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What does a former CEO of a private airport yoga company with a master’s degree in forensic psychology have in common with a sports and entertainment industry veteran with an MBA in marketing and strategy?
Avery Westlund | Trip Tribe Wellness
A shared passion for wellness and travel.
Meet Avery Westlund and Katharine Sharpstone, two female entrepreneurs who run the global retreat planning company Trip Tribe Wellness. Founded in 2015, Trip Tribe Wellness organizes custom wellness retreats around the world and provides planning services for both individual tour guides and companies.
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Westlund was once a client leading retreats with the help of Trip Tribe and experienced first hand the benefits of Trip Tribe. “I actually had the idea to start my previous company, Yoga on the Fly®, while leading a Trip Tribe retreat in Nicaragua. Having already built a wellness travel business from concept to result, it was a natural fit to join another company that supported my affinity with wellness, travel and growing a business I loved that Trip Tribe Wellness handled the logistical execution of my retreats so I could fully focus on the experience of my Trip Tribe Wellness took the heavy lifting off my hands as a tour guide and eventually I had to work full time at the company.”
Westlund began practicing yoga and meditation in her teens to help heal years of stress and physical slump from elite gymnastics and later football and rowing. MA, ERYT200, ERYT500 Certified and Trained in Anatomy, Westlund has conducted classes and workshops for professional athletes, anxiety and depression patients, veterans and studio clients for over a decade while abroad in Europe, Central and North America and Asia lived.
As we’ve all learned, post-pandemic well-being is more important than ever today. A 2021 Indeed survey found that employee burnout reached an all-time high, with more than half (52%) of respondents reporting burnout by 2021. That’s why prioritizing one’s health and well-being has never been more important. Trip Tribe Wellness has seen tremendous growth first-hand as wellness leaders continue to sign up en masse to run their own private retreats, both at home and abroad.
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In addition, Westlund was a great fit with the partnership with Sharpstone to lead this growth. Sharpstone found an escape by taking fitness classes including yoga, Pilates, kickboxing and spin while living and working in New York City. Katharine led intense large-scale client events for major companies in the United States while working at Creative Artists Agency before attending business school. Sharpstone’s focus on both the tour guide and the overall guest experience has been critical to Trip Tribe Wellness’s success.
“What drew me to Trip Tribe Wellness was my true belief in the core product and my ability to guide and influence business decisions from day one. Avery and I bring unique and different perspectives and skills from our past experiences that really complement each other Our goal is to make wellness travel easy and hassle-free for both tour guides and guests, and we can achieve this by building on each other’s strengths and backgrounds,” said Sharpstone.
The two have worked well together and have fueled incredible growth in the company as more and more people want to take better care of themselves while having the freedom to travel again to experience beautiful destinations.
For a list of upcoming Trip Tribe Wellness retreats or to see how to run your own retreat, see triptribe.com
