Conscious Tourism with KellyAnn Daubach

What if the wellness you’ve been chasing isn’t the wellness you actually need? Lindsay sits down with KellyAnn Daubach—former Fortune 500 leader, registered dietitian, and founder of Conscious Tourism—to unpack how a life built on achievement collided with emotion, motherhood, and two rounds of burnout. The conversation traces the moment she traded productivity metrics for nervous system literacy and turned travel into a powerful tool for healing, connection, and grounded leadership.

KellyAnn shares the origin story of Conscious Tourism, the “third child” she built with her husband: device-light retreats, micro-gatherings in nature, and mother–daughter weekends designed to lower stimulation and raise presence. We talk about what really happens at a retreat—drumming barefoot on the land, gentle movement as medicine, whole foods as nourishment, and honest conversations that make room for resistance and repair. She brings her systems background to the heart-work, explaining how safety, inclusivity, and operational rigor create sustainable, repeatable experiences that people trust.

Together we explore a wider shift in wellness. As quick fixes and weight-loss breakthroughs become commonplace, many discover they want something deeper: longevity, legacy, and relationships that feel alive. KellyAnn's 2026 vision blends scale with soul—elevating local collaborators, inviting families back to farms and beaches, and creating spaces where people remember how to breathe, feel, and belong. If you’ve ever wondered how to keep the retreat feeling when you get home, you’ll hear practical ways to anchor joy and calm in daily life without chasing someone else’s routine.

Curious to experience travel as healing rather than escape? Tap play, share this with a friend who needs a reset, and subscribe for more conversations that help you build a life you can actually feel. Your review helps more listeners find the show—drop us a rating and tell us your favorite grounding ritual.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Hello and welcome to another episode of Couture Conversations. I'm your host, Lindsay, lead aesthetician at Couture Medspa. Today's guest is a woman whose work quietly disrupts the way that we think about wellness, leadership, and even travel. Kelly Daubach is a woman's well-being advocate, systems builder, and the founder of Conscious Tourism, a mission-driven platform reimagining retreats and travel as tools for nervous system regulation, emotional healing, and deeper connection. With a background as a former Fortune 500 executive and a current leadership role at the University of Central Florida's business incubation program, Kelly Bridges research, lived experience, and heart-centered leadership in everything that she does. At her core, she is a wife, a mother, and a believer that the most important leadership work begins at home. Today we are diving into how she got started, what conscious tourism really is, and the impact that it's having on women and communities, and how you can be a part of this movement. Kelly, thank you so much for joining me today.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Thanks for having me, Lindsay and Kutour Metzbah. I'm blessed to be here and truly believe that the opportunity to show the roots of the community is better for everyone.

Early Ambition And Hidden Emotions

SPEAKER_00 1:30

I'm very excited to learn about all this. I did a little bit of a little bit of research after and everything that I was reading, I was so excited to learn about. So I'm really excited to dive into this episode today. So let's start at the beginning. Can you share a bit about your background and the path that has led you here? Sure.

Burnout, Motherhood, And A Wake-Up Call

From Corporate To Coaching And UCF

SPEAKER_01 1:48

So when I was considering my background, I mean at this point in my life, it begins in childhood. So thinking about where I was born, where my roots come from. I grew up in Belleville, Illinois, which is a small town just outside of St. Louis. And from an early age, I was a go-getter and an achiever. And that really had an opportunity or that shaped how I grew up in a private school and had leadership and responsibility characteristics from a very early age, but I was also highly emotional and I and deeply sensitive, and I didn't know what to do with that. And thinking about you know the 1980s, it was an opportunity for women to go to work and women to go out and have a career as good or as um just like the boys, and so it was like okay, what external validation can I march towards or meet? And I was very supportive from a very young age from both my parents. I was a middle child, so also the kind of the peacekeeper in the family. So that that led to looking back, just a lot of hiding of my emotions and not knowing really what to do with them. So I learned to like hide and numb and cope at a really young age. And that gave me an opportunity to really fast track achievement, but also struggle with you know what's going on in my body, and I struggle with with um perfectionism, body image. I had an eating disorder that um developed late high school, early into college, and I became just kind of really hyper-focused using adrenaline and excitement and achievement as a means. And that was well rewarded, you know. As I started my first career in corporate America, I was into healthcare, was also a registered dietitian. So I was learning about nutrition and helping others, but also highly achieving business KPIs and corporate infrastructure, and really thrived under the opportunity that was provided to me based on hard work and dedication. Upon that, I spent about 10 years building a national program for an organization and was so rewarded and fulfilled by giving other people leadership capabilities. You know, having to be able to open the door for other women, other men to come and serve in a capacity that was fulfilling to them and also gave them a good reason to come to work. Um, there was some point in that career trajectory that I began to feel disconnected from who I was, and it was more important about what I was doing than how I was feeling. And that environment without again knowing how to handle that beginning of a disconnection led to a burnout shortly after I had my first daughter or my daughter, I'm sorry, I have two children, but my daughter, and I ended up in the hospital. Um, looking back at it, I I definitely had some postpartum depression and identity crisis and wish I would have known now you know back then. But what my nervous system knew was work, and it's not to say that it was good, bad, or indifferent, it was the truth. And so racing back into work and taking a step back at that time allowed me to transition to a single contributor role, which alleviated a lot of stress and responsibility. But the burnout came back a second time about five years ago in a mental and mental and emotional way, and again disconnected kind of from who I was, recognizing this time that I couldn't ignore it, and really turned towards my family who I felt like I had been hiding the truth of how I was feeling, you know, about I want to do something different, I want to do something more. But you get to a point in a career where you are achieving, people are looking at you to carry the organization or carry the vision forward, and you're also compensated highly for that. So it definitely became a bit of a golden handcuff situation, and you know, looking at my family and and what how we live and and what we do, it was a really hard and humbling conversation to have. But that allowed me the opportunity to have a career break, a sabbatical of sorts to really begin to discover and create and listen inwardly for what was next for me. And having that opportunity, I thank God every day that I had that supportive husband and family that was like, okay, mom's gonna take a step back, and we're not really sure what's next. But that gave me an opportunity to be a coach for other individuals going through a career pivot because it was around the same time as COVID, and there were a lot of career transitions, there still are, and we're still kind of in the aftershocks, I think, of what that's really done to the workforce. But then I had an opportunity to go work for UCF and in their business incubation program, which gave me a foundation and a team and a culture that really, really supported not only their work, but who I was as an individual and a contributor to the tune environment. And it was not like anything I had worked for or done before, in that it truly was a safe place to be me, all of me. And I love working in innovation and building the future of our societies and economies together at a non-for-profit. And so I'm doing that alongside just launching of conscious tourism, which is emotionally rooted travel to support women's well-being and family-based retreats.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

So, was there a moment, personal or professional, where you realized that the traditional definitions of wellness and productivity weren't enough?

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Yes, I believe that came twice as an opportunity for me, once in the physical burnout, and second as in the emotional mental burnout. Because I was a dietitian, I ate my grains, I got my sleep, I woke up every day at 4:45, like clockwork, hit the gym at the hotel or where I was traveling. It was like, okay, how can I be sick? You know, how, like, what is going on? And at the same time, like I was on blood pressure medication, which indicated to me, you know, at that time, um, I couldn't regulate my nervous system and again emotional. But it wasn't until I fully let go of everything that I wasn't to truly allow myself to discover what was pulling me forward that I truly understood what holistic well-being was. It was it included identities and roles and identification of attachment to things outside of yourself. And until I really let all of that go and came into, like I said, the the safety and the security of my family to just figure it out. I thought well-being was a healthy weight, a healthy BMI, uh you know, happy home life, success, a good job. And now I realize it is so much more. It's about having the opportunity to discover who you are, regardless of what that looks like, and then authentically express it to the world because especially as women, we don't may not even know who we are without having the opportunity to voice it. And so being able to go through that process and be featured on different podcasts like this, and and expand my art, my creation into the world is truly the greatest gift. So, how did conscious tourism come to life? Conscious tourism came to life as my third child. So my husband and I have been, we we love kids, we we obviously spend a tremendous amount of time together as a family. And he always joked, he's like, Oh my gosh, ours are getting too old, should we consider having another? And I said, you know, I really think our our another is is the businesses that we're building. We also have a plot of land in New Smyrna that we are building together, a camp and retreat center, and we're working on that that plan, like I said, together. And that's really, I feel like for us, our third child is our is our legacy. And so my my birthday last July, he made that comment, and I and I did write a little blog about this because it was so interesting, but I said, conscious tourism is our our third child, and that's how it was born a day after my 42nd birthday, and I saw that the domain was available, and I purchased we purchased the domain, and we began to again work together and visualize what was transpiring for this vision for us collectively outside of our day jobs. It's really been a space for us to work together in collaboration, so that's how it was born.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

So, for anyone hearing it for the first time, what what is conscious tourism? What is it all about?

Redefining Wellness Beyond Metrics

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Conscious tourism is about finding that pathway to holistic well-being for you. And it is spiritually rooted, emotionally transformative travel where we curate micro retreats, half day experiences, and community gatherings in nature to allow women and families to connect at a deeper level. Most of our events you will find them to be device-light or device-free. So it is truly immersive experiences where your senses are heightened, we are tasting different things, we are laughing, we are feeling our emotions, we have movement as medicine, and really just coming home to it to ourselves in our body, mind, and spirit.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

So, why do you feel calling reclaim travel as a tool for healing rather than escaping?

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Yes, that's such a great question. So I had a vision when someone asked me if I could do something for the rest of my life. It came out so quickly. It was like that answer on the tip of my tongue that I was like, what just took over me? I don't even know what that was. And that's how I knew it was like, okay, that is that is that is a deeper part of me. It's that I want to travel the world and learn about other people, other cultures, other ways of living to help shape my heart and my mind to serve my community, my family better. And that's was part of the seed for conscious tourism, is that I think in today's society, it's so easy to get narrow visioned on what we're working on, and especially at the speed that things are moving, that we may become complacent in our emotional health and less able to truly feel what touches our hearts. And conscious tourism is a way to reconnect with that as well as Mother Nature, the planet Earth, nourishing our bodies and our spirits through connection with each other. And a lot of women, and I also do mother-daughter retreats, are coming to these experiences and having the opportunity to meet other like-minded women and identify new companions, new friends. I think loneliness is an epidemic that we talk about and that we know about, but what does that really mean? I mean, it means going through life on the next meeting, the next thing that's on my schedule. It means managing your life, not living it. And this is a way to remind everyone that comes to experience it what living life actually feels like. It feels like the present moment, it feels like connection to your life.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Do you feel like your background from your previous you know experiences and jobs that you had? How did they help shape what conscious tourism is?

The Birth Of Conscious Tourism

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Yes. So it helped me to understand the rigor and the structure necessary for systems and companies to sustain. So an idea is one thing, an experience is one thing, but to be able to build an organization or a movement or a brand requires all of the characteristics that I learned and drilled for 16 years, you know, and so I honor that in such a way that it's critical to any business that's starting out. It's one of the things that obviously work with entrepreneurs with as well is that sustain people people don't buy ideas, they buy sustainable experiences, products, and services. So it's helped me really quantify and qualify what that looks like outside of just uh feeling our experience.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

So for someone who's never experienced a conscious tourism retreat, what actually happens? What's involved in these?

Travel As Healing, Not Escape

SPEAKER_01 16:22

So from the very beginning, it is truly an invitation and to an experience. So there's a lot that goes into the visioning and the curating of the experience itself. So I have spent the last several years working in the health and wellness areas of both venues as well as practitioners to establish relationships that I have identified as conscious and safe emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually. And it is inclusive of everyone, all backgrounds, as a safe space. And so conscious tourism from the very beginning will relate that environment as a way of understanding who's going to be there, what you're going to experience, and almost evoke the senses, like feeling like you're going to be there before you're there. So uh, for instance, we have a mother-daughter retreat coming up in April at Cocoa Beach, and it's it's rooted in an opportunity to reconnect uh whole foods, eating, uh, wellness, evening, and surfing. So shared experiences, opportunity to talk about emotions, what resistance is there, if there is any between your relationship, because I think as a mother, too, there's not a ton of opportunity to financially invest in a relationship, if you think about that. And this is a way to do that, and so what you can expect is an opportunity to invest in the relationship with yourself as well as anyone that you're at that event with, in addition to connecting with nature and different well and well-being experiences.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

So are these typically like small groups of people together, larger groups? Is everyone kind of different? How does that yeah?

SPEAKER_01 18:24

So most of our events are between 15 and 20 people. Um, we have had 30 at one of our women's retreats, and we I had four collaborators in that. So it really did and we work with private groups. So it really starts with the individual, if it's a private group and what they're looking to experience or curate for their team, and then looking at you know the places and practitioners available in that area and giving options. So, with the small groups, if you want to think about a well-being event, I had one at a monkey sanctuary in Claremont where there was an opportunity we did drumming. So, think about you know, just being barefoot on the land and doing some drumming and yoga light movements. We had journaling activities, interaction with the animals, and it was called rewilding. So it's about like letting it all go and not worry what our hair looks like, or you know, who knows us there? It's and you can't help but do it when you're in the natural environment. That's what I love about being in nature is that you don't have to think about it, like physiologically happens in those types of settings that your nervous system relaxes. And then it's a point of discovery and play.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

What do you find people find that surprises them the most when they're in these types of environments, whether it's about themselves or the experience overall?

SPEAKER_01 19:55

I I think the most Consistent reflection is how easy it is. I think the challenging part is the making the decision, the investment, that you know, the commitment to do it. But it really is about truly showing up and in a world that completely overthinks and is constantly consuming information. What can truly transpire when we turn off our mind and move into our body? And I think that physical transformation from the head to the heart and the body is what surprises people is how big of a benefit it is to your wellness. People report, you know, closer connection with their loved ones, with those that they brought to their to the retreat, whether it's their their daughter or their their spouse or their partner, and just that they have a more willingness to show up and be vulnerable in hard conversations.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

So, how do you feel what you guys do in these retreats? How can people continue to live that outside of these retreats? What are some are there any things that you recommend to people? Like how they how can they continue this experience kind of with the rest of their life? So it's a great question.

What A Retreat Actually Looks Like

SPEAKER_01 21:18

And something that I hear often is, you know, either what's next or I don't want to lose it. You know, it's like this sense of like, okay, that was good, but how do I hold on to it? And what comes up for me in most of those instances is one, enjoy every experience for what it is. I think we get so fixated on like holding on that we are like we are afraid that we can't recreate. And it's really under under whatever that is is an emotion. It's not necessarily what we did or the experience itself. It was like, how do you get access to the whatever that emotion was that was evoked? And I turn it to them because I may find joy in a completely different way than they do, and they they know the answer like that. Like I did when somebody said, What would you do for the rest of your life? Spend more time doing whatever that is. And so it's not about what do they need to continue to do? It's about learning to listen to your own body, your own intuition. That's actually what we're trying to evoke as more of a natural pattern or skill.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

How often do you do these retreats? Or is it more sporadic? Like how yeah, how often do you do these?

SPEAKER_01 22:41

Yeah, so we're we're we've just launched the website, which has six experiences and retreats available on it right now, and I'm looking to partner with other retreat hosts and collaborators so that it can be an opportunity for others in the area and also globally. So I launched our first international retreat in Canada uh this this January, and I want people to be able to travel the world or you know, listen to whatever their heart or soul is calling for. If they want to go to Ireland or you know Boston, you know, have a way and a consistent understanding of what that would look like and feel like. The experience, the culture, the activities would change, but the brand recognition of the safe environment, safe community is what conscious tourism wants to provide consistently.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

What are your goals for 2026 with conscious tourism?

Small Groups, Nature, And “Rewilding”

SPEAKER_01 23:42

Oh, so think about this, right? So I have a right brain answer and a left brain answer. It's like that articulate goal, achievement, structure, systems, funding, and then I have like the heart and soul of it. And I think I think I at the end of it, I want individuals to experience their next level of well-being, and I do that by sharing stories from my own experience, sharing stories of transformation from the conscious tourism events. So that looks like marketing, a promotion, and a consistent event and retreat uh inventory or calendar of events to offer individuals. And then it becomes, you know, a community to serve the well-being collaborators, to bring people to our farms, gardens, ranches as a lifestyle. And so beginning that journey of sharing the transformation that can happen when we spend more time in nature and in our emotional well-being, we begin to put words to that.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

So if somebody is wanting to do one of these retreats, how do they go about contacting you or what's their next step?

SPEAKER_01 25:06

So there is conscioustourism.com is a website that is available up and running, and they can look at what we have to offer today. If they have an experience or retreat, or maybe they're a venue and want to learn about how conscious tourism can come to them, there's a contact us page and it goes directly to me. Obviously, as a as a newer business and new in the community, I am willing and open and excited to hear what the community wants and needs. You know, we're we're certainly validated in what we have to offer to date, but as you know, this well-being industry and well-being level of interest is is shifting.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

So what would you say the biggest? We talked about this um before we came back and we were just talking about that. Now, what would you say you've noticed the biggest shift in well-being for people overall?

Lasting Change After The Retreat

SPEAKER_01 26:04

So this is interesting. I I think it's moving from an understanding of what physical well-being is to an opportunity for more holistic well-being. And so, as we know, like GLP is available to anyone in the world. And when it first came out, it's like, okay, I want to be thin, I want to be thin. There was a struggle, there's a barrier. And now that people have access to that, they can experience it. It's all about the desire to experience because people want to desire, the people desire to experience something because they think there's emotion under it, and that's really what humans crave is that emotion and that connection to that experience. And so once they have that experience, then it's going to become okay, I need I want to go deeper. And so people are looking at the next level of well-being as like longevity, connection, legacy. They want to leave an a positive imprint and mark on the world and their families and their communities. And so I think well-being is is certainly part of that because until you know who you are, you can't leave that legacy. And that's kind of the the going inward and looking deeper for your answers. Is there anything that we didn't touch on that you want to talk about? I think it's just been a fascinating journey. And I feel that I've come kind of full circle from like this deep where am I going to who I thought I was, to now I'm this new person, and now I'm just kind of like on the outside looking in. It's like it's an opportunity for exploration in life. And if there's someone that has a curiosity or interest in maybe there's something more, maybe there's a different way I want to live, like the answers will come to those who step forward. And one of the biggest challenges is like stepping off the path without having everything figured out, as you even shared, like starting this podcast, is like repetition will help, practice will help, but you can't start with the end, like with at the end. You can't start at the end. And I think that's what keeps a lot of people, including myself, from taking the first step. And I would just say you're not alone, you know, share whatever your dream or your possible idea or journey or interest is with someone. I tell my kids all the time, you know, just as like put it out there as a first step. So just be open to share because the world needs whatever you have, otherwise, it wouldn't be planted inside of you.

SPEAKER_00 29:04

Well, thank you so much for sharing about all of that conscious tourism. Um, do you have other so you have your website, so conscioustourism.com. Um, do you have any other social medias that connect to you?

SPEAKER_01 29:17

So um I Kelly Dalbach on the socials Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Nice. And conscious tourism uh is a subhandle, I think, on Instagram.

Scaling The Movement And Safety

SPEAKER_00 29:31

Okay. Yeah, so visit Kelly. Take a look at all of the I um I was just telling Kelly too before we were talking. Um, I was telling one of our other girls that were here with us earlier. I was telling her just kind of briefly about what you do and the uh she loves being outside. She's like her most favorite thing in the world is to be outside. She's you know, put your put your feet in some dirt and just connect with she loves that. So I was telling her um about what you do, and she was instantly excited. She's like, I'm gonna go find her. Um, so I think that there's definitely that need out there for people. I think there is a need for people being grounded again, yeah. Getting back with nature and just getting back. Our life is so consumed by TV and just electronics and everything, so consumed by it. And we live in Florida, it's beautiful outside the majority of the time, but I think getting back to being outside and our roots and just enjoying nature is amazing. So I love I love what you're doing. I think that's very cool.

SPEAKER_01 30:40

Thank you. You said something really important there, being grounded. I mean, it technology can be an avenue for disconnection or you know, connection, and it's all about what is coming through those channels of media and being intentional and present with consciously choosing, making those decisions is certainly where I know I want to be, is not to be at the in a place where your subconscious is is making decisions or or running your habits and activities for your daily life. So I love that you called out grounded because that's certainly what I do when I take need to take a deep breath and put my feet in the backyard or wherever I am, and it just it instantly reminds me that I'm connected.

SPEAKER_00 31:33

Well, thank you so much for joining today. If this episode resonates with you or uh someone else, please like it, share it, um, send it to any any friends or anything like that. So um don't forget to like and subscribe. Go find Kelly on uh conscious tourism as well. And um thank you so much for joining. Thanks, Lindsay. It's been a pleasure. Till next time.