Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Ward
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am #8 in a family of 9 children. My Dad was an entrepreneur and I worked for him in several of his businesses at a young age (from 14 to 19). While none of my older siblings graduated from college I was determined to go. You would think my dad would encourage college for me, but he didn’t. He actually made it difficult which only fueled my desire to go. I was obsessed with gymnastics and diving while growing up and paid for my own lessons. I did gymnastics up until I was a Jr. in High School then got cut from the team. I thought my life was over until I decided to join the diving team. The summer after my Sr. year I was offered a diving scholarship at the University of Utah. While on the diving team I was able to travel to Mexico and Hawaii and developed a love of travel. Through that scholarship and working summer jobs I put myself 100% through college with a degree in Mass Communications/Journalism. After graduation I worked jobs as an office manager, computer programmer and graphic designer. All of those jobs prepared me for a career in web development. I started building websites in 1996 when the internet was in it’s infancy. My skills were in high demand at the time as someone with my combination skills in programming, graphic design and writing were just the recipe that was needed for a professional website. I worked freelance for a few years before starting a digital marketing company in 2011. Just last year I decided to go solo again and formed Brain Candy Media where I could focus on just building websites for local Utah businesses (and a few out of state). I love the combination of being techie AND creative while also learning about how different types of businesses tic. Recently I’ve also branched out and started a travel agency with fellow travel genius, Mike Bringhurst. Together we formed “Designer Travel Agency” and we’re slowly building and gaining clientelle. Our website is designertravelagency.com (see my bio on the about us page: https://designertravelagency.com/about-us/). It’s been exciting to completely switch gears and learn all about the travel industry.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Nope. Not smooth. In 2019, while working to build up the digital marketing agency we hit a huge roadblock. We had built our entire business on a website/CRM owned by Adobe called Business Catalyst. We had just over 60 websites built on that platform and gaining speed. It felt like we were at the top of our game. Then we got a notice from Adobe that they were planning on shutting the platform down within only 1 year. This was a huge blow to our businesses because we had just build 2 or 3 large and complex websites and now faced the task of telling those clients that their website had to be rebuilt. I wanted to change my name and move to Mexico. Of course I didn’t do that but man, I was tempted. I saw no way through this disaster at first. Eventually we found a way to migrate to another platform with similar code so not everything had to be completely rebuilt. My team and I spent hundreds of unpaid hours getting all of our client’s websites safely migrated and working properly over the next year and a half (Adobe extended their shut-down deadline). Once that was all finally behind us, Covid-19 reared it’s ugly head and we lost a few of those clients anyway. Overall we gained more clients than we lost as our clients could see we truly cared about their businesses and their website and that we were able to keep everything running smoothly for them.
We’ve been impressed with Designer Travel Agency, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
After building websites for almost 30 years I am focused on a new goal to build Designer Travel Agency. Our goal is to inspire people to travel! And not just travel the typical way, but branch out and travel their way. We want people to understand that when it comes to travel that the options are endless. They don’t have to just go on the canned tours to the typical places everyone goes or where everyone posts pictures of on social media. If you like to visit museums and you like to ski, for example, we can plan a custom itinerary where you can do both! If you like to road bike (like me!) and have always wanted to go on a luxury river cruise where you can see incredible historic architecture in France and Germany, we can get you there. We know people who love to travel sometimes spend dozens of hours researching and planning and still run into dead ends when trying to plan out their own trips. Or they go and realize they wasted time and money on something that didn’t turn out as expected. With our huge network of vetted adventure outfitters, resorts and in-country tour guides we take all the guesswork out of vacation planning. We’re most proud of our unique ability to build custom travel itineraries for our clients. We guide people to places they’ve always wanted to go as well as introduce them to new places they didn’t know they’ve always wanted to experience. We introduce our clients to out-of-the-way cool spots that are less crowded but equally as cool. Places that are off the radar of most travel agencies. The past few years, post Covid-19 travel lockdowns, more and more people have the itch to travel and view it as a necessity, not a luxury. We’re here for it!
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I see the travel industry continue to rise as people engage in “revenge travel” the desire to travel again after not being able to. According to an October 2023 industry report, worldwide travel is expected to grow to $40 billion over five years as more and more people want to make up for lost time and get there and see the world. The focus in travel is shifting towards the intangible, the connection to their destination, and the people they travel with. We wrote a blog that describes this trend on our blog: https://designertravelagency.com/revenge-travel-how-the-pandemic-ignited-our-passion-for-travel/
Contact Info:
- Website: https://designertravelagency.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/designertravelagency/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/designertravelutah
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/designer-travel-agency-draper?osq=designer+travel+agency
- Other: https://braincandymediaut.com/
