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 READ THE TRANSCRIPT IF YOU PREFER - BELOW 

What Archery Taught Me About Running a Travel Business

Ros: Hello there, everybody. It's Ros here. Welcome back to the Travel Agent Achievers podcast. This week I have something a little different for you. It's a little story for you. It's not necessarily about travel per se, but it is something that I experienced recently that made me reflect on life, business, and also the way that we show up as business owners.

As you know, I talk to a lot of people in the industry, a lot of colleagues, contacts, advisors all over the world on a weekly basis. And I feel very privileged with that opportunity and the information that everybody shares with me. Last week after recording and sharing with you the podcast episode around body burnout.

I was really looking forward to the weekend. had been something that had been playing on my mind a lot lately with body burnout and how my body is also showing up for different things when stress happens or anxiety increases or, you know, world events, just to name a few things. And a couple of months ago, some of my good friends invited us to an open day at the local archery club.

It's something different to do with the kids and Jackson's 11. They have two kids themselves that are around the same age. And I've known these guys for a very long time. We used to ride motorbikes together before we had kids, like just beautiful at heart people. And this was a chance for us just to get outside, try something new. Now archery is it's never been on my bucket list. It's not something I've ever thought about doing.

And if I'm honest, I wasn't sure how good I would be at it. I don't like weapons or bad things, you know, that come into this world. It's just not my thing. So I just, it's never occurred to me to go and learn archery, right? Jackson has at school camp and he was quite happy to tell me all about that, but I didn't know how good I was going to be. I didn't even know whether I'd be able to do this thing right.

But we booked it as a family activity with friends, as I said, so we turned up to give it a go. And you know what? I had such a fun time. For a couple of hours, I stepped away from my phone, I stepped away from work, I simply focused on being present with the kids, trying something completely new, running up and down the field. Like I had such a good time. Now, I might not be the next.

Olympic archer and in fact, I will be honest, my arms are a little sore this this morning and this week, you know, from lifting the bow and arrows. They're not heavy. It's just I don't do weights and I know that I probably should. But I realized while standing there trying to aim at the target. Something that was a really good reminder about business. And when I first picked up the bow, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.

I know because I was getting frustrated that I was holding it the wrong way. My stance was awkward and I was looking at the target thinking how on earth am I meant to hit that when I have kids here all around me trying to do this. Now then there was an older gentleman standing beside me who quietly said, try holding it this way. And he gave me the direction. He adjusted my stance.

He showed me where to position my arm, how to pull the string back properly and where to focus my eyes. All of these things, right, that I was so worried about. And suddenly I let go of the arrow and it worked. It actually hit the target and it may not have been a perfect bullseye, but I can tell you I got in that little circle, right? There were two little circles. Okay, mine was the outer one of the two.

But it was close enough for me to feel very proud of myself. And in that moment, I realized something. I didn't feel embarrassed that I asked for help. I didn't feel silly that someone had corrected me. Instead, I felt grateful that someone was willing to share their experience so that I could improve.

And that got me thinking about how often we forget this lesson when we're running our businesses, often as solo business owners and entrepreneurs as ourselves, we may not ask for that help. Now as travel advisors and business owners, many of us are trying to figure everything out on our own. I get that. And for many, many years I did as well, even though I learned pretty quickly to reach out to some business coaches and experts.

We put pressure on ourselves to know the answers because we're the experts in booking travel, right? We sometimes hesitate to ask questions because we worry about looking inexperienced or unsure. We don't want to feel silly. But the truth is that learning something new is always going to feel a little awkward at the beginning. You're not meant to be perfect the first time you try something. Whether it is launching a new marketing idea,

coming up with or creating a group trip, improving your systems or stepping into a new level of your business. Just like me with Archery, sometimes you simply need someone standing beside you saying, have you tried it this way? Why don't you look at this way? Now, this is also one of the reasons why I value community so much for our industry.

It's why I have seen over the years, you know, a lot of business owners be lonely, like they're alone, they're doing it their own way and that's absolutely fine. But it's one of the reasons why I value community. Like inside our achievers community, it's something that I was very adamant about right at the beginning. Even within the travel industry, more broadly these days, we have people around us who have tried things before.

They've tested ideas, they've learned from experience. And when we are open to asking questions and receiving guidance, we move forward so much faster. The other thing that this experience reminded me of is the importance of stepping away sometimes. As business owners, we can become so absorbed in our work that we forget to take a break. We're constantly responding to emails, managing bookings,
checking messages, solving problems and supporting our clients. But sometimes the most powerful thing that you can do for your mind and your body is simply to step away for a few hours, leave the phone behind, try something different, spend time with your family, give your brain a chance to reset. Now for me, that couple of hours of archery was exactly that. It was a reminder that there is life, outside of the laptop, outside of the phone, outside of the constant to-do list that is always growing. And I think that this is something that we all need to remember from time to time, especially when there is so much going on in the world at the moment. There can be a lot of noise, a lot of uncertainty, and sometimes a lot of negativity in the news and even in conversations that we might be having. But when I look ahead, I see so many positive things.

I see the incredible experiences that our clients are going to have when they arrive in their destinations right now. I see our achievers members coming together in Cebu and the Philippines and sharing ideas, learning from each other and building stronger businesses. And I'm so excited for that. I see the excitement of the big group that's heading to Fiji for one of my clients with almost 300 people traveling together that we're composing and curating for them.

Personally, I'm also really looking forward to heading to the USA in March, sorry, in May, speaking at the Travify conference, connecting with advisors at the Travel Agent Forum and attending, of course, the ASTA conference in San Diego and speaking at that as well. There is so much goodness and so much opportunity ahead of us. Travel is about the experiences, right? It's about connection. It's about creating the memories that

People carry with them for the rest of their lives, ourselves included. We as travel advisors, we get to be part of that. So this week, I simply wanted to share a small reminder with you. Take care of your body, take care of your mental health, give yourself permission to step away sometimes. And if you're unsure, if you're nervous or you don't know something in your business, ask for help, talk to someone, have a conversation, build those human relationships that are such an important part of our industry. And if there's something that you've been thinking about trying in your business, something that feels a little bit uncomfortable or familiar, maybe this week is the week to give it a go. Remember, like me with a tree. You might feel a little bit awkward at first. You might be holding the bow the wrong way, but with a little guidance, a little practice and the willingness to learn,

You might just surprise yourself and you might just hit the target. Thanks for listening for this week's episode of Travel Agent Achievers podcast. I really appreciate you. Until next time, take care of yourself and keep building that travel business that I know that you love, taking care of the clients that I know that you also appreciate as we live in this incredible planet with all the amazing things to look forward to. Speak to you soon.