What a room full of travel agents taught me about Collaboration

Ten days. Two conferences. A lot of sessions, a lot of conversations.

One of my favorite parts of any long trip is the road trip. I don’t love flying. My husband loves driving. We both enjoy the experience and the dedicated time together.Something about being in a moving vehicle with nowhere to be makes me weirdly productive. And gas station snacks really do make everything better. (One time I’m going to make us one of those cute “snackleboxes” for our trip. Add it to my To Do list. ✅)

Both conferences were for one of my businesses – Vacation Creations CRM, a software company that serves the travel industry.

I am not a travel agent. Never have been (no desire to ever be – thank you to those who love booking vacations and trips for me!). But when there’s an opportunity to get into a room with the people we serve and actually listen to how they think, how they work, what they need – I show up.

So there I was, sitting in a room full of people who all do the same thing for a living – most of them offering the same services, booking the same destinations, competing for the same clients.. And then a speaker said something that stopped me mid-note…

“Look around you. Do you see all of these other travel agents in this room? Even though they are selling the same things you are, they are NOT your competition. These people are your colleagues. You should be working together to lift one another. Booking travel directly on the internet? That’s your competition – not each other.”

I blurted out slightly too loud – – “YESSSSSS!” You know me, you know why.

Collaboration over competition is a value I live by. It’s why I keep trying to get the phrase “ConnectWorking” to catch on. It’s a smarter way to operate. When anyone in similar industries work together to share struggles and successes… everyone wins.

The entrepreneurial mindset isn’t reserved for people who own businesses. Seeing possibility, choosing collaboration, recognizing that the person next to you is far more likely to be your greatest ally than your competition is a whole vibe and I’m here for it!

Good luck and let me know how it goes!