Hans R. Hess, CTC
This short story, white paper if you will, is a personal reflection of my ongoing journey to build a successful travel business and my struggles and challenges with Shiny Object Syndrome or SOS for short. It may be a story that resonates with some of you, and if so, it is my hope that my attempts at personal and business self evaluation might in some way be of benefit to you in your business building efforts.
So, what the heck is Shiny Object Syndrome? Writing in Entrepreneur magazine Jayson DeMers describes Shiny Object Syndrome this way:
“At its core, shiny object syndrome (SOS) is a disease of distraction, and it affects entrepreneurs specifically because of the qualities that make them unique. Entrepreneurs tend to be highly motivated. They crave new technology and new developments. And they aren’t afraid to start new projects and create new things.
Ordinarily, these are great characteristics, but when SOS sets in, it forces you to chase project after project, and change after change, never settling with one option.
It’s called shiny object syndrome because it’s the entrepreneurial equivalent of a small child chasing after shiny objects. Once they get there and see what the object is, they immediately lose interest and start chasing the next thing.” (1)
Now it is my bet that a majority of folks who have chosen to become travel professionals have entered the profession because of their love of travel. Possibly many of you, like me, wanted to travel and hey what better way to travel than own a travel business. Specifically in my case, I wanted to take a cruise and having a family of five kids that liked to be feed regularly, I really couldn’t afford to take one. So, the truth be known, I started my travel business with the hope of earning some extra money to take my family on a cruise and maybe get a travel deal here or there. Well, in my case at least, that part worked. I have been on many more cruises than I can remember over the years, some 30 or 40. Cruises to the Caribbean, Bahamas, Bermuda, Russia, Norway, Cuba and a river cruise through Europe to name a few. I still love to cruise. But, here is what I consider to be my biggest business mistake, I went into the travel business to travel not to build a business and make money. All of these years of dabbling part-time in my business has pretty much left me very well traveled but with not much of a business.
About three years ago I decided to make a change, I took early retirement from a successful thirty year airport management career and jumped into my travel business full time. It had been a dream of mine for many years to make the transition and the time had come. I set up an office at the airport I had previously managed and was extremely excited to get started. After all of these years of anticipation, dreaming and planning, my time had come and I was “officially” in the travel business. I was ready to move, to make it happen. I got this. I would finally get my opportunity and I was going to make this business work.
Well, now is the time for true confessions, after almost three years of full time effort, I am still struggling to get this baby of the ground.
There may be a multitude of causes for my lack of business success to date but I believe one major contributing factor is my struggle with Shiny Object Syndrome. Now talk about the perfect business environment for SOS. In the travel business there are shiny objects everywhere. The travel industry has: cruises, all-inclusive resorts, tours, foreign independent travel, African safaris, theme parks, Disney resorts, exotic islands, river cruises, etc. etc. on and on and that is just the travel side of the business. You also have industry product training, business training, host agency training, industry certifications, business coaches, conferences, webinars, Facebook groups, FAM trips, travel magazines to read, e-zines, accounting to keep up with, invoicing, prospecting and of course those pesky e-mails. Even writing all of these down is making my head spin and I am beginning to wonder why I am sitting here writing when there are so many other things I need to be doing.
My primary business focus has always been cruises except for the one time I got distracted (read SOS) by Sandals all-inclusive resorts. Shortly after I started in my business full-time, I took the day long Sandals certification training and followed that with a familiarization trip to a Sandals resort. Next thing I know, I was ordering all of the appropriate Sandals collateral material and I was going to start selling Sandals resort golfing vacations. There were two major flaws with this approach however. I did not play golf and I was not all that keen on all-inclusive resorts. Both of these issues put me at a pretty distinct disadvantage in selling Sandals golf vacations. Not a fantastic start to my business.
This was the first of my many run ins with SOS and I needed some answers. Back to Jayson DeMers’ article. I found that one of the main characteristics of shiny object syndrome is:
“Poorly planning your ideas and directives. People with SOS tend to focus on the novelty of pursuing a given strategy, or making a specific change, rather than the strategy or change itself. For example, they may love the idea of creating a new product and begin work on developing it, but with no long-term game plan on how to follow through on that idea. This leads to underdeveloped executions and unrealized potential.” (1)
So, there is was. SOS staring me in the face but what was I going to do about it? I refocused my attention back to cruises and rewrote my business plan for about the fifth time and set out to find my cruise niche.
Finding a niche for some people may be difficult but as you might imagine, the way my mind works, I can think of ten to twenty niches in a matter of minutes. However, obviously my challenge then became which was the best niche to pursue. I started with appreciation cruises and I really thought I was onto something and indeed I was. I put together two successful Gospel Appreciation cruises with a wonderful group leader and singers that got to perform on the ship. I also had a successful Healthcare Professionals Appreciation cruise. Both of these groups were fun to do and certainly had the potential to grow. I was well on my way to planning to build successful Teacher Appreciation cruises, Firefighter Appreciation cruises and 911 Appreciation cruises. But, somewhere along the way I learned about fundraising cruises.
So I was of chasing another shiny object. I researched cruise line fundraising programs, created a cruise fundraising website, wrote a fundraising brochure and put together a travel talk to present to civic clubs to help get my foot in the door to discuss having them sponsor a fundraising cruise. I wish I could say all of that effort paid of but it did not. Because … along came river cruising. Now here was a niche I could really get excited about. One of the hottest segments of the travel industry. Of I went on a 14 night river cruise and I was sold. Here I go again.
My shiny object syndrome has not been relegated just to finding the appropriate business niche and sticking to it. Other areas of my business have been subject to the whims of my lack of focus and concentration. I have found plenty of shiny objects in my business reading, product training, Facebook business groups, etc. I just know that if I can find the right book to read and study, all of my prospecting, sales and client challenges will be answered. Also, I love cruise line training, I think I have completed ever major cruise lines agent training. As for certifications, I am a CLIA certified ACC (Accredited Cruise Counselor) MCC (Master Cruise Counselor) a Travel Institute CTA and working towards my CTC.
I should also certainly include business coaching in this list. For a good portion of the last two years I have worked with two of the industry leading coaches Mike Marchev and Stuart Cohen. Mike with his Inner Circle program and Stuart Cohen with his Group Boot Camp and very successful Group Sales Success Series. Both of these gentlemen have played a role in attempting to keep me on track with training, encouragement and a good old kick in the butt when I have needed it.
Having said all of that, I do believe there is a silver lining in all of the above. Unlike my struggles with a business direction and finding my travel niche, most, if not all, of the business development tools, training and education I have undertaken are important to building a successful business. I think it is pretty hard to argue that industry reading, product training, industry specific certifications, etc. are not a benefit to anyone’s business development and success.
However, being totally fair to Shiny Object Syndrome, Jason Demers also describes another characteristic of SOS that rears it’s ugly head when it comes to business development tools and that is:
“Burning through cash. There are hundreds of technological tools for businesses that are impressive, effective and downright fun to use. Unfortunately, if you subscribe to all those services, or you jump from platform to platform, you’ll end up burning through so much cash that these tools become incredibly cost-inefficient.” (1)
I understand to most of you my challenge here is quite obvious and frankly it is pretty obvious to me too. But the solution to the problem has never been quite as easy as identifying the problem. I know I needed to find a niche and stick to it. I need to focus on being consistent until I have successfully developed that niche. I have realized that my tendencies toward distraction and lack of concentration can be compensated for ultimately by forging a more consistent, reliable path forward building my business. So, over time I have developed some mechanisms for coping with my lack of attention and focus. I set weekly and daily goals and develop a to do list for the next day the night before. I also try and work within blocks or chunks of time focusing on the specific list of goals and the to do’s I set up the night before. I also have had to force myself to put blinders on and focus on my specific area of interest and attempt to ignore the other “shiny objects” that are always trying to draw my attention away.
I have set my business focus again on my original areas of interest appreciation cruises and fundraising. I believe there is a natural and logical connection between appreciation for an area of interest and fundraising for that interest as a cause. I have thus created The Non-Profit Travel Alliance.
Our Mission Statement: “The Non-Profit Travel Alliance (NPTA) is a partnership of non-profit groups that utilizes exciting travel programs developed and managed by the Alliance to enhance our partners fundraising programs.”
I have written and developed a business plan for building my business with specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely (SMART) goals. Following a written business development process, I hope to build a successful fundraising travel business which will benefit many non-profit agencies and help The Non-Profit Travel Alliance become a successful and profitable business venture. I will plan my work, work my plan and make it work. Check us out at www.nonprofittravelalliance.com.
I can’t say there is a happy ending to my business building story yet but I believe I am heading in the right direction. I am enjoying the process of building my business, hard knocks and business struggles included.
I have a favorite quote which I read everyday and that I think is appropriate here to conclude this essay:
“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to lead the life he imagines, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
Henry David Thoreau
Resources:
(1) Demers, Jason. “Do You Have “Shiny Object” Syndrome? What It Is and How to Beat It.” Entrepreneur, February 9, 2017 – https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/288370 – Accessed 12 May, 2019 – Accessed 12 May, 2019
