How to Travel the World for FREE! | Solo Travel Tips & Top Countries to Visit

How many countries you been to?

87 in total. 82 solo.

Why do you travel so much? Like, 87 countries is rare.

Travel was a really good way for me to get to know myself, get to trust myself. And I started to become more confident the more countries that I visited. And then things went even further when I learned how to do it for free. Okay. Before I learned how to travel the world for free, it was just a hobby because, like, my bank account is not about to curse me out because I thought that money was actually the resource that I needed to travel. Until I learned, like, okay, I actually don't need money to travel. I just need more knowledge. I need to figure out more ways to get creative about how to do this. Flights for free and hotels for free.

So you're not paying for none of that.

I'm not paying for anything. I started my solo travel journey because I went on a trip with two women that I was familiar with for 10 years. And I had a friend that I mentioned to her, like, hey, I feel like your boyfriend might be using you. Do whatever you do with him on a personal level, but stop giving him money. And she ended up leaving me in the middle of the night in Amsterdam on my birthday.

Tell me how in the world you traveling for free?

Easy. So let me put y' all up on game. If you live near a major airline, let's say you.

Welcome to the revision where we highlight some of the most creative and non traditional ways to make money in real estate. We will showcase some of the world's greatest male and female real estate developers and teach you how you can make money by using the same strategies. Now it's time to develop. Here's your host, Charles Noonan. Welcome to another episode of Brick by Brick with Charles Noonan. Today we got a very special person. One of my peoples, one of my personal friends all the way from Antigua. I'll be trying to tell her to turn up in Trinidad. She be like, no, Wadley is even better. Yes. So we got. We got King the passport abuser. How are you today?

I am amazing. Thank you for having me on the show. It's an honor.

Awesome. Awesome. So would you agree what, Carnival is better?

I'm not going to start a war with Trinidad, but I will say wodadley forever. Antigua forever. But I actually have not been to a Trinidad Carnival, so I can't say I have this big fe fear of crowds. But because, you know, of my familiarity with Antigua, it's so much easier for me to do Carnival there with the crowds But I have not actually done Carnival in Barbados or Trinidad.

How many countries you've been to?

87 in total, 82 solo.

And like. So Trinidad Carnival. Right. Shout out to my Trinity people.

Yeah.

That is world renowned. I know when I see you on Instagram wilding, like, straight up, like, having the time of your life. That's what it looks like to us.

Yeah.

Right. I assume, like, you go to Trinidad Carnival regularly and Antigua's Carnival regularly.

No. But you know what? I'm going to change that, though, because I do want to go to Trinidad's Carnival, so it's next on my list.

I've been three times.

Damn.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So the party that starts in the middle of the night at like 4am Juve is fire, because it's hard to wake up to get to. But when the party starts and this and the sun comes up is crazy. It's like the best experience, right? Yeah. I. What's the one with the paint? That's a little messy.

That's Juve.

Oh, that's it.

Juve has paint powder, water, oil, mud.

All right.

I think Trinidad, one o' clock in the morning.

I think Trinidad has a special wild paint.

Okay.

Joint. Whatever.

Painted. Separate.

Paint separate. Like they paint on a separate day, right? They. They paint separate. So that party is just wild and crazy. I didn't go to that one. That's how I know, like, the 5am one, it ain't that. The 4am one, ain't that? So Juve is wild and crazy and then it. And then Carnival itself is wild and crazy. So.

Yeah.

All right. I had to just get that out there because I watched your. I watched you your whole Carnival on Instagram and I lived Carnival through you because it was so lit from food, everything.

Yeah.

So that's home for you.

Yeah. Antigua and Barbuda.

Antigua and Barbuda is home. Why do you travel so much? Like, 87 countries is rare. Your passport is. Is clearly beat up. It's abused.

Yeah.

Why you travel so much?

Honestly, I started doing it because I liked it and it was a good way to decompress after working a nine to five for the man. Right. And then I just decided that travel was a really good way for me to get to know myself, get to trust myself. And I started to become more confident the more countries that I visited. And then things went even further when I learned how to do it for. For free. Okay. So now it. It went from something to decompress to a hobby to a lifestyle. And Here we are 87 countries later.

All right, so that's a lot to unpack right there, because I, I was figuring, like, how you working and traveling 87 countries is crazy. What's your goal as far as number.

Of countries I want to get to? Country 100.

100.

That's a big goal for me.

Okay.

It's close, though.

What's left on your list? Give me, like, your top three to. To go to.

I would probably say Madagascar. Namibia. What's another one that I really, really, really want to go to? I, I have kind of been looking at New Caledonia, places that people don't really know about like that, Like Mauritius, and. Well, actually, I did Mauritius, but Namibia, like, some places are a little bit off beaten path.

So your past, like, spinning the globe and when it stops, because every time you do that, you've been there already.

Kind of sort of. So I have this map above my bed at home, and I wake up in the morning, and I just play around with this map above my bed. I'm like, oh, Africa seems nice this week. I think I'm gonna go to Africa this week.

That's crazy.

And I'm out.

And you know how to do all this for free? You ain't paying for none of it. Nah, I saw you did Japan. $6. Yes.

Can we, can we give a round applause for Delta Airlines for having so many partnerships with these other brands? Because that's how I got my free flights. Okay.

Delta had a partnership with Delta has.

A partnership with Lyft. Delta has a partnership with Ticketmaster. Delta has a partnership with Toro. Delta has a partnership with Lyft. So there's so many different things that you can do to get free flights.

That's crazy. I love it. I love it. I love to travel. Avid traveler. I, I, I don't count. It's not that many where I actually, like, it's up there.

Yeah.

But it's a lot. I just haven't counted. And I'm the type of person, I'll go to the same place over and over again.

Mm.

So I really, like, like, my favorite trip, Bora Bora was boring to me.

Really?

Yeah. I got bored real quick. It's, like, just too peaceful and too quiet. It's too chill. It's, like, too relaxed.

A little bit more stimulation.

Yeah. So I'm not hating on. No, on the, On Bora Bora, but it wasn't. I got bored. It wasn't. I don't need turn up, but I need, like, I need a little something.

Yeah.

It was just super peaceful. Serene sunsets, water, you know, like where you staying at the villa, whatever. Yeah, it was cool. But I really, really liked Amalfi coast.

Oh, I love Amalfi.

That's my favorite trip. Yeah. So I'm going for a third time.

Oh yeah, I absolutely love it. You know, they got a lot of Dior pop ups and a lot of little fancy places at Amalfi and Capri.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Capri is fine. Have you gone to the Blue Grotto?

Of course, yeah.

Was that life changing? Like, so you've been all over. Was that like, like crazy unique and different?

Not on the sk. Not when I compare it to some of the other things that I've done. But I definitely loved it. Like I, I loved being in Capri. I went to Anna Capri, then I went to Sorrento. I absolutely loved.

There's so many.

Yeah, you can do. So I absolutely loved it.

All right, cool. And you, you, you went there for free too?

I did.

Cuz that cost the grand. My hotel. I was over. I was like super high on the mountain. Right. The coast.

Yeah.

Overlooking everything is the most beautiful thing. Yeah, it cost a hell of a lot. So you, you can show me how I could get there for free?

I can show you.

All right, we going to get into that.

All right, let's do it.

We going to get into that. Where you get the name from? Passport Abuser. Because that's fire in itself.

Shout out to my mom, yo. I was traveling so much and my mom said, oh, you just abused your passport. And I was like, mom, that's it, that's it. And I wouldn't change my name that same day. This is probably like in 2017 or 2018.

Okay.

And I just named myself the Passport Abuser.

That's a dope name. That's like one of the most self explanatory names I've ever heard.

Yeah, right.

All right. Do you ever think about like starting a travel blog?

I actually thought about it and I played around with it, but it's so much maintenance, like to have to do that much writing. It's a lot of maintenance. My girlfriend has a blog and she has a very successful blog. But it's also a lot of work.

Yeah.

So for me, I felt that if I kind of just, you know, helped people in a more uniform way, that might be easier for me.

I was thinking that was your secret to traveling for free.

Nah.

Because I got a friend of mine that has a travel blog.

Right.

It's called Hotels Above Par.

Oh.

So he travels the country. And he, he reviews hotels that are above par. And he's like the guide to like, if you want to go somewhere, fire. I just go. I just hit him up like, hey, what's next for me?

And you just put me on hotels above par.

Yeah, but you could probably outdo him. You probably like been to every place he's been. Right? Like, that's what I'm saying.

Countries.

It's a good, perfect for like a blog. Because everybody wants to know, like, what's the deal with Seychelles? Everybody wants to know what's the deal with Ghana. Like, like everybody says go to Ghana or Johannesburg or whatever, but nobody has like, all right, go here, do this, do this, do this, do this and you'll be perfect. I don't know anyone more qualified than you.

I appreciate the compliment.

Yeah. All right, so what, what made you start traveling like this and just like picking this up as a lifestyle?

Well, I picked it up as a lifestyle because I learned how to do it for free before I learned how to travel the world for free. It was just a hobby because like my bank account is not about to curse me out because I thought that money was actually the resource that I needed to travel. Until I learned like, okay, I actually don't need money to travel. I just need more knowledge. I need to figure out more ways to get creative about how to do this right.

Okay. Today's episode of Brick by Brick with Charles Noonan is sponsored by unsoldland.org Unsoldland.org is your one stop shop for everything land. Unsoldland.org has property in the available states. Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and many, many more. Prices start as low as $1,000. Unsoldland.org go there for anything land. They will also finance your land as well. Back to the episode. Make sure you guys like and subscribe. Thank you. Cool. So once you figured out how you could do it for free, it was over. It was over on steroids.

You was, I'm telling you, outside.

Cool. So I see you traveling everywhere.

Uh huh.

I see like this lifestyle that you live. It's like dreamy. But I know you so you're really living it. It's not like doctored up or fake. You're self funding and self figuring out or you know, your own trips and stuff. Before you, you got lit in the travel industry, the travel space. Wait, are you playing? Are you. You know how to do flights for free and hotels or.

Yeah, flights for free and hotels for free.

So you're not paying for, none of.

I'm not paying for anything. If I was meant to stay in the same place, yeah, I would be a tree. Like, I'm not. I have arms, legs, a brain, my consciousness. Like, why am I not like outside?

That's crazy. All right, I get it, I get it, I get it, I get it.

Big energy.

What was you doing before you was traveling so much?

I actually was an investigator and I worked with children.

Okay.

And that was what I did. I worked at my job for 15 years. So. So like literally before I found your Instagram page and I started learning from you about how to like even get an investment property, you know, I. Before I even did all of that, I was a working 9 to 5 baddie, you know, like that was me, like 9 to 5 baddie. Like, you know, so what was you.

Traveling like once a year?

I would do like maybe three times a year.

Okay.

You know, and that was when it was just a hobby because I was paying cash for it.

Okay, so you worked at one job for 15 years.

I did.

Were you planning on retiring from there?

If I could give you guys, like, I'm just going to say capital H E L L. No, like my.

You couldn't have been working that one job thinking and saying you going to leave, but you was there for 15 years. That's kind of crazy. If you go and leave, you. You should have been left.

No, I never. But that was the thing. I never ever thought that I would leave.

Okay.

Yeah, like, I never thought that I would leave this job. Like, I, I had been at this job for 15 years. Who would have ever thought that I would actually be working for myself? I hadn't figured it out in 15 years. Right. So like, how would it come. But it's never too late to get rich. It is never too late to learn from somebody. I mean, come on. Like, by the time that I had met you, I had already been self employed for like five years, ended up meeting you, being a part of your school community, and within 90 days, I bought a plot of land in Antigua. Plus I bought my first investment property in Detroit. All by coming to your five day challenge. Right. So like, literally, if somebody would have told me five years ago, oh, you'll quit this job and you know, you'll help lots of people travel the world for free and you'll own land internationally, I probably wouldn't have believed that. So shout out to you.

Thank you, I appreciate that. I do, I do. What'd you do before that job? Like, was it straight out of college? Was it high school?

I did it. I did it straight out of college. I worked as, like, a CPS investigator, child protective. So like a social worker. Protecting children. I worked at that job for 15 years. They paid for my master's degree, so, of course, I owe them the time. So where was this room to do anything else? Right. And then, you know, things just started happening with, you know, me traveling and helping people learn how to do that for free.

So how many degrees you got?

I have a bachelor's degree from Lincoln University, the world's first hbcu, and I have.

In Pennsylvania.

In Pennsylvania.

I know Lincoln.

Yep. And I have a master's degree in child Advocacy and public policy from Montclair.

State University, New Jersey.

New Jersey.

Where'd you go to high school?

I went to a high school. It's called Columbia High School.

What city, what state?

It was Maplewood, New Jersey.

Damn. So you know Caldwell and Caldwell University?

Yeah, Caldwell.

That's the school I went to.

Oh, wow. Close.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's all neighbors.

Yeah, we used to go to, like, parties in that area. Like Montclair.

Yeah, Montclair.

Bloomfield.

East Orange.

East Orange. I think Ramapo is near there.

Where is Ramapo? I don't know where.

Somewhere that area. But I remember that. I remember the city, the town or whatever. Yeah, so that's dope. That's dope. All right. So you go high school, New Jersey college, Pennsylvania. Right down an hour. Two hours.

Two hours.

Right back to your masters, right into work. Were you, like, happy doing? Were you. Was it, like, fulfilling to you? Were you like, this is my life. Fulfillment. This is my purpose? And then you was just cool?

I was, to be honest, you know, my mom got me this job working, and, you know, she had been working at my job for, like, 20 years.

Your mom?

My mom had been working at my job for 20 years. So as soon as I was getting my bachelor's degree, my mom had already had me interviewing before I even had the degree.

So you ain't mad at LeBron? You ain't mad at LeBron and Bronnie, right?

No.

Like, you all cool with that, right?

Right? Cause I get it. I get it.

All right, all right, all right. So what's your statement for LeBron?

I have no statements for LeBron because I don't watch sports.

But, you know, quote unquote, like, sports media says he kind of shoveled his son in and got his son to drop something.

I mean, it's not what, you know, is who you know, that works that way for everybody.

Okay.

You know, I mean, some people are privy to certain things based on who their father is, and in the corporate world and maybe for other ethnicities, that works. And people don't complain about it. So, I mean, they're making it work for them.

Yeah, yeah. And. And to be honest with you, I would do the same thing. Shout out to LeBron and Bronny James. If I could get my son in the league, I would definitely get my son in the league, too. And I think everybody else would, just because of the flex, like, just, like, that's the highest accomplishment that people really want, right? Like, to be in the NBA from. From a sports. Like, the highest pro sport in your. Your sport. Right. And then if you could do it with your son, that's like a killer flex.

Legendary.

Shout out to LeBron. Shout out to Bronnie James. I love what you guys are doing, and I hope Ronnie James kills it.

Me, too. Yeah.

All right, so here I. I see you had, like. I'm getting, like, silver spoon vibes all the way up.

Nah, come on. I'm much more humble than that.

No, no, no, no. There's nothing wrong with. With. With, like. With like, this. With, like, the silver spoon vibe.

Right, right, right. We just talked about that, right? Yeah. Don't.

Your parents did. It sounds like your parents did what they were supposed to do.

They did.

So we don't. We don't really hate on some. Had the way paved for them.

Right.

We used to hate on that, too. We used to be like, oh, you never struggled, you know, your mom got you the job and blah, blah, blah. But now it's like, if we could do the same thing for our kids, our friends, our people, we'll do the same thing. So cool. So you saying you had it, like, pretty easy?

No, not at all. But I do understand what you're saying about expanding your mindset to the point where you don't normalize struggle or lack, you know, So I totally get that, but, no, things were actually, like, you know, hard. I'm one of six kids.

Okay.

I'm the oldest, so growing up, we didn't exactly, like, have all of these resources, but my parents were very big on, like, loving us and make sure that. Making sure that we had all of our necessities. But if things got a little bit of tight, we didn't really feel that. We didn't really know that we were poor. But, you know, now that I look back, I'm like, yeah, there were some times, you know, we kind of didn't have certain things, but for the most part, my parents did whatever they had to do to make sure that the end always justified the means.

That's a blessing.

It is.

So was you. Was you, like, in charge? Because I'm the youngest, and I know that big brother, big sister vibe, man. They used to beat me up, like, for anything. Right. Just because, like, you know, I'm the youngest. I was wild, crazy, doing all kind of stuff, and they had to check me when nobody was home. So they definitely. Especially my older sister, when she was left in charge, she was flexing on everybody.

Really?

Yo, did y' all have that, too? Nah.

Cause I'm the boss now. Mommy's not here.

Yes. Did you get left in charge?

I always got left in charge.

So that explains a lot.

I was definitely a parentified child. Yes.

All right, so you was running five brothers and sisters.

I was running the whole household, doing laundry, babysitting, everything by, like, fourth grade.

Cool. All right, so let's get into this travel thing a little bit more, because that's what you're known for, and I think that's what everybody. That's your language is travel, your love language.

It is. Love language, lifestyle, remedy, whatever, whatever it is.

So. So some people love language is like, quality time, touch, whatever. Yours is straight up, like, where are we going? Where we going is your love language.

Yeah.

All right, so along those lines, what's the most romantic location? I'm not going to say island. What's the most romantic place you've ever been?

So I feel like it was Bora Bora, but there was something so dreamy about the Seychelles that I just. Absolutely, Absolutely. It was just something. But then I felt like there was one night where I was watching the sunset and Mauritius, and I was like, damn, this is, like, really dreamy. Like, this sunset is beautiful. I see dolphins in the water. Like, it's just. It was just so dreamy. So I've had a couple of those vacations where I was like, damn, this would be really nice if I was, like, with someone.

Yeah. Oh. So that's the thing, too. Traveling solo. You've solo traveled 82.

82.

82 times.

82 countries.

I'm not trying to get in your business. Right. But a lot of these islands and places that you go into are sexy as hell.

They are.

And how are you enjoying that by yourself? Like, if you don't. If it's not too much, like, how are you?

I got to the point where I learned how to enjoy my own company, you know? Like, I Started my solo travel journey because I went on a trip with two women that I was familiar with for 10 years. And I had a friend that I mentioned to her, like, hey, I feel like your boyfriend might be using you, okay? So you can still do whatever you do with him on a personal level, but stop giving him money. And she ended up leaving me in the middle of the night in Amsterdam on my birthday.

Just cuz you told her, like, you paying too much, like you giving them.

Too much to keep her money to herself. Absolutely.

Yeah.

So from there I was like, you know what? Instead of me having to look for other women who can have the flexibility to take the PTO from their job, you know, without any issues or trying to find friends, that PTO isn't an issue, but they don't have the money or they have kids and can't get a babysitter, or their boyfriend doesn't want them to go. So I felt like instead of trying to jump all of those hurdles to find somebody to go with me, I might as well enjoy Bora Bora by myself. Or like, what if this guy that I want to meet, what if I never meet him? Or what if he's dead already? Or like, like, so I don't get to go to Bora Bora for my birthday because I don't have a guy? Oh, no. I will be taking a helicopter ride over Tahiti. I will be doing whale watching. I'm going to be doing massages over the beach.

Like, by yourself?

Yes. I'm going to enjoy my life.

Imagine sexy activity.

Imagine me being in heaven, looking down and saying, like, damn, I could have did that, but I was waiting on, like, whoever to fulfill my destiny.

Do you ever meet people on trips and hang out with them?

Sometimes, yeah.

Okay. Do people assume, like, when you say you going somewhere sexy so I'll say romantic. When you say you're going somewhere romantic by yourself, is home team like, again, she going to such and such. Are they assuming, like, are they assuming like, you're going to go see somebody?

Home team is not making those assumptions because they've been.

I'm just talking like friends and family, like your people that whatever.

Nah. Because they know my lifestyle. But spectators might think that, like somebody who's just following me on Instagram or yeah, somebody who's new might be like, well, where's the guy? Or whatever who's paying for this? Yo, Do y' all think, where's this sugar daddy at?

When y' all see women travel by themselves like that? What are y' all thinking, somebody in the background. For sure somebody's in the background. You, you be like, yo, who's taking a picture?

Right, right, right. Or who paid for this?

Somebody gotta be around. I'm like, nah, it's too much. It's too much. Right. But. But I, I kind of understand because sometimes I've never traveled out of the country by myself. So for real estate and development, I'll be all over the United States.

Right, right.

I'll just go for an inspection, come right back or do whatever by myself. I've never taken a vacation by myself. But I. Now that you say it, I could see how it could be fun and cool and although people would be like, yo, like, come on, bro. Right. I see that too. But I could also see like just enjoying a trip, just like downtime, get away from everything, clear your head, come back, like refreshed.

I'm telling you, I've been to so many different countries completely alone, and I've had some of the most epic times of my life just by saying, like, you know what? I am going to just jump out there and do something I've never done before.

Yeah, I think, I think reading some of your story, you've made that popular.

I think, I think kind of.

Yeah, kind of. Sort of. You kind of, sort of. How many people have you influenced with your travel? I'm going to say best practices so far.

So I've helped about 11, 000 women take their first solo trip. And that's all the women that I've actually, that have actually acknowledged what I've done for them. So imagine, I mean, think about it, right? So I have over a hundred thousand followers on Instagram. How many of them have just been watching and taking notes this whole time, absorbing that information but never actually reached out?

Yeah, you know, so, so you said earlier that two of your friends, 10 year friendships left you. They just packed up and just like caught the next flight. Or they.

No, they, they went to another hotel.

And stayed because you told the girl, like, your relationship might not be what you think it is.

I mean, I didn't tell her that her relationship might not be what it. What I. What she thought it was. I just said, save your money. Even if you think y' all in love, just stop giving him all this money, okay?

You still giving relationship advice out there or you just sticking a trap advice?

Trust me, after that night in Amsterdam, do not ask me about your man, your woman, nothing. I'm just, I'm dumb, deaf and blonde.

I'm sorry, you don't wanna know.

No, no. Religion, politics. Your man.

Mm.

I'm not gonna go there.

That's just like. We ain't talking about it.

Nah.

Because you value the friendship, and, you know, those things could break up a friendship.

Yeah. And I just feel like there are certain topics that are super sensitive. If, you know, somebody's. If certain situations are fragile, just don't go there. People are fragile about the God that they serve.

Yeah.

Their, you know, their. Their religion, their, you know, their partners. So no, thanks.

Okay, cool. That's a. That's a best practice, I'm telling you. But sometimes, like, I feel like women and guys might lean on their friends.

Yeah.

To get, like, a second opinion sometimes, but you just saying it's safer if you value that friendship. Just, like, let them go to somebody else or counseling.

Yeah.

Like, but just not you.

Just. Just not me. But listen, if you. If you see an airfare to go to the Seychelles tomorrow, can you airways 200? Yeah. Call me. I'll go tomorrow. I'm that friend.

Okay. Cool. Got it. So they left you. How'd you feel when they left you? Like, how did you. You are. You are by yourself?

Yeah.

Like, what'd that feel like to you?

I mean, honestly, like, I was completely shocked, but it really brought to the forefront a much bigger issue in my life. And that was I didn't know how to enjoy my own company. You know, like, at my big age, I really didn't even know, well, how do I enjoy myself in a whole nother country alone? What's, like, how am I gonna do that? So I started to realize in that moment, okay, you need to get more comfortable with you. So that way, even if you're with two friends or if you're alone, you're still having the time of your life.

Yeah.

So it just taught me how to, you know, be more in touch with myself.

So on that trip, you turned up without them?

No, I went home crying on KLM Airways on my birthday and pledged to myself, I'm never.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. This was on your birthday?

It was on my birthday. Worst birthday of my life. I just got out of therapy, like, three years ago without this even being, like, an issue of every year on my birthday, I have anxiety, you know, so. But I'm over it now. And it was all for the best.

How would you say that's for the best? Because you just got cool and comfortable.

Traveling by yourself for that very reason. And also, there are. Are over a hundred thousand people that follow me on Instagram to learn how to do this.

Yeah.

So now what was. Something that was so scary to me is less scary to every other woman that comes behind me. My mom always says you should be the first one through the door, but if you the last, you didn't do something. Right. So, you know, I feel that everything worked out because there are so many other women out there who maybe haven't had an experience like what I've had, but they don't have to because they can just do it on their own from the very beginning.

I feel like you gonna cause some people to just start leaving their friends on trips. Like, look, I could just do this by myself and go get another room.

I'm telling you, there was a girl that she.

I knew it. I knew it. It happened. You had one of your friends.

Not one of my friends.

Somebody that follows you just left their friends or their man or something on a trip because of your content?

No, but. No, it's a little more dark than that. But there was this girl.

How much darker is gonna get?

Oh, it. It gets pretty dark, my friends. So there was this girl. Rest in peace. There was this girl named Shanquella Robinson, and she ended up going on a trip with a few of her girlfriends, and she was murdered on that trip.

Okay.

And, you know, she went on a trip to Cabo, and people were reaching out to me on Instagram, and they were like, hey, there's this girl named Shanquel was murdered while she went on vacation with some girls. And it's kind of similar to your story, which was crazy. And when I went on Shanquella's fate page, she was following me at the time of her death, and I only knew about her not from the news yet, but people were just Dming me, like, hey, this story is almost similar to yours where she went on a vacation with people she was familiar with and never made it back home.

Right?

So it's just crazy how sometimes you go on these vacations with people that you think are your friends, but the trip kind of turns into something else, you know? So I definitely encourage people. If you're comfortable, take your first solo trip.

All right, so with that. Right? That sounds just like a straight up, like, jump off the porch type of thing. What do you have in place and when did you start documenting? Because I started to. As a. Like a travel junkie, right? I started to tap into your content and stuff when I saw you giving, like, best practices some safety tips. So could you share for anybody that wants to travel by themselves? Give me, like, top three things to that best practices so that people can travel safely.

Okay? So safety number one, I'd say say register with the US embassy. So the US embassy has a free 99 service for US citizens traveling abroad where you can actually type up your itinerary and upload it into a program called Smart Traveler Enrollment Program. Right. So you upload your itinerary to the US Embassy in that country, and now the US Embassy in Zambia or the US Embassy in Mozambique, they know what flight you're on, what hotel you're staying at, who is your driver while you're in Mozambique, what tours you're going to be doing. All of this stuff. The US Embassy has it. So. And the beautiful thing is the people at the US Embassy that work there, the US Diplomats, they are US Citizens, right? So they, we, we, we, we brethren, we want to make sure that you're safe there. The next thing that I would do is set up a hotel camera in inside of your hotel room. I actually have a camera, a portable camera, and it syncs directly to my cell phone. I brought it off Amazon. I leave this camera propped up in my room. That way, if I leave out my room, let's say I'm in a country and I leave out my room and I can see on my phone that the people who come to clean the room came in twice. Second time, no cleaning supplies. Right. So as I'm on my cell phone watching them, I'm actually emailing the front desk and screen recording everything that I see on the hotel camera. Right.

So smart.

Yeah. The next thing that I'd say do is make sure that you have some safety tools. So like a door jammer underneath your hotel room door so that way it doesn't open. Figure out what the emergency number is abroad. In America, it's 91 1. Right. But in Bali, it might be 999. So most people think about, well, what if I have an emergency? Or what if this country isn't safe? Okay, well, who you calling in the form of emergency? Because 911 don't work here.

Yeah. That's super smart. Cool. You're going crazy right now.

Yeah. Another thing that I say do is order your currency from the bank before you travel. Right.

Like from home.

From home. Like, let's say you bank with, I don't know, pnc. Right. Instead of standing at an atm, especially as a woman, instead of staying standing at an ATM in a foreign country, you know, where people can see that I just got money, maybe I might just want to go get all my Euros from PNC a week before the trip, so that way I don't even have to go to an atmosphere or pay the exchange fees the whole time that I'm out.

Okay. Smart, smart, smart. Weirdest thing that ever happened to you on a trip.

Weirdest thing that ever happened to me on a trip. People gotta know about that one.

People gotta know because.

Because God is so good that every time these planes go in the air for me, they land without a hair on my head. Touched. So I'm telling you, my grandmother called me and she'd be like, I'm praying for you. And I'm like, I know you are, because I did this 82 times by myself and nothing ever happened to me. Okay. So I'm actually happy to say that I can't think of anything off the top that's been, like, overly weird, but.

It'S just been smooth.

Like, it's been smooth. Thank you.

It feels like you're taking all the necessary precautions to make sure.

Right. To make it smooth. Right?

Yeah. You know what you're doing? You always plan out your entire itinerary before I do.

Unless I've been to that country at least twice. Then I kind of, like, know what I'm doing.

Okay, all right, so let's get. Let's. Let's really get into it. Tell me how in the world you traveling for free.

Like, how Easy.

It's easy.

Easy how? Okay, so let me put y' all up on game. First things first. All right. If you live near a major airline, let's say you are in New York. So that's. Delta Airlines is a close airline for New York. That's a. That's a airline hub. Let's say you live in Houston, so United Airlines is your hub. All of these airlines have shopping portals. Most people do not know that. Right. Like that Every major airline typically has a shopping portal. So what I do is instead of going into Sephora inside of the mall to get Fenty Foundation, I am going to go to my airline shopping portal, and when I see that they're having $3 miles per dollar at Sephora, I'm gonna order this foundation and I'm gonna get $3 miles per dollar for every single dollar that I spent on concealer, foundation, whatever. And I do this all the time. So. So if you know that every morning you need toothpaste, Q tips, deep conditioner from Walmart, you are going to go on Delta or United shopping portal. You're going to shop at Walmart through their shopping portal, and you're going to earn 3 miles per dollar. For every single dollar you spend on.

Walmart, it's just delta.com. like, what's the website?

If you want to get free flights from Delta, you can Google Delta airline shopping portal. I believe it's called skymile shopping.com off the top of my head. But if you guys just Google United Airlines shopping portal, American Airlines shopping portal, and you'll earn miles for every dollar.

So they have like makeup stuff. Walmart is it. That's like a few stores or they got like a bunch of them.

They have everything. Like, if you want to buy flowers for a friend, you can go on an airline shopping portal. And FTD will be given 12 miles per dollar. If your girlfriend had a baby, you want something for her for. From Carter's. Carters might be giving away two miles per dollar. So every single thing that I do, every single time that I swipe my card for food. Groceries. What. Whatever it is that I'm doing, it has to bring me miles.

That's crazy.

Yeah.

Now when you do that, are you. Are you foregoing the points that you get on your credit card? Or. Or is this a way where you can double dip?

I definitely am a double dipper. But if you're just a person who is just starting out with your credit, then go to the airline shopping portals. You do not need a credit card to do that. But if you do have a credit card to do that, that's a major key because now you're going to get 3 miles per dollar for every dollar that you spent at Home Depot after you just refurbished a property, but yet you still get the points from Chase or American Express.

Wait, wait, wait. They got like, Home Depot is on there.

Home Depot. So, like, crazy. Every single store that, that you can think of Instacart, like, literally for. I wanted to do like a flip, right?

Yeah.

And so let's say I spent maybe $20,000 on this flip. I also earned 3 miles per dollar with Home Depot.

So that could be 60,000 miles. And so. So, so for Land bank team members, right? Everybody that buys these Land bank properties, y' all gotta listen to this.

Yep.

So you're telling me I can go on simplymiles.com right. Pay for all my supplies for renovating a property, get points on my credit card and get miles from simplymiles.com?

Absolutely.

And start flying for free.

I'm telling you right then and there. Instant gratification.

That's amazing.

Yep.

What about. Do they have Lowe's?

Yeah, they have Lowe's. And the beautiful thing about these shopping portals is that you can compare. Right. So if you are in New York and you have a choice between Delta Airlines shopping portal and American Airlines, you can see, hey, which one is giving me the most miles for this purchase?

What's the most popular store you go to? Like, what's the most popular? So it sounds like you're using these sites for everything.

I do.

But what do you shop the most? You said Walmart.

Walmart. Pretty thing.

What about Amazon?

So Amazon had a partnership with American Airlines through a website called simply miles.com. i believe the partnership expired sometime around, like, the 15th of this month. But they come back and forth. So you just got to check Best Buy. Best Buy is on Simply Miles. Also, it's on AA Advantage E Shopping, which is American Airlines direct shopping portal.

This is absolutely crazy. Here's. Here's why. For everybody that's doing like Airbnb.

Yep.

You got to buy furniture for your place. Everybody that's into real estate right now, you're gonna get miles. And here's why we need these miles. We need miles to go back and forth to our properties.

Exactly.

So we almost have.

Exactly.

We have to spend the money. And the more we're at our properties, the better it is that we have a presence there.

Absolutely.

If you just buying properties from an auction, you can get miles on some of these cards, too.

Absolutely.

So that's extremely important.

Yeah.

What about now? Is it limited? So you told me at the beginning. Right. Which is absolutely crazy. You can get miles for that for your flights. How you getting the hotels for free? Because hotels is a whole nother expense. Hotels be more expensive than the flight. Tell me how. Top three ways. Top three ways to get free hotel stays.

I got you. So most people were today years old when they realized. Right. That you can actually do free surveys in order to get free hotel stays. So Hilton Honors has this program. It's called Guest Rewards Opinions. And pretty much, if you guys just Google Guest Rewards opinions or if you just Google Hilton Honor surveys, bonus points. Most people don't know that if you fill out free surveys every time that you're bored with Hilton Honors, they'll give you Hilton Honors bonus points, and you can use those for free stays so you actually don't need to pay. Oh, with your.

Like, that's. That's sick. That's sick right there. So you can do surveys for point hotel points.

Yep.

No money, no credit card. There's no spend, no cap. You can stay for free at like that. Now, does it limit to what hotels or you can really go to, like.

No, you use. In the country, you use your points for wherever you want. And the beautiful thing about the surveys is most airlines have them as well. So if you guys see me flexing on a gram every month, there is no sugar daddy in the background. That's not being posted. Okay. It's one of these if you know. You know things. So you can use surveys to fly for free and also stay for free. So whatever is your favorite airline. Just Google Delta Airlines surveys for miles, and then you'll see it pop right up. So you can do it for hotels, and you can also do it for airlines.

I appreciate you sharing that, and I appreciate you busting the myth that all the baddies on vacation don't have a fat guy. Don't let me. He said, I appreciate you sharing that, and I appreciate you busting the myth that all the baddies on vacation don't have a fat guy in the background taking pictures.

Right?

That's crazy. Wait, did y'.

All.

Did y' all think it was a fat guy in the back, too? Absolutely. All right, all right. Or just somebody they ain't want to show.

I get this all the time. I get this all the time. Like, oh, you must have, like, a baller boyfriend. Or there must be. And I'm like, actually, no, I can. If you open your mind, I can show you how to do this, you know, without paying cash. Come on. You said top three, right? Yo, how long for y'? All. How long have y' all been ordering Uber eats or been taking an Uber around before you realize that every time you take an Uber, you could actually earn free stays at Marriott Bonvoy.

Really?

Yeah. So, like, if you open your app right now, your Uber app, go to Settings, scroll down to the bottom in your phone, open up your Uber app right now, scroll to Settings, and then go down all the way to the bottom of Settings, where it says rewards. I promise you, you will see a link to link your Marriott Bonvoy account to your Uber account. How many years have you been ordering Uber Eats or taking a Uber before you realize that you can actually link right there in your phone?

I'm gonna go crazy. I'm gonna go crazy without doing anything because both my sons are. They Uber. They get Uber eats. All this. It's all on my credit card, so I'm definitely about to go crazy.

See what I mean? So you can fly for free. You can stay for free. There are so many ways that you can travel the world without it draining your bank account.

Dope. So what got you. What started you teaching it? Like, what. Start what. What made you just say, I'm gonna. I'm gonna help other people with this and put it in a format that people could. Could have it or digest it?

I think, honestly, it wasn't because I thought that it was gonna make me rich or help me quit my job. Honestly. I just got tired of answering the same questions every day because every woman would say, well, how are you doing it? Okay, well, how do you stay safe? Okay, well, how do you can. How do you afford it? Okay, how do you plan it out logistically? So, because people were asking me the same questions every day. I was like, you know what? Let me just share this curriculum in a simple way with people so that way I don't have to keep answering the same questions and that it's just a simple wash and repeat to show you how to travel for free, how to do it solo, how to be safe, how to plan it, how to ace it.

How did the travel. How did it end up, like, going crazy? Do you. Do you. You said you helped 11,000 people.

I'm proud of that. Yeah.

How did it end up going crazy like it does?

Yo, Everything happens organically. So for anybody out there who is wondering, is it too late for me to do something? Or whatever. Guys, I'm telling you, it's never too late to do anything. It actually was super organic. I was working with this girl, shout out to Adrian Jordan, and she worked at Forbes magazine, and she bought my course. I didn't know she worked at Forbes. She took the course. She called me back a few months later, and she's like, yo, I traveled to all of these countries solo and without draining my bank account. I didn't tell you this, but I work for Forbes. I want to write an article. After that, every major publication reached out to me. It was on and popping.

That's crazy. All right, no surprise. So your course just went from, like.

0 to 1.5 million in 18 months.

18 months.

1.5 million in 18 months. Shout out. Shout out to the women who. Because before Essence magazine, Forbes magazine, CBS National News, before anybody, any booking producer vouched for me. The Internet streets was vouching for me before Essence even knew who to look for, before Forbes even really knew to look for. So thank you so much to all the people who believed in me.

Damn, life changing.

Crazy, right?

So within that 18 months, you quit your job? Like, at what point were you like, yeah, I'm out of here?

I would probably say I was like six months in and I had probably made about 500, 000. And I was like, I really don't have to wake up and go to work anymore.

And you was just like, like, like, tell me you just, you, like one day you just woke up and he was like, I'm not coming.

So, you know, the thing is, right, sometimes being the first at anything is super scary. And I'm responsible for my family. Remember this parentified young girl from the ghetto, you know, So I have to calculate my moves because if I go homeless, my parents go homeless, I help my family out with a lot of things. I can't afford to leave my job unless this is legit. And remember, my mom worked at this job for 20 years. You know, people who are kind of raised in the 60s and 70s, they believe that you are supposed to work for 35 years and then take your pension and just go die. They don't ever say to you, hey, you know what, Instead of going into debt and going to college, why don't we figure out what your talents are so that way you can make money off of that, you know? So I never thought that it was possible for me to do anything different. But, you know, when the doors opened, you know, God was like, yo, you made for this. Go ahead. That's, that's, that's all you right there.

So I wasn't expecting, you know, it.

Yeah, I wasn't expecting to leave my job.

So helping people fly for free, you feel like you're like walking in your purpose?

Absolutely. I get DMS every day from people like, yo, me and my kids are in front of the Eiffel Tower. Like, that's all you right there. Like, you know, so, yeah, it is.

Comforting, it is fulfilling too, because I get DMs. Like, even you told me. I didn't know. I didn't know you bought a house.

Yeah.

So you're in the five day challenge. You didn't tell me to, like, a week later. Yeah, he was like, oh, yeah, I bought a house.

I just did this, right?

I was like, all right. But I get that all the time, like every day. Even yesterday I showed you somebody bought like, oh, he sold 13 properties that he bought for $300. He sold them for $3,300 each.

I'm telling you, you are absolutely amazing at what you do. And I am so grateful to you because I always thought that. I mean, I'm a woman, I'm single, I live by myself. How would I ever become a real estate investor? Right?

Yeah.

But just by taking that five day challenge with you and being a part of this, the school community, and you having Tony come on and other women who have come on, like, oh, I bought a house in Detroit. This is what I did. And I have a wholesaler and all of these things that I was like, o. I didn't even think that this was a lane for me. Like, do I look like somebody's landlord? And then you broke it down in five days and totally changed my mindset. And I go from not knowing how to do something to having two properties in 90 days, one of them international. Yo, that's all you right there.

I love it. I love it. See how, like when you put stuff out there like that, it comes back around to you. It just happens when you just look to serve and give and help people. Yeah. So I appreciate you coming on here. What do you got coming up next? Because I want to invite you to. I want to invite you to Birmingham.

I would love to come.

But let me know what, what's next for you. Like, so you got the course? How much is the course? Is it expensive? A couple thousand?

The. No. In order to travel the world for free, this course is $297. So that's it for cheap? Yeah, that's it.

That's crazy. All right, so you have that, and that's just like on auto, you're just helping people around the world, across the country, doing their thing. Sometimes you speak in groups and just impact the masses and then it just goes crazy, right?

Yeah.

All right, so look, I got this thing coming up, right? You know, I'll be coming up with these wild ideas. I spent a lot of time in Birmingham. I bought a lot of land in Birmingham. Birmingham's like the new hotspot. They got 7.7 billion. A 7.7 billion dollar cash infusion from the federal government, from the Fed and hud. And I just started buying land there because all the development, all arrows are pointing to Birmingham, Alabama as like the next new place. So I bought a bunch of land there and I started spending a lot of time there.

Yeah.

And it's such a. It's such a storied city. It's like really a beautiful city. The people there are super nice. It has its civil rights movement. It's got history there. So I'm putting together a conference. 500 people. I'm limiting it. Like 500. That's it. That's going to be my biggest crowd at one point. Right. So I'm putting together a conference. It's Called Let's Build Birmingham.

Nice.

I'm also giving. So it's really going to be 600 people. I'm giving 100 free tickets to Birmingham residents. Right. Anybody that's a resident of Birmingham, because I want to teach them, too. I don't want them to feel left out. So I'm going to allow 100 Birmingham residents must be a Birmingham resident that wants to learn how to develop. I'm going to help them in a very similar fashion, learn how to pick, purchase, and profit their first piece of land there. And then the second part of the conference, I'm going to teach them how to develop it.

That's absolutely amazing. You know, it's crazy because I was going to actually pull you to the side, like off camera and just say, like, yo, I want to get in on let's Build Birmingham. Because I've been actually stalking your stories. And it looks like I'm like, he put a house up in three months. Like, this is something that a woman can do. Like, you know, because I'm like, builders, blah, blah. All that stuff seems overwhelming. But every time I think that, okay, maybe I can't do this. Can I swing it? And then you show me how to make sure that my property has a water line or what materials to use, just everything. So I'm just like, okay, I need to get in on this.

These are things that I learned through, like, trial and error. Just trying it and doing it and then getting through it. I'm finding out how easy it is, is development is like the easiest way to make tons of money in real estate. Because if you think about it, you only once you buy the land. And we know where to buy land at 3, 4, $500. Right.

Thanks to you.

To put a house on it. It's not that expensive. You buy the materials. You can buy the materials from Home Depot.

Yeah.

Which is like, super. Right. Every city has a Home Depot or Lowe's or an 84 Lumber or at least lumber yards.

Right.

So once I found out how easy it was, I really started to share because I want people to feel like they could do it, too.

Yeah.

Because anybody can. Like, I'm not. I'm not building it myself. I just. As a developer, you kind of put the deal together. You buy the land, you own it, you have builders build. But the more educated you are on the process, the lower your costs are going to be because you've done it, you're experienced in it, and now your builders are just paying labor.

Right.

And based on what you taught me, Everybody on here better buy all of their supplies themselves. Buy them from Home depot on simply.

Miles.Com, american AA Advantage shopping.com or just Google whatever's your airline's shopping portal. So I don't know what Delta Airlines.

Shopping portal, Southwest Airlines shopping portal. And we'll see where we can connect our, like, Rapid Rewards or Miles to that site.

Y.

And then we just buy from there.

Yep. Going through the airline shopping portal. And then you just type in Sephora, Home Depot, Ace, whatever you want.

That's crazy. That's crazy. That's like killer. So from there you can. You can get points on your credit card. So what if I had a Delta Miles card? Will I get Miles from my card and my account?

Yep.

Oh, that's double dipping.

Double dipping. So you. So you're. So. It's. It's beautiful. So with the AMEX Delta card, so they have the platinum, the gold, the reserve, and the Delta blue, all of them translate into Delta Miles. None of them go to AMEX for the points.

Okay.

So you'll just be getting double for everything. So you'll be getting double. Just double miles.

That's amazing.

Yeah.

Can I get a commitment from you?

Okay.

Two things I want two things I want from you.

Okay. What's up?

The first thing I want a commitment from you for. So we want 500 people, 500 tickets sold. We're at 120. Right. The website is called let's Build Birmingham. But before February 21, when the. The actual conference is, I want you to go into the community that we have.

Okay.

And I want you to teach them how they can get to Birmingham for free.

Done.

We got you on that.

Done.

Perfect. The second thing, I want you to show up.

Yo. Done.

Done.

Done. I. I want to be a part of this. Guys, like, not to, like, like, you know, talk so, so much about, like, Charles, but, like, I have literally watched this man take 200 people who look like me to an auction to buy back the block, buy back the community. I know how important it is to be the first at something, and I want to be a part of this, and I want you guys to come and be a part of this with me. I'm actually a student in his community. Like, not, you know, like, go off course from the podcast. But I'm a part of this community. I see how you are trying to up. Uplift us economically, but also our consciousness. I am coming back from Antigua to the US to be there in Birmingham. I want land there. I want my kids to have. Imagine If I buy three plots of land and they sell each for 3,000 in. In two months. Well, what are they going to be worth in 20 years? And I bought them for 300.

Of course.

No, I'm gonna be. I'm getting in on this before the price go up.

All right, so there we have it. Let's build. Birmingham.com is the site to go to February 21st to February 22nd. We turning up on the Friday the 21st. We got the mixer, the mix and mingle, the networking mixer, where it's gonna be at a dope spot in Birmingham where that's gonna be like a part. We're gonna party.

Yeah.

Get all the partying out of the way.

Yep.

And then Saturday we going in. We just going straight education. Saturday there's gonna be a site tour. City officials, we're actually bringing the banks, the builders, the contractors, the real estate agents, the title companies, everybody.

You give. You're literally spoon feeding me everything that I would need, every person that I would need to make my first bill successful without me having to vet them or look for them.

Yeah. That's what we want. We want safety, easy, easy, fair. And real estate is getting ripped off.

Right.

So if I could kind of like eliminate that and bring trustworthy people. Imagine in the same room, right. Everybody in the same room getting to know one another again. We're going to create neighbors, right? Every trip we do, every auction or whatever, we got people buying right next to each other. So we're going to create neighbors and look to create that sense of economic development. We're going to bring the beauty back in Birmingham because some of it is missing, right. Some of the original culture of Birmingham is missing due to the disinvestment that that's there. So we're looking to do that February 21st and 22nd.

Let's go, yo. Let's go.

All right, I know this is the end, but got a shout out to our sponsor, unsoldland.org unsoldland.org is the one is your one stop shop for everything. Land in Alabama, Arizona, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Florida and Georgia.

Awesome.

All right, so unsoldland.org is your one stop shop. That's our sponsor. And that concludes this episode of brick by brick with Charles Noonan and Keem the passport abuser.

Thank you for having me.

Thanks for coming. We'll talk soon.

All right.

All right.