10 minute read
INTRODUCING
ROSABEL GRACE TRAVELS
PHOTOS BY JULIE OLDFIELD
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Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.
Well, I grew up in a large and loving Italian American family in Rochester, NY. Only minutes away from virtually every family member I have, and unbeknownst to me, only about 5 minutes away from my future husband.
I spent a majority of my younger years with my two brothers, whom I adore to bits and pieces, and a pile of the best cousins a person could ask for.
Sunday’s were always spent at one of my grandparents’ houses for sauce. There was always enough to feed an army. From a mile away I could smell the olive oil, garlic, sauce, and meatballs. If I wasn’t with my family then I was reading books. Since I wanted to travel more than I was always able, books were a way for me to go everywhere with just a turn of the page.
After graduating from St. John Fisher College, I married Joe, who is my other half and the love of my life. Two years after we were married we had 3 babies in 30 months. For the last eight years I’ve been home raising these babies and I loved every minute of my time doing it. Being a mother is the most challenging and rewarding job I’ve ever had. I am convinced that if you can be home raising children and managing a household full time all day every day, you can do anything.
What made you decide to open your own business? Tell us a little about how you started and what made you choose the name RosabelGrace Travels?
Travel has always been a passion of mine. I’ve always tried to get multiple trips planned each year. Not all of them are far away and extravagant, but we’ve made it a point to have the girls see as much of the world as we can and we endeavor to show them a whole lot more of it in the coming years.
Both my husband and I have preferred to give them experiences and adventures instead of giving them ‘stuff’. I delight in reading, researching, and planning travel. I have been reading about and dreaming about traveling all over the world since I was a very little girl. I want to travel everywhere with my family, to know everything there is to know about the world and the industry and most of all I want to use my knowledge and desire to traverse the world to help my clients make their travel dreams a reality. I named my travel company RosabelGrace which is an amalgamation of our girls’ middle names… Rose, Isabel, and Grace. One component of my travel company is the chronicling and blogging/vlogging of our family travels. We travel the world and we can’t wait to bring you all along with us for the ride!
What makes you hustle?
At a very young age my parents and grandparents have instilled a strong work ethic. I was taught that if you want something, YOU have to go get it. I’m fortunate that my passion can be a job, and that passion works hand in hand for my family and my clients, and that’s who I hustle for.
What has been your favorite place to travel and why?
I think my husband would agree with me when I say Kauai, Hawaii. Joe and I went there on our honeymoon and we loved it so much we went back to renew our wedding vows. Kauai is a lush, romantic, tropical paradise, and from the moment the plane doors open you can smell the raw natural beauty!
What is your favorite part of what you do?
Helping people. This is a customer service job, and like all customer service jobs there are tough parts, but in the end I get hyped planning vacations whether it’s for myself or my clients. So helping
them plan an awesome vacation is by far my favorite part of the job. I love chatting with my customers, getting to know them and understanding their vision. I love hearing about their experience when they get back. each client truly enjoys their experience. My motivation comes from hearing the excitement as they talk about their upcoming vacations. Certainly my heavy thirst for knowledge helps a lot too! email, post and throw ads up on social media, but these days, there is still a large swath of people who want to make a personal connection with who they are doing business with.
If they went somewhere I haven’t, it just fuels my motivation to go there myself.
What is your specialty?
My specialty is in the research and the details. My appetite for reading is extensive. It’s not unusual for me to read a few books a week, I love to read for my own enjoyment and although I love to read fiction, nonfiction, historical fiction, biographies, I often put all that effort into reading about all the destinations my clients are interested in.
What have you found to be the most successful way of promotion for your business?
I would say word of mouth. When I think back to why I choose to do
What’s the best business advice you have ever received and who gave it to you?
My father told me to always do what you say you’re going to do and if you can, do something unexpected of you for your client.
What’s the biggest factor that has helped you be successful? My family and support system and my love of taking care of those around me, whether it’s my family or my clients. When I’m working I really focus on the ‘who’ and the ‘why’. I want to ensure business with any company, it doesn’t matter if you’re buying a burger or calling a repair shop, usually it’s because someone I trusted recommended them. Like most though, word of mouth only gets one to the phone or the door, what really makes me want to work with a business are the people at the business. It’s important for me to know the business is trustworthy and is truly seeking to understand my needs. Anyone can text,
How do you find new clients?
My clients come from everywhere, social media, some have found my blog, advertisements and there’s always word of mouth. In all cases, once someone uses a Travel Agent one time and sees the value it brings, I end up with repeat customers and personal recommendations.
What made you start the business, and pace your 3 daughters as the face of it?
My family is always at the center of everything I do. It was really important to me that my girls are not only a part of this business, but fully involved. As we travel the world we’ll be chronicling our travel adventures to serve as advice and inspiration for our customers. And since my daughters are my inspiration, the name of the business is a statement that all 3 travel the world.
What would you say is your greatest professional accomplishment to date? Making the choice to venture outside my comfort zone and turn one of my most favorite hobbies into a profession. I’m not sure everyone always has the opportunity or is willing to take the
risk. I get a boost of energy collaborating with my clients planning all the nitty gritty details of an adventure.
What do you all do for fun?
In the summer we love swimming in our pool, at night we’re usually hanging around our fire pit in the backyard making smores. We all love any kind of adventure, watching movies, playing games and our girls keep us busy with their extracurriculars; swimming, soccer, theater, scouts, ice skating and more. We love our town and community, so we love attending local events, and supporting our local sports teams. We’re also so lucky to have a huge extended family and the best neighbors, so you can usually find us with familyand friends.
What have you found to be the biggest challenge since starting the business? There aren’t enough hours in the day. Going from full time mom and homemaker to full time mom and homemaker AND full time business owner was an adjustment for the entire family. I’ve had such amazing support from my husband and girls, so although it’s been a big adjustment for all of us, working as a team to see each day through helps since we’re all finding our balance.
What’s your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
Whenever I’m researching a vacation destination for my customers, I use that as an opportunity to get a book from our local library or find a movie or video to share with my kids and teach them about other countries, cultures and languages. Also, this job requires you to advocate for your customers, so you need to be strong, assertive and confident. These are all characteristics my husband and I seek to instill in our daughters. My kids get to see me industriously learning, working, training every day.
What’s the biggest challenge you have faced since starting your business and how did you overcome it?
Starting up is a huge challenge. It is information overload in the beginning. When getting into any industry these days you need to have an online presence. This requires a lot of time getting information up on the web, on all the social media platforms, branding, learning about SEO, algorithms, dealing with contracts, negotiation and all the while trying to strike some kind of balance with your home life. This all comes down to motivation, momentum and competition with yourself. If you stop and take a breath you can get caught up looking too far into the past or future and at the mountain you have and have yet to move which can seem daunting. It’s best to set and prioritize realistic goals for yourself each morning. If you seek to achieve those small incremental goals, after a week, a month, a year, you’ll find you’ve ventured far from where you originally set out from.
What is the number one business goal you plan to accomplish over the next year?
Whether it’s one or one million clients, sending each individual, family or group on the vacation, trip or adventure they’ve envisioned.
What advice would you give to someone just starting their own business?
Find something you enjoy, something you’re passionate about. Something that you wake up every morning excited to pursue, and not letting anything get in your way. Stop thinking of failure as the reason you can’t continue, but as a success that you’ve discovered one way not to do it. Then keep going.
What keeps you awake at night?
Usually my husband snoring :). More seriously though, my mental list of ‘to do’s’ that is waiting for me, those ‘to do’s’ range from destinations to research, phone calls that need to be made, or how to deliver content on the internet in a meaningful way. Then of course there’s a laundry list of house chores, family parties and holidays, and extracurriculars too. The best way to overcome that is write it down on a list and let the paper remember it so you can sleep.
Whose career inspires you and why? It’s tough to select just one career or one person that is an inspiration. I think it’s important to understand that everyone wakes up facing innumerable personal and professional hurdles and despite those hurdles, the fact that they’re showing face indicates they’re determined to soldier on. That, in and of itself, is inspiring.
Where will we see you next?
As we document our vacations and trips, you can come along for the ride by watching our YouTube Channel as we add content. We’d love to hear from our readers so like and comment and feel free to give us travel suggestions and advice from your own travel experiences as well! Our website has links to all of our social media pages.
What is one thing people don’t know about you?
I’m mostly an open book, what you see is what you get. Feel free to reach out and ask. You can find me on Facebook messenger, email or my webpage www. rosabelgrace.com. Thanks so much for the interview,
