Does this sound familiar?
You continuously say things like, “I can’t do this because I don’t have money,” “I can’t gain clients because I don’t know where to find them,” or “I can’t grow my business to be like the top travel companies because I lack _____.” These are all classic statements of a negative mindset. Any time you limit yourself, you’re falling into negativity, and your revenue will suffer.
Do you remember the old saying, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right?” A negative mindset stops your progress and success and will hurt you every time. Mindset is 99% of success. Imagine if Thomas Edison had said, “I can’t do this.” Or Richard Branson had said, “I can’t grow my business because I lack the resources.” We would not have the light bulb or Virgin Airlines.
Limiting beliefs do just that—limit you. Your mindset creates your reality, positive or negative. Make the decision to stop the negative mindset and transform it to a positive one, and you’ll be shocked at how your revenue jumps. To start, try turning the previous statements around. How about “I will do this because I have the money,” “I will gain clients because I know where to find them,” and “I will grow my business to a top travel company because I have ___.” Notice when we turned these around, we used “I will” instead of “I can.” It’s a stronger positive association.
When you have faith and believe in your business, and then take one action to move forward to success, it’s your energetic signal that you are committed. “Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the entire staircase” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
You will be rewarded with more opportunities to success and more money. When you have a positive mindset, taking massive action on those opportunities becomes effortless, and you’ll make more money than you thought possible. When your mindset is in alignment with your desires, you can do anything you want to do and make all the money you want. If you can conceive it and believe it, you can achieve it.
Universal Law states that when you ask, it is always given, 100% of the time. People talk themselves out of success because they don’t believe it will ever happen, but when you make the decision from a positive mindset, you’ll manifest what you want in life. The Law of Attraction guarantees it.
In the video below, I share one of my most valuable business success secrets with travel professionals and travel business owners who are looking to take their business to a new level in 2011.
See the video below:
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Below are 5 of my top mindset posts to help you get your head into the travel business game and start seeing the results you desire:
1. What’s Standing in Your Way of Success?
Lack of clarity. In order to receive what you ask for, you must be clear about what it is you want. Many of us think we know what we want, when we really aren’t clear at all. When we say we want the direction of our travel business to change, we think the solution to our problems will simply arrive. Essentially, we think that, by saying we want more money and more clients, more high-paying clients will call us and everything will fall into place. If you want to receive what you ask for, you must be crystal clear on what it is you’re asking for.
2. Travel Agents: Tired of Working Hard And Getting Paid So Little?
Do you feel as if you are working harder and making less money than you were five years ago? It’s true that a lot of change has affected your industry . . . and your income. Airlines eliminated commissions, online booking engines created a competitive environment, and brick-and-mortar offices are legends of the past, which means you have to take more action to find new business.
3. How to Get Clear on Whom You Want to Work With
You have a choice about the people you work with, and you don’t have to take everyone who comes your way. We have all been building our businesses the wrong way. We started our businesses and told ourselves we needed to bring in the cash, so we worked with everyone we could.
4. Give Yourself Permission to Make More Money
I recently had a coaching call with a wonderful client. Because it’s the end of the year, I am in “goal setting” mode with my private clients, helping them get clear on goals for the next year. These are so critical to success and very few people actually go through the process to set clear, specific, achievable goals.
5. Are You Having Fun in Your Travel Business?
Did you choose to enter the travel business because you loved it, but lately you aren’t having much fun? Do you feel like your travel business is running you rather than the other way around?
If so, it’s time to let go and start having some fun with your clients and with your business. When you’re enjoying yourself, your clients sense it and love working with you. They come back and refer others, and opportunities abound for you to make more money. Following are a few ways to have more fun and success with your business.
Referrals and key influencers can play a major role in the profitability of your travel business. Key influencers can be anyone from the person who cleans your office to the governor of your state, and they can bring you more business than you thought possible. This post will focus on how to generate key influencers to help you build your business. If you choose to pay referral fees, you’ll only spend money after you make money.
Keep in touch after someone has booked a trip.
Send emails about what clients should expect as their travel date gets closer. Keep a dialogue with clients after you’ve booked a trip for them so they know you’re there for them—no matter what purchase they made or how much they spent. Be available for them. If you take care of your clients and build relationships, they’ll take care of you.
Focus on the client and their experience, and ask for referrals.
You should have a system for staying in touch with all your clients, and when you have an opportunity, ask them if they know anyone who needs a travel advisor. People are happy to talk about and refer you—but they don’t always think of it on their own, so ask! When you do, they’re likely to think of several friends and family to refer you to.
Acknowledge your clients.
Be diligent in sending thank-you emails and holiday and birthday cards. Use your monthly newsletters and quarterly mailings to give clients more helpful information and offers they might be interested in, such as travel tips and notice of upcoming specials. Encourage them to forward your newsletters to friends, coworkers, and family.
Give clients a referral fee if they bring you a new client.
Referral rewards don’t necessarily have to be money. Maybe special amenities, free services, or special pricing for their next trip would be good incentives for referrals. Whatever you choose, make sure you’re giving them a reward that is relevant and meaningful so they will continue to refer you. Give a discount or extra perks to your new clients. Reward clients for repeat purchases and perhaps create your own loyalty programs.
Don’t always focus on new leads.
Always get feedback on the experiences of past and current clients and find ways to improve them. You’ll get more referrals and more repeat business, so you won’t have to go out looking for new business—it will come to you. It’s easier to sell a current client than to find and sell a new one.
Don’t make the mistake so many businesses do by focusing on the shiny new client while ignoring your previous and current clients. While you need to keep marketing to prospects, use at least an equal amount of time, energy, and resources marketing to old clients. You’ll build a more loyal client base quickly and sell more frequently.
The best way to grow your travel business is to have a written marketing plan. There are only three ways to grow your business: increase the frequency of client purchases, increase the number of clients, and increase transaction sizes. Following are six parts of an effective marketing plan that will produce the results you’ve been looking for.
Come up with your message. Whom are you targeting?
Decide who your ideal customer is and why you want to work with them. An easy way to do this is to think of who your favorite current or past clients are and why. Get into your ideal client’s head. What are they saying to themselves, what are the problems and pains they are avoiding? How do you help them solve those problems, and why should they listen to you? The benefits you bring to your clients will form the cornerstone of your marketing efforts.
What are your list building strategies?
Very few travel consultants make concerted, consistent efforts to market by growing their lists. You’ll be a step ahead if you collect names and contact details in an authentic way, create a relationship with them, and ask for their business. Get online with a site or blog, create an irresistible free offer, and drive traffic to your site with social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Try speaking engagements for instant credibility as an expert and gather names with a drawing for a prize.
Frequently engage with your lists through social media and regular newsletters.
Engaging is all about sharing. Tell your list about your a-ha moments and provide value with travel and product reviews, guest bloggers, surveys, and travel resources. Always tie content back to your expertise and give calls to action. Be creative, be authentic, and ask for feedback. On Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, share personal information and fun tips and advice, but don’t advertise.
Market yourself as a leader and expert and give them reasons to visit your site. Invite comments by asking questions. On Twitter, retweet influential people and followers, tell jokes, offer quotes and videos, and ask open-ended questions. Send warm letters asking for referrals, to those who know, like, and trust you. Keep in touch with your list and send out offers with an automated system such as Send Out Cards, which you can try free at www.sendoutcards.com/75668.
Visit the Safar2Success blog this Friday for Part II of this post!
We’re all aware of the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. We know that in order to succeed in our travel business, we need to step out of our comfort zones, step into our fears, and start marketing.
Yet, many travel professionals continue to put marketing on the back burner and wonder why they are so tired, stressed, and frustrated. And wonder why they aren’t making more money. Working with travel professionals in my Safari2Success bootcamp and mastermind groups, I’ve seen the trap of procrastination that prevents so many entrepreneurs from building profitable travel businesses.
If you are serious about growing your travel business, do not put off what can be done today. It sounds overly simple, I know, but you’d be amazed at how a slight change in behavior (and mindset) can impact your revenue and your life.
If you find yourself saying, I’ll send that newsletter next week or I’ll learn about Facebook tomorrow, it’s time to stop and do it now! I challenge you to start the process of rebranding your company, of planning your 2011 marketing schedule, of doing whatever it is that you’ve been putting off.
The key is to commit to something today so you cannot back out later. Pick one or two things on your list, and get the ball rolling right now.
Here is your Safari2Success assignment:
- Put together a calendar for yourself and write all the things you need to do daily, weekly, and monthly. Schedule appointments with yourself for all these tasks. Try and visualize your to do list and get clear on what you need to do each day, each week, each month to keep the momentum going.
- Add daily tasks to your calendar in advance. Tasks might include scheduling time for social media activities, time to answer emails, and return phone calls.
- Create weekly tasks on your calendar, such as writing and distributing your weekly ezine, writing and posting blog posts, following up with clients and JV partners, or reaching out to potential JVs.
- Create a monthly calendar that includes more high-level tasks such as reaching out to 5 – 10 people for speaking engagements, creating a series of videos, and creating and hosting a webinar or teleseminar.
While working on this assignment, if you find yourself making excuses or find that your fear of trying something new starts to overwhelm you, I urge you to keep moving forward. Create the calendar and commit to completing your tasks. Doing things with deliberate intent will help you generate business and grow your travel business.
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Post written by Fabienne Fredrickson
QUOTE: “Living your best life is to find out what your calling is. Your real job on Earth is to find out what you were meant to be doing and to find a way to do that thing.” —Oprah Winfrey
For years, I’d wondered what my life purpose was, what my calling was, especially in business. I’ve always known that I was good at marketing, but I also knew I was here for something bigger than I could dream, yet I couldn’t figure out what that was. I’ll admit I had a sometimes painful upbringing and early adulthood, and I always wondered WHY this was all happening to me. If there’s supposed to be a reason for everything, then what was the reason I experienced so many deeply trying times? What was I supposed to do with all of it? I just couldn’t figure it out.
In the last few years, I’ve made it a habit to TiVo Oprah on a daily basis and am familiar with her saying, “Use your life.” Countless times, I’ve heard her inspire her viewers to look for the meaning in something that’s happened to them, and then ask them to turn around and do something useful with it. The concept seems to be: Don’t necessarily wallow in what’s happened to you.
Instead, use the experience and the learning to help others, to make a difference, to create change. THAT is your life purpose. THAT is your calling, and it’s super important for businesses like ours because we can affect people and businesses so directly.
Since then, I’ve realized why all that happened to me and why I’m here. From my experiences, I learned to overcome my once very low self-esteem, as well as the negative beliefs and playing small, to have more confidence and to really go for what I want in life. I also learned about having compassion for others (including my clients), to know that we all have painful experiences that shape who we are today; we all have fears and things holding us back, but these don’t need to continue to hold us back.
At the same time, we all have massive potential for success, and to make a difference, especially being self-employed. It’s just a question of getting out of our own way and then getting out there in a BIG way.
Using Client Attraction, I use my ‘calling’ on a daily basis with my clients. Yes, early on and for the majority of the time, we focused heavily on the marketing. (Listen, if you’re sitting on the sofa WAITING for clients day after day, you’re not going to make a big difference in this world.) You were given a gift, so you need to get out there to tell people about it and start helping people get results. Therefore, the marketing is absolutely crucial.
But once the marketing systems are in place, the ‘calling’ piece of it extends also to the other stuff that most entrepreneurs never put their attention to: increasing their confidence, getting out of their own way and into their true potential success (it’s already IN them, they just haven’t accessed it fully up to now). Especially women.
That might mean noticing how they get stopped by a chronic conditioning of playing too small, limiting thoughts, not deserving, subtle self-sabotaging behaviors, and fears that may or may not really exist, but are DEFINITELY getting in the way. In addition to the marketing, that’s where I can make a massive difference in someone’s business success and in his or her life. I’m a marketing junkie, but that’s the juicy stuff for me. Best of all, it works and clients love the outcome.
When you’re coming from your ‘calling,’ clients get better results, give you amazing testimonials, and more referrals. You begin to make a more substantial difference and that automatically translates to more success, more in-come, and all that stuff.
Wondering how to tap into your own calling? Here’s what I learned about finding mine:
- When you’re NOT aligned with your life purpose, life is more of a struggle.
- Hardship is actually good. It’s a sign from the Universe that you’re not necessarily on the right track. See hardship as a blessing and a clue.
It’s not about necessarily CHANGING your business (I’m still doing Client Attraction and marketing, at least for now); it’s a clue that you may need to change your direction a tiny bit or tweak it just slightly.
Your Client Attraction Assignment:
Find a way to weave your ‘calling’ into your work. Ask yourself these questions for clues on finding yours:
- What section of the bookstore do you hang around in the most?
- Look around you for signs about your purpose. They’re everywhere if you look for them. Little happy coincidences aren’t coincidences at all. They’re ALL signs.
- If you act upon the signs and take inspired action, you’ll expedite your journey to living your purpose.
- Find what comes easily to you, what helps others AND makes you feel good at the same time. If something brings you joy (like, for me, teaching and inspiring entrepreneurs to truly succeed on all levels) then it’s something to pursue.
Once you’ve found it, start weaving it little by little into your every day work with clients, or start doing it a little at a time. Instead of doing a complete 180, test out the waters. Look for how you FEEL. Look for the subtle feedback. Then add a little more, so that it feels authentic to you. As you keep going, add even a little more of it until it feels really good and you notice a difference in your clients’ results and how they relate to you. Start weaving it in your talks, your teleclasses, your networking, and your articles. Over time, when it feels right, you can start adding it permanently to your marketing materials.
Your calling is to help others AND to feel good doing it. Once you find it, throw yourself into it. Success, clients, and increased revenues will naturally come to you when you do. You won’t believe you get paid to live it.
All that said, I urge you NOT to forget the marketing. When you market authentically, Client Attraction becomes big-time easy. Not sure where to start? Try the step-by-step system that will feel easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ avoids all the extraneous stuff that could distract your growth and instead gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. So easy. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. You can get it at
www.theclientattractionsystem.com.
2010 Client Attraction LLC. All Rights Reserved.
About Fabienne:
Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System
, the proven step-by-step program that shows you exactly how to attract more clients, in record time…guaranteed. To get your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and receive her weekly marketing & success mindset articles on attracting more high-paying clients and dramatically increasing your in.come, visit www.clientattraction.com.
Have you ever thought about how much value you currently bring to your clients and how you can add even more?
Of course, your expertise by itself is highly valuable, and your first step is to make sure you are charging accordingly for everything you do, but adding value to your client’s experience means offering more than just your knowledge. How do you become your client’s total solution—and make more money?
The more products and services you can offer, and the more you can package these products and services, the more you’ll help your client, and the more money you’ll make. You’ll create a very happy customer who will return to you and refer others.
So, the very first thing you want to do is create and prepare three different travel fee packages for your ideal client. This ensures that you are providing a total solution for your clients.
When packaging your products, think about any extra information, products, and services you can provide for an extra charge. How can you save your client time or money? Are there thoughtful extras you can add that will make the client’s trip go a little more smoothly or that will enhance his or her experience? If so, bundle these services and products into two or three easily digestible packages for the client to choose from.
When a client comes along (let’s refer to her as Betty and she is looking to travel to Europe for the very first time), you have a Discovery Session with her to see if there is a fit between what Betty needs and what you offer. In this Discovery Session, you should spend most of the time asking questions to get a feel for Betty’s needs. Then, offer her a total solution based on her needs. This total solution will be your travel service fee packages.
Once you present Betty with three packages to choose from, Betty can decide which package is most appealing. When Betty can visualize all of the services and products you’re providing her, she’ll feel at ease knowing that you are handling all of her travel needs and see the value. And, once Betty chooses one of these packages, not only does she receive a better experience, but you also get paid for what you’re worth.
Remember, people will pay anything for you to take charge and do it all for them. Below are some ways to enhance your packages to illustrate your value and full-service consulting:
- Did you make arrangements for her passport and charge a service fee, or did you simply tell her to take care of her passport before she leaves?
- Does Betty understand airline security guidelines here and in Europe? How is she going to exchange dollars for Euros? Does she know how to find the U.S. Embassy in each country? You could create guidebooks and charge for them, or you could host a paid orientation online once a month.
- Did you book enough day trips for her? Have you asked if there is anything else she’d like to see or experience? Add a service charge for each booking—and check with her throughout her trip to see if you can add any new adventures.
- Is she familiar with European cuisine? How much does she know about the culture in each country? If you don’t want to stock books, become an affiliate on Amazon.com and suggest she purchase your affiliated books.
- Does she need new luggage? How about a good pair of walking shoes? Find websites that sell items travelers need, start an affiliate account so you get a commission on every sale, and set up a resources page on your site. You’ll look like the helpful agent who thinks of everything and you’ll make more money doing it.
Since she is a first-time traveler to Europe, she is likely nervous about these things. Anything you can do to educate her and provide her with a full-service will make more money for you and make you the expert in her eyes.
Adding value ensures you’ll have a knowledgeable client who will get the most from her trip because she’s informed. She will be a confident traveler and will return to you next year when she travels to Africa—and she’ll bring her friends with her.
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