The One {Common} Thing I See Holding you Back

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, travel entrepreneurs. Welcome to the last couple days of 2021. I don't know if you are on the camp that you are like, goodbye, see you later. I don't want to see you again. 2021, if you're on that camp or if you're kind of like on my camp, or I'm like, 2021 was such a huge blessing. But wherever you are on that camp, we only have a couple of days left, so I hope that you are relaxing or traveling, hopefully not working too hard. But I am very doubtful on that because I know many of us are starting to get cancellations at the last minute because of this newest variant that's around, and I just.

I was sincerely hoping that we were past that, and we obviously are not. But hopefully, hopefully 2022. Brighter days. Brighter days. Like, I just, I. I really feel like this is probably going to be the last variant of concern, and this is not like, going over. I am not a medical professional and I. I don't study any of this, but I do know how I feel.

I know how people around me feel about this. I know how clients feel. And I think we're all very sick and tired of everything that's going on. And that's not to diminish what's going on, but I think we are transitioning from that space of being in fear, doom, dread, gloom, all of that, to, okay, how are we. How are we going to deal with this moving forward? And not everybody's there yet, and that's fine. Every. Everybody deals with things differently. Not everybody's there yet.

And I know that even, like talking with some of my. My posse members today. There's. There's those types of feelings, but I feel like even stronger are the people that are traveling, that are getting out there, that aren't letting things affect them and that really are just living their lives, taking the extra caution that's needed right now, and we just have to push forward. And I know that that is so much easier said than done. But I mean, if we're looking back, we're two years into this now and we're coming up on what was an even scarier time before. And what gives me hope right now are all the tools that we have in our varied assortment of tool bags that we have. There's just so many things to combat this.

There's the vaccines, there's masks, there's distancing, there's any holistic means, there's therapeutics that are out there. There are so many things that are out there and, and there. There's just so much more research that's out there that. I mean, we just. We just. What happened two years ago is definitely not what is happening now. But I understand and I'm very aware that it is still very scary, especially and particularly for those who are the most vulnerable, who aren't able to get vaccinated. For those who are able to get vaccinated but are still immunocompromised.

I think those are the ones that we really have to watch out for and just be very cognizant of right now. But anyways, I don't want to stick on this. I do want to stick on that hopefulness for 2022, because a new year is coming. And I know this past month I have been traveling a lot. So much. Me personally, the one who is preaching like to make sure that you plan ahead. I haven't planned very much and I'm hoping in this week and the next week I'm able to get in to some of my resources and do some of that planning. I'm so super fortunate with the people that I have around me that there's been a lot of amazing, both paid and free resources that I hope to be diving into soon, but kind of like looking into and kind of like also going back based on the title of this episode is I know many of us are like our downfall really is the whole pandemia that we've been surviving through.

But I have had many different conversations with many different travel pros at all different levels of their travel business. And the one common thread, or I guess there's a common thread, but there's a couple, like spider threads that kind of like spiral from this as well, is that there is not a lot of action taking that is happening. And really it's when you take action that you. Well, I guess let me even clarify that now that I'm saying it out loud, there is maybe like the wrong sort of action taking or we're focusing on the wrong sorts of things. And so action taking, I guess, is the thing that I have been noticing. It's either present in your business or it's not present, or it's present in varied ways. Because if you're selling travel, you're taking actions, obviously. But I think a lot of us get disillusioned in that we can't do certain things.

But you can. You can. I promise you, you can. I mean, you freaking started a travel business. If you started a travel business, you can do anything that you set your mind to. The thing is, I feel there's a big disconnect between starting a travel business and running a travel business. And you know, I've had a couple conversations about this, is that it is two very different things to be a travel advisor or a travel supplier or a travel coach, whatever that title of the job or position is in your industry. And it is a whole other thing to be a travel entrepreneur.

So. And I have to think of this like back when I go into my, like, corporate hat. So I was a scheduler in the corporate world, or I was a restaurant supervisor, but I was not the owner. Well, none of us, none of us really were. But there are certain things that I have to do as the supervisor of that restaurant to make sure that is running in accordance with all the different things that restaurants need to run by. There's food safety, there's human resources, there's making sure that we're staffed, that we have the resources that we need to operate the operation and make sure everything is nice and clean and offer amazing guest service to the people that come and visit us. That's the job of being a supervisor. But if we're thinking more complex to being the business owner of that restaurant, you have to start now thinking strategically and thinking numbers wise and justifying the things that you do to make sure that there are certain outcomes.

Because you can't just keep doing certain things if they're not providing the outcomes that you're wanting to come from those actions. And that's like one of the key things that is different. And I remember when I was going up in leadership in my theme park hospitality era, was the difference between a leader and the difference between just a worker. And I would say that this is the same. The difference between a business owner and the business, between a travel worker is the ability to make a decision. And that sounds so simple, but that is. It's the simplest things that we do or don't do in this business that either move us forward or hold us way back in this in this business. And I remember being told that, and I'm like, huh? And it's any decision, just make a decision.

Are you going to buy the white plates or the red plates? Make the decision. Who cares if it's the wrong decision? That's like, if it's the wrong decision. If you were supposed to buy white plates instead of red plates, well, then you've learned that and you're going to improve for the next time that you go out and purchase plates. I think that we all get hung up in the thing of, like, what if I do it wrong? Or what if I'm not doing this right? You know, it's taken me over a year to kind of really put clear thought and action into what I want the second business to support travel entrepreneurs to take. Because, yeah, I was a little in my head with that, too. I wanted it to start one way, but I didn't really want to do it that way. So. So I kind of let things evolve naturally into what we have now, which is Take the Helm.

And Take the Helm has this strategic travel entrepreneur podcast and is the host of Prep for Wave Week and is the brainchild founder of a new, what I am calling anti membership for this business, which is what I'm getting to as part of this discussion that I'm having here with you on the podcast. But that's everything. What I'm seeing boils down to a lot of confidence, mindset and inaction or stalling on actions. And we do a lot of things that we think are taking actions. And I guess technically they are taking actions, but they're not taking the right actions that we need in order to move our travel businesses forward. And there are. I want to do a longer training on this also on the different phases that I see in travel business. But everybody is at a different phase, and there's different things that need to be done at the different phases.

On top of that, everybody has different goals. Maybe you just want side income, maybe you just want retirement income. Maybe you do need this to support yourself and your lifestyle. But what does that lifestyle also include? Do you want to be taking vacations every month? Do you want to be planning extravagant weddings for your clients? And that's like we, we all have to understand, one, we're all unique and imperfect individuals, and two, our businesses are very unique and also imperfect entities. I don't think we talk about that enough because so many of us get stuck in the comparison game. And you can't compare someone who inherited a family business and is working at this full time and is married and has the support of their spouse's income versus someone who built their business from the ground up and doesn't have a spouse to support them. It's two very completely different needs. And I'm sure the fuel and the passion and the fire may be similar, but again, there's two different needs.

Same thing with the person that has worked full time all of their life and now that they're retired, they want a little bit of extra income so that they can pay for the fun travels, but they don't want to put in that much effort because they are retired and they want or even like maybe you're not even retired, you want to have this as your full time income, but you don't want to work because you have a family or you don't want to work full time because you just don't want to. That doesn't stream well with your chronic fatigue that you're dealing or with whatever health issue or just plainly you want to live a life of freedom and not be wrapped up in all the hullabaloo that we've been kind of like accustomed to and grown to. I say all this because I want you to understand that everybody is unique. Every business is unique and every business has unique needs. And going back to where I feel like the root of all troubles is, is in that confidence to make key decisions that you need to be having in your travel business and talking to so many different business owners. That is where my brainchild of this ANTI Membership program came to be. And that is called the Take the Helm Collaborative. And I call it the ANTI Membership because it's not built.

I didn't build this so that you're learning more things. I really built it so that we can all have fun taking actions together. And there are. It is my brainchild, my baby. Because one, I want to get to know you guys a little bit more in a designated container. And two, I think we really need to have fun in our travel businesses. And three, many of us work in this travel business alone. And so this helps us accomplish some of our goals and hold ourselves accountable together.

Thinking back to my days of working in an office and you had that environment where you could celebrate different wins or you could troubleshoot something that was going on in one of the areas that you were working on. But we don't have that in the travel business. And especially as people who are in sales, there are certain things and actions that we have to do in our travel businesses that you're like that you celebrate by yourself. But what if you had this community that you could celebrate with? And that is where the collaborative comes. And at the heart of the collaborative, we are having fun getting these things done. Because if we. You are having a business and you're not having fun, really, what is the point? I know, obviously to generate revenue, to make money and all that, but I just don't believe in making money and not having fun doing so and changing lives doing so. And so at the heart of this collaborative, we are going to have a monthly bingo board.

And on that bingo board, there are going to be different actions that you need to be taking that you're probably taking, but you're. You're not recognizing yourself for taking all the action. And so there. And we're going to incentivize this. I'm incentivizing this. If you get one bingo, merely one bingo a month, just for taking the actions that you're supposed to take in your travel business, you are going to be entered into a small prize that I really haven't come up with yet. But I want to make sure that is something that gives you that constant reminder that you are doing the right things, that you are enough. You just need to make and keep making the right decisions in your travel business to keep moving forward.

So that is the heart of it. Do the actions that you need to be doing in your travel business and get rewarded. Even if you don't win the monthly prize. I do still want to make sure that those people that have accomplished their bingo, get on a leaderboard and are recognized. Now, again, I'm all about also making sure that you're creating a sustainable travel business to whatever life it is that you want to be living. And so I don't care how many bingos you get, just one bingo will get you on the leaderboard. Additional bingos will not give you additional entries. Again, trying to make this very sustainable, what will get you additional entries is sharing something that you were able to accomplish or take action on and how that affected your business or what changed or how did you get that or how did you get there? That will get you an additional entry to bingo and closer to the monthly prize, winning the monthly prize.

Those are the basis. There's going to be a bingo board with actions that you need to take. One bingo gives you one entry into the monthly prize. And to get an additional entry, you're going to to go ahead and make sure that you're sharing something into our discord channel. That is the other thing I didn't want to create another Facebook group because I feel like we're all in so many Facebook groups and I didn't want to in a date. Now if I see if I feel the need to go ahead and change that up, that's something that's open for discussion. Like, this is very fluid right now, but this is like, I didn't want the collaborative to take too much of your time because again, I want you to take action in your travel business and take the right amount of actions and not be too distracted. And that's why, you know, at the core of the collaborative, it really is taking action and not learning something new.

Which learning something new could be one of your action items. But I really want you to be deliberate in what you are learning. Oh, also, I forgot to mention, like, even like one of the more funner parts of this is that there's going to be a kickoff call that happens at the beginning of every month so that we can like just get so excited for the new bingo board. Because I'm going to make sure that the bingo board changes every single month. It's not going to totally change because there's certain actions that you need to be doing every single month consistently, but there are going to be a little change, a couple little changes just to freshen things up and get you thinking about other actions that maybe you should be taking. So kickoff call is going to be happening virtually. So yes, those are the things. There's a bingo board.

You can win a bingo, you can win a prize share. It's all about having fun, collaborating, taking action and holding yourself accountable. Now I know the next thing is like, huh, this sounds pretty interesting, but how much are you charging for this? And again, I want this to be sustainable for all travel business owners. This is only $11 a month. That is going to be what the founding collaborating price is. It is per travel entrepreneur. So if you do have people on your team or ICs, they have to get their own membership. This is not like one per company.

This is one per travel entrepreneur. And I again want to make this very affordable, very sustainable. Doesn't mean that the pricing can't go up, but you will be Grandfathered in at this $11 a month to hold you accountable every single month to making sure that you are taking deliberate action to ascend and get further in your travel business. So if you are ready to join us in the collaborative, make sure you head over to the link in the show notes of this podcast to learn everything that I've mentioned. I will also Link a quick video that I did kind of outlining some of these things as well. Well, I was sailing aboard the beautiful scarlet lady of Virgin voyages recently. But if this sounds like for you, I would love to have you join in. If you're like, I cannot join something else, I totally understand.

I totally get it. And as long as you're taking the actions that you need to be taking every single month, go ahead, like, you can skip this, you can pass this. But I just know I have spoken to so many people in this industry and that's the one thing that's holding them back is that analysis paralysis and at least being part of a collaborative and doing like, I don't know, checking in every day, checking in every couple of days and also having that bingo board that you can print out and physically see. Okay, let me make it a goal. This is the line of the bingo that I want to get. So these are the actions that I'm going to take this month. At least at the very minimum, you have some sort of game plan in front of you. And if you're not able to accomplish that at the end of the month, it's not saying that there's a downfall.

For me, that is a really great place to analyze what happened that month, what held you back from accomplishing certain things so that you can troubleshoot for the next month to make sure that you can get your at least one bingo every single month. This is not, yes, there are definitely rewards, but this is not anything to make anybody feel less than it really is to help you troubleshoot because that is all what business is. There's so much analysis that we don't talk about as being a business owner. And so hopefully you can see definitely want to have lots of fun with you. We're all going to take action and there is going to be some friendly competition in there because I'm sure everybody's going to want to get their bingo in together, get onto the leaderboard. And I just cannot wait for what this becomes in 2022 and how much of a stronger travel entrepreneur community that we can create. All working and collaborating together and making this the best industry that it can be. Because I know in the past we've had our shortcomings.

We are getting out of there. It is a new year, thank goodness, coming up on us, and there are so many new amazing possibilities that can be had if we work together, if we work having fun together and doing something different together. So I hope that you are ready to join this anti membership. The take the Helm Collaborative to start taking inspired, deliberate action to help your travel business ascend and for you to take the helm of your travel business again. All the links and information is in the bottom in the show notes over here. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out. I'm most active in our Facebook group, the Strategic Travel Entrepreneur, as well as the Take the Helm VBS Instagram account. So I hope to see you there and I hope to see you in the collaborative and if it's not the right decision for you right now, the doors are always going to be open for you and you can always ask questions and inside of the Strategic Travel Entrepreneur Group.

Alrighty. That's it for me today. I hope you have a fantastic rest of the week. Hopefully you're not canceling too many things out there. Have a wonderful, safe, happy, healthy New Year's Eve and especially New Year's Day. Take some rest where you need it and I will be back with you next week. See you later. Thanks for joining me on the Strategic Travel on Entrepreneur.

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