Guest Bio
Kasey Austin Morrissey is the Head of Global Product and President USA at Austin Adventures and Active Adventures. Born in Alaska and raised in Montana, Kasey’s passion for the outdoors was cultivated from an early age. She holds a degree from The University of Montana and has been instrumental in curating and leading adventure travel experiences across the globe. Her leadership has been pivotal in expanding the company’s offerings and maintaining its reputation for excellence in the adventure travel industry.
Show Summary
In this episode, Kasey Austin Morrissey discusses her journey from growing up in the rugged landscapes of Alaska and Montana to becoming a leader in the adventure travel industry. She shares insights into the evolution of Austin Adventures, the integration with Active Adventures, and the importance of sustainable tourism. Kasey also reflects on memorable experiences from her travels and the role of adventure in personal growth and connection with nature.
Key Takeaways
- ✓ Passion for the Outdoors: Early exposure to nature can inspire a lifelong commitment to adventure and conservation.
- ✓ Leadership in Adventure Travel: Guiding a company to adapt and grow in a dynamic industry requires vision and dedication.
- ✓ Sustainable Tourism: Implementing eco-friendly practices ensures the preservation of destinations for future generations.
- ✓ Personal Growth Through Adventure: Challenging oneself in nature fosters resilience and a deeper connection to the environment.
- ✓ Global Collaboration: Integrating diverse perspectives enhances the quality and reach of adventure travel offerings.
What You’ll Find on Austin Adventures’ Platform
- ✓ Curated Adventure Tours: Expertly planned trips to diverse destinations, offering activities like hiking, biking, and multisport adventures.
- ✓ Family-Friendly Vacations: Tailored itineraries that cater to all ages, ensuring memorable experiences for the whole family.
- ✓ Small Group Experiences: Intimate group sizes allow for personalized attention and deeper connections among travelers.
- ✓ All-Inclusive Packages: Comprehensive planning that covers accommodations, activities, transportation, and meals for a hassle-free adventure.
- ✓ Commitment to Sustainability: Practices that prioritize environmental conservation and support for local communities.
👉 Visit Austin Adventures’ Official Website to explore their offerings and learn more about Kasey Austin Morrissey’s contributions to adventure travel.
Learn more about Austin Adventures and connect with Kasey at:
https://www.austinadventures.com/
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Podcast Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated on recording, and has not been edited by a human. It may contain lots of mistakes, crazy words, and stuff that makes no sense. The host and the guest are not responsible for the accuracy of the transcript.
Jason Elkins (00:01.642)
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the big world made small podcast. Today we’ve got a special guest. Um, I spoke with her a couple of weeks ago before we got ready to do the podcast. And then, um, today when we got back on to start recording the podcast,
I remembered that I had met her before in Africa. So had just a moment here before we pushed the record button to reminisce on a trip. And now I’m just super excited to announce and introduce her to everybody. Today we’ve got Kasey Austin Morrissey. She’s the head of global product for Austin adventures and active adventures. And she’s also the president of Austin adventures. And I’m gonna let her expand on that a little bit to help us understand what all that means. Kasey, welcome to the show. So happy to have you here.
Yeah, thanks so much for having me, Jason. I’m excited to be on. And just to clarify what I represent here. So I am the head of global product for two companies, Austin and Active Adventures. They merged in 2021. Active Adventures acquired Austin Adventures, and I go way back with the Austin Adventures brand, and I’m the president of that brand still. So that’s kind of the confusion of my title here.
Jason Elkins (01:17.506)
Got it. Well, I appreciate the, appreciate the clarification. I think I had it straight in my mind. I’m not sure it came out of my mouth, right? But we kind of knew this was going to happen. We already set the stage for you to kind of explain all that. And we’re going to, and we’re going to discuss all that and how that all came about. And before
Well, really, I would really like to jump in and learn a little bit about you, because you have an interesting background. I’ve spoken with a few people in this industry that have similar backgrounds, that kind of grew up in it. You certainly did. And I just want to dig into that. So I typically would go back as far as we need to go back for you. That’s probably all the way to the beginning. Maybe it’s even before you arrived here. So tell us, how did this all come about for you?
Yeah, great question. I feel like at times I was born into the industry, but that’s not technically right, I guess, because I didn’t actually even know what adventure travel was until I was about six years old, which is when my dad bought an adventure travel business, which was something very new for him. He actually has a background in construction, and that’s what he was doing through my formative years as a wee one in Alaska, where I was born.
And we moved to Billings, Montana when I was six years old and my brother was four. And my dad and my mom at the time just decided they wanted to go on an adventure travel trip in our backyard of, at that time, they were going over to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to go on a biking trip with a company called Backcountry Bicycle Tours. And they…
loved that trip so much, like they’d never been on a group travel experience or a guided adventure or anything like that before. And my dad got home and he was so excited about it that he started looking into the business and he was like, hey, this business is for sale. And he ended up becoming one of three part owners in this travel business. So he had no idea what he was doing with travel or…
Jason Elkins (03:22.806)
being an adventure travel or the risk associated with the business or anything like that, he just dove right in and it was like a hardcore mountain biking company at the time. So that was really an adventure in and of itself, I’m sure, for my dad. I don’t remember a ton about those years other than just not seeing him a lot because he was always out, you know, building the next new trip or testing out a trip or meeting with the guides to teach them what they were supposed to be doing on a trip and where…
I really started to get involved in the business was that first year my dad was like, I want to create a family division of this business so I can actually bring my kids on these trips with me because what we’re doing right now is way too hardcore for kids to join. So he put a little bit of a multi-activity spin on it and threw in a little bit of horseback riding and some whitewater rafting and less difficult bike rides and less difficult hikes.
I did the first Yellowstone family trip with back country bicycle tours at the time, uh, back in 1996. And I’ve been going on the family version of the tours ever since. So that’s kind of how I got my start. That’s, that’s very, very cool. I’m curious. A couple of questions come up. Was he into mountain biking at all? I mean, is the first trip that he went on, was that a biking trip? I presumably.
Yes, it was. And no, he was not into mountain biking at all. I actually have no idea why he went on this tour other than to just see his backyard in a new way because he didn’t, he’d never really explored the area before and just wanted to do something a little different. He’d never been on a guided tour, never done small group travel, definitely wasn’t into biking. Like, I don’t remember going on bike rides in my first, you know, five years of life ever. So.
I think he just decided this would be a neat way to see a place in a new way and went on a mountain biking tour. And I still remember like what he would teach our guides at guide training was like his favorite thing ever from that tour is when he got a flat tire on one of the bike rides and one of the guides pulled their bike off and they just took their tire off their bike, swapped it out with his tire and said, okay, you keep riding. I’m going to fix this tire and I’ll catch up with you later. And his mind was blown at that.
Jason Elkins (05:42.626)
I literally think that was like the thing that set his mind in emotion that was like that was about the coolest thing ever I would have been sitting here trying to fix this tire for you know an hour by myself having no experience with any of this and to have someone that can just do that and Make my experience so much easier and of course that combined with showing up and having a picnic lunch ready or Getting back to his hotel room at night and having a little handwritten card from the guides and even returning home He had a postcard sitting there waiting for him
from the guides, like those were all things that he was just like, this business is so much cooler than what I’m doing now in construction. And we still have a lot of those special touches on our trips today, because it really stems from that first trip that my dad took with that country bicycle adventures, and then that, uh, morphed into the Austin adventures product today. So yeah. Yeah. I was going to say those, those little touches really mean a big thing, but they’re not so little. They’re kind of like.
They’re big. They are big things. I mean, obviously you made an impression on him that he’s still, you know, sharing that with upcoming guides or new guides that are coming into the business. And, um, yeah, okay. That’s very, very cool. I’m now, were your parents both born and raised in Alaska? Okay. So did they grow up? I mean, a lot of, I lived in Alaska. A lot of people grow up there and get into, you know, hunting and fishing and outdoors and what was there, what it looked like for them.
Yeah, my dad actually was born in California, but he had a very adventurous side. He was the last born of six kids, and so he was kind of like the kid that they didn’t really care about anymore. Just go out of the house and do whatever you want. We’ve already raised six kids and we’re tired of it. So he started doing construction really young and made a lot of money that way very quickly because he liked to get things done fast and he was very controlling of the crew he was with and raised in the ranks really quickly.
Jason Elkins (07:54.147)
He just like, he just like, he just like, he just like, he just like,
Jason Elkins (08:05.222)
and definitely some interesting close calls I’ve heard about and things like that, near-death experiences, but they all survived to tell the tale. And then, yeah, I decided he wanted to move up to Alaska just to get kind of a different start in things and really got into the construction side of things up there for building schools and like the remote Inuit villages and things like that. And my mom…
She’s from Kansas and she had a very kind of straightforward upbringing, but she had a very adventurous like wild side and she wanted to go do something very different than what she was doing in Kansas growing up. So she and my dad met and they moved up to Alaska together and my mom was the cook in these villages and she would feed all of the construction crew and make sure they came back and had full bellies before they went to bed. And that was kind of…
their relationship, I guess, in the Alaska years. And then I was born in 1989, my brother in 1991, and we lived our first five years in Alaska after that with my dad doing construction jobs all over the place. And he built the house that we lived in when I was a baby and things like that. I still have videos of me hanging from open beam rafters in the ceiling from my baby bouncer and things like that. So.
It seemed like a wild time. I don’t have a lot of memories of it, but it was interesting. I should be clear too that my mom and dad are divorced now. My stepmom is the one that really helped formulate the business. From about the time I was eight years old, she started in when my dad met her and she was involved in the family business as well from the time I was eight on. So I like to make that differentiation just because people…
connect those two things and think they’re the same person, but very different people. So what was your stepmom up to? I mean, what kind of background did she bring into this? Nothing similar to this either. She was working at Billings Clinic in Billings, Montana, just as like a receptionist type person that checks people in for their appointments. So that…
Jason Elkins (10:20.598)
obviously doesn’t have a lot to do with adventure travel either. But my dad had started the business by that point and was kind of running it as a solo parent. The original business was in Bozeman, Montana, which was two hours away from Billings where I lived with my mom and my brother. And so he would literally drive back and forth two hours one way to go to Bozeman to work for the day and then he’d come back at night just so he could see us for an hour or two in the evenings.
And then if he stayed a few days in Bozeman, he had a condo there, we would go and visit him on the weekends. But that arrangement only lasted, I think, one or two years. And he just got really sick of it. And then he moved the base to Billings once he bought the business in full and decided to start basically his own adventure travel business that was not that country bicycle tours. So, yeah. But when he met my stepmom going back to that, he kind of- Very cool.
roped her into the business and was like, I could use a good salesperson. And she’s always been amazing at remembering people’s names and their stories. And she really was our top salesperson for many, many years because every time a guest would call up, she could remember the names of their kids and their grandkids and their favorite dog and the vacation they went on the last time they went with Austin Ventures. She’s just got a memory like a steel trap. So that was actually like.
perfect for being in this business. She’s definitely a people person, so pretty awesome.
That’s a, it’s a very cool story. And it’s, and as I listened to it, it’s interesting to me because as you and I have discussed, I lived in Montana and I’m from Wyoming, lived in Montana. And actually when I met my ex-wife, my ex-wife was working at the Bellings clinic. They probably know each other from way back. So crazy. Small world. I’m sure our paths were like our families paths were crossing all over the place. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (12:18.378)
I’m a little older than you, so it might actually work out. And then when we lived in Bozeman, me or her would drive back and forth to Billings often because her son was still in Billings. So yeah, I’m familiar with that route and I can understand why he maybe got tired of making it. Yeah, you know what’s up. I’ve done that many, many times. Wow. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. All right, well that’s a- Beautiful drive, but it does take a while. So this all makes sense now as you described kind of, yeah.
So this all makes a lot of sense as you kind of describe, you know, the dynamics of what was going on. So, so they started the business, you got the business going, your stepmom’s like the top salesperson, you’re growing up around this. So what was that like for you? What were your summer vacations like compared to everybody else? And what was it like when you went back to school in August or September and the teacher said, oh, what did everybody do for your summer vacation? Those are the stories I want to hear. What was that like?
Yeah, it was so funny because when you’re a kid and you’re living a life in the adventure travel industry, you just don’t know that there’s a different kind of life out there. I just was used to going on trips and basically doing quality control. I remember going on the trips and getting back and my dad would say, okay, what did you like about that trip or what did you not like about that trip from the kid’s perspective? And I’d be giving him my feedback of like, oh.
I didn’t really like that hotel, didn’t have anything fun to do. There was no pool, you know, and I, that meal we had on day four, like the Thai food, like, ugh, what kid likes Thai food, you know? Like, coming up with all of the goods and the bads and the uglies of living and adventure travel and also going on the trips and I still, I don’t have it here at my house, but at our office, I have this trophy that I got when I was,
probably six or seven years old and it says, rookie of the year, rookie guide of the year, something like that because I was always going on the trips and I thought I was the biggest helper to the guides and I’m sure I was not. I’m sure I was underfoot and in their way all the time but I always wanted to help cut up vegetables or go fill up guest water bottles or get the chairs out of the trailer to go set them up for lunch or take the luggage to the rooms, like those tasks to me were just so exciting and I felt like I was just.
Jason Elkins (14:43.65)
part of something that, you know, bigger than me that I was like, Oh God, this is so fun. And the guides were my role models growing up, which knowing guides now I’m like, Whoa, those are some interesting people to have as role models. But they are amazing people. They’re so passionate about life and they live big, they live wild, you know, they also have some crazy sides to them as well. Sometimes, especially as I got to get a little bit older, I found that side as well.
Those were the people I grew up around. They literally would stay the night at our house all the time, or we would have guide trainings in our backyard, and people would be sleeping in sleeping bags, and the sprinklers would come out in the morning and wake everyone up in the backyard and things like that. So when I would go back to school in August after going on trips all summer and being around these guides and everything, we just had this joke in our family that we would go back to school, and the teacher would say, okay, what did everyone do all summer?
my dad was like, just tell them nothing. Like, I don’t know how you can summarize everything that we fit into a summer. Yeah, exactly. It’s just easier. We were so spoiled though, like looking back at it now. I didn’t want you to live in Montana. The other kids thought was weird. You know, ranchers kids and farmers kids and you know, people with a very small income that don’t can’t afford to travel, you know, and so we were just so fortunate.
You know, absolutely. I remember growing up, it was a similar thing. My dad was into hot air ballooning and we would spend our summers traveling around the country.
know, in the front seat of a pickup truck and from town to town and every time, you know, every town that we’d go to would have a hot air balloon festival. And I was out on the balloon, you know, on the launch site, you know, when I was 12 trying to sell balloon rides to people and it was, and yeah, we come back at the end of the summer and go back to school. And I remember one of my, one of my school teachers actually called my mom and said, look, we need to have a conversation because your son is telling all these lies and he’s got this amazing imagination. But
Jason Elkins (16:50.42)
He’s clearly, you know, we, we need to get in front of this. And my mom’s like, no, that’s what they did this summer. See, that’s why you just say nothing. It doesn’t open up any cans of worms with lies or anything like that. So anyway, so what do you think was, did you stay, did you stay in the, I mean, did you go right into the business or did you go do something a little different for a while and then come back or what did it look like for you?
I tried. I tried to get out of the family business. I worked at Austin Adventures all through high school. I did every job that no one else wanted to do. Okay, you pick up the phones when they ring or go build these boxes for the guides or go balance these books with these receipts from the trips or whatever. All the things that no one had time to do, they just put it on my plate.
And I, you know, it was all the grunt work. And that’s what I pictured Austin Adventures being like. Like I didn’t know there was like a different world where you can like forward plan and, you know, just have so much to do with like the actual trip product and the operations and teaching the guides and things like that. So I didn’t know that side of the business existed. I just saw grunt work that was like fun in a way, but it was always like, you get to the end of the summer and it’s like, okay, thank God I’m going back to school and I don’t have to do this job for, you know, until next summer. And then in college, I guided
trips during the summers between semesters of school and things like that. But I was getting a degree in elementary education and my dream was to be a teacher. That’s what I told people ever since I was little. I was like, I want to teach in the wintertime and I want to guide in the summertime. That was my dream job forever, ever since I was little. And so that’s what I went to school to do. I suspect you met a few people that did that as you were growing up. Yes. Yeah, definitely.
school teachers that become guides in the summer or guides in the summer that becomes ski instructors. It’s like either teaching or ski instructing or maybe lift operating, especially in Montana. Yep. Good old lifties. But yeah. Yeah. So I had watched a lot of, yeah, obviously a lot of guides go through that same lifestyle. And I was like, man, that is like the best of both worlds. Cause I have always loved kids and teaching people and
Jason Elkins (19:12.09)
that side of things. So I was like, I get to use that while I’m guiding, but then I can also use it in the wintertime and keep that up. So I just thought that would be the coolest lifestyle ever. And to have, you know, the summer off a little bit just to be able to go and do adventures of my own and things like that. So I got through the summer of 2011, and that was like my last full season of guiding that I did down in the Tetons and Jackson Hole. And I kind of…
didn’t apply for any teaching jobs that whole summer because I was just having too much fun guiding. And I made it to the end of the summer and I was like, oh, okay, I just, I have no job now. And it was the first time in my life that I had no plan. I was like, I don’t have to go back to school. I don’t have a job lined up. Like, what do I do? And, you know, I could have just said, you know, I’m gonna go travel or I’m gonna, you know, go substitute teach. That was one of the directions I was thinking about going. But my dad,
immediately swooped in and was like, well, until you decide what you’re doing, why don’t you just come and have this role in the business where you handle our operations for us? Just on a minimal level. You’re not going to be fully in charge. It’s just a kind of stepping stone. If you want to grow in the business, you can, but you don’t have to. He was very good about not pressuring me to have to do anything, but I was like, why not? I’ll do that until I at least figure out what I’m doing with teaching and I can get out any time.
He also promised that I could have three months off each year, six months on in the office prepping for the upcoming season, and then three months of guiding. So that was like the original deal. And I was like, that sounds sweet actually. So I got into the business. My first week was spent helping move offices from one office to another. My second week was spent at the ATTA event in Chiapas, Mexico. So that was an exciting introduction to the adventure travel world.
And then I just dove in from there. I never saw those three months off a year, like that never happened from that point on. And I never guided three months in a row either, although I did do a lot of guiding after that. So I just ended up in this full-time office role, but I found myself really loving it because I just didn’t realize like how much goes into operating an adventure travel business and like actually being in charge. And my first job at age 22 was managing our guide team.
Jason Elkins (21:37.05)
which was interesting because our guides were all older than me then and trying to manage a bunch of guides in their 20s and 30s was really interesting coming from this young girl and I had very much a baby face at that time and I looked like I was like 12 you know managing this guide team, but my dad always taught me that you have to work harder than anyone else if you want anyone to you know believe that you have what it takes to be in this position
Jason Elkins (22:07.162)
Someone that we would just hire from outside So that was something that was instilled from me in a young age is that I have to work ten times harder than everyone else And show everyone that I can run circles around them doing this job just because That was my upbringing and it is true You know, yeah exactly everyone just assumes Oh you got in this position because you’re the boss’s kid and I never wanted people to think that about me And I always felt like I had to be proving myself in some way, right? So
But yeah, that was how I ended up in the adventure travel business. And I haven’t looked back. I love it still and think I totally made the right choice. Even though it didn’t feel like a choice at the time, it just felt like, okay, I guess I’ll join the family business. But it was definitely the right choice. It’s opened up so many doors and so many opportunities that I probably wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. So it’s been pretty awesome. Right, right. Well, I always like to…
also ask a little bit about kind of, you know, family impact. I don’t know, I haven’t even had a conversation with you really about your family other than, you know, maybe a little bit about your dad and your stepmom. Do you have other family involved at this point in your life? I mean, how does this, how does working in this industry impact families, either your own personal experience or other people that you’ve seen? Yeah. So I worked with my dad and my stepmom.
from 2011 until they retired last year in July. So it’s been pretty recent that they’ve been officially out of the business. And my husband still works with me to this day. So he just works part time, but he is very much involved in our operations for North America trips. So he’s the one helping get the vans and trailers serviced and out on the road. And he helps build the boxes for the trips and things like that. So, but he’s also.
very much full-time parent to our daughter Lily, who is 15 months old now, at the time of recording at least. And so, yeah, just trying to balance that. But it’s been an interesting, Ryan, my husband started with me just back in 2021. So he just celebrated, I think, his three-year anniversary pretty recently. But even before that, we joke that like, he just wasn’t getting paid for his job because he was always getting sucked into helping with.
Jason Elkins (24:31.798)
running vans and trailers around town to get service or building boxes or whatever. So now he gets paid for all the stuff that we still need help with. But yeah, it was just really all- Well, I’m sure he appreciates that. Yes. Yeah. No, he likes it. And it’s been fun having a job together because before that he was working all sorts of odd jobs and he has loved everything he’s done. Everything from pouring concrete to, you know, sewing.
to teaching, like he’s done a little bit of that as well. So, but he eventually ended to back up in the family business. And I think it’s amazing that he’s ended up here. I’ve been hoping for this all along, but it took him kind of going out and doing some other things and then coming back. So yeah, I really like it. So, and not everyone will, right? Some people need that separation, but.
It’s funny, I’ll work with him all day long and we won’t even see each other. Like we might go on a dog walk together during the day, but other than that, it’s like, we’re just so busy in our own individual universes, trying to get our own things done, but it just stays busy. I’m, you know, I’m curious, like what, and I guess he’s not here to answer the question, but I’m, what do you think he was thinking when he met you?
He told him kind of what you were doing. Like, was he, did he think that was cool? Did he embrace that right away? Did it take a while? Because sometimes in the travel business, we travel. Sometimes we’ve got to go places. We get to go places, not gotta go. We get to go places, do these cool things. And I can see where some people would think, oh my God, that’s amazing. I want to like, it’d be great to have a partner that has all these fringe benefits of travel and this and that. And other people are just like, you know what? That’s not for me. So what do you think his initial?
impression was? Yeah, I think that he didn’t know what he was getting himself into first of all. But he was working on a degree, I met him when he was still in college. He was working on a degree for outdoor adventure leadership. So I think he thought what I did was exactly the kind of business that he wanted to get into, not necessarily in my family business. He wanted to make his…
Jason Elkins (26:48.342)
you know, his first job was like going off and he was actually, I was home and he was working in Gardner, Montana at the North entrance of Yellowstone operating zip line tours for a company there for three summers in a row. So, um, I, I don’t know, it was like a fun kind of courtship over those years just because he was gone a lot. I was busy traveling a lot or working long hours just with family business. You just work all day long every day trying to make things work.
especially during the summer busy operation season when our primary product is North America. Gotta make hay when the sun shines. So it was always really busy in the summertime, but I would strategically plan going and guiding a Yellowstone trip, and then it would end on a Friday in Bozeman, Montana, and I could zoom over to Gardner, Montana and spend the weekend there, maybe make it a long weekend through Monday, hang out with Ryan on the weekend, and then come back to Billings and start work again on Monday or Tuesday.
catch up on everything I’d missed for the last week, having been out in the field guiding. So it was definitely a fun couple of years and honestly, it just flew by. Like we both really enjoyed it. And they always say absence makes the heart grow fonder. So we made it work. That’s a very, very cool story. And for anybody, you know.
Most people are just listening to this because it’s a podcast. They don’t have the advantage of seeing your face as you’re, as you’re sharing these stories and you’re just grinning ear to ear. So it’s like, it’s, it’s fun to see that you’re you have such fond memories and so much energy and excitement about what you’re doing. And you’ve, maybe we’ve touched on it a couple of times, but, and what’s the part that
people that think, oh, I’d love to have Kasey’s job. I’d love to be able to work in this industry and adventure travel. What’s the stuff they don’t know? Tell us a few things that they don’t know other than it can be long hours. We make hay when the sun is shining or whatever. But share with us a few things that maybe people don’t think of. Yeah. I think.
Jason Elkins (28:54.07)
Like for Ryan entering into the family, I don’t think he realized that every conversation that our family had would revolve around the family business. Like there literally was nothing else. So every night it was like client stories or what’s the latest challenge at work. And like there just is no separation in a family business between life outside of the family business and the family business itself. So I think that was probably, that’s one big thing is if you want any kind of
you know, separation of life outside of what you do. You know, jumping in and opening a family travel business in adventure travel is not for you. I mean, you’re answering phone calls at midnight from people who are stranded in Peru at the airport and can’t find their guide or whatever, you know, like that is just part of what comes with the jobs. You literally live it 24 seven. And it comes with so many amazing perks, but there are also lots of big challenges just with like the risk side of the business. Like people…
get hurt and people die sometimes in adventure travel. We’ve unfortunately, or you know, fortunately, knock on wood, have never dealt with a death in the adventure travel side of the business with Austin Adventures. But you know, it’s always something that is on your mind, the risk side of the business. And that when your whole family’s money and livelihood is in this one business.
that there is so much risk also involved with that. And that keeps you up at night sometimes, you know? I don’t think I can just continue on without having a conversation about when you say risk, like that impacts all of us was COVID, right? When you and your…
your whole family is in the adventure travel business and then COVID comes along. It’s kind of like maybe if your whole family is in a restaurant, you own a restaurant or something like that, it’s hard to kind of spread things out and diversify. So tell us, I’m just curious, what was COVID like for you? And then that ended up, it sounds like kind of transitioned into a purchase of the company as well. So I’m curious. Yeah. Leading up to COVID,
Jason Elkins (31:05.634)
Those were some really good years in adventure travel for a lot of businesses. It was like the boom years. I feel like 2017 through 2019 were so good to Austin Adventures. And so we were flying high. My dad designated me as president of Austin Adventures in 2019. And we were very much running the business alongside each other. Um, had a lot of money on both sides in the business and just had put basically all of our eggs in one basket and COVID hit. And I just remember.
That was the most heart-wrenching experience I think anyone in my family had ever had. It was rough. God, those first days when people were starting to call and ask questions, like, what do you think about COVID coming? It was like, oh, no, it’s fine. Like, just stay the course. Your trip will operate without a hitch. It’ll be fine. Like, we take all the safety precautions. Like, this is way over on the other side of the world. Don’t worry about it. And then, you know, the first cases started appearing in America and
people were really starting to panic. And I mean, everyone saw the news of what was going on, of course, so everyone lived it in their own different way. But I just remember panic attacks of like my dad having panic attacks. And not many people know this, but on April 4th, which was my birthday, he had a heart attack. Oh. Because of the stress. And it was so scary.
Jason Elkins (32:35.278)
But it just, and he made a full recovery and everything, but it was awful, you know? And a lot of that had to do with just, like that was still very early on in the pandemic, but he was so freaked out and you know, that obviously trickled through to everyone else in the company.
but especially to the family members, my stepmom and me and my husband at the time was definitely our support system. But yeah, that was just, it’s hard to even describe. I know you can hear it in my voice right now, but that was really, really scary. And
We made it through to the other side. We actually kept running trips all during the pandemic. We were one of the only companies that didn’t completely shut down. And one of the amazing things about my dad is he’s always treated employees like family and he wanted everyone at the company to keep working. And that was amazing to just see him come back from.
this heart attack and dive right back into the business. Of course, there’s no rest days. We kept everyone on. If anything, sure we weren’t making any sales, but we still had to process a lot of cancellations. Keep moving people’s trips down the line so they could travel in 2021, hopefully, or 2022 if that’s what they felt more comfortable with. There were so many conversations with people just about, what do you want to do?
do you want to cancel your trip? And we launched like a webinar series for kids, like a virtual adventures for kids series during that time that was really fun and kept me really upbeat and going because we had hundreds of kids registering for these webinars because they weren’t in school anymore and they needed something to do. And so we took them to Yellowstone one week and Alaska the next, you know, so we were really creative and trying to keep things going. And it was definitely a crazy time. I remember like going to the store
Jason Elkins (34:54.09)
and you could only buy one thing of Clorox wipes if it was on the shelves. And since we were running our own trips, I would literally send our whole staff, like there were 10 of us, out to the stores to go, each one of us would buy Clorox wipes so we could have Clorox wipes, hand sanitizer on our trips and make sure that we were operating the cleanest, safest trips possible. But it was just such a wild summer. It passed by.
in the blink of an eye. I remember getting through to the other side. We had no COVID cases known on our trips at least, which was amazing. That can’t be said about trips that ran in 2021 or beyond, but 2020 was like this magical summer of very small groups, the ones that were hearty and really wanted to still get out there and travel. And yeah, just us basically holding our breath all summer, hoping no one would get COVID on our trips. We didn’t know what the outcome was, but it was like a small family business. We were taking a risk, just continuing operations because it was
you know, let’s just run a couple of trips. Most people canceled, so it ended up being just their family and the guide or whatever. And we were still, it kept us busy too and our minds off of everything that was happening. So yeah, but that obviously made us decide or, you know, really look at our choices. We got, we’ve got approached probably by 20 different companies during COVID because we were still running trips and there were a lot of companies struggling that wanted to run.
North America trips because that was where Americans were traveling and that was where a lot of their business laid was with Americans. And we have always been really good at running US national park trips and Canada national park trips. And that’s kind of been our bread and butter forever. So we got approached by a lot of companies during COVID asking, can you run our trips for us, like white brand them for us or run them under your name or whatever? We like, we just want to run trips.
And so we did a lot of due diligence with companies. Like we saw this as an opening to have either like more business coming in the door just with people, you know, more customers because, you know, our customer base was very slow with what was going on. So we’re like, okay, if there’s other companies, we can kind of band together and get things going. Or there could be the possibility of a merger or an acquisition at some point,
Jason Elkins (37:21.598)
My dad, even in 2019, he was trying to look for a retirement plan and an exit strategy, and he wasn’t sure exactly what it was. I had told him, I would love to stay on and run this company, but I don’t feel comfortable with the financial side, even before 2020. After 2020 hit, I was like, I do not want anything to do with the financial risk of this business. It’s way too volatile with all the ups and downs of this industry. I’ve seen a lot of…
the downs over the years, even as a kid you pick up on that kind of stuff when things are slow. 9-11 happened, you know, when I was still a kid. I was in eighth grade when that happened and I remember the travel business just tanking at that point, you know, when the stock market crashes or whatever. Like, there’s been so many things I’ve seen over the years and we’ve been a really, you know, privileged company and that we operate in a lot of different areas. So if…
one area closes down, you know, Africa isn’t running because Ebola is on the rise and people are freaking out about that. We have other places we can run. But yeah, COVID just stopped all that in its tracks and it made us just stop and analyze what we wanted to do next as a family. And we decided we can’t do this anymore. Like we’ve got to figure this out. So that’s when Active Adventures approached us.
Jason Elkins (38:43.722)
based in Queenstown and they were very similar to us in their values and the way they ran their trips. It was actually my husband Ryan and I went on an active adventures trip in 2019 and celebrated the new year of 2020 in New Zealand. So it was the last trip I actually took was an active adventures trip before the pandemic hit which is really random and just like so fortuitous that this actually all
ended up coming back together. It was probably my favorite trip I’ve ever been on. We had such a good time with the best group ever, loved New Zealand, had great weather, awesome activities. Like everything about that trip was perfect. And maybe it’s just more perfect in my mind because it was the last trip I took before the pandemic. But it was amazing. So the fact that these guys approached us, I was just like, oh my God, they run an amazing trip. Their company is awesome. Like, I can’t imagine a better fit. So we came together and
uh, October 2020 and started running a couple of Austin Adventures tours for active adventures. They sent one of their guides over who lived in the U S to be a brand ambassador for active and they loved the relationship too. So it took another oh, nine months or so to lots of back and forth by my dad and I saying, do you, cause they approached us and said, do can we buy you guys like we would love to
acquire Austin adventures and expand our North America base. They had North American customers too. So they wanted to combine forces and have a new North America product that they didn’t have before. So it would just be expanding their business. So we talked long and hard about it. We went back and forth a million times and eventually in July of 2021, we both signed the contract and said, ”Yep, we’re doing this. We’re going to have Active Ventures acquire Austin and
It was a chance to breathe easier immediately. And I just, I still think it was the best choice. Like even though I missed the days of like the craziness of the family business, I think it was the best choice we could have made for our family. And it allowed my dad to have his exit plan. It allowed me to settle down and have a family because I was working, you know, 60 to 80 hour weeks every week and there was no coming up for air from that. I don’t know how I was gonna exit out of that.
Jason Elkins (41:07.042)
But I just remember talking to our CEO, Wendy, and one of the first things she said to me is like, how are you doing everything you’re doing? Like, we need to hire more people and get you more people and you need to learn how to delegate and we need to get you a better work-life balance because you are going to crack. And I was like, I already have cracked. I’ve been through COVID. Like it is, I’m just operating like a crazy woman at this point and there’s no going back, you know? But she has really helped guide me into a world where I can work.
like more of a nine to five schedule. And I do rely on other people more and I do know how to delegate. And that has taken some learning over the last couple of years, but honestly it has been so good. And it has allowed me to like be able to turn off at night a little bit at least. I still think about work all the time because I love what I do. But you know, I can focus on our daughter and our dogs and going out on a walk and not feeling like my phone’s gonna ring every two seconds because there’s other people that can handle.
crazy stuff that comes up in the business too. So I personally think it’s probably, I always think like what direction would it have gone if the pandemic never hit? Would we still own the family business today? Would we have ever done this? Like what direction would we have gone? I have no idea, but not knowing what that other option could have been, like I really do love where we stand today as these two companies working alongside each other. And…
you know, not being the one fully in charge, especially of the risk and the, um, money side of things. So that’s my long story for you. It was an emotional ride, I’m sure, but that’s where we got to today with active in Austin. So yeah. Kasey, thank you so much. Um, what a, what a beautiful story. You were, you were with a role sharing so much great stuff. I haven’t spoken a while.
Thank you for being so real and being honest. This is what people need to hear and connect with, I think, is understanding that the people that work in this business are people. And we’ve got all the same fears and issues and concerns. And those are the people I want to travel with. If I want to take an adventure trip somewhere, I want to go with people that are people. So I love that you were able to share that with us. And.
Jason Elkins (43:28.482)
Um, a lot, a lot of questions, but one that jumps to mind right away that has to do with kind of the transition from going from family business to, um, kind of a leader of, of a business that you, that’s not a family business, you know, when you kind of joined the active adventures team, one of the things you mentioned was that it was, you know, you kind of learned how to delegate a little bit more and kind of have a life.
Do you think it’s easier to delegate when you’re working, I’m gonna say in someone else’s business as opposed to working in your own business? Whoa, I don’t know, I think so. But I wonder if like I would have been able to do it. It’s hard because when you’re a family business, you just kind of feel like you have to do everything yourself and you have like.
Remember that lesson I was telling you I learned earlier about like having to do everything to like prove yourself? I think that was, you know, something that I took on from my dad and like took on board with like really feeling like I had to do it all and I had to do it perfectly. And I had to, you know, really just come to the table with, you know, not a lot extra to give. Like I was giving it all my all. So yeah, maybe that is what it took is getting into a.
different business and or not different business, but different leadership and having someone. This is one of those shows where sometimes we have technical issues happen and it’s a free flowing conversation. So we don’t do a whole lot of editing. But as the listeners will notice Kasey’s voice is going to sound a little bit different because we lost her headset. And Kasey, the question I had asked you was, you know, do you you’d mention that as you became more of an employee, I guess.
you were able to learn how to delegate more, actually have a life, still probably accomplishing a lot of amazing great things for Austin Adventures and Active Adventures. But what do you think? Do you think it’s easier to learn how to delegate when you’re not the family on business where you don’t feel like everybody in your family is going to sink or swim based on what you do on any given day?
Jason Elkins (45:48.962)
I was talking earlier about how, as part of the family business mentality and the lesson that my dad instilled me, which he literally would tell me, you have to work harder than anyone else. I think you take that on board as a kid and as a young adult and you think, I have to do everything myself. I can’t delegate this because I have to figure out how to do this myself and no one can do it as good as me. It’s such a selfish mentality.
people who do such amazing things in this business. If I’ve learned anything about coming together with Active in Austin, it’s that we have this incredible team of people that can do incredible things that I just had no idea because I had to trust, I guess, in my team back in the family business days.
There was like this nucleus of the family business and we really took a lot of things on ourselves because we didn’t want to trouble other people in the business or we felt like we needed to prove ourselves or whatever the reason was. But today I definitely have an easier time. Our CEO has worked with me a lot on this. Letting others help and stepping in and not…
being someone who feels like they have to take on the full workload. It’s honestly been the best thing, even for my own mental health, being able to separate and actually not be focused on the business 24-7 and being able to have a life with my friends again. Most importantly, our daughter was born in November of 2022 and feeling like I’m there for her and not constantly married to the business and not having the family time.
Constantly was telling Ryan like the, you know, 11, 12 years we’ve been together now, like it’s not time to have a family yet. I’m too busy at work. Like that was constantly the, you know, thing we would talk about and trying to decide like when is the time to have a kid? And so we merged together as businesses in 2021, July. And yeah, November, 2022 is when Lily came along and that was honestly like when I was really starting to feel like I had that balance in my life where I could.
Jason Elkins (48:03.318)
have a kid and actually be able to focus on her and not be 100% wrapped up in the business every day of my life. So it’s been the best thing for the trajectory of my life at least.
That is so cool. And I think that, so when you’ve got a team of great people around you and you’re the one that’s doing all the work, that team of great people can get pretty frustrated because they want to work, right? And they think sometimes they’ll just.
either sit back and let the business owner do it, or they’ll just get frustrated because it’s like, look, you hired me and it can be frustrating when you hire someone for a job and then they’re looking at you like, well, okay, you hired me for this job, but you keep doing the work. And so it’s good for everybody, right? When you can learn how to not delegate sounds like a negative word almost, something about that word sounds negative, but maybe the better word is empower.
empower, you know, instead of delegating, I’m empowering my team to contribute, you know. Yeah. Let’s go on a mission to shift that word for delegate to empower. Yeah. And there’s just something about having like that team mentality. And we have this in a way, like it’s just, it just is a different feel these days. I have a lot of people that I work with projects on, but I say, okay, I need you to do this, and this like in today’s world. And they,
do such incredible work and I don’t take credit for it. Like it just makes our team look good. You know, like I would rather work in this new team environment today that we have going that everyone just feels empowered to use your word to like feeling like they really make a difference in the business than feeling like I have to take everything on my shoulders and you know, do it myself because there was a lot of satisfaction that came out of that.
Jason Elkins (50:00.258)
but also a lot of stress. And it’s more fun sharing it with other people too. Like I really enjoy that part is seeing my team succeed and like see them overcome obstacles that we never thought we were gonna get through and things like that. So I really liked that side as well. You bring up a good point when you say, you know, kind of give them the opportunity to feel like they’re contributing and being part of it, part of the success because that’s, I find that most people that work in adventure tourism do it because of the, not.
Generally not the financial reward. Hopefully there’s some there, but it’s generally the sense of satisfaction when you read the reviews. It’s the sense of satisfaction when you give somebody a hug at the airport to say goodbye to them. It’s that seeing their posts on social media about their trip with you, that’s where we get all this reward. So if every member of your team doesn’t feel like they’re contributing equally to that, they don’t get the reward.
Right? So they need to almost contribute to that on a high level in order to really embrace that reward. Otherwise, if they’re not really, if they don’t feel like they’re contributing on a high level, then it shifts over to, well, okay, what am I getting out of this? And then they tend to look more at the money or the other, you know, financial things. It’s just my brainstorming out loud. I don’t know. What do you think? Yeah, no, I think, I don’t know. It’s just, it’s so interesting because we live in such a different world, like post COVID as well.
pre-COVID, I worked in an office environment where everyone worked in the same office together, and we didn’t really have remote employees at the time. It was a different feel because you were all in the same place together. You had your social lunches and your after work barbecues and things like that. In this new world, in this new team that I’m working in, we have people located all over the United States. Half of my team is in New Zealand.
on a different time zone. And I know that’s how a lot of the adventure travel industry works, right? But it’s just such a new, it’s still so like, just jaw dropping to me that this is the world that we live in that we can do this kind of work like so disconnected from each other. But that being said, I do miss the days of, you know, just being all in an office together too because we’re such social creatures, right? It’s like
Jason Elkins (52:13.134)
pretty weird, like just sitting at a computer all day, like not having any interaction with anyone all day long. So, um, I mean, other than like video calls, I, those are, I’m swamped with these days, but you know, it’s just different. It’s so different having a video call with someone over talking in person. So, Well, yeah. And Kasey, if you think about it, the people that generally are drawn into adventure travel into this type of work are
people, almost by definition, you know, they’re people, they’re outgoing, they’re social, they’re interactive, they drive a lot of their benefits, derive a lot of their benefits in life just from being around other people. So then you take that type of person and they’re working from home, you know, for a while at their kitchen tables, now they probably have a room somewhere. But that’s a challenge where as opposed to like
know, if you’re a computer programmer, and I’m not knocking computer programmers, but maybe the type of person that’s drawn into being a computer programmer or an accountant or, you know, an engineer may be perfectly happy. Hey, finally, I can work alone. I can get stuff done. I can, you know, sit in a dark room somewhere and write code all day. And I’m so much more productive. And I don’t have to get in the car and go to work. And, and then there’s people like you and I, they’re like, where’d everybody go? Yeah, right.
So, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So true. I’m with you. Yeah, most of my time in the adventure travel space was, you know, sitting with my colleagues right next to me. My whole team was right next to me. We overheard each other’s conversations. There’d be a five-minute sales call and it’d be 20-minute conversation about the sales call and what we all learned. And it was amazing. It was really, really cool. Yeah.
Yeah, different worlds. I’d be sitting there listening to one of my colleagues talking about something. And I would come up with an idea for a new trip based on what they’re talking about. They’d get off the phone. I’m like, I heard you say something about this. What if we do that? What if we do this? And then we’d talk about a whole new itinerary. And we’d before, you know, within a few days, I’m working on a new itinerary. And it was pretty cool.
Jason Elkins (54:28.658)
Yeah, there’s a lot of like sparring off of each other when you’re in that office environment, that just doesn’t happen. Even just like learning like, you know, a sales team, like we used to have them all in one central unit in the Billings office where, you know, they would say something wrong on the phone to a guest like that horseback ride. Oh, yeah, that’s super easy or whatever. And then someone else would get off the phone to be like, that is not an easy horseback ride. Like you are going up a mountain and it is not like riding around in a ring like you were describing to that guest on the phone, you know, and there’s just so much learning that comes from, you know, talking back and forth.
So post pandemic, like we’ve really had to come up with new strategies for like training and teaching people like about our trips, because there was so much organic learning that you did pre pandemic sitting in an office together. And now with everyone in their own homes, I mean, we have a couple of offices as well. So there is a little bit of that with Austin and active, but the majority of our sales team work from home. So they really have to, you know, do a lot of studying on their own and they have to
get out of their comfort zone and ask questions if they don’t know something. There’s definitely no calling out on, oh no, what you said was wrong. There’s a lot more trust that you have to put into employees as well, which is I think a good thing. A lot of people get a lot of good things out of working from home and remote work, but it’s just a completely different universe. I honestly can’t imagine what it would be like being in this universe now.
with still having our family business. I don’t know how well we would have adapted, but, you know, it’s, we’ve been forced to adapt these days, especially since we have teams in New Zealand, teams in South America, teams in the US and all over the place. So it just is what it is. But it’s great. I mean, it’s amazing that you can stay so connected with everyone. And I suspect that contributed to your learning how to delegate to because you can’t do things the way we used to do things.
So it forces you to learn how to do new things. And when you’re not sitting in the middle of a room full of your salespeople, listening to every conversation and taking responsibility for everything they say, or teaching them everything they don’t know, or this and that, it’s one mindset where when they’re off, you know, in three different cities doing this, you have to kind of let go a little bit. And then, and then there’s flip side, there’s people,
Jason Elkins (56:53.218)
that are traveling the world. I don’t know if you have any employees working for you that are out traveling. So I’m doing the digital nomad thing. So it’s kind of interesting because I can go, if I’m developing some trips in Argentina or whatever, I can very easily just pick up, go over there, stay in an Airbnb for a while and be really close to it. So there’s some advantages too.
that weren’t so easy before. It’s like, well, we want to do a trip in Argentina, but well, we’re not going to have anybody down there for three months, and we need to go vet these places and check them out and meet with the destination management companies. So there’s some advantages that you can have somebody go be there and still get the job done. So it’s definitely been interesting. Yeah.
Definitely. Kasey, we have shared so much and I feel like we could do several more of these. And I’m curious, what did I forget to ask? What should I have asked? Or what do you, you know, is there anything that you want to make sure our listeners get out of this before we wrap it up? Yeah, I mean, I just, it just, in my mind, it just seems like there is just kind of this
ever increasing. We’ve just been talking about it, but this isolation that just keeps coming with people in the world and the ability to stay so connected online, but it’s not, in my mind, a real connection. I just hope that the… I mean, it is in a way, right? But there’s nothing better than just connecting with someone in a room, face to face.
And like, I wish that’s what we were doing right now, right? Like this conversation would be so different just having it face to face rather than on a podcast format, right? But that’s where I hope, you know, the adventure travel companies in the world, the small mom and pops, the bigger companies, whoever you are, like, I just. Love any business thriving in this way, especially because we have the best job in the world, like bringing people together in person, uh, going on these adventure travel trips, like I just think it’s the coolest industry ever because.
Jason Elkins (59:03.414)
We are just in this world where there is so many scary things going on and it just keeps pushing people away from each other. I think if people can keep traveling and keep seeing eye to eye and getting to hear other people’s experiences in person and seeing the joy that comes out of discovering something new or seeing your kid see a bison for the first time or getting to hold hands with your significant other while you’re looking at a waterfall like…
just so many cool things that come from adventure travel, however you do it. That’s what gives me hope for the future. It really is this industry because I just think it’s so cool seeing all the memories that get made day to day and love being a part of creating something like that for different families and couples and even solo travelers too. Anyway, that’s kind of my take on the industry is that it gives me a lot of hope because there are so many good things that we do.
Absolutely beautifully said, great way to wrap up this conversation and set the stage for the next one. I know we didn’t spend a lot of time discussing products or trips or experiences or anything. We’ve sprinkled some stuff in there. And real quick, I just want to encourage our listeners to I know that if they’re still listening they feel connected to you.
And I’m going to make it easy for them to get more information with a link to Austin adventures website. Obviously you’ve got social media stuff that they can connect with as well. Um, but I would encourage anybody listening to this, go take a look at, you know, all the great stuff that they’re doing, both Austin adventures and active adventures and, um, just. Go do something. Just get up off your ass. And not that anybody’s on their ass, but if you’re on your ass, get up off your ass.
Go do something, connect with people because like Kasey said, it’s just such an important thing and so many of us missed out on that for a while. And you heard her, Kasey, I heard you talk about your dad. Well, life, we don’t know. Life isn’t always there when we think it’s going to be there. So don’t wait. Don’t take it for granted. Even said about having a baby. Don’t take it for granted. If you want to do something, figure out a way to do it sooner rather than later.
Jason Elkins (01:01:19.278)
There were an awful lot of people that were waiting to go do something pretty amazing in the, you know, 2020, 2021 had all these great plans, the big family trips that they were going to go on that they never got to go on. So go do it. Kasey, thank you so much. I appreciate you for sharing your, your heart and your story with us. Thank you. It was wonderful. Yeah. Thanks, Jason. It’s been great. All right.
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