Rebuilding a Travel Business From Scratch With Ali Raymer: Surviving and Thriving After COVID

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You're listening to Entrepreneurs Enigma, a podcast about the ups and downs

of the entrepreneurial journey.

Every week, your host Seth Goldstein interviews entrepreneurs from all walks of life

about their entrepreneurial journeys,

from store owners to Fortune 500 CEOs.

We all have stories to tell.

So sit back and join us for the next 20 or so minutes

while we explore the entrepreneurial world.

Hey, everyone.

Welcome to another edition of the Entrepreneurs Enigma podcast.

I'm, as always, Seth with podcast mastery and Goldstein media.

Today, I have Allie Raymer, who is a senior travel advisor

and team leader for picture of this travel who rebuilt her business

from the ground up after COVID wiped it all out.

I like the cool stuff.

And, you know, she's all on Navigame motherhood.

So why not, there's something else in that wrench into the thing.

So after a briefly returning to teaching,

she reinvented her business to personal branding, content systems,

and eventually scaled to a multimillion dollar book of business.

Today, she leads a high-performing team

and speaks kindly about entrepreneurship up.

Re-invention and where Roy takes to rebuild

when the plan falls apart, because it does.

Nothing goes according to plan, ever.

Definitely not.

So how are you doing, Allie?

How are you doing?

Oh, so good.

Thank you so much for that intro.

I appreciate it.

I'm excited to chat.

This is, you know, really just my story.

And I hope that it speaks to somebody, because yeah, you're right.

It never goes according to plan.

No, it doesn't.

You just said your kid's home in school.

And you're like, I have stuff to do.

Grandparents.

Right, right.

It happens.

It happens, it happens.

So how did this all get started?

Have you, I mean, you said you were a teacher,

and then a travel advisor, all that stuff.

So give me the load down.

Yeah, for sure.

So I was a high school English teacher.

I had an opportunity to be in charge of the travel club,

which is actually super fun.

They thought, oh, this is a young, energetic teacher with no kids.

Let's give her a club that takes kids around the world.

And it was really fun.

It was so much fun.

We, I worked at a low income school.

So we did a lot of fundraising, so much fundraising.

But you know, I ended up selling a lot of travel

to these kids and their families.

And we ended up traveling.

You know, we did like World War II Europe trips through.

Like we did like a two week tour, you know,

starting in London and ending in Switzerland.

It was amazing.

Wow.

Yeah, so I did several of those trips with those kids.

That's a hell of a club.

It was an amazing club.

It was like to have that opportunity at our school was unreal.

Yeah.

And yeah, and I learned a lot.

I traveled a ton.

I was a shop road for 17 year olds in Europe.

You know, that could be difficult,

because that's drinking age in Europe.

Yeah, yeah.

We kind of worked our way around that.

You're like, you're like, permission slips.

Can your kid have a beer, yes or no?

Exactly.

That's kind of how we did it, you know.

And we were at the Hofburg house, like having a beer together.

And it was like a cultural experience.

I feel like it's a big issue.

I mean, the thing is, it's like over there,

it's like beer, who cares?

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, we're a bunch of Puritans.

And we're like, oh, you can have your 28-21,

which is an arbitrary driver.

Right, right, right.

Yeah, we had some good lessons.

So that's kind of where I was.

And my husband's aunt owned her own travel agency,

boutique agency.

And she was seeing what I was doing with high school students

that had no money.

And she was like, Ali, you know you can like do this as a business.

And you can sell travel to people with money.

And I was like, oh, never thought about that

before.

And yeah, in the summers, I would just, you know,

I was off from teaching.

And she's like, come over to my house.

Like, just see what I do.

And I did.

And I loved it.

And I picked up on it really quick.

And I'm in toward under her.

And kind of tried to learn sales of marketing,

which I didn't really know at all.

And, yeah.

And then COVID, dumb, dumb.

I know exactly.

So then COVID hit.

Like I had just made it to where I could quit my full-time teaching

job because I was making enough commission selling travel.

That was the first year that I quit.

And then COVID happened.

And then COVID happened.

And, you know, because we are a commission-based.

Yeah.

Everything gets sold.

We only get paid when people travel.

I was cancelling trips.

So I was doing a ton of work.

I was sitting on hold for hours or an end, cancelling trips,

but not getting paid any.

I think I literally was literally getting paid pennies

on the hour for the time that I put in that year.

So I'm here.

Yeah.

All with the newborn, that was fun.

It was a try and experience.

Oh, I can believe that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so then, you got it out.

You said, let me do teaching again a little bit.

And you're like, let me go back to travel.

Right.

Exactly.

I did have to go back to teach one year because, you know,

I made no money for a year.

And so I was like, you know what?

I think there was an English position open at my old school.

I went back and I did.

I told them I said, I'm only coming back

for one year because I know this business.

I believe in it.

I know it's going to take off as soon as the world opens up again.

People are going to want to talk.

People are going to want to talk.

They didn't know when the hell that was going to be.

Right.

We didn't know when it was going to be.

I just knew when it was going to happen.

I wanted to be there ready for people.

They had rock and roll.

Exactly.

Oh, my gosh.

It came back like crazy.

So yeah, I only taught for one more year going back.

And then, oh, my gosh, it was just hit the ground running.

So you're seeing us teaching?

I don't.

I really don't.

I think I realized the thing that I loved about teaching

was taking those kids on trips and seeing their eyes open up

to travel.

Yes, we'll learn.

Yeah.

And now I get that with my clients.

So.

Yeah, that's fine.

Yeah.

So this whole time, you know, COVID struck, you rebuilt your

business better, bigger and better, which is awesome.

And now you're helping people that have money.

It's a little easier to kind of get them on trips.

Right.

That's wild.

That's wild.

And so, what is in your mind and the best thing about being

an entrepreneur?

When you think about it, when you think about the travel

industry, you might be affiliated with a agency, but you're

all commission.

Yeah.

So you're your own boss pretty much.

You don't do your job.

You don't get paid.

Is that simple?

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, we're pretty much, I would say most travel advisors

are independent contractors unless they work for a brick

and mortar.

They may have a, you know, a paycheck that comes in if they work

at a brick and mortar, but I would say most of us are

independent contractors.

We all run our own businesses.

And for me, I loved that because coming from a teaching and

education background, let's just be honest.

Like, if I wanted to, I could have phoned it in and gotten the

same exact paycheck, but I was always going to get that

paycheck.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I'm such a competitive person and I love to hustle and grind.

And I think that's what I love about it.

I love the hustle of entrepreneurship.

I love that.

What you put in doesn't always.

You always get out.

You always get out.

Yeah.

But, you know, the idea is what you put in there.

You get out.

You know, the idea.

Right.

That's the idea behind it.

And I think just betting on yourself is really what I love about

it.

And I've seen it.

When you see it, the way that I have as far as I saw it be successful enough to go out

on my own and do it and bet on myself, crash, burn to the ground and then rebuild.

I think that's really where entrepreneurs thrive is when they know, oh my gosh, like this

may be.

Am I going to need to go get a job again?

Right.

Right.

So I think we kind of, we thrive off of that a little bit.

We're insane.

We're insane.

It's a special type of insanity, because in the beyond your partnership, and so on

the flip side, obviously what kept you up in there was all that return canceling business

for what keeps you up in there now besides your two-year-old who's sick.

I would say like what kind of keeps me up and night like with the business.

Yeah.

Or do you see a baby?

No, I definitely don't.

I think it's always leveling up.

Like how can I move to the next level and not just work in my business, but on my business?

Because I think often you become your own choke point and entrepreneurship and it's like,

okay, how do I not?

It's constantly trying to solve the puzzle that's coming, you know, and it might not be what's

happening right at this moment, but you see it coming.

Like you know, it's going to hit six months down the road.

You're going to need a solution to this problem.

And yeah, I think it's constantly staying on top of that.

That really is what keeps me up at night for sure.

And I'm also making sure people get to their destinations on time.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

I mean, I definitely have my phone on all the time, so I'm on call.

Yeah, I miss my connection.

You're like, hold on.

Give me a second.

I have had those three AM calls.

They do happen.

Yeah, but.

But you're able to fix things most of the time, you know, and that's the reason why you

have a travel visor versus doing it yourself is that you have someone at home base saying,

all right, we're here.

We need to be there, but A to B is not working right now.

Hope.

Oh, absolutely.

I can't tell you how many times this happens a lot in Greece.

The winds are too high for the fairies to run.

And I get a panic to phone call, hey, our fairy is not running.

It just canceled.

I'm like, no worries.

I'll get you a flight.

You're good.

Or the opposite.

You know, the winds are too high.

Yeah, but it's because Greece is all islands.

That's why.

All islands.

Yeah, exactly.

So I get those phone calls or the, you know, a train cancels in Italy.

Oh, of course.

Oh, yeah.

Of course.

They're always on strike for something.

Yeah.

Exactly.

So I definitely get those phone calls, but that's honestly why I'm here.

Like I love taking care of the challenge and the challenge my clients.

Yeah.

It's so, it's so fun.

Is it getting a risk?

Come on.

Yeah.

Strategic.

Yeah.

We try to minimize those issues as much as we can.

But of course.

Yeah.

So here's a question.

Do you get paid by the outlets, right?

You don't get paid.

Right.

Someone comes to you.

You're free to them.

Mm-hmm.

You're getting paid by suggesting and saying you should go try this out.

Now, most some tribal people get the free trips.

Have you gotten free trips?

Um, I think that's kind of a misnomer, honestly, in the industry.

Because I don't think it's ever free.

I think it's discounted.

No, it's discounted.

We have funny enough that you're asking this because I just got, we called them familiarization

trips and the short word for that is fam.

And like I just got an invite yesterday to a free fam, which literally never had.

Free one.

Yeah.

And like they were literally going to pay for my air and everything.

And I was like, I feel like I should apply for this.

Like this literally never happened.

Where was it?

Well, it was in conjunction with Visit Britain.

And so, yeah, they're wanting people to travel outside of London.

So it's like Manchester and Liverpool.

There's a lot outside.

It's a small island, but there's a lot of stuff to do.

So are you going to do it?

You're going to do it?

Well, I applied.

We'll see.

We'll see if I can accept it.

Honey, you're on the kids.

I'm going to go to the gym.

Exactly.

Yeah.

I'm sure you can figure out where to bring them to.

But yeah.

Yeah.

But for a lot of us, it's one of those things of like we are so passionate about travel.

And you're all willing to invest in it.

And I mean, it is what it is.

Like my first summer, not teaching after COVID, my husband and I spent a month in Italy.

And it was like, that was the best investment ever.

Yeah, cost me money.

Yeah.

But it's experiences.

So do you get to passports at all?

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah.

And you said, no, I'll be like, why not?

No.

They honestly, they're the best.

Like they can, my two-year-old can boss people through TSA security.

So, yeah.

Sassy.

Yeah.

They're great travelers.

As boss people through TSA.

And then for sure, the TSA agents crack up laughing like, what's this with this year-old?

Yeah.

Yeah.

One of them said, you know we're hiring.

And I'm like, go right ahead.

Please.

Come on, move it.

Move it.

Move it, person.

Move it.

Right.

Pick your shoes off and move it.

Yes.

You still take shoes off?

Well, we have TSA pre.

So I don't know.

We've never had to take our shoes off.

But I don't know about that.

I think that shoes are done now.

I think I hope shoes are done.

I hope we're over that at this point.

Yeah.

Nobody needs to be walking barefoot through an airport.

Well, you know, if you plan, you wear socks.

Well, what if you're going to a warm destination and you want to wear your sandals?

Well, you don't through the TSA.

Oh.

I guess.

We're going to take a quick break here from our sponsors and get right back to the

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All right.

So here's the question of the podcast.

The big question.

What is the most important thing we carry with you all the time besides your past

forth?

I would say definitely your passport.

Yeah.

Gosh.

And your itinerary.

Not as easy stuff.

Not as easy as shit.

You can't do that.

I would say that's so good.

I mean, I want to say your phone, wait, can I say your phone, but be really specific about

it?

Go for it.

Okay.

I would say your phone that has your travel advisors customized app that I made for you.

It has literally everything in it that you would need.

That's all you need on your trip.

And your passport.

And your passport.

And your passport.

Yeah.

But the customized app, my clients rave over that and really it's all they need while

they're traveling.

Yeah.

That's pretty cool.

That's wild.

Yeah.

So what goes into this app is it's kind of like you just load it up with all their tickets

and barcodes and literally everything phone numbers of their guides, meeting points.

Like we made them dinner reservations, how far the walk is from their hotel to dinner.

Oh, you have fun with this, yeah.

Yeah.

It can get really fun.

And we put, you know, when we're trying to sell, we we use it on the front end too is

like a sales tool.

So we put photos and videos, get people excited about their trip, little tips and tricks.

And it has a little chat feature so then they can just message me if they meet anything

while they're traveling.

So now I miss my reservation.

Right.

Right.

It does.

We took the wrong turn on this week because we missed it, especially if you're in, was

if you're in Poland, there's no, there's no, there's no valves.

Oh, yeah.

So there's, it's like, how do I read this?

You go in your A, A, B, B, C.

Right.

Okay.

That's distributed.

Yeah.

Right.

Right.

Yeah.

I have had clients do that before.

I had this sweet sweet couple call me totally lost trying to find the rental car place.

I ended up calling the rental car office and he was talking to me and he was like, Oh, I

see them.

I'm going to run out and get them.

Yeah.

I'm sure they used to sell Americans.

Oh, yeah.

They're used to us.

They're used to that's crazy people.

All right.

So people can find you online, pretty much Allie's picture of this travel everywhere.

Yes.

That's correct.

That's correct.

And that's the end of my website too.

Yeah.

And that's what being the show notes.

And that's what being the show notes.

So it'll be in the show notes.

So that's the words.

Awesome.

Well, Allie, thank you so much for being on.

Yeah.

Thank you for having me so much.

This is so much fun.

I never want to go travel, but call Allie first.

Yes.

Absolutely.

And we'll see everyone next week.

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