Weathering The Storm With The WP Blog #21

6/21/2021

The last week in Croatia was an amazing experience. I was able to re-connect with a young man with who I had made an acquaintance and potential business partnership in London a few years ago by the name of Mario Tuksa. He was passionate and had just started his own travel company and we chatted not only in the scheduled slot for our meeting, but when I had an open slot, he returned and we chatted some more. It was more a conversation about life and passion for what you are and do and also being true to yourself. As with all potential business partnerships, I never promise business, but if the right client at the right time comes around, we will give it a shot and I have done with others.

I was lucky to stay in contact and when I attended another event in Los Angeles, his first time in the US, we connected again, and this time introduced him to one of my closest colleagues. I knew if the opportunity made itself available, we would do business and when my recent conference took place in Dubrovnik, I knew and related this to my colleague that was also attending, I wanted Mario to arrange the post conference educational experience. This would be the real test as to this point, I had not been able to work with him and my colleague concurred.
This approach of giving a potential partner the opportunity to showcase their passion, especially for an American client is something I had done in Norway, Argentina and other places. They also had the opportunity to arrange some client experiences before I actually experienced the possibilities in person, but I had a good feeling they were a good fit and I was not disappointed. Mario, not only had me to critique him, but others and he shined, not only with the initial itinerary presentation, but curveballs were given throughout the time together, like my zipline experience, which was added in the day before I did it or having another colleague join us in Istria and coordination of his plan, as well as the issues, that always seem to arise, the scheduling of the Covid test, and he shined. Knowing the difficulty of such a venture, he proved himself time and time again, even when the issue was not his fault. We were together for 5 days in the same vehicle. We laughed, chatted about a myriad number of topics. His English is excellent and his understanding of the American traveler is awesome. He has earned my respect and would not hesitate to hire him. All I can say is hvala!!!

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