Slow to Launch Isn't the Same as Afraid to Start
By Meredith Calloway, Chief Membership Development Officer
People sometimes assume that advisors who come from high-stakes careers walk into this business fearless, since they've already survived worse. In my experience, it usually works the other way around.
Jackie Wammock, founder of Travelera Partners and a Travel MBA alum, spent thirty years in commercial real estate. She worked on Mall of Georgia and Blueback Square, was director of real estate for a company tied to the man behind Williams-Sonoma, and closed out her career as Walmart's broker across Georgia and Tennessee, negotiating $30 million Supercenter deals. After having an epiphany on a sailboat in Croatia, Jackie decided to leave that career behind. But as she shared with me on The Travel Business Unpacked podcast, back then she was afraid to book a client’s hotel room. But this wasn’t the voice of fear holding her back, as it does for so many advisors.
Jackie knew exactly how to run a complex transaction. What she didn't yet have was the same certainty about someone else's vacation, paid for with someone else's money, and she wasn't willing to fake it. So right out of the gate, she turned down a five-figure trip and told the client to call her in a year because her systems, her templates, her letters weren't built yet. She was, by her own admission, a little famous in her Travel MBA cohort for being slow to launch, but it wasn’t because she was indecisive or lacked confidence. She was applying the same instinct that kept her out of trouble for three decades in real estate: know your process cold before you put someone else's outcome on the line.
That instinct showed up again when a friend asked her to help plan an international move, animals included, and Jackie knew within minutes it wasn't her lane. She told her flatly, in writing, that attempting it would be "travel malpractice." I love that phrase, because it puts a name to something a lot of advisors dance around – how to understand and put a boundary precisely where your expertise stops, and the request has potential to become a liability.
When the time came, and she finally felt prepared and trusted her own systems, she shot off like a rocket. Jackie had planned to spend one evening handing out business cards for a safari operator's event, but after attending a GTN coaching call that same day, she picked up tools she didn't know existed and sold her first group trip before the night was over. She's now working on her third group, built around horseback safaris in Kenya, a niche that grew straight out of her own life around the horse farms of Aiken, South Carolina. None of that could happen for someone who let fear and doubt hold them back. Unlike many advisors who stall and let themselves stay stuck, she took the time to work towards being fully equipped and prepared.
That's the distinction worth taking from Jackie's story. Being cautious and being stuck can look identical from the outside, but only one of them is productive. Jackie wasn't waiting to feel ready and working to overcome fear; she was doing the specific, unglamorous work of getting ready. So, if you're sitting on business you don't feel equipped to take yet, that's not necessarily a sign to push through. Instead, it might be your cue to do what Jackie did and spend the time closing the gap.
If you love hearing stories like Jackie's, tune into The Travel Business Unpacked podcast! Each episode dives deep into the real stories, practical strategies, and transformational moments that turn travel dreams into thriving careers. Listen and subscribe on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and check out Jackie's full episode here.