How We're Building Community Through Adventure Travel

Grab your passport because we're going on an adventure!

Recently we've made 3 big changes to how we run adventure travel and what we're doing to better support our travelers.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Probably one of the best things has been our commitment to host group trips all over the world. This year, 2024, we have Costa Rica, kilimanjaro, alaska, yellowstone, peru, iceland in 2025. We're also looking at a trip to Southern Utah in 2025 and another Kilimanjaro climb. In the past, I would just guide backpacking trips on my local mountain. They were very simple, very easy to run, not a lot of logistical requirements, and so by offering trips all over the world, it's opened up this whole new experience for our community, which has been really fantastic. But I've also learned some pretty good lessons after the first trips that we've run to Yellowstone National Park last September. On today's podcast, I just want to share with you a few things that we have put in place to help trip participants. If you're joining us for one of these amazing adventures, here's what you can expect. For one of these amazing adventures, here's what you can expect.

Speaker 1: 1:08

The first thing that we've done is we have implemented a Slack channel for Hike Like a Woman adventure travel. In the past, if you were coming on a trip with me, I would open up a Facebook group for that trip. So, for example, our trips to Yellowstone last year, I opened up a Yellowstone Facebook page and that was great. But the problem was that not everyone is on Facebook, so it was difficult to communicate. Also, I don't really like Facebook, so I don't like to be on Facebook and I don't like to manage Facebook groups. We've run into a problem with the amount of trips that we're running, in that that's a whole lot of Facebook groups to manage, and then we have people who go on several trips with us. We have one woman who has scheduled three trips with us, so that's putting her in three separate Facebook groups and I just didn't want to do that. I don't want to have too many Facebook groups out there and then ask people to be part of them. So instead we started a Slack channel, and it's really cool because what I do is, when you book a trip with us, I just put you in our Slack channel and then you can join whatever group you're participating in. But it's a good way to build community and for people who are on a trip with us to be able to communicate with people who might have been on that trip previously. So, for example, our Yellowstone trips in 2023, the Yellowstone trips in 2024, those two groups of people can communicate and the 2023 trip participants can kind of tell the 2024 participants what to expect and share their experience, and then that just helps build community and it helps increase communication and it helps everyone just get ready for the trips.

Speaker 1: 2:46

The other thing that I'm thinking about doing I haven't committed to this yet, but this is just an idea and I'd love to know your thoughts on it. So drop me a comment, send me a DM, let me know what you think. But let's say, maybe you're interested in climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, but you're not really sure. But you're just interested and you want to know what's going on behind the scenes. I am considering opening our Slack channel up to people who express interest in a particular trip, just so they can kind of get the scoop, get the lowdown, before they commit to purchasing the trip. So if that sounds like something you want me to do, if you want me to open up and allow you into our Slack channel because you're considering a trip, let me know. That's something I'm just trying to see. If that's a good idea right now, I'd love your feedback on that.

Speaker 1: 3:34

The second thing that we're doing to help trip participants is now we're organizing monthly meetups. So basically this is just a video call every month. I think that face to face connection is super important because I want to be able to recognize our trip participants at the airport or at the hotel. I think it's important to share information, to ask questions. Plus, it's kind of fun to learn who's going on those trips with us and as we start to lead more trips all over the world. That's cool too, because, let's say, you climb Kilimanjaro with us this June in 2024, but you hang out in our Slack channel and next year, the women who are going to climb with us in August of 2025, they'll also be able to hop on that monthly video chat and answer questions. I think the video chats are great because you're able to hop on that monthly video chat and answer questions. I think the video chats are great because you're able to get information right from the source, right from a video chat, and then that will help all of us be better prepared for trips and then that's going to translate into a less stressful experience and a better experience overall.

Speaker 1: 4:40

The third thing that I'm doing is I am compiling a mega Q&A spreadsheet. So far, 80 women are signed up to go on trips with us, which is a lot, and I was just kind of trying to compile questions from the Facebook groups and from email traffic back and forth, and it just got to be too much for me to try to figure out how to remember all of those questions. So instead I'm documenting all of those questions onto one single spreadsheet that I can then get answers from our guiding companies. So I'm tracking those questions, I'm logging them and I'm following through with them. Hopefully that just relieves a lot of the last minute stress as people are trying to book flights and hotels and make travel arrangements and trying to figure out what to pack and all those things. So my goal is really just to increase communication through the monthly Q&A sessions through the Slack channel, to build community through the Slack channel and through the monthly meetups and then to just make sure that I am being very meticulous and answering all of your questions. So those are the things that I'm learning and things that I am doing as a trip host, because I want to make your experience when you travel with us here at Hike, like a Woman, really, really amazing. That is my goal. That's what I'm committed to.

Speaker 1: 6:03

Just a quick recap here we do have trips coming up. Costa Rica is just in a couple of weeks. It's too late to add anyone new to that trip. Kilimanjaro is sold out and we can't add anyone to that trip. However, alaska is sold out but we may have some cancellations. So if you want to join us in Alaska in August, make sure you get on that waitlist just in case there are cancellations so I can notify you.

Speaker 1: 6:28

Yellowstone in September we do have a couple spots open. So if that interests you, let me know or head to our website, hikelikeawomancom, to book that trip. In October we're going to Peru. We have quite a few spots open for that trip, so just let me know if you're interested. And in February we're going to Iceland and then save the date. These trips are not public yet, but we're looking at southern Utah the end of May, the first part of June, and another trip to climb Kilimanjaro at the end of August 2025. Hey, thanks so much for being here. Thanks for tuning in the podcast. If you have questions about our upcoming trips, you have questions about what we do here at Hike. Like a Woman, you have a topic that you want me to talk about on our podcast. All you got to do is send an email over to my team, hi at hikelikeawomancom, and we'll get back to you or we'll add it to the show lineup. Thanks so much. I'll see you next time.