Charlie Funk
Have you ever had one of those years when you thought, "I'm really ready for this one to be in my rearview mirror"? I say with confidence that 2014 fits that category better than any in recent memory.
It started off like gangbusters and then in quick succession we had three ships in the news with significant norovirus outbreaks, cold weather that left many with home heating bill increases that equaled their vacation budget and an economy one more quarter of contraction away from another recession. Our phones stopped ringing, and bookings plummeted such that we were down double digits, percentage wise, for the first quarter of 2014 compared with Q1 2013.
The paradox was that for as many agency owners I spoke with who were seeing similar sales and trends, there were others reporting record months and quarters. What were we doing, or not doing, that we weren't seeing the same results?
Briefly, it meant going back to square one, revisiting everything we were doing, things we had done in the past but had stopped doing and soliciting ideas from others in all parts of the travel industry for input on marketing ideas that were working for them or working in their territory. I'm happy to say that call traffic picked up about May 1, and we are on track to finish the year up double digits over 2013.
Some two years ago or so, in a campaign speech in Roanoke, Va., President Obama addressed business owners of all sizes when he explained that they didn't build their businesses by themselves.
Indeed, taken in full context of the address, we didn't build that; we had the help of others. It could be a teacher in high school who helped develop the character traits that led us to strike off on our own in our business. More than likely, though, it was the influence, support, assistance or example of someone(s) around us who helped and influenced our business.
It may have been another agency owner, a supplier or a friend who helped us achieve success, and it is likely that few if any of them ever knew they had touched our lives for whatever reason.
Have you ever heard someone say, or maybe said yourself, "I wish I had taken the time to tell (someone) how much they meant to me"? We just never made the time to let someone know they affected your life.
Well, I've had time in recent weeks to reflect on those who impacted our business and made a difference. In no particular order, though generally along a timeline of when things happened, I have been fortunate to know those who made a difference in my life:
Dave Christopher: We had been open as a cruise-only agency barely six weeks when Dave, the vice president of sales for Commodore, paid a visit to our office with our district sales manager, Eric Kelly. We had never sold a dime for Commodore, but after listening to our vision and plan, Dave set us up at 15% commission.
Maurice Zarmati: When did I not know Mo? He was regional vice president of sales for Carnival, having been with the company when the doors first opened. I quickly learned that he was a wealth of information on a wide-ranging list of topics and always ready to offer advice and guidance.
Bob Dickinson: When you're naive, you don't know you're not supposed to ask to meet the vice president of marketing and sales for Carnival when you've been open less than six months and in town for a conference.
We not only met, but Bob invited us to have lunch. And you're not supposed to be so brash as to ask how your agency can become a Carnival agency of the year. But we did, followed the guidelines that Bob laid out and Just Cruisin' was named Carnival's Agency of the Year for 1990. It was the start of a close relationship that endures to this day.
Ted Arison: As an agency of the year, we were invited to all Carnival ship inaugurals, and I was fortunate not only to meet Ted but to chat with him at dinner several times. Ted had dozens of anecdotes to share.
My most lasting memory of Ted is of his philosophy about a how to make a business successful: Take care of your customers, take care of your brokers (travel agents) and take care of your employees. Everything else was subordinate to those three tenets. He seemed to have done rather well, and I regret never telling him of his influence. He was a mensch.
There are so many more, and I'm running out of space, but I must include in the list of those who have had an impact: Rod McLeod, Vicki Freed, Dondra Ritzenthaler, Julian Good, Linda Ehlenberger, Mike Sexton, Jim Applebaum, Mitch Schlesinger, Steve Tucker, Al Minkoff, Mike Spinelli, Marty Braunstein, Paula Hayes, Scott Nisbet, Rick Sasso, Tony Musto, Frank Del Rio, Vince Grubb, Camille Olivere and Andy Stuart.
And as I mentioned above, don't be surprised if someone you might or might not remember comes to you and tells how you were a powerful influence on them.
I received an email along those lines the other day from a person whose name was familiar but I couldn't place. It turns out the writer had been an outside agent for us in the late '90s. Edited and excerpted, here is that email:
The reason I wanted to reach out to you now, after all this time, was to thank you for your advice and for working with me back then. I had no idea how to sell travel and never dreamed of doing it. I had visited Tahiti on vacation and fell in love with it. I created a terrible website with the simple idea of giving people advice on where to go, etc. As soon as I created that website, people began asking me to help them plan their trips, and I had no idea what to do. I found your name and company in a book I bought on selling travel and telephoned you to see if you would take me on as an outside agent to channel some Tahiti trips. You agreed to take me on temporarily, and I did indeed manage to sell a few trips to Tahiti through you guys.
After a few months, I advised him to go out on his own with the promise I would help if needed. He did just that and started a company focused solely on selling Tahiti. Within a few months, he quit his full-time corporate job and developed his travel company into a "virtual" office (which was novel in the '90s) with employees in Georgia, Colorado, Iowa, Maine, Florida and Kentucky.
He found himself doing something he loved and learned that life was a lot more fun in the bargain when he did.
The companies I founded ... have sold well over $150 million in travel to Tahiti. ... You and I never met in person, but you were willing to take me on as an outside agent to help me when I had no idea what I was doing. Your encouragement set me on a course that I never imagined possible and brought me much success and happiness in life.
I think people seldom realize how even the briefest interactions they have in life can impact another person's life in a very long-lasting and dramatic way. I guess it is sort of like the "It's a Wonderful Life" movie and the character George Bailey, who never realized how much he had affected the lives of others with even the simplest things. I wanted you to know that you impacted my life in a great way, and through me, you impacted the lives of my clients, my employees, my family and many others.
You just never know.
Charlie and Sherrie Funk own Just Cruisin' Plus in Brentwood, Tenn., and have provided agent and agency-owner training throughout North America on every facet of travel agency operations. They were named to the Cruise Lines International Association Hall of Fame in 2012.