Hi Cait, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
While those around you can influence you, and help develop good habits, I believe work ethic is something that has to come intrinsically. I was always an involved child growing, but my parents always were clear that academics were my “job” and they came first. It was in my early developmental years of working that “job” that I believe my work ethic got it’s roots. I always maintained good grades, while being super involved, and I am thankful for everyone that helped develop my young work ethic by holding me accountable. It is something I see not enough of these days – accountability.
My work ethic continued to grow as I got older responsibilities, goals, and real jobs became part of my life. From as far back as I can remember I always have worked multiple jobs. Throughout college and beyond I do not remember a time when I was only working on one thing. I learned how to prioritize, not only the things I had to complete, but also wanted to complete in order to reach my goals. As I said, work ethic can be influenced by those around you – and my parents were great in teaching me skills to keep myself organized and focused. However, at the end of the day in order to play hard you have to work hard. The work ethic has to come from within, driven by your goals.
To this day, I still work more than one job to accomplish my goals, and without the work ethic built in my earlier years, I know I would not be where I am today without it.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
By day I am a teacher, I have been teaching since 2012. By nights and weekends, I am Vacation Planner, and have been planning vacations around the world since 2015. Vacation planning is special to me, because I get to be involved in the most important gift – the gift of building memories with those we love. I get to be part of making someone’s dream vacation come true, and in turn give my clients the stress free gift of a vacation they get to just show up to. From the first time a client contacts me I do all the research, planning, booking – the not so fun things of vacation planning, all while working along side the client to be sure it is exactly what they pictured (if not more). I have gotten the gift of watching families grow over the years, and watching them create memories in amazing destinations. It is so fulfilling for a client to come home and say “that was the best vacation ever”, and knowing I had a hand in that without being there with them. I am so thankful for all of my clients.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
If you are looking to become a vacation planner, you need to have a love of learning. It is a big blue world out there, and you have to be willing to be constantly learning about destinations. I’ve always enjoyed learning and spend a lot of time doing research on destinations, options for my clients, and in webinars learning. People use vacation planners because we know things – and we alleviate the need for them to have 100 Google tabs open as they try to plan – I get to be their Google. Organized and detailed, we all know the best event or vacation we’ve been to has been well organized, thought out, and executed. I have several clients traveling in several places all at once, I need to be organized. I need to be sure that no detail has slipped through the cracks that could end up putting a bump in my clients’ vacations. Vacation planning is for those that love the details – the things that make it special. Anyone can click a button and book online, but it is the personalized attention to details I provide my clients that make their vacations one to remember.
Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?
My ideal client is the client who is busy (and aren’t we all), knows that they want to take a vacation, and is willing for me to help and step in and guide. them to the perfect trip. I never tell my clients want they want, rather listen to what they want, their dreams, their vacation style, the little details, and make them come to life for them. I love working with clients who want to ask me questions, ask me to plan a new destination, the ones who push me to do something new or different. I love to learn and grow in this career, I love to better myself and make the next vacation even better than the last one I planned.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/vacations_by_cait
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Vacations_By_Cait/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CaitRuizVacationPlanner
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1910827088996979
