Become a Travel Agent

Re-igniting the Entrepreneurial Flame
By: Joanie Ogg CTC, MCC

I am writing this as I sit on the patio at our second home in Mexico. I am down here for 10-days all by myself to just relax and enjoy this place we love so much.  Tom is heading out of San Diego soon on a Seminar at Sea so I escaped here to the relaxed little village of Punta de Mita just north of Puerto Vallarta. I am here to make the final decision about my next career adventure. It is crystal clear to me and I am absolutely certain in my decision to reignite my entrepreneurial flame. While it has never really “gone out” as flames sometimes do, it was somewhat on the back burner.  The freedom and ability to call one’s own shots is something every person really should try to experience at some point in their careers. That is not to say it is the perfect fit for everyone, but it is good to experience the ride at least once in your business life span. I am blessed to have experienced it early on in my career and now I return with a vengeance.

While NACTA was certainly not the first nor last of our entrepreneurial experiences, it was one that was a very long and wonderful ride for me.  Tom and I began the NACTA Journey back in 1996 when we acquired a list of about 300 travel agents who were working from home and the name NACTA, which stood for the National Association of Commissioned Travel Agents.  We had already written the book "How To Start A Home Based Travel Agency" and we felt that building an association of like-minded professionals and offering a place they could call home was the next step for us. We loved every minute of it and when ASTA came to us in 1999, we knew that selling NACTA to ASTA was the next logical step for the association to allow it to grow and gain recognition in our industry. I proudly remained as NACTA’s president for 8 years and stepped down from that role in March of this year.

Some ask me why did I move on and in all honesty my heart just said it was time. I had goals and plans for NACTA when we came under ASTA’s umbrella in 2000 and having exceeded those goals and dreams, I knew I was ready for new challenges and experiences. The NACTA members and the team I worked with were truly family to me in every sense of the word. I continue to communicate with my team that has remained and I have the joy of communicating with the NACTA members and so many other travel agents now in my new venture. For so long I have enjoyed helping agents start their home-based travel agency and sharing the many lessons I learned from agents during my years in this business. It is so rewarding when an agent who has attended one of my seminars over the last 10-years shares how they took the leap, moved their travel business home and have never looked back. That along with the agents who were just getting started in the business read our book “How To Start A Home Based Travel Agency” who now joyfully tell me about their successful agencies.

Now, here I am embarking on a new venture and I am so excited I feel like a little kid wanting to tell the world. Friends and family told me I needed to take a little time off to really decide what I loved to do the most and simply do it. I had been suggesting other people do this for years so why not me? Well, low and behold I actually did take a bit of time off and now I am ready to rock and roll, albeit at a bit slower pace then in the past. That was another one of my decisions, to slow down a bit and smell the roses so to speak. However, no one in my family believes I am capable of relaxing, I am going to try it on for size now and again. 

So what am I up to? I choose to do the things I love the most in our terrific business, which are speaking, teaching, writing and consulting. I am the proud owner of Joanie Ogg Marketing Group. I have a new logo, letterhead, business card and will soon have my website up and running. I am having so much fun and am realizing how much fun it is to make my own rules and once again control my own destiny. I have several clients lined up for consulting and I am thrilled to be presenting at both the Leisure Travel Conference in Miami in November and the Home Based Agent Expo in Las Vegas the first part of December. Tom and I will again be the people behind our own booth at each event under the HomeBasedTravelAgent.com (Tom’s business) umbrella. We are both so excited to be able to work together again and to share our love and knowledge of this industry with agents.

Oh, I better end this as the surf seems to be picking up and well, I did say I was going to smell the roses (and surf).  See you soon I hope.

Joanie Ogg, CTC, MCC
Joanie Ogg Marketing Group
Joanie@joanieogg.com