Welcome to #50Over50 – What Happens Next. From comms to travel consultant

7th September 2026 8 min read

About the author

Ann is a co-founder of PR Academy. Her special areas of interest are internal communication, change management and project communication. MSc, Dip CAM, Hon FCIPR

My occasional #50Over50 feature is taking a bit of a different path. Just like the practitioners I’ll be talking to.

Welcome to #50Over50 – What Happens Next!

Working in PR and comms gives us lots of great experiences and equips us with so many skills that transfer across to other areas. So, I’m going to be featuring practitioners making a career switch or learning a new skill later in their career.

The idea was partly inspired by my first guest, internal communication consultant Martin Flegg who until recently was course leader for our CIPR internal communication certificate. He is also co-author along with our co-founder Kevin Ruck of the fifth edition of Exploring Internal Communication.

But…..as of this week Martin is entering the travel business as a Travel Counsellor.

I wanted to hear more about Martin’s journey. What inspired him to make the switch to a career in travel, how his comms experience helps and to get his advice for others considering a new career.

But firstly, lets be clear: this isn’t to say that PR and comms isn’t a great business to be in – it absolutely is. However, sometimes (and maybe at a certain age!) there comes a time when you want to try something different.

The career back story

I started off by asking Martin about his career to date. Like many of us, he fell into a comms role. His degree is actually in chemistry and biology, but he ended up as a tax inspector but, by his own admission, not a very good one!

However, his manager spotted that he was a good writer and suggested he apply for a job writing guidance for other inspectors. That job morphed into a wider customer comms role and then into internal communication.

My job as a tax inspector was very analytical, as was my background in science. I was able to bring that through into my communication work. It helped me to ask the right questions and work out what the organisation was trying to achieve with communication.

So, by the time Martin was working as an internal communication specialist he was already on his second career.

However, unlike these roles which were entirely accidental and opportunistic, the move into travel consultancy has been a very intentional one.

So, what inspired his move into the world of travel?

I’ve always loved travel and been lucky to visit so many places around the world. I’d walked past travel agents on the high street for years, looked in the window and seen people beavering away and thought ‘I wonder if I could do that’.

But there was something stopping him from making the leap. Martin says that he felt there were barriers to entry and questioned whether he had the skills and business acumen to start a new venture, could he talk knowledgeably and comfortably to others about their travel plans?

This was despite him having planned and booked his own worldwide trips and done the same for family and friends over many years.

And, of course, there is the financial hurdle – a new business doesn’t always make money right away. But Martin had previously left a secure job in the civil service after 30 years to work as an internal comms consultant so he knew he could do it.

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There had been something niggling away for a long time: do I want to do this sort of work for the rest of my working life?

Martin cites the internal politics of large organisations and the sometimes high-stakes demands put on communicators as frustration points. But actually, the skills that he has learned in terms of managing stakeholder relationships and demanding clients will stand him in good stead for his new Travel Counsellor business.

I had to work out what I cared about. People talk about personal values and that can feel a bit cringe-worthy for me, but you have to reframe this and work out what matters to you. Identify what you really care about.

Martin worked with a coach to identify what he wanted to do next; an approach he would recommend to others.

Working with a coach made me realise that what I wanted to do next was staring me in the face all along! My coach quickly identified that I was a planner and a prepper which are skills you need in the travel business. That was good, but that outlook can also become a blocker to making a change.

Here again, the doubt kicked in, Martin says that he had looked at the requirements to become a franchise owner with Travel Counsellors many times over the years and thought they would never accept him.

But a conversation with someone at the company last November changed all of that and set him on the path to set up his business. A business case followed which was accepted, a travel franchise was agreed and Martin launches his new business this week.

The support of friends, family and his connections have been crucial throughout his career transition, with many more positive comments and good wishes than not.

I think some people thought that I might have finally lost my mind after 26 years working in comms, but this is the most intentional and planned career move I’ve ever made and I know exactly what I’m doing.

How does a career in PR and comms help you make a switch?

Attention to detail

One of the traits of comms people that Martin highlights is attention to detail which is pretty essential when you are putting together a detailed travel itinerary. “Most of us can spot a typo at 50 paces and it’s that focus on detail that you need” he says.

Ask the right questions

That makes sense, but perhaps more surprisingly Martin picks out the regular demand we get put on us for tactics and how a good communicator needs to take the client back a step and ask them what they really want to achieve.

Travel is full of clichés: places we’re supposed to want to visit, experiences we’re supposed to have, and sights we’re supposed to see. Someone might tell you where they want to go, but the more interesting questions are why and whether those places are actually right for them.

This means that popular destinations can become overwhelmed with travellers all visiting the same places and not necessarily having an experience they enjoy or remember for the right reasons. However, the world is a very big place and Martin wants to help his future travel clients and customers to explore other options, identifying what really matters to them and perhaps identifying something different that results in a better travel experience.

The opportunity isn’t simply to find somewhere to go, but to understand what someone actually wants from a trip and build something around that. An itinerary that feels considered and uniquely theirs. To achieve this my travel planning mantra will be to question the obvious, consider the possible, experience more.

Marketing

This sounds an obvious one – but after a career in comms it should be easy right? But sometimes when you are a business owner it becomes a bit harder, you also become the product. Martin confesses that he is an introvert and for him marketing himself can feel uncomfortable, so he has armed himself with a book called “Marketing for Introverts”!

Martin says that he loves the basic premise of this book which is framed around ‘know, like, trust’ and building your marketing approach and tactics around that in ways that you are comfortable with as an introvert. He says that it takes away the ‘ick’ that many of us feel about shameless self-promotion.

Advice for making a career switch

Martin goes back to the point about working with a coach.

Talking to friends and family is great, but they are also going to be involved and biased. Talk to someone who isn’t involved. You don’t want someone to offer you an oven-ready solution. You want someone who will listen, prompt and help you to work it out for yourself.

I asked Martin if he wished that he had made the switch to travel earlier. “Yes, I do, this niggle to do something other than comms was with me for years but I just put it down to having a bad day and getting older. I wanted to try something different but didn’t know what. The niggle and mental dissonance that went with that just grew and grew until I couldn’t ignore it anymore.”

Starting to plan ahead of time is one of the reasons I wanted to write this slightly different series of #50Over50 features because there may come a time when you want to do something different too.

The advert!

Martin has just finished two intensive weeks of training prior to launching his travel business. There are many rules and regulations governing the travel industry, Martin points out that many people don’t realise the added financial and assistance protections you get if you book your holiday through a company like Travel Counsellors rather than booking it all yourself online. The recent outbreak of war in the Gulf which left many stranded and having to find their own way home brought that into sharp relief.

Of course, travel doesn’t always go to plan. When it doesn’t, it’s good to know there’s someone on your side who can help navigate the unexpected and get things back on track.

Find out more about Martin’s travel business and Travel Counsellors.

Could you be next in our #50Over50 What Happens Next series?

If you have made the switch to a new career (it could be a “side hustle” rather than a full blown shift like Martin has made) let us know. We’d love to feature you!

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