Air Force Nurse Turned Travel Agent Takes Networking to the Million-Dollar Level
by Cheryl Rosen
Russell. Photo: Facebook.
For 22 years, Charles Russell carried the injured, and sometimes the dying, out of harm’s way on medical evacuation and critical air transport flights. Saving lives, he knew, was all about working as a team.
That skill at connecting is likely at the heart of Russell’s success in the travel business. Four years after buying a Cruise Planners franchise, the retired Air Force ICU nurse is a million-dollar-plus producer – and he credits his skill at networking with making it all possible.
From about $150,000 in 2014 and double that in 2015 and 2016, “each Wave Season has grown exponentially, to total gross sales of over $1 million last year. I’d say probably 50 percent of my growth is coming from networking; 20-25 percent from word-of-mouth referrals; and 25 percent from some very specific targeted marketing pieces, for which I partnered with my Royal Caribbean BDM,” Russell says.
The strongest driver of business
In addition to “word of mouth, the strongest driver of business,” Russell doesn’t hesitate to ask for referrals from his friends in the various networking groups to which he belongs and from his clients. And he has “worked very hard” to develop his web presence and online reputation on three different websites — one cruise-centric, one romance-centric, and one localized to his market.
But, perhaps his most unique key to success is his approach to networking.
“There is so much more to networking than just showing up at a meeting,” Russell says. “You have to invest time and energy in meeting the people in the group outside of the group. If someone invites me to some event I always go, and then I say thanks very much, what can I do for you in return?
“Just like opening a business, networking is work. You can’t just buy in and expect business to come to you; you have to go out and hustle. During the day, I spend more time out of my house than in. Being seen out and about in the community is what brings in the business.”
Take his realtor friend, Janet, for example. She and Russell are going to set up “Janet’s Wanderlust Society” meet-ups in targeted communities around his home in Texas. Janet will invite existing and potential clients; Russell will talk about the places on Janet’s bucket list; and together, they will start forming groups to travel to those destinations. They are targeting communities with homes valued at $500,000 or more, rotating among three communities.
Direct mail success
Already, he credits his partnerships with Janet and with his Royal Caribbean BDM for a recent marketing coup. Janet shared the zip codes within his county that have high disposable incomes and many families with children. RCCL contributed beautiful direct mail pieces, and Russell paid the postage to distribute them through the USPS Every Door Direct Mailer program. The alliance brought in about $300,000 in new business for just a $1,000 expenditure.
So, for Russell, an Air Force brat who traveled to Europe before he was three months old, his decision to buy a Cruise Planners franchise is working out just fine. After trying a desk job as a consultant for the first year after his retirement, he found himself pining for the “autonomy and sense of personal accountability and the freedom to do it my way” that he had felt in the military. And no matter what franchises he looked at, the ones related to travel, his favorite pastime, kept drawing him in.
“When I started, people said, ‘Why are you opening a travel agency? No one uses them anymore,’” he said. “And sure enough, the best way to get me to succeed is to tell me I can’t. I have that military mindset that says, ‘Just go ahead and do what needs to be done, and if doesn’t work, you can ask for forgiveness later.’”
Today, he has three independent contractors working with him, and he is bringing on a fourth. And with more than $1 million in 2018 and 2019 sales already on the books, the future is looking bright.
An offer of mentoring
His advice for others looking to get into the business? If you don’t want to take the leap financially to start your own franchise business, find someone to mentor you.
“I’m always willing to entertain the idea of mentoring a hungry young agent who’s willing to learn before they go out on their own,” Russell says. “I don’t see it as competition. There’s plenty of travel business out there to go around.”
