Transformative Journeys: How Travel Shapes Identity and Purpose

Hey, one more thing before you go. There are moments in life when a single journey changes everything. Not because of the miles traveled, but because of the perspective gained.Sometimes it's a child stepping into a new culture for the very first time. Sometimes it's a group serving a community halfway across the world. And sometimes it's a family taking a leap of faith into a brand new calling.Today we're going to explore how travel becomes a catalyst for transformation for students, for leaders and for families, and for the people who dedicate their lives to making these journeys possible. I'm your host, Michael. First, welcome to One more Thing before you go. Today we're exploring two guiding questions.How does travel reshape identity, purpose and connection? And what happens when we step into the world with curiosity, humility and intention?Our guest is someone who lives at the intersection of education, adventure and service.Dr. Joy Owens is a mom of two, CEO of Butler Travel, and a passionate advocate for group travel, humanitarian missions and life changing educational experiences.She and her husband took a leap from the classroom into the business world when they purchased Butler Travel, a company born not on a cruise ship or beach, but in the sandy villages of Tanzania where its founders served as missionaries.Today, Joy continues that mission with a broader vision to make travel accessible, meaningful and transformative for students, families and humanitarian groups. Anyone seeking connection with the world. And I'm honored to have you on the show, Joy.

Hi, Michael. Thank you so much for having me.

An amazing journey that you have had in your lifetime. I appreciate where you have been and where you, where you're taking, especially with connecting people with the world. That's amazing.

Yeah. So thinking of connection. So when I was 12 years old, my parents decided, hey, we're going to move to Zambia.We're going to leave our cozy suburbs of Connecticut and take these kids to the mission field. And you can imagine if you did that to your kids, they probably wouldn't be super happy.So I was not happy to be leaving my friends as a, you know, preteen, leaving my friends and moving to Zambia. But we moved to Zambia and it really changed my life, my outlook on life. It definitely made our whole family more other centered.Instead of our growing up the United States, you, it's very easy to just be very individualistic and materialistic. And so it really changed that perspective for us.And fast forward a couple years or a couple decades, we, my husband and I, we were just thinking we were teachers. We had served in Taiwan, we had moved back to Alaska. Teaching in the United States was just a lot Harder.And then we had Covid, which made it even harder. And we were just like, we want to move on to something else. And the opportunity to buy Butler Travel opened up, and so we. We jumped on that.It really aligned with our love of mission as well as working with educational students and schools and to bring it full circle. When we moved to Zambia, my family had used Butler Travel to get over there.And so now it's really great that we are working with Butler Travel to continue the mission that you're doing.

That. Yeah. That's interesting. So even back then, the curiosity, the leadership, it led you to this and shaped this path you're on right now.And it's ironic that you took over the very company that actually introduced you to it.

Yeah, exactly.

You know, do you think that's what first drew you? I know you. You were a teacher. Can we talk about that for a minute? Yeah. Are you like. Do you teach academic high school, college? What do you teach?

Yes.So my husband was a science teacher, and I have taught grades K through the university level English, though my specialty is in English, so I taught in Honduras at a bilingual school there, and then in Taiwan, we taught my.That's where I met my husband, and we were there for about two years before we moved to Alaska, where I worked at the public school system as a ESL or ELL English language coach, as well as doing. Working within the classrooms.

As you know, that's Alaska. I have relatives up in Alaska, by the way. They love it up there.I have cousins that grew up there and they moved out and then they went back because they just.

Where in Alaska.

Shame on me for not knowing.You don't know, but I know that they had lived in Anchorage for a little while, and then there's a couple of places outside of Anchorage and right somewhere next to the ocean, to be honest. Okay. So I. It. They're cousins. You know, how cousins. You just don't really go into that very much.

Yeah.

But I do know I love what she posts, and I love the fact that, you know, she goes fishing again and she does, you know, everything. Everything she loves about Alaska she shares on Facebook and everything that she. She shares with the rest of the family.

So Alaska is a very beautiful place to visit. It's a little harder to live there during the winters when you like sunshine. And unfortunately, I like sunshine.Until we moved to Alaska, I had lived in very warm places with lots of sun. So.

Yeah.

Before we moved out.

Yeah, you know, it's. I grew up in Colorado. My wife grew up in Colorado. Our kids grew up in Colorado and we lived it up behind Pikes Peak.So we were about 8,500ft where it snowed 30 inches and 35 inches and that kind of a thing. They didn't close school unless you had a, about eight or nine, 10 inches of snow, you know, not this one, one inch or half inch.Like sometimes here in Arizona they do. So when we moved to Arizona, it was a complete shock. And youngest was in there.They in, in Colorado you have elementary school, you have middle school, then you have high school here. First grade through eighth grade is elementary school.She was in eighth grade when she moved here, so she was mad because it put her back in elementary school. So she can relate to you to a certain extent. So that was fun. So this your passion, your passion for travel into world travel.Did you find that to become a calling for you to kind of take your, how did you intersect the travel and the teaching aspect of it into the business that you currently have?

Well, so first of all, travel I think is kind of in my family genes. My grandmother, she is 97 and last year she went to Antarctica.

Wow.

She's been to I think 100 countries. My parents also have traveled a lot, a lot of it for mission purposes, but they have been to a lot of different countries.And so for me, I grew up before we even moved to Zambia. We had been to Europe, we had been to Russia right after the communism fell.We went over there to do some, an evangelistic series and travel has just like always been part of our, our, our life.

So yeah, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.

Oh, I was going to say so for, for us, like it is something we do together, but it's also something we do together as a family and also doing mission.

Well, I think it's nice. Do you have kids?

Yes, I have a four year old and a six year old.

Four and a six year old.So introducing them at that young age I think is very integral to helping to understand different cultures and different opportunities that are going around. My niece does that. She takes her kids since they were very, very little. They're four and seven now.And you know, she takes Taiwan, she's taking them to Taiwan, she's taken them to Hong Kong, she's taking them to Egypt. She's taken all over. It's such a diverse opportunity to understand cultures from different perspectives of life too and to show that we're all one.

Yeah. And then also depending on like where you're traveling, like if you're traveling to like Thailand or to Egypt, like, you might be in place.You might also just be in like, the five star hotels and not see very much of the. The country. But you could also be where you see that.That poverty and the children see it as well, and then they can just really appreciate more of the gifts that they do have at home and then also understand, like, so we sponsor children for school around different parts of the. In Africa and Asia.And so for them to, like, okay, so if we can go on a trip and they see the poverty, then they might understand more of, like, why are we doing the sponsorship?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think it gives them a perspective. You know, it's. As a police officer, I got that perspective.Not, not from outside the country, but within the country. Within the country. I was able to, you know, I was put into positions where I saw the people at their worst, the best people at their worst.I saw people living in squalor, living under the bridges, living down by the river, you know, those kind of things. And poor. Just absolutely poor. And, you know, you see the. But you can drive six blocks or eight blocks, and all of a sudden it completely changes.Like, you're in a different country and a lot of people don't understand that, and it's very hard for them to. So I appreciate that from that perspective because you're giving. You're giving them an opportunity to understand humanity from several levels.That's pretty cool.

Yeah, you definitely bring out a good point. Like, you don't need to travel to see the disparity in poverty. Like, just drive down the road.The other day we, you know, there was someone who was begging and we actually had. I normally never have anything to give. Like, I never carry cash, but we actually happened to have, like, some fruit and a bar.So we gave him an apple and a bar. And my, My son was like, why did we give that man food? I was like, well, he might be hungry.Like, he might not have a home or maybe he does, but, you know, that's not for me to judge. Like, we actually had something we could share, which.

Right time, right place. Right. Right time, right place. You and your husband, you made that major leap from education into the business.What kind of a transition was that for you? I mean, and the process for both of you, actually. Mm.

So it was stretching, let's just say, because we went from being in a career.So I had taught, I think, 15 years, and going from like, you know, where you have, you know, exactly what you're doing every hour to now, like, as the CEO of the company, figuring out what that even means, learning the contracts and the workflows and then also like researching how can we do this even better. It was. And then also like I was trying to make sure I worked in a small short of time because I had then a two year old and a four year old.So it was challenging. Every morning I would go for a walk and I would pray that I would have the wisdom to make the right decisions, the wisdom to lead my team.And I still do that. I haven't completely figured it out and I don't think that I ever will.

Well, that's an opportunity for you to connect with the universe and mother Nature and as well as from your spiritual perspective, you can grab the tools necessary to help you continue to build this, which is good. And I think we as individuals that, I mean as a cop, I never thought I'd be a businessman kind of a thing.So I think, well, there's a lot of us out here that have that same perspective. You, like you said, you get into what you're going to do, what your career is or whatever you happen to be doing.And sometimes we think stepping outside that box isn't the right choice for us. But sometimes when we do step out of that box, it opens up new opportunity. Like you did.

Yeah, I definitely think, sorry, I was just going to throw in there, like being willing and ready to jump on an opportunity is really important.Like we could say, yeah, we're not really ready and, but we were, we were willing and we were ready to step out, to step away from something we knew very well and try something new, different.

Which is a good thing. Yeah, it's a good thing. And I think it helped. I, I mean, correct me, but I think it helped that Butler Travel has such a unique origin story.

Yes.

Within the missionary stuff in Tanzania and in your first introduction through that company, I think it made it easier for, for like a service based travel industry because you, you, you saw how it works from the inside out. You experienced it. Did that help?

Yes, it definitely did help. And then I just, it also helped knowing that, you know, there's always a fear like if you take, if you buy a company, are the clients going to stay?Yeah, that a lot of the clients I, I knew how to connect with because of they were either in Africa or they were doing something similar or they had worked in a place that I had a connection to. And so that kind of relieved my fears a little bit.

Do you have a business background or an entrepreneurial background? Either one. Of you, you or your husband in. Or do you just kind of jump into it?

So my business background consisted of thinking of ideas and then never do anything with them. So that was kind of the thing like, like, you know, I had this idea, I had this idea, but going past the idea of doing it was, it was just.There's always other things that came up. So that was one of the reasons we're like, no, we need to buy a business because then we have to keep it going, right?Yeah, we have to keep, we have to find the money to pay the employees. So it kind of made us have to work as opposed to like when you just have an idea, you can just keep having ideas.There's nothing to really push you into actually progress.

Well, I think, I think you did you also, the benefit that you have is that you understood that company and it allowed you to be able to try to keep, keep and continue to shape the heart of that company. Because you already experienced and you, you, you and your family enjoyed it already.

Which I guess my husband, sorry, I was gonna say my husband and I had thought of doing that. Yeah, it is double edge. Yeah, my husband and I had actually, we had thought about starting our own travel company previously, but never got past it.Just the thinking, so.

But then the opportunity presented itself and you grasp it and things are going well. I think I know your mom. We know that you're a mom. You're an adventurer, you're a leader.How have those identities influenced the way you approach travel and experiences that you create for others?Because you took over this company and the understanding that you understand the heart of that company, you understand how it worked, but you have to bring yourself to it.

So as a mom, you start to like, think about all things that go wrong. Like, it's just something that I found switched as soon as I had a child.I was very daring and did like, you know, crazy things like kayak off a 50 foot waterfall. But then as soon as I had became a mod, like my, my brain switched and I was like, okay, I need to think about everything that goes wrong.And so when I do work with clients, I can advise them with that. Like, okay, you know, I've been here with my kids. You don't have to worry about this.Or if I were you, because you do, you are traveling with your family. I would make sure you had a longer layover or I would make sure to go this route instead of that route.Because that airport is really not the nicest for families. And so it really is able to play into that piece with working with clients.And then also just in terms of like the business, because I am more risk averse. Like I'm making sure that whatever decisions we're making are very financially sound for our business and protecting, Protecting the business.

It's a balance. Yeah, it's about.But you know, I think it's also an advantage for individuals coming to you in regard to that, because as a parent myself, you know, and of course my wife, it is. You have to consider that when you're taking kids with you and you have to be able to.But if you can, you can't always, I guess, trust the individuals that are helping you.But in your particular case, we can because we know you're a mom and one of your first forethoughts in helping shape something, especially when we have kids, is taking that into consideration, which is appreciative.

Yeah, yeah, we definitely have clients who are like, oh, can I stay in this hotel? And we're like, I mean you could, but we're actually not gonna book it for you because of the ratings. Like it's.You might want to be saving money when you're in Rome, but because of the ratings at the hotel, you're gonna have to do that on your own.We would prefer to book you over here or just changes like that, that clients might, might be thinking like, we want to save some money, but really you're exchanging money for safety.

But I think you still give them an experience. When you build something, at least from what I've learned about you guys, is that you build something, you build an experience.Not just a trip, it is something that kind of has meaning to it and you want them to walk away with the meaning and keep that and cherish that.When you think about the early days of stepping into that role, what surprised you the most about the like the world of group of humanitarian travel and all that kind of stuff? How did that play a factor into the way that you're continuing to build this company?

So, you know, really just, we want to continue leading, leaning into the area of travel where we are having some impact. So obviously we could just sell cruises, cruises make a lot of money.But instead we really are focusing on the area that has that, that meaningful impact. So helping the, the humanitarian groups get to their destinations.And you know, we send a, we work with a team that goes to Malawi and they do this open heart surgery. It's called Heart for Africa. And you know, just stories that we hear from them and what we, we were like, oh, we can have a part of that.Obviously we're not there and doing the open heart surgery, but we're facilitating, making it happen. Another thing is like this, the stories of. Of helping people get out of sticky situations.So we had a client who was in Tanzania a couple months ago, and there, the situation in Tanzania just kind of deteriorated. And there was no electricity, and he wanted to get out of the country like right away.A lot of people were at the airport trying to get on flights to get out of the country, but because there was no electricity, the. They couldn't sell tickets unless you had cash. But you couldn't get cash on the ATM because. Or the banks because there was no electricity.And so he was able to message us. We were able to get him on the next flight out.He sent us this great review, which you could read on trustpilot about how it made him have so much peace at mind to know that he had this team on the other side of the world able to help them get out of the situation. While everybody else was like, running around like crazy trying to get out. He. He was just able to be at peace. So when we have stories like that is.It really makes our jobs feel so much more meaningful than if we were just selling cruises.

I. I think it. Well, it goes back to the personal aspect of it. You know, you can trust that it's. It's personal. It's not just business. It's personal. You know, and.And that's something that we can all embrace. We all want to. We all want that. Especially in today's day and age.I mean, you call customer service and you get a computer and you have to fight with a computer. You know, keep saying representative, representative, representative, because it, you know, it kind of gets you stuck within that.But so I think that's a. I think that's a very. It's very commendable that you guys have kept the personal aspect of that.Something I want to touch on is, you know, you said when I was reading that a single week of travel can profoundly shift a child's perspective. And my wife and I saw it firsthand when our daughter went to. On a class trip in her eighth grade.Our oldest daughter, before we moved to Arizona, they took a class trip at graduation to Italy and Greece. And it's the first time she was out of the country. And it was educational.The history teacher and the geography teacher are the ones that coordinated this for every 8th grade class for their graduation thing. And that's another reason why our youngest was mad that you left yes, she said, I'm gonna do that yet. But she has since done some, so it's all good.We made up for it. But it was for her, it was. She came back with a new perspective like we were talking about earlier.You know, what have you witnessed firsthand that makes you kind of believe that it, it changes the perception because you're a teacher as well. So do you see that transformation once you take somebody there? Do you, do you see that like a. Do you feel it? Do you see it?

Yeah. So when we were in Taiwan, my husband and I, we weren't. He wasn't my husband then, but together we. We took a.Some students to Zambia for a month actually, and just to see their, like, worldview open up. When they got to go into a village, they got to learn how to. How they. They. The local people made their food from scratch.Like actual pounding the corn in a pounder.I don't know what the right word is, or, or like going out into the fields and, and working with a local person to see how they actually got their food. Our evenings where we debriefed, they were just like, talking about how grateful for they. The privileges that they have in, In Taiwan.And um, like, they can't believe how much work that the people had to do just to get the basic meals.So definitely we've seen it with students, we've definitely seen it, you know, with adults even, you know, walking in the footsteps of Christ or in the footsteps of Paul, going to the scene. Those Holy land type sites can really solidify someone's faith that they're like, I don't know if I really believe.But then when you actually go there and you actually see like, okay, this is, this is like, verify the place where something happened, and then it can be building for someone's faith as well.

Yeah, I agree with that.I think students and people in general, whether you're a student, whether you're a teenager, a child, a teenager or an adult, you know, you remember more when you walk the streets of history instead of just reading about it. You feel it, you experience it, you touch it.And I think it makes a validity, like you said a second ago, that it's experiential learning, you know, And I think that leaves more of an impact. And you.From you as a teacher, I think that just kind of emphasizes that as well, because you understand how somebody learns and how somebody retains some stuff. So it retains that information.

Yeah.And for sure, like, you can just think of like, if you were to learn about biology, like mammals and you're just reading in textbooks versus like going and tracking elephants and making. What do they call it, like footprints where you take this. I can't remember the name of it. Anyways, like you're.

Castings.

Yeah, castings. Thank you. Yeah.So depending on like, like doing that hands on stuff versus reading something that book, you know that the hands on stuff is going to stick in your brain way longer.

Well, and it's. Yeah, I, you know, I did another show just recently with an individual that is. He worked for a. He's a.He was a chef, but then he went to work for a company that he didn't really get to do his, his skills as a chef. And they sent him to Madagascar to kind of get some product.And when he got there, he kept going back and he fell in love with it because he kept, he. When he first went back, he saw firsthand that in Madagascar, the honey that's there. They don't have bees in Madagascar.And that's usually what you need to kind of. To pollinate the vanilla, for example.And he showed every morning he'd watch these people go out to the fields and they would hand pollinate each and every plant. And he said he came back with much more of an appreciation even of something as simple as vanilla.And understanding what it took for a jar of vanilla from Madagascar to get to our table. It was crazy.

That's why real vanilla is so expensive.

Yes, yes. But profound to be able to see that and watch that. And he said it changed him as an adult. So we were talking about kids, adults.So any opportunity that anybody that's out here, listening, watching, you know, take any opportunity that you can to really understand how cultures work, how food gets on your table, how connections are made, touch history, feel history, walk history, I think is an important aspect of our soul. Then gets touched, I think a little more than reading it in a book.

You know, that story about the vanilla reminds me of when we went to Italy and we as a whole family. This is my grandma wanted to do for her 90th birthday. So we went to Italy. We rented a villa in this olive grove area.And the owner of the olive grove also owned the villa. And she came and did a cooking demonstration. And then she also just told us about like growing olives and harvesting olives.And it's like one tree usually makes like a liter of oil. You just think about, yeah. So and then.And just like tasting the olives from the, the olive oil from there versus like how flavorful it is versus the stuff we get in the store and you're like, okay, well now we know what, why like good olive oil is so expensive. Because it's like one tree, like this whole thing.

Yeah, well, plus, that's a, that's profound, actually.And, and you know, the, the mere fact that one tree makes one liter and think of the, the thousands upon thousands of liters that are consumed every day. That's like, wow, that's a, that's profound actually.Have you found that the research, like well designed educational trips can increase students grades by 59% and that, you know, travel kind of activates learning in such a unique way? We just talked about.Do you think with your company, with Butler Travel, you design trips like that to help individuals from community, from, excuse me, from education all the way up through if just my wife and I wanted to take a trip.

Correct, correct. Yeah. So when we design a trip, we really want to know, like, so if it's for a school, then, you know, we put on our teacher hats.And so when we're designing that, we keep that in mind.And we also work with the, the leader, whether it's the, you know, the eighth grade teacher or whether it's a principal who's organizing it, to tailor something that is what they really want to see.Sometimes, like you, you can maybe you don't really care about seeing like the Leaning Tower of Pisa because you don't want to deal with the crowds, right. But you would rather have a cooking class and learn how to make homemade pasta. So tailoring it to exactly what the leader wants.And then again, if, for example, if you wanted to go on a vacation, we would do the same thing.Trying to tailor to the experiences that you would really want to have and making that happen as well as just guiding you through the process, giving you advice on maybe skipping things that are on the list.Like I always tell, you know, we just yesterday we got a client who called in for their honeymoon and they wanted to like do all of this and like all of Europe in like a week. I'm like, you're on your honeymoon. Like, do you really want to move every single day to a different city? Maybe just slow it down, slow it down.You'll, you'll get more out of this experience if you just choose to stay in one region as opposed to like hopping around from place to place.

I, I, I, wow. Try to cram all that into one week.Because I mean, you, it would take you at least a week to get involved with just something like Rome or Rome or Sicily or, or Paris or whatever the case may be. That's, that's a lot. But see, yeah, that's, that's. Wow.From a humanitarian and mission based travel, what makes these journeys so emotionally and spiritually impactful for, for the people that go as the communities they serve? Because I think you, I'm sure that you give hope and you give opportunity and you give, you make people's lives, I think easier.And from, from that perspective, how does that play into Butler Travel's mission?

Yeah, so with the humanitarian, I do want to make it clear because we're not a sending organization. We don't like organize what people do in the country that they're going to.We just help with the travel logistics and we partner with several different sending organizations that we trust and are doing a good job of having good relationships with locals. I think going on a short term mission is really helpful to the person who's going.It's transformative to them because of one, oftentimes things go wrong and then they can see how God steps into solve a problem or and two, they see the poverty, they see the challenges that the local people are going through and how happy they are usually and how generous those people usually are. And it, it just changes your perspective.As we've talked about already today, like when you see the happiness that someone might have even though they have nothing, or the willingness to share, you know, their meager food with you even though you have so much and they have very little, like when you have those experiences where you're really interacting with the local people, that just changes you and in a way that just going on a, on a vacation wouldn't.

Right. Yeah. I think one of the other conversations I had, I mean you, I think that you had listened to it yourself.The one from Morocco with Ashton when he was talking about the kind of how he takes individuals to each one of these like personalized, really personalized where you get to understand the culture and you get to have tea in certain places, you know, eat the food that's there, make sure. And it was.He does it so that it is safe and trusted and you could do experience stuff outside the like you mentioned earlier, trying to get in line for the Trevi Fountain, which now charges I think by the way to get to the Trevi Fountain. Understandably.I have Italian relatives and they say the tourist industry over there is like immense and there are thousands upon thousands of people that come and crowded. So taking your aspect of more of a personal touch and taking them outside that mainstream is a positive thing.Do you do that to individuals as well as for groups. I know that on your site you talk about doing like retreats and company retreats as well as individuals.

Yeah, so we do work with individuals. I do have a leisure specialist who works with all our individual clients.What we find is people use us for like their humanitarian trips and then they're like, hey, we also want to go on a cruise or want to go on a honeymoon or something like that, and they reach back out to us. So I have someone who is very skilled in designing custom vacations for anybody who calls individuals or families.And then my husband and I work more with designing the tours with schools and, you know, churches retreats as well as. Then we have a team that does the air piece from that perspective.

I think you go all over the. You do that here in the United States as well or just internationally?

No, so we just, we just have a school that's going to D.C. for their, their eighth grade trip. Nowadays, most U.S. schools do not want to leave the country. So for eighth grade at least. Yeah.

A lot going on. Yeah, there's a lot of chaos at the, at the moment and it's only gotten more. I'm sure that would have.Has that had an effect on your, on your business?

Well, so obviously we have people who are wanting to go to Africa or going to Asia, like, like Pakistan, India, and a lot of those flights were through like on Qatar or Emirates. And so those flights are canceled. So we're dealing with a lot of cancellations.We did have a mission team that was supposed to go to Jordan next week, and obviously they're not going. You know, we had a, a partner that we work with a tour company that, that does tourists Israel. And that tour is obviously canceled.And so we're just seeing a lot of cancellations and then people. Because they're still trying to get to where they're going. It wasn't necessarily they're trying to go to the Middle East.That prices are now very expensive for routes that like on British Airways or other airlines that would avoid the Middle east are very, very, very.

Which is unfortunate. Well, hopefully that will improve soon on all sides of it. It'll improve soon and something will starting to develop more into a.Less chaos, more peace, more peace. You guys have developed something called a rockstar leadership blueprint. What are the biggest pitfalls leaders face when planning group travel?And how does your blueprint help them avoid those kind of challenges? Because I mentioned earlier and I see it on your site where you can do like corporate retreats and things like that.

So I say the biggest thing that we see people doing is not planning early enough. Like they'll reach out to us. Like this past fall I had someone reach out to us. They wanted to do a retreat in January.That really left like three months of planning. And not only that was that they hadn't even started sharing the fact that they were doing a retreat.So they were trying to do everything in, in like a three months time. Fortunately they were going to Sedona in January so it was a low season. So they were able to at least find a place to host the retreat.Other otherwise like if they were going to a more popular destination it they could have been like oh we, we can't even find a place to have. So that's the number one thing I would say is not planning early enough. And then the budgeting piece.We often find that some organize, especially churches, they want to keep the budget small and it's not really realistic for what they're wanting to do.So just thinking about like what you're wanting to do and end the budget piece, is that really going to work or are you going to have to like bump down to a, a two star hotel to make it work?For example, we had a person who reached out to us who wanted to organize a tour through Europe and he wanted no food to be included so it'd be cheaper. And then he wanted to stay at two star hotel so that it would be cheaper because he was trying to pitch it to families.And in my opinion he was trying to do it for under $2,000 which with for like a two week tour I was like that's not going to be very possible. But then again, as a mom, I wouldn't want to have to every day try to figure out where I'm going to eat breakfast.Like I would rather have hotels that included breakfast and pay a little bit more than having to be scrambling to try to get breakfast before I have to get on a bus at 8am so keeping that budget piece in mind, it's like you might want to just raise it a little bit more so that people are actually comfortable. What you don't want is people to be uncomfortable.

As an adult, I want to know what we're going to eat.I want to know that it's taking place because you don't want to wander around for two hours trying to find a place and figure out what you're going to eat. And especially if you have families, you know, kids want to eat, kids want to eat. Now sometimes don't have that patience.Do you think we, as in your, in your perspective, do you help groups or individuals prepare emotionally, culturally, or practically for the experience they're about to step into? I mean, do you kind of get them, like. I think you kind of just touched on a little bit there. You kind of.The guy's trying to do a tour for this and not include this and not include this. Not including that.Do you, from a personal perspective, from your business side, do you take the time to, to kind of help people understand that you are stepping into a different culture, you are stepping into a different environment? This is what you should be aware of kind of a thing. That's a long question. Sorry.

Yeah, it is a lot. It says. Okay, so.So we usually work with just the tour leader as opposed to like, communicating with everybody, because we're not personally leading tours. We're just. Sorry, we're not the tour leader. The, the leader of the, of the group.So we're just kind of like connecting like a church, a pastor who wants to take his, his church to, with, with, with trusted vendors. Yes.But we do, as I said, like, with the pricing, like when someone calls us and they have unrealistic expectations or they want to do something and, and, and we're like, well, you don't understand the pricing of that. You want your budget to be $3,000, but then you're wanting to, like, spend a week at like, on the Amalfi Coast.Like, so we are educating them on, on more of like, what's real. Realist. Real.

Realistically. Yeah. Yeah. Which is, which is a good thing because I think we all.I mean, everybody dreams, especially if you watch a lot of TV or movies and you see like the Amalfi Coast. Our daughter videoed the Amalfi coast on her way to it. And of course, around all the Amalfi coast, it is.We all kind of say, yeah, I would love to do this and this and this and this, but, you know, sometimes you just gotta pare it down to what you can really afford so that you can enjoy yourself there.

Yeah.

Race.

And, and some people, people don't understand the distances between locations. Like, so we had someone who wanted to do this tour after their mission trip in Kenya.They wanted to go to see Masai Mara, but then they also wanted to go to Zanzibar, but they only had five days. And it's like, okay, really? Do you really want to take like this.You know, it's going to take you five hours to fly over to six hours to depending on the flight, you know, over to Zanzibar, when you are over here, you have to. You're going to be in Massamar, which means you're gonna have to drive a couple hours to the airport.You know, just like, do you really want to spend all that time trying to get these things together? Yes. I know it's Africa and they are close. Ish, but they really actually aren't close.It's like someone coming to the United States and being like, I'm gonna go to Florida and then I'm gonna go to Washington State because I want to see the, I don't know, the Oregon coastline. And it's like, well, you know, you could, but they're really far apart.

Yeah. I think. I think that as a positive thing that you. You give it to them, you give them an answer that is realistic.And I think that we all need sometimes that realistic approach to kind of understand because, you know, we get excited and sometimes we go. We don't know when we're going to come back. We don't know if I'm going to get there again.We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow or next month or next year kind of a situation. But, yeah, we want to enjoy what we have. Now you've had the opportunity to live a life that was shaped by adventure and service and purpose.What has all that travel taught you about humanity and about yourself? Can I touch upon that?

Well, I think having lived in six different countries and traveled a lot and seen really great things, seen lots of great things, I think it's really taught me to be one, be really grateful for the family I have, for the health I have, for the privileges I have. Not everybody has a privilege to travel. A lot of people don't have the privilege to travel.And so to really just be grateful for the opportunities that I do get and when I am in different cultures, to really appreciate being able to experience those different cultures,

and that's brilliant. You know, it's a brilliant opportunity for you as well to have a better understanding of how the world works and how it all is all intertwined.And again, how we're all. We're all one, you know, we're all one. And it's nice to be able to connect with others just like us.When you think about the future, I mean, you guys. You guys took this, you've bought this business, and you're building it with your own heart. You're building it interjecting yourselves within it.What do you see the future of butler travel? What excites you about where you guys are headed?

So we definitely are still going to continue with the mission of humanitarian travel and we are excited to just expand the ability to do more working with like schools and doing group study tours type things.So right now we still do a lot with already planning their air, but we want to continue to increase the number of tours that we're able to offer them and help them plan and, and really we want to have teachers be like, yes, this is educational, this is a great experience. We're not just hitting tourist sites, which

is a great thing.I mean, obviously I think it's an advantage that you both are instructors, you are both teachers, you are both, you know, you understand that dynamic like we said earlier about being able to have somebody walk and touch, talk and walk and touch history and you know, experience cultures and experience different lifestyles, experience the different opportunities, the different foods and the everything. We're all living under the same blue sky, but we all do things differently, we eat things differently and that works.Before we wrap up, I want to make sure listeners know how to connect you with you and explore everything Butler Travel has to offer. Where can people find you? How do they get in touch with you and what you have to offer?

Yeah, so if you are planning a trip, if you know someone who wants to take their eighth grade class to D.C. or someplace else, or if you know of a pastor who wanting to take their church to on a mission trip or to the Holy Land sites. Well, probably not Holy Land right now, but definitely go to butlertravel.com and you can see what we offer.You can learn a little bit more about us about the fact that we have 24 hour emergency service and we are able to help you with whatever travel needs you might have.You can also, if you just have questions about like traveling with children and you just really want to ask a mom what it's like to travel with children, feel free to send me an email at joy butler travel.com. i'd love to connect with you that way. And if you do want to use us, we have a discount code for you. It be go 10.That'd be 10 off our services, our service fees.

That's fantastic.I'll make sure that that's in the show notes as well and that they have just an easy link that they can connect with you if you're not available to write it down that you could just click it there and they'll take you right to it. Is this full time job for both of you guys?

Yes. We both are not teaching anymore and we do this full time.

Very cool. Very cool.It's nice when you find you had that unique opportunity to have a passion of teaching and academics all of your life and then slip right back into another passion and continue that journey. So that's pretty cool. That's pretty slick. That's slick.Well, I'll make sure that everything is in the show notes and the easy way for connection, but this is one more thing before you go. So if, before we go, if you could leave your, our listeners, our community, some words of wisdom.

Yeah, so my just words of wisdom is when you travel, open your heart and your mind for the experience you're having, for the culture that you're going to be interacting with and look for opportunities to talk to someone from that culture. Yeah, I was gonna say don't just stick to yourselves. Look for opportunities to talk to people where you're visiting.

Those are brilliant words of wisdom. I think that they. Yeah, the, the communication we all need to communicate. And I think, I think there's a very, very.Don't be afraid to think that they don't speak English because they do speak English in more countries than not. So brilliant words of wisdom. Joy, thank you very much for sharing your journey and your experience and your wisdom with us. I greatly appreciate it.Again, I'll make sure everything's in the show notes so they can connect with you. And I'm happy for you that you, as I said earlier, you get to fall back into another purpose that's bringing new joy and bringing others joy.

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

Absolutely. We will have to have another conversation. Travel is a way of revealing who we are. Not through the places we visit, but through the people we become.Along the way. It teaches us to listen, to observe, to connect, and to step into a world with humility and curiosity.Whether it's a student seeing history come alive, a family reconnecting on a vacation, or a group serving a community across the globe, travel reminds us that the world is bigger, richer and more beautiful than we often remember. And sometimes all it takes is one journey to change the story we tell about ourselves. So that's a wrap for today's episode.I hope you found inspiration, motivation, and a new perspective to take with you. If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to, like, subscribe and follow us. Stay connected.You can find us on Apple, Spotify or your favorite listening platform. And you can head over to YouTube and catch the full video version. I'm Michael Hurst. Have a great day.Have a great week and thank you for being part of our community.

Thanks for listening to this episode of One More Thing before youe Go.Check out our website@beforeyougopodcast.com you can find us as well as subscribe to the program and rate us on your favorite podcast listening platform.