Latest / Travel Agency in a Year / Day 248: How Travel Advisors Can Review Business Data Without the Drama
Transcript
- Rachel: Welcome to the Travel Agency in a Year podcast. I'm your host, Rachel K with ElevateWithRachel K.com, Custom Mentoring and the Success Circle Program. Today's day 248. Data without the drama. Not the drama mean, the drama. As you sit down, because we're nearing the end of the third quarter, I like to do my reviews early, think about things, and be prepared for the quarter. Because I'm like probably a Girl Scout too much. Like Boy Scouts always be. Is it Scouts of America now? I'm going on a tangent. I like to be prepared. As you sit down with your Q3 numbers, hopefully this week, maybe not. Maybe in a couple weeks that's fine too. Mindset skills that matters more than any spreadsheet. The ability to look at a number without it becoming a verdict on who you are. Ba-pa-pa! So many people I know in the success circle, when they do week one, they're like, whoa, I'm the worst person ever. I'm like, no, it's just data. It's just data. So we've talked earlier this year about the difference between owning your business and stewarding it, which I love that mindset, because it's like, I'm not in charge of my life. That's God's problem. He put me in charge of managing it though, so I'll do the best I can, but as long as I'm doing a good job, he'll take care of me. Anyway, a business fused to your identity turns every number into a referendum on your worth, which sucks so bad I've been there. Don't worry about it. We all are there at some point. And that identity fusion shows up the most intensely during the quarterly or annual reviews when you really look at your numbers. Because this is the moment you're staring directly at the results of all your efforts or lack thereof. Lack thereof? What do you mean? I'm working so hard. Are you though? And there's nowhere to look away. A strong quarter can inflate your sense of self just as easily as a weak one can deflate it, and both reactions skip right past the actual, factual, useful work of reviewing what happened. Mm-hmm. The most important ability, if you really want to step into like full-fledged business owner, is how quickly you can return to baseline from any type of emotional reaction, any type of happiness, joy, any emotion, excitement, anger, nervousness, how quickly can you get back to even keeled? And doing these quarterly reviews is really, really difficult if that's a skill you need to work on. Because you're gonna instantly be like, I'm the worst person ever. No, you're not. Or I'm the greatest person ever. I'm unstoppable. I made all this money this month. And then you just ride that high. Ooh. I don't know why, but I was thinking instantly of that story of the Emperor's New Clothes. I think that's the one where the Emperor's totally naked and they're like, I'm so great. I got this amazing designer wear. They're just walking around naked. Because they think their stuff is so amazing, and everyone's like, no, you're a nutjob. Okay. There are there is a real reason this happens. It's fine. You're not alone. When you are reviewing numbers that feel personally threatening, you were your brain chance your brain tends to shift to the defensive and reactive mode, which is why I'm like, let's practice not reacting, more responding. The same stress response that's useful when you're actually in danger becomes a liability when you're just trying to read a spreadsheet. It's It's still the tiger chasing you. Reviewing under that kind of internal pressure that you put on yourself produces worse decision making, not better ones, even though it feels urgent and important in the moment. Picture this. TA who launched a destination specific offer this quarter following the process we've been covering a few months back in here. The soft launch, the rollout, the tracking, the numbers came back underwhelming. Fewer inquiries than they hoped. Only one booking. The dramatic internal narrative sounds something like I'm not cut out for this, nobody wants what I'm offering. I should never have tried this. Does that sound like an adult to you f also or does that sound like a t child that needs a nap? Hahaha but notice how fast that jumps from a specific and limited data point, just one new offer in one quarter, to a sweeping conclusion about their identity and their worth. And trust me, I have heard this plenty time from plenty of travel advisors. It's impossible. I just can't do this. My life is over. The data without drama version of the same moment sounds totally different. This offer had fewer inquiries than projected. And the ones that I got did not convert. That's useful information about either the offer itself, the messaging, or the timing. And I have 90 days of data to actually work with, not a verdict on my capability. Same facts, completely different trajectory from that point forward. Who sounds more like a business owner? The spiraling person or the one that's like, hmm. Where is the problem? Where's the bottleneck? Alright. So what does this look like in practice? Great question, Rachel. The answer is no, I don't know. I don't know. I spiral every day. I'm kidding. Practice reading a number the way a genuinely neutral outside consultant would. Like you are not involved in this business. This is just numbers on a spreadsheet, you are not attached to it. Someone with zero personal stake and whether you feel good or bad about it. That's the minds mentality you need to go in when reviewing the numbers. A consultant looking at a slow quarter doesn't think, well, this person's failing. They must be the worst person ever and don't deserve anything. That's not what a consultant says. They think, what does this number suggest? And what's the next useful question? that's the posture that you should borrow. Deliberately, especially on the numbers that sting the most. And I would also argue for the numbers that look really good. Cause it celebrate those wins. We'll talk about that in future episodes. And also don't ride that high forever. Another practical way, like, how can you build this muscle of being able to like step out? Write the number down as a plain neutral fact. Write it down in on a piece of paper with a pen. Q three revenue was twelve percent below Q2 with zero adjectives in your brain, hopefully, and on the paper. Q three was twelve percent below Q2. Separately, write down on another piece of paper, or you could divide it in a column. Any story or interpretation that you're tempted to attach to it. Well that I'm down 12% because I suck. I need a haircut or something. That's the emotional side. We gotta practice like separating the two. Seeing the fact and the story as two separate pieces of writing rather than one fused thought makes it much easier to question the validity validity of that story without questioning the facts. Cause then you can just look in the mirror if you're like, it must be my terrible hair. And be like, well, your hair's not that bad. Nobody cares. That has nothing to do with this. Well, it must be something else. Well, okay, let's calm down here. When you hit a number that stings, like lower revenue than you hoped, a conversion rate that's dropped, a metric of any kind moving in the wrong direction, pause before reacting and ask, what is the number telling me about the business separate from what it might be tempting me to believe about myself? Write them both down, keep them separate. Usually the business level answer is specific and useful. A channel under underperformed. Like you went all in on TikTok and was like, this is where my ICA is, and you just cross post to your Facebook group or or Instagram. you were wrong. TikTok's not where they're at. That's it. A follow-up process had a gap. That could be it. A launch needed more of a runway. The self-worth answer is usually vague, dramatic, and when you actually examine it honestly, not even true. The I'm failing isn't a specific checkable claim. That's just an excuse to give up. My cold outbound conversion dropped is a specific checkable claim. This works both directions, like I mentioned earlier, and it's worth naming explicitly because it's easy to assume. This episode only applies to the bad news bears. A strong quarter deserves genuine acknowledgement. Celebrate that win. We'll talk about that more. A whole episode about that. Just be careful not to let one great quarter quietly become proof that you've fully arrived. Or that you no longer need the same systems or consistency that got you here. Like I'm the queen of the world. I don't need anything. I'm gonna spend I made ten thousand dollars a month this last three months easily. I'm a millionaire. Well, first of all, no, that's not math. I could totally hire a VA full time and don't even work. Also, no. But you've done a great job. But let's Spiral into I'm the greatest thing ever. Calm down. You're just getting started. And it's awesome that you've made it. Fun fact: I learned the other day: most content creators don't even break 100,000 a year. So if you hit 100,000, still baby stepping it. And that's pretty freaking amazing in any kind of business that you're doing. anyway. Entrepreneurs who fuse their identity to a great quarter often coast on that high right into a much weaker one because the discipline that produced the good result quietly relaxed the moment it started feeling unnecessary. And this is why if you really want to be successful in anything you do, even if you're like, I don't want to be a travel agency owner, but I've got the serial entrepreneur bug, you have to remain even keeled. You cannot fly off the handle emotionally at all. You have I mean you can have your 60 seconds of anger or excitement or whatever, sadness, but you have to get back to baseline pretty quickly in most cases. Okay. Quickie recappy poo. separate the neutral facts from the story you're tempted to attach to it, especially on any numbers that are not good in your reviews. Ask what the number tells you about the business, not about your own self-worth. Hold a great quarter with the same steady hand as a rough one. Neither is the final word on who you are. If your business was a vegetable garden and it was growing every single year or something. Like, I don't know, in corn. You want to be a corn farmer. It's the same thing. You cannot be like, I'm the best farmer ever because you had one year of really, really good crops, and then you can't be like, I'm the worst farmer ever because a drought happened. Same thing in your travel agency. gonna talk a little bit more on this tomorrow. if it ain't a lesson, it's a bless if it ain't a blessing, it's a lesson. Slash moving from whose fault it is to what is the lesson you can learn. Alright, have a great day. I will see you tomorrow.