We had the good fortune of connecting with Shayla Northcutt and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Shayla, what do you attribute your success to?
Customer Service. When I started Northcutt Travel Agency, it was to help people travel the world and to make memories. I had always planned travel on my own and through an online portal and found that the customer support with a lot of the companies didn’t care about me or why I was traveling or what my preferences were. They always tried to hide cost and I didn’t get the customer support that I deserved. I wanted to change this. I opened Northcutt Travel Agency to bring a concierge level of customer service to the brand and the name. I care about each and every single one of our travelers. We hold each one of our team members to always hold the client first as well (REWORD). We know how important of an investment a vacation is and we want it to be an easy and seamless experience. After all, it is a vacation! People have continued to ask why I do not charge an agency fee, and that is because it is not my structure or *in* my nature. We get paid a commission from booking travel for others from the hotels, resorts and cruise lines, so why be greedy? We are the best and at the top of our game because we do go above and beyond for each client.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My passion started from a love of travel. I knew that I hadn’t traveled a lot in my life, but once I met my husband we went to Australia and Fiji and so many other places, and then I was hooked. I would spend hours planning our trips with spreadsheets and looking up so much information, I craved to know more. I left my career as an accountant after 10 years and had 2 children, so I started my journey with a huge agency I found online in 2015 after my second child was born. I thrived at being a travel agent, but with this big host company being in Florida, there was no personal touch. After a year and a half, I decided I wanted to do this on my own. Every company takes capital to start and my husband decided to invest in me. In 2017 we went out on our own and Northcutt Travel Agency LLC was formed and we have been named one of the top agencies among suppliers in the Houston Area. I knew that I needed to run my business the right way and my business degree and accounting background helped a lot with this. I took my leadership skills from my volunteer positions and implemented those into the company as well. We now have 25 agents through the United States and are steadily growing our team with agents who exemplify the Northcutt Travel Agency culture. Our number one mission is to help our clients travel seamlessly and always be there for our clients. We put our customers first. There are so many ways to book travel and booking it without NTA makes it become less personal because you have no one to call that knows you and knows your travel. I now speak to travel agency owners all over the U.S. at workshops and seminars about leadership and running a successful travel agency. My biggest success is having a team that is more like family and the way we help each other.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I love this question. We qualify clients all the time to make sure their trip fits them. It would be unfair to tell you where I would take them unless I told you a little bit about them. My best friend is an introvert and doesn’t really like a lot of people unless she has had a couple of drinks, then she loves a good party or people watching! I would start with wine and cheese board at Urban Eats. Once that was done, we would call our friends in town and go to any place in midtown that is lively!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My right hand man. That is right, man. I am a woman owned business and 3 years ago hired a young man as an assistant. He is now the manager of the company and highly regarded in the Travel Industry as a whole. He takes the company as a passion and has stepped into a role of not only helping others, he now talks travel around the bars and to all of his friends groups. He travels the world with me to be better at his job and also helps with promotions and singing songs about travel!

Website: www.northcutttravelagency.com
Instagram: www.intsagram.com/travelnta
Facebook: www.facebook.com/travelnta
Yelp: Northcutt Travel Agency
Youtube: www.youtube.com/northcutttravelagency

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