June 11, 2025 • 25 mins
Henley Vazquez, co-founder and CEO of Fora, shares tips for getting more out of your vacations
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good Morning.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
episode is going to be a longer one part of
the series where I interview fascinating people about how they
take their days from great to awesome and any advice
they have for the rest of us. So today I
am delighted to welcome Henley Vazquez to the show. Henley
is a travel expert, the co founder and CEO of Fora,
(00:33):
which is a travel platform. So Henley, welcome to the show.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
Hi, thanks so much for having me. Good morning morning.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah, well, tell us a little bit about yourself yet.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
Well, you and I go way back. Laura and I
actually went to college together, and since then I've spent
actually most of my career working as a travel agent,
which was not something that I even knew existed before
I fell into it by accident and then have sort
of accidentally found myself heal in the wild world of entrepreneurship.
(01:04):
Fora was my third company. We launched in twenty twenty one,
really with the goal of sort of breaking down the
barriers to entry that existed within the travel agency industry
and building up the technology which was essentially non existent,
and since then it's been at a pretty great experience
seeing lots of new folks coming in and preparing for
what we think is the next generation of travel.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Yeah, so fora is kind of I mean, you can
describe it better than me, but sort of part of
this gig economy where people can turn time into a
job in a way that doesn't fit within the parameters
of a normal sort of forty hour a week in
one spot kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Correct, correct, Yeah, I think flexibility is the key, and
that's something that didn't exist previously in this industry. There's
a lot of people out there who know a lot
about the travel, that travel quite frequently, that love travel.
They're often the go to person within their network for
planning a trip for someone, but they were never monetizing that.
They were just leaving that money on the table. So
(02:02):
our goal was to say to them, come in, we'll
give you the training, we'll give you the tools, and
we'll give you the flexibility to build this in addition
to your forty hour a week, in addition to your
nine to five, or to let you do it full time.
So that is the biggest thing for us. Is that
we want to give people platform where the business is
meeting them where they're at, not where someone else says
(02:22):
it should be.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Absolutely And maybe you could tell our listeners because maybe
some people listening to this are like, well, I don't
understand why would travel agents be a thing now? I mean,
I can just go on the American app or United
app and book book my flight. So why do people
seek out advisors in this day and age.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Yeah, I get asked that all the time. And that's
actually why I call myself a travel agent, even though
the industry has mostly converted to the term of travel advisor,
because when you say travel agent, people immediately understand you
book trips and earn money that way. But aren't you
like a dinosaur? Do you exist? Yes? We actually were
named by LinkedIn as the fifth fastest growing job in
(03:01):
the US right now because so many new people are
actually coming into the industry and building careers around it. Now,
why do you need us? I'll use an example. I'm
sitting here in New York. There's a hotel I quite
love nearby called the Beakman. If you, Laura, were to
just go on line or go on an ota like Expedior,
booking book the Beakman Hotel, It's going to be one price.
If I go on and I plan this amazing trip
(03:22):
for you to come up to New York City, come
visit me, and spend a weekend at the Beakman, it's
going to be the same price. You're also going to
have breakfast included, plus upgrades, plus resort credits. And because
we have a relationship with a hotel, I'm going to
get paid that commission, So I'm going to earn something
without you suspending any more. And they're going to vipu.
They're going to put you in a different category than
the people that come in because I'm going to share
(03:44):
why you're coming. Are you bringing kids? So it really
is a superior way to book travel at no cost
to the traveler, But most consumers don't know that we're
doing this or think that we're a more expensive channel.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yeah, and I would imagine there's also just the expertise
in it too. I mean I would go on a
site and see that there were, you know, fifty hotels
in New York and I'm reading reviews but I don't
know what to make of them, Versus a trusted person
telling me no no, no, Laura, you want to stay
at the Beatman exactly.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
And this I was a way down in the USBI
recently and I was talking to another guest at the
hotel and he said, but why would I use you
chat chee PTI just gave me a great itinerary for
Thailand And this was this beautiful island in the USBI.
It's called Lavongo. It's rustic. There's not traditional hotel rooms,
it's tree houses on hilltops. And I said, well, because
(04:36):
this amazing room that you're in costs just the same
as a room over at the Ritz Carlton and Saint Thomas,
which is an entirely different experience. You love this. If
you just look online, these two things might seem similar.
They cost the same, they're kind of in the same location,
but the experience is entirely different. And so that matchmaking,
that personalization, I think is particularly in the time of AI.
(04:59):
The human is the pre Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Well, and it can save you some serious time too.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
I mean, if you're you know, spending hours waiting through
you know, all of this online, I imagine that's what
I don't have.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
Time one hundred cut through the clutter. You don't know
what's real. You don't know what's Instagram. You don't know
that what your friend liked is even what you did.
Let somebody go do the work, because again, it comes
for free essentially. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Well, Henley, as someone who travels a ton, I'm sure
you have built up all sorts of routines around travel
and ways of doing it better. I've recently been on
a lot of long plane flights and I find this
time incredibly hard to use.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Well.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I wonder if you have any advice for how you
use plane flights to to, you know, make your life
not feel like you just want to get off the
plane right this second.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
I think most of us do just want to get
off the plane right this second. That said, I spend
way too much time on planes, and I you have
to be productive there because otherwise this week and I'll
spend like most of the day tomorrow flying to Vancouver.
So how do I use the time? I really try
to be on planes where I feel like the Wi
Fi is reliable, And I know that that's a little
(06:14):
bit of a like. I don't know, we'll see, but
it is. If you find out that a plane doesn't
have good Wi Fi or a certain route doesn't have
any WiFi on it. I don't fly it because what
I use is that time to email and then in
particular to catch up with a lot of my advisors
are on these WhatsApp groups and we have an internal
chat system, which it's hard for me to keep track
of that during the day with meetings and sort of
other work and projects that go on. When I'm on
(06:36):
a plane, I try to be really responsive to those
because I'm stuck there. I can't do anything else. It
may be hard for me to think creatively when I'm
in the sky, but what I can do is bang
out email responses, catch up on correspondence, and really get
into those chats and be kind of a real time
brainstorming partner for these advisors.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Yeah, and do you think through like you know, this
is how my energy is going to be on this
long flight, Like this is when I need to rest,
this is when I need.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
To read this. I mean, I'm very curious. Do you
map this out ahead of time?
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Yeah? I know that I'm bad at sleeping on planes,
so I don't even try to do that because it
could be it just I get frustrated with it. I
think I know some people who actually do get their
creative juices flowing in the sky. And they know that,
so they save that time for I'm going to work
on a memo about a project, I'm going to write
a speech. I know that I'm not that way, so
I don't try to force myself into doing tasks that
(07:26):
I won't excel at, because I'll just end up hitting
my head against the wall. The only way that I
actually do relax on a plane, which if not really
sometimes movies, is I actually listen to podcasts, because then
that way I can like sort of zone down for
maybe you know, thirty minutes to an hour and feel
like I've learned something which may then inspire me to
jump back into some element of my work and get
(07:48):
that done.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Absolutely well, We're going to take a quick ad break
and then I will be back with more from Henley Vazquez.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Well, I am back.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
I am talking with Henley Vazquez, who is a travel expert,
the co founder and CEO of four Up, which is
a travel platform. We've been talking about time on planes.
I'm sure you also have ways you pack, so maybe
any advice for people who wind up packing frequently about
how to do this better.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
I'm the worst packer. You know what my vice is
about packing is feel no shame about your style of packing,
because I actually travel so much that I can get
myself into a ball of anxiety trying to like you know,
edit down into a carry on. If it is four
days or more, I'm checking that bag, I could spend
all the time. And again, because we're talking about time management.
(08:42):
If I know that I'm traveling the next day, and
this is so for me tonight when I go home,
I can spend time with my kids, or I can
spend time panicking over if I'm going to fit the
right clothes, for the right outfit, for the right speech
into a carry on, or I can throw everything that
I want in that up, check it tomorrow, be done
with it, and spend that time with my kids. So
(09:03):
I think, like, choose your battles wisely when it comes
to packing. For some people, they thrive on a really
great edit and picking out their their outfits. I am
terrible at fashion. I know it. I put as much
as I can possibly fit in and move on.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yeah, I don't know. I've just lost my luggage.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
So I'm like now traumatized by the experience that will
do it, that.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Will do it.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
So I'm kind of team carry on only after that,
although I've managed to like lose my carry on bag too,
So I.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Mean, I'd love to be I mean, I really I
like my goals in life are to become better at this.
But you know, again, if it's you know, once I
get to four day's it's it's done. It's out the wind,
that's done, It's done and over.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Absolutely is there anything surprising though that you bring with
you that people are like, ah, that's a I wouldn't
have wouldn't have pegged that.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
Hmmm. I think I probably bring more shoes with me
than I need, and that is because I insist on
having a pair of running shoes with me, and so
you may need a pair of flats, a pair of boots,
a pair of heels, and I will always bring the
running shoes as well as, you know, the casual walk
around sneakers. I think the minute that you don't pack
those shoes, and that it does take up a lot
(10:07):
of space, the minute you don't pack them is the
time that you really wish, you know, you could you're
up early with jet lag when you're going to the
West coast, you could have gone to the gym, you
find a little bit of time, you could have run
for twenty minutes to get outside and get some air.
I think the ability to fit a little bit of
fitness into your travel schedule is essential. I do not
(10:27):
leave those at home. And I know a lot of
people are like, I don't need it, or I'll do
some yoget that's not for me. For me, it is
like hitting a treadmill, or it's going for a run outside.
That is my efficient way of getting some exercise into
my life. So the running shoes are always coming with me.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Absolutely no exercising when you're traveling. It's like you're winning,
right winning.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I fit this in it? Yeah yeah no.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
And when you're in hotels, are you able to anything
you do to rest better when you're away from home?
Speaker 4 (10:54):
That's interesting. I love putting the ac way down, like
you know, in ways that you might not want to
pay for at home, and make it nicely called at night.
I also do make use of things that I might
not do otherwise, like room service, which is feels a
little bit like a splurge for breakfast. But when I
know I've got a busy day of meetings or conferences
to have food come to my room so that I
(11:15):
can be there and be banging out my emails and
getting my work done. I'm all about the before breakfast work.
So when I can do that early and not be
down and talking to people in a restaurant and waiting
for it, it is a It's an investment in giving
some time back to my day.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Absolutely all about having an efficient breakfast, but a real breakfast,
like real We like real breakfast here on this show.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
So, Henley, you are managing a fast growing business.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
You also have three kids.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Are there any routines you have that make you more
productive and efficient?
Speaker 4 (11:44):
I do think it is about It's about the before
breakfast and after dinner. So you know, the middle of
the day is challenging and it is busy, and it
can go sideways very quickly with something you didn't expect
to happen. But in the morning, when I'm in the
kitchen making the kids lunches, make breakfast, I basically it's
my stand up desk guid the laptop open and I'm
talking to them. I'm getting the ready, but I'm also
(12:05):
going through sort of the pre day emails to get
some things out of the way at the end of
the day, after dinner, I really try to put my
work away to have dinner with the kids or not
if I'm on my own, or to just sit down
and you know, maybe watch some TV and eat some
sushi by myself, but to actually then after dinner pick
it back up, not try to do any heavy thinking,
but just clear a few more things out of my
(12:27):
life because I do sleep better. Don't work right up
until the moment you go to bed, or your brain
is spinning all night. But I think that before breakfast
and that after dinner, logging you know, an hour each time.
It doesn't feel stressful, but it actually brings down the
level of work that you're going to have to do
during the day, because often the days are tied up
with talking and with meetings and in person react interactions
(12:48):
that need to exist.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, now that's definitely true for anyone who's in a
leadership role. Is you know, you have the part of
your job which is responding to the people who are
working with you and dealing with the crises that come,
but of course you still have the stuff you have
to do, and so if you don't separate out the
two a little bit, then you're always when you're engaged
with the people who are working with you, you're like,
(13:11):
but I know I need to be doing this, and
then you can't relax.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Is that how you feel?
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Yeah? It is, and I know I'm starting to experiment.
I've been reading a lot about people who have done
away with one on ones with their direct reports and
actually created one meeting where all their direct reports come
in and they all discuss what's going on together. Because
as you're talking about this, really everybody who's on that
team should be hearing it. So that's something that I'm
considering starting, because even those one on ones, it can
eat up a lot of your time during the week,
(13:35):
and when you travel too, you have very precious time
to engage with your direct reports. I don't feel that
I'm able to give a ton of time and attention.
Un Luckily, everybody I work with is really independent and
a go getter. But I think there's ways that you
can tweak that world, that part of your world, to
try to have a more efficient way of communicating with
(13:55):
your team. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Now, this is not your first business venture that you've
you've started, correct, You've you've done the entrepreneurial thing before.
Is there anything you've you've learned as you've been on
this journey.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
Clearly not because I just keep doing it. You know.
The biggest this is I yes, I was part of
I was a founding part of the founding team at Indagari,
which is a membership based travel company, and then I
founded a smaller agency called Passport. It ran that until
the pandemic told us both it was time on.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Yeah, yeah, you travel took a hit.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
COVID did that to hospitality. But this, you know, building
fora really was mission driven. It was not just about
starting a business. It was about starting a business with
the right co founders, which is so essential and with
something that would keep me up at night and drive
me to get up in the morning. I deeply care
(14:51):
about what our advisors are doing. We are giving them
a platform to start businesses. We are giving them the
ability to become entrepreneurs themselves. And that is something that
I think if you are starting a business, being a
business owner, it's big or small, it is hard. And
now our advisors were big. We've got thousands of advisors.
They've sold over a billion dollars of travel in the
last three and a half years, so they're doing a lot,
(15:14):
but it's not really about those numbers. What it's about
is feeling so engaged to the mission that you can't
imagine doing anything else, because if you're doing this just
for the numbers, it will break you.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
So that is that is probably true with entrepreneurship in general.
Is there anything you sort of do to relax? I mean,
I'm sure it's stressful. They don't have a fast growing
business and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
I love TV.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I really, what are you watching these days?
Speaker 4 (15:39):
What are you watching? I love? I love all of
the TV. That's the thing. People, do you have time
to watch? You them? Of course I do? What else
would I do? I love my nights with TV and
a glass of wine and a frozen Reese's cup. But
I know I do that, you know, sitting there turning
on the TV at night and watching the new season
of Nine Perfect Strangers right now with my daughter. But
I think the the thing that helps me relax really
(16:01):
is just when you're in that point where you feel
overwhelmed and busy, because owning a business is hard, that
reminder of why you're doing it, and like how lucky
we are to all be able to have the ability
to work in this kind of environment is really ultimately
what brings the stress down absolutely.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Well, We're going to take one more quick ad break
and I'll be back with more from Henley Vazquez. Well,
I am back talking with Henley Vazquez, who is the
co founder and CEO of Fora, which is a travel platform.
So we have you know, probably people listening to this
would be like, well, I'd love to travel more. However,
(16:45):
I have sort of limited PTO. I wonder if there's
some adventures you can recommend that people who are in
that position might might look into doing.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Yeah, So this is something One of the really fun
things about having such an extended community here at for
is that we can spot the trends in the data
in a way that other people, sort of smaller agencies
can't see. Domestic travel is what is happening right now,
and particularly for folks who have limited PTO or just
frankly looking at the prices of a flight to somewhere
(17:15):
and going is Europe really happening for me this summer?
It is? Do not sleep on domestic travel. We've seen
a massive surge in domestic bookings. People are still traveling
for longer lengths of time. But you can easily get
away for a long weekend to Charleston or Austin, or
Moab or Jackson Hole. There's so much to do within
(17:35):
the bounds of the country that limits the travel time
to get there, limits the expense of arrival obviously with
the flights that then you can kind of choose. If
you're trying to stick to a budget your family, you've
got to get a couple of rooms. You don't have
to spend as much you can, say, in really cute hotels.
On the other hand, if you're saving in other ways,
this might be your excuse to splurge on a really
exceptional dude ranch, which is we've seen just blowing up
(17:58):
as an option for multi generational travel. So I think
the biggest piece of advice is use an advisor because
they're going to help you sort through which one is
right for you and two. Don't feel that just because
it's not exotic in some way that it's not worthwhile.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Yeah, well, what are some other travel trends that you're saying.
You mentioned dude ranches for intergenerational travel or Moab as
a destination.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
What are some other ones that are hot?
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Right? Yeah, I mean, there's obviously a lot of active
and adventure travel happening at the moment. When you talk
about dude ranches and mob I think there's kind of
the wellness I would it's a huge trend, but I
would almost lump it into active adventure because wellness means
so much in terms of who you're talking to. It
might mean a spavacation, it might mean a detox, it
might mean climbing a mountain, it might mean sitting on
(18:46):
a beach and getting in a facial But the idea
of self care and wanting to return from your trip
a better person or a better version of yourself is
for sure a big trend that tends to be like
a January February March style of travel. This summer, what
we're seeing is yes, a huge surgeon domestic travel, but
we're seeing Greece pop off in a way that I
(19:07):
have not seen in a few summers. Right when you're reopened.
Greece was one of the earlier countries that were letting
travelers enter and had a very big summer, and then
people kind of were doing the Italy thing and the
fans thing, and now this summer I've never seen such
a surge in Greece bookings as I have before. Then
of course there's always the white Lotus trend of wherever
(19:29):
they are filming, wherever they have just released a season.
Thailand is exponential growth. If you want to go to Thailand,
and i'd say, and sort of the rollover into the
rest of Southeast Asia, do not plan this last minute
planet ahead of time because the hotels are booking up.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
They're like, well, you and everyone else who was watching this,
you and everyone else.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
I think it's really neat though, because you realize that
this sort of content inspired travel, which i'd say Yellowstone
and Dude Ranches or you know, Bridgerton and the English
countryside is really fun because you, as an advisor can
get in there and help them figure out. Okay, so
maybe actually Thailand is too booked up, but let me
tell you about Vietnam. Vietnam is phenomenal and we can
(20:09):
do a lot of the same experiences. Or maybe when
you're planning to travel, it's actually not the right season
to be in Thailand. Hey, but Bali is great in
the summer. So I think there's there's so much that
we can get in there and help people match, make
their vision that they've seen on TV because we all
love TV, to what their actual experiences on the ground,
and make sure that it is what they actually want,
(20:30):
not what just sounds like the right choice.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Absolutely well, and I mean just because you know, we
don't get to travel probably as much as we want.
I mean, maybe you're on a plane more than you wish,
but in terms of like leisure travel, so we you know,
it's kind of about making it special, right, I mean,
like taking their leisure time seriously.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
Absolutely, and no, despite the fact that I'm on a
plane all the time, my actual like choice time as
my second grader, I would say, is very limited. I
almost never get to choose where I would go. So
when I'm traveling with my family or making or by
myself to go away for a spa weekend, it is
really important to make that matter. So making sure that
I feel comfortable with a budget. Am I spending more
(21:12):
than I want to spend and it's going to stress
me out? Making sure that it checks off a box
sometimes for me, I'm taking the kids to Nicaragua this summer.
That's a place I've been wanting to go for a
long time. We spent part of COVID living in Costa Rica.
So this is sort of going back but doing something
a little bit different. So how do you have something
that checks the box. It's new, or it's returning to
(21:33):
a place that's really special to me, or it is
you know, it's off season, so I'm actually getting more
for my money by going to a place that isn't
prime time, or I'm also this summer, I decided I'm
going to Sardinia. Everybody on earth is talking about Sardinia,
and I said, you know what, I got a good
deal in some flights and off I go, because I
actually do want a little bit of that sort of
(21:54):
European summer fun. So I think figuring out what's important
to you and your limited leisure time, because it is
limited for everybody, is like sort of what's the vector
that hits that absolutely?
Speaker 3 (22:06):
So Henley, I always ask people, what is something you
have done recently to take a day from great to awesome?
Speaker 4 (22:13):
Ooh, oh, I actually have I actually know exactly what
it is. We launched for Mexico last week, which is
really exciting to see the advisors in Mexico joining a
platform that has now been created for them, so not
just the American platform, but actually we pay them at
Pistos we have training in Spanish. It is an amazing
(22:34):
community that's building there. So I flew down. It was
really busy with press and work and sort of all
the regular stuff. But I took an hour in the
middle of the day and I looked at a restaurant
I really wanted to go to, and I took a
book with me and I walked across Mexico City to
go to Ultra Marino's and had one of the best
lunches I have ever had in my life, just by
(22:55):
myself with great food and a book. And it wasn't
it felt completely indulgent to do this, But the walk,
just seeing in the city. I love Mexico City. Really
good food that is, you know, not something I'm getting
down the street here. That turned the day from a
great day, because it was a great day. We're launching.
It's exciting. I'm there with the advisors, but that was
(23:15):
just for me and it turned it to awesome. Oh.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
I love finding a little pocket in the day for
something that just makes a day amazing.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Ye, And what are you looking forward to right now?
Speaker 4 (23:29):
I'm looking forward to well, My oldest daughter is actually
she's just finished her freshman year of college and she
is working at a hotel this summer, so she's following
a little bit of mom's footsteps of hospitality. She'll be
up in Martha's vineyard. And you know, I get to
see people in the early stages of their travel, advising
careers all of the time with this job. It's so fun.
(23:51):
And I was listening to your podcast about cheering first
and thinking how how much that is like we should
we should be cheering for people from the beginning. How
what the effects of that? And now I get to
cheer for her as she's sort of working as a
host in a restaurant and checking people out in a
general store and learning what it is to sort of
be that sort of public facing role in hospitality and
(24:14):
see how she likes it. So I am really looking
forward seeing how our summer goes. Also, who doesn't want
to be in Martha's vineyard? I know, what a great
going to visit her. Yeah, wonderful, wonderful. Well, Henley, thank
you so much for joining us. Thank you to everyone
for listening. If you have feedback on this or any
other episode, you can always reach me at Laura at
(24:35):
Laura vandercam dot com and in the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
our time.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,
(25:11):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good Morning.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
episode is going to be a longer one part of
the series where I interview fascinating people about how they
take their days from great to awesome and any advice
they have for the rest of us. So today I
am delighted to welcome Henley Vazquez to the show. Henley
is a travel expert, the co founder and CEO of Fora,
(00:33):
which is a travel platform. So Henley, welcome to the show.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
Hi, thanks so much for having me. Good morning morning.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah, well, tell us a little bit about yourself yet.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
Well, you and I go way back. Laura and I
actually went to college together, and since then I've spent
actually most of my career working as a travel agent,
which was not something that I even knew existed before
I fell into it by accident and then have sort
of accidentally found myself heal in the wild world of entrepreneurship.
(01:04):
Fora was my third company. We launched in twenty twenty one,
really with the goal of sort of breaking down the
barriers to entry that existed within the travel agency industry
and building up the technology which was essentially non existent,
and since then it's been at a pretty great experience
seeing lots of new folks coming in and preparing for
what we think is the next generation of travel.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Yeah, so fora is kind of I mean, you can
describe it better than me, but sort of part of
this gig economy where people can turn time into a
job in a way that doesn't fit within the parameters
of a normal sort of forty hour a week in
one spot kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Correct, correct, Yeah, I think flexibility is the key, and
that's something that didn't exist previously in this industry. There's
a lot of people out there who know a lot
about the travel, that travel quite frequently, that love travel.
They're often the go to person within their network for
planning a trip for someone, but they were never monetizing that.
They were just leaving that money on the table. So
(02:02):
our goal was to say to them, come in, we'll
give you the training, we'll give you the tools, and
we'll give you the flexibility to build this in addition
to your forty hour a week, in addition to your
nine to five, or to let you do it full time.
So that is the biggest thing for us. Is that
we want to give people platform where the business is
meeting them where they're at, not where someone else says
(02:22):
it should be.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Absolutely And maybe you could tell our listeners because maybe
some people listening to this are like, well, I don't
understand why would travel agents be a thing now? I mean,
I can just go on the American app or United
app and book book my flight. So why do people
seek out advisors in this day and age.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Yeah, I get asked that all the time. And that's
actually why I call myself a travel agent, even though
the industry has mostly converted to the term of travel advisor,
because when you say travel agent, people immediately understand you
book trips and earn money that way. But aren't you
like a dinosaur? Do you exist? Yes? We actually were
named by LinkedIn as the fifth fastest growing job in
(03:01):
the US right now because so many new people are
actually coming into the industry and building careers around it. Now,
why do you need us? I'll use an example. I'm
sitting here in New York. There's a hotel I quite
love nearby called the Beakman. If you, Laura, were to
just go on line or go on an ota like Expedior,
booking book the Beakman Hotel, It's going to be one price.
If I go on and I plan this amazing trip
(03:22):
for you to come up to New York City, come
visit me, and spend a weekend at the Beakman, it's
going to be the same price. You're also going to
have breakfast included, plus upgrades, plus resort credits. And because
we have a relationship with a hotel, I'm going to
get paid that commission, So I'm going to earn something
without you suspending any more. And they're going to vipu.
They're going to put you in a different category than
the people that come in because I'm going to share
(03:44):
why you're coming. Are you bringing kids? So it really
is a superior way to book travel at no cost
to the traveler, But most consumers don't know that we're
doing this or think that we're a more expensive channel.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yeah, and I would imagine there's also just the expertise
in it too. I mean I would go on a
site and see that there were, you know, fifty hotels
in New York and I'm reading reviews but I don't
know what to make of them, Versus a trusted person
telling me no no, no, Laura, you want to stay
at the Beatman exactly.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
And this I was a way down in the USBI
recently and I was talking to another guest at the
hotel and he said, but why would I use you
chat chee PTI just gave me a great itinerary for
Thailand And this was this beautiful island in the USBI.
It's called Lavongo. It's rustic. There's not traditional hotel rooms,
it's tree houses on hilltops. And I said, well, because
(04:36):
this amazing room that you're in costs just the same
as a room over at the Ritz Carlton and Saint Thomas,
which is an entirely different experience. You love this. If
you just look online, these two things might seem similar.
They cost the same, they're kind of in the same location,
but the experience is entirely different. And so that matchmaking,
that personalization, I think is particularly in the time of AI.
(04:59):
The human is the pre Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Well, and it can save you some serious time too.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
I mean, if you're you know, spending hours waiting through
you know, all of this online, I imagine that's what
I don't have.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
Time one hundred cut through the clutter. You don't know
what's real. You don't know what's Instagram. You don't know
that what your friend liked is even what you did.
Let somebody go do the work, because again, it comes
for free essentially. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Well, Henley, as someone who travels a ton, I'm sure
you have built up all sorts of routines around travel
and ways of doing it better. I've recently been on
a lot of long plane flights and I find this
time incredibly hard to use.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Well.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I wonder if you have any advice for how you
use plane flights to to, you know, make your life
not feel like you just want to get off the
plane right this second.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
I think most of us do just want to get
off the plane right this second. That said, I spend
way too much time on planes, and I you have
to be productive there because otherwise this week and I'll
spend like most of the day tomorrow flying to Vancouver.
So how do I use the time? I really try
to be on planes where I feel like the Wi
Fi is reliable, And I know that that's a little
(06:14):
bit of a like. I don't know, we'll see, but
it is. If you find out that a plane doesn't
have good Wi Fi or a certain route doesn't have
any WiFi on it. I don't fly it because what
I use is that time to email and then in
particular to catch up with a lot of my advisors
are on these WhatsApp groups and we have an internal
chat system, which it's hard for me to keep track
of that during the day with meetings and sort of
other work and projects that go on. When I'm on
(06:36):
a plane, I try to be really responsive to those
because I'm stuck there. I can't do anything else. It
may be hard for me to think creatively when I'm
in the sky, but what I can do is bang
out email responses, catch up on correspondence, and really get
into those chats and be kind of a real time
brainstorming partner for these advisors.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Yeah, and do you think through like you know, this
is how my energy is going to be on this
long flight, Like this is when I need to rest,
this is when I need.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
To read this. I mean, I'm very curious. Do you
map this out ahead of time?
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Yeah? I know that I'm bad at sleeping on planes,
so I don't even try to do that because it
could be it just I get frustrated with it. I
think I know some people who actually do get their
creative juices flowing in the sky. And they know that,
so they save that time for I'm going to work
on a memo about a project, I'm going to write
a speech. I know that I'm not that way, so
I don't try to force myself into doing tasks that
(07:26):
I won't excel at, because I'll just end up hitting
my head against the wall. The only way that I
actually do relax on a plane, which if not really
sometimes movies, is I actually listen to podcasts, because then
that way I can like sort of zone down for
maybe you know, thirty minutes to an hour and feel
like I've learned something which may then inspire me to
jump back into some element of my work and get
(07:48):
that done.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Absolutely well, We're going to take a quick ad break
and then I will be back with more from Henley Vazquez.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Well, I am back.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
I am talking with Henley Vazquez, who is a travel expert,
the co founder and CEO of four Up, which is
a travel platform. We've been talking about time on planes.
I'm sure you also have ways you pack, so maybe
any advice for people who wind up packing frequently about
how to do this better.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
I'm the worst packer. You know what my vice is
about packing is feel no shame about your style of packing,
because I actually travel so much that I can get
myself into a ball of anxiety trying to like you know,
edit down into a carry on. If it is four
days or more, I'm checking that bag, I could spend
all the time. And again, because we're talking about time management.
(08:42):
If I know that I'm traveling the next day, and
this is so for me tonight when I go home,
I can spend time with my kids, or I can
spend time panicking over if I'm going to fit the
right clothes, for the right outfit, for the right speech
into a carry on, or I can throw everything that
I want in that up, check it tomorrow, be done
with it, and spend that time with my kids. So
(09:03):
I think, like, choose your battles wisely when it comes
to packing. For some people, they thrive on a really
great edit and picking out their their outfits. I am
terrible at fashion. I know it. I put as much
as I can possibly fit in and move on.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yeah, I don't know. I've just lost my luggage.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
So I'm like now traumatized by the experience that will
do it, that.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Will do it.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
So I'm kind of team carry on only after that,
although I've managed to like lose my carry on bag too,
So I.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Mean, I'd love to be I mean, I really I
like my goals in life are to become better at this.
But you know, again, if it's you know, once I
get to four day's it's it's done. It's out the wind,
that's done, It's done and over.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Absolutely is there anything surprising though that you bring with
you that people are like, ah, that's a I wouldn't
have wouldn't have pegged that.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
Hmmm. I think I probably bring more shoes with me
than I need, and that is because I insist on
having a pair of running shoes with me, and so
you may need a pair of flats, a pair of boots,
a pair of heels, and I will always bring the
running shoes as well as, you know, the casual walk
around sneakers. I think the minute that you don't pack
those shoes, and that it does take up a lot
(10:07):
of space, the minute you don't pack them is the
time that you really wish, you know, you could you're
up early with jet lag when you're going to the
West coast, you could have gone to the gym, you
find a little bit of time, you could have run
for twenty minutes to get outside and get some air.
I think the ability to fit a little bit of
fitness into your travel schedule is essential. I do not
(10:27):
leave those at home. And I know a lot of
people are like, I don't need it, or I'll do
some yoget that's not for me. For me, it is
like hitting a treadmill, or it's going for a run outside.
That is my efficient way of getting some exercise into
my life. So the running shoes are always coming with me.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Absolutely no exercising when you're traveling. It's like you're winning,
right winning.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I fit this in it? Yeah yeah no.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
And when you're in hotels, are you able to anything
you do to rest better when you're away from home?
Speaker 4 (10:54):
That's interesting. I love putting the ac way down, like
you know, in ways that you might not want to
pay for at home, and make it nicely called at night.
I also do make use of things that I might
not do otherwise, like room service, which is feels a
little bit like a splurge for breakfast. But when I
know I've got a busy day of meetings or conferences
to have food come to my room so that I
(11:15):
can be there and be banging out my emails and
getting my work done. I'm all about the before breakfast work.
So when I can do that early and not be
down and talking to people in a restaurant and waiting
for it, it is a It's an investment in giving
some time back to my day.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Absolutely all about having an efficient breakfast, but a real breakfast,
like real We like real breakfast here on this show.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
So, Henley, you are managing a fast growing business.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
You also have three kids.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Are there any routines you have that make you more
productive and efficient?
Speaker 4 (11:44):
I do think it is about It's about the before
breakfast and after dinner. So you know, the middle of
the day is challenging and it is busy, and it
can go sideways very quickly with something you didn't expect
to happen. But in the morning, when I'm in the
kitchen making the kids lunches, make breakfast, I basically it's
my stand up desk guid the laptop open and I'm
talking to them. I'm getting the ready, but I'm also
(12:05):
going through sort of the pre day emails to get
some things out of the way at the end of
the day, after dinner, I really try to put my
work away to have dinner with the kids or not
if I'm on my own, or to just sit down
and you know, maybe watch some TV and eat some
sushi by myself, but to actually then after dinner pick
it back up, not try to do any heavy thinking,
but just clear a few more things out of my
(12:27):
life because I do sleep better. Don't work right up
until the moment you go to bed, or your brain
is spinning all night. But I think that before breakfast
and that after dinner, logging you know, an hour each time.
It doesn't feel stressful, but it actually brings down the
level of work that you're going to have to do
during the day, because often the days are tied up
with talking and with meetings and in person react interactions
(12:48):
that need to exist.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, now that's definitely true for anyone who's in a
leadership role. Is you know, you have the part of
your job which is responding to the people who are
working with you and dealing with the crises that come,
but of course you still have the stuff you have
to do, and so if you don't separate out the
two a little bit, then you're always when you're engaged
with the people who are working with you, you're like,
(13:11):
but I know I need to be doing this, and
then you can't relax.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Is that how you feel?
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Yeah? It is, and I know I'm starting to experiment.
I've been reading a lot about people who have done
away with one on ones with their direct reports and
actually created one meeting where all their direct reports come
in and they all discuss what's going on together. Because
as you're talking about this, really everybody who's on that
team should be hearing it. So that's something that I'm
considering starting, because even those one on ones, it can
eat up a lot of your time during the week,
(13:35):
and when you travel too, you have very precious time
to engage with your direct reports. I don't feel that
I'm able to give a ton of time and attention.
Un Luckily, everybody I work with is really independent and
a go getter. But I think there's ways that you
can tweak that world, that part of your world, to
try to have a more efficient way of communicating with
(13:55):
your team. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Now, this is not your first business venture that you've
you've started, correct, You've you've done the entrepreneurial thing before.
Is there anything you've you've learned as you've been on
this journey.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
Clearly not because I just keep doing it. You know.
The biggest this is I yes, I was part of
I was a founding part of the founding team at Indagari,
which is a membership based travel company, and then I
founded a smaller agency called Passport. It ran that until
the pandemic told us both it was time on.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Yeah, yeah, you travel took a hit.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
COVID did that to hospitality. But this, you know, building
fora really was mission driven. It was not just about
starting a business. It was about starting a business with
the right co founders, which is so essential and with
something that would keep me up at night and drive
me to get up in the morning. I deeply care
(14:51):
about what our advisors are doing. We are giving them
a platform to start businesses. We are giving them the
ability to become entrepreneurs themselves. And that is something that
I think if you are starting a business, being a
business owner, it's big or small, it is hard. And
now our advisors were big. We've got thousands of advisors.
They've sold over a billion dollars of travel in the
last three and a half years, so they're doing a lot,
(15:14):
but it's not really about those numbers. What it's about
is feeling so engaged to the mission that you can't
imagine doing anything else, because if you're doing this just
for the numbers, it will break you.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
So that is that is probably true with entrepreneurship in general.
Is there anything you sort of do to relax? I mean,
I'm sure it's stressful. They don't have a fast growing
business and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
I love TV.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I really, what are you watching these days?
Speaker 4 (15:39):
What are you watching? I love? I love all of
the TV. That's the thing. People, do you have time
to watch? You them? Of course I do? What else
would I do? I love my nights with TV and
a glass of wine and a frozen Reese's cup. But
I know I do that, you know, sitting there turning
on the TV at night and watching the new season
of Nine Perfect Strangers right now with my daughter. But
I think the the thing that helps me relax really
(16:01):
is just when you're in that point where you feel
overwhelmed and busy, because owning a business is hard, that
reminder of why you're doing it, and like how lucky
we are to all be able to have the ability
to work in this kind of environment is really ultimately
what brings the stress down absolutely.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Well, We're going to take one more quick ad break
and I'll be back with more from Henley Vazquez. Well,
I am back talking with Henley Vazquez, who is the
co founder and CEO of Fora, which is a travel platform.
So we have you know, probably people listening to this
would be like, well, I'd love to travel more. However,
(16:45):
I have sort of limited PTO. I wonder if there's
some adventures you can recommend that people who are in
that position might might look into doing.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Yeah, So this is something One of the really fun
things about having such an extended community here at for
is that we can spot the trends in the data
in a way that other people, sort of smaller agencies
can't see. Domestic travel is what is happening right now,
and particularly for folks who have limited PTO or just
frankly looking at the prices of a flight to somewhere
(17:15):
and going is Europe really happening for me this summer?
It is? Do not sleep on domestic travel. We've seen
a massive surge in domestic bookings. People are still traveling
for longer lengths of time. But you can easily get
away for a long weekend to Charleston or Austin, or
Moab or Jackson Hole. There's so much to do within
(17:35):
the bounds of the country that limits the travel time
to get there, limits the expense of arrival obviously with
the flights that then you can kind of choose. If
you're trying to stick to a budget your family, you've
got to get a couple of rooms. You don't have
to spend as much you can, say, in really cute hotels.
On the other hand, if you're saving in other ways,
this might be your excuse to splurge on a really
exceptional dude ranch, which is we've seen just blowing up
(17:58):
as an option for multi generational travel. So I think
the biggest piece of advice is use an advisor because
they're going to help you sort through which one is
right for you and two. Don't feel that just because
it's not exotic in some way that it's not worthwhile.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Yeah, well, what are some other travel trends that you're saying.
You mentioned dude ranches for intergenerational travel or Moab as
a destination.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
What are some other ones that are hot?
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Right? Yeah, I mean, there's obviously a lot of active
and adventure travel happening at the moment. When you talk
about dude ranches and mob I think there's kind of
the wellness I would it's a huge trend, but I
would almost lump it into active adventure because wellness means
so much in terms of who you're talking to. It
might mean a spavacation, it might mean a detox, it
might mean climbing a mountain, it might mean sitting on
(18:46):
a beach and getting in a facial But the idea
of self care and wanting to return from your trip
a better person or a better version of yourself is
for sure a big trend that tends to be like
a January February March style of travel. This summer, what
we're seeing is yes, a huge surgeon domestic travel, but
we're seeing Greece pop off in a way that I
(19:07):
have not seen in a few summers. Right when you're reopened.
Greece was one of the earlier countries that were letting
travelers enter and had a very big summer, and then
people kind of were doing the Italy thing and the
fans thing, and now this summer I've never seen such
a surge in Greece bookings as I have before. Then
of course there's always the white Lotus trend of wherever
(19:29):
they are filming, wherever they have just released a season.
Thailand is exponential growth. If you want to go to Thailand,
and i'd say, and sort of the rollover into the
rest of Southeast Asia, do not plan this last minute
planet ahead of time because the hotels are booking up.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
They're like, well, you and everyone else who was watching this,
you and everyone else.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
I think it's really neat though, because you realize that
this sort of content inspired travel, which i'd say Yellowstone
and Dude Ranches or you know, Bridgerton and the English
countryside is really fun because you, as an advisor can
get in there and help them figure out. Okay, so
maybe actually Thailand is too booked up, but let me
tell you about Vietnam. Vietnam is phenomenal and we can
(20:09):
do a lot of the same experiences. Or maybe when
you're planning to travel, it's actually not the right season
to be in Thailand. Hey, but Bali is great in
the summer. So I think there's there's so much that
we can get in there and help people match, make
their vision that they've seen on TV because we all
love TV, to what their actual experiences on the ground,
and make sure that it is what they actually want,
(20:30):
not what just sounds like the right choice.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Absolutely well, and I mean just because you know, we
don't get to travel probably as much as we want.
I mean, maybe you're on a plane more than you wish,
but in terms of like leisure travel, so we you know,
it's kind of about making it special, right, I mean,
like taking their leisure time seriously.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
Absolutely, and no, despite the fact that I'm on a
plane all the time, my actual like choice time as
my second grader, I would say, is very limited. I
almost never get to choose where I would go. So
when I'm traveling with my family or making or by
myself to go away for a spa weekend, it is
really important to make that matter. So making sure that
I feel comfortable with a budget. Am I spending more
(21:12):
than I want to spend and it's going to stress
me out? Making sure that it checks off a box
sometimes for me, I'm taking the kids to Nicaragua this summer.
That's a place I've been wanting to go for a
long time. We spent part of COVID living in Costa Rica.
So this is sort of going back but doing something
a little bit different. So how do you have something
that checks the box. It's new, or it's returning to
(21:33):
a place that's really special to me, or it is
you know, it's off season, so I'm actually getting more
for my money by going to a place that isn't
prime time, or I'm also this summer, I decided I'm
going to Sardinia. Everybody on earth is talking about Sardinia,
and I said, you know what, I got a good
deal in some flights and off I go, because I
actually do want a little bit of that sort of
(21:54):
European summer fun. So I think figuring out what's important
to you and your limited leisure time, because it is
limited for everybody, is like sort of what's the vector
that hits that absolutely?
Speaker 3 (22:06):
So Henley, I always ask people, what is something you
have done recently to take a day from great to awesome?
Speaker 4 (22:13):
Ooh, oh, I actually have I actually know exactly what
it is. We launched for Mexico last week, which is
really exciting to see the advisors in Mexico joining a
platform that has now been created for them, so not
just the American platform, but actually we pay them at
Pistos we have training in Spanish. It is an amazing
(22:34):
community that's building there. So I flew down. It was
really busy with press and work and sort of all
the regular stuff. But I took an hour in the
middle of the day and I looked at a restaurant
I really wanted to go to, and I took a
book with me and I walked across Mexico City to
go to Ultra Marino's and had one of the best
lunches I have ever had in my life, just by
(22:55):
myself with great food and a book. And it wasn't
it felt completely indulgent to do this, But the walk,
just seeing in the city. I love Mexico City. Really
good food that is, you know, not something I'm getting
down the street here. That turned the day from a
great day, because it was a great day. We're launching.
It's exciting. I'm there with the advisors, but that was
(23:15):
just for me and it turned it to awesome. Oh.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
I love finding a little pocket in the day for
something that just makes a day amazing.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Ye, And what are you looking forward to right now?
Speaker 4 (23:29):
I'm looking forward to well, My oldest daughter is actually
she's just finished her freshman year of college and she
is working at a hotel this summer, so she's following
a little bit of mom's footsteps of hospitality. She'll be
up in Martha's vineyard. And you know, I get to
see people in the early stages of their travel, advising
careers all of the time with this job. It's so fun.
(23:51):
And I was listening to your podcast about cheering first
and thinking how how much that is like we should
we should be cheering for people from the beginning. How
what the effects of that? And now I get to
cheer for her as she's sort of working as a
host in a restaurant and checking people out in a
general store and learning what it is to sort of
be that sort of public facing role in hospitality and
(24:14):
see how she likes it. So I am really looking
forward seeing how our summer goes. Also, who doesn't want
to be in Martha's vineyard? I know, what a great
going to visit her. Yeah, wonderful, wonderful. Well, Henley, thank
you so much for joining us. Thank you to everyone
for listening. If you have feedback on this or any
other episode, you can always reach me at Laura at
(24:35):
Laura vandercam dot com and in the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
our time.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,
(25:11):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Before Breakfast News
Host
Laura Vanderkam
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