Subscribe & Review on Apple!

Get first access to our latest episodes! If you haven’t already, make sure you subscribe to the Travel Agent Achievers podcast. Each week we release a new episode that will help increase your knowledge and expertise as a travel agent. Click here to subscribe to Apple.

Once you’ve subscribed, leave us a written review on iTunes or your favourite podcast platform.  Simply click here to give us a review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review.” 

If you have any colleagues that this information may be useful for, share an image of this podcast on socials and make sure to tag us! 

@travelagentachievers 

 READ THE TRANSCRIPT IF YOU PREFER - BELOW 

Somebody Will Always Have an Opinion. Do It Anyway.

Ros: Well, hello, hello, hello everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Travel Agent Achievers podcast. Today is a little bit different. It's going to be a personal sort of episode. It's very honest. And if I'm completely transparent, it's an episode that I really wasn't sure whether I wanted to record it. Now, over the last few weeks I've had a number of conversations, experiences, and moments that have really reminded me of something that I know so many travel advisors struggle with. Now, not only struggle with, they've experienced, and certainly this is something that I have seen more so in my travel agent achievers community.

Now, what this is is the opinions of others. So my question to you is have you ever put yourself out there and felt like somebody was thinking or somebody has said to you, even if it's behind your back, who do they think they are? Maybe it's when you started your travel business, maybe you've won an award, maybe you've launched a new service or you've put a a, you know, a fee structure in place.

Maybe you've spoken at an event. maybe you've posted something online, you've put out an opinion, or maybe you've just niched and you've said no. And then suddenly it feels like everybody has an opinion. Well, today I'm going to talk about that because if you've ever felt criticized, if you've ever felt judged, questioned, cut down just for trying to grow your business and become a better version of yourself.

I want you to know that you are not alone. So, why this topic even came up for me is because over the last few months I've been incredibly fortunate to speak more than I would normally do at a number of industry events all over the world. Some of them have been you know, based internationally, and some, you know, are in rooms full of travel advisors.

But every room has been different. I've run workshops, I've had keynote talks, I've done a whole bunch of different things. Now it's not because I was different. I show up the same way every single time. My goal is always to educate, to encourage, to inspire. I share personal stories. I teach from experience. I laugh. Sometimes I make mistakes. Sometimes I stumble over my words, and sometimes I say things that aren't perfectly polished. And for those of you that have heard me speak over the last couple of months, you'll know that I will be real. I'm always me. Now, my goal has never been to impress people. My goal has always been to help people as part of Travel Agent Achievers, to give someone the next step, to provide a shortcut, to share insights about how I've done something and I've made a mistake.

I want to save others from making the same mistakes that I've made. And I also share the same sort of things with advisors that have come into my world. That's what I do and why I do what I do. I genuinely want to see travel business owners succeed. I genuinely want to see the level of business knowledge, acumen increased and action taken to grow, right? Whether it's personally or professionally.

Now I know when I speak at an event, you can feel the room. And I've done this for many, many years. I may have shared with you that it's over 20 years ago that I was speaking on stages all over the world, encouraging people to come and study in Australia. I was talking to 16, 17-year-old kids, 20-year-olds, I was talking to parents. I was able to

You know, any I was in an incredible position, but I've done this for a very long time. And as a speaker, you can feel the room. But one particular event over the last few months stood out to me. And as I say, you can feel the energy. And I was even at most recent events, I was even saying to that audiovisual guys, let's have a walk-on song. Can you put on something that can increase the energy of the room? Because I can feel it.

And I know at different points throughout the day as a speaker, there are certain things to do and how to draw people in from an energy perspective. You can see who's engaged, you can see who's writing notes, you can see who's nodding along, you can see who's having light bulb moments, you can also see the other side of things, who's checked out. This isn't, and this isn't.

you know, having a go at anyone. I've been there as well. I get it. You can see who's looking at their phones, who's scrolling, who's disconnected. Almost at times you get a sense of the feeling that they're thinking, who does she think she is?

Now, here's the thing, that's okay. Not everybody is going to connect with me, not everybody is going to like my style, not everybody is going to agree with what I have to say. And honestly, that is how it should be. Because if we try to appeal to everyone, we end up connecting deeply with no one. And I talk about this in my travel business to our travel agent achievers community.

If we try to peel to appeal to everyone, we end up connecting deeply with absolutely no one. But what keeps me going isn't the people looking at their phones. It's the people who stay afterwards. It's the people who line up for a conversation. It's the people who ask questions. It's the people who tell me they've taken action because of something they've heard. And at one recent event in Las Vegas, I spent about 25 minutes.

After the session speaking with attendees. One conversation was ending with a hug. Not because I'd done anything extraordinary, but because somebody felt heard. Somebody felt understood. Somebody felt like they finally had permission to move forward. And honestly, this is why I do this. It's not for the applause. It's not for the recognition, not for the awards, not for the status. You know, those are those are great feel-good things, but it's for moments like that.

And recently I received from feedback from somebody that I trust deeply, somebody that I consider a very good friend of mine. And they hadn't been in the room of one of these events, but they'd heard some comments afterwards. And the comments weren't positive. There was criticism, there was judgment, there was disinterest. And these comments were very familiar in that they effectively translate to who does she think she is? Now, whilst I have been around long enough to know that this comes with the territory, I am still human. And of course it hit me. Of course, it hurt. Of course, I sat with it for a moment, but then I realized something. That I have watched the exact same thing happen, not only to myself, but countless travel professionals over the years. This is what I consider high school behavior, but in reality it goes back to primary school. I have my 11-year-old son who comes home from me from school sometimes and tells me about these sorts of things. And it's really disappointing. But I've watched advisors win awards, be nominated for awards.

Build successful businesses and reach for the stars. They've hired team members, they get media attention, they speak on stages, they launch new things, new group programs, they start mentoring others, they create communities, they grow their visibility, and almost immediately somebody tries to pull them back down. Not everyone, but enough.

Enough that the noise can hurt. And this is where I think about it and go, we are not in high school. We are adults here. This gossip, the judgment, the whispers, the assumptions, the criticism, I've never really understood it. Because there's enough opportunity for everyone to go round, and somebody else's success does not reduce my own.

My success does not reduce your success. We can both win. I firmly believe in collaboration over competition. I talk about this all the time. I would like to argue that we all win when more travel professionals raise the standard of our industry. Why not? Like, why can't we all win? There is enough business to go round. There is, you know, billions of people on this planet.

Why can't we all win? And especially when the standards of the industry increase, the professionalism increases, the opportunities increase. But this is where my no-dickhead policy comes in. I have spoken about this a little bit over the years, and I may have I may have mentioned it here on the podcast before. I definitely dropped it whilst I was speaking in America recently.

And I had to be very clear. This is my no-dickhead policy. The older I get, the stronger this becomes because life is way too short. I don't want to spend my time around people who constantly criticize or constantly complain or constantly pull others down. This all came about for me, and I publicly spoke about it.

During the pandemic, because of clients. And I felt, and I say to my team now if anybody speaks down to you, if anybody makes you feel uncomfortable or weird or disrespected, you have my full authority to fire them. Because life is way too short for us to worry about how we're doing things, who we are.

I want to spend time around people who are trying, people who are learning, people who are growing, people who celebrate each other's success, people who encourage one another, people who challenge me to become a better person. But more importantly, it's the people that I can also do the same thing for. Because success without good people around you isn't actually that fun. I love hanging out with people now.

Roslyn Ranse (11:48.354)
Who are doing great things, who are successful, because we all thrive off that. And this is why I love our mastermind, the Achievers Mastermind group, because everybody there is in it to support one another, not tear one another down, not backstab each other. It is encouragement and supportive. And I have been very clear about that from day one. But it is also about the people that I hang out with in my business associates as well. So here's what I've learned.

People will always have opinions. Always. When you're starting, when you're succeeding, when you're winning, when you're losing, people are just gonna have opinions, whether they're part of your family, your friendship network, or even in the industry that you work in. You can't control that. But what you can control is whose opinions you're listening to. You can choose to surround yourself with people that lift you up or you know.

The feedback that they give you is what you need to hear. Not all feedback is equal. Constructive feedback helps us grow. Judgment keeps people small. So if somebody criticizes you this week, I want you to ask yourself, have they done what you're trying to do? Or are they genuinely trying to help me improve? Or are they uncomfortable watching someone else take action?

Because there's a difference, a very big difference between all of these sorts of things. You know, how does it make you feel? If you're listening to this today and you've been holding back because you're worried about what pipe people might think, you're worried about somebody else's opinion, I'm gonna say to you, launch the thing, apply for the award.

Put your hand up to speak and throw your name in the ring. Hire that team member. Start the podcast. Start the YouTube channel. Put yourself out there. Write the emails. Make the phone calls. Back yourself. Because someone and somebody is always going to have an opinion. The question is, whose opinion matters the most? Is it the people that are sitting on the sidelines or that have an opinion that is not constructive to what you're actually wanting to achieve or the work that you're actually doing? Or is it people that are actually doing the work? Or more importantly, what opinion do you have of yourself? Because your business is your journey, your goals are your goals, your path is your path. And life is simply too short to spend it trying to make everybody else comfortable.

I want you to surround yourself with people who lift you up. No, there's the saying, a rising tide lifts all boats. Be the person who lifts others up. And remember, the people that are doing interesting things will always, always attract opinions. So keep going anyway. The people who are busy building something rarely have time to tear somebody else down.

I say that because the other saying is if you ask a busy person to do something, it'll always get done. So I'm recommending to you choose your path, choose your people, keep moving forward. It's very simple in today's day and age. Thanks for joining me on this very short episode of Travel Agent Achievers. Until next time, keep learning, keep growing, keep building the travel business and the life I know you want. I'll talk to you soon.