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Hey there Travel Agent Achievers, it's Ros here. It's October 2022, I cannot believe how fast this year has gone. And after speaking to so many people over the last month, I think everyone's starting to feel the same. 

Now, today's podcast episode for you is something that I wanted to share, it's a little bit personal. But what I personally learn from traveling, now we as Travel Advisors have the opportunity to not only curate, and put together incredible experiences for our clients, but we also have the opportunity ourselves to explore this beautiful planet that we live on. 

So what I wanted to just share today is just some of the things that I get from traveling myself, but also what I do for our clients, and how I can then share that experience with them to ignite, you know, some beautiful passion for them in travel and, you know, help them pull together their own experiences, and just give back where I possibly can to have some fun in this world. 

Now, I've only just returned from Hawaii. So for those of you that followed along on social media, I wasn't able to post a whole lot of stuff. But I know that I was tagged in a whole lot of social media. So therefore, you may have seen my experience in Hawaii towards the end of September 2022 and the week that I spent there on a business retreat. Now I have you know, really enjoyed my travels this year, I have been to a number of different places, starting off back in March, where I traveled to Palm Springs in the USA, been out to Uluru in the middle of Australia up to Cannes, heading to Melbourne, I'm doing a whole lot of speaking in and around Sydney and I have been doing so for the last several months. 

But I think Hawaii, for me, was really an opportunity just to slow down and stop. What I feel like this whole pendulum swing has been happening from not a whole lot of travel booked or we've had to change things up. I know I've certainly been working on my business, my team and I have been looking at how the systems in our business can be improved. We've been doing a lot of connecting with our clients, a lot of personal one on one chat, some group training, really educating and having some fun around travel. 

But for me personally, I just needed an opportunity to stop and breathe and find my own flow again because I've been doing a lot of different things. I am absolutely committed to Travel Agent Achievers and the work that I do with advisors all over the world. It gives me so much energy and excitement. I love the passion. I love the results. 

I am so thrilled to be able to share in the coming months ahead where a number of advisors have been doing the work on their business and in their business over the last couple of years just to see where they're at now and how far they've come. It really spurs so much joy in my life to see the wins and how successful people are coming. 

I've certainly seen that in my travel business as well how things have bounced back. We've had incredible experiences with our clients this year. Taking one of the first large international groups to Fiji in April where we had just under 300 people travel with us. Now that in itself was logistically a challenge, but also so heartwarming to see everyone travel again. For anybody that saw me speak at travel days conference in June, I had many an ugly cry whilst I was in Fiji with the group, but I'm very blessed for the team that I have and my assistant Mayette who traveled with me and has been integral in ensuring that our clients had an incredible experience and they were kept up to date throughout the last couple of years with how that all panned out.

So today’s learning and talking about traveling. I am seeing so many travel advisors, get on those planes and share their own experiences of what it's like for them and sharing it also on social media and how they're experiencing the world now. It's so good to see so many people traveling again and sharing those experiences. So some of the things that I wanted to share with you from what I get from traveling, but I also want to hear from you. So let me know, once you listen to this podcast episode, let me know on social media, what do you learn from travel? How do you share your experiences with your clients, because it is important that we share our love of travel with everyone as well. 

So for me, as I said, right at the beginning that this year, I think, for me, I've just got to a point again, where I am so full, I am full up with  and to a point where potentially it's burnout in a way where I feel like I've been trying to do everything for everyone, and not really looking after myself. Especially over the last few months to a point where I've had quite a bit of brain fog, I'm calling it because how that's come about is the amount of things that I've been working on and in our business and trying to stay across that moving between different things.

I've not been able to do it as fast as what I have been able to previously and when I'm trying to find the words to explain something, they're just not coming fast enough. I get really frustrated. So with my background, and my business skills, but also the passion that I have for what I do, it can be quite frustrating. So over the last couple of months, I found the brain fog is how I'm describing it as really weighing on me, because I haven't been able to see what's next. I feel like jumping to things all over the place. 

I'm not able to keep up with what I want to do physically. My brain is not able to keep up with it. So for me being able to head off to Hawaii, in September was an opportunity just to do something for me. It allowed me to have the space that I needed to get creative and have clarity and clear my mind. One of the things that I was not expecting was that I arrived in Hawaii and for the first few days, I didn't even notice because we're all on WiFi. So I can FaceTime my family and connect via Voxer, the walkie talkie app with my team. I didn't even realize that my phone wasn't working. I wasn't able to receive calls, nor was I able to make calls. 

Now, I don't normally pick up the phone to call a whole lot of people and those that I do, it just automatically happens. But over those few days, it's probably because it was a weekend as well. I didn't have the need to be calling people. So I didn't even realize and it wasn't until I got a couple of text messages from friends saying “I can't actually get through to you. Are you okay”? 

When I went I thought there's something happening with my phone. I just thought that I'd taken too many photos. I had filled up my phone and you know, there was something going on with the phone connector back in Australia. But this I think was also the world saying to me, you just need to let go for the time being.

I was able to, of course I fixed the phone, we'll get on with it and we go out because that's what we do. But having those few days just allowed me to stop. I swim in the ocean every morning. Thanks to a beautiful friend that I was traveling with Amanda. We got up, we went and swam in Waikiki along the beach, had a coffee, and had two hours at breakfast. 

Yes, we took our laptops down and had our phone and you know those sorts of things. But I was just able to sit and I stayed at the Outrigger Reef Waikiki Beach. I had a club room so I had access to the Club Lounge, which included breakfast and afternoon canapes and cocktails. It's one of the things that I love about traveling if I can get club access, and that is for me gold, because it's just a place that I can zone out. I can go into a different area and I absolutely love it. But it was that initial space that allowed me to take stock of where I was at and actually slow down so I didn't have to run at 100 miles an hour. 

I knew that I had planned things out so that I didn't have to jump on too far. On calls, I didn't have to jump on to client calls or meetings or training or anything like that, it was just an opportunity for me. So to have a couple of hours, having breakfast in the sunshine was beautiful then go for a walk, or people watch, I haven't done that in years. 

We're running international events and groups and traveling, I am usually just on the go. So to be able to stop was perfect for me. It allowed me that space to just clear my mind and slow down. So the brain fog had started to lift over those first few days. It was wonderful to have some creativity come back in. I was challenged after a few days, when I entered the retreat with good friends of mine that I would get up at 5am in the morning. Now that was just natural for me to get up and I don't know why. But I was able to get up and I was able to journal. Now I haven't done journaling for many, many years. I started with some questions and those questions I will run through with you in some coming podcast episodes with some beautiful guests as well. 

But one of the things was “what makes me happy”. I sat there each morning, reflecting on my list saying, Well, what makes me happy, what brings me joy. I was able to fill pages of a notebook that I had. The question that I asked myself was, if I felt happy, this is what my life would look like. So if you're into journaling, or even if you're not, then I encourage you to ask yourself that question. If you feel happy, this is what my life would look like. You can put anything in it. 

Because sometimes we have, the formalised.  I need to put together a vision, or I need to put together my goals. A lot of people really struggle with that and especially when you're so involved in the work and the day to day actions that you are doing in your business, that you may not be able to open your mind or have clarity or a clear focus to say, this is what I want for my life. So for me to be able to grab a coffee in the morning and sit out on a beautiful lounge chair, overlooking the ocean and just breathe in and look after myself.

I ask myself that question and it has really given me further clarity on what makes me happy, what I get a lot of joy from and what I need for myself, my family, my future moving forward. Because once I was able to see these things, I do have a lot of happiness in my life, I do have a lot of joy, I do have a lot of things that bring me joy, and that I love doing. 

So how can I design my life around this? What do I need to let go off? What do I need to say no to and that's something that a number of people find really hard to do saying no, particularly in the travel space. I don't know why we've always felt as though we have to please everybody, but a lot of people do. So for me, what are the things that make me happy? 

If you get that opportunity just to create some space for yourself, even if it is getting up early in the morning, or after you drop the kids at school, or if you are able to be away on holidays by yourself or take a couple of hours to sit somewhere that you love and just write what makes you happy. Come back to it each day for a few days.

I can guarantee that you will start to get that clarity back and your mind will start to clear because I know it certainly did for me. So it's one of the things that I learnt for myself when traveling is just to stop. I think that we have all become so conditioned to site inspections and exploring things for information for our clients and being so focused on the outcome for our business and for our clients that often we forget what's important to us, but also what lights us up.

So learning from traveling, it's for me, that opportunity to stop. I am certainly committed to that as well thinking about it as I move forward as well. One of the other things that I absolutely love about traveling is the wonderment because even if you have been to a destination over and over again, I can guarantee that there are going to be the things that light you up and that surprise you. Often if we're traveling with somebody who hasn't been to a destination, or hasn't visited before or even traveling with kids, if they see something, their eyes change. They look of wonderment and “Wow. I love that”. 

I love that about traveling that I can have those moments, even if I have been to a destination, and that opportunity or that 10 seconds or that 20 seconds, and capturing that image in my head to say, well, how lucky are we? What an opportunity we have to be able to explore this incredible planet we live on and take those!

What are those looks of wonderment? What are those things that light you up as well? A friend of mine, Jamie, that I was traveling with as well. She had the most precious look on her face. It was like, childlike, I described it to her. I said to her at one of our dinners, I said “Jamie just looking at you and the wonderment and the excitement and the wow and the disbelief. I said that looks are just precious. It is something that I will never ever forget”. 

So the wonderment when I'm traveling is ideal. You know the moment that you can remember something and remember it to bring it back into your work life as well. The third thing is culture and understanding and learning about the way of life of different cultures. We've just had a group travel to Thailand to undertake a charity bike ride. I've done this a couple of times myself as well as my husband has to where we ride 500 kilometers over five days for hands across the water charity. Now experiencing that you might think oh my gosh, that's crazy. Yes, it is in 40 degree heat, 100 kilometers a day, five days. It is slightly crazy. But it is one of those things that not only the wonderment is there, you also get the space for clarity and creativity and thinking about different things that are in your day to day life because you're doing something different. 

But it is also the culture and the opportunity to see what other places are like and that is a true blessing and gift. For me, also traveling to Hawaii, we did the Ho’oponopono session. Now if I have incorrectly said that, my absolute sincere apologies. But it was this beautiful soul session where culturally, it's not something that people will go and do an activity on. It was something a lot deeper for us. 

As a small group, it really opened my eyes to know what life is like, for some people? What have they had to deal with in the past? What is holding them back? I see that, I see you. 

All of the advisors that I work with there is often something that holds them back. I think it's a lot deeper than we give credit for. We might just say, “Oh yeah, I don't, I don't want to charge fees for the work that I do or my expertise or knowledge”. But there's no reason behind it. I just don't know why it's just not sitting right. 

But when you have a look at yourself and you actually dive deeper into why you don't want to do certain things. There is often a reason or a shackle or a moment or something in your past that's holding you back. I encourage you that there are things holding you back. 

You are destined for great things, you have a beautiful gift. I don't want you to let that go. So keep thinking, what's holding me back? What can I let go of? What do I need to release in order to allow me to move forward and allow me to grow and experience different things? So culture for me and traveling is it can open so many eyes and give us that opportunity to see things from a different place. 

So when we are caught up in the day to day activities of our life and our business and family and how we're just going through the motions, like I look at it now and it's October and this year I feel like it has absolutely flown and flown in a way that a lot has happened. But have I actually slowed down to appreciate all the different moments? 

The reality is I don't think that I have because I have been going through or just, I need to keep going, I need to keep moving forward. What's the next thing that needs to happen? How's that calendar filling up? What do I need to do? What are my commitments, how I don't want to let anyone down, like there's been a lot of stuff that's going on. 

So to be able to appreciate different cultures and life and how everybody is doing different things, is a beautiful gift to have. So I love being able to learn and see what other people are going through. Because then that, that also brings me back to a lot of gratitude and what can I do to make a difference in this world, whether it is through travel, whether it is through business, whether it is through connecting with other humans, and elevating other people igniting their passion, whatever that is, what can I do to give back in this world, and gratitude, and being grateful for the opportunities that we have? It's a lot deeper? Well, I think this episode is actually getting out.

So it wasn't my intention. It was all about what I learned from traveling. So I do want to know, from you, what do you learn? What are some of the things this year when you've actually stepped away from your business? You've gone back out into the world? What are some of the things that you have learnt? What do you love about travel? You know, what are the things that really light you up and give you that passion? Because now as we move into the next phase, it's now how do we share? How do we share that excitement and passion and experience with our clients, and portray the life gifts that we have experienced, and also giving them the opportunity to experience them as well. 

So right now, it's a shift.I see that with so many travel businesses, that we've come through this incredibly tough time. There are now beautiful people that are joining the industry, those that have started during their pandemic, but also those that are bouncing forward and those that really want to make a difference. So now, what are we going to do to share these life gifts with our clients? 

How can we build the travel business, that gives us choice, that gives us the opportunity to do something different for others, that also gives us life, that gives us wonderment, that gives us joy and that makes us happy. This is where the flow of what you're doing. 

You might be struggling right now. If you are, please reach out. Because it doesn't have to be hard. You don't have to have a brain frog. It's really about an opportunity to say, what can we do differently? What can we do to make our life easier? What can we do to support others in their travel quests? What can we do? 

I love you to know that there are such open minds in the industry these days. But there are also going to be people that say, you know, “oh my gosh, I can't handle it all”.  If you can't handle your workload right now, then I encourage you to reach out to the community. Reach out to us at Travel Agent Achievers here, reach out and see what you can do to make your life easier, especially moving forward. If you want to rebuild your travel business, have a think about those sorts of things, and what can you be doing, because in life, it's so important to have human connection. It is so important to be able to have people around you that support you and they understand you and that believe in you as well. 

I am very grateful for my life and the opportunities that I have that through traveling, the experiences that I have, that allow me to focus on myself, that allow me the opportunity to focus on my business, that allow me to explore and appreciate this world that we live on, to bring that back for my clients and also for you here at the Travel Agent Achievers community, giving you that gift to say “hey,I'm here for you. I can be there to support you and I will be there to support you no matter what you're going through or what I'm going through, because we are in this together”. 

That's one thing that I love about the industry now is that there is community, connection and support and what we can do to be there and support one another. I'm moving forward. So what I learned from traveling is, the beautiful gift to have the space, or have the space to get creative and clarity and clear my mind, as well as the wonderment and the excitement and the childlike opportunities and experiences that you see in so many different people.

When they see something brand new for the first time, or when you get to witness that and be a part of that journey with them, the culture, and the lifestyles of different people, seeing how we are all different, yet how we are all human, and we are there all to relate to one another. Then also the gratitude, I am so grateful for the life that we have and that I have and that my family halves, because that gratitude helps me grow, it helps my family grow. But it also helps me give back and support other people, as well. So I am very grateful. 

I'm very grateful for you, and the Travel Agent Achievers community that we have. I am so excited to see the wins and how so many people are coming through this time, what they're learning, what they've implemented, and how their business is growing. The brain fog for me, yes, it has been a couple of months and I haven't understood it.

But I now know why. Because the opportunity to travel again has given me that opportunity to get clarity, a clear mind, and be ready to go. So wherever you are in this world, I want to encourage you to travel, experience different things, take the time for you to look at what makes you happy. 

If journaling is your thing, then go for it. If you haven't tried it before, then I encourage you to do that. Because even if it is just one thing that you can look at and say what makes me happy, what makes me happy today, what am I grateful for, and start there, because the power of positivity can actually change our lives. I'm here for you. I'm excited about what the future holds. I think that there are going to be some incredible opportunities right now. But also for those that understand business and those that want to build a sustainable travel business and actually get their stuff together.

 It's going to help you get through any challenging times that might be ahead. But you're able to look at yourself with objection and objectivity and say, All right, what is the next thing for me? So we've got an awesome webinar coming up, we'll add a link into the show notes, see it all on social media at Travel Agent Achievers, but I look forward to helping you grow. 

I look forward to seeing you build your travel business and know that we are here to support you. I am here to encourage you. I am here to travel with you. I think there's going to be some really cool opportunities for us. So hang in there. You've got this, what I learned from traveling I hope you love as well and I look forward to hearing from you and what your next thing is. Keep in touch. Take care. I'll talk to you soon.