Just Picture It Now

I absolutely LOVE technology. I honestly don’t know what I would do in another era or century. Part of the reason why I love YTB so much is because they have always been on the cutting edge of technology. If you’re actually in YTB, you know exactly what I’m talking about with the First Class Training that was launched this past weekend. During the training, Dr. Marc Mancini pointed out that technology has made it very feasible to both learn and work from home quite well as a home based agent.

Travel Weekly’s Leisure Summit is an absolutely perfect example of how we as home based agents can both learn and work from home. I spent a good portion of my afternoon yesterday (along with many other RTA’s) exploring and participating in this on-line forum. I had a chance to visit a number of suppliers who were able to provide e-brochures, resources for additional training, exclusive offers, chat with the staff and other attendees, and participate in three very informative presentations in the “auditorium” with relevant industry news from leaders in the industry.

All from the comfort of my own home.

What’s even more impressive to me is how I can use this same technology to entice clients with tools designed specifically for this reason. I have a neighbor who’s been looking into something for her 10 year wedding anniversary and I was able to send a cool brochure over to her via a quick e-mail. Is it any surprise that she gave me a call about an hour later to inquire about pricing options?

The plethora of product information in the form of brochures, fact sheets, and videos from 23 different suppliers is impressive from this virtual world. Information provided by industry leaders on the state of our industry is also informative and helpful. We can’t overlook how valuable their insight is.

Speaking of industry leaders, I have set aside some additional time this afternoon to head on over to the auditorium at 2:30PM (Eastern) to listen in and enjoy Dr. Marc Mancini, the industry's top educator. Dr. Mancini will be turning his attention to packaged vacations sales. I understand Dr. Mancini got his start in the industry by leading tours, has written books on the subject, and is frequently called upon as a consultant by major tour operators. He is also a columnist in the Agent Life section of Travel Weekly.

Oh, and have I ever mentioned that he’s headed up YTB’s very own E-Campus training, designed exclusively for YTB?

Afterward, I’ll hang around for Travel Weekly Editor in Chief Arnie Weissmann who will be asking questions to the heads of three home agent groups in back-to-back-to-back conversations at 4:00PM (Eastern). You, too, can ask questions as Scott Koepf, president of NACTA; Kim Sorensen, president of YTB; and Van Anderson, co-president of Americas Vacation Center “meet the press,” Travel Weekly-style.

It’s my hope that some of our critics take some time off the various boards and blogs during this time as well to find out first hand exactly what YTB has to offer. The good news is even if they can’t find the time, those of us who are serious about the industry will have a chance to get a more accurate overview.

That being said, I did see yesterday how someone can look at YTB but the translation due to lack of focus and comprehension tends to distort events. I was extremely disappointed that a self proclaimed industry leader doesn’t understand the difference between a “client profile” and an “RTA profile”. Actually, I think he does understand the difference, but he also thinks “denial” is a river in Egypt. Client benefits and YTB are a bad mix according to this blogger, and to have any offering for clients who book with YTB just won't fit inside his framework.

Speaking of “denial”, I still don’t get how this individual can’t grasp that a program that’s been available for over a year now, (YTB E-Campus) and more recently CLIA’s ACC Accreditation can aide in helping those of us in YTB drop the “R” from our title to become Travel Agents. It’s not a matter of being to dumb or stupid at this point, it's being stubborn. (Who knew?)

I was stunned that this blogger who conducts his own poles and studies couldn’t grasp that a simple computer script (code) could not only monitor if a test was taken, or if the answers were actually correct. Maybe he could take some time off and join the rest of us over at the Travel Weekly Virtual Summit and check how many credits he collects from participating in the various areas and trainings. If he enters one of the prize giveaways, he might want to take the time to contact the supplier directly to see if they monitor how many entries they have or if his was accepted.

How I would love to have this individual actually take the required testing in order to upgrade from Affiliate to RTA. Much like the subjects above, he can claim all he wants about how YTB didn’t address the few issues we’ve had concerning groups, he’s not going to upgrade until he correctly answers whether or not it’s proper for us as an RTA to accept cash payments on behalf of YTB.

My guess by the way, based on most of his misconceptions about our company, he’ll never be able to upgrade to an RTA. Believe me, that’s a good thing when it comes to the few bad apples ruining it for the rest of us.

Hopefully however, he’ll get a little lonely over on that blog like he did yesterday and actually want to join the rest of us over at the Travel Weekly Virtual Summit for this afternoons activities, forums, and trainings.

Who knows…we might FINNALY be able to get him to inquire about the $414.5 Million in travel sales he's so up in arms about that Travel Weekly reported back in June.

Good grief...I hope so.

PS - If you’d like to keep up to date with all the latest news, acquisitions, and developments with YTB feel free to sign up for my FREE Newsletter. Just like here, it’s loaded with food, water and sunshine to grow your YTB business.

Doug & Ronda Bauknight
AKA: TravelPro
Travel Agent / Networker
Phone: 678.458.5812

Learn How To Become A Travel Agent

Book Your Travel & Vacations With

Travel Reservations: 1.800.243.4450
RTA #24635

Labels: CLIA, First Class Training, Online Training, Travel Agent Training, Travel Weekly, Virtual Summit, YTB E-Campus

Posted by TravelPro at 6:07 AM | Permalink

It’s that time of year again! Funshine East!

I LOVE Funshine because many of the travel upgrades are announced during Funshine East, and often times, I get to put a face to a name or a voice that I’ve been either reading via e-mail correspondence or via the Thursday and Saturday training calls. I was blown away by Ann Sedgwick two years ago when Ronda and I did a Seminar @ Sea with her on Carnival just before Funshine. I also remember getting my first taste of American Destinations, Inc. that year, and have been promoting that business ever since.

It’s odd to me that our list of vendors and suppliers keeps growing. I’ve been told that suppliers and vendors don’t like us. Yet, the bigger we get the more suppliers take the time to not show up but want to be part of the largest Travel Trade Show in the industry. Last year, YTB had more than 6000 in attendance, compared to another Orlando show this week, which estimates only 2000 travel agents world wide.

Money talks.

It’s also nice to have industry leaders like Marc Mancini and Davidoff Associates seeing the value of YTB and stepping up to the plate to offer their experience and knowledge of the industry. When the best our critics can come up with is that these industry leaders are paid, that speaks volumes. Not because our critics don’t understand what it means to be “in business”, but because that’s the best complaint they can come up with. I’ve researched Marc Mancini extensively and have taken the E-Campus courses he’s designed for YTB, and there’s a reason why he’s so well respected in the industry.

I guess he can live with the asterisk next to his name – “Bought and paid for by YTB” as he’ll be at Funshine with his industry famous “Geography Bowl”, which I hear is extremely challenging.

Davidoff Associates seemed to have liked what they saw at the 2008 National Convention, and are providing their services with a Seminar @ Sea with 3 courses taught while at Sea.

More than 17 new suppliers and vendors will be on hand this year, and the opportunities to expand our travel business have increased dramatically. I just saw a snippet in our Travel Compass, (the one that focuses on travel) concerning a new addition to our booking engine with Wyndham Worldwide & RCI e-certificates, found under the Hotels Tab of our booking engine for 7 Night Resort Vacation Certificates starting a $379.00.

Ultimate 5 Adventures will also be there, and I’ve got to tell you, while the sky diving scares the daylights out of me, the Indy Car offering looks mighty appealing.

I also saw a snippet on Modern Agent this week from Branson Online, who will also be at Funshine this year. Personally, I’ve never had an interest in Branson, Missouri, but the heart of our country (or is that Canada?) sure is making quite a name for itself the last couple of years.

But the vendor or supplier that has caught my eye more than any other, are the private sailings in the Abaco Islands, complete with crew and chief. (Although I need to find out which one!) It’s not uncommon for our entire family of 15 to 20 to get together for a family vacation, and this puppy sounds like one heck of a family vacation!

If you get my free Newsletter you might have listened to the call we had last week with Gregg Fritsch and David Lash. Gregg and David came on board last year, and are the ones responsible for the Mancini and Davidoff trainings, and these new vendors. I know it’s been said by others that we don’t have anyone at the home office that has any travel industry experience. Honestly, it’s just another myth being thrown out there and I’m okay with letting our critics believe what they want. If you however, haven’t listened to the call, you need too. I loved what David had to say about YTB being “competitive” in this industry.

I believe the exact quote was, “We have no desire to be competitive; we want the rest of the industry to eat our dust”.

After little more than a years worth of work from these two, looks like we are well on our way, but you know as well as I do that the best products in the world don’t mean diddly if nobody knows about them. That’s why we need to open our mouths and tell someone about it!

PS – I’ll be back to regular posting again starting next week. As a matter of fact, I’ll be doing a special series on Coach next week. I heard that people can’t seem to find anything positive about Coach on the internet. Took me all of 5 minutes to find several news articles that will fill up the week, so be sure to check back.

I may even post an update on Funshine. ;-P

PPS - If you’d like to keep up to date with all the latest news, acquisitions, and developments with YTB feel free to sign up for my FREE Newsletter. Just like here, it’s loaded with food, water and sunshine to grow your YTB business.

Doug & Ronda Bauknight
AKA: TravelPro
Travel Agent / Networker
Phone: 678.458.5812

Learn How To Become A Travel Agent

Book Your Travel & Vacations With

Travel Reservations: 1.800.243.4450
RTA #24635

Labels: Davidoff Assoicates, Dr. Marc Mancini, Funshine, RCI, Travel MLM, Travel Trade Show, Travel Training, Ultimate 5, YTB E-Campus, YTB Travel Network

Posted by TravelPro at 5:00 AM | Permalink

Referral Marketing appears to be a huge mystery for some people. It’s probably one of most often asked questions I’ve heard during my years with YTB. More specifically, on-line marketing appears to be a major interest for most. (We ARE an “On-Line Travel Agency”)

I wrote a post some two years ago about 5 ways to market effectively on-line, and for anyone new to the industry, this is a fantastic foundation to start marketing your business. These marketing techniques are not only effective but if done properly, in time you will have extensive exposure to all kinds of customers, ready to purchase products from you that relate to them. In fact, these techniques are so good; I still use them to this day and I actually reuse this very same article in my Newsletter for new team members in my 7 day training program.

One of the key components of effective Marketing is “know your customer”. If you know why people visit a particular site and what the major motivation is, and match products that relate to them, you will be amazed at how easy and profitable referral marketing really is. Mike Dillar in his Magnetic Sponsoring program gives fantastic insight in one of his his free 7 Day Boot Camp videos.

When someone goes to buy a drill, they don’t care about the drill; they care about making a hole.

To many people focus on the features and advantages of the program, company, whatever, but what they should be looking for is the end benefit to the customer.

Since most of my readership here is already in YTB, let me give you one of the best marketing tips I’ve ever come across that’s easy to do when it comes to selling travel. I’ve had albums of my vacations on a site called WebShots for years. If you take a look at any of the pictures, in any of the albums, you’ll see my BandBVacations.com logo on the bottom left hand corner of each and every picture.

At the present time, these 400 photos have had over 161,000 views and I get anywhere between 1000 to 1500 views per week.

Now think about this. Who is viewing these photos? What is their major motivation for visiting this site? Based on why I was there before I got involved with YTB, I wanted to find pictures of ship layouts, layouts of buildings, how white and fluffy the sand was, and because pictures say a thousand words, how someone else enjoyed their vacation on this ship or at this resort.

Because my logo is at the bottom of every one of those pictures, some will see that logo, wonder what that site is, physically type it in and low and behold what to they find?

My booking engine.

I can’t tell you how many times I find flights, hotels, vacation packages, and cruises booked on my booking engine from people I don’t even know. It just shows up!

Another cool little trick I learned was writing articles about our experience during our vacation. I did an article three years ago about one of our first FAM trips down to Sandestin Resort and Independent Traveler posted it on their site.

These are just two examples to simply “refer” people to your travel web site. There are a ton of resources for both articles and pictures that you can find on the internet.

Here’s the best part of all this guys. I took those pictures and wrote that trip report three years ago. Do you know that I’m still being paid via Referral Marketing for posting these pictures and writing this trip report?

Harv Ecker talks about the difference between rich people and the poor and middle class. The middle class and poor believe that they have to work hard for their money. You have to actually have to “do something” every time you produce income. Rich people focus on something called “passive income”. Streams of income that pay you over and over even when you aren’t producing anything for that income at the time. (If you’d like to find out more about Harv’s differences between rich and poor, he has a free teleseminar next week on May 22nd that will explain more.)

Here is one of the most critical factors that I believe is very important. Notice, I’m not sending people to my marketing site with these pictures. Notice I’m not trying to recruit anyone into my YTB business as a team member. Reason being is that the people who are looking at these articles and pictures are not looking for a business; they’re looking for a vacation. (Go back to why you buy a drill, to make a hole.) You have to keep in mind who the primary customer is and if you can match a product with the primary need or benefit, you’re likely to get sales.

The key is to understand your market. Take the market here on this blog. It’s changed over the years, and currently, most of my readership here is already in YTB so why bother trying to recruit you into a business you’re already in? But I can capitalize on helping you build your business and become more knowledgeable and successful right?

Here are just a few examples of how referral marketing has worked for you using the exact same principles we’ve learned from Coach, Scott and Kim in YTB.

Last year I did a write up on saving money on taxes via a home based business. Now I wrote that article last year, but this February and March got paid for that article over and over again. Something you in YTB wanted to learn about.

Something else that I found you wanted to learn about was Marc Mancini and the E-Campus. Do you know that I sell entire sets of his books each and every month?

You also gobbled up Brian Tracy’s Success Principles like crazy when I was entertaining the questions our TTA’s had about YTB.

No poking, no prodding, no “Join Me Know”, but very simple referral links and if you found it relevant and of value, you bought the products I recommended.

Speaking of the TTA’s, how many 6 in 1 travel blankets do you think they sell on their blog? How ‘bout Star Trek figures, or Urban Fashion accessories? If I were that blogger, I’d be selling FitzPatrick’s “Pyramid Nation”, to make up for all the time I spend writing on that waste of cyberspace. Problem is, FitzPatrick doesn’t understand referral marketing either and would never promote his books to gain better exposure in that way.

Stuck in a “Catch 22” sorry to say.

Guys, travel is just one example of how the Internet has changed things. E-commerce is a HUGE business and industry and if you learn to play the game right using “referral marketing” the right way, you’ll find yourself working less and enjoying more of this game we called life.

It’s not wrong, it’s not lazy, it’s a simple fact of the way we do business these days. Gone are the days of the Petroleum Distribution Engineers that we had when we were kids…we pump our own gas these days in the world of self service.

It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s convenient, and it can make you extra income doing the same thing you’ve already been taught to do in YTB.

Learn How To Become A Travel Agent

Book Your Travel & Vacations With

Travel Reservations: 1.800.243.4450
RTA #24635

Labels: Affiliate Programs, Harv Eker, Magnetic Sponsoring, Referral Marketing, YTB E-Campus, YTB Travel Network

Posted by TravelPro at 6:53 AM | Permalink | Comments

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Learn How To Become A Travel Agent

Book Your Travel & Vacations With

Travel Reservations: 1.800.243.4450
RTA #24635

Labels: Dr. Marc Mancini, MLM Myths, Travel MLM, YTB E-Campus

Posted by TravelPro at 7:01 AM | Permalink | Comments

There is no question that there has been a lot of fighting, (like cats and dogs?) and finger pointing going on the last month and a half in our industry. I want us as a individuals in YTB to take some time this weekend to point inward for a change. We as RTA's are the face of YTB, and I want you to take some time to seriously think about what you are doing in regards to helping or hurting the image of a company I know we all love.

I'm sure it's no secret at this point that many of our Professionals feel that we embarrass them. We are unprofessional, we are untrained, we are uncertified, we are unqualified to enter into an industry they have loved and respected for years. I've stated many times here that they are sadly mistaken if they want to lump me personally into any of these stereotypes when it concerns our business model and company. I am not only very competent, but confident in what I do.

It's been commented to me from several sources that I'm actually spoken of in high regard from some of our Professionals. Many of our Professionals do understand that I am not the typical "Yahoo", and for that I am truly thankful. That doesn't change the fact that I happen to be the exception, not the rule when it comes to YTB and the overall perception of our company.

I got to ask...why?

It's my belief that part of the respect I've managed to gain from the Professional side of this industry is because I am one of a growing number who not only acknowledges, but calls attention to some of the problems and issues are regarding some of our RTA's who are the main cause of our problems. I'm starting to see more of us actually acknowledging what's going on and for that I am also thankful. We can't just stick out heads in the sand and hope it all just goes away. We need to call a spade a spade, and we need to let others know that some RTA's are certainly not helping our cause or our case.

There always seems to be a jerk, a fool, a person who lacks professionalism, and lacks just plain good manners and common sense. All of which gives a bad name and taste and a target for any business out there. i.e. the expression "One bad apple can spoil the whole barrel."

I've been to dozens of Trainings and Seminars in my years with YTB. I've also been with Team Members at these functions, and have never personally seen any of what's being told to me, but with so much of this being expressed, I can only assume that it is going on. In addition with some of the garbage I've seen on the internet, if it's going on in here, it's certainly going on out there.

Here are some of the things I'm hearing and want all of us need to be aware of:

It is not appropriate to attempt to recruit at Travel Seminars where other Brick and Mortar stores paid for themselves and their employees a lot of money receive the trainings. Nor is it appropriate to attempt to recruit while walking the floor at Travel Shows or Vendor Fairs where vendors have paid a lot of money for booths in order to inform Brick & Mortar stores and other internet stores and others in the travel business about what's new in their business.

Nor is it appropriate to go walking around like fools as a group wearing green tee shirts with sayings like "ask me how you can get your travel for 50% off."

Or crashing parties of other travel agencies.

Or running around ships spouting off to the travelers that you are with YTB and you can show them how they can travel at 50% off when they paid full fare.

Or slipping hand made flyers under all the doors of the ship's passengers that say about the same thing.

Is it any wonder that we look unprofessional? (Actually, I think the word "turkey" would be appropriate this weekend.) It's unfathomable to me that anyone would even consider doing any of this, but I also have something called integrity and ethics that simply won't allow me to even consider something so rude or down right stupid.

"If it aint right, don't do it.
If it anit true don't say it." ~ Coach

While it's my understanding that action is being taken with an RTA or REP from a Corporate standpoint. We have made agreements with vendors who we want to do business with to behave in a professional manor. An RTA might stand the possibility of losing their YTB business. We also need YOU as a YTB professional to take a stand with anyone you may see doing this out in the field. If I personally ever see anyone defacing that good name of YTB like this, you will certainly know before it's all said and done that not only is this inappropriate, but will not be tolerated.

Period.

YTB has a name, a great name, to protect as do all of us as RTAs. We are a company to be proud of. Help us to keep that way. Before you act, ask yourself, "If this was my company, my show, my business, how would I want someone else to act at it and what would I want them to say or better yet not say at my function?"

It's like owning a store and having stranger come up to your long standing customers and say, "Don't buy this here. You should go to a store I know where you can get the same thing for 50% off." How would you feel as that owner? I've seen some other Travel MLM's try to recruit me and others in YTB using these lame tactics and I got to tell you, not only am I not going to join an organization like that, I too want to expose them for what their doing as well.

Got it?

Good.

I want you to not only be thankful this weekend that YTB has a "Travel University" (E-Campus), I want you to read about it and take this training this weekend. It's in your travel portal, it's up and running. It's an awesome program and it's specifically designed for us by one of the most respected names in the industry, Dr. Marc Mancini.

I want you to not only be thankful for vendors this weekend but review the tons of vendors who have put their training up in our back office in order to help us to do great things with them as well. Pages and pages of information direct from the vendors themselves. These companies know that we have over 135,000 agents and growing rapidly every day, who are bringing them lots and lots of business and they want to do what ever it takes to help us bring that business their way.

I want you to also be thankful for the Travel Professionals in our industry. There is so much we can learn from them to help build a profitable Travel Business. They have years of knowledge and experience that is absolutely priceless.

YTB is a force to be reckoned with and we are only getting better. We can and will be as well trained as every other travel agent, if not better. We can and will be the best trained, most professional Agents in the industry. It is up to us, and if we want to be #1 we need to learn and know all we can about our business so we can take it there.

This is the best company in the best industry with the best people I've ever had the honor of working with and I feel blessed and Thankful everyday that I am a part of YTB.

PS - Eating a little Turkey and watching a Football game in your spare time this weekend is also acceptable.

Gobble Gobble!

Subscribe to Just Picture It Now for additional announcements and details!

Doug & Ronda Bauknight
AKA: TravelPro
Travel Agent / Networker
Phone: 678.458.5812

Learn How To Become A Travel Agent

Book Your Travel & Vacations With

Travel Reservations: 1.800.243.4450
RTA #24635

Labels: Travel Agent Training, Travel MLM, YTB E-Campus, YTB Travel

Posted by TravelPro at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments

Therefore, the company has decided to keep a very tight lip as speculation and rumors continue to mount while YTB prepares to answer all the questions circling around the industry. While some of us wait confidently, unfortunately, at this time, I must take a back seat and allow my company to issue statements concerning the future growth and dominance in this industry. As an Independent Representative of the company, it's not my place to speculate to anyone what our future plans are.

I will tell you this. Based on what I know, I personally feel not only very good about what will transpire, but confident that the company will answer in a way that is both accurate and meaningful in regards to just who YTB is, and how we will continue to play a major part in the Travel Industry for the coming months and years.

The first part of our answer has come this evening just after the market close, with news of our second profitable quarterly report in a row, with record revenues of $39.9 Million and our best profit to date of $2.1 Million. ($1.6 Million year to date.) All this, while we continue to grow and expand our infrastructure to support our valued Reps and RTA's.

More importantly, Travel Commissions are starting to support the $226 in sales from 2006 on our SEC filings. I'm sure we will have those who botch these numbers throwing out figures from this filing that support their cause, while ignoring the growth of Travel Sales by those that that have been with this company for more than 9 months. I've seen these numbers and filings ransacked many many times over the years.

We may have to provide a special course on what these numbers actually mean for some of our guests here to enlighten them, but that's another post at another time.

More news to come, I'm sure, and I believe based on the release of our quarterly numbers, it will be sooner than later.

Till then.

Subscribe to Just Picture It Now for additional announcements and details!

Doug & Ronda Bauknight
AKA: TravelPro
Travel Agent / Networker
Phone: 678.458.5812

Learn How To Become A Travel Agent

Book Your Travel & Vacations With

Travel Reservations: 1.800.243.4450
RTA #24635

Labels: Carnival, John Fenaye, Petition, YTB, YTB E-Campus

Posted by TravelPro at 7:16 PM | Permalink | Comments

Buh-Bye.

Currently, it simply doesn't matter what Royal Caribbean does, and based on what we know they have and have not done, YTB feels it's best to simply remove ourselves from a company who selectively chooses to single out a few Agencies, while making exceptions for other companies who also offer a Home Based Business opportunity. While the Retail Travel Professionals are gleaming with the apparent support over Royal Caribbean's decision, it's quite evident both from documentation found, and from what I've been reading on from other members of card mills that this "card mill" issue is neither sweeping or consistent.

While all the doom and gloom over what Royal Caribbean has chosen to do is still swirling, we must not loose site that the truth about our business model and our company has also begun to surface. Earlier this week, Travel Weekly gave YTB a chance to defend our model, and it's quite clear based on what's been happening, "there are many misconceptions about who we are and what we do".

If you recall, I lambasted the organizer of the petition being signed by various Retail Travel Professionals for his lack of basic knowledge and understanding about our business model. This supposed "authority" in the travel industry stated on this very Blog "If you read the TW report, it says that $176M of that was from website sales and from monthly website maintenance fees. These are NOT travel sales. These are website sales."

While I can't be certain, I find it hard to believe that anything being said about my Blog or our company behind closed doors gives any acknowledgement that several sources, including Travel Weekly, confirming that the $176 Million is both "verified" and also "Travel Sales", not Network Marketing or Recruiting sales. Unfortunately, such clarification about facts has little bearing for those who are so adamantly opposed to seeing yet another threat in even more business being taken away from a struggling and dieing market segment.

It's been documented here before that over $40 Billion in travel services are now being done on-line with just 4 of the Top 10 Agencies currently taking away business from these Retail Travel Agents. The days of "Personal Service", "Travel Agent Expertise" and "Credibility" is clearly a dying market with over 75% of these Agencies closing their doors. And while some have chosen to attack with misleading the public, comparing our business models to other models that haven't even launched, (E-Trips Network) the more attention YTB gets, the more individuals will begin to question the validity of the arrogant and uninformed who are touting such propaganda.

Much has been joked about all the news and what YTB's Travel Numbers currently are, and critics point fingers at one YTB spokesman stating sales of $1 Billion for 2007 while another states only $550 Million, they fail to realize that even at $550 Million, that still puts YTB Travel Network in the Top 20 in next years Power List. Ask any College Football fan, and they'll tell you, you're nobody until you make the Top 25 Poll. They clearly point to net losses of millions of dollars without an credence to $169 Million in Market Capitalization, nor do they realize how rapidly YTB is expanding and growing it's infrastructure to support a growing RTA field by nearly 400 to 500 new RTA's per day.

YTB simply "offers" fully paid medical benefits for those of us who produce $25,000 per year in Travel Commissions. Surely no one is even earning IATAN credentials with YTB and RTA's like Vivian Clark, Daphene Jackson, Ronnie Williams, and Carl Dennis are just "lucky". While Royal Caribbean claims they have strict rules against discounting to "card mills" they certainly don't have a problem with "conductors rates" for those of us who organize and book groups of 30 cabins or more.

Those making claims against our model think training is kept to a minimum across the country to help the thousands of new RTA's who have recently joined our ranks, and we certainly wouldn't want them to know anything about our continuing education which was designed and written by Dr. Marc Mancini and TheAcademy.com. What these "Professionals" don't understand is that I've been able to find ample support and greater encouragement from YTB than any other system I've ever looked at previously. When I first looked at getting into this industry years ago, I was stuck without the required experience, and now that I have it, it's not good enough because it's "Network Marketing".

Nice.

Sorry guys...you had you're chance many years ago. Now that I've created my own business with my own clients and my own team of Agents, thanks to the support of YTB, I'm here for the long haul. The leadership of this company both at the home office, and in the field won't be going anywhere. It takes a special tolerance to deal with all the myths and misconceptions surrounding the Network Marketing industry and you have seriously underestimated the resolve of the entrepreneurial spirit.

YTB is already 127,000 strong, and we all have Fathers, Mothers, Brothers, Sisters, Sons, and Daughters who will continue to do business with us over anyone else. The more knowledgeable and mature we become, the more business we will dictate goes where and with whom.

Currently the only supplier who has chosen to be on the outside looking in is Royal Caribbean. While rumors continue to swirl at the time of this writing, no other supplier has made the choice to do the same some two weeks later. That's not to say it won't happen, but the longer this takes, the lower the probability that any other supplier will be foolish enough to alienate themselves from an obvious growing market shift.

As my good friend Charlie Howe stated "The Fat lady hasn't even inhaled at this point!" and our Retailer's are cheering about major, sweeping changes. Trust me...they've done little to change our growth or resolve. If anything, they've strengthened our desire to be the largest Travel Agency in the world.

Those associated with YTB, please check your back office for some BIG plans with the #1 Cruise Line in the world. While I'm not going to tip our Retail Agents just what has been laid before us, they will find out soon enough what 127,000 untrained, unprofessional, and unqualified RTA's in YTB can do. It's my hope and my mission to help our opposition understand what "Shock and Awe" is meant to look like.

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Doug & Ronda Bauknight
AKA: TravelPro
Travel Agent / Networker
Phone: 678.458.5812

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Labels: Card Mill, Charlie Howe, Dr. Marc Mancini, John Fenaye, Royal Caribbean, RTA Advantage, YTB E-Campus

Posted by TravelPro at 1:34 PM | Permalink | Comments

Labels: Carnival, Collette Vacations, Dr. Marc Mancini, FunJet Vacactions, Funshine, Group Cruise, Honeymoon Wishes, Royal Caribbean, Trafalgar, Universal Studios, YTB, YTB E-Campus

Posted by TravelPro at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments