I encounter a lot of travel consultants who are still generalists. Then there is another breed who says they specialize, but the specialty is something such as “Luxury Travel.” That’s like saying you are a foot protection consultant and your specialty is shoes. There is a tremendous fear within the industry that if you specialize, one or two bad things will happen:

1) You will cut yourself off from potential business—including that lead that just might turn into your BIG FISH.

2) You will no longer have the variety that you love. In other words, part of why you love travel is being able to explore new places. If you specialize, you won’t be able to do this anymore.

I hear those fears and, admittedly, had them myself at one time. What I am here to tell you is that these fears are based upon inaccurate assumptions. Without a specialty, you have no marketing platform, will continue to compete with Travelocity, and are no better than a commodity. The second inaccurate assumption is that a specialty equals a destination niche. This is wrong. There are so many ways to specialize. A destination is one of thousands of ways to pick a niche.

The first step to picking a specialty is to realize that you are a solutions provider. Travelocity has done this extremely well. They provide solutions to travelers looking to pay the lowest price possible. This is a VERY different solution from what you provide, but if you stay in generalist mode, you will end up competing and losing. You have to pick your market, and it starts with finding your why.

As humans, we all have a deep, burning desire for one thing, which starts out as a quiet whisper underneath the desire for money, fame, health, love, etc. But that whisper will eventually get louder, and what it’s calling you to do is to make a difference. You came to this planet with talents and gifts so incredibly full of potential, and that whisper is terribly annoyed that you are not using them to their fullest, not making a difference.

The first step is to realize that yes, you, the travel consultant that works from her home and has a list of 300 potential and past clients, can make a BIG difference in the lives of others through your business. Travel can make a big difference in people’s lives. And, the services you provide with respect to their travel can make a huge difference. That’s what your talents and gifts are for!

So how do you know what solutions you are meant to provide? Begin by connecting with your passions. Your passions are your clues to the real, authentic you, underneath the many roles you play day in and day out. Do you remember your passions? Many people haven’t. Travel is probably one of them, but you have to dig deeper.

To connect with your passion, let’s play the billionaire game. Pretend I have a billion dollars to give you, and the only condition is you have to work to make money. Think about what you would do with unlimited resources if you could do anything you wanted. What profession or job would have you cry tears of gratitude that you could do it every day? That is your passion and where you need to be working.

It is a disservice to hoard your talents and gifts. It’s your duty to share your “brownies,” or your special gifts, with the world. Your brownies are your passion and expertise, and your recipe is special. People are desperate for the one flavor that only you can make. Think about this: there are people losing sleep at night because they need YOUR brownies and only YOU have them to offer.

Here are some examples of people that can’t sleep at night and might be in need of your brownies:

• The divorced dad who desperately misses his kids because he no longer has full custody. He feels emotionally disconnected from them and doesn’t know how to bridge that bond again. Two or three well-planned family vacations would fit the bill, don’t you think?

• The young widow who is courageously moving on with life. Travel is one of her passions, but she hasn’t even considered a trip now that she is alone. She doesn’t know who to travel with. This is a tribe waiting to happen, and the intelligent travel consultant reading this post who resonates with this “need” will drop everything and start forming a network for widowed, yet still adventurous, travelers who want to travel but don’t want to do it alone.

The people who are hungry for your brownies are your niche—not a destination niche, but a people niche. Who needs you most, and whom does your passion help? This is the group you need to target and market to. These are your ideal clients and will rejuvenate and excite you, rather than drain you.

You have to believe in and own your brownies. People need your gifts. They are missing life and not living it to the fullest. Look at how many people you can help, rather than how many clients you can get, and start marketing to those people. Your business will thrive, and so will you. Commit to your niche and your marketing, make it a part of your everyday routine, and those who need your brownies will appear.

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