Hosted by Jeff Walter, Founder and CEO of LatitudeLearning
In this episode of the Training Impact Podcast, Jeff Walter sits down with Stan Kravitz, Director of Global Tourism Sales and Partnerships for American Dream, to explore what it takes to build a partner network that can sell and support a destination at massive scale. Stan opens by reframing what American Dream actually is. He intentionally avoids the word mall and instead describes the property as retail-tainment, a blend of retail, dining, and major attractions under one roof. In his view, the concept changes the expectations of everyone involved, including guests, internal teams, and third-party resellers.
This matters because American Dream is not selling a single store experience. It is selling an entire day, weekend, or trip experience. That creates a unique training and enablement challenge. When you sell an experience, partners need to understand not only the list of attractions, but also how to position the destination to different customer types, how to plan itineraries, and how to solve the friction points that can make or break a visit.
Jeff frames Stan’s role in a way that aligns perfectly with the mission of the Training Impact Podcast. Stan leads training efforts for internal teams and third-party resellers with the goal of creating a unified ecosystem, where everyone understands the value of American Dream and can represent it clearly and confidently.
That phrase, unified ecosystem, is a major theme throughout the conversation. American Dream depends on multiple channels to drive tourism demand. Those channels include online travel agents, group travel planners, and various reseller and distribution partners. Each partner has a different audience and a different selling motion. The training challenge is not just product knowledge. It is channel readiness, positioning, and consistency.
A practical part of the discussion centers on how American Dream prioritized channels when tourism demand was recovering. Stan explains that when you have many channel options, you still have to start somewhere. For American Dream, the strategy was to begin with online travel agents because they already had built-in networks, reputation, and demand. That created the ability to generate return sooner while building toward broader channel coverage over time.
Jeff reflects this back as a strategy story. First, identify the target traveler segment. Then, identify where that segment books and how they buy. Then, align your channel and partner strategy accordingly. Over time, as the market evolves and demand returns, you widen the net to include additional channels and group travel. Stan describes that growth as a widening of brand recognition and distribution reach, where the destination shifts from pushing into channels to receiving inbound interest from partners whose customers are asking for American Dream by name.
Jeff notes that tourism is competitive and travelers have endless choices. Stan agrees and calls the New York market one of the most unique tourism marketplaces in the world. He also explains that his career history in hospitality and tourism, including decades of relationships in the New York marketplace, made it possible to open doors with resellers more quickly.
Then Stan shares a simple, repeatable insight that applies to almost any partner ecosystem. When you talk to resellers, the question you will always get is: what’s new? Stan emphasizes that American Dream had an advantage because it was both new and totally unique in the marketplace. But novelty alone does not sustain performance. Partners need a constant stream of updates, new offers, new attractions, and refreshed messaging so they can keep their own promotions alive.
One of the most actionable points in the episode is Stan’s belief that the most effective step, whenever feasible, is getting partners into the building to see the property firsthand. Once they experience it, the destination sells itself.
He reinforces this with an example of how the destination expanded from six attractions to 25 attractions. If a reseller cannot find something to promote within that range, then their issue is not the product. It is the positioning. That statement underscores why training matters. Partners need help identifying what to sell, to whom, and how to bundle experiences into a compelling offer.
Stan explains another differentiator that partners immediately understand: American Dream is weatherproof. He describes how, even on a day with a zero-wind chill, guests can still swim, surf, ride a roller coaster, and experience attractions without the weather impacting the trip. To a tour operator, that reliability changes the economics. It creates confidence that the operator can deliver value to customers regardless of outside conditions.
This is a useful reminder for training leaders. Resellers do not just need feature lists. They need a sales narrative that maps features to outcomes, like reliability, predictability, and guest satisfaction.
Later in the episode, Jeff and Stan get into the heart of what makes this conversation relevant to partner training professionals. Stan explicitly rejects a one-and-done approach. He describes enablement as a long-term education process, not only for external sellers, but also internally. The purpose is a seamless customer journey, where customers do not run into ticket problems, check-in issues, or experience breakdowns that create negative impressions.
Stan summarizes the philosophy with a line that hits hard for anyone building training programs: the company may sign the paycheck, but it is the customer who paid you. That mindset forces alignment between training, operations, and customer experience.
When Jeff asks how reseller education happens after the initial wow factor, Stan outlines a practical enablement model. The destination does not simply ask resellers what they want to do. Instead, it guides them through what matters for their customers, drawing on Stan’s experience as a tour operator. He explains that you do not show every audience the same things. You show them what fits their market and their clients. Then you back that up with the right promotional material, content, imagery, and refresh cycles because things get stale.
Stan also describes how he uses LinkedIn to consistently announce what is new, what is coming, and what partners should be talking about. When a new attraction or program appears, the communication and training cycle starts again. This is not marketing for marketing’s sake. It is partner readiness and sales enablement delivered through real-time updates.
Stan also highlights a practical reality of tourism sales: customers want to know how easy it is to get there. He outlines the transportation options available and shares how American Dream explores partner-friendly solutions, such as shuttle services from Times Square that include commissionable opportunities for the trade. These operational details matter because they remove uncertainty at the point of decision and make the destination easier to sell.
He extends this thinking to packaging and promotions. By bundling experiences like laser tag and arcade attractions, and by continuously educating partners on how to position these offers, American Dream keeps the sales conversation fresh and actionable. The approach follows a clear pattern: introduce something new, communicate it with clarity, and enable the entire ecosystem to confidently sell the experience.
This conversation is a strong example of what extended enterprise training looks like in the real world. American Dream is not just training employees. It is training a network. That network includes internal teams and external resellers who shape the customer journey and the customer experience.
The core takeaway is simple: partner performance is not driven by content alone. It is driven by education loops. Bring partners into the experience. Give them the right materials. Keep messaging fresh. Communicate what is new. Remove friction in transportation and packaging. And treat training as a long-term process tied directly to customer experience and revenue.
For more information about American Dream visit their website: https://www.americandream.com/
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Jeff Walter (00:05)
Hi, I’m Jeff Walter and welcome back to the podcast. My guest today is Stan Kravitz American Dream. Stan is the Director of Global Tourism Sales and Partnerships for Dream America. He leads the training efforts for both these internal teams and third-party resellers, helping them understand how to navigate channel distribution and represent the brand with clarity and confidence. What he’s really trying to do is create a unified ecosystem, one where everyone, whether they’re inside the organization or part of the reseller network,
understands the value of American dream. Stan, welcome to the program.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (00:39)
Thanks for having me.
Jeff Walter (00:40)
So Stan, I’m always curious as to how people ended up where they got where they are, because it’s this beautiful journey that’s life. So how did you end up as director at American Dream? And for those that are not informed, what is American Dream?
Stan Kravitz American Dream (00:57)
So American Dream, I’ll first explain that to you. It’s the same ownership as the famous Mall of America in Minnesota and also the West Edmonton Mall. These are the real estate developers known as the Triple Five Group. And what they’ve done is really kind of revolutionized the whole landscape because this is a combination of, I would say, retail.
shopping, dining, and attractions all in one complex. In fact, Jeff, whenever I’m doing a presentation, I use a word that is not in the English language. You can’t use it in the Scrabble game, okay? It’s called retail-tainment, okay? And what retail-tainment means is that we have all these things under one roof. So for example, you know, you heard the word mall, you think of shopping or this. Here, what mall would have a water park?
Jeff Walter (01:30)
Okay.
Retill tainment.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (01:44)
or the largest indoor amusement park in the Western Hemisphere, how about an indoor ski slope, along with say 20, 25 other attractions, along with 80 dining options and 250 retail shops between mainstream and luxury. So this is really a destination. I always try to take out the word mall. I would drop the Jeff, I’d just say all. Okay.
Jeff Walter (02:08)
like like like downtown Disney under one roof with with with with Yeah with space mountain thrown in and and a water slide Yeah
Stan Kravitz American Dream (02:11)
kind of like that, yeah. And it’s all weatherproof.
Exactly, you could do it all and you
never have to leave the premises and the weather never matters.
Yeah, well, Mall of America, I mean, it’s kind of going on, you know, it’s 30, 30, 30 year plus that. I mean, it’s a staple in the country. The original first option was West Edmonton Mall in Canada. But this whole concept, of course, took off with Mall of America. then, you know, let’s picture that here in the East Coast where there is absolutely nothing like it. So it’s kind of revolutionary. And plus it’s located, we share a parking lot with MetLife Stadium near the World Cup coming here now.
Jeff Walter (02:36)
Okay.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (02:52)
in a few months. couldn’t be better.
Jeff Walter (02:54)
So now most, and getting back to how you ended up as director of sales and tourism, global tourism. So most folks wouldn’t put those two together. what is it you actually are doing in building this channel and how did you end up there?
Stan Kravitz American Dream (03:08)
Well, I ended up there. My entire life has been spent in hospitality and tourism. And I actually come from, I guess you would say, all sides of the desk. In other words, I’ve been a buyer and a seller. I was a tour operator, which is certainly a vertical of business I go after. I represented companies to hoteliers.
Jeff Walter (03:13)
Okay.
Uh-huh.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (03:28)
Before I was in transportation for 10 years and actually I came here as a result really from the pandemic. I was in transportation. was the regional director of sales. One of four in the country in the transportation industry and the pandemic as you know had a great effect on that as well as other industries. This property was still fairly new at that point and really was looking to build a tourism component and a tourism division. And I was able to bring to them, you know, all different aspects
of the tourism industry and building this really from scratch, which one of the components we’re going to talk about today is how you build this channel distribution ecosystem as one of the components of the tourism department.
Jeff Walter (04:10)
So you’re brought in to build this reseller network for tourism. So what does that look like? you use retail payment as what it is you’re selling. So what does that reseller network look like? What are you reselling?
Stan Kravitz American Dream (04:30)
So let’s try to put this without throwing tourism acronyms and words and trying to put this into just plain language here, okay? You have to realize that when the plate, exactly. So you have to realize when, you know, American Dream was first built and opened, you know, you were still just about, still had restrictions from the pandemic and the COVID. So the first thing you’re looking at is getting the word out of who are you? Where are you? What are you?
Jeff Walter (04:35)
Okay.
Okay, that’s good, because then I’ll understand it.
Right.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (04:58)
And who were the potential immediate customers that you could bring to this property? Now, I say that because when you look at tourism as a whole, you look at two types of travel. You look at the group travel, People bringing groups. And you bring in what we call, and again, I apologize for the acronym, but it’s called FIT, Free Independent Traveler, meaning just individuals, ones, twos, threes who are coming here.
At that time of coming out of COVID, there really was not much in the group sector. So of the different verticals that I was going to build to compose this entire department, the first vertical I went after was this channel distribution in the individual market, companies that could bring me the ones and the twos and market it that way and have this instant gratification, if you will, an instant return.
Jeff Walter (05:32)
Right.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (05:53)
on what we were doing by basically acquiring their customers through their marketing efforts and our joint partnership.
Jeff Walter (06:03)
And that’s for them to come to American Dream, to come to the property and be…
Stan Kravitz American Dream (06:08)
To come to the
property, to come to the property, you know, for me personally, it’s nice to come to the property, it’s, you know, there’s also basically have them buy attraction tickets. And knowing that that attraction ticket, when you go further into this program, well, if you’re coming for the attraction and say, I’m going to go to your water park, well, there’s a good chance I’m gonna have a meal or I may even go shopping. So then you’d be coming to maximum spend of where that ticket becomes really threefold.
Jeff Walter (06:20)
Right.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (06:38)
of expense.
Jeff Walter (06:39)
And so who are the resellers of that? ⁓
Stan Kravitz American Dream (06:43)
Well,
resellers in the end, and we’ll try to keep this as non-tourism as possible, You know, people are very aware of what, again, what is known in the industry as OTA, which means online travel agent. What does that mean to you? Get your guide via tour, tickets, tripster, you know, people of that nature, okay? Then they’re also within that same realm.
Jeff Walter (06:47)
Yeah. Yeah, thank you.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (07:08)
you have what we call closed user groups, which are membership-based organizations, such as employee benefit type of companies. These are the ones that will be sending them, you know, probably the most opportune to you. Outside of that, those were the first targets, okay? The next targets would be your local tour operators. These are the ones who maybe travel agents buy through or people have their own website and individuals see what their offers are and book it through the tour operator.
You start expanding that geographically as you go out and as things continue. Whereas today, fast forwarding five years ahead, it’s now global. mean, in fact, I’m off to Brazil next month, actually in March, I should say. And I’ll be working with the Brazilian operators who choose to book through what we call receptive operators, which means the Brazilian tour operator calls the operator, randles soup to nuts for them, hotel, transportation, attractions, and…
Jeff Walter (08:00)
Uh-huh.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (08:03)
that comes through. the system is built upon a wide net. You could throw in student tours, you could throw in motor coach companies. You you go out and out, but if you want to start where you’re asking from the beginning, you had to start somewheres with a defined purpose. The defined purpose was, let’s go to the people who are well known and producing in this area and have a wide net that I think I could catch on to.
Jeff Walter (08:27)
Yeah, that’s interesting. So you let, you know, so there’s a number of different types of channel partners, you know, like you just went through, think four or five different types. And then you, and you started with the OTA is the online travel advisors, ⁓ travel agents, which is, which I just think it makes complete sense. Cause it, as you go to the other
Stan Kravitz American Dream (08:44)
online travel agents.
Jeff Walter (08:53)
ones, the other segments, they’re going to go to the online to validate you, right? Just to see that if you’re there, right? Is that, was that in the thought or is it just, we go here and establish a foothold and then when you expand, expand, expand, expand.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (09:06)
Right, but again, you your strategy in this particular case, just for that, you know, that case study of coming out of a pandemic was, you know, you wanted to find who is your first target, who is your first audience, the first channel partners that you want to go to. You have all of these, I have all of these, but I thought the most effective one to begin with and make a concerted effort were the online travel agents.
Jeff Walter (09:10)
Uh-huh.
Right.
okay.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (09:32)
who have this built-in network, have that reputation, have the customers, and can make an immediate return before building. Yes, but again, now, again, you want to fast forward five years later, it’s a spread of all of these, and it’s every channel coming in, but you had to make a critical decision to start and say, where do I start? Timing is everything, your time management is everything. So I started with them.
Jeff Walter (09:37)
Because that’s where the individuals are going. Okay. Okay. So.
Right, right, right.
Okay.
Okay. So,
so when you look at this plethora of different types of, of, channels or child partners, resellers, it goes back to the thing you originally said, which was, okay, we’re coming out of pandemic group is depressed group travels depressed. hasn’t, you know, it has to get its legs back. We’re going to file focus on the individual traveler. Where does the individual traveler go to book their,
their travel and events. And that created, well, here are the places they go. So that’s where we want to be. And then from there you go, okay, now the, now, now let’s, as, as we, as, as you, penetrate those networks, then it’s like, okay, now it’s, now it’s a little later in the game. Let’s start adding groups and groups are over here. And so we’re to hit these guys and then we’re to hit the, you know, this category, then this category, then this category, and then fast forward five years, which is where we’re at now is.
You’ve got a multitude of channel partners, not only domestically, but internationally, and you’re everywhere you want to be. Right.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (10:59)
The net has
been cast bigger and the brand recognition is so much different than it was five years ago that it’s a great combination and a great thing to have that not only are you out there of course trying to bring in more business but you’re also getting requests like I was just at the American Bus Association trade show in Reno last week and I had four appointments from clients that has never sent me
Jeff Walter (11:02)
Right.
Uh-huh.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (11:25)
a person yet, for a tick to buy a ticket yet. And when I had the meeting with them, they said, my clients want to come to you. They specifically asked, can we come to American Dream? So that, it’s very rewarding and all to hear that. So again, the brand recognition with the net, everything just got wider over time.
Jeff Walter (11:41)
So now as you’re building that partner network, so I get the strategy, right? Like you had a segment, the customer you’re going after, here’s the resellers for that segment, then the next segment, the next segment, then their associated resellers that are targeting that segment and so on and so forth. How do you, like, how did you get them to sign up and how do you end up getting, you know, pull through through that channel?
Cause I, yeah, I just got to imagine it’s very competitive. you know, like there’s a lot of, there’s just a lot of options there for a traveler.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (12:17)
Correct. The New York marketplace is one of the most unique marketplaces for tourism in the world, really. I there are so many different… I I live in New York City, okay? I mean, there are so many different options to take. The good news is that, again, I mentioned to you before that I had spent my life in hospitality and tourism. 25 of those years were in the New York marketplace. So the relationships were already…
Jeff Walter (12:28)
All right.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (12:44)
in place, if you will, with many of these particular resellers that I was going to approach. One thing that a reseller will always look for, even as a tour operator, not just these channel… The one question you’ll always get when you go to a trade show or you have a call is, so what’s new? What’s new in the market? Well, not only were we the shiny brand new toy, but it was totally unique.
Jeff Walter (13:00)
Right.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (13:09)
to anything that they could possibly compare it to, which of course created the excitement of, this could be a program we wanna add to our program. For me, the most important thing is when feasible in any way, shape or form is getting you in the building and getting you to see the property. Because once you see the property, it pretty much takes over and really sells itself to the point now where…
Jeff Walter (13:29)
Okay.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (13:36)
When I first opened, I had six attractions. Now I have 25. Think of yourself, you ask the question, what brought them in? If you have 25 different attractions, you’ve got to be able to find something that you’re going to be able to promote. And if you can’t, I don’t know if I can help you. These are world-class attractions, along with everything else. I said, so you have a new product, you have this array of what to do. And a key for them, one of the keys that I started with was…
fact that it was weatherproof. let’s take today. We’re sitting here today and this morning’s wind chill was zero. Okay? I got people swimming and taking surfing lessons and I got people going on a roller coaster and it doesn’t matter. Okay? That means to a tour operator where you think you’re not going to make any profit or income today, come here and you’ll be making plenty of profit because I’m wide open for your business in this weather.
Jeff Walter (14:09)
Mm-hmm.
So as you were going out and marketing and signing up the resellers, what I hear you saying is that this particular product was very unique for the market.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (14:46)
There’s only really one other one like it in the United States and that’s Moldova Merc and we own it. ⁓ I mean, and that’s really it to be honest with you.
Jeff Walter (14:51)
Right. If you want a book there, fine.
Jeff Walter (14:58)
Okay, so going back, back, backtrack. We’re talking about being unique, a unique product. that’s what got the initial where I was going with that. So to your point, it’s like, Hey, you know, what’s new today? What’s, what’s, what’s the, what’s the newest thing?
Stan Kravitz American Dream (15:07)
a unique product.
Jeff Walter (15:19)
you’re bringing something very unique to the market. So that gets some initial interest, but then it’s gotta be a long-term viable product for the result, right? So, not just like a one and done, right? And so, something that can sell over and over again. so, as you’re doing this, okay, it’s…
Stan Kravitz American Dream (15:31)
That is correct.
Nope, you’re not looking for one end time.
Jeff Walter (15:42)
I get it, like they’re coming at you, okay, this, you’re selling a very unique experience for travel. And that would make a tour operator or any type of travel agent or anybody that’s helping others plan a trip, right? It’d be interesting because it’s different, and it’s new and it’s different. And then what, you know, and so what challenges did you have to overcome and then what did you end up?
achieving what we’re doing.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (16:08)
got a little garbled there. All I heard was what challenges.
Jeff Walter (16:10)
⁓
the challenges of making that happen and then ultimately, how did it benefit the resellers and your organization because ultimately it has to benefit.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (16:22)
Well, are always, the first challenge that I would say they faced here is that we are located 20 minutes from New York City. We’re in East Rutherford, New Jersey, we’re actually, as I said, we share a parking lot with MetLife Stadium, right? Of course, once the World Cup bid came out, everybody was like, they’re so close. They’re next door. Because obviously, would the World Cup have awarded,
Jeff Walter (16:40)
Yes.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (16:48)
the matches on the final to someplace that was so far away. So, and again, I happen to live in Manhattan and I’m like 20 minutes, okay? So, but there was your first one. Second is where do you stay? Third is how do you get there? Okay? And again, once they see the property, when I used to do it, and I call these private tours, I don’t call them site inspections or fan trips or whatever you want to call them. You you really, you kind of got to let the, it’s almost an overwhelming.
because they haven’t seen anything like this. And you could see the wheels turning and in those wheels are the dollar signs as well as well. We can do a lot of different things. We can bundle, we can package, we can do this. I could run a promo in the winter. If I see a snow day coming up, I’m gonna start pushing this. Plus there’s no tax on clothing and shoes in New Jersey. Things all start developing in the mind of how they could do this. And of course,
All of us do not want a one and done. We want a long term, it’s an education process, but Jeff, it’s an education process not just on for the seller, it’s an internal education process of who are their customer, what’s their customer, what’s the customer journey, how do you make it seamless for the customer? You don’t want a customer coming here trying to check in and have a problem with a ticket or having a bad experience, right? So.
Jeff Walter (18:07)
Mm-hmm.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (18:08)
There is a, it’s a mutual training on both sides of internal and external because the ultimate is the customer experience. You know, listen, I used to live by a saying, okay, Jeff, the saying was, it wasn’t mine, I wish it was, but it said on Friday, you know, the company gives you a paycheck, but it’s the customer who paid you.
Jeff Walter (18:28)
Right.
well, so what, you know, and I forgot about the whole internal side as well, because you’re training the internal folks. they, giving them that private tour, they get the wow factor, right? Because it’s a unique experience and now they are experiencing for themselves. And like you said, you could see the things turning. Once you get beyond that, how do you educate the reseller to, you know, how does that…
Stan Kravitz American Dream (18:56)
Well,
Jeff Walter (18:57)
How does that happen?
Stan Kravitz American Dream (18:58)
the first thing is when you have them through here, okay, you like I said, you’re not saying, what do wanna do? It’s almost like, take this all in, we’re gonna follow up with a call, we’re gonna see what you know. And I used to say, I was a tour operator, Jeff, right? And I used to say respectfully, I know my client better than you do. Okay, so I know what they need, what they don’t need. I’m not gonna have a student tour operator here and show them the champagne and caviar.
I mean, I’m gonna be showing them the Hasbro game room and the laser tag and this skiing and the swimming and where you could do band performances and things of that nature. So I think what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to educate them and train them into, you’ve got to give them the right promotional material. You’ve got to give them content. You’ve got to give them imagery. You’ve got to refresh. Things get stale.
There’s always a, you I use LinkedIn very strongly in announcing what’s new, okay? What’s coming, know, what is new. When I see a new program, when I see a new attraction come up, I’m bringing that to the forefront. When I see press on, you know, pretty soon we’re gonna be expanding our Sesame Learn and Play, which is a defined audience. It’s more the families, toddlers. Well, you know what? We’re expanding it to five new attractions.
I know it’s going to open mid-February. You better believe come mid-February, I’m going to be educating everybody on the new programs there. I’m looking at doing what we call bundling in our game room of our laser tag and our arcade games together. That happens. You educate. You always got to keep people, what’s new? What can I do next? And also, Jeff, know, there’s an old thing, listen to your customer. What do you want? You know? And I know one thing they want that I’m pushing on. You know, and I’ll be happy to announce that.
Jeff Walter (20:17)
All
Stan Kravitz American Dream (20:40)
That comes to fruition, but if it does I think it’s a complete game changer But one of the things I will tell you that was in this subject was when we worked with a operator who was also has a transportation division and Is running a shuttle service from Times Square and will commission the trade for that service. That was huge
Jeff Walter (20:57)
I’m sorry, what does that mean? I understand the words, but what does that mean?
Stan Kravitz American Dream (21:02)
So there’s going to be a company, so a lot of these people that are booking, these resellers that are booking, let’s say that their guests are staying in the New York City area, Manhattan area. And the first question they’re going to say is, well, how do we get there? Right? So there are various options. There’s an option of New Jersey Transit runs a terrific run line service from the Port Authority. There’s New Jersey Transit, you could take a train into Secaucus, that’s how I get to work, nine minutes, okay? Then you wanted to take an Uber or Lyft.
Jeff Walter (21:09)
Right.
Right.
Yep.
Yep. Yep.
you
Stan Kravitz American Dream (21:31)
but there is a company that is actually running a scheduled service for the travel trade. Why I separate that between the public and the travel trade is that the travel trade looks for commission for selling those tickets. But what they could do is they could package on their website now, which they couldn’t do before, hey, Nickelodeon Universe with transportation, Nickelodeon Universe by itself, or you just want to go shopping, transportation for shopping excursions.
Jeff Walter (21:44)
⁓ okay.
Right. Right.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (22:00)
but it was a whole other option for them to open up to their customers of another avenue of transportation to get here.
Jeff Walter (22:05)
Gotcha, gotcha.
So a specialized shuttle and it gets bundled in as before operator work.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (22:12)
Yeah, it’s more, that service, would say, is more geared towards the travel trade because they are equipped for reservations and they are equipped to pay commission. They do it. My job is to help them fill their shovel.
Jeff Walter (22:20)
All right.
Right, right. Interesting. Huh. And so how many, just a quick question, how many partners are you juggling? Have you been able to assemble?
Stan Kravitz American Dream (22:25)
It’s a good, it’s another partnership.
You know, it’s very interesting. It’s a great question. In the beginning when you’re starting, how do you say this? You’re basically looking at onboarding as many as you can, right? As the five years later go on, you really are making it more streamlined as to who are the partners we’re going to go forward with, which are the ones that unfortunately we may have to sever ties with, and which are the ones, new ones that I like to onboard. So it’s more selective. So the number is constantly changing.
Jeff Walter (22:44)
Bye.
All
Stan Kravitz American Dream (23:04)
Anybody in sales knows what you have today may not be there tomorrow. So you’re not, you know, we all celebrate for what? Three, four minutes and then we move on, right? So, you know, I would say, you know, if you wanted to use a ⁓ off the beat number, I would say, you know, if you’re juggling 50 plus or whatever, you know, that may be it. But, you know, my goal is also like my number seven reseller last year is now number three from revenue. So you’re looking at how can I grow from that?
Jeff Walter (23:14)
at such sales.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (23:32)
number from within. How many people that I have that were six-figure clients can I turn into seven-figure clients? And how do I help them do that? Their success is my success, so they’re an extension of my sales team, and my job is to help them grow and keep them happy as well, while they are representing American Dream in the best positive light with major enthusiasm and accountability.
Jeff Walter (23:55)
So what have your successes been? Because I think I heard you say earlier, prior to all this, there was no formal tourism element. And you came and built this network out. So how do you know you’re being successful?
Stan Kravitz American Dream (24:22)
The success is pretty easy, Jeff. When I came here, the number in the bank was zero. It is now high eight figures within a little over four years. And when I say that, I say in your bank. I don’t say gross sales. I always kid the ownership here when I say in your bank. Okay? As I am talking to you, Jeff, and I love the way our system is set up, as I am talking to you, my sales numbers for today are being calculated.
Jeff Walter (24:31)
Wow. Wow.
All right.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (24:50)
So I will not walk into an ownership meeting and say, I’m going to do this for you. They could say, what did you do for me today? And I could tell you what I’ve done from January 1st to now. I could tell you what we did last year. I could go on from that. I think my advice to anybody is have that type of system. Because there’s an old saying, reputations aren’t made on what you’re going to do. So if you have that kind of system, and it’s effective, if I could go in and say,
Jeff Walter (24:53)
Mm-hmm.
Hahaha.
like that.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (25:17)
that listen, here’s where I’m at right now, this is why I believe I could do this, at least I have something. Or I could say, this program didn’t work. I tried this program and it wasn’t successful. I tried an experiment, I tried a certain promotion. Here’s the results of the promotion, good or bad. Good, success leaves clues, let’s go with it again. Bad, we tried it, okay, it didn’t work, things happen. But I love the fact that as I said that that…
Jeff Walter (25:25)
Mm-hmm.
All right.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (25:43)
I love going in and walking in and sitting with a C-suite level and saying, here’s the number.
Jeff Walter (25:49)
Yeah, it’s funny because I focus a lot on formal training programs. I keep hammering that to folks running those programs. It’s like, you’ve got to, executives only understand, you know.
Everything’s either a cost of doing business or something that brings money in the bank, right? And you want to be on that side of the equation. And you want to sit there and go, here’s the bank I’m bringing in,
Stan Kravitz American Dream (26:13)
Jeff and all.
In all our careers, I’m sure we have sat around a boardroom table and heard some salesperson say, what I got coming in in six months is unbelievable. And right now you have nothing. You come back from a trade show and everybody from a trade show, when you’re first on a trade show, they said, my God, what a show. I made millions of dollars. You made nothing. Okay? You have the idea of it. Now you go to work and make that come in. So even when I do a particular trade show, I could put a value.
Jeff Walter (26:24)
Hahaha.
You
Stan Kravitz American Dream (26:43)
on that show. Here’s what it cost me. Here’s the revenue that it brought back. I mean, this is where, you know, these things are, you want to take subjectivity out as much as you can, especially when you are looking for a, to initiate a new program. I mean, we, you know, we say jokingly, but it really wasn’t a joke. Many times I’ll present a new initiative and the CEO will look at me and say, would you risk your job on that? Okay. And I will tell you, I presented an initiative I can’t get into as of yet. Okay. It’s closed.
Jeff Walter (27:05)
Uh-huh.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (27:11)
And I said to the CEO, said, for the fourth year, I’m presenting this initiative. And before you ask me, I’m going to tell you I’m risking my job on this. And I believe this year we’re going to get it and go through.
Jeff Walter (27:20)
Yeah, hold on. my. Well,
that’s actually amazing that in less than five years, four years, five years, I mean, you said earlier, know, net eight digits. I mean, that’s huge. That’s actually eight in the bank. That’s, that’s. That is huge. Yeah.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (27:42)
Can I take this section to my next review? Yeah. ⁓
Jeff Walter (27:49)
no, can you do that for me? Man.
So what would your advice be? I mean, so just to try to distill it all. Yeah, we talked about the beginning and focusing on the product’s uniqueness and what’s new and that’s how you attract them. But it has to be repeatable. And then there’s almost this synergy that occurs within the channel network.
we’ve got cross-pollinization, right? Partner A services can be bundled with partner Bs so they can be a better experience for the customer so there’s that kind of, yeah.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (28:27)
I remain a connector, Jeff,
and I always believe in networking and I remain a connector and a connector. Listen, even if it doesn’t benefit American Dream, that connection comes back to you at some point or another. I’ve always, when I was a kind of a founding member of a networking group and on a steering committee, we always said, don’t look for instant gratification. Okay, don’t try to sell the person across the table from you. And most importantly, are you willing to help somebody before they help you? Okay, and I live by those things. And so this transportation, sure, it’s good for me.
Jeff Walter (28:50)
Right, yeah.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (28:56)
But if I can help fill this partner’s coaches and make him a success with that, beautiful for everybody.
Jeff Walter (29:02)
Yeah, well,
you know, I mean, it’s funny you that up because I really, you you could call it karma or you could call a lot of things, it’s, that’s been my career is very similar. It’s like you just do the right thing for people. You help them out. And it may never, that particular effort may never pay off, but oh my God, it just comes back to you in droves some way, shape or form, you know?
Stan Kravitz American Dream (29:29)
You know,
there’s a few things I remember, Jeff, about that. you know, when I was in the network, and we used to do these things called house calls, right? You had to go to the other person’s, learn about them. And I remember going to a family attorney, you know, real estate, wills, divorces. And I asked him, said, Steve, is there any time you turn a client away? And he said, yes. And I said, what is that?
Jeff Walter (29:37)
Yeah.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (29:55)
And he said, when I can’t meet their expectations. And it’s a lesson I’ve learned in tourism. I’ve kept that with me here today. If I have somebody coming in, you know, like I had a, know, they want, if I can’t produce to live to their expectations, it’s very rare, but I would rather walk away than create a bad name. And the other thing I always say is, you know, we all get in this business, we get called, we get headhunted, we get this, but the one thing that I am most proud of in my decades in this industry,
Jeff Walter (29:59)
All right. Huh.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (30:23)
is anybody could put me on hold and call anyone in this industry and I’d live and die on their work.
Jeff Walter (30:28)
Yeah. Say that last part again.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (30:30)
I said that, you know, the thing I’m most proud about, okay, is that I’m in this industry for 40 years, okay? And if anyone ever wondered, you know, anything about me, I said, you know, you could put me on hold on this call. Call anybody you want in this industry. I would live and die on their word, because I feel my reputation in this industry. You know, you come in with your reputation and you leave with it. And what I always say is, if anyone’s going to screw up a reputation, let it be me, not somebody else, right? For me.
Jeff Walter (30:31)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. But you
know, you said a couple of things there that were really profound. And I’m still processing the first one, which, you know, which your attorney friend said, that’s really profound. You know, do you ever, you know, fire a client or refuse a fight? That’s
Stan Kravitz American Dream (31:06)
⁓
I’ve used that for 20 years, Jeff.
20 years I’ve based it on that and it’s benefited me. I’ve never walked away where you say, you never want to turn somebody away and you know, my God, but there are times you get that and I, an instinct, a gut feeling that this is not going to turn out well if I can’t do it.
Jeff Walter (31:18)
What?
Yeah. Well, what I love
about the way you phrased that is I’ve heard, we’ve all heard or experienced variants of that, right? Like this client is just, you know, there’s no pleasing them, right? And it’s kind of like you’re making a value judgment of that person, right? Like they’re being unreasonable and, and, you know, they’re just consuming, you know, the juice ain’t worth the squeeze, right? Like,
But what I love about the way you phrased it is there’s no value judgment. And what I mean by that, it’s not saying that the other person is being unreasonable or a pain in the neck or any of that. some people would, it could just be what we are capable of doing is not capable of meeting their reasonable expectations. There’s no value judgment there.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (32:19)
Correct. It’s that I know I can meet your expectation, okay? And it’d be interesting for your callers, your listeners, your clients, if they’ve ever said that question, and if I ever said to you, like, Jeff, I’d love to do this, but I don’t think I can meet your expectations, what’s the immediate reaction and result from the person on other end? I mean, that’s a fascinating thing, because how many, they always say,
Jeff Walter (32:22)
Right.
Yeah.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (32:43)
How many times are people not used to a salesperson saying, no, I can’t help you. I want to take your business.
Jeff Walter (32:47)
Right, yeah, no, 100%. And the
natural thing would be, well, what expectations can’t you meet? And then you go, well, this one.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (32:54)
I’m here that people call me and say, I spoke to Jeff and he told me to give you a call that you were great guy to work with. I don’t want to hear them say, listen, know, there’s the old rule, something goes wrong, something goes right, they tell three people, something goes wrong, they tell 20 people, right? You know, I want to be on the one that people said, I was told to call you by. Or like when I went to this trade show and they said, I actually had a client who said they want to come to American Dream. I don’t want it the other way around, saying, oh, we know somebody who went there and had a very difficult experience.
Jeff Walter (33:00)
Yeah.
Right, yeah.
Exactly.
But I really like that on the client thing. Yeah.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (33:25)
The easiest sale is a resale and a referral. If
I could pick up the phone and get referrals every day, beautiful.
Jeff Walter (33:31)
Yeah,
and I like that. That was one profound thing, which is, know, turn away point where you can’t meet their expectations. And it doesn’t, because you, I just really like that. Because like I said, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s almost an implied their expectations are realistic, but you’re just being the honest broker going, you have this expectation. And unfortunately, I can’t, you can’t meet that. So, but maybe this guy over here can, right? It’s good.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (33:56)
And
I have no data, logic, except a gun state on that to go off of.
Jeff Walter (34:02)
Yeah. Well, you know,
and then on the reputation for, yeah, so that was one thing that was very profound. So thank you for sharing that. And then the other thing was the reputation, which, you know, it’s really interesting because I talked to somebody a few weeks ago and, you know, talked about, you know, sales 20, 30 years ago and what it’s like. And, you know, and then, you know, we try to be buddy, buddy and friends with the folks and, and, and, you know, do whatever.
to try and build some type of relationship. But what it really boiled down to is what you were talking about, which is reputation. It’s like, know, the whole, you know, people like to do business with their friends. Well, it’s not friends, it’s people they can trust. It’s like, like, I want to do business with folks I can trust, therefore, I don’t have to worry about it, because I got enough on my plate. And your reputation is that proxy for trust. All these other people say, hey,
All these other people that I trust, trust you, therefore I can trust you. You know what saying?
Stan Kravitz American Dream (35:04)
Let’s go back to the networking group, There are some people, I’ve been out of that group for years, there are people I still send referrals to, the financial advisor, the family attorney that I talk to. There’s others that I still will say, if you took all the people over the years, how many would you put your reputation on the line by making a referral for? How many? You may give an introduction.
Jeff Walter (35:17)
Bye.
All right.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (35:30)
But an introduction and an endorsement are two different things.
Jeff Walter (35:32)
Yes, 100%. 100%.
Well, and I guess you, you know, just taking what you’re talking about as clients there, you can also, I would also apply that to your channel partners, to your resellers, right? Like you can talk to one of them and say, hey, this is what we’re about. But if they’ve got expectations that are mismatched with what your product or service is capable of doing, it’s like, you can almost like you said, get that concept. This is, yeah.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (35:59)
That happens.
Some of them will propose a promotion and offer something that realistically is not feasible. But in a way of doing that, a correct, not just saying, I can’t do that, explaining the basis behind it, but also trying to find an alternate program that would work, that could do something. Not just a, you know, I was taught a long time ago when I was a student tour operator, people wanted these customized tours to Europe, right?
Jeff Walter (36:07)
All
Right, right.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (36:27)
And our boss who was a school teacher, okay, what else do you want? He said, look at it like a traffic light. If things are green, good, no problem, go right ahead, right? Or, well, a yellow light. It could be done, but here’s what we have to do. Or there’s a red light. It just can’t happen, but here’s why.
Jeff Walter (36:45)
Cool. Still absorbing all that. I really like that. Really, really like that. So shifting gears a little, what lies on the horizon for you and American Dream? What’s the future hold?
Stan Kravitz American Dream (36:59)
The future is, in my opinion, is unlimited. The future will remain as to what I can bring in to match the company’s In other words, I’m really based on the availability of tickets to sell as opposed to an increase or whatever. And I could find programs and partnerships and whatever to grow it in as many ways. I’ve just always got to make sure that I’m aligned with the goals of the company.
But as far as the future goes, for me, the next step is more international, more global reach for sure. My colleague just got back from Mexico. I just got back, as I said, from this trip. We’re both going to Brazil in March. He’s going to handle the media. I’m going to handle all the tour operators. Coming up, my God, we have our big Super Bowl, if you will, is in Florida this year. It’s called IPW.
where basically United States invites the world to buy the United States. We usually have a minimum of 80 appointments with that. There’s another trade show coming up, a sales mission. It’s either gonna be in Amsterdam this year, they usually do it in London and then invite the rest of Europe. This year it’ll be in Amsterdam. I go back possibly to Argentina to continue to build that South American market. Obviously World Cup in South America is a marriage in heaven.
So the global reach expanding, growing from within is always big for me and it’s continuing to find the right partnership between our product and those who will benefit from it. It’s got to be a two-way street of a streamlined echo channel system that is mutually beneficial and good partnership. You’re a good partner to me and I’m a good partner to you.
Jeff Walter (38:39)
All
right. And that gets back to the whole trust, the whole reputation, and meeting expectations. that’s really, I think there’s so much in there that you can just, my mind’s still spinning on that. just hit me really hard on it. Yeah. ⁓
Stan Kravitz American Dream (38:57)
Your mind and my mind to every day is different. My
day could change from the time I put on the computer or pick up the phone. But you go from years of experience, you say, I’ve seen that before. And you pull that off. And then you’ll get something you haven’t seen before.
Jeff Walter (39:03)
Yeah, so. ⁓
Right.
So Stan, if somebody wanted to reach out and get a hold of you or want to contact you and either join your network or just ask me questions about how would somebody reach out and be able to contact you? What’s a good way to get a hold of you?
Stan Kravitz American Dream (39:26)
Well, the best way of course is to, you know, probably by email right now, you know, we are a small but mighty department. So we are, you know, we do have, like I said, start, we just started the heavy season of the trade show season. It’s like, I could tell you, I travel once a month now for March, April, May, June, then August, September. So within that, you know, those weeks, and again, you know, I’ve always believed that what I do in January, February, and March,
Jeff Walter (39:33)
Hahaha
Stan Kravitz American Dream (39:54)
can dictate the entire year. And I don’t like to make a lot of major changes in high season, but I’m always willing, you know, when I have time, I’m willing to, you know, listen, people helped me along my whole career. And one thing I lived by, and there’s plenty of them out there, Jeff, I talk to people smarter than me. And there’s plenty of them out there. I still talk to my old boss. My old boss is from transportation. We still are in communication all the time. You know, I mean, I learned so much from them.
Jeff Walter (40:13)
Yeah.
out.
Do it.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (40:23)
He used to sit in a conference room and he used to knock on the window and he was looking and said, business is out there. Meaning get out of the room and go. You know? it’s talk to people smarter than you. It’s the best advice I can give you. If you’re the smartest person in the room, something’s wrong.
Jeff Walter (40:28)
Ha ha ha ha.
Yeah.
Well, I think that’s a great thing to close on, Stan. Thank you so much for sharing your wealth of knowledge. There’s some great nuggets in there. It’s just, just, was great.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (40:46)
Jeff, we have a laugh in
the Kravitz family. The joke is always, giving a microphone to a Kravitz is never a problem. Taking it away from us.
Jeff Walter (40:54)
All right. Well,
with your permission, I’d like to just, I just want to thank you for your time and your insights. It’s been.
Stan Kravitz American Dream (41:02)
you
It’s been an absolute pleasure
and I hope the listeners can benefit from this. really do. We’re all here to help each other. That’s the way we grow.
Jeff Walter (41:10)
All right, and there, that’s
true. There’s so much truth in that. And so many profound things you said, so thank you. And to everybody out there, thanks for listening. We appreciate you hanging out, listening to us chat, and learning new things. Have a great day.