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A true entrepreneur of Tourism and Services, Fernão Loureiro is the owner of the consulting company Loureiro Consultores in Brazil, a shareholder of TataTur, the travel agency for leisure groups, an investor of the dental aesthetic clinic D'Amaro Odonthology (Medical Tourism) and an early investor of IFun, an independent artists platform.
Fernão Loureiro was named as one of the "75 Most Influential Tourism Professionals in the country" (2017) and the "Best Corporate Travel Manager2019" (through the Portal Panrotas). He was awarded as the "Personality of the Year" (2017 and 2018) in the Clients category by the Caio Award Institute and in Boston (USA) by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) with the Business Travel Service Awards. He was the finalist in the "Travel Manager 2018 in Latin America" competition at the event Viajes Corp Americas in Panama (where he was a keynote speaker).
Fernão is a Panrotas blogger for 4 years and a columnist in the Spanish magazine Travel Manager Magazine, of which he was the first Brazilian to come out on a magazine cover (October 2017). Also he is a guest writer in the Company Dime. Fernão was the President of the GBTA Brazil, an instructor of the GBTA Academy and he has been the Member of the HSMAI Brasil - Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International as a Coordinator of its Corporate Travel Committee for two years. He is a former participant of the traditional group TMG - Travel Managers Group. He is a visiting professor at the SENAC São Paulo, He is asSpeaker, a panelist and has his own Youtube channel for those who just started to work in the Tourism, Hospitality, Gastronomy and Events industries.
Has worked for the US Embassy in Brazil, CWT (including the office in Australia), Anheuser-Buch, British American Tobacco and currently is a contractor of American Express Global Business Travel, allocated as the Outsourced Business Travel Manager for Philips Latin America. Graduated in Tourism, Postgraduate in Management of Services, MBA in Business Administration. He is the self-made professional, Personal and Leadership Coach in the Brazilian Institute of Coaching (IBC). Fernão has a number of workshops and courses for new and existing professionals in the industry. Natural-born entrepreneur, lover of neuroscience and human behavior, working relationships, social networks, and marketing.
Q: Why did you choose your present industry at this time?
I am passionate about the Travel, Events & Hospitality industries. They are extremely dynamic, challenging and full of opportunities to explore (and I am a great hunter!). I started here 12 years ago (and 19 years old) with no idea of where I was supposed to go and the original plan was to be a CEO of the multinational I started my career…. However, life, as always surprisingly, showed me that I was born to entrepreneur, create opportunities and do things that nobody made (or made well) before. I don’t know where I am going to, I know HOW I want to be and I truly enjoy the journey (I am not looking for happiness and joy at the end of the road but in the way).
I don’t remember bad moments in my career.
~ Fernão Loureiro
Q: What is the best/worst moment you can remember in your career?
I am a blessed person with several great moments in my career (prizes, mentions, publications), so it is hard to define one. If I have though, I choose the day I was appointed one of the most influent travel professionals in Brazil by the most influent publication, with only 29 years old. This is a very close and selective industry, and I have no people from my family working in this area nor rich parents. It was only about me and the people/opportunities that crossed my way.
I don’t remember bad moments in my career. I have had disappointments, of course, but none of them has been remarkable (this also a good thing that I have, I forget the bad stuff and forgive people easily). I am not the kind of person that will tell a sad story to gain the audience’s attention, because thanks to God I don’t have a bad story (and hope to not have!).
Q: Who is your role model or hero?
I love and inspire myself in 2 guys: Barack Obama and Pope Francis. Mr. Obama because I believe he is a truly global leader, rare in our days, in our century… Smart, elegant, charismatic, soft, a black man that was the most powerful man in the world, recovered the US economy. He is the man!
The Pope is brave… I really respect, admire and prestige his actions (he is not a man of speech, he does the things, makes them happen). An 85-years old man sitting in the most difficult chair in Europe I think, as the Catholic Church suffers from scandals, corruption, and losses of followers all around the world – and he is there, strong, realistic and telling the truth to his staff and to the institution’s followers. He also apologies (have you ever seen another Pope apologizing for anything?) and meets other religious leaders with a true intention to promote peace and not only to accomplish with his role. They both are my public heroes.
Q: Tell us about the exact moment you came up with your business idea.
When people started to ask me when I was going to charge for my services and ideas. They were excellent and free! Mentoring, Coaching, Panels, Speaking in events, content creation, product/service development ideas … and I realized that I was indeed in the right time to start charging. I don’t regret not charging before because I learned extraordinarily, met incredible people…. It is funny though how it comes so natural the fact that your work is too good to be free, the people taking advantage of it feeling embarrassed for not paying for it! It is the dream of every businessman and pushed me to open my business.
Q: How did you decide to go ahead with that one, instead of others?
I can see myself working in many services areas as I am a fast-learner, multitask and with a curious spirit, but the area that I act is so needful of exploration, maturation, and development that there was no reason to try a new business. Besides my advantages of having the market respect, credibility, influence, strong knowledge, energy, and passion.
My consultancy company is like a business Hub where I have the core businesses but is also open to reselling trusted partners services and products as I am not able to produce them all by myself and to not duplicate efforts. The mission of Loureiro Consultores is to build bridges, connecting ideas and people.
Q: What is your favorite book?
“Sell to the mind, not to the client”. I love reading and have read many books, but this one impressed me for the simple, objective and direct language for such a complex subject like the brain and neuroscience. The author, a Latin specialist and with diverse videos in his Youtube channel, gives several tips and indications on how to sell to men and women, young and old, moments of life, how to program your and the client’s brain to be receptive to your speech. I strongly recommend the lecture, great learning exercise and will serve to save you energy and have more positive results in sales and negotiations overall (also with your partner!).
Q: Do you use any specific method or system to run daily operations of your business?
I still have a small business so I operate with the traditional tools such as Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Google Docs, Zoom, Skype, WeShare and the traditional social media. They attend me very well and I haven’t needed a big investment in IT so far, but it will come with the expected company growth for the next 3 years.
In terms of methodology, I am a fan of the best-in-class examples from Japan, South Korea, and Germany and believe that planning, organization, discipline, follow-up and follow-through, compromise with your words and control are the key to success. I have one person working with me directly and several services providers, so I do the best to create an environment of fun, transparency, and fair-play. Life for me is a game and although I love to win, I deal well with the not-winning phases.
Q: Looking back - if you could advise a younger version of yourself to do something different - what would it be?
This is a great exercise actually and I will include in my Coaching process! Nothing in my career I guess. I would give advice about personal life, but not for the career as I believe I have always taken the right steps, decisions, and opportunities. Hard to predict if I could be better than now if I had taken another decision in a given episode, but I don’t think about what it could have been…. I live with the facts and I am extremely happy and thankful to them.
If I can advise people that are starting to entrepreneur now though, I will say: don’t create expectations, especially about people; test yourself dealing with “NOs”, delays in responses and especially not taking anything personally – otherwise you will give up and even worst, get sick.
Follow on Instagram: @loureiroconsultores
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