Phoebe
Welcome to the Gang Craft podcast, where we dive in deep to all things business, wellness, creativity and activism for artists and entrepreneurs. We talk with impactful, female driven companies and founders for an inside look at the entrepreneurial experience, where you'll come away with tangible steps to elevate your business. Are you ready? I'm your host, Phoebe Sherman, founder of Girl Gang craft artist and designer and marketing obsessed. We're here to learn together how to expand our revenue, implement new organizational techniques, and cultivate about business practices as we work towards creating a life doing what we love. Let's get started.

Hello. Hello. Welcome back to Girl and Craft, the podcast. We're talking about travel today. And it's fitting because at the time of you listening to this podcast episode going live, I will have just returned from my honeymoon in Italy. Fun fact I studied abroad in Florence, Italy and I got mono and that was a real fun, really segue. So it'll be fun to go back to Florence after 11 years and maybe I'll do more. I'll check out my stomping grounds. I spent a lot of time at the Irish Bar, you guys, which is really disturbing with all the amazing culture and food in Italy. I don't know if I should be revealing this. I hope you don't judge me with those facts, and I'm really excited to mostly dive into the food, to be honest, in Italy and also see some art, see the beach, see some beautiful sights. But at the time of this recording, I haven't been yet. I'm going shortly so maybe I will have more information about my travels soon. I don't know what form that I'll take, but I hope to share that with you in some capacity. I've also been thinking about like how much I'm tapped out. Like I'm not working for that time, am I deleting my inbox on my phone? I think so am I deleting socials? I think so I don't want to be scrolling on my phone for sure, but like, maybe I want to share some key moments. I don't know, it's just something to think about. Like how I'm going to share this trip with you all because I want to share because it's Italy and I have some good outfits planned, and I want to show off the beauty that is Italy. But I also want to really be present and be present with my husband and enjoy. So I'm sure it will all be revealed. I sometimes have a hard time with deciding boundaries and also being flexible, and I imagine we all do. And I think boundaries are really helpful. And also flexibility is really great as well. So there's always a question, Paul, for me as well with that. Like, do I have a really strong, consistent routine or do I let the day sort of tell me how it unfolds? And there's pros and cons to both for sure. Anyways, that's super off topic at the time. We are back for this podcast episode. It is October and Salem is poppin. Salem is wild this time of year. If you heard my little intro for the last episode, I really go into How Salem is wild. Maybe that's a whole episode to talking about. Sometimes I call Salem like a petri dish. Like it's really this interesting mix, witchy ness. And in Vegas and Disneyland and, like, small businesses, like, on a hyper scale as, like a petri dish. I don't know, I just think it's really an interesting sort of experiment of a town in terms of the tourist industry and monetization and the micro economy. Anyways. Yeah, that's a whole episode in itself. Not that I'm a Salem scientist, but I am the outsider coming in to this space and really tapped into the small business community. Anyways, off topic again. So I'll be at Haunted Happenings, which is like the event that happens every weekend in Salem October 19th, and maybe I'll add on one more depending if they have space or how I feel. Normally two days is like full and D for me with everything else that we do here at Grog and Crafts. So what else is going on? We have our holiday events. Our first one is November 16th. Please make sure you RSVP to our events that you're attending there on our Facebook. Maybe you'll see some ads or some videos really helpful for us to see the recipes. And of course, the more people that RSVP, the more people that get to see the event and also RSVP and come, etc. so that is helpful to us. Make sure you're following us on socials at Krogan Craft and me personally if you're not at CB shaman and subscribe to our newsletter. Of course. Also our holiday gift guide is open for applicants. If you are not near any of the events or want some more visibility this holiday season, we curate small business them for our shoppable gift guide for the holidays, and this is our fourth year doing that. And it's really cool thing to pass around to your friends and families to have this sort of shoppable catalog of all these small business owners and get these really good gift ideas and do some personal shopping that is online live for two months. So people get really lots of time to shop, like a week or two before Black Friday and then goes until after New Year too. So it's a really chunk of time for people to like, browse the guide and shop and make those purchases. And we have different levels of opt in. In addition to being on the holiday gift guide like newsletter shout out, story shout out and also our podcast shout out. So if you're interested in that go to Girlgangcraft.com/apply-gift guide. And yeah, let's get into this episode about travel.

Vanessa McGovern, chief sales and marketing officer of Gifted Travel Network, is a fierce advocate for travel advisors, an award winning industry educator, and a sought after speaker at various industry events. Vanessa co-founded a host agency that has attracted attention for its innovative approach to supporting and educating and successful travel entrepreneurs. Vanessa is a well known business coach, helping hundreds of travel entrepreneurs to increase profitability and satisfaction with their businesses. Let's get into it.

Hi Vanessa, welcome to Girl Gang Craft the podcast.

Vanessa Hello. Hello. Thanks for having me.
Phoebe Thanks for being here. So can you tell us listeners who you are and what you do?
Vanessa Yes. So I am the co-founder and chief sales and marketing officer for Gifted Travel Network. We are what's called in the travel industry, a host agency. Essentially what that means is we are an umbrella company for, as of today, a 400 independently operating travel advisors around the United States and all of the travel advisors that operate under their own brand, their own identity, not gift to travel network.
So we're not a consumer facing name and brand, but our business exists to support the selling travel advisor. And so we aggregate the volume of sales together so that they can better run their businesses. And we support them in a variety of ways through operational support and education. So that's a little bit about GTN.
Phoebe Amazing. Okay. So question. What is the point of a travel agent in this modern society when we can book things ourselves?
Vanessa Oh my gosh I love this question. It always baffles me that that question is still a question, but I totally understand why. It is because the internet really disrupted the travel advisor or travel well. So travel agent, you'll hear me say travel advisor because it really is a service based profession. An agent is very transactional. An agent implies you know what you want.
So here you go. Book it for me. And that's what you needed to do before the internet. When travel advisors were on Main Street USA and you walked in to their place of business, you took a brochure up the and you sat down and you couldn't book it any other way. But with a travel agent. So the internet as well as airlines.
Now, a few decades ago, at that point, they stopped paying commission and they also disrupted the business model. And so for a long time, like you literally couldn't even book a ticket without a travel agent. So with the internet and the disruption, travel agents went home based, what happened was, is that they lost their visibility to mainstream, and a lot of travel agents to their passion is selling travel and learning the destination, not being online marketers and learning how to increase their visibility.
I know that's not the direct answer to your question, but I think it's extremely important to provide that context. What happened is, is that a lot of the consumer, direct consumer started not realizing that they needed a travel agent, especially because a lot of people can now go online and book a trip. But the pendulum has completely swung to the other side.
Now, because now we're in information overload in the digital age. Now, there's always going to be a segment of the population that just wants to book travel themselves. There's going to be even people with a high touch mentality and a service based sort of mentality that also just want to book a quick weekend for themselves. They don't want their travel advisor, but then there's a very large portion of the population that, especially in the luxury segment, that really recognize the need for an expert to cut through the noise because you don't know who left that review for that hotel.
You don't know about the fact that that little restaurant that everybody's talking about just closed two months ago. You don't know, right? What you want is to work with a travel advisor that has boots on the ground, experts in every country. That's their profession. I mean, the same could be true for think about something else in our life that we need a service provider for.
I'm like, could I change the oil in my car? Yeah, I could, but I don't. I take it to the dealer because I need them to really look at my car and see what else is going on, because they're the experts. It's the same thing with a travel advisor and with this particular question with like, just because you can doesn't mean you should.
Hopefully that gives you some context.
Phoebe Yeah, I think that absolutely the oil changing thing makes sense to you and just a time saving. I know a lot of folks listening to or trying to really perfect their time management and maybe have some extra money to spend, but not extra time. I can absolutely see why having an expert in those spaces makes a lot of sense.
Phoebe For those folks who are busy, and maybe don't care to go through all the train schedules and find all the reviews for the restaurants, etc..
Vanessa Exactly. And especially when you're dealing with high transaction trips, your time is very valuable as you just outlined, which is extremely important, and your investment you're going to Europe, multi-country, even cruising now, which might seem straightforward. There's so many different options out there. You want to make sure that you're working with somebody that can sort of translate all that's available for you, and to cut through the noise to make sure that you are maximizing your vacation dollars.
Phoebe So do most advisors have like a specialty area, physical area of expertise, or can you tell me a little bit more about that?
Vanessa That is a very good question and a very common question. And it depends which is my seems to be the common answer that we usually give to this question. So there are definitely travel advisors that have an area of expertise in a specific destination. And or a specific type of travel. But what is actually more common is the travel advisor has a specific demographic specialty of the population.
So and very niche to like the travel advisor, we have travel advisors that specialize in working with winery owners and with wine clubs, and taking wine club members on wine themed, focused experiences around the world. Do they know everything about South Africa? No. Do they know everything about the wine? Be traveling in that Mendoza region in Argentina? No, but they know they're experts in their clients.
They know how they like to travel. What types of things are important to the traveler in terms of how they want to experience the destination and how they want to be scheduled, and then the advisor will then partner with a boots on the ground company, which in the industry is known as a destination management company that is not consumer facing, that the general traveling population does not have access to.
They literally just exist to support travel advisors. That's their expert in the country. And then the travel advisor explains what they're trying to bring to life for their client. And then the destination management company, also known as a DMC, will then put together the itinerary and work with the travel advisor to present that to the client. So that is what is more common.
But there are definitely travel advisors that have certain areas of expertise in different countries, and they will attend shows, industry events that are very destination specific. It really just depends. Or there's travel advisors that they can do any part of the world. But of course they're just very well traveled and just know a certain region better than another region.
But that doesn't mean that they can't be of service. Like if you're an Italy expert in a France expert, but then your client is like, I've always dreamed of going to the Galapagos Islands, and I want to take my family on a cruise to the Galapagos. That same advisor will have a partner that has an expertise in that mode of travel, and they can match their client with the right experience, because the travel advisor is an expert in the client, and then it's their job to take that information and match it with the right experience.
Phoebe That makes sense. So what's the best way to find a travel advisor for you, for your desire and your trip?
Vanessa We have a directory right on our website at Gifted Travel network.com where you can search for one of our advisors, so that's really the easiest way to do it. We're also part of a larger conglomerate if you will, at the company is called virtuoso and this is a global network. You can also find luxury travel advisors through virtuoso.com.
All of our Gifted Travel network advisors are also listed with their profiles, with reviews and all the countries that they are experts in all on virtual sitcom as well. So I would start with gift to Travel Network first. I think you'll find that very robust. You'll get what you need. And they're also part of virtual sitcom.
Phoebe Amazing. Okay. How did you get your start in the travel industry?
Vanessa Yes. Well, through a series of twists and turns, I was on track to go to law school and I found out when I was studying in my last semester of my bachelor degree, I'm Canadian. I found out that you could work on cruise ships seasonally over the holidays, and I had just run a summer camp for students, so I had experience with working with children and that's what the cruise lines wanted.
They wanted you staff during peak holiday times. So in my last year of my degree, I applied and got a job working on board a cruise ship and I went on a whim. Had never had been on a cruise ship. Didn't know what I was doing. I had no idea what I signed up for, but I thought this would be a fun adventure and I went for it.
And I remember to this day I can still recall the emotion that I was flooded with when I stepped on board. Just the complete feeling of like I was exactly where I was supposed to be, and just complete excitement for the experience. I often recall that because it's just like when you're on your entrepreneurial journey, oftentimes you take calculated risks and you trust your instincts and your gut.
And that was one of those moments. And just my gut was just screaming like, you're meant to follow this path. And I didn't even know what that path looked like. So fast forward, I decided to not pursue law school, much to my parents dismay, and work on a cruise ship. So I finished my degree and I worked on board for two years, and the company that I was working for hired me to run their training program, and that required me to move to Florida, where the office was based.
So I moved, started my life in the US in 2004, and then from there it just kind of evolved. So I worked on the onboard revenue side of cruise ships. And then when the economic downturn in 2008 and I also just got married, I wanted to start a family, and I was like, that was traveling and traveling like almost three weeks out of the month for this particular job.
And so I decided to buy a franchise, that travel business franchise company, because I had so much knowledge on cruising. It just was a natural progression for me. And then that decision led to the path that I'm on now, which is to start a similar company, but the opposite of a franchise model, which works very well in our industry, and there are many people that have success with that model.
I wanted to create the space for entrepreneurial, spirited professionals with a passion for travel, to start a business selling travel. But with their own brand and their own identity, and not having to be boxed in, for lack of a better word. Because with the franchise, you're promoting the franchise. And again, that works for some people that don't want their own identity.
But I wanted the opposite of that. So that's when Gift to Travel Network was born, and I started the company with two other entrepreneurial, spirited professionals who we still run the company together today, and they lived in North Carolina. And so I moved to pursue that, and that was 11 years ago. So here I am now.
Phoebe Can you tell us a little bit about that format that you work within, and how it's the opposite of a franchise.
Vanessa Really? Simply put, our model is all about it's based on the premise of experts make more money and people buy from people. And in today's digital world, people are looking for the human element and the human connection, and they want to do business with the person, right? Our travel advisors, we have a 12 month training program, and during that program we have various modules and coaching calls that they do and engage with in order to help craft their own message and their own sort of way of how they want to show up in the world as a travel advisor, and they build their own name and their own brand for themselves.
That's really what makes them magnetic as opposed to and also with the personal element of it, as opposed to the franchise model. We don't dictate what they sell, how they sell the website. They have to use, the marketing that they have to use. We help guide them around the marketing vehicles. That makes sense for their brand. Some brands don't need Instagram.
Some brands really want to focus in on LinkedIn and find other B2B. So it just depends on what they're looking to do, and we helped craft that for them.
Phoebe So can anyone who doesn't have travel advisor experience take your class and start their business?
Vanessa Yes, that's what it's designed for. And there's not a lot of new to industry education opportunities for entrepreneurial, spirited professionals that have a passion for travel, that want to actually monetize their passion for travel. We are one of the few virtuoso agencies that offer a very robust training program. And so ours is 12 months and we guide anybody new to selling travel through that program.
And we've actually had a lot of travel advisors that had signed up for maybe and joined another agency, but it was a low barrier to entry and they didn't get the education to get their business going. And then they're a couple of years in and they're not making any money. They're kind of flailing. They're not really sure what they want to do.
So we've had a lot of success with travel advisors that technically have some experience under their belt, but didn't really start out with the right foundation. And then they join our program and just take off like a rocket ship.
Phoebe That's amazing. Okay, switching gears a little bit, what is your day to day look like?
Vanessa Oh, that's there is no content. Using my day to day is that there's no consistency. So I am a traveling working mom. So I will tell you that my day started off with taking my nine year old to a doctor's appointment, and then I flew into the office where I am right now to be ready for this podcast.
And then I have a travel partner coming in to meet with me in person. I am also doing a coaching call for one of our top producing advisors as part of their benefits of being a part of our top producers club. I have an executive meeting at the end of the day. Last week I was in Barcelona. I joined the Ritz-Carlton yacht, their newest super yacht Elma, on a three day sailing ahead of their revenue sailings to sort of celebrate and what's called shake down the cruise before the paying customers come on.
And that was pretty extraordinary. And the week before that, I was in Vegas attending the largest global gathering of luxury travel professionals. So every week is different. Every day is different. There's no consistency.
Phoebe And how do you take care of yourself? How do you take care of yourself throughout this, and how do you plan your schedule?
Vanessa Well, I live and breathe on my schedule. If it isn't in the calendar, it is not happening. I will literally put in a drive home because I have to buffer time to actually get from one place to the next, especially if I'm home and I'm taking kids to different activities and things like that. How I handle all of the moving parts really boils down to one word, and that is intentional.


I'm very intentional. I'm very organized. I'll take time on the weekend, look at my calendar with a fine tooth comb, see if things are bumping up against each other, maybe just a little bit. Add in some buffers, put in some blocks. If I know that I need to really comb through my inbox and do some follow up, I'll make sure I block off time for that.
From a practical standpoint, I do a lot of calendar blocking, and I put everything in my calendar from a sort of energetic standpoint. I am a big fan of meditation. I actually converted one of our closets into a meditation room, and I find that if I start my day in, sometimes I'm just super tired and I just go and sit there in the dark and listen to some music, or I listen to what meditation on YouTube, or I go to the Insight Timer app and put something on.
And sometimes, admittedly, like when I'm very just tired, I'll just sit there and just kind of be calm before I start my day. And I always want to get out before my husband and the kids to kind of have that rhythm. And then other days I'm a lot more rested and focused and really lean into meditation. By having that moment of calm before I start my day has really helped me.
And of course, I'm powered by caffeine for the rest of the day, so cheers to that. So those are just some of the ways that I keep myself on track.
Phoebe I love that. Do you have a magic spell for jet lag?
Vanessa Oh, I just pretend that it's not a thing. I'm like, jet lag is not a thing. Sleeping pills are my friend. I've got some really good ones. So I know that if I didn't take a sleeping pill last night, I would have woken up at 3:00 in the morning. And so when I'm trying to get back on the rhythm of here of the East Coast time, I have to take something like 9:00 at night just to make sure I sleep all the way through the night.
And then once I'm on that routine, staying hydrated is key. I subscribe to I.V. subscription, so I go to a clinic every month and get to immune IV. And if I'm traveling a lot like in August for our big event in Vegas, and then I go to another big luxury conference in the south of France in December. So for August and December, I'll do two sometimes three IVs a month to help me stay hydrated.
And I found that since I started that routine, I don't get sick as often. I really haven't had. I know of so many colleagues that come back from those big events with Covid and with the flu, and they're knocked out for like a week and they can't function and they have no voice. That doesn't happen to me, thank goodness.
And I really think getting that I.V. plays a huge role.
Phoebe Wow. That's huge. Yeah. Okay. I want to talk about this luxury thing because I think it is a challenge for a lot of our community listening to hone in on their audience and to charge more in both the products business niche and and service space businesses, I don't know, do you have any advice, like how do you sort of step into a luxury label or step into charging more?
Vanessa First of all, luxury is a mindset and luxury is subjective. As I tell our travel advisors for some, luxury is a $15,000 trip and for others it's $150,000 plus check. And we just had an advisor. That one trip for a family of four to Africa was $1 million. No, that luxury is subjective, so you have to know that you cannot look at luxury through your own personal lens.
As a service provider, you have to meet your clients where they're at. And if you are in luxury and or you're trying to elevate your services, your brand, your language, your vernacular, how you show up in the world to better align with an affluent client that will pay and value your services. You have to think about that client, and then you have to meet them where they're at.
And just because you can't walk into a high luxury goods store and drop $5,000 on fill in the blank purchase, doesn't mean that you can't be of service to that professional.

I guarantee you that people who work in a Louis Vuitton store don't have a $5,000 budget for their own Louis Vuitton like straight without into some kind of store discount.
So first you have to evaluate or almost take like an inventory of your own mindset beliefs around it, because that's really at the heart of it all. And you are a service provider and you are regardless of what you said, that your audience is a lot of service providers. And just like travel advisors are, you're just offering a service.
And so you have to figure out what mindset blocks you have around charging your fees, what are the stories you're telling yourself? And oftentimes it's like that thing that's like right here that everybody can see, that you can't see. So if that's the case, if you feel like you're blocked, I would hire a coach. I would ask people in your own inner circle to help you unpack it.
Like what are the things that come up for you when you try to elevate yourself more into the luxury space, or you come up with some kind of roadblock around that, what's coming up, and then try to unpack that, because if you can get your mindset straight, the opportunities are limitless, because right now, the luxury segment in whatever industry isn't suffering.
There's no economic downturn like top suites at all. The top hotels are full, regardless of whether it was booked with the travel advisor or not. The Luxe and Ultra Luxe segment are living their lives. You just have to decide are you aligned with that market and how can you be of service?

BREAK

Phoebe

As a business owner, you know, it is super important not only to keep track of your revenue, but also your expenses. So you can get that write off so you can get that tax deduction. And maybe you know this in theory, but you're not really keeping track of things. Or maybe you're working with a DIY spreadsheet situation. In either case, it's time to get serious with your bookkeeping so you can save money on your taxes and also Know what's happening with your business so you can make informed choices. In comes QuickBooks. With QuickBooks Self-employed or QuickBooks online, you can find the program that works for you to keep track of the money coming in and out of your business, and we're here to help. We've got you with 30% off the first six months, six months of your QuickBooks subscription, so you can save a little money while you save a little money. Go to bit.ly/GGCxQuickbooks to get started today.

Using the link in bio as a call to action on Instagram is a thing of the past. Your customer has to go through many steps to go to the place you want them to. They have to click on your profile, click on bio and if they don't do it immediately, they will forget and they will not click that link.
Many Chat has changed the conversion game for us and tons of other users. Have you seen all these accounts lately using comment below blank and we'll send you whatever to your DMs? That’s Many Chat. We've been using many chat for the whole year, the past six months ish, and our conversion for class signups, rsvps, and our lead magnet have increased so much. Get started with many chat today for free at bit.ly/GGCmanychat That's bit.ly/GGCmanychat. Our current bill is about $25 a month and it is seriously the best tool we use today for our customer conversion aka sales. Seriously, try many chat today bit.ly/GGCmanychat.

But there are people beyond that and really getting outside of your own little bubble to charge more, I think, is really valuable. I mean, I see so many folks in our industry just really charging for both services and products, and I have also been in that space. I remember back in the day I was charging 250 for a website.
Vanessa You had to take that journey in order to know you had to.
Phoebe Yes. And it just hurt so much to think about that. But I think we just have to think bigger than our own stuff to get bigger than our own stuff. Right.
Vanessa And if you're finding that your clients are resisting that price point, whatever the price point is, find another set of clients, expand your clientele and ask yourself, like, redo your avatar for your ideal client, who is your ideal client? And if you're finding that it's just not aligned and they're saying no, it's possible it's not your service, you're amazing at your service, you're delivering on your service.
You're just not putting your service in front of the right people that value you and want to pay for that service. That is usually the issue.
Phoebe Yeah. When you're coaching your travel advisors, what are some of those pain points that keep on coming up for them?
Vanessa Saying a lot of the travel advisors that are trying to expand their transaction sizes. I mean, there's two camps, like legit travel Advisors just aren't. They're selling from their own pocket. And yes, the family that wants to go to Italy came to them with a budget of $15,000 for seven days, which is not going to go very far these days.
They don't know. But the travel advisor instantly thinks I have to work within that budget. But they're not asking enough questions to understand really what they want out of the trip experience. And then if they explain what's going on in Italy right now and what they actually need to have the vacation experience they want, and that they can put together what they requested.
But it's going to be more like 2020 5000. Chances are the client, because they trust the travel advisor and they understand that they're an expert, will stretch their budget. But the travel advisors sometimes get in their own way because they're selling from their own pockets. And they're just so in people pleasing, like, I have to make this $15,000 budget work that they don't even think about expanding their clients possibilities of what they could do outside of that.
So that's one camp. But then there's other camp that the client legitimately can't like more than $50,000. If that is the case, you have to be able to identify that quickly. As I tell my travel advisors, and then just tell them honestly and authentically, like, I would love to help you. Unfortunately, that's not a budget where I can be my highest service to because of the types of properties that I have, the relationships with, and the types of excursions that are vetted with, the guides that I know are going to give you what you're looking for.
I don't have the connections for that type of budget, so let me give you a few resources, or I refer you to another travel advisor, but I won't be able to assist you. So from the travel advisor perspective, coaching them on having the confidence to have those two different conversations is key. And I think the same could be true for other service providers.
Listening like you really have to identify. Is it a matter of the person that you're trying to explain the service to just not understanding what's possible, and that if they could stretch their budget, they would pay more? Or if it's legitimate, like they don't have more, and then you just have to be like, I can't be of service.
And then because when you let go of things of a lower nature, you make room for things of a higher nature. And if you're going to pound the pavement trying to make that budget work, it's not going to end well. It's just you're setting yourself up for failure because you're going to be feeling that. You're going to be working really hard on that, and then people just get disappointed and then you get disappointed.
So that's my advice. You just have to ask a lot of really great questions in that phase to really identify which path it is. Does that make sense?
Phoebe Yeah, I think that makes sense for even folks outside the niche as well too, especially as a service provider saying no to things that don't work for you. And yeah, I mean, how do we hold space for our clients and guide them in a helpful direction?
Vanessa So you are enough. And then when you do that, then it creates more room mentally for yourself to think about what are the audiences that you can put yourself in front of and what does that look like. And I will have that conversation with our travel advisors all the time. What do you want to sell? You want to sell the Galapagos family cruises?
You want to send somebody on an Arctic expedition? You want to send somebody to the Northern Lights. Okay. What is the budget for that trip? That's what's the best case scenario that somebody can check off everything they want to do to see the northern lights in Norway for two people, for the partner that you want to work with.
What are we talking here? Like 25,000? Okay. You want to fly them in business? Okay. So 30,000, whatever that price point is. And then you got to ask yourself, who is that client? Who is that client? Where do they shop? What do they consume? What cars do they drive? Where are they hanging out? What magazines do they read?
Who is this client? And then you got to put yourself in front of that client. So market the same way other goods and services that that client is consuming, you could align with those other companies so that you can be in front of that same client.
Phoebe Yeah, absolutely. And what are some of those avenues that folks are using to get in front of those clients? Are we talking ads? You're social media.
Vanessa It really just depends on what they're looking to market. I mean, we have advisors that will sponsor. I was just talking to one of our top producers yesterday about sponsoring a table at a charity event in her high net worth, affluent area in Alabama. And so she's going to partner with one of our cruise partners that's going to give away a cruise.
In exchange, she gets a table at a charity event where very wealthy people attend. So that's one way to get in front of that audience. You could partner with a real estate agent as well for various in-person events. You could do marketing in a community magazine, two particular zip codes. Direct mail still works very well. We have a lot of direct mail programs for virtual, so that convert because people open their beautiful travel and leisure style magazines and they're like, I want to do that exact trip to Napa that I saw in that magazine.
And then they call their travel advisor that something the magazine. So like any answer to any marketing question, it's not linear. And you can put yourself in front of that client in a variety of ways. Social media plays a role, for sure. Again, it depends like if you want that baby boomer retiree client with disposable income, you probably don't need to be on Instagram.
It just depends again, who your client is.
Phoebe Yeah, I think that's great advice. Do you have any travel tips, any like basic travel tips that you want to share with us?
Vanessa Basic travel tips? I think I shared before, which is in today's pack. Well, first of all, pack your patience. I think that's the biggest travel tip right now. There's a lot of disruptions going on right now that are completely out of your control. So just pack your patience. Get to the airport with plenty of time. If you are the kind of person that likes to just roll right in, I don't think that's a sound decision in today's environment, a lot of airports are bursting at the seams.
I would absolutely have a global entry. That is the travel tip. If you're waiting for Global Entry or haven't bought Global Entry, there's also a global passport, which is also extremely helpful. Now it's an app that you can download. So when you're coming back from an international destination, you can easily fill that you have to fill it out within like a couple hours.
So usually I do that when I've just landed at the airport, like I just did that in Philadelphia. You fill it out and if it's already saved and then it just submits and it's live for two hours, and then you can bypass a lot of lines with mobile passport. So you don't need global entry. But global entry is definitely more standard.
So you want global entry I would also invest in clear and global entry also comes with TSA PreCheck. If not you can just do TSA.
Phoebe And a lot of our credit cards support that.
Vanessa Right. They do like platinum. Gives a clear membership for the year as well as and also Global Entry I believe. So definitely there's some credit cards. Definitely choosing your credit card. My Amex Platinum also gives us access to obviously the Amex lounges, which are a little tricky these days because they're actually quite full. But now Chase is getting on board that bandwagon, so there's an opportunity there.
So just maximize your credit cards when it comes to those types of extra amenities. But my main thing is making sure that you've got different things to expedite the travel process in the airport, because that is the biggest point of stress right now for a lot of people is the airport experience. So anything that you can do to sort of minimize that, to help.
Wow.
Phoebe Yeah. And then any advice on the ground I mean, you've said excursions too, I don't know. Any advice for like finding the right activities for you.
Vanessa Use a travel advisor. Of course. That's my standard answer. The travel advisor will be able to have access to resources and connections that are just now Google level, and also authentic experiences that could really enhance the destination that you're visiting. Like, you might do a pasta making class with an actual family. You're not going to know about that on a Google search or TripAdvisor.
So if you want the standard run of the mill tour, then go online to the standard run of the mill website. If you want to know about that restaurant that nobody knows about, you want to know about that excursion or that guide, you got to work with a travel advisor that has again, the connections we did last summer.
My best private guided tour was at the Tower of London with my kids, my husband. We used a guide through a destination management company that specializes in family tours. So the company is called Family Twist. They don't work with the direct consumer, they just work with travel advisors. And the woman that did the tours was a schoolteacher, and she was amazing.
And I dragged my kids on a ton of tours last summer. But this tour, the way she brought the Tower of London to life, we would never have been able to replicate that with the guides that were there, dedicated for the Tower of London, and she made a huge difference and really made my kids love doing tours. Having the right connections can make the difference because if the kids aren't happy then it really sucks.
Yeah, so that would be my recommendation as well. Just to keep working with the travel advisor, let them know what you want. If the travel advisor isn't asking you enough questions and you're feeling like they're trying to just basically tell you what to do as opposed to listening to you and trying to guide you and collaborate with you on what the best experiences move to another travel advisor.
It's okay.
Phoebe And let's say you've planned a decent portion of a trip by yourself and just want like some extra assistance with activities. Are there travel advisors who help you with that?
Vanessa Yes, but be prepared to pay a service fee for that because a lot of those activities are not commissionable to the advisor. And so the only way that the advisor would be able to actually earn any kind of profit on their time that they're going to spend setting it up and researching and creating the itinerary and giving you access to their connections would mean that they would have to charge an upfront fee, versus if the hotel and everything else was booked as a package, for lack of a better word, the advisor is making commission from the hotel partner and other avenues, so the advisor also makes a commission off a service, not commission.
That's the wrong word. They also are making money from the trip on a service fee, depending on how complex that itinerary is. So if it's just going to be activities, then you would most likely be paying a fee. But yes, a lot. Some travel advisors would do that.
Phoebe That makes sense. As a travel advisor, how do you make your clients feel seen and special?
Vanessa Well, I think it starts in the intake process and just listening to the client, a lot of our gifted travel network advisors are using zoom now or the gifts of the pandemic. You can make your clients feel seen and special is by just listening and connecting with the client and letting them know that you genuinely care about ensuring that the trip is exactly what they want it to be.
And that is seamless from beginning to end, because you have to also remember that we often hear that the most exciting part of the trip is the moment you book the trip, and so you want to really capture that in the booking process. Or travel advisors will use video calls so that you can feel the energy of the advisor through that as well.
So that's another way that you can show that you care and show that you're taking care of them in addition to that, when the client is actually on the itinerary, traveling travel advisors will leave notes or they will leave gifts, or they will do check ins, or they'll be on like a shared WhatsApp, and they'll just be sending messages so you can be doing that.
I know travel advisors that will follow their clients on social media and then grab a photo that they saw their client pose and then use it to send to them when they got home. And like a frame or a card or just something to remember the trip by. Our travel advisors are now gearing up for the Thanksgiving season.
A lot of our advisors will do a gratitude campaign and send gifts to their clients regarding the destination, or if their client booked a big trip for like now. Coming up for the following year, they'll send packages to the family related to the upcoming trip. So if it's going to Italy, maybe balsamic and olive oils and something Italy related to get them excited.
So our travel advisors that gift to Travel Network are super creative and super thoughtful. They're very high touch. It's not transactional. They know their clients and they meet them where they are.
Phoebe I think that's really sweet and a good business technique too. I mean, how can you really support your client throughout the whole experience from that first touch point to the last touch point, to even past the package with those gifts and notes? Exactly, and building the excitement for the actual package? I mean, I think that translates to a lot of services, even a lot of product based businesses too, like how can you make your website for purchasing really exciting?
Like how is your package being sent to you? So I think that gratitude also goes a long way as well.
Vanessa Right? And it doesn't have to be this big investment in terms of money. You can find lots of ways to make your clients feel special, especially if you're in startup mode and you've got a limited budget. There are always ways to do a special touch point to make someone feel good without spending a lot of money.
Phoebe Any last advice for entrepreneurs who are building their business?
Vanessa Entrepreneurship is one big personal development boot camp. It is not linear. As you heard me say before, in relation to marketing, you're going to have highs and lows. And so learning how to navigate the peaks and valleys of the journey is critical. Taking care of your mental health and building strong mental muscle to not internalize and beat yourself up and hold on to things that didn't work out or didn't go as you planned, is critical.
If you are a perfectionist and need to control the conditions, you're going to be miserable. As an entrepreneur, you have to let all the doors you have to trust, you have to course correct, and you just have to embrace the journey. And then that's part of it. And if you are not doing that, you are resisting and basically fighting the current uphill all the time.
And that leads to burnout and exhaustion. You just have to let go and trust and know that things don't always work out the way they were meant to. Clients don't materialize the way you thought they were going to, but oftentimes I see entrepreneurs, not just travel advisors. I have a lot of friends that are entrepreneurs and other industries that they just internalize it and they hang on to it, and then it manifests physically in other ways.
So you've got to learn to make peace and to move through. And it's a process. And there's great joy in the entrepreneurial journey, but it is a mental muscle. And especially for those that came from an employee background, where they had a boss and they got reviews and they had to ask for permission and they had to put in their vacation days like that environment.
Know that the biggest shift is the mindset from being an employee to being an entrepreneur. And it's not like one day it clicks. It's not like one day you're like, okay, I'm done thinking like an employee now that keeps creeping up in lots of different ways. So just being self aware will help you on that journey.
Phoebe That's great advice. Okay Vanessa, this is then lovely. Where can folks find you for both travel services or if they want to take your course and dive into the travel world in that capacity?
Vanessa I would love to hear from your listeners so broadly. Of course, Gifted Travel network.com. You can click on the training tab and learn about our travel MBA program. This is our 12 month new to industry training program that if anybody is listening and you're thinking, wow, okay, I think I could do be a luxury travel advisor, I'm very well traveled.
I have a passion for it. I want to monetize it. So you can check out that program. Otherwise, if you're listening to this podcast and anything I may have said resonated with you, I'd love to connect with you personally. The best platform for that is LinkedIn, and you can find me on LinkedIn at Vanessa McGovern. Send me a connection request.
Let me know. You heard this podcast and I'd love to connect with you and learn about your business as well.
Phoebe Amazing. Okay. Thank you so much, Vanessa.
Vanessa Thank you.
Phoebe Thank you so much for listening to the Growing Craft podcast. Head to Grow Game craft.com/podcast for Shownotes and more. See you next time.