Meet Sherri: From Fighting Crime to Selling Travel
by Judy Jacobs /After 24 years as an FBI special agent, Sherri Rost, the owner of Castaic Travel in Castaic, Calif., went from booking white-collar criminals to booking cruises and vacation packages.
Throw in a passion for motorcycles, and you’ll find an agent who was able to build a business by catering to former and current FBI agents and members of her Harley Owners Group.
Rost’s travel career actually began while she was still with the FBI.
Stress relief
To relieve the stress of high-pressure jobs, she and her husband, a retired Los Angeles Police Department detective, rode motorcycles.
In fact, they have ridden in every state and Canada and belonged to several motorcycle clubs.
As a member of one of the clubs, Rost started putting together weekend trips for the women riders.
When another member who had planned a cruise for the group fell ill and suddenly passed away, the club asked her to take over organizing the trip. She did and learned along the way.
The move to home-based
Thinking there must be a better way to manage travel, Rost became a home-based agent but was quickly disillusioned with the company she originally signed up with.
After reading an article in a travel industry publication on how to pick a host agency, Rost contacted Montrose Travel.
That was in 2009, before she retired from the FBI. She has been with the agency every since.
“It was a hobby at that time, something I was doing with my motorcycle club,” Rost said. “But once I retired I took all that I had been learning and started selling travel as my job.”
The real deal
Rost’s real job selling travel began in 2011 when she and her husband, who had already retired, launched Castaic Travel.
Even before retirement though, Rost had begun preparing for her career in travel.
She took advantage of training offered by Montrose Travel as well as such vendors as Princess Cruises, Viking River Cruises and CLIA.
A logical client base
Although continuing to work with her motorcycle club, Rost has found most of her clients among other retired FBI agents.
In 2013 she began writing a monthly article for the Grapevine, the 76-year-old magazine of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI.
Her articles – covering destinations, types of travel and travel tips – include comments from, and photos of, other former agents who have been on her trips.
Rost also created a travel club for retired FBI agents, which was launched at the annual Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI conference last August in Stone Mountain, Ga.
She will be arranging group trips for the Society, the first of which she hopes will be an Alaska cruise next summer.
Path to a second career
The path to a second career as a travel agent was a gradual one for Rost, but having a targeted group of prospective clients made it a lot easier.
“If I hadn’t had groups that I was already associated with, I think it would have been very difficult,” she said.
“With my motorcycle group of 100 people to start out with and the fact that I could write articles for retired agents were a big part of my success,” said Rost.
“In fact, every time I write an article, I get phone calls.”
Other clients in mind
What are Rost’s plans for the future?
In addition to the FBI, she’d like to promote her business to local law enforcement.
“I’ve been so successful with what I’ve been doing with the agents that I haven’t had the time or the need to go out to promote to other groups,” she said.
“If I can get the group business going, then maybe I will be able to dovetail more into advertising to other groups,” she added.
“I’d get more results for one sales pitch than I would for individual sales.”