Meet Elevated Experiences

We were lucky to catch up with Elevated Experiences recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Elevated Experiences with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

As a small business (immediate team of two) we both pride ourselves in our strong work ethics, it is what bonds us and makes us better each year.
When Meren was younger, she watched her dad hustle as a business owner and independent contractor. Working for yourself comes with challenges, ups and downs (both monetarily & excitement wise) and she never saw her dad waiver. He was hard working, proud and successful. This gave her a person to bounce ideas off of and somewhat of a roadmap when it came to what a strong work ethic should look like.
Kim’s background in sports (starting at a young age, through college & beyond) has fired her competitive edge and drive to not give up. This drive has grown through her career and made its way into an extremely hard work ethic. In business she doesn’t need to be the best, but she needs to give her best and that pushes her each day owning her own business.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

Elevated Experiences Travel Planning & Concierge is a full-service, luxury concierge company located in the beautiful Northern California Wine Country. From everyday requests to extraordinary desires, we strive to personally assist in fulfilling needs and exceeding expectations. Our clients range from corporations seeking help with planning their next retreat, high-end music festivals looking to include that high-touch experience, to couples & event planners looking for assistance with room blocks, transportation, venue scouting and activity planning.

As Bay Area natives, each of us has immersed ourselves in the community both professionally and personally. This has helped us build strong relationships with local businesses, both those well-known and off the beaten path. We organize events and activities all over the globe. We are a female-owned and operated, travel agent certified (IATA) business and we love what we do!

Meren Dehaze, our gal behind the scenes. She is our organization wizard, timeline queen, our “check it off the list” mindset and do everything with a smile girl. Prior to EE, Meren was planning & executing beautiful weddings in wine country, California and in Scottsdale, Arizona. When she is not organizing unique experiences for our clients, you can find Meren wine tasting with her friends, sweating in a Pure Barre class, hiking with family, screaming at a concert or hanging out with her husband and their 17yr old cat, Monkey.

Fun Facts About Meren:
Favorite Travel Destination – Maui, Hawaii and Healdsburg, CA!
Favorite Color – Purple
Shows she could watch over & over- Greys Anatomy, The Office, Beat Bobby Flay & New Girl.
Favorite Food – Deli Sandwiches and French Fries
Go To Music Genre – HipHop & Pop Punk
Favorite Red Wine Varietal – Syrah
Favorite White Wine Varietal – Sauvignon Blanc

Kim Goff, our amazing “boots on the ground”, sales lady extraordinaire, networking ninja, the girl who knows everyone in town!
Kim was born and raised in Sonoma County. Before EE, Kim worked for multiple wineries running tasting rooms, Wine Club sales as well as events & management. Outside of planning amazing experiences for our clients, Kim teaches spin classes in Healdsburg, coaches highschool & travel volleyball. She likes golfing, camping and hiking with her family (firefighter husband and 3 kids). After a long day, you can find Kim enjoying a homemade cheese board with her favorite glass of wine.

Fun Facts About Kim:
Favorite Travel Destination – Any beach that allows her to relax!
Favorite Color – Blue
Shows she could watch over and over- Sex and the City, Law & Order SVU, Greys Anatomy and Vikings.
Favorite Food – Cheese or Italian
Go To Music Genre – 90’s hip hop or Country
Favorite Red Wine Varietal – Any and all, she has three kids!
Favorite White Wine Varietal – Sauvignon Blanc

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Initiative – taking the risk to start something new and fill a need in the industry.
Perseverance/ Drive – to keep going during turbulent times (fires, covid, etc.)
Organization – the ability to manage both “front and back” ends of the business.
Passion/ Optimism – love for the job, the area and community.

If you aren’t enjoying what you are doing most of the time, it wont last. With all jobs there are tasks or things you don’t like doing or will “test your strength” but having the passion keeps the good times overshadowing the not so good times. Surround yourself with good people and good partners. There are so many people in the event and travel industry, finding your “people” can be tough, but knowing you have support (and people cheering you on) makes all the difference.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

We are always looking for amazing vendors to partner & collaborate with! We truly built our business not to be competition, but to be a resource. Our goal was and continues to be to the industry we love so much (travel and events) being a partner concierge team to event planners, DMC’s, hotels, wineries, event venues and more. Whether it’s becoming an extension of a team to assist when a company doesn’t have the bandwidth, or be a Wine Country expert resource to those who may not be local, we love sharing what we do because in the end, we are all in hospitality and essentially the same “team”.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.eetravelplanning.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevated_experiences

Image Credits

One Love Photography