Ryan Warshaw and Dave Levine (Source: Ryan Warshaw, Dave Levine)
Travel Advisor Success Stories focus on veteran advisors and how they achieved success. Here’s a look at Ryan Warshaw and Dave Levine, co-owners of Epic Jaunts LLC, an Independent Agency in the Avoya Travel Network.
How did you get your start as travel advisors?
We spent years in previous careers and always traveled extensively ourselves. We often found ourselves helping others with travel, and after years of other folks saying, ‘You should do this as a business,’ we sat down with our wives and put the idea up for discussion. It has been incredibly fulfilling as we made a change in our own lives to go down this path.
How did you build your business over the years?
This is probably the No. 1 question that people ask. Avoya itself is a great asset for lead generation, so that can help you get a head start. Outside of that, building your brand via social media, word of mouth and friends and family all help to grow the business. Every new client knows somebody else, so every new opportunity has the ability to lead to more and more growth.
What characteristic/s make you successful advisors?
Relentless follow-up and understanding the different products and travel styles is key. The joy of travel is that there is something for everyone. Tantamount to the role that an advisor has to play is understanding what the right product is.
We specialize in the luxury space, and that has a more frequent touchpoint and certainly more moving parts than a weekend sailing from Miami. The details and the follow-up are the difference makers.
What have been your greatest challenges?
Understanding the ever-changing landscape of destinations, times of year and ultimately products is a challenge. You have to always be in a learner mindset to ensure that you are never getting stale and stay ahead of the curve for where people want to go.
We think destinations are now often as important as the brand. For people who have been able to travel more as they get older, or even younger folks who want to travel as their passion in life, new and exotic experiences are often a desire.
When we were all younger, the thought of going on safari was for the extremely rich and was out of reach for most of the world. That is no longer the case, and people continue to want to venture to far-off destinations.
What have your greatest accomplishments been?
We have become a pretty large agency, and our repeat business has been pretty spectacular. Travel is a very personal thing for a lot of people, and we have a lot of relationships that have developed beyond just a sales relationship.
We have tons of clients who want to get together when we are in town, share what is happening in their lives, or just chat about college football on Saturdays. That type of trust is tantamount, and it’s something that we would both say we are very proud of.
What tips can you provide advisors new to the industry?
Be committed. If you spend ‘hobby’ time on your business, it will never be more than a hobby. If you want to book one trip per month for your friends, and maybe you join from time to time, that’s fine, but that’s not a business.
If you want to make this a business and a career, you have to dedicate yourself to work and devote the time that is needed. Nobody wants to get woken up in the middle of the night to fix a problem, but we can assure you that your client will remember that you did.
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