Part 2: Market Your Hosted Group, Find Travelers & Fill Your Waitlist

Hey there! Welcome to The No BS Travel Advisor. This is the solo edition. Just me, Marcie Muensterman, my mouth, my mistakes, and the real stories from 19 years in this wild-ass industry. There will be no guests here. No censorship, no filters, just the truth behind how I burned out, rebuilt, and finally learned to run this business like the CEO that I am. And if you're an independent advisor who suspects your host might suck, hate Hates working for free and appreciates a well-placed F-bomb, you're in the right damn place. So let's go. Hey everyone. Welcome back to the No BS Travel Advisor Podcast. I'm Marcie Muensterman, and it has been about a month since I did the Hosted and Escorted Groups Part 1 podcast, and I am back. It has been a little bit of a rough few weeks. I lost my entire Meta account and I still As of today, which is September 10th, do not have access to my Instagram and I'm in the process of figuring out what to do next. I cannot do much on Meta actually, but I do have my personal account back, which is 20 years old, and that is the only saving grace to the last few weeks. My executive assistant is in town and we have been working up some new fun things for 2027, including a brand new membership, super affordable. It's going to be $11 a month called The Spill, and I am so excited. If you want to be first in the know on these types of things, obviously listening to the podcast is a great way, but also making sure you're on my email list and never unsubscribe because otherwise you will not ever get any updates. And always whitelist me, check your settings and make sure that I am in your known contacts. And of course I have 2 Facebook groups. I have my brand new Maximize Hosted/Non-Hosted Groups Sales and Marketing for Travel Advisors and my 16,000-strong Maximize Your Travel Advisor Business: Building a Profitable TA Career groups. They are super active. We give great advice in those. And my hosted groups Facebook is going really well because there are a lot of other TAs who specialize who are in there helping everyone out. So it's not just my voice and my advice, which I really enjoy because My specialty is in fact hosted and escorted groups, and I come from a background of destination weddings. So we also allow destination wedding talk. It's a fun, easy way to get information and start to learn about hosted groups without big investments. My Lead the Manifest is underway and it is the hosted and escorted groups training that you absolutely need. We are in the middle of fall semester and spring semester 2027 is also coming up. Follow along and And soon I hope to have my Instagram back so I can get back into your stories and back into your lives a little bit more detailed. In the meantime, I have super crazy schedule with the kids. Jude's softball team won their first gold bracket tournament this past weekend, 18U. One of the things I took away from those games was just how resilient these young women have to be. And under pressure of being a very young 16U team, Playing up to 18U. We have 5 13-year-olds, 5 14-year-olds, and 2 15-year-olds on our team. And we always go into the tournament with an open mind, but what we usually find is we are very much the underdogs, or at least seen as the underdogs. And our record is not great as an overall last year record. So I do think the girls go in a little bit intimidated by women that are coming out to play against them. And there is It's like the sportsmanship is getting worse, not better, as we age up. I must live in an alternate universe where I make the mistake of assuming that all parents and coaches really do encourage sportsmanlike conduct before, during, and after games. And unfortunately, a couple of times over the last few months, we have experienced horrid behavior from teams that feel that they are so much better than us that they don't have to shake our hands, that they can mock and bully us on the field. And it is So hard to just sit there and watch that. And this past weekend, we got beat in the morning games, and they decided to have the whole tournament in one day. So in the afternoon, we came back and had to play the same teams that beat us in the morning, and our girls came out and won both games, winning the entire tournament. And if you've ever been to one of these tournaments, it's a long, long day. And in Florida, we always have lightning delays, so we were there about 17 total hours, and everyone was tired. But the end of tournament, you all go out on the field and you line up along the first base and third baseline. The moms come out, we take the photos, and the, the young women on both sides shake hands while they do ring ceremony. Like, they get these fancy blingy cheap-ass rings, but they're pretty, they sparkle. And this was the first time I've ever seen us win gold bracket, so I was super pumped for our team. And Almost half of their team opted not to shake hands with our team. And one gal even went out and around the line, did not come close to shaking hands. And it's not even really shaking hands. It's more like a short high five, like fingertip to fingertip. It's not like you have to stand there and shake someone's hand for X amount of seconds or something. I was really disappointed and embarrassed for the team that chose not to shake our hands. It is the most easy, honorable way to Say, hey, good game. And we have enough problems that that simple act of kindness shows integrity, and having integrity is more important than winning. And how you behave when you are down and out or when you are losing also really formulates how you're going to handle tough situations as an adult. And this coach and those parents are doing those young women a horrible disservice by allowing them to act like that and not coaching them to be better. I told the entire team actually that I would have made them stay and run laps and give their rings back to the SFP tournament director because we don't act like that. And I'm glad these things are happening to our girls because I want them to know how tough things can be and how incredulous people can be. And how integrityless people can be. One of the things I'm learning as an adult is those poor sports lead to poor behavior as adults. Even good people act ridiculous in competitive situations. So I'm glad that they're experiencing some of the shitty behavior now so that they can mentally prepare for everything as an adult. And learning how to be humble in winning. Which our girls are. They're very humble. They're excited to be there, but they're not like shoving their win down your throat. And it was such a good game. There was no reason for either team to feel undeserving of being there. They both played great games and very talented young women who played all day and were so tired and so over it. And we just persevered more. I saw them in a different light of wanting it just a little bit more. than the other team. And I think that is, again, a metaphor for life. They didn't give up after losing, and they came back as the lowest seed in the tournament, and they succeeded in beating the very teams that took those early day wins because those teams assumed they were going to win. And our girls know they have to hustle every game to win. And they know that they As individuals have to come together as a team. They don't play well when they're not being good teammates, when they're not showing up for each other. And when they do not dig into their grit, they do not have success. When they get out there and give it their all, despite what happened earlier in the day, we see a shift as parents, as spectators, we see that shift happen. And I've talked about this a little bit before in other podcasts. Just goes back to entrepreneurship. You can get knocked down, but you're not knocked out unless you choose to not get back up. And our girls get the fuck back up. I mean, they have had a long year of losing. And I texted the coach the next day because I just wanted to let him know I know he hates losing, and I'm a very competitive person. I hate losing. I told him, it is admirable how you show up for our girls and He's not perfect. He frustrates me, but he does do this every day, day in and day out with young women who aren't always easy and get very emotional. And he tries his best, but sometimes it just doesn't come together. And when it does come together, it is literally one of the most beautiful games of softball you've ever seen. And that's what they got to do last weekend in the second half of the day. And even in the first half when they were losing, they were playing well and they stayed with it. They didn't get slaughtered. But it was so much fun to watch them stay in it and show up for themselves in the afternoon and dig deep for those wins because they only won by one run in both games. And they had to hold those teams back with 2 outs, girl on third, she's about to come home and tie everything up. And it's like, we don't want to tie. We want to be done for the day. It's almost 11:00 PM. But when I texted him, I said, one thing I'm really proud of is our girls know how to lose. And if you can learn how to lose and show up for yourself the next day, that is genuinely what makes winners. And that's how I have seen this team grow into winners. They're not going to win every game from here on out. That's not the point. The point is they lost and lost and lost in the spring and started learning how to win in the summer. And by fall, we're winning whole-ass tournaments, not just one game a day or One inning, the whole tournament. And that's what I want for you in every sector of your business. I want you to show up when you are most down. And that has to come from within. That has to come from grit. That has to come from wanting this career in travel more than you care about what other people think and more than your fear of failure. If our girls gave up early, They would not have won those games. If they chose to take all those losses that they had in the spring and let them affect this game, this brand new 0-0 game, they would not win games. We have to keep pushing forward and look to the future. We call it improving 1%. This is a new thing I've been seeing on Instagram and sports. I follow a lot of volleyball and softball coaches and recruiters, and the thing that they're looking for is 1% progress, not 150%, not double everything they've ever done. 1%. If every person on your team is 1% better than they were last week, that is going to add up really quickly. If you show up to your business and choose to be 1% better or know 1% more than you did yesterday, that shit is going to add up over time. And that is what ultimately makes a winner. In business. It doesn't mean you're never going to lose or make a mistake ever again. It doesn't mean that one of your ideas isn't going to flop. Trust someone who has a lot of fucking ideas that never ever fruit to anything, but you keep having ideas. You keep choosing to learn more, to grow, to listen to this podcast. What are you taking away? Take 1% away from this and become better than you were yesterday. Learn how to focus on what matters. Stay in your lane. Be respectful of your competitors. Appreciate your competitors. Appreciate what they do differently from you. That's what I have to do when I have copycats out there. I have to just say, well, they could never be me and I'm 1% better than I was yesterday. So there's no way anybody could replace what I do the way I do it for my aligned clients, whether they're travel advisors or people who travel. And if you can Do that with integrity and grace, not perfection, integrity. Your business will thrive over time. But we can't expect to have and see success without practice, without learning. I often see Jude's teammates who don't come to practice every single day. They're not improving. I know they're not throwing balls every single night. I know they're not going to the batting cages outside of when the coach tells them to go. And you can tell that they are not getting 1% better. And in many cases, they don't improve at all, or they actually appear to be worse. When you do not practice, when you do not do the work of learning something new, a different way, or you do not do the repetitive, boring work every day, it's very hard to get better in your business. So the stuff that puts us to sleep, the stuff that we think we're already good enough at, That we don't need to learn more about. When we get to that place where we're like, I'm good, I don't need to learn that. I already know how to do that. I don't need to practice. I don't need to automate. I don't need to make that easier on myself. Whatever it is, get your shit together. The basic foundation of everything we have to do has to remain stable. And sometimes that needs maintenance. And when you're thinking about hosting a group of your own and going on a travel with me trip. Where you're going to bring people, your foundation has to be firm. We talked about that in part one, all your legal stuff, all of your CRM automations, everything needs to be set up correctly to maintain a streamlined, seamless experience for your guests and for yourself. But then what? How are we going to sell this? Who are we selling it to? How do we quote unquote convince people to join us? What is the situation with marketing? What happens with the participation? What if we get somebody we don't like on the trip? There's all these what-ifs. And I will tell you, I live and love inside the what-ifs. I prefer to not know what's going to happen when I start something new, when my idea is fresh. That's where the big dreams come in. That's where the manifestations of how I want this to go and how I hope it goes. But at the end of the day, hope is not a strategy and we can want every day, but doesn't mean that's what's going to happen. We can only control what we can control. One of the main pieces of group travel, regardless if it's hosted, non-hosted, even destination weddings, is understanding how to communicate what you are including and how to market it in a way that people can't imagine themselves not there. Obviously with weddings, there is an invitation list that goes out. Back in 2006, 2009, 2010, 2014, when I was still doing a lot of destination weddings, I used to tell my couples, you can count on about 35 to 40% of your guest list even considering this, just considering it because you have to go sell it to them. And I didn't use the word sell, but I, I said, you have to make sure they understand what they're getting at this wedding besides your nuptials. And of course you always have those definite people coming no matter what. They're coming because it's a wedding. These are their people. But that extended list of second tier level guests may not want to come for multitudes of reasons. And so you have to have a place to go to answer all their questions and to be available and to make it fucking easy for them, but that doesn't mean it's easy for you, especially as the travel advisor who wants to bring people on trips. The sales and marketing piece has to be on fucking point and so consistent. And I have been telling you in the group, but you have to do 12 to 32 times more marketing than you really want. So that requires you to start marketing this before you even have all the details. It's almost like You get engaged and you tell people you're engaged and they're like, well, what are you doing? When is your wedding? Where are you getting married? Are you doing it in a church or are you doing it outside? Are you renting a venue or are we going in someone's backyard? Like the questions start to come and the couple usually says things like, we're just in the beginning stages. We're doing some research and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. But we think it's probably going to be about 11 to 15 months from now. So if it's September of '26, it'll probably be next fall or even pushed into the following spring. You give general answers, right? When you don't have the exact dates, when you don't know what the plan is. And that is what I teach in LTM. I teach you to market this idea. Well before the details, before you know anything. And if you can become good at marketing something you don't know is going to happen for sure, and do so with confidence, even when it doesn't happen, even when you have to change, when you have to pivot, when you have to say, you know what, that idea just didn't flesh out. There's no harm, no foul. There's no money collected. There's no reservations made. So why does it matter? Well, I don't want to be embarrassed. I don't want to say something I'm doing and then I don't do it. Who cares? Who cares? Not to mention, I have a feeling if this idea is just in your head and you can't get it out, it will happen. It's just when will it happen and where will it happen and how much will it cost? Those things are the minutia and logistics that you have to go research and develop and figure out. But if you're willing to start talking about this slowly at first and then ramp it up as you get into the details, You will be able to sell out your trips, but you have to maintain your own excitement, your own feelings of discomfort in all of your marketing. You have to like push through that discomfort and continue to share the same information in the same level of excitement over and over and over as often as possible, as often as you are willing to talk about it, especially in social media. And a lot of you do not like to repeat yourselves and you do not like to create similar content. But when it comes to selling out your group trip, you have to push it out way more than you want to. It takes that 12 to 32 times of seeing something, having a seed planted, even slowing them down before they're really going to show any kind of interest. And the more you're willing to talk about it, those quiet in the background lurkers that hang out in your group or watch you on your personal profile or check your stories, but they maybe don't even follow you, will start to get interested, whether they're nosy or they genuinely are like, what is she doing? I want to come on that. That sounds kind of cool. You have to keep doing it. You have to keep talking about it. And one of the things I specifically teach is marketing it well before you even know when it's happening or where it's happening. And a lot of people don't like this because they want to be able to share details, but teasing something out and also litmus testing your market, your audience, your following is so important. In 2026, 2027, and probably. It's so important because it allows you to garner interest without committing to something. A lot of you just jump in full body. For those of you who don't overthink, you just get in the deep end of the pool and you block the space and you hope it sells out, but you don't know how to market it and you didn't litmus test your audience. If you do not know if your network is big enough to support a group trip, start smaller. You don't have to sell 50 cabins on a cruise. You can sell 5 rooms at an all-inclusive, or maybe you choose to invite people on a trip you've already got planned and everything is quoted at the time that they get with you. Maybe that's how you dip your toe into group travel versus trying to find said quote unquote Pied Piper. Somebody asked me in the group today why I don't like that term. I just think it's stupid. I, it's a dumb term. It's old-fashioned. It's overused. And I, I just don't like it. And what would I call it instead? A group leader who knows how to sell their own trip. That's, that is the definition of Pied Piper. But I would say the majority of millennials and Gen Zers are not even going to know what that is. I would love to see the term Pied Piper retired. Obviously I don't control the market on that, but instead of expecting other people to build your group's business, I really push for building it yourself within your own network. And that means starting small for many of you. If you don't have 20 years of networking behind you like I do, you're going to have to put yourself out there and it's still going to take time before you feel comfortable. If you just go out and block space and decide, hey, if I build it, they will come. They might, but not if you don't market it all the time and not if it doesn't make sense in your business. Some people want to build something they think their audience will want. And we have really got to remember, if you're trying to sell something you don't even like to do, You're not going to sell it well. So you have to be excited all the time when you're selling a group trip, whether it's somebody else's group trip that they just need your help filling it, or whether you are hosting your own group trip and this is your first go at it. You have to have a network that is interested in what you are planning. And I teach a you-centric groups course. It's all about what you like, how you like to travel, what kinds of things you want to do on this trip. I am a food and wine lover. I could go to Italy every six months, and I could sell out small groups because I am so passionate and I want other people to experience that. Right? But I'm not out here trying to sell off fifty spots on a cruise because you're not going to catch me on a cruise ship. And if I do a cruise ship, it's not going to be a ten thousand person cruise ship where I lose track of all my guests. That's not the right trip for me. That doesn't mean it's not the right trip for you, but that. That's also not you-centric. You also need to understand what it is you want to design in your business. I am less people, more income. I don't want to have to sell 40 or 50 cabins to make $20,000. I want to make $20,000 off of 10 people in a small group. That is a personality thing too. I don't want to be around 10,000 people. You have to know what kinds of groups You want to do. You can do both. You can do both if that's your jam, but you have to understand your audience before you can roll out a group trip. Some of you are brand new at travel and you're like, I want to do groups. I know that's what I want to do. Unless you have a network that trusts you immediately, it is very challenging to sell group space. I see it every day. The agents will get their space and they're so excited and they had a couple of people tell them they want to go on a cruise and they would rather go with them, and so they pull 20 cabins out and then crickets. They told me they wanted to go. I blocked all this space. I put money down. Now what? Did you really understand that 2 people or even 10 people being interested is not enough to fill up 20 cabins? Why not start with 5 cabins? Why do we think of groups as only large? For those of you who are already doing groups, you know that having an audience that's interested is different than having an audience that books, that puts a deposit down, that actually wants to travel. And getting people to want to travel requires building a lot of trust and being somebody that they look to as an expert, not even in groups, but just in the things you're selling. That's why being an expert in a specific niche really can pay off when you decide you want to branch out into group travel. Because if you have been going like me to Italy for many years now, and then you're suddenly like, you know what, I think I want to take some people to Italy with me. Would y'all come? And you've been doing it for at least 5 years and they've been following all your journeys with your partner or your family. They're going to go, you know what? She knows what she's fucking doing over there. And I do want to go to Italy. And even if you choose to go somewhere else besides Italy, you are so comfortable with the navigation. of European travel that it doesn't really matter what you pick. Even if you haven't been there, people will go with you because there is a trust level built there that you have this foundation already in place and the marketing has already been going for 5 years. But if you're just getting started, it's really hard for people to believe that you know what you're doing. Even if you yourself has been a traveler for many years, being a travel advisor is not the same thing. Taking people with you. Not the same thing. Can you do it? Absolutely, you can. You're capable. But do people trust you? I don't know. Have you built that trust in your marketing? Have you overshared? Have you been selfish with what you share? Because if you have been selfish, you're not trustworthy. If you gatekeep information from your following because you're afraid they're gonna go book it themselves, you are not trustworthy. Litmus test your audience. Make sure they know what it is you do. Make sure they respect what you do. And that takes time to build. Once you have a foundation of consistent marketing of your travel business in whatever platform you choose, whether it's email, social media, networking in person, volunteering in your community, these are all ways to get your name out. Then find out if you have a following that wants to travel in a group because group travel is extremely dynamic. Putting people together in a smaller space, those dynamics can be really challenging to manage. Somebody asked, how do you make sure everyone going are people you enjoy? The main piece of this comes from the marketing, making sure your following and audience knows who you are. As a human being, not just as a travel advisor, most of my following knows more about me than just quote unquote the travel piece. Most people know how I vote. They know if I'm religious, they know I have teenagers and not toddlers. They know I've been married for 20 years. They know I am hyper committed to 2 businesses. They know I work limited hours. They know I have boundaries. They know I used to be a workaholic. They know how I fucking show up too. They know that they can message me at any time and I'll get back to them when I can. They know I will tell them the truth. I am a direct communicator. I do not hide who I am from my aligned audience and my aligned audience books into my groups because they know I'm high maintenance. They know I like nice things. So they know if they book into a group of mine, they're going to get to experience the very travel I show them all the time. I used to be addicted to all-inclusive resorts. I was a huge Sandals fan for years, and I went to every single Sandals property multiple times a year. So back then I sold a lot of Sandals. If I had hosted a group trip back then to Sandals, I would've been able to fill up my space because that's what my audience saw. That's what they knew about me. And they also knew I didn't sell certain Sandals resorts. Because I didn't like them. I've always been super honest and transparent about what I do and do not like, and what I do is tell you the truth so that you can decide if you want to come with me on something like that. So when I decided to do a travel with me group to a place I'd never been, by the way, I knew I could sell it because I'd built something that was meaningful to other people. And I was going to show them something that I knew they would love if I was really excited about it. And even though I had never been there, they knew they could trust that whatever happened, I had their fucking back. So the right people have to be following you and watching you, even if they're not commenting, and know that no matter what, you've got them. You're not gonna let them down. Even if shit hits the fan, you're gonna be honest about it. You're gonna tell the truth and you're going to say, this is what we're going to do to fix it. I will always make sure that it gets made right. I can't control airlines. I can't control weather, but I can control how I handle when bad shit happens, right? If you do not exude confidence in how you handle things, no one is ever going to book any kind of vacation with you. They're definitely not going to book into a group trip. Make sure they know that you know what you're doing. And that whether or not, and that they can count on you to be there for them. That is all in how you communicate your business and your life with them. The more you're willing to dig into your personal branding, the more people can trust you. The more they see your face, the more they know that you drink Diet Coke from McDonald's in the car line. And that you really hate helping your child with math homework, the more they will trust you with their business. The more they would be willing to consider you for a vacation, any kind of vacation. The other part of groups is not everybody wants to travel with people they don't know. So they have to be able to trust that the people you attract are similar to them. They have to trust that the information and the way you're sharing is bringing a specific type of person into that group. That absolutely matters. Matters to a lot of people. People don't want to be a burden either. They don't want to bother anyone with their own ailments. They have mobility issues. They have a gluten allergy. They get motion sick. They're a little bit older. They're not sure if they can handle all the walking. Having one-on-one conversations with potential group guests is how you determine what their real hesitation is when it's not timing and it's not money. Finding the right people requires very, very specific conversation that you're having one-on-one. One in DMs or on the phone or on the Zoom and in the marketing. They need to know that three times in this week in Europe, they're going to walk 18,000 steps. They need to know that many places do not do gluten-free, but if you are gluten-free, I will do my best to find food for you before you go so that you can properly prepare. Unless you don't want to do that, and then you say this would not be a gluten-free. Friendly type of trip, then you're honest about it in your marketing. You need to make sure the people you don't want on the trip hear what they need to hear to not come on the trip. And the people that do hear that are like, oh, that is for me. And they raise their hand to a hell yes, I want to go on this trip. Whenever you guys are talking about your group trips up the Peru mountains and Cotswold 132-mile trek, I'm like, holy shit, keep that away from me. I would never. Once you do get into the planning, the more they will weed themselves out. Even if they get on your waitlist, as you start to get those details, you start talking about the bits and parts that will keep people in and excited and weed out anyone who does not align with that trip. And it's not a perfect thing, right? Because a lot of us attract people who we end up not enjoying. That's just part of having attractor factor. In sales, you attract a lot of people to you that maybe you don't 100% align with. That's very common. You are the leader. You have to lead yourself in grace and integrity. And if you attract people who you don't like, you're not doing enough. You're not explaining yourself well. They're getting to know a side of you that's not necessarily fake, but that is keeping them just Interested without realizing that maybe you all don't mesh because you're not willing to go all in on the personal branding. So it will happen. You will attract people who end up not meshing with the group, not meshing with you, and that is a risk you take with every group, even when you are 100% honest. And I swear I told them this 50 times and they still complained about it. Someone in our group mentioned that she planned a Cruise trip, and one of the clients going got the best location of the room, the largest cabin on the ship, and was still bitching because the AC was not to her liking. But the AC was just the AC. And you know, some of us asked like, did she know it was going to be like that? And she swears she told them. But the thing is, is when it's something like that that could piss people off, if you don't tell them enough, if you don't repeat it multiple times, seven to ten times, especially in the emails leading up to the trip, in the advertising of the. Trip, in the pre-trip call, if you don't mention it, the expectations are off. And that is also going to cause problems with the groups. Those of us that have been to Europe in the summer know that AC is working overtime and it is not like North American AC. That whatever they're doing over there, it doesn't pump the air and they don't turn it way down like they do here. So those types of expectations have to be in the marketing. You need multiple ways of marketing when you are doing a group trip. I specifically utilize my private Facebook group space and email. I also text my people that I want to come on all my group trips. I send a text out to my favorite clients, to my favorite friends. So if I'm doing a couples trip, I will make a list of me and Eric's couple friends that I love the most, even if they've never traveled with me. And I will send them a text, hey, I am planning a group trip here next year for couples. Would you be interested in being on the waitlist? I want you to get first dibs. And I make an invitation list just like a wedding for stuff like that, because I do want to travel with people I like. And then I always tell them, hey, if you have any friends that are like us, maybe they would want to come. And my little groups business starts to expand. My very first all women's group, I had friend on friend on friend invited. So my first friend would get in. I texted her and was like, you are not going to want to miss this trip. She's a solo. She reached out to a couple of her friends. And they joined. And now those friends have invited friends on our next group trip. And that's how you grow. That's intentional invitations. Make that list and invite them first before you put it on social media. Ask them, hey, would you guys be interested in doing something like this with me and my partner? If they're like, oh no, we don't do group travel, blah, blah, blah. We don't like a lot of people. Say, okay, well, would you ever consider 10 to 12 people. That's how you figure out what kind of group trip you want to go on to. Find out what your people, the people you enjoy the most working with, what do they want to do? And if they're just like hard pass on anything group, okay, cool. I'm going to ask somebody else, but it all comes down to really knowing your aligned avatar for each group trip you're doing. And most of my people are very similar to me. My most aligned avatar in everyday travel is me. And then my most aligned group trip person that I communicate with is a lot like me, even if they're bringing their partner or their mom or their sister or their friend. And then I create all of my marketing to pique her interest and it eliminates a lot of people. I know certain things are not going to align with certain people. That's why when I am launching classes for you, I let you know who this is for and who this is not for. I do that very specifically so you can see yourself in one of those columns. That way, you know if this is the right thing for you, especially with Lead the Manifest, my hosted and escorted groups framework. It is not for every single travel agent. So on my sales page, it has who this course is for and who it's not ready. It's just saying these are my most successful people and these people typically wash out. So you have to be willing to read that and witness yourself in that. In my groups, I call out who it is for. I'm very specific and you guys find your way to me. When you are watching me market, take notes. Every post, every conversation in the chat, every single comment I make comes down to educating and aligning with the right person for that specific thing. That is exactly how you have to do this in groups. Target your aligned client, text your aligned client, email your aligned client. You will still have unaligned people in your spaces. You will have people trying to copycat what you're doing. You will have people steal your marketing ideas. You cannot care. You have to keep moving forward with your people. Your people will recognize the copycats. Your people will recognize if you're the right person for them. That's just how business works. And I know this is the hardest part because you guys talk about it constantly, but building that network, expanding beyond friends and family, asking for the referral, that is sales. That's how we get more people into our space who may be interested in what we're doing. Whether it's FIT or it's groups, or maybe you want to be a destination wedding specialist, then you need to get into those circles with people who are getting married. You need to connect with that generation of up-and-coming couples. And that means you might have to ask your current network for help. Grow your network 1% next week. Grow it the week after that. Grow it the month after that. A year from now, you have a larger network. A more trusting network because you've consistently been growing it and having those conversations and marketing to them, building up expertise and trust by showing up the way you want them to show up for you. So even when they're quiet, you still show up. Even when no one is commenting, you show up. You comment on your own posts. You boost your own posts with funny GIFs like nobody commented. So I'm just here saying hi again. You answer honestly. You don't gatekeep. You tell people, follow me, I'll tell you all the things. You hold loosely and you will grow. The tighter you hold on to your knowledge and keep it close to your chest, the less trustworthy you are. The less of an expert you will be seen as, and the less people will book travel with you. Marketing and networking are how you grow, and information and education and being yourself is how you build trust. When you combine those 2 things, you can do whatever you want in your travel business, including selling out group trips that you host where you take them someplace you love and you're passionate about, because that is how you share. And that is how we sell better, is by being excited and so pumped and so passionate about what we're doing. And as long as they get it, they will consider booking Of course, other things are going to keep them from coming— money, dates, those types of things— but they're always going to be watching you. You can continue to build your group's waitlist so they are always first in the know. So having a general waitlist and building that email list so they get to be first in the know for everything you're doing, then you also can create very specific trips for very specific following. The other thing is you just have to get uncomfortable. You have to talk about it way, way more. And so the more I say that, the more I feel like you'll get it. It's like, trust that I do this and trust that the more you're willing to put your face on something, put your face and name out there with what you're doing, the more likely over time people will join you. The last thing I'm going to say about this is for today is when I plan a group trip for myself, I Promise myself I'm going to go, even if no one else joins me. And then while I am there, I am going to create as much FOMO and sadness that they did not come, that they want to come on the next thing I plan. So something that looks or feels like failure is not failure if you can turn it into opportunity. And your brain has to do that. That's a, that's a rewiring of your brain. Now, if you need them all to go so you can get a free stay, I get that. And you may not be able to do this, but that's why I always tell people, have $10,000 in the bank for your trip so that you get to go and use that time to grow your following. Market the shit out of what you want to do and tell them how much they missed out on it, that you want them to go next year. The more you're willing to show up for them, even when they are quiet or aren't sure what you're doing, the more trust you will build. Networking and marketing. That will attract the right people to you as long as you put your all into it. It's like a full-time second job to your travel business. I hope this helped. I really want you to have successful groups, and I want you to consider joining me in the spring for Lead the Manifest, the hosted groups framework. It will be up on my website very soon, and just keep an eye out on your email. It is literally almost 6 full months of commitment. But it is so powerful and life-changing, and it's so much more than your generic, boring, everyday groups classes. We go into so much mindset work. I give you all the marketing your brain can handle. I have an email expert come in. I have an Instagram expert come in, and I personally give you 4 months of Facebook group content for all future groups that you do. I teach you repeatable processes to attract amazing guests into your group trip. And I am there for you literally for the 12 to 14 week stretch every single day, even on Sundays. Sometimes you'll have direct access to me. You can ask me anything you want. I never gatekeep. Like if you have a question, I tell you the truth. Do not jump into groups until your business foundation is firm and until you are ready to put yourself out there in the most uncomfortable Have a great day, y'all. Bye. Hey y'all, this is the end of another No BS Travel Advisor podcast. Thank you so much for listening. I am Marcie Muensterman and I am not your lawyer. I am not your accountant. That is my disclaimer. I am a coach and mentor with 20 years of sales experience. And if you love this episode, please leave me a 5-star review because it means so much to me. Much to me. If you have any questions, you also know you can hit me up in the DMs at any time. All right guys, love you. Bye!