ANNOUNCING THE WOMAN OF THE MONTH
Fort Worth women are making headlines daily as business owners, entrepreneurs, top management officers, and political leaders. So, here at Fort Worth Woman, we are selecting one of our city’s shining stars each month. These are the movers and shakers you need to know, and we are proud to honor their accomplishments as our WOMEN OF THE MONTH.Kaleigh Kirkpatrick
Founder and Luxury Travel Advisor at The Shameless Tourist
Meet February’s Woman of the Month! Kaleigh Kirkpatrick is a Fort Worth native who is an alumni of Fort Worth Country Day School. After a short time in the Northeast, Kaleigh returned to Texas, landing herself in College Station. After college, Kaleigh moved back to Fort Worth where she met her husband during the Colonial Golf Tournament, got married at First Methodist Church downtown, and had her rehearsal dinner at Joe T. Garcia’s— not sure it gets more Cowtown than that!
In 2012, Kaleigh and her husband welcomed their daughter Kennedy (“Keki”) into the world. “I think from the time she arrived I dreamed of traveling with her and taking her to Walt Disney World.” Kaleigh says, “Keki took her first flight at 3 weeks old and since then we have traveled extensively as a family, as well as just a mommy daughter duo.”
In 2014, The Kirkpatrick Family purchased their first annual passes to Walt Disney World and from there, they were hooked! About 26 months after Keki’s first visit to the parks, Kaleigh started working as a Travel Advisor specializing in luxury and seamless family travel, opening her business, The Shameless Tourist. “My motivation has always been to help families so that they could enjoy their trips with their children more, whether that means advising on a hotel that pampers Mom and Dad a little more, recommending a tour guide who turns seeing the Colosseum in Rome into a full day of fun with Gladiator School, or giving families the knowledge they need to wait in line at Disney less and have more fun in the parks,” she says, “I have been so lucky to be able to assist so many amazing families and couples in finding the perfect family trip, honeymoon, a multi-generational celebration, and more.”
When you hire Kaleigh to help plan your vacation, she takes the time to figure out what you want out of your experience. An extensive questionnaire allows her to learn why you are traveling, what you want to do, what your interests are, what your (or your children’s) schedule is and how all of that combined can affect your trip. She takes every detail in to consideration and makes the reservations for you. Kaleigh has so much experience, she is able to make reservations that are not only outside the norm, but are what the best vacation memories are made of.
So what’s the next step for this Shameless Tourist? Growth!
The Shameless Tourist has seen so many repeat clients and referrals, that Kaleigh has brought on another agent as well as a Travel Coordinator. She can now ensure that all of her clients (prospective, current, or currently traveling) are being assisted in the most timely manner possible with the same high quality service and attention that is expected from The Shameless Tourist experience. “I’m also hoping that with a growing staff to support our clients, I can focus more on blogging and putting together more destination guides,” Kaleigh says, “I know this is always so much fun for our followers to see.”
In asking this Fort Worth native about what she loves about this city, she came up with the phrase, Cowboys and Culture. “Fort Worth is an amazing city with so much history and so much ‘Texas’,” she says. When Kaleigh is not traveling, you can find her at Joe T’s “8 out of 7 nights a week.” She’s a girl with a heart for the Fort Worth feel and a taste for the best margaritas in town.
The word she uses to describe her impact is, humbled. A huge part of Kaleigh’s success, is the quality of work she provides while simultaneously giving her all to those she works with. Her work and the experiences she creates speak for themselves and families recognize that as they go on trips of a lifetime. “I am truly humbled by the continuous support of my clients in Fort Worth and cannot thank y’all enough,” Kaleigh says, “This little dream of mine to help families travel better together has grown so much over the past 4 years and I owe so much to Fort Worth!”
Are you catching the travel bug?
The best way to contact The Shameless Traveler is to submit an inquiry on their website: www.theshamelesstourist.com or send an email to inquiries@theshamelesstourist.com. You can also follow them on Instagram @shamelesstourist as well as the YouTube Channel – Keki’s World, which shows travel from a child’s view!
Want to discover past features?
Michelle, aka @fortworthwoman, is a teacher turned counselor turned mommy turned entrepreneur.
Michelle has a passion for connecting, encouraging and informing about the good happening in our city. The good people, events, food, stores, entrepreneurs, and good deeds are her focus. She has created a niche for herself by using social media as a native marketing tool that has created meaningful exposure for local businesses in Fort Worth to a wide but very particular local audience.
Lauren Losack
Lauren is a Strategic Communication Major at TCU with a minor in being a “busy bee”. As an intern for the Fort Worth Woman, Lauren enjoys meeting new people and trying all the food this city has to offer!