After catching a decent night’s sleep I found myself back up in front of an audience.  This time the topics were alternating each day, with the morning session focusing on front office hospitality and guest service and the afternoon session focusing on reservations selling.  What wonderful and enthusiastic groups we had both days!  I really enjoyed my stay there and loved jogging Monday night on the flat sandy beaches, not to mention the 2 for 1 Margarita special they were offering at the beach bar after my jog.  Here’s a picture of me with some of the groups I trained over those two days, followed by one of me with my client contact Maureen Trbovitch, who is their Director of Training.
          


         

After training all day Tuesday I hoped back into my rental car for my drive to the next client, which was Bluewater GMAC vacation rentals in Emerald Isle, NC.  Guess I’d lived in denial as to how far of a drive it would be, as it was well after 8pm as I entered the parking lot of the hotel they’d arranged for me that was closest to the location of their meeting.  Having already conducted reservations sales training for this company some time ago, I was back in town to present the hospitality/service training for their entire operations team.  The timing was good I suppose as are just heading into their peak season, so it was a good moment in The Universe for a (hopefully) motivational reminder about my Five Principles For Personal Fulfillment In Hospitality Excellence.

The workshops were really fun to present.  It was kind of neat that they had to pack everyone into such a small meeting room (due to their incredible growth these past few years), but no one seemed to mind.  With such an enthusiastic and responsive audience I certainly didn’t mind either.  Here’s a picture of me with the group that day.   My main client contact, Gail Martin, can be seen in the first (left) picture to my right.
       

The day ended all too soon and I was back in my rental car headed this time to Wilmington, to catch my USAirways flight to Charlotte and connect home to Ft. Lauderdale.  Since my scheduled arrival time was already to be 11:21pm, and since I had a 12:45pm wheels-up time the next day from Miami to Montego Bay, I was really hoping my flight would be on time.  When I first landed at Charlotte things looked pretty good despite some recent thunderstorm activity in the area.  But as my departure time of 9:30pm grew close, they moved it back to 10:30pm.  Then at 10:20pm they moved departure to 12:20am.  We finally left just before 1am, and I think I arrived to my house about 3am with just enough time to unpack, do some laundry, and repack for my next trip.   My 8am wake-up came too early, but at least it was delivered via a goodbye kiss from my wife Cathy as she headed off to work looking as angelic as ever in her work outfit.

I sprung into action and minutes later was heading out the door for my flight to Jamaica.  Once I shook off the rust the adrenaline soon returned as I was soon excited to be headed back to Jamaica once again, this time to present another training for the call center staff at Couples Resorts in Montego Bay.  The good part this time was that I was actually going to meet the person I have come to call my Mystery Client, which was Ivonna Szelerska, who is their Director of Distribution and who I’d first cold-called at least 3 years ago to sell mystery shopping and who had set-up the training I’d done there one year prior as well.

Her superstar status as a hospitality profession was confirmed over the next few days, starting with when she greeted me with a hug versus a handshake, and she immediately offered to take me to lunch despite that it was getting to late afternoon.  (Good thing, I was starving from my travels so this was appreciated.)  After our introductory meeting we headed back to the Sun Beach Resort, since there is not a Couples Resort in MoBay.  I was very glad that she was accompanying me, as it turned out we were also staying in an all inclusive with mostly romantic couples.  Ivonna’s company was especially appreciated at dinner.  We both joked about how awkward it is to be the only single dining patron at an all inclusive (mostly couples) resort and how others must talk about “Oh, I bet he had a fight with his wife and she’s back in the room which is why he is eating alone tonight.”  Afer Ivonna and I had dinner and she retired to her room to work, I have to admit heading back down to the beach bar, as afterall it was Friday night!  Despite that we Road Warriors don't want to make it sound like it's too much fun on the road, I have to admit that both nights I was there I enjoyed hearing some of the best live reggae music I've heard possibly ever.  I even ended up with another CD from a musican named Vinny Taylor who was the leader of the hottest Roots Reggae band in Jamaica if you ask me.  As the clocked turned midnight on June 16, I was celebrating my 46th birthday dancing to the Bob Marley song "Three Little Birds," as I'd done almost one year ago with my children at my wedding reception.  Short of having family to share it with, it was about the best birthday present imaginable at the time.
Here’s a picture from my balcony that night: 
                                                    

Next day it was so nice to train their staff at Couples Resorts, about half of which had been with me a year prior and the other half of which were new.  It was very validating that the feedback from both sides was very positive, and they apparently liked it even better than program last year.  Here’s a picture of me with the groups that day.  Ivonna can be seen in the first photo to my immediate right: 

                  
Next morning I knew enough to be up extra early and to get to the MoBay airport, where a 5 minute delay can put you behind 50 more passengers in line.  Fortunately it wasn’t too crazy,  and I was able to make it through the lines in time to secure some food before the flight back to MIA, which wasn’t long, and also the customs and immigration lines, which normally take about as long as the flight.  Fortunately I cleared the line on time and was back in my own mini van, but headed home only briefly, as this journey was not yet over.  With just enough time to stop by my eye doctor to get new contacts, grab a haircut, and buy a new water heater at Home Depot, I was soon driving up to Singer Island, FL, where my wife Cathy was already awaiting as she was the Maid of Honor for a wedding of her two good friends, David Boyer and Michele Klee, who had met just one year prior at our own wedding!  (David was one of my groomsmen and Michele a Bride’s Maid.)

How wonderful it was for her to have two of her best friends get married to each other.  Since Michele also has children, including a boy and girl about the same age as our Adam and Julia, it was a wonderful family event.  Since the wedding was Sunday night, the kids and I had plenty of time to swim in the pool and ocean while Cathy was getting ready.  Despite a local tornado warning right at the time of their scheduled “on the beach,” their wedding was moved indoors without a hitch.  I was honored to have been asked to serve as their official videographer.  Here’s a picture of us at the wedding:
(COMING SOON!)

The only problem with this picture was that Monday morning came way too early, as Cathy had to take her out of town friends back to the Ft. Lauderdale airport and I had to drop the kids at their summer camp and head home to clean-up e-mail, un-pack and re-pack before heading out again the next day.  Oh, and with a little time to prepare for a presentation the next morning to 750+ people.