Eric Goldring - From Marine Biologist to Seabourn Cruises #1 Agent

Dan Chappelle (00:00):

Today we have Eric gold ring from Goldring travel in Truckee, California. And so we want to welcome him. He has a great story to tell. It started his career as an attorney and has become a very ultra successful travel professional. So welcome. Eric. Welcome to the show. Well, thank you. It's nice to be here. So tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got, you know, I mean, that's a big transition going from a practicing law and to helping people have a fantastic vacations. How did you fall into that? Well, I actually started as a Marine biologist. Wow. And I loved that,

Eric Goldring (00:54):

But I was starving. So my boss at the national Marine fishery service said, why don't you become an environmental lawyer? So I was able to combine my Marine biology and the law and became an environmental lawyer. Now while I was in law school and the struggling young lawyer, I dated somebody who was an interior designer and her firm was tasked with doing some of the interiors on Royal Caribbean second ship, the song of America. So my first cruise was on the song of Norway and I loved it and it was free. So that was even better.

Eric Goldring (01:31):

Anyway, so from there, that was sort of my cruise introduction and then it went away and now I'm a environmental lawyer and somebody came in with a problem with a very large job into the law firm and nobody knew anything about it. And they were okay. Eric fish, water boats, it's all the same thing. You've got the case. So I wound up at the age of 23 before the U S court of appeals, arguing some very technical maritime things and I want that now. Made me a yacht Maven. And I was in the superyacht industry, which is luxury travel in a way. I mean it's buying, selling, chartering, all that. So I was involved with charters like Oprah, Rupert Murdoch, rock and roll people, Russian oligarchs. And I had to, I learned how to deliver a luxury product. The downside of all of that was it was exhausting, stressful.

Eric Goldring (02:28):

Nobody was ever satisfied and you made money, but you spend a lot of money trying to find happiness and that's not a healthy. So I eventually got my ex wife to agree to go on a cruise and my first family cruise was on the big red boat premier crew. Remember that? Right. And it was falling apart and it was a disaster. But I went to one of the big cruise agencies and I said, give me the best suite on a ship. Well, they gave me the suite and