How I Became A Travel Agent
My first “business card” - April 2022
May 8, 2021 - The day I told my nephews and kids that they were going to Disney.
March 17, 2022 - The day I loaded them on a plane and headed to Orlando.
It all began as a bit of “revenge travel” - a desire for my brother and I to take our boys on our first family vacation and for them to experience Florida for the first time. After we decided, I went into super planning mode. I read ALL the blogs and looked at ALL the Facebook pages. I ended up on the Disney side of TikTok, commonly known as DisTok. I made us a crazy hour-by-hour itinerary for the entire time we were gone. We had dining reservations, park reservations, a plan for Genie Plus - I did it all!
While I was on the trip, there was something missing for me. I realized that I actually missed the planning part! I had spent so many months researching, booking, and planning — and I realized that I enjoyed it! While I was still in Florida, I called an agent friend of mine and told her I thought I may be crazy but that I was thinking I may be able to do what she does. Instead of talking some sense into me, she did quite the opposite - she encouraged me! After years of serving in healthcare and corporate retail as an executive secretary (who also used to book travel!), my organizational skills were perfect. Additionally I had owned a direct-sales business for many years, giving me the marketing and entrepreneurial know-how I needed to get my travel business off the ground.
I had an absolute disaster of a trip home. After sitting on the MCO runway for over 3 hours with my two small children, we deplaned and never got back on. I had no idea that flight delay and eventual cancellation was giving me real-life experience for what would be my career! After returning back home on April 3, 2022, I began the process of what would seriously change my life!
On April 20, 2022 I signed my contract and began my training with Travelmation. I had an initial goal of booking $10,000 in travel. Boy, I had NO idea what my potential was, and I also had NO idea what I had gotten myself into!
After a lot of grit and hard work, I booked almost $16,000 in travel that first year and made just enough money basically to get my hair done a few times and go out for a coffee. And then I went to our annual retreat at Walt Disney World Resort in January 2023 - and my entire life changed!
