Latest / Travel Agency in a Year / DAY 295 | It Is Not Too Late to Build Your Travel Agency
Transcript
- Rachel: Welcome to the Travel Agency New Year podcast. I'm your host, Rachel K, travel agency owner helping you build a business more than just creating another very low paying second job. Okay? Because a life a lot of travel agents are stuck in that. Today is day 295. Dreaming big after 40. Entrepreneurs who prove it's never too late. The late bloomers. I'm I physically I was a late bloomer. I was the ugly duckling. with braces and a palette separator and it talked like this for like three years. During middle school, and I was like the shortest. I was like the second shortest girl in my class. Now I'm like f probably shrank a little bit. I'm probably about five eight, five nine, but peak height, I was five ten. A little over that. but I was a short little butterball late bloomer, and I think that's just who I am. And you can be too! There's a plenty of entrepreneurs who made it really, really big after forty. And many of them who did it after 40 are right around the cusp of 40 later in life, it's because they had so many mistakes that they got to learn from, right? And you might be in this boat too. It is not too late. Real stuff. One of my favorite references, McDonald's Ray Kroc, was fifty-two when he met the McDonald's brothers and was like, what is this crazy efficient system? Fifty-two he met them. Didn't even like start the whole franchise process. And he was smart enough. Turn this into not just food giant, but franchising and real estate investments. Okay. So he did not assume his most productive years were behind him. He saw the potential in their operation. He became their franchising agent and eventually bought the company outright, building it into the all you gotta see was I could say Mickey D's, and you know what I'm talking about. Y like that's what he's built it into. And he was fifty two. And I don't even how long has been McDon how long has been how long has been Rachel, learned how to speak. How long I'm gonna Google this, how long has McDonald's been around? McDonald's is eighty six years old. So it's barely older than he was when he was like, Let's franchise this stuff. And I don't think let me look. So that was when the brothers owned it. And then in 48, they had their speedy service system. And in 55, he opened his first franchise location. So 53, we'll say 1953. That is 73 years ago. And he was 50 like. He did that. And when did he die? Hold on. Mm-hmm. I feel like it was the nineties. eighty-four. He was eighty-one. So in thirty years he made it global. And less in less than half his life roughly half his life. No, he made it to eighty-one. Less than half of his lifetime, he made McDonald's from goose egg little tiny restaurant single thing to global dominating fast food chain in less than half his life. You guys are just building travel agencies like that. I mean, you could you could end up with that. But okay. His story is a well documented example of recognizing and scaling opportunity in the second half of your career, not necessarily the first. Next up is Colonel Sanders. He had a lot of different jobs. I feel like I'm a female Colonel Sanders reading the notes here because he was a firefighter. A streetcar operator, an insurance salesman, a lawyer, gas station operator, before he seriously started franchising his fried chicken recipe in his early sixties. After his first restaurant already closed because there was like a highway rerouting situation. And so it was like probably an eminent domain type thing. He would not get up. Get up. He he wouldn't get up. He would not give up. And he was very persistent. And by his seventies, he sold KFC for a substantial amount of money. Let me see how much. how much did Colonel? Okay, he sold it for two million dollars when he was seventy three. But he had stock in the company. Sorry, I'm reading about this. Standers kept control of operations in Canada, received a lifetime salary, stayed on as a paid brand ambassador in the face of the company, but he sold it in nineteen sixty four. He got two million in cash and he had stocks. Okay. Anyway, his story is often cited because of how many earlier career chapters preceded his eventual and much later success. Next up, if you like fashion design, don't know why I'm going with this accent, but Vera Wang. She was a s figure skater and Vogue's youngest ever ever editor before she went into fashion design. She started going into fashion design because she was engaged and she's like, I cannot find a dress that I like. So she started designing wedding gowns, and that's exactly what she did. Can you imagine giving up? Can you imagine the environment she must have been in? If she's like, guys, I'm gonna start a design company. And people are like, but seriously, you're the editor of Vogue. Why are you gonna throw all of that away? Yes, they have vocal fry. I'm trying to avoid mine. My my throat's getting dry. And she did it anyway. And now she has a bridal, not just a bridal, but a fashion empire. And it's been going on for decades. Next two are Sam Walton and Julia Child. Sam Walton founded Walmart. He was in his forties. Julia Child published her first cookbook. If you're in your 40s or older listening to this, you're gonna know exactly who Julia Child is. I love her mashed potatoes recipe. It's the best way to make mashed potatoes. Anyway, she was about 50 years old when she published her first cookbook and started on television. There's also Martha Stewart, I think was 41. And she'd already been divorced and like lost a bunch of stuff. You've seen the net I think go watch her documentary on Netflix. And a personal like near and dear to my heart is Joe Ricketts. He came from not a lot of wealth. He I think was a lab he worked in the hospital, like a med tech, while he was finishing college. He also worked as a janitor for the university that he got his degree from. It took him seven years to get his degree. So he was like on the surface is like, he's hard working, but maybe I'll just he'll be fine. He's a hard working guy. Good for him. Forever and ever and ever. And then the internet came out and he was like already in financial world and he was like, hmm. I wonder if we could make more money if we allowed individuals to trade stocks and manage portfolios instead of these massive brokerage fees. We could charge itty bitty ones and they could do it on the internet. And we could do it much faster. I think that's how we set it up. A billionaire, BT Dubs, and he didn't even start anything until I think like his forties. And it was It's just it's just amazing how much more you can accomplish if you start later in life from all the lessons you've learned the first half. Okay. None of these stories are saying success arrived easily or overnight, which is absolute absolutely true. Each of these people built their like empires on real experience. Learning how to discern and have proper judgment, and several earlier chapters that didn't look like the foundation of their eventual success, but they absolutely were. So if you are building your travel agency and you're later in your career, this is a retirement thing, but you want it to not be a full job and you want to make a big difference, maybe for your grandchildren. Or you're wondering whether your other life experience somehow disqualifies you from real success. It doesn't, by the way. It's all if it ain't a blessing, it's a lesson. These examples suggest pretty much the opposite. That accumulated experience, proper judgment, And relationships built over time are frequently the foundation for major success and what that is built on, not a young founder's experience. And certainly not doing what everyone else is doing. let's see, we're listing these off. Okay, so you can be successful after 40, even if you start after 40. Do your thing. I'm not gonna sing. I'm kinda hungry. your experience, if you're doing this later in life, like whatever you perceive to be later in life, it is an asset, not a liability. Please keep that in mind. All right. So the last 15 episodes or so, we talked about deeper mindsets on giving back and the neuroscience behind it, discerning the right nonprofit for you to support based on you. Okay. Building appreciation into your calendar throughout the year and not just sending Christmas cards, being like, I'm so thoughtful, or that. This November 1st, I'm so grateful for all of the support you've given me. This November 2nd, I'm so grateful. I'm sorry. If you do that, nice, but also everyone does that and it doesn't sound sincere at all. This November 2nd, I'm so grateful I got to go to Cabo and experience this wonderful vacation. Sorry. This November 3rd. my gosh, I'm so grateful. I've got this brand new car. Don't you wish you could afford a brand new car? I've got a special webinar to teach you how to give me money. It's not I'm not saying the travel industry like I like this is like everywhere. To the point where I'm like, I'm not doing this anymore. I'm just gonna thank people outright instead of posting it on social. What is that weird level of I don't even know what. Okay. Build a real appreciation into your calendar. Not just, I got this content grid I'm paying for and the whole month is I better be thankful for all these things because it's freaking November. You can do a couple things. But this small business Saturday. Support that, for sure. You're a small business owner. anyway. Celebrating your wins. This is other things we've covered. This is in the last like 15 episodes or so. but you might end up if you are on the path to champion level goat-ness, greatest of all time. If you are the black sheep in your family and you end up pushing yourself really hard and developing that discipline, you will become the goat. Okay. And also. when you start winning a lot that it's no longer excitement or joy, dopamine rush, it's like a relief because it's expected. Because you are that awesome, by the way. Prepping for the new year and then these books in the last few. That's the wrap for the last 15 episodes. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you have a wonderful day and I'll see you tomorrow. yeah, subscribe. Bye.