Oct. 17, 2023

How to Create Quantum Revenue While Traveling in Luxury | QRE263

How to Create Quantum Revenue While Traveling in Luxury | QRE263

Today, my guest, Anne Kulhanek, and I are embarking on a topic that's often considered a dream come true for many - the art of generating quantum revenue while savoring the pleasures of luxurious travel.

Anne does this not only for herself but for her clients too, and she's here to spill the secrets to her success.

Whether you're listening from the States or tuning in from somewhere around the globe, today's episode is all about infusing your life with luxury—not just while you're on vacation but every single day in your business.

If you're wondering how to unlock the potential of both luxury and quantum growth, this episode is the answer. So, why wait? Dive in and start living the life you deserve and make your entrepreneurial dreams a reality.

Ursula’s Takeaways:

  • Intro (00:00)
  • Luxury Travel And Personalized Experiences (04:00)
  • Overcoming Business Partnership Challenges (08:06)
  • Overcoming Pandemic Financial Challenges (14:37)
  • Client Retention Strategies (19:16)
  • Business Growth And Travel Planning (24:44)

About Anne Kulhanek

Anne Kulhanek is the founder and owner of Premier Travel, a boutique travel agency located in Luxemburg WI, where luxury travel is defined by you. 

We help people who are totally confused or are unsure about how to plan for a trip of a lifetime to actually experience a perfectly planned trip and create a lifetime of memories.

Connect with Anne Kulhanek

Website: https://www.premiertravels.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/premiertravelvacations

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annekulhanek

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/premiertravels/


FREE GIFT:

Schedule a 15-minute complimentary travel planning call - https://calendly.com/premiertravel/15min?back=1&month=2023-10


About Ursula Mentjes 

Ursula Mentjes is an award-winning Entrepreneur and Sales Expert. She will transform the way you think about selling so you can reach your revenue goals with less anxiety and less effort! Ursula specializes in Neuro-Linguistic Programming and other performance modalities to help clients double and triple their sales fast.  

Honing her skills at an international technical training company, where she began her career in her early twenties, Ursula increased sales by 90% in just one year. Just 5 years later, when the company’s annual revenue was in the tens of millions, Ursula advanced to the position of President at just 27.  Sales guru Brian Tracy endorsed her first book, Selling with Intention, saying, “This powerful, practical book shows you how to connect with customers by fully understanding the sales process from the inside out. It really works!” Ursula is also the author of One Great Goal, Selling with Synchronicity and The Belief Zone, which received the Beverly Hills President’s Choice award. 

Ursula also serves as Past Statewide Chairperson of the NAWBO-CA Education Fund and Past President of NAWBO-CA. She is the recipient of the SBA’s Women in Business Champion and a recipient of the Willow Tree’s Extraordinary Example and Extraordinary Entrepreneur Awards, the NAWBO-IE ANITA Award, chosen as PDP’s Extraordinary Speaker, PDP’s Business Woman of the Year, the Spirit of the Entrepreneur Awards Finalist and the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award from two Presidents.  She has shared the stage with bestselling author Loral Langemeier, Les Brown, Tom Antion, Lisa Nichols, Giuliana Rancic and many others!  Her clients include Aflac, Ebenezer and Fairview Hospitals, New York Life, Paychex and more!  She holds a B.A. in Psychology and Communication from St. Olaf College and an M.S. in Counseling Psychology from California Baptist University.


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Twitter: @ursulamentjes

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Transcript
Ursula Mentjes:

Hey, everybody, welcome back to Quantum Revenue

Ursula Mentjes:

Expansion, the podcast where we talk about turning your annual

Ursula Mentjes:

revenue into your monthly revenue. Today, I have a very

Ursula Mentjes:

special guest Anne Kulhanek. And she's going to talk about how to

Ursula Mentjes:

create quantum revenue while traveling in luxury, which is

Ursula Mentjes:

what she does every day for herself and her clients. And

Ursula Mentjes:

welcome to the show.

Anne Kulhanek:

Hi, hello.

Ursula Mentjes:

I'm so glad that you're here. And for all of you

Ursula Mentjes:

who haven't met, and yet, you're going to love her. She's been in

Ursula Mentjes:

our community for over a year. And she's also helping me plan

Ursula Mentjes:

my next Italy trip. So whether you're in the States, or you're

Ursula Mentjes:

somewhere else out in the world, the thing to know is that we're

Ursula Mentjes:

going to talk about how to have luxury not only while you're

Ursula Mentjes:

traveling, but every single day in your business, and really how

Ursula Mentjes:

to take those quantum leaps. So we're going to tie it all

Ursula Mentjes:

together today. Before we do that, though, really quickly, if

Ursula Mentjes:

you feel the poll, and you want to hang out with us at the next

Ursula Mentjes:

2x intensive. And by the way, like some of you have been

Ursula Mentjes:

hanging out with us for a while and you're kind of like I need

Ursula Mentjes:

help growing my revenue, I really want to grow my business,

Ursula Mentjes:

I could use some support, I could use someone else looking

Ursula Mentjes:

in on my business, we'd love to help you do that you can go to

Ursula Mentjes:

Ursula inc.co forward slash apply. All the details are there

Ursula Mentjes:

regarding how you can send us a little bit of information. And

Ursula Mentjes:

we will schedule a time to reach out to you and set a time to see

Ursula Mentjes:

if the 2x is a good fit for you. All right. Let me tell you about

Ursula Mentjes:

an by the way, I geek out on this, I used to watch all the

Ursula Mentjes:

travel shows, I don't watch it as much anymore. Because I think

Ursula Mentjes:

we have such a mix of different cable today, it's not as easy to

Ursula Mentjes:

go find the travel shows that I love that it was such an escape

Ursula Mentjes:

for me and I started traveling old was I when I first might

Ursula Mentjes:

took my first international trip, I was in college and I

Ursula Mentjes:

went to Germany, and have loved traveling ever since. So this is

Ursula Mentjes:

especially near and dear to my heart, and is the founder and

Ursula Mentjes:

owner of Premier Travel, a boutique travel agency located

Ursula Mentjes:

in Luxembourg, Wisconsin, where luxury travel is designed by you

Ursula Mentjes:

which Ann's going to explain what that means to us. And helps

Ursula Mentjes:

people who are totally confused or unsure about how to plan for

Ursula Mentjes:

a trip of a lifetime to actually experience a perfectly planned

Ursula Mentjes:

trip and create a lifetime of memories, which is what we all

Ursula Mentjes:

want. Because it's it's a little overwhelming when you think

Ursula Mentjes:

about that first European trip or that third trip that you're

Ursula Mentjes:

going on. But you would love some support. So and let's just

Ursula Mentjes:

let's dig in. So tell us a little bit like what what's your

Ursula Mentjes:

story? What, what brought you into the love of travel and into

Ursula Mentjes:

your own business?

Anne Kulhanek:

I kind of came in sideways. I had a friend who

Anne Kulhanek:

wanted to open a travel agency and I said, Oh, why not? And had

Anne Kulhanek:

never really traveled before that. We were in business

Anne Kulhanek:

together for about two years and then decided to part ways. And I

Anne Kulhanek:

ended up finding an office space or a building in my hometown and

Anne Kulhanek:

put up a sign and started started premier travel.

Ursula Mentjes:

So have you traveled much before that? Or

Ursula Mentjes:

was it just this

Anne Kulhanek:

Desire to travel desire I was I love helping

Anne Kulhanek:

people. And a travel agent. That's what you're doing is

Anne Kulhanek:

you're helping people. And that was back in the time before

Anne Kulhanek:

everybody had a home computer. The internet didn't exist.

Anne Kulhanek:

Right? So you called on the phone and a travel agent

Anne Kulhanek:

traveled everywhere. So when you came, you know, when a client

Anne Kulhanek:

came in, you could say oh yes, I've been there. And this is

Anne Kulhanek:

what it's like and this is a good hotel or this isn't. So it

Anne Kulhanek:

was a very different world at that time.

Ursula Mentjes:

Yeah. A more innocent world right in many

Ursula Mentjes:

ways. So one of the things in your bio and we talked about

Ursula Mentjes:

this at the beginning you said where did it go? You said you

Ursula Mentjes:

help people find their? Their their trip right their trip of a

Ursula Mentjes:

lifetime or create those memories. And you said we're

Ursula Mentjes:

luxury travel is defined by you and let me tell you I bought out

Ursula Mentjes:

this is one of my fine china cups. Okay, I don't I do drink

Ursula Mentjes:

tea out of these often or a little decaf coffee. I like

Ursula Mentjes:

these. But I brought it especially because there's

Ursula Mentjes:

something about travel that feels so luxurious for me even

Ursula Mentjes:

like people complain about getting on a you know, a flight

Ursula Mentjes:

that's like a commercial. I don't care put me in the back of

Ursula Mentjes:

the plane. You put your back by the bathrooms and I don't care.

Ursula Mentjes:

That is a luxury experience. I love everything about travel.

Ursula Mentjes:

And so even in my workday, I like to bring a little bit of

Ursula Mentjes:

that luxury to it because it feels it feels like an

Ursula Mentjes:

experience right and to me travels and experience. So what

Ursula Mentjes:

is that? mean to you when you say that about luxury travel?

Anne Kulhanek:

Yeah, we believe luxury is defined by you. And

Anne Kulhanek:

what's luxury to one person isn't for another. And it's so

Anne Kulhanek:

funny. One of the first things I learned in working with clients

Anne Kulhanek:

is when they say they want luxury. And then you have to ask

Anne Kulhanek:

what is luxury? And one lady in my mind, I was thinking, you

Anne Kulhanek:

know, penthouse suite, you know, five star resort, just said, Oh,

Anne Kulhanek:

Luxury to me is having fresh squeezed orange juice in the

Anne Kulhanek:

morning. Oh, wow. Okay. So just like you got to get out of your

Anne Kulhanek:

head and what you think of something. And when you're

Anne Kulhanek:

working with people, it's find out what it is that they see as

Anne Kulhanek:

luxury. And for every one is different. And it's not about

Anne Kulhanek:

the money you spend or level of service, it is what's important

Anne Kulhanek:

to you. And that's what we work on is helping to dig into what

Anne Kulhanek:

our clients want, and then make sure that we have that included

Anne Kulhanek:

in their trip.

Ursula Mentjes:

Yeah. So beautiful. Thanks for sharing

Ursula Mentjes:

that. It's, it's so true. And it's like, it's just like in our

Ursula Mentjes:

business, right? I mean, we, I'm a big believer that in my day to

Ursula Mentjes:

day business experience, that I want to have that luxury

Ursula Mentjes:

included in different ways, whether it's a special coffee

Ursula Mentjes:

cup, or whatever it is, right? And so for our listeners, like

Ursula Mentjes:

how do you create luxury every day? And definitely leave it in

Ursula Mentjes:

the comments below. I'd love to hear like, what, what feels

Ursula Mentjes:

luxurious to you. Like, what are those experiences? Because

Ursula Mentjes:

that's, you know, and and I'm curious about this too, because

Ursula Mentjes:

to me travel, travel, opens up the brain, it allows me to be a

Ursula Mentjes:

dreamer again, it, it gives me a different perspective of the

Ursula Mentjes:

world. But I find that the experience of travel begins when

Ursula Mentjes:

I book, not when I get on the plane, have like, what do you

Ursula Mentjes:

think about that? You know, the anticipation of that? Is that

Ursula Mentjes:

just me? Or is that kind of a common thing?

Anne Kulhanek:

Oh, that is so true. With the planning, it's

Anne Kulhanek:

the picking things out, it's the researching, it's reading

Anne Kulhanek:

reviews, it is all those things that lead up to your trip at

Anne Kulhanek:

that sometimes, you know, you'll spend more time in that. And

Anne Kulhanek:

then when you're on the trip, sometimes it doesn't turn out,

Anne Kulhanek:

you know, it's a great thing. But it's like done in a flash,

Anne Kulhanek:

but you have those months of planning, where you're

Anne Kulhanek:

anticipating and just enjoying the research and the thing that

Anne Kulhanek:

you're you know, looking forward to? Yeah,

Ursula Mentjes:

Yeah, it's like that whole that whole

Ursula Mentjes:

experience. So, so interesting. I didn't know this about your

Ursula Mentjes:

business, or maybe you'd shared at one time and it didn't click,

Ursula Mentjes:

but that that you've originally had a business partner, and then

Ursula Mentjes:

you parted ways. And you continued. Now, what's

Ursula Mentjes:

interesting about that, first of all, business partnerships can

Ursula Mentjes:

be very complicated. And they don't typically, they don't

Ursula Mentjes:

always last if they do that's, that's really unique. And so

Ursula Mentjes:

what, what inside of you and made you say, even though this

Ursula Mentjes:

person is leaving, I'm going to continue what gave you that

Ursula Mentjes:

fortitude or that strength or that belief to keep going

Ursula Mentjes:

because that could have stopped some people?

Anne Kulhanek:

Yeah, we had different perspectives on things

Anne Kulhanek:

and different values. And I think that was the hardest part,

Anne Kulhanek:

because she was a friend. And her value was she was

Anne Kulhanek:

financially motivated, and made all decisions based on finance.

Anne Kulhanek:

And I'm people motivated. And I made decisions based on people.

Anne Kulhanek:

And it was just as we were working together, it was just

Anne Kulhanek:

like, ooh, this just doesn't fit right. It was so hard. That was

Anne Kulhanek:

a very difficult decision to do. It took me a long time to

Anne Kulhanek:

finally figure out, okay, I can do this on my own, at least I

Anne Kulhanek:

can try. And if I fail, I fail. But I'm still in business 23

Anne Kulhanek:

years later, and she's not. But but she's, she's wealthy.

Ursula Mentjes:

So she got what she wanted, you got what you

Ursula Mentjes:

wanted. And what's interesting is you said something really

Ursula Mentjes:

important that I want to make sure we highlight for anyone

Ursula Mentjes:

who's either in a business partnership or has thought about

Ursula Mentjes:

a business partnership, is that if your values are not in

Ursula Mentjes:

alignment, forget it. It'll be it'll wear on you every single

Ursula Mentjes:

day, which it did. So you made the decision to part ways when

Ursula Mentjes:

you were able to do that and to continue on all these years

Ursula Mentjes:

later, in that moment. So for someone who might be facing that

Ursula Mentjes:

decision right now, and or just facing a tough business decision

Ursula Mentjes:

that they're just like, like what gave you the strength to

Ursula Mentjes:

say, I have to have this conversation and we're gonna

Ursula Mentjes:

part ways I'm gonna keep going like what inside of you gave you

Ursula Mentjes:

the strength to do that?

Anne Kulhanek:

Yeah, I was scared to death. It's very hard

Anne Kulhanek:

for me because I'm non confrontational. So I'm a people

Anne Kulhanek:

pleaser, and just want to make sure everybody's happy. But

Anne Kulhanek:

yeah, I think it was just in my heart going into work. It was a

Anne Kulhanek:

drive and I just would just, you know, physically, I was just

Anne Kulhanek:

getting rundown and I just couldn't deal with it anymore.

Anne Kulhanek:

And I just thought even if I've lost my investment and lose

Anne Kulhanek:

everything, it doesn't matter, but I can't stay in this heart

Anne Kulhanek:

space or this heads. face where I was, you know, it just wasn't

Anne Kulhanek:

it wasn't worth it.

Ursula Mentjes:

Yeah. So it was more painful to stay there than

Ursula Mentjes:

it was to make the decision to move through the fear and do it

Ursula Mentjes:

anyway. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Well, and I'm just bringing this

Ursula Mentjes:

out, because we all face business decisions that are

Ursula Mentjes:

tough. But if we don't move through them, like, if you

Ursula Mentjes:

hadn't done that, you probably wouldn't have stayed in

Ursula Mentjes:

business. Like that might have just imploded at some point. And

Ursula Mentjes:

you would have been frustrated, it could have been a fight,

Ursula Mentjes:

like, a lot of things could have went south. So kudos to you for

Ursula Mentjes:

making that decision early. And parting ways. And you know, you

Ursula Mentjes:

both got you both continued your journey, which is beautiful. All

Ursula Mentjes:

right. So you moved out on from that kept growing the business.

Ursula Mentjes:

So do you remember a moment where your monthly income and an

Ursula Mentjes:

easy way to think about is where there was more money left at the

Ursula Mentjes:

end of the month, and there was bills, like all of a sudden your

Ursula Mentjes:

app? For you,

Anne Kulhanek:

It took a long time, it wasn't in our business.

Anne Kulhanek:

We don't make money until after the person travels. So and you

Anne Kulhanek:

might book something a year out or so. And it's solely based on

Anne Kulhanek:

your sales. Yeah. So it was a long time, I invested a lot of

Anne Kulhanek:

time and a lot of my own finances into keeping the

Anne Kulhanek:

business alive. And then was had debt for many, many years. But I

Anne Kulhanek:

can't say when was a time. One time though, I can say one time

Anne Kulhanek:

that was a that I can remember very clearly was when I had all

Anne Kulhanek:

debt paid off and had money in my savings account. So it's

Anne Kulhanek:

like, you know, finally you can just relax. And it's not like

Anne Kulhanek:

you're behind. And it's an amazing feeling to not have any

Anne Kulhanek:

debt. And to know that you have money in the bank account. If

Anne Kulhanek:

something goes wrong, like COVID, I'm going to survive, I

Anne Kulhanek:

have money in my savings account.

Ursula Mentjes:

Let's talk about that for a second. Because I

Ursula Mentjes:

know it affected our world, my world, a training world, but I

Ursula Mentjes:

know I can't imagine what it was like in the travel industry. I

Ursula Mentjes:

mean, how did you and your team work through those first few

Ursula Mentjes:

months of realizing, okay, there's no cruise ships, there's

Ursula Mentjes:

no Oh, and now they're closing hotels for I mean, what did how

Ursula Mentjes:

did you work through that?

Anne Kulhanek:

It was like a warzone. It had to because we

Anne Kulhanek:

had people traveling that we had to get home. We had people that

Anne Kulhanek:

were going to be leaving in the next couple of days or weeks

Anne Kulhanek:

that we had to figure out is this real? Is it just the flu is

Anne Kulhanek:

the last day you know, it was like just the unknown. And just

Anne Kulhanek:

trying to help our clients through it. And it was like,

Anne Kulhanek:

Okay, let's get your money back if we can. And unfortunately,

Anne Kulhanek:

some suppliers did not give money back, even though and you

Anne Kulhanek:

know, because I don't know, it's just that it was a pandemic, and

Anne Kulhanek:

even travel insurance companies said, Oh, didn't you read the

Anne Kulhanek:

fine print? pandemic?

Ursula Mentjes:

Pandemic coming, right,

Anne Kulhanek:

exactly. Yeah. So everybody know, read contracts.

Anne Kulhanek:

But yeah, we learned a lot. And one of the things though, is we

Anne Kulhanek:

just because I had a savings account, got some government

Anne Kulhanek:

loans in between to stay open, because we couldn't just close

Anne Kulhanek:

our doors and walk away. We had all this stuff in the stuff

Ursula Mentjes:

booked out for years, right? Like you had stuff

Ursula Mentjes:

that was booked out that people were still like, Hey, I hope I

Ursula Mentjes:

can go on my tour. I hope the pandemic ends. Remember for

Ursula Mentjes:

three years, we were like, nope, the pandemic ends.

Anne Kulhanek:

Yeah. So yeah, it was tough. And it's still it's

Anne Kulhanek:

bouncing back now. But I would say financial, it'll probably

Anne Kulhanek:

take us a couple years to regain that. Just the I'm now in debt

Anne Kulhanek:

again. This alone, that kept our doors open. But I just felt it

Anne Kulhanek:

was extremely important. Just that we had to fulfill our

Anne Kulhanek:

clients, we could just walk away and leave them hanging. So we

Anne Kulhanek:

had to fight for them to try to get those refunds for a lot of

Anne Kulhanek:

travel suppliers gave you credit that had to be used within a

Anne Kulhanek:

year and then some of them extended it. So it was a

Anne Kulhanek:

bookkeeping nightmare as well. Trying to keep track of who had

Anne Kulhanek:

with what. Yeah, so But otherwise, we made it through.

Ursula Mentjes:

Yeah, you did it. You knew you would I just

Ursula Mentjes:

get the sense like you.

Anne Kulhanek:

Yeah, I was hoping that yeah, it was so

Anne Kulhanek:

unknown to so unknown. And it lasted so long and all over the

Anne Kulhanek:

world. Right, you know, yeah, so just crazy.

Ursula Mentjes:

Yes. And yeah, you're like, it was it's

Ursula Mentjes:

interesting how in some ways it it pulled the world apart

Ursula Mentjes:

because we couldn't see each other but it brought the world

Ursula Mentjes:

together because it was a global pandemic, which is pretty

Ursula Mentjes:

unbelievable. Like when you look back at it. It's like I think we

Ursula Mentjes:

all not think I know we all have PTSD. PTSD, especially Yeah,

Ursula Mentjes:

especially business owners, right. And of course, those who

Ursula Mentjes:

were we lost during that time and just a frightening time. And

Ursula Mentjes:

to your point, we all read contracts now. And we also know

Ursula Mentjes:

what we would do if this happens again, which I think is very

Ursula Mentjes:

interesting. And you know, what else? What else is possible? But

Ursula Mentjes:

cancel, cancel. We're all good, like health. We're coming into

Ursula Mentjes:

times of great health and great travel. So what looking back at

Ursula Mentjes:

that time, because of course, we talk about money on the show,

Ursula Mentjes:

like what was the biggest myth or limiting belief about money

Ursula Mentjes:

that you had to overcome? To continue to, like you invested

Ursula Mentjes:

in your business, you grew your business? Like, what did you

Ursula Mentjes:

learn about money during that time,

Anne Kulhanek:

um, I think I grew up in a, with a mindset

Anne Kulhanek:

that there's never enough, small Midwestern town, work hard for

Anne Kulhanek:

your money, there's people that are rich, and then there's a

Anne Kulhanek:

smart, you know, so there was a difference. And it was just

Anne Kulhanek:

something that I don't think was ever said, but it was just what

Anne Kulhanek:

I believed, from growing up. And as I came into the travel

Anne Kulhanek:

industry, at the beginning, it was all about what's the

Anne Kulhanek:

cheapest price, but I think that might have been the mindset of

Anne Kulhanek:

myself, as well as people who are attracting, no looking for

Anne Kulhanek:

our biggest trip or, you know, things and it was always what's

Anne Kulhanek:

based on price. And to be fair, in the travel industry, there's

Anne Kulhanek:

always advertisements about, oh, this is on sale, this is on

Anne Kulhanek:

sale, week after week, they just name the sale differently. But

Anne Kulhanek:

it's kind of that's how they grab people's attention is by

Anne Kulhanek:

sales. So it does teach people to only look for the lowest

Anne Kulhanek:

price. But through learn working with people, I had people who

Anne Kulhanek:

had more of money, and they weren't concerned about price.

Anne Kulhanek:

And just realizing that somebody told me something at the

Anne Kulhanek:

beginning of my sales career, it says sell out of their wallet,

Anne Kulhanek:

not yours. So just because I can't afford that. Around the

Anne Kulhanek:

world cruise doesn't mean that you can, you know, you can't,

Anne Kulhanek:

and that I can't help you to have the best experience

Anne Kulhanek:

possible. So it's not about my, my finances, it's about theirs

Anne Kulhanek:

and what they're looking for. Yeah,

Ursula Mentjes:

and what they want, right what they're showing

Ursula Mentjes:

up for. And that's a big, so big, like, just, it is so easy

Ursula Mentjes:

for us to shop out of our own wallet, just because we have so

Ursula Mentjes:

many limiting beliefs. And you know, like you I was brought up

Ursula Mentjes:

on farm, we had some points, I don't think we had any money.

Ursula Mentjes:

I'm not really sure. We had government food stamps at one

Ursula Mentjes:

point. But growing up on the farm, you know, we had like the

Ursula Mentjes:

cattle we had, you know, we had access to food. And that was

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certainly a blessing. But the limiting beliefs My goodness.

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Yeah, and that's one of the reasons I do the show, and

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especially for our women, business owners over the world,

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because I find, especially with women, women tend to hold on to

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those limiting beliefs even more, and then, you know, tend

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to believe that they can't invest the money in the

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business, because it's for the family. There's a lot of

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limiting beliefs. And so thank you for sharing that and

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demonstrating. And you did say something really interesting,

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which I want to make sure you've said many interesting things.

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But another thing I want to point out, you talked about debt

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in your business, and you didn't make it bad. You just made it

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like there was debt in my business. And it was really cool

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when we paid it off and then going through the recession or

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no recession. Well, the pandemic which included a recession,

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there was some debt in the business, again, that you're

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paying off. And yet what do we know about investing in the

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business like, it can look like debt, but what can debt at times

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allow us to do our What did allow you to do?

Anne Kulhanek:

The debt that I had well, through COVID is

Anne Kulhanek:

helped me stay open helped me keep my employee employed, and

Anne Kulhanek:

helped us just it got us through where money wasn't coming in.

Anne Kulhanek:

And it was beyond you think so we booked something. Finally,

Anne Kulhanek:

when COVID was over, we weren't paid for another year yet. So

Anne Kulhanek:

there's that lag time. So it did just it, it kept it kept our

Anne Kulhanek:

lights on. Earlier in my career. It was more of an investment it

Anne Kulhanek:

was to get up and running. But then I once remodeled my office.

Anne Kulhanek:

At one time I thought oh, luxury travel, I want to look and feel

Anne Kulhanek:

luxury. It's you know, and present luxury. So I remodeled

Anne Kulhanek:

my office, because I'm a big believer in that. You have to

Anne Kulhanek:

feel it yourself. Yes, I want. I want to feel luxurious, just

Anne Kulhanek:

like you were saying, I want to be surrounded by beauty. I want

Anne Kulhanek:

to look good. So remodeling, that office was a big part of

Anne Kulhanek:

that. Yeah. And just kind of made me feel it's not my

Anne Kulhanek:

expectations up of how I'm going to interact with my clients.

Anne Kulhanek:

Yeah, compared to what the office looked like before,

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which probably increased your competence and

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confidence sells people by your competence like when people come

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in And they're like, and helped me find this luxurious trip to

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wherever or this this memorable trip, or I want to take my

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family here. And they come into that space. And you know, and

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just how you present yourself. It's like you're competent, I

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know that you're gonna figure it out for me. And the other thing

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that you project is that how much you care. So not only are

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you gonna figure it out for me, you're gonna make sure it goes

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really well. And who doesn't want that? In a travel agency,

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right? Like from start to finish? I can imagine your

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clients just love you. And I have a feeling your clients come

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back, don't they? Do? They do for years? And years and years?

Anne Kulhanek:

years? And years? And years? Yes, yeah. And for

Anne Kulhanek:

our

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listeners, I'm just pointing this out, because

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this is one of the things right, like, there's a lot of ways to

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get new clients. However, we were just talking about this at

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the CEO table this week, a lot of ways to get new clients, but

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sometimes it's like, it's much easier not sometimes it's just

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much easier to continue to work with the clients already in your

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space. So you're not constantly going out and just, you know,

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grinding. And I'm curious about that. I'm going totally off

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script, just so the world knows. I'm going off the script

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department with and how do you like, I mean, you're and share

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it, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna say this and share that

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she has brownies in her oven right now. So there's gonna be

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bigger that goes off. But I love that I bet it smells amazing in

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your house. I love brownies. And she's taking them to an event

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tonight with her clients. So what I'm curious about is, what

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are the things that you've put in place to stay in touch with

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your clients? Like, how do you let them know you appreciate

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them? How do you invite them back? Like, what are some of the

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tips that you have to continue to work with existing clients?

Anne Kulhanek:

Yeah, we are very hands on we meet with people in

Anne Kulhanek:

person on frequently, or if they're distance via zoom, and

Anne Kulhanek:

have kind of our process is to do a thorough interview with

Anne Kulhanek:

them. So we know exactly even though they say, oh, I want to

Anne Kulhanek:

go to Hawaii, you know, what do you have? Okay, tell me why do

Anne Kulhanek:

you want to go to Hawaii? What do you want to do? What are you

Anne Kulhanek:

imagining, you know, so once we figure that out with them, then

Anne Kulhanek:

we shop and give them options and let them make choices and

Anne Kulhanek:

help them to do that, and then book it. And then frequently, we

Anne Kulhanek:

try to stay in touch between the time that they've booked and

Anne Kulhanek:

made their deposit to the time that their final payment is

Anne Kulhanek:

ready, just keeping in touch, sending them additional

Anne Kulhanek:

information about why we can use that as example. Like things to

Anne Kulhanek:

do on Maui or whatever. And then when it comes to travel document

Anne Kulhanek:

time, if you're local, they'll come in, and we'll review all

Anne Kulhanek:

the travel documents with them, explain everything, give them

Anne Kulhanek:

tips about how to get through the airport, some people don't

Anne Kulhanek:

have their like Delta Airlines app on the phone will help them

Anne Kulhanek:

do that. Or there's some countries where we have to fill

Anne Kulhanek:

out forms that they just don't aren't comfortable doing. So we

Anne Kulhanek:

you know, we kind of hold their hand through the process. So our

Anne Kulhanek:

experience is usually quite well, good, they feel good about

Anne Kulhanek:

it, they feel comfortable and confident in their trip, they

Anne Kulhanek:

know that we're just a phone call away, they have our phone

Anne Kulhanek:

number to call us as well as people with feet on the ground

Anne Kulhanek:

where they're traveling. And then we usually check in with

Anne Kulhanek:

them after to find out how it went. And there is an email that

Anne Kulhanek:

we sent out as well, that just says if you enjoyed our

Anne Kulhanek:

services, and you have anyone else, you know who's interested.

Anne Kulhanek:

And that almost comes naturally, because somebody comes home from

Anne Kulhanek:

a good trip. And they're like, Oh, my God last was excellent.

Anne Kulhanek:

And you'll hear people we always ask, how did you hear about it?

Anne Kulhanek:

And it's, they'll always say, oh, so and so just came back,

Anne Kulhanek:

and they loved it. So our whole business is based on repeats and

Anne Kulhanek:

referrals. So we don't do a lot of regular marketing.

Ursula Mentjes:

I love that. Well, I want to make sure people

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heard that like so. So when you're happy clients come back

Ursula Mentjes:

from the dream trip of a lifetime, they get an email and

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they get to share other people that might be interested, as

Ursula Mentjes:

business owners, we forget to ask for referrals we just do.

Ursula Mentjes:

And yet that is such an easy way. And not only that an easy

Ursula Mentjes:

way to bring in new clients. It's an amazing way because who

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do we hang out with people like us? And those are the same

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people that are going to love to go on that next luxury trip that

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Ann's gonna plan. So just I just want to make sure our listeners

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are hearing that that full circle. All right, I got a

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couple more questions. Um, so in any like, what are your tips on

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busting through an income ceiling? So if someone has grown

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their business, but they really stagnated, they're like, you

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know, I hit the $100,000 mark, and every year and I just can't

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seem to bust through that. What are your tips, your experiential

Ursula Mentjes:

tips for them?

Anne Kulhanek:

I guess number one would be mindset and like

Anne Kulhanek:

goal setting. I know I had a big growth spurt when I finally had

Anne Kulhanek:

like a weekend retreat and really dug into myself to figure

Anne Kulhanek:

out what do I want and kind of have like a writing thing where

Anne Kulhanek:

it's just like, oh, let me write out what my ideal world would be

Anne Kulhanek:

like. And what I would like to look like back. And once I had

Anne Kulhanek:

that written down, it was amazing how things happened. And

Anne Kulhanek:

before that, it just floated. Yeah, but so I can write it down

Anne Kulhanek:

writing it down. Yeah. And thinking about it and saying,

Anne Kulhanek:

Yeah, this is a possibility. You know, sometimes you don't you

Anne Kulhanek:

limit yourself to what you know, that you can hear possibilities

Anne Kulhanek:

outside and think, yeah, why couldn't that be possible for

Anne Kulhanek:

me? So I think a lot of it is belief. And then I think

Anne Kulhanek:

probably the next is to stick to it to, you know, stick what

Anne Kulhanek:

figure out what way you can break through what you're really

Anne Kulhanek:

good at what you enjoy doing, making sure that you're aligned

Anne Kulhanek:

with what you really like doing. Yeah, and just push through or

Anne Kulhanek:

just keep trying

Ursula Mentjes:

to get the clarity and then the stick to

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itiveness. Just like keep going, keep going, keep going. I love

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what you said, like writing I agree with you like scripting it

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out, just journaling about what you really want. And what's

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possible, statistically, and this was from one of my last

Ursula Mentjes:

books, the belief zone, you are 99% more likely to achieve a

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goal simply by writing it down. 99% More likely, and yet. And do

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we teach this in public schools or private schools? No. I don't

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know why I'm sure there's some amazing teachers there that

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like, bring that information in. But it's something we should

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have been taught a long time ago. All right, I'm starting to

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wrap up here. What's your best piece of advice for a CEO who's

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out in the world? You know, maybe their business is creeping

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up on breaking through that first six figures, but they're

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just, they're feeling frustrated? Maybe they're having

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a slow month? Or they're just like, they're just kind of

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stuck? What What's your best advice for them?

Anne Kulhanek:

I guess make sure that they're, they're working

Anne Kulhanek:

within their values. They're doing what they really want, or

Anne Kulhanek:

doing it how they want. And then just think of possibilities. You

Anne Kulhanek:

know, just I think oftentimes, it's more mindset than anything

Anne Kulhanek:

else, at least for me. It has. Yeah, yeah. And then I'll weed

Anne Kulhanek:

through. Yeah.

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So maybe heading over to their favorite coffee

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shop and doing a little journaling or something, or just

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getting out of the house. Like I think sometimes we're getting

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out of the office, I think sometimes we can get this narrow

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view of the world. And we have to get out. All right. And so a

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couple final questions, who like who is? What do you think of the

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clients you work with? Like, how do you know, a client is a good

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fit for you? What do they enjoy doing? What are their values?

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Like? Who's sitting out there? That might be like, Man, I

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would? I'm thinking about planning a trip? Maybe I should

Ursula Mentjes:

give an a call? Who would that be?

Anne Kulhanek:

Who would that be? Someone who likes to travel,

Anne Kulhanek:

they're curious. They want to go and explore? Well, actually,

Anne Kulhanek:

most of them want to go and explore. Some people just need

Anne Kulhanek:

to get away and lay on a beach somewhere. You know, I honor

Anne Kulhanek:

that too. Because sometimes even just when you travel with your

Anne Kulhanek:

spouse, you're away from home, you can just concentrate on each

Anne Kulhanek:

other. It just it does wonders for relationships, whether

Anne Kulhanek:

you're in Italy eating wonderful food, or if you're laying on a

Anne Kulhanek:

beach somewhere. I think just getting away helps

Anne Kulhanek:

relationships. But otherwise, people who are excited want to

Anne Kulhanek:

explore the world want to experience something different.

Anne Kulhanek:

They don't want to do it themselves. They like me, I just

Anne Kulhanek:

want an expert to tell me what's good and what's not. Yeah, it's

Anne Kulhanek:

like, oh, just tell me I don't want to, you know, I don't want

Anne Kulhanek:

to figure it out for myself. I want someone else to do it. I

Anne Kulhanek:

trust them. And yeah, they're open to suggestions and ready to

Anne Kulhanek:

explore the world.

Ursula Mentjes:

I think that's a big one especially so of course,

Ursula Mentjes:

someone who want you know, you know, you want to travel, you

Ursula Mentjes:

know, you want it to be a great experience. And you don't want

Ursula Mentjes:

to figure it out yourself. Like that's the big problem you

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solve, right? You help people figure out exactly where to go.

Ursula Mentjes:

I mean, it really what you do is you listen first to understand

Ursula Mentjes:

what their desires are, what their dream vacation is, what

Ursula Mentjes:

that next vacation is, you ask I'm sure amazing questions. And

Ursula Mentjes:

then like you said, before you give them options. Here's one

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option, like, here's one way you could do this. Here's another

Ursula Mentjes:

way, like what's most aligned with you, and then you let

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people figure it out. And PAC, which is amazing. So I know

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someone in the worlds out there going, I want to talk to and so

Ursula Mentjes:

and tell everyone about the the free offer and how they can take

Ursula Mentjes:

advantage of it.

Anne Kulhanek:

Yeah, if you go to our website, it's WWE dot

Anne Kulhanek:

premier travel with an S at the end. And there's places on there

Anne Kulhanek:

where you can select an appointment, and that can be in

Anne Kulhanek:

person at our office in Luxembourg. Or you can do a zoom

Anne Kulhanek:

call and just we do like an introduction call, kind of hear

Anne Kulhanek:

what it is that you're looking for. I can give you some ideas,

Anne Kulhanek:

and then you can determine you know if we're a good fit and

Anne Kulhanek:

want to work together. And yeah, that's

Ursula Mentjes:

beautiful. Awesome. So premier travels with

Ursula Mentjes:

an S we'll have that in the show notes. Make sure you put the s

Ursula Mentjes:

at the end of travels.com. Click on there and you can book a

Ursula Mentjes:

complimentary conversation with John. And thank you for being

Ursula Mentjes:

here. Thank you for sharing your business journey and for

Ursula Mentjes:

inspiring our listeners all over the world. We love you. We

Ursula Mentjes:

appreciate you.

Anne Kulhanek:

Thank you, Ursula. It's been a pleasure.

Ursula Mentjes:

I can smell the brownies and I can you my next

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travels are going to be so looking forward to that. So

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thank you and to our listeners all over the world. We love you.

Ursula Mentjes:

We appreciate you. If there's a topic you'd like for me to talk

Ursula Mentjes:

about, you can email us at contact at Ursula inc.co. I'd

Ursula Mentjes:

love to hear from you. That's it for this week. Everybody make

Ursula Mentjes:

this your most epic month yet