Ever wonder how travel experts cultivate a following of loyal adventurers? The answer lies within this episode's exploration of the art of networking and establishing a robust client base. This episode strives to share the nuances of forging lasting relationships and the fine balance between administrative duties and the creative thrill of trip planning. Uncover the strategies for managing a thriving travel business, setting boundaries for personal well-being, and deftly juggling the whirlwind of clients' needs. This candid conversation sheds light on the dedication behind the scenes, the joy of seeing a well-planned trip unfold, and the resilience needed to navigate the travel industry's ebbs and flows.
Join our Community - https://morrissims.com/the-travel-business-school
Check out more about your host, Morris Sims
Visit our Facebook and LinkedIn Pages!
Ever wonder how travel experts cultivate a following of loyal adventurers? The answer lies within this episode's exploration of the art of networking and establishing a robust client base. This episode strives to share the nuances of forging lasting relationships and the fine balance between administrative duties and the creative thrill of trip planning. Uncover the strategies for managing a thriving travel business, setting boundaries for personal well-being, and deftly juggling the whirlwind of clients' needs. This candid conversation sheds light on the dedication behind the scenes, the joy of seeing a well-planned trip unfold, and the resilience needed to navigate the travel industry's ebbs and flows.
Join our Community - https://morrissims.com/the-travel-business-school
Check out more about your host, Morris Sims
Visit our Facebook and LinkedIn Pages!
So me being the beach bomb, the all inclusive bougie resort girl that I am, when people come to me and ask me about resorts, I can pretty much guide them to where they want to be. Right, if you're a chicken, tenders and fry kind of meal three, four times a week, I'm not sending you to one of my luxury resorts that has gourmet global food. Yeah, I'm gonna match you to something that's a little more basic that I probably wouldn't spend my money on. You know to travel personally, yeah, but I know it's gonna have what you are used to.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Travel Masters podcast. We're here to help travel advisors and travel agency owners get what they really want from their business. I'm Morris Sims and I'm going to be your host for our podcast. I'm an ex-chemical engineer turned life insurance agent. I've got to tell you, selling life insurance was a lot more fun for me than being an engineer. After a few years, they asked me to teach other people how to do what I was doing. Well, long story short, we wound up in New York City for 20 years. That was quite a change for a young Alabama boy. I retired after 20 years as the vice president and chief learning officer, where my team and I trained over 12,000 agents and their managers to be independent business owners and sales professionals. Now I'm not one to stop working, so I started my own business and I was blessed to find a sweet spot with travel professionals that I was able to help. Now I've got several travel agency consulting clients and I'm the co-founder of the Travel Masters Learning Community, where we provide opportunities for travel professionals to become more effective, efficient and to get what they want from their business.
Speaker 2:On this podcast, I'm going to be interviewing guests that I believe are going to have a message that can be of help to you, our travel professional community, and I'll do some solo episodes as well with some other stuff that I really think can help you and your business. So, with all that said, hey, let's get this party started with today's episode. What do you say? Bev Brown is with us today. She's an agent with Travel Leaders and her business is Chesapeake Travel in Maryland and obviously she does travel all over the world and we're just so glad to have Bev with us today. Bev, thanks for joining me.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me, morris, it's a pleasure.
Speaker 2:Tell us a little bit about your business as a travel agent. Do you specialize in any particular area? What sort of clients do you work with? Tell us a little bit about Chesapeake Travel.
Speaker 1:Well, I have been a travel agent for 10 years next month, so I'm very excited about that anniversary coming up a decade in the industry. Along that 10 year journey, I have developed some specialties and some niche.
Speaker 1:You know areas that I sell and work in. As you mentioned, we sell travel all over the world but honestly, it's you know what is the thing that lights you up, that you really enjoy the most, because that's the work you're going to do for other clients. That's going to be most gratifying. So for me, for anyone that knows me, they know I'm kind of a beach bum. I grew up in an island in Virginia, chincoteague Island.
Speaker 2:So wait a minute, what island.
Speaker 1:Chincoteague Island, Virginia.
Speaker 2:Chincoteague Island. That's a new one on me, thank you.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, it's just south of the Maryland state line and we're famous, known for our wild ponies, and there was a very famous book called Misty of Shinkatig by Marguerite Henry, and that is how a lot of people know about my little island. So for those of you out there listening, if you know about Chinga Tig, definitely give us some likes and love. And if you're just learning about it now, go do some research. It's interesting.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. And do you still live on the island or you're up in Maryland somewhere and do you?
Speaker 1:still live on the island or you're up in Maryland somewhere. No, I'm over in Maryland, so I went from the ocean side of the eastern shore to the bay side, so now I'm kind of like southern Maryland on the western side of Chesapeake. So it's interesting the dynamic of how I ended up kind of like right back in home. They always say you can never go home again, which is kind of true, but I've found a mirror image pretty much of where I grew up to where I live now as a functioning adult.
Speaker 2:Well, you're better than I am. If you can consider yourself functioning, you're doing very well, congratulations.
Speaker 1:Most days, most days, I'm functioning.
Speaker 2:So you made a great point.
Speaker 1:Like how I got there in this industry. And you know, growing up at the beach was a huge part of my life, and so I love beaches, I love palm trees and blue seas. And anyone that knows me, I wear flip flops until I wear boots and that's pretty much my footwear. So 10, 8 to 10 months a year you'll find me in flip-flops, and then there's winter. So, knowing what I loved and knowing where I had traveled prior to getting into the industry, that naturally became my specialty, that naturally became my niche. So for me it's all inclusive Caribbean vacations and and that is where I have the most experience, not only as an agent but as a traveler prior, you know, to coming into the industry. And, um, that's what really excites me and lights me up is trying to match the right resort to the right clients.
Speaker 1:So right before we hopped on today, a text message came through and it said a myriad of things. But we want to go. These are the dates. I'm kind of looking for this, but we're not really sure. This Island, that Island, this Island we've been here, there and where, and I'm sorry, I'm all over the place. Perfect, perfect.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great prospect.
Speaker 1:For me because I have a date and I have a general idea of where they've gone. So they want something a little new, different. Um, and I have some ideas for them, just literally with that rant of a text message, and so I'm like, okay, I got this, so I'm going to send you some options. Later today We'll talk about them. But it's because I know that client, I know what they're looking for and I know the places that I've been seen toward. I have probably walked through well over 50 all-inclusive resorts.
Speaker 2:Wow, I was about to ask you if you think it's important that you have personally traveled to these places before you recommend them to your clients. Do you find that to be the case? Obviously, I guess you do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I do, because you know I'm not a big known brand out there like coca-cola, right, or um, I don't know what's a big marketing brand would so me, being the beach bomb, the all inclusive bougie resort girl that I am, when people come to me and ask me about resorts, I can pretty much guide them to where they want to be. Right, if you're a chicken tenders and fry kind of meal three, four times a week, I'm not sending you to one of my luxury resorts that has gourmet global food. Yeah, I'm going to match you to something that's a little more basic that I probably wouldn't spend my money on. You know to travel personally, but I know it's going to have what you are used to.
Speaker 2:But that's an important point, isn't it? I mean, it's not your trip, it's not your vacation, it's theirs exactly. How do you make sure you do that? How do you, how do you focus on what they want?
Speaker 1:A lot of that's through qualifying questions, you know, getting getting to know them. In that introductory we'll call it a sales call, um, I do a what I call a complimentary travel consultation. So you schedule with me through Calendly, we get on a zoom um or a phone call, their choice. I like to see people, people, I'm a people person, um, but some people aren't comfortable with zoom, even after all of these covid years. Right, we're in the third depths of hell of the covid era.
Speaker 2:So, yes, we are is no doubt no doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 1:Somebody posted a picture of a positive covid test on Facebook just the other day and I said, really we're still doing that, come on, ok, but anyway. So some people aren't comfortable with the screen time. So a phone call is fine, but during that discovery call and you know Mars, I think this goes back to selling in any industry you have to know who you're selling to. You've got to understand that client's likes and dislikes. You have to understand what problem they're facing and how you're going to show to them you're going to be able to solve the problem.
Speaker 1:So, for example, my husband's a picky eater. He's pretty basic. Then I would say, okay, so is he willing to explore with food options? Like if you didn't have to pay for it and you could order anything on the menu or would order what was recommended, would he try it, knowing if he didn't like it he could just order something else and you don't have to pay for it. Like it, it's already taken care of. So it's that kind of detail that you have to understand as an advisor, because a travel agent just answers a phone and books trips, but a travel advisor is a travel professional and, like a financial advisor, we're giving advice and recommendations on travel, just like a financial advisor would give recommendations and advice on, you know, stock purchases, mutual funds, 401k, roth, whatever.
Speaker 2:All that stuff.
Speaker 1:Mine is all resort brands and cruise lines and hotel chains and destinations.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just incredible the way that stuff comes together and you find out through that discovery process that is so important.
Speaker 1:Because if you put the wrong person at the wrong resort or even the right person at the wrong resort, but if that vibe and the food and whatnot doesn't jive well with them, they're miserable and you're not recommended, like what?
Speaker 1:what happens most is like oh my gosh, beverly found us the perfect place to go, like it was the best, and so that's usually the kind of feedback I get. You know, there's some resort brands out there that I don't recognize. The labels on the liquor bottles, yeah they're. They're like foreign brands, and by foreign I mean not recognizable to the U S consumer. Because, let's face it, just about every liquor out there is a foreign brand Bacardi's foreign, it comes from Puerto Rico S consumer. Because, let's face it, just about every liquor out there is a foreign brand Bacardi's foreign, it comes from Puerto Rico.
Speaker 1:Most of your vodkas come from Russia, germany, et cetera. But when I'm looking at, I'm walking through resorts, I'm taking pictures. I'm on a site inspection and some of the things that I look for is I take pictures of the bar area because I want to see what liquors they have that are public facing. Because, a lot of my clients are not going to be happy without their specific something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if my son doesn't see the bourbons he likes, he's a little disraught about it. Disraught is not a good word, but he would be disappointed if the brands are not the ones that he prefers, and I think that's true for most of us. Back when I was enjoying a good drink, my scotch had to be the right scotch. That's just the way it is.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and so you know that's that's where that experience and that advising comes in, and you know anyone that's getting into the travel industry, because we've definitely seen an onslaught of new advisors coming into the, into the industry. I would say in the last two years post-COVID, we've probably seen more travel agents start up their business than probably the five years prior.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like for whatever reason, because it's a great time to be in our industry, because we're kind of in demand at this point.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The travel landscape has changed in the post-COVID era. The airlines, I mean. You see it on the news nearly every day.
Speaker 1:There's problems with the airlines, whether it's staffing capacity, scheduling errors, equipment malfunctions, which I was mentioning to you just before we went live. I had a problem this past weekend and clients called me Saturday night while I'm at a concert, their flights turning around. They're on their way to Berlin, Germany, and they took off from Washington DC area. One hour out and the plane turns around to come back. This was nonstop flight to Berlin, Wow.
Speaker 2:That's pretty, that's pretty. Oh, oh, wow, that's pretty. Yeah, no fun, and then so again that advising part, right.
Speaker 1:Like I'm not gonna leave you hanging, we're we're gonna call and make the changes. Do what we have to do. Make sure you get where you need to be, that where you were supposed to be, knows you're not coming until a little bit later. You know, just taking care of things. So that's a lot of what we do. We take care of things, um, but back to niches. We we digressed. You know so. For me, knowing how much I love the Caribbean, it's been great because I've been able to immerse myself into many product brands um multiple island destinations and, strategically, I will make sure that I'm familiar with new products in that destination, as it relates to the major carrier that travels the most nonstop routes from my hub airport.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Which for me is Southwest. So you know we've got Southwest out of Baltimore and they have most of the nonstop Caribbean routes. Other than that it's American, and so I just make sure that I'm well versed in those destinations, that those nonstop routes serve, because that's what most people are going to want, especially if it's their first or second time leaving the country.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we traveled to Italy many years ago now and I'd never been on a flight that long overnight like that. I was afraid I wasn't going to sleep, so I took a pill my doctor recommended to help me sleep. We had to stop in Madrid. Bev, I do not remember changing planes in Madrid. My family had to remind me don't you remember doing this, that and the other? I didn't. I don't even remember it. So yeah, nonstop flights, I agree.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, you just brought up a great point too, again from that advising standpoint. You hadn't done it before, and it's an overnight flight, and a lot of times people don't understand what that means. Not only is it an overnight flight, but when you arrive in that destination, you are anywhere from five to seven hours Clock. Time is off. Yeah, completely off. And so my goal for people when I send them to Europe is, when you land, whether it's in early morning or midday, we have to do something to keep you up. Yeah, have to do something to keep you up.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I got to keep you up until at least dinner eight o'clock. Then let you go to bed, get a, get a good night's sleep then, so that you wake up the next day and you're you're much more adjusted. Then, if you got there, went to your hotel and took a nap, which is like taboo, don't do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, right.
Speaker 1:Then you're never going to get your clock synced.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Cause now you're off the local schedule. So yeah, gotta have something to do that's changed topics.
Speaker 2:Just a second here. Let's go back to this this wonderful text that you got. Where did that come from? Where did that client come from? Where did that prospect come from? Did did they find some marketing? You did. Were there a client beforehand? Where are most of your clients coming from?
Speaker 1:So for me, most of my clients come from my networking and personal engagement. So when I spent a lot of time over the last 10 years and even prior getting my name out there, people knew me. People knew what I did. They knew they could depend on me.
Speaker 1:Before being a travel agent, I was in hotel sales and marketing and did a lot of event meeting planning through that role at my hotel property, so locally people already knew who I was. Locally people already knew who I was. Now, 10 years later, you either still know who I am and you've learned I'm doing something different, or I've met you through networking. And so the woman today, um, I met her through our women's group at our chamber of commerce. Uh, she traveled with me just this past December over new years, um, and so she's come back for more.
Speaker 2:That's great, that is super. And I guess over time you build up a clientele and you can begin to depend on referrals and those kinds of things. Do you do any networking outside of that now, after 10 years you could probably just build your business just on your clients and referrals. Huh.
Speaker 1:No, I still continue to network because you know, even though a repeat client is lack of a better phrase an easy client, because you've already worked with them, they already know you, they generally come back to you because they're happy with what they got the first time around.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:But if you don't have a pipeline of new clients and new people to reach out to, to work for, to work with, then you know your, your, your pool kind of dries up, pool kind of dries up. So if you're not constantly engaging and meeting new people and connecting with other people, who can connect you to other people I think there was a shampoo commercial back in the seventies and so on and so on so if you're not expanding that sphere, I think it's much harder to maintain growth in your business. Yeah, because if you don't, if you don't expand your sphere of influence in the network that you have, you just have this pool and it can only grow, but so much. But when you continue to meet people, when you continue to put yourself out there, your growth potential is exponential.
Speaker 2:Bev, where do you spend most of your time? What do you think is most important for you to spend time on in your business?
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a nice loaded question, because to me I take it in two answers when do you and where would you want to?
Speaker 2:Very good, two different things, yes.
Speaker 1:Where do I spend most of my time in my business? Unfortunately, right here at this desk with all of the papers and the files and all the details for folks travel. I love to spend it more is out meeting people, even though I do that quite a bit. Um out meeting people, getting them excited about whatever their next adventure is going to be, um, and then kind of passing that off to someone else to handle the administrative aspect.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you find yourself doing a lot of the, a lot of the administration kind of stuff, a lot of the solving problems and planning trips and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:Yes, I mean as a solopreneur. You're chief cook and bottle washer. You're doing all the things until you get to a point where you can start farming out tasks to a virtual assistant or, you know, hire an in-person or a lot. You know more person that you can physically hand something off to. So, through the growth and the establishment part of a travel agency unless you've got a lot of capital coming in, it's you you're doing it, unless you've got a lot of capital coming in.
Speaker 1:it's you, you're doing it, you know, and, and not only do you have to be the face of your business and you know, be the marketing, be the brands that people always say to me you always look like you're on vacation. I said exactly what I want you to think. That's the idea. Yeah, that's the idea. Be the brand.
Speaker 2:And so that's the idea.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely the idea. Be the brand and so. But what comes along with that is what people don't see is the nine, 10, 11 o'clock at night. You know I? I started at six o'clock this morning. Yeah so that that's what people don't see is is all of the behind the scenes work and everything that it takes to get someone from discovery call to they've come back from their trip.
Speaker 2:And they're excited, and they're happy and they're going Bev. We couldn't have done this without you. Thank you so very, very much, and that's what you're looking for, right.
Speaker 1:That is what you're looking for Absolutely, and you know most sales processes, from discovery call or sale initial sales call to close of the sale is generally a few months. Sometimes it could be days. When you're looking at our industry. There are times where we're working with a client and that sale isn't completed for a year and a half or better, sometimes two years, and that's we're talking about destination weddings, large group travel, those kinds of clients you know. So I have a few of them as well, and I have a wedding that we we literally started working on in fall of 22 that isn't taking place until summer of 24 wow, yeah, and and you don't get paid till they travel and come home, right, you are absolutely correct.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, Makes all the difference in the world. One last question for you before we wrap up here, and thank you again so very much for being here, but tell me, how do you stay organized and manage your minutes in a day, Because we all have the same amount of minutes but we have to manage what we do with them. How do you deal with that part of life?
Speaker 1:especially in business. Oh, I'm a hot mess.
Speaker 2:Now. That's honesty and truth, and then often, authenticity. Can't get any better than that. Thank you.
Speaker 1:I mean, you, you've met me, you you know I'm kind of a social butterfly and you know I've got a large personality, I think. And what, the one of my greatest challenges when it comes to time management and organization organization really isn't much of my challenge because I can be a fairly organized person the time management based on the requirements of what it is that we do on a daily basis. So, for example, last night I'm driving back from my family in Pennsylvania. I got a three-hour drive. A friend of mine says hey, I need to get to Arizona. My brother's dying.
Speaker 1:So the reason I had to start at six o'clock this morning, number one family going to Berlin, communicate with them because they're about to land. We've, we've fixed all of these things. This one thing might not be fixed. Okay, then I'm moving on to okay, gotta get my friend to phoenix, arizona, because he needs a flight tonight, a hotel and a rental car. Um, so last night we were able to get flight and car today, as a hotel was waiting on the address of where he needs to be just to figure that all out for him. Um, and then, like I said before we got on this, there was the one that just said hey, I need this. And when people text me with travel needs and that have dates already assigned to them, like they know when they're going when they want to go.
Speaker 1:You have to respond to that quickly in our industry, Otherwise you risk the opportunity of them going off on their own or, as I like to call it, going rogue on themselves and trying to figure it out, and then by the time you get back to them they don't know. You've spent the three, four hours to figure out exactly what it is that they want to send it to them. So now you've done that and like, oh, I just went ahead and figured it out myself.
Speaker 1:So as far as time management, there are certain things that I have done in my life in the last year that protect some of my personal space. One of them was really converting from a day planner, which I still have because I like a month at a glance view, but converting from a day planner putting everything in my phone calendar between my iPhone calendar and my Google calendar, like everything is there, and so when I have my gym time, I am blocked out on my calendar. My calendar won't let you in. I won't let you in because I've set those times apart.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like I have to commit to do this. Um networking events are on my calendar. I can override them if I need to. If something comes up, I can override a networking event to to take care of someone. But really I mean to take care of someone, but really I mean making sure that you have a calendar that you're committed to and that you don't give access to your stop hard. No, I have to do this for myself things. I think it's the greatest step I've made in time management.
Speaker 1:Excellent, I'm still a hot mess, though I will be honest, I will be bouncing all over the place because we're generally juggling. I mean, I probably have 20 to 30 active clients right now and it's either finishing up last minute touches or they're about to travel. Then you've got any of the new ones that come in. So our balls are constantly in the air juggling them, and it's like you don't want any of them to fall to the ground, right, but you're batting them. You're just keeping them up for as much as you can. And that's where I say the hot mess part comes in, because I'm batting balls.
Speaker 2:Just trying to keep them up, yeah.
Speaker 1:Just trying to keep them up.
Speaker 2:Well, you're solving problems and there there are always some new niche, some, some new thing coming along. That's going to be a problem that you have to deal with. And you know, planes have problems and they suddenly have to return to base because they're not going to make it all the way to Munich. I understand it's a. It's that's the world in which we choose to live. That's for sure. Beverly, thank you so much for joining us today. I've really enjoyed this conversation. I look forward to seeing you at the summit in September as well.
Speaker 1:Yes, I hope to be there and happy to come back anytime you have questions, morris. Thank, you.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much. Have a great day. And for everybody else out there, y'all go find somebody new to talk to, introdu, introduce yourself to someone new and make sure in that conversation you let them know that you help people have the best trip and the best vacation they could ever have. Have a great time. I'll see you again next time. Right here I'm morris simms. You.