The Good Listening To Show: Stories of Distinction & Genius

Founder Story: How to Arrive Fresh - not Frazzled - and Ready to Deliver! Better Business Travel with Ingrid Sanderson from Principal Travel

• Chris Grimes - Facilitator. Coach. Motivational Comedian

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Calling all High Performing Business Travellers! What if travel didn’t drain your energy but amplified your performance? That question sits at the heart of our conversation with Founder Ingrid Sanderson of Principal Travel, a boutique, independent firm built to help professionals arrive fresh, not frazzled. We dig into how her team blends concierge-level care with smart digital tools to protect a traveller’s most precious assets: time, money, and wellbeing.

Ingrid shares the origin story behind a 27-year journey through ash clouds, strikes, airport outages, Brexit, and a once-in-a-century pandemic. The constant theme is trust. From rapid responses to proactive fixes, her team creates calm where there could be panic, so clients stay focused on keynotes, boardrooms, and big moments. We talk about why independence from airlines and hotel chains matters, how invoicing adapts to a client’s finance stack, and why a hybrid model—human expertise plus online booking—is the sweet spot for global time zones and fast decisions.

We also explore culture and leadership: a long-tenured, highly trained team; the role of mentors and “Nigel’s 90 minutes” to protect strategy time; and the personal influences that shape a female-led business. You’ll meet Casey the Briefcase, plus avatars Bella Businesswoman and Max Mileage, who bring travel tips to life through playful storytelling. And you’ll hear blunt, useful advice for anyone still DIY-ing complex itineraries: know your worth and delegate outside your genius. The hidden costs of fatigue, rework, and missteps are real; a dedicated travel partner prevents them.

If you travel multiple times a year and care about performance, this is your playbook for stress-free, high-impact trips. Subscribe, share with a colleague who spends too many hours on airline sites, and leave a review to tell us your biggest travel pain—what should we solve next?

Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'. If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.

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Thanks for listening!

Chris Grimes:

Welcome to another episode of The Good Listening To Show. Your life and times with me, Chris Grimes. The storytelling show that features the clearing, where all good questions come to get asked, and all good stories come to be told. And where all my guests have two things in common. They're all creative individuals and all with an interesting story to tell. There are some lovely storytelling metaphors, a clearing, a tree, a juicy storytelling exercise called 54321, some alchemy, some gold, a cheeky bit of Shakespeare, and a cake. So it's all to play for. So yes, welcome to the Good Listening To Show, your life and times with me, Chris Grimes. Are you sitting comfortably? Then we shall begin. And welcome aboard a new episode of The Good Listening To Show Stories of Distinction and Genius. I'm Chris, what's your story, Grimes? And this is Ingrid Sanderson from Principaltravel.co.uk. We're going to do a founder story where we're going to find out about how to help business professionals arrive fresh, not frazzled, by better business travel that you're here to enable and to facilitate. So, ladies and gentlemen min min min, would you please welcome to a special founder story of the show, Ingrid Sanderson? Marvellous. So where have you travelled from? Because it's all about travel today. Where have you come down from?

SPEAKER_01:

Good morning to you. I've travelled from a very long way, about an hour and a half, from sunny, not so sunny Hampshire.

Chris Grimes:

And it was seamless because you said the streets were empty as if the police had sort of cleared the path.

SPEAKER_01:

They cleared the roads for me. There was no motorcade, sadly, but um yeah, the roads were clear until I got to Bristol, where I'd never been before.

Chris Grimes:

So I like the aspiration of we need a motorcade in future.

SPEAKER_01:

If you could arrange that, that'd be marvellous.

Chris Grimes:

So here we are in Future Leap Studios in Cliftered Bristol, marvellous, and we're going to talk about how to well just get the pain and the strain out of better business travel. So if someone doesn't have a frame of reference for what principal travel do, it is all about principal business travel. The clue's really in the title, but what's your favourite way if we meet at a sort of clunky networking session that we all have to do from time to time and someone says, uh hello, what do you do? What's your best way of answering or avoiding that question, Ingrid?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh well I try not to avoid it. Equally, if I just say I'm a business travel agent, that kind of doesn't really come across. Um what I do like to say is that I run a business travel company that protects clients' time, money, and well-being when they travel for work.

Chris Grimes:

And it has much more of an ascension to it than just being about a business travel agent, because you're helping international speakers, agencies, and high-performing professionals manage their travel effortlessly so they can stay focused, not frazzled, which is a lovely bit of an alliteration. Focused, not frazzled, and ready to deliver with you taking the strain of everything else and all the other logistics.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, exactly. Um really the intention is to go through the process for them to arrive at their destination, fully fit, fully ready to do exactly what they're there to do. And if they haven't thought about me and principal business travel in the process, because it's all happened seamlessly, so much the better.

Chris Grimes:

Obviously, we're we're recording and live on LinkedIn as well. That's a very fertile fishing ground for where your target market and where your your favorite people might be. So if somebody does do a lot of travel for their business, you know, who would you most like to address? Who's your favourite type of client who might be watching as we record?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, well goodness. Um the demographic that you've decided there, people traveling two, three, four, five times a year. Yeah. And they they like to do it well, they need to be looked after, they appreciate the concierge PA service that we provide that we're known for. And they recognise that just much having uh an administrative PA or employing an accountant or a solicitor or anything in a professional environment that you might need, they appreciate that hand holding, that expertise, and the years of experience that we provide.

Chris Grimes:

And you've got a wonderful um sort of iconic brand mascot called Casey, who is your freak frequent flyer. So just talk us about how the idea of Casey came about.

SPEAKER_01:

We love an idea of a mascot, and Casey the Briefcase uh is in uh Casey's on the case, just Casey's on the case all the time, comes up with useful helps and tricks and um the ways that people can make their journey smoother. Lots of ideas all the time. It's actually he's actually been quite inspirational to us. It turned out it's just a fun little piece, but uh uh we're now actually uh crafting a story for him with our two new client avatars who are Bella Businesswoman and Max Mileage, and they're going to be telling all sorts of stories as well and are continuously bailed out by Casey.

Chris Grimes:

Max Mileage and Bella Business Miles. I love that. Yeah. So I'm delighted to have you here because we're gonna find out the story behind the story of everything that you, Ingrid Saunders and Principal Travel, are up to. If you've not seen the show before, where have you been? But there's gonna be a clearing, a tree, a lovely juicy storytelling exercise called 54321. There's gonna be some alchemy, some gold, a couple of random squirrels, a cheeky bit of Shakespeare, a golden baton, and a cake. Fantastic. Absolutely all to play for. So this is also the story behind you as the founder. You started in 1999.

SPEAKER_01:

Gosh, that's a long time ago, isn't it?

Chris Grimes:

So, how did it all get going just before I get you on the open road of the structure?

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, so it got I I was working for several business travel agencies. I love to travel myself. I lived overseas for four years, and when I came back to London, I had been working in the travel industry while I was traveling as well. I was really lucky in that respect, and I I thought this is what I would like to do all the time. Did that typical when working for other people thing of, well, you know, I could do this a bit better, or why are they doing that? And beholden to management decisions, slightly arrogant, really. Thought, well, if I've only got myself to argue with, then um I probably would be happier. There are times when I haven't quite agreed with that way of thinking, and I do argue with myself a very great deal. However, it is um have a word with yourself. I have several words with myself, but it is uh very much better this way, so I'm very proud of what I've done.

Chris Grimes:

Lovely. And how big is the elite crack squad of principal travel now? Because I've seen there are lovely photographs on the website which we'll point people to at the end in a very exciting section called Show As Your QR code, please. That's coming. But um, you're um a wonderful female-led organisation. From looking at the photograph, it looks like there are about nine or ten of you, but you can put me right if that's not.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, there's actually eight of us at the moment. Um we have a token male being my son. Um but he was doing our social media for us, but actually isn't at the moment because he's busy being a ski instructor in Japan. Very little time for um social media in that respect, apart from what he's posting about, you know, attacking all the powder. But um, yeah, so there's there's there's eight of us at the moment, uh handsome team. We're a we're a little bit worried about the fact that we are all blonde and all women. But uh yeah, we it just seems to have had to be.

Chris Grimes:

No, but an all-female-led entourage is actually a very refreshing thing to to if you think about the dark the drier world of business travel, sure. This is where it's a a proper executive assistant service. You know, you're you're really in pursuance of top re world-renowned keynote speakers being able to sort of, as I say, take the pain, take the strain out of their travel by coming through you instead.

SPEAKER_01:

That's exactly right. And rely on us and you know, just trust us 100% and just know that when they send that voice note, when they send that WhatsApp message, email, however they communicate what they need with us, yeah, whenever they send that, they just know that it's gonna happen and they can go on right and write their and present their killer presentation.

Chris Grimes:

And obviously, this is global reach, this is wherever the speaker, the working professional may want to go.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. And um, we have um started to embrace the digital age. So uh while we do very much believe that you know our our human service and um the fact that you can call, email, you always know who you're speaking to, and you know that that person knows you. Equally, we are aware that people do like to the speed of something that the digit digital age can bring. So we have got an online booking tool as well. So if someone is in Hong Kong or Sydney or San Francisco, i.e. different, totally different time zone to us, they can jump on the app and do their own research and um and then we can still handle it all for them, it's all set up there for them.

Chris Grimes:

And it's it's obviously bespoke, but also highly personal and individualised as a service.

SPEAKER_01:

That's exactly right. And not only is the the travel and the booking and the research, and then while they're actually on their on their trip, that's all tailor-made to them. But the other side of the business as well, being the accounting systems and invoicing, we tailor make that to how individual companies and consultants, management consultants and so on work it. Yes. If they need their invoice set out in a separate way, it's not an issue for us because we're independent, we will bespoke it to what they need and the way they run their businesses.

Chris Grimes:

And there's another virtue in being independent as well, isn't there? And I know you explained that on the website as to why it's better that you're independent.

SPEAKER_01:

It's better for us because we're a small business.

Chris Grimes:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

We're not beholden to anyone airline, anyone supplier, hotel chain, car hire company or anything like that. So if someone, if there is a a requirement for a car hire in somewhere in deepest, darkest Africa, we're not going to try and push them a company that's 20 miles down the road when because just because we're effectively sponsored by them or we've got a cutthroat deal with them, we we will we will always opt for the supplier the supplier that is most convenient.

Chris Grimes:

Let us now get on the open road of finding out the founder story, the story behind the story of Ingrid Sanderson. We've we've been doing this beautifully already, but the show all takes place energetically in a clearing or serious happy place of my guests choosing. So, first of all, your first question and your first bit of preparation. Thank you, Ingrid. Where does Ingrid go to get clotter free, inspirational, and able to think? Where is your clearing?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, she doesn't go there as often as she'd like, but my absolute happy place is in the south of France, in between two islands called the Isle de Lorraine, just off the coast of Cannes. Ooh, lovely. When were you last there in your happy place? Two years ago. So it was yeah, high time. High time I got there again.

Chris Grimes:

Wonderful. So now we're in your clearing. I'm now going to arrive with a tree, if I may. And this is a bit waiting for Godot-esque, a bit deliberately existential, and I'm going to shake a tree to see which storytelling apples fall out. You can even hold an apple.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you. The tree might need to be on one of the islands, of course. Of course. It's not going to be in the sea.

Chris Grimes:

And please don't eat it, because actually it's a prop and it's wax. So it'll be furball. Anyway, so now you're going to uh if you may if you wouldn't mind, you've been kind enough, your second bit of preparation is a lovely juicy storytelling exercise called 54321, where you've had five minutes or as long as you've needed, before we recorded, to have thought about four things that have shaped you and/or principal travel, three things that inspire you, two things that never fail to grab your attention, and when we get there I'll talk about squirrels, and then the one is a quirky unusual fact about you. Ingrid Sanderson, founder of Principal Travel, that we couldn't possibly know about you until you tell us. So it's not a memory test, I'll curate you through. So, first of all, four shapages. What would you say has shaped you and brought you into what you are now doing today as your purpose imperative?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, certainly the business has shaped me over the years. It's been a complete roller coaster of a ride. The travel industry is very heavily laden with curveballs and squirrels.

Chris Grimes:

Nicely put. Thank you. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, so you can throw in obviously awful, awful terrorist attacks, ash clouds, strikes here, there and everywhere, both on the ground and in the sky, bit of Brexit, throw in a pandemic.

Chris Grimes:

Cheeky bit of a pandemic.

SPEAKER_01:

Cheeky bit of a pandemic, uh, Heathrow airport outage for the day. I would say, certainly on a weekly basis, there is a massive curveball for us to deal with. And you can't help but the way that you deal with that is it can't help but shape you. So that's definitely one of them.

Chris Grimes:

And if I may commend you for being a bit of a sort of squirrel herder or a squirrel shepherd, because you're constantly dealing with the chaos of of travel.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. And even something that's not um you sort of due to a worldwide event in that sense, you know, um clients are they miss their flights all the time, they might miss a ferry all the time. Yes. Um, and so they'll need assistance in that respect. So um yeah.

Chris Grimes:

So if there's any force majure, that's when you can actually lend a very helpful ear and pragmatic assistance to get them moving again. Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. And consequently, dealing with those issues on a daily basis, yeah, we we we gain the client's trust over time. And being granted that trust, it shapes us, it it it makes all of us. So my team have mostly been with me for a very long time.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

And we enjoy that sense of looking after them and knowing that they're cared for and knowing that to the best of our ability they're going to arrive where they need to be on time.

Chris Grimes:

And of course, trust is the absolute business currency that's so essential now because in the you know, in the saturated world where everyone's barking into a sea of noise, it's really important that that being a trusted advisor is key to everything.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right, and that message cutting through the noise, as as you've said, and certainly when we ourselves are are looking to engage with suppliers or you know, people to help us in our business do what we do, because we're not the experts obviously in certain aspects of running a business. Yeah. So we will look out for the very same things and those same qualities that people would look for in us. So yeah, it's really important to us.

Chris Grimes:

So, first wonderful shapeage of the business and shape number two, please. I've got a bell somewhere. Uh-huh. Which moves us along, shape it's number two, please.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, yes. Well, I've gone into industry disruption already. Certainly sustaining the business long term, the longevity of it, and the people I've surrounded myself with to help me on that journey, absolutely. And I I probably will keep, you know, mentioning the importance of who you surround yourself with. But I wouldn't have, I mean, this this is uh 27th year now. Yes. And um we uh it just wouldn't be where it was where where it is now if it wasn't for the external influences. So yes, that that's definitely number two.

Chris Grimes:

There's a lovely path there in the business of itself being well travelled because you've travelled the path together since 1999. Yes, lovely.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely, and and never being afraid, I guess, of of of having those external influences to listening and um always taking advice on board. You don't have to necessarily act on it, you don't have to agree with it. But that third pointy that third party point of view is priceless. So definitely that.

Chris Grimes:

Wonderful. And now we're on to I won't do the bell again, but shapage number three, please.

SPEAKER_01:

Shapage number three is my lovely team. And they're all very highly trained, as I would say, by me. Um, but also they nurture one another, and I'm I'm not there now. So then but then they can they can work very well without me.

Chris Grimes:

Maybe they'll better without me. Rather comically, we said, will they be watching? And you said yes if they are, and they should maybe get back to work. Because January's a bit hectic, I'm gathering.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, gather, yeah. January has really, really kicked off after a quite a quiet December. December's quiet in the world of business travel, as you might imagine.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And um and we always know that January is going to kick off, and but every year the amount that it kicks off always takes us by surprise. Yeah. But um, yeah, the resilience and their ability to ride the coal roller coaster with me. And um and then they're they're very kind to me, and I'm yeah, I and I try to be kind back, but sometimes I get frustrated and they know that. So sorry.

Chris Grimes:

I'm sure the apology is accepted. And in terms of business grit, how did you navigate COVID? Because that must have been extraordinary. I mean, obviously for every air aircraft was not in the sky. That's just one mode of transport, other modes are available. But how did you how was it for you during that period?

SPEAKER_01:

It was really interesting. A very it was a strange experience for everybody. I was very thankful. My I mean my my primary fear was was for my staff and the the people I employ. I don't know how long this is going to go on. Yes. You know, how on earth am I going to be able to manage this? Like you say, all the aircraft were grounded, hotels were mostly closed, no one could go anywhere. So we were redundant as a business function. And so I was very, very worried about them. And we'd we'd had a really strong 2019, which was the irony of it. It was our best year ever, and we were we had all grand plans for 2020, which obviously couldn't come to fruition. So the fact that I was able to furlough the team and not have to let them go. Yeah because I didn't want to let them go either, because equally I knew it would end one day. Yes. And once it did end, I would need them again. So and goodness I didn't want them to go and find employment elsewhere because they were mine.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

So I was very pleased that I was able to sort of put them on the back burner, so to speak. Yes.

Chris Grimes:

Um it sounds a bit engines off. Engines off globally, engines on when the pandemic finally jutter jutta jutter came to a Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

And a bit like the December-January thing, but you know, on steroids, companies decided, well, we put this project on hold for too long, or we, you know, we wanted to expand into another country or another s another city, or whatever the project was. Everybody, like, like after a big recession, people finally said, We cannot put this off any longer. And so boom, off it went. And we were absolutely inundated with existing clients, as I say, you know, doing everything that they put on hold for so long. Yes. But also lots of new clients because the world of starting to navigate the travel sphere again was almost totally new.

Chris Grimes:

A testament again to your trusted advisor status in that they came straight back to you as being the the the first port uh port of call.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, we were and we were obviously you know tremendously grateful for that. But um, yeah, but all the while during the pandemic that I was there on my own, just like when I started up the business, it was uh hang on a minute, this is bringing back memories. But um I, you know, I worked really hard to sort of keep relevant and um and go out to social media, you know, with the because there was always um one border closing, another border opening. Yes. Restrictions to get into a country would change in terms of did you needed to be tested, did you not need to be tested? Oh, now you've got to be videoed being tested, and all the places that you could and could not travel to and what those restrictions were. So we were, you know, we we remained largely relevant on social media with all of that information. And at the same time, that's um when I discovered Entrepreneur's Circle, where I met you. Yes. Um, I put in the into my business because all of a sudden I had the time to do it, uh, the entrepreneurs marketing and sales system, which oh my goodness, really works. So um, yeah, so uh and and in amongst it all as well, the longer it went on, I was unsure about the travel industry. We only, yeah, I mean, yes, we had the furlone, yes, we had some grants and so on, but you know, if this was going to turn into years, I did start to think, well, what on earth's gonna happen to me? And so I did do the training as well to become a licensed entrepreneur circle coach, um, which I'm not active doing at the moment, but it's certainly the plan in the next couple of years.

Chris Grimes:

And all your experience also really informs your knowledge centre that you have on the website as well. I know that all of this experience has translated into um a really rich suite of what is called a knowledge centre on the website.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so we've got loads of destination guides on there, and um, but also questions about business travel and about booking business travel, about why we why would you use one, what's the cost of using one versus why you wouldn't, and um all those sorts of things. So most questions, and we're adding to it all the time. Yeah, and it's not just me adding to it either, the whole team has a task of um of crafting one or two articles and sharing knowledge, and sharing their knowledge, yes, it's collaboratively, yeah. Yeah, and because we've all got a different take on things, so it's really important to get the different perspectives.

Chris Grimes:

Now we're on to shapage number four, I believe. So we're doing very well so far. Oh, are we good?

SPEAKER_01:

Shapage number four is I think my surroundings where I live, I used to live overseas. I'm from Dorset originally, grew up in Sussex, and I lived a long time in London, but now I'm in Hampshire. And as much as the Ile de La Ran is my happy place, actually, where I live is a tremendously happy place. Place. So I'm in a lovely community, and I'm in that community is a vast array of great minds and lovely friendships and people looking out for each other and helping each other. So I've lived in the village where I live now for 23, 24 years. My children, I was married there, my children were born there, they'd grown up there.

Chris Grimes:

That's a lovely sense of belonging as your shapage number four. Lovely. And now we're on to three things that inspire you, Ingrid Sonson.

SPEAKER_01:

So my family is number one, of course, my immediate family, and my wider family as well. I'm really lucky in my family to not just have a family of strong people, but strong women. And, you know, I look I was thinking about this when preparing for today. And my mother and my grandmother in particular are amazingly strong women. When you look back at their lives and the tough decisions that they made throughout the course of navigating the paths that they chose to tread for the well-being of themselves, which is most important, but then that leading on to the well-being of their children and so on. So that's um Is your mother still with us, Mayor? Yes, yes, she is, yes. Grandmother sadly not, but no, mother, mother is. So I think you know that coming down to me is um is really, really important.

Chris Grimes:

There's a lovely through line, a golden thread of strong women in that narrative, because of course that's the anchor of the business as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, it's in the I and it wasn't intentional just to um you know take inspiration from the strong women in my family or so on. But then interestingly enough, you see, my children are two boys, and uh they inspire me greatly as well. So my older son is in Japan, as I say, and he's um absolutely following his dream, and there is so much to be said for that. When I speak to him, when I hear from him, you couldn't think of a happier soul. And he enabled that himself. He's out there with a really good friend as well, but they've met some fantastic people along the way, and he's enabled it himself. You know, he he worked hard to save up for it. You know, he's not one of these privileged gap pier students, as I know people like to call them. Um yes, he's privileged because he's out there following his dreams, but he really made it happen. Yes. And I think that's very inspir inspirational. And I'm going to see him in eleven sleeps.

Chris Grimes:

Eleven sleeps to go, and how long's he been away for?

SPEAKER_01:

He's been away since the end of October. Wow. And then after the ski season, he will travel a bit more, and then um so he'll go to uh Southeast Asia. And at the moment, his flight home is due in June, but we'll see.

Chris Grimes:

Because he may have another coming plan.

SPEAKER_01:

He will you never know. Yes, yeah, yeah. The idea is to come back and go to university. But like I say, we'll see.

Chris Grimes:

Yes, the gap years may continue as he finds better things to do.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly, exactly.

Chris Grimes:

That's very relatable because my own son Stan is about to flap his wings and go to Thailand.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, there we go, they might meet up. Who knows? I think that's on the list.

Chris Grimes:

So something called the full moon party, which we were Googling yesterday, thinking uh that looks phenomenal, but also as a parent when you're off.

SPEAKER_01:

I know.

Chris Grimes:

Thousands of miles away you go. Anyway, it's not about me, but I'm glad that he's found resilience, autonomy, and self-empowerment to be there and helping, because he's he's teaching skiing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, absolutely that. Yeah.

Chris Grimes:

That's good parenting right there in the past. Oh, thanks very much.

SPEAKER_01:

That was all credit to me.

unknown:

No.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah, that's good. My younger son um is uh missing his brother, but equally has moved into his bedroom, so probably not missing him quite as much as he as he otherwise would do. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So he's 17, um, he's in lower six at um sixth form college, so he's um enjoying everything life throws at him as well. He's a very keen footballer, and he has come back from ironically, a ski injury uh a year ago, almost this time at Arshir. I know, I know. Yeah, and now he's about to go and ski with his brother in Japan, so but he's fully recovered now and he's fully back playing football, which is again what he loves to do. So um yeah.

Chris Grimes:

And may I ask what Goodley Mr. Sanderson does if I Mr.

SPEAKER_01:

Goodley Sanderson is in the world of horticulture. Um he's an interesting fellow because he used to be a bass player, uh professional bass player, and uh play to thousands of people. Now he's quite a shy fellow, and you wouldn't know it if you met him. But yes, he has a rock and roll background, which is very interesting.

Chris Grimes:

Just like to say slap that bass, because I've not had the chance to say that for many years.

SPEAKER_01:

Have you not?

Chris Grimes:

He'd appreciate that. You can and what's his first name? Mark. Is the right answer. Everyone's a winner, that's good. Yeah. So just say Chris says slap that bass.

SPEAKER_01:

I shall do that, yes.

Chris Grimes:

I don't play the bass, but I've heard someone say that before.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. And after his music uh career, he then found himself in the world of television and he was a sound man for ITV, and he worked on this morning for best part, very best part of 20 years.

Chris Grimes:

Wow.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's what he was doing when I first met him, and he used to come home with far more interesting stories than I did.

Chris Grimes:

And then horticulture is quite an interesting segue.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, exactly. So um he decided we're we were in Hampshire by this time, and the commute to London, the half past seven in the morning call times, and when you've already travelled over an hour to get to work is started to take its dole. And he thought, let's say there's an yeah, and he his interest is in the land and the plants, and so yeah. Lovely.

Chris Grimes:

So you've got a sort of internal Monty Don going on in the house. Absolutely that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. Oh, and classic cars as well. I mean, he's very busy.

Chris Grimes:

Lovely. I just mentioned Monty Don there. I'd love to have him him in the show as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that's a really good idea.

Chris Grimes:

My wife is rather fancies him, and I I wouldn't, as the expression goes, be kicked out of bed for eating crack, or he wouldn't be kicked out of bed for eating crackers, is the is the expression.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh my grandmother used to say, I would like to put my slippers under his bed.

Chris Grimes:

Good old grandma, that's lovely.

SPEAKER_01:

The inspirational one I told you about.

Chris Grimes:

Okay, and now uh this is your two squirrels. Would you like a squirrel? Can I throw a squirrel at you? Two squirrel. Um this is borrowed from the film Up when I was constructing this uh storyscape, uh, where the dog goes, Oh, squirrels. Um Nigel Botterl is someone we both know from Entrepreneur's Circle, and he calls squirrels bright shiny objects. His bright shiny objects. We've all got squirrels or bright shiny objects. Two things I'm allowing you in your life that never fail to distract you, squirrels, irrespective of anything else that you have going on in your hectic and eclectic life. So, Ingrid, what would you say your squirrels are?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, first of all, when the children come home, and so I've only got half as much squirrelness at the moment because um one one isn't here.

Chris Grimes:

Down half a squirrel.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, down half a squirrel. Mind you, if I get a message from said squirrel, then you know, everything stops.

Chris Grimes:

Like a client ringing up. Everything stops because a client needs me, but me.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that was going to be my second thing, and I'm a devil for this, and it's the one thing that annoys my team more than anything, I'm quite sure of it. But if I see an email come in, if I see the phone ring, you know, regardless of what I'm doing and what I should be doing as a business owner, I'm immediately what's going on? What's going on? And I need to be aware of everything. Um, maybe that makes me a control freak, I'm not quite sure.

Chris Grimes:

But I let the team write in and explain the answer to that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, exactly.

Chris Grimes:

Oh, it's got a postcard, yes or no. Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

I know what the answer will be. Yeah, I'm I'm trying to lead them, not control freak them. But um, yes, it is is that those two things definitely get my attention every single time. And there are times, in fairness, that I say, okay, I am turning off all methods of communication. Yes. I do Nigel's 90 minutes and and I put my do not disturb on then, and I won't look at my emails and my phones on do not disturb as well. So I I do try to distract from the distractions in that way.

Chris Grimes:

And it might be worth explaining, we both know what Nigel's 90 minutes means for anyone not uh connected to Entrepreneur Circle, which is an extraordinary entity, but but just explain how you interpret the Nigel's 90 minutes to become Ingrid's 90 minutes.

SPEAKER_01:

So as a business owner, it's really, really important not to get stuck in the day-to-day. Sometimes that is really, really difficult because in in our case, if an urgent email comes in or the phone rings and someone's stuck at the squirrel arrives, it's very, very difficult. But really, the importance of this is shutting yourself away from all the noise that we've discussed and just working on your business in some sort of capacity that will drive it forward for 90 minutes every day. You can't manage 90, do 30. Just do anything. And the importance within that is to plan it. So you sit down at your desk and you think, and you know, you open up your book or you put your computer on or whatever you're doing, and you've already mapped out what that how you're going to spend the 90 minutes. Otherwise, you'll spend 75 minutes planning what you're going to do, and boom, you're front of it.

Chris Grimes:

And if I may say, welcome to my world, and lots of people will be watching thinking the same thing, even though we intellectually understand that it's actually a great discipline, and by its very nature, it's a discipline and requires incredible diligence.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, yeah, absolutely. So um that that's um how I get myself away from the bright shiny objects that then I do allow to distract me for the rest of the time, even though I try not to.

Chris Grimes:

And then the virtue is there's sort of a 24-7 passion for purpose in what it is you're here to reveal to the world, which is a brilliant segue for the alchemy and goal, which may be coming shortly. Right. Which I know it is because it's my structure. The one now is a quirky or unusual fact about you, Ingrid Sanderson, founder of principaltravel.co.uk. What's a quirky or unusual fact?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, very many years ago, I spent the night in a police station, and not many people know that.

Chris Grimes:

Oh hello. Uh do tell us more.

SPEAKER_01:

It isn't quite what you might think. Um no, no, I wasn't beating people up or and I was the right side of the cell, shall we say. I was actually in reception of the um of the police station with two other girlfriends because our boyfriends of the time, I say of the time, actually, one of them's a married couple now. But anyway, our boyfriends of the time, they were in the police cell.

Chris Grimes:

Awkward.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, yes, a little bit awkward. So we went on along like dutiful girlfriends and waited the entire night for them. For them to sober up or to stop fighting or they well, they weren't fighting, but um, I don't know, we yeah, they got into some sort of ruckus in a nightclub and got hurled out, and so we thought, well, we better follow as well. The b particularly annoying thing about it was they got some sleep and then they and then they got a cooked breakfast. Who knew that happened? And um, yeah, so they came out to us sort of obviously still in their their clothes from the night before, but they were they're it does it it sounds like you're advocating have a fight, have more fights in nightclubs because you end up with a cooked breakfast.

Chris Grimes:

If you're hungry, certainly. Yes. We have shaken your tree. Hurrah. Now, segue into now alchemy and gold is next. So when you're at purpose and in flow, and it's fairly implicit in what you've been delivering beautifully already, but when when are you at your happiest in what you're here to reveal to the world?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm definitely at my happiest when my team and I on when we're at work, um when we have a sense that we're able to create calm where there could be stress. If something's happened that's out of the world of control of people that are are traveling, or they can't quite figure something out, or it's a difficult trip to plan, or it's a big event, whatever they need help with, these things can, if one lets them, can invite stress into the world. And it's our job to alleviate that and create the sense of calm. So again, because that then feeds our whole notion of you need to concentrate, the clients need to concentrate on what it is they do. So if they're stressed out by what we're doing, that's not going to work for them. So we like to bring the stress. We like to bring the calm to alleviate the stress.

Chris Grimes:

Yes, there's calm and poise behind the wall of chaos, if you like. Yeah. And it sounds like customer satisfaction is satisfying.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly, exactly, yes. And so that would be the goal when um clients arrive focused, not frazzled.

Chris Grimes:

Lovely bit of alliteration worth reincorporating.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, yes, yes.

Chris Grimes:

Making sure that you're they arrive and they travel effortlessly, effortlessly, which I'll put my teeth back in to say that again. They travel effortlessly so they can stay focused, not frazzled, and ready to deliver.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and as I alluded to before, if they haven't thought about us very much during the when they leave home in the morning to where they're going to get to, if they haven't had to think about us much, job done.

Chris Grimes:

Lovely. And now I'm going to award you with a cake. Thanks for watching. Hurrah so much. And you get to put a cherry on the cake now. This is the final suffused with storytelling metaphor. And uh the cherry on the cake is stuff like, what's a favourite, first of all, inspirational quote, Ingrid Sanderson, that's always given you succor and pulled you towards your future?

SPEAKER_01:

My inspirational quote is from the author Vivian Green. And I received this on a birthday card once, and it's life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning how to dance in the rain.

Chris Grimes:

I love that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. And and it's particularly lovely for me because I love dancing.

Chris Grimes:

And in the rain is even better.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. So those curveballs, those squirrels, things gonna happen on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, they just do to everybody. It's not what happens, is it? It's how we deal with it and how we respond.

Chris Grimes:

And if I can get the world going, squirrels, whenever a plot twist happens or chaos happens, or a twist in the universe, or a glitch in the mainframe, squirrels is a good way to frame that. With the gift of hindsight, what notes, help, or advice might you proffer to a younger version of either yourself or it could be both, or um principle travel? If you could go back in time, wrap your arms around yourself and say, What?

SPEAKER_01:

Have a business coach. When you're planning your business, when you're because everybody plans it to a certain extent, and when you are laying those foundations, and when you are looking, you're on a run up to day one, and if you're all on your own, whether you've got a small team, just have a business coach. That third-party perspective that we've discussed already is absolutely invaluable. And also you'll get a perspective, not necessarily of people that work for you because their goals and their motivations are different from yours, yeah. But someone that gets it and understands it, and you need to, you know, be quite discerning with who you work with in this respect. Needs to be someone that gets you, yes, gets what you're trying to do, uh, why you're trying to do it, and who you're trying to help and serve, and all of those things. It's so important. I mean, I was lucky when I started my business. Again, I did have strong people around me, I did know some business owners, but of course, they're all doing their thing, and so you know, you can't keep asking people to carve out time or advice or so on, or you start to feel a little bit of a burden. But if you've incorporated, I'd say the cost of a business coach, but I say that just with the mindset of consider the opportunity cost if you don't have one.

Chris Grimes:

Yeah, what's the cost of not having one?

SPEAKER_01:

What's the cost of not having one? And I think I could have my first 10 years in business, even though they were great, they could have been very different. Yeah. So I and and also, you know, 26 and a half years ago when I set the business up, business coaching, I mean, it may well have been a thing, but I didn't know.

Chris Grimes:

And have you stuck to the course of one coach that you is your go-to, or have you changed over the years?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh yeah, I have. I've changed mentors as my journeys changed, as my needs have changed.

Chris Grimes:

Of course.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, I have changed, and and and and some sometimes it's a it's a natural progression as well. And at the moment, I would say my coach, my mentor, is our friend Nigel Butterall because we go to his um inner circle sessions at the entrepreneur's circle, and that's you know, absolutely invaluable to me. Equally, I have some very good coaching friends, but we mentor each other, and that's a strong group to be a part of. Yeah, absolutely, and we can just brainstorm and um yeah, activate the hive mind at a moment's notice, which is tremendous.

Chris Grimes:

And just to ask you uh an extra Captain's Log supplemental question what's the best piece of advice you've ever been given, obviously by default, by somebody else?

SPEAKER_01:

This would be probably from my auntie very many years ago, particularly low point for me on this particular occasion, and she just put her arms around me and she just said, one day it will go away. And by and large, you've just got to believe that, haven't you?

Chris Grimes:

And the name of the auntie for an extra million points, no cash attached?

SPEAKER_01:

Jane.

Chris Grimes:

Auntie Jane.

SPEAKER_01:

Auntie Jane, bless her. I've got a lot of aunties and a lot of uncles, so she's lucky to get the mention.

Chris Grimes:

Good on you, Auntie Jane. Love that. Other aunties also available for Sage Advice in the hive mind of family. Which is lovely. Okay, so we're ramping up now shortly to talk about Shakespeare, which I'll explain in a moment. Just before we do that, there's something called Pass the Golden Baton, please. Uh-huh. So this is an invitation for you to keep the golden thread of the storytelling going in the founder story context. Who might you most like to pass the golden baton along to so that they can enjoy being given a damn good listening to in this way?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm struggling to decide between four people. But I am going to nominate my very good friend and member of Hive Mind that we discussed, also entrepreneur circle member, Rachel Ford.

Chris Grimes:

Rachel Ford.

SPEAKER_01:

Now she's an inspirational lady. She's a business coach. She also runs a marketing business, and but her story is um i i is well worth listening to. And I'm sure she would love to talk to you.

Chris Grimes:

Wonderful. Thank you very much. The baton has been passed, and now, inspired by Shakespeare, all the world's a steed, all the bitted wibby viddy players, because of my hecting background, this is to borrow from the seven ages of man's speech. When all is said and done, Ingrid Sanderson, principal travel.co.uk, founder, circa 1999, to this happy day we find ourselves today. How, when all is said and done, would you most like to be remembered?

SPEAKER_01:

That's so difficult, isn't it? But I think largely for how it's not about what you do, is it? It's how people feel when they're with you. And I would like to be remembered that to have brought positive energy and a positive vibe and to enhance people's experience because I was there.

Chris Grimes:

Lovely. If I can just let that hang there. That legacy is, I would say, in the bag. Wonderful. So um, where can we find out all about you and principal travel? I'm giving you a clue there, clues in the website. So where can we go to find out all about you on the old interweb?

SPEAKER_01:

Do visit www.principaltravel.co.uk, principalending P-A-L. Thank you.paltravel.co.uk. It all starts on the home page. It's very clearly set out there as to what we do and who we are and so on. But by all means visit the About Us and the Knowledge Centre as well, those pages, and obviously contact us too.

Chris Grimes:

And contact Casey, the Brenn mascot and frequent flyer.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely.

Chris Grimes:

And the name of your two avatars again, which are beautiful. Bella Businesswoman. Bella Businesswoman. Max Mileage. Max Mileage, check them out. Fantastic. Uh, just a quick announcement from me too. If you would like to uh have a conversation about guesting in uh my show too, the website for the show, the goodlistening to show.com. Also, this has been a founder story, which is to tell the story behind the story being Entity X, obviously, and this is obviously about principal travel. Uh, but also there's a very, very exciting uh series strand, which is called Legacy Life Reflections, which is to use the unique storytelling structure of what you've just been listening to, which uh, if I may say, has been likened to having a day spa for your brain in an oasis of kindness. Go me. So said a wonderful chap called Brendan O'Heay, who co-wrote with Dame Judy Dench the book Shakespeare, The Man Who Pays the Rent. And I'm getting closer to Judy Dench because I've interviewed her daughter recently called Finti Williams. So Fantastic. And Michael Palin has said yes in principle.

SPEAKER_01:

Now can we come and watch that show?

Chris Grimes:

Yes, and as soon as I can get the date actually firmed up, which should be lovely. So um back to you. As this has been your moment in the sunshine in the good listening to show, Stories of Distinction and Genius found a story. Is there anything else you'd like to say, Ingrid?

SPEAKER_01:

I would just like to take this opportunity to say that for all our clients, obviously huge, great big thanks to all our clients, past and present, very, very loyal. Very we we we we love working with you, we love who you are and what you do. To any prospects, anybody that's thinking that because we get why would I use a travel agent? And so I think in terms of what else I'd like to say is that if you're not a business travel agent, then it's not where your value lies. The thing our all of our clients have in common is that they know their worth. They know their hourly rates, they know what they do day to day and what they do well, what only they can do. They know what that's worth. And that isn't patrolling the airline sites, the wholesale sites, trying to piece together a two, three, four, five, six-point itinerary. That is not what they do. So my question is, why are you spending your time doing that? A quick line, a quick email, WhatsApp, text, call, however, you want to communicate with us. We'll, you know, as like I said before, it's bespoke. Why would you? Surely your time is worth so much more.

Chris Grimes:

And if I may, it sounds like it's inviting them into the art of delegation and you will take the pain and the strain out of it and handle all of that side of it logistically for them.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly that. And there will be very many other areas that they do delegate, whether, you know, if they're if they're not an accountant, they will they will delegate their accountancy. If they're not a solicitor, they will delegate that role and so on and so on. If they don't design websites, they will go to a website designer. So equally, if you aren't an expert in travel and the world, the travel industry changes on a daily basis as in accordance with the news headlines. So why wouldn't you just leave it to someone that does it for a living?

Chris Grimes:

So, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much. I've been Chris Grimes. Most importantly, this has been Ingrid Sanderson, and she's told us all about the who, the what, the where, the why. She does what she does, and then crucially we've found out where to go and find you. Principaltravel.co.uk.

SPEAKER_01:

Anything else you'd like to say? I would like to thank you very much, Chris, for looking after me. I was very nervous about coming along and doing this show with you today.

Chris Grimes:

You were a podcast virgin, were you not as you described?

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely.

Chris Grimes:

You've said that. It's not just me.

SPEAKER_01:

But you've been very kind and very generous, and I would recommend this experience very much. Thank you.

Chris Grimes:

Thank you for watching and listening. Thank you very much indeed. Good night. You've been listening to the Good Listening to Show with me, Chris Grimes. If you'd like to be in the show too, or indeed gift an episode to capture the story of someone else with me as your host, then you can find out how, care of the series strands at the Good Listening2Show.com website. And one of these series strands is called Brand Strand Founder Stories, for business owners like you to be able to tell your company story, talk about your purpose, and amplify your brand. Together we get into the who, the what, the how, the why you do what you do, and then crucially, we find out exactly where we can come and find you to work with you and to book your services. Tune in next week for more stories from the Clearing, and don't forget to subscribe and review wherever you get your podcasts.