Who is the Host of the Strategic Travel Entrepreneur?

Hello, hello travel entrepreneurs. Happy 2022. It is so super awesome to have you here. As you may have noticed, I'm doing things a little bit differently in 2022. You know, I think I've landed on my word of the year being experiment, but I may also be experimenting with with that word. So bear with me as I try lots of different things out both in this series, support business for the industry, but also on this podcast. Speaking of this podcast, I know you have probably many of you have listened to me since I started this podcast back in March of 2021. If that is you, thank you so so much for being here, tuning in every week.

I so appreciate it. But I don't really think I've kind of like given an origin history of myself and who I am. So I did want to do a little bit of that now before we really start like diving in deep to the meat of a lot of things and, and kind of what I'm about and yeah, so let's go ahead, let's dive on in. If you don't know me. Hello, my name is Rita M. Perez. I am a certified travel advisor and I specialize in retreats on cruise ships for corporate execs who lead teams and also for business owners who want to bring their clients on boards for a retreat. In the travel sphere I have so that is my travel business.

In this past like year, year and a half, I have been really feeling called to support the travel industry, particularly travel advisors in their businesses and in this travel business journey through, there are a few holes that I kind of see and some amazing people filling in the holes with all the education in this travel industry and I, I thought that I should also be a voice to kind of bring the different resources not only that are so beneficial within our industry but also outside of our industry to give us that outsider's perspective and see what we can apply from different industries to, to our own travel businesses. Because the travel business is so incredibly unique compared to other businesses. We're a mix of being a product business, but we're a mix of also being a service based business and kind of finding the balance. Because I'm seeing that it's not we can't just promote based off of the product, but we also can't just promote based off of our services. And so what is that fine line? So who am I and how did I come to be? So I actually. So I started my travel business back in October of 2010. I was finishing my master's degree and that summer while I was finishing my master's degree. I also went on a trip to Tunisia that was pretty life changing.

It was for my friend's wedding. She was marrying a guy from Tunisia, met here in the States and she's like, I'm not going to be getting married here in the States like everybody else, I want to go far off and have an international wedding. So that's what we did. And the bonds that were formed from that trip not only even strengthened just within our own friend bond, but the family relationship that we've created over the years because of that was so transformative to me. And I was like, people need to experience the amazingness. So I originally started my travel business in girlfriend getaways and clearly that has evolved my so and kind of like going back before that. So I have my bachelor's degree in hospitality management where I specialized actually in event management. But I turned quickly to the food and beverage industry because I thought there was going to be more work, life balance.

Because, you know, especially if you are a destination, weddings, lots of stuff happens. I mean, events happens when people are available and that's clearly on the weekends. And I did not want to give up my weekends. So I went into the hospitality industry and still gave up my weekends anyways, funny enough, so I have worked in the theme park industry. I think the total was like either 15 or 16 years. So I started out after or like right upon graduation or in the middle of my doing my bachelor's degree working at Walt Disney World in beautiful Orlando, Florida. And my very first job with Disney was as a housekeeper or if you're a very big Disney fan, a mouse keeper. So yes, I was cleaning 18 rooms every day per shift.

That is a lot of rooms. Just saying I was in a special program. So I did a couple months working in housekeeping and then I did a couple months working in front desk and luggage assistance. And from there I kind of like took seasonal roles so that I could focus on finishing up my bachelor's degree. And from there I got into the wonderful world of working in food and beverage. My first food and beverage job was at the Garden Grill in Epcot. At the Land, if you're a big Epcot fan. It was actually the spot that I wanted.

It was one of my favorite restaurants at Disney growing up because it rotated. I loved the rotation and I loved the character experience. Experience that was there. So working there was really, really a dream. From there I went into a management internship program. So I did a couple months working at, I was gonna say Pecos Bill. But I. Before I got to Pecos Bill, at Magic Kingdom, I was at Port Orleans French Quarter, which was an amazingly fun experience.

So I handled taking care of like the quick service that was there and the two pool bars and pizza delivery service. From there, I did go to Magic Kingdom. Pecos Bill was eventually my home. But before that I worked at Cosmic Rays in Tomorrowland because Pecos was undergoing some renovations. And Pecos Bills is in Adventureland, if you did not know. No, Frontierland. Sorry, sorry. Frontierland at Magic Kingdom.

From there, this is. Let me kind of like fast forward it a little bit too. So I worked at different resorts. So you've heard of Port Orleans. I also worked over at all the different restaurants at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge and Kidani Village. Then I went back over into the theme park world. I worked at Epcot. I worked the amazing international Food and Wine Festival one year, like really one of the highlights of my careers.

From there, I decided to leave Disney and I went to another theme park establishment called Sea SeaWorld. And that's where I spent the last part of my theme park career, working in food and beverage at all of the Orlando parks. So I started at Discovery Cove, went to Aquatica, the water park, and then eventually came to the big park, SeaWorld, the main park. And after that I decided to do more of a support and strategy role. And I worked in labor analysis. So a lot of scheduling, workloads, budgeting was my last role there before I became full time in the entrepreneurial world with my travel business and the support business for Travel entrepreneurs effective May 2021. It was always my goal to do full time, be a full time entrepreneur. And I don't know about you, but a lot of things came positive and negative from everything that happened with the pandemic.

And for me, it made me realize a lot of what I wanted out life. And it was really to live life on my own terms and being able to help people. Being able. I was called to, like, a higher purpose because I wasn't really finding purpose and meaning in the work that I was doing in the theme parks, though it was really great to help kind of shape the foundation of who I am today and how I approach things towards the end of my career in the theme parks. And I was what you would call the fixer, the Olivia Pope. If there were was a restaurant that was needing help or I needed to help open up a new restaurant or a new service, that's where I was brought in. I was. I was the fixer to help Whatever situation was.

So I would go in, pinpoint something, kind of clean up whatever mess happened to be in there, or set the foundation, set the tone. So I did a lot in the realms of training, strategizing, creating systems, checklists and things like that in the theme park industry. Kind of like translating that now into the travel business. I am realizing that, and I think I've had a talk about this recently on the podcast. There are differences between being just a travel advisor or a travel supplier and being a travel entrepreneur. And so I have to. A lot of what I'm doing or have been doing the past couple months, it's kind of like breaking that down. What are the differences? Because when you're working like how I worked in the theme park or any sort of, like corporate atmosphere, there are different people who are skilled at different things.

And that's why you have the marketing department, the sales department, you have customer relations, you have your people who are fixing everything, all the engineers. You have your health services. If something medical, someone medical needed attention, but when. So. And those are the different job titles. So travel advisor is what I call a job title. But then when we're looking at the actual organization, that's what I see is the travel entrepreneur and the travel entrepreneur kind of managing the different parts of these of the organization. Because the ultimate goal should be to grow your organization.

And that doesn't have to be by leaps and bounds all the time. But you don't want to stay. I mean, you can't stay stagnant, especially in our ever changing, rapidly changing world. You cannot stay doing the same things you were doing all the time, every time. So there are little tweaks and things that have to be made. And so those are the things that I'm kind of analyzing internally, both being a travel entrepreneur, but also taking the lens to help you as my fellow travel entrepreneurs, to kind of crack the code. Because I know there was not a lot of this guidance when I first started the travel business 11 years ago. And so that's obviously why I started this podcast is I wanted to share all the things that I had learned throughout the years and especially through our horrendous 2020, which I say horrendous, but I think it is a catch 22.

There were some really great things and some really bad things that happened. But I really want to talk about this industry and how we can make improvements to the industry and talk about the different facets, because I think a lot of what is talked about in this industry also is a lot about Marketing, but the sexy marketing stuff I feel and not the things that I'm just going to call out that actually provide you with results in your travel business. And I think that has been a real eye opener for me is that, you know, a lot of the people that we get guidance from, our online business owners are online business coaches. And like I was mentioning at the start of this podcast, online business coaching world is different, similar, but different than what we do as travel entrepreneur entrepreneurs. So we have to take those things like with a grain of salt. And you know, one of my favorite phases really is take what you need and leave what you don't. And that's like with any program, like all the different programs that are now popping up, including my own in this industry, you really have to hone in on what your goals for your business are. What your businesses are is because I stand firm that every business owner and every business is very unique.

There's no umbrella formula that's going to work for you. There are different things that you can pick up from different of these coaches or gurus that you're hearing about, but it's not like a one stop shop. Like this is the path and this is what's going to help you. There's a lot of different things along the way and I'm calling those the phases of the travel business. There's a lot of different things that have to be done but might not have to be done by you. Meaning that you might not have to do A through zone. You may need to do a MQY because that is what is necessary in your travel business. But the person next to you probably needs B, E and F.

So I think like bringing those different things and helping those things come to light to help you be a more effective travel entrepreneur in whatever that means to you. Because I think that's the other thing that has become very apparent with a lot of the people that are in the travel space trying to help fellow travel entrepreneurs. It's, it's kind of like one size fits all because everybody has the goal to be a full time travel entrepreneur and even that, what does that mean to you? Does full time mean you're working 60 hours a week? Doesn't mean you're working 40 hours a week. Maybe it means you're working 25 hours a week. So really it is kind of like building on all these things that make your travel business unique. What is going to make it successful? What is going to help you strategize so that you're an effective CEO of Your own business. These are the things that I'm really wanting to help come to light. And I do that in a couple different methods.

You're listening to one right now, the strategic travel entrepreneur, which I am hoping to start getting new guests coming on for this year. So that you're not just listening to me gab about all these things. You're hearing actual experts in their own fields talk about different things that have worked for them and the clients that have helped that they have helped along the way. I also do this by a brand new program called I call it the Take the helm Collaborative. But I might be changing the name to Bingo for your travel business is that I think is more of an accurate title for it. And see there I'm already experimenting in 2022. Like there is no right, there is no wrong way. So we'll.

But anyways, travel for travel, Bingo for your travel business is something that I have set up because I think we've gone away from, you know, looking at the different little actions that culminate to a successful travel business because again, we're so focused on the sexy shiny object stuff. But there are certain basic things that need to happen consistently and sometimes every month and so that we can be effective and strategic travel entrepreneurs in our own businesses. And so that is what travel for. Oh my gosh. Bingo for your travel business is for. It's to give you a brand new bingo board every month. You can lay take a lay of the land when you're looking at the bingo board and figure out a plan to get a bingo every month and be rewarded for achieving a bingo, AKA doing the right things in your travel business by doing that. So if you're interested in joining Bingo for your travel business, I will have the links.

It's only $11 a month because again, I am trying to be so mindful of your time and your money investments. And this is going to be a little time investment, so little money and hopefully it's going to be bringing so much fun back into your travel business also because I know, I know we have had a tough year. So if we can play a fun bingo game altogether while we're achieving our goals and little successes, I think that just makes us a stronger travel industry on its own. So those are two major ways that you can work with me or get access to the different resources. I also ran something called Prep for Wave Week back in the beginning of November 2021. I have a free resource guide for you because those were free trainings with amazing experts within the travel business. This is going to be good to set you up for wave season which hopefully, hopefully depending on what happens with this variant, hopefully we'll be starting very soon. It is also good if you're just looking to go back to basics and need a little bit of an uplift and inspiration for your travel business.

It is a free checklist. Access to all the videos is included on there and I'll go ahead and put that link so that you can sign up for that free checklist as well into the Show Notes. But that is a very much more lengthy way of getting to know me a little bit better. But yes, that is kind of like my background, the ins and outs of who I am and kind of what shaped me and what shaped my calling to assist the travel industry. I am an open book. If you have any questions, please make sure that you're joining the strategic travel entrepreneur community on Facebook. I love to pick your guys brains and give you lots of polls but then anything that I find that I think is going to prove useful to your travel business, I also post up in that group as well. So I'm most active in that group and the second place that I'm most active on is my Instagram account which everything will be linked up in the show notes.

Thank you so so much for listening to this episode and hearing a little bit of my backstory and my journey and kind of like what got me here. Again, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out and I look forward to seeing you guys next week. If you liked this episode, please make sure you subscribe to get more content and you if and please head over to Apple Podcasts and give this podcast a rating and review because it does help boost so that more of your travel entrepreneurs can listen in and get this amazing content so we can help strengthen our amazing travel industry altogether. All right, until next week, have a great one.