Realizing a Travel Dream

You know when you’re a kid in school, and they ask you, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I honestly don’t remember my answer. It likely changed with the season. The same goes for my major in college: I went from marketing to advertising and probably one or two more before landing on Apparel and Textile Design. All my life, while my peers were thinking long-term and setting goals, I was asking myself, “What sounds most fun right now?”

My journey through the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses has followed much the same track.

Drawn 16 years ago by a love of food and cooking, I found myself in Ann Arbor after college and started working in the Bakeshop at Zingerman’s Bakehouse—“slangin’ bread and pastry,” as I described it. I got to learn the organization, know the regulars, and woo the first-timers. Every shift was a party, and we had fun.

After a couple of years in the shop, an opening came up at ZingTrain. They were looking for someone to manage the space and run in-house events.

Fun!

Sunset over west cork with zingerman’s Food tours

Meeting people who traveled from far and wide to attend our two-day seminars and finding ways to help them engage and have an amazing time was nourishing for me. I loved it. But then I suffered a big personal loss, and I was having trouble managing my own energy in an extroverted role where I was required to constantly “give.”

So I did some vision writing, soul-searching, and listening. And as it turned out, I had a new personal definition of fun that was a little more subdued. Quiet problem-solving and managing client relationships one-on-one was now where it was at.

I stepped into a new role as keynote liaison at ZingTrain, where my primary focus was supporting our co-founders, partners, and trainers at conferences and other large-scale speaking events. I got to do focused work with clients with long lead times that really amped up the service expectation—and the opportunity. I had the chance to travel, support my teammates, and create meaningful connections. And it was … well, fun!

Somewhere along the way, a bug was put in my head by Mo Frechette, co-managing partner of Zingerman’s Mail Order.

At dinner with Kristie Brablec, managing partner of Zingerman’s Food Tours, and Mo during the Food Show in San Francisco, I was focused on the dishes laid out before us, half-listening to the adults talking business, when Mo said, “Mara could lead a tour.”

My spine went straight. My face probably turned flush. And my focus shifted from the dishes in front of me to the conversation at hand.

First day, First Tour with Zingerman’s Food Tours Managing Partner, Kristie Brablec in Paris

To this day, I’m not sure if Mo was making a general point about expanding the capacity of the business by looking within the organization for guides, or if he was actually proposing me. But I heard all I needed to hear.

Me.

I could travel and learn and taste. I could be given the opportunity to bring the Zingerman’s Experience to our guests abroad.

Soon after, I wrote a vision for my work that included leading a food tour. I sent it to Kristie, and she offered to train me during the fall 2019 Paris and Champagne tour.

It was a dream come true. But not the kind of dream or goal that you know you have and set out to make happen. It was the kind that quietly simmers in the back of your mind, unnoticed because it seems too far afield to ever realize.

Since that first trip, I’ve had the pleasure of regularly leading our tour to Ireland. And as of this August, I’ve officially stepped into a new role at Food Tours as senior manager of global culinary adventures.

So. Much. Fun.

The anticipation of a beautiful meal in ireland with Zingerman’s Food Tours

I look forward to bringing my organizational skills and my flair and expertise in project management, relationship building, logistics, service giving, and experience making to this work. But mostly, I’m excited to keep doing what I’ve apparently been doing all along: following the fun.

When I think back to that question—What do you want to be when you grow up?—I’m still not sure I have an answer.

Maybe I never needed one.

Maybe the better question has always been: What sounds fun?

And lucky for me, I’ve found a pretty great answer.

I want to travel. I want to taste. I want to learn. I want to connect people with places and with each other. I want to create experiences that people remember.

And apparently, I want to lead food tours.

Who knew?