Overview Of The Trip And Why We Went

My wife owns a travel agency, which makes it pretty easy for us to be able to travel frequently because it’s her job to travel and it allows her to grow her business. With that being said, even if she wasn’t a travel agent that owned an agency, we would still travel because we love it. Not just to get away, but also because it’s a really valuable time for a lot of reasons. In particular, when you are running a business, there’s a lot that it can help you with.

We recently took a trip to Utah, and there’s a lot that I got out of this trip. I’ll walk you through the things that I did and how I feel they ultimately helped my perspective, helped me recharge, and helped me to be just better in general. Hopefully, all of that helps us run a better agency that provides the best results possible.  With that being said, here’s a breakdown of what we did on our trip.

Mountain Biking 

I want to start by saying that Utah is, certainly from Alabama, a heck of a trip. It was a gift from my wife to me to go and ride mountain bikes. If you know me, you know how much I love to ride bikes. I think It’s so much fun.

One of my favorite things about mountain biking is that you have to be present. With road biking or running, you can still think about other, possibly stressful, things. Running, in particular, can be a cathartic experience because you can think through your problems and come up with ideas and solutions.

In contrast, when you’re mountain biking, the only idea you really have is don’t hit that tree, because you’re going fast. You’re either trying to get your wheels off the ground or keep them on the ground. Your focus is just trying to stay upright depending on how fast you go.

I think that’s one of the greatest things about mountain biking. It pushes you just a little bit outside of your comfort zone, forcing you to be present in the moment. I don’t even typically take music with me because without it, I get a feel for all the sights, sounds, and everything happening around me.

Time With Family

With any vacation, one of the best things is spending time with your family. I really enjoy doing things with my wife and my kids. I have three kids aged five, seven, and nine, so there’s always going to be times when they try our patience and make us wish we had more babysitters, but the experiences that we get to share together, like traveling, are a really good time to spend with them and watch them grow.

I’d say if anything, in the last 18 months, the extra time we’ve had together has really been a blessing, albeit still a difficult blessing, and a trying blessing, but a blessing nonetheless.

Time To Read

One of the other elements about vacations that I enjoy is the time it gives me to read. I’m using air quotes when I say “read” because instead of reading, I typically listen to my books.

One reason that I listen to my books is that I’m a really, really slow reader. It takes me so much time to read because as I’m reading the words, I’m thinking about other stuff.

Another reason is that I retain the information way better and I can consume it while I’m doing something else, like driving, sitting on a plane, or hanging out.

Lastly, I can read in half the time. I’m one of those strange people that can listen to audio one and a half to two times the normal rate and still keep up with it.  It’s really great to be able to do that so I can have ideas while I’m still on vacation.

So, I always take time to get a new book in. Currently, I’m trying to do a better job of getting history books, and topics outside of business development or marketing.

Experiencing New Cultures

Another element of taking a vacation that’s really important to us is experiencing different places and cultures. Recently, we’ve really started to go to new places. We’re not just going down to the beach and the Panhandle of Florida. We’re starting to really go experience new things with the kids. It’s so interesting to learn from people, and what’s important to them and what’s not, and how it compares to what we think is important.

Utah was a place that I’ve found to be such an interesting, cool part of the United States. I knew it was desert, I knew it was mountains, but until I got there, I didn’t understand how beautiful of a place it is, and not just physically. The people are so kind and generous, which was really refreshing. It was truly so nice to be there.

Talking To People And Always Prospecting

I always like to meet people and meet people that are traveling. My wife and I both like to talk, unsolicited, to new people, which is good when you run a business, because it gives you a chance to talk about what you do.

We’re always prospecting and looking for opportunities to connect with people and hear about what they do and tell them about what we do. I would say that probably one in every other vacation, one of the two of us ends up with a new potential client, and that’s always fun too.

Takeaway

My hope is that by allowing myself the opportunity to experience life and all its offerings and advocating for my Atomic crew to do the same, it will encourage us to do better at what we do every day, creating great content and results for our awesome clients.