Meet Hutton Beckcom
LOCAL FOREIGNER’S TEAM OF INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS
This post is part of our series celebrating our Independent Contractors and Hosting Program. The Local Foreigner's Hosting Program provides a platform of systems and support for independent travel advisors.
Learn more about joining our team +
Family ties
Speaking with Hutton Beckcom, one is immediately put at ease – she’s one of those enviable characters who gives off a sense of calm, despite having three kids aged 3 and under. And it doesn’t take long to understand that family is at the center of everything she does – she’s boomeranged out on adventures over the past decade and a half, but consistently returned to a foundation anchored by her family in Texas.
Born in Washington DC, Hutton’s family relocated to Dallas, and then, formatively, to Los Angeles when she was in her later elementary school years. Suddenly the new kid in town, Hutton cites this move as the moment that made her take stock of who she was and what kind of friendships she wanted to develop. They returned to Dallas for her high school years, and she continued on to study Business at the University of Texas at Austin. “I was always a numbers person, and I thought I wanted to work in the corporate world, so I did the classic post-Junior year finance internship, where I never saw the light of day, and was getting home at 2 or 3 AM. One morning, I remember sprinklers coming on as I got back to my apartment, and I realized this wasn’t sustainable – I couldn’t be stuck at a desk. From that moment, I started thinking about other career paths that would satisfy my love of organization and numbers.”
The other love that kept popping up was travel, and the deep meaning she found in sharing her experiences with others. “I lived in Spain for three weeks as a 16-year-old, and I thought, ‘Wow, people live so differently than I do.’ I studied abroad in college in Scotland, and I became obsessed with keeping records of everything – I would go to internet cafes all over Europe and keep logs of the places I’d been. And once the semester was over, I knew I needed to bring my family back there. My mom, dad, and brother were my first clients, and I was trying to impress them with my insider knowledge. I realized a trip didn’t feel complete to me if I’ve seen it with my eyes only – it doesn’t feel like I am fully experiencing it until people I love are experiencing it.”
“I realized a trip didn’t feel complete to me if I’ve seen it with my eyes only – it doesn’t feel like I am fully experiencing it until people I love are experiencing it.”
-Hutton Beckcom
Escaping the Norm
This period of introspection, paired with her people-pleasing nature, landed her in consulting, and she spent five years after graduating in financial consulting within the oil and gas field, traveling Monday to Thursday every week for most clients. “It wasn’t sexy travel – I was based in Houston, but constantly back and forth to Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, lots of Canada, and all over the US. It was airport-office-hotel-airport travel, and I got tired of the grind.” While working in consulting, Hutton met her husband, Ian, who decided to get his MBA at Duke. The summer before his program started, they turned in their laptops, packed their carry ons, and set off on a three-month trip around the world. “I took a leave of absence from work, and we booked one-way tickets to Fiji. Our only rules were carry-on only, non-stop flights only, and no backtracking. I obsessed over the planning in Excel for nine months, and in the end, we hit 13 countries, including India, the UAE, most of Southeast Asia, and China, amongst others, and we ended in Italy, where we met up with my family. I brought contact solution, toothpaste, and an Oil of Olay lotion bottle, and those were my toiletries.”
“I love pushing people out of their comfort zone, which doesn’t have to mean from a thrill standpoint. If someone has been to Paris seven times, I love to plan that eighth time – I like to unveil new things in a favorite place.”
In the movie version of Hutton’s life, that trip was when the cartoon lightbulb clicked on. “That trip was so pivotal in giving me the guts to pursue a career in travel. I didn’t want to be a travel blogger, I didn’t want to be in front of the camera, but at the time, my association with travel agents was that they were several generations older and worked at AAA selling cruises.” In the summer of 2017, when her husband was halfway through his MBA, he took an internship in New York. After doing her due diligence on the contemporary realities of the travel industry, Hutton seized the moment to quit her consulting job, move to the city, and launch HUTTON|B. “Personally, I love all types of travel – I want to do culinary experiences, thrill seeking – we’ve bungie jumped in New Zealand and mountain biked through Switzerland. I love art history, Christianity and religious history. I want the guide, I want to know what Michelangelo was thinking when he composed that portrait of the Madonna. And I love pushing people out of their comfort zone, which doesn’t have to mean from a thrill standpoint. If someone has been to Paris seven times, I love to plan that eighth time – I like to unveil new things in a favorite place.”
With her business partner, Jenny Plungis, Hutton has built a career on sharing. “I’ve been to more than 50 countries, and Jenny has been to 75+. While I have little kids at home, we can further sharpen our knowledge because Jenny can be out there scouting. And we love building long-term relationships with our clients – I am always asking people what we can do to continue to earn their trust. I love to share with people who value what I value and love what I love, but we are fully customizing every trip. We are putting ourselves in the clients’ shoes, thinking about how they’re going to feel at each moment. And I love planning those big, meaningful, multi-generational trips. Sharing is what makes a trip feel whole to me.”