You can listen directly here. 

In this new era of the COVID-19 pandemic, how do you navigate this new era? Everybody is busy, so how can you get your clients engaged?

Over the last couple of years in particular, Travel Business owners have increasingly turned to online marketing tools to help them engage with their clients. 

Looking for a way to connect with their clients. Webinars have been around for years for suppliers, however in this discussion with Charlie, we talk about the importance of them, their relevance moving forward and what YOU can do to engage your audience and also suppliers with them in your Travel Business. 

Charlie Trevena, is an online webinar host expert and  has been in travel and tourism for about 20 years. She is the incredible founder and stress-free webinar host of destinationwebinars.com.au. She has been hosting webinars since 2011.

In this episode, Charlie discusses and shares tips for hosting online webinars. Especially how to keep advisors motivated or engaged with their training. 

There's a lot that's changed over the last couple of years and advisors need to be on their toes to stay up-to-date with the changes.

Webinars have become increasingly popular in travel agent business because they allow you to present information and interact with clients without having to be in the same room at the same time. Following COVID-19, face-to-face meetings have been delayed indefinitely, which makes webinars all the more important for updating our knowledge and skills. 

Make sure you set expectations clearly and deliver on them consistently. Always follow up after your webinar to gather more leads or get more customers. With today's technology engagement is key.

Charlie also talked about how she has been managing to juggle work, family, and her hobbies. She said that it has been a juggling act from the start, but it's been super rewarding. It's been an amazing journey!

No matter your business or industry, webinars are an important tool in your arsenal.   Not only do you get to showcase your products or services, but you also allow people to interact with you on a more personal level and learn about your brand in the process.

At the end of the day it always comes down to communication. By engaging with our clients, we can help them grow, which will ultimately help us achieve greater successes in our careers and businesses.

Make sure you stay up to date with the podcast by subscribing and downloading our free resources and checklists to help you with your travel business and let us know what you want to learn about to help your travel business grow. https://travelagentachievers.com/   

Show Transcription:

Ros: All right! Good morning, everybody. Hey, hey, it's Ros from Travel Agent Achievers. 

Welcome back to another podcast episode. Today, I am joined by the lovely Charlie Trevena. Now, did I say that right, Charlie? Charlie Trevena. So we're joined by Charlie Trevena. For those of you in Australia and New Zealand that know her, she is the incredible founder and stress free webinar host of destinationwebinars.com.au. 

Charlie, welcome to the Travel Agent Achievers podcast. I am so thrilled that you are here. You're joining us today that we were recording very early in the morning. It's okay. It's not really early for parents out there. But at 7am Australian time, and it's 10 o'clock in the evening for you over in the UK. Welcome.

Charlie: That's right. Hey, Ros. It's so lovely to be here. Lovely to chat to you. Yes, Good evening. Good morning. 

Ros: Now, Charlie, when you and I spoke several months ago, we said, we've got to do a podcast episode together. Then as we were organizing this, you said, Oh, it'll be pretty late for me at night. First of all, I just want to know what you're doing in the UK?

Charlie: So we as a family, I'm here with my family. You know, just after the years that we've been through, with not being able to leave Australia, I mean, my family, in the UK, I'm originally from the UK and my husband, they are as well. So we just wanted to take the opportunity to spend some time here to reconnect with our family. 

My husband is in the fortunate position that he has long service leave. I'm in the fortunate position that my business is online. So yes, here I am doing some random hours to kind of stay on Australian time. But it's absolutely amazing that it's actually possible. So I'm really happy to be able to do it. 

Ros: How lucky,  we are really lucky now. So good. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself from your travel career before you started destination webinars? So what's your background?

Charlie: Oh, I might, how far do you want me to go? We've got all day we're up early recording this right. I think last time we spoke we were on the phone for about an hour and a half and it was supposed to be half an hour. So I'm a bit worried about how long we might go for. 

Okay. Let's start from the beginning. I'll do the quick version, and also show my age. So yes, I've been in travel and tourism for about 20 years. You know, starting out in those post uni-tourism jobs. I've been a ski instructor, chalet host, all that kind of fun stuff in a backpacker. 

Then, I guess the first professional job I landed in travel was in New Zealand. I lived in Queenstown for seven years, and I was the sales and marketing representative for Coronet Peak and Remarkables in Queenstown for Android skis. Any skiers out there?

Ros: Yeah, hello snowboarding here. 

Charlie: I know you're both snow lovers.

Ros: We are, so I'm a bit more Apres, I don’t have to be out on fresh tracks. I'm definitely not out there after lunch. I really enjoy being able to chill. I think I get a little bit more fun out of watching Jackson these days learn to ski that. That for me is awesome and taking him up to Ski.

Charlie: Yeah. It changes now being a family. Yeah, it's lovely. I guess the ski industry was my way into the travel industry. Then being the sales rep in New Zealand obviously I started to come over to New Australia doing sales missions, and that was sort of my entry into the Australian market. Then I moved over to WA about 11 years ago and with freelancing.  

Yeah, I've been living in WA for 11 years in freedom in Freo which I absolutely love. As a contractor I did a few roles. I was on the road there for Rocky Mountaineer.

I worked for travel Alberta, I did a bit of work on this mission BC, and my main job was also with Destination Canada and it was running their Canada Specialist Program webinar program. So I know webinars sort of got popular in the last couple of years, but I've got the claim to fame actually, I've been hosting them since 2011. 

Ros: Oh my goodness. So you know all the pitfalls and how things actually started back in those early days. 

Charlie: Yeah. The technology was a bit clunkier. Then when Zoom came along, I was actually over the moon because I was using other technology at the time and Zoom arrived, and it did all the things that I wanted it to do. I was like, Oh, this is amazing. So zoom actually was a bit of a game changer. So yeah, they weren't webinars weren't quite as easy and the videos didn't work and, and all that kind of stuff.

 So it's definitely come a long way. I think it hit at the right time. 2011 was a bit of a trickier time.

But we did, we did it for Canada, they were Destination Canada, always been super progressive in that area, with training, and also getting that training direct from the source. So the webinars I always hosted with them were with Canadians.

I guess for me, that was really the start of, you know, having training direct from the source from the locals, from the people who know. The agents, the Canada special agents just loved it. That program runs fortnightly. I've been hosting that. Yeah, for now 11 years fortnightly.

Ros: So did you get to go on? You know, the Canadian roadshow tours as well? 

Charlie: Yeah, I used to remain a corroboree. Anything. I used to host precuts. I used to host females to Canada and pre COVID, of course. So yeah, I guess in that sense, I've got a lot of love for Canada, it's where the webinar journey kind of started.

Then the opportunity in 2020 really came about, you know, I was off the road, then for rocky mountain air, I lost a few of the other smaller contracts. I had a bit more time. In honesty, like destination webinars was an idea that I had a few years prior. But I was busy, and I had children, and all of that stuff. 

So 2020 was really the opposite. It was an opportunity. It was a moment of “oh, I actually think people might need help with this right now”. If I'm ever going to do it, it's a bit of a now or never moment. So that was why I actually managed to turn it around pretty quickly in 2020. So technically, yeah, Destiny shows evidence that it is more than two years old now. So I launched in April of 2020. So it already had a second birthday.

Of course that, you know, I was fortunate in terms of COVID, as we talked about, opportunities and being fortunate that because those other roles had fallen away, and then I'd qualify for job keeper, that I was actually able to build destination webinars off the back of jobkeeper. 

So it really was an opportunity that was just kind of thrown in my lap as the world began to fall apart. And also just being able to think that I could do something helpful at a time when obviously things got really dark. 

 

Ros: I think that's one thing, what it's definitely one thing that I love about you that you saw, COVID hitting, and the pain that so many people ran and going, how am I going to navigate, you know, the next couple of months. I mean, I honestly thought that it was only going to be a few months. 

Then I was like, oh, maybe six months, not two years later. But I love how you saw it as a way to also help other people. So like as a Travel Agent Achievers, what can we do? Like, I think for you and I, it wasn't even a doubt in our minds to say, just drop what we can or put aside or get other help in areas that we need. But to be able to be there for other people and support them in their journey. Like you have that explicit expertise in the webinars for so many years, like myself with business. 

So it was like, what can we do to support and bring as many people through this time, and I love that about you. So thank you for stepping up and just going. Here it is. I'm actually going to do this to support as many people as I can. But a lot of us, we know you from the webinars where you jump in. And as we said, You're jumping.

Well, welcome to the welcome chat. And then you let somebody else do their thing. Then you finish up at the end. So I mean, I'm fortunate. I know that you've got two kids, that you are currently in the UK. 

So how are you now juggling? You got family and business, a mother and business like the things that really changed for you as well working from home. So tell us a little bit about that. 

Charlie: Yeah, well, they haven't because the funny thing is because I brought my business with me. It sort of is just life in a different setting. Also it's actually really useful that my husband is on long service leave here so in a way it's a little bit easier, because he is now in charge of the children. In terms of, you know, who's leading? Who's leading the charge? So yeah, I mean, it's always a juggle.

You know, even talking back to sort of 2020 when we rolled our sleeves up, and wanted to help, and it was really rewarding, but I kind of, I kind of joke about how I missed the COVID, downtime and all the Netflix and chill. I'm like, I don't get to do that. 

Yeah, I still have for incident like, oh like, what are that? I don't watch TV. I don't watch Netflix. I don't know what you guys are talking about. So we didn't miss that downtime as you did. Yeah, absolutely. But again, not in a complaining way. Because it's been super rewarding. It's been an amazing journey. But it has been a juggle, and it's been a juggle, right from the start.

Yes, as a parent, that's it. We're navigating running our families and running our businesses. There is a lot of guilt there. There's, you know, my kids as yours, and anybody's would be, you know, a lot of “Mom, do you have to work and will you come to the park?” And will you then it's like, well, no, I can't do that today. 

It is hard, and it is a juggle. But I also hope that my kids see that, that I do have a life outside of the family. You know, I love them, and I spend time with them. But my work is also important to me. 

My running is also important to me, that's another thing I do outside of the family and outside of the business. And you know that we have these kinds of multiple multi facets to our lives really? 

Ros: Hang on a second, you're a runner, as well. Well, that is like 6am over there in the UK.

Charlie: Yeah, come and get it done early. And on the weekend. I've always said that for my COVID journey, you know, with navigating all of the COVID issues. Then being busy with business, running really the thing that kept me sane, through all of that. It was my time, that was my time away from the family and my time away from my computer.

 I like to run alone a lot. I do go to group runs. And I run with a really lovely running group once a week. But I will do three or four runs a week just by myself. I love that just brain space and alone time. And if I can't figure something out, you know, sometimes, what am I going to do about this? I say to somebody, I just need to run on this. I will go out for a run and you know, I'll figure it out. Because you can just focus on one thing at a time. 

So yeah, running is also a big part of my life and a big part of the business journey and the COVID journey and the parent journey. So it's kind of a part of who I am as well.

Ros: I actually really appreciate you sharing that because as business owners, and I see this not just in the travel industry, because I coach and mentor a lot of different businesses, but I see that, we do often put ourselves last. 

As business owners to have a hobby or a sport or an activity outside of family and outside of business. I actually think that it's pretty rare from the people that I speak to. So I just want to say, please keep that up because you're inspiring so many other people to find the time to take care of themselves.

Yeah, okay, I was gonna say you're inspiring me too. But I think mine is.

Charlie: It's more just so that I don't get grumpy. Because my husband will say to me, you need to go for a run. I'm like, Yes, I do. And then I'll come back, I'll be fine. Again, you know, I just need that little bit of time out. 

Ros: So timeout and time for you. I love that brain space. For me, if I'm in a rut, or there's something going on, if I'm able just to even pick up a notepad and go to a cafe or go to a different space. It's not my office or it's not the kitchen or it's not somewhere in the home environment or my home office, then that for me gives me that opportunity to breathe and just soak in whatever else is going on around me.

I love that it's an exercise thing for you. I wish I was that ambitious. I went through it. I'm happy.

Charlie: I'm quite happy to go sit in a cafe by myself as well. Or on a plane or anywhere really.

Ros: The plane time is so good. I love them. Good. 

Charlie:How good is it to be on a plane, especially as a parent, how good is it to be on a plane by yourself?  I was lucky actually I did do a couple of domestic trips before coming to the UK which was amazing because I did. I've got a bit of FOMO now about missing out on the face to face events that are happening because obviously they're all coming back.

Ros : I'd seen that you were coming to Sydney for a couple of events in which you attended things. I'm like, I can't believe I've missed Charlie because I couldn't believe it. Best Week in Sydney catching up with people, not you unfortunately and I

Charlie: I also did the Collect travel forum in Cannes, which was amazing. 

Ros: I missed that as well. Oh, so we've missed each other twice now.

Charlie: No, you're gonna have to wait for me to get back to Europe. 

Ros:Yeah, I don't have any trips planned for the UK or Europe right now for the next few months. 

Charlie: If you come over, I'll come, I'll get on a plane. I'll meet you somewhere in Europe. We can do some business stuff and then do some fun stuff.

Ros: Love that Charlie. The problem that I had there, though, is that my sister has spent the last 17 years in Germany. She actually came on a backpacking trip with me and stayed in Europe, met her husband, they are long together,  and have two beautiful kids.

They literally, three weeks ago arrived in Australia. So my sister and my niece and nephew who is now 16 and 12. They're spending six months here with me in Port Macquarie. 

Charlie: I can't meet you in Germany now. I actually grew up in Germany as well. So I'm really keen to get back there.

Ros : I was just planning my trip for next year last night. So you know, you never know we might have to do the swap again. Somehow we will meet. 

Charlie: Let's go on a big trip like travel, trade retreat. You can do the business stuff. I'll come and hang out. Yes, I'm well up for it.

Ros: You're not the first person that's actually asked me about that Charlie to run away. I'm booked in then. There we go. So Travel Agent Achievers and look out if it is coming, we will be running a retreat. 2023, we're just determining the destination.

I'm sure that Charlie has got some amazing context. I'm in for Canada. I would love to go.

Charlie: I'll get you hooked up for Canada. Got a context for Canada? Are we going skiing?

Ros :But we have to bet as in can we make sure that it's spring skiing. So we've got some really good weather. 

Charlie: And if we go spring skiing, then we can always get on rocky mountains here as well. You know that that's a good combo, I think, a great combo. We're just pulling it all together here as we were recording. 

Ros: Look at everyone. All right. So Charlie, let's jump back to destination webinars. Because right now, there's a lot that's changed over the last couple of years. But one thing that I've certainly seen is that, right now or even over the last few months, everybody is under pressure. So how do you keep things fresh? Or how do you keep advisors motivated or engaged with their training? 

Because even before we got on this call, we said, you know, numbers have dropped off a little bit. And that's normal. Like we were expecting that that would happen. But how are you now trying to navigate this new era that everybody is busy again, and trying to get them engaged? 

Charlie: I'm always super honest about this stuff, you know about how things are going. And yeah, for sure. numbers have dropped off. You know, somebody said to me a few weeks ago, yeah, it's not 2020. Yes. 2020, Our webinar turnouts were huge. Obviously, it was the only form of engagement that we had.

I did do a lot of soul searching at the end of 2021. To think, you know, is this done? Do people need me anymore? Everybody knows how to do this stuff now. Right? They've all been figuring it out. But I still had, you know, inquiries into 2022. 

I thought, Okay, well, we'll just roll with it and we'll see how it goes. We'll see what the suppliers feel and what the agents feel like and if they're still keen to come. And actually, yeah, it's still been a really big year. 

I mean, I guess in terms of engagement, my tips are the sessions are shorter in 2022, like gone are the days where people want to do an hour long webinar, right, it's, there's just too much. No one's got time for that, or the brain space for it. So I guess my main updates, the main sort of services I offer, one is called Live25.

 So it just keeps the session, you know, under 30 minutes, but the main bulk of the presentation is 25 minutes. You can actually do a lot in 25 minutes and do a lot in 10 minutes, to be honest.

The other one is the coffee cluster series. So back in 2020, I would host three suppliers a week with 15 minutes each. So like, as at that session it would go for an hour. 

In 2022, we still run the coffee cluster series, but it doesn't just go forever. I'm doing it in blocks now. So we have like a four week series in May and June and then we have another four week series in October, November. Then we're just two suppliers of 15 minutes each. So yes, definitely the time factor. Just really appreciate everybody's time. 

Ros: Would you change up a time, Charlie as well? I mean for me with Travel Agent Achievers now. Like so what just once a month because that we can all commit to. We have a coffee connection and coaching session like on the first Friday? 

Charlie: Yeah, I have seen it. I love it. 

Ros: It's just fun to find out how everybody's doing in life and business and if they have any struggles or what's going on, right, but that's it. Like, that's nine o'clock in the morning. If I could run it at eight or seven, I probably would, because it just gives everyone the opportunity to come in. I don't have my coffee by then though. So that's a big issue. Yeah, I mean a few times. 

Charlie: So the coffee cluster, the old coffee cluster series used to be at midday on a Thursday, and we would just do the session once now again, just to accommodate people's, you know, lives and busyness. All of the sessions I've run have two sessions. So whether that's a live 25 or coffee cluster, we run the session twice. Generally those times are 9am and 12pm, Sydney time, or you know, as to ADT, whatever, whatever timezone we're on. 

I find that, and you know, of course, the agents are logging in from all across Australia and New Zealand. So that's the other thing, you're trying to accommodate either a four or five hour time difference depending on the time of year. So offering the two sessions is really good. And it's not really that much more work to do exactly the same thing twice, like all of the work is really in the prep and building the registrations and pushing it out and the follow up. So it really doesn't make too much difference if you run a session once or you run it twice. Yeah.

So that would be another tip, if anybody's, you know, thinking of looking at hosting sessions, and also maybe just play around sometimes for your audience. I mean, I do run them at other times as well and that is generally supplier based. 

So one of the series, I run as a monthly series with the Hong Kong Tourism Board. Because nine o'clock is a bit early for them, because there aren't, they're the same as perfectly, that would be seven in the morning. It's a bit early for me and you are happy to jump on and you know, our work at any time to make it work.

But as a presenter, we sort of keep those two reasonable times so that those sessions run at 12. And at two, I've done sessions with European presenters. Well, obviously, it's the first thing in their morning, so we do it later in the day in Australia. But it really is, I guess, just finding the balance between the audience and the presenter and what's going to work best. 

Ros: Yeah, so with that, as well. And I think that there are also now a number of advisors who are niching into particular industries or, you know, destinations and certain things like that. So I think that that's also really important for their education to be on these webinars and destinations and getting the supplier updates. 

One thing that I've also found is that there still are a number of advisors who want to stay connected to the industry that are wanting to come back, but might have part time jobs elsewhere. So I've even found that running a 7pm webinar is helpful for a number of people as well, because they can have dinner or they can just show up with their food at the webinar and taking what they need to but they're still staying connected to the industry, they're still staying connected to their business and that could work from an agency point of view and suppliers. 

I know with you running them anytime of the day or night, but then also for advisors who are looking to put together a group for instance, how can they connect with potential clients who are wanting to join their particular things. 

So which just brings me to the next phase, which is your webinar expertise. For advisors, even now, who are so moving from the supplier side of things which you do so well, but I've certainly seen over the last 12 months, in particular, a lot of advisors and now looking to be an expert in a niche or an area. 

So they really want to just focus on one or two things, whether it is a destination, whether it is a personality or a person type or an activity, but bringing their travel expertise into something. They still want to stay connected to the industry. 

So you know for them if they wanted to run webinars. A supplier is interested in that as well to do it like an advisor and have a host because I can guarantee a lot of people out there they don't want to run their own webinars. They don't want to run their own zoom calls.

Charlie: That's why I came up with the job title like stress free webinar host because the idea of hosting a webinar does stress.

So people out right and if something goes wrong, you are live.  I always say to my presenters, this is what I'm here for. If something goes wrong, we will troubleshoot it, I will help you fix it, we will laugh about it, we will move on, you know, and we will figure it out. You're not, we're not going to leave you to draw on a king on camera, we will figure these things out. But yeah, I know there are a lot of agents hosting webinars with suppliers for the clients, which I think is Yes, an amazing idea, or even agents just hosting them themselves. 

I guess to gauge whether your audience is up for that, maybe, you could just put out an EOI and say, Hey, I'm thinking about running a webinar, would you be interested? Would you come? And what time would suit you? And maybe to start with a bit of a survey is probably a good way. Yeah, to survey your clients and to see what they might be up for? Or what topics they're interested in?

Ros: Are suppliers  open to that? 

Charlie: Yeah, they are, they definitely are, because, you know, they do their consumer nights and things. So yeah, suppliers are definitely open to collaborating with agents to do consumer updates. Yeah, for sure. 

I think, you know, webinars are just part of the toolbox. Now, it's part of the marketing toolbox. It's another medium, you know, not everybody likes them. 

There's plenty of agents that say, I'm over webinars from 2020. And I'm like, that is fine. That's cool, you know, find your information somewhere else and connect with your suppliers on other levels. But it's just another way of delivering the information and building that connection, especially for remote agents or independent agents, home based agents who don't get those visits from suppliers, you know, are they then they don't see people as often, it's really important for them to stay connected. 

So it's not for everybody, and they won't be for all of your clients either. But there will likely be a small group of people who are happy to connect with you that way. Yet, it's just about figuring out the best way that's going to work for your business. 

Ros: Yeah, as you say, it's an extra marketing tool to go into your toolbox or into your arsenal of all the different things that you can potentially be doing. Whether that is from an advisor and supplier or advisors to be jumping onto your webinars as well. And getting those updates and destination details. 

Even if you mean, for me, I was thinking, oh my gosh, I don't have an hour to sit on. But I love your format, in that it's getting grabbed the most valuable pieces of information that you need, so that you can then move on and focus on the next thing that you've got to do. But from jumping onto one of your webinars, I think is a really good way and to also showcase advisors that it doesn't have to be an hour, it doesn't have to go for a couple of hours.

Charlie: By half an hour max now and also a lot of the sessions that I run, even within that half an hour are double presenters. So for the Canada series, the Hong Kong series for the coffee clusters, that half an hour is also split so and then what I do for the recordings is I actually separate them. 

So if I have two presenters in one webinar, and they're doing maybe 12 or 13 minutes each, when I put the recordings out there, I have separated them. So you can just watch 12 minutes back at a time because I think the first thing we do when we look at watching a recording is oh, how long is this bloody video? 

Ros:Yeah, you can zoom across the bottom and look.

Charlie: The toolbar. And it's like, right, if that's over 30 minutes. Yeah, I am pretty much out. Unless it's something super, super important and really compelling. So I think as well from a recording perspective, keeping them as short as possible also makes people more likely to go back and watch them.

I even do another series called a Five minute Friday, which is a pre-recorded update, but it's only five minutes. And again, you know what, it's amazing what you can learn in five minutes. You have your own podcast series yet happening.

Ros: Just remember that okay, because I think you could even turn your content into a podcast series. I mean, there are many people who are out there going for morning walks that are taking, you know, putting the earbuds in whilst they're making school lunches or that are doing their thing and having a five minute Friday session to go Oh, cool. These are the updates and this is what's going on.

 I would love something  like that. So I know that it's destination webinars that let's turn it into the snippets of destination webinar podcast series. But you know, I did have destination podcasts also side by side. 

 I just couldn't do them both at the same time. And I think the hard thing about the webinars is that obviously, it is very visual. And the suppliers are sharing slides, and we were talking over slides. 

So I can't just take that content and turn it into a podcast, it does have to be a separate recording. That obviously is not supplemented by visuals. 

Ros: All right, we're gonna break this, we're gonna brainstorm this, and we're gonna get something out. So everybody keep an eye out. Because, Charlie, you do this so well. You host such beautiful webinars. I know that you said, Look, I come in at the beginning and I finish off at the end. But you have that knowledge and the expertise that you can talk from your own stuff. So that podcast series everybody, you heard it first here she's getting it out. I'm not gonna put a timeframe on it. Five minute Friday's is turning into a podcast series.

Ros: See, she's already made the commitment. I love it. This is now recorded and going out there. 

Charlie: I know, five minute Friday podcast.

Ros: Yep, I've got that it's already written down as well. We're coming back to that. Alright. So last thing is tips for engagement. What are you doing to get people to show up for these webinars now?  Engagement show up rates.

Charlie:, The other thing about show up rates is that I always encourage people to register for a webinar, even if they know they can't come, because they're putting their hand up, but they're interested in this topic or their supplier. They will get all the follow up and in, you know, and the recording link as well. So I also feel like, don't be too hung up on the show up, right? If somebody has registered for your session, they've shown interest in it.

Show up rates typically, over 50% is good and less than 50% is okay. Anything over 50, I find, is pretty good. But like I said, I actively encourage people to sign up, even if they can't come because we still want to know who they are. This is where our webinars talk about it from a marketing perspective. 

Webinars are an amazing lead generation tool, you know, because you're capturing all those emails and those people who aren't interested in what you do so, but then yeah, in terms of being in terms of being engaging, sounds weird, Be yourself. 

I think that's, that's always been part of my process. And having done it for so long, is that you just get comfortable with doing it. And like I said, when I'm briefing the presenters, I say to them, we have a casual start, and we have a casual finish. So it's very chatty. You have to ask people for engagement. So ask people to put messages in the chat box, ask them to use the raise hand tool and send emojis and all that fun stuff you can do on Zoom.

So engagement wise is, Yes. Be chatty, be engaging, ask for engagement, keep it short and sweet.

Yeah, which is why we do the short sessions, send out the follow up, the follow up is a really key part of the process, you know, and especially for those who haven't made it live. 

So send a really big thank you and supplementary information. And even if someone doesn't catch up with the recording, then they've been engaged because they've got all of the follow up info. They know who the contacts are, they know who to go to.

Ros: What are your thoughts at the moment with, you know, prizes and things? If you show up, you can get a prize, or we'll say this prior to the webinar, like, have you gotten any thoughts or opinions on that? 

Charlie: Yeah, I do have thoughts on prizes, because it's something I get asked a lot.

I think prizes are a nice piece of goodwill. So it's a thank you, in terms of incentivizing agents to come. It doesn't make a huge amount of difference. Unless, of course, we're talking about some awesome prize.

That is just, you know, everyone is so excited about but in terms of gift cards and smaller things, I find that it doesn't make a huge amount of difference to the actual registration numbers. 

But I do think they're important from a goodwill perspective. So I like to give out prizes. I build in $50 gift cards into the BYO coffee cluster series so that we give one of those out each week. And I think yeah, so in terms of that, as prizes are just acknowledging people for coming and for their time.

You can use bigger prizes to incentivize sign ups. And to be honest, it is a tool that I use for pre-recorded webinars. So another thing I do is a monthly mini series, which is pre-recorded with one supplier just to sort of give that deadline on watching the series on a pre-recorded piece of content. Then a prize is also a really useful tool. I do think prizes are important. They don't have to be huge.

But I do think it's nice to acknowledge people for taking the time and giving them the opportunity to win something. 

Ros:Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Great. Thank you. Last of all, how can advisors, you know, join your sessions? What do they need to do? How can they find you?

Charlie: Probably I send out a weekly newsletter. So that's probably the best way of finding out about the sessions. So you can subscribe to the newsletter on 

destinationwebinars.com.au.

I send out a weekly newsletter with all of the upcoming sessions, any pre recorded sessions that we've done. Now a little bit of news about live events that are coming up as well pushing those out a little bit. So the newsletter would be the main way, I also do post the sessions on to the destination webinars Facebook page, so can give us a follow there. Or if you don't like doing business stuff on Facebook, there's a LinkedIn page as well, which I cross post to. So it is the same stuff if you'd rather follow on LinkedIn, I haven't quite got my head around Instagram yet. 

There's just too many things going on. Right, there are so many, you just got to pick one. That's what I say there were just a couple. And yeah, so Facebook would be the main social channel that I use. I think it kind of resonates with the audience as well that most travel agents have their own Facebook page. We're all we're all sort of, you know, connecting with clients on Facebook. 

Charlie: Yeah, makes sense for you. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time. Today, Charlie, there were lots of great nuggets and pieces of information here. Thank you for sharing a little bit about yourself as well, because we do see you on the Webinars, but we don't get to see what's going on behind the same. 

So for those of you that are in the UK or heading over to Europe, make sure you reach out to Carlie and say hey, where is the best coffee? She may not be able to give you that advice, though.

Charlie: Just waiting either to work through the night on Australian hours. So good. Or when I'm back in WA. I love people to come and visit me and everyone comes for free or they go to the markets. They go drink coffee. So yes, when I'm back in WA and I'll be on the East Coast as well, because I'm gonna make up for all this FOMO and start coming to events. As soon as I get back. 

Charlie: I know. And then when we have our travel agent achievers retreat, Charlie will be there. And it's gonna be if I'm allowed to be, I feel a bit bad. I can gatecrashing your

Ros: No, this is one thing that I love about the community. It's not just travel advisors and I work with people all over the world. But we have suppliers, we've got people like yourself that are supporting the industry like I just love it. 

I think together we can all rise and the collaboration over competition, you and I are both you know, high fiving that because there is enough business for everyone here and we're all here to support one another. And I think that comes down to our heart and integrity and who we are. So I'm thrilled that you are part of our world and part of my life. Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it. 

Charlie: Thank you. That's so kind. And I feel the same about you. I absolutely love what you do and how you're supporting agents. I would love to support you in any way that I can as well. And the community that you're building is wonderful. We are on the same page when it comes to collaboration and lifting each other up. I think it's absolutely amazing. Yeah, I collaborated with a few other travel support services. We're all just trying to help right? We're just trying to make things better for everybody.

Ros: Exactly. And help expertise in different ways as well. Like I love that so that we're all we all have certain skills and that's not just us that have put ourselves out there. But also for everybody who is listening to this podcast, if so you all have unique skills, expertise, knowledge in certain areas, and I just love that we can all share that together. 

So thank you so much Charlie for being here. Thank you everybody for listening in today. I'm looking forward to connecting with you again. We will have everything in the show notes for you as well as how to connect with Charlie but make sure you go to destinationwebinars.com.au. You reach out to Charlie to let her know you heard her here and join one of her sessions. They are a lot of fun and she is amazing. So thank you once again, have an awesome week ahead and we'll speak to you soon. Bye for now