Serendipity-"Do"

The most interesting things happen at the hairdresser’s. At least they do if your hairdresser is Hilda Villaverde of Pluma Designs! Hilda is more than a friend, and more than just my hairdresser. I will quote from her web site: “Hilda Villaverde is a hairstylist, author, business owner, public speaker and minister.” You often get much more than a hairdo at Pluma!

I came in for my cut in a funk. Usually, the salon is bustling. On this day it was empty save for Hilda when I walked in. With no assistant on this quiet day, Hilda washed my overgrown hair. She asked me, “What’s going on with you Tom? You don’t seem your usual cheerful self.” I replied, “I need to change careers, and I am confused about where to go next.” She probed further, “What are you interested in?” I told her “Something in travel, I suppose.”

I was handed a flyer for an escorted vacation in Umbria. It looked like a really cool trip. It involved picking olives in local orchards, watching the pressing of the olives into oil, and taking a cooking lesson with a gourmet chef using the oil from the olives you just harvested. The trip was escorted by a travel consultant named Judi Walker. Hilda explained she was a long-time client and the best travel agent on earth. “Call her. She is looking for a new partnership of some sort. Maybe you can work something out.”

A Match Made in Travel Heaven?

I called Judi. We explored the possibility of some sort of internship leading to a partnership. She interviewed me a few times, met my wife, and of course asked Hilda what sort of guy I am. We agreed to move ahead, and my long hard slog up the travel consultant learning curve began.

For a smart guy, I can be pretty dense in some ways. Judi has a system she has worked out over the course of 15 years of trial and error. I have been learning how to plug myself into that system without messing everything up. Of course I have made mistakes, but so far none to drastic or costly. We both have education backgrounds, mine in secondary and hers at the university level. I think this has helped a good deal.

Judi says she is trying to execute a “brain dump” from her experienced brain to my newbie brain. Sometimes it felt like my head was going to explode. I began taking online courses from cruise lines and hotel chains. I went to trainings on destinations as diverse as Tanzania and Acapulco. I studied brochures and web sites and did “webinars” galore. The learning curve had begun to be climbed!

From 0 to 60 in Six Months