After earning her bachelor’s degree from the William Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas in 1990 (ultimately earning an MBA), Janet took a "job" at her family’s telecom company. All these years later at the same company, Janet continues to build her career as a marketing/sales/training professional.

Work aside, Janet’s passion in life has always been travel. She wrote The Road to Hell: Making Heaven out of Third-Class Travel as a way to feed her academic nature. Janet built her philosophy of third-class travel by experiencing it first-hand, over more than a quarter century on the road to the four corners of the Earth.

Janet lives in Lawrence, Kansas, USA with her husband, Gary Mark Smith, a global street photographer, and their two cats, Rio (de Janeiro) and Quito. Since their meeting in 1987, Janet and Gary have traveled to more than 40 countries and across the US, together...third-class.