TIME - Travel Industry Mentor Experience
TIME - Travel Industry Mentor Experience
Reigniting Passion and Finding Purpose: Peta Godfrey’s Journey from Breweries to Travel Industry Success
Ever wondered how a stint at a local brewery could reignite someone's passion for the travel industry? Tune in to hear Peta Godfrey, Managing Director at Travel Focus, share her incredible story of resilience and reinvention amidst the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic. Discover how a pivotal scholarship from Tour Atlas and the transformative TIME program helped her rediscover her strategic vision for her business, all while balancing the demands of professional and family life with the guidance of mentor Penny Spencer. Peta's journey is a masterclass in finding opportunity in adversity and cultivating a renewed sense of purpose.
And that's just the beginning. We'll also take you on a delightful detour through Sydney's best croissant spots (once again), and you'll learn why adding personal travel anecdotes can revolutionize your sales strategy. Plus, get a backstage pass to the surprising past of one of our guests, a former drummer of the rock band Tokyo Spares, now thriving in the travel industry. From early 2000s fashion reminiscing to celebrating the TIME-less elegance of French men, this episode is packed with engaging stories, practical wisdom, and plenty of laughs. Don't miss this captivating blend of business insights and personal reflections.
time. Hello and welcome back to the time podcast. Yet another episode with the ecstatic arnaud michelin. Um, who is very cool today wearing a cool jumper to highlight that he is still cool despite his age. Um, welcome back, arnaud, it's good to have you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, timo. Um, I'm really happy to be back. Happy fr Friday or happy whatever day of everyone listening to the podcast is for them.
Speaker 1:Today is an opportunity for a happy day, but which happy time, grad, do you have for us today?
Speaker 2:So today our happy guest her name is Peter Godfrey. She is the Managing Director at Travel Focus, so welcome to the podcast, peter thank you.
Speaker 3:A very happy hello to you, timo and anu how much happiness today already wow yeah it's a good day, why not be?
Speaker 1:happy. Now let's let's get straight into um happy opportunities um tell us about your very first happy time moment. So how did you meet the time community? How did you hear about it?
Speaker 3:I heard about time a long, long time ago when it first started. Really Maybe was that 15 years ago now. I think yes, almost.
Speaker 3:So, it's always been on my radar. It was always something I wanted to do. Um, I just never knew when the right time was. And uh, it wasn't until end of last year, when I was just working like crazy like everyone else was until stupid o'clock in the morning and I was on LinkedIn before I was going to bed one night and I saw that Tour Atlas had a time scholarship and I thought now's the time now's the time, so I applied for it and was very lucky to receive it, and that's where it all started.
Speaker 1:Was your ambition to join the program to get more efficiency into your day-to-day work? Or it sounds like you've been very busy, but what was your actual?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I guess with COVID, everyone had a reset. My business had a reset, so I bought the business in 2018, which could have been better, but we had a good year before the pandemic hit and I bought the business with my business partner at the time, monica, and so we worked together to build up the business in that first year and then, during COVID, monica took on another role within the industry and I was kind of left at a, I guess, a fork in the road. You know, do I want to continue in travel? Like some people, I guess I did kind of lose my passion for travel through COVID because of just every day you're dealing with refunds and it just wasn't ending. And I did get myself a fun little COVID job at our local brewery, so I was enjoying that. You know, no TTLs or anything like that to deal with just what beer to have as your staffie at the end of the day.
Speaker 3:So I guess, coming back, I was just at that point where I had to make a decision Do I continue with the business or do I take go on a different career path? And I decided to stick with the business. My clients I was running into them in the street and they all kept saying to me you know, when are you coming back, when are you coming back? And we didn't go anywhere but we just weren't advertising the fact that we were. And then that was my motivation to get back into it, get my passion back. And then being on my own owning the business, now that was a bit of a learning curve and I was just kind of stuck in a rut on where to take the business, what direction, and the confidence levels were quite low.
Speaker 2:So that's when I knew it was the right time and that was my motivation to, to, to get into the program okay, I really did appreciate when you at your graduation, your your graduation speech, because there was something that you talked about about like being a mom and having, you know, like family life and all that sort of stuff. And I think that, especially for us, like you know, when we record the podcast and we have, we meet all sorts of guests, right, but rarely we meet with people that are, you know, like small business owners that have their own retail agency or whatever other kind of organization that you know that they lead and to put that into perspective with like family life and how important it is to have that balance. And I thought that yeah, it was really heartfelt and yeah, I felt like that program really helped you, you know, being able to mix the two. And yeah, I think that people don't really talk too much about that aspect, you know, of we're professionals, but we also have a life outside of work, right.
Speaker 3:Well, that's true, and I didn't at the time, because we did get to that point where everyone was so busy. Yeah, yeah, Well done Timo.
Speaker 1:What is time for outside of work. This is ridiculous guys. How dare they? I don't understand what's going on there. Yeah, so obviously, lots of opportunities for you back in the time to structure your future in a new way or an improved way. Your future in a new way or an improved way? So when you met your mentor?
Speaker 2:who, how, when, what and who Do?
Speaker 3:we need to know who she is, because I believe that everyone knows who she is the one and only Penny Spencer was my mentor and, wow, I was so, so lucky. I think it was a really good fit. As you were talking about the balance the work and family balance, life that was one of my main things on my expressions of interest form, that I did want to work on that and, and you know, penny was fantastic in doing that and we achieved it really quite early in the program as well. So, yes, penny was incredible perfect match for me. I guess our first meeting was the intake back in November at the TTC buildings, back in November at the TTC buildings, and we met. We could only meet quickly because obviously Penny had to go and do all the work that she does at the events.
Speaker 3:But we met, we set all our appointments quite early for the next six months and, yeah, we worked around them really well. So I went to her office most of the time and she came down and visited my office and met my team and we did a couple over teams when we couldn't meet because it's a two-hour drive, but it was worth it. I would listen to the Time podcast on the way up in the car, aw.
Speaker 1:Well done, well done, yeah it was a good opportunity for that.
Speaker 2:So sweet that we were with you for all that time. Why, to inspire you two? It?
Speaker 3:was. It is inspiring and that's, I think, a good part of the program is being in touch with all the other mentees and graduates just to see everyone's in the same boat. They're all there for the same reasons. So, um, meeting up before the events with the other mentees and hearing how the program's going, it's just it's all so inspiring and and I love it. It was. Yeah, I agree, I also.
Speaker 1:I also think the graduation speeches is usually my favorite moment because obviously, you know, I mean, it's not long, it's a few minutes, um but you hear so much of of development happening and excitement that has been built up over the six months and some people are very excited for public speaking. Other people are not as excited, so it's always interesting to observe the personalities. And but so do you have like a favorite moment with penny? Was there like a special thing that you discussed and you suddenly thought, oh yeah, of course that's exactly what you know, what the future has to be. And the, the coin. Do you say the coin dropped in english? Is that a thing?
Speaker 3:sorry, what was that the?
Speaker 1:do you say like the coin dropped, or something in english?
Speaker 3:the penny dropped yes the penny drops yes, the penny drops you're almost there, tim.
Speaker 1:You're almost there. Hopefully penny didn't drop penny, penny, yeah, pun intended you got my line now I appreciate that someone understood what I was trying to say this is the best line for this podcast, the penny drops like we need to maybe get like more penny puns in today's episode. I love that She'll love it For you to make a podcast with a French person. I can tell you that, Anyhow, that's the question.
Speaker 3:Oh, every one of our meetings. Seriously, I got so much out of every single one of them my two-hour drive home. I would just process every single thing we talked about and work out how I would implement it. And I guess when Penny came down to our office, into my office, and met my team and she sat there with me because part of my problem is I'm very unorganized I was very unorganized so my inbox was ridiculous and I would just fly by the seat of my pants. I'd come across an email right, do that, then I'd start something else and I'd have 50 tabs open. So she came down and she sat with me and we went through every single email in my inbox and filed it and got rid of it and we got my inbox from about 300 down to maybe 20. And ever since then it's just it's that's.
Speaker 3:That has been a life-changing moment, because it just having that organization and know it's such a simple thing, but knowing I can do it now and being semi-forced to do it, it doesn't sound like much, but I was very much pushed out of my comfort zone then and deleted a lot of emails. I was a bit of an email hoarder, I guess you could say so. It's been good. Don't look at my inbox right now, because I have been out of the office all week, so we're sitting at over 100, I think. But that's my job as soon as I get off here, getting rid of my inbox.
Speaker 2:But you know, there's times where you have a little bit of an influx of incoming emails but you basically learn the technique on how to be organized and getting things done. That's right. So we can label pennies, yeah, calendars, yeah, that, that, that those little things can help a lot before you did the time program and you looked at your business the way it looked at the time, and then when you look at it now, do you do you see that there's been like a shift, a change of the direction where this business is going?
Speaker 3:absolutely yes. So I mean, I came into this with a head full of crazy ideas and dreams and goals and things that I thought, oh, one day I'd like to do that. And that has all happened in six months. With Penny, we've just completely shifted the direction of the business. Just completely shifted the direction of the business. I am working on changing my role within the business as well, stepping back a little bit from that frontline, and doing that has allowed me to work on the business and put everything in writing, like all these crazy ideas in my head, just put them in writing and have these achievable goals and set timelines, and that in itself has just changed the direction of the business, where it's going. There's so much room for growth now and we're just. We are definitely where I want to be. Okay, yeah, and the direction is exciting.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, that's very exciting. Sounds like you've done a bit of a spring clean.
Speaker 3:Very much so.
Speaker 1:That's great Good on you. So if you think about now, what's your future involvement in time and, as we know, there's usually a workshop before the networking meetings and if Arnaud would now say I need you. I was trying to get a French accent ready, but it's too complicated from German into English French accent to it it's too much, so I can't Sorry.
Speaker 2:Get the croissant ready.
Speaker 3:I can't say croissant, I've been practicing.
Speaker 2:That's wow.
Speaker 1:I feel really honored while we're on the topic of croissants, let's park the other question quickly um where is your favorite croissant place in sydney?
Speaker 3:oh, well, I can, I do my local area yes, of course sydney.
Speaker 2:Yes, yep so where that arnold might stop by to verify, and then he probably gives you a two-hour feedback session we probably have would have gone there because you know like when I travel I try also to find good croissant on my on my trips.
Speaker 3:So well, well, I'll test you, so, kayama um south of sydney, which is close to where I am. Uh, there's a beautiful little patisserie on manning street um called the patisserie, and I don't think you will find a better croissant okay, in sydney than than there. So that's the challenge. I challenge you with that one.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I suggest for the next time meeting you bring a couple with you. Ah okay. I know when I can do a live tasting yes, and then do the two-hour feedback session at the networking event.
Speaker 3:That sounds good. Yes, yeah, replace the work spot.
Speaker 2:When I go to Kayama I go to a little cafe called the Brooding Italian. There's no plug in there because these guys do daily muffins. That changes every day. They do and every time I go, I just go there just to see what they have right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nice, that's the flavor of the day and I do really like them.
Speaker 2:So I haven't tried the patisserie in Kayama, but next time I'll stop and then I'll I'll tell you great coffee at the brooding italian as well.
Speaker 3:Very strong, strong coffee, strong coffee.
Speaker 2:That's the way I like it strong and black to the question we've parked.
Speaker 1:So your future involvement in time, let's assume well, with his beautiful french accent asks, asks you to conduct a workshop for the community, for the current mentees. What's your workshop going to be? What's the billboard you can send back to the world for future wisdom?
Speaker 3:I think if I was to conduct a workshop, I think it's so important in the sales side of travel just to be able to think outside the box and not just be an order taker. Um, it's so easy for someone to come in and sit down and say, I, I want to do this and this, I want to go on a trafalgar tour. But, um, to have the ability to talk to the client, find out exactly what they want Trafalgar or, you know, insight, one of these companies may not necessarily be for them and you can then talk to them and just offer information more than what they ask for. So I think that's really important within travel and being able to just give the client what they're coming into a travel agency for, and teaching that. I think that's important for sales staff to understand.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I try and push that in my business and get my staff to just think outside the box and just tell a story, your own travel stories. That's what we're here for and that's why people come in and see us and talk about that little patisserie or that little cafe where you got the croissant from. So, yeah, I feel like my clients like to know all that. So, yeah, I think that's a good one.
Speaker 1:I like that Very good, and we're a bit time short today because Arnaud has an appointment at the hairdresser. Yes, clearly we already have to move to Arnaud's table. I'm doing my roots today, so tell us a little secret, we'll do my roots today. So tell us a little secret about you that no one knows, let's say nearly no one. You know we don't want to be too bad.
Speaker 3:Well, I was in a band for 15 years.
Speaker 2:Oh cool.
Speaker 3:Yes, I was the drummer.
Speaker 1:The drummer.
Speaker 3:Yes, my husband was on guitars and my sister-in-law was the singer and yeah, we played around pubs in Sydney and we've supported a few bigger names before. We've never been the headline but yeah, that was my sort of what kind of music were you guys doing?
Speaker 3:We were a bit of a girl rock, I guess you could say, except for Melvin. He was the ringing girl, but yeah it was. We did some covers just to keep people happy. You know, you'd get that person in the back row yelling out play some chisel. So yeah, we played our own. It was mostly our own music, but it was fun. It was a fun time in life. And then kids came along.
Speaker 1:Now you should actually plan on a reunion um gig at one of them.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, we did record an album. We even did a film clip that got played on rage, which is on tv overnight. So, yeah, we almost made it. But, um, I'm much more happy in the travel industry than the music industry, to be honest. But that, but that was a fun thing to do so yeah, that's my little dark secret Don't ever ask me to get up and play drums at an event.
Speaker 1:No, we won't. Unfortunately, we will have to force you to send that link to us so we can actually yes, so we can promote it.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm just going to go on Google now.
Speaker 3:What was the name of the band? You don't need to do that, because there's lots of videos on YouTube.
Speaker 1:Don't be shy.
Speaker 3:Our band's name was Tokyo Spares, so yeah loud, a bit rocky. So oh, dear.
Speaker 1:Oh dear, Now it's all happening.
Speaker 2:It's all happening, oh dear. It's all happening on Google right now and I'm looking it up. Oh yeah, oh yeah, I can, oh yeah, yeah, they even have a Facebook page, oh yes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this was. We even had MySpace. That's how long ago it was.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, I remember that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that was our main event.
Speaker 1:That's exciting. We definitely browse a bit through and ask you for a performance at the maybe at the time gala event next year.
Speaker 3:Oh, you never know, I don't know. Get the band back together. Yeah, get the band back together.
Speaker 2:I wanted to ask you a question in relay and in in regards to um. What's um? What's next for for you with with time, but mainly like more with the angle of the the mentorship is it. Are you now looking at potentially getting some of your staff members to do the program because you think that they will benefit from it? What's the vision there for you and for your team and your organization in relation to time?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, definitely. Look, I would love to keep being involved with time. I have been to every event since and I plan to. I'm actually doing a panel discussion at the next event. I'll be up on stage, you know, pushing through my public speaking anxiety, but we'll get there.
Speaker 3:But I have I definitely have talked to some of my staff about doing the program and that will probably happen end of the year, maybe next year. I would like to do one a year if I can, but yeah, I'd definitely stay involved with time as much as I can.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Love to hear that.
Speaker 3:Awesome.
Speaker 1:Sorry, guys, I have to cut you guys off now because it's time for Arno to get his perm done. Get my hair done. Thank you so much for joining us. It was great chatting with you. Can't wait to research all your musical history, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Yes, okay, ignore the outfits. It was the early 2000s.
Speaker 1:Look, there's movies out there for me, where you know where I was younger and I look horrible. It's just how it is.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's right. Yeah, we can't avoid it, can we?
Speaker 2:No, no, I mean, you know, we've all been there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Not everyone is an evergreen like Arnaud right.
Speaker 2:Well, look, you know, that's what happens with French men. You know we like good wines, we age gracefully, so just saying.
Speaker 1:Of course. So just saying, of course, thank you for that, indra. We really appreciate that Everyone else have a beautiful day and we just leave Anu in his little bubble off.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.
Speaker 2:Thank you, peter, thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you, bye-bye.
