Cecily North on Building a Travel Agency — and Why AI Can’t Replace a Human Agent

This week on the Unscripted Small Business Podcast, host Zaneta Chuniq Inpower sits down with Cecily North — a certified travel advisor (Travel Institute), a verified travel advisor (ASTA), a special-collections librarian, and the founder of Traveling North Agency, a business built around highly customized multi-country itineraries. Cecily is also the host of Life Between Flights, a podcast for new travel agents and small business owners. The conversation runs from the single question that pulled her out of a miserable executive-assistant job, to why it took three years before her business exploded, to her clear-eyed take on AI itinerary planners.

The Question That Started It All

Cecily had spent years in library work — starting at fifteen, eventually becoming a special-collections archivist — before landing in executive administration, booking travel for her director, booking her own travel, and crying in her car most mornings. The turning point came from a single question she found while searching for inspiration: “If money and time were no object, what would you do every day?” Her first instinct was drive — road trips, exploring the world. The librarian’s research instinct did the rest: that led to travel, which led to host agencies, which led to Traveling North. She didn’t go looking for a business opportunity; she asked what she actually loved.

Three Years to Treat It Like a Business

For the first three years, Cecily ran Traveling North more as a hobby than a business — a few friends and family booking trips, no real client-acquisition strategy, no structure. The revenue explosion came when she changed her mindset, not her tactics. It’s now one of the most common failure modes she sees in the new agents who listen to her show.

“If you really want it to be successful, you need to treat it like a business. It took me three years to figure that out. And then since then it’s just exploded.” — Cecily North

Use AI to Plan It. Use a Human to Fix It.

Cecily’s position on AI trip planning is refreshingly un-defensive: she encourages her clients to use ChatGPT for research, itinerary drafts, and destination inspiration. What AI can’t do is intervene when a VRBO gets sold out from under your clients while they’re already in Scotland. Cecily was the one who found them a new place to stay while they kept enjoying their vacation. That disruption-handling — being reachable, being accountable, fixing the thing the client never even has to learn about — is the irreplaceable human service layer.

“I’m not an 800 number. I’m not a bot. I am a real person that you can call, you can text at any time, and I’m here to help you.” — Cecily North

Friends and Family Are Not Your Best Clients

The hardest lesson for new travel agents: the friends and family who were thrilled when you started are usually the worst clients. They overstep, expect free work, assume you’re just collecting perks, and don’t respect professional fees. Cecily’s advice is to get early reps from them, but build the real client base through networking — in person and virtual — with people outside your immediate circle who will actually pay for the service and value it. Her new-client fee is paid upfront, and after that, as she puts it, “you’re stuck with me for life.”

Let Your Clients Reveal Your Niche

Cecily thought she’d build a Disney and Universal business. Her clients pushed her toward Europe and highly customized multi-country itineraries — trains through three countries, a boat leg, a private-chef dinner to finish. Disney and Universal are now about 1% of revenue. Her advice: start broad to get experience, then let the clients who give you the most energy and the best results reveal what your actual specialty should be. She also keeps each client’s bucket list on file, so when pricing drops on something they’ve dreamed about, she’s the one who reaches out first.

Connect with Cecily North

Cecily North is the founder of Traveling North Agency and the host of the Life Between Flights podcast for new travel agents and small business owners. Find her at travelingnorthagency.com or follow @TravelingNorthAgency on Facebook and Instagram.