda has turned her passion for adventure into a mission to help people experience transformative travel—and build a thriving business doing just that.

Under her leadership, Largay has grown into a 150-person strong community of travel advisors who deliver world-class experiences through their Virtuoso membership and unmatched global relationships. Amanda is also the creator of the Growing Together webinar series and serves on multiple global advisory boards, championing both innovation and human connection in travel. A speaker, mentor, and Certified Travel Industry Executive, Amanda is redefining leadership in a legacy industry by centering joy, curiosity, and personal growth.

You’ll also hear how Amanda scaled from advisor to owner, her take on entrepreneur systems like EOS, and why joyful commerce is more than a slogan—it’s a business model. Whether you’re running a travel agency or a tech startup, Amanda’s story is full of wisdom about legacy, leadership, and letting go.

Takeaways:

• Joy is a Business Strategy: Amanda proves that joy and empathy can be baked into the business model—and become a competitive advantage.
• Systems Empower People: EOS helped Largay Travel transition from reactive to proactive growth, enabling Amanda to lead with clarity and elevate her team.
• It’s Okay to Let Go: Not every client or team member is a fit forever—and knowing when to release with grace is part of sustainable leadership.
• Personal Seasons Shape Professional Strength: Amanda shares how life’s challenges clarified what matters most in business.
• Legacy is Built in Real Time: Amanda’s work is already impacting the next generation—including her daughter.

Burning Questions Answered:

1. How do you scale a service-based business without losing your values—or your joy?
2. What does it mean to build a “practitioner-led” company in the luxury space?
3. How can you use systems like EOS to grow with clarity, not chaos?
4. What are the non-negotiables when leading a team through seasons of massive change?
5. Can you run a high-growth business and prioritize kindness, family, and legacy?

Favorite Quotes:

"Not all clients are the right fit. And that’s okay. We lead with joy and values.”

“Sometimes the biggest breakthroughs come from the hardest seasons.”

Guest Offers & Contact Information:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-klimak/

LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/largaytravel/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/largaytravel/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LargayTravel/

X: https://twitter.com/largaytravel?lang=en

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/LargayTravel

Website: https://largaytravel.com/

Email: amanda@largaytravel.com

Follow the #WisdomOfWomen show for more inspiring stories and insights from trailblazing women founders, investors, and experts in growth and prosperity.

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Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/bdhananz

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Coco Sellman, the host of #WisdomOfWomen, believes business is a force for good, especially with visionary women at the helm. With over 25 years of entrepreneurial experience, she has launched five companies and guided over 500 startups. As Founder & CEO of A Force for Good, Coco supports purpose-driven women founders in unlocking exponential growth and prosperity. Her recent venture, Allumé Home Care, reached eight-figure revenues and seven-figure profits in just four years before a successful exit in 2024. A venture investor and board director, Coco’s upcoming book, *A Force for Good*, reveals a roadmap for women to lead high-impact, high-growth companies.

Learn more about A Force for Good:

Website: https://aforceforgood.biz/

Are Your GROWING or PLATEAUING? https://aforceforgood.biz/quiz/

FFG Tool of the Week: https://aforceforgood.biz/weekly-tool/

The Book: https://aforceforgood.biz/book/

Growth Accelerator: https://aforceforgood.biz/accelerator/

Welcome to the Wisdom of Women Show.

We are dedicated to amplifying the voice and wisdom of women in business.

A new model of leadership is emerging and we are here to amplify the voices of women leading the way.

I am your host, Coco Selman, five time founder, impact investor and creator of the Force for Good system.

Thank you for joining us today as we illuminate the path to unlocking opportunities and prosperity for women led enterprises by amplifying the voice and wisdom of women.

Today we have a dear friend of mine who I have known for a long time now and I am so excited to talk to you about her extraordinary business that she has built.

So today we have Amanda Climack, the president and co owner of Largay Travel, a luxury travel company recognized for over a decade by Conde Nast and Travel and Leisure as one of America's top travel agencies.

With over 30 years in the industry, Amanda has turned her passion for adventure into a mission to help people experience transformational travel and build a thriving business doing just that.

Under Amanda's leadership, Largay has grown into a 150 person strong community of travel advisors who deliver world class experiences through their virtuoso membership and unmatched global relationships.

And this is true.

I've experienced it myself.

Amanda is also the creator of the Growing Together webinar series and serves on multiple global advisory boards championing both innovation and human connection.

Connection in travel.

A speaker, mentor and certified travel industry executive, Amanda is redefining leadership in a legacy industry by centering joy, curiosity and personal growth.

So welcome today.

Welcome Amanda.

I'm so excited to have you.

Thank you so much, Coco.

Listening to that, wow, I sound almost important.

Oh my gosh.

When you put it all out there.

It'S like, wow, you're in the trenches every day but you have created something truly extraordinary.

I remember the first time I met you at an EO event.

Largay was a sponsor of eo.

I know you're now a member of EO and we met through my dear friend Ernie and Nancy.

I know you guys have traveled together and I, you know, became a customer.

I did the wander list with you and I now still work with Londa.

I am so excited to share you with my community.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you Coco.

It's been such a joy watching your evolution too.

And you know, just as we grow and go through life and have these crazy situations in the world, it's nice to have other women to relate to and just have other people to inspire us and just Be part of our community.

It's really a wonderful thing.

It is.

It truly is.

So I always like to start with this question.

So what is one book written by a woman that has significantly influenced your life?

Well, I have to say I read this book while I was going through a horrible divorce, and it really changed my life.

It was you Can Heal youl Life by Louise Hay.

It introduced me to the Law of Attraction.

It introduced me to the fact that even though I was going through a difficult and horrible situation, I was able to adjust the way I was feeling and have some control in a really uncontrollable situation.

And I've used so much of what I learned in that book throughout my career, my life challenges that I've gone through.

And I still truly believe in the law of Attraction and believe in kind of putting things out there to the universe and then letting it go and seeing what happens really has impacted me in so many ways.

I love that.

You know, I am actually surprised nobody else on the show has had that as their book because it really is a great book.

Louise Hay, my goodness, she sort of.

She was such a trailblazer, an entrepreneur, right?

Hay House Publishing.

And she's really made a lot, brought out the voice and wisdom of so many, really, I would say, valuable healers and mentors for so many of us.

So what a great read.

What a great week.

I went to see her in Washington, D.C.

and the whole Abraham's side of things was a little different for me.

So that took a little getting used to for anybody who knows Louise's work.

But I will say the concepts, the beliefs, the ability to let go of guilt and anxiety and realize those are feelings and emotions, and that's not me in my soul.

Those are just things that come into my life and move out of my life at different times.

It really changed me in such a significant way.

I go back to that learning often when I hit challenging situations.

Yeah, that's a great book.

And I'll feature it.

I'm gonna have to because that's a book I haven't thought about in probably 20 years.

I feel like I wrote it a long time ago.

And I'm a big fan of the Abraham Hicks and Esther and Jerry Hicks.

One of my favorites is asking.

It is given that book changed my life.

I opened that book and I instantly confined my way.

There's the metaphor of being in life and in the boat.

And this we do as women, especially founders, right.

We have our head set on a particular goal and we are going to battle as hard as we can to get it to go.

But sometimes you need to let go of the worst and see what the universe has for you and what's downstream that's easier and gentler and better than we planned.

Right, Right.

And I found there is a comfort, because as women, we want to fix everything.

We want to make everything okay.

And it is very hard sometimes to let go.

I found that throughout my life, both in business and in my personal life, I've had some really challenging times with a child who battles addiction with relationships and all sorts of things.

And sometimes it is comforting to know that sometimes you need to let go and just see where the river takes you.

She really taught me so many things.

I've created some great relationships through that learning.

One of my closest friends, Dr.

Allison Miller, she's somebody who I did a program years ago called the Best Year yet.

And she took me from not being able to walk a half mile to.

To doing a triathlon in one year, just with focus and putting it out there and inviting it into my life.

It really did change my life significantly.

I love that.

And I think there's such a.

We'll go into your important moments in just a second, but I think there's important message here about as we grow our lives, our families, ourselves, and our companies, there's this real need, I believe, that those who are able to successfully grow their companies, there's this need to grow inside.

Right.

And.

And to evolve.

We're going to talk about your company.

You have 150 people out in the world that you don't see every day that you can't control that are representing you and your brand, and they're independent in a lot of regards.

It's not because you're the boss and you tell them what to do and they do it.

No, we're business partners, and that's partners.

And so.

So to be able to let go is incredibly important if you're going to.

Scale and make sure that you're not letting anyone across the bridge who shouldn't be there.

So making sure that whole interview process, getting to know someone, sharing your beliefs, your values, important.

And when you can clearly define those things, it makes all the difference because you attract the right people and it.

And that makes the difference.

It does.

It does.

Okay, so I want to get into you now.

I want to hear about the moments that have shaped your life, the moments that have made you who you are.

Sometimes these are hard moments.

Sometimes these are big accomplishments.

Sometimes there's heartbreak.

Sometimes things fall out of the sky that you can't believe this person showed up, this situation.

What are three big moments that have shaped and brought you to where you are today?

Yeah, well, you know, you don't like to focus on the negative, but the negatives often are those moments that help you grow as a person.

So I would say my first big moment was my divorce.

I was married 17 years when I got divorced.

I hadn't dated since the late 80s.

I was thrown into another realm, and it was not pretty.

We had grown apart, obviously.

It was a really challenging time of my life.

My mother was fighting cancer at the same time.

So I was dealing with a lot of situations.

I had two small children, and all of a sudden it was just me.

I was on my own.

And now I was a single mother.

I fought for the house, and then I got the house.

And I was like, what was I thinking?

You do things where you think it's the right choices.

I thank my ex husband.

It sounds strange because when there's infidelity in a relationship, you know, often you want to blame the person who.

Who cheats.

And, you know, I could thank him today because he helped me make a decision that I wouldn't have made for myself.

And once I realized that, wow, this was something that needed to happen because we had grown apart, it really turned into just a new chapter in my life.

It took a long time to realize that, but once I realized that, wow, did my life blossom and I have a new husband.

Took a little bit to find him, but, you know, really did show my children as well that, you know, you can do it on your own, you don't have to.

Sometimes you work three jobs.

Sometimes.

You know, I drove Uber at one point.

I mean, crazy, right?

But you do what you have to do.

And that just really changed my life forever.

My son battles with addiction, and that was a really hard thing for me because as a mother, you want to fix it.

And I had to learn through, you know, counseling, through support groups, through friends, that enabling is not helping.

And that was a very hard lesson for me to learn.

We had to get up to a point where he was literally homeless on the streets of Los Angeles.

When he said, I need food, I'd say, you have food.

You can get it in a rehab center.

I need a place to sleep.

You can get that in a rehab center.

And when you set those rules, it is heartbreaking and rips your heart out as you do it.

But he's in a fabulous place today.

He's almost three years clean and sober, and the journey we've taken together has been amazing.

And I don't know what the future holds for him, but I will say that our relationship is stronger than ever.

And that's just been a crazy journey for me, but one that's so many people across this country face and around the world.

And so I'm in a good place today, and I try not to get ahead of my skis because it is something that he battles every single day.

But I'm there to support him as he does it, and it's a good place.

And then, of course, there's the big Covid.

You know, when Covid hit, we had no revenue for two years.

It literally took a piece of my soul.

But what I found, and this is going back to Louise, is that sometimes you just have to accept things the way they are, but be a person that can just be there for those around you and think positive and look for solutions.

And, you know, we all made it to the other side and now our business is thriving.

It's amazing.

But those were tough couple years especially, you know, I work with 150 entrepreneurs.

These are independent contractors, mostly women, small business owned, women owned.

And you know, I was on Capitol Hill fighting for unemployment for them, which they were able to take advantage of.

But it was a long fight.

And I'll tell you, so amazing when we really sat down and said, okay, what can we do during this time to pivot our business?

We started selling RV trips, we started selling the United States, we started learning all of the different state rules, but, hey, we made it work and we came out the other side that much stronger.

Holy crap, pal.

That's a lot.

Well, you know, I was in a similar situation where some businesses were.

Just a lot of businesses were completely wrecked by covet.

And I was in healthcare.

So we had different challenges and.

And you know, I was on the.

I was the chair of a school board at the time.

So we had the school thing going, but I remember thinking about you and just like, holy crap, she's gotta have no business.

And we had a trip planned.

We had two trips planned.

We had two planned.

We had a trip planned to go to Cuba with my EO group.

We even got our money back.

And we had another trip to Morocco that we canceled.

So, like, just one person, I can't imagine how devastating that must have been.

Yeah, people always say, why don't you use this company or that company?

We have relationships that we've built over decades, and part of being able to get your money back was that These are companies that we've worked with for many years.

They were financially solid.

Going into Covid.

We were able to say, if you can help us out here or there, this would be meaningful to us and to our clients.

We weren't able to get everyone's money back, but I'll tell you, we were able to really work hard and people really appreciated that because we went into Covid with empathy, with compassion.

One of the things that, with travel that we know is that travel is incredibly stressful for a lot of people.

It brings up feelings of anxiety.

People look forward to their trip sometimes for years.

And then if something goes wrong, like Covid or Kano erupts and there's an ash cloud over Europe, crazy stuff happens.

We know that tips into some emotions that are very understandable.

I think that's what's really made us successful, is that we truly care for our clients as people, as human beings, and realize that, you know, sometimes when you get that screaming call from the airport because the flight's canceled, it's a horrible situation.

Nobody likes it, and everybody wants to make it better.

When you go into those situations with empathy and compassion, it truly changes the dynamic and people appreciate that and, and you know, sometimes brings out the worst in people.

And we say, we understand this is your most valuable non renewable asset, your time with your family.

Huge.

And it makes all the difference, you know, your customer.

Amanda, I think that's one of the things that's so remarkable about you and Largay and the people I've worked with at Largay, how important that is to scaling your company.

And it's.

I just think that's a big part of why you're so successful.

Yeah, well, it is.

We hope that when we talk to people about our services, they get to understand it, but sometimes people don't until something goes wrong and then we're there.

We pick up the phone and instead of saying, go stand at the ticket counter for the next two hours, we say go to the lounge, have some drinks and we'll figure it out and call you back.

And then they get it.

Then they're like, oh my gosh.

Wow, this is different.

This is different.

You get there, you got an upgrade.

That's cool, right?

Exactly.

You become the fairy godmother of travel.

It's so fun, but it's crazy, but it's fun.

Well, I just want to circle back and thank you for sharing your three stories because, you know, divorce, wow.

So hard.

And I loved that.

What I heard you say in that is you are now able to look at that situation and be grateful.

Being able to look at a really hard thing.

And I think that's a superpower of, of leaders is that, is that ability to take really tough stuff.

That is what separates the girls from the women.

We're able to see the tough stuff as what's going to make us better, right?

Yes.

And finding other women who can help you navigate is just so key because there are people that understand and get it.

Where do you find those women?

You know, it's funny because they come to me in all sorts of different ways.

Some of my closest met mostly through business, see a speaker and I'm like, oh my gosh, that's somebody I want to be a friend with.

You and I, I've interacted with you through EO and when I see somebody who I want to be with, I instantly am like, yep, we're going to be best friends.

You just don't know it yet.

I love that you've designed a business that allows you to create that connection too, because then it's like you have the perfect opportunity to connect with by saying, hey, where do you want to travel?

What do you want to do with your life?

And when there's that alignment in who you are and the people you want to be with, I think that also allows for the integration of successful life and business to, to come together.

And you've done that.

Brilliant.

Yeah.

What's interesting, Coco, is that, you know, most people will plan for their retirement, they plan for their college fund, for their children, they even plan for their, with their will and all of that.

But they don't take the time to plan for the time with their family, the time with their loved ones, the time with themselves.

And one thing that I've loved watching you is when we first went into Wanderlist, which is kind of long term travel planning, we sat down and said, where do you want to go in your lifetime and how do we plan it?

So when you're physically able to do the more active trip, we do those.

While you're physically able.

How do we put those trips that later might be a little bit more relaxed later in life?

Are there milestones?

And that's where the beauty of this business is, in really digging deep with clients and helping them understand that if you don't travel with intention, then you're just traveling as life goes along.

And not that that's a bad thing, but you can have these deeper experiences if you really lean into long term travel planning.

That's where we love to work with clients to understand not just the person that comes to us who wants to plan the trip, but learning about your husband, learning about your daughter, learning about what are the things that you want to gain in your lifetime.

And those other people, how do we put those together?

And it doesn't even have to always be travel together.

It could be planning a girl's weekend, it could be planning a.

A guy's golf trip.

And that's what makes it so fun.

You do so much of that.

So I can tell you.

Just share that.

One of my favorite trips was a trip with a group of lady friends and we did the Camino de Santiago together.

That was absolutely my favorite trip maybe of all time.

It was exactly what I wanted and quite affordable, like you were.

It was able to marry up all the needs of my team, of my people that I invited and everybody had what they needed.

That was absolutely amazing.

And we also, you know, I'll just say that we, we were able.

So Frank, Ella and myself.

And Ella at the time I think was probably 9 or 10.

And now she's 17.

She got to have her own list of places she wanted to go.

And, and it's not just places you want to go, but kinds of things you're interested in.

Are you interested in history?

Are you interested in politics?

Are you interested in food and wine?

Are you interested in art?

All that you might.

Is there a particular type of service work?

We were able then to put together this beautiful list.

You put together this beautiful list in this beautiful book.

We went to Africa.

We did the Tanzania and Kenya trip two years ago.

And that was just life changing.

It is really extraordinary what you are creating for people and how you have that purpose in you.

So how.

Tell us about Largay and how you, because it was founded by someone else and then you somehow got involved and you are now president and a co owner.

So tell us how you got involved.

Tell us the whole backstory.

Well, I started at Largay as a travel advisor.

I was a corporate travel advisor.

Worked for a few years here in the Waterbury office.

And then, you know, I didn't see any room for growth.

I loved the job, loved the company.

But I wanted to move up, I wanted to learn, I wanted to improve.

And so I took a job at a American Express in Hartford.

I worked there for five years and one day I literally went through every leadership training possible.

And as soon as I was vested, I was out.

And not that it wasn't a fabulous experience company job, but it was corporate America and It just wasn't for me.

And so after the five years, I decided it's time to go back into a smaller company.

I came back to Largay as a manager and then as time went by, my business partner Paul and Roland, the founder, knew that if I left, they'd have to actually work for a living.

And so they decided to make me a partner.

I say that jokingly, but it's kind of true.

I wanted to elevate and move on.

For me, it's just been such a great evolution because I literally work with my best, best friends, Paul and I.

Roland passed away.

Actually.

Roland's, you know, for years was my pain, you know, manager.

As I was going onto different boards.

He also took me around the world because he was older and he needed somebody to help him to travel around the world.

So we went to Asia together, we went to Europe together, and I carried his bags.

We had an amazing time.

When Roland passed and I had become a partner, they knew I was, you know, definitely someone who should be continuing to run the company.

Paul and I became partners.

What's exciting is his son Scott joined the company about 10 years ago and my daughter Courtney joined about a year and a half ago.

We have this next generation who potentially could take over the company in years to come.

And so we're, we're starting to look at that planning.

We're not 100% sure, but it certainly looks like we may have of the next generation to continue in the work we do, which is thrilling and exciting to me.

One of the turns we took with the company is we used to do, we had an in house travel team and we had a corporate air department.

We've evolved the company into what we call a host agency where we bring people into the travel industry, teach them how to become a travel advisor and then help them grow their business.

And that has been truly amazing.

We have a woman on our team who has a degree in early childhood education, which is very similar to many of us.

It's very funny because we've developed this amazing training program.

What really inspires me with what we've done is that when I started in this business, most of the women were doing this as a hobby.

They weren't doing this as a primary income.

Salaries were incredibly low over those years.

We have worked hard to build this into a career that I'm proud for my daughter to come into.

I'm proud when I talk to people about it and I know that I have people that make in the high six figures doing what they love.

It's really amazing what you can do when you're passionate about something and love the business that you do do.

I just think that the virtuosity in all of it, the cycles of virtuosity are mammoth.

I mean, to me this is a dream business because you're literally creating impact, goodness, prosperity for everybody that you're touching and you're helping women who would otherwise.

You know, I'm sure you have a lot of moms, right?

So where there's flexibility, we're not all moms.

There's also men, right?

There's gotta be dads too.

We have a handful of men who are amazing.

And you know what I love about it?

We're creating memories and dreams for people.

We are the most memorable times in people's lives.

We have a hand in, but we also have a hand in.

And this is where I, when we talk to people initially and they're like, oh, oh, I want to travel around the world and get the travel benefits, then we say, let's get a reality check.

We sell a product or an experience that is completely imperfect, you know, happens in the world, affects what we do, meaning health disasters, governments, you know, socioeconomic situations.

There's so many things that affect our business.

So it's very hard work.

And that's why it's important when we bring people in and talk to them.

We get people that are second career people.

We have doctors, lawyers, you know, fund professional fundraisers.

We have people that were homemakers, took a break and raised their kids and now are coming back and want to do a job they truly love.

And what's interesting about it is, you know, it is a business that can be so rewarding and joyful, but it can be incredibly hard.

We try to give people that reality check too because we want them to understand very hard work.

And it's that I'm hearing you say too.

It's like you have to be someone who genuinely loves solving those problems.

And you're going to be that person who's going to be willing and it's going to feel good to you to be that person that can help caretake and figure out how to get, oh, that flight's gone, how do we get another one?

Or oh, you're sick, how do I find you a doctor?

How do I get you med, you know, flighted out of there or whatever it is.

Like you have to want, like that needs to be your primary desire of how you spend your day and then also have an interest in travel.

Right?

Well, and if you Think about it like, remember Zika?

Everyone forgets about Zika.

We had hundreds of brides and grooms booked on honeymoons to areas that were risky.

And we had to say to them, if you plan on having children, you may want to consider a different destination, whether it be going up to Sonoma instead of going to the Caribbean or wherever and, you know, all of these different things, whether it be bird flu, mad cow disease, Covid or whatever.

And that's just the illness side of things.

When you talk about other situations, it's really interesting and fun as well because we have such a tight community of people that work so closely together.

When we get situations, there's a lot of times like we'll sit around with three or four of us and we're like, okay, what do we do?

And we're like, I don't know.

But then we come up with a plan.

We gotta shift everyone to different destinations because guess what?

Weddings are still gonna happen.

People still wanna go on honeymoons.

And so it becomes a very interesting business.

It's never dull.

You have to love a challenge.

And it's incredibly sad, satisfying when you get that call when somebody's on their way home and they're crying because they have just had the most incredible experience of their life.

And that's where you're just like, oh, my gosh, right?

It changes your whole experience of who you are in to travel to these places in the world.

So I love it for our listeners.

I think sometimes we don't think of all the possible ways we could become president of a company and an owner of a company.

You who you took a route temporarily through corporate to gather some of those skills and certify yourself so you could be ready for that next step.

I like that because sometimes we get stuck.

A lot of times I work with founders who are trying to raise money, and sometimes raising money is just.

It's like I always look for how can you find the answer that is within you, that is there for you?

And if the only way is for somebody else to write a check for you to get this business off the ground, we need to look differently.

Because here you are and you didn't have anybody fund you, and now you've got a huge company, 150 travel advisors, and you've bootstrapped and found your way through and somehow figured out your way through two years of no revenue.

And that's where, you know, I really think that's, you know, my business partner, Paul.

And if we didn't have each other, I think that would be a challenge.

As a founder, I think you always need somebody else, whether it's through EO or other companies or who are also on your system.

You know, I think finding those people that can help you and be your sounding board beyond your family, and not that your family is a hugely important part of everything we do, but having somebody who truly understands having the weight of the world on your shoulders is, is huge.

And who can carry the weight sometimes when you need them to.

I want to talk for a minute about EO and EOs because I know you're part of both.

And maybe you could tell everybody what the two things are, how they're different, because they're massively different.

Even though on the surface somebody might think they're the same and how they have been important for you and the listener.

To me, I've had a very similar path as Amanda and I've made some different choices about all the groups that I'm involved in.

And I have my own system that's similar to eos, but it is the same idea.

And the people that when you get into these rooms with all these other business owners who are growing big companies, it's because they have these two things.

First, EO stands for entrepreneur organization.

And similar to YPO or Vistage, it's.

It's really a group of like minded individuals.

They're.

There's thousands, tens of thousands of people around the world who are members of entrepreneur organization and you have people around who are also building and scaling businesses.

EOS is a system similar to yours.

And that's why I say if I wasn't on EOS after reading your book, I definitely would have looked at your system.

Because a system, entrepreneur organizational system is a system that helps you define your core values, define your goals, where you want to go, have vision for your company, have a really rock solid accountability chart, making sure everyone knows their roles, what their measurables are, identifying issues quickly and solving them, and then working on big picture items on a 90 day cycle.

It has changed me and my business significantly since we started.

We're about three years into it and you have quarterly meetings with your leadership team.

Each of your departments has weekly meetings.

It really helps you when you're trying to organize and scale your company.

What it's done for me personally is it's given me the ability to take a breath and I think that in and of itself has made such a difference.

I'm an entrepreneur, I'm a visionary.

I am the person who's like squirrel, I'm Looking for the shiny object.

And it makes my team crazy sometimes or it used to make my team crazy and now because I know these are my guardrails, if I have an idea that can wait, it waits till the next quarter and we decide is this a direction we want to go?

And I think as an entrepreneur we need those guardrails, we need that system to really help us remain focused on that carrot, on that goal.

And we're continually redefining those things.

You know, it's not just you put it on paper, this is your ten year plan and you're done.

It changes as the world changes, as the economy changes, as your business changes.

And so for me, it's just allowed me to take a deeper breath.

It's allowed me to help my leadership team evolve their skill set and become very organized and, and I believe that even for the entrepreneurs that we work with, our travel advisors who are out there running their own business, it's allowed me to coach them in a way that they now have visions, they have measurables, they have key indicators that let them know, is my business up, is it down, what do I do, what's my plan?

It really has allowed me to inspire a lot of people to run their business in a better, calmer way.

It lets you breathe and I love that.

Well, it's wonderful.

It's also because then you can grow and the business can take on and have value that doesn't have you in the middle.

Right.

The purpose, vision and values can all sit in the middle.

You can take yourself out of that, that and now everybody can focus on what you've agreed upon together.

It's not just in your little head.

Everybody has a piece and an ownership.

I think it's very powerful and it is what is required, I believe, to grow if you're going to build your team.

If you have five people, it's another thing if you have 150 and you even with five people you're spinning a lot want if you don't have that framework.

I love this because EO is a great way to be with other successful entrepreneurs.

Being a founder is lonely.

There are things you have to deal with and decide all by yourself.

Even your like I, I, you know, I don't.

My husband is wonderful and he loves everything about, I mean frankly he loves me but, and I'm lucky.

But he's not an entrepreneur so he doesn't understand some of the daily risks and if I talked about those daily risks with him, it would make him crazy.

Right.

And so, but I can call you, I can call you, and you and I can talk about those risks and those challenges and you get it, and you can be there for me.

Right, Right.

So that's what the EO is about.

And I just recently joined Chief.

It's another similar organization where you have, you know, Vistage is really great, too.

That's all super great.

And then to have a system like Eos or Force for Good, you are going to get yourself on a path where you're going to move your company in a period of time.

It's not going to happen overnight, but you're going to quickly start to see that, oh, this is where I'm going.

And it's not just my head, but it's everybody.

And you grow.

Yeah.

And if you're somebody who's looking to scale your business and possibly exit, which I'm not looking at that at this moment, however, your business becomes that much more valuable to an investor or to a potential buyer, because there is structure within your business.

There is a proven process.

There is a team of people who are all rowing in the same direction.

You know, if you go back to Jim Collins, good, great.

And, you know, you talk about right people.

Right.

And, you know, that's hugely important.

With my team, I know I have the right people in the right seats.

And it gives me comfort to know that it really has made such a huge difference in my life.

It's the entrepreneurial operating system.

I kind of.

So I just wanted to clarify it.

But similar to yours, Force for Good.

It just.

It gives you that clarity and allows you to actually look at your business on paper and know that if you continue to move in the right direction, you will be able to grow your business and continue to scale.

And if something's off, you're going to recognize it really quickly because it's when you have something that's off that is under the radar, that is what submarines most businesses.

Those underlying things we didn't realize.

It's kind of like in travel.

It's not what you know, it's what you don't know that you don't know.

That's where we are looking to find.

Those experiences that people don't even know exist.

You know, going into the Vatican before it opens and, you know, with everything happening right now, knowing how clients can navigate to go to the Pope's funeral, and if you were interested in being there while they're in conclave, it's like getting that information.

But we have connections around the world and we're able to sort of source that really quickly.

Total tangent on that.

But I've been in Pope Pope world for the past week.

It's true.

It's very true.

And that, you know, I, and I also just want to reiterate what you said.

Like your business, if you decided and your partner Paul decided that you had to sell or one of you had to sell for some reason, you could.

And that's optionality because life happens.

Sometimes we get sick, sometimes things change.

Something happens to one of our kids.

You need to have the ability to make those pivots.

If you have a business that is built to last, like yours, like Larga, then you really can.

So what is your 10 year vision for Largay and what is your 10 year vision for yourself?

Yeah, well, for Largate, one of our goals is to have 100 advisors who do over $3 million in travel business a year.

We currently have about 35 who are at that level.

But we're helping those people who are looking to scale their business.

We're working with them very closely.

We have another 50 people on our team who are either just starting in the travel business and getting themselves off the ground.

And then we have within that 50 people that are looking to scale down their business.

They're at the latter part of their career and they maybe want to turn their business over to someone else.

And so we're helping them to make sure they have an exit strategy as they scale out of their business as well.

We have a great team of coaches that help people with that, with the plans.

And then we have great partners around the world who love working with our advisors because one of our core values is practitioners in the art of joyful commerce.

And we've trademarked that slogan because it truly is part of who we are.

What does that mean to you for practitioners in the art of joyful commerce?

I love that you are talking about your core values and I know that EOS is big into this and how, how powerful it is when you have core values that you talk about and you use how important it is to the culture and growth of your company.

Yeah, one of the things we realized a long time ago, Our company is 56 years old.

And one of the core beliefs that Roland always had when he founded the company is that but you can be nice and get results.

You don't have to cut people down, belittle them, be angry.

And what we found as we've kept that over the years, is that our supplier partners, similar to your company in Cuba that we worked with.

When they have somebody they can trust who they know is not going to put their company at risk because I need results.

People create a different relationship when they know that you're coming from a place of joy and kindness and they go the extra mile.

And so we've really gone and leaned into.

It's not the squeaky wheel that gets the attention, that gets the oil.

It really is the person who's kind and respectful and comes at this business from a place of joy.

Because that's what we sell is joy, happiness.

Are there times that things have to get tough?

There are times that things have to get tough.

But if we always have a place of love and kindness as we go out into the world, similar for you with force for good.

It's.

People react differently.

And I think that's been one of our premises that we always are, you know, are focusing on, that you don't have to sacrifice happiness and joy and humor in order to make a buck.

Paul always says we're gonna hold hands and laugh all the way to the bank.

Like what is that right?

We're not doing this for free.

Of course, this is a for profit company.

But on the other hand, you know, we work with people that want to have a joyful experience.

And it's funny cause not every client is for us.

If they are not going to work with us in a way that they trust us and sometimes that takes time to build that trust.

But if they're not going to trust us long term, then they may not be the right client for us and we may not be the right company.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

There's no, you know, we are one type of way that somebody can book travel and it really humbly confident is another one of our core values.

It's really been been a great journey as we've evolved this.

So what's your vision for you?

What would you like?

What do you see for you in the next 10 years?

I know you love to travel and you love building your company.

What would it feel like to come back and we were having this conversation ten years from now and you could say, oh, Coco, this is the experience I got to have.

This is what I've created.

I love public speaking and like you, if you put me at a cocktail party and want me to socialize, wow, that's a lot of work for me.

However, if you put me on a stage in front of 5,000 people, I am totally cool with that.

I love public speaking.

I do a lot of that and especially with the eo, I've been able to travel to some other chapters to talk about wanderlust.

I would love to write a book at some point about developing your wanderlist, developing your life plan and travel.

I do a lot of speaking with financial advisors, wealth management companies because, because that is part of planning.

It's not just about retirement, it's about how you prepare your investments.

I hope that both of my children are now part of the travel industry.

My son has a sober travel company that he's just building up right now and that's just getting off the ground.

And it's been such a delight to be involved with.

My daughter is our manager of marketing and I look forward to being able to take a lighter role, not step away.

I love what I do and I love the people I work with, but to hand over those daily responsibilities and stressors to somebody else.

I have a fabulous leadership team.

So I feel good about the people I have in place and their ability to move this forward as I decide what to do.

I love that.

And boy, does that give you so much flexibility for yourself and your life and your ability to decide how much you want to be in the business, how much you want to manage from afar or just be an owner and you, you get to decide.

And you could also, like, I'm sure you've thought about this, you could have an employee owned business if it didn't work out with your kids, right?

You've got leaders, different exit options, which is so great.

It's such a great business.

I know and I, this is where I get excited when I talk to people is this is a business, business that is so enriching.

I get to go to places around the world that I would probably never be able to afford to travel to if I wasn't in this business.

We're going to the Arctic this summer with Ernie and Nancy.

One of my goals I live under, I want to see wildlife and I want to see people around the world.

I've always wanted to see a walrus.

We're going to the North Pole to see a walrus.

And you know, so, so it's funny how different people want, you know, see history or their UNESCO World Heritage sites or whatever.

I'm all about the animals.

So the walrus is next.

A narwhal.

If I see it, I will go bananas.

If you've never seen a narwhal, Google it.

It's amazing.

But yeah, it's really such an enriching business.

I just love it.

I'm so glad to hear that you're going to take another trip with Ernie and Nancy.

And where else are you going that you're excited?

Just so we can all have a little like fomo.

Yeah.

Well, I want to call you up and create our very own Wanderlust.

I'm starting to form some women's groups which will be traveling over the next couple years.

So you will be getting information.

We're talking about going to see the migration of the monarch butterflies next year.

This was just on the news last week on 60 Minutes and it is an unbelievable journey.

So.

So we're gonna do that next year.

Talking about gorilla trekking next year.

And you know, I love to travel with other people who are like minded.

I have a group of about, I don't know, 15, 20 people that always get on the list.

If anybody's interested in being on the list, go to pleasegoaway.com and you could sign up for our newsletter.

We'll send out invites as we develop these different trips over the year years.

I have people that specialize have companies in AI and coaching and relationship coaching and like you with entrepreneurial business systems and speakers.

I love to travel with them.

It creates great conversations.

And some of my travel partners will go with me.

Steve Lassman and his wife from Villas of Distinction are going with me.

We just have some really great experience experiences.

So yeah, that's so rich.

That is so rich.

So please go away.com we should have people go there.

We should also have people go to largay travel.com which you can go to, is the main site.

If I was interested in becoming a travel advisor, where would I go?

What would I do?

Yeah, you could go to largay travel.com and there is information there.

We do usually one to two classes a year where people, it's a six month program and then you have another six months of mentoring.

So what I say to people is if you have traveled a lot in your life, if you love travel and you're passionate about it and you have a potential network of people to sell to people that know you and you're wearing a different hat, whether it's through your church or your synagogue, your country club, your business, if you have a group of people that would be interested in working with you to book travel, we'll give you all the tools and training you need to do that.

We take a lot of time to talk to you about what it involves, what it looks like and then you decide and we decide based on your personality.

Are you a good Fit.

Are we a good fit?

And then it's just a really fun ride.

And what's really cool is that of our 150 advisors that we have on the team, about 60 of them are mentors.

So they actually work with the people that are coming into the business.

They do it pro bono to help out the next generation of advisors.

But it's a differentiator for us because some companies will put it out there.

Pay your 300, you're a travel advisor tomorrow.

It doesn't work like that.

There's so much you need to learn.

For us, we want to make sure we bring people in that are going to be successful.

Successful, because when you build networks of friends, whether it be in their community or in, they're putting trust in you.

So the last thing you want to do is start offering a service that you're not prepared to deliver fully on.

That's where we differentiate ourselves.

We really put the time in with people to make sure they have the training they need.

That gives comfort in knowing if I were to come and work with you and be one of your travel advisors, that I'm going to be successful.

Right?

Yeah.

Like I have.

As long as I'm willing to show up, I have the opportunity to be really successful.

I love it.

And I love what you said about your son's going to create.

Is creating travel for people who are sober.

I think that is a very cool market.

There's some opportunity.

I've been watching that market as an investor, and it a very interesting, very big market.

People interested in doing things together and in community and in their own way.

And it's.

There's already community, so.

Yes, well.

And sobriety is all about community.

The people that I see.

And again, you know, it's.

Everybody's different, but from what I've seen, my experience with my son has been that that community of people that are there to support, coach and be there for one another is just amazing.

When I go out to LA out here, you think of an AA meeting or an NA meeting as being, you know, 30 people in the basement of a church.

When you go out to LA, it's 500 people in an amphitheater.

It is crazy the amount of people in this community, but that community is what really has gotten him through.

And.

And it's just beautiful to see the work he's done and meet other people who are able to overcome and then go travel together.

And that brings you even closer.

So I love it.

Amanda, thank you.

And congratulations.

You've built a mint of a company.

Just the fact that you have Paul too.

Partnership is rare to have such a nice partnership.

Congratulations to you for doing whatever you had to do internally to make make partnership possible.

Thank you.

May you have so much more success.

For all of our listeners.

Go to please go away.com and Largay Travel and book an event, an adventure, something that you long to do.

I've done all kinds of great travel with Largay and with different groups.

My EO group when I was in eo, my chief group now like we we there's just there's never ending ways that you can can do really interesting travel that will change your life.

So thank you for having me on.

Coco.

My pleasure.

And for all of our listeners, thank you for being here.

I love spending this time with you.

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