Latest / Travel Agency in a Year / Day 195: The difference between the Brand Story & your Founder's Story
Transcript
- Rachel: Welcome back to the Travel Agency in the Year Podcast. I'm your host, Rachel K. Today is day 195. I can't believe it. Mmm. ⁓ since day 191, we've been talking about storytelling and marketing, brands that big brands that do it, why you should do it, how to create your founder's story, why have a founder story. And now today we're gonna talk about your brand story and why it's different from your founder story. I mentioned in a few episodes ago, don't change your logo, don't change your fonts, don't change your colors, like don't drop everything in your business and be like, well, now I gotta change all this because it doesn't align with my story. Calm down. Calm down about that. You can change it. Just don't, if you have other things to do right now, that can be put off next month or next quarter or next year. Okay, it's not imperative. But I mentioned the colors that you choose in your branding also tells your story, as well as the fonts you choose in your branding tells the story, and everything kind of needs to be a little bit aligned. In your branding story. Alright. So day 195, quick distinction. And this took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to to understand. Your founder story is about you, your brand stories about what you've built and what it stands for. And your clients need both. They're not interchangeable. They are not the same thing. Okay, like so I've mentioned in past episodes, I ask what made you start doing this in the first place. And a lot of people use the story of I love to travel, I love to book travel, I booked all my family's travel, I thought this would be a good fit. That is a very n it's not a bad reason why to get into travel, and it's not personal enough. It's very generic, like kind of on the surface. You're not saying I hate my career. I needed something different. I knew I had the skills to try this out. And I wanted the excitement of being my own boss. Like that's the same story, but you're being a little more honest about it, okay? That is not your brand story. That is your why, part of your why. And then there's your brand story. Okay, so your founder story answers why did this person start this business? Your brand story answers, what does this business actually believe? And how does it show up for the people who work with this company? It's less biography and more philosophy. I think day shoot. 36 or 60, I feel like it has a six in it, of this podcast. There's a whole episode about communication philosophy in your business. And it ties with your mission statement. And so your brand story is a little more the mission statement and part of your general business plan. If you want a free path to writing your own business plan, elevate with Rachelk.com. Business Plan 101, 399. Don't pay a dime for it. It's it like a 90 minute webinar I did for either Mexperts or Resorts of the Mir Riviera Maya. I don't remember when. ⁓ like end of twenty three or early twenty-four. But it's how to write a business plan as a travel advisor. So it's like you don't need up to date info on that. Okay. That could help you with this. So think about it this way: if you eventually, like even if you brought on other advisors or VAs, we have a lot, under your agency's name, your founder story is you. It stays fixed. It's your personal history. Your brand story is what everyone else on your team would embody. regardless of their own personal personal path into the industry. It's the DNA, not the or origin, okay? So consider that with your brand story. why does this matter for TAs? Why do I need a founder story and a brand story? ⁓ travel is a super commoditized feeling industry from the outside. It is one of the fastest growing careers in the US at the I recorded this in 2026. At the t time of recording this, it's like I remember seeing several months ago. They were like top careers for 2026 and it listed travel agents. This is a very oversaturated, crowded, and it's like feeling type of industry from the outside. Anyone can technically book a flight, too. What makes someone choose you over your advisor that you know down the street, or over just doing it themselves? It's not logistics. It's alignment. Clients want to work with the agency whose values and approach to travel actually match their own. And you speak the language and understand the pain points of those clients. If your brand story is we believe travel should be slow, immersive, and centered on real connection with a place, destination, that attracts a very different client than we believe in maximizing value and seeing as much as possible in the time that you have. The latter one screams to me like cruises. Because one of the agents on my team will argue, Cruz is you get to see so many things and you maximize your value. Okay. Neither is wrong. But when I when I was like reading that on my little teleprompter thingy, neither is wrong, but without a clearly told brand story, you attract everyone just a little bit, and nobody really strongly, and that's much harder for your business to grow. This is also why you should consider niching down because niches fit into that. So I just said we believe in maximizing value and seeing as much as possible in the time you have. Doesn't that sound like a cruise over a ⁓ guided tour or like backpacking through Europe or like a safari? You know what I mean? Like that sounds like you specialize in cruises. So maybe if you align with that phrase, maybe you should lean towards some type of cruising. If you line with we believe travel should be slow, immersive, and centered on real connection, then you're probably gonna be leaning a little more luxury. not all inclusive resorts, but even if you specialize in like Caribbean destinations, you're gonna be leaning more towards like the villas and boutique hotels there and like high high-end travel, right? So, when you're creating your brand story, if you are not sure of your niche, you might have, and if you're brand new, you're gonna be like, what are you talking about? I don't have a niche pop in my brain when I create this brand story. Head over to elevate with rachelk.com, check out the courses, go to the sweet spot to success. It's a five day mini course for $47. Teaches you how to discover what niche works for your superpowers, how to put together service packages, and then price them accordingly for your niche and how to kind of start working on your ideal client avatar. Okay? Anyway, if you don't have a clearly told brand story, then you're getting all these rando trip requests and you can't really and You don't have to have this perfected out of the gate. Your business can always rebrand and it can always grow and evolve. It doesn't have to be like this is set in stone forever. Your founder story is you. That's not changing. But your brand story does align with your niche. And if you're stuck between like I don't know what niche or I don't know what brand story, you should have one or the other in place to build the other one. Okay. Now, take your personal founder story if you got it. Ask yourself these three questions. make sure they aren't the answers from your personal founder story. Like you want to. Question number one: What do you consistently push back on in the travel industry? Is it Cookie cutter itineraries, overpriced packaged deals, travel that prioritizes the photos and the social media posts over the actual experience. What do you consistently, question two, advocate for, even if it's more work for you? Question number three. If a client described the vibe or the energy of working with your agency to a friend, what would you want that description to be? The answers to those questions told consistently are your brand story. Not the tagline. the actual point of view that shows up in how you plan your trips, how you communicate with your clients, what you say yes and no to. Okay. Okay. Tomorrow we're gonna be building out the old brand story with a practical framework. These episodes are short. I'm looking at my timer. ⁓ Same way that we did with the founder story. ⁓ so it actually can show up in your marketing instead of just living in your head. And this is how if you're stuck with your copy on your website and you've hired a web designer and they're just it's like weird AI slop stuff and it doesn't feel like you, this could help you quickly adapt like the main, or even just create a landing page for a specific niche and put that on your link in bio, put it out in the universe, market that service explicitly. Just so you know, that's something I did because I didn't like my main travel agency website, so I had a separate URL and a bunch of landing pages specifically for my niche. And had a copy specifically that told the brand story and my founder's story. It's really easy peasy. Anyway, we're gonna talk more about that tomorrow in day 196. It's day 195. Thanks for joining and I will see you tomorrow.