Let me guess, you've been "working on your marketing plan" for the last three months. You've got a Pinterest board, a content calendar template you downloaded from someone on Instagram, a half-built website and a list of hashtags you've been meaning to research. You're going to launch the whole thing once it's all ready.
Psst, I’ve got a secret: It's never going to be all ready. Worse yet, while you're waiting, nobody can find you and nobody can buy from you, because nobody even knows you exist.
Perfect Is a Fairy Tale
Perfect is an illusion. It's not a destination you arrive at. It's a carrot dangling in front of your face that keeps you busy enough to feel productive without actually doing the thing. Want proof? Go watch your favorite actor's first movie and then watch their 20th. The difference is night and day. They didn't get better by waiting until they were perfect to audition, they got better by showing up and doing the work in front of everyone, cringe moments and all.
Your first Reel is going to be rough. Your first email? It’s going to make you wince a year from now. Your first podcast episode, if that's your thing, will sound like you were reading off a cue card because you probably were. You figure it out by doing it
Here's where most advisors get overwhelmed and fall off the tracks. They think the plan is the work, so they spend weeks, months, sometimes years “perfecting the plan,” and treat that effort like it's the thing that's going to move the needle. Look, a plan matters. Everyone needs one, I'm not going to tell you to wing it. However, a plan on its own is worthless, because a plan is just a document until you act on it. The action is what has the actual value. The plan is the map, but staring at a map doesn't get you anywhere, you still have to drive the car. The plan, no matter how good, doesn't teach you anything, the doing does.
It's like raising kids, you can read every parenting book on the shelf, but the minute that baby is actually in your arms, half of what you learned goes out the window and you start figuring it out in real time. You adjust, learn and grow in ways you had no idea were even possible. Your marketing works the same way. You'll learn more in one month of posting imperfect content than you will in six months of planning perfect content that you never put out. Your audience will tell you what resonates, and the data will tell you what's working.
You Grow, So Your Marketing Grows
Another little secret no one in marketing talks about? You’re not the same person you were two years ago, and you won't be the same two years from now. That's life. We grow, evolve, change our minds, find new passions and let old ones go. Your marketing needs to do the same thing.
If you're trying to build a perfect, locked-in brand strategy that will carry you for the next five years, you're building a cage. Your marketing should ebb and flow with who you are and grow as you grow. It should shift as your clients shift. The advisors who stay stuck are the ones trying to nail everything down before they start. The advisors who thrive are the ones who let their marketing breathe and evolve alongside them.
The Snowball Effect Nobody Talks About
Here’s the part a lot of people miss, and it's the part that changes everything once it clicks. Marketing in travel is not about the sale you want to make today, tomorrow or even next week. The post you put out today? That might be the reason someone books with you in September. The email you send this Tuesday? That could be what tips a lurker into a discovery call next March. The podcast episode you record this month might land you an anniversary trip 18 months from now.
Travel is a long game. Your clients are not buying a latte, they're buying something big, emotional and expensive that they do once, maybe twice a year if you're lucky. The buying window for any single person in your audience is small, but it's also constantly rotating. Someone on your list is always about to be ready. You just don't know who or when. Which is exactly why consistency matters more than intensity.
When you show up today, tomorrow, the next day, something beautiful starts happening as the post from three months ago is still working for you. The email from last spring is still warming someone up and the podcast episode from last year is still being discovered. It all compounds. That's the snowball. Small, consistent, boring-looking actions that roll into something you could never have built by sprinting for two weeks and then disappearing.
Advisors who treat marketing like a faucet (on when they need clients, off when they're busy) are the ones who constantly feel like they're starting over because they are. Meanwhile, the advisors who keep marketing consistently through the busy seasons and the quiet ones are the ones who magically look "booked out everywhere" 12 months later. Spoiler: It’s not magic, it’s the power of consistency.
Your Marketing Has To Be You
This is the one I'm going to hammer on, because it matters more now than it ever has. The industry is under pressure. AI is everywhere. Everyone is using the same caption generators, the same stock images, same trendy templates, same recycled hooks. Scroll through travel advisor content on Instagram and tell me honestly how many of them sound like the exact same person. If you're blending in with that noise, you're invisible. Or, worse yet, you're forgettable because the algorithm served you up and the person still scrolled past.
Here’s your edge: You! Your voice, your stories. The weird specific thing you know about cruising the Rhine or why you genuinely believe Disney is worth it for adults without kids. Your values, your sense of humor, your face on camera, your real and professional opinions. People buy from people, and as AI floods the market with sameness, your humanity is not a nice-to-have; It's the whole product. Stop copying and pasting. Instead start having conversations, after all, the best marketing doesn't feel like marketing. It feels like your favorite person just messaged you.
The Actual Plan
Ready? Here it is: Start. That's it. That's the whole plan. Pick the platforms that feel good to you and make sense for your audience. Social media, podcasts, YouTube, whatever. All of those feed into your email list, which is where the real nurturing happens. Your email list is the room nobody can take away from you, so build it with intention. Then commit to a level of consistency you can actually hit 100% of the time. If that's two posts a week and one email, do that. Commit fully. If it's nine posts and two emails, do that and commit fully. The number doesn't matter, the commitment does. A small consistent drumbeat will always beat a big splashy burst followed by three weeks of silence. Don't wait.
Do not wait until you have a year of content planned or until you have a month of content planned. Honestly, you don't even need a week. Get today's content out, then tomorrow's, then next week's. You can grow the scale later, add platforms later, get fancy later. Right now, your only job is to start the drumbeat and keep it going.
Skip the image of “perfect.” Drop the pressure to look like the big-name advisor with the team and the budget. They started exactly where you are, and the only reason they're there now is because they didn't wait. Just have a conversation with the people you actually want to work with. Tell them what you know, who you are and then show up again tomorrow. That's marketing. That's it. Now close this article and go post something.
About the Author
comments