West Monroe, Louisiana  ·  U.S. Air Force Veteran  ·  Founder ×2

Systems
Over Hustle

Founder File No. 001
Ms. Flo, founder of Flo Knowles Travel and Nik and Kel Designs, in a royal purple blazer
Ms. Flo // On Assignment, Always

I'm Ms. Flo. Air Force veteran, 26 years in information technology, and the founder of two businesses built on one belief: when the systems work, the founder gets her life back.

Plan Your Trip Work With Me
Veteran-Owned Woman-Owned BBB A+ Rated
File 01

The Story

"A government shutdown closed one door. I built two of my own." The 2018 Pivot

Most people remember the 2018 government shutdown as a headline. I remember it as the moment I stopped waiting on someone else's system and started building my own. With over two decades in information technology behind me, I already knew how to architect infrastructure that does not fail. The shutdown simply showed me who that infrastructure should belong to.

In 2019, I became a travel advisor. In 2020, I founded Flo Knowles Travel, a veteran-owned, woman-owned agency specializing in family, group, and business travel. Then I noticed something: talented travel advisors everywhere were drowning in tools they never learned to wield. So I built Nik & Kel Designs, a digital business studio serving travel advisors and agencies who are ready to move beyond scattered branding, outdated websites, and digital confusion.

Everything I build follows the same doctrine I lived in uniform and in enterprise IT: design the system once, run it forever, and let the founder do the work only she can do. That is systems over hustle. It is not a slogan. It is the operating manual.

File 02

Service Record

Leg 01 · Where It Began

United States Air Force

Where I learned that discipline is not restriction. It is freedom, engineered. The military taught me checklists, redundancy, and calm under pressure. Every business I run still salutes those lessons.

Leg 02 · 26+ Years

Information Technology

More than two decades architecting, securing, and maintaining systems where downtime is not an option. I did not learn technology from a weekend course. I learned it in the rooms where it has to work.

Leg 03 · 2018

The Shutdown Pivot

A federal shutdown became my launchpad. Instead of anxiety, I chose architecture. I mapped my exit from single-income dependence and stepped into the travel industry with an engineer's eye.

Leg 04 · 2019 to 2020

Travel Advisor, Then Founder

Became an independent travel advisor in 2019. Founded Flo Knowles Travel in 2020, an independently owned agency operating with KHM Travel Group as its host agency and Travel Leaders Network as its consortium. Curated family vacations, group journeys, cruises, and destination celebrations became my craft.

Leg 05 · The Expansion

Nik & Kel Designs

I saw fellow travel advisors with world-class expertise and websites that whispered when they should command. Nik & Kel Designs was born to fix that: AI-powered branding, strategic web design, and intelligent tools built exclusively for the travel industry.

Leg 06 · Today

Systems in Full Command

I now run both companies on custom-built AI agent boards, automated supplier pipelines, and CRM systems I engineered myself. One founder. Two brands. A full operations team made of systems I designed.

File 03

Two Brands, One Doctrine

Travel

Flo Knowles Travel

Reconnect. Relax. Revel in Adventure.

A veteran-owned, woman-owned travel agency crafting journeys worth remembering. Flo Knowles Travel specializes in the trips that matter most: families reconnecting, groups celebrating, and businesses traveling with purpose.

  • Family Vacations
  • Group Travel & Cruises
  • Business Travel
  • Destination Celebrations
Plan Your Journey
Digital Business Studio

Nik & Kel Designs

Elevate. Enhance. Enrich.

A veteran-owned, woman-owned digital business studio serving travel advisors and agencies ready to move beyond scattered branding, outdated websites, and digital confusion. The work often begins with a website, but a website was never the whole story. I build complete digital businesses: how a brand looks, how it communicates, how its systems run, and how it all functions together as one aligned machine.

  • Brand Authority
  • Strategic Website Design
  • NAKD Intelligent Assistant
  • AI Brand Photoshoots
  • Elevated CRM Setup
Schedule a Strategy Session
File 04

Selected Work

AI Systems

The NAKD AI Board

A twelve-agent AI advisory board I architected to run a full travel business: marketing, operations, finance, client care, and strategy, each seat held by a purpose-built agent with its own knowledge base and operating rules. The same architecture is now delivered to travel advisors as do-it-yourself, guided, and done-with-you builds, complete with custom agent rosters, brand-trained system prompts, and evergreen copy libraries.

In-House System

Supplier Offer Autopilot

A custom automation I built for my own agency that reads incoming supplier offers and files them directly into my CRM, structured and organized without a single manual entry. In its first live run, it processed 31 offers on its own. Not for sale, just proof of what happens when a founder engineers her own operations.

Product

NAKD Travel Calculator

A browser-based group trip planning tool for travel advisors, launched as an annual subscription. Built to be a planning partner in the advisor's business, from bus trips to full group itineraries.

Visit the Calculator
Education

The Travel Advisor AI Visibility Bootcamp

A free course teaching travel advisors why AI search visibility is the new front door of their business, paired with a proprietary audit tool and done-for-you setup services. Complete launch ecosystem: landing pages, email sequences, and automated workflows, all built in-house.

Join the Free Bootcamp
File 05

Credentials & Affiliations

250+ Travel Partners BBB A+ Rated (Flo Knowles Travel) ASTA Member Virgin Voyages First Mate Global Rescue Safe Travel Partner Host Agency: KHM Travel Group Consortium: Travel Leaders Network 26+ Years in IT

File 06 · Open for Connection

Let's Build Something That Runs Without You Hovering Over It.

Ms. Flo at her desk, notebooks open, systems running
The Desk // Where Systems Report for Duty

For Travelers

Ready to reconnect, relax, and revel in adventure? Let's design the trip your family will talk about for years.

Start Planning Not ready to book yet? Join the #FlosConnection community

For Travel Advisors

Your expertise deserves a digital presence that sells it. Let's talk brand, website, and the AI systems behind them.

Schedule a Discovery Call Want to learn in the room first? Join the NAKD Elevation Room