March 21, 2024 • 44 mins
Getting a great deal gives him a literal rush
Khal turned the art of travel hacking into a lifestyle - challenging everything you thought you knew about booking fights, choosing credit cards and staying in hotels. Learn to stretch your dollars without compromising experiences.
Key Takeaways:
- Top websites and resources for budget-friendly accommodations and flights
- What perks to prioritize when signing up for credit cards
- When last-minute travel bookings work and make sense
- Travel hacking myths and common misconceptions
- Getting started with alternative asset classes like crypto
- Personal investment strategies for passive income streams
Resources:
- NEW: Your Next 90 Days (coaching + accountability program w Sam)
- Get 10% off your first Fiverr order with this link
Support the show:
☕️buymeacoffee.com/whatsyourfree
About the show:
Sam Laliberte - entrepreneur, digital nomad and freedom seeker, hosts the Freedom Lifestyle Podcast to expose people to the many ways you can design your dream life and unlock your own version of the freedom lifestyle. Her guests have empowered themselves through flexible work as a way to “have it all” - financial, location AND schedule freedom.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Today you're going to meet Cal, a new entrepreneur
who also specializes in travelhacking, finding great deals and
financial freedom For Cal,getting a great deal gives him a
literal rush, and so we talkeda lot about what he learned in
his journey of being someone whojust personally interested in
(00:26):
saving money while traveling onhotels and flights and
accommodations, but also someonewho started to build a career
in this industry.
We unpacked a lot of the commonmyths around the best day of
the week to buy flights, whattype of credit card is the best
credit card for you, how youshould think about investing,
especially if you want to startgetting into alternative asset
(00:49):
classes, and so this episode isall about how you can save money
but also make money.
Cal just also has a really cooljourney of connecting so many
of his passions and his personalinterests into an
entrepreneurial venture and whyhe feels like now is the best
time in his life to take a riskwith this new business.
(01:09):
He also opens up about somepersonal things, including his
dating life and how travelingall around the world, doing this
entrepreneurial, remotelifestyle, has impacted things
like having a securerelationship, and how he's
thinking about blending thoseworlds while still pursuing his
dreams.
(01:29):
This week's episode is broughtto you by Fiverr, the world's
largest marketplace forfreelance services, and you know
from listening to the show thatI've been really changing
things up this year.
I have a dream of booking morespeaking opportunities at
conferences all around the worldso I can empower more freedom
seekers, just like you listeningtoday.
(01:50):
The problem, though, is thereare so many events and it's hard
to know where to start, so Ifound an amazing freelancer on
Fiverrcom.
Each week, he sends me a listof about 50 conferences and
events that are looking forspeakers, along with the proper
contact of who I should message.
This has saved me hours, andinstead I'm now spending more
(02:13):
time doing what I do bestbuilding relationships with
event organizers and spendingless time over analyzing which
events I should try to speak atand how to find them.
I challenge you head toFiverrcom next time you have a
project but you don't have thetime to execute it.
I have been so pleased with howmuch space this frees up for me
(02:33):
, and if you're new to Fiverr,you can use the link in the show
notes for 10% off your veryfirst order.
So, with no further delay, meetCal Cal.
Welcome to the FreedomLifestyle podcast.
How's your day going so far?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Good.
Thank you for having me, sam,truly pumped to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
I'm pumped to have you here.
You put in the form thatgetting a great deal gives you a
literal rush, which I love thatline.
So have you always been thatway?
What early memories come tomind for you when I ask you
about your history of trying toget a good deal?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I think part of it is family right.
So both sides of my family, formultiple generations, have kind
of been entrepreneurs and fromthat at a very fundamental level
, you buy low and you sell highIf you scrape away a lot of
other things in business.
So I was just always raised onentrepreneurial environments and
then for myself I found that inthe past it's an indicator for
(03:35):
other things.
So oftentimes when I'dinterview people for an account
manager or things like that inour teams, one thing that I
would ask them is tell me abouta time you got a great deal.
And when I see their eyes lightup, I know that they have like
an innate trait, or hunger, orit matters to them, and the
answer can be I got a two forone on Uber Eats.
(03:57):
It can be hey, I negotiated mycar lease from X to Y.
It's that energy, because ifthat gives you, like I said, a
little spark, I think that it'sgoing to help in a lot of other
facets of your life, and life isgetting increasingly expensive.
So if we can find a way to savesome money along the way,
that's always nice.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
As your wealth and your salaries have inevitably
increased over the years.
Has this changed your attitudetowards getting a great deal and
spending time to save money?
Because that's something youalso often hear in the
entrepreneurial world is whatare you worth Like?
What is your hourly rate?
If you're going to spend sixhours to try to save $20, is
that worth it?
(04:36):
Has that changed Like?
Has that logic kicked in, orare you still driven kind of by
that emotional thrill of gettinga good deal a lot of the time?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
No, that's a really good question.
I think for me you're right.
You have to figure out time isvaluable.
It's our most valuable traitthat we can't get back.
So the answer for me might notbe I'll take the flight with the
layover.
The answer might be when I getto where I'm going, I might know
that between Google or Travagoor Kayak or mobile or desktop,
(05:06):
there's all these little ways tosave money along the way.
And so things like that, if I'mbooking on one booking site
versus the other, that sometimesin itself is enough to make it
worthwhile versus, like you said, putting my time at risk, where
I think that is something thatwe know we can't get back.
So I'll value that one a bitmore.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Okay, you mentioned a number of websites and
resources already.
Some of them I've heard of,some of them I haven't, so maybe
we can start to unpack some ofthese tips that you have and
what we can learn from you ongetting a great deal.
And so, as someone who's maybelightly into travel hacking,
what can our listeners learnfrom you, maybe if they wanted
to get started in it?
(05:45):
What are some like foundationaltips and best practices for
saving money on travel, whetherit's flying around somewhere or
staying in hotels, which I knowyou have a background in that
space too?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I think the best way I like to start this off is
figure out what's important toyou.
For some people, that might bethe most efficient route.
So when you think about what agreat vacation entails, it might
not be risk of anything goingsideways and like that's okay to
value too.
If you are somebody who isDelta Airlines loyal, it might
(06:20):
make sense for you to either onelean into that or two build
your plans around that.
I do like to think aboutaccommodation as somewhere where
the early savings start, andthe reason why is if you think
about airlines and I'll use theUS as an example in Canada,
we've got probably threeairlines in the US United, delta
(06:43):
and American that take up themajority of flights, and so
there's things like Spirit andFrontier in Southwest, and they
exist, but ultimately mostpeople are going to fly those
kind of big three groups.
But when you get into a marketand you're booking a hotel, for
example, you heard me mention afew of those websites.
(07:04):
So one thing I like to alwaysfocus on is how are you actually
booking?
Most folks tend to always thinkabout rumors, like Tuesday at
7pm that is the time I ambooking this flight I saw on
Reddit.
There's no way Reddit's wrong,so I am going to follow that to
a tee.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
I really hope you're going to either debunk that or
verify that right now, becauseI've also heard that.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
So first things first is Reddit is good for some
things.
Always have a grain of salt,people.
I would advise that.
The second is time actuallymatters less than you would
think.
What actually really matters isenvironment, and what I mean by
that is oftentimes folks mightbook on their laptop that might
be thought of as desktop mode.
(07:51):
Some folks might book on theirmobile phone that might be
viewed as mobile mode, but themobile app on your phone might
be viewed as the mobile app modeand a company might have three
separate prices for threedifferent audiences across three
different segments, sooftentimes each of those might
(08:11):
have a different rate.
My advice is always to thinkabout mobile versus desktop.
Whether it's the app or you'reon your phone, companies do
oftentimes have better pricingon mobile.
So that's kind of the firstenvironment that I always think
about and advise people to shopon.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
And mobile app or mobile browser.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Very good question.
I think if you're reallywanting to save the bucks, you
can do both and check them outand actually see if there is a
difference.
If you're already on the phone,big picture is probably not too
much of a waste of your time,so to speak, but I think most of
the time, as long as you'redoing one of those, it's going
to be better in some scenariosthan desktop.
The other thing and this one isa bit of you know there's
(08:53):
different people at differentviewpoints on this is incognito
mode Right.
Everybody is like the cookiesare tracking and what am I going
to do to avoid these darncookies?
And incognito mode is a goodway to think about this.
If you go to a site 10, 15times and don't convert, that
will eventually be data thatthey will use to try to make
(09:16):
more on you because they see youreally looking, they can guess
your intent over time, all thesekinds of things.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Will they eventually give us a good deal.
Like is that an option?
Just keep going back and back.
And then they're like maybe ifI just drop it.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I wish I could tell you that was the case.
I think the answer,unfortunately, is the opposite
Is they know that you've shoppedthis so many times that it's
probably moved away fromaspirational into like you need
to get to Denver on Thursday,and so it's actually reversed.
So the advice I was going togive is you know you might use
incognito mode at a certainpoint, but when you want to
(09:52):
eventually book be signed in,meaning you know sign in with
Google and things like that anduse mobile.
Those are two of my favoritetricks to get the best in class
pricing that we all know andlove.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Okay, those are great tips.
What are some othermisconceptions or myths about
travel hacking that you'veencountered that might surprise
us or even just push back.
You get from other people.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
So I like to think about folks in two buckets, and
it's really important torecognize both of these buckets.
There are people that want tosave money.
That's probably people like me,right, where I enjoy the aspect
why would I spend more than Ihad to?
But it's not the end of theworld for me.
If you know, I paid a few centsmore or a few bucks more on
(10:40):
something.
There are also people that needto save money and that's a
different demographic.
At my last company, super, onething I did at that company was
I led the hotel buying portionof the firm.
So I would buy a lot of hotelrooms every month, every year,
and we'd provide those to ourusers and we'd spend some time
(11:03):
looking at who our users were.
And you might take a step backand say you know who is supercom
?
I've never heard of thiscompany.
Is this one of these travelfirms that you know seems like
some kind of odd company?
You know, are they sketchy?
Are they good?
Things like that?
Right, and Super is a startupthat was founded in Toronto, is
(11:24):
now based in San Francisco.
There's been over $100 millionraised.
They've sold over $2 billion inhotel rooms and saved users,
you know, over $30 million insavings, but people don't
necessarily trust it becausethey might not have a brand like
an Expedia or a bookingcom andthat trust factor that you know
oftentimes brands have with cash.
(11:46):
So our customers were peoplethat fell in the second bucket,
that needed to save money, andso it became really interesting
servicing these people becauseyou would hear their stories,
right, is, hey, like I am movinginto a new apartment at the end
of the month, I have five daysto go and I'm with my two kids,
(12:06):
right.
So like they need to save moneyto book that room and it
hopefully has two doubles fortheir family, right.
So we think about things in avery like leisurely sense and
we're blessed in many senses tobe able to do that.
But the people that need tosave money were a big part of
our effort and those peopleoftentimes would use the other
websites that sometimes youmight see on Google that are
(12:28):
further down the fold.
So not all of those aretrustworthy.
Of course, dyor, or do your ownresearch, as they say.
You know what are the reviewson Better Business Bureau or
things like that where you cando a quick second to, you know,
have a sanity check, but if acompany has prices that seem too
good to be true.
In some cases they are, but inother cases there's a whole
(12:53):
subsection of what are known asB2B rates, and those are
business rates only for otherbusinesses that users like
yourself can now start to bookthanks to being mobile and
online and signed in and thingslike this.
And these B2B rates, or closeduser group rates, are the ones
that you might see that seem toogood to be true, but oftentimes
(13:16):
are actually two thumbs up.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Okay, so supercom, I did go on the website.
I know they acquired SnapTravel, which is what the brand was
previously.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Right, yeah, so they rebranded to supercom from
SnapTravel after some previousfund raises, and they're now
focused on this broader fintechjourney and helping folks, like
I said, in that need to savemarket, be able to, you know,
actually build a credit recordor get better rates on hotels or
(13:47):
things of that nature.
And so hotels were a big partof that business and are, and so
, you know, I would alwaysadvise folks that are looking to
save some money when you seeagain a rate that's too good to
be true, just go to True.
Just give that company a sanitycheck and if they have, you
know, an, A rating from some ofthe sites that you might trust,
there's probably a reason why,right?
So sometimes give those thingsa shot and they can save you a
(14:10):
ton of money.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Because are there horror stories Like is it that a
thing where people are trustingthese sites, thinking that
they're booking a hotel for $40and they get there and they have
no reservations?
Is that happening?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, it's funny because there are websites that
do do things like that, right,and that's why people pay a
premium for brands in manyscenarios.
But I think there are alsostartups that many people are
not aware of, right, like youknow, one of my favorites is a
company called Hopper that wasfounded in Montreal, right, they
(14:43):
now are one of the biggesttravel companies on the planet I
think number three in NorthAmerica.
To you know bookingcom andExpedia, and people had no idea
what Hopper was even a few yearsago.
Right, and they've managed tobuild a brand for themselves.
So, you know, for the couplethat might be a bit shady and
are always worth a secondaryGoogle, I like to joke that, you
(15:04):
know, somewhere under that view, other rates button is probably
the next billion dollar startupthat's just getting started,
and you know we just got to findthem, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah, I've been using Hopper for years.
I'm glad you just brought thatup because it's a reminder that
that's a great resource for me.
But for those who are justhearing about Hopper, my way to
explain it would be you can kindof forecast when in the month
or in the week or yeah,basically day that week it would
be the best time to fly.
(15:33):
So it will tell you a colorcoded.
You know on a Wednesday youmight get the cheapest rate.
Saturday is going to be themost expensive.
Is that what the business stillis today?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Yeah, and I think they've done a good job of
building out solutions for othercompanies that want to power
their corporate travel andthings like that as they look to
expand their business and growfrom the leisure or leisure
customers that are nowincreasingly a larger and larger
segment of the population.
But I think you hit somethingon the head, which was they made
it simple and they made it easy.
(16:05):
You saw a really cute littlemascot.
You saw a branding aestheticthat you trusted and had sort of
just an innate feel that, oh,this is modern and sleek but
also trustworthy, and that's atestament to the people on their
design team that really builtthat out over, I'm sure, many
iterations.
But they also showed you howeasy it was to save money.
(16:27):
Green is good Good day totravel, click, like.
You know what I mean, and in acouple of taps you were there.
There was a company back in theday called Hotel Tonight for
those of you that might haveused this, and I think this is
even worth thinking about is.
We talked earlier aboutairlines and hotels, right, and
how to think about them assaving money on airfare and
(16:48):
saving money on hotels and we'llleave aside Airbnb for now, but
the same kind of principleapplies On an airline.
Very few people are willing tochance it, which means booking
it one day out or same day inmany scenarios, because what
goes on when you head to amarket is you need to have your
(17:09):
hotel organized or yourtransport or your dinner, and
unless you have a very freelifestyle, you're probably not
doing same day travel for aplane.
But a hotel is just theopposite, right.
If it's the day of my check-inand a hotel is 60% full, they
probably slacked rates today,because any room that is not
(17:31):
full is revenue that's been lost, right.
So it becomes a reallyinteresting and fun game of
chicken.
When you think about airlinesagain, I'm not one to play that
game.
I've booked one day of flightin my life and I was anxious the
whole time.
It was not for me.
But I'll book day of hotels allthe time because I'm not a
(17:52):
bonvoy lover, right?
If I don't have my specific,you know, hilton honors.
That, like, means everything tome.
I care about convenience, Icare about being somewhere safe
with a little bit of style, andI care about saving some money
along the way for my journey.
So in that sense, you know,being able to be brand agnostic
is another way that I like torecommend folks.
Save money where you mightthink you know I should double
(18:14):
down on Marriott and it makessense for some, but for others
it definitely doesn't, and Ithink I'm just one of those
people.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Hmm, I want to get into that, because I was just at
a Marriott last week and I wentto go get my free breakfast
that you'd expect at every hoteland they were like, oh, it's
only for our platinum members.
I was like, oh well, how do Iknow if I'm a platinum member?
They're kind of like you'd know.
So I didn't have breakfast,which was fine, because I
typically intermittent fast.
(18:41):
So I want to come back to that.
But I'm so curious.
I can't just leave you off thehook without sharing the story
of your same day flight.
Was this an experiment to savemoney?
What was going on here?
What are the learnings?
You've dropped the flight pricebefore and after.
I'm so curious.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
So good question.
I was heading to a friend's30th in Cabo and I had forgotten
to handle my things in advance.
We can say I wasn't sure if Iwas going to go.
It was very much a last minutething.
And then I found to the pointearlier.
You know, what do you value atthat time?
(19:19):
I wanted to like be there formy friend.
I found like a really decentflight down there, so that was
great.
I didn't have a flight back soI was like, okay, like this
flight there was relativelyaffordable.
I want to be there for her andour friends, you know, on her
30th, right Time andrelationships and memories or
what we have at the end of theday that we go in the dirt with.
(19:39):
So you know, that was the mostimportant thing for me and I
figured I would cross the bridgeof how I get back later.
You know, fast forward threewonderful days and we're all
planning our exit out and we arethe last two left.
And Anna is her name.
She kept telling me you know,hey, like last minute air works
because they don't necessarilyexpect you to do this, because
(20:03):
nobody can do this normally, andI took me a second to realize
that she was probably right andin some scenarios, you know,
think about flying home forChristmas on, you know, December
23rd.
Or, like you know, you go toschool in Ontario and you're
flying back to BC after exams.
Airlines know how to do what isknown as yield, manage or
(20:24):
revenue manage thoseopportunities to make more money
for them.
But in this example, I thinkAnna and I were the perfect sort
of group of people that coulddo this, because we're two folks
with no kids and flexible jobsand we could take the chance on
a same day flight which paid off.
So Anna was right, we got adirect flight home on a major
(20:47):
airline and, you know, savedsome money along the way versus
even waiting two or three daysout.
So if you have a very strongfortitude and want to, you know,
take a chance, it's there foryou guys to potentially Do you
have any idea of how much youthink you saved?
I would say about $400.
Nice, which is, yeah, not asmall amount.
(21:08):
And that's why I think sometimesairlines know, like certain
routes, like if you're flying toMexico, you probably could
afford to get to Mexico, youknow, and especially to
somewhere like a Cancun or aCabo where they know tourists
will be right, they know allthese little weird things about
us and I think that's alwaysbeen an interesting lesson for
saving money on travel.
Right Is you have to kind ofthink like the man to beat the
(21:31):
man or think like the person tobeat the person.
If you're flying from Dallas toMiami, most folks would think,
okay, just like Texas to Florida, okay, like sure, savvy flyers
would know that that's AmericanAirlines number one biggest hub
and number two biggest hub.
So if you're flying intoairline alliance, from hub to
(21:53):
hub, you're going to getincredible prices because they
have to keep those airportsstaffed and they need to fly
planes between those two areas.
So you know, knowing smallthings like that, am I flying
Star Alliance hub to StarAlliance hub or specific airline
hub to airline hub?
Those are also really greatways to get somewhere a little
(22:15):
thriftier than you might haveotherwise.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Nice.
Okay, this is a good shift intoairlines, because yesterday I
interviewed Angel from PennywiseTravel and she's a full time
travel hacker, content creator,who has built offers and
products and this is herbusiness.
She's an influence on theirspace, she speaks at conferences
, but she definitely had a USperspective in terms of the
(22:41):
credit cards that she wasrecommending were credit cards
associated with Chase Bank andthings that my Canadian audience
, which is about half, I wouldsay, like 55%, of my audiences
from the US just next, is Canada, and so I think you could give
a really good perspective forour Canadian listeners on how
they could also take advantageof things like credit card
(23:02):
points, and I think I have youto thank for the reason why I
now have a TD visa infiniteprivilege credit card.
Are you the one who?
Speaker 2 (23:09):
told Jared about that .
I hope you're liking it.
Are we liking it?
Speaker 1 (23:12):
I mean, I walk into the lounge every time.
Now, yeah where I belong.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I love to hear that.
I love to hear that.
Yes, that's a very good card.
Happy to dive in for theCanadian audience.
So I'm Canadian myself.
I've lived here.
Most of my life I've livedabroad.
Most of my banking is done hereand with that means that you're
choosing what credit card tosign up with.
Many folks don't care aboutthat and, for the record, that's
(23:40):
OK too.
My biggest advice for peoplethat are not sure where to start
with travel, or if it's evenimportant to them, is make sure
your credit card does somethingfor you.
So if you're going to gettravel points, invest in that.
There's no point getting one ofthe not junior cards, because
(24:01):
they have a purpose too.
But maybe a cashback card wouldactually be more valuable for
most people than kind of atravel rewards card that isn't
really optimizing andcompounding rewards in the way
that it makes a difference.
Cashback is also good becauseyou can spend that on anything
you would like.
It's more applicable for thevast majority of people.
(24:24):
So that's always my preface isnothing wrong with a cashback
card?
I think if you're going to leanin on travel, a couple of
things are important to decide.
The first is are you loyal toan alliance or are you loyal to
a bank?
So we'll use the example thatyou just had, which was the Visa
(24:45):
Infinite privilege, so thatcredit card is sold or, I guess,
provided by two major Canadianbanks which are CIBC, ntd.
I come from a CIBC family.
We had those growing up.
There was something calledImperial Service that I think
was for businesses, and my dadhad a black debit card and
(25:08):
that's how I knew my dad wascool.
You know, it was nothing to dowith anything else.
I've never seen him wear jeans.
He dresses amazingly every day,but it was the first black
debit credit card I ever saw.
So I was indoctrinated for ayoung age.
But when I went to apply forthis card, I noticed that CIBC
(25:31):
had a $75,000 Aero Plan bonus,which is pretty good, and TD had
$105,000.
So you know we're talking over30% more points for the exact
same card, right?
So big picture, when I took astep back is like, yeah, I like
(25:52):
CIBC.
It's like easier for me, Isuppose.
But big picture, it was alsohelpful for me to get more
points for my lifestyle.
And when you're choosing a card,the sign-up bonus cannot be
understated as to the value itbrings to you, the user Many
times.
That is the best way to makethe selection of the card you
(26:13):
take and if it's not a part ofyour selection process, it
either one should be or two.
Maybe a travel card isn't theright choice for you because,
again, like I said, there's nopoint in my eyes going halfway.
You might as well get the moneyback or decide to have some fun
with the travel.
So the Visa Infinite PrivilegeI like a lot because you know it
(26:35):
is about three times moreexpensive than the entry-level
Privilege Visa.
But if you really are going totravel a lot and you are going
to put spend on your creditcards at that point, the rewards
that you'll get are worth theupfront cost, right.
(26:56):
And I think that's always alesson that people have to take
is often everybody likes to finda way to get a deal, as we know
, and people will pay for thingsupfront or they'll pay for
things kind of in chunks.
But a credit card bonus is areally good example of something
where there is an upfrontbitter pill to swallow, but the
(27:19):
rewards you get the other 364days make it worth it, right?
So that's the choice I give alot of folks when they think
about travel and how to approachcards is really think about
what is important to you and ifyou can swallow the first bitter
pill, which is probably goingto be a sign-up, that is like
semi-uncomfortable.
(27:40):
You're going to get you knowUber Eats for a year and
DoorDash for a year.
You're going to get free loungeaccess.
You're going to get your freebaggage.
You're going to have to.
You're going to get you knowzone two boarding so you're not,
like, you know, hassling with.
You know, will my carry-on fit?
And you know, if it didn't fit,that's okay because they'll
take your bag for free becauseyou're, you know that premium
(28:00):
member right.
So there is these upfront costssometimes that are associated
with travel and travel creditcards.
But really double down would bemy advice.
Otherwise, take some cash back.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yeah, as someone who's flying monthly, that
really adds to my experience toalways know.
Okay, I don't have to worryabout food and rushing, I can
just get to the airport, get tothe lounge, grab some food.
They now have vegan sausagepasta, which.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
I was.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
I was shocked to see that in the lounge, but so
excited and totally.
I always overpack, so knowingthat I'm just going to be able
to get on the plane early, getmy seat settled.
You know I'm still flyingeconomy a lot of the time,
working on that premium economymore often.
But sometimes I get stressedlike what if I'm the last one
(28:51):
there and everyone's alreadysettled?
I want to have all of my things.
So it has really added to myexperience.
I think that card is like $600.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
I think it was $499.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Okay, 499.
Is that your only credit card?
How do you think about thenumber of credit cards you have
at once, and what else is inyour stack If it's not just that
?
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Good question.
So I have a cash back creditcard as well.
Most of the time, I do put myexpenses on the travel card.
Just by the nature of mylifestyle and what's important
to me, that tends to work out.
I think the other thing I haveand this is just, you know,
lifestyle planning for somefolks as well is, when you have
(29:31):
a relationship with a financialinstitute, that's worth
something.
It's known typically as ourcredit scores, and that's how
these banks might decide.
You know what we get and how weget it, and is it unfair and
opaque and all of these things?
Yes, does it change the factthat, like, we're not going to
reinvent the banking systemovernight?
Even as, talking to somebodywho runs a digital assets fund,
(29:53):
the answer is also yes, right.
So I have a third credit cardthat I don't really touch, but
it's from a bank that I've had,you know, a relationship with
for a long time and that has thehighest credit limit I have,
and I don't ever actually usethat card and if I do, it's like
for something on, like my Applepay, and then I'll pay it off
and that's just credit buildinghacks over time.
(30:14):
But that credit building hackhas allowed me to know that I
have access to a decent chunk ofchange if things ever go
sideways.
Right, and I think everybodyshould take it upon themselves
to try to do some financialplanning.
For some it's easier thanothers.
I think having access to creditis something that is important.
So if you're able to, you knowwork with a card and able to
(30:35):
even put controls on yourselfand how you might spend those
things, and obviously you knowyour own personal ways you go
about spending are important tothings like this.
I think just having access tocredit is important because you
never know when things might gosideways or an opportunities in
front of you and you know youneed that to help you build on
your path forward, love that andI hate when you listen to
(30:59):
podcast episodes or interviewsand they say disclaimer.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
You know we can't give out financial advice.
We're not giving out financialadvice, but I don't like to fall
the rules.
I would love to give out somefinancial advice and I feel like
, because you have your own fundnow and this is your space,
there's lots that we can learnfrom you.
I know that when I was firststarting, my very first business
in my early 20s wasn't makingthat much money at all.
(31:23):
I was maxing out my creditcards.
I had like the $5,000 max.
I was paying the 29% intereston it and I was so appreciative
when I had to call my bank andthey're like we're going to
prove you for a line of credit.
You're going to pay off yourcredit card and you're going to
have a line of credit for like1% interest and even just stuff
like that.
Like I didn't even know andthat's something I tell so many
(31:45):
people now because, like, unlessyou have a relationship with
your bank or you're spending thetime to educate yourself on
this, you're just going to dowhat you think you're supposed
to do.
I have this credit limit on mycredit card.
No one's talking about line ofcredit.
So that was definitely afinancial saving tip that I
share to people.
Often Is there a piece offinancial advice you feel like
(32:06):
you're often sharing with yournetwork that you'd be
comfortable sharing on record.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
So I will say my disclaimer is not anything to do
with finance, it's that I'veknown your husband for many
years and, as somebody who Iknow is very specific about
financial planning, I'm gladthat you guys are starting to
rub off on each other in thisway and have each other to plan
as you continue to grow in yourlives and careers, because to
(32:32):
you, somebody that even helpedteach me some of this stuff back
in the day, so that's reallynice.
And then, as far as advice thatI would give overall, it's
funny there's two sides to acoin.
So the first piece of adviceI'll give is have a balanced
portfolio.
And that can mean you know,even if, let's say, it's all
stocks right, because you have,you know, a BMO investor line or
something like that, right.
(32:52):
Or you know some kind of TDAmeritrade or Robinhood,
wherever you are, even if it'sall stocks right, diversify in
terms of sectors, like, don'tjust own Amazon.
You know Amazon is a greatcompany.
It will probably go more upthan down, but having all your
eggs in one basket sometimes isnot the move.
So you know, be selective, tryto figure out oh, this is in
(33:15):
tech, okay, cool.
This is in bio, this is inenergy, right, have a chance to
kind of split them up.
If you want to get even crazier, we can talk about things like
bonds, but we'll leave thataside for now.
The other piece of advice Iwant to give is for a very
specific portion of youraudience, and those are people
that go deep on a certainsubject.
So oftentimes you'll havepeople that have generalist
(33:39):
skillsets or they have verticalskillsets, and you know there's
pros and cons for both of thosethings.
But if you have a verticalskillset, I would encourage you
to let that have an overweightaspect in your portfolio.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
What does that mean?
Speaker 2 (33:55):
vertical versus.
So for somebody like me, Imight have more travel stocks
than a typical person in myportfolio, because I understand
that specific sector more thananother person who probably
could have bought a mutual fundor an ETF that just had a bunch
of those, right.
So, where you know, if somebodyis an expert on distribution of
(34:21):
cosmetics, right, maybe theyhave a specific point of view on
whoever owns L'Oreal, or Ithink Koti bought Kylie for $600
million I saw a few years ago,right.
So you know, if they know aboutthat kind of world, then feel
free to kind of dig in a bitmore, because your intellectual
curiosity, combined with thefact that it's your money, will
(34:45):
make you more invested.
So, if you know something, godeep and don't be shy.
If not, play it balanced andplay the long game over time.
It would be the two ways Ithink about this.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Okay, yeah, that's great tips.
I would say a lot of people.
I mean myself.
I'm like I don't know if I haveany perspective, you know,
other than being interested intech and interested in startups
and have money that I can puttowards my future and wanting to
have a little bit of risk,because I'm in my early 30s now
(35:19):
and I have some time, and so Iknow that alternative asset
classes is something that youare specializing in.
So tell us a little bit aboutyour latest venture, poppy Seed
Capital.
Who is the clientele for this?
How are you helping them?
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Yeah, sure.
So I started Poppy Seed Capitalabout a year and a half ago and
we are a fund focused onhelping investors go from zero
to one in digital assets.
So for a lot of people, theymight have heard about, you know
, bitcoin or Ethereum, and theymight even be believers or think
that, hey, this is something Ishould start to have some kind
(35:57):
of ownership of, but they're notsure where to start.
And, generally speaking,there's two groups of people
there's retail investors andthere's institutional investors.
Our goal is eventually to tryto help everybody that we can
with investment strategies.
Right now you know this iswhere the disclosure parts come
(36:18):
in is rules and regulations,especially around digital assets
and crypto, mean that we can'tserve everybody that we'd like
to.
So most of the time, the peoplethat we end up helping are
folks that have started to planfor their families, and you know
they want to figure out fortheir businesses or for their
(36:38):
family planning ways to start tohold crypto.
So we aim to make it seamlessand painless.
We found there was a trustfactor gap in this asset class.
You know and you don't have togo very far to look at some of
the shady characters that havebeen in this industry that I
love, and it's always a reminderthat you don't want to trust
(37:01):
blindly, right?
You want to trust but you wantto verify, and so for our
investors, they can trust us,but they can verify that we've
done the right regulatory workto be able to safeguard their
assets, that we work with thebest companies in the world to
help them provide, you know,earnings on these assets and
oftentimes, as a result, youknow, we get a chance to work
(37:23):
with them more and more anddeeper and deeper.
So right now, we're mostlyhelping families in the US,
particularly in Arizona, hasbeen kind of a big hotspot for
us, where there are people thatknow that they want to start to
own crypto and, unlike kind of ayear or two ago, where it was
(37:44):
in the hype cycle everywhere andall over the news, when you
want to invest in something iswhen it's boring and nobody's
talking about it and it's out ofthe limelight, because when
interest comes back, then you'repositioned in a way to really
benefit from that.
So we've ended up using thislast year or two period to
really kind of positionourselves for what we think will
(38:06):
ultimately be a pretty sizablerun in the years to come.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
What experiences did you have that prepared you to
now take on this type ofbusiness?
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Yeah, I think for me I said this earlier, but
scratching your intellectualcuriosity is really, really
important, and for me, it'ssomething where, after the 2016
election actually, or justbefore that in the lead up, I
was traveling and I read a bookcalled Blockchain Revolution and
(38:34):
it just kind of smacked meacross the face Because I think
one thing that we all kind ofsaw from you know, this point it
feels like so long ago, isalmost a decade ago, right, but
if you think about it, that waskind of the end of the era of
social media as an innocentthing, right.
We then began realizing like,oh, we can get cohorted and
targeted and our data is forsale and all these kinds of
(38:57):
things, and so this book reallyhelped paint a picture of what
could be a better way forward,because I thought that the
advertising model like this hadto be the end.
It literally affected, likegovernmental elections at the
biggest country in the world.
You know, fast forward a decade.
Maybe I'm not fully right onthat, but I was thinking about,
you know, what was next, andthis seemed like a really
(39:18):
interesting way how the nextversion of the internet could be
built, because the way Idescribe, you know, crypto, very
simply, is the internet.
Is the internet of information?
Right, I can send you an email,we can connect, like this, and
it, you know, information canflow.
What happens when we can makevalue flow as easy as
information?
(39:38):
Right, that is a crazy thing tothink about.
But right now, value flowsbetween banks, between money
transmitters, betweengovernmental agencies, between
FinTechs that we know about andlegacy companies we do not.
Anybody can hold it up alongthe way, right, like, your money
isn't yours per se.
And so when I thought aboutagain what was next, you know,
(40:02):
digital assets seemed to be agood way to place my time, my
money and resources as a bet,kind of, so to speak.
So I started for just myself in2015,.
Fast forward a couple of years.
I was doing some family andfriends, and then, at super, at
the end of my three years there,I realized that I wanted to
build something.
I wanted to get back in thatkind of entrepreneurial
(40:25):
opportunity, and this was anasset class where I had a ton of
knowledge and I had gone deepand I had done the work and I
had lived.
You know what felt like 10lifetimes of information and
cycles.
My grades were coming into mychin and you know I knew it was
time.
So you know that's when Istarted Poppy Seed over the last
, you know, kind of 18 months orso, and it's been a really
(40:47):
fascinating journey becausethere's lots of cool stuff
getting built and there's lotsof weird stuff that we got to
work around as well in a waythat you know is good for
everybody.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
I love it.
Well, hopefully a time comessoon where you can serve more
investors and more types ofpeople who want to get into
these asset classes.
It sounds like it's for arestricted group of people for
now, but-.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Correct yes, that is the focus For now.
And big vision yes.
Obviously it'd be amazing toadd value to Canadians and
everybody around the world asthey start to kind of learn
about this new asset class.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
Amazing.
You touched a little bit thereon your personal life and why
this was a good time in yourlife to start a business in the
form.
You talked a little bit aboutno mortgage yet, no kids, all of
that so it felt like a reallygreat time to build.
I want to close off thisinterview with something else
personal, that you put in theform, which is about your dating
(41:43):
life, because I think it's soimportant.
You had said that it's hard tofind a partner who really
understands your lifestyle andyou are traveling around so
often and I feel like so manyfreedom seekers.
They either make one of twodecisions they either sacrifice
some of their freedom in orderto compromise in the
relationship to keep therelationship going.
(42:04):
I interview people like thatall the time.
They're like oh well, I'mmaximizing the freedom I have In
this relationship.
They can't travel, they can'tdo this, we're making it work.
Or I mean people who are justdelaying that life phase in
order to really build theirdreams and build their freedom
now.
So let's talk a little bitabout how you came to the
decision number two, I believeand what's changed now.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Yeah, well, I think finding the right partner is
helpful and I've been blessed tospend some time with somebody
where I feel that way about themI think also for me and her
when we had our discussions.
You want to learn with theother person right and their
dreams, their ambitions, theirbackgrounds, their goals, their
family, what's important to them.
And if I asked my partner howshe'd want to spend her time,
(42:49):
she would move to a villa inThailand and work remote
indefinitely, and so I knew thatshe understood.
One, she had a love of travel,which is important for me to
find in my partner.
And two, she loved our home andwhere we met.
But also with somebody that hadbeen around whether it was
(43:11):
personal or professionalopportunities to see new things
and knew the value of othercultures.
And with somebody that I knewcould be by my side is somebody
that helped support me in myjourney, just like I hopefully
helped support her and hers, butalso could hop on a weird
spontaneous flight sometime andnot be too non-plussed about it
(43:33):
and have fun with me along theway.
So being able to find a partnerthat could have both sides of
that coin has been awesome.
It's been something that I'mreally happy about.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Well, I'm so excited to meet this new infamous
partner that's an in-calf wife.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
She's vegan so you guys can send some time.
Yeah, yeah, and loves to cook,so I have no doubt some good
stuff is coming your way.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
All right, well, maybe which?
Whatever wedding we're going totogether next year.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
That seems to be our main time.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
So thanks for coming on the show.
I could have asked you like 10more questions.
You're such a great speaker.
You had so much great value tooffer us.
So, yeah, thanks for makingtime.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Awesome, talk to you later.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
Make sure you hit subscribe or follow in your
podcast app so that you nevermiss an episode.
And, hey, maybe take an extraminute to leave a short little
review in your podcast app.
It really helps me find otherfreedom seekers who can get
inspired and empowered by thesestories.
Today you're going to meet Cal, a new entrepreneur
who also specializes in travelhacking, finding great deals and
financial freedom For Cal,getting a great deal gives him a
literal rush, and so we talkeda lot about what he learned in
his journey of being someone whojust personally interested in
(00:26):
saving money while traveling onhotels and flights and
accommodations, but also someonewho started to build a career
in this industry.
We unpacked a lot of the commonmyths around the best day of
the week to buy flights, whattype of credit card is the best
credit card for you, how youshould think about investing,
especially if you want to startgetting into alternative asset
(00:49):
classes, and so this episode isall about how you can save money
but also make money.
Cal just also has a really cooljourney of connecting so many
of his passions and his personalinterests into an
entrepreneurial venture and whyhe feels like now is the best
time in his life to take a riskwith this new business.
(01:09):
He also opens up about somepersonal things, including his
dating life and how travelingall around the world, doing this
entrepreneurial, remotelifestyle, has impacted things
like having a securerelationship, and how he's
thinking about blending thoseworlds while still pursuing his
dreams.
(01:29):
This week's episode is broughtto you by Fiverr, the world's
largest marketplace forfreelance services, and you know
from listening to the show thatI've been really changing
things up this year.
I have a dream of booking morespeaking opportunities at
conferences all around the worldso I can empower more freedom
seekers, just like you listeningtoday.
(01:50):
The problem, though, is thereare so many events and it's hard
to know where to start, so Ifound an amazing freelancer on
Fiverrcom.
Each week, he sends me a listof about 50 conferences and
events that are looking forspeakers, along with the proper
contact of who I should message.
This has saved me hours, andinstead I'm now spending more
(02:13):
time doing what I do bestbuilding relationships with
event organizers and spendingless time over analyzing which
events I should try to speak atand how to find them.
I challenge you head toFiverrcom next time you have a
project but you don't have thetime to execute it.
I have been so pleased with howmuch space this frees up for me
(02:33):
, and if you're new to Fiverr,you can use the link in the show
notes for 10% off your veryfirst order.
So, with no further delay, meetCal Cal.
Welcome to the FreedomLifestyle podcast.
How's your day going so far?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Good.
Thank you for having me, sam,truly pumped to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
I'm pumped to have you here.
You put in the form thatgetting a great deal gives you a
literal rush, which I love thatline.
So have you always been thatway?
What early memories come tomind for you when I ask you
about your history of trying toget a good deal?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I think part of it is family right.
So both sides of my family, formultiple generations, have kind
of been entrepreneurs and fromthat at a very fundamental level
, you buy low and you sell highIf you scrape away a lot of
other things in business.
So I was just always raised onentrepreneurial environments and
then for myself I found that inthe past it's an indicator for
(03:35):
other things.
So oftentimes when I'dinterview people for an account
manager or things like that inour teams, one thing that I
would ask them is tell me abouta time you got a great deal.
And when I see their eyes lightup, I know that they have like
an innate trait, or hunger, orit matters to them, and the
answer can be I got a two forone on Uber Eats.
(03:57):
It can be hey, I negotiated mycar lease from X to Y.
It's that energy, because ifthat gives you, like I said, a
little spark, I think that it'sgoing to help in a lot of other
facets of your life, and life isgetting increasingly expensive.
So if we can find a way to savesome money along the way,
that's always nice.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
As your wealth and your salaries have inevitably
increased over the years.
Has this changed your attitudetowards getting a great deal and
spending time to save money?
Because that's something youalso often hear in the
entrepreneurial world is whatare you worth Like?
What is your hourly rate?
If you're going to spend sixhours to try to save $20, is
that worth it?
(04:36):
Has that changed Like?
Has that logic kicked in, orare you still driven kind of by
that emotional thrill of gettinga good deal a lot of the time?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
No, that's a really good question.
I think for me you're right.
You have to figure out time isvaluable.
It's our most valuable traitthat we can't get back.
So the answer for me might notbe I'll take the flight with the
layover.
The answer might be when I getto where I'm going, I might know
that between Google or Travagoor Kayak or mobile or desktop,
(05:06):
there's all these little ways tosave money along the way.
And so things like that, if I'mbooking on one booking site
versus the other, that sometimesin itself is enough to make it
worthwhile versus, like you said, putting my time at risk, where
I think that is something thatwe know we can't get back.
So I'll value that one a bitmore.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Okay, you mentioned a number of websites and
resources already.
Some of them I've heard of,some of them I haven't, so maybe
we can start to unpack some ofthese tips that you have and
what we can learn from you ongetting a great deal.
And so, as someone who's maybelightly into travel hacking,
what can our listeners learnfrom you, maybe if they wanted
to get started in it?
(05:45):
What are some like foundationaltips and best practices for
saving money on travel, whetherit's flying around somewhere or
staying in hotels, which I knowyou have a background in that
space too?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I think the best way I like to start this off is
figure out what's important toyou.
For some people, that might bethe most efficient route.
So when you think about what agreat vacation entails, it might
not be risk of anything goingsideways and like that's okay to
value too.
If you are somebody who isDelta Airlines loyal, it might
(06:20):
make sense for you to either onelean into that or two build
your plans around that.
I do like to think aboutaccommodation as somewhere where
the early savings start, andthe reason why is if you think
about airlines and I'll use theUS as an example in Canada,
we've got probably threeairlines in the US United, delta
(06:43):
and American that take up themajority of flights, and so
there's things like Spirit andFrontier in Southwest, and they
exist, but ultimately mostpeople are going to fly those
kind of big three groups.
But when you get into a marketand you're booking a hotel, for
example, you heard me mention afew of those websites.
(07:04):
So one thing I like to alwaysfocus on is how are you actually
booking?
Most folks tend to always thinkabout rumors, like Tuesday at
7pm that is the time I ambooking this flight I saw on
Reddit.
There's no way Reddit's wrong,so I am going to follow that to
a tee.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
I really hope you're going to either debunk that or
verify that right now, becauseI've also heard that.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
So first things first is Reddit is good for some
things.
Always have a grain of salt,people.
I would advise that.
The second is time actuallymatters less than you would
think.
What actually really matters isenvironment, and what I mean by
that is oftentimes folks mightbook on their laptop that might
be thought of as desktop mode.
(07:51):
Some folks might book on theirmobile phone that might be
viewed as mobile mode, but themobile app on your phone might
be viewed as the mobile app modeand a company might have three
separate prices for threedifferent audiences across three
different segments, sooftentimes each of those might
(08:11):
have a different rate.
My advice is always to thinkabout mobile versus desktop.
Whether it's the app or you'reon your phone, companies do
oftentimes have better pricingon mobile.
So that's kind of the firstenvironment that I always think
about and advise people to shopon.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
And mobile app or mobile browser.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Very good question.
I think if you're reallywanting to save the bucks, you
can do both and check them outand actually see if there is a
difference.
If you're already on the phone,big picture is probably not too
much of a waste of your time,so to speak, but I think most of
the time, as long as you'redoing one of those, it's going
to be better in some scenariosthan desktop.
The other thing and this one isa bit of you know there's
(08:53):
different people at differentviewpoints on this is incognito
mode Right.
Everybody is like the cookiesare tracking and what am I going
to do to avoid these darncookies?
And incognito mode is a goodway to think about this.
If you go to a site 10, 15times and don't convert, that
will eventually be data thatthey will use to try to make
(09:16):
more on you because they see youreally looking, they can guess
your intent over time, all thesekinds of things.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Will they eventually give us a good deal.
Like is that an option?
Just keep going back and back.
And then they're like maybe ifI just drop it.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I wish I could tell you that was the case.
I think the answer,unfortunately, is the opposite
Is they know that you've shoppedthis so many times that it's
probably moved away fromaspirational into like you need
to get to Denver on Thursday,and so it's actually reversed.
So the advice I was going togive is you know you might use
incognito mode at a certainpoint, but when you want to
(09:52):
eventually book be signed in,meaning you know sign in with
Google and things like that anduse mobile.
Those are two of my favoritetricks to get the best in class
pricing that we all know andlove.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Okay, those are great tips.
What are some othermisconceptions or myths about
travel hacking that you'veencountered that might surprise
us or even just push back.
You get from other people.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
So I like to think about folks in two buckets, and
it's really important torecognize both of these buckets.
There are people that want tosave money.
That's probably people like me,right, where I enjoy the aspect
why would I spend more than Ihad to?
But it's not the end of theworld for me.
If you know, I paid a few centsmore or a few bucks more on
(10:40):
something.
There are also people that needto save money and that's a
different demographic.
At my last company, super, onething I did at that company was
I led the hotel buying portionof the firm.
So I would buy a lot of hotelrooms every month, every year,
and we'd provide those to ourusers and we'd spend some time
(11:03):
looking at who our users were.
And you might take a step backand say you know who is supercom
?
I've never heard of thiscompany.
Is this one of these travelfirms that you know seems like
some kind of odd company?
You know, are they sketchy?
Are they good?
Things like that?
Right, and Super is a startupthat was founded in Toronto, is
(11:24):
now based in San Francisco.
There's been over $100 millionraised.
They've sold over $2 billion inhotel rooms and saved users,
you know, over $30 million insavings, but people don't
necessarily trust it becausethey might not have a brand like
an Expedia or a bookingcom andthat trust factor that you know
oftentimes brands have with cash.
(11:46):
So our customers were peoplethat fell in the second bucket,
that needed to save money, andso it became really interesting
servicing these people becauseyou would hear their stories,
right, is, hey, like I am movinginto a new apartment at the end
of the month, I have five daysto go and I'm with my two kids,
(12:06):
right.
So like they need to save moneyto book that room and it
hopefully has two doubles fortheir family, right.
So we think about things in avery like leisurely sense and
we're blessed in many senses tobe able to do that.
But the people that need tosave money were a big part of
our effort and those peopleoftentimes would use the other
websites that sometimes youmight see on Google that are
(12:28):
further down the fold.
So not all of those aretrustworthy.
Of course, dyor, or do your ownresearch, as they say.
You know what are the reviewson Better Business Bureau or
things like that where you cando a quick second to, you know,
have a sanity check, but if acompany has prices that seem too
good to be true.
In some cases they are, but inother cases there's a whole
(12:53):
subsection of what are known asB2B rates, and those are
business rates only for otherbusinesses that users like
yourself can now start to bookthanks to being mobile and
online and signed in and thingslike this.
And these B2B rates, or closeduser group rates, are the ones
that you might see that seem toogood to be true, but oftentimes
(13:16):
are actually two thumbs up.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Okay, so supercom, I did go on the website.
I know they acquired SnapTravel, which is what the brand was
previously.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Right, yeah, so they rebranded to supercom from
SnapTravel after some previousfund raises, and they're now
focused on this broader fintechjourney and helping folks, like
I said, in that need to savemarket, be able to, you know,
actually build a credit recordor get better rates on hotels or
(13:47):
things of that nature.
And so hotels were a big partof that business and are, and so
, you know, I would alwaysadvise folks that are looking to
save some money when you seeagain a rate that's too good to
be true, just go to True.
Just give that company a sanitycheck and if they have, you
know, an, A rating from some ofthe sites that you might trust,
there's probably a reason why,right?
So sometimes give those thingsa shot and they can save you a
(14:10):
ton of money.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Because are there horror stories Like is it that a
thing where people are trustingthese sites, thinking that
they're booking a hotel for $40and they get there and they have
no reservations?
Is that happening?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, it's funny because there are websites that
do do things like that, right,and that's why people pay a
premium for brands in manyscenarios.
But I think there are alsostartups that many people are
not aware of, right, like youknow, one of my favorites is a
company called Hopper that wasfounded in Montreal, right, they
(14:43):
now are one of the biggesttravel companies on the planet I
think number three in NorthAmerica.
To you know bookingcom andExpedia, and people had no idea
what Hopper was even a few yearsago.
Right, and they've managed tobuild a brand for themselves.
So, you know, for the couplethat might be a bit shady and
are always worth a secondaryGoogle, I like to joke that, you
(15:04):
know, somewhere under that view, other rates button is probably
the next billion dollar startupthat's just getting started,
and you know we just got to findthem, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah, I've been using Hopper for years.
I'm glad you just brought thatup because it's a reminder that
that's a great resource for me.
But for those who are justhearing about Hopper, my way to
explain it would be you can kindof forecast when in the month
or in the week or yeah,basically day that week it would
be the best time to fly.
(15:33):
So it will tell you a colorcoded.
You know on a Wednesday youmight get the cheapest rate.
Saturday is going to be themost expensive.
Is that what the business stillis today?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Yeah, and I think they've done a good job of
building out solutions for othercompanies that want to power
their corporate travel andthings like that as they look to
expand their business and growfrom the leisure or leisure
customers that are nowincreasingly a larger and larger
segment of the population.
But I think you hit somethingon the head, which was they made
it simple and they made it easy.
(16:05):
You saw a really cute littlemascot.
You saw a branding aestheticthat you trusted and had sort of
just an innate feel that, oh,this is modern and sleek but
also trustworthy, and that's atestament to the people on their
design team that really builtthat out over, I'm sure, many
iterations.
But they also showed you howeasy it was to save money.
(16:27):
Green is good Good day totravel, click, like.
You know what I mean, and in acouple of taps you were there.
There was a company back in theday called Hotel Tonight for
those of you that might haveused this, and I think this is
even worth thinking about is.
We talked earlier aboutairlines and hotels, right, and
how to think about them assaving money on airfare and
(16:48):
saving money on hotels and we'llleave aside Airbnb for now, but
the same kind of principleapplies On an airline.
Very few people are willing tochance it, which means booking
it one day out or same day inmany scenarios, because what
goes on when you head to amarket is you need to have your
(17:09):
hotel organized or yourtransport or your dinner, and
unless you have a very freelifestyle, you're probably not
doing same day travel for aplane.
But a hotel is just theopposite, right.
If it's the day of my check-inand a hotel is 60% full, they
probably slacked rates today,because any room that is not
(17:31):
full is revenue that's been lost, right.
So it becomes a reallyinteresting and fun game of
chicken.
When you think about airlinesagain, I'm not one to play that
game.
I've booked one day of flightin my life and I was anxious the
whole time.
It was not for me.
But I'll book day of hotels allthe time because I'm not a
(17:52):
bonvoy lover, right?
If I don't have my specific,you know, hilton honors.
That, like, means everything tome.
I care about convenience, Icare about being somewhere safe
with a little bit of style, andI care about saving some money
along the way for my journey.
So in that sense, you know,being able to be brand agnostic
is another way that I like torecommend folks.
Save money where you mightthink you know I should double
(18:14):
down on Marriott and it makessense for some, but for others
it definitely doesn't, and Ithink I'm just one of those
people.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Hmm, I want to get into that, because I was just at
a Marriott last week and I wentto go get my free breakfast
that you'd expect at every hoteland they were like, oh, it's
only for our platinum members.
I was like, oh well, how do Iknow if I'm a platinum member?
They're kind of like you'd know.
So I didn't have breakfast,which was fine, because I
typically intermittent fast.
(18:41):
So I want to come back to that.
But I'm so curious.
I can't just leave you off thehook without sharing the story
of your same day flight.
Was this an experiment to savemoney?
What was going on here?
What are the learnings?
You've dropped the flight pricebefore and after.
I'm so curious.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
So good question.
I was heading to a friend's30th in Cabo and I had forgotten
to handle my things in advance.
We can say I wasn't sure if Iwas going to go.
It was very much a last minutething.
And then I found to the pointearlier.
You know, what do you value atthat time?
(19:19):
I wanted to like be there formy friend.
I found like a really decentflight down there, so that was
great.
I didn't have a flight back soI was like, okay, like this
flight there was relativelyaffordable.
I want to be there for her andour friends, you know, on her
30th, right Time andrelationships and memories or
what we have at the end of theday that we go in the dirt with.
(19:39):
So you know, that was the mostimportant thing for me and I
figured I would cross the bridgeof how I get back later.
You know, fast forward threewonderful days and we're all
planning our exit out and we arethe last two left.
And Anna is her name.
She kept telling me you know,hey, like last minute air works
because they don't necessarilyexpect you to do this, because
(20:03):
nobody can do this normally, andI took me a second to realize
that she was probably right andin some scenarios, you know,
think about flying home forChristmas on, you know, December
23rd.
Or, like you know, you go toschool in Ontario and you're
flying back to BC after exams.
Airlines know how to do what isknown as yield, manage or
(20:24):
revenue manage thoseopportunities to make more money
for them.
But in this example, I thinkAnna and I were the perfect sort
of group of people that coulddo this, because we're two folks
with no kids and flexible jobsand we could take the chance on
a same day flight which paid off.
So Anna was right, we got adirect flight home on a major
(20:47):
airline and, you know, savedsome money along the way versus
even waiting two or three daysout.
So if you have a very strongfortitude and want to, you know,
take a chance, it's there foryou guys to potentially Do you
have any idea of how much youthink you saved?
I would say about $400.
Nice, which is, yeah, not asmall amount.
(21:08):
And that's why I think sometimesairlines know, like certain
routes, like if you're flying toMexico, you probably could
afford to get to Mexico, youknow, and especially to
somewhere like a Cancun or aCabo where they know tourists
will be right, they know allthese little weird things about
us and I think that's alwaysbeen an interesting lesson for
saving money on travel.
Right Is you have to kind ofthink like the man to beat the
(21:31):
man or think like the person tobeat the person.
If you're flying from Dallas toMiami, most folks would think,
okay, just like Texas to Florida, okay, like sure, savvy flyers
would know that that's AmericanAirlines number one biggest hub
and number two biggest hub.
So if you're flying intoairline alliance, from hub to
(21:53):
hub, you're going to getincredible prices because they
have to keep those airportsstaffed and they need to fly
planes between those two areas.
So you know, knowing smallthings like that, am I flying
Star Alliance hub to StarAlliance hub or specific airline
hub to airline hub?
Those are also really greatways to get somewhere a little
(22:15):
thriftier than you might haveotherwise.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Nice.
Okay, this is a good shift intoairlines, because yesterday I
interviewed Angel from PennywiseTravel and she's a full time
travel hacker, content creator,who has built offers and
products and this is herbusiness.
She's an influence on theirspace, she speaks at conferences
, but she definitely had a USperspective in terms of the
(22:41):
credit cards that she wasrecommending were credit cards
associated with Chase Bank andthings that my Canadian audience
, which is about half, I wouldsay, like 55%, of my audiences
from the US just next, is Canada, and so I think you could give
a really good perspective forour Canadian listeners on how
they could also take advantageof things like credit card
(23:02):
points, and I think I have youto thank for the reason why I
now have a TD visa infiniteprivilege credit card.
Are you the one who?
Speaker 2 (23:09):
told Jared about that .
I hope you're liking it.
Are we liking it?
Speaker 1 (23:12):
I mean, I walk into the lounge every time.
Now, yeah where I belong.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I love to hear that.
I love to hear that.
Yes, that's a very good card.
Happy to dive in for theCanadian audience.
So I'm Canadian myself.
I've lived here.
Most of my life I've livedabroad.
Most of my banking is done hereand with that means that you're
choosing what credit card tosign up with.
Many folks don't care aboutthat and, for the record, that's
(23:40):
OK too.
My biggest advice for peoplethat are not sure where to start
with travel, or if it's evenimportant to them, is make sure
your credit card does somethingfor you.
So if you're going to gettravel points, invest in that.
There's no point getting one ofthe not junior cards, because
(24:01):
they have a purpose too.
But maybe a cashback card wouldactually be more valuable for
most people than kind of atravel rewards card that isn't
really optimizing andcompounding rewards in the way
that it makes a difference.
Cashback is also good becauseyou can spend that on anything
you would like.
It's more applicable for thevast majority of people.
(24:24):
So that's always my preface isnothing wrong with a cashback
card?
I think if you're going to leanin on travel, a couple of
things are important to decide.
The first is are you loyal toan alliance or are you loyal to
a bank?
So we'll use the example thatyou just had, which was the Visa
(24:45):
Infinite privilege, so thatcredit card is sold or, I guess,
provided by two major Canadianbanks which are CIBC, ntd.
I come from a CIBC family.
We had those growing up.
There was something calledImperial Service that I think
was for businesses, and my dadhad a black debit card and
(25:08):
that's how I knew my dad wascool.
You know, it was nothing to dowith anything else.
I've never seen him wear jeans.
He dresses amazingly every day,but it was the first black
debit credit card I ever saw.
So I was indoctrinated for ayoung age.
But when I went to apply forthis card, I noticed that CIBC
(25:31):
had a $75,000 Aero Plan bonus,which is pretty good, and TD had
$105,000.
So you know we're talking over30% more points for the exact
same card, right?
So big picture, when I took astep back is like, yeah, I like
(25:52):
CIBC.
It's like easier for me, Isuppose.
But big picture, it was alsohelpful for me to get more
points for my lifestyle.
And when you're choosing a card,the sign-up bonus cannot be
understated as to the value itbrings to you, the user Many
times.
That is the best way to makethe selection of the card you
(26:13):
take and if it's not a part ofyour selection process, it
either one should be or two.
Maybe a travel card isn't theright choice for you because,
again, like I said, there's nopoint in my eyes going halfway.
You might as well get the moneyback or decide to have some fun
with the travel.
So the Visa Infinite PrivilegeI like a lot because you know it
(26:35):
is about three times moreexpensive than the entry-level
Privilege Visa.
But if you really are going totravel a lot and you are going
to put spend on your creditcards at that point, the rewards
that you'll get are worth theupfront cost, right.
(26:56):
And I think that's always alesson that people have to take
is often everybody likes to finda way to get a deal, as we know
, and people will pay for thingsupfront or they'll pay for
things kind of in chunks.
But a credit card bonus is areally good example of something
where there is an upfrontbitter pill to swallow, but the
(27:19):
rewards you get the other 364days make it worth it, right?
So that's the choice I give alot of folks when they think
about travel and how to approachcards is really think about
what is important to you and ifyou can swallow the first bitter
pill, which is probably goingto be a sign-up, that is like
semi-uncomfortable.
(27:40):
You're going to get you knowUber Eats for a year and
DoorDash for a year.
You're going to get free loungeaccess.
You're going to get your freebaggage.
You're going to have to.
You're going to get you knowzone two boarding so you're not,
like, you know, hassling with.
You know, will my carry-on fit?
And you know, if it didn't fit,that's okay because they'll
take your bag for free becauseyou're, you know that premium
(28:00):
member right.
So there is these upfront costssometimes that are associated
with travel and travel creditcards.
But really double down would bemy advice.
Otherwise, take some cash back.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yeah, as someone who's flying monthly, that
really adds to my experience toalways know.
Okay, I don't have to worryabout food and rushing, I can
just get to the airport, get tothe lounge, grab some food.
They now have vegan sausagepasta, which.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
I was.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
I was shocked to see that in the lounge, but so
excited and totally.
I always overpack, so knowingthat I'm just going to be able
to get on the plane early, getmy seat settled.
You know I'm still flyingeconomy a lot of the time,
working on that premium economymore often.
But sometimes I get stressedlike what if I'm the last one
(28:51):
there and everyone's alreadysettled?
I want to have all of my things.
So it has really added to myexperience.
I think that card is like $600.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
I think it was $499.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Okay, 499.
Is that your only credit card?
How do you think about thenumber of credit cards you have
at once, and what else is inyour stack If it's not just that
?
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Good question.
So I have a cash back creditcard as well.
Most of the time, I do put myexpenses on the travel card.
Just by the nature of mylifestyle and what's important
to me, that tends to work out.
I think the other thing I haveand this is just, you know,
lifestyle planning for somefolks as well is, when you have
(29:31):
a relationship with a financialinstitute, that's worth
something.
It's known typically as ourcredit scores, and that's how
these banks might decide.
You know what we get and how weget it, and is it unfair and
opaque and all of these things?
Yes, does it change the factthat, like, we're not going to
reinvent the banking systemovernight?
Even as, talking to somebodywho runs a digital assets fund,
(29:53):
the answer is also yes, right.
So I have a third credit cardthat I don't really touch, but
it's from a bank that I've had,you know, a relationship with
for a long time and that has thehighest credit limit I have,
and I don't ever actually usethat card and if I do, it's like
for something on, like my Applepay, and then I'll pay it off
and that's just credit buildinghacks over time.
(30:14):
But that credit building hackhas allowed me to know that I
have access to a decent chunk ofchange if things ever go
sideways.
Right, and I think everybodyshould take it upon themselves
to try to do some financialplanning.
For some it's easier thanothers.
I think having access to creditis something that is important.
So if you're able to, you knowwork with a card and able to
(30:35):
even put controls on yourselfand how you might spend those
things, and obviously you knowyour own personal ways you go
about spending are important tothings like this.
I think just having access tocredit is important because you
never know when things might gosideways or an opportunities in
front of you and you know youneed that to help you build on
your path forward, love that andI hate when you listen to
(30:59):
podcast episodes or interviewsand they say disclaimer.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
You know we can't give out financial advice.
We're not giving out financialadvice, but I don't like to fall
the rules.
I would love to give out somefinancial advice and I feel like
, because you have your own fundnow and this is your space,
there's lots that we can learnfrom you.
I know that when I was firststarting, my very first business
in my early 20s wasn't makingthat much money at all.
(31:23):
I was maxing out my creditcards.
I had like the $5,000 max.
I was paying the 29% intereston it and I was so appreciative
when I had to call my bank andthey're like we're going to
prove you for a line of credit.
You're going to pay off yourcredit card and you're going to
have a line of credit for like1% interest and even just stuff
like that.
Like I didn't even know andthat's something I tell so many
(31:45):
people now because, like, unlessyou have a relationship with
your bank or you're spending thetime to educate yourself on
this, you're just going to dowhat you think you're supposed
to do.
I have this credit limit on mycredit card.
No one's talking about line ofcredit.
So that was definitely afinancial saving tip that I
share to people.
Often Is there a piece offinancial advice you feel like
(32:06):
you're often sharing with yournetwork that you'd be
comfortable sharing on record.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
So I will say my disclaimer is not anything to do
with finance, it's that I'veknown your husband for many
years and, as somebody who Iknow is very specific about
financial planning, I'm gladthat you guys are starting to
rub off on each other in thisway and have each other to plan
as you continue to grow in yourlives and careers, because to
(32:32):
you, somebody that even helpedteach me some of this stuff back
in the day, so that's reallynice.
And then, as far as advice thatI would give overall, it's
funny there's two sides to acoin.
So the first piece of adviceI'll give is have a balanced
portfolio.
And that can mean you know,even if, let's say, it's all
stocks right, because you have,you know, a BMO investor line or
something like that, right.
(32:52):
Or you know some kind of TDAmeritrade or Robinhood,
wherever you are, even if it'sall stocks right, diversify in
terms of sectors, like, don'tjust own Amazon.
You know Amazon is a greatcompany.
It will probably go more upthan down, but having all your
eggs in one basket sometimes isnot the move.
So you know, be selective, tryto figure out oh, this is in
(33:15):
tech, okay, cool.
This is in bio, this is inenergy, right, have a chance to
kind of split them up.
If you want to get even crazier, we can talk about things like
bonds, but we'll leave thataside for now.
The other piece of advice Iwant to give is for a very
specific portion of youraudience, and those are people
that go deep on a certainsubject.
So oftentimes you'll havepeople that have generalist
(33:39):
skillsets or they have verticalskillsets, and you know there's
pros and cons for both of thosethings.
But if you have a verticalskillset, I would encourage you
to let that have an overweightaspect in your portfolio.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
What does that mean?
Speaker 2 (33:55):
vertical versus.
So for somebody like me, Imight have more travel stocks
than a typical person in myportfolio, because I understand
that specific sector more thananother person who probably
could have bought a mutual fundor an ETF that just had a bunch
of those, right.
So, where you know, if somebodyis an expert on distribution of
(34:21):
cosmetics, right, maybe theyhave a specific point of view on
whoever owns L'Oreal, or Ithink Koti bought Kylie for $600
million I saw a few years ago,right.
So you know, if they know aboutthat kind of world, then feel
free to kind of dig in a bitmore, because your intellectual
curiosity, combined with thefact that it's your money, will
(34:45):
make you more invested.
So, if you know something, godeep and don't be shy.
If not, play it balanced andplay the long game over time.
It would be the two ways Ithink about this.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Okay, yeah, that's great tips.
I would say a lot of people.
I mean myself.
I'm like I don't know if I haveany perspective, you know,
other than being interested intech and interested in startups
and have money that I can puttowards my future and wanting to
have a little bit of risk,because I'm in my early 30s now
(35:19):
and I have some time, and so Iknow that alternative asset
classes is something that youare specializing in.
So tell us a little bit aboutyour latest venture, poppy Seed
Capital.
Who is the clientele for this?
How are you helping them?
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Yeah, sure.
So I started Poppy Seed Capitalabout a year and a half ago and
we are a fund focused onhelping investors go from zero
to one in digital assets.
So for a lot of people, theymight have heard about, you know
, bitcoin or Ethereum, and theymight even be believers or think
that, hey, this is something Ishould start to have some kind
(35:57):
of ownership of, but they're notsure where to start.
And, generally speaking,there's two groups of people
there's retail investors andthere's institutional investors.
Our goal is eventually to tryto help everybody that we can
with investment strategies.
Right now you know this iswhere the disclosure parts come
(36:18):
in is rules and regulations,especially around digital assets
and crypto, mean that we can'tserve everybody that we'd like
to.
So most of the time, the peoplethat we end up helping are
folks that have started to planfor their families, and you know
they want to figure out fortheir businesses or for their
(36:38):
family planning ways to start tohold crypto.
So we aim to make it seamlessand painless.
We found there was a trustfactor gap in this asset class.
You know and you don't have togo very far to look at some of
the shady characters that havebeen in this industry that I
love, and it's always a reminderthat you don't want to trust
(37:01):
blindly, right?
You want to trust but you wantto verify, and so for our
investors, they can trust us,but they can verify that we've
done the right regulatory workto be able to safeguard their
assets, that we work with thebest companies in the world to
help them provide, you know,earnings on these assets and
oftentimes, as a result, youknow, we get a chance to work
(37:23):
with them more and more anddeeper and deeper.
So right now, we're mostlyhelping families in the US,
particularly in Arizona, hasbeen kind of a big hotspot for
us, where there are people thatknow that they want to start to
own crypto and, unlike kind of ayear or two ago, where it was
(37:44):
in the hype cycle everywhere andall over the news, when you
want to invest in something iswhen it's boring and nobody's
talking about it and it's out ofthe limelight, because when
interest comes back, then you'repositioned in a way to really
benefit from that.
So we've ended up using thislast year or two period to
really kind of positionourselves for what we think will
(38:06):
ultimately be a pretty sizablerun in the years to come.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
What experiences did you have that prepared you to
now take on this type ofbusiness?
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Yeah, I think for me I said this earlier, but
scratching your intellectualcuriosity is really, really
important, and for me, it'ssomething where, after the 2016
election actually, or justbefore that in the lead up, I
was traveling and I read a bookcalled Blockchain Revolution and
(38:34):
it just kind of smacked meacross the face Because I think
one thing that we all kind ofsaw from you know, this point it
feels like so long ago, isalmost a decade ago, right, but
if you think about it, that waskind of the end of the era of
social media as an innocentthing, right.
We then began realizing like,oh, we can get cohorted and
targeted and our data is forsale and all these kinds of
(38:57):
things, and so this book reallyhelped paint a picture of what
could be a better way forward,because I thought that the
advertising model like this hadto be the end.
It literally affected, likegovernmental elections at the
biggest country in the world.
You know, fast forward a decade.
Maybe I'm not fully right onthat, but I was thinking about,
you know, what was next, andthis seemed like a really
(39:18):
interesting way how the nextversion of the internet could be
built, because the way Idescribe, you know, crypto, very
simply, is the internet.
Is the internet of information?
Right, I can send you an email,we can connect, like this, and
it, you know, information canflow.
What happens when we can makevalue flow as easy as
information?
(39:38):
Right, that is a crazy thing tothink about.
But right now, value flowsbetween banks, between money
transmitters, betweengovernmental agencies, between
FinTechs that we know about andlegacy companies we do not.
Anybody can hold it up alongthe way, right, like, your money
isn't yours per se.
And so when I thought aboutagain what was next, you know,
(40:02):
digital assets seemed to be agood way to place my time, my
money and resources as a bet,kind of, so to speak.
So I started for just myself in2015,.
Fast forward a couple of years.
I was doing some family andfriends, and then, at super, at
the end of my three years there,I realized that I wanted to
build something.
I wanted to get back in thatkind of entrepreneurial
(40:25):
opportunity, and this was anasset class where I had a ton of
knowledge and I had gone deepand I had done the work and I
had lived.
You know what felt like 10lifetimes of information and
cycles.
My grades were coming into mychin and you know I knew it was
time.
So you know that's when Istarted Poppy Seed over the last
, you know, kind of 18 months orso, and it's been a really
(40:47):
fascinating journey becausethere's lots of cool stuff
getting built and there's lotsof weird stuff that we got to
work around as well in a waythat you know is good for
everybody.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
I love it.
Well, hopefully a time comessoon where you can serve more
investors and more types ofpeople who want to get into
these asset classes.
It sounds like it's for arestricted group of people for
now, but-.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Correct yes, that is the focus For now.
And big vision yes.
Obviously it'd be amazing toadd value to Canadians and
everybody around the world asthey start to kind of learn
about this new asset class.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
Amazing.
You touched a little bit thereon your personal life and why
this was a good time in yourlife to start a business in the
form.
You talked a little bit aboutno mortgage yet, no kids, all of
that so it felt like a reallygreat time to build.
I want to close off thisinterview with something else
personal, that you put in theform, which is about your dating
(41:43):
life, because I think it's soimportant.
You had said that it's hard tofind a partner who really
understands your lifestyle andyou are traveling around so
often and I feel like so manyfreedom seekers.
They either make one of twodecisions they either sacrifice
some of their freedom in orderto compromise in the
relationship to keep therelationship going.
(42:04):
I interview people like thatall the time.
They're like oh well, I'mmaximizing the freedom I have In
this relationship.
They can't travel, they can'tdo this, we're making it work.
Or I mean people who are justdelaying that life phase in
order to really build theirdreams and build their freedom
now.
So let's talk a little bitabout how you came to the
decision number two, I believeand what's changed now.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Yeah, well, I think finding the right partner is
helpful and I've been blessed tospend some time with somebody
where I feel that way about themI think also for me and her
when we had our discussions.
You want to learn with theother person right and their
dreams, their ambitions, theirbackgrounds, their goals, their
family, what's important to them.
And if I asked my partner howshe'd want to spend her time,
(42:49):
she would move to a villa inThailand and work remote
indefinitely, and so I knew thatshe understood.
One, she had a love of travel,which is important for me to
find in my partner.
And two, she loved our home andwhere we met.
But also with somebody that hadbeen around whether it was
(43:11):
personal or professionalopportunities to see new things
and knew the value of othercultures.
And with somebody that I knewcould be by my side is somebody
that helped support me in myjourney, just like I hopefully
helped support her and hers, butalso could hop on a weird
spontaneous flight sometime andnot be too non-plussed about it
(43:33):
and have fun with me along theway.
So being able to find a partnerthat could have both sides of
that coin has been awesome.
It's been something that I'mreally happy about.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Well, I'm so excited to meet this new infamous
partner that's an in-calf wife.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
She's vegan so you guys can send some time.
Yeah, yeah, and loves to cook,so I have no doubt some good
stuff is coming your way.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
All right, well, maybe which?
Whatever wedding we're going totogether next year.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
That seems to be our main time.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
So thanks for coming on the show.
I could have asked you like 10more questions.
You're such a great speaker.
You had so much great value tooffer us.
So, yeah, thanks for makingtime.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Awesome, talk to you later.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
Make sure you hit subscribe or follow in your
podcast app so that you nevermiss an episode.
And, hey, maybe take an extraminute to leave a short little
review in your podcast app.
It really helps me find otherfreedom seekers who can get
inspired and empowered by thesestories.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.