Ral West
speaker
205 appearances
4 recordings
1 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard May 2025
Ral West’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
And I think one thing that might be relatable is that our business involved taking reservations for our air service over the phone. So we had reservations agents who would answer the phone and take a booking by using our in-house computer reservation system and book. No booking was taken without somebody being on the phone to take that booking.
So as time went on, we were realizing that this was not a very efficient system. And we invested a huge amount of money and almost two years to develop an automated reservation system.
and that system once we pulled the trigger on it and it went live it was able to take the bookings um 24 7 without any of our reservation agents talking on the phone at all whether you are a travel agent or a customer you could go online and book your trip entirely online that was a huge transition for our company and it made a gigantic difference in our revenue
by being able to automate that reservation system. So just like with what you're talking about in terms of your podcast, the more you're able to automate some of your processes and so that you can repeat your systems over and over again in less and less time, that enables you to increase your productivity and hopefully your revenue as well.
I think I'm a bit different than a lot of people. Financially, we could have retired when we sold our business to Alaska Airlines, and that was like 16 years ago. But we had still a lot of energy and ideas, and we didn't want to retire. So I think our decision to not retire was based on just our own motivation and desire and interest.
So we're particularly, I am continuing to work just because I love it and I don't feel the need to sit back and I do love to travel. My definition of living the dream is being able to travel the world. We take long trips. I recently got back from a six-week trip in Europe, and I plan to do a lot more of that.
I love cruising, and I don't intend to give that up, but I also don't intend to give up my business. So I have to figure out a way to have the businesses run very smoothly and with these processes and systems going, whether I'm around or not. And so my definition of retirement is just living the life that I want and having whatever business I want to have. I don't need it for monetary reasons.
I just want it because it's my passion. It's my joy. And I don't see that age has any bearing on whether or not I continue to work. You know, as long as I love it and I can do it, I'm going to.
I think that people need to be able to pivot and that the pivot will depend on what their inner desires and motivations are. And I think that I personally am an advocate of people following their heart and following their passion. If they love what they do, why not keep doing it? Financially, I think it's great to make sure that you have
a consistent source of income, whether that be some kind of retirement account that's generating some income for you or you have passive investments like our real estate. They are considered passive investments because they earn money while we're sleeping. So that's an important aspect of being able to be financially independent.
and live the life the way you want to live it, whether that means working or not working. We have friends who are just totally enjoying their retirement. They have the financial means to do what they want, and they travel or they play golf or pickleball or do volunteer work, whatever they want to do. And I think that the traditional retirement
definition of retirement of reaching age 65 and then you quit your the job that you've had for 30 or 40 years and you're hanging up and go home and sit on the couch that's gone i don't see that happening i think that people can reinvent themselves and develop new ways to keep themselves occupied and follow a passion and maybe that passion will be generating some income or maybe it won't
But you do have to have some financial wherewithal to be able to live the life that you want. I think that's important. I think that people nowadays have an opportunity to create so many more opportunities for themselves, and there are really no limits. You mentioned AI earlier, and with the digital age, there are just so many things that people could do, so many opportunities.
If you look around and see what... where people need to be served and you can provide that service, why not do that? And be creative, be bold, be confident, and don't let your age or your situation stop you. And I just believe that people need to go for it. That would be my final word.
Thanks, Vince. And I love the distinction of the time difference.
Okay, Vince, in a capsule, 40 years plus, I've been an entrepreneur. And before that, I grew up in an entrepreneurial family. So I think it ran in my blood. So in my mid 20s, I opened my first business and went on to have a serial entrepreneur, if you will, had many different businesses. And the primary business was one that I ran with my husband, and we ran the business for 25 years.
It was a business that operated charter air service between Alaska and Hawaii with wide-body jets. And after 25 years, we were able to exit the business by selling it to Alaska Airlines. And in other career pivots since then, we have owned small cruise ships. We have invested in multifamily real estate syndications, and we are still doing that. So a varied career for, as I say, over 40 years.
And that brings me to today where I have yet another business that I've started where I was teaching entrepreneurs business. how to accomplish what I have and that you can run your business and have the life that you want at the same time.
To start with, I was raised in a tourism family, so that was my initial business was related to tourism, and I was helping businesses with their marketing and advertising, businesses that were involved in tourism in Alaska. I wasn't born in Alaska. I was born in Seattle, but I moved to Alaska in my 20s, and that's where I decided, to launch out onto my own because I saw an opportunity.
And I think that's the main criteria is that there was an opportunity because there were many small tourism businesses that didn't know how to get their product out to market. And I had the experience doing that in the work that I had already done in tourism. So I thought, I can offer them this service and I can provide them with what they need to get their product to market.
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