How to Implement My Learnings from Prep for Wave Week

Welcome to this strategic travel entrepreneur. My name is Rita Perez. Hello. I've been a travel Advisor for over 10 years and am navigating this winding road of entrepreneurship with you. I created this podcast because I wanted to share all the things I've learned from leaders both in and out of our industry that I really wish I would have known way back then. But alas, the important thing thing is I'm aware of them now and I want you to be too. Ready for this week's show. Let's jump in.

Hello. Hello. Welcome back to the podcast. Of course, it's amazing to have you back this week. I wanted to, as promised, kind of share just a couple of the insights that I personally took away that I think relate very well to the how you as a fellow business owner can benefit from these teachings. And pretty much at the core of me putting on prep for Wave week, what do I see are the core pieces that can help you in your own travel business. And you know, for one, I think about I Created topics that 1 I knew you as fellow travel advisors were going to be interested in hearing about. And how did I know that? Because I know travel advisors very well because I myself am a travel advisor.

I know the things that I would have loved to have heard about way back when. And I know kind of like the pain points also. So how does that relate to you? You, you need to know your own client just as well. And usually your own client or your ideal client is someone who is very much like you. So I go ahead and I go back to thinking, like, what are some of the topics that I like to hear about as a person, especially like with my niche being in cruise retreats. And I think this is kind of like where I'm starting to go back. It's always going back to basics. And sometimes throughout the year, I feel like in my travel business podcast, I have felt like I got away from the true why do people need to be listening to this podcast? So when I go back to thinking about content, what do my people need to hear about? What do they want to be hearing about and what is going to be beneficial to them that is going to help them move the needle a little bit forward.

Now, my audience is a little bit different because I do work a lot with B2B and I know many travel advisors are more B2C. So working with consumers rather than other business owners. So it may vary a little bit differently. But what do moms need to hear about traveling right now? What do wedding planners need to know when they're working with their clients and you bridging that gap. What do retirees need to know about travel right now? What or how I'm thinking about even, like luxury clients, they probably don't. And I'm saying this, they want you to take care of all the details for them. They don't want to have to manage anything. So how are you going to prove yourself that you know, that you can.

That you're. You're more than capable to handle the details for them, especially when you're talking about client attraction. So what are kind of like the core messages? If we're gonna. If we're gonna circle back, what are the core messages like? I knew my ideal client, and I know what your pain points are, specifically with this prep for Wave Week. So who are your ideal clients and what are their pain points? Because there's also different types of content that you can put out there for the different stages of people. And, you know, that is for me personally, for my niche, I have to educate and train a lot of people to understand that retreats don't have to be on land, they don't have to be in a retreat center, in a hotel. So what are those nuances in your own niche that you have to train people to break free from or to start thinking differently about and even going back to basics? Because a lot of the things that we had talked about were very foundational so that you can set the stage to be successful in another way. So I would say that is one of the big tips that came about, is that I knew who my ideal client was, and I know what they wanted, and I've gotten really amazing feedback.

So thank you so much for everybody's feedback. So what is going to be that content that your ideal client is just going to be oozing for? The second thing is that I provided so much free value. There was a little upgrade. And of course, when you're working with your clients, I would say that that's like your planning fee once they get started working with you. But there was so much incredible and tangible value. And a lot of that was me being mindful of the speakers that came and me really thinking through the questions that I was going to ask the speakers and making sure that they weren't going to be generic. And also, this goes back because I am, I guess, in a sense, my idea. I am a travel advisor who is looking for those questions.

I know I'm not going. I'm not the only one going to have those questions. So when you think about Your ideal client. What questions do you think that they have? You might think that they're silly, but really get to the nitty gritty. And it could all be like, even like some sort of packing hack. Or did you know that you should visit Timbuktu in July instead of December? Or whatever all these nuances are really, they need to know. So you have to give as much value, as much knowledge. Like, you just have to pour into them.

Because once you have invested in your clients and your potential clients, they are going to give so much more back to you. And I think that also goes back to my big people first sentiment that I have. It's just like one of my core values, I guess, like as a human. As a human being too. So what are yours? And how can you relate those back and just provide super value? And I'm not saying you have to give your top hidden secrets, but give enough that it's more than something that's googleable, but also rings them in a little bit and gets them committed to you and who you are, man. So I'm looking at my list. Relationships are critical. And if I had not made so many amazing relationships with the speakers, they would not have come on.

They would not have come on and supported me in this event. They would not have come on and supported you with this event. This event for the speakers, you know, of course, is good promo for them, but it shows their expertise and it provided so much value for everybody all around. But I could not have done it had I not. The strategic travel entrepreneur is brought to you by Mailbox Power. Harness the power to attract and nurture your clients through something many entrepreneurs have forgotten about. The Mailbox. Create beautiful custom campaigns and automate annual mail for birthdays and holidays.

And with a pro account, get access to mailboxes not currently on your mailing list that are just waiting for the travel service you offer. Visit my Mailbox Power affiliate link in the show notes to get started today and support this podcast. Had those relationships already built. I will say Chanel Knight, she was one of my first, like, really close supplier partnerships. When I first started this business 11 years ago, I. She no longer works closely with my host agency. She has a different territory because she works with a different company now. But because of that foundation years ago, I could come up to her and be like, you know what, I really, I really want to have your voice here.

And she said, yes. So who are those relationships that you can cultivate that can help your business? Maybe you want to do similar something like a Summit. And you want to partner with different travel advisors who specialize in a different niche and help just lift and promote travel in your local community. I think, like, that's a great idea, and that's something actually I had wanted to do, but the plans had faltered. But where. What relationships can you really cultivate that will be beneficial and helpful to you? Is it podcasters or bloggers in your ideal niche? Do you want to do Facebook lives or Instagram lives with someone who is complimentary to you? So I'm going to go with, like, family. Someone with family. So is this somebody who helps with productivity because they have multiple children? Is this someone who helps families stay on budget when they have multiple children? You have to start thinking creatively, and what's going to be a complimentary service to you that is going to be beneficial for both audiences to listen to? I will say that these types of collaborations also have positioned me as an expert now, and that's what you need to do in your travel business.

Also, like a couple weeks ago for Hispanic Heritage Month, I featured somebody who was very same. What was that? What was the word I used? Who was very complimentary. That's the word complimentary to what I offer. And I know that they had access to people who might be my ideal clients. So I raised them up on my Instagram platform, and they raised me up on their Instagram platform. These types of collaborations, you know, a lot of the people that I know, both in the travel industry and outside the travel industry, are because of that, because I have seen them on other people's audiences. So what are you going to do to position yourself to also get on other people's audience? You may know other business owners. You may have friends who are business owners that would compliment yourself.

You. You may already be working with other business owners, but I think that would be a really amazing sweet spot to get yourself to the next level and position yourself as the expert for family travel. For example, if you're going to be working with other bloggers, maybe thinking like a country club setting, and this is probably like a really bad. I'm trying to think like a luxury luxury. And maybe it is that you bring like a board of directors, somebody from a country club to discuss appropriate attire for the holiday season. I'm. I don't know, I'm just like, trying to think outside of the box and things that aren't normally thought about because I feel like one of one of the bomb sessions that we had was really attracting clients without social media, and that was a lot of it was through relationships and cultivating relationships with other people. And, you know, that was a big focus for me.

So when I talk about supplier relationships and then we had the building relationships, it is just so critical in our industry and we don't talk about it enough. We don't talk about it enough in the sense of this is really how we can market ourselves faster. Because I know a lot of you had signed up for Prep for Wavy because of some of the speakers you had heard from. Other than that, you may not have ever heard of the event Prep for Wave Week. So before I keep word vomiting because I am guilty of word vomiting, if you have been around me for a little bit, I just want to recap. You really need to know your ideal clients inside and out. Do like a case study analysis even as yourself. Or like one of your top clients.

Who are they? What do they love to do? What questions do they normally ask about? What do they find of value every time? Like when they say thank you so much for booking it, X, Y and Z was just so much easier. What are those things? And then kind of focus on those things. If you've written content in the past or posted content in the past, what are the things that have really engaged your audience? Hone in on that and find some sort of way to repurpose it. Because that extreme, knowing your clients inside and out, will be able to help you become more effective at the content that you put out for them. So it's still always attracting them. And remember that rule of repetition. People need to hear things over and over and over again. So maybe you've done something as like a social media post, convert it to a blog post, convert it to a short video, convert it to a long video, convert it to an email article.

There's just so many ways that you can use the content that you have already without having to invest more time in reinventing the wheel. That's something that I'm actually going to be working on because as of this moment, I have three years of really great content that I've built up. And how do I break stuff down? How do I break stuff down even more? So that's what I'm thinking about. So know your client inside and out. Offer incredible value and relationships. Relationships. Relationships. Start making them anticipate nothing in return.

Just that you are giving other people a really great value, really great service. And if anything comes back from that, bravo, bravo. Huge, huge excitement. I will have to share with you. I did. There was an ask. I was asked to be something and I don't want to, like, spoil too much, but I was like, oh my, this is so huge. This is so huge.

And it would never have happened had I not had the boldness to put myself out there and put such an incredible event for you all. So I'll wrap this up. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Please let me know if you have any questions or you want a further deep dive into some of the things that I think could resonate for your travel business and helping you out. Have a great week. Thanks for joining me on the Strategic Travel Entrepreneur. Please subscribe and leave a show a rating on your favorite podcast platform. Oh, and don't forget to take a look at the show notes for important information and links.

See you next week.