Ursula Mentjes: Hey, everybody, welcome back to Quantum Revenue
Expansion, the podcast where we talk about turning your annual
revenue into your monthly revenue. Today, I have a very
special guest Anne Kulhanek. And she's going to talk about how to
create quantum revenue while traveling in luxury, which is
what she does every day for herself and her clients. And
welcome to the show.
Anne Kulhanek: Hi, hello.
Ursula Mentjes: I'm so glad that you're here. And for all of you
who haven't met, and yet, you're going to love her. She's been in
our community for over a year. And she's also helping me plan
my next Italy trip. So whether you're in the States, or you're
somewhere else out in the world, the thing to know is that we're
going to talk about how to have luxury not only while you're
traveling, but every single day in your business, and really how
to take those quantum leaps. So we're going to tie it all
together today. Before we do that, though, really quickly, if
you feel the poll, and you want to hang out with us at the next
2x intensive. And by the way, like some of you have been
hanging out with us for a while and you're kind of like I need
help growing my revenue, I really want to grow my business,
I could use some support, I could use someone else looking
in on my business, we'd love to help you do that you can go to
Ursula inc.co forward slash apply. All the details are there
regarding how you can send us a little bit of information. And
we will schedule a time to reach out to you and set a time to see
if the 2x is a good fit for you. All right. Let me tell you about
an by the way, I geek out on this, I used to watch all the
travel shows, I don't watch it as much anymore. Because I think
we have such a mix of different cable today, it's not as easy to
go find the travel shows that I love that it was such an escape
for me and I started traveling old was I when I first might
took my first international trip, I was in college and I
went to Germany, and have loved traveling ever since. So this is
especially near and dear to my heart, and is the founder and
owner of Premier Travel, a boutique travel agency located
in Luxembourg, Wisconsin, where luxury travel is designed by you
which Ann's going to explain what that means to us. And helps
people who are totally confused or unsure about how to plan for
a trip of a lifetime to actually experience a perfectly planned
trip and create a lifetime of memories, which is what we all
want. Because it's it's a little overwhelming when you think
about that first European trip or that third trip that you're
going on. But you would love some support. So and let's just
let's dig in. So tell us a little bit like what what's your
story? What, what brought you into the love of travel and into
your own business?
Anne Kulhanek: I kind of came in sideways. I had a friend who
wanted to open a travel agency and I said, Oh, why not? And had
never really traveled before that. We were in business
together for about two years and then decided to part ways. And I
ended up finding an office space or a building in my hometown and
put up a sign and started started premier travel.
Ursula Mentjes: So have you traveled much before that? Or
was it just this
Anne Kulhanek: Desire to travel desire I was I love helping
people. And a travel agent. That's what you're doing is
you're helping people. And that was back in the time before
everybody had a home computer. The internet didn't exist.
Right? So you called on the phone and a travel agent
traveled everywhere. So when you came, you know, when a client
came in, you could say oh yes, I've been there. And this is
what it's like and this is a good hotel or this isn't. So it
was a very different world at that time.
Ursula Mentjes: Yeah. A more innocent world right in many
ways. So one of the things in your bio and we talked about
this at the beginning you said where did it go? You said you
help people find their? Their their trip right their trip of a
lifetime or create those memories. And you said we're
luxury travel is defined by you and let me tell you I bought out
this is one of my fine china cups. Okay, I don't I do drink
tea out of these often or a little decaf coffee. I like
these. But I brought it especially because there's
something about travel that feels so luxurious for me even
like people complain about getting on a you know, a flight
that's like a commercial. I don't care put me in the back of
the plane. You put your back by the bathrooms and I don't care.
That is a luxury experience. I love everything about travel.
And so even in my workday, I like to bring a little bit of
that luxury to it because it feels it feels like an
experience right and to me travels and experience. So what
is that? mean to you when you say that about luxury travel?
Anne Kulhanek: Yeah, we believe luxury is defined by you. And
what's luxury to one person isn't for another. And it's so
funny. One of the first things I learned in working with clients
is when they say they want luxury. And then you have to ask
what is luxury? And one lady in my mind, I was thinking, you
know, penthouse suite, you know, five star resort, just said, Oh,
Luxury to me is having fresh squeezed orange juice in the
morning. Oh, wow. Okay. So just like you got to get out of your
head and what you think of something. And when you're
working with people, it's find out what it is that they see as
luxury. And for every one is different. And it's not about
the money you spend or level of service, it is what's important
to you. And that's what we work on is helping to dig into what
our clients want, and then make sure that we have that included
in their trip.
Ursula Mentjes: Yeah. So beautiful. Thanks for sharing
that. It's, it's so true. And it's like, it's just like in our
business, right? I mean, we, I'm a big believer that in my day to
day business experience, that I want to have that luxury
included in different ways, whether it's a special coffee
cup, or whatever it is, right? And so for our listeners, like
how do you create luxury every day? And definitely leave it in
the comments below. I'd love to hear like, what, what feels
luxurious to you. Like, what are those experiences? Because
that's, you know, and and I'm curious about this too, because
to me travel, travel, opens up the brain, it allows me to be a
dreamer again, it, it gives me a different perspective of the
world. But I find that the experience of travel begins when
I book, not when I get on the plane, have like, what do you
think about that? You know, the anticipation of that? Is that
just me? Or is that kind of a common thing?
Anne Kulhanek: Oh, that is so true. With the planning, it's
the picking things out, it's the researching, it's reading
reviews, it is all those things that lead up to your trip at
that sometimes, you know, you'll spend more time in that. And
then when you're on the trip, sometimes it doesn't turn out,
you know, it's a great thing. But it's like done in a flash,
but you have those months of planning, where you're
anticipating and just enjoying the research and the thing that
you're you know, looking forward to? Yeah,
Ursula Mentjes: Yeah, it's like that whole that whole
experience. So, so interesting. I didn't know this about your
business, or maybe you'd shared at one time and it didn't click,
but that that you've originally had a business partner, and then
you parted ways. And you continued. Now, what's
interesting about that, first of all, business partnerships can
be very complicated. And they don't typically, they don't
always last if they do that's, that's really unique. And so
what, what inside of you and made you say, even though this
person is leaving, I'm going to continue what gave you that
fortitude or that strength or that belief to keep going
because that could have stopped some people?
Anne Kulhanek: Yeah, we had different perspectives on things
and different values. And I think that was the hardest part,
because she was a friend. And her value was she was
financially motivated, and made all decisions based on finance.
And I'm people motivated. And I made decisions based on people.
And it was just as we were working together, it was just
like, ooh, this just doesn't fit right. It was so hard. That was
a very difficult decision to do. It took me a long time to
finally figure out, okay, I can do this on my own, at least I
can try. And if I fail, I fail. But I'm still in business 23
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
wanted. And what's interesting is you said something really
important that I want to make sure we highlight for anyone
who's either in a business partnership or has thought about
a business partnership, is that if your values are not in
alignment, forget it. It'll be it'll wear on you every single
day, which it did. So you made the decision to part ways when
you were able to do that and to continue on all these years
later, in that moment. So for someone who might be facing that
decision right now, and or just facing a tough business decision
that they're just like, like what gave you the strength to
say, I have to have this conversation and we're gonna
part ways I'm gonna keep going like what inside of you gave you
the strength to do that?
Anne Kulhanek: Yeah, I was scared to death. It's very hard
for me because I'm non confrontational. So I'm a people
pleaser, and just want to make sure everybody's happy. But
yeah, I think it was just in my heart going into work. It was a
drive and I just would just, you know, physically, I was just
getting rundown and I just couldn't deal with it anymore.
And I just thought even if I've lost my investment and lose
everything, it doesn't matter, but I can't stay in this heart
space or this heads. face where I was, you know, it just wasn't
it wasn't worth it.
Ursula Mentjes: Yeah. So it was more painful to stay there than
it was to make the decision to move through the fear and do it
anyway. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Well, and I'm just bringing this
out, because we all face business decisions that are
tough. But if we don't move through them, like, if you
hadn't done that, you probably wouldn't have stayed in
business. Like that might have just imploded at some point. And
you would have been frustrated, it could have been a fight,
like, a lot of things could have went south. So kudos to you for
making that decision early. And parting ways. And you know, you
both got you both continued your journey, which is beautiful. All
right. So you moved out on from that kept growing the business.
So do you remember a moment where your monthly income and an
easy way to think about is where there was more money left at the
end of the month, and there was bills, like all of a sudden your
app? For you,
Anne Kulhanek: It took a long time, it wasn't in our business.
We don't make money until after the person travels. So and you
might book something a year out or so. And it's solely based on
your sales. Yeah. So it was a long time, I invested a lot of
time and a lot of my own finances into keeping the
business alive. And then was had debt for many, many years. But I
can't say when was a time. One time though, I can say one time
that was a that I can remember very clearly was when I had all
debt paid off and had money in my savings account. So it's
like, you know, finally you can just relax. And it's not like
you're behind. And it's an amazing feeling to not have any
debt. And to know that you have money in the bank account. If
something goes wrong, like COVID, I'm going to survive, I
have money in my savings account.
Ursula Mentjes: Let's talk about that for a second. Because I
know it affected our world, my world, a training world, but I
know I can't imagine what it was like in the travel industry. I
mean, how did you and your team work through those first few
months of realizing, okay, there's no cruise ships, there's
no Oh, and now they're closing hotels for I mean, what did how
did you work through that?
Anne Kulhanek: It was like a warzone. It had to because we
had people traveling that we had to get home. We had people that
were going to be leaving in the next couple of days or weeks
that we had to figure out is this real? Is it just the flu is
the last day you know, it was like just the unknown. And just
trying to help our clients through it. And it was like,
Okay, let's get your money back if we can. And unfortunately,
some suppliers did not give money back, even though and you
know, because I don't know, it's just that it was a pandemic, and
even travel insurance companies said, Oh, didn't you read the
fine print? pandemic?
Ursula Mentjes: Pandemic coming, right,
Anne Kulhanek: exactly. Yeah. So everybody know, read contracts.
But yeah, we learned a lot. And one of the things though, is we
just because I had a savings account, got some government
loans in between to stay open, because we couldn't just close
our doors and walk away. We had all this stuff in the stuff
Ursula Mentjes: booked out for years, right? Like you had stuff
that was booked out that people were still like, Hey, I hope I
can go on my tour. I hope the pandemic ends. Remember for
three years, we were like, nope, the pandemic ends.
Anne Kulhanek: Yeah. So yeah, it was tough. And it's still it's
bouncing back now. But I would say financial, it'll probably
take us a couple years to regain that. Just the I'm now in debt
again. This alone, that kept our doors open. But I just felt it
was extremely important. Just that we had to fulfill our
clients, we could just walk away and leave them hanging. So we
had to fight for them to try to get those refunds for a lot of
travel suppliers gave you credit that had to be used within a
year and then some of them extended it. So it was a
bookkeeping nightmare as well. Trying to keep track of who had
with what. Yeah, so But otherwise, we made it through.
Ursula Mentjes: Yeah, you did it. You knew you would I just
get the sense like you.
Anne Kulhanek: Yeah, I was hoping that yeah, it was so
unknown to so unknown. And it lasted so long and all over the
world. Right, you know, yeah, so just crazy.
Ursula Mentjes: Yes. And yeah, you're like, it was it's
interesting how in some ways it it pulled the world apart
because we couldn't see each other but it brought the world
together because it was a global pandemic, which is pretty
unbelievable. Like when you look back at it. It's like I think we
all not think I know we all have PTSD. PTSD, especially Yeah,
especially business owners, right. And of course, those who
were we lost during that time and just a frightening time. And
to your point, we all read contracts now. And we also know
what we would do if this happens again, which I think is very
interesting. And you know, what else? What else is possible? But
cancel, cancel. We're all good, like health. We're coming into
times of great health and great travel. So what looking back at
that time, because of course, we talk about money on the show,
like what was the biggest myth or limiting belief about money
that you had to overcome? To continue to, like you invested
in your business, you grew your business? Like, what did you
learn about money during that time,
Anne Kulhanek: um, I think I grew up in a, with a mindset
that there's never enough, small Midwestern town, work hard for
your money, there's people that are rich, and then there's a
smart, you know, so there was a difference. And it was just
something that I don't think was ever said, but it was just what
I believed, from growing up. And as I came into the travel
industry, at the beginning, it was all about what's the
cheapest price, but I think that might have been the mindset of
myself, as well as people who are attracting, no looking for
our biggest trip or, you know, things and it was always what's
based on price. And to be fair, in the travel industry, there's
always advertisements about, oh, this is on sale, this is on
sale, week after week, they just name the sale differently. But
it's kind of that's how they grab people's attention is by
sales. So it does teach people to only look for the lowest
price. But through learn working with people, I had people who
had more of money, and they weren't concerned about price.
And just realizing that somebody told me something at the
beginning of my sales career, it says sell out of their wallet,
not yours. So just because I can't afford that. Around the
world cruise doesn't mean that you can, you know, you can't,
and that I can't help you to have the best experience
possible. So it's not about my, my finances, it's about theirs
and what they're looking for. Yeah,
Ursula Mentjes: and what they want, right what they're showing
up for. And that's a big, so big, like, just, it is so easy
for us to shop out of our own wallet, just because we have so
many limiting beliefs. And you know, like you I was brought up
on farm, we had some points, I don't think we had any money.
I'm not really sure. We had government food stamps at one
point. But growing up on the farm, you know, we had like the
cattle we had, you know, we had access to food. And that was
certainly a blessing. But the limiting beliefs My goodness.
Yeah, and that's one of the reasons I do the show, and
especially for our women, business owners over the world,
because I find, especially with women, women tend to hold on to
those limiting beliefs even more, and then, you know, tend
to believe that they can't invest the money in the
business, because it's for the family. There's a lot of
limiting beliefs. And so thank you for sharing that and
demonstrating. And you did say something really interesting,
which I want to make sure you've said many interesting things.
But another thing I want to point out, you talked about debt
in your business, and you didn't make it bad. You just made it
like there was debt in my business. And it was really cool
when we paid it off and then going through the recession or
no recession. Well, the pandemic which included a recession,
there was some debt in the business, again, that you're
paying off. And yet what do we know about investing in the
business like, it can look like debt, but what can debt at times
allow us to do our What did allow you to do?
Anne Kulhanek: The debt that I had well, through COVID is
helped me stay open helped me keep my employee employed, and
helped us just it got us through where money wasn't coming in.
And it was beyond you think so we booked something. Finally,
when COVID was over, we weren't paid for another year yet. So
there's that lag time. So it did just it, it kept it kept our
lights on. Earlier in my career. It was more of an investment it
was to get up and running. But then I once remodeled my office.
At one time I thought oh, luxury travel, I want to look and feel
luxury. It's you know, and present luxury. So I remodeled
my office, because I'm a big believer in that. You have to
feel it yourself. Yes, I want. I want to feel luxurious, just
like you were saying, I want to be surrounded by beauty. I want
to look good. So remodeling, that office was a big part of
that. Yeah. And just kind of made me feel it's not my
expectations up of how I'm going to interact with my clients.
Yeah, compared to what the office looked like before,
Ursula Mentjes: which probably increased your competence and
confidence sells people by your competence like when people come
in And they're like, and helped me find this luxurious trip to
wherever or this this memorable trip, or I want to take my
family here. And they come into that space. And you know, and
just how you present yourself. It's like you're competent, I
know that you're gonna figure it out for me. And the other thing
that you project is that how much you care. So not only are
you gonna figure it out for me, you're gonna make sure it goes
really well. And who doesn't want that? In a travel agency,
right? Like from start to finish? I can imagine your
clients just love you. And I have a feeling your clients come
back, don't they? Do? They do for years? And years and years?
Anne Kulhanek: years? And years? And years? Yes, yeah. And for
our
Ursula Mentjes: listeners, I'm just pointing this out, because
this is one of the things right, like, there's a lot of ways to
get new clients. However, we were just talking about this at
the CEO table this week, a lot of ways to get new clients, but
sometimes it's like, it's much easier not sometimes it's just
much easier to continue to work with the clients already in your
space. So you're not constantly going out and just, you know,
grinding. And I'm curious about that. I'm going totally off
script, just so the world knows. I'm going off the script
department with and how do you like, I mean, you're and share
it, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna say this and share that
she has brownies in her oven right now. So there's gonna be
bigger that goes off. But I love that I bet it smells amazing in
your house. I love brownies. And she's taking them to an event
tonight with her clients. So what I'm curious about is, what
are the things that you've put in place to stay in touch with
your clients? Like, how do you let them know you appreciate
them? How do you invite them back? Like, what are some of the
tips that you have to continue to work with existing clients?
Anne Kulhanek: Yeah, we are very hands on we meet with people in
person on frequently, or if they're distance via zoom, and
have kind of our process is to do a thorough interview with
them. So we know exactly even though they say, oh, I want to
go to Hawaii, you know, what do you have? Okay, tell me why do
you want to go to Hawaii? What do you want to do? What are you
imagining, you know, so once we figure that out with them, then
we shop and give them options and let them make choices and
help them to do that, and then book it. And then frequently, we
try to stay in touch between the time that they've booked and
made their deposit to the time that their final payment is
ready, just keeping in touch, sending them additional
information about why we can use that as example. Like things to
do on Maui or whatever. And then when it comes to travel document
time, if you're local, they'll come in, and we'll review all
the travel documents with them, explain everything, give them
tips about how to get through the airport, some people don't
have their like Delta Airlines app on the phone will help them
do that. Or there's some countries where we have to fill
out forms that they just don't aren't comfortable doing. So we
you know, we kind of hold their hand through the process. So our
experience is usually quite well, good, they feel good about
it, they feel comfortable and confident in their trip, they
know that we're just a phone call away, they have our phone
number to call us as well as people with feet on the ground
where they're traveling. And then we usually check in with
them after to find out how it went. And there is an email that
we sent out as well, that just says if you enjoyed our
services, and you have anyone else, you know who's interested.
And that almost comes naturally, because somebody comes home from
a good trip. And they're like, Oh, my God last was excellent.
And you'll hear people we always ask, how did you hear about it?
And it's, they'll always say, oh, so and so just came back,
and they loved it. So our whole business is based on repeats and
referrals. So we don't do a lot of regular marketing.
Ursula Mentjes: I love that. Well, I want to make sure people
heard that like so. So when you're happy clients come back
from the dream trip of a lifetime, they get an email and
they get to share other people that might be interested, as
business owners, we forget to ask for referrals we just do.
And yet that is such an easy way. And not only that an easy
way to bring in new clients. It's an amazing way because who
do we hang out with people like us? And those are the same
people that are going to love to go on that next luxury trip that
Ann's gonna plan. So just I just want to make sure our listeners
are hearing that that full circle. All right, I got a
couple more questions. Um, so in any like, what are your tips on
busting through an income ceiling? So if someone has grown
their business, but they really stagnated, they're like, you
know, I hit the $100,000 mark, and every year and I just can't
seem to bust through that. What are your tips, your experiential
tips for them?
Anne Kulhanek: I guess number one would be mindset and like
goal setting. I know I had a big growth spurt when I finally had
like a weekend retreat and really dug into myself to figure
out what do I want and kind of have like a writing thing where
it's just like, oh, let me write out what my ideal world would be
like. And what I would like to look like back. And once I had
that written down, it was amazing how things happened. And
before that, it just floated. Yeah, but so I can write it down
writing it down. Yeah. And thinking about it and saying,
Yeah, this is a possibility. You know, sometimes you don't you
limit yourself to what you know, that you can hear possibilities
outside and think, yeah, why couldn't that be possible for
me? So I think a lot of it is belief. And then I think
probably the next is to stick to it to, you know, stick what
figure out what way you can break through what you're really
good at what you enjoy doing, making sure that you're aligned
with what you really like doing. Yeah, and just push through or
just keep trying
Ursula Mentjes: to get the clarity and then the stick to
itiveness. Just like keep going, keep going, keep going. I love
what you said, like writing I agree with you like scripting it
out, just journaling about what you really want. And what's
possible, statistically, and this was from one of my last
books, the belief zone, you are 99% more likely to achieve a
goal simply by writing it down. 99% More likely, and yet. And do
we teach this in public schools or private schools? No. I don't
know why I'm sure there's some amazing teachers there that
like, bring that information in. But it's something we should
have been taught a long time ago. All right, I'm starting to
wrap up here. What's your best piece of advice for a CEO who's
out in the world? You know, maybe their business is creeping
up on breaking through that first six figures, but they're
just, they're feeling frustrated? Maybe they're having
a slow month? Or they're just like, they're just kind of
stuck? What What's your best advice for them?
Anne Kulhanek: I guess make sure that they're, they're working
within their values. They're doing what they really want, or
doing it how they want. And then just think of possibilities. You
know, just I think oftentimes, it's more mindset than anything
else, at least for me. It has. Yeah, yeah. And then I'll weed
through. Yeah.
Ursula Mentjes: So maybe heading over to their favorite coffee
shop and doing a little journaling or something, or just
getting out of the house. Like I think sometimes we're getting
out of the office, I think sometimes we can get this narrow
view of the world. And we have to get out. All right. And so a
couple final questions, who like who is? What do you think of the
clients you work with? Like, how do you know, a client is a good
fit for you? What do they enjoy doing? What are their values?
Like? Who's sitting out there? That might be like, Man, I
would? I'm thinking about planning a trip? Maybe I should
give an a call? Who would that be?
Anne Kulhanek: Who would that be? Someone who likes to travel,
they're curious. They want to go and explore? Well, actually,
most of them want to go and explore. Some people just need
to get away and lay on a beach somewhere. You know, I honor
that too. Because sometimes even just when you travel with your
spouse, you're away from home, you can just concentrate on each
other. It just it does wonders for relationships, whether
you're in Italy eating wonderful food, or if you're laying on a
beach somewhere. I think just getting away helps
relationships. But otherwise, people who are excited want to
explore the world want to experience something different.
They don't want to do it themselves. They like me, I just
want an expert to tell me what's good and what's not. Yeah, it's
like, oh, just tell me I don't want to, you know, I don't want
to figure it out for myself. I want someone else to do it. I
trust them. And yeah, they're open to suggestions and ready to
explore the world.
Ursula Mentjes: I think that's a big one especially so of course,
someone who want you know, you know, you want to travel, you
know, you want it to be a great experience. And you don't want
to figure it out yourself. Like that's the big problem you
solve, right? You help people figure out exactly where to go.
I mean, it really what you do is you listen first to understand
what their desires are, what their dream vacation is, what
that next vacation is, you ask I'm sure amazing questions. And
then like you said, before you give them options. Here's one
option, like, here's one way you could do this. Here's another
way, like what's most aligned with you, and then you let
people figure it out. And PAC, which is amazing. So I know
someone in the worlds out there going, I want to talk to and so
and tell everyone about the the free offer and how they can take
advantage of it.
Anne Kulhanek: Yeah, if you go to our website, it's WWE dot
premier travel with an S at the end. And there's places on there
where you can select an appointment, and that can be in
person at our office in Luxembourg. Or you can do a zoom
call and just we do like an introduction call, kind of hear
what it is that you're looking for. I can give you some ideas,
and then you can determine you know if we're a good fit and
want to work together. And yeah, that's
Ursula Mentjes: beautiful. Awesome. So premier travels with
an S we'll have that in the show notes. Make sure you put the s
at the end of travels.com. Click on there and you can book a
complimentary conversation with John. And thank you for being
here. Thank you for sharing your business journey and for
inspiring our listeners all over the world. We love you. We
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
travels are going to be so looking forward to that. So
thank you and to our listeners all over the world. We love you.
We appreciate you. If there's a topic you'd like for me to talk
about, you can email us at contact at Ursula inc.co. I'd
love to hear from you. That's it for this week. Everybody make
this your most epic month yet