Latest / Travel Agency in a Year / Day 252: Persist or Pivot? How Travel Advisors Can Read Their Data Honestly
Transcript
- Rachel: Travel Agency New Year Podcast. I'm your host, Rachel K. Today is day 252. Persist or pivot. Persist or pivot! Reading your own data honestly in the quarterly review. I know it's not until October 1st, but hear me out. Prepare yourself for it, okay? We're doing a whole series, days 247. If you're just now checking this out, first of all, there's 365 episodes coming at you. But days 247 to 257, it's all about like the CEO mindset when doing your quarterly review. So you can make better decisions that are more react-responsive than reactive. Okay, this isn't about how fast you can make a decision, although I'm a big fan of learning how to make decisions quickly. We have covered this before. This is specifically about how honestly you interpret your own quarter's data before you make a decision on whether or not you're gonna keep something or let it go. There are two opposing failure bias modes here. We gotta know which one you're more prone to. Because most people lean pretty consistently towards one or the other. Okay? Some people persist too long out of pure stubbornness or sunk cost fallacy, thinking, I've already put so much into this, I can't stop now. That is me, by the way. That's why I'm doing 365 episodes, the sunk cost fallacy. I don't care if this makes me any money. I don't care if anybody listens. I said I would do it. I would do it. I have 120-ish days left. That's where I'm at right now. I'm also incredibly stubborn. The sunk cost fallacy trap is powerful precisely because it feels like you're so disciplined and gritty when it's often actually your just reluctance to admit the time and money already spent was a waste and cannot be recovered. So you might as well Keep going. Like if you know me, you know, like, that makes that tracks based on her personal life. Others pivot too fast at the first sign of a slow quarter and abandon something that genuinely just needed more time. That's the exact pattern we talked about back on day 231. The failure mode often disguises itself as decisiveness or agility when it's really just discomfort with uncertainty of not yet knowing if something's actually working. And this is why I put it in your brains: be patient. And maybe what if? Now, what if I see a of advisors leaning the other way whereas I'm the sunk cop cost fallacy. Now what if we were all supposed to know each other so that you all could get me to be like, you need to stop doing this, Rachel. In a nice way. Not hopefully not this, but like anything that I'm doing as an entrepreneur. And then I'm here to be like, no, you need to keep going, rando travel agent. I'm not gonna name names. I don't know. So picture this: a travel advisor went into the romance destination weddings and honeymoon niche this quarter. This quarter, alongside their existing family travel focus. After 12 weeks, they've had eight inquiries, one booking. And a noticeable amount of extra content creation time spent building out their wedding specific and honeymoon material. On the surface, that could read either way, depending on your bias. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Think about it. Which way do you lean? She needs to stop or she needs keep going. In my brain, this advisor is a woman. Is it a stubborn persister that sees I just need to push harder next quarter? Or are you more anxious and you see this clearly isn't working, time to drop it. From one booking? man, one of the agents I'm mentoring, I just realized, is also stubborn like me. Hmm, interesting. Alright, neither reaction on its own is actually reading the data. A more honest read asks, Is one booking from eight inquiries in the very first quarter of a brand new niche actually a bad conversion rate? Or is that within a reasonable range for something this new? Is there any trend at all across the last 12 weeks? like inquiries to were they picking up as the quarter went on, suggesting that the content is starting to reach the right audience and just now converting, or were they flat throughout and just like even keeled? does this niche still align with the kind of business the advisor actually wants to build separate from its quarter-specific numbers? For anyone, like anything that you're not unsure about. when you're reading the data. Like a niche, an offer, a service tier. Ask here we go. Three questions. Three questions for you. With this quarter's data right in front of you. Not your memory of how it felt. Has this had a genuinely fair trial period? I would always argue no in most cases, especially if it's a brand new niche or offer, at least a quarter before you even look at the data. Anyway, has this had a genuinely fair trial period? The 90 days or more we've talked about with a new offer? Or are you judging it only after a few weeks? Is this trend moving in an upward trajectory direction, even if it's slow across this one quarter, or is it genuinely flat and declining across multiple review periods, not just the single one? And separate and separate from the numbers entirely is this something that still aligns with the kind of business you want to build. Mm. We When the answers persist, if it's had a fair trial period, it's trending in the right direction, even if it's slowly, and it still aligns with your vision, that's a persist signal. Even if the current numbers alone don't feel exciting yet. Like, go look at how many subs I have to this podcast. It ain't crap because I haven't been promoting it. Hardly anywhere. I drop an episode daily so the algorithm can't even figure it's like too much information, Rachel. doesn't matter what I do. It's really hard to get this out here unless I'm constantly like go listen to my podcast. And I don't really have time for that either. But from I look at my analytics every week. This is why you look at your helix every week. And I see the numbers very slowly climbing. I went from like three daily streams in January across every platform to at the time of recording this, I'm at 70 streams daily. And I very like you didn't find me, most likely, you didn't find me from a social media post because I just started social media at the time of recording this episode. and promoting the podcast at all. It was probably pure luck, honestly. You're so lucky you randomly found me. Anyway, but I've seen the data is slowly trending upwards. It's not explosive growth. I'm probably never gonna have this channel monetized in any capacity. And I'm not doing it for that reason. I'm doing it because I promised myself I would do this. I promised my success circle people I would do this. And I'm persistently persisting. And I hope that this reaches other people, that this actually helps you. Build your business because you can do it. where was I? sorry, I'm gonna look at my notes here. So persist can be a signal when you're like in the building season and you know you're in the building or the planting or the growing season. Like those two seasons from yesterday's episode. it looks really slow. But it's the numbers are there. Now, when it's time to pivot and then what to do if you're not sure either way. Go with your gut. No, I'm kidding. I'm gonna not do that. If something has generally had a fair trial, it shows no real directional movement across more than one review period, a quarter, and it doesn't align with where you actually want this business to go. That's a legitimate pivot signal. And continuing anyway, out of stubbornness or sunk cost is not discipline, it's avoidance dressed up as persistence. Okay, so that's when you need to pivot. If you are like, I've been selling Disney and I've been selling Disney for years and years and years, and honestly you aren't making any money, it might be time to pivot in your marketing efforts, maybe, in your messaging, which is tied to marketing. It could be a pivot that you need to make in terms of like your closing. Like you have to really look at every part of your process that your client goes through. Before you completely change niches as well. Anyway, but if you've honestly worked through all of those questions, it's genuinely still unclear either way, that is an outcome as well. It usually means you need one more data point, not an immediate decision. Give it one more trial period. It could be one more month, one more quarter, with one specific adjustment based on this quarter's lessons. So back to that Disney, it could be the copy on your website, it could be the marketing messaging. Tweak that, try for one more quarter. and set a firm firm date to revisit it, rather than just abandoning it, abandoning it prematurely or letting it drift indefinitely without a real decision in sight. Which bias do you lean towards? I'm persistent. I love the sunk cost fallacy. I love wasting my time and money because I'm so stubborn. And I'm like, nope, this was the right decision all along. And then I'm like, why is my life like this? it lends to really good discipline though. There's a pro. Are you over-persistent or are you over-pivoting? Correct. Course correct as needed. we got the three questions. Whew! Has it I'm sorry, Bianni. Has it had a fair trial period? Is there an actual trend? Is it aligned with your vision? That was day two fifty two. Two fifty-two of the Travel Agency to Year Podcast. Have a wonderful day.