063: Be Guided to Your Goals by People With a Moral Compass with Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network

I still on the early basis, set my yearly goals, my five year goals, my ten year goals, and my 15 year goals and each year I look at, and the steps to get in that particular year, what do I need to do this year to reach that goal? Because its like I said earlier, a series of steps going up to the top of a staircase, what do I need to do on each step to reach that goal? and that’s actually one of the biggest influences in my life.

#00:01:08-8# Neil : Hello its Neil Ball, thank you so much for joining me today on the entrepreneur way. The entrepreneur way is about the entrepreneur’s journey, the vision, the mind-set, the commitment, the sacrifice, failures and successes. I am so excited to bring you our special guest today, Bruce Oliver. Before I introduce you to him, I have a quote for you, Saul Paramuter said, ‘there are still so many questions to answer, when you look at any part of the universe, you have to feel humbled.’ The entrepreneur way asks the questions, so we all get the insight, inspiration and ideas to apply in our businesses. Bruce, welcome to the show, are you ready to share your version of the entrepreneur way with us?

#00:02:04-7# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : Sure I am.

#00:02:06-9# Neil : Thank you Bruce. For over 40 years, Bruce Oliver has travelled to every state in the USA, except for North Dakota. And to over 50 countries including the British Isles, Russia, Egypt, and China on River Cruise Lines like Amer Waterways and American Cruise Lines, on Luxury Cruise Ships, and on escorted and independent tours. For several years, Bruce worked as a luxury travel advisor, and he developed joint ventures with businesses, groups and individuals in the food, wine and art industries to help them grow their businesses, while hosting amazing trips of a lifetime for their clients. Bruce is recognised by the travel industry, and has been awarded the 2013 travel weekly Magalin Silver Award and the 2014 Enfields Best Cruise Agency. He appears regularly in professional publications, and on various programmes around the country. His company, Cruise with Bruce Enterprises, and the virtual luxury network is affiliated with Palm Coast Travel. And the 6,800 member travel co-operative, the signature travel network. You can book your own cruise and hotel stays right on his website, virtualluxury.net. And save money in addition to having access to his personalised services, Bruce can you provide us with some more insight in to your business and personal life? To allow us to get to know more about what you do and who you are?

#00:03:50-3# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : Well I am a baby boomer, in other words, I am retired a couple of years now, and I am on my last career. I have actually had businesses all my life in addition to working and in the last 17 years, prior to getting to the travel business, I was a contractor for IT. I developed databases, web-based stuff, etc. So did that, and I have travelled all my life, all the way from the time I was 17, working and travelling mostly in the United States. So I have travelled all 49 of the 50 states. One left North Dakota. And recently in the last couple of months, in December I went to Budapest and Hungary, and spent some time travelling on Amer Waterways River Cruise, so I have travelled a couple of countries there. And spent some time coming home on the Queen Mary, from Southampton, England. So that makes a total of, with the Antarctic trip that I just took, 58 countries that I have travelled to around the world, and I have travelled to six of the seven continents, so that’s my avocation and I have done that all my life, I love to travel. Which blends in to a great reason why I have gone in to this business as my last business in my career. And I have done this for about 5-6 years. I enjoy what I am doing, and my personal life, that’s mostly travel and doing things like that, I enjoy doing that, I enjoy bring friends and family on trips with me. And like I have said, we have travelled and I have travelled all over the world.

#00:05:55-9# Neil : Mmm hmm and how do you make money from what you do now then?

#00:06:01-4# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : Well I am a travel agent. I like to call myself a luxury travel advisor and recently in the last about month, I have been asked to produce a series of books and they are, this fellow is calling me the scent sational travel guy, because we are going to be producing a unique series of books. So in the future it will be a combination of money from travel, I don’t charge my clients to book with me, actually most agents don’t. Unless its a really complicated itinerary, and we then say a plan to go fee, which if somebody books with us, we refund the fee. Otherwise my vendors and I belong to a consortium with about 6,600 people around the world that book travel with all of the major vendors, including Chrystal Cunard Princess and then all the way down to the tour groups, tour companies like Abercramie in Cannes, and Globis in Trafalger. They pay me as well as the hotels pay me a commission, so it comes out of their profits and what they are doing is they are saying ‘alright rather than have my staff, process this booking, I will pay somebody else to do it.’ And that’s smart from the vendor’s perspective because there is an ebb and flow up and down time when people may book all at once, and they don’t want to hire a cruise line, would not want to hire a whole bunch of people a few times a year. So they have off-loaded it to us and they pay us a commission to do that.

#00:08:05-3# Neil : And what do you enjoy most about what you do?

#00:08:06-8# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : I love talking to people about travel, and I love talking to people and I just got a phone call about a half an hour ago, they want to go on a trip and its something that people do once a year, and they enjoy what they are doing and they look forward to it. So I look at it as re-living my experiences because I have been to 58 countries, I have been on probably 50 or 60 cruises, and every time I talk to somebody, I re-live my experiences. My experiences through them, so I enjoy doing that and they come back and they are all full of joy and happiness about their trip and what they did and they are telling me that ‘I went here and I went there and I really appreciate you helping us with this, we did not realise we could do this.’ And that’s the reason why an agent like myself that’s seasoned and has travelled a lot can help people do something that they might know they want to go to England, but they might not know about certain things in the Cotswolds or down in London or a way to get around the city or going out to the coastline. They might not know about taking a trip on the orient express, one half day or a full day. Going down to Folkstone and I think that’s still the itinerary.

#00:09:37-2# #Neil : Mmm hmm.

#00:09:38-5# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : And I say, well I did not realise you could do that, so its people like myself that are able to do that and because we work with such a large group of people and we book so much travel, all over the world. And that would include cruises, river cruises, luxury tour, travel just to a hotel in the city, and doing things in the city. We do about 6.8 billion dollars of business a year, so I can pass on savings to my clients that way.

#00:10:16-2# Neil : You sound that you really walk the talk then with the travel because obviously you have got so much experience from travelling everywhere yourself which is obviously the reason that you sound like you are quite successful at what you do.

#00:10:28-2# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : Its passion for what you do, and it comes through to somebody that you are talking to. So I always look at people when they are in business, I say you know let’s say a car dealership, if you are talking to a car, somebody that’s selling cars or as an entrepreneur and re-selling cars. Well which one of these cars that you came in with, that you have here, do you own? and if they say no, I don’t own one of these, I rent something or whatever, and most of them say, ‘well the company gives me the car, or I get the car from the car companies, and I say, ‘well what’s your wife or spouse or significant other, which kind of car do they drive?’ and if they say, ‘we have got a better deal on another vehicle.’ That shows to me that they don’t have any passion for what they are selling, and it comes through to somebody like myself, as well as everybody else, they talk the talk, but they do not walk the walk.

#00:11:39-4# Neil : I have heard of similar thing of investments actually where someone tries to sell you an investment and I heard of somebody who actually asks a similar question ‘well how many of the shares in that company did you buy?’ or whatever the investment was, its the same sort of thing isn’t it really? Because someone tries to sell you something, and yet they have not done it themselves.

#00 #00:11:58-0# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : Absolutely.

#00:11:58-0# Neil : So what is it that drives you?

#00:11:59-8# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : What is it that drives me? I have a passion for travel. I enjoy what I am doing, and I guess that drives me. And I like to share things around the world, with people that might not have been able to or have not or the first time, they are going to another country like a lot of the people from the United States, go over to the UK. You guys speak almost like us, so its a comfortable travel for them. And what drives me is the response that I get after they have gone, they have enjoyed another culture and its somewhat the same but its different. And then it opens them up to a new world, and Saint Augustan said, ‘if travel were a book, and you only went to one city, then you have only opened up and read one page of the book.’ So I think the world is a book that needs to be read. And that brings an appreciation for your own life where you are, I think travellers are happy people, and the other thing is, if you take a vacation, its been proven, if you take a vacation, not a working vacation, but you take a vacation and you go somewhere, then you come back invigorated. You have had a chance to, your mind has settled down, and your body, and you are healthier. Healthier people travel a lot.

#00:13:59-7# Neil : And how do you relax when you are not working in your business?

#00:14:03-8# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : I am always working in my business. I travel.

#00:14:07-6# Neil : I thought you might say that ha ha ha ha.

#0 #00:14:10-9# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : And the other thing I do, is I am a videographer and I take a lot of video when I am travelling, when I am going somewhere, I love doing that. I interview people, because I have a radio show, and I go on radio shows. I have a YouTube channel, and I put my videos from people that I have met when I have travelled on my video channel on YouTube. So I guess its a little bit of everything, and now I am writing because I am writing this series of books on travel. But its using something a little bit different, we are going to be using scents, and therefore the scent sational travel guy. So a little bit of everything, I enjoy it, I am supposed to be retired, but you know you are retired, well what do you do when you are retired? Do you sit down and watch tv all day? Well that gets kind of old very quick. So you need a purpose in life and you need something to look forward to. And I always tell people, listen ‘don’t put off travel to go somewhere’ because you don’t know what’s going to happen next year. Plan it, because one year passes after another, and I have heard so many times people saying, ‘listen we always decided that we wanted to travel, but it was not the right time, and then when it was the right time, one person gets sick or somebody dies and that really messes up everything.’ or you become immobile, and you are not able to do what you used to do or what you thought you were going to do when you travelled. So I say, ‘plan out something regardless.’ It could be a couple of days, you need to look forward to something, so quarterly I try to look forward to something, I try to plan it out and you need to do that as an entrepreneur. And hopefully its in the field that you enjoy doing. Because if you are an entrepreneur and it a work, its work to you, you are in the wrong field. You are doing the wrong thing, so you have to be as an entrepreneur especially starting out, passionate about where you are and what you are doing, but you also need some time to yourself. And something to look forward to, because everything is not going to be rosy all the time. So when those times come that you are down, you can say ‘well that’s alright in another month and a half I am going to Antarctica or I am going Cincinnati or I am going to Boston, and I am going to spend a day or a day and a half there or a day.’ Doesn’t matter how long, you are going to get away from whatever you have been at and with me its what I do. I travel and I do what I love doing, so.

#00:17:23-7# Neil : And do you have any entrepreneurial role models?

#00:17:30-6# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : Well there are some, right now, I think Donald Trump is phenomenal. He has built a multi-billion dollar business, from the time he was a youth. There are other people that have been entrepreneurs, people like Peter Drucker, but he works with companies more and his son. Tony Robbins, he is a great entrepreneur to watch and follow. Dryer, there’s a bunch of people that have started off doing something that they are passionate about. And they have built an incredible following and an incredible business, so I read a lot. I don’t read a lot about that type of stuff as I used to, when I was younger in my 20’s 30’s and 40’s. I was reading books on Henry Ford, and Edison and people like that, that built large businesses in United States. J W Marriott started off and started to build the Marriott chain, which has really thrived all over the world. So find some books of people that you respect, and read about where they have come from, J Paul Getty, I read his book 40 year ago. And he talked about how everybody told him not to drill that oil field because it was not the right time during the depression in the United States. But he went ahead and did it anyway, and he had a certain sense I guess, you would think that maybe this is the best thing to do. And not following all these people were naysayers and saying to them, ‘well you are never going to be successful, don’t do that’. Rockefeller when he was building Rockefeller centre, during the depression, all of his financial advisors told him, ‘don’t build Rockefeller centre’ which now its very, very famous, you see the skating rink and the bowl and the Christmas tree and all that. Well he was told not to do that, but what he did was he took his entire fortune, and he said, ‘I have got to keep the people and New York City employed.’ And he took his entire fortune and employed the people to build those massive buildings. And it paid off for him, now it could have gone down the drain but he did not, so you have got to look at things and reason out whether or not you should do it or not.

#00:20:31-6# Neil : So,

#00:20:31-6# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : So that’s basically what I look for is people that have a moral compass, and have done things similar to what I am doing. They don’t have to be exact, because success in something is the same, the basics of being successful in any business is the same. No matter where you are or what you do, and you find people that are very successful and emulate them.

#00:21:01-1# Neil : Bruce, can we talk about the time before you were an entrepreneur? what difficulties did you have to overcome when you started your business?

#00:21:07-4# # Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : You know I have been an entrepreneur most of my life. When I was a kid, we wanted to make some money to do a barbeque, for the neighbourhood, so a bunch of us got together and said ”let’s do a carnival” so that was my earliest entrepreneurial thing that I did was ran carnivals and here and anywhere from 8-14 years old. And we had a carnival every year, and we made enough money to pay for all the meat for the two streets that were involved. So I have been an entrepreneur a long time, I think the barriers that people run in to because I taught at the University of Harvard, and my graduate students and undergrads you know, the biggest thing is the fear of going out on their own. They think that they probably won’t be able to do something because their family and friends told them, ‘you are never going to be able to do that.’ So its a fear of getting started, I have not had that fear in years. 25-30 years, here I am doing a book deal and I don’t know what’s going to happen with this thing, it could take off as its an unusual book, and the same trepidation is there for this, its going to be a little bit of an investment to do this, investment of time, investment of money.

#00:22:53-2# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : I don’t know whether the sales are going to be there, I think they will be. So its always that type of thing that holds people back, and its one of the biggest barriers to get over is that, should I do something? should I not do something? well look at all the things, pros and cons, list them out, and if the pros outrank the cons then you should do it. The other thing is you should be passionate about what you are going in to. So if you are not passionate about it, and there are more cons than there are pros, then you are doomed to fail because you won’t give it all your all. And that’s what it takes, its not a job where its 9-5 when I started doing my travel stuff back 7/8 years ago or 7 years ago anyway, I was 6 in the morning and 12/12 at night. I worked all day for a couple of years, you have got to be willing to do that. It is not an employment, you are not an employee somewhere, you are in your own business. And hopefully when you get through, you are rewarded for your efforts, and then everybody says, ‘well that’s really not fair, he’s getting all this money from that.’ I don’t see the early couple of years that it takes to get rolling. Because the average business fails under 5 years. If you are in business, more than 5 years, chances are you are going to make it. But that means that you have spent some time and money to make it.

#00:24:39-1# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : And the other thing is financially, its never right financially to do something ever. Its not the right time, its never going to be the right time financially but there are ways around things. And you just got to explore and find out which ways going to work for you.

#00:25:01-8# Neil : Mmm if you could see me now, you would see me nodding all the way through that. And did you have any doubts that delayed you starting your business? I suppose it is going to be a similar answer to your other answer there isn’t it?

#00:25:11-2# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : Yeh its a similar answer, there is no guarantee in life, other than you are going to be born and you are going to die. There is no guarantee that what you are doing is going to be the right time, so there is a little bit of luck involved there. I think that you have to look at it and everything is a trend, so where are you on the trend line? Is this going to be something that is new and adopted by a large number of people? Are you coming in after there has been 5,000 businesses doing that? You always want to be the trender, the person that’s setting the trend, not following the trend. So do that and its figuring out where the trend is, what is the trend for you? And what is the trend line in the business? how are you going to be unique compared to other people and other companies? And that’s one of the largest things that holds you back.

#00:26:24-4# Neil : And what mistakes did you make that slowed your journey?

#00:26:29-3# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : Probably not going fast enough.

#00:26:34-0# Neil : Mmm hmm have you got any examples of that?

#00:26:38-1# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : I probably should have jumped in and said, ‘I had a radio programme on travel for a couple of years.’ And just dabbled with part time stuff, did not really look at the host agency that I was working with. And if I had spent a little more time in the beginning and instead of spending all the time with the radio programme, which by the way is paying off today because people still listen to my programmes, I have a 172 archive programmes that are listened to on a regular basis every month and I have not done it on a regular basis in three years. Every month, 25-40 people listen to my previous broadcasts, so that’s interesting, but it did not make me a huge amount of money, in the beginning. So its setting the ground work, and I think setting the ground work, starting as quickly as possible. And I don’t know is there anything else that I could have done. This is not my first business, its my third or fourth business. When I was in college I had a tree cutting business, because there were a lot of trees that were dying and rotting and falling over and we actually went and cut trees for people. We were running against the big tree people that were cutting trees in people’s yards but we kept the operation to a minimum, and not a lot of overhead so, you got to look at that, how much overhead do you have?

#00:28:32-9# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : Two businesses ago, I had a business that was computer related and we did a training centre and a technical service centre. And in retrospect I probably would not do a store front any more. I actually I think in the last 10, 12 years, its changed where the average person does not need a store front, brick and mortar, because that increases your fixed costs. And so that is probably one of the main things that I learned and I decided that when I went in to travel, not to do a store front. Because that fee and that cost is there every single month regardless of how much money I make. And not paying that kind of money contributes to my bottom line so I make a little bit more.

#00:29:31-1# Neil : And what are some of the things you did before you started your business? that would be helpful tips to some of the listeners who have not yet taken the first step on the entrepreneur way?

#00:29:39-9# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : Well I have done a number of things, in my life and its almost unbelievable, because I have never just had a job, I have always had something in addition to it. So I think being able to talk to people and relate to people is a major thing that you need to do. So if you need to do that by joining organisations, and spending some time and practising and talking in front of people, if that’s the type of business you are going in to. Then you should be doing that, and I did that way back when I was in my 20’s and 30’s, I belonged to Toastmasters International. And rose through the ranks and got all the certificates. So I am very comfortable talking in front of 50 people, or 10,000 people, which I have spoken in front of. So that’s one major thing, the other thing is to find out as much as you can about business and how business works, financial. The other thing that I did was I had apartments when I was younger, at 17, apartments in three buildings. No, two buildings and I decided that I should find and get some financial background.

#00:31:09-9# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : So there was a part-time job in a bank, I went in to that position and learned about finance. So everything you should do should contribute to the next step, and you have got an overall plan for your life, the other thing that I did when I was in my 20’s was I took a goal setting course and I think setting goals is important, and measuring them. You could set goals and never reach them, but measure them and realise that there are steps to get to the final product, to the end product, your final goal. And I always used to tell my students when I was teaching, ‘listen if you look at the top of the steps let’s say you are in the UK and you are at the bottom of Kensington Station, and you look at all those things going up, it must be 150-250 of them, going from the bottom of that tube to the top, well if you look at the top and that’s all you concentrate on, then you are overwhelmed.’ Boy that’s almost insurmountable. But if you look at it and you say, ‘alright I am going to take these next five steps, and then I will re-evaluate.’ Then I will take the next five steps, well eventually, you are chunking it, you are doing a little bit at a time, and by the time you are through you are at the top. And you look back and you say, ‘my god that was not that bad’, well its always not bad when you are looking back. Everything is not bad looking back, in retrospect things are easier.

#00:32:56-0# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : And somebody said to me years ago, a woman that was a multi-millionaire, she said, ‘everything you do prepares you for your next obstacle.’ And she believed and I believed that god does not present an obstacle unless you are able to cope with it and overcome it, and you have just got to have the faith that you can do that. And so that’s how I have lived my life, but the obstacles keep getting bigger. So the obstacles that you had when you were a child, they were ‘well how am I going to kick this ball? so that to the net and score a goal?’ and some people in professional football in England, they are still looking at that as an obstacle, how can I do that on a regular basis? But as we get older we might have more involved obstacles, well even in a football player, a soccer player in the US has that obstacle. Because now everybody is after them if they great at what they do, so the obstacle gets bigger with the talent that you have got, and it just helps you build to the next level. And that is what you have got to look at things, your obstacles will never go away, and I have got a little bubble head and its called obstacle. So whenever I hit an obstacle I push his nose and I say, ‘I am going to get rid of you obstacle, you will be finished.’ so that’s what you have got to do, if you are going to be successful and realise that the more you do and the more you grow, the bigger your obstacles are going to be. So ten years ago, that obstacle was almost insurmountable, today because of all the things you have done and all you have grown, the obstacle is not as big. And it is surmountable.

#00:35:11-4# Neil : Can we just talk about the entrepreneurial journey a little bit, do you think culture is important from the beginning in a business?

#00:35:19-5# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : Well its what you set. In my business, I am a one person operation, I have off loaded stuff to other businesses and other groups so like I said earlier, I used to spend all day 6 o’clock in the morning until 12 o’clock at night, well I have off-loaded a lot of the material, and a lot of the things that are repetitious, that I don’t want to do anymore or I develop a series of and I used to do this every month. And if you can see this, this is a brochure that is produced for me, customised for me, and my name is on it, and I have off-loaded those types of things. But the thing I do do with everybody is if you are a client of mine, you are the most important person the time that I am talking to you. And if you are on a trip and you have a problem, I am available for as long as you are on the trip. An example is, I had somebody travelling from Washington DC who was a lawyer, went to London and left his bag, back pack in the taxi with all of his material, his passport, his paperwork, his tickets, everything. And I got the phone call at 2 o’clock in the morning, and frantically as you can imagine, you leave your stuff in a taxi. I was able to 12 noon London time, get all of his material back and that’s part of the service that I offer. So you have to be willing to go all out for your client, and if you do that, they are going to talk to other people. So that’s one major thing is going 110% and doing a 110% for everything and everybody you work with. That’s a culture that makes a business successful, and listening to your clients, is a cultural thing also.

#00:37:38-0# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : There are businesses that fail, and one of the reasons they fail is they don’t listen to people that are their clients, their customers, and their customers can say, ‘alright, case in point, I was eating at a restaurant yesterday. I had a milkshake, the milkshake is normally very thick, I love thick milkshakes,’ and I said to the waitress when I came in, ‘I love your thick milkshakes, that’s the main reason why I came here.’ Well the milkshake came out, and it was like water. And she said, ‘well how do you like that? isn’t that great?’ and I said, ‘no its the last time I will be here.’ Now she could have easily said, ‘well that’s too bad you know, sorry to hear that.’ But she went the extra step and went to see the manager, and the manager came over to me and said, ‘Mr Oliver, we are really sorry that you did not like the milkshake, what was wrong?’ and I said, ‘look at it, its like water.’ She said, ‘oh, they put too much milk in to that shake, let me make it over.’ Initially I said, ‘well its not necessary.’ but then I said, ‘ok’ and then went and made it and they brought it back the way I like the milkshakes. That’s what I mean, going 110% – that waitress could have said, ‘well I don’t care, don’t come back. What’s it to me?’ well what it is, is if there are a 100 Bruce Oliver’s that go in and see a milkshake or something that they have had for a meal, and they don’t like it, and they say it, they eventually will lose their job because business is not going to be there. People will stop going, so its a short sighted thing as an employee, to say, ‘well I don’t care, I get paid, anyway’ well yes, as long as the business is there you get paid.

#00:39:51-4# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : As an entrepreneur yes, as long as your clients keep coming and the attrition rate, instead of the people dropping off because they moved or gone somewhere else, the attrition rate meets or is less than new customers coming in because of good feedback.

#00:40:16-3# Neil : Knowing what you know now, is there anything if you had known it when you started out would have helped you to shortcut the learning curve?

#00:40:31-9# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : Well I have always, I think that the main thing that a lot of people make is they think they don’t need to learn any more, they know all about everything. So that’s not true, so I belong to and I go to as many conferences and I attend as many seminars, I attend 5/6 seminars a month online, to learn more about my field, and the people that I sell. Whether it be Amer Waterways or Cunard, Queen Mary, Victoria, Elizabeth, or Chrystal or Norwegian Cruise Line. I want to learn as much as I can, and just because you are in business does not mean that your learning stops. I think that’s one of the major problems that a lot of new entrepreneurs or people that just got out of college or they feel that, ‘I have gone to school, I have learned as much as I can, I don’t need to do any more,’ and that’s a fallacy. I have learned over the years that you cannot do that, you have to stay up with the times, and if its a passion of yours, you are going to love doing it, so when I go to a seminar, I am re-living or doing something that I love to do and I love to see the new things that are being developed. And I think that’s what you have to have, is passion for what you are doing, and realise that everything is a learning experience. I worked for Bill Gates, back in the 80’s and early 90’s, and Bill, even though everybody knows him as the billionaire with all kinds of money, he actually gives away $17 billion dollars a year. But when he was younger, he was learning all the time, he was inquisitive asking employees like myself and everyone else, that worked for Microsoft Corporation, for their input and he would be there and have a cot, in his office, and sometimes you would go in late at night, in Redman Washington, and Bills sleeping on a cot. So he was doing that because he was passionate about being with Microsoft.

#00:43:04-0# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : And he was learning as much as he could, even as a CEO, he would spend time with the technical people, and why is this work the way it works? and how can we make this work for our customer base? And he was always learning from the customers, what are they looking for? why are they looking for it? so it comes down to trends. And that’s what I try to do now, and I have always tried to do most of my life. But you need to look at trends and you need to say ‘education does not stop just because you got out of a formal school.’

#00:43:44-2# Neil : And how much does gut feeling influence your decisions in your business?

#00:43:50-3# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : Gut feeling, I, that’s because you have a gut feeling about something because you are well-read and you are looking at trends and you are looking at everything, and I think it influences me quite a bit. If I have a gut feeling about something, most of the time I am right. So, that’s me. Now the gut feeling for me is based on experience and based on seeing other things happen, studying other businesses. And that’s the reason why I said, ‘find something that a mentor or somebody that’s doing what you want to do and study what they do.’ And when you can have an opportunity come up yourself, have to recognise it and say based on my education, ‘do I think this is right?’ And then go with it.

#00:45:03-0# Neil : Life is made of constant change, whether we like it or not and many say the only constant in life is change, Bruce, how do you try to keep up with change?

#00:45:13-6# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : Like I said, the main thing is as I always being educated. So change in life does not just constitute to the change in business but change personally. Somebody can die that you love, somebody moves, relationship stops that you invested in. So that’s going to happen, and its coping, finding a way to cope with the change. If its business related, then the best way you learn about changes in business is to be aware of what are the trends? What’s happening in your industry? what are the big people doing? And the whole key is getting ahead of the curve, so that’s sort of an intuition if you know all that stuff. And when you do that, I always look at how if I am late in to a business, how will I differentiate what I do from what everybody else around me is doing? And that is one of the big keys to being successful. What are you doing different, and that is derivative of realising that change is happening, and recognising that the change is going to come down the line. Because nothing is forever, so you are absolutely right. Life is full of changes, and it can involve personal health too, and coping with your personal health issues, and things that happen in your life, health wise. So you have got to realise that you have got to work with it and cope with it, and make adjustments. Sitting back and looking at a change, and saying well I am going to keep doing what I am doing, back 100 years ago, in United States, farmers had either oxen or horses pulling the ploughs behind them. So, that’s how they tilled the fields, and the farms and the people that had farms, that saw the innovations, with motorised vehicles. Whether it be steam or especially after Henry Ford, if they realised that ‘wait a minute we can harness this, we can take what’s going on in that industry, and help us do our job better.’ The people that did that stayed in business. The people that said, ‘well I am not going to do that, I don’t want to change and do that, I don’t think that’s worthwhile.’ They went out of business, so you have to be able to adjust and change when its needed.

#00:48:27-4# Neil : What is your favourite book on entrepreneurialism, business, personal development, leadership or motivation? and can you tell us why you have chosen it?

#00:48:33-0# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : One of them recently, I have read it years ago, is The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump because everything is negotiation and Donald Trump talks about negotiating with people. And realising that a negotiation is a plus and a minus on each side. But both people have to come away feeling like they won, so that’s one thing that came up. The other thing that I constantly go back to, is some of Tony Robbins material, as well as J P Getty. How to be rich and he talks about his life, and his entrepreneurial experiences, and there is a whole series. I have had as many as 30/40 books on entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial spirit, so you are going to pick up a little bit from each one. No one’s going to give you everything, Robert Kyosaki, is a US person that got in to the real estate business, he has a lot of things that I read, especially several years ago. And I go back to these things once in a while, an early person that I spent a lot of time with, and spent a lot of time learning, was Paul Jay Myers out of Wako Texas. And Paul had a class, it was actually years ahead of itself, it involved a text as well as cassette tapes, and that just shows how long ago that is, and it was talking about the dynamics of goal-setting. And that really is one of the main things that I still on an early basis, set my yearly goals, my five year goals, my ten year goals, and my 15 year goals. And each year I look at, and the steps to get in that particular year, what do I need to do this year to reach that goal?

#00:51:00-4# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : Because its like I said earlier, a series of steps going up to the top of a staircase, what do I need to do on each step to reach that goal? and that’s actually one of the biggest influences in my life. Now, regretfully Paul died a few years ago, he was a friend of a friend of mine, and I still use his materials. I don’t think you can get it any more.

#00:51:33-3# Neil : Everyone when you have a busy life, listening to audio books is a great way to expand your knowledge in the time when you may be doing other things, such as driving or when you are at the gym. We have a special offer for you of a free audio book of your choosing, to choose your free audio book, go to www.freeaudiobookoffer.com as long as you have not already signed up then you will qualify. Bruce, we are now at the part of the show where you speculate about a few things, so what one thing would you do with your business if you knew that you could not fail?

#00:52:04-5# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : If I could not fail, I would probably sponsor a whole bunch of groups, going to exotic places around the world. I am not sure if I have the reach right now to get the people that are able to and have disposable income to do that. Now what I am talking about is, trips around the world, Abercamie and Kent does a trip around the world every year. And its about $75,000 dollars a person. I would put together groups that do that, the other thing is, is world cruises. I am starting to do that, I am starting to get clientele that are able to do that, I would like to have a group going on a world cruise. And the cost of going on a world cruise is anywhere from $30,000 to $175,000 US dollars. So that’s the type of thing I would do, I would go towards the luxury end of travel and do large groups. Again, that takes a lot of people, that have the financial ability to do it and there are a lot of people out there, a lot of people that have spent their lives toiling and saving. And finally have made it and they are retired and they have the time now to do that kind of stuff, but not everybody wants to do the same thing at the same time. So that’s the barrier there of putting together a group like that, then I also have to have the connections and have those people, and have a group of people that want to do that kind of thing, all at the same time. So if I could not fail, I would do that.

#00:54:07-4# Neil : Mmm and what skill if you were excellent at it, would help you the most to double your business?

#0 #00:54:13-8# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : I think the skill that I have got is to see and based on previous experience, see opportunities that come up, like writing this book series and saying ‘let’s go with this, this is another income stream’ and I know its going to be a lot of work and initially to do it, but I am willing to start and I have already started putting together that so that people that want to cook or want to do stuff and have dishes that are produced all over the world, if they can’t travel there to do it, then they are able to make it at home. But if they travel they have got the ability to travel at .. at Budapest and make goulash soup at the Sokatel Hotel. Then they are able to do it, because now you have learned that you can do that, so I guess that’s it in a nut shell.

#00:55:30-2# Neil : In five years from now, if a well-known business publication was publishing an article on your business after talking to your customers and suppliers, what would you like it to say?

#0 #00:55:42-2# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : That he loved what he was doing, is very successful at it, because he gives people 110% of what they thought they were going to get when they first worked with them. Is well read and well-travelled, knows his field extremely well, and is well recognised by people that travel.

#00:56:14-0# Neil : We are now at the part of the show where you share three golden nuggets with us, so Bruce, what is your favourite quote and how have you applied it?

#00:56:24-7# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : Keep on keeping on, its similar to what Winston Churchill said at a, he was given a commencement speech I believe, and he said three things, and he kept saying it and then he left the stage. Never give up, and he said it three times, keep on keeping on, because eventually if you are doing the right thing, you will be successful. The biggest problem with most people is they quit, just before they get to the vein of gold in the mountain. The second thing is the grass is not always greener, in the next path, or in the next plot. If you realise that where you are, there are a lot of opportunities, and going somewhere else is not necessarily going to be better than where you are. So make the best of where you are and look for the opportunities where you are. Opportunities are when you know and you have got a set of goals, and you realise that you want to do this in the future, and this is what your aspirations are. An opportunity comes when somebody says something, you realise that wait a minute, this is something I have been looking for. And you grasped the opportunity when it came. If you did not know where you are, and don’t know where you are coming from and don’t know where you want to go to, you don’t recognise the opportunity at all.

#00:58:17-7# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : So grass is always greener in somebody else’s yard, but you have got a yard that may be full of acres of diamonds. And that’s a book that I read years ago, I think that’s one of the major things and major problems that people have is that they think they have to move somewhere else to be successful. And if they just start with themselves, and where they are, they are going to be successful. Three quotes, always give 110% because people are going to appreciate it, and not everybody is going to appreciate it, and respond with appreciation and thank you and all of that, but they will remember you. So giving a 110% they are never going to walk away, not satisfied, and if there is somebody that is not satisfied, like I was not with the milkshake. Then rectify, take ownership of it, correct it.

#00:59:29-2# Neil : And do you have any favourite online resources that you can share with us?

#00:59:30-5# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : Online resources, well I used to belong to Tony Robbins’ material and getting stuff from Tony Robbins, I don’t do that as much anymore. Because most of the stuff that I am doing now, online resource wise, are through the consortium that I work with, so if you are in a business and go to a network or a consortium, or a co-operative, or somebody that does what you are doing, and belonged to the organisation, and if its a large international organisation, they are going to have training resources. Take advantage of all those things and learn as much as you can, from them because its probably part of the organisation that you belong to. So that’s the main thing, and everybody can do that, find out if you are an entrepreneur that is involved in business, go to a business network, that’s in your community, and find out which one is international in nature and find out what kind of educational opportunities they have and take advantage of all the opportunities especially if they are free. And today, most of these things are done online with webinars, take advantage of every webinar. If you are not doing something that is contributing to your bottom line, then spend some time on a webinar, whether it be for half an hour, or an hour, and learn as much as you can.

#01:01:19-6# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : I have also found that even though I know all about Amer Waterways, I send people to go on that river cruise line in Europe, Asia and down in South Africa. Every time they have a seminar, I listen to their seminar, because I am going to pick up something that might help myself and my clients in the future. So that’s the main thing, as far as online resources go, find something that is in your back yard, that may have free webinars, and if that is not satisfying you, find something else, because there is not always just one way of doing things, there are multiple ways, and belong to the professional organisations in the field that you are in, I think that’s the best thing to do.

#01:02:17-6# Neil : Ok thank you for that, and what is your best advice to other entrepreneurs?

#01:02:24-0# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : Don’t give up. If you have got a great concept, and you are filling a need, somebody said years ago, I think it was Peter Drucker, find a need and fill it. And the other thing is, people create needs, but that takes a lot of money, to create a need, but if you find a need in your community, and you fill it, and you fill it extremely well, you are going to be very successful.

#01:03:04-1# Neil : Everyone if you did not manage to get a note of Bruce’s favourite resource, or his favourite books, then you can find the links on Bruce’s show notes page, just go to theentrepreneurway.com and search for Bruce or Bruce Oliver in the search box. Bruce is there anything else you would like to add about your business?

#01:03:19-7# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : Well come and visit me, I am at virtualluxury.net or cruisewithbruce.com you can also search for me at Google and I am all over the world. Cruisewithbruce and you will find me. I am all over the place, and its just taken years to do that, but you will find out about my new ventures in to the book series on travel and food and everything else that I do.

#01:03:57-7# Neil : Thanks for that Bruce, Bruce its been an honour having you on the show, you have certainly given us a 110% today, so thank you for your advice and your wisdom, and your inspiration and everything, you have really inspired us, so thank you very much.

#01:04:13-4# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : Oh thank you for asking, I hope that people have been helped, its not easy starting in business and it never is, but anything worthwhile is always going to be hard or harder than you thought it was. But just keep with it, and if you have got the right formula and the right business, and you are filling a need, you are going to be successful.

#01:04:39-5# Neil : Thank you Bruce.

#01:04:42-7# Bruce Oliver Founder of Cruise With Bruce Enterprises & Virtual Luxury Network : Thank you, have a great day and happy sailing.