Joined in February 2025
Based in Estero, Florida TI 120707Mei-Mei Kirk spent decades in the newspaper business, working her way from reporter to editor, then up through the business side until she became president of several Gannett newspapers in Florida. She retired early in 2015 and turned to her passion for travel, and has now visited more than 90 countries across all seven continents.
Her experience made her a natural travel expert, telling friends and family exactly where to go, how to do it, and why they’d love it. Her daughter, Regan, kept nudging her toward making it official by becoming an advisor.
“About three years ago I researched becoming a travel agent on my own, and learned it was a complicated process,” Mei-Mei said. “‘You have to do what? And then what?’ Bravo to Fora for making it easy to get into the field.” She signed up and kicked off what she thought would be a low-key retirement project. “I thought I’d be lucky to hit $30,000 or $50,000,” she said.
Instead, she booked $650,000 of travel in 10 months.
Starting on her own terms
What made Fora the right call for Mei-Mei was its flexibility. “I’m retired. I don’t need to work, I don’t need headaches,” she said. “But I love helping people and seeing their eyes light up when they’re thinking about traveling. Now, instead of just giving them advice, I can book it for them.” After a high-stress career, she wanted a low-pressure setup where she could work as little or as much as she liked.
I love helping people and seeing their eyes light up when they’re thinking about traveling. Now, instead of just giving them advice, I can book it for them.
Mei-Mei Kirk
joined February 2025But her intense focus, relationships, and her former career gave her an edge that drove the business: Decades in research, marketing, communication, client management, and strategic planning transferred directly to running a business built on strong relationships and precision planning and conscientious execution. She knows how to speak to people, how to probe for what they actually want, how to tell when it’s time to recalibrate—and she has the on-the-ground travel knowledge to back it up.
So the low-key retirement project didn’t stay low-key for long. Her bookings grew steadily, then accelerated in the fall when her daughter Regan joined Fora and the two formed their own travel advisory business, Globetrotting Kirks. The two love adventure, wildlife and expedition travel, and are especially passionate about Africa and Antarctica.
“I think when you’re so enthusiastic and knowledgeable about a destination, would-be clients can’t help but get excited,” Mei-Mei said. “Once we formed the company and started doing some groups, that’s when things really exploded.” When she hit Fora X, the top tier of Fora Advisors, it had been just months since she’d hoped to make $50,000 in sales.
Resources for a natural builder
Fora simplified things that would otherwise have kept Mei-Mei from growing her business. In addition to having so many partners at her fingertips in Portal, she found two Fora resources particularly helpful that she’d now recommend to every new advisor: the community Forum and live office hours.
Forum became her primary learning tool from the start. With 90-plus countries of personal travel experience, she doesn’t need destination primers, but it’s an in-depth resource to learn how other advisors structure their businesses, handle client situations, and share what they know. “I love the Forum,” she said. “I’m a continuous learner, and scour it for tips and recommendations, from DMCs to favorite hotels to potentially problematic areas.” She’s also happy to share her wisdom: “I’ve been fortunate to have traveled so much and so widely. So I’m in Forum a lot making comments and offering ideas that are hopefully helpful.”
Fora’s regular live sessions with in-house travel experts were a revelation once she found them. She wishes someone had explicitly pointed her there on day one. Now it’s the first place she’d send a new advisor. “You’ve got a bunch of questions—live sessions are a great place to get help when you first start,” she said.
Mei-Mei uses Fora's Forum to grow and share her expertise
In addition to self-paced and live trainings, advisors exchange trip-planning knowledge, supplier contacts, and client management tips in a community app.
Perks clients can’t get on their own
For Mei-Mei, some of the most meaningful moments in her business come from what she can offer clients that they couldn’t find themselves. A lot of that comes from her first-person expertise. But “Fora’s reach and relationships have been invaluable,” she said.
“Virtuoso—100 bucks here, 100 bucks there—that’s huge,” she said of the amenities and credits that come with Fora’s industry partnerships. “I love offering additional on-board credit for cruises. I just had a client sail on a Virtuoso-hosted Seabourn cruise. They got the welcome amenity, the host greeting, invite to a special reception…those are things you simply wouldn’t have access to on your own.”
Additionally, for a family traveling to South Africa, Mei-Mei worked with a trusted partner on the ground who had just joined Fora Reserve, and was able to secure a villa upgrade at a private Kruger preserve at the same cost as a standard room. And she has been able to VIP honeymooners to Patagonia, Sicily, Switzerland, and elsewhere. “They always appreciate getting a bottle of wine or a hand-written welcome,” she said. These inclusions add up across a trip, and prove the advantage of booking through an advisor powered by Fora.
One of Mei-Mei’s most memorable bookings was her very first client, a colleague who saw her Facebook announcement about joining Fora. The family had already planned a trip to Italy with a group, including a day tour from Rome to Pompeii to the Amalfi Coast, a 14-hour grind Mei-Mei knew would leave everyone exhausted. She convinced them to break away from their group, slow down, and spend the night to actually experience Amalfi. That became the defining moment of the family’s trip.
Months later, the mother reached out to say her teenage son had come home transformed. “She said this experience, and especially going to Amalfi, changed the way he looked at the world. The questions that he now asks and his approach to life are completely different than they were,” Mei-Mei said. “How special is that? You’ve changed the eyes and the heart of a young man.”
Explore how Fora can support your second act
How Fora made success possible
Flexibility: Fora has no booking minimums or quotas, giving advisors the opportunity to scale on their timeline if they’re transitioning into advising or starting in retirement.
Industry partnerships: Access to preferred partner rates and advisor-only upgrades give clients credits and perks they couldn’t get themselves.
Community Forum: Fora’s searchable, collaborative online Forum is filled with destination expertise from thousands of fellow advisors.
Live support: Regular office hours with in-house travel experts provide real-time answers to complex booking questions.
