Return of the road warriors

Business travel can fast-track a career, but frequent flyers find life on the road can get stale and lonely even inefficient.

The transition to a place-based job, however, requires a well-thought out strategy.

Tom Taormina of The Taormina Group Inc. is at home in the Virginia Highlands after making that transition.

"I've not been on an airplane since 9-11," he says. "Before that, we passengers were treated like cattle. But the impetus of 9-11 made it unpalatable to me to work at that pace."

So he narrowed the focus of his consulting work to Western locations within driving distance and as a former Texan, he says some driving distances are a long ways indeed.

To handle Eastern clients, he took on virtual associates in other cities and lined up a business partner in Florida who still enjoys travel.

Marc Eisenberg, now enterprise systems manager at Server Technology in Reno, is making the transition from life on the road.

He was hired as the company's technical sales manager for the Northeast United States and eastern Canada, traveling on Mondays and Fridays so he could work with customers the middle three days.

But after two years of constant travel, he convinced management that being in front of customers only three days a week was not the most effective use of his time. He now oversees development of a new software application. The company, meanwhile, has hired a replacement sales rep who lives in the East.

"My 3,000-mile commute for him was a 300-mile drive to any client in his area," says Eisenberg.

For independent consultants, finding a foothold at company headquarters is not an option.

Sean Burns of Burns Coaching LLC which does business as Leadership Development Team was home in Carson City less than a week during the past two months and now heads out for another month in the air.

"I'm discovering the threshold between travel and too much travel," he says. "This past year was testing the limits of tolerability."

His work takes him to Ford Motor Co. in Detroit; ConAgra Foods in Omaha, and Phillips Electronics in Atlanta, where he teaches coaching skills to managers and executives. On his immediate agenda are six more trips to Detroit and four more to Omaha.

He'd like to do more coaching by phone or, face-to-face with clients in the region. But to totally transition from travel, says Burns, "I need to build credibility so I can pick and choose where and with whom to work."

As an interim step, he's teamed with Bob McCann, a locally-based 20-year veteran of business coaching. They plan to take their coaching workshop on a regional road show, and are booking companies locally.

Road warriors are not oblivious to the joys of jetting.

"It's fun to be in different places," says Eisenberg, whose clients took him to dinner and ballgames. "But there's not much time to throw on my sneakers and walk Boston's Freedom Trail."

Adds Taormina, "At 62, I've been everywhere. But a 35-year old might enjoy finding new places."

And Burns says it doesn't get any better than one job he recently took coaching a couple of 20-something students in France.

"I don't mind the actual act of traveling," says Burns. "It's a necessary inconvenience not even a necessary evil. But I'm trying to get some balance in my life."

Nor are road warriors blind to the drawbacks of travel.

"You tolerate mind-numbing boring flights and delays," says Eisenberg. "People may not realize what you went through to get there and so when you show up for a scheduled appointment someone may say, "I won't be able to see you now because my dog needs to go to the vet.'"

Taormina started traveling for NASA as a quality officer in 1970, putting in a million miles before the creation of frequent flyer miles. The travel only increased when he became a consultant on quality-control certification.

"I was traveling to Atlanta and Providence each twice a month," he recalls. He spent the bookend days in flight and the three middle days on site doing detailed preparation during travel.

Home life suffers when one partner lives on the road.

"It helps to have a spouse who's self-sufficient," says Eisenberg. "In the beginning I brought back souvenirs New York snow globes and Boston snow globes. But I had to stop because we just ran out of space."

But Burns says his life partner gets left alone a lot. And his nieces and nephews no longer get to see Uncle Sean at birthday parties and soccer games.

Taormina's wife works with special needs children in Dayton.

"I never asked her if she minded my being gone all the time," he says. "She did mind the quick weekend turnaround time on dirty laundry. Quality of life stunk."

What matters now is being home with his wife on their 10-acre Virginia Highlands spread with its wild horses and mountain views.

The transition from road warrior to homebody isn't easy.

"The process was very painful, says Taormina. "There's not much work here for consultants. And the pay here is 60 percent of elsewhere and 30 percent of the pay in Silicon Valley or Research Triangle in North Carolina."

Even when the paycheck doesn't change, says Eisenberg, "Going from being the guy never at the office to always there it's like starting a new job."

And Burns considers the tradeoff of cutting back on the travel. "I'd be missing out on learning from corporations. I'm still on a steep learning curve."

Another challenge is how to cultivate business close to home.

"For someone not from the area it's a challenge to make connections," says Burns. "I'm not here enough to network."

The decision to leave the road is in fact a transition to a new life, says Eisenberg. Because he started with Server Technology as a road warrior, many co-workers only knew him over the phone.

"I'm looking forward to getting to know them in person," he says.

Since Taormina settled down at home to run his company, Business Mastery Institute, he says, "I've found many talented trainers and consultants who moved here for quality of life but still live on airplanes."

"My goal," he adds, "was to lose all my frequent flyer privileges. And now I have."

SIDEBAR

Landing pattern

Former road warriors' advice to others hoping to come in off the road?

* Keep in touch. A transition to home base is built by keeping in the loop with staff phone calls and good communication with management, says Eisenberg. "I may be out of the area, but I'm never out of touch."

* Take an inventory of your skills. "If you're going to transition after burn out, explore what niches you can colonize here," says Taormina.

* Keep an eye on your bank book. "Be certain you can afford to do it," says Burns. "Not just money wise, but experience wise."

* Form a really comprehensive plan. "It's a transition, not just a decision," Burns says.

* Don't give up hope. Changing demographics bring to the area newcomers who may be customers for services that consultants formerly could sell only far from home.