What Travel Advisors Are Really Selling (It’s Not the Trip)

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 friends, welcome back to the No BS Travel Advisor Podcast. I am Marcie Muensterman and it is February already. I live just outside of Tampa and it has been super duper cold, record breaking. It was 28 degrees when I got up this morning, well below freezing for us. And of course, Being a northerner, you would think I could handle this, but it is just a different kind of cold, especially when it was like 80 degrees less than 2 weeks ago. So I am all cozy up in my new Valentine's sweater, and I am so excited to be back this week with you. Today is going to be one of those episodes where I tell you the truth that I really wish someone had told me sooner. That's pretty much every week, right? But I don't want to scare you. I'm not here to shame you, but I think that we need to talk about something in our industry that no one actually likes to admit to themselves. I want to talk about the fact that we are in sales, but we are not selling what you think we are selling. Most of you think you're selling travel. Most of you think you have chosen a niche and you are in a situation where you have to figure out these resorts and these destinations and where the best beaches and what kind of tours they can take. But in fact, that is absolutely not what you are selling. You are selling you, you sitting in that car right now, taking that walk right now, drinking that coffee right now. And until you really take ownership of that, things are always going to be harder than you expect. It's not something that your host or even your travel agency owner who's been doing this for 20 years is going to say. On the first day. They don't say it. They never say it. You think you're selling honeymoons. You think you're selling bucket list trips, but you're not. You're selling you. And that is probably why it feels hard right now. It is probably why you are so busy, but you're not making the money you thought you would. Even the clients you do have that you love, or maybe you don't love them and you're secretly resentful. This is the episode for you. Sales is what we do as travel advisors. It doesn't have to be gross, but we need to realize that just because you don't want to say you're in sales, or just because you prefer not to talk about the fact that you're in sales, doesn't mean that you are in sales. So embracing the fact that you are in sales is going to be huge after today. Being proud of the fact that you are a salesperson, that being a travel advisor means making connections and building relationships that last a lifetime for some people. That is something incredible to behold and be a part of. And yes, you're making memories and you are offering white glove service, but you first have to make sure people know who you are, why you are here. And how you are different. Most of us did not necessarily get into travel because we dreamed of funnels and CRM systems and qualifying questions. In fact, we got into travel for many reasons, but most of the time when I talk to you, it is because you love to— wait for it. No, no, no, no, no. Wait for it. You love to travel. For those of you who specialize in Disney, I hear this all the time. I'm already doing it for my friends and family. They already ask me so many questions. I already do this all the time. I love to plan my own Disney vacations. So why not become a travel advisor? You love that planning. You love that helping. You love to get on a plane and go somewhere with your family, with your partner, with your friends. The excitement of those moments of packing up and going away and enjoying these experiences. We love that feeling and the idea of being a part of someone's story, especially Especially if they come back from that trip that you didn't get paid to do and say, oh my God, we did everything you said and it went so well. Will you help us plan the next one? You should become a travel advisor. How many of you sitting there are like shaking your head right now? Like, yes, that's what happened. Somewhere along the way, someone said you should sell travel. You should be a travel advisor. You would make a good travel advisor. Have you thought about planning Disney before? Have you thought about trying to make money doing this? Why not make 10% commission on every trip you sell and pay for your own travel? These are just things you either see online or you have been planted because your friends and family have asked for your help and you just do such a good job. What they didn't say was, hey, you're starting a sales and marketing business because that is what has happened. There is not a point in any time for most of us where someone sat us down and said, you're starting a sales and marketing business. You will be responsible for generating your own leads. And even if they do tell you, you'll have to get your own leads, they immediately follow it with, but your friends and family will probably support you. Right? We've all heard that before. Start with your friends and family. I was actually on a large host website this morning. Because I was thinking about this sales piece and I was looking at some of the host agency websites and to see if sales training was listed, how to actually close a sale. Is it anywhere in the advertisement? Is it anywhere in the FAQ? And let me tell you the truth. There was one that says 10,000+ advisors onboarding 50 a day or something crazy. And there's zero mention of being in sales on any part of their website, on any part of it. And it is a very bougie-looking host that has ads for days. They specifically advertise that you can do this job from anywhere. You can use writing— sorry, you can go to the beach with your laptop and sit there and make money and write it off. Why anybody wants to be on the beach with their laptop, I have no fucking clue. I don't. But the point I'm trying to make is their ads are really emotional. Right? Are you a mom who's looking for a flexible income? Yes. We're all moms looking for a flexible income where we can work from home or quote unquote from the beach. But nowhere does it say that you are going to spend the majority of your time marketing to create a sales business, that you will need to communicate your value constantly. You will have to figure out your own boundaries because They're not going to teach it to you. And you will need to create a sales process that actually works, that is consistent, that provides your prospects with the exact information to know what is next. That is why so many of you are overwhelmed. You got into it because somebody said you'd be so good at it and you will be good at it. I really believe that once you get the right training. Once you have the right mentors, once you have the right systems and workflows in place. Otherwise, you're going to keep spinning your wheels. You're going to be dealing with tire kickers. You're going to be handling ghosted DMs because no one has ever actually told you and explained to you how you sell yourself, how selling yourself is actually the most important aspect of what we do every single day. And it is actually why you are listening to me Right now, no one has ever explained the whole ass job to you. And even when they do, let's say you're out there listening and you are somebody who has explained what we do to your travel advisors, to the people who you've partnered with as independent contractors. You've explained it, but they're still not getting it. I would just ask you, have you said the words, you are selling yourself, you have to market yourself, you are the brand, you are the face? And until that face and the energy you bring is well-liked, I mean, really liked and trusted, it is going to make this job that much harder, that much more difficult. Because no matter what, doesn't matter where you go for real sales training, sales experts like me are going to keep repeating that the like, know, trust factor is never outdated. There's a lot of things in sales that are outdated, but the like, No, trust factor is not fucking outdated. It will never be outdated. None of us really want to buy things from people we don't like. I recently bought brand new furniture, and if anybody has been into a furniture store lately, it is still very old school. It is very similar to a car dealership. They have salespeople who are waiting by the door to follow you around as soon as you step through the door. This is at Ashley, Haverty's. There's a new grocery store. Geez, you guys. There's a brand new furniture store in Wesley Chapel called El Dorado. There are salespeople everywhere. And so we chose Haverty's this time and we've never actually bought anything from there, but I've checked out their website. I know they have really quality level products and I wanted something that was easy, right? Because I'm not great with interior design and we're kind of just making some updates. And to be frank, I I have never ever bought a furniture set, a living room furniture set in my adult life as a set. Like I've, I've bought pieces here and there and I love like an old consignment furniture store. I have so many pre-owned pieces that I have either bought from Marketplace or I just have found in some of these consignment shops around Tampa. And I just love to put things together in that way. And honestly, I've never really had the financial means To go into a furniture store and purchase a couch, a loveseat, a chair, 2 end tables. I have never really had the ability to do that. And we just got done with our bathroom renovation and it just feels like the rest of my house now looks like shit. I don't know if anybody ever feels that way. Like you do this beautiful renovation and then you're like, well, great. Now I have to work on other parts of my house. But this has been something that Eric and I have been talking about for a while. Even though I know the salespeople are going to be right there at the door, I often just assume they're going to leave you alone, but they don't. So we go in, she immediately comes over, introduces herself, tells us, you know, where everything is, and then kind of sends you off. But she's not far behind. Teresa was never very far behind. And at first I was annoyed because I'm like, I'm just looking. I don't want to be bothered. As much as I appreciate the sales piece, I want to still have that time. to explore the store. We started sitting on some things and started looking at a few different pieces. And of course she was right there to start selling me. She is a go-getter. And I think in that industry, you have to be a go-getter and you have to know your product. But I don't think that you immediately focus on yourself. And therefore I didn't like her at first. I didn't know anything about her. There's no real time to get to know her. She doesn't really do that. She jumps right into telling you about the couch, about the chair, whatever it is. She sits down with you. She starts pushing buttons because all the couches now have buttons on them. And I'm like, okay, okay. But like, we're just looking right now. And I wish she took some time to tell us a little bit more about herself. I would prefer to get to know this person. Now, over time she wore me down. She started making some jokes and getting her personality out there, and I realized I do like her. I basically told her I was gonna buy a couch that did not match the loveseat, and she kind of lost it. She was like, oh, you can't do that. And I was like, well, I can. And this was not where I thought the conversation was gonna go, but it ended up going in a direction that made me laugh so fucking hard that I was like, oh my God, I love this lady. It was like 45 minutes into the shopping experience before I really saw who she was. And I did not like her until just then when she got really anxious about the mere idea that I was not going to buy a set, that I was thinking about this leather couch and this cloth loveseat. She was like, they don't even have the same arm design. And I had no idea what she was fucking talking about. And then she showed me and I was like, oh, I get that. But I still kind of like this idea. And she's like, it's not a good idea. It's going to mess with your guests. I was like, I don't really have guests. Maybe once every 3 months. My mom doesn't count as a guest, but her anxiety was so high that she was just like, I just can't let you do that. I'm, I'm not going to let you do that. And I was like, this is what I'm talking about. I want some opinions. I want you to say something that means something to me. Not to mention it really showed who she was a little bit. And so then we started kind of like laughing and joking around and things got a little bit more comfortable. And by the end, we were spending all the money on a set. And she said, you can absolutely buy a leather chair to go with your set. Of course she doesn't mind that. But it was just this experience of like, in my opinion, it went backwards. I really think there should be opportunities for car salesmen, furniture salesmen to share themselves sooner. I know that they're trying to sell the piece. I know they're trying to sell their product. I know they work on commission, but like, I don't want to buy something from somebody I do not know and do not like. So I want there to be an opportunity. to meet in the middle somewhere and get a little bit of your personality. Tell us a little bit more about you and your experience and why you think you're the right person to sell this to me. Buying something, especially thousands of dollars worth of something, the investment is so high. You want to be spending your money with somebody that you genuinely can get along with. When it comes to travel, especially because you work with your clients for anywhere from 2 months to 24 months. You want to also like your clients. You want to attract the aligned client to you. The only way you're going to start attracting aligned clients is by showing those aligned clients who you are upfront. And there's a lot going on politically in our world right now. And there's a lot out there that you get to show yourself. And some of you choose not to participate. In politics or in oversharing your stories. And what I can tell you is it's holding you back. It's holding you back from meeting the right people to come into your life. And I'm not saying you have to just put everything out there, all your business, all your shit. No, you don't have to. You don't have to talk about politics. But if you choose to, you will absolutely alienate those people Who you don't align with. And it is a huge blessing, in my opinion, to know where everybody stands on certain issues right now. So for me, I don't care if people don't like that I talk about politics. It's part of who I am. I've been marching in protests and standing up and like helping my aunt win city council since I was 8 years old. It is a deep part of my history. It's a part of who I am now. And on top of that, I also share I'm a parent and here is some of my parenting stories. And I'm married for 19 years next week, you guys, 19 years I've been with my husband. I never even wanted to get married when I was younger. And here we are. You and the things you stand for and the passions you have and your life experiences now and previous to this moment in time are important to people. They want to know who they are spending thousands of dollars with. On this vacation. Now, some people might say, oh, I don't care about that. I don't care about that. She just needs to get me a good deal. Are those your people? Ask yourself if all your people care about right now is a good fucking deal. Do they even know what you really do, who you really are, or who you really want to be as this travel advisor? Because if all they want from you is a good deal and that's all the energy you have ever put into your marketing, then that is all you're ever going to get out. That is all anyone is ever going to refer. If you price match to beat the lowest price that they can find, why would they not refer you to other cheapskate tire-kicking assholes? What you put out in your marketing, who you show people who you are— that didn't really make sense, but you know what I'm saying? Like, what you put out in your marketing, what you talk about in your marketing, how you share yourself is part of your marketing. And that is then going to build connection with the people watching, with the people lurking in your group, with the people who accidentally come across your Instagram. I have been in sales my entire life. What does that mean? Well, I have been in sales since I was 7 years old. When my, when I was a kid, my dad had a huge garden. We were one of the only ones in our neighborhood with a garden, and he had an excessive amount of vegetables every summer, especially the big, juicy, gorgeous tomatoes that are grown so well in Indiana in the hot July sun. I had a little red wagon, and he told me, why don't you go door to door and sell The rest of our vegetables. I want you guys to know that this became the way I made money for almost 3 or 4 summers. I want to say it was at least 4 summers. I would just load up my little red wagon with all the excess vegetables and I would go door to door. And I'm 7 years old at this time. And I have these big oversized pink glasses that are too big for my face and my eyeballs, because I'm so blind, are like huge behind them. And how are you really going to say no to this person? Like, you're not. But the point I'm going to make is I had the best tomatoes. My dad grew the best fucking best tomatoes. And I would always go in the same order of houses and I would start to my left and get around my whole neighborhood. And by the time I was at my 3rd or 4th door, most of my tomatoes would be gone. There might be a few left, maybe 1 or 2 left. I will tell you this. One of my neighbors was so frustrated that there were no tomatoes by the time I got to her house that she told me she would pay me extra to come to her house first. So that meant skipping like 4 houses and then getting to her, but that meant I would have to like backtrack. So she was like, Marcie, I'll pay you a dollar per instead of 50 cents per tomato if you come here first. And I I was like, hell yes. At 7 years old, I knew this was a great idea. Okay. And she was willing to pay more if I met her where she was. She was my aligned client. She knew it had to be worth it for me to skip those 4 houses. She paid me more for the exact same tomatoes so I would skip the 4 houses. She treated me like I mattered, like my time was valuable to skip those 4 houses. And that was one of my first sales lessons. I just didn't have words for it yet. But what I did realize is I could make more money if I started making it more convenient for them. So I created like a VIP list and I told them, you know, I'm no longer going house to house in order anymore, depending on what you typically are interested in. This is how we're going to do this. I was 7. I was 7, maybe 8 by the time I realized skipping houses and going to my favorite clients' houses, giving them what they want. And I always had these beautiful conversations with my favorites in the neighborhood. They asked me a lot of questions about myself and I was able to share what I was doing in school and sports. And we made these connections over the vegetables. Yes. And they loved my product. My product sold itself, but at the end of the day, some of my neighbors have told me to this moment that they just loved those interactions. When my dad passed away last year, I was able to talk to some of my neighbors and they were like, we remember you and that wagon. And it's just so incredible to me, the impact that a 7 or 8-year-old can have that lasts a lifetime. I was offering an experience. I will come to you first. We will have this great conversation and you get first dibs on my Vegetables. It built trust too, because I would let them know like, hey, so-and-so, Mrs. Everling, I stopped there first and then I'll come to you second. That is trust showing up, doing what you say. Okay. That comes from within. It wasn't about the product anymore. It was about how I ran my little red wagon vegetable business. Now, over the years, my veggie business changed too, but my relationship sustained and I communicated when those things were changing. The idea behind sales is have something amazing that your clients want and then elevate their experience through the things you want to offer them that is unique. Not just tomatoes. They could get tomatoes anywhere in Indiana in the summer. They wanted to get them from me. They were supporting some of my little girl dreams to buy a Barbie house. They liked having the conversations with me. That experience was different than if they go to the grocery store. It's not just about the tomatoes. Maybe it started out to be about the tomatoes, but it turned into how do we support Marcie and how can Marcie get creative to meet me where I am so I get both what I want and I get to see her. In this experience growing. And at the time, as a little girl, I didn't know that that's what was going on. I didn't know how much I was going to take from that door-to-door red wagon vegetable business, but I made a lot of money for a 7-year-old. I mean, my tomatoes increased in price over the years to like upwards of $3. And in the '80s, that was a lot per tomato. But I was like, it's a high demand product. And I come to you, I deliver it to you. Every weekend. My time is valuable. You weren't just paying for the tomato anymore. I built something that people wanted because they were getting it from me. That's what you are building here, guys. Something they can only get from you. A connection with them is first, then you provide experience. They already want what you're selling. Take a breath. Embrace the fact that you are in sales. This doesn't make you manipulative. It doesn't make you sleazy. It doesn't make you any less service-driven. It means you're a relationship builder, a connector, someone who deeply cares, who helps guide decisions while communicating their own value, that leads these incredible conversations and creates incredible memories. For people, but you have to protect your time and energy, right? So your time and energy are valuable as well. And don't forget all of your knowledge and expertise in the product, the travel niche that you choose. But now you need to think about how you're going to sell yourself. I want you to stop defaulting to over-explanation, oversharing, Because when I say overshare, I mean, when you are like talking about what it is you do, you just go on and on and on because you're trying to produce this like narrative of, I know what I'm doing. I just want to explain it to you. I got in this business because all my friends and family, like where you start to just talk in circles about what you sell and why you sell it, but you don't really like, you're not connecting. Connection doesn't just come from the product you're selling. It has to come from where you— so when someone sees you and sees themself in you, and the only way they can see themselves in you is to quit trying to prove our value and share the stuff they need to know that is not necessarily what you know. I want you to start oversharing about your life, not about Your niche. I want you to explain who you are without overexplaining what you do. I want you to be obsessed with providing this incredible experience to your clients through the lens of your actual personality. Because if you keep thinking, I just have to prove myself, I have to prove my value, I have to prove my expertise, I have to prove my this and that. And it's like, you are already enough. Okay. You're already enough the very first day that you chose this career. Just because you don't know every single thing about this career doesn't mean that you are not worthy of connecting and building relationships that lead to sale. And so much of what we do is service and what we provide that's different is that elevated experience. And it is those little Bits and parts that no one else really knows, or that's really hard to find online. The service is so much a part of the sale, and that comes from you. It comes from your knowledge. It comes from your expertise. It comes from your experiences. When service is at the forefront over the sale is when the connection is made. When you're willing to help and it's part of your personality to be a giver, that connection can be made. But I don't mean giving away the vacation details. I don't mean giving away all your top secret information, all of your knowledge to somebody who hasn't actually hired you. I mean, just being who you are as the giver. I know that most women are, and I don't mean people pleasing. I mean embracing the fact that you are the, what is the word I'm looking for? It's like. The receptor between you and your aligned client. It's the thing that will take your relationship from just being a travel advisor, someone who helps me with my vacation, to I know this person and we have things in common. It can be as small as both of you are toddler moms. Being a toddler mom isn't small, but you know what I mean? It can just be that like simplicity. That simple piece of both of you have small children. It can be as simple as loving McDonald's Diet Coke. Your favorite influencers, think about why you follow them. What is it, that one thing that she said that made you hit the follow button? And you haven't even bought anything from her yet, but you just like her. You like her content. Why do you like her content? Is it really because of what she's selling? Or is it because she said that she also loves Taylor Swift and cats? You want to be the person who makes the connection. Maybe you love being a tourist in your own town. When we first moved to Tampa, I was like, I want to eat at all the best restaurants. I want to try all of the theme parks. I want to go to all the Florida Springs. And I did. We did a lot of stuff those first few years so that I could get to know where I was now living. And now when people in my Neighborhood Facebook group, ask questions. I answer them. I also have hired an abundance of people to help me with my house and my yard and my pool and all that. And so it's nice to be able to say, I finally found somebody great. Here's the information. You're new to town. Let me tell you about the school situation. I love to help people figure things out. I love being a know-it-all. It's part of my personality. It's part of why you guys are here. You feel connected enough to listen. There's something about it that makes you want to show up, but it also controls conversation. It does. When you're helping, when you're giving, when you're connecting, you're in control. You're making a choice to do that. And when you have bigger, stronger personality connections with the people who show up, who ask for those appointments, it puts you in the driver's seat during the sales process. If you help someone in a Facebook group over here, And you've built a trust with them. And then they join your travel Facebook group next because they went to your profile and checked you out and was like, who is this girl? She's always answering all my questions and I just moved here and checks out my profile and it says, oh, she's a travel advisor specializing in Italy. I've been thinking about going to Italy. I wonder if I could chat with her about Italy. That's how it works. It's not always quick. Sometimes it can take years, but if you are present, especially in social media, if you are active and engaging in social media conversations that aren't just about travel and they're not just about you selling travel, the more connections you will make. And if your social media is telling the truth about who you really are, the more connections you will make, the more connections you will make, the more they're able to get to know you and like you, the more they're going to trust you and consider you for their next vacation. It will reduce how many people ghost you. It really will. That connective piece is the difference between everybody else out there and you just trying to sell a deal over here, but you're here. You're adding not only value to the travel conversation, but to their life in other ways. One of the reasons I started a book club when I first moved to Wesley Chapel was because I wanted to make friends, but I was also running a sales business selling high-end luxury clothing. For Cabby, and it's a direct sales company, and I've talked about it before, but one of the ways I knew I could build connection was through books and meeting people in person. But it couldn't be the sole reason why I started book club. And you don't come out swinging during the first 2 meetings either. You just show up, be yourself, and wear the clothes looking cute. Okay? You take those compliments and you use the opportunity to talk about the clothes. It sounds gross, but it works. And it's true. I did love the clothes and I did look fucking cute. And I slowly but surely met some women who wanted to know more about the clothes, right? After being in this book club and getting to know each other, they were like, absolutely, I want to see these clothes. I want to talk to you about doing this, whether it was as a hostess or possibly becoming a stylist. And that's just the way sales and marketing and network marketing work. And we are in there. Travel advisors, even when we don't wanna hear it, we're very much in alignment with that type of sales, social selling, networking through social media especially. And my book club, many of them now, they're clients who travel with me too. Some of them used to buy cabbie from me and now they also go on vacations that I am honored to book for them. But it's also because I show the fuck up. I am super duper straightforward and honest. They know who I am. They know how I vote. They know I love animals. They know I've been married for 19 years. They know these things about me. Many of you are sitting right now listening to me because you know me. You know things about me that you've connected with. And some of you think we're friends. Like, you know me so well that you feel like you're so connected that we're in a relationship of some kind. And I would agree with you. I know some of you guys, I feel like some of you are absolutely my friends because we talk so often and we chat about things besides travel and we share, uh, memes from Instagram and we share commonalities. 'Cause like right now I'm also obsessed with Heated Rivalry. And if anyone wants to send me reels about Heated Rivalry, I will, I, I will love it. I love that shit. I. Love making connections that don't look like travel, because that's what really makes us who we are. And it's fun to have those connections. It makes those connections stronger and more entertaining. Let's be real, we want to be smiling and entertained when we're chatting, and travel is so much fun, and we should be having fun with people who are interested in connecting with us. But it's like so many of you don't want to share too much personal stuff. You don't want to talk about the things that you're learning. You want to keep all that so close to the chest. You want to gatekeep your knowledge, even if it's within what you actually sell. You never want to tell anyone the answer because you're afraid they're going to go book it themselves. Stuff like this controls you. And it actually is playing against you in the growth of your fucking business. Marketing yourself, talking about your life, genuinely allowing people into your landscape is the difference maker between the most successful advisors who have thriving referral businesses and those of you who are desperately searching for your next sale. Because I'll tell you something else, people can smell desperation. They can smell when you care more about that sale than they do Then you do them. They can tell when you only want to make this sale versus truly qualifying and getting to know what they actually need. You send me messages of desperation sometimes that are, I just don't know how long this is going to take and why is it taking so long? And can you please tell me it took this long for you? And what am I going to do? I had a honeymoon that just fell through yesterday and I'm just extremely upset. Upset about it, and I just I don't know what I did wrong. And in my mind, I'm reading this and I'm thinking, "Oh my God, they hated you!" But it's not hate; it's just not trust. It's not trusting you because you haven't actually made a connection with them that makes them like you enough to really give you all of their business. And building business or building trust takes. Time, but it also can happen quickly if you're willing to deliver information with confidence and really lean into their needs and figure out a place to laugh with them, right? Because the lady that was selling me my couch, I didn't really love her that much. I knew she knew her shit, but I was like, I'm not loving this experience. But then she made a comment that really made me make a comment back and have this banter. And then suddenly. There's common ground of this humor, of this moment of, oh my gosh, we are getting along right now. And that also needs to happen when you are in cold lead situations, when there is not a friend involved or somebody that you know, or somebody that you've built this relationship with. And finally, they're asking you about the vacation stuff. It's somebody maybe that was directly referred, but that person didn't actually tell them anything about you. So you have to find ways to make connection quickly. So they trust you faster. And that has to happen in a consultation conversation. And that is so much harder to do in your DMs. Quoting in the DMs is also killing your business because it's like you put out there that you're this travel advisor and someone slides into your DMs. And instead of actually qualifying them, you send them some stupid-ass form that's like going to a doctor's office. They don't even know how to fill it out. Instead of saying, I would love to chat with you face-to-face on Zoom or Google Meet with a conversation. I want to get to know you and I want to make sure we're a good fit. Because if you're not a good fit with these people, 18 months is a long fucking time to work with somebody you don't like, whether for you or for them. You do not want to drown in some sale for $200 commission with the wrong client. Y'all, that's the other thing. You should like them as much as they like you. Yes, being in sales is important and making sales is important, but we want to be connected and in good relationships so that we can be ourselves so that we can be real people with lives. Like when shit hits the fan, my clients do not make me feel bad about it. I'm human and they're human and our connection is bigger than their vacation even. And that starts with being your whole self everywhere you go when it comes to selling yourself. I want you to learn that the more you're willing to share as far as personality, the more people can get to know you and they will trust you with their money. They will. And it will become easier to sell and make money of the niche that you are so passionate about. I want you to figure out for yourself what you are willing to share. And I don't mean your deepest, darkest secrets or the stories that make you cringe or the, you know, problems that you have in your marriage. I want you to just start sharing your humor, your sarcasm. The things that make you smile, the things that maybe make you a little sad. Be honest with your audience. I want you to start creating content about why you're special. Become obsessed with yourself, guys. Really talk about how you got here. My story starts with a red wagon and some tomatoes. Where does your story begin? What inspires you? That you can share so they have a little more insight into why you might be the right person to plan their trip. You are not a car salesman. You are not a furniture salesman. You are selling amazing vacations and you're part of a story. That will last a lifetime for you. I'll eventually not drive the car I have now. I'll eventually get rid of the couch I just bought, but the vacation that I'm about to take with my daughter to Japan will always be linked to Tori Caldwell, who is helping me have the experience and give the experience that my daughter wants to have to go to Japan that I know I cannot give her without a specialist. And I know Tori, I've known her for a couple of years and I've met her in person and I follow her on Facebook and she trains service dogs and she loves Disney and she is obsessed with Japan and she makes me laugh. She's hilarious. And if all of those things I didn't know, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have hired her because I wouldn't know for sure if I trusted her. With this incredible trip for my daughter. And last week she actually sent us our finalized itinerary cuz we leave in like a month, which is crazy. And my daughter opens it all up and she follows all the instructions. I didn't. I'm supposed to, I was supposed to download, uh, the travel app that she sent over and I was like, I can't open this. Why? And Jude's like, uh, mom, fucking read the directions. Basically she's like, Tori says how to do it. And I did it. And then I finally got it open and I was like, oh, I really wanna book a spa appointment. I wonder if I can do that before I go. And Jude's like, Mom, she sent the spa appointment link in the itinerary. Mom, she has everything laid out. She has the instructions and the directions of where we're going. And this is all stuff I provide to my clients. And Jude is Tori's client at this point. And she is so impressed and she is so excited, but she trusts Tori explicitly because I trust her. And then the way Tori shows up now. The way she's communicated with us since we booked, the way she's found connections with Jude through her love of anime and food and those little strawberry cakes. And she's listened to Jude too. It's so important to be listening. Connections happen in the commonalities of actually listening, of hearing what someone is saying about what it is that they enjoy in life and in vacations. And and all these things. And if you're not listening and you're not paying attention, you cannot make connections. And how you make connections with people you don't know is by listening, asking questions, answering questions, continuing conversations. Some of you get really mad in your Facebook groups when somebody says, "Oh, I'm going on this cruise and I'm going with my sister and we leave in a couple of months and I'm just so excited." Da da da. And instead of thinking, gosh, what are they gonna do on this cruise and where, what are they most excited about as far as like the food or the tours, you immediately think you should kick them out of your group because they didn't book with you. Well, you didn't earn it, or maybe they booked before they joined, but either way you go directly to the negative instead of going to a helper conversational connector mindset. They're sharing with you, they're commenting, and all you can think about is yourself and the fact that they didn't book with you. Instead of thinking, how can I serve them now as a friend, as a person who has this in common with them, the love of this cruise, you think they're just in my group sucking me dry. Da da da da. It's like, come on, guys. You want a community. You built this community, and now you want to kick someone out because they didn't book their cruise with you. There are many reasons to kick someone out of your group, and one of them is not that they're admitting that they booked a cruise. Without you, and they have a question about it, or they just want to share about it. That is not a good reason to remove someone from your group or your space because this community thrives on loving travel. Like what the fuck? But no matter what, you ultimately decide what happens in your business and how much you're willing to share of yourself. That's all day every day. And if they don't get to know you and they can't possibly know you, why on earth? Would they trust you enough to spend thousands of dollars with you? If you're just gonna shoot off quotes in the DMs without a conversation, without getting to know them, without qualifying them, what value are you actually bringing to them? If you're just commenting on a Facebook group and somebody's looking for a travel agent and you say, I can help with that, I'll DM you, but you don't actually have any— they have no reason to trust you. They have no reason to want you to do— oh my gosh. There's no reason that they will even care about your DM because you don't, you didn't actually tell them who you are or what you do or how you do it. And in that case, they're literally asking for a travel agent. But so many of you just say, I can do this. You can, you should book with me. Why? What value did you bring to this conversation? That's why I always tell you guys, don't let these moments pass, these I need a travel agent postpass. Give them some free advice, some helpful information, and then invite them into your community, into your life. I don't mean friend them. I mean, have a space where they can go to get to know you. Give them a tip, even if there's nothing in their original post that is actually asking a question. Tell them a little bit about who you are after you help, and then invite them to your group, to your page, or to your website. To get to know you better. That relaxes the situation. And even if they don't reach out, people who run searches or see those comments will. This works almost every time because it's showing a little bit more personality than just the pick-me girls or even the pick-me guys who are out there right now. Having a process that starts with your excitement for them so they can get to know you by you giving them some helpful advice for free, because even though I'm not a about working for free. I do think giving free advice is such a great way to connect and then inviting them into getting to know you better, into your group, into your space, into your website, a place where they see who you are and not just what you do. Like some of your websites fucking suck because it's all travel stuff. It's all destination-based. It's not who you are. If you guys have ever spent any time on my website, you know, I tell my story everywhere. And at the beginning of all my courses, I tell you more about myself, how we got here through storytelling, because you want to know who you're learning from. You need to have a repeatable process that builds trust immediately. That is not just chasing them around the, uh, furniture warehouse. It's creating space in the early part of the relationship to feel comfortable and confident that you're the right person to book this vacation. Showing up consistently also proves This person shows the fuck up. Some of you post and ghost yourselves. You post for a month and then you ghost for a month. How is that consistency going to build trust? It doesn't. It doesn't. Some of you guys never want to repeat yourselves because you think they saw it the first time. They didn't. They need to hear it again. They need you to show up and keep telling them the same things. Consistency builds reliability. Reliability builds trust. Trust builds confidence. Confidence means they will book vacations with you, but you have to actually take these actions. You have to actually get more comfortable showing your face. Because again, we're not Starbucks. We're not Target. We are, we are the brand. Our faces are the brand. I teach all of this to you guys in some of my signature courses. In all of my signature courses, actually, I'm always giving coaching. On how to show up. And so many of your businesses have turned around because of my First Class Community Facebook Groups course and Propose to Close. And those are by far my 2 favorite courses because they really give you the foundation for marketing in a space that's your own, that you don't have to share with anyone else. So you get to be yourself, your most authentic self. And that's why I believe in the private Facebook group, because genuinely I want you to feel as comfortable and confident as possible to show up and tell the truth to your people where no one is watching you or stalking you. And then I want you to develop a sales process that weeds out tire kickers and people who want to take advantage of you through being yourself, through being your honest, authentic self and utilizing what I call the help and release for those people who are taking advantage, who are going to ghost you, and then connecting with Through the qualifying process with people who are willing to make an appointment with you and talk to you so that you can get to know each other. No one told us that this job was so intensely marketing and sales. I mean, they said you're gonna have to sell vacations, but they don't talk about the piece that's personal. And so much of what we do as travel advisors is so. So fucking personal. Some of you are planning weddings. In 2014, I planned a memorial service for a family who wanted to take their dad's ashes to St. Lucia and put them in the Caribbean Sea between the Pitons. So deeply personal. I mean, we cried on the phone together when they told me what they wanted to do, and I was terrified I wasn't going to be able to find anybody to help them, but I did. And when I was able to call them and say, like, I found the right company, he is comfortable doing this and is going to make this a beautiful experience for you, we cried again. And I didn't know this person when they first reached out to me. In fact, they were a referral from somebody who I had helped with their wedding. And she said, you know, Marcie took such great care of me. I know she can take care of you too. She referred me because she knew I would be willing to take care of her friend who needed to put her dad's ashes She was not afraid to pass my name. She knew who I was. She knew I was reliable, trustworthy. She knew I was confident enough to go out and find this information. And then we worked together, me and her friend, and we cried on the phone together, and we planned this beautiful vacation and this tour. And when she got home, she thanked me profusely. She just said it was the most amazing experience they could have ever imagined. Thought of. She said that she was so afraid they weren't going to get to do this for her dad, and that I helped make it happen. To this day, she refers me for vacations. We're still connected. It's in those moments where we humanize everything, and that comes from inside of us. That doesn't come from some fucking sale, you guys. And that's why I'm here. I'm here to share all these experiences that I have had over the last 19 years, and actually all the experiences I have had since I was. was 7 years old connecting with my neighbors over some tomatoes that grew into relationships that led them to my dad's funeral to talk to me. They remember that 7-year-old girl. They knew how close I was to my dad. They knew me from this red wagon moment. That shit sticks with you guys. And imagine planning tons of vacations and how many lives you get to be a part of. But how can they hire you if they don't know or like you? So you have to give them something, something more than what you do or what you sell. You've got common ground. You've got to find those pieces that make you human, that other humans can look at you and go, I found the right person to plan this. She gets me. They see themselves in you, in your content, in how you communicate, and how you show up in your stories. But if you're not telling them, how the fuck are they going to get to know you? They can't. You are all here right now listening to this podcast because you, you have heard something over the last 30-ish weeks that made you really want to keep listening. You have been in my group for 3 years and you still don't get tired Of learning from me because I'm honest, because I tell you the truth, because I'm not going to bullshit you. People value people who show up a very specific way. You don't have to show up how I show up, but you do have to show up like you, if you want to build a legacy of trust and reliability that's bigger than your next fucking sale. Our relationships are more important in the long run. And if all you care about is your next commission, that is going to be so obvious. And you will miss out on more opportunities worrying about your sales instead of worrying about how you serve and show up for your actual community, even beyond travel. That is how we elevate. That is how we get to our goals. People have to know you. I hope that you appreciate all this big sister love because it is not going to quit coming. I am getting such great feedback on this podcast, and I know it's because you are hearing it for the first time in a new way. Or maybe you're hearing it for the 10th time in a new way, and you're not hearing it from the people you thought you'd hear it from. And that's why I'm different, guys. I will always tell you the fucking truth. And the majority of you need to do some heavy, heavy mirror work in this industry. to grow. You need to take responsibility for your own bullshit. Most of you are standing absolutely in your own way because you will not just be yourself. You're afraid of who you are, of sharing the real parts of you, and that is what is holding you back ultimately from becoming the very successful travel agent I know you can be. Stop worrying about what everybody is going to And start showing up in ways that no one could possibly expect. Because until you do, until people can really see you for who you really are, you will not be able to build trust. You will not then be able to hit your sales goals. They coincide. Please, please message me on Facebook. Send me an email. Please offer me a 5-star and a review, an actual review, not just the 5-star, but an actual little note. So that people can have more of this in their life, because there is no one doing this right now. There's just not. Even people who are like me aren't doing it this way because they're afraid to. They're afraid to. Thank you guys so much. I hope you have an awesome fucking day. All right, y'all. That is the end of another episode of the No BS Travel Advisor Podcast. Thank you so much for being here. And remember, I am not a lawyer. That is my disclaimer. I am a coach and mentor in the travel business with a ton of big opinions. So don't forget to leave that 5-star review. And if you need anything, I'm here for you. Bye. Bye.