Elevate Springfield featuring Andrew Dillon: Elevating Through the Power of Travel, Overcoming Obstacles, and Finding Faith

Summary

In this conversation, Andrew Dillon shares his journey from a troubled upbringing to a successful career in law enforcement and firefighting, followed by struggles with alcoholism and mental health. He discusses the pivotal moments that led him to recovery and the founding of his travel business, First Response Travel, emphasizing the importance of community, mentorship, and spirituality in his life. He shares his journey into the travel industry, emphasizing the importance of being a travel advisor rather than just a travel agent. He discusses the value of advocacy in travel planning, the significance of travel insurance, and his personal experiences with travel. 

Takeaways

• Andrew faced significant challenges in his early life, including addiction.
• Mentorship played a crucial role in redirecting Andrew's life.
• Helping others is a core value for Andrew, stemming from his career.
• Andrew's recovery journey involved rediscovering his faith.
• Community support has been vital in Andrew's journey.
• Andrew emphasizes the importance of seeing the good in people. Travel can be a transformative experience that opens your eyes to new cultures.
• Being a travel advisor means advocating for clients and providing personalized service.
• Travel insurance is essential for protecting your investment in travel plans.
• Cruising is a popular niche that many people fall in love with after their first experience.
• Cultural immersion enhances travel experiences and allows for deeper connections.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Elevate Springfield, where we will dive into strategies and stories that help you rise to your full potential. Each episode, we'll talk about how you can take intentional steps to elevate your life and your business while making a meaningful impact on those around you. Along the way, we're gonna bring in the change makers from our community that are already elevating. We'll bring the actionable strategies, you bring the discipline and follow through, and together, we can elevate Springfield. Alright, let's go, Springfield. Time to 10X your life, your business, all of it. Time to crush those goals, time to get after it. Let's go. You are listening to the Elevate Springfield Podcast. Robert Farrell here, certified 10x coach, speaker, and mentor here to bring you actionable strategies. You bring the discipline and follow through. And together, we're going to Elevate Springfield. We're coming to you again from beautiful downtown Springfield in the Big Dog Construction Studio. Hey, we've got so much going on in Springfield right now. Make sure you are participating. Get out there, network with folks, be a part of the community, support local businesses, support local nonprofits, and let's go. We can all grow together. So, hey, another great episode for you today. We're gonna get right to our guest after the break. Hey, Springfield, when it comes to reliable, high-quality roofing, you don't want to leave things to chance. That's why you should reach out to Acosta Angeli Ruffing, your local roughing expert serving Springfield and surrounding communities, from quick dependable repairs to full replacement, from residential to commercial. They are your trusted pros. Call them today at 217-993-2748 or visit their website to book your free quote and inspection. Don't wait. A little leak now could lead to major damage later. Trust the local experts, protect your home, and get peace of mind with Acosta Angeli Roofing. And we are back joining me in the studio now, Andrew Dillon from First Response Travel. Andrew, how you doing today, man? Good.

SPEAKER_03 2:22

How are you?

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Good, good. Appreciate you coming down on a rainy, wet, kind of nasty Springfield morning, but a little chilly. Little chilly. Right. Compared to yesterday, uh pretty big change. That's the way it is around here. So uh we're gonna talk about your business and everything, but before we do that, let's just learn a little bit about Andrew, man. Tell me a little about your background.

SPEAKER_03 2:41

Well, background's a little, a little crazy, a little dark. Um, but you know, it is what it is. Uh grew up here in Springfield, Illinois. Um, went to Catholic high school, grew up, you know, raised Catholic, and just kind of had had a little bit of a troubled uh upbringing. Um, don't want to get too far into that. But, you know, it's just kind of one of those things where I had challenges from early life and a little bit of mental and physical challenges growing up in my household, and then was introduced to alcohol around the age of eight. Just kind of struggled with an alcoholic addiction for most of my life. Grew up through high school, never really felt like I fit in anywhere. Like I said, I grew up in a Catholic household, went to a Catholic grade school, went to a Catholic high school, and ended up having some issues with my alcoholism in high school. And they told me to get out and ended up having to go to a rural community public school. And my mom, as sweet as she was when she was living, decided she was gonna go to school to the go to the mall and buy me a bunch of clothes to start fitting in at the public school. And she went to the store called Foo Boo and bought me all this stuff, and now I'm going to high school in a rural community, which is back in the 90s, um, early to late 90s, was it was a different environment growing up in a rural community in Illinois. And now I'm wearing all this stuff that's, you know, basically inner city clothing that's that doesn't fit my my posture. But I didn't know anything about it. So I start showing up at the school. People start calling me Fubu based on the clothes that I'm wearing, and that's just kind of the nickname and the persona that I developed there, and and definitely didn't fit in at that point. So it just kind of became more of a challenging and just again didn't feel like I fit in and just started drifting farther and farther away, kind of started self-isolating and trying to cope with my own inabilities and insecurities in life, and and then decided one day um to get in a fight at high school. Um, ended up having some issues with the local law enforcement. Sure. And kind of they they warned us, you know, hey, if you do this, you're gonna go to jail and you're gonna get arrested and you're gonna blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so we were kids. We didn't care. We went ahead and we still, you know, they sold tickets at the at the high school and everything for this this show at the park.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Oh, wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 5:00

It was it was crazy. That's crazy. Like before, you know, you know, cage fighting and everything was thing. It was like people were selling these tickets for five, ten dollars a piece. And of course the teachers caught on to it and the cops met us up there and were like, hey, if you do this, you know, it's it's not gonna end well for either one of you. We didn't, we didn't care, we didn't listen. The cops ended up leaving, and we ended up, you know, we didn't even really get into a fight. It was just more of a shoving match and you know, a word exchange than anything. But uh they came back and we both got put in handcuffs and we both went down to the local PD and you know, our parents got called, and then we had a court date that we had to go in. And long story short, all the charges were dropped, and it was kind of my first introduction to law enforcement. And then the officer that actually arrested me kind of took me under his wing and was like a mentor for me. And that produced my vision to law enforcement. It's not actually that bad. So then I started utilizing stuff that he taught me and started focusing a little bit more in school, started, you know, redirecting my life towards, you know, a better purpose, a better way of trying to figure things out, and actually became involved in law enforcement. Um I did several years as a private security officer and then went into federal law enforcement and then also started around the age of 18, 19 as a volunteer firefighter, which turned into a career firefighter. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Was that all around here?

SPEAKER_03 6:24

Uh it was in Sangaman County. I w I volunteered for the Sangaman County Rescue Squad. Um, and then when I met my wife, we moved to Highland, Illinois, and I was a volunteer part-time um ENT with the city of Highland, Illinois. And then the federal law enforcement side was with the um United States Department of Homeland Security. I was a private contractor with them and also Federal Reserve Law Enforcement in St.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

Louis. Awesome. So would that officer be maybe one of your first mentors, I guess?

SPEAKER_03 6:55

He would have been. He was one that really redirected me, was a little bit more of a father figure, and really changed the course of my life. How important at that point? I mean, it was it was huge. Looking back, I wish I would have taken more value in it and and listened a little bit more and not got in my own way and then you started drifting again later in life. But you know, having a personal mentor early in life is huge. No doubt about it.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

So, how long did you do all that? Were you in the law enforcement side and then firefighting and the whole thing?

SPEAKER_03 7:26

So, together I had kind of like that bipolar, you know, career issue, split personality, if you will. I was a cop and a fireman at the time. I was like, I don't know if I want to eat donuts or if I just want to nap all day. 18 and a half years. I was a volunteer firefighter and doing something with law enforcement, whether it was the private security or law enforcement for 18 and a half years.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

18 and a half years. And was that said mostly around here or some in Highland? Where was the bulk of it?

SPEAKER_03 7:50

The bulk of it was with the Sangman County Rescue Squad. And then I did 10 years in Highland, Illinois, and then two years in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

Okay. With Ory County Fire Rescue. What does the rescue squad do in Sangman County Rescue Squad?

SPEAKER_03 8:03

Sangman County Rescue Squad. I don't know what their purpose is right now because it's kind of shifted in the rescue squad, but they were pretty much one of the first fire departments, technical rescue agencies in Sangaman County and Illinois. Their purpose back in the day was to get the extrication equipment and teach other fire departments and rescue squads on how to, you know, properly cut up a vehicle, extricate a patient, and you know, get them to the higher level of care that they needed. And that was their purpose back in the day. It's kind of shifted. Um, when I was with them, it was shifting into canine search and rescue and a lot of other technical rescue applications. And then before I left them and moved um south, they were kind of getting phased out by other departments because of funding and training. And these other departments were relying more on education through Illinois Fire Service Institute. So, and then laws, the way the the Illinois mandated things, because the rescue squad was never a fire protection district. So they didn't have a lot of the protections and insurance liabilities to be teaching or assisting with fire department applications in the state. And so they kind of got phased out a little bit, but they are still valid, they still respond and help other smaller departments with extrications, mutual aid, Mabus Air Supply. They have a the rescue one is got has an air cascade system, which they respond to calls when other fire departments are on an active fire and they refill their SCBAs, which is their breathing apparatus, so that they can go in and they maintain those bottles so the firefighters fresh can go in and out and and continue, continue the mission.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Right. I think a lot of people don't realize how important that piece is to have those those tanks refilled and everything, because those things do go.

SPEAKER_03 9:52

I mean, you get depending on the breathing rate of the person that's wearing it, you got 30 to 45 minutes to an hour on a bottle. I mean, it just depends on how much they're physically exerting themselves, their physical condition, and how fast they're breathing. So when you're talking about extrication, are so when you guys were called to a scene, was it mostly accidents and different rescue squad pretty much responded to vehicle accidents um and any other kind of like structural collapses, drownings when they had the dive team, canine search and rescue. So anything that needed technical rescue capabilities, the rescue squad would respond to.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

What are you most uh what are you most proud of for your law enforcement slash firefighting career?

SPEAKER_03 10:29

Helping people. Um, so it's just there's a lot. But the the happy moments kind of fade. Um, there are some that you that stay in your brain and you just, you know, delivering a baby, stuff like that, making sure that some you you did extricate someone or give somebody a better quality of life. That when when 911 gets called, it's never a good day. You're you responded to somebody's worst day of their of their life. And whether it's on the law enforcement side or the fire department side, we are thrown into chaos, and we have to be the one that kind of has to try to figure out how to fix it immediately, with either relying on our training or thinking on our feet to fix it right then and right there. And the haunting ones are the ones that stick with you more than more than the happy.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Yeah, that's what I was gonna ask. I mean, because both sides of that, you have the really, really high of, like you said, helping deliver a baby or something to the really, really lows. And that has to be very difficult.

SPEAKER_03 11:22

Yeah, it's it was a challenge. And and that is kind of when I started to backslide again into alcoholism and and kind of I didn't see God's work back then and a lot of what I did. I just I became kind of immersed back into myself and just blind to God's work. And I drifted farther and farther away from God and and spirituality and all that stuff, and and drifted more away from the firefighting side, trying to focus more on the law enforcement side, and then just got personally jaded with society. I got personally jaded with people and just human beings in general. I had a lot of loss with partners and other law enforcement friends, whether they were killed in line of duty or if they took their own life because of the stresses of the job. You name it. There was a time where I mean, I lost six friends in two years. Six in two years. And it was just time for me to get out of it because my my mental health was just spiraling out of control fast. Um, and then that's when I moved to South Carolina and became a firefighter with Ory County Fire Rescue full time. And then loved that, but then my alcoholism was still taking hold and it the an off-duty incident allowed me, didn't allow me. Well, I mean, now I kind of see it as a blessing. I I like to use the term allow, sure, but back then I didn't see it as a blessing. The off-duty incident forced me to resign from Ori County Fire Rescue and uh I spun out of control through if we back if we backtrack a little bit. I had a few suicide attempts leading up to that. And then after I lost that job, which by the way was the best job in the world, I recommend if anybody ever wants to do anything in public service, recommend firefighting. I mean, it is possibly the best job in the world. But I lost it and was just down on myself, and that led me to a fifth suicide attempt. And this time I was gonna do it right. Like I was gonna make sure nothing got in the way this time. No matter what had happened in the past, something had always stopped it. Whether it was sitting at my house and trying to pull the trigger and somebody kicking in the door at the last second and the bullet going through the ceiling because they wanted a cup of sugar, that stopped that one. I crashed 90s Dodge square body pickup truck into a bridge embankment at 95 miles an hour, walked away with way, walked away from it with a forearm scratch and survived. No seat belt.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

You said came over for a cup of sugar, and that's what that's what stopped one of them.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

Yep.

unknown 13:42

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 13:43

As I was pulling the trigger. And again, like I th saw that as a failure. I was that messed up that I couldn't even do that right. And that just kind of compiled like everything that I was feeling at the time. So um came to that fifth suicide attempt, called my mom, who had passed away like three years earlier, and left a 15-minute voicemail on her phone and was gonna just check out. And that's the first time I think I genuinely hit my knees and desperately prayed to God. Um and I wasn't asking for anything else other than the forgiveness of the eternal sin or a eternal sin of committing suicide and ending my own life. And I prayed and I prayed and I prayed for safe passage to heaven. And to drown out the sound of the gunshot, I decided to turn on the TV. And there was an ad for a local recovery center in South Carolina, and I called that number instead. And before I called that number, I physically felt someone grab my shoulder and a man's voice whisper into my ear that it's gonna be okay. I've got you. Wow. And as soon as that person that I did not know at three o'clock in the morning answered the phone, that's the exact same thing that she responded back to me. It's gonna be okay. I've got you. And there was dead silence. And I don't know how many people you call at three o'clock in the morning. Right. And there's dead silence if you stay on the line or if you just hang up. But I mean, it's felt like it was five minutes. I'm sure it was only a few seconds, but it felt like forever before anybody spoke. But that was the first thing she said to me. And I was like, okay, maybe, maybe there's something to this. And she talked to me the entire way that I drove to Orangeburg, South Carolina from Myrtle Beach, was like a two and a half hour drive.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Stayed on the phone with you the whole time.

SPEAKER_03 15:25

Yep. I checked into recovery, did my 30 days there, decided I was gonna redevote my life to my wife, and you know, trying to figure out exactly what happened there. And none of it made sense to me at the time. But long story short, I went through recovery, started doing the uh doing the thing, and was introduced to Alcoholics Anonymous and started following that program, got out of recovery and I was 60 days sober, and I was flying back home to close on our house in Illinois, moved the wife and the kids over to South Carolina and was served with divorce papers, 60 days sober. And I'm like, okay, what do I do now? I called my sponsor, went to a meeting, and I didn't go out and drink. I stayed sober through all that, and then really started taking an evaluation of my personal inventory in my life and started looking back at a lot of things that have happened. And that's when I started rediscovering God, Jesus Christ, and you know, all that stuff, and really was able to see that a lot of the negativity in my life was God trying to redirect me to his will and to his path. Every single thing that I took as a negative in my life was a positive. It's just a way that I was looking at it at the time, and my mental capacity, my spirituality, my spiritual wellness was just empty. Like I was so bankrupt in that. I I if you would have told me God was real back then, I would have, I would have, I don't know what I would have told you. But it probably wouldn't have been pretty. Sure, sure. It was an eye-opener, and then working with it and four years sober now, just started this spiritual journey. And I was invited to West Side Christian Church by a friend. I just that was the first time I actually felt accepted by anything and any one and just balled my eyes out for that first church service. And just I've met so many nice people at West Side and uh just the church community through AA and just doing everything. And it's it's phenomenal. Like if anybody's out there thinking God's not real, uh just open your eyes and start looking around. He's there, even in the bad times and the hard days, he's there and just he's got you. You just gotta follow his steps. And West Side Christian Church has just been amazing. The everything that I've I've learned there, everything that I've done, you know, started daily devotional, started going to rooted, did the 10 weeks there, got baptized at the end of it at the spur of the moment spontaneously. And um I I don't know why I was fortunate enough to find what I found, but my prayers at night on my knees for safe passage to heaven were answered, not the way I wanted it, not as soon as I wanted it, but in his time and in his way. I mean, he's he's shown me the path that I need to follow. And it's my responsibility to accept it, to listen to it and follow it and pray for it every day that I'm following his will and not mine. And with that, everything has just been phenomenal. Everything's improving financially. I mean, I started my business under the foundation of sobriety and um even named it first response travel because of my past and the the career that I used to do. And one of my taglines is escape the chaos. Right. So, you know, we're everybody, even whether you're first responder or not, everybody has daily chaos. So why not you know, escape the chaos and go make memories and dreams? And that's what I try to do as I as I try to sell dreams now.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Love it. No, I mean that's where we met. We met through West Side, through Rooted. Yeah, we were Jeff Dillman was in uh yesterday and we were talking a little bit about the root about the rooted group. Cool experience, a cool 10-week experience. I mean phenomenal. You know, we went into Jeff and I, we knew each other, but we didn't know anybody else before before that. And it was really cool to be able to grow closer together through that whole thing with a with a group of guys that you had no idea about before. But it was just a cool experience. So and yes, and like you said, you at the end, Jeff was talking about his baptism and he planned his up ahead and did it and everything. And then you kind of spur the moment that night, felt the call to do it, right? Or the day before, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 19:28

No, not even the day before. I had the conversations with my family and my friends, and I was like, hey, I would like some of you guys here to see this and you know, to like kind of solidify my spiritual journey and know that I have changed, that the person you knew before is not who I am today. Like it's it's a complete 180 of who I used to be and who I am today. And I wanted my family and friends that saw the struggle, that saw what I went through to be there for it. That's powerful, man. And then I'm like, we showed up that night for the dinner and the graduation or the celebration of the rooted program, and they're like, hey, we're we're doing baptisms tonight. And I'm like, it just spoke to me. Like, why wait? I mean, we were in rooted, there was 10 guys in the in our in our group, and there was, I think there was like 153 other people that were there and through through the other nine groups, and why not be baptized that night to culminate everything that we just went through in the 10 weeks, the the foundation that we built. Um, why not do it that night with my brothers in faith that I just that I just met? And it is I I wouldn't have changed it for the world. It was magical. Um, and even um Derek, when he was up there kind of doing the commencement, was like, you know, the Bible says you win it once um as soon as you felt the calling and you embraced this new life and were bathed in the blood of Jesus Christ and started anew. So no doubt about it.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

So powerful. Now that that night, I think you might have had the picture of the night too, because they they posted on the West Side Facebook page after, because after after you were baptized, you you pumped both fists up in the air. I mean, you're a taller guy as it is, but yeah, you look like seven feet tall in there, man, just pumping those fists. That was awesome.

SPEAKER_03 21:09

And everybody was asking me how I look so tall. And I don't know if I I don't, and I still don't remember if I jumped up when I came out, but I mean it it did. It did look like that.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

I don't I don't think you did because I was there taking some pictures and I don't think you jumped up, but man, you looked you look like super, super tall. But anyway, I think you might have had the the picture of the night. Fun experience both that night and for the 10 weeks. We had that the serve experience out at Refuge Ranch, which is really cool. So look forward to doing some more stuff with them down the road as well.

SPEAKER_03 21:39

Absolutely. Me too. I wasn't able to go this last Saturday for the mentoring thing, but I will because I was out of town. But I'm gonna do that. That's a really cool program and a little basis for that for you know troubled youth. And I mean, if that existed back in the day when I was going through my troubles, you know, life may have turned out a little differently. I made it found my spiritual journey way before I. Did but I didn't know anything like that even existed. So it's really cool that they have what they have and that they're expanding.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

No doubt about it. Well, let's dig into the business a little bit. First response travel. So what was the impetus to starting that? Start any business you want after you were away from the law enforcement and firefighting. You decided on travel. Let's dig in a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 22:21

I could have done anything, but everybody in sobriety, the first year, they're like, don't make any huge decisions. Don't do anything crazy. So I just did what I wanted to do. I didn't do what I wanted to do. I kind of did what everybody else was telling me to do, like start small, start doing anything. So I got a job at a local plant nursery in in South Carolina and ended up being the yard manager and kind of, you know, working through that. And that was my first job in recovery. And I just did some other little odd end jobs here and there. I became a plumber for a couple of years and did things like that and just was really just struggling to find my way what I wanted to do. And I ended up getting letting let go from being a plumber because I started traveling. I started exploring the world. And, you know, I was living in South Carolina, my kids were back here, my wife was back here, and I couldn't hold a steady job flying back and forth and being with my kids for parenting time that I didn't want to let go. So now that I'm a single dad living four states away, 13, 15 hours away, um, I'd have to fly back. And then I started traveling a little bit more now that I didn't have those and just experiencing the world. And then that's when I started noticing that everything I thought about humanity, everything I thought about people was completely biased. That there is still good people out there. There are still good things going on. And one of my mentors back in the day at the law enforcement, it's not the same one that I had before, but it was one of my friends that passed away. He said, There's no bad people in the world. I mean, don't get me wrong, there is pure evil in the world that has to be counteredicted by, you know, the only person that can do that, and that's God. But he said, for the most part, there's no bad people in the world. There's just peep, there's good people put in bad situations, and that makes them do bad things or things that they have to do to survive. And that's something that I tried to develop throughout my law enforcement career and try to give people those second chances. But traveling and seeing that this world is okay. I mean, there's there's good things. You just have to embrace it and learn it. And that's kind of what started spinning me towards travel and wanting to do more world travel. And then I actually was introduced to this online webinar on how to become a travel agent and unlock the travel industry. And I watched it for an hour and started talking to the person who introduced it to me. And she became my mentor and taught me the business, the trades, and I I founded my own business through that. And I called it first response travel to tie it back into my past and my history and to not necessarily cater it to first responders, but embody the personal struggles that I went through.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

I like the escape the chaos tagline. That is cool because yeah, everybody's busy doing things. It's nice to escape into somewhere else. I'm kind of a I don't know, I get that wanderlust feeling, you know, and I just gotta I like I love travel, so I like being out a lot. So there's times where I just gotta get out of town for a little bit. I just gotta go travel for a few days, or I gotta be gone for for a week or whatever. So so walk us through what you do for your clients.

SPEAKER_03 25:28

I do anything. So I'm not just your travel agent, I'm your travel advisor. There's there's other travel agents you call and they charge you a fee to research your trip or whatever, even though you tell it, you could tell them everything you want. They might still charge you 25, 30 bucks, even sometimes higher, to just regurgitate the same information that you told them, but in a format that will be easy for you to follow and you know, is you know, alleviate that chaos and headache. I take it a step farther. I probably give you more information that you want, but I I want you guys to whoever calls me and wants to utilize my services, I want them to have the best possible experience that they can possibly have. I try to dive in and take everything off their plate. Um, so I'm not just a travel agent, I'm a travel advisor. And if you're looking to book a Disney trip, I will tell you everything that there is possibly to do at the resort, advise you the different options between the hopper pass or the multi-day pass, whether or not you just want to go to one park, if you want to go to both, if you want to go back in between, because those are those are restrictions there, and a lot of people don't know that. And then, you know, whether or not you want to stay on the resort or if you want to stay at one of their partner hotels, or if you don't even want to stay at their partner hotels, there's cheaper options to do it. It just depends on how you want to do it and how big your family is and what your budget is. I try to take all that into account and I'll give you three or four different options. Like if you want the cheapest option, here's this. If you want a media of the road one, if you want the most all-inclusive experience that you can possibly have. And here's what's out there. Right. Tell me what you want, and we can piecemeal it together. A lot of people don't do that. They'll just give you here's option A, here's option B, it's either or. Right, right. So and then I just had a client that wanted to go on a carnival cruise, and they were having a hard time trying to book it themselves, trying to get their schedules together and everything that had to go. And they called me up for services. They said this is the one we want to do. They we booked it, and Carnival has a strict no cancellation, no refund, no transfer of deposit. So they booked it, they paid their deposit, and then we couldn't get it switched. I tried, they tried, I tried again, got nowhere, and then I just became their advocate. As a travel advisor, I send several people a year to Carnival. I work with host agency and we send millions of people through Carnival Cruise Lines. My host agency did$550 million in travel sales last year alone. So when I call Carnival Cruise Line and be like, hey, this is what's going on, they're more apt to listen to me than like if you called it. Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:00

If I'm just, hey, this is just big. I got one cruise that I'm doing.

SPEAKER_03 28:03

You've gone on one cruise in the last 10 years. Right, right. But when it comes to a host agency with some backing behind it, and you know, you know, money speaks, especially to big businesses like that. Long story short, I became their advocate and was able to book them a different cruise, get them their refund, get them their deposit transferred to the new cruise, and they were not out the 450 bucks they would have been out if they didn't have me in their back pockets. I'm not just a travel agent, I'm an advisor and an advocate. So if something goes wrong, I mean, we've all seen what's going on in Mexico. Luckily, I only had one client that was somewhat adversely affected with that, and I was able to circumvent any issues before they went down there. But I have other travel agents that I'm friends with that had clients that were kind of stuck in that. And we had they had to jump in and be their advocate to get them out of that situation or cancel it or get them their refund. Definitely if you're going on a big trip like that, definitely I recommend travel insurance. It's it's huge. It's not just something that is extra to pay.

SPEAKER_01 29:03

Yeah, because that's one of those things where if you're booking your shelf, it's you know one of those last questions when you do it. A lot of times it's very easy.

SPEAKER_03 29:11

But there's different companies and different policies. You want to make sure you get the right one and having a travel advisor to sell you the right one or point you in the direction to the right one so that you don't end up holding the bag even more is is valuable.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

Right. So with the travel insurance, what are some what are some of the I guess allowable things that if you do need to cancel, you know, what are some reasons they'll take into account to be able to get your money back, or is it anything? You just can't go and get your money back.

SPEAKER_03 29:38

Some of them are anything. Yeah. And those are the ones that I that I present to my clients. But there's other ones that are strict that it has to be either a death in the family, a severe illness to any one of the travel parties. And then even then, not everybody that's on the travel party will get reimbursed. It's only the person experiencing the issue. So there's like like anything else, there's multiple different companies doing the exact same thing. It's just depending on which one you choose, whether or not they're going to be what their acceptable reasons for canceling are. They're not all the same.

SPEAKER_01 30:09

Sure. Okay. Are most of your clients uh are that you're advising? Is it more for international or domestic travel?

SPEAKER_03 30:16

A little bit of both.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:17

Um, so obviously cruises are pretty much international. You get on a boat and you go and you hit different cruise ports, but I do book international travel too. I mean, I can do anything. I'm certified. I've been trying to niche down to being a cruise specialist more than anything, just because it's it's I won't I don't I want to say it's easier, but it's just that it's more prevalent. Everybody loves cruising. Even if you haven't been on a cruise before and you go on your first one, it seems like everybody falls in love with it. So I'm trying to niche down to that. But I am certified with over 130 different vendors. It doesn't matter if you want to go on an African safari, if you want to go to Disney, if you want to go on a cruise, I can help you out.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

Okay. What's your personal favorite place to travel to?

SPEAKER_03 30:59

So far it's been Aruba.

SPEAKER_01 31:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 31:01

I mean, I thought Aruba was this tropical paradise, and it's it is if you're on the coastline, but Aruba pretty much is a desert. And I did not know that until I was there. And the people are extremely friendly. It's not a hot, humid place. It's a dry desert area, and the water is just absolutely phenomenally gorgeous. Like you talk about turquoise blue, pristine water, and it's I don't know, it just hit different down there. It was definitely blue, it was definitely turquoise, but when you got in it, it just felt like everything in the stress and your body just went away.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

It melted away.

SPEAKER_03 31:32

And then the sun sets when I was there for the three days. It was just it was a magical place. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

No, I've heard of the the water and everything, but I've never heard that it's a basically a desert out of the co outside of the coastline. I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_03 31:43

Yeah, and the only green cloud the only gre the only green grass in any of the properties were people that were from the western United States.

unknown 31:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:51

Western hemisphere. But other than that, it's it's a it's a barren desert.

SPEAKER_01 31:55

Huh.

SPEAKER_03 31:56

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 31:57

But yeah, Aruba, hands down so far. And Columbia. Columbia was probably my second favorite so far. I mean, I would I've been to Rome. Rome was nice. Yeah. I don't dislike any place that I visited, but if I had my hands down favorite so far, Aruba.

SPEAKER_01 32:13

Okay. All right. Might have to put that on my list then, because I've never been there. And quite frankly, you're just talking about cruises. I have never been on a cruise. I travel a ton, but I've never done a cruise. You should you should check it out. So I'll talk to you, talk to you about that. Tips and tricks, anything people should know about maybe cruises specifically? Anything they should be looking at?

SPEAKER_03 32:33

If you think you know it, you probably don't, unless you are a full-time cruiser. And even even crew people that go on cruises all the time. There's there's little tips and tricks all over the place that people don't know. Whether it's all inclusive or if it's not all inclusive. And then and then how to pack. Like when I went over first cruise, I definitely overpacked. You don't you don't have to pack as much stuff as you think you don't need that much stuff, huh? No. I mean, the rooms are tiny unless you get a suite. Right. Um, there's there's a lot of different packing trips. And I actually, my TikTok channel is I'm gonna start, you know, throwing out some more tips and tricks on traveling and how to pack and things to avoid and things to look for and things to do. So that'd be cool.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

Yeah, that'd be a good way to help people out, but also market your services like that. Yeah, very cool. So walk us through if somebody gets a hold of you and they're wanting to travel somewhere, take us through the process from hey, I call Andrew, say, Hey, I'm thinking about going here. What's next?

SPEAKER_03 33:27

Yeah. So I have like a 10, 10 phase questionnaire that I usually ask people to qualify them to see if they're genuine a client or if they're just kicking the tires. And if they're just kind of kicking the tires, I give them the generic hey, this is what you kind of do. If they call back, then we'll go through the questionnaire. But um, a lot of people call to kick the tires. Um, and I found out early on that if I give people too much information, they'll just go and book it themselves, but then they don't have their advocate, and then they end up calling me back anyway and be like, hey, we did this wrong. I was like, Right. There's not a whole lot I can do now since you've already booked and paid for it. Um, once you've booked and paid for it, I can't usually step in and help you out.

SPEAKER_02 34:02

Right.

SPEAKER_03 34:02

Um, so I mean, I guess that's that's a pretty big tip right there. Um, if you're thinking about using a travel agent, use a travel agent. If you're gonna book it on yourselves, book it on your own. But even with a cruise, the price that you're gonna pay, like if you go on their website and you see the cruise that you want to go, the price you're gonna pay is the same price you're gonna pay through me. Unless the travel agent you're looking at charges a booking fee or a research fee, the the price is going to be the same.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

I think that's a misconception among a lot of people is they think that it's gonna be a lot more expensive or something if I go through agent or advisor or something.

SPEAKER_03 34:35

It doesn't cost you anything more to book through me than it does to book on your own. Um there's a commission built into it, whether or not the company you're booking the trip through rolls that back into their top line, or if you're giving it to a small business or a small business owner or an independent travel agent, that commission's built in, whether it's pricelinebooking.com, you name it, it's all out there. There's a built-in commission. It depends on if the company rolls it back into their top line, or if somebody actually earns that commission and becomes your advocate to point you in the right direction and make sure there's no hiccups or hang-ups. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

So I mean, I think we've talked before. I'm the president of local first Springfield back here. So when we're talking about doing business locally with local people, it could be better for you know a local business like yours to get that commission rather than priceline or expedia, right? I mean, let's just let's just keep the money, keep the money right here at home. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:28

So somebody calls, we go through that questionnaire, we qualify them as a client and we start planning.

SPEAKER_01 35:33

Okay. Where would you say you send most of your clients to? Or are they mostly cruises? You know you're trying to niche down into cruises, but are most of them calling you for cruises?

SPEAKER_03 35:41

I've sold a lot of cruises. My car is wrapped in sandals and beaches attire and it's co-branded. And a lot of that is because I sold quite a few trips to them. They're like, well, hey, since you know this is all working out for you, why don't we just kind of help you out a little bit? So it's co-branded and having my car wrapped around like wrapped like that and driving around town, it it generates interest and business. And, you know, I'll go through a drive-thru or something and be like, Oh, I need to be there. And like, yeah, exactly. Escape the chaos. I just throw that tagline at them and give them a business card and we start having a conversation about travel. So I would say it's a fair mix between all-inclusive resorts and um cruises at this point.

SPEAKER_01 36:17

So sandals and beaches, for those that don't know the difference between the two, sandals versus beaches.

SPEAKER_03 36:23

It's the same company. It just depends on if you're looking for more of a beach-oceanfront resort, or they both have beach ocean front resorts, but it's just co-branded. Sandals is a little bit more upscale, refined, kind of higher-end budget kind of excursion, all inclusive. Um, and beaches is more of a family-friendly come and go enjoy the all-inclusives and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 36:47

Is Sandals adults only right now, or is it family? A little bit of both. Gotcha. There's so there's some of them that are still adult only, but they've tried okay. Gotcha. It's been a little bit since I've been on an all-inclusive in Mexico. My wife and I used to do them quite often, but since we had kids, we haven't gone down to do very many of them. We've, you know, done Mexico and Dominican Republic and all that, all that fun stuff.

SPEAKER_03 37:07

But yeah, it's pretty much resort specific, whether or not it's gonna be adult only or if it's gonna be family friendly.

SPEAKER_01 37:13

Yeah. That's when that's next on our list. We want to get the girls to like an all-inclusive place, whether that's Mexico or wherever. So or maybe we'll just go to Aruba, like you said. Just call you up and we'll go to Aruba or something.

SPEAKER_03 37:26

I don't know if they have any all-inclusives there right now, but I'm fine with not all-inclusive. I'm just I'm definitely gonna have to look into that because I want to go back to Aruba.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

Yeah. Yeah. No, we haven't uh haven't taken our girls out of the country yet. So we've done a lot of places within the US, of course, but we haven't taken them outside the outside the U.S. So that'll be the that'll be the next thing, I guess. So how long have you had the company now? How many years in are we? Two years. Two years. All right.

SPEAKER_03 37:52

So I had my two year anniversary three weeks ago.

SPEAKER_01 37:55

So well, so similar question to your your law enforcement and fire fighting career. What are you most proud of over these first couple of years? Travel.

SPEAKER_03 38:04

Travel, experiencing new cultures, new environments, new ways of life. I mean, everybody says America is the greatest country in the world, but man, some of the way the way people live in some of these other countries, like in Rome, in Italy, in in Colombia, in Panama, it's just so magical. It's just maybe the way our economy is and the way our political system is, maybe we are the greatest country in the world, but there are so many magical moments in these other countries that's like if we had this back home, things could be a hundred percent better. Just experiencing the different cultures and things that I never would have imagined existed. I'm allowed to see now by getting out of my comfort zone, getting out of my element and and seeing things in their natural setting. It's just it's magical.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

Well, I think that's what's so important about travel. That's why I mean that's one of the reasons why we've traveled with our girls so so much when they're young, because it it does. It opens your eyes to other things, it broadens your horizons, you know, gets you out of the environment here where we don't see the big picture of everything. I think it just really, it really does. Opens your eyes, gives you more ideas to to bring back to your community and the whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 39:13

And that's kind of what I focus my bookings on and what I try to emphasize to my clients is if you want to go for just the food and the entertainment, go for the food and the entertainment. If you want to experience the culture and experience the country or the city or wherever you're going, if you want to experience it, there's these other options to do that. Whether it's a food tour, whether it's a cultural tour, whether it's an architectural tour. Um, I will give you those options so you can immerse yourself into the area and you can experience the culture.

SPEAKER_01 39:43

And I think those things are are super cool, those like the cultural tours and getting immersed into that. I know when we were staying at the all-inclusive resorts, we always tried to do some of the cultural stuff, get out into the into the country a little bit and see what it's really like outside of just the the nice all-inclusive resort.

SPEAKER_03 40:01

Just make sure you do it in a safe spot. Correct.

SPEAKER_01 40:03

Correct. Yes, definitely. Anything around that, and just make sure you go to the reputable places, I guess, or talk to you and make sure you get it right.

SPEAKER_03 40:12

Reputable places and make sure you're going through reputable company, whether if it's an airport transfer or if it's a a transfer from a resort to like a scuba diving trip, and like you said, Mexico. There's a lot of places in Mexico, like if you go to a Riviera Mara or Play del Carmen and you want to transfer or travel to a beach excursion or to the Mayan ruins, sometimes you have to book that through the resort, or if you call independently, like an Uber, they don't have Ubers in Mexico per se, but they have a different travel site. I just make sure you're using a repule company that's that's recommended either by the resort or a travel advisor that you know has some backing and has some safety concerns built in. Mexico is one of those places that you don't want to just book something on a whim and hope it's the right one because you don't know who you're getting or where you're going, or if it's we've all seen what's going on in Mexico right now, and it's it's a tragedy, but you you definitely don't want to get in one of those cars because you you you might not know where you're gonna end up.

SPEAKER_01 41:08

Right. Yeah, no, we always book through the through the resort. And back when we were doing them, I think we we used Apple Vacations a number a number of times. I know that was one. But yeah, no, we're gonna have to start uh going through you and figure out what we can do to get get ourselves to Aruba.

SPEAKER_03 41:22

Apple Vacations is one of my vendors. Oh, okay. All right. You'll pay the same price. Um, sometimes I can unlock discounts and benefits for you that you might not be able to get on your own.

SPEAKER_01 41:30

But yeah, there was a a couple of times we did, I don't know if they still do it where they you do the Apple deal where you're like, well, you can get a mystery resort, you know, five five golden apple. I don't know if they still even do that type of stuff. But okay. So like five golden apple resort, you just don't know what you're gonna get until until the last minute, but you get a deal on it. We did that a couple of times and it all turned out nice. Yeah. So always got a cool one. They're not gonna put you anywhere bad. No.

SPEAKER_03 41:54

Because then it looks bad on them.

SPEAKER_01 41:55

Right. Exactly. Exactly. Well, it's uh let's flip over to the personal side. We've already talked a little bit about faith and spirituality and your journey, but anything else you do personally to elevate your life?

SPEAKER_03 42:07

Right now, and what it is focusing and just putting different spin on my entire life is daily devotionals. I'm waking up in the morning, I'm doing my daily prayers, reading the Bible. I do the wise guys' Bible study on Wednesday nights through West Side Church. And when we got into this 365-day Bible reading plan, diving into the Bible and reading it, actually reading it for the first time in my life is changing everything. Like when I used to read the Bible, if I read anything in the Bible, I didn't find its relevancy. But everything that I've been through, the spiritual journey, and now looking at it, it doesn't matter when it was written. It feels like it was written for me, or there's something I can pull out of it that I can turn in and base on my life. Like, this is why these words were written, and this is why these words are so important. Even if you don't think it is an important story in the Bible, there is there's a purpose for it. There's a reason it's still in there. And that has changed my outlook every day to start my day with my daily devotional, read the Bible, and then just sit in meditation and pray on it, and then you know, do my AA meetings and go to an AA, you know, AA readings and then go to an AA meeting and then stay with my new brothers in faith and check in with them and people in AA and just starting my day like that resets everything, and every day is a new day.

SPEAKER_01 43:24

Love it. Any trips planned?

SPEAKER_03 43:26

Not right now. Not right now. Got a few things going to Chicago, going to Wrigley Field in uh in a couple of weeks to just check out some of the local sites. And I've only been back in Springfield now for about eight months, and I'm just I'm revisiting the Lincoln sites and making a lot of travel content with that. I don't have anything super huge planned right now. I'm looking at Hawaii for my travel conference. It's a big annual conference that we do with travel agents if if I can get in on that. I think it's sold out right now, but they have a waiting list. If I if I can get in on that, then that's that's what I have on the radar. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 44:00

No, the the Lincoln sites around here. I think there's so many people in Springfield that have lived here forever and have never really, you know, gone to the Lincoln sites a lot. It's like something you take for granted. It's in your backyard. It's right here, so you take it for granted and you never go. But go do it. When we first moved over here, uh, because I'm originally from Decatur, uh, when I first moved over here, that's what we did with our girls, and now I still do it every now and again. Hey, let's go check out the Lincoln sites. At at some point they're like, Yeah, we've been there like 12 times now, but that's a but no, it's great. Check it out. Yeah, check it out. So well, Andrew, so much great stuff today. Let's uh let's give the audience a couple of things before we close out here. Let's give them a piece of advice, one on the personal side, one on the professional side to help them elevate their life or business.

SPEAKER_03 44:43

Personal side, get out of your own way. Trust God. So that was huge for me. Once I did that, everything kind of started changing and I'm strapped in for the ride. I'm excited for it. I don't know where it's gonna take me. Um, where it's taken me so far is just beyond belief where I thought I would be four years ago, and just trust God. And professionally? Professionally, get out of your comfort zone, meet new people, experience. You told me about local first Springfield and networking, running a small business. If if you don't have that personal and professional network, you're not gonna go too far in engaging with new people and just having conversations like we're having right now are huge for business.

SPEAKER_01 45:20

And is there anything we can do community-wide to help all of us here elevate Springfield and the surrounding communities?

SPEAKER_03 45:27

I would say get out and volunteer, support local small businesses and reach out, ask if anybody needs anything and just be there for your neighbor. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 45:35

Absolutely. And if you're out there wanting to help out, refuge ranch might be a place to start. Good place there.

SPEAKER_03 45:40

Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna start doing that. They're in need for male mentors based on the conversation that I had with them. And I like again, that is just an their mission is just absolutely amazing. And I want to be a part of it.

SPEAKER_01 45:53

No doubt about it. Well, Andrew, remind everybody where they can go find more about you and First Response Travel.

SPEAKER_03 45:59

Um, www.firstresponse travel.com is my website. I have links to all my socials on there and look forward to seeing my followers that grow and having conversations with people.

SPEAKER_01 46:10

There you go. And check out them tips and tricks on TikTok coming up. They're coming. So there you go. Again, they have to get out of my comfort zone and start making them. Yeah, I'll help you out with that. We can have some fun with that. I love I love the social side. I love getting stuff out there. So maybe we can collaborate on that a little bit. Yeah. So well, Andrew, appreciate you spending some time with me today, brother. Absolutely. So thank you for having me. Absolutely. Well, we're gonna let Andrew get back to Elevate in Springfield, but for the rest of y'all, we'll be right back. Looking for expert tree care with hometown integrity, look no further than Sangamon Tree Service. They're your trusted local pros, delivering quality workmanship, exceptional customer service, and fair, honest pricing every time. Whether it's trimming, removal, or storm cleanup, their team brings professionalism and care to every job, big or small. Call the name your neighbors trust, Sangman Tree Service, or visit them today at SangmanTreeService.com. Sangaman Tree Service, rooted in quality, built on trust.

SPEAKER_00 47:09

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SPEAKER_01 47:41

Well, thank you for joining us today, everybody. Appreciate you making us a part of your day. Hey, don't forget while you're out on social, check ours out. You can check my personal one out at RobertFarrell at everywhere. Check out those Elevate Springfield pages, those big dog business coaching pages as well. Check us out over on YouTube. Give us a subscribe, give us a like or a follow on any of those channels. We would certainly appreciate it. So hey, take what you learned today. You bring the discipline and follow through and together, as right, y'all. We're gonna elevate Springfield. Be great. Looking for personalized insurance with hometown care, David Hilst, American Family Insurance Agent is here to help you protect what matters most: your family, your home, and your dreams. Whether it's auto, home, life, business, David and his team are proud to serve the Springfield community with trusted advice and reliable coverage. Local service, real relationships, peace of mind. Call today or stop by their office. They can build your dream protection plan together. Call 217 726 6343.