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Speaker 1: This is Master's in Business with Barry Ridholts on Bloomberg Radio.

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Speaker 1: My special guest today is Brian Kelly, better known as

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Speaker 1: the Points Guy. Uh. The firm now gets ten million

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Speaker 1: unique visitors to their website each month. It was launched

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Speaker 1: in sold to bank Rate in bank Rate was bought

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Speaker 1: by Red Ventures in the firm now has over sixty employees.

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Speaker 1: Is that right? Well, the Points Guy itself is over

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Speaker 1: a hundred employees. Over a hundred. Wow. Well, Brian Kelly,

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Speaker 1: welcome to Blue Thanks. So I'm kind of intrigued about

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Speaker 1: the Points Guy site. Um, when I got a Amex

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Speaker 1: Platinum card in the office, I gave up my Amex

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Speaker 1: Gold card at home and ultimately wanted to replace it

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Speaker 1: with something which became the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. And

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Speaker 1: then I went to your site and said, turned out

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Speaker 1: that that was a really good decision. Tell us a

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Speaker 1: little bit about the points Guy site. Who's your audience

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Speaker 1: and who you're targeting? Absolutely? Yeah, So the Points Guy

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Speaker 1: I started this as a fun side thing in I

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Speaker 1: used to work at Morgan Stanley. I was in HR,

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Speaker 1: traveling a ton and I was just I've always been

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Speaker 1: really really good at points like even going back to

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Speaker 1: the nineties. But it started it's just a hobby site

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Speaker 1: where I would, you know, blog about one post a

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Speaker 1: day on how to use am X points or how

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Speaker 1: to fly to Paris. And you know, no one really

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Speaker 1: read it for about six months and months aware because

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Speaker 1: then it just took off somehow, you know, it started

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Speaker 1: to catch and I wrote about one deal, and you know,

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Speaker 1: it really started off with consultants. I mean, you know,

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Speaker 1: the consultans who are on the road four days a week.

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Speaker 1: They started reading my site and sharing it like crazy.

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Speaker 1: Didn't eventually make its way to a big New York

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Speaker 1: Times article fairly early on. So it was April of

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Speaker 1: eleven that Seth Coogel, the Frugal Traveler columnist of the

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Speaker 1: New York Times. He's a very cynical person, he said,

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Speaker 1: freaking flyer miles or pointless for budget travelers unless you

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Speaker 1: can prove me otherwise. And it was actually sitting in

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Speaker 1: my spam inbox for like two months, like cleaning out

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Speaker 1: one day and I'm like, what times this is crazy.

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Speaker 1: I met up with them and I said, are you crazy?

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Speaker 1: I'm like, budget travelers are the number one people who

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Speaker 1: should be maximizing points. I met up with them at

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Speaker 1: a bar in New York for three hours. He booked

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Speaker 1: a trip to Brazil that day and coach, but he

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Speaker 1: saved a thousand bucks. He was blown away, and a

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Speaker 1: couple of weeks later he wrote this crazy article that

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Speaker 1: was like the number one travel site everyone needs to know.

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Speaker 1: And I just remember sitting at my cubicope Morgan Stanley

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Speaker 1: being like, oh my god, my life is going to change,

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Speaker 1: you know, the New York because my site crashed with traffic.

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Speaker 1: Emails were coming in and I knew all along that,

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Speaker 1: you know, everyone has points and no one knows how

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Speaker 1: to use them. But that was when it really got

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Speaker 1: put on the map. Um, when did you come to

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Speaker 1: the conclusion that hey, this is a business? Was it

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Speaker 1: the Times article? Before the Times article helped propel it?

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Speaker 1: It was actually before. So if I started the blogging

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Speaker 1: June of it was February. A friend from college he

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Speaker 1: had kept emailing me saying, Brian, Brian, you're writing about

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Speaker 1: credit cards all day. You're a moron because you're linking

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Speaker 1: directly to American Express dot com. And he had worked

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Speaker 1: for a company called links Share, which is now Racutan.

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Speaker 1: In their affiliate marketing. And he said, if you get

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Speaker 1: into my program, I can get you in. You know,

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Speaker 1: you can get paid two hundred dollars per credit card approval.

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Speaker 1: And I remember at that time, I had like fifty

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Speaker 1: thousand monthly readers, and I was like two hundred bucks.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, I only need like one percent of one

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Speaker 1: percent to make this thesite exactly. So he got me

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Speaker 1: in in February, and uh, and it was amazing. I

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Speaker 1: was just writing the same exact content, but I was

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Speaker 1: just using his links instead of directly to that. And

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Speaker 1: so there's like an Amazon affiliate marketing and and unbeknownst

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Speaker 1: to me, credit cards are like the uh you know,

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Speaker 1: the ace in affiliate marketing because it was actually more

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Speaker 1: than two. Some cards were paying five, but it wasn't

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Speaker 1: per click like most. They had to open account. And

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Speaker 1: my readers, my readers were bankers, lawyers, and consultants who

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Speaker 1: live in New York, l A, and Chicago. Talk about

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Speaker 1: Taylor me. So I was joking about I was blogging

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Speaker 1: on a gold mine. And you know, so I started

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Speaker 1: putting those links in, and you know, because these credit

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Speaker 1: cards are the best way to get points. It was

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Speaker 1: so organic. No one even said a word. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I put my disclosures. Hey guys, I'm gonna fill it.

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Speaker 1: And then the first I got nervous that people would

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Speaker 1: think I'm doing it just for money, because that's never

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Speaker 1: how it started out. But my readers, who are smart

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Speaker 1: people in business, were like sending me high five emails

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Speaker 1: like Buddy, I sent your links to my whole family,

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Speaker 1: like I want you to I want you to be successful.

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Speaker 1: And that was a really cool moment when I was like,

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Speaker 1: wait a minute, I can provide good content for freedom.

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Speaker 1: My readers. They use my link and they're just clicking

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Speaker 1: on its click here, Chase same or better offer them

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Speaker 1: what they're getting anyway. So so I love the story

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Speaker 1: where so now you have the affiliate marketing links running

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Speaker 1: for a couple of weeks or months, and then one

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Speaker 1: week ends something happens, you linked to something and suddenly

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Speaker 1: boom dollars over the weekend. It was crazy. Yeah, well

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Speaker 1: I mean that so it was a perfect storm. That

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Speaker 1: day the New York Times came out was actually the

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Speaker 1: day that Chase had launched a British Airways hundred thousand

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Speaker 1: point offer, and I knew that was gonna be really

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Speaker 1: popular with my readers because most of the time, you know,

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Speaker 1: back in the late two thousand, I mean late what

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Speaker 1: do you call them the odds two um, you know,

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Speaker 1: credit card bonuses were like twenty five thousand free flight,

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Speaker 1: you know. And then you know, once the recession. Out

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Speaker 1: of the recession, I think a lot of the credit

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Speaker 1: card companies were like, you know, we really missed the

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Speaker 1: boat on millennials and getting this new era of consumers,

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Speaker 1: so they started raising the bonuses, and it you know,

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Speaker 1: benefited my sight because I was just writing, you know,

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Speaker 1: here's how you get to get the most out of

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Speaker 1: British Airways miles. And the trick was not flying British

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Speaker 1: Airways because they have crazy high fees on their award tickets.

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Speaker 1: So I was just writing these little posts about, you know,

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Speaker 1: if you want to go to Machu Picchu or Easter Island.

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Speaker 1: Was amazing deals using British Airways miles back then because

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Speaker 1: they were a one World partner. So these things that

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Speaker 1: I had known for years, you know, the average consumer

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Speaker 1: didn't realize that, wait a minute, I've got a boatload

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Speaker 1: of miles and this is how I can go to

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Speaker 1: Hawaii or Miami. So um, and then the new York

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Speaker 1: Times article came out, which not just you know that

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Speaker 1: day traffic. But I had no idea what s c

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Speaker 1: O was. I knew Google like me because my site

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Speaker 1: was growing month over month, But that day that you

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Speaker 1: get that New York Times link, they still swing a

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Speaker 1: lot of weight. Yeah, I mean, so that's why you know,

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Speaker 1: we getting uh making sure using press to help you know,

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Speaker 1: buoy the site. That's what There's been a lot of

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Speaker 1: other bloggers in the space, none have really cracked it

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Speaker 1: like I have. So it's a So let's talk about

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Speaker 1: how this went from a sort of side interest to

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Speaker 1: a website to a business. We were speaking earlier about

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Speaker 1: your first big affiliation, branding thirty dollars over the weekend.

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Speaker 1: You had to look at that and go, hey, this

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Speaker 1: really is a bit. Is this what happened on Monday

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Speaker 1: when you went into your day job. Well, I remember

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Speaker 1: being in the shower just crunching the numbers as as

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Speaker 1: my posts were going viral across the internet about this chase.

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Speaker 1: You know, the clicks would update every hour, and I

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Speaker 1: just you know, on a normal day, I'd have like

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Speaker 1: twenty clicks on a you know, on a credit card link,

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Speaker 1: but then all of a sudden, was like two thousand.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my god, if this is even the

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Speaker 1: tiniest conversion rate, I'm doing well. And every other day,

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Speaker 1: you know, sales would load into the system and so

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Speaker 1: on paper. I remember when I hit the first hundred thousand,

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Speaker 1: it was like roughly within a month of getting into

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Speaker 1: affiliate sales because of that New York Times piece that

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Speaker 1: made it go viral and uh and I remember just thinking,

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Speaker 1: on paper, I'm kind of rich, you know, like that

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Speaker 1: was more than my annual salary at that point. And

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Speaker 1: my parents were like, Brian, you know, I was twenty seven,

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Speaker 1: I was about to get VP, and you know, human

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Speaker 1: resources at Morgan Stanley that you shouldn't be well back,

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Speaker 1: you know, I was. You know, that was you know,

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Speaker 1: when you're in your late twenties about to get VP,

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Speaker 1: it's like, you know, you're it's better to take a

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Speaker 1: risk than when you're young, and you could bounce back.

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Speaker 1: Of course, of course now you know, not knowing what

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Speaker 1: I know now, but you know, being a blog a

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Speaker 1: professional blogger just wasn't really a thing inn But my

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Speaker 1: parents actually loaned me money because even though in the

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Speaker 1: affiliate portal, I said I had all this money coming

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Speaker 1: to me, but it was on like a net ninety

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Speaker 1: pay plus plus plus. It was actually months before I

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Speaker 1: saw any of that money. But so you didn't use

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Speaker 1: venture capital. I never used family money, friends and family.

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Speaker 1: How much did you? I borrowed five thousand or ten

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Speaker 1: thousand from my parents just to pay my rent. But

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Speaker 1: it was already profitable up to that point, so, I

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Speaker 1: mean it was from getting affiliate links. Uh. It was

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Speaker 1: six months. It was that August that I made my

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Speaker 1: first million. It was crazy. It just kept growing and

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Speaker 1: growing and then I started hiring. So I never I

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Speaker 1: owned a hundred percent of the company when I sold

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Speaker 1: it to Great inelve So that worked out. Well. Is

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Speaker 1: that a public figure? Can we just it's not a

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Speaker 1: public figure? Um, I don't think it was ever really disclosed,

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Speaker 1: but it was, you know, life changing amount of money

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Speaker 1: for me at the time. Of course, they gave me

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Speaker 1: a three and a half year earn out because that

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Speaker 1: was twenty eight They're like, we're not going to give

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Speaker 1: you everything, but um, but you stayed with him for

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Speaker 1: almost a decade. Yeah, I mean I even after that

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Speaker 1: three and a half years. I Uh, I renegotiated my

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Speaker 1: deal to get a you know, I was a salaried employee.

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Speaker 1: I didn't I don't own the points guy, but they

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Speaker 1: saw how passionate I was about it um and so

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Speaker 1: you are the points guy, and so I guess it helps.

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Speaker 1: You know, people even when Red Ventures bought Bank great

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Speaker 1: people like you know most founders, you know, when you sell,

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Speaker 1: you get you know, but they take the money and run,

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Speaker 1: take the money and run. But I and I just

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Speaker 1: you know, signed out with Red Ventures. I'm gonna be

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Speaker 1: there for years to come. I mean, I passionately love

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Speaker 1: doing what we do and uh yeah, it's the coolest

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Speaker 1: job in the world. Why would I give it up? So,

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Speaker 1: so you started as a as a blogger, when did

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Speaker 1: you hire your first employee? So my first employee was

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Speaker 1: actually part time. It was my sister in law. She

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Speaker 1: was a stay at home mom. She started doing email

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Speaker 1: got because the emails were coming in, and I actually

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Speaker 1: had a side business where I would charge people fifty

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Speaker 1: bucks and I would book their award tickets for them.

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Speaker 1: So you'd be able to email me and say, hey,

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Speaker 1: I want to take my family to Italy four people

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Speaker 1: in June, and I would say, pay me ch under

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Speaker 1: bucks and I'll tell you exactly how to do it.

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Speaker 1: So I had that business and then I would blog.

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Speaker 1: So my my sister in law was my first part

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Speaker 1: time employee. And then it was actually right after I

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Speaker 1: sold the bank. Right then I was like, I gotta

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Speaker 1: I gotta hire people. And now people would want to

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Speaker 1: work for me, because before people were like, I'm not

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Speaker 1: gonna work for some guy blogging out of his living room. Yeah. So,

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Speaker 1: once I sold, you know, bank rate was a publicly

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Speaker 1: traded company pretty um, you know, they had banquet dot

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Speaker 1: com was a huge site, and the credit cards dot Com. So,

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Speaker 1: you know, once I and that was great because I

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Speaker 1: could just focus on the content and um, you know,

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Speaker 1: their HR and legal and all that stuff took took

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Speaker 1: away all that stuff that I really never enjoyed doing.

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Speaker 1: And if you think about it, it makes perfect sense

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Speaker 1: for a site that spends so much time and effort

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Speaker 1: analyzing credit cards to bring in totally the ultimate credit card.

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Speaker 1: And I didn't realize it at the time. I mean

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Speaker 1: when they because I only had like roughly fifteen months

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Speaker 1: of revenue. Granted it was all profit for the most

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Speaker 1: part because I didn't really have that many expenses, but

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Speaker 1: you know, to me, It was astounding that credit cards

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Speaker 1: dot Com, the behemouth site, you know, um would want

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Speaker 1: this little niche travel premium, you know, credit card site.

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Speaker 1: But premium is a good niche. It is and and

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Speaker 1: it it was. It was. It's been a wild ride since.

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Speaker 1: You know, I remember when when I sold the bank

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Speaker 1: rate in May, fifty thousand monthly uniques um, which is

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Speaker 1: really nothing, but it was pretty pretty profitable. Um, but

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Speaker 1: the real you know, but it's a platform that you

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Speaker 1: could build on. It was a good and the platform

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Speaker 1: kept growing year every year. But sixteen was the year

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Speaker 1: we actually launched the Sapphire Reserve card with Chase. So

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Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about that. They reached out

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Speaker 1: to you guys to say, hey, we have an idea

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Speaker 1: for a new credit card to challenge AMEX. Well they

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Speaker 1: didn't even in the beginning, we didn't even know what

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Speaker 1: it was. Um. We had to you know, come up.

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Speaker 1: You know, we had been working with Chase since the beginning,

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Speaker 1: so they knew we were good partners. We had the

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Speaker 1: ability to create content that resonated, especially with millennials. I mean,

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Speaker 1: and to this day, you know, we have a huge audience.

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Speaker 1: We now are in the UK, we we serviced all

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Speaker 1: types of you know readers. We've got a whole military section,

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Speaker 1: We've got our family vertical. Today we're actually launching our

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Speaker 1: TPG Women vertical for women and travel small business. But

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Speaker 1: but really the points guy, we can speak to millennials.

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Speaker 1: We put credit cards and financial products in a way

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Speaker 1: that I think successful people in general, especially millennials, can understand,

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Speaker 1: like I need to get this car because I will

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Speaker 1: live a better life through travel and you know, be

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Speaker 1: able to to get ahead. So so yeah, they approached

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Speaker 1: us in sen We were under strict NDA for months

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Speaker 1: and months. So it was months until I even knew

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Speaker 1: what the Sapphire Reserve was. And when I heard the product,

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Speaker 1: I literally got like faint in the knees. I was like,

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Speaker 1: this is gonna be huge, like monstrous, and it was.

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Speaker 1: It was out of control. They literally sold out and

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Speaker 1: they ran out of the medal used to make the car.

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Speaker 1: So we were their launch partner, and you know, word

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Speaker 1: was getting out and leaking and we uh uh they

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Speaker 1: and you know we basically hell, they wanted to launch

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Speaker 1: it right after Labor Day in sixteen. The words started

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Speaker 1: to get out because you know, they've got all these

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Speaker 1: bank branches, so they because we were partners with them,

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Speaker 1: they actually announced that the Sapphire Reserve is coming. I

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Speaker 1: still remember where I was in Italy on summer vacation

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Speaker 1: and they actually said it's coming and the Points Guy

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Speaker 1: has all the information. And on a tweet they announced

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Speaker 1: the best credit card to ever hit the market in

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Speaker 1: a tweet with the link to the points guy dot

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Speaker 1: com and our inside scoop on so which made all

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Speaker 1: of our competitors had the link to us. I mean,

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Speaker 1: traffic was who needs s e O with that stuff?

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Speaker 1: So that raises a really interesting question. In my wallet,

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Speaker 1: I have a Chase Sapphire Reserve card and an Amex

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Speaker 1: Platinum card. You do business with all these other credit

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Speaker 1: card companies, did anyone say, hey, you guys are partnering

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Speaker 1: with Chase. We're a little concerned about that. You know,

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Speaker 1: my mom was so worried about that. She goes, You're

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Speaker 1: going to be known as the Chase guy. And you know,

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Speaker 1: you know, first what, second you think, okay, so are

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Speaker 1: we doing too much with one partner? But I think

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Speaker 1: you know, Chase came to us and said, we believe

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Speaker 1: in you two. Do we We did a ton more

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Speaker 1: than just blog posts, we did events. We did uh

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Speaker 1: Facebook live on the day of the launch with pamcottas body,

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Speaker 1: who was their head of credit cards at the time,

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Speaker 1: and we were answering reader questions live on social media,

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Speaker 1: which your credit card company had never done before. And

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Speaker 1: I think that launch with them well, I know because

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Speaker 1: since then we've launched credit cards for City, their Prestige card.

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Speaker 1: You know. We've worked really a lot with Capital One

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Speaker 1: last year they added all these transfer partners And I

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Speaker 1: think our credibility comes from the fact that a we

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Speaker 1: never recommend products we don't like period full stuff. I've

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Speaker 1: turned down offers all the time. We're not doing you know,

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Speaker 1: crappy little partnerships with brands, just trying to get a

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Speaker 1: buck from our readers, you know. And we're mathematical. We've

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Speaker 1: got a team of really smart experts where people like

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Speaker 1: you you can read through the bs like you. We

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Speaker 1: put it in terms of these points, you know, and

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Speaker 1: and how they will actually do it um you know,

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Speaker 1: how you can actually get value from it. So so yeah,

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Speaker 1: so the Sapphire Reserve, it was very Chase centric. But

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Speaker 1: when that offer ended, it was actually one of our

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Speaker 1: worst business months ever because we had focused so much

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Speaker 1: on that offer nothing else was happening, and in scraping

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Speaker 1: our knees. A month after it ended, we were like,

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Speaker 1: oh my god, we had our worst month in like

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Speaker 1: eight years. But it was a great wake up called hey,

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Speaker 1: wait a minute. And then that's when we really retrenched

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Speaker 1: with Amex and City and those partnerships, so totally I mean,

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Speaker 1: and and everyone wins in the end. Let's talk a

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Speaker 1: little bit about how you use various media to promote

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Speaker 1: the business. We talked about the New York Times, we

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Speaker 1: talked about the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. Let's talk a

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Speaker 1: little bit about YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. How does that

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Speaker 1: impact your business, your traffic and who your audiences. So,

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Speaker 1: you know, we leaned heavily into social media. You know,

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Speaker 1: Twitter was actually my first I thought Facebook was going

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Speaker 1: to be a you know, a one lime thing and

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Speaker 1: it wasn't going to really be a big business driver,

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Speaker 1: which actually ended up being the opposite, because you know,

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Speaker 1: in fourteen fifteen, we were investing heavily in Facebook. We

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Speaker 1: wanted to build our likes up. And even though you know,

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Speaker 1: Facebook likes today don't mean anything, you know, we were

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Speaker 1: the first real travel blog to get over a million likes,

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Speaker 1: and that was right before Chase engaged us to help

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Speaker 1: with the launch of the Sapphire Reserve. So are you

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Speaker 1: tracking traffic from from those channels? Yes, so we still

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Speaker 1: get a about of our traffic, uh from social media

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Speaker 1: from all the different channels. It's funny you mentioned TikTok

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Speaker 1: because it's one of our new platforms that were just

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Speaker 1: testing around within the powers wild. You know, we we

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Speaker 1: had one of our edit giants. But it's excuse very

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Speaker 1: it's interesting and it's just like Snapchat. I'm a little

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Speaker 1: wary because Snapchat I used to love doing but then

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Speaker 1: there was no there was no follow up, you know,

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Speaker 1: there's no tracking, there was you know, the campaigns are

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Speaker 1: all very high funnel, like oh awareness amongst a really

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Speaker 1: young group about credit I'm like, meanwhile, I can go

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Speaker 1: on Facebook and target the exact people I want with

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Speaker 1: the right content and serve them different experiences. But yes,

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Speaker 1: we you know Facebook, you know social media marketing, Yes

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Speaker 1: we actually you know, we spent a ton of money

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Speaker 1: every month and getting our content in front of the

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Speaker 1: right people and those people get credit cards. But a

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Speaker 1: large portion of it is also just building out our

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Speaker 1: brand and and we send people around the world. I

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Speaker 1: did a vlog this year on YouTube. Uh I never

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Speaker 1: look at the dates when I look at your videos,

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Speaker 1: so I really enjoy the Air Emirates experience you did. Um.

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Speaker 1: I was lucky enough to fly that some years ago.

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Speaker 1: Air India is another one that I thought was was spectacular.

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Speaker 1: What what vlog did you do this year that really

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Speaker 1: stands out? So we so it's called being the points guy.

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Speaker 1: We I went to Israel for the first time and

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Speaker 1: it was amazing. So we flew United's new seven seven.

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Speaker 1: It's great, great way to fly. Um. They actually fly

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Speaker 1: from New York to San Francisco, which is awesome, and

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Speaker 1: I flew l L back and l AL has a

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Speaker 1: sketchy history as an airline. It's a security so their

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Speaker 1: new plane. They have seven eight sevens as well, which

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Speaker 1: are really nice and get great reviews. But I loved,

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Speaker 1: you know, the seven forty seven, the Queen of the Sky.

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Speaker 1: So I flew one of their last seven forty seven

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Speaker 1: and this thing was like flying in the eighties. I

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Speaker 1: mean they were astrays in the seats and uh so

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Speaker 1: that screens, no, no, no screens. Uh it was and

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Speaker 1: the food for some reason. I think I was in

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Speaker 1: first class, and I think the food. The food was rancid.

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Speaker 1: I mean I I'll eat anything on a plane, I

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Speaker 1: mean even an economy. This food was truly bad. So

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Speaker 1: we my friend who's a comedian, we filmed the vlog episode,

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Speaker 1: you know, flying from from Tel Aviv to JFK on

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Speaker 1: the seven forty seven, and it actually went viral and

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Speaker 1: it actually made the news in Israel. I kept getting

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Speaker 1: all these Google alerts for like weeks later that popular

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Speaker 1: travel blogger flies, you know, Israel's flag carrier, and it's

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Speaker 1: a hot mess. You know, Like, but what what else

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Speaker 1: stands out to you amongst airlines? So the other day

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Speaker 1: you mentioned Norway. Norwegian Airlines, which I've flown business class

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Speaker 1: and it's amazing for the for what you get for

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Speaker 1: the price, but the food is town The food is terrible. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean Norwegians seven. You get a big, big, comfy reclients.

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Speaker 1: This is not quite a flatbed technically premium. It's one

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Speaker 1: of the best premium economies out there. Oh, it's much bigger. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: The pricing is fantastic too, I mean last minute seven

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Speaker 1: bucks more Europe round round trip under a thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: to pass and you know, and especially when you're going

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Speaker 1: to Europe, it's just under six hours these days, you

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Speaker 1: know to spend you know, well from New Year JFK

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Speaker 1: to Paris is just about eight hours if you include

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Speaker 1: coming home time on the ground in London, I've done

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Speaker 1: under six hours. Yeah, but anyway, so so but yes,

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Speaker 1: so Norwegian Premium is a great product. But I'm actually

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Speaker 1: about to uh et the Middle Eastern carriers are still so.

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Speaker 1: Qatar Airlines their q Sweets business classes top notch. Those

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Speaker 1: are like literally private rooms. It's it's crazy. And do

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Speaker 1: they are they the ones with this the shower you

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Speaker 1: can lay down in? Was that Emirates? So there's two

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Speaker 1: airlines with showers commercially, it's Emirates. Uh and then Etti

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Speaker 1: had so Etty Had not only has the showers, they

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Speaker 1: have what's called the residents. And I flew it. It

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Speaker 1: was my first vlog that I was their first passenger

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Speaker 1: to fly JFK to Abu Dhabi. It was thirty three

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Speaker 1: thou dollars of course zero because I expensed it to

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Speaker 1: bankreat at the time. But you didn't you paid actually cash,

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Speaker 1: you didn't use points, no, because with the residents, it

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Speaker 1: would be millions and millions of points. So we paid cash,

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Speaker 1: I earned points, expensed it to the parent company, UM

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Speaker 1: and it must have been thrilled. But you know what

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Speaker 1: the video got millions of people still come up to

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Speaker 1: me today. So back to the whole point about how

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Speaker 1: we use social media. Yes, we do it for conversions,

430
00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:54,680
Speaker 1: but also the brand awareness that as we speak right now,

431
00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:56,920
Speaker 1: people are viewing our videos being like, wow, I want

432
00:20:56,920 --> 00:20:59,879
Speaker 1: to fly Emirates or this airline. They come to this

433
00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:03,040
Speaker 1: I they get hooked in and so we're now you know,

434
00:21:03,119 --> 00:21:05,720
Speaker 1: our our parent company, read Ventures is all about analytics

435
00:21:06,119 --> 00:21:10,320
Speaker 1: and UM using data science to serve different experiences to people.

436
00:21:10,400 --> 00:21:12,720
Speaker 1: So UM, yes we get a bunch of millions of

437
00:21:12,800 --> 00:21:17,080
Speaker 1: visitors to the website, but we are now using social media, podcasts,

438
00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:20,439
Speaker 1: um to reach all different audiences that come back to

439
00:21:20,480 --> 00:21:23,280
Speaker 1: the site. And the big thing will be the app.

440
00:21:23,760 --> 00:21:25,919
Speaker 1: The app. You're gonna launch a points guy app. So

441
00:21:25,920 --> 00:21:28,480
Speaker 1: we have if you could, if you could make people's

442
00:21:29,600 --> 00:21:33,960
Speaker 1: life easier showing them what their points could do. Well,

443
00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:35,800
Speaker 1: just you wait that the home screen of the app

444
00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:38,240
Speaker 1: is going to be your net worth and points really

445
00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:40,000
Speaker 1: and then you're gonna be able to set trip goals.

446
00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:42,399
Speaker 1: We're gonna be able to get live award availability to

447
00:21:42,480 --> 00:21:46,000
Speaker 1: tell you, hey, you've got a mix points and Delta miles,

448
00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:49,000
Speaker 1: you should actually use these points on these days. You're

449
00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:53,159
Speaker 1: gonna pushing your target audience. I can have Delta. I

450
00:21:53,240 --> 00:21:55,919
Speaker 1: have a hundred and twenty five thou Delta points. I

451
00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:59,560
Speaker 1: have six hundred thousand Chase Reserve points. UM, I have

452
00:21:59,760 --> 00:22:03,320
Speaker 1: the office am X points, which we then recycle into

453
00:22:03,359 --> 00:22:05,920
Speaker 1: office travel. But it's always you know, when you travel

454
00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:10,040
Speaker 1: for work, it's always either economy or comfort. Plus you're

455
00:22:10,040 --> 00:22:13,800
Speaker 1: try and be responsible, um, when you're traveling for work,

456
00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:16,480
Speaker 1: when you travel on your own. All right, you could

457
00:22:16,560 --> 00:22:21,320
Speaker 1: you could indulge a little bit that said, it's all

458
00:22:21,359 --> 00:22:23,600
Speaker 1: over the place, I don't know how to best this

459
00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:26,360
Speaker 1: use that this app is gonna track your points. It's

460
00:22:26,359 --> 00:22:28,959
Speaker 1: gonna we'll be able to instantly. We're building these algorithms

461
00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:31,080
Speaker 1: and tools that look at what you're spending in the

462
00:22:31,119 --> 00:22:34,639
Speaker 1: different categories, and then we'll actually slap your wrists and say, Barry,

463
00:22:34,640 --> 00:22:36,560
Speaker 1: you should have been using this card for that purchase,

464
00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:38,600
Speaker 1: because you actually would have gotten a ton more value

465
00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:40,959
Speaker 1: back based on where you want to use your points.

466
00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:43,520
Speaker 1: So it's gonna be I already have, I have the

467
00:22:44,240 --> 00:22:46,560
Speaker 1: it's gonna be coming out in early but it's going

468
00:22:46,600 --> 00:22:49,080
Speaker 1: to change the game because as of today, it's too confused.

469
00:22:49,080 --> 00:22:52,000
Speaker 1: I mean, it is very confusing. It's challenging, and what

470
00:22:52,119 --> 00:22:55,520
Speaker 1: ends up happening is you just end up accumulate what

471
00:22:55,560 --> 00:22:59,840
Speaker 1: you describe as points hoarders. Um you. Now, I will

472
00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:02,880
Speaker 1: use my Chase points for what for what I call

473
00:23:03,560 --> 00:23:08,639
Speaker 1: um marriage counseling purchases. Meaning when our Weber grill that

474
00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:11,560
Speaker 1: was twelve years old caught fire and I decided I

475
00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:14,879
Speaker 1: want the big four burner grill that was twelve hundred

476
00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:20,520
Speaker 1: bucks on sale at Amazon, delivered and installed, my wife's

477
00:23:20,560 --> 00:23:23,320
Speaker 1: had exploded. She's like, just go replace the grill you

478
00:23:23,359 --> 00:23:26,680
Speaker 1: bought for five hundred dollars twelve years ago. Well, twelve

479
00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:28,959
Speaker 1: years ago is five hundred dollars. Now it's seven hundred

480
00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:31,639
Speaker 1: dollars and I want the bigger one, and she's like,

481
00:23:31,720 --> 00:23:33,440
Speaker 1: I don't want to spend thousand dollars on it. You're

482
00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:35,359
Speaker 1: giving me a little bit of anxiety here though, because

483
00:23:35,440 --> 00:23:38,000
Speaker 1: using Chase points for like merchandise, like there are all

484
00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:40,440
Speaker 1: these different currencies like if you want, if you want

485
00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:43,080
Speaker 1: to buy grills and merchandise and gift cards, there are

486
00:23:43,119 --> 00:23:46,360
Speaker 1: cards for that, you know City double Cash that gives

487
00:23:46,359 --> 00:23:49,280
Speaker 1: you two percent back. But to use those chase points

488
00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:51,760
Speaker 1: where you're getting less than a center lesson value when

489
00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:55,240
Speaker 1: you're three exit, can I tell you I'm dying a

490
00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:58,840
Speaker 1: little bit. And it's a marriage. So whatever it costs,

491
00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:01,760
Speaker 1: I wanted my damn grill. But but we'll talk more

492
00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:04,879
Speaker 1: about that in a bit. So you get to travel

493
00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:08,719
Speaker 1: a lot for work, and not just you know, the

494
00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:13,760
Speaker 1: red Eye to Houston, but really fun places on on

495
00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:16,760
Speaker 1: fun airlines. I have a whole bunch of questions. Let's

496
00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:19,840
Speaker 1: start with what's your favorite place you've been to this year?

497
00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:27,560
Speaker 1: This year, I um really enjoyed going to Well does

498
00:24:27,560 --> 00:24:30,000
Speaker 1: it have to be a new place because Cape Town,

499
00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:33,400
Speaker 1: South Africa. Really I've been seven times South. I saw

500
00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:36,119
Speaker 1: the boxing Grandma's video. Yeah, that was really cool. We

501
00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:38,720
Speaker 1: did that a couple of years ago. Those grannies don't

502
00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:43,800
Speaker 1: fool around. I was blown away. But I love South Africa.

503
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:45,440
Speaker 1: We we do a ton of charity work. A lot

504
00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:48,639
Speaker 1: of my travel is for the organizations we support, and

505
00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:52,840
Speaker 1: but South Africa is just so beautiful. If you've never

506
00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:56,560
Speaker 1: been Nevine Country, it's a it's a long fight. But

507
00:24:57,280 --> 00:25:01,119
Speaker 1: starting in December of twenty nine, Team we Are United

508
00:25:01,119 --> 00:25:06,679
Speaker 1: Airlines is gonna start finding Newark Cape Town NonStop. You

509
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:09,280
Speaker 1: know what I used to hate Newark. I live downtown Newark.

510
00:25:09,320 --> 00:25:11,679
Speaker 1: I can get to in twenty minutes. JFK took me

511
00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:14,600
Speaker 1: two hours the other day. And Newark now has clear

512
00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:17,879
Speaker 1: The terminals are nice. I would I would push you

513
00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:19,640
Speaker 1: to give it a give it a second thought. I

514
00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:22,440
Speaker 1: have been giving away my clear you know, you get

515
00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:24,560
Speaker 1: to five and I've been giving it to people, and

516
00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:26,920
Speaker 1: you get a note when someone signs up. I am

517
00:25:27,200 --> 00:25:30,719
Speaker 1: shocked that everybody isn't using that, although I was shocked

518
00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:33,080
Speaker 1: that everybody wasn't using TSA PreCheck, And you still go

519
00:25:33,119 --> 00:25:35,679
Speaker 1: to airports in the pre check lane, I mean empty

520
00:25:36,040 --> 00:25:38,040
Speaker 1: two minutes max most of the time, and I see

521
00:25:38,040 --> 00:25:41,200
Speaker 1: people waiting hours in line and normally how do people

522
00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:43,240
Speaker 1: not value their time? Five years of pre check for

523
00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:47,159
Speaker 1: eighty five dollars, it's the greatest deal in travel. So

524
00:25:47,240 --> 00:25:49,400
Speaker 1: let's let's talk a bit. So you like Cape Town

525
00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:52,720
Speaker 1: this year? What what's one of the most memorable trips

526
00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:55,720
Speaker 1: you've taken well. I love my parents are just retired.

527
00:25:55,760 --> 00:25:58,119
Speaker 1: They you know, my parents are like my best friends.

528
00:25:58,720 --> 00:26:02,640
Speaker 1: I took them to Ghana. Um I do a good

529
00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:04,520
Speaker 1: amount of charity work with phjam there. So we went

530
00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:07,240
Speaker 1: to Ghana and then I took him to Tanzania on

531
00:26:07,320 --> 00:26:11,720
Speaker 1: a Serengetti safari and we you know the image people

532
00:26:11,800 --> 00:26:13,480
Speaker 1: people come back and talk about it for the most

533
00:26:13,480 --> 00:26:16,760
Speaker 1: Safari if you've I mean, I love animals and mother nature.

534
00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:20,200
Speaker 1: Safari is just spectacular. You you really only need three

535
00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:22,480
Speaker 1: days of safari because you go out and you know,

536
00:26:22,520 --> 00:26:24,200
Speaker 1: if you go in a real African safari, you're out

537
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:26,119
Speaker 1: for like five hours in the morning, five hours and

538
00:26:26,119 --> 00:26:27,800
Speaker 1: they have a lot. By the end of like two

539
00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:30,960
Speaker 1: to three days, you know you've seen it all. But

540
00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:32,760
Speaker 1: that's why I like South Africa because you can do

541
00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:36,000
Speaker 1: Cape Town and the stunning coastlines and the animals and

542
00:26:36,119 --> 00:26:38,919
Speaker 1: wine country and safari. So that to me is like

543
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:42,960
Speaker 1: the ultimate trip. So so you're effectively a professional traveler.

544
00:26:43,359 --> 00:26:46,040
Speaker 1: Tell us about some of your packing secrets and what

545
00:26:46,080 --> 00:26:48,679
Speaker 1: gadgets do you like to travel? Yeah, I really so.

546
00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:51,520
Speaker 1: I do the the stack in full method, which so

547
00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:53,679
Speaker 1: you're not you don't roll don't roll. Nope, So I

548
00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:55,720
Speaker 1: will take and I start with the heaviest item first,

549
00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:57,959
Speaker 1: I'll take like a blaze. I'll do my two blazers,

550
00:26:58,000 --> 00:26:59,760
Speaker 1: and then I'll do long sleeve shirts and then some

551
00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:04,239
Speaker 1: T shirts. Fold the arms on and then fold them

552
00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:06,359
Speaker 1: in half, smooth it out. I tell you what I

553
00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:08,879
Speaker 1: can't tell you never know. I can't tell you the

554
00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:12,719
Speaker 1: last time I've used a hotel, and the same thing

555
00:27:12,760 --> 00:27:15,920
Speaker 1: with the hotel, I stack all the pants folded in half,

556
00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:18,560
Speaker 1: folded in half again. You know if and the more

557
00:27:18,640 --> 00:27:20,320
Speaker 1: you have, the less wrinkled it will be. If you've

558
00:27:20,359 --> 00:27:23,080
Speaker 1: got two pants, they'll wrinkle. So and you have videos

559
00:27:23,119 --> 00:27:25,919
Speaker 1: about this. Yes, So let's talk about gadgets. What what

560
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:28,600
Speaker 1: do you travel with? I see you also have the

561
00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:31,240
Speaker 1: eleven Yes, I always have the best iPhone with the

562
00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:33,720
Speaker 1: most storage. Um, I actually have this. They now have

563
00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:36,400
Speaker 1: the dual sims, so I have a Google five card.

564
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:38,639
Speaker 1: Swap it out. So if I'm in some you know,

565
00:27:38,720 --> 00:27:41,639
Speaker 1: because I've Verizon International, but sometimes they'll limit your data,

566
00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:44,359
Speaker 1: so I always haven't hit that yet. It depends in

567
00:27:44,400 --> 00:27:46,080
Speaker 1: certain areas and now they allow you to up it

568
00:27:46,200 --> 00:27:50,320
Speaker 1: more or whatever. It's very cheap, so now in the

569
00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:55,080
Speaker 1: United States, all the wireless services suck. Verizon Wireless is

570
00:27:55,119 --> 00:27:57,919
Speaker 1: the least dirty shirt in the hampers. The way I

571
00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:00,720
Speaker 1: describe it in general, I think, you know, T Mobile

572
00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:03,200
Speaker 1: is great with their certain plans, but it's slow. I'm

573
00:28:03,320 --> 00:28:05,199
Speaker 1: you know, I need some quick I'll pay whatever it

574
00:28:05,200 --> 00:28:07,840
Speaker 1: takes to fast WiFi, so I'm a junkie I must have.

575
00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:10,440
Speaker 1: The Google five is also really good too, as as

576
00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:12,639
Speaker 1: the backup so Google fire works around the world. I

577
00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:16,159
Speaker 1: forget what's it's not very expensive to have. You know,

578
00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:18,600
Speaker 1: the iPhone that has dual SIMS so and then you

579
00:28:18,640 --> 00:28:22,840
Speaker 1: can also click to SIM cards in that so you

580
00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:24,399
Speaker 1: can flip back and forth. Do you land in a

581
00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:26,679
Speaker 1: certain cards? You tell me? Yeah? What else you have?

582
00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:30,320
Speaker 1: You travel with the duel SIM iPhone? I always have,

583
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:33,720
Speaker 1: you know, I've got my MacBook Air and always bring

584
00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:36,479
Speaker 1: my own TV shows and movies on planes because you can.

585
00:28:36,520 --> 00:28:38,560
Speaker 1: I tell you, I'm I'm so glad you say that

586
00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:43,320
Speaker 1: I got the biggest, baddest iPad because I how often

587
00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:45,960
Speaker 1: you stuck on a six hour flight when either you're

588
00:28:45,960 --> 00:28:48,240
Speaker 1: halfway in the movie and it craps out or the

589
00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:52,040
Speaker 1: whole for everyone else on the plane thirty minutes and

590
00:28:52,120 --> 00:28:57,080
Speaker 1: like it's a two hour flight. So basically between between

591
00:28:57,560 --> 00:29:02,280
Speaker 1: Netflix download and Dish anywhere, always have ours. That's a

592
00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:04,800
Speaker 1: big thing with travel, control your own destiny. Same thing

593
00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:07,560
Speaker 1: with noise canceling headphones. Yes, there will always be babies.

594
00:29:07,680 --> 00:29:10,479
Speaker 1: Babies exist, They're not going anywhere people, And guess what,

595
00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:12,360
Speaker 1: we all were crying babies once. So get your own

596
00:29:12,360 --> 00:29:15,200
Speaker 1: bows headphones, you know, get get ones that you know,

597
00:29:15,240 --> 00:29:17,080
Speaker 1: and of course sometimes you can still hear through the

598
00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:19,680
Speaker 1: bow's headphone. But even then, I tell you it's really

599
00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:22,680
Speaker 1: not bad. We had we had a babies behind us

600
00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:26,160
Speaker 1: to and from Chicago for Thanksgiving, and um you pop

601
00:29:26,160 --> 00:29:28,680
Speaker 1: in the headphones and everything in life, it's just your mindset.

602
00:29:29,040 --> 00:29:32,080
Speaker 1: You know, if you walk into the airport aggrieved and mad,

603
00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:34,680
Speaker 1: guess what your travel experience is gonna suck? Like just

604
00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:38,800
Speaker 1: at you, I am so aren't you always angry and agreed?

605
00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:41,400
Speaker 1: That part of our mindset, you know, I think in

606
00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:43,400
Speaker 1: traveling and just being able to see the world and

607
00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:46,280
Speaker 1: seeing how most people live, even a bad flight, you know,

608
00:29:46,320 --> 00:29:48,000
Speaker 1: only one percent of the world will ever be on

609
00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:50,680
Speaker 1: a plane or some crazy statistics like that, So you

610
00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:52,600
Speaker 1: got to learn to roll with it. Go roll with it.

611
00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:54,480
Speaker 1: Even when the in flight wifi's out. I know, I

612
00:29:54,520 --> 00:29:56,719
Speaker 1: get all mad, but you know, sometimes I'll sit there.

613
00:29:56,720 --> 00:29:59,120
Speaker 1: I just started doing meditations on plane. Planes are a

614
00:29:59,120 --> 00:30:01,800
Speaker 1: great place to medic putting your headphones on. I do

615
00:30:01,840 --> 00:30:05,160
Speaker 1: these guided meditations. That insight timer is the one that

616
00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:07,640
Speaker 1: I have a friend who likes that one also and

617
00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:10,080
Speaker 1: another friend who likes clean is a great time to

618
00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:14,120
Speaker 1: meditate because you're sitting up right usually. Um, there's a

619
00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:17,280
Speaker 1: lot of outside distractions that you can get. If that ball,

620
00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:20,720
Speaker 1: if that derails you, it's a little bit of that's

621
00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:23,920
Speaker 1: that's really interesting. So now let's play. Tell me what's

622
00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:28,840
Speaker 1: wrong with my UM credit cards? And UM, I don't

623
00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:31,800
Speaker 1: call this is what we call a wallet audit, that's right.

624
00:30:31,920 --> 00:30:35,840
Speaker 1: So I I have my iPhone case, which is my

625
00:30:35,920 --> 00:30:40,520
Speaker 1: new that's right, that's right, instead of a full blown wallet.

626
00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:43,520
Speaker 1: So I'm showing you will pretend this is my Chase

627
00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:47,760
Speaker 1: Sapphire Reserve home. Um, because I just the only problem

628
00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:50,680
Speaker 1: with the iPhone wallets is you have three slots and

629
00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:53,600
Speaker 1: I have a lot more jumped. So these are my

630
00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:58,840
Speaker 1: two main credit cards. Memorize that number. UM, so I

631
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:01,680
Speaker 1: got the fire reserve of and the Business Gold Card,

632
00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:04,719
Speaker 1: Business Platinum, this Business platinfum. Oh my god, I'm like that.

633
00:31:04,920 --> 00:31:09,400
Speaker 1: And I got the Platinum specifically because if you travel

634
00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:14,800
Speaker 1: domestically not first class, that will get me into most lounges. Yes. Yeah,

635
00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:16,760
Speaker 1: so the Platinum is the best card and the Business

636
00:31:16,760 --> 00:31:19,480
Speaker 1: Platinum actually last yeart Our TPG awards one best business

637
00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:22,080
Speaker 1: credit card. This card is good to any purchase over

638
00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:24,520
Speaker 1: fifty or five thousand dollars. You get a fifty percent

639
00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:28,720
Speaker 1: bonus that either UM and the Business Platinum gives you

640
00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:31,240
Speaker 1: thirty five. So if you want to buy a thousand

641
00:31:31,280 --> 00:31:34,200
Speaker 1: dollar flight Amex and most cards, it's a hundred thousand points.

642
00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:36,560
Speaker 1: The Business Platinum gives you thirty five percent back, so

643
00:31:36,600 --> 00:31:40,040
Speaker 1: it's only sixty five thousand points. Essentially, when you when

644
00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:42,320
Speaker 1: you book through a flight through AMEX, are you're getting

645
00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:44,440
Speaker 1: the same prices and a few get directly. Yeah, you

646
00:31:44,440 --> 00:31:46,560
Speaker 1: mostly get the same prices once in a while. Actually

647
00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:49,200
Speaker 1: a lot of times AMEX has cheaper prices and more

648
00:31:49,200 --> 00:31:51,520
Speaker 1: flexible fares. Yeah, we book all of our travel at

649
00:31:51,520 --> 00:31:55,280
Speaker 1: the points got through Amicx Travel. They have special especially

650
00:31:55,280 --> 00:31:58,520
Speaker 1: with American Airlines and some others. They've got mostly Delta

651
00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:00,480
Speaker 1: and a little bit of Jet. Pil is the other

652
00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:04,000
Speaker 1: airline to Jeff blue Man, and even Jeff, I'm six seven,

653
00:32:04,040 --> 00:32:07,600
Speaker 1: so even flying jeflue regular flu into coast to recave

654
00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:09,840
Speaker 1: Jeff blue and I have to tell you Delta used

655
00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:13,520
Speaker 1: to be twenty years ago. Delta was no fun. Yeah,

656
00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:16,080
Speaker 1: don't they give my vote for the most improved airline

657
00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:21,000
Speaker 1: the one they are consistently. I don't normally blow kisses

658
00:32:21,040 --> 00:32:24,640
Speaker 1: to airlines. So so this is what I like about

659
00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:27,920
Speaker 1: your strategy. So you've got the Sapphire Reserve, which is

660
00:32:27,920 --> 00:32:30,160
Speaker 1: great for points that three x on travel and dining.

661
00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:31,720
Speaker 1: So that's what you put all your travel and dining

662
00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:35,440
Speaker 1: on the Sapphire Reserve. I mean yeah, because that's three

663
00:32:35,600 --> 00:32:38,760
Speaker 1: x and that travel also includes tolls, parking, subways. It's

664
00:32:38,760 --> 00:32:43,280
Speaker 1: a really broad travel plus no currency fee over on either,

665
00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:45,640
Speaker 1: no foreign transaction fee, So yeah, you're good. The one

666
00:32:45,680 --> 00:32:48,000
Speaker 1: area where I might recommend is this. This is like

667
00:32:48,040 --> 00:32:51,880
Speaker 1: an advance. You could get a Chase or Freedom Unlimited

668
00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:54,680
Speaker 1: card which is no annual fee, and that card gives

669
00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:57,200
Speaker 1: one and a half points on everything you spend. So

670
00:32:57,280 --> 00:32:59,680
Speaker 1: both of these cards only give you one point per dollar.

671
00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:02,160
Speaker 1: So this is this is how you pair up to

672
00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:04,720
Speaker 1: a power combo. So if you got the free Chase

673
00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:08,480
Speaker 1: Freedom Unlimited, you would use that for for every day spend,

674
00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:11,800
Speaker 1: you'd be earning one point five points, you'd be earning more,

675
00:33:12,840 --> 00:33:15,720
Speaker 1: and then on travel and dining is what you put

676
00:33:15,760 --> 00:33:18,760
Speaker 1: on your reserve and you can combine those points, so

677
00:33:18,800 --> 00:33:21,920
Speaker 1: we call it um. So you just cherry picking where

678
00:33:21,920 --> 00:33:23,960
Speaker 1: to spend. And this is what the tv G app

679
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:26,360
Speaker 1: is gonna help people is put you know, every day spend,

680
00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:28,040
Speaker 1: like if you're gonna go to a store and buy

681
00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:31,480
Speaker 1: a sweater, go to the supermarket, which which caused Supermarket.

682
00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:34,320
Speaker 1: There are some cards that give pretty pretty good spend,

683
00:33:34,320 --> 00:33:37,080
Speaker 1: but in general, I think you've got your AMEX for

684
00:33:37,160 --> 00:33:40,880
Speaker 1: the perks, you've got the reserve for the points, and

685
00:33:40,880 --> 00:33:43,040
Speaker 1: then if you've got like a Freedom Unlimited for every

686
00:33:43,080 --> 00:33:45,320
Speaker 1: day spence, you're earning that one and a half points

687
00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:47,680
Speaker 1: per dollar. That's a pretty big difference. And it's free,

688
00:33:47,680 --> 00:33:50,280
Speaker 1: no annual fee card. How do you argue with that?

689
00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:52,840
Speaker 1: It's a no brainer. So so I also noticed on

690
00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:56,479
Speaker 1: your site you mentions I don't remember which card it was,

691
00:33:56,880 --> 00:33:59,920
Speaker 1: but they're really good for hotels. So I normally will

692
00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:03,200
Speaker 1: used the Sapphire Reserve for a hotel, especially if I'm

693
00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:06,560
Speaker 1: going to You mentioned the Grand Cayman trip. We're in

694
00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:09,320
Speaker 1: the Grand cam In a couple of times. Really enjoy

695
00:34:09,680 --> 00:34:13,360
Speaker 1: enjoy that um anytime every February of March, you have

696
00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:15,359
Speaker 1: to get to the Caribbean, get out of New York weather.

697
00:34:15,760 --> 00:34:19,480
Speaker 1: What card do you use to I mean, so I used.

698
00:34:19,560 --> 00:34:22,440
Speaker 1: So it's it's sad though, because so Capital one Ventures

699
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:25,960
Speaker 1: is an awesome all around card because they team up

700
00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:27,840
Speaker 1: with Hotels dot Com. So Hotels dot Com is a

701
00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:29,880
Speaker 1: pretty cool program, and that if you're not loyal to

702
00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:32,640
Speaker 1: want any one chain, like getting low level hotel Elite

703
00:34:32,640 --> 00:34:35,680
Speaker 1: settus isn't really that verty Hotels dot Com is great,

704
00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:37,279
Speaker 1: and that it gives you one free night for every

705
00:34:37,320 --> 00:34:39,040
Speaker 1: ten so they take the price of your the ten

706
00:34:39,160 --> 00:34:41,440
Speaker 1: nights that you stayed and they give you the average

707
00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:45,120
Speaker 1: price non consecutive trips, any multiple trips, so that you're

708
00:34:45,120 --> 00:34:47,640
Speaker 1: basical getting ten percent back through the Hotels dot Com program.

709
00:34:47,680 --> 00:34:50,960
Speaker 1: It's a solid return. With the Capital one Venture card,

710
00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:53,680
Speaker 1: they give you a ten points per dollar on all

711
00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:56,000
Speaker 1: Hotels dot Com, so that's another ten percent, so you're

712
00:34:56,000 --> 00:34:59,200
Speaker 1: basically getting back on hotels and this is pretty much

713
00:34:59,200 --> 00:35:02,680
Speaker 1: any hotel in the world. So. Um the sad thing

714
00:35:02,680 --> 00:35:07,320
Speaker 1: about that that that partnership ends in January. Um, so

715
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:10,160
Speaker 1: Capital one Venture and Hotels dot Com has been my

716
00:35:10,280 --> 00:35:13,600
Speaker 1: go to. The partnership ends in January. Wait, this is

717
00:35:13,680 --> 00:35:16,200
Speaker 1: this is done. This is pretty much and they may

718
00:35:16,239 --> 00:35:18,399
Speaker 1: extend it. I haven't heard yet, but that has been

719
00:35:18,440 --> 00:35:20,480
Speaker 1: to go to. The other card I'll say is if

720
00:35:20,520 --> 00:35:23,600
Speaker 1: you're actually know what City Prestige used to be the

721
00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:26,000
Speaker 1: card for. They give you fourth night free and they

722
00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:30,919
Speaker 1: just fourth night free hotel in the world. Over the years,

723
00:35:30,960 --> 00:35:33,600
Speaker 1: I've gotten thousands and thousands. Did they still do that? They?

724
00:35:33,719 --> 00:35:35,520
Speaker 1: You know, City has been pulling back a lot of

725
00:35:35,560 --> 00:35:37,400
Speaker 1: the perks and so now they limited to two a

726
00:35:37,480 --> 00:35:40,759
Speaker 1: year and the rates are not as low as they

727
00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:43,760
Speaker 1: watered it down. That's too. Now that raises another question.

728
00:35:44,920 --> 00:35:48,919
Speaker 1: People have been saying that people who I normally think

729
00:35:48,960 --> 00:35:53,520
Speaker 1: of as astute travelers and points people that it's gotten

730
00:35:53,600 --> 00:35:58,040
Speaker 1: much harder of late Chase Sapphire Reserve change the landscape

731
00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:01,400
Speaker 1: for everybody, and some people will decided. Some companies decided

732
00:36:01,440 --> 00:36:03,880
Speaker 1: to compete. Another companies said no, We're gonna make it

733
00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:07,080
Speaker 1: more difficult. Well, I think all of them. I think so.

734
00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:09,440
Speaker 1: My contrarian view to that is that things are actually

735
00:36:09,440 --> 00:36:11,359
Speaker 1: way better than they've ever been because there are more

736
00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:14,719
Speaker 1: wastearing credit cards today. You know, even the Amex Gold

737
00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:17,080
Speaker 1: now offers four X on dining. They one up the

738
00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:19,680
Speaker 1: Sapphire Reserve, so the Amex Gold is four X on

739
00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:23,359
Speaker 1: dining and in several other categories. There's actually so many

740
00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:25,800
Speaker 1: categories to earn. You just got to pick and choose,

741
00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:27,680
Speaker 1: and choose the ones that you know give you the

742
00:36:27,719 --> 00:36:30,399
Speaker 1: most value. Back now on the flip side, because there's

743
00:36:30,440 --> 00:36:33,000
Speaker 1: so many miles in the ecosystem, you know, the airlines

744
00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:35,000
Speaker 1: have been raising the amount of miles needed for flight.

745
00:36:35,400 --> 00:36:38,080
Speaker 1: But considering you can still get eight hundred thousand points

746
00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:40,879
Speaker 1: for sign up bonuses, then you're earning two, three, four, five,

747
00:36:40,960 --> 00:36:45,120
Speaker 1: ten X on spend. The smart points maximizers are still

748
00:36:45,160 --> 00:36:47,719
Speaker 1: coming out ahead. You just have to put the work

749
00:36:47,719 --> 00:36:49,320
Speaker 1: in and you stick around a little bit. I have

750
00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:52,120
Speaker 1: a ton of lush. Absolutely. We have been speaking with

751
00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:55,040
Speaker 1: Brian Kelly, better known as the Points Guy. If you

752
00:36:55,239 --> 00:36:57,480
Speaker 1: enjoy this conversation, we'll be shut and come back for

753
00:36:57,480 --> 00:37:00,200
Speaker 1: the podcast extras. Will you keep the tape rolling and

754
00:37:00,280 --> 00:37:04,840
Speaker 1: continue discussing all things travel. We love your comments, feedback

755
00:37:04,880 --> 00:37:08,680
Speaker 1: in suggestions right to us at m IB podcast at

756
00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:12,239
Speaker 1: Bloomberg dot net. Check out my weekly column on Bloomberg

757
00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:15,640
Speaker 1: dot com. Follow me on Twitter at Rid Halts. I'm

758
00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:19,880
Speaker 1: Barry Hults. You're listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio.

759
00:37:21,760 --> 00:37:24,440
Speaker 1: Welcome to the podcast, Brian. Thank you so much for

760
00:37:24,480 --> 00:37:26,919
Speaker 1: doing this. I don't I don't know what inspired me

761
00:37:27,120 --> 00:37:29,919
Speaker 1: to reach out to you guys, but I'm a fan

762
00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:34,400
Speaker 1: of the site. I really like what you're doing. Um.

763
00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:38,560
Speaker 1: We were talking earlier about the YouTube stuff. I love

764
00:37:38,760 --> 00:37:43,440
Speaker 1: the passenger shaming videos. They're so good. It's if you

765
00:37:43,480 --> 00:37:46,000
Speaker 1: fly regularly. And I don't fly nearly as much as

766
00:37:46,040 --> 00:37:49,480
Speaker 1: you do, but I fly enough. The behavior of people

767
00:37:49,560 --> 00:37:52,239
Speaker 1: on airplanes, I mean it used to be bad on

768
00:37:52,280 --> 00:37:57,200
Speaker 1: the commuter rail lines. People have kinda settled into a routine.

769
00:37:57,680 --> 00:38:00,520
Speaker 1: But I don't think people fly enough to your stand

770
00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:06,160
Speaker 1: um or we're reared by actual adult humans to understand that.

771
00:38:06,800 --> 00:38:09,200
Speaker 1: Don't take off your shoes and socks and start clipping

772
00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:12,440
Speaker 1: your toenails on the plane and you wegs your foot

773
00:38:12,480 --> 00:38:14,759
Speaker 1: in between a seat and kind of creep around. How

774
00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:16,959
Speaker 1: do you not just pull out a machete and chop

775
00:38:17,040 --> 00:38:21,440
Speaker 1: that guy's foot off. It's it's imagine having a barefoot comprise.

776
00:38:21,480 --> 00:38:24,080
Speaker 1: There's not more of that on on planes, you know,

777
00:38:24,160 --> 00:38:27,719
Speaker 1: like all out assaults. I get I get bent out

778
00:38:27,760 --> 00:38:31,680
Speaker 1: of shape when people don't think and are inefficient. So

779
00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:35,080
Speaker 1: leaving the leaving the plane, we we got to we

780
00:38:35,200 --> 00:38:38,960
Speaker 1: got to um LaGuardia early. There was a gate by

781
00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:42,600
Speaker 1: some miracle ready for us in the new Delta D terminal,

782
00:38:42,719 --> 00:38:45,799
Speaker 1: so it was all good. There's a couple I don't

783
00:38:45,800 --> 00:38:50,520
Speaker 1: know why. She's sitting in ten D and she's in

784
00:38:50,719 --> 00:38:54,400
Speaker 1: twelve B and they're having a conversation like that was crazy.

785
00:38:54,560 --> 00:38:56,400
Speaker 1: When it's time to get off the plane, he decides

786
00:38:56,440 --> 00:38:59,800
Speaker 1: he has to organize his Sunday New York Times. This

787
00:39:00,160 --> 00:39:04,400
Speaker 1: I was like an arterial plaque and the entire plane

788
00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:07,239
Speaker 1: is blocked up behind him, and I wanted to pull

789
00:39:07,239 --> 00:39:09,319
Speaker 1: out the phone and videotape him, but I was like,

790
00:39:10,480 --> 00:39:12,799
Speaker 1: I gotta roll with it. You gotta be Yeah, that's true,

791
00:39:12,840 --> 00:39:15,120
Speaker 1: you can get upset by it, but I think in general,

792
00:39:15,200 --> 00:39:17,160
Speaker 1: you just gotta let it, let it go. Some of

793
00:39:17,239 --> 00:39:20,720
Speaker 1: the behavior is a little over the top. I love

794
00:39:21,280 --> 00:39:25,960
Speaker 1: this little segment about the um stewardess call button, the

795
00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:28,319
Speaker 1: things people use that for. Well, I've looked a little

796
00:39:28,360 --> 00:39:30,440
Speaker 1: bit bad because I've been in first class before, and

797
00:39:30,520 --> 00:39:32,279
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes the flight attendants go, M I A,

798
00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:34,719
Speaker 1: and You're right, come on, and a lot of times

799
00:39:34,719 --> 00:39:36,520
Speaker 1: I do pay for my ticket and I'm like, okay,

800
00:39:36,520 --> 00:39:38,640
Speaker 1: I kind of want a cocktail. I had no idea.

801
00:39:38,680 --> 00:39:41,560
Speaker 1: And then and then well, Don Cathleen's like, never used

802
00:39:41,600 --> 00:39:45,879
Speaker 1: the overhead for cocktails. I'm like, really you can. If

803
00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:48,680
Speaker 1: you pay full boat, you could use that for cocktails.

804
00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:51,680
Speaker 1: What you can't do is push the button and ask

805
00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:54,959
Speaker 1: the stewardess to have the plane fly to lower altitude

806
00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:57,360
Speaker 1: so you could get a picture of the Grand Canyon.

807
00:39:57,640 --> 00:40:00,920
Speaker 1: And I'm assuming all the other examples stuff from life.

808
00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:03,440
Speaker 1: She has stories, she espe she flew on a regional carrier.

809
00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:06,520
Speaker 1: She has stories for days. But uh, it kind of

810
00:40:06,520 --> 00:40:10,200
Speaker 1: reminds me. I flew with Madonna once and she we're

811
00:40:10,239 --> 00:40:12,719
Speaker 1: delayed leaving JFK and the pilot comes out I'm so

812
00:40:12,719 --> 00:40:15,440
Speaker 1: sorry it's raining, and she just goes step on it.

813
00:40:15,480 --> 00:40:17,040
Speaker 1: While we're in the air. I need to make up

814
00:40:17,120 --> 00:40:19,759
Speaker 1: time and the pilot was like okay. I was like,

815
00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:23,360
Speaker 1: so really yeah, it was like I think she was

816
00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:26,279
Speaker 1: kind of joking. Okay. I also, here's some one tip

817
00:40:26,320 --> 00:40:28,400
Speaker 1: you should never do. I took my sleeping but this

818
00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:30,080
Speaker 1: is my rookie days. This is like, you never take

819
00:40:30,160 --> 00:40:33,319
Speaker 1: the pill. And I partner to do the same thing

820
00:40:33,320 --> 00:40:36,719
Speaker 1: in a hilarious series of disasters. I took my I

821
00:40:36,760 --> 00:40:38,560
Speaker 1: took it my pill, and then of course I'm putting

822
00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:40,279
Speaker 1: my overhead bag and I'm starting to get woozy and

823
00:40:40,320 --> 00:40:42,760
Speaker 1: I turned around and it's freaking Madonna boarding the plane.

824
00:40:43,040 --> 00:40:45,040
Speaker 1: So then I'm trying to stay awake. We're delayed on

825
00:40:45,080 --> 00:40:47,759
Speaker 1: the tarmac. She's doing all these antics. I'm like, why

826
00:40:47,760 --> 00:40:49,360
Speaker 1: did I take this pill? And then I woke up

827
00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:52,880
Speaker 1: the next morning like did that happen? Don't flying private

828
00:40:53,160 --> 00:40:56,280
Speaker 1: well because of a lot of celebrities. Now most celebrities

829
00:40:56,280 --> 00:40:58,759
Speaker 1: are now flying commercial because of the you know environment,

830
00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:03,680
Speaker 1: and you can't be crusader for all right. I see

831
00:41:03,760 --> 00:41:07,120
Speaker 1: tons of a list celebrities, royals, people, you know, there's

832
00:41:07,400 --> 00:41:10,080
Speaker 1: people watching on planes. Wow, So I had I had

833
00:41:10,120 --> 00:41:14,160
Speaker 1: the greatest experience yesterday with the pilot. I can't I

834
00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:17,320
Speaker 1: don't ever recall seeing this. So there's all this weather

835
00:41:17,400 --> 00:41:20,280
Speaker 1: going on Thanksgiving weekend, most of it to the west,

836
00:41:20,400 --> 00:41:23,839
Speaker 1: but there's gonna be some potential issues on the flight back.

837
00:41:24,239 --> 00:41:27,360
Speaker 1: He comes out and makes an announcement in the waiting

838
00:41:27,360 --> 00:41:30,000
Speaker 1: area before people board. Hey, just want to let you

839
00:41:30,080 --> 00:41:32,400
Speaker 1: know we're gonna hit a bunch of weather. The first

840
00:41:32,400 --> 00:41:34,640
Speaker 1: half hour will be fine, but it will be bumpy

841
00:41:34,640 --> 00:41:38,560
Speaker 1: and problematic for the second half. We'll do our best

842
00:41:38,600 --> 00:41:40,840
Speaker 1: to work our way around the weather and get you

843
00:41:40,840 --> 00:41:45,840
Speaker 1: there smoothly and safely. And and it was just like, wow,

844
00:41:45,880 --> 00:41:50,080
Speaker 1: that's such a great and throughout the throughout the flight,

845
00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:54,480
Speaker 1: like they're not great about communicating what really is going on.

846
00:41:54,840 --> 00:41:58,279
Speaker 1: It always feels like they're reading a script like this guy, like, Wow,

847
00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:00,560
Speaker 1: what approach. I've had pilots like that. I love that

848
00:42:00,600 --> 00:42:04,040
Speaker 1: preflight brief, like some of them really. I mean, I

849
00:42:04,080 --> 00:42:06,000
Speaker 1: think most pilots enjoy their job. I know they're all,

850
00:42:06,160 --> 00:42:09,200
Speaker 1: you know, overworked and whatever, but yeah, I love Please

851
00:42:09,200 --> 00:42:11,640
Speaker 1: don't tell me they're overworked overtired. You don't want to

852
00:42:11,680 --> 00:42:14,319
Speaker 1: hear that, right, Although the planes can land themselves these

853
00:42:14,360 --> 00:42:17,080
Speaker 1: days theoretically, so so let me get to some of

854
00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:24,319
Speaker 1: the questions we missed. Um during the broadcast broadcast portion, Um,

855
00:42:24,400 --> 00:42:27,560
Speaker 1: you you mentioned peace Jam. Let's so let's talk a

856
00:42:27,600 --> 00:42:31,040
Speaker 1: little bit about inclusivity and giving back. Tell us what

857
00:42:31,080 --> 00:42:33,400
Speaker 1: peace Jam is. So peace Jam is awesome. I you know,

858
00:42:33,520 --> 00:42:35,760
Speaker 1: when when the business really took off, I really wanted

859
00:42:35,800 --> 00:42:38,279
Speaker 1: to you know, there were tons of charities reaching out

860
00:42:38,320 --> 00:42:41,080
Speaker 1: for right checks, right checks, and you know that's never

861
00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:42,880
Speaker 1: anything you know, I wanted to get involved with an

862
00:42:42,920 --> 00:42:45,200
Speaker 1: organization that was going to use travel to help change

863
00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:47,200
Speaker 1: you know, the world, so to speak, even though that's

864
00:42:47,200 --> 00:42:49,279
Speaker 1: a pretty wide thing. And a friend of mine said,

865
00:42:49,320 --> 00:42:51,359
Speaker 1: you know, I love kids. I was almost a teach

866
00:42:51,400 --> 00:42:53,640
Speaker 1: for America teacher out of college. And I think even

867
00:42:53,719 --> 00:42:57,439
Speaker 1: being the Points Guy teach education or like a great

868
00:42:57,520 --> 00:43:00,960
Speaker 1: joy from like watching people learn. And you know, so,

869
00:43:01,080 --> 00:43:04,560
Speaker 1: um So peace Jam is fifteen of the world's best

870
00:43:04,560 --> 00:43:07,160
Speaker 1: Nobel Peace Prize winner, So the Dalai Lama Desmond to

871
00:43:07,280 --> 00:43:10,239
Speaker 1: to Lama Bowie. So they are the board members and

872
00:43:10,239 --> 00:43:12,680
Speaker 1: it's their organization to take their learnings and their life

873
00:43:12,719 --> 00:43:15,080
Speaker 1: story to kids around the world. So it's so peace

874
00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:18,080
Speaker 1: Jam itself is in a bunch of different countries. At

875
00:43:18,080 --> 00:43:21,960
Speaker 1: the Points Guy, we sponsor it in Guatemala, Ghana, Liberia,

876
00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:24,480
Speaker 1: South Africa and East Team War. Do you sponsor it

877
00:43:24,520 --> 00:43:26,759
Speaker 1: with points? So we do. So it started out we

878
00:43:26,800 --> 00:43:29,200
Speaker 1: were we were giving points to the Nobel Laureates to

879
00:43:29,360 --> 00:43:31,760
Speaker 1: you know, because even the Fly Ghana is our biggest chapter.

880
00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:35,480
Speaker 1: Now to fly a Nobel Laureate and their assistant, it's expensive.

881
00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:38,280
Speaker 1: How do you transfer your points to a Nobel Laureate

882
00:43:38,400 --> 00:43:41,120
Speaker 1: so you can transfer to my loyalty account my Amex.

883
00:43:41,200 --> 00:43:44,640
Speaker 1: Let's say a Fly Delta. They fly JFK to Acra Ghana,

884
00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:47,719
Speaker 1: so we would transfer my Amex to my Delta and

885
00:43:47,719 --> 00:43:49,279
Speaker 1: then I can you know, and once you have points,

886
00:43:49,320 --> 00:43:52,080
Speaker 1: you can book it when you want. So that's how

887
00:43:52,080 --> 00:43:54,279
Speaker 1: it started. We called Points for Peace. So basically we

888
00:43:54,360 --> 00:43:58,920
Speaker 1: bring these Nobel Laureates about talk about perfect branding. So

889
00:43:59,040 --> 00:44:01,720
Speaker 1: we so we've able to bring these Nobel Peace Prize winners.

890
00:44:01,719 --> 00:44:03,640
Speaker 1: You know, we've got six hundred kids in in gone

891
00:44:03,640 --> 00:44:06,400
Speaker 1: to high school kids. They study about the laureate all

892
00:44:06,440 --> 00:44:08,120
Speaker 1: year long and then we bring the lor like the

893
00:44:08,200 --> 00:44:10,640
Speaker 1: Nobel Peace Prize winner, they spend all weekend. We have

894
00:44:10,719 --> 00:44:12,960
Speaker 1: this unbelievable you know, they learned how to fix the

895
00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:16,640
Speaker 1: problems in their community. Start small, small actions then lead

896
00:44:16,680 --> 00:44:18,839
Speaker 1: to bigger change. I mean, by the end of a week,

897
00:44:18,920 --> 00:44:20,840
Speaker 1: I get chilse even thinking about it's spending time with

898
00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:22,879
Speaker 1: you know, these Nobel Peace Prize winners who have helped

899
00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:25,359
Speaker 1: end civil wars. Who are you know, we work with

900
00:44:25,680 --> 00:44:28,240
Speaker 1: Jody Williams who and you know helped in land mines

901
00:44:28,440 --> 00:44:30,720
Speaker 1: and should we bring her to kids around the world

902
00:44:30,840 --> 00:44:34,239
Speaker 1: and it really empowers them to make their communities better.

903
00:44:34,280 --> 00:44:37,200
Speaker 1: So that's been a I get to travel all around

904
00:44:37,239 --> 00:44:39,440
Speaker 1: the world with you know, these amazing Nobel Peace Prize

905
00:44:39,440 --> 00:44:42,640
Speaker 1: winners and bringing that message to kids. And let's talk

906
00:44:42,680 --> 00:44:45,480
Speaker 1: a little bit about you're an out CEO and business founder.

907
00:44:45,880 --> 00:44:48,680
Speaker 1: You also like to give back to the LGBT community.

908
00:44:48,680 --> 00:44:50,840
Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about what you do with that. Yeah, so,

909
00:44:50,880 --> 00:44:53,040
Speaker 1: I mean, look, I'm so lucky, I'm I'm my parents

910
00:44:53,080 --> 00:44:55,360
Speaker 1: love me, I've got a great partner. I'm out in

911
00:44:55,440 --> 00:44:58,360
Speaker 1: business even you know, it's nervous racking when your business

912
00:44:58,360 --> 00:45:00,279
Speaker 1: gets taken over? Are the are the new owners of

913
00:45:00,280 --> 00:45:03,000
Speaker 1: the company going to be? You know? Allow me today,

914
00:45:03,080 --> 00:45:07,880
Speaker 1: even today, I'm a Jewish white guy working in finance,

915
00:45:07,920 --> 00:45:09,799
Speaker 1: so I know what it's like in New York so

916
00:45:09,920 --> 00:45:12,600
Speaker 1: I know what it's like to be oppressed. Um, and

917
00:45:12,640 --> 00:45:16,240
Speaker 1: I say that, you know, only half joking or fully joking.

918
00:45:16,280 --> 00:45:19,960
Speaker 1: But let me say that again. It's hard to imagine

919
00:45:20,480 --> 00:45:26,560
Speaker 1: in that that's still an issue in my little New York. Well,

920
00:45:26,600 --> 00:45:28,960
Speaker 1: red Ventures, my parent company, they you know, all I

921
00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:31,440
Speaker 1: heard was they're taking their Red Ventures is buying banquet

922
00:45:31,520 --> 00:45:33,960
Speaker 1: and they're Charlotte based, and you know, in Charlotte, in

923
00:45:33,960 --> 00:45:36,440
Speaker 1: North Carolina, there were some pretty nasty you know, the

924
00:45:36,800 --> 00:45:40,600
Speaker 1: we had the whole HB two. Luckily I googled and

925
00:45:40,600 --> 00:45:43,319
Speaker 1: and Rick Elias, who's our CEO. He's a staunch you know,

926
00:45:43,840 --> 00:45:45,640
Speaker 1: you know, he's born in Puerto Rico. We do all

927
00:45:45,680 --> 00:45:48,480
Speaker 1: this crazy social giving back and everything's fine. But there

928
00:45:48,480 --> 00:45:50,280
Speaker 1: are a lot of friends, and I know, soul businesses

929
00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:53,160
Speaker 1: they clash personally with you know, you're not a part

930
00:45:53,160 --> 00:45:56,560
Speaker 1: of that inner click of boys or whatever. So so anyway,

931
00:45:56,600 --> 00:45:58,920
Speaker 1: so I've been very fortunate. And I remember reading the

932
00:45:58,920 --> 00:46:01,040
Speaker 1: New York Times two years go and it was about

933
00:46:01,440 --> 00:46:05,879
Speaker 1: gay concentration camps in Czechnia. And I remember reading going,

934
00:46:05,880 --> 00:46:09,000
Speaker 1: this is crazy. In twenty seventeen or eighteen, there cannot

935
00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:13,719
Speaker 1: be concentration And in Chechnya. The leader that it was

936
00:46:13,840 --> 00:46:16,240
Speaker 1: rounding up gay people and they were taking their phones

937
00:46:16,280 --> 00:46:19,320
Speaker 1: and it was this they were actually in camps. Many

938
00:46:19,320 --> 00:46:22,640
Speaker 1: people have been killed. So d Rainbow Railroad we we

939
00:46:22,680 --> 00:46:25,480
Speaker 1: started donating our miles, so we actually booked flights for

940
00:46:25,480 --> 00:46:28,640
Speaker 1: people who are in places like Czechnia. Jamaica is actually

941
00:46:28,680 --> 00:46:30,120
Speaker 1: the one of the worst places in the world for

942
00:46:30,239 --> 00:46:34,120
Speaker 1: LGBT people. Jamaica. I just went there was sixty minutes

943
00:46:34,120 --> 00:46:36,359
Speaker 1: this year and we did a whole expose on if

944
00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:38,879
Speaker 1: you're gay in Jamaica, there's a huge chance you'll get

945
00:46:38,880 --> 00:46:42,920
Speaker 1: tossed in the street. They trans people are killed almost weekly.

946
00:46:42,960 --> 00:46:46,360
Speaker 1: There's what that happens in the US. Also what happens everywhere.

947
00:46:46,480 --> 00:46:49,400
Speaker 1: Luckily in the US, I think we've definitely made steps

948
00:46:49,440 --> 00:46:52,560
Speaker 1: since the Matthew Shepard days in the nineties, but you know,

949
00:46:53,000 --> 00:46:55,399
Speaker 1: uh and a lot of countries Egypt even you get

950
00:46:55,480 --> 00:46:58,359
Speaker 1: kicked out at least is not especially gay friendly. So

951
00:46:58,400 --> 00:47:00,839
Speaker 1: we so we used fregam flyer myse we donate our

952
00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:03,560
Speaker 1: money and so we now bring Rainbow Railroad gets people

953
00:47:03,920 --> 00:47:07,279
Speaker 1: asylum in countries like Canada and Argentina. So it's been

954
00:47:07,320 --> 00:47:10,920
Speaker 1: really I've gotten a chance to meet last summer in Toronto.

955
00:47:10,960 --> 00:47:15,359
Speaker 1: They were about thirty uh people from Czechnia that we

956
00:47:15,400 --> 00:47:18,680
Speaker 1: actually have helped through our campaign. Our readers donated millions

957
00:47:18,680 --> 00:47:20,200
Speaker 1: of miles and they looked me in the eyes and

958
00:47:20,239 --> 00:47:22,040
Speaker 1: are like the minute that that plane took off from

959
00:47:22,120 --> 00:47:23,640
Speaker 1: Moscow and I knew that I was on my way

960
00:47:23,680 --> 00:47:26,120
Speaker 1: to freedom, they just started bawling. And so it's kind

961
00:47:26,120 --> 00:47:27,919
Speaker 1: of cool. So my whole thing on a giving back

962
00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:30,839
Speaker 1: is like the power of travel can change lives, and

963
00:47:30,880 --> 00:47:32,640
Speaker 1: I know I've changed as a person. I believe the

964
00:47:32,680 --> 00:47:37,239
Speaker 1: more people travel in general, you know, barriers breakdown. So uh,

965
00:47:37,280 --> 00:47:39,600
Speaker 1: it's really cool to be able to uh, you know,

966
00:47:39,760 --> 00:47:43,560
Speaker 1: to help others. Quite interesting. So I have to ask

967
00:47:43,560 --> 00:47:48,280
Speaker 1: you a couple of more business questions because, um, everything

968
00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:52,120
Speaker 1: that's going on these days with Google and Facebook, traditional

969
00:47:52,120 --> 00:47:55,600
Speaker 1: web advertising as a business not so great these days.

970
00:47:55,960 --> 00:47:59,560
Speaker 1: So how are you balancing that? Um? Are you more

971
00:47:59,640 --> 00:48:02,480
Speaker 1: driven by advertising? Is it more affiliate? How do you

972
00:48:02,600 --> 00:48:06,040
Speaker 1: how do you deal with the declining um CPMs? And

973
00:48:06,280 --> 00:48:09,799
Speaker 1: just essentially the web is infinite, well funny enough, you know,

974
00:48:09,800 --> 00:48:11,920
Speaker 1: when I started, I thought, oh my god, this affiliate

975
00:48:11,920 --> 00:48:15,719
Speaker 1: thing seems shady, you know, And It's funny now all

976
00:48:15,760 --> 00:48:18,120
Speaker 1: the major publications are going affiliate. You know, New York

977
00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:21,560
Speaker 1: Times has Wirecutter and um so affiliates where it's at

978
00:48:21,560 --> 00:48:24,600
Speaker 1: because if if you truly have good content that helps

979
00:48:24,880 --> 00:48:27,600
Speaker 1: your reader get a product they want, you know, it's

980
00:48:27,719 --> 00:48:30,239
Speaker 1: it's the perfect but balance. So our our revenue has

981
00:48:30,239 --> 00:48:33,319
Speaker 1: been wildly growing over the last several years. We also

982
00:48:33,320 --> 00:48:36,960
Speaker 1: want to diversify so uh so we've never sold CPMs.

983
00:48:36,960 --> 00:48:39,800
Speaker 1: Really we do some small packages, but in general, I

984
00:48:39,800 --> 00:48:41,520
Speaker 1: mean the bulk of our sales are affiliate and the

985
00:48:41,520 --> 00:48:44,359
Speaker 1: credit card markets are strong. My biggest concern isn't as

986
00:48:44,440 --> 00:48:47,799
Speaker 1: much Google and um you know, the privacy is a

987
00:48:47,800 --> 00:48:50,319
Speaker 1: bigger concern, and especially as we create this app where

988
00:48:50,360 --> 00:48:52,200
Speaker 1: people are going to share where they want to go

989
00:48:52,680 --> 00:48:55,640
Speaker 1: and the airlines they want to fly and sharing, you know,

990
00:48:56,120 --> 00:48:58,560
Speaker 1: so that to me, you know, we're getting ready for

991
00:48:58,600 --> 00:49:01,640
Speaker 1: the California privacy laws are about to go into effect

992
00:49:01,640 --> 00:49:04,520
Speaker 1: in January, which changes the game. So that space is

993
00:49:04,560 --> 00:49:08,399
Speaker 1: really challenging, um even how you target consumers and and look,

994
00:49:08,440 --> 00:49:10,760
Speaker 1: I believe we should have more privacy on the Internet.

995
00:49:11,440 --> 00:49:13,279
Speaker 1: Europe is not so far off with what they're doing

996
00:49:13,280 --> 00:49:16,120
Speaker 1: of all the way I mean, California is arguably more

997
00:49:16,239 --> 00:49:20,120
Speaker 1: um more strict than GDPR, So it's a it's a

998
00:49:20,200 --> 00:49:22,960
Speaker 1: challenging landscape, but I think what we focused on is

999
00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:25,680
Speaker 1: just continuing to build out content for people that they love.

1000
00:49:26,080 --> 00:49:29,760
Speaker 1: Ad Blockers don't work when the advertisement is the content

1001
00:49:29,840 --> 00:49:34,200
Speaker 1: that people want to read. So although ad blocker extensions

1002
00:49:34,239 --> 00:49:36,680
Speaker 1: for Chrome and things like that, they stop working. Now

1003
00:49:36,760 --> 00:49:39,400
Speaker 1: it's easy enough to detect them and blur the content

1004
00:49:39,800 --> 00:49:42,280
Speaker 1: and say, if you want to access the content for free,

1005
00:49:42,640 --> 00:49:45,279
Speaker 1: you have to disable your ad blocker. So so that

1006
00:49:45,480 --> 00:49:48,920
Speaker 1: arms races ended. I think you guys have the right balance,

1007
00:49:48,960 --> 00:49:52,520
Speaker 1: the idea that if you have the right audience and

1008
00:49:52,560 --> 00:49:56,680
Speaker 1: the right demographic and they're consuming the content because they

1009
00:49:56,719 --> 00:49:59,520
Speaker 1: want to, not because you trick them into a click,

1010
00:50:00,120 --> 00:50:03,319
Speaker 1: that's got exactly. And the thing we've doubled down onto

1011
00:50:03,360 --> 00:50:05,759
Speaker 1: is community. So we've got this huge Facebook. You know,

1012
00:50:05,800 --> 00:50:09,840
Speaker 1: so Facebook stopped showing publishers in the news feed. Oh crap,

1013
00:50:09,880 --> 00:50:11,680
Speaker 1: what do you do? So what we've been doing for

1014
00:50:11,760 --> 00:50:14,360
Speaker 1: years we have a community. But people come to our events.

1015
00:50:14,480 --> 00:50:17,040
Speaker 1: Uh So on Facebook, we've got a TPG lounge it

1016
00:50:17,120 --> 00:50:19,400
Speaker 1: as I think over eighty thousand members. We just launched

1017
00:50:19,400 --> 00:50:23,160
Speaker 1: a small business community, a family community. We just launch

1018
00:50:23,200 --> 00:50:25,600
Speaker 1: our women's community, so now, I mean, and that's what

1019
00:50:25,640 --> 00:50:27,719
Speaker 1: Facebook's all about. So you just as a publisher, you've

1020
00:50:27,719 --> 00:50:29,840
Speaker 1: got to just keep evolving with the time. And that's

1021
00:50:29,880 --> 00:50:32,200
Speaker 1: that's I think My job is CEO Now it's I

1022
00:50:32,239 --> 00:50:34,799
Speaker 1: don't write posts as much anymore, although I am very

1023
00:50:35,520 --> 00:50:38,759
Speaker 1: very much uh involved in our total editorial process and

1024
00:50:38,800 --> 00:50:40,760
Speaker 1: pushing the team to be better and how we review

1025
00:50:40,800 --> 00:50:44,520
Speaker 1: flights and you know, creating higher quality content. But now

1026
00:50:44,560 --> 00:50:47,279
Speaker 1: it's shifting the landscape and I do I mean, our

1027
00:50:47,320 --> 00:50:50,680
Speaker 1: app is going to be the uh, the next generation

1028
00:50:50,719 --> 00:50:53,200
Speaker 1: of our company and how we'll be able to target

1029
00:50:53,320 --> 00:50:56,839
Speaker 1: content to people exactly for what they want. Today it's

1030
00:50:56,880 --> 00:50:59,040
Speaker 1: one size fits all. It can be very confusing to

1031
00:50:59,040 --> 00:51:01,120
Speaker 1: go to the points guy and be like, it's a lot,

1032
00:51:01,160 --> 00:51:03,600
Speaker 1: where do I start watch card? I just want to

1033
00:51:03,640 --> 00:51:06,640
Speaker 1: go here, And these tools that we're building are gonna

1034
00:51:07,080 --> 00:51:10,120
Speaker 1: save people time and tons of money. So I'm really excited.

1035
00:51:10,320 --> 00:51:15,200
Speaker 1: I'm I'm I'm looking forward to the app because the

1036
00:51:15,320 --> 00:51:19,200
Speaker 1: thing that you chastise me for before I have to

1037
00:51:19,239 --> 00:51:23,359
Speaker 1: ask about. So I will occasionally spend some money with

1038
00:51:23,400 --> 00:51:28,000
Speaker 1: Mike Chase Reserve card not on travel, spend some points

1039
00:51:28,520 --> 00:51:32,640
Speaker 1: on stuff, and often it's Amazon, because just drop it

1040
00:51:32,680 --> 00:51:36,440
Speaker 1: off on your front door. Um, you're telling me that's

1041
00:51:36,480 --> 00:51:38,400
Speaker 1: not the right way to do it. I'm much better

1042
00:51:38,480 --> 00:51:45,279
Speaker 1: off transferring those points to Delta. Well point, you can't

1043
00:51:45,280 --> 00:51:47,600
Speaker 1: transfer to Delta, But like Chase, points are super valuable

1044
00:51:47,600 --> 00:51:50,680
Speaker 1: when you transferred to United or high It or if

1045
00:51:50,680 --> 00:51:52,959
Speaker 1: you redeem for travel because you're getting one point five

1046
00:51:52,960 --> 00:51:55,400
Speaker 1: cents a point when when you say redeem for travel.

1047
00:51:55,640 --> 00:51:57,759
Speaker 1: So so Chase gives you two main options when it

1048
00:51:57,800 --> 00:52:00,120
Speaker 1: comes time to book travel. You can transfer United IT

1049
00:52:00,320 --> 00:52:04,319
Speaker 1: or Southwest or you know, Hiatt several other partners, or

1050
00:52:04,680 --> 00:52:07,600
Speaker 1: you can just use those points to buy tickets. Now

1051
00:52:07,760 --> 00:52:10,080
Speaker 1: with the Sapphire Reserve, what they will say is you

1052
00:52:10,120 --> 00:52:12,400
Speaker 1: get one point five cents a point, So a hundred

1053
00:52:12,400 --> 00:52:17,040
Speaker 1: thousand points is in travel. A hundred thousand points when

1054
00:52:17,160 --> 00:52:20,439
Speaker 1: used for gift cards is usually a thousand or less.

1055
00:52:20,960 --> 00:52:23,600
Speaker 1: So that's why I say where I cringe, use your

1056
00:52:23,680 --> 00:52:25,879
Speaker 1: Chase points for travel. And then if you truly want

1057
00:52:25,920 --> 00:52:29,920
Speaker 1: Amazon or merchandise, there are better cards that will give

1058
00:52:29,920 --> 00:52:33,040
Speaker 1: you more bang for your buck. So like a City

1059
00:52:33,080 --> 00:52:36,160
Speaker 1: double cash card, no annual fee, two percent back when

1060
00:52:36,200 --> 00:52:38,200
Speaker 1: you paid off each month. So if you spend a

1061
00:52:38,280 --> 00:52:40,800
Speaker 1: hundred thousand bucks on that, you're gonna get two thousand

1062
00:52:40,800 --> 00:52:43,200
Speaker 1: dollars to buy whatever you want. So you strike me

1063
00:52:43,239 --> 00:52:45,160
Speaker 1: as a guy who's got a dozen cards in as

1064
00:52:45,200 --> 00:52:48,239
Speaker 1: wallet probably double that. Really Yeah, well, I mean, isn't

1065
00:52:48,239 --> 00:52:51,200
Speaker 1: that kind of confusing to say I'm buying this? So

1066
00:52:51,280 --> 00:52:53,360
Speaker 1: let me figure out which? In our new app, it

1067
00:52:53,360 --> 00:52:55,840
Speaker 1: will literally say but you know, pay with this feature,

1068
00:52:55,840 --> 00:52:58,239
Speaker 1: so we'll tell you where you are. What you can say,

1069
00:52:58,280 --> 00:53:00,880
Speaker 1: I'm at Starbucks. We can actually say this this you know,

1070
00:53:00,960 --> 00:53:03,680
Speaker 1: this quarter put your Starbucks not on the sapphire, but

1071
00:53:04,239 --> 00:53:07,680
Speaker 1: you know, on your you know, Freedom card because Starbucks

1072
00:53:07,680 --> 00:53:10,840
Speaker 1: is the quarterly category. It's really really it changes. But

1073
00:53:10,920 --> 00:53:13,120
Speaker 1: that's the technology that we're building. And then we'll also,

1074
00:53:13,280 --> 00:53:14,719
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of credit cards these days will

1075
00:53:14,719 --> 00:53:17,279
Speaker 1: give you bonuses, you know, especially the airline cards. If

1076
00:53:17,280 --> 00:53:20,280
Speaker 1: you're if you're chasing elite status, you know, you spend

1077
00:53:20,560 --> 00:53:22,880
Speaker 1: on an American Airlines card, you'll get a bump, you know,

1078
00:53:22,920 --> 00:53:25,680
Speaker 1: an elite mile. So our app is going to track

1079
00:53:25,800 --> 00:53:28,120
Speaker 1: all of that and to make sure that not only

1080
00:53:28,160 --> 00:53:31,239
Speaker 1: the points, but that you're getting the maximum perks as well.

1081
00:53:31,760 --> 00:53:33,839
Speaker 1: You know there's master cards now that will give you

1082
00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:36,319
Speaker 1: five dollars off every lift ride, which most people don't

1083
00:53:36,320 --> 00:53:42,160
Speaker 1: even realize. That's a big that this new world master

1084
00:53:42,200 --> 00:53:46,560
Speaker 1: card gives you five dollars off every ride. So most

1085
00:53:46,600 --> 00:53:49,920
Speaker 1: it's really confusing to keep track of When will I

1086
00:53:49,960 --> 00:53:52,040
Speaker 1: be able to use your app to just swipe that

1087
00:53:52,200 --> 00:53:54,000
Speaker 1: and never have to think about it. It's coming out,

1088
00:53:54,040 --> 00:53:56,520
Speaker 1: and I would say, March of we're still we're in

1089
00:53:56,560 --> 00:53:59,440
Speaker 1: testing right now, we're breaking it. Um, it's gonna be

1090
00:53:59,680 --> 00:54:03,880
Speaker 1: worth a wait though, So March I'm excited about all right,

1091
00:54:03,920 --> 00:54:05,880
Speaker 1: So let's say we'll kill me for saying that. But

1092
00:54:05,920 --> 00:54:08,600
Speaker 1: early now they know when they have to all of

1093
00:54:08,640 --> 00:54:10,680
Speaker 1: a sudden, you just gave them a deadline, all right,

1094
00:54:10,719 --> 00:54:12,799
Speaker 1: so let's do our speed round. We'll we'll blow through

1095
00:54:12,840 --> 00:54:15,839
Speaker 1: this pretty quickly. Um. The ideas to kind of get

1096
00:54:15,840 --> 00:54:18,839
Speaker 1: to know a little bit more about Brian Kelly than

1097
00:54:19,080 --> 00:54:22,480
Speaker 1: than we know already. So so tell us what you're streaming,

1098
00:54:22,520 --> 00:54:26,120
Speaker 1: listening to, downloading, watching what what which got your attention

1099
00:54:26,120 --> 00:54:28,720
Speaker 1: these I am into the Morning show on Apple Plus

1100
00:54:29,040 --> 00:54:33,200
Speaker 1: the Morning I really you know, going on morning shows

1101
00:54:33,280 --> 00:54:35,359
Speaker 1: quite a bit. It's actually you know, I always see

1102
00:54:35,400 --> 00:54:37,040
Speaker 1: you know, I'm only there from my segment and leave,

1103
00:54:37,080 --> 00:54:38,880
Speaker 1: but you can always sense that there's like these power

1104
00:54:38,920 --> 00:54:42,160
Speaker 1: struggles on set, and so it's it's a fascinating watch

1105
00:54:42,239 --> 00:54:44,080
Speaker 1: and it's also a microcosm of like what's going on

1106
00:54:44,080 --> 00:54:45,400
Speaker 1: in our world today. So I think they've done a

1107
00:54:45,440 --> 00:54:48,800
Speaker 1: good job with that. Anything else you're you're downloading any podcast?

1108
00:54:48,840 --> 00:54:51,359
Speaker 1: What are you listening to podcast? You know my friend

1109
00:54:51,440 --> 00:54:57,160
Speaker 1: Heather McMahon, she's really hysterical comedian, uh McMahon, Heather McMahon.

1110
00:54:57,160 --> 00:54:59,640
Speaker 1: Her her podcast is called Absolutely Not and she just

1111
00:54:59,760 --> 00:55:02,799
Speaker 1: rail is on everything and travel in life. So I

1112
00:55:02,840 --> 00:55:06,600
Speaker 1: like a I like to feel good laughing podcast. And also,

1113
00:55:06,680 --> 00:55:08,800
Speaker 1: you know, I have to plug my podcast talking Points.

1114
00:55:08,800 --> 00:55:10,360
Speaker 1: Not that I listened to my own podcast because I

1115
00:55:10,360 --> 00:55:14,440
Speaker 1: get to experience it, but so I sometimes just as

1116
00:55:14,320 --> 00:55:17,560
Speaker 1: an aside, I find like on a shorter flight, sometimes

1117
00:55:17,600 --> 00:55:19,720
Speaker 1: I'm not going to watch a movie and I could

1118
00:55:19,760 --> 00:55:24,239
Speaker 1: just pop in a freaking omics or a Mark and

1119
00:55:24,320 --> 00:55:27,359
Speaker 1: it's a right, it's a perfect hour, and like, oh

1120
00:55:27,400 --> 00:55:29,880
Speaker 1: I'm here already. That's it really does help pass the time.

1121
00:55:29,920 --> 00:55:31,560
Speaker 1: I don't I live a block away from work, so

1122
00:55:31,600 --> 00:55:34,239
Speaker 1: I don't luckily to walk to work. So yeah, it's

1123
00:55:34,239 --> 00:55:36,520
Speaker 1: on planes. When I do listen to podcasts, now I

1124
00:55:36,560 --> 00:55:39,399
Speaker 1: get sometimes you're too tired to read. You don't even

1125
00:55:39,440 --> 00:55:42,759
Speaker 1: you don't even want to watch something energy to listen,

1126
00:55:43,000 --> 00:55:45,839
Speaker 1: but just to close your eyes, just like take take

1127
00:55:45,880 --> 00:55:49,840
Speaker 1: me away, caln absolutely. Um. So what's the most important

1128
00:55:49,880 --> 00:55:52,680
Speaker 1: thing people don't know about you? So interesting? I don't

1129
00:55:52,680 --> 00:55:56,879
Speaker 1: think many people know that. But I'm actually a development

1130
00:55:57,000 --> 00:56:01,200
Speaker 1: chief in a tribe in Ghana about an hour and

1131
00:56:01,239 --> 00:56:05,240
Speaker 1: a half outside of Akras. My name is nen Quescy

1132
00:56:05,480 --> 00:56:08,200
Speaker 1: matt te Chu the first and about four years ago,

1133
00:56:08,400 --> 00:56:10,719
Speaker 1: through the charity work I do there, the uh, the

1134
00:56:10,760 --> 00:56:13,520
Speaker 1: guy who's my partner in crime there, we've kind of

1135
00:56:13,520 --> 00:56:16,400
Speaker 1: elevated him as our head of peace movement in Africa

1136
00:56:16,920 --> 00:56:18,560
Speaker 1: as a way of saying thank you to everything I've

1137
00:56:18,600 --> 00:56:22,400
Speaker 1: done for him. Um, he made me. He bequeathed his

1138
00:56:22,840 --> 00:56:26,160
Speaker 1: title to me, um as a as a way of

1139
00:56:26,200 --> 00:56:28,200
Speaker 1: saying thank you for helping elevate his life with all

1140
00:56:28,200 --> 00:56:30,200
Speaker 1: these nobel peace Probably you grew up in poverty and

1141
00:56:30,239 --> 00:56:32,960
Speaker 1: now he's on the global stage with these Nobel laureates.

1142
00:56:33,000 --> 00:56:35,200
Speaker 1: So he made me a development chief and I go

1143
00:56:35,239 --> 00:56:38,360
Speaker 1: back at least once or twice a year, and um,

1144
00:56:38,400 --> 00:56:41,840
Speaker 1: it's really amazing. I've got all my robes and they,

1145
00:56:42,120 --> 00:56:44,680
Speaker 1: uh it's a it's a very unique. I took my

1146
00:56:44,760 --> 00:56:46,839
Speaker 1: parents there and they were just like, you know, they're

1147
00:56:47,320 --> 00:56:48,799
Speaker 1: they're like, how did you how did you go from

1148
00:56:48,800 --> 00:56:50,919
Speaker 1: just growing up in the Philly suburbs to now being

1149
00:56:50,960 --> 00:56:54,360
Speaker 1: a chief in in Ghana? You know that's you mentioned

1150
00:56:54,360 --> 00:56:57,080
Speaker 1: your parents. Um, who are some of your early mentors?

1151
00:56:57,080 --> 00:56:59,680
Speaker 1: And I suspect your your parents might be one of them. Yeah.

1152
00:56:59,719 --> 00:57:01,799
Speaker 1: My had I call him the original points guy. He's

1153
00:57:01,840 --> 00:57:04,640
Speaker 1: actually named Brian Kelly. He's the third boy of three

1154
00:57:04,680 --> 00:57:07,680
Speaker 1: boys and a girl. Um, and I always admired him.

1155
00:57:07,719 --> 00:57:11,239
Speaker 1: He was a business traveler and healthcare and um he

1156
00:57:11,320 --> 00:57:13,720
Speaker 1: taught me. And that was in the nineties is uh.

1157
00:57:13,800 --> 00:57:15,400
Speaker 1: He had points and he said, Brian, if you can

1158
00:57:15,520 --> 00:57:16,720
Speaker 1: I was twelve years old. He said, if you can

1159
00:57:16,720 --> 00:57:18,480
Speaker 1: figure out how to use these, will go on vacation.

1160
00:57:18,600 --> 00:57:20,720
Speaker 1: You know, family of six, we didn't have a ton

1161
00:57:20,800 --> 00:57:23,840
Speaker 1: of money to just blow on fancy vacations. And that

1162
00:57:23,880 --> 00:57:25,080
Speaker 1: was when I figured out how to go to the

1163
00:57:25,120 --> 00:57:28,680
Speaker 1: Cayman Islands and uh so, and he also started he

1164
00:57:28,720 --> 00:57:31,000
Speaker 1: gave me my first job. I started booking travel for him.

1165
00:57:31,200 --> 00:57:34,160
Speaker 1: Um because he so. My dad for sure is one

1166
00:57:34,200 --> 00:57:36,840
Speaker 1: of my earliest mentors. Now, did you ever tell him

1167
00:57:36,840 --> 00:57:40,040
Speaker 1: you were cheating and using Travelocity? I did, and and

1168
00:57:40,120 --> 00:57:42,280
Speaker 1: he's been at speaking gigs with me now and he

1169
00:57:43,160 --> 00:57:44,880
Speaker 1: laughed at me because I make it seem like he was.

1170
00:57:45,080 --> 00:57:47,400
Speaker 1: He was computer illiterate. That's why he paid me to do.

1171
00:57:48,000 --> 00:57:50,040
Speaker 1: He's like, you make me sound so stupid not knowing

1172
00:57:50,040 --> 00:57:52,160
Speaker 1: how to use a computer. I'm like, well, you kind

1173
00:57:52,160 --> 00:57:57,680
Speaker 1: of word that was information arbitrox. Um. So who influenced

1174
00:57:57,680 --> 00:58:02,240
Speaker 1: your approach to travel, to points to credit cards? Obviously

1175
00:58:02,280 --> 00:58:05,600
Speaker 1: your father? Who else? I mean Richard Branson in terms

1176
00:58:05,640 --> 00:58:10,880
Speaker 1: of travel and entrepreneurship and uh like he's just taught

1177
00:58:10,880 --> 00:58:12,360
Speaker 1: me a lot and I got got a chance to

1178
00:58:12,440 --> 00:58:14,960
Speaker 1: interview him on my podcast, and and just having fun

1179
00:58:15,000 --> 00:58:16,960
Speaker 1: in business. I think that was something I've lost along

1180
00:58:16,960 --> 00:58:20,600
Speaker 1: the way sometimes is it's not always fun, but too

1181
00:58:20,640 --> 00:58:22,400
Speaker 1: you do as a CEO of a business, you can

1182
00:58:22,440 --> 00:58:25,080
Speaker 1: set the tone, you know, and you can help hire

1183
00:58:25,120 --> 00:58:27,360
Speaker 1: people and motivate people to have fun. And I do

1184
00:58:27,440 --> 00:58:31,240
Speaker 1: believe businesses are more successful when people are really invested. Um.

1185
00:58:31,240 --> 00:58:33,160
Speaker 1: But in terms of traveling, I didn't grow. I didn't

1186
00:58:33,160 --> 00:58:36,040
Speaker 1: go to abroad until I was in college, really well

1187
00:58:36,080 --> 00:58:38,840
Speaker 1: besides the Cayman Islands. So I've learned to kind of

1188
00:58:38,880 --> 00:58:40,640
Speaker 1: be a traveler on my own in a certain way.

1189
00:58:40,640 --> 00:58:43,280
Speaker 1: But that's been kind of fun, um, I can imagine.

1190
00:58:43,720 --> 00:58:46,600
Speaker 1: So so let's talk about everybody's favorite question. Tell us

1191
00:58:46,640 --> 00:58:49,520
Speaker 1: about some of the books you enjoy reading. What What

1192
00:58:49,560 --> 00:58:51,640
Speaker 1: are some of your favorites? What are you reading now? So?

1193
00:58:51,840 --> 00:58:55,120
Speaker 1: I just finished Bob Iger's book The Ride of My Life,

1194
00:58:55,120 --> 00:58:57,600
Speaker 1: which I found really fascinating. And also, you know, I've

1195
00:58:57,640 --> 00:59:01,240
Speaker 1: been running the Points Guy for going on ten years now,

1196
00:59:01,360 --> 00:59:03,320
Speaker 1: and he had a similar thing where he no one

1197
00:59:03,320 --> 00:59:05,200
Speaker 1: wanted him to keep running Disney because he was the

1198
00:59:05,240 --> 00:59:08,680
Speaker 1: old guy, you know, fresh new leadership, and of course

1199
00:59:08,680 --> 00:59:10,480
Speaker 1: that always goes, you know, even though the Points Guy,

1200
00:59:10,520 --> 00:59:12,720
Speaker 1: frankly as a big business is only you know for

1201
00:59:12,720 --> 00:59:15,400
Speaker 1: the last several years. But I do worry about myself

1202
00:59:15,480 --> 00:59:17,920
Speaker 1: and staying and how do I be creative? How do

1203
00:59:17,960 --> 00:59:20,960
Speaker 1: we push and innovate? So I thought his book was

1204
00:59:21,040 --> 00:59:22,880
Speaker 1: really really I didn't know a lot of it behind

1205
00:59:22,920 --> 00:59:26,680
Speaker 1: the scenes stuff. I also read Travis the book Uh

1206
00:59:26,720 --> 00:59:30,120
Speaker 1: Super Pumped, which is the about I mean that have

1207
00:59:30,160 --> 00:59:34,720
Speaker 1: you read. It is insane, it's it's a page turner,

1208
00:59:34,760 --> 00:59:37,200
Speaker 1: and it's also a perfect model of how to not

1209
00:59:37,360 --> 00:59:40,560
Speaker 1: run a business. I mean the stories, I mean, and

1210
00:59:40,600 --> 00:59:42,840
Speaker 1: they're all sourced too. I mean, this is not just

1211
00:59:42,880 --> 00:59:44,720
Speaker 1: like a gossip, even though they want you to think that,

1212
00:59:44,800 --> 00:59:48,360
Speaker 1: like what was going on in the that bro culture.

1213
00:59:49,120 --> 00:59:52,120
Speaker 1: And so those two books I've read recently and I

1214
00:59:52,160 --> 00:59:55,760
Speaker 1: really liked. And then in terms of inspiration, Layma Bowie.

1215
00:59:55,840 --> 00:59:59,840
Speaker 1: She's a Nobel Peace Prize winner from Liberia. She brought

1216
01:00:00,040 --> 01:00:02,479
Speaker 1: hmen together to help end the bloody civil war there,

1217
01:00:02,640 --> 01:00:04,920
Speaker 1: and she wrote this book, Mighty Be Our Powers, and

1218
01:00:04,960 --> 01:00:07,040
Speaker 1: it's just the story. She was on the floor of

1219
01:00:07,040 --> 01:00:11,320
Speaker 1: a refugee camp, had no degree, had three kids and

1220
01:00:11,400 --> 01:00:14,640
Speaker 1: alcoholic husband, and it was her whole story and rising

1221
01:00:14,720 --> 01:00:16,600
Speaker 1: up being a community leader. And now she's, you know,

1222
01:00:17,000 --> 01:00:19,440
Speaker 1: on the floor of the u N opening up sessions

1223
01:00:19,480 --> 01:00:22,040
Speaker 1: and she is this world leader and it's like it

1224
01:00:22,080 --> 01:00:24,520
Speaker 1: really gives you that inspiration that you know, even on

1225
01:00:24,520 --> 01:00:28,280
Speaker 1: our worst days, we've got it pretty good, to say

1226
01:00:28,320 --> 01:00:31,560
Speaker 1: the least. By the way, if you liked the Uber book,

1227
01:00:31,600 --> 01:00:35,040
Speaker 1: did you read Bad Blood? I did not, so I

1228
01:00:35,120 --> 01:00:37,160
Speaker 1: haven't read the Uber book, but it's the top of

1229
01:00:37,200 --> 01:00:41,440
Speaker 1: my list, and it sounds very much like John Carrirew's

1230
01:00:41,480 --> 01:00:44,640
Speaker 1: book Bad Blood about Sarah Knows. Oh yeah, so I'm

1231
01:00:44,680 --> 01:00:48,000
Speaker 1: gonna make that I'm gonna do on Netflix, which we're

1232
01:00:48,280 --> 01:00:52,120
Speaker 1: not sane. It's insane. The book goes into so much detail.

1233
01:00:53,280 --> 01:00:56,040
Speaker 1: I I know, I'm going to really like the Uber book.

1234
01:00:56,400 --> 01:00:58,960
Speaker 1: And based on you really like Uber book, this is

1235
01:00:59,000 --> 01:01:02,080
Speaker 1: you should for your next flight. You'll plow through it.

1236
01:01:02,080 --> 01:01:05,040
Speaker 1: It was really a fast read. Um tell us about

1237
01:01:05,040 --> 01:01:07,800
Speaker 1: a time you failed and what you learned from the experience.

1238
01:01:08,240 --> 01:01:12,000
Speaker 1: I would actually say so in college in general, I failed,

1239
01:01:12,000 --> 01:01:15,040
Speaker 1: Like I'm a smart guy, but I just, I mean,

1240
01:01:15,040 --> 01:01:18,040
Speaker 1: I think I do have a certain level of a

1241
01:01:18,160 --> 01:01:20,360
Speaker 1: d D. And going to lecture, I mean, I just

1242
01:01:20,440 --> 01:01:23,600
Speaker 1: I couldn't care less. I mean, I failed astronomy. I

1243
01:01:23,640 --> 01:01:27,480
Speaker 1: went to University of Pittsburgh and it wasn't But what

1244
01:01:27,520 --> 01:01:30,880
Speaker 1: I learned was I think I think I learned. So

1245
01:01:30,880 --> 01:01:32,680
Speaker 1: I was student body president, I was ahead of my

1246
01:01:32,720 --> 01:01:35,080
Speaker 1: fraternity recruitment. I was like, I really put all my

1247
01:01:35,160 --> 01:01:38,840
Speaker 1: energy into people and what I really like doing and

1248
01:01:39,040 --> 01:01:42,400
Speaker 1: I think, you know, and I got rejected from m

1249
01:01:42,520 --> 01:01:45,440
Speaker 1: y U in high school and it's always it crushed me,

1250
01:01:46,000 --> 01:01:47,800
Speaker 1: and now it's kind of cool that you know. I

1251
01:01:48,000 --> 01:01:50,880
Speaker 1: uh So, the lesson kids is don't worry about academics.

1252
01:01:50,920 --> 01:01:53,000
Speaker 1: It's the an extent. I mean, you look at so

1253
01:01:53,000 --> 01:01:56,320
Speaker 1: many successful people in business and now many academics are

1254
01:01:56,400 --> 01:01:59,320
Speaker 1: very successful. But I don't know, just throw yourself into

1255
01:01:59,400 --> 01:02:01,520
Speaker 1: something that you like that's going to get you further.

1256
01:02:02,160 --> 01:02:04,600
Speaker 1: And what I learned being student body president was more

1257
01:02:04,640 --> 01:02:09,040
Speaker 1: than any you know, intro to you know, economics one

1258
01:02:09,040 --> 01:02:11,160
Speaker 1: on one. So I was gonna ask you what you

1259
01:02:11,200 --> 01:02:14,400
Speaker 1: do for fun? But it seems travel right, Well, you know,

1260
01:02:14,560 --> 01:02:16,440
Speaker 1: if I could teleport, I would I true, I mean

1261
01:02:16,440 --> 01:02:17,880
Speaker 1: I have look, I have a good time. I have

1262
01:02:17,920 --> 01:02:19,600
Speaker 1: a good time on playing well, let me let me

1263
01:02:19,640 --> 01:02:22,560
Speaker 1: interrupt you. Are you a star Trek fan? I am

1264
01:02:22,640 --> 01:02:24,720
Speaker 1: not at all right, so you should be aware of

1265
01:02:24,720 --> 01:02:29,720
Speaker 1: the fact. The problem with teleportation is hold the hold

1266
01:02:29,760 --> 01:02:34,920
Speaker 1: the physics issues asside. Essentially, we take you apart molecule

1267
01:02:34,920 --> 01:02:38,160
Speaker 1: by molecule, make a map of exactly what you are,

1268
01:02:39,040 --> 01:02:43,840
Speaker 1: and transport you send energy to another location where the

1269
01:02:43,960 --> 01:02:49,120
Speaker 1: rebuild you molecule by molecule. So effectively, we've killed you

1270
01:02:49,680 --> 01:02:53,040
Speaker 1: and rebuilt a new one of you. Not the greatest

1271
01:02:53,040 --> 01:02:55,840
Speaker 1: thing in the world. What what is it like? Is

1272
01:02:55,880 --> 01:02:58,760
Speaker 1: it like jet lag times at thousand? Whenever you teleport?

1273
01:02:59,200 --> 01:03:02,320
Speaker 1: Well from the strange trek version is you're fine, You're

1274
01:03:02,320 --> 01:03:05,760
Speaker 1: just stopping going so and you are limited in distance,

1275
01:03:05,920 --> 01:03:09,800
Speaker 1: but you can teleport from space to wherever. But when

1276
01:03:09,880 --> 01:03:13,320
Speaker 1: you actually think about the way it works. What was

1277
01:03:13,400 --> 01:03:17,160
Speaker 1: the recent Netflix show or maybe it was the Amazon

1278
01:03:17,200 --> 01:03:22,480
Speaker 1: Prime show? Um, I'm drawing a blank on it where

1279
01:03:22,520 --> 01:03:26,600
Speaker 1: effectively someone goes to get clones and they killed the

1280
01:03:26,640 --> 01:03:28,960
Speaker 1: clone to kill the original and keep the clone. The

1281
01:03:29,000 --> 01:03:32,720
Speaker 1: clone is updated and healthier, and I'm drawing a blank

1282
01:03:32,800 --> 01:03:36,680
Speaker 1: on the name. But so, okay, maybe I won't time travel,

1283
01:03:36,720 --> 01:03:40,000
Speaker 1: but for fun, I do like exploring, not other universes,

1284
01:03:40,000 --> 01:03:42,760
Speaker 1: but the underwater world. I'm a huge scuba dive, So

1285
01:03:42,760 --> 01:03:44,760
Speaker 1: what do you like to go? So you mentioned the Caymans,

1286
01:03:44,800 --> 01:03:46,360
Speaker 1: which is great. I'm actually one of my best size

1287
01:03:46,400 --> 01:03:48,240
Speaker 1: was cams. I do Maldive, so I'm actually going there

1288
01:03:48,280 --> 01:03:54,840
Speaker 1: this holiday seasons. Um. I had a disappointing dive in

1289
01:03:54,920 --> 01:03:58,320
Speaker 1: the Great Barrier Reef. It was bad conditions. But one

1290
01:03:58,360 --> 01:04:00,200
Speaker 1: of my big trips I want to take that I

1291
01:04:00,240 --> 01:04:05,160
Speaker 1: haven't really done is Palau, South Pacific little because all

1292
01:04:05,200 --> 01:04:08,080
Speaker 1: those reefs are going away, right, It's crazy down there,

1293
01:04:08,160 --> 01:04:10,960
Speaker 1: the barrier reef is dying. It's I mean it's visible

1294
01:04:11,000 --> 01:04:16,720
Speaker 1: from face space. Yes, actually, uh you could see the

1295
01:04:16,800 --> 01:04:20,480
Speaker 1: in the in the some of the satellite photos. Huge

1296
01:04:20,640 --> 01:04:24,040
Speaker 1: miles and miles have died also. It's crazy. Um, So

1297
01:04:24,120 --> 01:04:26,960
Speaker 1: what are you most optimistic about relative to travel today?

1298
01:04:26,960 --> 01:04:29,200
Speaker 1: And what do you most pessimists. I think we just

1299
01:04:29,240 --> 01:04:32,240
Speaker 1: start touched on. The most pessimistic is the climate. You know,

1300
01:04:32,280 --> 01:04:35,040
Speaker 1: I live in Miami too, I split split my time there,

1301
01:04:35,040 --> 01:04:37,080
Speaker 1: and just seeing that, you know, reading the article, is

1302
01:04:37,120 --> 01:04:39,680
Speaker 1: that in thirty years Miami could be underwater. And now

1303
01:04:39,680 --> 01:04:42,640
Speaker 1: that they may, they may stop. You know, the whole

1304
01:04:42,720 --> 01:04:46,200
Speaker 1: state may go under soon. Because you know, let's be honest, though,

1305
01:04:46,280 --> 01:04:50,560
Speaker 1: that wouldn't be the worst, right right, No, No, I'm

1306
01:04:50,560 --> 01:04:52,560
Speaker 1: not New Yorker. And you know you look at Florida.

1307
01:04:52,640 --> 01:04:56,320
Speaker 1: It's like, all right, if Florida goes underwater, they're a

1308
01:04:56,360 --> 01:04:59,440
Speaker 1: worse environment. So yeah, so the climate chain stuff and

1309
01:04:59,440 --> 01:05:01,280
Speaker 1: and you know, Fran the guilt from you know, even

1310
01:05:01,320 --> 01:05:04,320
Speaker 1: though we carbon offset all of our employees travel, you know,

1311
01:05:04,400 --> 01:05:07,120
Speaker 1: it's you know, I'm in a business that's encouraging millions

1312
01:05:07,120 --> 01:05:10,640
Speaker 1: of people to travel more so that now I still believe,

1313
01:05:10,720 --> 01:05:13,680
Speaker 1: you know, travels ten percent of global GDP. It lifts

1314
01:05:13,720 --> 01:05:16,840
Speaker 1: people up, it changes people. So but it isn't you know,

1315
01:05:16,920 --> 01:05:22,160
Speaker 1: seeing what's happening on Earth is pretty It isn't Airline

1316
01:05:22,160 --> 01:05:24,320
Speaker 1: travel much more efficient than getting in the car and

1317
01:05:24,440 --> 01:05:26,680
Speaker 1: driving cross country. I mean, I think there's a lot

1318
01:05:26,760 --> 01:05:28,760
Speaker 1: of ways to slice and dice it. I mean, for

1319
01:05:28,840 --> 01:05:31,800
Speaker 1: frequent flyers, your carbon footprint is much more than anyone

1320
01:05:31,800 --> 01:05:35,880
Speaker 1: in a car um But optimistically speaking, I mean, I

1321
01:05:35,880 --> 01:05:37,760
Speaker 1: think this is a golden age of travel in terms

1322
01:05:37,840 --> 01:05:41,040
Speaker 1: of you know, these new planes that are more carbon efficient, safer,

1323
01:05:41,120 --> 01:05:42,960
Speaker 1: you can now travel. I just sent one of my

1324
01:05:43,000 --> 01:05:45,800
Speaker 1: employees on that quantist flight from JFK to Sydney NonStop.

1325
01:05:46,680 --> 01:05:50,680
Speaker 1: N I think it might have even crossed twenty But

1326
01:05:50,720 --> 01:05:53,240
Speaker 1: even you know, New Ork to Singapore's eighteen and a

1327
01:05:53,320 --> 01:05:55,160
Speaker 1: half now, So the fact that you can fly on

1328
01:05:55,320 --> 01:05:57,720
Speaker 1: safe safer than ever, it's still cheap. You can still

1329
01:05:57,760 --> 01:06:00,920
Speaker 1: go to Europe from under five bucks. We had Asia

1330
01:06:00,960 --> 01:06:04,880
Speaker 1: deals this class. You know recently that we're to go

1331
01:06:04,920 --> 01:06:10,040
Speaker 1: to Asia round trip, but you can't. Really, it's crazy

1332
01:06:10,080 --> 01:06:13,000
Speaker 1: and even business class. So I think I'm optimistic. In general,

1333
01:06:13,040 --> 01:06:16,680
Speaker 1: travel is connecting the world more than ever, Um, But

1334
01:06:16,840 --> 01:06:19,120
Speaker 1: we just gotta we gotta treat mother Earth a little

1335
01:06:19,160 --> 01:06:21,439
Speaker 1: bit better. And what sort of advice would you give

1336
01:06:21,480 --> 01:06:24,360
Speaker 1: to a recent college grad just starting their career who

1337
01:06:24,400 --> 01:06:29,800
Speaker 1: was interested in in either travel or points or even website.

1338
01:06:29,880 --> 01:06:31,680
Speaker 1: The biggest thing is, you know, first of all, treat

1339
01:06:31,720 --> 01:06:34,840
Speaker 1: your credit score like an asset. I was dumb in college.

1340
01:06:34,840 --> 01:06:37,280
Speaker 1: I didn't pay I didn't pay a Verizon bill. I

1341
01:06:37,360 --> 01:06:39,520
Speaker 1: moved down to my frat house. Three years later, I'm

1342
01:06:39,520 --> 01:06:41,640
Speaker 1: living in New York and it's two thousand dollars or

1343
01:06:41,720 --> 01:06:44,240
Speaker 1: docking my pay. It was like the biggest pain I've

1344
01:06:44,240 --> 01:06:46,600
Speaker 1: ever dealt with. So never stick your head in your

1345
01:06:46,640 --> 01:06:48,880
Speaker 1: sand with your finances, even if you can't handle it,

1346
01:06:48,920 --> 01:06:50,800
Speaker 1: there's so many ways, and even if you just pay

1347
01:06:51,000 --> 01:06:54,480
Speaker 1: the minimum to and then you know, but never mess

1348
01:06:54,560 --> 01:06:57,000
Speaker 1: up your credit score. It takes years. And then in

1349
01:06:57,080 --> 01:06:59,680
Speaker 1: terms of UH in general, I see. So you know,

1350
01:06:59,720 --> 01:07:02,840
Speaker 1: college grads, um, take the opportunity has given you. At work,

1351
01:07:02,880 --> 01:07:05,120
Speaker 1: I've I've even you know, most of my employees are millennials.

1352
01:07:05,640 --> 01:07:08,160
Speaker 1: Take the take the job that may not seem to

1353
01:07:08,240 --> 01:07:09,840
Speaker 1: you at the time to make a lot of sense.

1354
01:07:09,840 --> 01:07:12,600
Speaker 1: But when people give you an opportunity, jump on it. Um.

1355
01:07:12,720 --> 01:07:14,560
Speaker 1: You know, I think the millennials always so worried about

1356
01:07:14,560 --> 01:07:15,840
Speaker 1: I don't want to get stuck in doing this for

1357
01:07:15,840 --> 01:07:18,560
Speaker 1: the rest of my life. Like, take this project, you're

1358
01:07:18,600 --> 01:07:20,760
Speaker 1: not going to you know, if you're a good employee,

1359
01:07:20,800 --> 01:07:22,400
Speaker 1: if you you bring a lot to the table, and

1360
01:07:22,440 --> 01:07:24,520
Speaker 1: if you're a team player, that's what's going to propel

1361
01:07:24,560 --> 01:07:26,560
Speaker 1: you more so than staying on this. Oh, I like

1362
01:07:26,720 --> 01:07:29,120
Speaker 1: this specific thing that I'm doing now, and I want to,

1363
01:07:29,560 --> 01:07:32,200
Speaker 1: you know, make yourself uncomfortable. That's how you become valuable

1364
01:07:32,200 --> 01:07:34,439
Speaker 1: for the company and they'll find the place to put

1365
01:07:34,440 --> 01:07:37,080
Speaker 1: you totally. And our final question, what do you know

1366
01:07:37,120 --> 01:07:40,160
Speaker 1: about the worlds of Points and travel today that you

1367
01:07:40,240 --> 01:07:42,880
Speaker 1: wish you knew ten or twenty years ago when you

1368
01:07:42,920 --> 01:07:48,360
Speaker 1: first started playing the Points game? You know, I learn

1369
01:07:48,560 --> 01:07:51,120
Speaker 1: every day. You know. Actually, when I launched it, I

1370
01:07:52,120 --> 01:07:54,080
Speaker 1: there were other and there so are other travel blockers

1371
01:07:54,080 --> 01:07:55,640
Speaker 1: who are way smarter than me in terms of the

1372
01:07:55,680 --> 01:08:03,600
Speaker 1: points and miles, and um, I think in general, um,

1373
01:08:03,640 --> 01:08:05,880
Speaker 1: it's not about being the smartest. I still learned stuff

1374
01:08:05,880 --> 01:08:09,040
Speaker 1: every single day from our community and emails. It's it's

1375
01:08:09,080 --> 01:08:10,720
Speaker 1: you know, we always peg ourselves as this going to

1376
01:08:10,800 --> 01:08:13,720
Speaker 1: be am I the best at this? Uh. I think

1377
01:08:13,720 --> 01:08:16,280
Speaker 1: in general points, I mean, and anything you learn, it's

1378
01:08:16,280 --> 01:08:19,920
Speaker 1: going to constantly evolve and change. So UM, I would

1379
01:08:19,960 --> 01:08:23,320
Speaker 1: just say this industry will keep changing. It's not over

1380
01:08:23,439 --> 01:08:25,960
Speaker 1: and it's been changing for time as well. So instead

1381
01:08:25,960 --> 01:08:29,040
Speaker 1: of uh, you know, just be optimistic in general about

1382
01:08:29,080 --> 01:08:32,360
Speaker 1: everything and go with the flow. Quite fascinating. We have

1383
01:08:32,479 --> 01:08:35,880
Speaker 1: been speaking with Brian Kelly, better known as the Points Guy.

1384
01:08:36,160 --> 01:08:38,439
Speaker 1: If you enjoy this conversation, well look up an Inch

1385
01:08:38,520 --> 01:08:40,680
Speaker 1: or Down an Inch on Apple iTunes, where you can

1386
01:08:40,720 --> 01:08:44,120
Speaker 1: see any of the three hundred previous such conversations we've

1387
01:08:44,120 --> 01:08:47,400
Speaker 1: had over the past five years. We love your comments,

1388
01:08:47,400 --> 01:08:51,480
Speaker 1: feedback and suggestions right to us at m IB podcast

1389
01:08:51,479 --> 01:08:54,280
Speaker 1: at Bloomberg dot net, Go to Apple iTunes, Please give

1390
01:08:54,360 --> 01:08:56,880
Speaker 1: us a review, share your thoughts with us. Check out

1391
01:08:56,960 --> 01:08:59,880
Speaker 1: my weekly column on Bloomberg dot com. Sign up for

1392
01:09:00,000 --> 01:09:04,439
Speaker 1: our daily reads at dalts dot com. I'm Barry Rihalts.

1393
01:09:04,880 --> 01:09:08,559
Speaker 1: You've been listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio

1394
01:09:14,240 --> 01:09:14,280
Speaker 1: m