We were lucky to catch up with Abby Kragh recently and have shared our conversation below.

Abby, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with something countless entrepreneurs have had to figure out on the fly – how have you dealt with the rise of remote work?

Friend Like Me Travel Co. is an online business by nature – we have 92 independent contractors who live all over the United States! The most important thing to us is our company culture and making sure our travel agents stay connected as a team even when we may not have met in person. We do this with weekly formal meetings, clubs within the group (like a book club), eating lunch together on Zoom, and staying in constant communication via our Facebook Workplace!

Abby, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I got into the travel industry in 2017 after finishing my Disney College Program. One of my favorite things about my job working in Walt Disney World was talking to guests and giving them tips on how to make their vacation better, so when I learned there were people that do that for a living, I was sold! Eventually, I built a client and social media base that allowed me to start my own agency – Friend Like Me Travel Co. started in 2019 and we have grown by leaps and bounds ever since!

What makes our team stand out is the heart and soul that my agents pour into every single trip that they plan. I am constantly blown away by the lengths they will go to make a family’s trip better and the service that they provide. We have a base level of client services that each guest will “automagically” receive when they work with one of our travel planners (or Genies, as we like to call them!) Each Genie then takes what we give them and adds their own spin and resources for their guests. The personalized attention that each family gets is something really special and I am so proud that we offer it.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Friend Like Me Travel Co. opened on October 1, 2019…5 months before a global pandemic shut down all travel for months! COVID-19 was a huge setback for such a new business, especially one in an industry that was so drastically affected. In some ways I am thankful that this happened when it did – we were so new that we weren’t really making any money yet, so I wasn’t relying on the business as my sole source of income.

During the lockdown, we turned our focus away from gaining new clients and bookings and instead doubled down on trainings across the industry – when people were ready to travel again, we would be ready to get them where they wanted to go. We did so much training that vendors were calling me in amazement to thank us for our diligent work! Staying knowledgeable about everything we do is so important to me and one of the main pillars of our success.

We also knew that we needed to keep our social media accounts active during lockdown even though no one could go anywhere yet – we switched up our strategy completely and started sharing things that our guests could do at home to get excited about the future of travel. At the time, we were very heavily focused on Disney (we have since expanded a lot in other areas!) and so we shared lots of recipes of fan-favorite foods you could make at home, hosted trivia nights, and posted engaging posts to encourage our followers to stay connected.

Any advice for managing a team?

My biggest piece of advice is that one “bad apple” can truly spoil the bunch. If there’s someone on your team that stands out as a downer, they are bringing the whole team down. For us, the last straw was when we were making decisions or announcements to the team, we would brace ourselves for the reaction of one person in particular. Once we realized we were doing this, we cut our ties with them and it was transformational for the rest of the team!

Ultimately, we’ve found that our team members are most invested in their success and performance when they enjoy the work environment. It seems like a no-brainer, but it’s easier said than done to establish that! Giving your team lots of opportunities to connect makes the biggest difference in my opinion. By the time we all meet in person, it’s like catching up with an old friend, not like meeting a stranger!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.friendlikemetravel.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/happilyeverabbyy
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/happilyeverabby
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/happilyeverabby
• Other: Tiktok: www.tiktok.com/@happilyeverabby