Latest / Travel Agency in a Year / Day 133 - Gratitude for Travel Advisors
Transcript
- Rachel K: Welcome to the Travel Agency New Year podcast. It is day 133. I'm your host Rachel K., travel agency owner, and also just go to ElevateWithRachelK.com. I'm take these headphones off for a second. Mess with my hair for a little bit, sorry. Ugh, I'm trying this new like curl cream stuff and my hair's like kind of wavy. Anyway, I let it air dry today. ⁓ Today is a day for gratitude. Let's develop an attitude of gratitude. First off, thanks for always coming by. And if you're brand new, thanks for finding this. You're probably like, I'm out. There's no tips in this episode, brand new person. This isn't gonna help me. ⁓ mon frère. Au contraire, mon frère. It will help you. Thanks as always for listening and let's take some time to reflect on why all of us travel advisors should express gratitude as well. If you don't know, today this episode will be first airing on May 13th, I believe, 2026 in May is Travel Advisor Appreciation Month. If you care and it is 2026 and it is May and you found me and you would like to invest in any of the courses on ElevateWithRachelK.com, we are running a special thanks promo code, yaytas, Y-A-Y-T-A-S, at checkout, all courses. The success circle is a subscription program. It's a nightmare to try to get coupons to work So I'm not doing it this time and also it's only $35 a month. So We're not discounting that one. You do get like a free week too with the success circle. So any hoodl Why should we be thankful that we get to be travel advisors? It's so stressful. It is very stressful. But let's talk about what we can express gratitude for. Number one, any type of self-employment journey should result in massive personal growth. If you are not reflecting on how who you are as a person affects your business and therefore every aspect of your life, you're probably not gonna have a very successful business. So, even if you're like, you know, meditating daily and journaling, like at some point you're gonna have an epiphany and be like, ⁓ my gosh, I'm the worst at this. Or, ⁓ my gosh, I didn't realize how much emotion I had tied to this. as you are building your business. Or, ⁓ my gosh, I didn't realize I have terrible time management skills. What techniques can I learn and test out and apply? A lot of personal growth. Number two, be grateful that because you are self-employed, you have unlimited potential. You do, you really do. If you put your head down and focus, you really, really could generate a lot of income. Now, you're gonna have bumps in the road, obviously. Everyone does. And that's kind of tied to your personal growth. Can you manage those bumps in the road as you grow? How big do you want to get? Just know if you're thinking, or if you're hearing from people, you can't make money in this industry. Nobody wants to work with a travel agent anymore. What year is it? What do you mean you're a travel agent? How's your little project going? ⁓ You have unlimited potential. Don't let the haters hate. Well, let them hate, but don't let them get to you. Number three reason, if you don't notice in my notes, I number everything. So I don't miss things. You're listening to this podcast. Let's think about the journey. that got us both into this situation where you're like actually listening to me A, and B, if you're a current student and you come to the live Q &As, we're talking every week. What would the odds be if we stuck to our prior careers that we would ever meet? Ever. So that's just one relationship. Think of the colleagues you have made good friendships with. Think of the host agency support team that helps you out. The BDMs, for me it's my group reservation specialist and my sales specialist over at Classic. Shout out to Lucy and Michelle. Love them and I never would have known them. I never would have known them if I hadn't decided to become a travel advisor. There's so many different relationships that you have probably created or are in the midst of creating on this journey. Okay, number four, gratitude. Thank you, number four. You get to set your schedule and your revenue. Now that can be a danger to some people. like setting their own schedule and if there's a lack of self-discipline developed or a lack of confidence, that's a little bit of a thing, but at the same time, we all get to set our schedule. You like to do all your admin type stuff in the middle of the night, because you're more of a night owl. You like to have your consultation starting from two to five p.m. I don't care. Who cares? Maybe you're an early bird and you like to do all your consultations 8 a.m. to noon and all of your meetings 8 a.m. to noon and then you like the afternoons off so you get hours to like chill out and reset before you go to bed. So whatever. You also get to make as little or as much money as you want. Now, there are extenuating circumstances like when the world shuts down occasionally. Yeah, we're all gonna lose revenue. However, outside of that, you have the ability to earn as much or as little revenue as you want. There may be periods where you have to work a lot harder, and there may be periods where it just comes in very, very easily. And also, you get to set the standard. Like, how amazing is that? Also, I like to... ⁓ I've known a lot of people who have regular W-2 jobs and they're like, we don't even get a cost of living increase in line with inflation. And I'm like, well I do, and they're like, well how do do that? Well, if hotel prices go up, my commission is still the same percentage, but if a hotel goes from $1,000 over a week, and I only make 150 bucks at 15 % commission, and then the following year, it's $2,000 a week, then I make $300 commission on the booking. If it goes up to $4,000 the following year, I make $600 in commission. Like it does kind of pace. Anyway, that's just interesting. I like to be positive and say it's recession proof. Because it keeps in line with the value of things. Finally, you get to learn so much and specifically, hopefully, you get to learn a lot about different cultures, ⁓ customs, traditions, maybe foreign languages, the slang. I love to learn the slangy stuff so I can feel like I'm cool. I'm not. So I can feel like I'm cool when I travel. But it's fascinating if you actually get to know people, even if you just go to resorts all the time or on cruise ships. ⁓ The resorts are typically like local staff. staff can be pretty diverse. You can learn a lot about those individuals and then their lifestyles and cultures and then you get to know somebody else. Another relationship you could foster in a whole other country. It's so amazing. So this whole gratitude episode is all to say in summation, because I'm writing a terrible paper in high school and it's got a word limit. In summation, the next time you are feeling overwhelmed, Please understand that you're never given more than you can handle. And once you get through it, like you are giving, you are being given an opportunity to grow. And once you get through it, other little things that used to stress you out will not. It's always an opportunity when you're feeling overwhelmed. I mean, you can give yourself a rest day. I'm not saying work yourself to death, deal with it. It's always an opportunity for personal growth and leadership growth. high. So when you are feeling overwhelmed like that and you need like a rest day, give yourself a rest day. And what I like to do when I'm like, ⁓ my gosh, I have so many projects and irons in the fire and I feel like I'm all over the place and nothing is going smoothly because that happens. It's going on right at the time of recording this, which is why I'm in a Def Lep t-shirt. Cause I gave up. Change your, I have to do this, I have to do that, to I get to, because I chose to be a travel advisor, so I get to create content and share myself and my services with the world. And I get to help this person experience a whole new destination or type of travel. and I get to understand how to communicate with someone who's upset and I get to advocate for other people who are having struggles with their trips. Like change it from I have to to I get to. I get to educate people on this destination in my newsletter or my blog post instead of, I have to write three blogs this week and I just want to take a nap. It really changes your perspective. I get to help this group who's never left the country go on this fabulous trip and educate them on how to travel internationally and I'm earning all this revenue from it. If you ever have a group in the future that's driving you nuts, I get to help them. Okay, let's all be grateful for everything that we have, everything we're working towards. the process of actually doing it in the present. Oh, here's a silly phrase before I sign off. This was something my Aunt Lori told me many times my grandma Rosie used to say. I cannot confirm if this is actually something my grandma Rosie said to her as a child. Yesterday's history, tomorrow's a mystery. That's why today is called the present because it's a gift from God. Isn't that cute? And then you gotta do it with a Minnesota accent. Yesterday's history, tomorrow's a mystery. That's why today's the present. Because it's a gift from God. Alright. Day 133, complete. Go be thankful. Go step outside and be like, wow, I'm so glad it's a tornado right now. I don't know your weather is, but even if it's bad weather is what I'm saying. Go step outside, breathe in the fresh air, enjoy your day.