IAM269- Avid Traveler Helps People Have a More Authentic Feel of The Location They’re Visiting

Katherine Vidal is the co-founder of a platform that focuses on tourist stuff to help bring tourism to smaller areas by giving them a different perspective.

They're in the process of developing an app that will help you hover over destinations to tell you the experiences happening and local things to do.

This was a live recording at the PurpleCon event.

• CEO Hack: Starting my day as early as possible to effectively plan it
• CEO Nugget: Going to conferences and networking for stronger connectivity
• CEO Defined: Helping other people

Website: http://citiskopes.com/

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Transcription

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Intro 0:01

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and I have Katherine Vidal of Citiskopes. Katherine, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Katherine Vidal 0:34

Thank you for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:35

No problem. And I know I butchered your last name, but I try. So I wanted to start everything out here just what brought you to the conference and how everything's going.

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Katherine Vidal 1:07

I love it. It is so informational. I really like all the women speakers that are there. They give me the insight to think that I really didn't have knowledge. So her conference brought a different perspective to me.

Gresham Harkless 1:20

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I always love getting the opportunity to connect with people at conferences, because there are so many different people from different walks of life and different types of businesses, and getting that opportunity to have that energy is always great.

Katherine Vidal 1:30

Yeah, it is.

Gresham Harkless 1:31

Yeah. So I wanted to kick everything off and ask you for what I call your CEO story. And this is what led you to kind of start your business.

Katherine Vidal 1:38

So my sister and I, we like to travel a lot. And we always look for the authentic local experience when we're traveling. However, when we got there, we always realize we ended up doing the tourist stuff. So we thought to myself, well, if we keep doing this source stuff, because it's kind of hard to find the authentic local feel, well, why don't we enhance this, these touristic areas with immersive technology so that way, wherever you're at, it can bring you out to those other authentic neighborhoods. So you can have this different perspective.

Gresham Harkless 2:06

Yeah, I absolutely love that at the party, we talked a little bit offline, it's just that you get to have an entirely different experience. If you've been to someplace like 100 times, I guess you get to have a different experience each time.

Katherine Vidal 2:16

Yeah. So that's our end goal is really to help smaller areas that are not very popular, so that there's more tourism going there. But also, like you mentioned, you go there 100 times nothing has changed lincoln memorial there for how long, and he's still sitting to get a different perspective. Maybe he's standing up, he's telling you, hey, this area or this neighborhood go visit over there, there's this event going on, then you're willing to want to visit there, right?

Gresham Harkless 2:43

That makes perfect sense. So I absolutely love that. And then that captures everything as far as how technology is happening as well. So I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper and hear a little bit more about what you're building. Can you tell us a little bit more about the app and what you guys are doing?

Katherine Vidal 2:43

So right now my sister and I were really in the development phase, my sister's, my co-founder, we're in the development phase where we're just testing out the app, but to see how's it working. And what it will do is, whenever you're at this destination, you'll use your phone, and you just like hover over this area or wherever landmark you're at. And it'll tell you, hey, this immersive experience is happening. Check it out, use it. And once you use the immersive experience, you can also find out what other local things to do. Right?

Gresham Harkless 3:25

Okay, so it's gonna have like associated things that you can also see like, you won't just be at the Lincoln Memorial like he's saying Washington, Lincoln said, as he's been doing forever, you're gonna be able to see other parts of like DC or wherever you are.

Katherine Vidal 3:36

Yeah.

Gresham Harkless 3:37

Okay. Cool. And I want to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce. And this is what you feel kind of distinguishes you or your organization? Well, what do you feel kind of makes you guys unique and sets us apart?

Katherine Vidal 3:40

So I actually met Danielle, through Shelly Bill's program of black girls ventures, she and I were finalists at a pitch competition. And I really loved her idea. And just seeing where she came from being at that pitch competition that happened last October to where she is today. I was very motivated, just to see what was going on what women are out there with their businesses, and what they're doing.

Gresham Harkless 3:45

Absolutely, absolutely. And how's the conference going?

Katherine Vidal 3:48

So a lot of travel platforms, they're focusing on touristic stuff. And then other travel platforms are not really focusing on touristy things to do the way they're getting this authentic feel and having the people do it themselves. So having people doing stuff for free without an incentive. It's kind of harder to do, you know. So we also felt like using immersive technology, everybody's interested in it, whether it's just augmenting a mural, augmenting the Lincoln Memorial is always space for a different type of experience. Yeah, so I felt like that's what sets us apart from other travel platforms.

Gresham Harkless 4:26

Yeah, it's funny, because I think I've mentioned that I've been on cruises and stuff before. And a lot of times, like you mentioned a lot of times the experience is because of the people that are there. But that's very, I mean, somebody has to spend that time and energy in order to do that, or they may not be getting paid, they might be volunteering. So the fact that you've been able to create that tapping into immersive technology is definitely awesome. So now I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Katherine Vidal 4:58

For me it's waking up early, starting my day as early as possible. I feel like it gives me more time to effectively plan out my day and meet my goals for that day. So that will ultimately lead to my end goal for the year or the week or the month or whatever I'm trying to accomplish.

Gresham Harkless 5:16

Yeah, what's the saying the early bird gets the worm.

Katherine Vidal 5:18

Yeah.

Gresham Harkless 5:20

But when you're able to wake up early, a lot of times too, I feel like life in the world doesn't take hold of you yet. So you're able to get a lot of things done before. A lot of times, emails start to pile up and things like that. Yeah. So now I would ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you can happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business?

Katherine Vidal 5:40

So when my sister and I, when first started our business, we were kind of all over the place and trying to figure out, what do we do first, and what we do next, if I can go back in time definitely will be networking, attending conferences, like the purplecon, is definitely helpful. It gives you insight into what other entrepreneurs are doing or what they've done.

So that way, you can either try to implement or avoid whatever didn't work for them. So that I will go back in time and start going to those types of conferences and even networking to I feel like networking will help you leverage people that you may not be able to get to by email or phone call, meeting people in person, I feel like it has a stronger presence, or I'm not sure what the right word, but it brings stronger connectivity.

Gresham Harkless 6:25

A bigger impact as well, too. Because I definitely would agree with that. And a lot of times those opportunities will never like open up themselves. And unless you didn't, have that network or had that opportunity to connect with people. So I absolutely love that.

And now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on the show. So I want to ask you what being a CEO means to you.

Katherine Vidal 6:52

Personally, for me, being a CEO is just helping other people. I like helping people. I like helping brands, anything that I can do that can elevate another person. That's what being a CEO means to me. It's helpful.

Gresham Harkless 7:05

Yeah, absolutely. I think that goes a long way toward what you guys are building and everything that you're doing. But if you're making sure to help people, I feel like energy always comes back. So when you're helping somebody else out, it also comes back to you. So I think it's something that all CEOs should definitely remember. So I love that definition. So I appreciate your time when I wanted to do his passion, like just to see if there's anything additional, you can let our readers and our listeners know how best they can find out about what you're doing.

Katherine Vidal 7:28

So I want everybody to visit citiskopes.com. Sign up, and stay updated with our newsletters. And when more beta testing opens up, definitely be part of it. Give us feedback and what you like and what you didn't like, or what you might expect from a travel platform using tech.

Gresham Harkless 7:46

Awesome, awesome, awesome. We'll make sure to have those links in the show notes and we hope to have you back on as well too. You can learn a little bit more about how the development is going. But appreciate your time. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Katherine Vidal 7:56

Thank you. Thank you for having me here. I really appreciate it.

Outro 8:00

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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