This note is just for my Bootcamp graduates.  I would like to thank you for being a part of the 6-Figure Travel Business Bootcamp program.  In doing so, you show a great amount of courage and willingness to embrace change and market your business differently.  It has been such a pleasure working with you and I want you to know that I believe in your success.

I know I’ve given you a LOT to absorb in the short amount of time we have been together.  Trust me, you embraced a huge amount of material and if your head is still spinning, I won’t be surprised!

Now that our 6 weeks is over, you might be asking yourself:

• How do I implement everything?
• What steps do I take?
• Can I do this on my own?
• What if I get stuck?
• Where did Meredith learn all this material?

So, today, I would like to answer ALL 5 of those questions with one word:

Mastermind

I have been in a mastermind group for 2 years and NOTHING has catapulted me, my business partner Sandy, nor our business faster, than being a part of a well-run, structured mastermind.  We continue to sit back and look at our business in absolute amazement, knowing that we never could have created it without the support and direction of a mastermind.

So you might be asking, “What is a mastermind?” Before I answer that, I want to give you a mental image.

Think of your business as a runner in a marathon race.  Imagine you are your business and you are running this race all alone, without anybody taking notice at all.  There are no water stops, no people cheering you on, and not even markers on the marathon route to show you which way to go.

Ask yourself:  How well would you do in this race?

Now imagine, I waved a magic wand and suddenly, there was a huge crowd of people cheering for you, shouting your name, and motivating you to keep going, run faster and certainly not give up during the entire marathon route.  My magic wand also created water stations and you can stop whenever you need a drink.  The course is accurately laid out so you don’t have to guess which way to go AND you have a coach running with you, constantly giving you tips on how to run your race better.

Now ask yourself:  How well would you do in this race?

That image I created after waving a magic wand captures the essence of a mastermind.  It is a group of inspired and motivated entrepreneurs, lead by an experienced mentor who share a single vision of growing their businesses way beyond what they could accomplish on their own.

Mastermind members raise the bar for each other by creating and implementing goals, sharing ideas and successes, and supporting each other with total honesty, respect and compassion
Announcing the Safari2Success Mastermind Program

It’s been so fulfilling watching you grow during the past 6 weeks, which is why I am so thrilled to announce the Safari2Success Mastermind Program.  Now YOU have a chance to give you and your dreams a perfect environment to THRIVE!

Today, through July 15, 2010, I will be accepting applications for my Safari2Success Mastermind Program.  I will only be accepting a limited number of applicants so that I can give each person my undivided attention.  It’s my intention and commitment to put together a remarkable group of travel industry business owners that are ready to play big, make more money, travel more freely, and support others in doing the same.

During the 6-month program, you will be supported to build your business around your brilliance so you can finally have the business of your dreams and work with fun, trusting clients.  You will be supported in developing a plan of action that is simple, power-filled and gets results.  We’ll be there to hold you accountable, so you have extra motivation to finally accomplish what you set out to accomplish and see real results.  And we’ll do all this with support, encouragement and provide you with practical marketing and business strategies that have been proven to work!

Does this feel like something you have been searching for?

If yes, the next step will be to complete and submit the application found on the following pages.

You must complete the application fully, as I will not consider applications with missing information.  How you complete your application tells me how serious you are about this and helps me uncover those that are 100% committed to being in the group and those who are not.  Selecting members for the Safari2Success Mastermind Program will be on a first-come basis so the sooner you submit it to my team, the better your chances of being accepted.

In the following pages, please find the detailed information sheet and application.  The Safari2Success Mastermind Program may not be for you – not everyone is ready to do what it takes.  But if you know it’s time to get the cheering crowd shouting your name, all the water stations you can imagine, a perfectly laid out marathon route and a coach that is willing to run alongside you, then I’m here to show you the way!

Please complete the application and fax it to me at 1 (704) 644-7829, or e-mail it to meredith@hillsofafrica.com.

To access the application, CLICK HERE

P.S.  Just to recap (I don’t want anyone confused!)

1)      Read this invitation for the Safari2Success Mastermind Program

2)     Complete the application on the following pages

3)     Fax to me at 1 (704) 644-7829 or e-mail to Meredith@hillsofafrica.com, no later than July 15, 2010.

4)     You will hear from a member of our team the week of July 18, 2010.

5)     Safari2Success Mastermind Program begins August 2, 2010.

• 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.

Tired of Price Shoppers?

How frustrating is it when a prospective traveler phones, asking you to quote on a cruise, and you spend half your day researching their request, get back to him with great options, and he goes and books his cruise online?

If this happens to you, I have one very simple reply.  You are fishing with the wrong bait. In other words, your marketing message is attracting the wrong type of client.  My advice to you is enhance your marketing message so that you are promoting YOU, not just the products you sell.

Your ideal clients don’t buy products, they buy solutions – and that’s the huge value you provide. There are lots of tire kickers, bargain hunters, and “do-it-yourself” vacation planners out there.  They happily take all the free information they can get.  When you only market the vacation product, which is what you do when you promote cruises, tours or vacation specials, you attract price shoppers.  In fishing terms, the bait is wrong, because it’s appealing to the wrong types of fish.  These are NOT your ideal clients, because they will never value your services.  Stop trying to convert them.

All you have to do is change your bait. Create a marketing message that appeals to travelers that already value the services of a professional and willingly pay for them.  Get clear on the solutions you provide, not just the products you sell.  Everybody is tuned into WIIFM – What’s In It For Me?  Show your prospective clients what’s in it for them when they work with you.

A great place to start is by focusing on common motivators. According to Jim Edwards and David Garfinkel in their book “Ebook Secrets Exposed” www.ebooksecrets.com, the most powerful motivators are (in order):

1. Make Money
2. Save Money
3. Save Time
4. Avoid Effort
5. Get More Comfort
6. Achieve Greater Cleanliness
7. Attain Fuller Health
8. Escape Physical Pain
9. Gain Praise
10. Be Popular

Not every one of these motivators fits your travel business, but I am certain you can choose at least 4 that do. Decide which motivators fit your business – then craft specific examples of how this has already happened with past clients.  Weave these messages throughout your marketing.  When you market yourself, the solutions you provide and the experiences you create, you will attract your ideal client.  People silently want to be lead.  When you show them the way to the memorable, life changing vacation that you can create, your ideal client will seek you out and willingly pay for your services.

Now this does not mean you should stop promoting vacation products, by any means! In fact, I urge you to use all the fantastic marketing materials provided by travel vendors.  All it means is that your marketing message is missing a very important piece – YOU.

What is Web 2.0?

Travel agents are often on a shoe-string budget to market their business, and thus, marketing can often take a backseat. This is the road to failure.  Please know that effective marketing is the key to your success.  You cannot overlook this.  It’s easier and easier now to market your travel business on a very limited budget.

So, if it’s a shoe string budget  you are after, then you will need to understand Web 2.0, otherwise known as social marketing. This article will breakdown exactly what Web 2.0 is, and will give you three very good reasons why social marketing is so important. 

Web 2.0 is simply a form of marketing using one or many of the social media outlets. Those outlets can be broken down into 6 different types.

1. Social Networking – the most popular of these outlets include Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, DirectMatches, and Ryze;
2. Social Bookmarking – well known ones include Digg, Technorati, Del.icio.us, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.  Originally, social bookmarks were places you could store your favorite bookmarks online, so that you could access your bookmarks from anywhere, not just your own computer.  Social bookmarking has evolved as people began to share their bookmarks with others.
3. Content Sharing – best known sites for content sharing are Wikipedia, Squidoo, Hubpages, Gather and E-zine Articles.  Content sharing sites are great for people who don’t have any web skills but want to share content on the internet.  This is a perfect fit for travel agents, because people always want to learn about places to travel.
4. Media Sharing – most well known are YouTube, Flickr, SlideShare, JamGlue;
5. Blogging – go to my recent post on Blogging to learn more, Blogging 101
6. Adapters – Amazon, Google Products, Cafe Press – these are traditional websites that “adapted” their products to the social marketing scene.

Why Focus on Web 2.0?
The answer is simple.  FREE marketing of your travel business. What’s so powerful is the multi-dimensional nature of the free marketing.

1. Social media sites and content get excellent search engine placement, so that when a potential traveler searches on “India”, your social media content may rank very high and they will find you, for free;
2. If you have your own website or blog, which I highly recommend, you can create links from your social media posting to your website or blog, called inbound links.  The inbound links to your website or blog from every piece of social media post and content, substantially improving your website rankings – and that means potential travelers will find YOU and not Orbitz, when they are researching online for their next vacation;
3. The quantity of people using social media outlets is huge, so the potential traffic is enormous.  Just to validate this point, as of today, Alexa, the website service that ranks traffic on websites, ranks Facebook as the number 2 most visited website, just behind Google.  In addition, YouTube is number 4.  Thus, of the top 4 most visited websites, social media websites have 2 positions.

Web 2.0 gives independent travel agents powerful tools to market their travel business, without costing much money, and the ability to compete with even the most impressive competition, like Travelocity.

If you are feeling overwhelmed by all of the different options, have no fear...just pick one or two social media outlets and focus on them until you have mastered them.  This effort alone will put you on the path to success.  Only then, should you look to add other social media outlets to your marketing pie.  Start with the ones that come most naturally to you.  It will be fun and your business will thrive.

Make Money Online for Free

If you are a travel agent and you don’t have YOUR OWN website or blog, then you are missing out on a huge, effective and FREE marketing opportunity in your travel business. A website or blog does so many things – it captures potential travelers when they are searching on the internet about their next vacation, it helps you stand out from the crowd and distinguish yourself from online booking sites and other agents, so they book their vacation with you, and it helps you keep in touch with prior clients, inspiring them to go on another vacation and call you when it happens.  Thanks to Wordpress, starting your own blog is easier than ever (and it costs NOTHING too!).

Read this article to learn exactly why a Blog could be a turning point in your travel business.

1) Safe Place
A blog is a safe place for potential customers to learn more about you, read your material, get to know you and decide if they want to do business with you. On a blog, they can look without buying.  On a blog, they can acquaint themselves without having to give you contact details.

2) Branding & Positioning
People don’t buy products, they buy solutions. A blog is where you position yourself as a solution provider…not a seller of travel.  When you approach someone in an effort to sell a vacation, that person will pull away, which can result in you chasing them.  The most successful marketers never chase customers.  Instead, they position themselves as experts in their field.  On a blog, you can share everything you know about your specific expertise in travel, and show them how you will solve their vacation problems and create lifetime memories.  It lets them know that you are trying to help them, not scam them.  When they realize they need a solution, they will come back to you.  A blog is a great FREE tool for you to shift from push marketing to pull marketing.

3) Amplifies Social Marketing Efforts
If you want the travel business of your dreams, but only have a shoestring budget, you must embrace social media by using Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and other FREE marketing outlets. Once you are actively using those, it is much more effective to direct Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and MySpace followers to your blog than to company website.  People will take you seriously.  In addition, you are able to gather so many more e-mail addresses because you are a real business, not doing this as a hobby.

4) Building Equity
I have saved the most important for last. Every time you post an article to your blog, you are building your content.   What’s even better, as a travel agent, you have so much interesting content sitting in your head, based upon all the travels you have taken.  All you have to do is download your fabulous portfolio of amazing vacations onto a blog.  If you post daily or even once a week, consistently, for several months, you will eventually have a very valuable asset.  All your articles generate FREE marketing on the world wide web and that NEVER expires.  You will continue to get FREE website traffic from 3 months worth of daily posting for years and years to come.

Learning how to market your travel business online for free will take time and effort, but it can be done. Setting up and posting to a blog is a critical starting point for long term success.  What I love most about blogging is that people can be their true self and it’s the most genuine and authentic way to promote your awesome travel services.

Home Based Business Opportunities

Years ago, travel agents did not have to focus much time or effort on marketing. Today, with so many people using the internet to search for things like information on their next big vacation, the emergence of online booking engines may seem like competition, but shed a different light on it and you will see a fantastic opportunity for travel agents to snap up new business.  However, this means that you, the travel agent, must go online to get your prospects.  And that does NOT mean relying upon your agency’s website with a little bio on you.  It DOES mean that you need to have your own, personal website.  The good news is that using online marketing is very cost effective, anyone can do it (including internet virgins!), and it can be a whole lot of fun if you understand what you are doing.

Online Marketing overwhelm

My goal today, is to get you to understand the big picture of online marketing. There are a lot of hot topics and terms that we are bombarded with on a daily basis like Facebook, Twittter, MySpace, SEO rankings, LinkedIn, YouTube, Keyword Research, tags, and the list goes on.  There are so many bits and pieces floating around, it can make a travel agent’’s head spin and feel so overwhelmed and intimidated, they want to give up.  Don’t give up!  This post is going to be immensely helpful to you.  It’s going to show you how to use online marketing as a HUGE asset, rather than see it as competition.

Let’s go back to the old days for one minute, before the internet existed. If you were a travel agent back then, you most likely worked out of a brick and mortar location (and got paid salary, not commissions).

Today, there’s a good chance you work from home.  Even if you don’t, you must think like you do, because you are in business for yourself. So nowadays, the only difference is that your brick and mortar will be your website.  This is your hub, where people can learn more about who you are, how you can help them create vacations to last a lifetime and how to book their next vacation with you.  Your website can be as quick and easy to set up, as a Wordpress blog.  Read my post called “Blogging 101″ to learn more about setting up a blog.

Once you have the websiteblog established, you have 2 simple goals:

1. Get visitors to your website (AKA traffic)
2. Convert visitors into buyers

Website is your hub

Getting Visitors to Websites
Getting traffic to a website is far easier and cheaper than it sounds. This is how you can compete with any other travel planner.  All of the social media outlets, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc, are simply ways to drive traffic to your website.  In addition, they are powerful, effective and FREE.  That’s how these outlets fit into the big picture.  The reason they are so popular is because they are fast,  incredibly effective and FREE.  So, clearly, these are outlets worth paying attention to, if your budget is limited.

Conversions are where the rubber meets the road

Converting Visitors into Clients
Converting your traffic into paying clients is the where the rubber meets the road. This is the piece that draws the line in the sand between success and failure.  Anybody can drive traffic to a website, but if you are good at converting your visitors into buyers, you can make millions.

Some super clever internet marketers, in the 1990s, figured out a system that is very effective for converting website traffic and is called the “sales funnel.” In the next few paragraphs I will explain the “sales funnel” to you show you how to apply this clever marketing strategy to your travel business, resulting in a consistently full pipeline of high paying, ideal travel clients.  It will be so easy, you won’t believe it.

There are three goals of a sales funnel:

1. build a relationship with the prospective traveler
2. filter out the people that would not be ideal clients (you don’t want them anyway!)
3. convert them from prospective client to buying customer

The powerful part of the sales funnel, is that it works on auto pilot, in your sleep.  That’s the incredible leverage of the internet!  Even if you are a one-man shop, you can build an enormous database of awesome, high paying, ideal travel clients.

IFO

A sales funnel begins with an “irresistible free offer” on the home page of your website. Let’s say your specific expertise is luxury cruises.  Many, many people search the internet on a daily basis trying to find the best deal on a luxury cruise.  Because you have done your research on the best keyword phrases, and your website is optimized because of clever useage of social media outlets all directing traffic back to your website, this potential cruise traveler finds your website at the top of the Google search page.  When they get to your website, they see an amazing offer to receive a fabulous FREE report called “The Top 10 Secrets to Saving Money on Your Next Luxury Cruise.”  That visitor thinks, “Wow!  That’s exactly what I was looking for.”  In order to receive this wonderful and educational piece of information, he must complete a form asking for his name and e-mail address, and perhaps other contact details.  If your website visitor bites, he has immediately taken one step closer to qualifying himself as an ideal client, and you collect his contact details in a database where you can begin establishing a relationship.  It’s a win-win.

The name and e-mail address of your website visitor go straight into a program called an automatic responder (A/R). Here, you have set up a confirmation and thank you e-mail sent immediately to your prospect, and includes your free information.  In addition, you will have set up a series of follow up e-mails that keeps your business in front of this prospect and continues with developing a relationship.

Sales Funnel

The sales funnel continues through correspondence with this prospect in your A/R. At some point, you will offer or recommend cruises that you have enjoyed, and detail how working with you maximizes the cruising experience.  You might begin offering lower priced cruises, or specials which are not necessarily the bookings that will make you fortunes…but if you are only focused on selling the big ticket item, then you are missing an important piece of the sales funnel.  For each response to your cruise special, your prospect continues to qualify himself and, eventually, may call you, inquiring about the special, but then talk himself into your big ticket item, without you doing a thing!  In addition, the client will have learned so much about working with you, thanks to all the free information you continue to drip to him through your auto responders, that the booking process is shortened considerably.

I hope that you can see the power of the sales funnel and that I have clarified how it leverages the internet to build thousands of relationships, lets the client self qualify and even possibly puts money in your pockets, all while you sleep.