Joined in June 2024
Based in South Florida, USAJaneely Mejia spent 25 years at American Express Travel, building her career from a walk-in office in the exclusive Bal Harbour area of Miami Beach. She handled everything from high-touch incentive group trips to multigenerational family vacations, eventually managing millions in annual bookings. Then the pandemic hit—and it became obvious she needed a break.
She left travel in 2021, but the demand for her expertise never really stopped. Friends and family would call, not to book, just to ask her opinion. “I would just send it over to them and tell them: ‘Do this, do this, do this,’” Janeely said. “And then I was like, ‘Wait a minute. I need to be getting paid.’”
That realization sent her researching host agencies. In mid-2024, her niece recommended Fora. She tested it for a month, then committed for the year.
Familiar partnerships, newfound freedom
When you've spent nearly two decades at one of the most resourced travel companies in the world, a newer platform has a lot to prove. Two things won her over fast.
The first was Fora’s preferred partner network. The luxury hotel programs and travel consortia she found at Fora, including access to programs like Virtuoso and preferred properties, overlapped significantly with what she’d spent 18 years working with.
“The fact that you have the same relationships with a lot of the same vendors gave me a lot of confidence,” she said. “I felt like, ‘I’m OK here.’”
The second was the training. As a veteran who'd been through years of in-person training programs, she wasn't expecting to be impressed. “Your training is on point,” she said, specifically calling out Fora’s live vendor trainings, where supplier partners join so that advisors can ask questions and develop business contacts.
Janeely felt confident in Fora after seeing our preferred partnerships and training
Fora has more than 7,000 preferred supplier relationships, 700+ hours of on-demand courses, and 25+ hours per week of live training to dive deep on suppliers, destinations, and business skills.
Generational client relationships
When it came time to reopen for business, Janeely came back the way she’d built her travel career in the first place: through relationships. After transitioning into independent advising, she shared a simple message with her network on social media—letting clients and connections know she was once again booking travel. The response was immediate, as many longtime clients who had stayed connected with her over the years were eager to work with her again.
She’d booked one client’s honeymoon to Hawaiʻi, and has since booked their 25th anniversary trip to Costa Rica. She’d booked another client’s high school graduation trip, his college visits, his bachelor party, and now, his honeymoon, getting to know his fiancée in the process.
Not long after joining Fora, a mom from her daughter’s elementary school days saw her post on Facebook and called her up. The client’s mother had never met Janeely, but was ready to trust her with a major multigenerational trip.
Janeely delivered: a $140,000 booking that culminated in the client sending her photos jumping in front of the Northern Lights. That same client referred her sister, who saw the Northern Lights on her own trip a month and a half later.
For Janeely, this kind of loyalty isn’t mysterious. “They know me. They know that I'm gonna pick up the phone. They know they don’t have to be on an 800 number on hold, hoping and praying they get an agent that knows what they're doing.”
High standards as a business model
Janeely set a modest goal for her first full year at Fora: $100,000 in bookings to reach Pro Fora Advisor status. She ended up with over $700,000.
If you have those relationships, you can make it. And you can do very well. The earning potential, when you know what you’re doing, is really unlimited.
Janeely Mejia
joined June 2024She attributes much of her success to the principles she learned from her previous advising experience. It's a foundation that allows her to curate travel on her own terms while fostering deeply personal relationships with her clients.
“I’m incredibly grateful for my time at Amex—it shaped how I care for my clients and the standards I hold myself to,” she said. “Today, I’m doing the same thing with an even greater sense of intention. My clients value me for the insight, personalization, and connection I bring to each experience.”
For advisors considering a similar leap, Janeely is direct: “If you have those relationships, you can make it. And you can do very well. The earning potential, when you know what you’re doing, is really unlimited.”
And for those on the fence about joining Fora, she said, “Just see the technology, see how the training works, see what it’s all about. Because if you try it for one month, you’ll see that it’s no joke. It’s a real, amazing company to be part of.”
How Fora made success possible
Returning to travel after a four-year gap with an inactive book of business and a pandemic in the rearview mirror could have been a dead end. For Janeely, these Fora resources made the difference:
Fora Reserve partner network: Fora’s relationships with luxury hotel programs and travel consortia matched what Janeely had worked with at Amex, giving her immediate confidence in the bookings she was making for high-value clients.
Training: Janeely, who spent nearly two decades being trained by an industry giant, especially appreciates supplier-led trainings, which she said are built well enough to serve both career-changers and veterans.
Community: Connecting with her local Fora chapter and meeting her chapter lead was the moment Janeely felt fully at home. “I found my people,” she said.
Autonomous structure: As an independent advisor, Janeely sets her own hours, chooses her clients, and runs her business on her own terms, without sacrificing earning potential.
