{"id":13002,"date":"2023-12-22T15:34:03","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T05:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mtatravel.com.au\/?p=13002"},"modified":"2024-02-09T13:12:50","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T03:12:50","slug":"susan-barton-mindset-coach-mta-travel-advisor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mtatravel.com.au\/susan-barton-mindset-coach-mta-travel-advisor\/","title":{"rendered":"Susan Barton, Mindset Coach & MTA Travel Advisor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sometimes we can wonder what impact we really have. This is the story of a woman who has changed the world and would say you have too. It\u2019s the story of a travel agent who has gotten reporters out of war zones, has rubbed shoulders with celebrities, and has even been a Disney animation artist. This is the story of a woman with so many stories who will stop an interview to ask you yours. This is the story of the amazingly generous Susan Barton<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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Susan Barton of MTA Travel stepped in when we needed her, performing miracles with flight bookings amid the chaos of COVID.<\/em><\/p>\n

Susan Barton offered to help arrange flights. She was the last of my angels. She got straight onto it. It was not a simple thing.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The travel itinerary was definitely not simple. Susan was amazing, picking her way through the maze of flight availability and travel restrictions for us.<\/em><\/p>\n

These are not testimonials. These (and others like them) are peppered through the book,\u00a0<\/span>Freeing My Family: One Uyghur man\u2019s epic battle to save his wife and son and bring them to Australia<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The book was an unexpected but powerful read for me.\u00a0<\/span>Susan Barton of MTA Travel<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/em>had mentioned it almost in passing as a thing that had come out of the lockdowns. At the height of COVID, Susan had been approached by Human Rights Watch to help political refugee and eventual citizen Sadam Abdusalam be reunited with his wife and son.<\/p>\n

After all the politics, the fear, and the waiting, the family were finally given the green light to be together. Except it was 2020. And Chinese government aside, no travel was easy in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was extremely rewarding for me during COVID to be approached and to work on things like this,\u201d Susan tells\u00a0<\/span>Karryon.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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But Susan is no stranger to this type of work.<\/p>\n

The go-to girl<\/h4>\n

At 21, the girl who said she never felt like she fit in, who, as a child, would stand at Wellington Airport watching the planes fly off and wish she was on them, was married and living in Los Angeles. She\u2019d been working in production for television and then as an animation artist for Disney in their studios in Burbank \u201cback in the old days when we used to actually paint all the cells\u201d. And she had travelled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in a massive hurry, I had rolled 10 years of life stages into three years. I was racing toward some invisible self-projected finish line of sorts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her husband was a successful Hollywood commercial director and Susan admits she may have conformed to the norms of the day and given up her own career for his.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I had a lightbulb moment, I loved to travel, so I figured if I studied to become a travel agent, I could get cheap fares around the world. I was missing my family in New Zealand, so this was a way to go visit them,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Because of her experience working with film crews, she became an entertainment specialist for LA celebrities. She also moved crews around for networks such as CNN or television shows, such as\u00a0<\/span>LA Law.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m showing my age,\u201d Susan jokes.<\/p>\n

Her family moved to Australia for a project and eventually, her marriage ended.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith those heady days of Hollywood well behind me, I had gone from one extreme to another, living on the poverty line for years trying to make ends meet with young children.<\/p>\n

\u201cSurvival meant a tonne of tenacity and resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n

But her experience soon led her to once again work as an entertainment specialist for Channel Nine\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>60 Minutes<\/em>,\u00a0<\/span>News<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>Current Affairs<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>and then\u00a0SBS Dateline<\/em>.<\/p>\n

These news agencies were covering the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Bali bombings, earthquakes, presidential elections and then some. And Susan\u2019s job was getting the reporters in and out of dangerous situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes they were kidnapped, sometimes they were literally on the field about to get shot. I loved being part of a team at SBS that helped show the world\u2019s injustice,\u201d Susan tells\u00a0<\/span>Karryon<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thrived on it, I fit in and felt accepted. I had become known as the go-to girl who could get people in and out of war-torn countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mindset Coach<\/h4>\n

Susan went on to partner in establishing two agencies, then, with\u00a0<\/span>MTA Travel<\/em><\/a>, started her own home-based agency about ten years ago.<\/p>\n