The magazine Women in Travel series may be over, but due to popular demand, we’re keeping it alive online.

After collating and introducing Australia’s most powerful women in travel, an abundance of emails have flooded into Travel Weekly‘s inbox, showcasing more amazing women in our industry, and reminding us what a stellar job the ladies are doing.

In that vein, the exclusive Women in Travel series continues online, and today we’re introducing Topdeck’s global brand director Sarah Clark, who talks to us about the Texan lifestyle, collaboration and wine.

Can you tell us a little about your career progression? How did you get your start in the travel industry?

I have always had a love for travel and while studying Business Tourism at University, I started as a Tour Guide with Topdeck in my summer break on the East Coast of Australia.

After my study and a 6-month backpacking trip through South America I ended up in Europe working on the road again on Topdeck’s European trips.

I moved into the reservations team for a long winter in London and then moved back to Australia to work in sales for Innkeepers, a hotel chain in Tasmania. This gave me a great insight into Tourism in Australia as well as ITOs, wholesalers and the inbound market.

A Canadian sales role came up and I was back at Topdeck living on a continent I had never even visited. After 3 years in Canada, one of my biggest career moves came when I was offered a role with STA Travel as Vice President of Online, Marketing and Product based in Dallas, Texas.

From Dallas I then moved back to Australia for the GM role with Topdeck which I have done for the past 3 years and at the end of the year, I will be moving back to the Northern Hemisphere, this time London, as the Global Brand Director for Topdeck.

What would you say is your defining career achievement or the thing you are most proud of?

I think the challenges you face and how you react to those define you for your future career, so probably my jump into the VP role at STA when I was 27. I knew no one in Texas so it was a pretty lonely ride for the first few months, it was also my first proper leadership role with a team of around 20 people so I needed to learn very quickly the best way to try and lead that team.

There were definitely a few fails in this time, but I am probably most proud of the self-motivation applied to get through the challenges initially and ended up thriving in the role and loving the Texan lifestyle!

What have been the biggest challenges to success you’ve encountered professionally?

In my earlier years it would have been my lack of confidence that I was really the best person for the job. I remember negotiating contracts with airlines in their downtown NYC offices thinking that surely there is a more skilled person that should be doing this…

But over the last few years I have realised that no one really knows exactly what they’re doing most of the time!

With the benefit of wisdom, what advice would you give your 21 year old self when you were starting out in your career?

Make and keep really solid industry relationships, treat people with respect, no matter what their role and take the opportunities that come your way, you never know where they will lead you.

How would you describe your business/management style? What sorts of things are most important to you professionally?

I am pretty laid back when it comes to work so there aren’t really any rules in the office. We have a really passionate team and creating an egalitarian style environment that encourages collaboration and sharing of ideas enables success within our business.

I also strongly believe in making sure people can really own their areas and are responsible for successes and failures, which means making and owning their decisions. A passion of mine is seeing people grow and providing them with the tools to do so.

I have been really lucky in my career to have exposure to some great leaders and want to find ways to share those experiences and my own to enable people to be successful in their own right.

Who are the people you admire most professionally or in any field/walk of life?

I have been lucky enough to have some amazing mentors through all of my roles and I admire them for the work they have done and for all of the things I have taken from them to build my leaderships skills.

Outside of work, I have absolute admiration for people who have been through very unfortunate situations and still continue to have a positive attitude in life and inspire everyday people around them to look through a positive lens. Turia Pitt is a great example of this.

What do you do to unwind when you aren’t working? What is most important to you outside the office?

Wine with friends, although being in travel that is part of work too! I also love sport and am currently training for a Triathlon – running puts me in a trance and it’s a great positive way to unwind.

For you, what’s the best aspect of working in the travel industry?

The fact that ultimately we provide a platform for people to explore the world and assist in creating a global community. I also love that we have an industry of like-minded people that share the love of travel so I have made many of my close friends through this industry.

What one thing gets you through a stressful day?

Pretty much just coffee and wine.

You can view the other ladies in this inspiring series here:

• Kim Portrate
• Ann Sherry
• Olivia Wirth
• Lisa Ronson
• Kaylene Shuttlewood
• Melanie Waters-Ryan
• Katrina Barry
• Lalie Ngozi
• Donna Meads-Barlow
• Rachel Argaman
• Judith Crompton
• Sandra Chipchase
• Mona Tannous
• Margy Osmond