My Journey: Becoming a Travel Agent

I recently decided to put my two passions together – Disney & planning!  I have chosen to pursue becoming a travel agent that specializes in Disney so that I can help bring the magic to other people without them having to deal with the hassle of planning a trip.

I was really excited and motivated at first to start my training, but as I found myself halfway through it quickly became a little overwhelming.  While I consider myself a big Disney fan who has been to the parks multiple times, there were so many tiny facts and things to remember that I felt a little swamped by the amount of data thrown my way.  So, in order to stay on track and motivated, I thought through what I do best and created a plan.  I needed milestones to keep me going and stay on track without feeling lost in the sea of information.  I’m not sure that this blog post will help many other people, but it will help you see where my head goes in creating attainable goals.

Step 1: Sign Up to become a travel agent

The first step was probably the easiest and also the hardest.  It was making that leap and commitment to say I am going to do this.  Prior to getting married and inheriting two amazing children, I was a single go-getter in the work world who was always being proactive and creating opportunities for myself.  I lost a bit of that over the years.  I am still proactive at work, but my priorities have shifted and I have no problem logging off at the end of the day.  I was hesitant to commit to trying to become a travel agent because I was afraid to fail.  As a travel agent, you need to be self-motivated and make the time commitment to get it done.  As a mom, it is easy for other priorities to take over so becoming a travent agent was something I needed to do for me.  So, while it was easy to hit submit on the website, it was a big leap for me and I am excited to try and make it happen.

Step 2: Complete training

This has been an enlightening process.  Disney has a “College of Disney Knowledge” that all Disney travel agents must complete before you can book any vacations.  It is learning about the Aulani resort in Hawaii, Adventures by Disney, Disneyland, Walt Disney World Resort, Star Wars: Gallactic Starcruiser, and the Disney Cruise Line.  I know a lot about Disney, but learning all the ins and outs was an entirely different beast.

It takes about 2-3 days to complete all the training depending on how fast you make your way through the online training.  Even though the online courses are pretty all encompassing, there are a million things it doesn’t touch on.  So there is more research to be done down the line, but completing the training is a good first milestone and one to be celebrated.

Step 3: Launch blog

I have been simultaneously working to create this blog as a way to share my planning tips and hope that Disney travel planning will fit right into it.  So, my next goal after completing training was to start actually publishing my posts and launch the blog to help give my clients a landing spot.  I hope to use this blog to share a lot of my Disney planning tips so it can be a good resource to potential clients looking to book their trip to Disney.  I still have a ways to go in figuring out the functionality of the blog before I can launch, but I am trying to not be too hard on myself for how long it might take and just keep things moving.

Step 4: Further research and organize notes

As I mentioned before, there is a lot of further research on all things Disney outside of the College of Disney Knowledge.  I have been taking notes throughout the courses, but they are a mess.  So part of my next goal was organizing my notes in a more accessible and easy to read infographic that I could easily refer to it while answering questions for my clients.  I can later use this type of information to create brochures and infographics for my clients. Here is an example of one I created:

Step 5: Research marketing tools

Through the travel agency I am associated with and on Disney’s travel agent website, there are numerous resources on marketing and how to promote yourself as a travel agent.  This will take another day to deep dive into that and learn how to best set myself up for success.  From that knowledge, I will set up new social media accounts and start to actively promote myself as open for business. The first step for me was to create the accounts and then start populating it with content. A great easy way to do this is to follow similar accounts and start by sharing content they have already created.

Step 6: Book first trip

Then it comes down to the big one – booking my first trip!  I’m not sure how easy it will be.  On one hand, I know a million people who go to Disney, but on the other hand would those people actually come to me to book a trip?  I’m not sure.  My goal for the first year is to only book four trips, one per quarter.  If I can meet that, then I would consider it a success. One piece of advice I found when it comes to blogging and promoting yourself is to not give up and just keep going. So with that, I will adopt Dory’s motto “Just keep swimming”.

Step 7: Create brochures and infographics

As part of promoting myself as a travel agent, it might require sending out e-brochures or posting infographics for social media.  For me, this is the fun part – getting to put all the knowledge I have into an easy-to-read information packet for my clients.  I get to be creative and help others, which is really the reason why I wanted to start a blog and become a travel agent.

Step 8: Learn from mistakes

Lastly, I hope to learn from my mistakes.  I want to give this a fair go for six months or so and then reassess to see how things are going.  Where do I get the most traction online?  What sort of trips are people booking the most?  Where could I have been more efficient? For me, it is about the journey not the destination.