This article
originally appeared in the April issue of AGENTatHOME magazine. Subscribe
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In any business, sticking to your core values and best
practices is always a good idea. That’s especially true for a luxury travel
advisor, whose day-to-day activities can be easily derailed by world crises and
weather events.
At MVT Live, the annual Montecito Village Travel/Your Travel
Center conference in February, I asked advisors: "What advice would you
give to a travel advisor new to the business?"
The answers reflected what’s truly best about the travel
industry; they centered around passion, entrepreneurialism and collaboration.
The excitement of really knowing about a place cannot be
replaced by artificial intelligence, according to Karyn Carroll of The Hello
Agency, who said she would tell a new travel advisor to invest in their own
travel.
"I am 300% more confident selling destinations I’ve
been to because I understand them so well," she said. "To this day,
80% of the trips I book, I’ve been to the place."
Moani Baumfalk of Nova Vacations added that, when advisors
are traveling for business, they should post on social media. That’s a
no-brainer, but it’s a best practice that’s easy to forget in the whirlwind of
travel. Baumfalk, who runs Nova Vacations with her husband, Ben, noted that
their social media posts trigger bookings.
"It always happens when we’re traveling; we get those
requests saying, ‘Oh, my gosh, I want to go there,’" she said.
Robin Sanchez, president of Montecito Village Travel/Your
Travel Center, suggested looking within one’s network for a mentor and not
being afraid to ask questions of seasoned advisors.
"A good mentor can help walk you through things such as
setting up a business," she said.
Attending networking meals at conferences might seem like a
social obligation to many, but Stephen Adair of Now and Zen Travel asserted
that this is where the magic happens in terms of garnering industry knowledge.
"You’re sitting with all these people who have all this
experience, and this is an industry where people are so willing to help,"
he said. "No one is fighting you for business because there’s enough to go
around. It’s amazing."
Adair joked that he and another Montecito advisor have a
made-up joint business called Two Brains Travel. They use it when one of them
hits a wall and needs the other’s insights.
"One of us will call the other and say, ‘We’ve got to
figure this out!’" he said with a laugh.
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