We were lucky to catch up with James Berglie recently and have shared our conversation below.

James, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

For years I had been a professional photographer, and while I loved what I did, I also had a passion for the beach life. I longed to really be at the beach, mixing my passion for photography with everything beachy. Initially I started picking up business in Florida as a photographer and I also decided to become a travel agent as well as a way to offer another service to my local wedding couples who also needed to do a honeymoon! Then I decided to combine the photography and travel, and I started offering my photography services to destination weddings! For about 8 years, I traveled with and photographed destination weddings once a month and throughout that time I was able to really learn a lot about the resorts. I soon realized that my competitors in the travel industry were not nearly as experienced as I was in weddings due to my experience as a photographer who constantly traveled, and when I was able to market and communicate that to clients, business started really booming! I’m also a huge nerd, so I was able to bring technology advancements into the space as well – where my competitors were answering phones and dealing with complicated processes for guests to make reservations and payments, I created my own system and streamlined the entire process for our couples and their guests. This further set our business apart and helped us see crazy growth.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Sure thing, initially I graduated college and bounced around to a few “traditional” jobs before jumping out on my own as a full time photographer. I photographed weddings, corporate events, major sporting events, politics, and celebrities (at least as “celebrity” as the Washington DC Scene gets). While I had a job everyone seemed to wish they had, my heart really was in travel. Longing to be a beach bum entrepreneur (or maybe lifestyle entrepreneur is the more appropriate term), I started up a travel agency! Yes, I know, who in todays world still uses travel agents, right? – That’s the response I got from family and friends, but I knew there was potential despite their objections. Years of experience as a traveling photographer going to all inclusive resorts on the regular and learning about the destinations and hotels set me apart from many other travel agents because I was a for more experienced as a traveler. I brought my own unique ideas on marketing and technology into the business and approached things differently than most of my competitors because I was a transplant to the industry, and was able to see things with fresh eyes as an outsider to the industry.

To this day, even though we’ve solidified our place in the industry now, we are still always challenging the status quo in the industry and forcing our partners to see other points of view by still thinking as an industry outsider. We’ve been able to build an amazing team of agents as well who dont view our clients as just another wedding, but instead forge great relationships with our clients and help guide them every step of the way through the complicated process of planning and executing a wedding in a place most often, they have never been to before, in a country that doesn’t speak the same language, with guests coming from all over the world. It’s not at all uncommon for our agents to have their couples invite them to their wedding by the time we get through it all, and we have built life-long friendships with many of our clients! Many of them are even agents on our team now! :)

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

2020. Yes, I know many business owners might say 2020 was proof of their resilience, but you will be hard pressed to convince me that any other industry had it harder than the travel industry in 2020. We had just “gone on our own” leaving another brokerage and starting our own brokerage agency in January of 2020 and we were excited for what was on the books for our best year ever. That all came to a screeching halt in March of 2020 when covid hit and instantly our income went to zero. Not only did our income go to zero, but we still had to work. Actually, we had to work harder than we had ever worked before. Clients wanted their money back, but hotel contracts didnt allow for refunds, but only a change in dates. Not only were we rescheduling, but so was every other agent in the world, and when would we reschedule to exactly with everything unknown!? The misinformation and panic out there was immense and lets just say the worst came out in people, and we were often at the receiving end of that.
For a long time, we were working 80 hour weeks, not making any money, and not knowing when or if we ever would make money again. We were lucky enough to have some groups start traveling again in July of 2020, and they slowly increased month by month there after, but income wise we were still making very little for the amount of work we had to put in. I think one group we rebooked 4 different times. Rebooking a group requires a ton of work, that we are not compensated for at all, as agents, you only earn money after your guests travel, while all of the work is front-loaded before the guests travel. Can you imagine doing 5x the amount of work for the same money — and even as you are doing the work, wondering if you will see the income at all?!

Somehow, we also focused on how we were going to come out of 2020 during this time, and for some strange reason, we convinced others to join us during this time!! lol! Looking back, we must have been insane, but we were signing agents and growing the team during this time as well. Preparing for the surge of travel that we hoped would come after. And boy did it. – from 2020 to now, we grew form one agent, to 10, and increased our sales by about 8.5X

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Of course 2020 was a big pivot as described in the last answer. But I think another big pivot for me was in making the official transition from full time photographer to full time travel agency owner. Starting a new business is scary. There is a ton of risk and you don’t know if it is really going to work out. Most new businesses start out as a side gig, and mine was no different. But slowly you put more and more time into the side gig because you see potential. Eventually you find yourself working 2 full time jobs. I found myself doing this for years. Every morning it was get up and start working around 9 or 10 (which may seem late yes, but wait til you see the bed time), work non-stop until about 7 or 8, eat dinner for a little bit, and back to work from 9 or 10 until 3 or 4 in the morning. I did this for years, and it cost me a lot even though it also gained me a lot. Finally I realized it wasnt sustainable and I had to let go. I had to pivot into whichever business was going to be everything, because I just couldnt keep up doing both. But actually pulling the trigger. – well that is one of the scariest things you will ever do in your life. It’s one thing to do it fresh out of college when you can fail. – It’s another thing to do it in your 30’s when you are more established already and failure means losing a home, cars, etc. – I see many entreprenuers do the same, and pivot to the new career too late.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.beallinclusive.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beallinclusive/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXR2ZmE8Gkvc2fVQgpnsxgg

Image Credits
Photos: James Berglie for Be All Inclusive