Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Hi. Welcome to the confessions from the home Office podcast. I'm Wendy Hill, and I've been running and growing my marketing firm out of my home office in Greenville, South Carolina, for almost 20 years now. So today I have a guest. I have known her since high school, and I've been keeping up with her on Facebook over the years, as many of us do. And I. Tracy Burton is our guest today. And we were actually talking before we recorded and found out that we're kind of neighbors with the farm property that we have over in Pickens. She lives really close to that. So small world. Besides high school and Facebook and everything, we actually have the Pickens South Carolina connection to. So, welcome, Tracy. I'm glad you're here.
[00:00:52] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you for having me on.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: I want to know, I want you to tell everybody your background, kind of what you've been doing, because we caught up a couple years ago when you were doing real estate, and I just want to hear about your journey, and then you've made some changes, and I just want everybody to hear about that.
[00:01:10] Speaker B: Yes. And so I do have a history in hospitality, working in the hotel industry, which I really enjoyed. I love hospitality. And so I ended up. My husband bought a veterinary clinic out in Pickens, which brought us out to the country. And so I was there for quite a while, helping him, just kind of a hospitalist, and as well as kind of homeschooling the kids, and they're in and out of public school, and we're just kind of per. Per child what worked for them. But. And so once it was done, I wanted to do something different that was outside of, you know, my husband's umbrella. And so I decided to go into commercial real estate, and I enjoyed that. It was not because I lived in Pickens. It was a lot of time in my car. Like, a lot of time in my car. I don't know, like, going to Spartanburg. It would be, oh, my goodness, did I hit the 05:00 traffic? I felt like I lived in my car more than. More than anything. And so. But I did enjoy the real estate. But my parents lived in Florida, and then my two older boys, they grew up. You know, they spread their wings, and they flew to the coast. And so, yeah, I miss seeing them. And my parents, with their health declining, they needed more help, and so I needed something that I could take with me, and I couldn't really do that with commercial real estate. I can't really do showings and things like that when I'm in another state or another county. And so I stopped commercial real estate and was trying to figure out what am I going to do? What can I do that I can take on the road with me? But that would still enjoy and I'm still helping people and travel. And so it's still a thing, you know, because people are like, our travel is travel agencies. Is that something? It is. And so especially during COVID it really boomed again as people weren't sure, like, where can we go? What do we have to do? Do we have a back, have to have a vaccine for that? Do we need a mask for that? What is it like there? And so that really brought about the travel industry booming again. And so with a vengeance, really. And so that brought me to travel.
[00:03:10] Speaker A: So what does a travel agent do? Because I'm a control freak, so, and I feel like I can research everything. So I've always planned all their trips. And this last trip I did not do a good job at all. And everybody in my family would say, why in the world as busy as you were, why did you plan this trip? You should have had a help. So somebody like me wants to go out of the country, take a couple of people for five days. What, what do I do when I call you?
[00:03:38] Speaker B: So basically the best thing to do is, you know, when reaching out to a travel agent is having a budget in mind because that really determines, you know, what's going to be the best fit for you and what type of, you know, vacation that you're looking for. Do you want an all inclusive, do you want something exciting and adventurous like Costa Rica? You know, are you just, do you want to sit on a cruise ship, you know, and, or do you want to go to Europe and have a river cruise? And so it really depends kind of what you're looking for. But typically, what a lot of people don't realize is that most of the time when you're hiring a travel agent, it does not cost you additional. Oftentimes when I am sending a proposal to somebody, I'm going to send them a leak right to the resort that I'm quoting and they can compare. And a lot of my suppliers, you know, they will bundle air or we can get really good travel protection and things like that for them and kind of bundle it all together, which makes it easier, gives a little bit more buying power. And so sometimes that can really bring competitive rates.
And so especially with like cruising, river cruising, ocean cruising, all those things, all inclusive, it typically is not going to cost you more, you know, when you're hiring a travel agent to help you. But I. One thing advantage that a travel agent can bring is just that knowledge, you know, if there's something that I don't know, somewhere I haven't been, I don't know a lot about, we have travel agent forums that we go to. I have a team that I work with. It's actually kind of like real estate under a brokerage. There's quite a few of us under that, and we always are constantly reaching out to each other with, hey, my client just got back from here. Here's what's going on now. There's construction, you know, and so that we're constantly in the loop what's going on, and. Or there could be a family that's going adults only on that resort, you know, that had been family only for 15 years. And so there's constant changes in the market, and it's just good to have, you know, a travel agent who is a weird. So that they can find the best fit for you.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: So can I call you for a last minute trip, or is this better for something that I'm gonna go in a month or two? What works?
[00:05:42] Speaker B: Probably more like a month out, you can do somewhat last minute, but because there are just so many people out there, that fraud has become a big thing. Suppliers are a little bit leery if it's really last minute. And so I'd say it just depends with that caveat. But it typically, it's going to be a little bit better if you can plan it out, because you're going to have, you can compare rates a little bit better. Your flights are going to be more, a lot of times if it's last minute, especially going to the Caribbean, things like that.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: So, so it seems like that you like doing this with the flexibility and everything. So talk to me about that, like how being able to switch from real estate to travel and, you know, we talked about it a little bit at the beginning, but how has this helped, like, with your stress level and finding something that was a really good fit for what's going on in your life right now?
[00:06:35] Speaker B: So commercial real estate was definitely stressful, and travel can be too, you know, and so if I have a client who are having issues and when they're in Italy, you know, there's a six hour time difference, it can be a little bit stressful. But that's, you know, that's what I do. But I really enjoy it when I get those texts or I get those pictures from a client, you know, and I'm helping them make their dream vacation come true. I mean, that it's just, it's just amazing. It's an amazing feeling, and that's one of the joys. But also just being able to work on my time.
If I'm having to do something that morning, I know that, okay, I have some quotes I need to get out. You know, I'm gonna let them, you know, get back to them, you know, this afternoon. I have that flexibility to do that. Or I can work from, you know, my son's house in Charleston when I'm visiting him or my parents. And so, because a lot of what we do is going to be on the computer, on the telephone, know, things like that. We, when we're working and looking at locations, it's kind of. Kind of like a mini vacation, you know, that we will go there and inspect properties.
We say it's work, but it's more fun than it is work. So.
But, you know, other than when I'm doing trips like that, it really is. I'm kind of on my own schedule. And sometimes that does mean I'm taking that call at 10:00 at night to help a client who, you know, is distress during travel because of flight issues. So. Well.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: And I think that's, that's the trade off. You know, sometimes you have to work on the weekend a little bit or you have to get up early or work late, but then you realize three days last week you were able to go spend time with your family or, you know, travel or do something. And so it's okay when you love what you do.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: That's right. That's right. And have it. I really do enjoy, even though I work from home, I do have a team, and I love having a team. I'm a big, like, team player. I don't like to do things completely solo, which I kind of am solo, but at the same point, I have that support if I need it. And so it's great if I'm. If I am on a cruise ship. And, you know, sometimes we just don't have reception out there. I have somebody who can take my clients calls if they're traveling and things like that if they were to have an urgent situation. So it has, it definitely has some advantages that real estate didn't.
[00:08:49] Speaker A: Right. So do you have any advice for anybody who's thinking about going out on their own or trying to find a career where they can be flexible for their family situation and for themselves?
[00:08:59] Speaker B: I think it's great in the fact that it gives you so much flexibility to spend time with your family that has been a real blessing. To be able to take some of my kids on these trips, too, has been amazing, you know, because I can decide when I want to take that vacation, and I can decide, you know, what's going to work best for our family. Some of the challenges, I think, that come with working from home is disciplined, you know, and so, you know, you're trying to sit there and get that quote out or get the job done, and then you've got your dirty laundry that's looking at you, or you're thinking, what am I going to cook for dinner tonight? Or the dog is barking like you probably just heard. And so, you know, there, there definitely are, you know, ways that you want to discipline yourself. I'd say try to make a schedule and stick with the schedule the best you can. Don't have a memory CRM, you know, when you have that commercial, not commercial, but that client relational database, you know, I would definitely hire or pay for that service to be able to keep, you know, all your clients and everything so that you can stay organized as much as possible, because it does make it a little bit harder to stay organized when you work from home. You have to be very intentional with that.
[00:10:06] Speaker A: Well, and if you're driving and going to visit your parents or your sons or traveling and you've got all that in a notebook back in your office at home, it's not going to work. So I meet so many people and I'll say, well, where's your customer database? And they just kind of glaze over and they're like, we need to work on that. So that's, that's a very good point.
Is there anything else that you want to share and let us know how we can get in touch with you to book a trip?
[00:10:30] Speaker B: So you can find me on the website. I do have one. It's called theparadiseplanner.com. you can also find me on Facebook, the paradise planner there as well. And so I love working with, I specialize more so in adult only empty nesters because that's kind of where I am. So I can relate to that so well. I do work with families. It's actually a big thing now is multi generational trips, which is like the grandparents taking everybody on a cruise or taking everybody on an adventure, you know, to Europe. So it's becoming more and more popular, I think, you know, as we age and we're seeing what's important. And a lot of people are finding that these memories and making, you know, of a lifetime and trips and things like that hold a little bit more value than a material. And so that's why we're starting to see a lot more travel.
[00:11:22] Speaker A: So is there any hot place right now that we need to be thinking about to go on our next vacation?
[00:11:28] Speaker B: So I say some of the islands of Aruba and St. Lucia, Antigua, Costa Rica has been getting quite a bit of attention. Now, Costa Rica is not going to be like your beach vacation, although they do have a beach, and it's pretty. Costa Rica is going to be more of like an adventure. Think ziplining, wildlife, hiking in the jungle, you know, things like that. So.
But Europe, especially Italy, that's been, it's been really huge to the point that they're like, we're going to tax this and we're going to tax on tourists. You know, Amsterdam, I don't know if you've seen that in the Netherlands, you know, because they've had so many tourists, because it's just, Europe has been a hot destination. Hot is a, you know, very, a lot of people wanting to explore, people that have gone.
[00:12:20] Speaker A: And just like on social media, everybody's going to Europe and everything. We were at a store this weekend buying some things, and the, the lady that was ringing it up, she goes, oh, are you headed to Europe with what you're buying? And I'm like, the only place I'm going is to work because I got two kids in college right now.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: I get that for sure.
[00:12:40] Speaker A: Yeah. But she was like, everybody's going to Europe, so that's, that's all good information, so. Well, thank you so much for being on. This has been a huge help. I feel like I understand what you do a lot more now, and I will definitely call you the next time we're going on a trip.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: Well, great. I look forward to it. And thank you so much for having me on today. It was really fun.
[00:13:03] Speaker A: It was good to see you again, and we will talk soon.
[00:13:06] Speaker B: Okay, thank you. Bye.
