Your Stories: Mark and Isobel McCardie on what it’s like being a husband-and-wife team

The couple set up Rock My World in 2017 and are thriving as part of Not Just Travel, having navigated the pandemic. Harry Kemble talks to them about their journey so far.

Q. How did you both get into travel?
Mark: I was working for VisitScotland when I was approached for a role by a DMC in Asia. I went for it and we moved to Thailand where we lived and worked for two-and-a-half years.

Isobel: I went to art school in Edinburgh and worked as a graphic designer for 20 years. In Bangkok, I worked as a freelancer. In 2017, we realised we had the perfect opportunity to combine our experience and careers, and Rock My World was born.

It was tough mentally as you could see hard-earned bookings being cancelled every day, so we were effectively in negative income

Q. How did you cope with the pandemic?
Mark: The business was going great guns pre-Covid. More than 90% of our business was referrals from existing customers. We focused on service, so there were no marketing costs, but then Covid hit. We continued making sure our customers got rebooked or refunded. We were in contact seven days a week. It was tough mentally as you could see hard-earned bookings being cancelled every day, so we were effectively in negative income as every booking cancelled was refunded, but we were still incurring the bank fees for those card payments. It was brutal. We just remained resilient and focused and never felt sorry for ourselves; we knew it would come back, we just needed to hang in there.

We just remained resilient and focused and never felt sorry for ourselves; we knew it would come back, we just needed to hang in there

Q. How has this year gone so far?
Mark: In the first half of the year, we had four of our best-ever months. We’re massively ahead of our projections. It’s been incredibly hard work but great nonetheless. We’ve been beta testing Not Just Travel’s concierge service. It takes on the heavy lifting like schedule changes and requests from customers, which frees up time to make more bookings. It’s made a huge difference. We’ve been using it for a month and it’s been a great addition. We reckon it will save us 15 hours a week.

Q. Tell us about the team at Rock My World?
Isobel: We have a freelance content manager, an admin assistant, a Florida specialist and another freelancer who does packages with the likes of Jet2holidays. We wanted to tread lightly and stay agile.

We’ve been beta testing Not Just Travel’s concierge service; it takes on the heavy lifting like schedule changes and requests from customers

Q. What is selling well at the moment?
Isobel: We sell a lot of multi-stop holidays and a lot of Asia. Our bread and butter is package holidays. Currently we’re getting a lot of enquiries for South Africa and the Indian Ocean. We’ve got a big family market who want to go to Greece, Spain and Croatia. We book a lot of European packages with Jet2holidays, Classic Collection and long-haul packages with Gold Medal and Jetset. We also do Lapland trips.

Q. What attracted you to Not Just Travel?
Mark: I looked at the business proposition of each firm before we had some calls with Not Just Travel and watched presentations. It wasn’t a quick process, but I thought Not Just Travel was the best fit for us.

We book a lot of European packages with Jet2holidays, Classic Collection and long-haul packages with Gold Medal and Jetset

Q. What kind of training did you receive once you had joined Not Just Travel?
Mark: I had a week in the Bournemouth office, where I had a mentor who was a seasoned pro and had all the answers. Despite this, we tried to work out solutions ourselves, as we think that’s the best way of learning.

Isobel: I learned on the job. I am a research addict. I research things to death.

Q. How do you begin your working day?
Mark: We go on a walk along the beach together every morning and discuss how business is going, priorities for the day or week and our long-term goals, as well as how we’ll achieve them. It’s a really good way to start the day. It helps us get through any issues we’ve got with the business.

We go on a walk along the beach together every morning and discuss how business is going, priorities for the day or week and our long-term goals

What’s it like being a husband-and‑wife team running an agency?

Mark: One thing we worked out in the first two years was how to split the roles, which has been a game changer. I’ve got a group of core clients I’ve had since the very beginning, but I focus on after-sales, strategy and making sure the business functions. Isobel is all sales. It works really well. A business needs strong foundations before you grow. If you’re operating a business without strong foundations it will fall apart as soon as you start growing. Some business owners can get a bit exasperated as they worry they’re not earning enough money, but it can take around three or four years to get to that stage, and you need to lay the groundwork first.

A business needs strong foundations before you grow; if you’re operating a business without strong foundations it will fall apart as you start growing

Isobel: I have a personal relationship with my clients. It’s hard if they get a bit emotional about bookings. It’s not going to be all highs as there are so many issues in the travel sector at present. It’s all-consuming and hard to switch off. Even when we go on holiday we’re still working. But it’s very rewarding. This week I have had so many lovely pictures from customers on holiday.