1. Create an “elevator speech” by following this formula:  I work with (Ideal Client Description) who want (Juicy Benefit) and (Juicy Benefit).   If you have taken the Safari2Success Bootcamp, you will know what a Juicy Benefit is.  If you haven’t, it’s a benefit that really captures the transformation you provide.  Here’s an example of a good elevator speech.  Instead of saying, “I am a travel agent specializing in Destination Weddings, say:
   
    I work with busy brides who want to escape the hectic pace of life with a dream wedding on the beach, sun setting over the water and to be surrounded by only the most important people in their lives.
   
2. Add your elevator speech to your email signature.
   
3. Add your elevator speech to your voicemail greeting.
   
4. Add your elevator speech to your business card.  On the back, tell them to contact you for a free 30-minute strategy session.
   
5. Create a 30-45 minute signature speech that educates AND demonstrates your specialty and find a venue to deliver it once a month (you could even do a webinar).  Again, using the destination wedding specialist example, she could create a Signature Speech called:  The 5 Biggest Mistakes Brides Make When Planning a Destination Wedding and How You Can Avoid These.

It wasn’t long ago that I felt totally overworked and underpaid for the services I provided. 

Anyone can get clients.  What takes more effort is finding clients that are profitable.  Back in the day for me, I fell into a trap (and maybe you’ve fallen into this trap too).  Because I wasn’t attracting many clients who wanted to travel to Africa, I took all work that came to me.  One day I would be a Caribbean specialist.  The next day, I would have to learn the European rail system as I planned a self drive tour of Italy.  I didn’t have the confidence to ask for compensation for the hours I would pour into trying to be an instant expert.  And my whopping $240 commission for a trip that took 16 hours to put together didn’t go very far.  In hindsight, I was, in essence, a volunteer.

It affected my personal life.  I worked from home, so there was never an “off” button.  In between caring for my 2 young children and husband, I would find myself at my desk, responding to emails, putting together detailed itineraries at all hours of the day and night.  “Why is Mommy always working?” they would ask, with big sad eyes.  Talk about guilt.  Even when I wasn’t working, I was never totally present for them.  I wanted to be a good mom, and I wanted to be a good travel consultant for my clients.  How does one do it all?

One day in early 2006, I hit rock bottom.  I took an honest look at my situation and saw that my family was falling apart.  And my business – which totally consumed me – was barely surviving financially.  My world was on a fast track to disaster.  Something had to change. 

I don’t want you to go through what I went through, so here I layout the 5 most important things I did to start making more money while working less.  Don’t just glaze over these.  My business revenues multiplied 5 times.  It wasn’t just about making a lot more money either.  Making these changes resulted in a far happier home, a much better relationship with my husband, the freedom to do more and sleeping well at night because I knew I made a difference in my clients’ lives.

1)      Claim a specialty and stick with it.  If you have followed me at all, you have heard me preach this over and over.  Niche to be rich.  You have got to pick something and master it.  Get known as the expert.  It’s the only way to stand out from the crowd and the online booking engines won’t be able to compete.  This act alone will make you a LOT more money in your business.  Last week, I wrote an article about how I did this in 2006 and my business doubled.  Well, I went back and looked at my numbers.  The truth is, I went from $68,000 in sales to $390,000 in sales.   I way more than doubled my business.  My revenues went from $35,000 to $146,000, in 1 year!  All because I decided to finally claim my specialty.  Picking a specialty and having the courage to turn away business that doesn’t line up with it will catapult you to a whole new level.

2)      Get real with your numbers.  The purpose of your business is to make money.  Don’t feel guilty about charging good, long standing clients for services that don’t generate revenue for you.  The reality is, you cannot continue to offer the incredible services you provide if you run a business that isn’t profitable.  To be profitable, you have to get real with your numbers and consider the return on investment with everything you do.  If processing tickets isn’t profitable at $35 a ticket, charge more or stop doing it.  If booking a 4-night Bahamas vacation generates $180 in commission, but you end up spending an extra 4 hours dealing with a missed connection, charge a hefty service fee or stop doing it.  I tell my clients to establish a bottom figure.  In other words, if a client is not coming to the table with $3,000 or more, in commissionable travel spending, turn them away. 
The other thing you must get real with is LOOKING at your numbers.  Keep your accounts updated regularly and hire a book keeper if you are not good at it.  Make a practice of reviewing your numbers monthly and start becoming more aware of what’s making you money and what isn’t and where your cash flow is.

3)      Hire help.  In order to do more, you must do less.  This statement doesn’t make sense right?  But it’s true.  If you want your business to grow, you must have the right foundation in place first.  Your business cannot grow if you are doing everything.  Hiring help doesn’t have to cost a lot.  There are millions of highly qualified people looking for a little extra income these days.  Each time we took the plunge and hired the right person to fill a need…even though we couldn’t afford it…our business multiplied.  (And I am not exaggerating)

4)      Make marketing a discipline.  You might think that you can market here and there, when you have time.  That thinking will take you right down the path of “barely surviving.”  If you want to be in a service based business, a large part of your job is to market.   And marketing is more than getting new leads.  Marketing is about getting new leads, and nurturing a relationship with them and your existing clients so they want to read your emails and they want to send you business.  How do you do that?  Provide great content in everything you send and be consistent.

5)      Surround yourself with people who expect more from you.  Getting into a mastermind and having a coach is one of the best things I have done for myself and my business.  It keeps me accountable – because I am not really good at doing that myself.  A mentor and a mastermind have an uncanny ability to see the best of you.  They see your ultimate potential and then expect nothing less.  They stretch you way beyond what you would do on your own.  Think about a slinky toy.  If you tried to stretch the toy with your own two hands, you could stretch it about 4-6 feet.  Now if you were to hand one end of the slinky to another person while you held on to the other end, how much further could you stretch the slinky?  A lot – like at least twice as far.  That is what a coach and mastermind does. 

Your Assignment 
Figure out how you can take action on any or all 5 of these suggestions that changed my business and my life.  Start today.

It was no problem setting clear and achievable marketing goals with her, but when we got to financial goals – how much she wanted to make next year, she got stuck very quickly.  In fact, she was speechless.  The problem was that she was afraid to admit how much she wanted to make AND she didn’t feel she could do it.  She didn’t see the “How.”

She had what I call, a money consciousness problem.  Another way to say it is, she had a “poverty mindset.”  This “poverty mindset” problem is so widespread that most people are not aware of it.  Let me ask you, did you grow up hearing some of these phrases “we can’t afford it”, “money doesn’t grow on trees”, “that’s for rich people, not us”, “money isn’t everything”, “we don’t have enough money right now”?

How do you know if you have a “poverty mindset”?  Quite simply, you have a “poverty mindset” if you have a lack of money.  Yes, it’s that simple and may sound like an outrageous accusation….but it’s true.  I will repeat it again:  You have a “poverty mindset” if you have a lack of money.

Here’s how it works.  A large portion of our population (myself included) was programmed – often and very early in life – that being “wealthy” isn’t desirable.  We grow up believing that people who are wealthy are bad, greedy, insincere, snobby, immoral, and the list goes on.  I am sure you could add something to it.  And because of this long list of undesirable attributes, we adopt the conclusion that it’s far better to NOT have money.  I spent 12 years in Catholic school knowing that certain priests and nuns take the “vow of poverty” and they are deeply respected because of it.  No criticism to them, just validating my point that we grew up believing that poverty is more holy.  Since our subconscious deems it holier to have NO money, we manifest a lack of money.  It shows up through unnecessary debt, living at a level below our desires and not enjoying our greatest dreams.

Here’s where I want you to embrace money and give yourself permission to want AND HAVE more money.  It is basic human nature to grow and evolve.  Just like the tree in your front yard, and all other living things surrounding us.  You don’t curse or judge the tree when it grows.  Ten years from now, when it’s 3Xs its size, you don’t criticize it, do you?  It is human instinct to grow and evolve.

Money is just energy.  Making more money is an expression of growing and evolving.  Abundance is what you naturally seek.  It’s Universal Law and what you are entitled to.  So to stuff this desire down and try to convince yourself you don’t want more abundance is to go against your own human instinct.  You won’t win, I promise.  Because it’s our nature to grow and evolve, you are always growing or shrinking.  If you shrink too much for too long, you will die.  So of course, we want more.  Embrace it.  Finally allow yourself to want more.

Just learn to come from a heart centered or passionate, not egoic, place when it comes to wanting more money.  The more money you make, the more people you can help.  Money is good.  You can use it to serve in a much bigger way.  In fact, it’s very difficult to be of service to the world without access to money.  People think Mother Theresa didn’t have a lot of money.  This is not true.  She had millions, and because of this, she was able to help billions.

So embrace money, know it’s human nature to want more abundance, and then go set your financial goals for 2011.

• How do I implement everything?
• What steps do I take?
• Can I do this on my own?
• What if I get stuck and confused?

Well, I want you to know that I have been thinking about these questions for you too!  And, I have decided to offer an extra, BONUS webinar, created just for you – the soon-to-be graduates of my Bootcamp.

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/137014040

This webinar is for you if:

• You feel stressed out and overwhelmed with all the material
• You feel like you don’t have enough time to get through it all or implement it
• Your mind feels cloudy with so much information and you are not sure which way to move next
• You feel far behind in the material and don’t think you will ever have time to catch up

Well be sure to put this webinar on your calendar.  It will take place on Tuesday, July 6 at 2PM eastern (that’s 1PM central, 12pm mountain and 11am pacific).

On this webinar you will

learn:

• Our secret to de-clouding the mind and having a clear vision on what marketing steps to take next;
• The strategy we use to stay in action mode, rather than frozen mode;
• How to do it all in the small amount of time you have;
• How to get on the fast track to taking the Bootcamp information and breaking through to success in your travel business.

How Do You Measure Success?

I had an interesting “a-ha” moment this week. In order to achieve a specific goal, a crucial beginning step is to have clarity on your outcome, right?  For me, I have been working on a program that I plan to offer in January.  I have a specific goal in mind as to how many people I want to “show up” for my next program.  It’s an aggressive goal, but if we don’t aim high, we will never grow.

In all honesty, there’s a piece of me that’s terrified. Of what, you might ask?  I am terrified that:

• No one will show up
• For those that do show up, what they will think of me
• What I have to teach will not be of good value and they will criticize it
• I will omit important material
• The organization of my program will be messy and people will complain

We all have these kind of fears when we are about to step up to the plate. My “a-ha” came to me as I finished my run.  I heard a whisper in my head saying “Don’t measure your success by the number, but rather what you give.” In that moment, I actually got it.  I have been so focused on getting a certain number of people to register for my program in January, that I have lost focus on what I will be giving them, and how it will help them grow…in their business and in their lives.

The thing is, in every personal growth book I have read, or CD to which I have listened, they teach you to pick a number and focus on it, because when you do, you have clarity…and clarity is power. But the realization I had yesterday was that YES, I need to pick a number and focus on it.  However, I should NOT measure my success against this number.  It’s like you have to pick a number and focus on it to give the universe clarity around what you want…but then, you have to let go of it a little and instead focus your energy on what you will give and measure your success by how much you did give.

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. When you measure your success by a results based number, you give your power away.  In all reality, I have no control over what people will or will not do…including signing up for my program.  But when I measure my success by the number of people that sign up, I am giving my power to something external, outside of me and my control.  No wonder why that feels so scary!  What I CAN control is what I give to them, and that’s how I should be measuring my success.  And to back up a little, I can also measure my value by what I have to give.  How do I know what I have to give?  A whole lot of personal growth and discovery.

It made me think of the Law of Circulation. We are all aware of the Law of Gravity – that if I jump out of a 2nd story window, I will fall down, not up, nor will I float.  Well, there are lots of other laws that govern our life on this earth and one of them is the Law of Circulation, which is simply that you get what you give.  You may have heard of karma.  Karma is just another way of stating the Law of Circulation.  In fact, you get way more than you give.  But the circuit starts with giving.  So, if you want to get (like I want to get my number), I have to start with the giving side.

Your assignment today is to identify one or two things that you have to give and then give it to people all day long. It could be something as simple as a smile or a sense of humor.  Or it could be a little more intellectual like a great tip on a secret restaurant for a client traveling to Italy.  Change your focus on what you have to give, not what you can get, and go give it.  Do this on a daily basis and you will see significant changes in your life.

Your Experience is Priceless

As a travel agent, you have traveled many places, experienced hundreds of destinations and have a world of value sitting right in your head. But, how often do you give yourself credit for the things you REALLY know well?

Here’s a great story I would like to share, that just occurred for us at Hills of Africa, yesterday. A travel agent contacted us about assisting with a potential journey for clients interested in traveling to Tanzania.

The clients didn’t contact the travel agent first.  Instead, they started searching on the internet and found a small tour operator, based in Tanzania, that offered itineraries with prices that appealed to the client (on the low end). The clients e-mailed the tour operator and requested a quote.  A day later, the tour operator presented the clients with a proposed itinerary.  Since the clients had never heard of the tour operator, and they were considering dropping thousands of dollars on a vacation to a destination they may never travel to again, they decided to seek an opinion.  This is when they got in contact with their travel agent.

So, the travel agent contacted Hills of Africa to see if we could provide a quote for her clients, hoping to get the business. We put the agent in touch with Mark Homann, our fabulous East Africa specialist.  The agent forwarded Mark the proposed itinerary for a look, opinion and also requested that he put together an itinerary and quote.

Mark Homann

Mark is from Zimbabwe, but it’s possible, he knows the safari terrain in Kenya and Tanzania, better than the back of his hand. Mark is an East Africa specialist because he has years of experience as a private safari guide in the area.  He also spent time as the head safari guide at one of the most luxurious lodges in Tanzania.

Mark is not one to seek attention – but his reaction to the itinerary sought mine. He flatly told me it was the worst planned itinerary he has ever laid eyes upon.

In his lovely Zimbabwean accent (albeit softened by several years living in the USA), he said to me “the clients are traveling in February and at that time of year, the migration is close to the Crater. They are going to drive past the migration, all the way to the other side of the Serengeti.  The whole point of being in the Serengeti is being close to the migration so that you can spend time with it.  One of their transfers is going to be 7 hours long and this is 7 hours of driving AWAY from the best animal concentrations at this time of year.”

For Mark, it was as clear as day that this itinerary was all wrong. But the clients had no idea.  They were focused on price.  They found an itinerary whose price matched what they were “willing” to pay.  The quote Mark created had a price tag almost double the original itinerary, and it remains to be seen if the clients book our itinerary.  Even if they don’t book our itinerary, Mark’s expertise just saved the client thousands of dollars.

The lesson I want you to take from this story is that what is plain as day to you, thanks to your experience and expertise, is often not on the radar screen for your clients. Take a moment to really appreciate the value of your expertise.  When you value your expertise, your clients will too!

Do you remember why you got into the travel business?

But can you honestly say you love your job?  Have you found bliss in your career? The truth of the matter is, you can – it IS possible.  Even better, when you find your bliss in your career by connecting with your true calling, you become a client magnet and the money follows.  So, that is another way of looking at it….are you content with your existing client list and the income in your business?  If not, then it’s time to dig deeper.

Yes, you have a passion for travel – we have established that. But what about your purpose, your calling in life?  You are here for a reason and when you connect with that, you will feel your bliss.  Perhaps you have felt glimpses of it, but just not on a consistent basis.

I believe that one of your purposes is to inspire others to travel – whether it be through your great ideas, the ability to critique a cruise ship, your thorough and thoughtful planning or your ability to connect with people in a way that they trust you with their vacation dollars.  No matter what, there is a reason for your passion for travel, beyond just wanting to go on vacation after vacation to explore.  You see, travel is a hugely important part of our lives.  In fact, I think we under-emphasize the importance of travel in our society.  So much happens to us when we travel.  We unplug from the chaos and distractions of life, we meet new people, we eat different food, we learn about new cultures, we discover new shades of beauty.  Mark Twain valued the importance of traveling when he stated “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”

As a travel agent, you play a huge role in this.  Have you ever considered how big and important your job is? You are here to change lives.  Your individual life purpose will be more detailed than this, but it’s a great place to start.  If you are having trouble identifying your life calling, I recommend that you turn your passion for exploration inward.  Begin a self exploration of who you are.  What are your natural gifts and talents?  What can you do easily and willingly?  What activity or activities take you away?

Once you are able to connect with your purpose, you will become much more passionate about what you do, AND you become a traveler magnet.