The Travel Agent Guide
The Travel Agent Guide is a podcast created for travel advisors at every stage of their journey.
Each episode shares practical tips, real-world experiences, and honest conversations about building a successful travel advisor business—from client boundaries and workflows to marketing, growth, and sustainability.
Whether you’re new to the industry or looking to refine how you work, this podcast is here to help you work smarter, feel more confident, and grow with intention.
The Travel Agent Guide
Niche Hard. Sell Harder : How Specializing Changes Everything in Travel Sales featuring Cameron DeJong
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What happens when a travel advisor stops trying to sell everythin and starts becoming known for one thing?
In this episode of The Travel Agent Guide Podcast, we sit down with Cam to talk about the power of niching down, building authority, and how specializing completely transformed his business. From leaving a 20+ year career in sales and marketing to becoming one of the top sellers in his niche, Cam shares the mindset, systems, and strategies that helped him stand out in a crowded industry.
We dive into:
✨ Why most advisors are afraid to choose a niche
✨ How specialization changes your messaging and sales conversations
✨ The difference between being “another advisor” vs becoming the expert
✨ Why relationships and client experience matter more than just price
✨ The systems, playbooks, and processes that helped scale his business
✨ How confidence and competence can completely change your close rate
If you’ve ever wondered whether niching down could actually grow your travel business faster — this episode is for you. 🎧
#TheTravelAgentGuide #TravelAdvisor #TravelBusiness #TravelAgentTips #EntrepreneurMindset #TravelPodcast #NicheMarketing
All right, welcome to today's episode of Travel Agent Guide. I'm your host, Haley DiCarlo, here with Cam from Cam John Travel. Today's episode is really exciting one. I'm sitting down with someone who has done what a lot of people in this industry are afraid to do. Go all in on a niche and build the business around it. Cam from Camjohn Travel made the transition from a career in sales and marketing to running his own business. And not only that, he's become a top seller with Virgin Voyages by focusing exclusively on one brand. Today we're diving into what that actually looks like behind the scenes, the risks, the strategies, the mindset, and why specializing might be the fastest path to growth in this industry. Welcome to the Travel Agent Guide, the podcast pulling back the curtain on what it really takes to be a travel agent. We're talking real life, the challenges, the wins, the money, the mistakes, and the growth. Whether you've been in the travel industry for years or are new to it, we're in this together and you're exactly where you need to be. Hi, Kim. Welcome.
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much. It's so great to be here today.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. Yeah, so let's dive right in. Um, so first, I always love talking to people who have are niche down in the industry. I think it's really hard for a lot of advisors to see why they need to do it. So I'm excited to dive in. Um, so let's kind of start with you walking away from your position in sales and marketing. And what was that process like for you? What made you get into the travel industry?
SPEAKER_01Sure. It's it was quite a kind of an eye-opening experience for me to do it. And it took a lot of bravery and and guts and and glory, and we're seeing the glory now, but really having that safety net of a of a full-time, you know, W-2 job, career for over 20 years in sales and marketing, and being able to have that consistency, but really finding that travel was such something I really loved to do for such a long time and not just going on trips and taking vacations because everybody likes to take trips and go on vacations, but being able to plan that for my colleagues, being able to plan that for friends and family, and trying to turn that into something more full-time over time, taking it from a hobby to something else. But really taking that sales and marketing background and what I learned from that and being able to put it into place and to get to that point of being full-time was was so very exciting. But even to this day, there's a little bit of that fear of, oh my goodness, I'm on my own. I'm doing this, you know, as an independent business owner now, of course, with with great assistance that's out there as well. But um, so there's that. But it was there was a lot of nerves to it. And and it, I think that really goes into a lot of this episode today is while there's a lot of successes, there's always gonna be that voice in the back of the head of, am I doing the right thing? Did I do the right thing getting into travel? Of course, today I'm thrilled. I'm happy, I'm so happy.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, it's definitely it's a scary jump. I think, I mean, I've been there. I threw in my W-2, and I'm gonna be honest, it was the best decision I made. And I think, you know, it's we're always the what-ifs, right? I think that's always gonna eat us up inside. If I lose my benefits, what does this look like? But there's a way to still do it working independent, um, which I absolutely love. And isn't it great being your own boss? I bet that's the best part, right?
SPEAKER_01Oh, absolutely. I love making my own hours, which is what, 24-7?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I always see that funny meme that's like, oh, I became an entrepreneur to make my own hours and decide which 80 hours a week I want to work. Um, which we're working on that, right? We're definitely working on that. Um, okay, so great. You you came into the industry. How long has it been now since you've been selling in a travel agent?
SPEAKER_01Full time, just about it'll be a year in May, full time. So before that, just like I mentioned, hobby, just really a hobby part-time. Trying to sneak in and do that as an after hours.
SPEAKER_00Were you hobbying like or just doing it part-time to see if it's what you wanted?
SPEAKER_01You know, I I say 2019, so six almost six, seven years, but really since the early 2000s. So way before, way before a lot of what's available today.
SPEAKER_00You were just doing it kind of on the side, maybe not under I ad or anything like that, right?
SPEAKER_01Right, exactly.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. So why not make money doing what you love doing, right? Exactly. Um, okay. So when you come into the industry, when did you like get into the I am going to become um a travel agent and sell just Virgin Voyages? Was this something that took you a while to realize you love doing?
SPEAKER_01It's it's very interesting because you really had to go back to 2021, which was when Virgin Voyages launched. COVID, of course, we could talk about COVID on almost any podcast episode. COVID comes into play on some topic. But uh we we sailed Virgin Voyages for the first time. We were coming back from another cruise line on a ship, and we saw this amazing-looking cruise ship sitting in the port. And I'm like, oh my gosh, this thing's so beautiful. And of course it was Scarlet Lady, and it was in that was in 2020 before when right before COVID. And we uh ended up sailing Virgin Voyages, but it was, and it's not really a but, it was a it was amazing, and it really negated all of the positivity that I had for every other cruise line I had sailed. I had never had a bad cruise experience, but Virgin leveled it up. At that point, of course, I was a hobbyist for many, many years after up until last year. But what really hooked me there was what I learned in my experience in business, in sales and marketing, and working for larger companies, is if you don't find something you're good at, and it's not even good at, if you if you don't find something that you're great at, you're more likely than not going to struggle if you try to do too many things at once, if you try to get into too many business uh units, if you're a company that specializes in um, let's say pens, and you start trying to create paper and pencils and computers and do too many things at the same time, you're gonna lose focus on what you were good at to begin with. So I said, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to become a specialist in one thing. So I talked about virgin. If you saw my social media for several years, it's like virgin, virgin, virgin, virgin, and then got into it, of course, like I mentioned a year ago, almost a year ago today, uh as we're recording. I know it's I know this goes into different periods, but a year ago, May 1st of 2026, is when I went full time. And I stuck to that premise that I want to stick to this and I want to focus on this one thing because of what I saw, the struggles with with other businesses when they try to get out of their lane. It's important to find that lane. Find the lane that you love, stick with it. And that's what I did and even even back in 2021. And here we are today.
SPEAKER_00I love that. So you're saying it has been one year coming up on May? It's been one year since you went full-time into the industry. Within that one year, you've decided to commit fully to selling Virgin Voyage cruises, right?
SPEAKER_01Yes, exactly.
SPEAKER_00That's amazing. Um, when did you really like how scary was that at first for you? Were you like, am I making the right decision? Were you booking like lots of other cruises prior to virgin? Um, what did that look like?
SPEAKER_01Virgin was the first thing that really took off for me. So it was kind of a uh it was the confidence that I built in it, understanding it, uh, learning, learning the ships, learning the culture, learning everything about it, and staying really intertwined with them and their team and and really developing good relationships with with them. It it's always going to be scary to focus on one thing, whether it's a cruise line, whether it's a country or or an airline, it could be so many different things. It gets scary to focus on that because we can't predict the future. And I wish we could, but we can't. We don't know what's going to happen with gas prices. We don't know what's going to happen uh with uh conflicts in the world. We don't know what's going to happen in with businesses, you know. Uh you know, we don't know. You know, we see in the airline industry, there's an airline that's struggling right now. Now, you know, that's I don't know very many. Hopefully, there's nobody listening that's exclusively selling spirit airlines right now.
SPEAKER_00I would I would warn you that um let's take caution right now, right?
SPEAKER_01And and please find a different niche. Just reach out to me. I'll I'll help you out and I'll say anything but that. But no, in in all seriousness, it's the scare, the fear factor there is that if something's happening, if something happens, God forbid, what do I have to fall back on? And I think it's always important to have a backup plan. And that's not to say that I think anything is going wrong with Virgin Voyages or anything will go wrong with them at all. But as a smart entrepreneur, and all of us as entrepreneurs, we have to be smart. We have to be the smarter versions of ourselves every day. As we do that, we have to have a backup plan. And that's making sure that we keep our knowledge, our knowledge bases up in different areas so that we can fall back on something. That's my biggest fear is something could go off the rails and are off the seas. And we don't want that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's a valid point. I mean, I feel like as a travel agent, it's probably something that we think more of than not, especially with, you know, global global conflict and the world the way that it is. And we've been through COVID. I came into the industry after COVID. So I hear all the stories from the advisors who were in the midst of COVID and what their business is, what it looked like for them, and how many people left the industry when that did happen. Um, so yeah, I think that's a valid feeling, but I agree, like, you know, be a smart entrepreneur, have a backup plan, but still it's a brand that you love and it's what you want to sell. So continue to sell it. Absolutely. Um, I love that you said, and everybody listening, make sure you Cam knew the brand that he loved, right? So he went, experienced it firsthand. He got the opportunity to fall in love with it. Not only that, he created the relationships at Virgin Voyages, which for him that was the click. That was the okay, I think I want to niche down on this, understand the brand, and really fully indulge yourself. Um, okay, so would you say that's your why, why you chose Virgin is based off the relationships in your experience?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's it's always going to be relationships first, and and that's going to be with anything in life. You can have the very best uh cruise line, you can have the very best land experience, you can have the very best country, you know, you can have everything like that. And that's how I've built all of my relationships. And and that ties into virgin voyages in a way, but it's also just the way I do my business, is I when I visit ports with virgin voyages, it's not just virgin voyages that's important to me. It's the people on these islands, the people in these ports that I can meet and and interface and to connect and create these connections with, and to be a good person. And it really, this is maybe not where this topic was supposed to go, but I say this so often it's be a good human being, do the right thing, build the right relationships. I I have never been someone that wants to yell to get my way. I don't want to be the loudest person, and I'm not gonna be the loudest person in the room. I'm gonna be respectful. I'm going to always self-reflect to see if I'm doing the right thing. And that ties right back into building those relationships. I build those with virgin. I'm respectful to them. Are they perfect? Absolutely not. But you know what? The question is the same here for me. Am I perfect? I am far from perfect. None of us are perfect. But if we work together in a respectful way, we build those relationships. That's where it makes it easy. That's where when I go to bed at night, I can sleep well, knowing that the conversations I had with my sailors, with others in the industry, whether it's with Virgin or whether it's with just in travel in general, I feel really good about what I've said, what I've contributed, what I've asked and learned. And just really, there's just so much to it. And it's you know, it's like, wow, that's just it. The relationships. Build those relationships. Just because you're bigger, and I can like top 100 for me. Okay, great, I'm top 100. I appreciate that. That was never my goal. My goal was not top 100. My goal was to be the very best that I can be in what I'm doing. But being top 100 doesn't give me the right to be a bully and to beat up on those relationships. And I just want to make sure this circles back to the whole point here. I love that. The relationships are that important. I'm not going to do that. And I'm not going to do anything negative towards those relationships. And I'm always going to maintain them. And and I think when you see in five years, if we come back and have a five-year anniversary episode, I I'd love to even, I don't even, I can't even imagine where we'll be. But I think just by maintaining relationships, our relationship, you know, as working together, you know, it's there's so many different things that are so important there.
SPEAKER_00I love that. I think in the industry, relationships go a very long way. Um, be nice, be respectful. Absolutely. It's how you're gonna go far with everything that you do. I love that. Um, all right. So I I want to kind of dive into why travel advisors are kind of afraid to niche down. Um, why they're I know for me, Cam, I mean, my niche is Europe FIT, but that's not a specific destination. It's not a specific brand. So when I hear you say I only sell one brand, I'm gonna be honest, it I even kind of go on alert. Like, this is amazing, but I've had the privilege of watching your business now for a few months and it is insanely impressive. Um, but what I want to kind of know is do you ever feel like you're leaving money on the table? Or what do you do if a client asks you to book something else? Like, how do you bless and release them? What does that look like for you?
SPEAKER_01No, and and thank you. I think, you know, for for me, it's I understand the fear of it and and and totally understand that there's gonna be opportunities out there. And when I do have a client come to me and and what we do is we take them through a process. So someone comes to me and they want to book a virgin voyage. It's important to me that they're qualified to begin with. So we put them through a we put them through a uh a torturous process. No, no, no, not at all. It's a wonderful process. We take they they take a perfect cruise quiz. And if they're a fit for virgin voyages, that's great. We'll work together. If they're not, we'll we're going to uh work with them on uh what where there might there might be a better fit for them. But I still don't get scared of this because I'm still in a good place. I still feel good about it because when you when you niche down, when you get into that area of expertise. Well, I just answered the question I was going, I just answered what I was going to say. Expertise. You can't become an expert in 61, 62, however number of cruise lines there are today. Last I checked, it was 62, but that changes often. But there are advisors out there who believe they can do that, and that's a and that's a shame because you're doing a disservice to your clients when you when they come to you and you open up a book. A 500, it's like you're opening up the Atlas Shrugged, uh, a thousand-page book, and like, oh, let's go from start to finish and let me show you what I can sell to you. You no, absolutely not. That's not even remotely acceptable in my world. So I feel good about the fact that I can master this one brand. And again, I'm not perfect. I want to reiterate that if this gets repeated 25 times on this podcast, that's okay. I'm not perfect. I've made mistakes, but what's that what that has made me realize is if I was selling 61 cruise lines, I don't even want to begin to understand the number of mistakes I would make. Just selling one, and I make one small judgment call that might not be quite, and it's never been anything terrible. It could be just, you should do a sea terrace instead of a rock star suite. And it's like, well, of course we want to sell the rock star suite, but or the opposite might happen and and they're in the wrong spot, wrong spot on the ship, uh, wrong restaurant recommendation, etc. But when you do, when you're willing to have that confidence in yourself, and that's really a lot of it too, is confidence. It's competence and confidence. When you have that confidence that, okay, yeah, it's scary to hyper niche down into one thing. Because I've to your point, Haley, your question about leaving money on the table. I don't feel that because I know that if I'm taking care of my sailors and they say, Wow, Cam, you really do know what you're talking about. I mean, hopefully they're saying something nicer than that. I'm shocked, you know what you're talking about. And no, they're saying, Wow, you really do know Virgin Voyages, and you expedite are my expectations were exceeded based on working with you. I'm gonna talk to my friends and family, and that's where it happens. The referrals and everything there happens, and then it grows into something even more beautiful. And ultimately, I think where the pivot is is you want to have those relationships in the space where someone does come back and say, hey, I've taken five virgin voyages with you. Now it's time to try something else. And that's where relationship building comes back into play. You got to be able to say, okay, that we're not the fit for you. But if you're comfortable enough doing that and you're doing the other things that can help you uh kind of complement your income, making sure people's trips are protected, making sure that they have the add-ons that are great for them, making sure that their entire trip is taken care of. If you're gunning for a 8% commission on every on average for every vacation that you're booking, you're already halfway not there. You're halfway down the back way. So I look at goals, goal setting, finances, looking at that as well. I want to make sure that my sailors are having a great experience, but at the same time that I'm making sure that my cash flow sheets are are right. You know, again, a different topic, but it's important. And as long as I feel confident in that, then I'm gonna be fine sticking with that one thing. And again, it really just comes back to just become competent and confident in that one thing, and you're gonna be totally fine.
SPEAKER_00Oh, absolutely. Um, what just out of curiosity, do you like how many sailors repeat with you? Is it very frequently?
SPEAKER_01It's a super, it's over half rebook, uh, or at least rebook. They might not rebook on board, but they rebook afterwards. So it's it's an amazing number.
SPEAKER_00And so they just go love it, experience it, know you're the man, and come right back to you to do it again, right?
SPEAKER_01They love it. And and and I think, you know, that's and that's another point. I think to the to what I think the humility of this and and and being humble is that yes, uh most of my every single one of my sailors has come back and given me a perfect MPS. And that's great. However, I want them to be given Virgin Voyage as a perfect MPS too. And I think that's the whole thing when when someone doesn't re-book, that that goes right to my heart, to the core of what I I did nothing wrong, according to the sailor. I'm perfect, according to the sailor. I know I'm not because something didn't go right on that. And what could I have done differently to make that a better experience? Was Virgin Voyages the right fit for them? Was where was I giving too much uh fanboyism to the brand and or what have you? And and that's again where the perfect cruise quiz came in and really evolved and became something there too. But the the point being is that you know, it's you you want everybody to have such a great experience, and you want people to refer their friends and family, their colleagues and and groups and so on, and you want them to come back for more. But at the same time, we have to not always chase the kind of the inevitable, it's like the you know, chasing a squirrel. You know, that it's you know, you're not always gonna catch the squirrel, you're gonna you're it's gonna get away. But I think sometimes that's something else we also we we rely on too much is someone that's coming back for more when sometimes it's not always you that's the uh that's that's there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, I think I I'm loving this as we kind of dive in deeper. Um so MPS score. Do you have every sailor do an MPS score when they arrive when they come home?
SPEAKER_01Yes. Every sailor takes a a a survey that goes over their experience with Virgin with me and then there's the NPS score. And I love this. It's it's been amazing. And I love I love reading every single one of those. And my thing is respond same day or within 24 hours. That was something I learned in the world of in the corporate world was whether it's a promoter, detractor, or passive. Yes, you know, you you really it's important, you know. What was it? What was it that went right? What was it that didn't go right? Again, the good news for me so far is most things have gone right. Yeah, but that doesn't mean there's not areas for improvement.
SPEAKER_00So this kind of goes into the next um question about kind of your systems, right? So MPS score is fantastic. You're tracking how happy all of your sailors are after every trip. Um, what other systems do you have set in place, Cam, for your success with Virgin?
SPEAKER_01Wow. Where do I start? No, no, I I'm so systematic with things, you know. It it's as simple as keeping everybody up to date via emails, via newsletters, which anybody should be.
SPEAKER_00You have an awesome newsletter, by the way. I am subscribed.
SPEAKER_01Oh, good, thank you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, that's a great newsletter.
SPEAKER_01But I think it's also it's once a month, and I think that's important. I don't overwhelm, I don't overwhelm with information. Uh, for and that's for everybody, whether they booked or not, someone can sign up for that newsletter. But for my sailors themselves, it goes from the uh CJ Travel Connect, which is a platform that's been built for over a year, which is a way to come in and get away from kind of the noise of Facebook groups and Reddit threads. Oh my goodness, that have some mixed information in them sometimes, uh, allows them to be recognized for being sailors with me, being able to help each other out, being able to learn more about virgin voyages. We have CJ Travel Academy, our Sailor Academy, which is where you can come in and earn your PhD in Virgin Voyages. Uh disclaimer, that's a Cam John Travel thing, not a Virgin Voyages thing. But I do that because I want uh my sailors to be more informed. My goal has been and always will be to serve at a platinum level. And part of that platinum experience that I want my sailors to have is CJ Travel Connect. But on top of that is the playbooks. So a week before sailing, I create a playbook for all of my sailors and it's dedicated to just them, and it gives them every single bit of information customized to them that they're going to want. So by the time they step on board, by the time they get to the port, because the ports are important, you have to look at every piece of the puzzle. It's not just when you step aboard a cruise ship or when you land at an airport for a destination that you're going on a land trip to. It's that experience from the moment you get to the port in this case, and understanding the traffic, understanding which way you should walk. Should you walk left, right? Should you look for this line, that line? Should you get to the port two hours early? Should you not? What should you do once you get into the terminal? What how do you connect to the ship Wi-Fi? How do you make your dinner reservations and everything on board? Where should you go? Should you go up to the galley where 2,500 other sailors are going to have their lunch, or should you go somewhere else? I'm sorry, I'm not gonna give out too many secrets on the podcast.
SPEAKER_00But your playbooks are insanely impressive. I mean, I've always had like a breath out itinerary for clients when I've done cruising, um, using, you know, like turn or access or something like that. But the playbook that you put together, I think it truly just shows your clients how committed you are to giving them the knowledge that they need to have the most amazing vacation. Yeah, your playbooks are fantastic. And every every sailor gets a playbook, no matter what, correct? Exactly.
SPEAKER_01Every sailor does. The the exception, which is is it's still they still get a playbook if your sailing's within uh 14 days and or if you book within 14 days of a sailing, you get what I call the the mini playbook. So it's an abbreviated version, still, still amazing, but for me, it's important that I put the time needed into it and making sure that the data is accurate and making sure you get what you need to go on on a sailing, and and that's so very important. And again, it's it takes you to the end game. When I talk about the PhD on CJ Travel Connect, the playbook is a part of that. I want every sailor to feel like they are an expert in virgin voyages when they get on board. That doesn't mean that I want them going around training other sailors and like, oh, that's not what you do. You go over here and do this. But I want them to feel confident and competent. It goes back to what we're talking about with advisors, when with fellow advisors, when it comes to your niche, when it comes to what you're working on. Competence and confidence. It's the two C's, you know, it's like it's it's so very important, and that's so important for our clients, for our sailors too, is to have both of those hand in hand. So when they sail, and I guarantee you that's one of the number one reasons. No one really comes back and says, you know, if it wasn't for CJ Travel Connect and the playbook and the courses I took, this wouldn't have been a great trip. That's not what they're going to say. But it's a component of that. So they know when they go on board, they know they're entering out of Miami on deck seven. They know that. Most sailors have no clue. They might think they're getting on the ship at deck four.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you're setting yourself up to know. You're setting yourself up apart from every other advisor in the industry, Cam. And it's obvious, right? By adding these extra add-ons, advisors don't get, um, you're giving them that extra, which brings them back, right? So I love that. Keep them informed. Um that's super exciting. All right. So let's talk about your sales process, right? So your client comes in through your website and they're filling out a perfect cruise match. So on here, they can take an actual test that pairs them with the perfect cruise line.
SPEAKER_01Right. So there's 15 cruise lines in the quiz, not 61, but there's there's 15 in there. It's the top ones that typically serve American sailors. And what it what it does is it will rank them one through three. And if version's not number one, there's an ability to check on the form if they want me to put them in touch with someone that sells that cruise line. And I and that rarely happens because most people that are coming are going to see version one, one or two. And I'm comfortable moving forward with that. But what that quiz gives me, it gives me everything I really need to know to start the conversation about budget, about what are we celebrating? Are we first responder or military, et cetera, et cetera? It gives me a great baseline. And then I'm able to reach out and have 90% of what I would have otherwise needed to get in a discovery call or in a back and forth. So that has saved me, one, it saved me a lot of time. Two, sailors don't, they're not going to recognize this, and I don't expect them to. It's saving them a lot of time. And if I get an inquiry that doesn't come through the perfect cruise quiz, there are a lot of times, and I've said this has happened recently, where I've said, I'm not the fit for you because of you know what's being looked for. And that kind of moves into a bit of a direction on on the question, but I think it's important is who are what is our goal? Is our goal to be the value-seeking source where everybody come comes to get the lowest price you know option they can get? Yeah. Are you the the advisor who you know, and and and hopefully nobody is, and that's the goal in life is we all want to be abiding by terms and conditions. Are we rebating? Are we saying, oh, I'll give you this if you book with me? I'm not that person. And sailors rightfully should be looking for the best value, but we have to define what that value is. And when an inquiry comes in and they're like, I'm just looking for a quote, I want the lowest price. That's not going to be a fit for me because I'm not, that's not what we do. We don't do playbooks because we're looking to, you know, get somebody in at the lowest price. But what we do, what I do is I do respond to every inquiry that comes in. And I and I give them the business case for why, you know, why one would want to work with with me versus maybe anybody else. And nine times out of 10, it either works out or that one out of 10, it, you know, they they just you're going somewhere else.
SPEAKER_00And that's fine, right? You learn at that point what's worth your time, and if people are actually understanding your value and what you bring to the table, um, I think educating your client is number one, right? So, you know, if they want to go for a lock-in rate, it's probably not the best decision. And here's why. And if they decide to walk away, let them walk away, right? Because you have other plenty of clients lined up who are all excited about your services, right? Um, if I were to ask you, Cam, if a brand new advisor today, they're listening, they're like, you know what? Maybe it's time for me to niche down and they want to get niche down. What advice would you give them or what would you tell them to focus on for the first 90 days of making this decision?
SPEAKER_01Well, first you want to at least narrow down to a few options and what you want to get focused in on. Uh, and and really that is number one, what is it you love? Not as not what's gonna make me the most money in 120 days. So you get to that 90 days, you're ready to launch, and you're like, okay, what's gonna make me the most money in that first 30 days post-90? That's not the answer. The answer is what do I love? What is it that you want to wake up every single day and want to sell, want to consult for? Where is it that you have the relationships that you're building that you can continue to build, that you feel like you will have a voice in the motion of that, of whatever that area is that you want to focus in. That's so very important. But also, you want to be able to create a plan around what is it I need to do to show myself as the expert in that area? You know, there's gonna be a lot of people that are gonna focus in Disney because they love it. But if there's a hundred thousand people focusing on Disney just because they love it, that's not gonna go too far either. So, what do you have to do to differentiate yourself? Well, that's the question I can't answer because there's just so much happening in the world. Technology continues to evolve. I use technology to my advantage, you know. I that's helped me out, but it doesn't make me any less real, it doesn't make me any less qualified, it doesn't make me any less of an expert in version voyages, but it's helped me out. So you have to find that as well. It's the whole everybody's got a social media page, so I need a social media page. Do you? Maybe, maybe not. Everybody's got a podcast, so I need to create a podcast. Maybe, maybe not. Depends on the topic. There's so many things that I think we advise people to do in their first whatever, what is the first 30, 60, 90, what have you. But really above all else is have a plan. Have a 30, 60, 90 plan. Put that together, just like in in the world of business. You know, it's just what do I want to accomplish in the first 30 days? I would say you want to look at your one, two, three targets that you want to focus on and then come to a conclusion with the end of that first 30 days, what it is you want to focus on. 30 to 60, starting putting that business plan together. Look at competitors. I know we're told in this in the travel agency space, we shouldn't be competing with each other, we should be helping each other. We should be doing both. We it's it's competition, it's a world of competition. That does not mean that you go and beat up your competition, doesn't mean you talk ill of your competition. What it means is that you're trying to level yourself up, but you need to find who your challengers are. So let's say challengers instead of competition. It's a competition, it is a are instead of competitors, it's a challenger. I need to find my challengers. Who is it that is in the top 100 on virgin voyages right now? What are they doing well that I can do better? What are they not doing well that I can do even better than? But more importantly than that, after the 60 days and getting into it and rolling these things out, is you have to have the mindset of 1% improvement every single day. What I'm doing today might not work tomorrow, but what am I already prepared for that I can leapfrog myself and what I am doing tomorrow, on the next day, on the next day, the day after. Being able to be agile, being able to be able to pivot with a moment's notice that, okay, this playbook, it's it's worn out, it's welcome. Am I ready for the next thing? And I am ready for the next thing. And I would challenge that anybody that's putting together a 90-day plan for success and niching down, that they have that in their mind too. It's this might not work out a year from now, but within this first 90 days of putting a plan together, I already know what it is I'm gonna be able to jump to. I'm gonna be able to skip to, I'm gonna be able to maybe to pivot over to.
SPEAKER_00You're always just continuously thinking ahead, right? Yes, exactly, which I love. And I think it's true, you have to continuously think ahead. And I mean, again, if you're not niching down, then maybe not, right? Because you're just used to taking that Europe trip or that Asia trip or hey, here's an African safari, and you're not really niching down. But I love that mentality, Cam of just a hyper focus on one brand. Find what you love and make sure you're confident in selling it and you're competent, right? The two C's. Um, and just stick with it. I think as long as you're committed, right? And you're really putting in your full force, then you can make magic happen. Um, I don't know. Again, I'm just insanely impressed by everything that you do. Um perfect. So, what other bits of advice do you have left for anyone listening today?
SPEAKER_01I would say embrace information. Uh embrace change because information is going to change, and the way we get information is going to continue to change. Everybody's embracing AI. I get it. I've been using it to avoid sounding like I'm boasting, but I've been using AI for since AI was a thing. I understood where it was coming and I understood where it was going. I don't think any of us really know where it's going, but I have a general idea. So, what I would challenge everyone to do is to think forward in an uncomfortable way. I want you to become super uncomfortable with the way you're seeing what the future is going to hold for you and your life, you and your business, you in every situation every which way possible. Because we have no clue where the world's going to be in a year. We don't know where the world's going to be in three months when it comes to technology. But as long as we can hedge some bets on it and think this is where it might go, and and not worry so much about what we can't control, but control the controllables now, we're going to be totally fine. The world's not going to, we're not all going to fall off a cliff if AI keeps evolving and people start booking more vacations because there's always going to be a desire for the human element of it. And as long as you're there for your friends, your family, your, your, your clients, and and everybody around, you're going to be just fine. But what I've learned is just to continue to learn every day. It doesn't take much time. You don't have to have a super wild process like I do every morning. But if you just get up and you commit to 1% every day, that compounds so much over time that after 365 days, you've increased by thousands of percent in what you know. And that could be if you niche down to Disney cruises. I'll say that. I'm not going to say virgin voyages. I don't want you to do that. I'm just kidding. But you can. You can definitely niche down to virgin. But that's and and they would love it, and I would love that. But learn something new about it every day. And if you think there's something, if you if there's something that you think you know, question yourself because you might know it, but you might not know it to the level that you could know it. So continue to learn and and relearn and relearn and relearn. And that's just an amazing way to grow forward.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So wrapping up with Cam, I just want to kind of do a quick recap. So, Cam, for anyone to be a professional in their niche, they're going to want to focus on and find the brand that they truly love, that they want to create this partnership with, a brand that's going to respect them and I guess honor them. I'm sure at this point, Virgin Voyage listens to a lot of feedback that you give and they're planning to grow and you're a part of that growth with them, right?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. It's so important to feel part of their culture as much as anything else. I'm one of tens of thousands of people, of wonderful people in the United States selling Virgin Voyages. And while all of us would love for our voices to be heard, I think when you really set that relationship up and you do your part in the relationship as I have with Virgin Voyages, they're much more open to listen to. And like any business, it takes time to implement every wish list item that I have, but they're there to listen. And I think that, and I don't think, I know, I know, I'm confident of this, that anyone that gets into a close-knit relationship with a product or a service or a location, whatever it might be in travel, you can build those same relationships too and have that same respect.
SPEAKER_00All right. So you found the brand that you truly love. Then from there, you created your system. So it sounds like to me you're very hands-on getting to know your client and making sure that they are in fact the perfect match for virgin voyages. If not, you bless them, release them, and find another advisor to kind of take them over. Um, but with that, you have implemented your perfect cruise quiz, which I think is phenomenal, right? So clients are doing that first to make sure you are matching them correctly. Um, you're putting together these incredible playbooks that just show that extra of your business. Um, and you have MPS scores, right? So when clients come home, you're focusing on what their experience was like. So you can take that information and put that back into your business and continue to grow. Congratulations, Cam. I think you've had some great success selling virgin voyages. I'm excited to see what you continue to do. Um, my last question for you, and this is the most important question. What is your favorite virgin voyage cruise?
SPEAKER_01My goodness. It would be oh my goodness, there's there's so many good ones. I'm gonna say it was the very first one, and that's not because they haven't gotten better, because I would say that Virgin Voyages has gotten better. They've listened, they've improved. But if it wasn't for the first cruise back in December of 2021, we wouldn't be sitting here talking today. So I had to go all the way back there for that experience and just the crew, the team, everybody there. That's what led to it. So you have to go back to your beginning sometimes to find the best, and that's where it was.
SPEAKER_00Nice. Where what was the destination or what was the cruise itself?
SPEAKER_01That was a back to back. So it was a five night that turned into a four-night. So nine nights at sea that went it was a I hate to say typical, but it was a typical Caribbean, Miami to Cozumel, and then Miami to uh Key West. So a nice back to back, got to experience the rock star life. I would highly recommend everything, isn't it? Once you go rock star, you don't go back.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, and that's the thing, right? Get your clients into that rock star, they're gonna be happy coming back. That's exciting, Cam. No, congratulations on everything. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise in a true niche, right? This is it. I think this is as niche as you can get as being a travel advisor in the industry today. Um, find the brand that you love, get out there, figure it out, go on different trips and different cruises and experience different things so you can understand what you truly love. Because I firm believer that once you figure out what that is, you're gonna be able to take that back and sell it like it's it's just first nature, right? So awesome. Anything else you want to add to today's conversation, Kim?
SPEAKER_01Just get out there, as you said, Haley, you know, experience things, find what it is. If it's if there's not something today that you think is that focus for you in the future, go and find it. You still have plenty of time. Go discover the world, find everything around you, keep an open mind, cope open heart to everything you do. And once you find it, you'll know it, and then you make that your business, and you'll be the happiest entrepreneur you could ever be.
SPEAKER_00I love it. Awesome. Thank you so much, Kim. Appreciate you.
SPEAKER_01Thank you.