Travel Advisor Success Stories focus on veteran advisors and how they achieved success. Here’s a look at Andrea Norfolk, president of Shoreline Destinations.
How did you get your start as a travel advisor?
I began in 2013 as an independent contractor (IC) at a brick-and-mortar agency. I had used the agency in the past for my own personal trips and decided to call the owner to figure out which classes at a local college she took. Instead, she gave me the opportunity to come work for them. I was eager to learn and put in the time.
After three years as an IC, I felt I had the confidence, connections and book of business to venture out on my own and get an IATA card. I trusted myself and knew I’d continue to grow the business and haven’t looked back!
How did you build your business?
To this day, I can still trace back a network of clients to some key individuals who spread the word about me early on. That ‘spider web’ effect from three ladies is something I will never forget. It only takes a few people to sing your praises for your book of business to grow. Word-of-mouth referrals will always be such an integral part of this business because those referrals come with a built-in level of trust that leads to a higher close rate.
However, to truly grow, I’ve put an extensive amount of resources into building websites I’m proud of and utilizing multiple people in various roles to handle the social media side of things. The investments I’ve put into our brand and the people behind the brand have paid off ten-fold.
What characteristics make you a successful advisor?
Confidence is key. It’s hard in the beginning to find that confidence, but for me, it was going to the destinations and resorts and seeing them for myself. You must put in the effort for the results to pay off. Visiting hundreds of resorts has allowed me to feel very confident in my answers, not second guess myself and to say no when I need to. Saying no is key and it took years for me to get there.
In the beginning, we all want to take everything that comes our way. But that doesn’t always make good business sense, nor does it mean that it’s going to lead to a trip that closes.
Having the confidence to say that we aren’t the right fit for what they are looking for or that we cannot give them a good experience for the budget shows clients that you are serious and aren’t just in it for a sale. While I am sure I’ve lost some business, I’ve gained time to focus on the types of clients and trips that I want to work on.
What have been your greatest challenges?
I’ve always struggled with a work-life balance. I’m still trying to figure it out 11 years later, and can’t say I’ve improved much! I am so passionate about what I do and pride myself on responsiveness, so it truly is hard for me to turn off work. While I’m proud of my work ethic, I am very cognizant that it’s come at the cost of being ‘in the moment’ many times outside of work.
I still make up 60 to 70 percent of the agency’s sales, have a team of 15 and love both the back office side of things (marketing/processes) and working with clients.
I’m working on how to scale back on working on trips so that I can continue to grow the agency and rely further on my team.
What have your greatest accomplishments been?
When it comes to this company, I can say wholeheartedly that I have given it my all and if I stop tomorrow, I will always be proud of what I built. That, for me, is bigger than any award within the industry.
However, I can’t say it doesn’t feel good to be recognized for my accomplishments. While I know many of these awards don’t mean anything to clients (they just want to feel well taken care of), there are a few I’ve been especially proud of. Some of the awards with Classic Vacations, my preferred tour operator, have meant a lot to me as I’ve had their support from the moment I went out on my own.
When it comes down to it, I’d say my biggest accomplishment is building a team of women that support each other, work well together and cheer each other on. I’m only as good as my team, and I know I’m biased, but I feel I have the best team out there.
What tips can you provide advisors new to the industry?
You have to get out there and visit the destinations and resorts you are recommending to clients. Advisors shouldn’t get into this industry if there isn’t time or resources to experience these places themselves. I don’t wait for a fam trip, I make my own fam, even if it means more money than a traditional fam would cost.
Get key resort contacts, ask your BDMs for names and take the time to reach out directly to resorts and representatives to help set up a visit. It’s a lot of work, but the upfront time spent putting it together means I’m extremely efficient once I’m at my destination.
I will go to a destination for four nights and spend each night at a different property while doing site visits to two others each day on top of it. To most, this seems extreme, and while it does limit my time on property, I want to see as many resorts as possible. I can usually ascertain very quickly how I will categorize a resort when giving recommendations to clients. It is time well spent in destination.
I also recommend ICs find a niche or destination that they are familiar with or have a passion for and not try to sell the ‘world.’ We have created a business model within our agency where we have different agents specializing in different segments of travel. So, our team knows that they can always pass a lead along to someone in-house who will take good care of their client.
It takes years to be an expert in multiple segments, so pick one or two and focus all of that time on becoming an expert before jumping to something else just because a request/lead comes in. Find a trusted travel friend/partner in the industry to pass those leads onto – if not within your own agency.
Join a travel group and apply for some of the ones that are a bit tougher to get into. The Travel ALLIES Society has been an incredible resource for me because I know I can turn to any one of the agents for guidance on a segment of travel that I may not be comfortable in. Having a group that I know I can ask a difficult travel question – and get a solid answer that I can trust – is invaluable.
We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on ‘I Accept’, you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy.
Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue.
Netflix’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos announced the use of generative AI in an original production for the first time
The Eternaut, an Argentine sci-fi show, used generative artificial intelligence to create VFX of a building collapsing
The company says it is “thrilled with the results”
Netflix used AI-generated visual effects for the first time in a TV show or movie this year, and co-CEO Ted Sarandos is pretty pleased with the result.
Speaking to investors on Thursday (July 18), Sarandos revealed Argentinian sci-fi show, The Eternaut, is the first Netflix production to use AI to generate a VFX (visual effects) sequence.
He said: “The creators were thrilled with the result. We were thrilled with the result,” he said. “And more importantly, the audience was thrilled with the result. So, I think these tools are helping creators expand the possibilities of storytelling on screen, and that is endlessly exciting.”
The scene in question shows a building collapse in Buenos Aires after coming into contact with toxic snowfall, and according to Sarandos, given the budget of the show, the scale of the effects needed to pull off the scene wouldn’t have been possible without the use of AI.
In fact, Sarandos even confirmed that using AI was not only a cost-saver, but incredibly efficient too. “That VFX sequence was completed 10 times faster than it could have been completed with visual, traditional VFX tools and workflows,” he said.
Considering just how happy Netflix’s head honcho and the creators behind The Eternaut are with the results, the Argentinian-made TV series could be the pioneer in AI-generated Netflix effects, opening up opportunities for other productions to follow suit.
Just the beginning
Hollywood’s disdain towards AI couldn’t be more evident. After all, the technology was a huge point of contention in the Hollywood actors’ and writers’ strikes that plagued the entertainment industry in 2023.
Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.
Now, two years on, we’re starting to see AI find its feet in the world of TV and movie production, and despite the negative connotations of the word, it might end up being a good thing for creators working on a smaller budget.
Sarandos said: “This is real people doing real work with better tools. Our creators are already seeing the benefits in production through pre-visualisation and shot planning work, and certainly visual effects. I think these tools are helping creators expand the possibilities of storytelling on screen, and that is endlessly exciting.”
Netflix reported a successful quarter, with over $11 billion in revenue, up nearly 20% compared to the previous year. I might be skeptical, but I’d expect this trial of using AI to generate scenes could spawn into a bigger beast if the profit margins are high enough to ride out any backlash.
Using AI monitored by the creators of a show for a scene is one thing, but at what point does it cross the line? And when it does, will companies like Netflix scale back or go full steam ahead, implementing AI into all the best TV shows and movies?
Torsten Sløk, chief economist at American asset company, Apollo Global Management, has warned that the AI companies and their stock prices are more over-inflated than the dot-com companies of the early 2000s, suggesting that an even bigger crash could be coming. He highlighted 10 of the top-performing AI companies, then suggested that the only real difference between AI businesses today and the dotcom companies of the late 90s and early 2000s is that AI businesses are even more overvalued (via Gizmodo).
The dot-com crash around the turn of the century saw companies rushing to adopt and take advantage of the internet. A relatively new technology and phenomenon at the time, but one that venture capitalists saw as having earning potential. Over the last five years of the 20th century, they invested trillions of dollars, and stock prices for publicly traded internet entities soared, only to come crashing down when the bottom dropped out of the market.
By the early 2000s, many of the companies involved in the boom had gone bust, and even now, industry giants like Amazon have lost huge portions of their investments, earnings, and market capitalization.
That’s what Sløk argues is coming for the major AI firms. That’s Apple, Microsoft, OpenAI, Meta, Google/Alphabet, Amazon, and a range of other companies. He highlights how these firms have seen huge upticks in their valuations and stock prices in recent years, driven by investments in AI ventures.
This is completely out of whack with the earnings potential of these companies, Sløk argues, and suggests the majority of the gains made to the stock market during this AI boom have been because of the overperformance of these top stocks.
That, he claims, is not going to last, and because the boom is bigger this time, the bust could be even worse. You can expand the tweet below to see the comparison of valuations.
Torsten Slok: “The difference between the IT bubble in the 1990s and the AI bubble today is that the top 10 companies in the S&P 500 today are more overvalued than they were in the 1990s” pic.twitter.com/OEervHU4WGJuly 16, 2025
Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
“Buy the rumor, sell the news,” is not what’s happening here.
Even if this wasn’t quite to the overhyped levels of the dot-com crash, there are plenty of recent examples of tech trends seeming to encapsulate the future and then failing to deliver.
Meta invested tens of billions in the Metaverse and then promptly pivoted to AI as if it never happened. NFTs and blockchain were going to change how art, finance, and investing work, and that still hasn’t happened yet.
Where each of those was constrained to a single company, or a niche market, though, AI is already everywhere, even without much of a profitable product to show for it. AI holds a lot of promise, perhaps a little like virtual reality, the metaverse, and blockchain technology, but does it warrant the hundreds of billions of investment it’s getting already?
Sløk argues no, and that when the world catches on, these companies, which have ridden high on a wave of hype and investment, may find their ephemeral silicon empires melt away into sand.
What comes after that is even more speculative than a potential downfall, but if the dot-com analogy tracks, we could see huge consolidation, with many of the top companies surviving, but scaling back their investments dramatically. Speculative AI companies would likely fail, while those with more robust revenue streams, like Amazon, Google, and Meta, would likely survive, albeit diminished in their influence.
Just as the dot-com crash didn’t kill the internet, or all of the websites on it, the AI bubble bursting wouldn’t kill AI, or make the technology less useful. It will continue to be developed and is likely to remain a useful, functional tool. However, perhaps we wouldn’t need to see “AI” as a buzzword on every product we buy over the following few years.
Follow Tom’s Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
