Travel Plus Them came to life as a result of Lakshmi Natarajan’s mission to raise her children as global citizens and to inspire other parents on their journey. With a stellar corporate career over the last two decades, her transition to entrepreneurship was centered around reprioritizing her life to positively impact the future generation while doing something she loves with her family.
Lakshmi was born in India and came to the US as a young girl. As an Indian-American and a person of color, her desire to learn about others stemmed from her being “different” in her surroundings. Throughout her life, she enjoyed meeting new people and learning about different cultures in various professional and personal environments. While working for Fortune 500 companies, such as American Express and Accenture, Lakshmi held multiple global leadership positions across continents. These professional experiences in marketing, sales, strategy, and management consulting exposed her to diverse teams, multiple industries, and different ways of life. Traveling to more than 60 countries over the years reinforced her passion and the experiences that she wanted her daughters.
After becoming a mother of two, Lakshmi reached a point where she was not giving 100% to any aspect of her life—career, family, or herself. Lakshmi recognized she needed to realign her passions and priorities—family, travel, and continuing to collaborate with her corporate clients. At the same time, she wanted to involve her children and help other mothers who love to travel or want their children to learn about the diversity of the world. Aligned to her values, Lakshmi launched two businesses. Excelador, a business consulting firm, which she established because of her innate strengths and professional background in collaborating with clients to lead high performing teams and, in turn, optimizing their growth. Her passion work, Travel Plus Them, a coaching and education company inspires and helps families raise their children as global citizens. Based on her commitment to raise global citizens, Lakshmi has traveled to six continents and 30 countries with her husband, Kailash Amruthur, daughters Shyla and Shriya, and sometimes joined by their parents too. Through Travel Plus Them, Lakshmi has established the principle that traveling is about how the experience of visiting places shapes the traveler.
In her words, “We are living in a time where our future generation needs to learn about the world and all its people so they can appreciate the beauty of all that surrounds them. Travel Plus Them helps families experience the world and raise inclusive global citizens from home.” Travel Plus Them serves mothers who want to ensure that their preschool and elementary age children learn about the world either by visiting different countries or learning about them from home. In thinking about the opportunity for all moms, Lakshmi designed Travel Plus Them to go beyond solely a travel influencer company. Leveraging her extensive global travel and the latest technology, Lakshmi educates parents on how to expose children to diversity and culture from home through guides, videos, activities, and other resources all available online. She also provides coaching and best practices on how families can travel safely during the pandemic and discusses other mommy information too.
Her vision for Travel Plus Them is for her to become a leader in helping parents raise global citizens- through travel and at home. She says, “I see Travel Plus Them positively changing the lives of parents in exposing their children to the world. Global knowledge builds self-confidence and reinforces respect, empathy, and appreciation for others. As parents, we are on the journey together to build a future of diversity, inclusivity, and belonging.” This new entrepreneur is just getting started with much more to come.
Learn more about Travel Plus Them on the website.
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