IAM2110 – Founder and CEO Specializes in Small-Group International Culinary Trips

In this episode, we have Annie Sim, founder and CEO, Chief Eating Officer of The Table Less Traveled, a boutique travel company that specializes in small-group international culinary trips.

She is a seasoned traveler and leader with over 10 years of experience in guiding individuals around the world. Her passion for travel and culinary exploration was ignited at a young age.

Annie discusses the value of human connection in travel experiences and the importance of sharing meaningful experiences with others.

The conversation highlights the importance of leveraging technology to enhance human connection and the design of unique travel experiences.

Website: The Table Less Traveled
Instagram: thetablelesstraveled

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Full Interview:

Transcription:

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Annie Sim Teaser 00:00

It's great at telling you where you should go and for how long, but like, why are you going there? What are you going to get out of it? Who are you going to meet? And I don't think that technology is yet there. To me is where we excel as an organization is really layering that human component on to give somebody the experience they are seeking.

Intro 00:22

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:49

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Annie Sim. Annie, excited to have you on the show.

Annie Sim 00:56

Thanks for having me.

Gresham Harkless 00:58

Yes, absolutely. Super excited to have you on and talk about all the awesome things that you're doing. And of course, before we jumped in, I'm going to read a little bit more about Annie so you can hear about some of those awesome things. And Annie is the founder and CEO, Chief Eating Officer of The Table Less Traveled, a boutique travel company that specializes in small group international culinary trips. She is a seasoned traveler and leader with over 10 years of experience in guiding individuals around the world. Annie's passion for travel and culinary exploration was ignited at a young age. Since then, she has dedicated her life to exploring diverse cultures and building meaningful connections with local friends worldwide, who in turn, open their doors to the guests of The Table Less Traveled.

And I had the opportunity to connect with Annie and we had a great first conversation. And one of the things that I absolutely love about traveling is figuring out and learning about the cuisines and all the things that I've tasted at different places. I feel like I don't even see the globe as like maps of cities and states actually see like places like this or 8 that. So I love everything that she's doing. But one of the things that really stuck with me, she said the kitchen and the food has always been a lens through which she's seen culture on her travels and she found that the table of travel to unite people through shared experiences. So Annie, excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Annie Sim 02:13

Yes, definitely. Let's talk food.

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Gresham Harkless 02:15

Let's do it. Let's make it happen. So I guess to kick everything off, let's rewind the clock a little bit. I know I touched on it, but I wanted to hear a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

Annie Sim 02:24

I think we talked a little bit about this before, but I always see my entrepreneurial journey as this heat seeking missile. I felt like I was lost for a long time and somebody once told me every move that you make you may be moving side to side, but you're honing in on something, you're moving forward in a direction that you may not know about at that time. And so I think that all of my experiences really led me to finding The Table Less Traveled, partially from my personal passions and pursuits in travel, and partially from the background that I have in working in a lot of small family owned businesses and my parents who were entrepreneurs and my aunts and uncles.

And so I think those kind of all planted the seeds of the risk factor, the willingness to try something that's outside the box and then rooted in a passion of really trying to find where did I feel like I excelled? Where did I feel like I did something different than others that I could bring and share with the world in some way.

Gresham Harkless 03:28

Nice. I absolutely love that. I love that heat seeking missile analogy because I think so many times you hear like when you're trying to have your coming-of-age or find the thing that really makes you who you are, it ends up being a lot like that where you know, okay, I'm a little bit farther off, so let me reroute. And I love that just because we forget that all the experiences, sometimes the experiences that even our loved ones go through play a very pivotal role in what we decide to do and usually a lot of who we are.

Annie Sim 03:56

100%. It's funny because when I look back on it now, I think about the fact that, oh yeah, okay. I was working retail and I didn't really love it, but I learned so much in that experience. And did I ever think that was gonna translate to me owning a travel business? No, but now I can see how that adds value and how that experience drives a different understanding than I otherwise would have had. So I think all of those experiences that people come with are valuable.

Gresham Harkless 04:26

Yeah, absolutely. And so I wanted to drill down a little bit more here, a little bit more about your link. Could you take us through exactly what you're doing with The Table Less Traveled and how you're making that impact?

Annie Sim 04:35

Yes, so first and foremost, when I started The Table Less Traveled, I had just gotten back, not just, but one of those heat seeking whistle, left and right moments was that I spent 6 months doing an around the world trip after I left that job in telecom. And I spent the money that I had saved to buy a condo and live this adult life. And I said, I need to find a little bit more of myself. I need to figure out exactly to your point what vibes with me and what doesn't. And one of the ways that I made the experience more than just oh I'm going on vacation for 6 months was I was like I want to journal about it. I want to have a blog. I always joke that I'm pretty sure my mom was the only one who read it, but I wanted to have purpose.

And to me that purpose was can I learn about myself through the lens of other people's cultures. And the way that I created that connection with people was asking them if I could stay with them, if I could, if they could teach me their family recipes and their kitchens, if I could eat with them. I feel like meals were always so significant for me when I had the opportunity to sit with somebody at a table because it's like, it's just such a natural connection point that so much conversation happens and I like so much about other people's ways of life and so when I started The Table Less Traveled a lot of it was around how do I bring those experiences that I had with the locals and those connections to other people.

And I think nowadays the word immersive is such a cliche but popular term in travel. I think it's true. I think there's this huge trend towards people wanting to have experiences where they can meet locals, where they can have a conversation and where it doesn't feel like this regurgitated form of information that they're getting spewed out. If that makes sense, like an audio while you're walking through a museum, it's not quite as impactful. And so we, and I should piggyback on that, that to me, what was always really meaningful was when I could share experiences with other people because it created this foundation of memory that wasn't just my own in my head, but something that I had with somebody else.

So when my cousin came and traveled with me, we got to eat at a table with locals and meet other people. It was like, then we could draw back on that memory together. So the table was traveled, was really founded on those principles and concepts of how do we leverage my friendships and my networks around the world to fast track relationships with people and how do we create an environment where we can share these experiences with valued individuals. So our group trips are international, usually 9 to 11 days, and we share in groups of 6 to 12 people. And then myself or somebody else on our team who has these relationships hosts every trip that we do.

So that's really one of the focuses that we do. But I think COVID, just to touch on this briefly, also took us into a totally different realm. We started doing virtual cooking classes with the same individuals that we normally visit in those countries. And so our friends in Italy and Japan, Peru, all started teaching virtual cooking classes with us. And that led us down a very different path as well because it created this new form of us being able to connect people across different cultures, learn in a different environment and format, and still have a lot of fun. Like Zoom has taken a whole different turn now, but I think the interactive nature and component of learning something with your hands and getting your hands dirty across Zoom still transcends the opportunity for a deeper connection.

Gresham Harkless 08:25

Yeah, I appreciate you so much in sharing that. And I almost wonder if that is part of your secret sauce, the awareness of that, of understanding that there is the kind of confluence of all these different factors, and it provides a unique way to amplify the opportunity to have that human connection experience. Do you feel like that's part of your perspective individually or even specifically about the business too?

Annie Sim 08:50

Yes, I think that the whole idea of what you're talking about of getting corrective technology amplifying the human connection component is 100% what we're trying to do. I don't really talk about it a lot because it's the non-sexy part of our business and it's more what we do behind the scenes, but I'm always trying to look at how can we improve our systems, processes, and tools to be more efficient so that we can leverage our human capacity better and really focus on the things that technology can't do for us. And so I think for us a lot of that has to do with the design of experience at this point. It's actually interesting to see how so many people are leveraging like ChatGPT and other AI features to plan their itineraries. And the way that I think about it is I've tested it because I'm curious and I'm like, hey, I think it's actually pretty good about telling me the who, what, when, where, why, how.

But the challenge is that it doesn't actually understand what your individual goals are as a traveler, and it can't really get, at least the ones that I've seen do that 20% layer on top that makes an experience special, that creates some sort of meaningful connection and transformation. It's great at telling you where you should go and for how long. But like, why are you going there? What are you going to get out of it? Who are you going to meet? And I don't think that technology is yet there. I know we're taking us in a different direction, but it's like that to me is where we excel as an organization is really layering that human component on to give somebody the experience they are seeking.

Gresham Harkless 10:35

Yeah, I love that. I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple Book or even a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Annie Sim 10:46

I thought long and hard about this one and mine is actually a philosophy mentality. Have you ever heard of Alberto Savoia who wrote the book The Right It? No. So that is probably the thing that makes me think differently the most. And he has this concept called pretotyping, which is basically don't waste your time and money developing something until you've tested whether or not it works. So he says you have to, before you prototype, you have to pretotype, you have to sell something or manage something in terms of knowing whether or not the market is there for it. And so we do that actually quite frequently. And it makes me really uncomfortable because I'm very type A, I'm a perfectionist. I like to have everything done and perfect before I sell it.

But his concept has helped turn things for me from a CEO perspective of, hey, we have to test whether or not this is going to be successful before we invest in actually developing it. So a good example of it would be like we launched new destinations for 2025 and we have some feelers out in terms of relationships and people we know. So we put out 3 destinations. We have not built those trips yet. And we said, hey, if you want first pick, if you want to reserve your spot because there will only be 12, put down a $500 deposit. And so we almost sold out 1 destination and we're half sold out on another destination without even having the product to sell and so to me that's really pre-do typing which is our hack in knowing before we invest in developing that product that somebody is gonna want it. So that's the concept That's my hack and it works really well for us.

Gresham Harkless 12:36

Yeah, I truly appreciate you sharing that. And so what would you consider to be a little bit more of what I call a CEO nugget? You might have already touched on this, but it's a word of wisdom or piece of advice, something you might tell your younger business self if you happen to a time machine?

Annie Sim 12:49

I would probably say, find your people. Obviously I'm somebody who's very driven by community and what we do in terms of what we deliver as a service. But I think equally important is finding your community as a CEO because it does get very lonely. And it is really challenging. I think so much of entrepreneurship has to do with your mentality. And there's so many roadblocks that are mental roadblocks and emotional roadblocks. And you have to have perseverance to make it through challenges. And I always talk about, you have to be in it for the long run. If you want to have a business that's successful in 1 year, it's just, some people get lucky, few and far between. But if you really want to have a business, you have to be in it.

And I think that one thing that's been most helpful for me is having community that I can talk to. You know, I have my aunts and uncles, my husband, He loves to talk shop even though he's not an entrepreneur. And then I think having cohorts of entrepreneur groups. I'm a part of a female founders and hospitality group that I love. I used to be a part of EO's accelerator program. Like these groups help so much in being able to feel like you're not alone and having support and accountability structure to help you move yourself forward.

Gresham Harkless 14:10

Yeah, absolutely. So what would you consider to be your answer to my absolute favorite question, the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And our goal is to have different quote unquote CEOs on the show. So Annie, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Annie Sim 14:20

I think being a CEO means something that you create and bringing value into the world, something that you share.

Gresham Harkless 14:31

I love that. And I think so many times that like we even talked about a little bit more of the foundational elements, the culture of our organizations. And while just very much so, I love that word birthing is that into some degree, you are not doing all the things not controlling all the things, but you, I guess, create that atmosphere where those things can happen and you have a vision of like things that you want to see in the world, vision of the impact that you want to make, the solutions that need to be created. And it starts to become a manifestation of that in a very real way.

Annie Sim 14:59

Yeah, it's interesting that you say the vision of it because that's one thing that when you talk about mission vision values has always been really hard for me to define and the other day I came up with something that I think is finally going to stick for us, which is we want to have one traveler at least one traveler out in the world every day who has been touched by The Table Less Traveled.

Gresham Harkless 15:22

Yeah. Absolutely, Annie truly appreciate that definition and of course I appreciate your time even more. So what I want to do now is pass you the mic so to speak just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know of course how best people can get a hold of you, find about all the awesome things you and your team are working on.

Annie Sim 15:39

Yes, so if you want to get a hold of me, if you ever want to talk travel or food or you have questions about how to make your experience more meaningful. You can find me on Instagram at The Table Less Traveled or my email hello@thetablelesstraveled.com and our website is obviously thetablelesstraveled.com. One more thing I will add because you'll have some links in the show notes will add a resource page that has some things that are props for people if they're heading out on a trip soon and they're looking for resources just free resources for people about packing tips or how to make their experiences more meaningful. So we'll make sure to send that over to you as well.

Gresham Harkless 16:19

Awesome, thank you so much. And again, we'll have that in the show notes so that everybody can reach out to you and find out about all the awesome things. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Annie Sim 16:27

Thank you.

Outro 16:28 

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by CBNation and Blue16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Don't forget to schedule your complimentary digital marketing consultation at Blue16media.com. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless, Jr. Thank you for listening.

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