Amanda Matthews, MD & Travel Legend - Travelling by Design

In this episode, Jeannette talks to Amanda Matthews who is something of a travel icon. She started working in the industry as a teenager and went on to climb the corporate ladder at Co-Op Travelcare, where she became the MD. Until she started her own company Designer Travel, which today, employs 105 home-based travel experts and a large support team. They provide high-quality yet affordable luxury holidays.

Amanda explains how she used her passion to drive her success and her thirst for knowledge to enable her to excel in every role she took on. A way of working that took her to the top quickly at a time when very, very few women were offered senior roles. As well as sharing how she set up her business, ran it through Co-Vid, managed being a working mum and being treated for cancer.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

When you leave a big corporate job, you will find out who your faithful friends are.
Employ people who have the same values as you.
Going the extra mile will always create repeat customers.
Your outlook on life affects everything.
There are 2 ways to look at everything, always choose to look at things positively.
Everyone has bad days. Learning how to get through them is key.
CoVid was incredibly hard, but it made Amanda and her team stronger and enabled them to survive. Now, they are thriving.
Honest communication is essential. Stay close to your team, understand them, and respond to their needs.
Don´t stress about failing. Learn from it, but don´t dwell on it.
If something´s wrong, own it, and face up to it right away.
Whatever problem you have look at the worst-case scenario then work back from there. That prepares you to solve the problem come what may.

BEST MOMENTS
‘I´ve always run the branch, the department, the company I was leading as if it was my own business. ´
‘If you as the leader show that you can get through tough times, people will stay on the bus with you.’
‘Always take the positive out of the negative.’

This is the perfect time to get focused on what YOU want to really achieve in your business, career, and life. It’s never too late to be BRAVE and BOLD and unlock your inner BRILLIANCE. If you’d like to jump on a free mentoring session just DM Jeannette at [email protected] or sign up via Jeannette’s linktree https://linktr.ee/JLinfoot

VALUABLE RESOURCES
Brave, Bold, Brilliant podcast series - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/brave-bold-brilliant-podcast/id1524278970

EPISODE RESOURCES
Website - www.designertravel.co.uk
Facebook - @designertravel
Instagram - @designertravel
Twitter - @designertravel and @amandamatthews1
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/28165197/admin/
Tik Tok - @designertravel

ABOUT THE GUEST
Amanda Matthews got into travel from an early age. She gained a Travel and Tourism diploma at college whilst working a full-time job at WH Smith Travel in Coventry. Then, moved to a different travel agency that very quickly got taken over by Coop Travelcare. There she became one of the youngest managers at 18.
Throughout her 21 years of service with Coop Travelcare, she worked as a regional manager, and operations director before becoming the managing director. At the time, the business had over 500 retail shops and call centres. As well as selling online.
In 2008, the two largest Co-operatives, The Co-operative Group and United Northwest merged. At this point, the travel, food, and funeral arms of the Co-Op also merged. Around that time, Amanda took a redundancy package to set up her own business, from scratch. That was when Designer Travel was born.
Today, Designer Travel employs 105 home-based luxury travel experts, all of whom have travelled extensively themselves. They are supported and coordinated by the staff who work out of the company’s admin centre, in Ramsbottom. The business also has a physical retail outlet, a website, and several social media channels. All of these are dedicated to creating the perfect holiday for any traveller, in any part of the world.
Recruiting the right experts and offering high levels of support has been a key driver for Designer Travel, which 100% has an amazing DREAMTEAM. Building solid relationships with clients and suppliers has led to the creation of a successful luxury travel business. Something that Designer Travel has and always will aim to be.

ABOUT THE HOST
Jeannette Linfoot is a highly regarded senior executive, property investor, board advisor, and business mentor with over 25 years of global professional business experience across the travel, leisure, hospitality, and property sectors. Having bought, ran, and sold businesses all over the world, Jeannette now has a portfolio of her own businesses and also advises and mentors other business leaders to drive forward their strategies as well as their own personal development.

Jeannette is a down-to-earth leader, a passionate champion for diversity & inclusion, and a huge advocate of nurturing talent so every person can unleash their full potential and live their dreams.

CONTACT THE HOST
Jeannette’s linktree - https://linktr.ee/JLinfoot
https://www.jeannettelinfootassociates.com/
YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtsU57ZGoPhm55_X0qF16_Q
LinkedIn - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jeannettelinfoot
Facebook - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jeannettelinfoot
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jeannette.linfoot/
Email - [email protected]

Podcast Description

Jeannette Linfoot talks to incredible people about their experiences of being Brave, Bold & Brilliant, which have allowed them to unleash their full potential in business, their careers, and life in general. From the boardroom tables of ‘big’ international businesses to the dining room tables of entrepreneurial start-ups, how to overcome challenges, embrace opportunities and take risks, whilst staying ‘true’ to yourself is the order of the day.
Travel, Bold, Brilliant, business, growth, scale, marketing, investment, investing, entrepreneurship, coach, consultant, mindset, six figures, seven figures, travel, industry, ROI, B2B, inspirational: https://linktr.ee/JLinfoot

Brave Bold Brilliant is where business leaders, entrepreneurs and their teams come to be inspired, challenged and equipped with the tools for growth and success. Here on Brave Bold Brilliant podcast, Jeannette Linfoot talks to incredible people about their experiences in business and life, gaining first-hand insight into how they unleashed their potential to become Brave Bold Brilliant. From the boardroom tables of big international businesses to the exciting world of entrepreneurs it's all about stepping up to the next level while staying true to yourself.

• No. of episodes: 524
• Latest episode: 2025-07-14
• Business Education How To Entrepreneurship

Where can you listen?