Welcome to Brand Snack, where we take a ten minute break, munch on our favorite snack, while we have bite sized discussions with brands people crave and love. Hey. I'm at CP. I'm referring to Cruise Planners, the number one travel agency franchise with over three thousand franchise owners. And today, I'm hanging out with Michelle Phee. She's the CEO and founder of the company. She's gonna break it down for me and show me how it all got started. Come on. Hi, everyone. Today, I'm excited because I'll be interviewing the most influential woman in the travel industry who leads a three thousand franchise network by the name of Cruise Planners. Excited to have Michelle Phee on with us today. Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here. So as you know, with all my brand snack episodes, what I like to do is compare branding with your favorite snack, Michelle. So we'll talk about all those elements that kept you craving more, and then we'll compare that to cruise planners and how all the creative elements of your story keep people coming back for more. So, Michelle, what was your favorite snack growing up? Okay. This is gonna date me, but ready? Okay. They are Oh. Mary Danes. Oh. Wow. You're taking me back as well. Oh, yeah. These go way way back though. Let's go ahead and show it to the screen. We're talking about some Mary Janes today. We're gonna have a lot of fun with Mary Janes. And look at that. They're round. They're not square anymore. So I read recently that it looks like there's a new company that took over and is trying to Reinvent themselves. But, you know, still keep all the elements that make it special. Yeah, those main ingredients. So just like the twisting of it Yeah. Right? The simple wrapper, what does it remind you of? Oh, just an easier time when things in life were easy. Right? And today, they're complex, but we've had to evolve. Just like you said, Mary Janes have evolved, and so we've had to evolve as well as humans and also obviously in travel. And the way travel hasn't changed. No. And the core elements have not changed. People still want to have that personal touch. And people asked me years ago, like, travel agents, do they exist anymore? And I say, we do. We just do business a little differently because we're not in every major strip shopping center anymore. But we are there, and, you know, we have three thousand agents, like you said That all are we call them more virtual agents, because they don't have to be tied to their desk at home anymore, because we build all these tools where, you know, on any smart device, they could travel the world. I wanna unpack that a little bit more because I read on ChatGPT that you guys are like the Amazon of the travel industry because you you were essentially a technology company. We are. One of our founders, her husband, was he worked for IBM. So, we literally launched with technology. It was part of your DNA. It was, and nobody had technology back then, home based models. So, today, we probably have the largest IT team in the home based arena. You know, Michelle, I have the the candy stuck to my tooth, so That's why I hate it. Reminds me, you know, what is CP's sticky factor? Okay. That's a great one, and I think the most unique part about it is where our agents, we're sending them out and saying, go travel. You can travel the world and still be connected because we build these great tools for them. You could be their client, and they could be in Antarctica, and you need them to book some travel for you, and they've got everything they need, but yet they they're actually tasting, let's say, you know, these destinations. People, I think, typically think it costs money to use a travel agent. Our commission is baked into the price, so the cruise lines are paying us, and the tour companies are paying us, and the hotels are paying us. Doesn't So why not use a travel agent? And, like, leave it all up to us because we've been there, we've done it, we have experience. That's very powerful, and that's that's really why you would wanna consider a franchise opportunity. You know, going back to the analogy of the Mary Jane, such a vintage legacy, you know, this candy was created in nineteen fourteen. And so, everything has a history. With Cruise Planners, you have such a fascinating history and so much has evolved over time. Now, you're using AI in your We are. We're leaning into AI a lot. We understand that that is the future. And how I think our job here is to say, how do we save time for our advisers? So, let me give you an example. Where they could talk to our CRM to talk to it. They don't even have to type it, and say, we call him Max. So, hey, Max. I have a client that wants to go to Alaska, but they wanna go to Icy Straits, which is a port in Alaska, and not every cruise line goes to that particular port. So what cruise line goes there? In the past, you literally had to research that. It'd probably take you half hour to try to figure it out, and just speaking into our tool and asking it that one question, it will spit back at you. Here's three cruise lines that stop in that pool. That's wonderful. And just to explain that a little bit better, it is a tool that was designed for SkiP. Right? Yep. So it has it knows the ins and outs of the business. It's proprietary. It's always about evolving. Yeah. And I think that's what we've done best. Wonderful. And so I know that with CP Max, I think you have a mascot, which is Yeah. The French Max. The Frenchie. The French bulldog. Right? Yes. Yes. He has taken on a life of his own with our advisers. And they all wanted all of a sudden, they started they wanted a stuffed Max doll. So we had to go, and we had to find a company that would create these little stuffed Max dolls. And it's kinda like that Flat Stanley story where you take the Max, and they travel with Max. So Max has been all over the world, and we call him our DOG, which is our director of globetrotting. So, Max goes all over and agents kinda hashtag c t They're never alone. We have sold, I think, over two thousand of them at this point, and all the net proceeds go to a charity. You know, that is how you create the sticky factor, right? And your brand is like all these cute things. Cruisitude is another Cruisitude's another Let's talk a little bit about Cruisitude because I when I heard about it the first time, you know, in my head, was like, Cruisitude, attitude. Correct. Right? Right. That's exactly what it is. It's about having a good attitude about everything and just seeing life as a fun, good thing, you know, and and to live your life that way. And so we teach our advisers that you have to spread crusitude. It's the vibe that everybody creates coming together. And, you know, I would like to take some time now, as I always do with Brand Snack, is I like to critique the logo because the logo tells a story. There's go ahead. Let's let's pull up the logo. Pull it up so we can critique it. Alright. Here we go. Tell me, you know, what what what's the story behind the logo? I think an anchor is like stability Okay. And strain, but it also has flexibility because an anchor can be brought up, and it can move With the vessel, and then you can anchor yourself. And we feel like that's allowing our advisors to travel the world, but yet with stability and strength behind that. And when I look at the logo, I see there's a ship. Right? It feels like a ship on water, and you put the anchor down, right, because Cruise Planners is, like, big and bold, and it just looks very grand, and I think that's what you built. That's You built a big company. We have. We have. Just let's go back a minute to the color. You know, most people in travel are blue, and but when we started, we literally took our logo on a plain piece of paper, and then we bought a box of crayons. This is a true story. And we colored every primary color into, you know, our logo, and then we said on the count of three, everybody point to the one you like best, and all three of us went to the green. So But over the years, we wanted a green that popped a little bit more, and in the industry, if you ask anyone, you know, who owns a color, nobody owns a color, this is called CP green, and I think it's, you know, it's a happy color. Right? It is. It means money. It means money. It means growth, like grass and greenery. It all grows. Going back to c p and now how you have c p world, tell me about what that process was like, coming up with c p world and all the things that now people can encounter when they go there. So, that actually just came about. We would name our conference CP Conference, and a couple years ago, somebody came up with, no, we need to name the conference, and then everything else kinda has a tagline. Once you step in, you're in our world. And I see that CP World as a destination. Right? Your own destination. Totally. As an It is an experience, and we're known. And even all the suppliers come to us and say, your conferences are more fun than any other conference all year long. And we work hard at that because we think if you entertain somebody, they listen just a little bit harder. Totally. And you guys are very video centric with your Yes. With your presentations. A lot of the team, you're unicorns. Unicorns. Unicorns. And we tell people, we don't celebrate employee appreciation day or whatever. We don't celebrate that day. We celebrate unicorn day because we say we only hire unicorns. Cool. You know, one of a kind. People who are creative. People who have, you know, deep thought process. That translates into numbers. Right? I I go back to it because it is astonishing, and it's it's a wonderful achievement that, you know, the franchise as a whole has generated over one billion dollars Over one billion dollars, which I pinch myself all the time because I can't believe it. We started this company, and our first class had five people in it. And the three founders, we taught every class. We actually rented a little minivan, and one of the founders, Marvin, drove it around so we can go do ship inspections, and that's how we started our first class. And it has developed, thankfully, over time. But we never wanna be too big where you're a number. We always wanna make sure that you always feel like you're part of our family. It's a very personalized, high touch business. Right? It totally is. And would you say that that is, in essence, the secret sauce? Yeah. I think it's a lot. I think there's a a combination of things. You know, having us behind you, you ever saw that commercial, you told two people and they told two people, and So, we're behind you, that little commercial where we're walking behind. We wanna make sure that, you know, whatever you're doing, you look highly professional in what you're doing. But they don't necessarily need to know we're behind you. That's wonderful. And I wanna end it with what's next? Well, here we are under this amazing backdrop Where to next? I just wanna continue building on what's great, and I don't know that we have to make too many changes. I think AI is a big focus of ours. Again, I said we're really leaning into that, because I think that could bring a lot to our advisors, and we just wanna always make sure that, you know, our advisors see value in being part of Cruise Planners. I mean, we have agents that who do multimillion dollars worth of business. Well, they could probably peel off and do it for themselves, but they feel there's so much value in who we are and what we bring, so that is always going to continue. And then, you know, who knows what new ideas come up throughout the Totally. And so where do you wanna go next that you haven't seen yet? Well, this year, have two trips already planned with our advisors. They're our top advisors, so they get to go on what we call an elite trip. Oh, nice. And one of them is to Tahiti. Oh, okay. We're gonna be on a cruise ship, the Silber Seas line. And then the other one, we're going to Egypt, and we're going to be on Ama waterways. So, I'm excited about both. I have been to Tahiti before, but never to Egypt. So, I always like to uncover and explore a new destination every year. It changes you. Right? It I'm telling you, travel opens your heart. Yeah. What a wonderful business to be in. And, Michelle, I wanna thank you so much for taking out the time to do the Brand Snack with us. And you're right. There's a lot of traditional components in your business, but so many new ones and exciting things coming up. Continue evolving. That's our motto. Thanks again for joining. Thank you.