The Business of Tourism - Lisa Pagotto on Shark Tank, Learning to Fly and Building Crooked Compass
Join Carmen as she chats with Lisa Pagotto, founder of Crooked Compass and Crooked Compass by Air, about building a tourism business, backing yourself and finding opportunity in some very unexpected places.
Lisa launched Crooked Compass in 2014 after realising she was successfully building brands and revenue streams for other tourism businesses and asking herself why she wasn’t doing it for herself.
From just $21,000 in turnover in her first year, Lisa went on to appear on Shark Tank, nearly lost the business through a deal that went badly wrong, rebuilt it, and then watched COVID bring international travel to a complete standstill.
And then she learnt to fly planes.
That random decision eventually led to Crooked Compass by Air, a second tourism business that helped keep Crooked Compass alive during the pandemic.
Carmen and Lisa also talk about building a business without a marketing budget, asking your network for help, hiring for passion and cultural fit, the growth of private touring, working with the travel trade and using customer data to continually adapt the business.
WHAT YOU’LL TAKE AWAY FROM THIS EPISODE
Why Lisa backed Crooked Compass despite turning over just $21,000 in its first year
How relationships and word of mouth helped build the business without a marketing budget
What Shark Tank did for Crooked Compass, and the difficult lesson that followed
How learning to fly during COVID eventually became Crooked Compass by Air
Why Lisa now hires for passion, attitude and cultural fit rather than skills alone
How Crooked Compass uses customer data to respond to changing traveller behaviour
Why private touring now represents around 60% of the business
Why consumers are increasingly discovering Crooked Compass themselves and then asking their travel agents to book it
Lisa’s advice for anyone wondering whether to back themselves and build something of their own
ABOUT LISA PAGOTTO
Lisa Pagotto is the founder of Crooked Compass and Crooked Compass by Air.
After starting her career as a travel consultant, Lisa worked across wholesale, tour leading, adventure tourism, sales, marketing and expedition cruising before launching Crooked Compass in 2014.
Crooked Compass specialises in immersive, lesser-known and highly curated travel experiences, while Crooked Compass by Air offers private touring by aircraft across Australia.
LINKS & ORGANISATIONS MENTIONED
Crooked Compass https://www.crooked-compass.com/
Crooked Compass by Air https://www.crookedcompassbyair.com/
Lisa Pagotto on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-pagotto/
TIME – Travel Industry Mentor Experience https://travelindustrymentor.com.au/
EPISODE CHAPTERS
00:00 – Welcome and getting to know Lisa
04:05 – Growing up surrounded by travel
07:46 – Starting a career in the travel industry
10:23 – Finding her place in adventure tourism
12:33 – The beginnings of Crooked Compass
15:48 – Moving from employee to business owner
18:06 – $21,000 in turnover and deciding the idea had legs
19:39 – Creating travel experiences nobody else was selling
22:42 – Building a business with no marketing budget
25:56 – How Crooked Compass evolved
26:32 – Applying for Shark Tank
33:18 – The deal that nearly destroyed the business
34:01 – COVID changes everything
35:08 – Learning to fly and the beginnings of Crooked Compass by Air
37:36 – “What can I lose?”
40:20 – Repositioning Crooked Compass by Air for the US market
43:07 – Building a small, remote team
44:08 – What Lisa looks for when hiring
49:21 – How travel behaviour has changed post-COVID
51:01 – Using customer data to shape the business
52:08 – Trade versus direct bookings
55:36 – What Lisa would tell her younger self
STAY CONNECTED WITH TOURISM MATTERS
Subscribe to the Tourism Matters Newsletter. Carmen shares ideas to help tourism businesses and their people do better work, along with tourism jobs, events, learning opportunities and useful ways to connect across the industry.
Follow Tourism Matters wherever you listen to podcasts, and connect with Carmen Bold on LinkedIn.