Guest Bio
Leigh Barnes is the President of the Americas at Intrepid Travel, where he leads the company’s fastest-growing market with a focus on expansion across North, Central, and South America. Over the past 15 years, Leigh has played a vital role in shaping Intrepid’s identity as a purpose-driven brand, previously serving as Chief Purpose Officer and Chief Customer Officer. He brings a deep commitment to sustainable tourism and community-centered experiences. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Leigh balances his professional life with a love of ocean swimming and a passion for supporting local arts. Outside of work, his greatest joy comes from time with his two-year-old daughter, who inspires him daily with a renewed sense of curiosity and purpose. Among his many travel highlights, he cites trekking to Everest Base Camp as a life-changing journey that redefined his perspective on the world.
Show Summary
In this episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast, host Jason Elkins speaks with Leigh about his personal and professional evolution within Intrepid Travel. From his roots in Australia to his current leadership role in the Americas, Leigh shares stories that highlight the power of travel to shape identity and purpose. He reflects on pivotal experiences in the UK and beyond that influenced his career and worldview.
The conversation explores Intrepid’s mission to make travel more meaningful — emphasizing sustainability, storytelling, and human connection. Leigh also shares his excitement for the company’s growing presence in the Americas and how Intrepid is adapting to a rapidly changing travel landscape, including the influence of AI and emerging technologies.
Key Takeaways
- ✓ Intrepid Travel is committed to sustainable tourism and community impact.
- ✓ Leigh’s early travel experiences in the UK were pivotal to his personal development.
- ✓ Over 15 years, Leigh has held several leadership roles shaping Intrepid’s purpose-driven mission.
- ✓ Travel can be a powerful tool for self-discovery and global understanding.
- ✓ The Everest Base Camp Trek profoundly changed Leigh’s outlook on life and travel.
- ✓ Storytelling and authenticity are central to how Intrepid connects with travelers.
- ✓ AI is opening new possibilities within the travel industry.
- ✓ Intrepid is investing in growth throughout the Americas, its most dynamic market.
- ✓ Purpose and customer focus remain at the core of Intrepid’s strategy.
- ✓ Leigh values the role of creativity and local culture in enriching the travel experience.
What You’ll Find on Intrepid Travel
- ✓ Small group adventures with a strong focus on responsible tourism
- ✓ Travel experiences that directly support local communities
- ✓ Carbon-neutral trips and sustainability initiatives
- ✓ Destinations spanning every continent, tailored for curious, conscious travelers
- ✓ Transparent business practices grounded in purpose and impact
- ✓ A global team committed to making travel a force for good
Learn more about Intrepid Travel and connect with Leigh at:
https://www.intrepidtravel.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 (00:01.181)
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the adventure traveler. Big day here on the show. Happy to have each and every one of you back. We’ve got Leigh Barnes here. Leigh is the president of the Americas for Intrepid Travel. I know many of you have heard his name before, seen him out and about, maybe even run into him in person. This is my first opportunity to have a conversation with him. So Leigh, thank you so much for joining us here on the show.
Leigh (00:28.43)
appreciate it, Jason. Thanks for having me on the show. Hopefully I’m standing with it and on board. It’s 10 o’clock here in Seattle. So hopefully what I’ve got to say is worthwhile and I stay awake and have a good chat.
Jason Elkins (00:41.491)
Well, I hope it’s worthwhile for you. was gonna, I was going to mention that you’re really going kind of above and beyond to stay up so late with us and join us here on the show. So happy to do that. We’ll try and keep it all really, really purposeful and meaningful here for you. So anyway.
Leigh (00:43.415)
Hahaha
Leigh (00:55.352)
Well, yeah, I’m sure you would, Jason. I’m not worried about that. It’s probably more me.
Jason Elkins (01:00.778)
Hey, Leigh, we’re going to, we’re going to discuss Intrepid for sure. know it’s a big part of your life, but I also really kind of want to dig it. A lot of people kind of know what Intrepid is. I don’t think we need to spend a lot of time telling them what Intrepid is, but I think in all fairness, let’s do the 30, 60 second elevator pitch for, for Intrepid. And then we’re going to dig into your back.
Leigh (01:22.476)
Yeah, sounds good man. So, Tripod is all about sharing in the uncommon. We travel to hundreds of different countries and have thousands of different itineraries. Everything from trekking to Everest Base Camp, food tour of Vietnam, seeing the gorillas in Rwanda, touring the souks in Marrakesh. And it’s all about having sustainable experience, rich tours. It’s generally done in a small group with a local leader. And we really focus on making sure people have…
great experiences, eat the local food, meet the local people, really having that connection. And we’ll always try to do that as sustainably as possible for minimizing our impacts where we can and try and have a positive impact where possible. let’s either think about the environmental impact and reducing carbon emissions, or it’s about the community interactions. How do we make sure every dollar that we have goes into the communities that need it most? And that’s basically what we’re trying to do is grow the market for sustainable experience with travel.
Make sure people have an amazing holiday all over the world. Those holidays having a good impact are at the very worst, the more negative impact.
Jason Elkins (02:28.767)
Love it. And, you know, just from my perspective as someone that’s kind of on, I guess, kind of on the outside of Intrepid anyway, is that Intrepid, yeah, it’s one of the larger companies kind of in this adventure travel space or experiential travel space, but it’s not like so big that it’s out of touch. You guys have people on the ground working for Intrepid in all these different places. So it’s kind of just from my perspective, it’s kind like you have a bunch of little operators.
all around the world that are all kind of aligned on the same mission and Intrepid’s big enough that you guys can really make an impact. When you guys set up an initiative or create goals and you’re able to make an impact that can be a little trickier for some of the smaller operators to be honest with you. So that’s I’ve always admired.
Leigh (03:05.592)
Yeah.
Leigh (03:17.006)
Yeah, that’s probably part of the secret sauce. We’ve been around for 35 years. We have DMCs all over the world, know, at 30 different locations. And so we have staff on the ground creating the trips, working with the local communities, building the impact projects, making sure the trips are really amazing. But when you sow that all together, you know, we’re getting quite substantial and that means our impact can be multiplied. So, you know, everything from around what we’re trying to do to, know, wildlife.
moving elephant rides or our foundation, we’ve raised over 20 million dollars in projects or making the next step in our climate initiatives around how we focus on reducing our own carbon emissions. Because of the size and scale, we’re able to do things that are quite cool. We’re also very transparent, so I think that openness gives people that look into what we’re doing and understanding and learning, but then we’re also hopefully humble. have people on the ground doing the work and making sure that…
What we say is actually happening.
Jason Elkins (04:18.065)
Love it. And you you say because of our size and scale, we’re able to make an impact and do these things, but I’ll tell you what, there’s a lot more to it than that because there’s companies out there that we’re in the travel industry. There’s a lot of companies out there that are a lot bigger than Intrepid that aren’t doing those things. Right? So it’s not just a matter of, okay, we’re a big company. So we do these things.
You guys are kind of a larger company in this space and you do those things, but there’s a lot of companies that are not doing that. So it’s choice within the company and I respect that.
Leigh (04:52.27)
Yeah, totally. It’s built in our DNA. think Darrell and Man to the original founders, one of them is very important is that they created a company that was doing the right thing. And it’s throughout our whole organization. We’re a B Corp. That means we use the business as a force for good. So all of our goals, our KPIs, the whole business is built around making sure that we’re not only focusing on profit, but also the purpose component of the business and doing the right thing.
Jason Elkins (05:17.759)
Very cool. And for those of our listeners, I just want to mention this real quick. Actually, when I started the podcast, boy, it’s almost coming up on the two year anniversary of releasing our first episode. And the first episode we released was with Tom Smith, your colleague there at Intrepid. yeah.
Leigh (05:31.598)
Alright, yeah cool. Tom’s in Costa Rica now, yeah, livin’ it up is the good life. Yeah, that’s cool.
Jason Elkins (05:39.475)
Yeah, it’s very cool. So I appreciate you coming back to kind of Mark. Maybe I’ll schedule actually. So your episode releases on the two year anniversary of, of our first episode. I’m not sure yet, but anyways, super, super happy. All right. Now let’s dig into the stuff that people just probably wouldn’t know. The goal is to let’s get to some things that even people that, you know, your friends, your family, they’re going to hear you share something that maybe they’ve never heard before. So, so how far back do we need to go Leigh to kind of figure out how you got from where you are to where you are?
Leigh (05:48.034)
Yeah, cool. That’d be great.
Leigh (06:10.509)
my god, that’s quite a philosophical question, Jason.
Jason Elkins (06:12.721)
Yeah, I know. I said I’d make it easy, but it is your story. let’s
Leigh (06:17.47)
Maybe maybe maybe my psychologist might say high school or something like that with that stage. Yeah, yeah, man. I think I think the point of the reference point I always use was going to every space camp and checking through the layers that was made the biggest pivotal moment in my career. Also, travel in my life. So from that point on, I think that was about
Jason Elkins (06:22.053)
I bet. I bet it starts. I bet it start go back further than Natalie. I’m just guessing.
Leigh (06:46.126)
almost over 10 years, 12 years ago now I did that trip and from that moment my life has pretty much changed and has led me, most of my decisions have come off the back of that and I learned a lot about myself on that trip. I learned a little bit more about the world and hopefully I’m a bit more humble and a bit better person than I probably was before that.
Jason Elkins (07:04.552)
interesting. We’re going to dig into that. What was going on right before that? What were you doing before you went on the base camp track?
Leigh (07:13.166)
I just started working at Intrepid. So I’ve been with Intrepid 15 years now and I started off as a search and social media coordinator. So if you find any F-ups on the internet on Intrepid or Perrigan’s account about 15 years ago, that was definitely me. Yeah, yeah. But I was probably just like cruising, know, late 20s, more focused on the weekends and my travel plans. And I was just cruising, probably a typical…
Jason Elkins (07:28.06)
you okay?
Leigh (07:42.383)
I’ve landed many regards from like a working class suburb. My focus is probably more on fried chicken and craft beer as opposed to doing anything particularly interesting with my life. And yeah, that trip changed me in a couple of ways. It sort of showed how insignificant we all are. You walking through the Himalayas is quite humbling and sort of just showed me that, yeah, we are quite small. But on the flip side,
it showed me that people are more like them now. Everyone in NetWiz basically trying to do the same things. They’re all working. They’re all trying to put their kids through a better life. They’re all trying to have a bit of time to have some time with their friends and their family to have fun. we’re all basically trying to do a different version of that or something pretty similar. And I had a choice. I could decide to…
cruise around, keep doing what I was doing, or I could be part of something bigger and focus my attention beyond just the weekend. And I think I’ve been doing that ever since, although I still enjoy having a beer with my friends and spending time with my family. I have probably had a little bit more purpose and drive to my life since that moment.
Jason Elkins (08:59.785)
cool. I think we need to go a little further. Let’s go. Well, first of all, your accent is…
Leigh (09:02.339)
Yeah.
Leigh (09:05.902)
Further on that trip or further on that trip or further into the past?
Jason Elkins (09:08.603)
No, no further into the past because I get that that was a transformational moment, but in order to really understand transformation, I think we need to understand what was going on before. So, and obviously your accent is different than my accent. I’m guessing, I’m guessing you didn’t grow up in Seattle. So where, where are you from? Where did you grow up?
Leigh (09:23.441)
yeah.
right now.
I grew up in Werribee, which is in Melbourne, Australia. So Werribee is a suburb, about 40 minutes, a classic satellite suburb. know, everyone lives there but works all the time, into the city. Typical, call it, neighborhood. Yeah, so that’s where I grew up many, many moons ago. West childhood, great childhood, very lucky, got to play lots of sport, school, loving family, all that stuff. But yeah, Melbourne, Australia is where I call home.
Jason Elkins (09:59.647)
Was your family interested in travel? mean, when’s the first time that if you go all the way back, when’s the first time you remember or thought, oh, geez, this world’s a little bit bigger. There’s there’s things out there to see. I’m just kind of curious. Was there curiosity at that point?
Leigh (10:15.885)
Yeah, so travel for us was an hour drive down to the coast. And it was a caravan and it was spending our summers at the beach. So travel was, know, mattress on the floor, multiple families, my cousins, my grandparents, all at the caravan, playing cricket on the road at the front, walking to the beach, it’s like 30, 40 degrees, spending the day in the sun, barbecues around the caravan. So…
pretty, pretty low cable. That was travel for us. I think my sort of first memory of travel and I mentioned cricket, so sport was the Australian cricket team used to go play in England or used to still ask, go play in England and would go play in the Caribbean. And those pictures would be, I’d be like a young teenager watching those games on television. It was a different world. And that was the sort of first inkling for me that there was somewhere else that you could go to these things and you’d see Australian fans in the crowd. was like,
Oh my God, that looks amazing. So sport for me was probably the first ever inclination. And the other one in this came a little bit more in my, my mom would always say to my, my sisters and I that we weren’t allowed to get married until we’d seen the world. So my mom had, um, probably didn’t get to travel herself as much as she wanted to. Um, and she, uh, always said to me, you know, don’t get married. Don’t settle down until you’ve gone out and seen the world.
Jason Elkins (11:30.334)
Mm.
Leigh (11:42.543)
She’s probably regretting saying that to me now I’m 43 and I live on the other side of the planet. But a cocktail is… That’s right.
Jason Elkins (11:47.399)
Yeah. She expected maybe you’d come back. She didn’t say go see the world and stay away. Yeah.
Leigh (11:54.403)
Yeah, that’s right. I’ve done it a few times over the last 20 or 30 years. yeah, the cocktail of those things, my family taking me down to the beach, still my favorite holiday anywhere in world. If I can go chill by the beach for a couple of days, it just takes me back. And then seeing the world through sports, so being able to get that lens and seeing again different cultures, different people. And yeah, my mom just pushing me in the direction that maybe she missed out on when she was younger.
Jason Elkins (12:20.287)
Do you, I’m not sure what to ask this, cause I don’t know your whole story, but was your dad there? Was he involved when he was listening to your mom say, don’t get married until you travel the world. I’m just trying to imagine what that might’ve looked like and.
Leigh (12:24.601)
Thank
Leigh (12:37.055)
I don’t think my dad cared. Dad’s very much a, like you take care of your own, SHIT sort of dad. and whatever I decided to do, up to me as my own person. but he’s much more working class, hardworking, bit more straight edge. My mom was probably a bit more, hippie and out there. so interesting cocktail, but, my dad, very much a father that was like, you’ve got to take care of your own stuff and you do what you need to do.
I’m very appreciative to have had the parents that I had. And it does rid my mom now over a glass of wine late at night about being told to kids that you wanted to see the world. So I do think there might be a little bit of heat there when we’re not around, but they may have their arguments. But my dad was always being supportive and he just always the mantra that I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do. And it’s my responsibility to sort my stuff out.
Jason Elkins (13:34.143)
The reason I ask that question is I could just envision your dad’s there and maybe your mom’s feeling or acting like she’s a little frustrated with him and then she looks at you and says, whatever you do, don’t get married until you go see the world. He’s probably thinking, geez. Because you mentioned she didn’t have that opportunity.
Leigh (13:51.072)
that was it.
Yeah, I just think that we came from a part of the country and part of the world. That probably wasn’t in the cards regardless if you were married or not. It just wasn’t on the scope of things to be able to go travel. I’m sure people were, but it just not like it. It probably felt like too many worlds away. So it was probably a dream they both would have loved. They’ve traveled a lot now that they’re older. But yeah, don’t think it was in animosity. I think it was more like you guys have these opportunities taken. live your life and go and see the world.
But anyway, you don’t know what happens behind closed doors. Maybe there was a little bit more animosity between my parents. I think my parents have always been like, you know, the world joyously go have opportunities and lots of back in school, sport, lots of freedom as a young adult. So I think it came from a place of love and opportunity.
Jason Elkins (14:44.127)
cool. I’m curious because growing up in the States, I actually had the opportunity to go to Australia when I was quite young. spent about a month there with my father. He was into hot air ballooning, so he picked up a contract to go fly hot air balloons in Conoundra, New South Wales. Pardon me. So we had the opportunity to go spend some time there. And for us, Australia was a long ways away.
Leigh (14:58.146)
Okay, cool.
Leigh (15:02.083)
Yeah, beautiful.
Jason Elkins (15:09.673)
You know, my brother and I, I was 12, my brother was 11, we flew unaccompanied, as unaccompanied miners from Syracuse, New York to Sydney, Australia. Quite an adventure. But the, guess what I’m curious about is Australia seems so far away that even today, I think, of growing up in Australia must feel like everything’s so far away. But I’m not really sure because when I look at a map,
Leigh (15:10.306)
Rinse, rinse.
Leigh (15:18.765)
out of the truth.
Jason Elkins (15:35.271)
or I went to Bali and there were a lot of Australians there. You guys are actually pretty close to a lot of things. So I’m curious, do you feel that most Australians feel like travel is difficult because everything’s so far away or is that just my ethnocentric mindset as someone that grew up in the States?
Leigh (15:52.751)
Oh, think, um, what you don’t know, you don’t know. So when you go off, that’s just the world you live in. You know, I live in Australia. It’s a long way from stuff. Um, and because we’re a long way, we sort of like, Hey, I’m going to go up there to make the most of it. So we actually traveled quite a lot and we traveled quite long. Um, and because I think we have that isolation, we do have a longing to go see the world and, um, you know, that we are a long way from everything. think the older I get, the more I learned that how amazing Australia is and how privileged we are.
Jason Elkins (16:06.618)
Leigh (16:21.881)
but also when I’m from Melbourne, it’s amazing that there’s this big vibrant city, like so far away from everything else. Like so far away, I quite get a lot of Americans or friends when they travel to Melbourne, they’re like, my God, this city is huge and thriving and same with Sydney, they’re quite taken back with how vibrant they are as destination. So.
Yeah, I think what you don’t know, you don’t know. And then also there’s a bit of just the Aussie attitude, like I’m going to do it. Let’s just go do it a crack and see what happens and yeah, let’s make it worthwhile.
Jason Elkins (16:56.925)
Yeah, I get that. What about your siblings? It sounds like you had some siblings involved as well. I’m just kind of curious if any of them went a similar path or they still on Australia. what
Leigh (17:08.887)
They’re both in Australia, they’re both nurses, so much smarter than myself. And one of my sisters Courtney married an Irishman. She lived overseas in the UK and Ireland and traveled the world. My other sister Kelly lives up in the north of Queensland in Moosa and she’s traveled extensively. She just got back from a white water rafting tour, I think in the South Island of New Zealand.
She just did intrepid trip earlier this year up into the MT Northern Territory. So yeah, all pretty intrepid travelers. My parents actually just left Seattle after three weeks here and they’re on a river cruise down the Danube. So yeah, we’re all out going out and see the world. My sisters definitely gave it a fair crack as well.
Jason Elkins (17:57.257)
It sounds like your mom’s advice resonated with all three of you and then she had an opportunity to do some of that as well. That’s pretty cool. So tell me, you’re in high school. there a moment, I mean, you mentioned the rugby games. You said rugby or cricket? Cricket, yeah. You mentioned the cricket games. Isn’t that cool? I’d love to go to England to a cricket game. Okay, I get that.
Leigh (18:18.402)
Pretty pretty pretty.
Jason Elkins (18:25.597)
Was there a point when you kind of opened up? Well, obviously there’s a point because we’re having this conversation, but was there a point before the track that you thought, I really just walked me through it. High school. You finished high school. What happened?
Leigh (18:41.795)
Yeah, so high school mates, to be honest at that point, I still thought I was gonna be captain of the Australian cricket team. So probably that would have been the same as thinking I was going to be Aaron Judge of the Yankees. So that was my whole, I thought I was gonna be a cricket superstar. My talent didn’t match my dreams. And yeah, I wanted to become a sports journalist.
Jason Elkins (18:51.967)
Mm-hmm.
Leigh (19:08.911)
I studied journalism at university in PR. Again, I don’t think my aptitude or skill matched the execution. And I think my crutch came that I was just going to live in the UK. So a big cultural thing for Australians is to go through a gap year or a couple of years in the UK. And my whole world really, from probably about 18 to the time I went to the UK when I was 23, 24, you know, save enough money and get my university over with so I can go live in the UK.
and I didn’t have any grand travel plans. My whole thing was basically just to go live in London and Edinburgh and have fun with my mates. And that was it. And it probably wasn’t the most sustainable or experiential travel. I was focused very much on just having fun and sightseeing, but probably more focused on the fun part. So sightseeing the world through the lens of the bar or the pub or something at that point. So.
Yeah, my travel story when I was young isn’t one for the romance novels or any grand insights or knowledge. It was really that I was probably a little bit lost. I wanted to get out of Melbourne, go live somewhere else and see the world. And I just left and went and lived in Edinburgh for the best part of two years and saw a lot of Europe, was really cool. But I wouldn’t say I was one of the better travelers to date, so I was pretty naive when you’re not at the club.
Jason Elkins (20:36.233)
So yeah, cause what I hear you saying, you correct me if I’m wrong, but or what I’m the story I’m interpreting is, okay, I’m away from everything. No close to Melbourne. Got my family here. I want to go. You pick the spot. That’s about as far away as can be physically. That is, but culturally, I mean, there’s some similarity, at least same language. I’m envisioning like a lot of people at that age are just like, I want to go party, have fun.
meet lot of interesting people from around the world and just, I don’t have a plan so much, but you know, the UK just sounds fun. Was that kind of what it was?
Leigh (21:14.575)
That’s it, that’s it. And that was probably where I saw the cricket match. you know, that was like something in the back of my mind that had stuck and you know, I probably…
Jason Elkins (21:23.657)
Did you go to a lot of cricket matches when you were in the UK?
Leigh (21:26.953)
I probably didn’t have the financial means to make that happen, but I have been to the cricket union case since, so I’ve been able to tick that bucket list off, which is amazing.
Jason Elkins (21:38.035)
Was there a moment, I’m curious, because I’m fascinated by, you sometimes we envision things and then we go do them and our identity gets tied up. Like maybe you, I’m like, okay, I’m going to go to UK and I’m just going to go to the UK and party and have fun. Do you remember, was there a moment when you doubted your choice? Like when you got there and you’re like, man, I’m homesick. What the hell am I doing here? This is kind of dumb.
Leigh (22:00.152)
Yeah, the whole time.
Leigh (22:05.967)
the whole time I was so naive and so like I don’t think I would have been able to do it if I knew what I knew today. I didn’t know how far I was going. I didn’t know how disconnected I was going to be from the family. This was a point back then where no I had to like get a black cab if I wanted to go somewhere. If I wanted to call my parents I had to get a phone card. Do you remember those things? had to get a bank account. I couldn’t get a bank account.
Jason Elkins (22:28.009)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Leigh (22:35.663)
I ran out of money and it was really hard to get a job. The weather was completely different. All these little things up. I made heaps of mistakes and I don’t know, I think I left like $3,000. Like that’s insane to me now to go survive. And I didn’t have a job for two months until I got a gig and was able to start working. So the whole time I was there, I’ve been overseas in Canada and the US.
And I would say once a month I have feeling about what the hell have I done? Why am I here? I could be back in the amazing Melbourne, close to my friends and family. But yeah, I think that naivety, the curiosity, the want to test myself also just to go out and see what I can do. yeah, ambition, something about maybe testing myself on the world stage, which may sound ridiculous and…
But like going out and seeing if I can do it outside of Australia and just for my own self worth. yeah, heaps of times I’ve doubted myself and I doubted myself probably three times today.
Jason Elkins (23:43.295)
I get that. I can relate to that, very much. Just in life in general, but I’ve been traveling full-time for four years and every probably a few days, it’s like, what am I doing?
Leigh (23:54.447)
Well, think, I think I’m to be honest, because too often we get the positive thing. Probably people see my LinkedIn and go like, hopefully he’s done this cool. Hopefully I see it. Again, I’m being bit self-promotional, but the person I project is not the reality. And too often I think we all speak about like how easy stuff is and the positive you’re out here traveling with your life. Why? Hard, enough as it is.
Um, then to go put these other barriers of traveling the world. sure there’s times you’re like, God, just wish I was really some friends or something. can just walk for that, you know, that therefore walk with that friend or go for a beer somewhere or call that person, you know, all those things. just a little bit easier. Um, yeah, that’s hard. And, um, you know, I stuff up all the time and this, this moved to Seattle about eight months ago. Uh, probably way too naive. I’m with my young daughter, who’s probably 18 months and my wife and yeah, it’s been really hard. Um, so.
Yeah, I think too often in travel, it’s so much focused and just in business and life, it’s like, here’s all the good stuff, this is what it looks like. I doubt myself and I things hard many times throughout my life.
Jason Elkins (25:03.773)
Yeah, it’s tricky. I mean, it’s tricky just when you’re in a place that you’re comfortable and familiar with and you do have friends and family. Like, you know, things can be challenging there, especially as you get older and your dynamics change, it’s a little harder to make friends and connections. I’m not suggesting, you know, that it’s hard for you to make friends. I’m sure it’s not. But yeah, there are definitely times when you’re bouncing around that it gets challenging. So.
Leigh (25:12.739)
Yeah, totally. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (25:31.337)
But okay, so let’s go back to you get to the UK, you’re gonna party it up, party hard. You think you’re gonna go to a lot of cricket games and stuff like that. Kind of the reality is that’s it. It’s a little bit more complicated. Where did you go from there?
Leigh (25:45.871)
mentally or physically.
Jason Elkins (25:48.051)
Well, it depends on how deep you want to go. We can spin this off as a psychology podcast as well, if you’d like.
Leigh (25:55.21)
I had an absolute time of my life. I made some of the best friends. I connected with the Irish. I had several Irish friends. I got to go to the Greek islands. Backpacked throughout Holland, Belgium, France, and Spain. Just had an amazing experience there. And sort of again opened up my eyes to the world, being a boy from the suburbs.
sort of really again show me what was possible, what’s happening in the world that, you know, good gumption and some hard work you can make stuff happen and go to that. So yeah, I traveled a lot. found towards the end, I was pretty, pretty brutal, not having much money and just missed life in Australia. So ended back up in Melbourne after a couple of years. And it’s just back, we got a job back at the Ford Motor Company here in Melbourne. And…
Yeah, was doing comms and a bunch of other stuff, customer care, comms, all that sort of stuff back here. And yeah, a couple of years later, I managed to snag a job at Intrepid.
Jason Elkins (27:00.703)
So I wanna, I’m curious that time that you were in Europe, traveling around, kind of doing, well, can’t remember if you specifically said it, but in your mind, was this all kind of the gap year experience? Like, I’m just gonna go do this for a while and come back, or did you know that at the time? Did you really have a plan?
Leigh (27:20.591)
I didn’t really have a grand, I was just going there and seeing what the hell would happen. Looking back, super naive, but yeah, I just let it go and it would work itself out. But when you’re 24, 25, yeah, you don’t, I don’t know, didn’t really, I was never the most planned person, I’m still probably not the most planned person now. So yeah, I had no grand intentions other than to go.
Jason Elkins (27:44.479)
Leigh, I’m 52 traveling full time and I still don’t have a plan. So I want to on you. You’re making better progress than I am. Hey, the people that you met, you mentioned that you met a lot of Irish people. You met people as you were traveling around. Were they all pretty kind of in the similar space in that doing the gap year party and no real plans? Or did you do you remember meeting a few people that
Leigh (27:52.877)
Ha ha ha!
Jason Elkins (28:09.713)
influenced you to make big changes or that you got you at least thinking about what you ended up doing in the future?
Leigh (28:17.231)
I just met heaps of different people from lots of walks of life and that mosaic or tapestry of everyone somehow influenced me. I got to meet older people, younger people, a lot of people my age from all walks of life. I don’t know if was probably partying, partying for partying sake, but all a little bit lost and you don’t know what you’re doing and sort of parties that having fun with each other is the escape to work it all out.
Yeah, I just got to meet lots of different people from lots of walks of life, talk heaps, learn a lot. But there was no magic bullet, no one person that probably amalgamates into like a tapestry of different people. But yeah, I think the thing was just to meet lots of different people and learn the world is bigger than I thought it was, that I was probably less important than I thought I was. And there’s no one way to do it. And there’s lots of great ways to live a great life.
and I think the main thing is just like, it’s on you, you know, it’s your life. And I learned from everyone is like, you’ve got to take responsibility for it and make stuff happen. And at that point, I definitely wasn’t doing that.
Jason Elkins (29:28.123)
Okay, gotcha. So you moved back to Australia. You did you go to work? You said for Ford, right? Okay, did you go? Like, did you have that job lined up before you went back or did it?
Leigh (29:35.523)
Yeah.
Leigh (29:41.833)
and I just came back and started to pick the phones and ringing up some old colleagues that work at different organizations and yeah, was lucky enough to get a job back there doing a bunch of different things.
Jason Elkins (29:54.985)
Do you remember how you felt? sometimes you’ve been out traveling the world and exploring and doing this stuff and coming home can be great on many respects. It’s like, nice to be home. But also sometimes people can feel like, man, I really miss what I was doing. I need to figure out a way to get back. do you just remember kind of what was going on in your head when you maybe a month after you got back to Australia?
Leigh (30:20.825)
Yeah, I remember being just a couple of things I was ecstatic about. One, to be with my family and my friends. Like that was just so much fun to be able to just pick that up. The other was to be able to have Australian fish and chips again, which is much better than fish and chips in Edinburgh. So that was like amazing. But then I felt like completely like void, like my, what was I doing here? was back living in my parents’ house. That was different. Didn’t have a job.
Um, my identity maybe about realizing he’d been like, he goes, he got living in the UK and that was like who I was. I’d sort of in suspended belief, you know, like suspended, sort of suspended reality, you know, and put that to the side. And my reality was, yeah, alternative guy wearing up shop clothing, cruising around Edinburgh backpacking around Europe. That was it. And I got to, to Melbourne and after that glow, like it was still great to be with my friends and family, but, um,
Jason Elkins (31:03.261)
Yeah.
Leigh (31:19.343)
What am I doing? You know, mean, I’m in the suburbs. Life’s good. Like lifestyle, like life where I was in Melbourne is amazing. But I felt like vacants or like a little bit like.
Jason Elkins (31:33.78)
I get it.
Leigh (31:34.839)
empty. And look, it took me a long time to work that out as well, like that I needed to work, do something I was interested in. The job I got into, I was doing it for the paycheck and I really struggled with that. didn’t enjoy it. So yeah, I definitely felt, remember feeling vacant or bit hollow or shallow and what have I done? Why am I here? That sort of like questioning and…
Jason Elkins (32:01.31)
Right.
Leigh (32:02.541)
Not that blind faith and optimism I had when I went to Edinburgh where I was doing something, even if it was nothing. So, yeah.
Jason Elkins (32:14.025)
I get that. Thank you for sharing that. And I’m curious, sometimes when you go have an adventure like that and you come back and maybe friends and family, maybe they have changed, maybe they haven’t changed. It’s all perspective. It’s like, well, who’s really changed? But I’m curious, did you come back to friends that hadn’t traveled and that maybe you felt like it was a little harder? I mean, they’re your friends, but was it a little harder to connect with them?
after you’d been off traveling or…
Leigh (32:43.119)
Not really, I’m fair. I have such an amazing group of friends and I’m always like so happy to be around them and they actually make life too easy and I’m very lucky and privileged to be able to be that safe and go over and be with my friends and they’ll look after me and maybe I’m being a little bit cocky about this but I’m very lucky to have such a great, very strong group of friends and yeah, we all changed. I changed. I was probably called woke or bit too lefty at that point and
They maybe weren’t, but nothing that really changed their relationships, they grew it about. We just thought the change had grown.
Jason Elkins (33:21.043)
Did they, did you, I’m curious, did you get mostly a, Leigh, that’s so cool that you went and did this, or was it you’re freaking crazy or you’re irresponsible? I mean, did you get, what kind of response in general did you get from your friends? Loving, warm, great friends, I got that, but I’m just curious, what message did you get from them?
Leigh (33:40.265)
look, as long as the story was good and they were laughing, I don’t think they really cared. I think it was just telling good, having good banter with my mates. And if I was doing that, I was holding up my end of the bargain. there may have been some of them. Yeah. Not that level of judgment or thought, Jason. was more like, you’re back, let’s have fun. And you’re telling a good yarn. and they’re laughing. To be honest.
Jason Elkins (33:51.665)
Okay. That sounds very Aussie from what I understand. Yeah.
Leigh (34:07.791)
Grateful is crazy, grateful wasn’t just good to have you being here telling those jokes and if we’re laughing, we’re fine. So no, don’t ever remember. I don’t remember being judged or not even judged by those sort of comments. I’m sure they happened, but yeah. And I was probably looking at it little bit harder than I could have or should have, because they weren’t there. So I could have said whatever I wanted to say. I was probably leaning on that a little bit harder and the tales were probably longer than they should have been.
Jason Elkins (34:31.08)
Ha
Jason Elkins (34:36.265)
Were your sisters, I don’t know if your sisters are younger than you, did they, had they already been traveling or were you the first one to go do it?
Leigh (34:40.717)
Yeah, that’s the end.
I think they traveled more as teenagers than in school. I hadn’t done that. But I was the first as an adult to go away and let him leave.
Jason Elkins (34:56.223)
what do you recall kind of their response? I do you feel like you inspired them to do some of the same? If you hadn’t done it, would they? I mean…
Leigh (35:08.463)
Look, I think I’m the older brother, but hopefully they will stop to me in some regards and not in others. But my relationship with them are…
very strong in a way that like, you don’t have to be around each other or talk to not strong. know, if we ever need something from each other, we just call and we’ll be taking care of and we’ll be doing what we can. And I think, you know, we all look to each other in different ways for inspiration. You know, maybe they look for me just putting my overconfidence or storytelling or just provided to go and do things. So I think, yeah, that probably, but I look for them a lot too.
around their compassion and how they care for people and think of others. And I always liked them. I look to them a lot, but I may be not doing enough in that regards. And yeah, I definitely have inspiration from my sisters in how loving they are and how caring and how determined they are. I don’t think I could have the level of concentration to drive.
Jason Elkins (36:04.063)
Right. Cause you said they’re both nurses, right?
Leigh (36:12.879)
the study that’s required to become that. So yeah, I definitely respect their determination to make that happen. So yeah, blessed to have them as sisters and I’m inspired by that. I like to think that they were inspired by the fact that I was able to have the confidence to go and travel somewhere, but hopefully too there’s a lot of other my attributes they think are interesting to be understood. I’m just cocky enough to get on a plane to the UK the first time.
Jason Elkins (36:40.447)
That’s a big part of it, realistically, is there’s an awful lot of people that kind of aspire to go do some of that stuff, but then don’t necessarily take the action and that’s fine. We all get to work out our own SHIT, right? Let me ask you this. So you’re working it forward. I heard you say, this is I heard was, what am I doing? I came back here and working this job, but it’s not really fulfilling. And then it sounds like you went from there to…
Leigh (36:53.453)
That’s right. That’s right.
Jason Elkins (37:09.501)
intrepid. while you’re at Ford, were you actively looking for something that was more in the travel business or industry or had those types of opportunities or what were you looking for?
Leigh (37:18.479)
Nah, not I. So at that point, I was wanting to do something else. And I was doing a range of different jobs there in the marketing, customer, communication, sort of thing. And around that time, Google advertising was really kicking off. Social media was taking off or just starting in many regards. So I went to…
to school, did some diplomas around, you know, PPC advertising, Facebook, blogging, got to go to some blogging conventions. Remember blogging? Blogging was the podcasting of the early 2000s, I think in many regards, you had to have a blog. So yeah, I went and studied that. I started to do free online marketing for friends, businesses, and that sort of stuff. And I was just applying for jobs. I just thought that was such a cool, interesting.
Jason Elkins (38:00.915)
Mm-hmm.
Leigh (38:15.823)
your space. Not always been doing a lot of comms, marketing, Harvard stuff. I hadn’t found my niche within that world. yeah, just a job came up at a company that wasn’t Intrepid yet. It was a company called Peregrine Adventures. Their search in social media, eventually that became part of Intrepid through some acquisitions over time. And yeah, job came up and I remember going to that job interview in a suit and tie.
very different from an adventure travel company. I was too naive. didn’t know everyone was there in jeans and T-shirts. I’m not jeans. You couldn’t wear jeans with her again. They’re in chinos and chinos in a T-shirt, pretty chill. And I went in and pitched my ass off because I just wanted a job in this space. I just wanted to work for an interesting company, do something else. And yeah, I went in for an hour conversation, was there for three hours. I had reams of notes, had a suit. I was selling my ass off.
Jason Elkins (38:50.079)
you
Leigh (39:13.199)
Yeah, one more interview later and I got my dream job. remember, I remember actually, um, Facebook does these weird things with, you know, the memories and I posted the day after, um, saying I just scored my dream job. Um, and it was more dream that it was a cool, interesting company. I could go traveling. had no idea about experiential adventure, small group, all these things had to do with my vernacular. I didn’t even know the difference between industry direct, web book, none of that, none of that had any world. So.
Jason Elkins (39:27.327)
days.
Leigh (39:43.065)
Yeah, I was just stoked to have that job and it was very serendipitous rather than some grand strategic plan.
Jason Elkins (39:50.163)
was, but it was located in Melbourne.
Leigh (39:52.825)
Yep, in Malibu, yep.
Jason Elkins (39:54.417)
Okay. So you didn’t have to physically change your li… I mean, maybe you changed your living situation, but you didn’t have to move anywhere necessarily. Okay. And when you interviewed with them, did they put out there, Hey, you’re going to have some opportunities to travel? sounds like, I think you mentioned something about that. want to go a little, little deeper because you could do all that digital marketing stuff from Melbourne without ever going on one of their trips, presumably.
Leigh (40:01.987)
No, not very lucky.
Leigh (40:21.039)
Yeah, they definitely said there would be travel involved. It super exciting for me at that point. I got to what we call the FOC, free of charge trip each year. My first trip, they said you need to go on the trip within your first six months because you need to understand the business and what we’re doing here. So was lucky enough to go with my mates to do the Inca Trail in which was incredible. Again, super naive. Kulu was amazing. It was so different. It was awesome. It was hard. It really cool, all those things.
I got to travel and started to travel every year on my free of charge trip. got to go to city Everest, Morocco, Malaysia, USA, all over the shop. It’s been an amazing experience.
Jason Elkins (41:08.913)
And you’re able to remember that. So I’m sure you’re also able to recognize, like anybody listening to this right now, especially somebody that’s listening to the show and aspires to work in the tourism business, like, my gosh, like you said, dream job. Anybody that’s really interested in travel imagines getting a job where they’re not just encouraged to travel. It’s like, here’s a expense.
covered trip, free trip, whatever, and you got to do it. It’s not like you can’t just say, no thanks. I’m not really interested. It’s like, no, you’re going, you’re going traveling. That is, it’s pretty exciting for, well, it’s, it’s a big reason why most people probably get in this business because they want to be able to do stuff like that. So that’s, that’s very cool. What did, boy, had, had a question right on the tip of my tongue and I guess I forgot it.
So let’s move forward. So what exactly were you doing for them? What was the job description besides just take a free trip every year?
Leigh (42:17.859)
Yeah, I think people would call me like social media Jedi or social media guru, all that sort of stuff. But really, I had no idea what I doing at that point because everything was so new. I set up our Facebook pages, set up our Twitter accounts, started our blog. I was really just getting all of that stuff set up and then making sure that our PPC, Google advertising accounts were producing revenue as they were supposed to. yeah, my day consisted of checking the ads, uploading Facebook posts.
dealing with customer issues or complaints that they may raise in social media, writing blog stories, getting people on the road, bloggers to write for us. So it was a pretty dynamic and interesting job. yeah, it was, I loved it. So cool. I so lucky to get it. I look back with fondness because I just got lucky. Not too many times when in marketing there’s a whole new sphere coming in.
and you get to own it from the start. And I was young, I would only just want my chops at school. I hadn’t had it. And yeah, it was really amazing to be, know, building our Facebook audience. So took it from zero to a couple hundred thousand. I started the blog. These were all really cool, interesting things. And I was very lucky to be able to be at the start of it in many ways and ride a bit of a wave. And it got me the opportunity to learn about the business. And I…
probably wouldn’t have had a long career. It’s 15 years now I’ve been trepidating a little bit company. I got a bit of a free ride. You I didn’t know the industry. I probably hadn’t earned a lot of the opportunities I got because I was in a new sector. People needed me. I remember getting bored until like a board meeting, and I’m being like, we’ve got this issue, we need you to communicate it. I’m like, I literally, I have been in this job six months and I don’t know how to do this, but I had to go make it happen.
So I had to have responsibility. So yeah, that opportunity being able to research that way gave me such a good opportunity to learn about the company, learn about the business, learn about what I needed for you to be successful. And from that to lots of other opportunities came within Trepidate and I was able to grow and to become the marketing manager, managing director, chief customer officer. I keep taking those opportunities and I probably have never been ready for any of them and I’ve just had to.
Leigh (44:39.961)
take that opportunity and roll with it. But I had such a good grounding to learn and sort of my lucky way in, I had to learn and get that grounding and sort of take that on. was the first time I’d done it because it wasn’t a roadmap. So sort of put me in good space where maybe other people coming into jobs in very established sectors or functions, there is a way to do things. There is a certain way. I just got to make it up. know, obviously speaking to people trying to get best practices, learn all that stuff, but there wasn’t a roadmap and a runway.
And maybe that just helped hardwire my brain and I was very lucky that time to make it happen.
Jason Elkins (45:13.343)
Okay, got a few questions about that. First of all, the question I remembered that I wanted to ask you before is, do you think that your time abroad contributed to you getting the job?
Leigh (45:24.783)
Ah, yes. Yes. think it’s well either in the direct fact that I’ve lived overseas or the attitude change in my aptitude and thinking around the world was different. yeah, I definitely attribute it and in every move since and everywhere I’ve gone, part of it has been because I’ve, you know, it’s not just the fact that I’ve been able to show to your employer or other people that you are self-reliant, you can problem solve, you can deal with issues and all of this in another country that you support and friends.
can manage a budget because you’ve got to do it. So it does come with a certain level of like cheat code to the employers. They know that this person can do this thing. So yeah, it’s helped me time to time again.
Jason Elkins (46:06.585)
That makes a lot of sense because I’ve noticed just in my travels, I’d been fortunate. I worked in the tourism business for quite a while. I’ve been to a lot of places, but honestly, most of those trips before were part of the job. And yes, I was leading group trips, so I had to figure things out and all that. But I’ll tell you, having lived traveling for four years now full time, it’s constant problem solving. It’s constant.
Like just, I don’t know where I’m going, but I have faith in my ability to figure it out along the way. And it’s from like, you know, I’m changing Airbnb rooms every, sometimes every week. And it’s like, there’s always a new challenge, a new obstacle. So when I look at somebody else that’s, you know, even just done a gap year or traveled a bit, I’m automatically, I’m like, yeah, they know how to figure stuff out. They know how to.
show up how to find a bus station and find a bus going to the place that they want to go, even though nobody speaks their language and you know, they’re a problem solving, it really is constant problem solving thing. So I get that completely. And I want to ask you kind of what advice you have for somebody listening to this that maybe wants to break into, you know, similar type of work or into this space.
Leigh (47:09.455)
Yeah, sure.
Jason Elkins (47:26.377)
But before we do that, want to touch, you mentioned something interesting. You said you kind of came in at a unique position and you had an opportunity to really kind of get in on the ground floor with all that, the stuff with the social media and the blogging and all that. And I’m curious if you see a similar type of opportunity in the marketplace right now, maybe at Intrepid or just in general, that if you think, man, this type of work,
that I see is very similar to what I had. And if someone were going to want to try and get in at the ground floor, this is what they should be focusing on. I don’t want to assume what you’re going to say. I’m just curious what comes to mind.
Leigh (48:04.975)
Yeah, I think the comparable thing at the moment is is AI and that would have been the oncoming of social media. But I think anytime we are able to come into a company with a new function where you write the rules is very advantageous. So regardless, I do see now in AI a lot of opportunity if you are able to understand its applications and how you can apply that to business or any other function, any other part of the world is going to be opportunistic to you.
Um, so yeah, pretty, similar time. And, um, I was able to take those things that I like doing with friends and to help me make some, make some money. But yeah, I think the two things with big opportunity change with AI now, and it could be, um, the next 10 to 15 years of leaders probably will get their starts in companies in AI. Um, but also I think anytime you’re able to get into a business and a function that’s completely new for that organization, it does come with some pretty big, uh, advantages.
Jason Elkins (49:03.773)
I hear what, here’s what I hear you saying. I hear you saying that if somebody has the ability and the skillset to do both jobs, I’m going to give you two jobs to consider. They’re able to do both of them really well, but their goal is to be president of the Americas for Intrepid 10, 15 years from now. One job is AI.
AI content creation, AI tannery building, whatever. AI focused. It’s kind of a newer position. Maybe it’s a brand new position in Intrepid. Or they can come in and start as a guide working for Intrepid in Morocco. They’ve got the same skillset, the same education, everything. I hear you saying is the AI job is probably a better opportunity for…
being president of the Americas 15 years from now? Is that accurate or am I misinterpreting?
Leigh (49:59.182)
No, think, well, in some cases, I don’t think it’s the precursor to my job, but I think what it does is you’re one of one, not one of thousands. All right, so if you do a good job, you indifferently stand out more. Also because you’re blazing a path, you’ve got more opportunity to integrate with the business that’s new. So you’re runway. So you may stay as the head of AI, right? You may or may not become that, but you’re runway.
Jason Elkins (50:11.199)
Yeah.
Leigh (50:27.055)
to do things is because there’s no standard operating procedure. You know, you’re giving the space to make it happen. It’s just you. So you do a good job or a bad job. So there’s pros and cons of that. you do a bad job, you’re very noticeable. I don’t think it’s a precursor to leadership. think the things that I was lucky with was probably the ability to tell a story, make decisions, make stuff happen. And…
If you’re able to do those things, you’re to put yourself in good stead. But yeah, I think in a new role, you just have that runway and there’s no standard operating procedure. So you can sort of make stuff happen how you want, which is quite fun, you know, to bring your reality where, you know, a of other jobs you’re falling into the machine and you’re delivering on the IQ of that company that’s been around for 10, 20, 30, 40 years on that particular topic.
So you do fall into the standard operating procedure and the walls around you that you have to fit into to deliver on that job.
Jason Elkins (51:29.727)
Do you kidding in a kind of, know, cause I’ve worked in the corporate world as well and your corporate world. Well, I don’t know. There’s probably some similarities, but.
I suspect that there’s, know, Intrepid’s a large organization full of a lot of people that have worked their way up from being guides to, you know, country managers to all these different things that kind of work their way up. Does that create some challenges when maybe they’re now working for somebody that worked their way up through the more the technology or the marketing angle?
Leigh (52:08.706)
I think what is probably the biggest challenge, I don’t think an intrepid, if they’ve been on that file and they’ve grown up in the organization, the culture will win. So the culture that we’re built, the process we’ve got, that will mean that they work in an intrepid way and we should be able to overcome that. We are humble, we’re honest, we’re real, we’re ambitious, these things should come through. But you still have to be curious to learn about technology.
doesn’t come without its challenges, but we believe, or I believe, is the fact that you’ve been with us, you’ve succeeded, you have the culture, you think the way that we want you to think, you know, work in these ways, that you should be set up for success. And it shouldn’t matter too much if you’ve got a tech leader, or you’ve got a comms leader, or a more operational leader.
Jason Elkins (52:57.501)
Got it. No, that makes a lot of sense. So where did the trip, the track to Everest Base Camp fit in to all this? What were you doing when you, when you took that trip?
Leigh (53:05.199)
I forgot we spoke about that Jason. Yeah, what was I doing? So at that point I’ve been in the company, think one or two years. I was doing good, got promoted a few times, loving working there, really enjoying it. But I wouldn’t say I was ruling the world or doing an amazing job and cool things. So yeah, after about a couple of years, I took that trip and then from that moment on, really changed my thinking about the company.
thinking in my decision making and was a lot more open to opportunity. So a couple of months later, think six months later, opportunity came to be the Canadian marketing manager for Intrepid and to move to Toronto and I went for it. And that’s probably the most pivotal decision I’ve made since that moment. About a year later after that, I was the regional director for North America running the sales marketing in that market.
I’ve been that pretty successful for four years and in my life pretty much changed from that moment in taking that risk and living somehow.
Jason Elkins (54:11.487)
Cool. So we’ve discussed a bunch of things. I know we’ve missed some gaps because your life is longer than this one hour conversation and we probably don’t need to touch on everything in your life, but I’m curious. What are you most, let’s discuss this. What are you most excited about right now? Either in your personal life or with what Intrepid is doing, because you guys are doing so many things. I mean, you can’t, if you’re on LinkedIn, you see constantly.
Intrepid is doing things. So what are you most excited about right now?
Leigh (54:44.719)
My idea of personal rule and professional one is seeing what happens with my daughter. She’s two years old and about 80 % of my personality these days, Jason is my daughter and so happy with my wife and my daughter. I’m just excited to see where our life takes us. We put a big strain on our little girl. She’s new country, she’s away from her family. So just excited to see what person she comes and where she takes us.
which has made me such a better person in every facet of my life. I often think that I need to be more like my daughter, go into every situation with a smile, tell people when I’m not happy, and things work out pretty good, know? so I’m super excited to see what amazing things my daughter does, and that’s what I think about most of the time. From a work perspective, for me, what I’m most excited about is obviously I move my family.
Jason Elkins (55:27.037)
Yeah.
Leigh (55:41.103)
that young family I spoke to about Seattle. And my focus here is making the trip of the best travel company for the world in this market. And I think that in the USA and Canada, that it’s huge opportunities for a product like ours that brings people together, that focuses on connection, celebrates curiosity, takes people out into the world. And I’m just really excited, giving this job a crack and hopefully, you
creating more intrepid people in the USA and Canada. So yeah, they’re big bold things. I want to see more Americans and Canadians get out and see the world and create more intrepid people. And I want to see what cool stuff my daughter does.
Jason Elkins (56:24.319)
I get that. Kids are amazing. It’s such an amazing opportunity. It’s not always easy. In fact, most of the time it’s not easy. You’ve had the easy two years, even though it might not seem like it with a two-year-old, but I certainly appreciate that. You know, I guess one thing I’m not clear on, and if I’m not clear on it, I bet there are other people not clear on it as well. So.
Leigh (56:31.287)
No.
Jason Elkins (56:50.291)
the Americas for Intrepid is your job mostly to market experiences. It sounds like two people that live in the Americas to travel outside of the Americas or is it.
Leigh (57:03.911)
That’s a big part of my job. My job currently is to do all the sales and marketing for outbound tourism out of Canada and the USA and also all the domestic tourism for Canadians and Americans in this market. I also manage and lead all the operational components of the trips we run in Canada, USA, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru.
Ecuador, Colombia. So my role is running great trips, but also getting more people to know, care, and communicate. So all facets of running the business and managing the people, or the P &L, finances, all those components.
Jason Elkins (57:49.755)
Is there a new trip, new destination or a particular area that you’re super excited about right now that who knows when somebody is going to listen to this? I’m just curious if there’s something coming down the pike that has you guys all getting excited that you’re ready to announce.
Leigh (58:13.395)
The National Parks in Tell Amazing We just launched one of the Great Basin National Parks, which is the least visited national park in the USA. I’m pretty excited to get out and see that. But yeah, the national parks in America tell amazing now.
In light of some of the funding cuts that the latest administration put in place, we launched an activism range of trips. And instead of trips, we get to go to a national park with an environmental advocate. what we do is donate funds from that to charities. But also on that trip, you get to go with an environmental advocate who says conversations around the importance of national parks.
Here’s your toolkit on how to advocate for the national park. So that’s been quite a cool interesting product to get out there and then we just launched our short breaks which is very much focused on US Travelers which are intrepid experiences generally four to six days able to get there in a direct flight from the USA and just really trying to bring you know create more products for intrepid experiences that can’t just do like 10, 15, 21 day trips
give people a bit more flexibility. yeah, the National Park products, activism trips and our new product short breaks are probably the most interesting things that I’ve seen at the moment.
Jason Elkins (59:37.951)
Cool. And I suspect we didn’t go there. I don’t think we have enough time to go there. Probably need a whole other episode if we were to discuss politics and things that are going on with tourism in North America between Canada, the US and other places. So maybe, I don’t know, is there anything you want to touch on? This is your opportunity. Or we could just skip over that as far as kind of the political environment.
Leigh (01:00:09.359)
the value of destruction of inbound tourism in the USA. There are less people coming to the USA this year than in previous. It’s one of the only countries that has net-negative tourism, inbound tourism, which is astonishing. Astonishing to see that. So that’s frustrating for the industry. But overall, I’d say that travel will be around a lot longer than any other direction. And that let’s look at our values and what’s important to you and chart a path forward.
Jason Elkins (01:00:37.311)
All right. Very cool. Leigh, before we wrap up, is there anything I forgot to ask you? You wish I’d asked you, or you want to share with the world either philosophically or about a trap bed, about your daughter, anything in particular you want to share before we wrap up?
Leigh (01:00:52.227)
No, I think you’ve gone deep into my past much more than I expected, Jason. I don’t know if there’s anything else I didn’t expect to speak about high school, my sisters being nurses or my time in Edinburgh, but no, I think my main message is travel is a great way to change the perspective, to go and see the world. But also too, I think one of my biggest things is travel is not a solution. It’s a gateway to define the answers and you still need to take action.
when you get back to where you are. we think too often that, you maybe a little bit too much travel can resolve all your ills. It’s a great way for you to learn about yourself. It’s a great way for you to learn about the world. You don’t come back home a fundamentally different person unless you decide to do something about it. So I think my message to everyone is go travel, go see the world, learn stuff, and then put it into practice and make some changes.
Jason Elkins (01:01:46.267)
Love it. Leigh wise words. Thank you so much for taking time out of your evening. And I guess your daughter was probably already in bed, but I appreciate.
Leigh (01:01:54.191)
Tucked in tight, mate. Yeah, got her in at 7.30 every night. So that’s my favourite part of the day. So took her on a rocket ship up the stairs to tuck her in. And that’s my highlight of the day at the moment, being able to be that rocket ship captain to carry her up.
Jason Elkins (01:02:08.477)
love it. I miss miss those days with my kids very much. So I envy you and enjoy what you’ve got. And I look forward to chatting with you again at some point in the near future. Thanks, Leigh.
Leigh (01:02:18.423)
Absolutely, absolute pleasure, Jason. Thanks for having a chat with Goodpup.
Jason Elkins (01:02:21.567)
All right, you have a great day, bye.
Leigh (01:02:23.087)
See you, bye.
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