Year Five Nearly Broke Me: What I'm Changing About My Travel Business

If you've been following along for a while, you've probably caught the hints — the offhand comments in episodes, the emails that alluded to big changes, the social posts that teased something bigger without ever fully explaining it.

This post is me finally explaining it.

I recently recorded my first-ever solo podcast episode on Type 2 Travel — which, if you know me at all, tells you how necessary this conversation felt. I hate talking to myself. The idea of a solo episode has given me anxiety for weeks. But there are things that needed to be said, and there's no way to bring a guest in on this one.

So consider this the written version of that conversation — the honest update I've been avoiding, and the lessons I think a lot of entrepreneurs in year five (or six, or seven) probably need to hear.

What Year Five of Running a Travel Business Actually Looks Like

When I started my group travel business in 2021, I had a clear vision: more freedom, more flexibility, more travel, less sitting at a desk working for someone else. And in a lot of ways, I built exactly that. I created something I'm genuinely proud of — a community of people who travel to places like Cuba, Kenya, India, Morocco, and Georgia together and come home changed.

But somewhere between building the business and running the business, something broke down. What I created stopped serving the reasons I created it…at least for me.

By the end of 2025, I was leading 10 to 12 group trips a year, scouting new destinations on top of that, launching a podcast, running an adult summer camp, and spending a third of the year abroad. My to-do list had over 100 items on it at any given moment. I was working 80-hour weeks, eating at my desk all day, losing weekends, and running so hard I got heat exhaustion in the Sahara Desert — which, looking back, felt like my body physically trying to get my attention.

I wasn't living the life I built the business to create. I was living for the business instead.

The Thing Nobody Warns You About Making Your Passion Your Work

Here's the part that stings a little: I love travel. It is genuinely my passion. And the very act of turning that passion into a career nearly made me stop loving it.

When you lead trips back to back, you're not traveling for fun. You're working. You're responsible for every person's safety, comfort, and experience. You're prepping itineraries, managing logistics, fielding questions around the clock, and producing content about it all in the margins. The thing that used to fill you up starts to feel like one more thing on the list.

I started dreading trips I should have been excited about. That was a wake-up call I couldn't ignore.

There's a version of entrepreneurship that we've all been sold — the hustle, the grind, the "I'll rest when I'm successful" narrative.

I fell for it.

And I wore my busyness like it was a badge of honor for years. It isn't. It's just burnout with better branding.

Why I'm Changing the Model

I can't lead every trip myself and keep a sustainable business, a healthy life, and my sanity intact. I simply can't. And honestly, I shouldn't have to.

The next phase of Laura Ericson Group Trips looks like bringing in trip leaders who share my values — people who understand that this isn't about showing travelers cool places, it's about creating space for real transformation. It looks like me saying no to opportunities that don't align with where I'm headed, even when they seem profitable. It looks like actually having time to enjoy the life I've been building.

For the people who've traveled with me and wonder what this means for the connection we have — it's real. The late-night conversations, the shared experiences, the friendships we've built on trips — none of that was manufactured for marketing. It's genuine. My hope is that you'll extend the same trust to the leaders I bring on, because a sustainable business run by a happy human is better for everyone than an unsustainable one run by someone running on fumes.

What Success Actually Means (And Why It Took Me Five Years to Redefine It)

I recently heard Jenna Kutcher talk about destroying her successful business because it no longer allowed her to feel human. I've never felt so called out and validated at the same time.

Success doesn't look the same for everyone, and it doesn't have to look the same for you at 35 as it did at 25, or at year five as it did at year one. For me, success stopped being about how many trips I could lead or how fast my podcast was growing and started being about whether I actually felt like a person who got to have a life.

I want to garden again. I want to cook dinner and not be too exhausted to enjoy it. I want to travel for fun — actually for fun — and remember why I fell in love with it in the first place.

That's what I'm building toward. Not less ambition, just a different definition of what winning looks like.

If You're in Your Own Version of This

Maybe you're not a travel entrepreneur. But if you've built something — a career, a business, a life — that used to fit and suddenly doesn't, I see you. The part where you question whether stepping back means you're failing? That feeling is a liar.

Letting go of the hustle doesn't mean you're giving up. It might mean you're finally paying attention to what actually matters.

I'm still figuring it out. This business is still very much alive, and I believe in it more than ever. But I'm building a version of it that I can actually live inside of, and I'm giving myself permission to change what success looks like along the way.

Listen to the Full Episode

I get into a lot more on the podcast — including some personal life updates that help explain why my priorities have shifted so significantly this past year. If you want the full story, you can listen to the episode here or wherever you get your podcasts.

And if this resonated with you — whether you're an entrepreneur, a solo traveler, or just someone quietly questioning the life you've built — I'd love to hear from you.