I'm living my dream

Melody’s business at Travel Counsellors turns 8 today… We caught up with Melody and this is what she had to say

Tell us a little bit about yourself. I am married and have 2 beautiful kiddies (age 7 yrs. and 9 yrs.). I am living in the best place on the West Coast of Cape Town, Grotto Bay! I love my family and I treasure my family time. I am a huge foodie! I love wine tasting and wine farms and one of my first loves is to Travel! I have recently joined a HIIT gym and realized that I am addicted to HIIT exercise and trail running (I would never have said that 10 years ago)

What is on your bucket list? Travelling to Vietnam with my hubby, I am doing a Rhine River Cruise with my hubby, Skydiving and Drifting in a Rally car!

What destination do you think will be the ‘hottest’ destination for 2019? Vietnam, Cambodia & Bali

What attracted you to Travel Counsellors? I was attracted to the business model where I would have my own time and where I could set my own personal targets each month. Travel Counsellors allows me to value my clients for who they are, and I love what they are doing for me and for my family…

What do you love most about being a Travel Counsellor?

Firstly – the flexibility! My kids have a mom who looks like a stay at home mommy. I always taking them to school and fetch them from school, taking them to extra murals, supporting them in every game/ dancing & gymnastics exam… yet I run my own business…

My earnings have tripled from when I worked at a retail agency – yet I work less or sometimes more but when it suits me.

I take lunch when I want, I go on holidays when I want to, as all my work can get done on my IPAD or Phone if urgent!

Gone are the day of begging a boss to take leave or to have a morning off!

You are celebrating your 8th year anniversary which is an incredible achievement. How has travel Counsellors technology / support over the past 8 years grown? Oh wow!!! What a huge difference!!! When I started – it was Quicktrav = LOL!!! And very basic phenix showing just a handful of bed banks and very little else (in comparison to now) … and there were a very few head office staff… you could almost count them all on 1 hand (working their knuckles to the bone trying to be an octopus).

Since then Phenix has grown to levels I never thought possible and has become a brand that every supplier knows about and realizes now it’s our first “go to” because our contracts and rates are usually so good. We have our very own IT department in SA – that makes a huge difference now! Especially for me who is IT challenged! And of course, we had to move offices as the number of our Head Office fundi grew too so the head office had to move offices to accommodate the expansion! And because they expanded, we could expand our businesses and give our clients even more of what we do so well – thank you Head Office!

Phenix / DMC. You are a big supporter of this. How has this impacted your business? It’s simple – working in Phenix and with our DMC gives you a hands-on chance and you are able to get answers, assistance and aftersales support so much quicker than trying to go through a middleman. I am not one for emailing – I would rather call and make sure I get a solution as quickly as possible… Phenix and DMC’s have helped with this. And of course – the commission is so much better for us! Working with Phenix and DMC’s saves time and makes us look more professional, and it increases our margins, so it would be silly to take the long way around.

Melody demonstrates how she uses Phenix?

Nov is the month of gratitude what are you most grateful for that relates back to being a TC? I am grateful that I have come this far with TC and it has a lot to do with Ian Keane! When I started, my first booking was a transfer to the airport and I made R20… my first two years went very slowly due to my focus on the new home that we were building and having my second baby. Ian contacted during one of our Business Development session and he showed me how much I needed to sell to earn my goal that I had set each month. That was it, I put my head down, I participated in all the marketing that I could, and I handed out my TC Deals in my local area as well as at the local creche and boom suddenly, my business burst and my life changed!

What advice would you give to something thinking about going on their own? To never give up! Keep pushing, the blood, sweat and tears are all worth it… the best advertisement you can ever do is free of charge – WORD OF MOUTH! Your name will eventually land up at a dinner party, school gathering and if you follow the Travel Counsellors golden habits, you will have more and more people calling you! The more you put in the more you get out!

What does your future without limits look like? Well – I have always wondered what it would be like to be Gold. So that is on the cards, but I would love to continue growing my business and to hopefully train future TC’s so that they can also enjoy life and not be governed by LIMITS (bosses, impossible targets, long work hours)