TIME - Travel Industry Mentor Experience
TIME - Travel Industry Mentor Experience
Just keep swimming with Christine Oliver
Hard truths can be a gift when you’re brave enough to hear them. We sit down with Christine Oliver, Regional Sales Manager at AmaWaterways, to unpack how a no‑nonsense mentor, a focused networking strategy, and a deeply personal recovery journey helped her rebuild confidence and direction in Australia’s travel industry.
Christine shares why she pursued formal mentoring at a senior stage of her career, especially after the one‑two punch of COVID and an aggressive breast cancer diagnosis. Instead of platitudes, she wanted accountability and clarity. That led to a mentor who pushed her to overhaul her LinkedIn presence, set monthly connection targets, and approach every event with a clear purpose. We get into the nuts and bolts: how to prepare when attendee lists aren’t available, how to choose which rooms deserve your time, and how to turn conversations into traction rather than small talk.
We also tackle the AI question. Can tools replace a mentor? Christine explains why human candour and context still win, even as AI helps with research and prep. From there, we explore her current focus at AmaWaterways: building brand recognition in Australia, showing up where it matters, and empowering teams to consider TIME mentoring at the right moment in their journey. Along the way, a small Christmas ornament with a Nemo motif becomes a powerful symbol of resilience and distance travelled, proof that personal anchors can drive professional courage.
If you’ve been feeling busy but aimless, this conversation offers a practical reset. You’ll learn how to measure time like an investment, refine your professional brand, and choose events with intent. Subscribe, share with a colleague who needs a nudge, and leave a review telling us the one change you’ll make to add purpose to your week.
Hello, and a very warm welcome back to the Time Podcast. Today with my lovely co-host and a special guest. But let's start with my lovely co-host. He is the one with the least hair on this podcast episode today. He's also the one who smiles the most, and he's the one who thinks he's the most fashionable. However, we have not fully agreed to that yet. Welcome back on this lovely show, Anno Michela. You can say hi now.
SPEAKER_03:Hi, Timo. Hi.
SPEAKER_01:So rude of you. Hi. Can't believe it. I actually made an effort just for you, right? Even combed my hair.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah, and me too. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I can see. Like, yeah, your curly iron has been uh going off for quite um quite a lot. On my side, as you can see, I still haven't uh decided to go to fly to Turkey to get my hair done. Um visionary curls. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Maybe next time I can come with a filter that gives me curls. Instead of talking about your curls, um Yeah, let's talk about the host that we have today, because she's really special. Uh, we have Christina Oliver, um, she's regional sales manager at Ama Waterways uh River Cruises. Welcome to the podcast, Christine.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for having me. You're my first podcast, so you always remember your first. So there you go. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Wow. Have you ever been introduced before and someone was laughing while saying your name?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, I don't think so.
SPEAKER_03:I'm not really laughing, I was just being like, you know, cheerful.
SPEAKER_00:And we all like a bit of cheer.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, exactly. Um, I mean, look, I think that you uh this is this is the time for you to to be on the podcast, Christine, because um I think you're very special to the time community, you're very special to the travel community in Australia in general. Um, and then you you did a really lovely speech um at the uh 15th anniversary ceremony that we had a few months ago. Um and you know, I thought it was just like a natural thing to have you to have you on your pod on the podcast and then talk about your journey and you know a little bit more about the personal reasons why you why you did that, right? Um, which I think is is is um yeah, a really nice story to tell.
SPEAKER_01:Who would you say has has influenced you most in your professional career? Up to time?
SPEAKER_00:Uh up until time. That's actually easy. So a man by the name of Gideon Shalek, he was um gosh, he was with Trafalgar for 32 years or something, and then he moved across and started doing uh contract repping. He's now retired, but he was the first person that really took um took notice of what and really worked with me to evolve my career, and he was amazing, and we're still friends to this day. My husband and I still go skiing with him and his wife, and so yes, he was definitely a very big influence. And you know, when I was 26, he gave me my first job out on the road and he saw something that other people didn't. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I was asking because a lot of times people think, oh, you if you're like the natural leader, if you're always in charge, you don't you don't need the mentoring part. And I think it's quite exciting to see someone who's naturally someone who takes accountability, responsibility, and seeks that position within a team, um, to also understand, hey, that doesn't mean you know I can't seek advice or guidance or or reflection or whatever it was for you. Um, so how comes that time came into the play for you then?
SPEAKER_00:I had heard about time. I feel like I've always known about time since the beginning, but I never really thought that it was for me. I I don't know why. I thought it was one of those things that I wanted to do in the future, but I really didn't know what I would get out of it. And I did have some really, you know, I had people like Gideon who was um fantastic and still is fantastic. I can certainly go to him and ask him any question to this day. Um so I did have some quite some informal mentors along the way. And then I went, no, you know what? I, you know, a lot of things happened. We ran COVID, etc. And then I went, no, I really need to have a bit more um formal structure around a mentor. And yeah, I was very pleased to do the time program and very happy with it. I needed it. It was at the right time for me.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and I think you I think that you you you nailed it there. There was probably you had heard of it for a long time, but you were not ready, right? No, and there's a you just need sometimes to wait for the right, the right moment to, you know, take that, you know, um that step to to to get into to the program. Was there a lot of people? Because it is a big killer that did that to you.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, for me. Oh yes. Um, so COVID obviously happened, and during COVID, I was also diagnosed with breast cancer and quite an aggressive form of breast cancer, and I had a lot of chemo radiation operations. Um, you know, the doctors said to me that it was going to be 18 months of crap. It was 20 months of crap. So um, yeah, and I just needed to get my confidence back. Um, and it made me reassess. Look, COVID made everybody reassess their careers, but adding in cancer at the same time really made me reassess where I wanted to go in my career, where had I gone, why was I doing what I was doing? There was a lot of questions that I was asking myself, and I needed somebody to help me navigate all those questions, and that's where the time program was perfect. Yeah, you claim sorry.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, obviously, very extraordinary circumstances to join a mentoring, a former mentoring. Um, who was a mentor? How did I approach your situation?
SPEAKER_00:Okay, so I my mentor was a man by the name of Anthony Drury, who uh had been living in uh the UK and had just moved back to Australia. So when he became my mentor, he uh was not working, which was great and not so great because I became his full-time job. That's what it felt like. And my gosh, I asked, yeah, you know those that saying, you know, be careful what you wish for. I asked for someone that would tell me it's straight. I didn't want anyone to be blowing smoke up my backside. I wanted someone to say, you know what? No, you should be looking at doing this, or why haven't you done that? And questioning me and really challenging me. And that's exactly what Anthony did. I've since found out um that they actually asked Anthony three times to mentor me. And each time he's going, No, I'm just coming back to Australia. And he was actually in Dubai when he finally agreed. He was on his way back from the UK and he was holidaying in Dubai, and finally they wore him down, and he was exactly the right person for me. So, because he's yeah, he's a lovely, lovely man, but gee, he gave me no leeway to slack off at all. So be careful what you wish for.
SPEAKER_03:Christine is not a slacker.
SPEAKER_00:Well, yeah, Anthony may dis disagree every now and again. I'm going, but I'm so busy. And he's going, You've got the weekend, haven't you? Right. Okay. So I got he gave me homework, he you know, he looked at my LinkedIn profile and said, Yeah, this is rubbish. He didn't use that word, but yeah. He said, Are you telling me that you only know 90 people in this industry? And I went, Well, no, of course I know more. And he said, So get that LinkedIn profile. And that was actually probably the first thing we did was um make my LinkedIn profile a much better place to what it was. I wasn't utilizing it at all. He really taught me a lot of tricks of the trade with that. Um, and every month I had to increase my um my connections by a hundred stuff. Oh wow.
SPEAKER_01:I also noticed that we are not linked on LinkedIn, so I help you go over to I just sent you a request before the podcast recording started. How is that possible? Are you linked with Arnaud actually? Is he um? Of course we are. Of course we are.
SPEAKER_00:Sorry, sorry.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, look, you had a point, Christine. Like, you know, you can you can't have 90 connections on LinkedIn when everyone knows who you are.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. Yeah, well, that's exactly why, but I didn't need to. I wasn't I wasn't utilizing utilizing it.
SPEAKER_01:Was there like a light bulb moment, or was there a special moment in that six months where you say where you thought that is really, really valuable advice? Like obviously the general situation was a lot to work on, but was there one specific thing that really stood out to you?
SPEAKER_00:Yes. Anthony is very big on why are you doing things? Why are you going to that networking event? Why are you doing anything? And if you are going to do it, and if you are going to take your time out of your personal life, it's got to be worthwhile. Who are the people that you're going to target? What are the questions that you're going to ask those people? What's the reason why you want to target those people? So he really made me look at networking events. I would go to a networking event going, oh, yeah, it's good to see everybody. No, no, no, no. You don't just go to see people and be seen. And, you know, if you happen to make a good connection, great. You actually go with a purpose and a reason. And if you do not have that purpose and reason, then your time is best spent elsewhere. So that was probably for me, and it's still something to this day. Now, in Anthony's world, you actually get the RSVP list beforehand and you check out people on LinkedIn, and you know, and that's not always possible. There's very few people that will give you the RSVP list of who's or the attendance list before you go. Um, but you do get an idea of who's going to be at a function and uh yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So it's a very interesting one because like I know I only go there to see you, obviously. Um that's the main reason. Um do you go there with a specific purpose? Obviously, if you want to hear the graduations and source out new podcasts.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, well, yeah, that's uh for me, it has it has different purpose, yeah, definitely. That one is is one, so I go there because I'm like, oh yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm going to find um uh good good stories, and then we can invite some people to come on the podcast. So that's my that's my primary primary reason to to go. But look, so last time I went to a graduation, that was a few weeks ago, it was at the Travel Corporation, and I took with me my director of operations um with me because he's an amazing guy, uh, great experience. But I feel that um at times, you know, even though he reports him to me, I don't necessarily feel like I have all the tools to be able to mentor him in the same capacity um that he deserves in order to develop in his professional career. There's a lot of things I can do with him, but I think that you know he will benefit a lot, you know, um from the time program. So I dragged him along with me so then he could listen to the speeches of the graduates and understand what are the benefits of you know doing the time program. And after this, he was so happy. Um, I obviously introduced him to there was a lot of people in the room that I knew, uh, that were ex-mentees, ex-podcast, you know, guests, um, obviously some other people within the travel industry that that were there, that were personal friends. And so he had um, you know, yeah, that opportunity to be able to see what time would offer. And so that was the purpose for me to go on that particular day. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I think for me, um, the real reason of that goes I really get inspired by the graduation stories. And it's also a bit of a reminder for myself that when I go back to work, okay, you know, that's one of what I want to focus on. Uh, not only work, also, you know, outside of work, many, many things that I do. Um, but I also notice it is very easy to unlearn or not apply the learnings when we get busy. Christine, what do you do to ensure what you've learned in your six months you continue doing? Like, is there a ritual that you do, or do you have a note at your mirror in the morning? This is what I want to focus on. Or how do you remind yourself? Because it's so easy to be consumed by all the busyness and craziness in the industry.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. Uh no, I do not have anything on my mirrors. Um, but I do often, if I feel like I'm floundering a little bit, I do actually go, okay, what would Anthony say to me now? Or so I still think that now, you know, we keep in contact, not regular, but we still keep in contact every now and again. But I also go, okay, what is my purpose? What is my reasoning for doing this? Um and recently there's been some times that I haven't asked myself that question and I've gone, well, that was actually a waste of time. And we're all so busy that we actually don't have that you know beautiful space that we can just waste our time. We've really got to actually concentrate. So because I had two events like that in a close succession, I've really now gone, okay, let's stop. Let's refocus. Let's think of some of those things that Anthony would say to me. And yeah, and I've yeah, cancelled things or I've said, okay, I'm can't do that, uh, but I'll do this a different way. So yeah, it's just his voice is in my head, and that's not always a good thing.
SPEAKER_03:But uh it's a bit like um using like that, you know, like basically the return on investment uh kind of like principle, right? Is that what you go in there, what is the return that you're gonna get out of that, right? And that's a that's a basic, you know, business principle. We do that every single day. Do we invest marketing dollar in that particular campaign and how many sales are we gonna get out of that, right? Yeah, um and you know, you you go there, it's like, okay, I'm going to that networking or that uh travel conference. What am I gonna get out of this?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. And the fact that I now go in there going, okay, who do I want to see? Who do I want to target? Um, it sounds quite clinical when you say it that way, but that's what we all want to do. We all need to build connections in different ways and for different reasons. And I definitely go into conferences, events, etc., with more of that principle in my mind. Even just general meetings, I go into that. What do I want to get out of this? Um, and as you say, that's very, it sounds all very basic, but so many of us don't do it, particularly for networking events.
SPEAKER_01:So are you are you using Jet GPT or AI to kind of do the pr research for you before you go there? Like would you upload the RSVP list and there it says Anno, for example, and Simo, and then it would tell you like I'm not going there.
SPEAKER_00:No, I I I don't use AI very often. Um people ask me if I use AI. Yeah, did you yeah, did you use AI to write that? And I probably should get into that more. I use it occasionally, but no. I generally will go onto their LinkedIn profile, have a read of their LinkedIn profile, find out what's going on. Um I don't ring up and ask for the RSVP list because I did it, you know, Anthony really made me do it. And every time I got rejected going, oh no, we don't send out the uh attendance list, and I kind of yeah, I don't ask now. I think it depends where you are on the food chain, and I'm not high enough on the food chain for people to give me the acceptance list. Um, so yeah, I just really go onto LinkedIn. I yeah, you find out, you talk to people in the industry, you find out who's going to what. Um different story when it's a conference. I'll know on a conference and I'll look through, and it may be that I'll look at that company's website, and it may be the company that I'm wanting to get to know more about rather than a particular person. Um, you know, do they do groups, do they do charters, you know, what do they what do they specialise in so that I've got a topic of conversation for them. And I don't write down the questions I'm gonna ask, but I have thought about them before I get there.
SPEAKER_01:I was asking before in 1053.
SPEAKER_00:Three.
SPEAKER_01:Three questions, sorry. Star sign, salary, and I'm kidding. Um so I was uh I was asking about AI because we recently interviewed Penny for um the 15th year anniversary, and we spoke about mentoring like 15 years ago, today, and in 15 years, especially under the aspect of AI. So with your experience now, um, do you think the future of mentoring will have AI involved, Assange, or do you think that personal element is just not replaceable?
SPEAKER_00:It's not replace. I don't think it's replaceable, but it also depends what you're wanting to get out of the mentoring. You know, I wanted somebody to tell me like it was and to say, yeah, Christine, why are you doing this? I don't think AI does that to the degree that I wanted it. I'm you know, I'm not a person that gets upset if someone tells me the truth. I'd much rather someone tell me the truth and go, you know what, what you are doing right now is crap. Yeah, and that's exactly what Anthony said with my LinkedIn profile. And you know what? He was right. Um, but I don't think, yeah, I think AI would be more, oh, maybe you could increase your presence on LinkedIn. It would be a bit more nicey nicey about it. And I, you know, I needed someone to just be blunt.
SPEAKER_01:Be very German, be very German actually.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I love the Germans. Well, I used to live in France as well, so yeah, I Oh there you go. Exactly. So yes, I do like bluntness, you know. It suits my personality.
SPEAKER_01:I'm the same. I'm the same. I know just can't handle it every now and then. Then he gets upset, and then you know, when I sit at a fish shop, he just walks by me, ignoring me, not saying. Here we go again. Wow.
SPEAKER_00:I don't think I need to know. Welcome to the show, Christine. Thanks.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, Paul. Um Christine, is there any new project that you now have taken out of the mentoring time that you had that you take on at the moment, that you're trying to tackle at the moment? Anything exciting that is top secret that we can share right now?
SPEAKER_00:Top secret, always top secret. Uh well, after I finished the mentoring program, I moved. So I changed companies. And uh, and then I moved to Armour Waterways. So, Armour Waterways, we've only been in Australia since January, end of January last year. Uh, so we haven't been here that long. So everything for us at the moment is really getting the brand recognition out there, the name out of there. We're going, well, I'm going, we're all going, to the opening of an envelope at the moment just to get our name out there so that the industry knows who we are, what we stand for, what we do. So that's where everything is for us at the moment. And that's uh yeah, nothing top secret about that, sorry. No.
SPEAKER_01:Still good to know. It's still good to know.
SPEAKER_03:And actually, a little shout out to Steve because you know, like he's been a big supporter of um time, um, whether it's today, you know, with your current organization, but also you know, like in the past, um, right. And he's I think he's always seeing a lot of value into it for some of his team members. And although I understand that you were part of the time programme, not under his patronage, but you know, I think that is still like encouraged very much that people work for him to, you know, to be part of the program if they haven't done it, because I think that he sees a lot of value into it.
SPEAKER_00:So he definitely does. And you know, we're looking at um someone within the organization now. We've yeah, Steve and I were talking about time the other day, and he's going, Oh, I'd like this person to do it and this person to do it. So, yeah, obviously you can't have everybody do it all at once, but uh over the next couple of years, I think when people are ready to have it. And I would do it again. Yeah, I was gonna ask you. Yeah, as you're going through your career, I think there's different things that you need to get out or you want to get out of time. And that's the beauty of the program, is you get out of it what you want to get out of it. And the fact that you've got to write down what you're wanting to achieve to make sure that you're getting the right mentor, yeah, is uh a great thing. So yeah, I'd do it again.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think that the pairing process is very sophisticated, but also so um difficult because you obviously need um a couple of people within time who pretty much know everyone. Well enough to understand person A is a great fit for those needs, or it's person C, or you know, whatever it is. Um it's it's so unique and no technology, no general organization that is run on non-profit or whatever will be able to do so because that community element and that closeness is missing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And that's why I don't think AI would ever be able to take the place of whoever they how they choose the mentors, because it does come down to personalities and yeah, it may be able to give you a lead you in one direction, but yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And I I really like that that you did the program actually quite late in your career. As in, you know, you've been already quite senior, you've been quite experienced, you understand team leadership, because sometimes people think the mentoring is for career starters only, or you know, for I don't know, people my age, 29 and a half.
SPEAKER_00:I'm only 31.
SPEAKER_03:We can tell that Timo is a lot older than you, too, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And me.
SPEAKER_00:That's why so many people were surprised when I said that I was the mentee and not the mentor. And I will look at being a mentor, you know, we just need to get Armour waterways a bit more solidified in the market before I do the mentoring. Um but yeah, I needed someone to help me navigate the things that were not worrying me, but I was questioning about my career. Because yeah, I I haven't, you know, I was a state manager many years ago, which uh wasn't my um finest hour because I yeah, maybe I was too young when I did that, whatever, but it also made me lose my confidence in there. And then I worked for you know Singapore Airlines, and they're very structured in what they do. I wasn't prepared to move around the world every two years. I am I'm a Brisbane girl. I love Brisbane. And you know, unfortunately, up until the last couple of years, being in Brisbane, unless you worked for the Flight Centre Group, was not always the um was often a career-limiting move. So uh it's changed a lot since COVID. You know, there's so many people now that are in executive positions that live in Brisbane. Um but yeah, so I needed someone to help me navigate that. Do I really want to do that? You know, I thought I did, but do I really? And that's where Anthony really came in and made me question so much. So yeah, that was good. That's amazing.
SPEAKER_01:Um I think you can actually be a mentor and a mentee pretty much at the same time because you might be able to help someone obviously within their journey wherever they are, while also obviously be on the receiving end. So it's I don't think it's it is limited to one or the other. It would actually be interesting to do both at the same time. Oh, I know that's your challenge for 2026.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, okay, all right, challenge accepted. Um I mean, yeah, we'll probably think uh if you think of it, I think that we've interviewed a couple of mentors, they probably felt that there were sort of mentees in that relationship too, you know. Um considering all the things that they got out of the uh out of the experience, um, you know. Um yeah. So yeah. It's a well thing. If you if you jump on the other side and if you become a mentor, I mean I'm sure that we will know. And so so then we can have an we can we can take that conversation, you know, um to in another direction when you when you do that and then see see where you're at, right? I think it'd be interesting to to to follow you uh uh follow you on that.
SPEAKER_00:And it'd be interesting to see who they would pair me with, you know. So I think that would be also an interesting thing.
SPEAKER_01:I agree. I agree. Now, as we all know, guys, Christmas is coming up, so that means more our cash flow is beginning with because you know the relatives, they're all greedy and want big presents. So, Christine, what's something that you've bought that's a hundred dollars or less in the last, let's say, eight weeks that you thought was extremely inspiring to yourself? Oh, inspiring or just nice? No, inspiring or motivational, maybe.
SPEAKER_00:Oh$100 or less. We've just done two bathrooms at the same time. So, yeah, no, we did not get that brand. Exactly, exactly. But that was inspiring to get the two of them done at the same time. Um it's oh, actually, you know what it is? I was in Perth uh this week and um I met an agent and she said, You need to pop into this shop next door because it's quite amazing. And they had all the Christmas decorations out, of course. And uh I bought this little Nemo Christmas decoration with a Santa hat on it. And the reason I bought it is because when I was going through the cancer, my cat to cry, my mantra was just keep swimming, just keep swimming. And when I was going through really bad times, the breastcare nurses would just whisper in my ear, you're just going through the electric jellyfish, just keep swimming, just keep swimming. And they all knew that was my mantra. And so by buying this little Nemo Christmas decoration, it's just a reminder. I'm gonna cry. It's just a reminder of how far I've come. That's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you for sharing that. That's really good. And it just shows, you know, how the small thing, if we attach the right uh mindset hook to it, becomes extraordinarily powerful.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, it's very powerful for me. Yeah. Why have you got a fish on the Christmas tree? But it means a lot to me.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Well, Christina, we come already to the end. Our time. The podcast is over, but uh not our time. Um, thank you again for joining us for sharing. And I I really hope I'll see you very soon again for one of the many beautiful time events.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. I do appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01:Of course.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you for your involvement in time, Christine, because I know that you're very active in Queensland to develop the program over there. Not that, you know, um I mean, there's the community in Queensland is so vibrant and you know, and big and you know, a bunch of people that are very, very tight net of people, you know. Um, but yeah, thank you for your involvement in time. Um and yeah, and thank you for sharing your story. Um, you know, so no worries.
SPEAKER_00:Anytime I'll come back and you can be my second podcaster as well.
SPEAKER_03:There you go. First and second.
SPEAKER_00:Wow, I thought you'd never ask. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01:Awesome. Thank you guys. Happy Friday. Happy Friday.
