In this episode of Trade Secrets, hosts Jamie Biesiada and Emma Weissmann are joined by Christine Vincent, business technology manager for Travelsavers and NEST. They discuss how generative AI is changing the travel industry, and delve into how travel advisors can use it to improve their workflows. They also chat about how to become an effective “prompt engineer” to get a desired output. And yes, if you were wondering, Google’s Bard wrote this episode’s title and description (but it was, of cour...
Aug 07, 2023•45 min•Season 4Ep. 8
Embark on a voyage of discovery into the fast-growing world of expedition cruising on this episode of Trade Secrets. Co-hosts Emma Weissmann and Jamie Biesiada are joined by Rachel Woodward, vice president of sales for Lindblad Expeditions, and Beth Butzlaff, Global Travel Collection’s vice president of partnership. They’ll tackle everything from which clients are best suited for which expedition cruises, to can’t-miss stops in Alaska, to how better Starlink connectivity will affect cruisers in ...
Jul 24, 2023•41 min•Season 4Ep. 7
In this two-part episode of Trade Secrets, we’ll delve deep into the world of sales strategies for travel advisors, with guests Byrd Bergeron (of the Travel Byrds) and Steven Gould (of Goulds Travel, Luxera Travel and the Travel Advisor Resource Center). They also operate the Facebook group “Sales Strategies for Travel Professionals.” In part two, we’ll discuss a variety of listener questions, from how to allocate your time and strategies with managing email inboxes, to finding outside help in t...
Jul 10, 2023•38 min•Season 4Ep. 6
In this two-part episode of Trade Secrets, delve deep into the world of sales strategies for travel advisors with guests Byrd Bergeron of the Travel Byrds and Steven Gould of Goulds Travel, Luxera Travel and the Travel Advisor Resource Center. We discuss practical techniques, answer listener questions and offer insights to help up travel advisors’ sales games. Tune in now for part one, and stay tuned for part two in two weeks, where we’ll dive into even more listener questions. This episode is s...
Jun 26, 2023•42 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Travel to Europe surged last summer after two years of pandemic-related restrictions, and this year is no different. The continent is undeniably busy — even busier than last summer, by many metrics. Travel advisors are grappling with planning travel to sometimes sold-out destinations, difficulty securing airfare, high prices and more. In this episode, we’ll help navigate European travel this summer with the help of Lindsay Taylor-Lauer, director of luxury and hosting at Travel Leaders 365. We an...
Jun 12, 2023•44 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Picture it: you’re onboard a Windstar ship after spending the day in Venice. You’re the only cruise ship there, and as you exit the port, the sails unfurl and you literally sail past the city of canals on your way to your next stop. It’s a moment Captain Neil Broomhall, Windstar’s fleet captain, has experienced firsthand. In this special episode of Trade Secrets, we talk to Captain Neil Broomhall, Windstar Cruises’ fleet captain, about, what a typical day looks like onboard a Windstar ship (and ...
May 29, 2023•48 min•Season 4Ep. 3
This week’s Trade Secrets episode was recorded at the ASTA Global Convention in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on May 2. Co-hosts Jamie Biesiada and Emma Weissmann rounded up some of the industry’s finest to offer their best advice to travel advisors. They touch on everything from sustainability, to entering the luxury market, and beyond. This episode was sponsored by Windstar Cruises . Further resources: ASTA , the American Society of Travel Advisors FyndTravel Amanda Klimak’s Trade Secrets episode , “...
May 15, 2023•38 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Fees are a perennial hot topic among the travel agency community. On the season four opener of Trade Secrets, co-hosts Emma Weissmann and Jamie Biesiada delve into many different aspects of planning fees with Tiffany Hines, CEO and president of Global Escapes, and Cali Stein, a luxury advisor with Embark Beyond. They address normalizing fees, different ways to charge, whether every client should be charged the same way and more. In this episode: 8:22 - An overview on fee data from Travel Weekly’...
May 01, 2023•57 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Trade Secrets is returning May 1 with season four. At 20 episodes, this marks the show's longest season yet! Tune in for episodes on everything from fees, to Europe, to best business practices. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Apr 24, 2023•2 min
Trade Secrets is on a brief hiatus to gather questions for season four, but in the meantime, hosts Emma Weissmann and Jamie Biesiada are sharing some of their favorite episodes of the show. We’ll be back with new episodes in May! This week, Jamie’s pick: Whenever Jennifer Doncsecz, president of VIP Vacations, is traveling, she always wears pink. She started years ago, and since then, she uses pink on VIP’s logo, website, and even the Victorian house where the agency is located. That, combined wi...
Apr 17, 2023•27 min
Trade Secrets is on a brief hiatus to gather questions for season four, but in the meantime, hosts Emma Weissmann and Jamie Biesiada are sharing some of their favorite episodes of the show. We’ll be back with new episodes in May! This week, Emma’s pick: all things client relations with Jennifer Jacob. Jennifer is the COO and co-founder of Tique, a travel advisor brand and systems design studio, and the former founder of Explorateur Travel. They tackle qualifying clients, keeping track of — and u...
Apr 03, 2023•52 min
Welcome to the season three finale of Trade Secrets! This episode, hosts Jamie Biesiada and Emma Weissmann are flipping the tables a bit and interviewing each other. Find out if they’ve always envisioned being writers, how they found the travel industry, who’s a Swiftie, who believes in ghosts and more. This is the season finale, but we’ll share some favorite episodes and moments from Trade Secrets every other week until season four premieres this May. This episode was sponsored by G Adventures ...
Mar 20, 2023•47 min•Season 3Ep. 10
Julie Patterson, the founder of Wanderfully Planned, attributes a lot of her success in the travel industry to her mentor, Whitney Shindelar, the owner and founder of Undiscovered Sunsets and the host of the Masters in Travel podcast. But asking someone to be your mentor is asking them to commit time and effort that could otherwise be used developing their own business. In short, it’s a big ask, but the rewards can be even bigger on both sides. In this episode of Trade Secrets, learn about how P...
Mar 06, 2023•47 min•Season 3Ep. 9
What is Travelmation? Well, it’s a travel agency for starters, but its name is actually a combination of “travel” and “animation.” In this episode of Selling the Mouse, delve into the agency’s name, strong sense of branding and more with president Adam Duckworth. Adam and host Jamie Biesiada will also delve into the latest theme park news, from pricing and capacity at Disney Parks, to Avatar coming to Disneyland, to the opening of Super Nintendo World in Universal Hollywood. Get in touch to sign...
Feb 27, 2023•57 min
The travel advisor-business development manager (BDM) relationship can be critical to an advisor’s growth with supplier partners. So, how can advisors go about building strong relationships with BDMs, and how do they leverage that partnership to ensure the success of both parties? This special episode of Trade Secrets was recorded on-site at Hard Rock Los Cabos in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, during ALG Vacations’ Pros in Paradise event. At the event, ALG Vacations brought together a group of travel ...
Feb 20, 2023•31 min•Season 3Ep. 9
This week on Trade Secrets, friend of the podcast Jenn Lee of Travel Planners International returns to talk about the kind of language travel advisors shouldn’t use when talking to clients. Co-hosts Jamie Biesiada and Emma Weissmann perform a sample dialogue for Jenn, and she takes Jamie, posing as an advisor, to task for all of her negative language (“I add value,” “What’s your budget?”). Jenn talks about why words matter, and the fact that, in her words, “People buy on emotion and justify logi...
Feb 06, 2023•39 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Sara Butruff, the owner of Travel Leaders - Galaxy Travel in Apple Valley, Minn., does something a little differently than a lot of agency owners: her agencies charge service fees for theme park vacations. Butruff is a major proponent for service fees in general, but is something of a standout in the Disney agency community with two levels of fees: the Magic Touch Concierge Fee and the White Glove Service. Listen in to hear about both, as well as Butruff’s conversation with host Jamie Biesiada r...
Jan 30, 2023•48 min
Many travel advisors get their start in the industry by affiliating with a host agency as an independent contractor. But what happens when they outgrow their host, or want to move in a different direction with their business? One possible avenue is becoming an agency member of a consortium. That’s exactly what Lila Fox, owner of Lila Fox Travel Co. in Denver, did. This week on Trade Secrets, we’ll delve into Fox’s journey in the travel industry and how she decided to strike out from a host and j...
Jan 23, 2023•37 min•Season 3Ep. 7
This week on Trade Secrets, we go inside Epperly Travel’s 2021 acquisition of Jetset World Travel, and subsequent rebranding to Jetset, with founder and CEO Lindsey Epperly. She recounts lessons learned — for instance, her business partner and husband Jeremy Sulek’s mantra “silence breeds insecurity” — and we hear the proof in the pudding about good communication from one of her affiliates, Emma Major, founder of Major Traveler. Then, we open the Trade Secrets mailbag to answer a potpourri of qu...
Jan 09, 2023•45 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Trade Secrets is on a brief hiatus for the holidays, but we'll be back with brand new episodes in January. In the mean time, enjoy this encore episode on travel advisor-supplier relationships! The travel advisor-supplier relationship can be key for higher sales on both sides of the coin. It's truly a win-win, but really solid relationships between advisors and their supplier representatives can sometimes be elusive. This week, we get deep into the topic with Kate Thomas and Heather Christopher, ...
Dec 26, 2022•42 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Will Disney bring back the Disney Dining Plan? Travelers sure want to know. Meanwhile, minions are multiplying at Universal Studios Florida, Super Nintendo World is opening at Universal Hollywood and the holidays are in full swing in theme parks. We discuss all that and more on this episode of Selling the Mouse. We also get to know Lauren Doyle and her agency, The Travel Mechanic in Raleigh, N.C., and three of her advisors: Stacie Lowe, and Erin and Aaron Baucom. Find out why Lauren is expanding...
Dec 19, 2022•39 min
How can travel advisors best serve clients who are transgender or gender nonconforming? On this episode of Trade Secrets, hosts Jamie Biesiada and Emma Weissmann tackle that question and others related to transgender travelers with Scott Wismont, the owner of Rainbow Getaways in Kissimmee, Fla. Scott provides a number of useful resources, talks about the ‘X’ gender marker that’s now available for U.S. passport-holders and addresses how to serve transgender travelers if you haven’t worked with th...
Dec 12, 2022•32 min•Season 3Ep. 4
This episode of Selling the Mouse, host Jamie Biesiada catches up with Sue Pisaturo, the president of Small World Vacations in Washington Township, N.J. They talk about how Sue started and grew her agency, Barbara Corcoran’s role in it (yes, Barbara Corcoran of “Shark Tank” fame), following your intuition and more. Jamie also reviews the news, including the ouster of Bob Chapek and the return of CEO Bob Iger. Selling the Mouse is a five-part miniseries, brought to you by Trade Secrets, a travel ...
Dec 05, 2022•43 min
This week on Trade Secrets, hosts Emma Weissmann and Jamie Biesiada are tackling all things client relations with Jennifer Jacob. Jennifer is the COO and co-founder of Tique, a travel advisor brand and systems design studio, and the former founder of Explorateur Travel. They tackle qualifying clients, keeping track of — and using — client data, breaking up with clients and beyond. You’ll also learn about Jennifer’s “pushback channel,” which often leads to the “bless and release.” Hear about all ...
Nov 28, 2022•51 min•Season 3Ep. 3
On the first episode of Selling the Mouse, host Jamie Biesiada talks with Beci Mahnken of MEI-Travel, Mouse Fan Travel and Universal Travel on the latest theme park news. They discuss Disney’s new megaship and theme park demand, among other topics, and get into the details on Beci’s business. She talks about her agency, hiring for passion and not skill, why consumers are using travel advisors more than ever, and why you shouldn’t sell out of your own pocket. At the end, catch their not-so-lightn...
Nov 21, 2022•49 min
Please fasten your seatbelts and place your seat backs and tray tables in an upright position, because we’re ready to take off and talk all things air on Trade Secrets. This week, hosts Emma Weissmann and Jamie Biesiada delve into a plethora of questions: Should travel advisors sell air? Is it a value add for clients? Is selling air a must for luxury-focused advisors? Hear all that and more, with special guests Nadia Henry of Travel With Sparkle and Robbi Jumaa Hamida of Nexion Travel Group. Fur...
Nov 14, 2022•36 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Introducing Selling the Mouse, a new miniseries from Jamie Biesiada, co-host of Trade Secrets! Each episode, Jamie will delve into the world of selling theme parks with expert travel advisors. She and her guests will talk theme park news, what's selling with clients, their business models and more, for a special five-episode run. Selling the Mouse will appear right in your Trade Secrets feed. And don't worry, Trade Secrets isn't going anywhere. Season three has already begun, and Selling the Mou...
Nov 07, 2022•2 min
Trade Secrets is back! Welcome to the first episode of season three, where hosts Jamie Biesiada and Emma Weissmann dig deep into the world of pre-formed group travel. As always, they’re joined by industry experts to answer travel advisors’ questions. This week, they tackle advisor Christy Mahon’s questions on groups with the help of Brian Jewell, the vice president and executive editor of The Group Travel Leader and host of the podcast Gather and Go with Brian Jewell, and Jim Friedlander, CEO of...
Oct 31, 2022•40 min•Season 3Ep. 1
October 31, 2022, isn't just Halloween this year — it's the premiere of Trade Secrets' third season! We're back and ready to answer your questions. Listen in wherever you get your podcasts. Keep an ear open for more information on a special mini-series debuting later this fall, too. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Oct 14, 2022•2 min
Trade Secrets is on hiatus. New episodes will be out this October, but in the mean time, we're bringing you some of our favorite episodes every other week. Here's one of them! Have you ever wondered what it takes to become a travel agent? Find out all about the process this week on Trade Secrets, when co-hosts Emma Weissmann and Jamie Biesiada are joined by Travel Planners International's Jenn Lee. Emma and Jamie will kick off the episode pitching their concepts for travel agencies, then ask Jen...
Oct 03, 2022•42 min•Season 2Ep. 15
