Today we’d like to introduce you to Corby Cook.
Hi Corby, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I have always been a person who likes details and thrives off having a schedule. However, when my son was three years old, we took our first family vacation to a theme park in Orlando without any plans. I quickly learned that was a mistake. I scrambled to make reservations after our first day was a bit disastrous and I quickly came up with a plan for the remainder of our stay. It was rather stressful and I had no clue what I was doing. Fast forward a few years later and I had became “that person” who was frequenting the parks 2-3 times a year. I was the one my friends would turn to for recommendations and tips.
I’ve always been a bit of a people pleaser. I discovered I loved helping others plan their vacations in advance in hopes that they would not have the same experience I did my first trip. I truly enjoyed providing a service to others and loved helping them create vacation memories they would cherish for years to come. I would stay at a different resort each visit and try different restaurants so I could speak to each one. I then started writing articles for a friend’s blog. I was spending a lot of time giving out information and one day it hit me…there has to be a way to turn this vacation planning obsession into a business.
After much thought, I reached out to a mutual friend who owned a travel agency up north, she took her chance and hired me, I became a travel advisor in 2010 specializing in Disney destinations. I had no idea where things would go. I worked extremely hard, creating tips and documents for my clients from scratch and building my clientele. There wasn’t a lot of information out there on social media to help with my endeavor like there is today. I had to figure things out on my own the hard way. I just tried to provide the best customer service I could and give each client’s reservation my all.
I opened up my own travel agency, Yellow Shoe Travel which is home-based in Roswell, GA in 2014. I am blessed to have six amazing, hard-working, professional Independent Contractors who are a part of my team. We have expanded to booking destinations globally and it’s been a wild ride to say the least! We are now a multi-million dollar producing boutique travel agency of seven who specializes in premium and luxury vacations.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Travel advisors have to build up their clientele which can take years. It takes a lot of hard work, grit and determination. We work off commission and don’t get paid until after a client travels. Our business has always been strictly from word of mouth referrals and repeat clients of who we are so very appreciative of. We have never advertised.
Since Yellow Shoe Travel was created, business was growing year after year, we were expanding into more destinations and I was so proud of the direction we were headed and then… March 2020 hit. I was on a research trip in Mexico when I started getting texts from my advisors saying how bad things were. Clients were canceling their vacations left and right. The hard work we had put into each reservation was all for nothing. We spent countless hours canceling each trip which cost us more time all to not get paid. The business I worked so very hard to create was literally destroyed within a few days of the pandemic hitting. I was in complete disbelief, went into a major depression, could barely get out of the bed however, I’m a very headstrong person and I refused to give up. Just writing this brings tears to my eyes. It was a devastating time to say the least. Months would go by and we would see a glimpse of hope all to have another variant hit and to deal with more cancellations or pushing dates out. It was a lot of stress with very few highs and a lot of lows for a couple of years.
I’m thankful to this day we made it through because there were days I did have my doubts. I will never take anything for granted again. Even though what we went through was awful as a business owner, some positives did come out of it. While I certainly wish it never happened, the pandemic gave us the opportunity to learn and grow with our downtime. It allowed us to discover who we really are, pushed us to another level and grow as a team.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Yellow Shoe Travel is a boutique travel agency based in Roswell, Georgia. We specialize in premium and luxury vacations. Our specialty is travel to Florida, Mexico, Caribbean and cruises. We also partner with amazing destination experts and can assist with Europe, Africa, Central America and so much more!
We strive to provide the best customer service possible and will try our very best to listen to our client’s needs and create a vacation curated just for them that they’ll cherish for a lifetime.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
If anyone is interested in booking a vacation, they can go to our website, www.yellowshoetravel.com, click on Contact and fill out the inquiry form. I play a bit of a matchmaker and try to pair up the client with an advisor best suited for them who will then reach out to start the vacation planning process.
We are a small business and truly grateful for each client. We can do as much or as little as a client prefers. Just because you choose to use a travel advisor doesn’t mean you don’t have a say in the process. I think this is a big misconception. You basically tell us what you want and we do the dirty work. If you aren’t sure where to begin, that’s OK, we will help guide you. If issues arise before or during travel, we are the ones who go to bat for you. We get up early in the morning to make dining reservations, we wait on hold so you don’t have to. We will walk you through each step in hopes of making sure all goes as smoothly as possible while in destination.
Our goal is to make the vacation planning process as easy as possible for you. We try our best to travel often so we can speak from first-hand experience and stay up to date on the latest information. As travel professionals, we are some of the hardest working people I know who truly love what we do.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@yellowshoetravel.com
- Website: www.yellowshoetravel.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yellowshoetravel/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YellowShoeTravel/
