Do you hear the words SEO and think "NOPE - that doesn't apply to me!" or "That sounds like it's way to complicated to worry about." Think again! Krystal Eicher visits with Michele Schwartz regarding SEO - search engine optimization - and why it is so important to the success of your business and building your client base. Basically, if you have a website and you want to drive organic traffic to it - listen up! For more on this episode visit https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com/travel-biz-ceo-seo-what-it-is-and-why-you-should-care/ (https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com/travel-biz-ceo-s…-you-should-care/)

On this week's episode Krystal Eicher has a conversation with Dana Zificsak. They talk about the 3 steps it an agent needs to focus on to take their client from Quote to Close. In her 8 years as a travel agent, Dana has booked thousands of vacations for clients and developed and delivered training programs for travel professionals. A teacher at heart, prior to joining the travel industry, she taught Spanish for 10 years. Just like how she used to break down the Spanish language for her students, she breaks down the language of sales and marketing so agents can close more bookings. She teaches a step-by-step quoting and closing process to help you close more sales. Every Monday, she sends out 3 post ideas to get your social media content going for the week. Sign up here: https://bit.ly/3b83MCz (https://bit.ly/3b83MCz) To learn more about what Dana and Krystal have been collaborating on visit https://travelagentbusinessbundle.com (https://travelagentbusinessbundle.com) For show notes and transcripts visit https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com (https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com)

Welcome to Season 3 of Travel Biz CEO. Starting this season off with Wendy Guth's talk on how to cultivate and develop Grit and employing that in managing your business. As a travel advisor, you have to be tough. It's important to develop grit in your personality so that when things get tough, you can handle them with ease. In this episode Wendy shares some tips on how to cultivate grit as a travel advisor and how it will make your life easier in the long run! This talk originally aired as the opening for our Grow Your Travel Business Summit. You can register for this free online event and catch the replays at https://kinshiptravelacademy.com/grow-your-travel-business

On this weeks episode Krystal, Wendy and Ashley conduct a round table conversation focused on discussing and presenting the various aspects of your business and your business plan with those people in your life who make an investment in your company; whether that be yourself, family members or outside investors. You can learn more about KTA and this episode by visiting our https://wp.me/pcWNB2-7o (blog).

In this episode Krystal Eicher encourages agents to really assess and understand who their clients are and how doing that will help you serve them better. For more on this episode visit https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com/?p=452andpreview=true (https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com/who-is-your-person/)

In this episode Krytsal Eicher and Wendy Livingston-Guth discuss a purpose driven life and how that can help you with purpose driven profits in your travel business. For more on this episode and to learn more about Kinship Travel Academy visit https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com/?p=448andpreview=true (https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com/travel-biz-ceo-purpose-driven-profits/)

In this episode Krystal Eicher talks through the thought process agents should consider before they decide to place a Facebook Ad. For more information on this episode and more visit https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com Meet your podcast hosts: Ashley, Krystal, and Wendy are the founders of Kinship Travel Academy and hosts of Travel Biz CEO. What started as a little bit of fun to help educate fellow colleagues in the travel industry, quickly morphed into a passion. Through their educaiton community of Kinship Travel Academy, Ashley, Krystal, and Wendy encourage entrepreneurs to embrace the role of CEO in their business by learning to balance their marketing, business systems, and mindset. You can learn more about them and their program at http://www.kinshiptravelacademy.com (www.kinshiptravelacademy.com). As always you can continue the conversation at www.facebook.com/groups/TATMwKinship

Join us today as Krystal talks about what Travel Advisors can learn and incorporate into your business from the beloved Fred Rogers. This Podcast was inspired by the podcast, Finding Fred, released last year. For more about this podcast including show notes and transcript visit: https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com

In 2019 Ashley Metesh-McCoy submitted her application for ASTA (American Society of Travel Entrepreneurs) Entrepreneur of the Year. The application was submitted on behalf of the program that she developed for her new independent contractors at her host agency Kinship Vacations. We hope you enjoy this episode. For more on Ashley visit https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com/part-3-bringing-on-ics/ To learn more about the Travel Joy Templates she created for Kinship Vacations visit https://kinshiptravelacademy.com/traveljoytemplates To learn more about Kinship Travel Academy and its membership program visit https://kinshiptravelacademy.com/ktamembership

This week is Part 2 of our 3 part series on bringing on IC’s into your travel business. Last week we were joined by Denise Lorentzen of Dreams Consulting, where we dug into the the path that led Denise to bringing on IC’s. We got into who this is a good business model for, who it isn’t for and what makes people like Denise thrive in this role. Same questions, same topic, but very different business model and approach, this week we are joined by Michele Schwartz of Making Memories Travel. Also a KTA member, Michele has a unique style of bringing on IC’s to her team. So enjoy this part 2 episode of bringing on IC’s to your travel business. For more information about Michele check out the blog post for this episode here: https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com/?p=407andpreview=true (https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com/travel-biz-ceo-p…michele-schwartz/)

Bringing on independent contractors, or IC's into your travel business and adopting the Queen Bee model is not for the faint of heart. Many see it as an easy way to make money in the travel industry. Those that take this on will tell you, that nothing could be further from the truth. In this 3 part series, we speak to three very different travel business owners, including our very own Ashley Metesh-McCoy about their decision to bring on independent contractors and the strategies they employ that make them successful. In Part 1 we are joined by Denise Lorentzen, owner of Dreams Travel Consulting. For more about Denise and this episode visit https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com/?p=395andpreview=true (https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com/travel-biz-ceo-p…denise-lorentzen/)

Do you understand your business finances? This week on the Travel Biz CEO Podcast we are excited to welcome Stephanie Cannon. Stephanie is a former CPA turned successful travel advisor and a member of Kinship CEO Membership. When it comes to numbers and data, too many travel advisors stick their head in the sand and outright ignore their numbers. Stephanie helps other travel advisors and entrepreneurs lean into their discomfort and fear of numbers and demystifies the process once and for all. So we asked Stephanie: what are the most common obstacles or problems that she recommends travel advisors focus on? Check out https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com/travel-biz-ceo-do-you-know-your-finances/ to read more

This week we are excited to welcome special guest Glenda Beagle. You may remember Glenda from her guest appearance in our Virtual Travel Career Summit last fall. Today she's back for the Travel Biz CEO podcast and we could not be more thrilled. Early in her career Glenda learned how to leverage her competitive nature to hit her sales goals. Now she teaches travel agency owners how to do the same. She knows that it's not about selling for the sake of selling. Sales was about listening so closely and intently that the client always got what they needed. You can learn more about Glenda and about her 12 week group coaching program, Travel Sales Authority, by visiting her website at https://artofsellingtravel.com.

The magic bean. The one thing that you need to do to have instant success in your travel business. Yep, we are going there. What is the silver bullet, the one thing that will make ALL the difference and give you overnight success? It's the tactics that are constantly sold. If you JUST did this ONE thing, you will be successful. Well, we hate to break it to you. That ONE thing doesn't exist. To join our FREE Travel Agent Training and Mentorship Facebook group click here. To learn more about how Kinship CEO Membership can help you and your travel business click here. For our FREE resources for Travel Agents click here

What does it take to have a successful travel business? If you are small, are you still successful? This week we are tackling these questions. As a continuation from our Season 1 Episode: What Defines Success, we wanted to tackle the idea that you can still be considered successful if you don't make six figures in this business.

We are back! Welcome back to Season 2 of the Travel Biz CEO Podcast. We are so excited to kick off our second season of Travel Biz CEO with a topic that is near and dear to all of us: group travel planning. The Group business model has a lot of appeal for travel advisors. For many it can mean fewer trips to plan, and larger commission checks. It also can lead to individual travel from your group members. In the travel industry the current teachings focus on the Joint Venture model: Find a pied piper or group leader and have them promote and fill the group in exchange for a share of the commission or a TC - tour conductor credit. However, more and more travel advisors are expressing their desire to lead group trips. And it sounds wonderful on the onset! The travel advisor works intently behind the scenes. They pick the right supplier. They curate an incredible itinerary. They go to announce, and then....crickets. The group doesn't fill. What went wrong? For more information and show notes visit https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com/?p=335andpreview=true (https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com/get-your-group-on/) For more information about KTA Adventures visit https://kinshiptravelacademy.com/ktaadventures

Hey there! In this BONUS episode, Krystal popped in on the podcast to share with you some of the things we learned in launching our Travel Biz CEO Podcast. First of all, launching anything is tough. You are smack dab in an https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com/how-to-navigate-uncertainty-in-your-travel-business/ (FFT). You have no idea what you are doing. And the feelings of overwhelm are real. Here are our tips. For more on this check out our blog article for this podcast: https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com/?p=299andpreview=true (https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com/bonus-what-we-learned-launching-a-podcast/)

Is now a good time to become a travel agent? It’s a question we get asked by prospective agents all of the time - is now really a good time to join the travel industry? The answer? It depends. This week we dive into our thoughts on whether or now - or anytime really - is a good time to join the travel industry and become a travel advisor. You can read more on our blog: https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com/is-now-a-good-time-to-join-the-travel-industry/

This week’s episode of Travel Biz CEO is a special spotlight on standout KTA CEO Member and all around badass travel advisor Courtnie Nichols, CEO of Travel Bash. When Courtnie joined KTA we were immediately blown away by her brilliance. She truly embraced the role of CEO from day one and moved quickly to outsource the mechanics of her business so she can fully execute the long term vision of her company. We immediately knew she needed to be a guest on the podcast. In this episode, Courtnie walks us through how she got started in the industry, breaks down the business model that she operates and the divisions of travel that fall under her corporate umbrella. For more on this episode and Courtnie visit https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com/travel-biz-ceo-spotlight-courtnie-nichols/

It’s hard as an Entrepreneur to encourage the “What if?” Game. Because so much of how we learn and how we grow is by making mistakes. AND There are still things we wish we had done differently when we started. In this weeks episode we dive into those things. From taking more time to reflect on course purchases, to moving into action faster, to following our own intuition. For more information and show notes visit https://blog.kinshiptravelacademy.com/what-we-wish-we-knew/