We are doing something new and really exciting here inside the Travel Expert Marketing Academy. Our agents are always sharing so many fantastic travel agent success stories that we decided we really needed to honor them – and showcase their success to inspire other travel agents that it IS possible to build the business of your dreams!
To do this we created the Outstanding Travel Agent of the Month award.
Every month we will choose one rock star member of the Travel Expert Marketing Academy as our Outstanding Agent of the Month. I will interview them and we will feature their interview here are on our blog and all over social media to celebrate them and to inspire you!
Our first Outstanding Travel Agent of the Month is Staci Elizondo. Staci was perfect as our very first Outstanding Agent of the Month. If Staci’s interview doesn’t inspire you…well, then, I don’t know what will!
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Heidi:
Hello and welcome everyone! We have our member spotlight with us – Staci from Fairy Godmother Travel. She’s an extraordinary travel agent! Very well loved and skilled, and so I am grateful that she is here to do this interview with you.
I think you’ll get a lot out of this interview with Staci. She’s got a lot of wisdom in her – she’s become quite successful in her travel business and she’s just a fantastic agent that I know I would trust with my own personal travel!
So for those of you that are travelers watching this or you’re another fellow agent watching this, I think you’re going to get a lot out of this interview with Staci today – so welcome Staci!
Staci:
Thank you so much, Heidi. You’re so kind, I’m very, very honored to be here today.
Heidi:
All right, well for those of you watching that don’t know you, can you tell us a little bit more about yourself and your travel agency?
Staci:
Yes, so as Heidi said, my name is Staci, and I live in Oklahoma. I am a wife and a mom of three kids. I work for Fairy Godmother Travel, so I’m a home-based agent so it’s been a little tricky at times balancing having kids at home and also doing work. But, I just work really hard with the limited hours that I have and make the most of it. I became an agent five years ago and at that point, it was my absolute dream and it’s still my dream and so I love it.
I started out just selling mainly Disney and then have expanded to do more family travel. Then just in the past probably a year and a half, I’ve expanded to also focus on boutique cruises.
Heidi:
Oh fantastic, fantastic. So you have two different niches, so like you said Disney specialists and then you
know boutique cruises. Can you tell us how you manage being successful in two different niches?
Staci:
At this point, most of my business is still Disney and family travel. So that’s Disney, Universal, and some of the bigger cruise lines. That’s what everybody knows me as and that’s what I can do with my eyes closed pretty much, you know? That’s just my number one niche, but I am so passionate about boutique cruises and I love them. And just I’m so excited about getting people on these smaller ships and doing the more adventurous type things or the very authentic, small, different ports of call and things like that.
I think that because I’m so excited about it, I enjoy talking to people about it, and so that’s raised a lot more awareness. At this point, I’m focusing more of my efforts on the boutique side because I’m trying to grow that, and Disney is just kind of a well-oiled machine that just goes on its own. I’m obviously still working on that, but because I’m trying to grow the other, I’m doing more marketing efforts in that direction.
Heidi:
Okay, fantastic. And what would you say your favorite part of being a travel agent?
Staci:
Oh I just love handling the details for people. I’m very, very much detailed oriented, and I know that it stresses a lot of people out, but it doesn’t stress me out. If I can alleviate the stress for people and just let them sit back and enjoy their vacation, then that brings me a lot of joy. I just love getting to meet people from all over the world just as clients and people that were dealing with the hurricane problems last year and stuff. Just getting to reach out to them even though I live hours and hours away, knowing that I know people all over and just have that connection with people now.
Heidi:
Yeah absolutely. And I think that is the number one reason to hire a travel agent is you can get your trip totally planned for you. Somebody that is an expert like yourself – knows all the details, manages all the details, and then it doesn’t cost you really any more money usually. In fact, oftentimes, travel agents end up saving clients money, so it’s fantastic that you’re passionate about all those details.
Staci:
Yes, I do! I love it. It’s so great whenever I get an email back from people after they’ve traveled and they said, “All of your tips were perfect, all of the restaurants you sent us to were perfect, all of the fast passes were perfect!” So I just I love taking care of that because I know that it is very overwhelming for people if they’re doing it on their own.
Heidi:
For sure yeah. And a lot of people have jobs and kids and lots going on and so that’s fantastic. So you mentioned having to be really productive and efficient to grow and scale your business because you are a mom of three gorgeous kids and busy. Do you have any productivity tips out there for travel agents or even travelers – just those of us that are busy?
Staci:
I think the biggest thing is knowing what time you have and then not letting yourself get distracted during that time. It would be so easy – I know that having two little ones at home and one in school, there are days that I would rather just go and sit and veg out on the computer or in front of Netflix or something like that. But I know that if I’m going to be successful, that’s my time to work is during nap time and after the kids go to bed. And so I really, really work hard during those times.
I try not to check Facebook or all of those time wasting things, but you’ve talked to us a lot about being like tunnel vision and doing one task at a time. And so I go through my emails, I do the clothes, and things like that. And then there are some tasks that I can do whenever the kids are awake like putting the other client packets to go mail out to them before their trip with goodies and things like that in it.
So I just try to – I know what I can do with the kids awake, and I know what I need to do while they’re asleep. And so I just try really hard to prioritize so I can still have quality time with them as well. I know that if I work really hard, and then I don’t have to work hard while they’re awake, and we can actually have fun together.
Heidi:
Awesome. So basically prioritization and hyperfocus. Tunnel vision. Those are great tips. Thank-you for sharing. So you recently wrote a fantastic blog post that I just loved about how travel is restful even the kind of that you don’t traditionally think of as restful such as family travel. And I just loved what you said – you had a totally fresh look at it. Could you talk a little bit more to our audience about this?
Staci:
Yes! I would love to. I wrote this blog post like you said about it was actually titled “Travel is Rest” because I think one of the things that people think about travel being rest is it’s only restful if you’re laying on the beach without any kids around you and just sipping a margarita or something like that. And the truth is that anything outside of our ordinary is rest.
If you have a desk job, then on Saturday instead of laying on the couch all day, it would actually be more restful for you if you went out and took a hike or something that rejuvenated you. Just doing something completely different. But if you’re someone who’s on your feet all the time, then it would be restful to go and sit down and watch a movie or something like that. So just getting away with our families or with your spouse or friends or whoever you’re going with – getting away and doing something out of the ordinary, it tells our body like, “Hey this is different; this is not your normal day-to-day week,” and it allows you to rest.
Then making memories with people – that is a way that our bodies can rest and rejuvenate and all of that stuff. My husband and I went on an adventure cruise recently, and it was not “restful” in that we were kayaking and climbing up boulders and swimming with sea lions and all of this stuff. But I came back so rested, so rejuvenated just because we were taking time out, unplugging. I think that’s one of the biggest things – don’t take your work with you, unplug as best you can, and just allow the different surroundings to make you feel rested.
Heidi:
Yeah absolutely. And just being out in nature, I know for myself included, being in front of a computer hours and hours and hours every single day that, you’re right – like just getting out for a dog or in nature is super restful. Versus if I was a construction worker maybe not so much.
Staci:
Definitely not, then you need to catch a movie, go out to eat, or something like that.
Heidi:
Right, absolutely.
Staci:
Even with family travel – the cruising or with being in the parks even, I think it’s important to have down times and not just be like go go go the whole time with no time to rest and things, but going to some of the shows or just sitting down and taking in your surroundings – all of that can be restful in the middle of a busy vacation as well.
Heidi:
Yeah, I totally agree. That’s fantastic. So now that you’re a successful agent, if you can message yourself when you were first getting started as a travel agent, what kind of message would you send yourself? What would you tell yourself?
Staci:
I think I would do a couple of things. First of all, I would say stick with it. It was hard getting off the ground, and I would be so excited if I had one trip that month. Just tell myself like keep trying. Don’t give up. Keep pushing
through. Work hard at what you’re doing. Just keep going and don’t get discouraged.
But then I would also say because I feel like having a newsletter and having a quality blog and a quality website which is something that you’ve taught us in the Academy. Like that has astronomically grown my business. And so I would have told myself way back then to start doing that now because I think that if I could have just stayed front and center in all those people’s minds with the newsletter and just having a website that I could send them to, I think that would have helped me get off the ground a lot quicker back then.
Heidi:
Yeah, absolutely. Get with that core messaging with people – it resonates, they know who you are and how brilliant and amazing you are, and how you’re going to save them time, energy, and money and all that. So fantastic.
So do you have any personal mantra, Staci, like something that you tell yourself if you ever get stuck and need to get back on track?
Staci:
I don’t know if I have the same thing that I tell myself over and over. I just try to encourage myself like, hey, it’s all right, just get back on track, start doing it again. If I have a lower month with booking numbers or something like that then I try to remind myself like, “Hey but remember – January was really great so you’ve covered yourself firm for this little slice,” and just keep on doing the things that you know are going to be successful. I keep on doing that and so that’s what I just kind of try to encourage myself and just trying to remember that it’s all a blessing. I’m not entitled to any of this, and so I’m just so thankful and grateful. I just keep on trying to be thankful for the success I have had and keep on working towards more.
Heidi:
The fact that you have so much gratitude in you and a daily gratitude practice like it just comes out. Right – like
everybody watching here, I’m sure can just see Staci just has this glow about her where I think she just naturally attracts people in because you want to be around people like Staci that not only are smart and organized and on top of it, but also are just like beautiful lights. And so the fact that you’re such a grateful person totally shines through, and I believe that that has helped your success as well.
Staci:
Thank-you!
Heidi:
So what would you say has been your biggest win today in your travel in your career as a travel agent? What has been your biggest win today or if you can’t think the biggest then just give me one of the biggest?
Staci:
I think one little win – today is still early so I’m sure there will be more. I received an email from a client who’s actually traveling 15 months from now, and he was so excited with my planning emails that he wanted to get together and pick out his dining for his Disney trip fifteen months from now. He goes, “I just got so excited with all of the information that you gave me!”
And so I spend a lot of time putting together these emails with beautiful pictures and recommendations, all of this stuff for all the different planning aspects. It just felt good to know that somebody appreciates it enough to want to plan their dining 15 months in advance – which isn’t possible. But it’s awesome to talk about it.
Heidi:
Right, right. Yeah, that’s awesome. That just shows how inspiring you are. Fantastic. So what’s your next big goal? What are you working on right now?
Staci:
I have a big goal like the overall big goal for the year. Our company is doing a leadership retreat for all of us top agents that hit a certain revenue. This is our first year to have that, and so that is my big overall goal for this year is to book enough commission or dollar amounts to be able to win this trip. So there’s that. And I also have smaller dollar goals and just keeping on doing it. I’m constantly pushing myself to try to do more and more.
And so I’ve got all these little goals, but I’m also wanting to really start doing a great referral program. That’s actually the module I’m on right now. I’m learning how to do that. I’ve done somewhat, but that’s kind of a smaller goal that I think will help my bigger and ultimate goals is doing referrals and being super, super thankful to my current clients because that’s my biggest you know revenue is probably just word of mouth and people referring me. I want to thank the people that do that.
Heidi:
Awesome, yeah that’s fantastic. Great, well Staci for those that are travelers out there that want to be in touch with you, where can they find you?
Staci:
They can go to FairyGodmotherStaci.com. So that’s FairyGodmotherStaci.com.
Heidi:
Awesome – FairyGodmotherStaci (with an i) dot com. And for the travel agents out there – if you’re not yet a member of the Academy, we invite you to join. We’ll put a link below this interview with our premier travel agent of the month – our Academy member Staci who’s fantastic. She is successful because as you can see, she’s just a bright light filled with gratitude, and Staci follows the plan like nobody I’ve seen which is why we’ve made her our Member of the Month. I mean she works those modules, and she checks off every single box. I can just see how detailed she is and so she’s got this beautiful marketing system that brings her in new clients. And it’s because she follows the proven plan that we’ve got inside the Academy, so if you’re not yet a member of the Academy and you’re interested in joining, just click the link below for more information.
And if you’re a traveler watching this, then I do recommend checking out Staci if you want to go on a cruise or a Disney trip because she’s the real deal. Staci is pretty amazing.
Staci:
Thanks so much! I love being able to chat. I’m honored to be here.
Heidi:
All right, well thank you, and we will see you soon!
Staci:
Thanks!
