Latest / Travel Agency in a Year / Day 177 - Decoupling your mood from Travel Clients
Transcript
- Rachel: Alright, picture this. A major airline, like American. No, no shade to American. Cancels the connecting flight for your client. Mmm. Or a sudden storm grounds all the departures at the airport that they need to connect to to get to their destination. Or their checked bags end up in an entirely different country. That happened to me once. Not fun. Or A room category is oversold. Your phone rings, or for me, it's like my WhatsApp goes off. Which funny story, I had an agent I've mentored come with me to do a destination wedding, and I use WhatsApp. And so she was like, Your WhatsApp notification has given me PTSD. She's like, I don't want to hear that sound ever again. Because there were a lot of things, interesting things that happened on that trip. Anyway. So when you hear that notification sound, your stomach starts to drop. And if this is like a continuous process during your peak travel season, you're like, I do not want to hear that notification sound. Your blood pressure spikes because of it. And within like 30 to 60 seconds, your entire day, maybe your whole weekend, is getting derailed by stress. Every TA has a busy travel season. It depends on your specific niche and It might be like summer European travel, summer cruise rush, spring break getaways, wedding seasons. ⁓ usually is like winter to spring-ish, and then again fall into winter. we all have the different peak travel seasons, right? But no matter when your calendar is full of people traveling, one reality remains universal, and that's when When there's a lot of people traveling and they're your clients, there's a much higher chance of things going wrong. And it's not you. So when that inevitable chaos is striking, it's so easy to let one little issue dictate your entire emotional state for the day. And that is all day 177 of the travel agency in your podcast is about. We're going to be talking about the most mandatory. Survival skill travel advisors need to develop, and that is decoupling and detaching your personal mood from your daily departures. You cannot scale sustainable agency long term if you allow logistics out of your control to hold your mental peace hostage. So let's look at why these travel emergencies can take such a massive emotional toll. on you as an independent person working from your home office. The mindset we all fall trap sorry, the mindset we all fall into because I can't talk. Sometimes I'm too fast. Is a direct result of carrying too much, which is at least you're not a psychopath. You got that going for you. 'Cause you're pouring like your heart and soul into these trips and you're like, I want these people to have an amazing honeymoon or wedding or whatever. And then when something goes wrong, subconsciously, you want to take on that emotional burden of the entire global transportation and hospitality infrastructure. If an airplane's like engine fails or something, causing a significant delay or flight cancellation, you might low key internalize that as though you personally broke the aircraft. Have you ever seen, ⁓ gosh, it's a Twilight Zone episode where the guy's on the plane and there's just like the goblin messing with the wing and he's like, There's a goblin on the plane. It I don't remember it, but that's what I think of when I think of flight delays, like, I'm that goblin. Or like, let's say a client calls you in a panic from the airport terminal. maybe at the resort or at Cruiseport. You're absorbing all that fear, anger, and frustration. You will be doing that. And we're gonna talk about what you can do about that absorption. And you don't just solve the problem, you take all that negative energy that they're feeling, and it's just like your blanky, it's your heavy blankie, and you carry it around the rest of the day, maybe dinner with family or friends before you go to sleep. Could I have done that better? When it's completely out of your control. So look at what this does to your overall business during your busiest travel months when you absorb all that panic from people. Your ability to think critically and strategically drops below the floor into the basement and you start reacting instead of responding if it becomes too much. And you go into like frantic defense mode rather than calm authority. And also, if you just allow allow a single flight delay to ruin your day, you're creating a business model that actively punishes you for success. So think about it like that. The more successful your agency becomes, the more clients you're gonna have traveling at the same time. And if more people are traveling means more stress subconsciously, your brain Begins to self-sabotage your marketing and sales efforts to protect you from that emotional fallout. You scale if you want to scale your agency, you have to break that link between your peace of mind and general logistics. And that is done, my friends, through transmutation. You transmute that panic, that fear, that frustration, anger at airlines or suppliers or whatever into finding solutions. There's a difference between absorbing it and just letting it sit with you or transmuting and releasing it. So let's do a reframe with regards what? In regards to your role during travel disruption. You are a travel advisor, not a deity. Okay, that's the reality of the situation. You do not control the weather systems, you do not maintain the airplanes, you are not air traffic control, nor can you just call someone up at air traffic control and be like, can you fix this? My client might be a little annoyed. you don't run the resorts. And I have run into oftentimes as well, even when you are like a like a higher producing advisor. and I this is why I don't like to put like, ⁓ I'm this award winner, da-da-da. Because I have run into people who seem to think that I can I mean in some cases I can, but they seem to think that I can absolutely just fix any issues that they have. Even if I communicate to them, I cannot fix everything. I am not here to hold your hand. You are 50 years old. Be an adult and talk to concierge first and foremost. Secondly, notify me of the issues. I will work on it in the background. That's it. That's all you gotta do. Okay. But there's still like sometimes your clients may think that you're just gonna fix everything magically. Okay. But Your ability to guarantee a world completely free of any logistical friction is not reality. Your value as a travel advisor comes from what you do after that friction occurs. Okay. So that's what we're talking about, like transmuting that energy when they're panicked. And your job is to be calm and to provide the best solutions and give them directions and choices. There are gonna be some times where it's gonna be like absolutely out of hand and you will have to really go to bat for your clients. I'm not saying that it's gonna be good in every case. Like, you know, you still have to remain calm, though. So think about someone who books their own trip, because why would you need a travel agent? I'll just book with an online travel agency like Expedia. Well, guess what? You're still using a travel agent. It's just like garbage tier. And then their room is like they're walked because their room's oversold. ⁓ they get to call a call center and get someone who's probably never left their hometown just reading the terms and conditions to them and not giving a flying F what happens because they're paid hourly and it doesn't matter because they're one of thousands of people calling in to complain about it. But look about look at what happens with the exact same issue and it hits your client. They can step out of line calmly. Maybe they'll be a little bit scared and nervous, especially first-time travelers. They can Just take it easy and wait. Why? Because they know that you're on it. They know that you're gonna take care of it. They know that you're gonna say, you should do XYZ. I'm going to do X or A B C in the meantime. And we'll come to a resolution. I will update you once I have more information. Okay? They know that you have the power to leverage your suppliers and their help. Any like DMC connections you have, anyone local, you can like some of the resorts I book a lot of, like I have resort management's like WhatsApps, and I can WhatsApp them be like, hey, I've already reached out to the supplier and also this, and they're trying to contact, and we aren't getting an answer regarding whatever travel hiccup, you know. You are the expert navigator, you are their advocate. And you should be a tactical problem solver. You will have new problems, and you'll be like, that's a great question. Let me look into this. And you have to remain calm. You are the captain of the ship navigating the storm. You are not the storm itself. So when you step into these kinds of travel emergencies with this mindset, like, how can I fix this problem? You stop apologizing. For things that are completely out of your control. You stop acting like you're the guilty party and you start acting like the hero that your client needs. Because you're transmuting their energy into let me find a solution. It's time for me to be this person now. Okay, how do we do this? We're gonna build the boundaries that you can deploy the next time any kind of travel emergency hits your whatever notification system you use. Let's create a mandatory sixty second circuit breaker protocol. Put this on a sticky note, put it on your monitor, wherever you can easily access it, so that you can like look at it. It's probably gonna be longer than a sticky note, but you can look at it and be like, this is what I do, and have big bold letters, travel emergencies only. Okay. When you get that frantic text, phone call, email, WhatsApp, whatever, the next time you get one, step away from your keyboard, step away from your phone. Whatever it is you get the notification on, put it down for sixty seconds. Okay? You can read the notification, just don't reply to it. Take one deep diaphragmatic belly breath, and then you can say something like this out loud to yourself, and this is what you need to write down. This is a puzzle for me to solve with my expertise. It is not an emotional crisis for me to absorb. Okay? And once you've separated, that helps you separate the problem from your own piece. Then review the protocols, you know. ⁓ and then you just send a message to your client in response. And it can be something like, ⁓ yep, I'm on it right now. I'm already working on reaching out to da da da da da da da, whatever the case may be. Sit tight, relax. Here's some things you can do if you want. I will update you. As soon as I can, it should take about 15 to 20 minutes, something like that. Because I'm not I'm not gonna go over exactly what you need to say for every type of travel emergency because there's all kinds of things that can happen. But by taking that 60-second break and if they call you, just Answer the phone, they're gonna s tep blur all this stuff out and be like, okay. Let me start the same kind of thing, but let me start working on this. Give me about 20 minutes and I will see if I can get an update for you by then. Then you hang up the phone and then take that 60 second break. And then say out loud to yourself, this is a puzzle for me to solve. This is not an emotional crisis for me. Okay. This is gonna help you protect your time, your energy, and it's gonna demonstrate to your client why you're worth every single penny of any planning fees you charge. Separate the problem from your piece, solve the puzzle. It's just a puzzle. I know it sounds kind of like psychopathic. Like, solve the puzzle. Actually, fun fact, I learned something. Sidebar. Surgeons and if you're a surgeon listening, I'm sorry, but I heard this statistic. I need to actually see if it's true. And I heard it on another podcast, I don't even remember. But surgeons have the highest likelihood for stronger sociopathic and psychopathic tendencies because they have to take themselves emotionally. Out of the situation when they're operating on other humans. Like, and I was like, wow, is that why we have that personality disorder? So that they can step in ⁓ and manage things without emotion? That's crazy. So you might be thinking, I sound like a psychopath or I feel like a psychopath doing this, and you will at first, especially if you have a big heart, okay? But you can't let that big heart absorb everything because it will lead you to burnout, it will lead you to not wanting to market, like I said, and self sabotage your business. So let's take step out. It's all puzzles you have to solve when there's travel logistics issues. And refuse to let these little disruptions, well, they're not always little, but these disruptions steal your own joy. Alright, that was day 177. I hope you took away some interesting bits of info from this. And I will see you tomorrow. Have a wonderful day.