77: 21+ Travel Tips, Tools and Apps — with Jenny Blake

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What's next? This is a question we're all having to ask and answer more frequently. I'm Jenny Blake, your host of the Pivot podcast and author of Pivot. The only move that matters is your next one.

For show notes from this episode, visit pivotmethod.com podcast if Change is the only constant, then let's get better at it. Here we go.

Hello everybody. Good morning. Even if it's not morning for you, it is for me. It's 4:30am I'm at a hotel room in Edmonton, Canada. I was just here giving a keynote for the Women at Enbridge Annual Event and I'm this is a callback to my Perfectionism episode from a couple weeks ago where I said I hereby promise to record something imperfect while I'm on the road. So, so here we are. I probably have some amount of morning voice and it's probably a little echoey, but I did pack a microphone, so I at least am coming to you from a little better sound than iPhone headphones and I thought what better show to do while on the road than my best travel tips and hacks. So today I'm gonna give you at least 21, though I'm sure I will throw in a couple extras here and there. And I also want to say Happy Holidays. I know we are deep in holiday season. It's coming up. Some of you may be traveling. I'm getting ready to go to Beirut for 10 days to meet my boyfriend Michael's family for the first time in person, which is really exciting. Hence the Arabic that you've heard me say that I'm learning this year, which is very challenging but fun. They live in Beirut and everyone there speaks at least three languages, if not four. They are all fluent in English, French and Arabic and Michael also speaks Armenian. So I'm mostly just embarrassing myself by learning Arabic because they can all communicate with me, but it felt important not to go and just be clueless when people were speaking other languages. So this year I'm diving into Arabic. I've been studying actually since February. I'll do a whole nother episode. Actually on language learning though, I'm not the super expert. I can definitely share what I've learned and next year, at some point maybe I'll tackle French, but that one's even more intimidating to me, believe it or not. In any case, I was looking back on 2017 and I wanted to see how many trips I've taken and what could I share with all of you on what I've learned being on the road as much as I am. So I took about 28 trips this year and had about the same number of keynote speaking gigs for me. That's perfect. I remember a couple years ago I set the goal I would love to travel for speaking twice a month. I am not one of those road warriors that can do 50, 60, 80, 100 gigs a year. That is just not in my health body wellness repertoire. But I do enjoy about twice a month means that it can be one of my primary sources of income. And I actually like traveling. I don't mind it too much. So with 28 trips a year, that's pretty much every other week or sometimes two a week. Depends how it evens out. So tip number one, first and foremost is get tripit Pro. Even if you're not a keynote speaker, even if not traveling for work, TripIt Pro is a game changer. And I swear I'm not being paid to say this, it's $49 a year and so worth it if you don't already have TripIt. What it does every time you book travel, whether it's flight or hotel or train tickets, anything, if it's connected to your gmail, it will pull those reservations into your TripIt account. TripIt you can download the app for iPhone or whatever phone you have, your computer, your tablet, and it pulls in all your reservations and it saves them under trips. So let's say I'm going to Beirut. It will pull in all the travel, all the airline reservations, any hotel reservations, any car reservations, and it's all in one place that already. That alone is a game changer. And you can do that even without tripit Pro. But tripit Pro kind of goes the extra mile and texts you, gives you alerts of flight changes. The reason the thing that got me to do it was I heard from another professional speaker that tripit Pro had a alerted him that his flight was canceled before the people made the official announcement at the airport. So he was able to go get on another flight and make it to his speaking engagement in time before it booked up. By the time they had made the announcement over the loudspeakers. Those flights were full and everyone else had to wait until the next day. So if you are traveling for work, it's a really good thing to have and I just, I use it all the time. It's this. You just one place to go to get everything. Sometimes I don't even know. I actually had to rerecord this intro like five times because I couldn't remember the name of the city that I was in. Now, maybe we chalk that up to it being 4:30am here, but when you're on the road a lot, it's very hard to keep up with all the details in advance. So it's nice to be able to just log in somewhere and say, where am I supposed to be? Where am I checking in? How do I get there? Turbot Pro will also alert you, oh, one of your connections is at risk. It will also show you maps of how to get from one terminal to the next if you have changeovers, which I really try not to have any stops while traveling, so that's going to come in a later trip. About booking in this one we're going to cover, I'm going to talk about preparing for trips, booking, packing, travel day routines, apps, and even mindset about travel. So the first one, tripit Pro, the next one TSA Precheck and or Global Entry really is worth it. I had TSA Precheck for the last couple years and I was so glad that I did. If your home airport doesn't have a handy TSA Precheck line, it may not be as imperative to you, but I find that at least at jfk, where I'm traveling in and out of most often, it's so nice. It really saves a lot of time. I usually have to take off my shoes anyway because they're boots and they have metal on them. But I like just the minimal hassle. And just this year I did a global entry that's a bit more of a pain because you have to make an appointment either at an airport or an official government location to get Global Entry. But that's great for international travel, so I'm excited to get to use that one as I travel more internationally. Tip number three In Evernote I have all of my frequent flyer numbers and hotel rewards numbers in one Evernote note called Frequent Flyer numbers. That's really handy because every time I'm booking I can go to the same place and put in my rewards numbers when I'm booking things. And a lot of times I'LL show up at a hotel and not have booked in advance if they have SPG or any kind of rewards. But once I get there and they say, oh, are you a Marriott Rewards member? And I think to myself, I actually have no clue. Go check my Evernote. Oh yes I am. Here's the number. So that comes in handy all the time. I highly recommend having all that in one place.

Tip number four let's talk about packing a lunch and packing healthy, healthy things to have while traveling. There are a couple things that are just help me not get sick. Because when I'm on the road so much, especially in the winter, especially when the weather is changing from one location to the next, that can I have found that really tips me into the sick zone. For example, here in Canada it is 20 degrees today and probably going to snow. So other than healthy foods that I always like to have on the plane, I usually always have almonds. I also pack three kind of stay healthy supplements. One is Brain Octane. That helps me, believe it or not, in the morning. I put it in my tea or coffee so that I don't need to eat shitty food while I'm on the road. Because if you use Brain Octane or you could get a different kind of MCT oil. MCTs are medium chain triglycerides. It's really an extract of coconut oil, but it's an appetite suppressant as well. It depends. Not everybody is into this thing. For me, it's a modified version of bulletproof coffee or bulletproof tea cause I don't put the butter. But by doing that, I usually don't need to have breakfast. And I recently did a fast for three days. One of the things I'll have to do another episode on that too. But one of the things that that taught me was I actually don't need to eat. It's not imperative. Sometimes I when I'm on the road, I'm like, oh, I don't want to be hungry on the flight. And so I'll eat something really lame that doesn't make me feel good just so that I'm not hungry on the flight. But I Learned doing that 3day F that hunger waves come and go that if you just let them pass, they go. And I'm not saying someone asked me, oh, does this mean you're anorexic, you're going to stop eating? No, I was just very curious. There are tons of health benefits to fasting and there's a whole book on it that I can link to in the show. Notes But I was just curious, what's it like? What will happen in my body? I kind of enjoy these experiments. And one of the things I realized was, wow, hunger really does come and go in waves. And by the time it was three days into the fast, I was more emotionally hungry than physically hungry. And that kind of taught me that the circumstances are not dire. If I don't get a chance to eat, it's usually more emotional eating, like, oh, I'm bored or I'm on a flight, and I kind of associate it with eating something. But nonetheless, Brain Octane is just good to have on hand. And I'll even have bulletproof modified coffee or tea before a speaking gig so that I don't fill my belly with a lot of food because that makes the blood rush from your head to your stomach. And so I find that I'm less sharp. So I actually purposefully don't eat breakfast before speaking gigs and that kind of thing. And I just stick with Brain Octane. Another thing, I learned this one from Tim Ferriss 5 Bullet Friday, but I did pick it up, which is Thera Zinc spray from Quantum Health. Zinc is just really good for your immune system. And then the immune booster, natural vitamin C powder, and it has zinc in it as well. These are powder packs, like emergency, but believe it or not, Emergency packets have 100 calories and like something like 6 grams of sugar. And there was a time where my blood work showed I was. I had pre diabetes. Like, for some reason, it was very high. My hemoglobin numbers were really high, and I had to be really conscious of how much sugar I was putting into my body. And you needed to have the estimated or the recommended amount is less than 25 grams. So I started to realize what the hell these emergency packets have six. That's a huge portion of what I'm allowed every day. So I found this other supplement pack that doesn't have nearly as much sugar. I don't know if it even has any, but that's the immune booster. I'll put this in the show notes as well. Probably this is going to have a lot of links in the show notes, so make sure you check those out. It'll be@pivotmethod.com podcast travel. Okay, moving right along. Oh, yeah, there was another supplement that I wanted to tell you about, which is ginger shots. It's not exactly a supplement, but I've heard these do great things for your immune system. So if you're passing by a juice press or any kind of shop like that on your travels and get a ginger shot. Sometimes they'll have cayenne in them and be very spicy. And they like make your whole body, especially if you haven't eaten a lot of food beforehand, they make your whole body just like warm, just like, almost like a fire shot down your esophagus. But they, it's really good. So I make sure I do that so I don't get sick as well. Okay. Speaking of packing this lunch, I always put it in the same bag. I know what bag I'm going for. If I have anything in the fridge, I put a post it on the door that says don't forget your lunch. And sometimes I'll hang the bag of non refrigerated food on the doorknob so that as I'm leaving I remember, hey, this is on the doorknob for a reason. Go get your stuff out of the fridge. Let's call that tip four and a half. Because tip five is I always set an iPhone reminder for the morning of that tells me bring lunch chargers, phone, makeup, toothbrush, like anything that you're using the day of a trip. I have this little reminder. By now I kind of remember what to check for, but I find it's always helpful. So you can even recycle that reminder if you're traveling a lot. You can just check it off on the day you travel and then reset it for the next time you're going to travel. And that actually comes in handy to just make sure I remember all those last minute things. All right, tip number six, let's talk about packing, shall we? So I waited about 10 years before buying myself a Tumi suitcase. Don't ask me why. My first mentor when I worked at the startup at ucla, she was just the coolest and she had all this Tumi luggage. And I remember being so like, you know, good jealous, but like, man, one day I'm going to travel like a pro like that. And I never had splurged on luggage before, but I made myself. It was like not until I had made it and some level in my head was I allowed to get it to me. So for a long time I was using these really crappy broken zippers, don't work bags. And right as pivot was coming out, I splurged the suitcase. I mean, yeah, it's like 6 to $800, but I have to tell you, it is so worth it. So I got the Tegra Lite Max international expandable carry on. And this is the first time because I splurged on this bag. I also committed to traveling carry on. I didn't always used to do that and I was always paying luggage fees and having to wait and I'm so glad I did this. So although it is a little difficult to try and get everything in there, this is a game change. And this suitcase actually fills so many things. It's very well organized. The pockets are all in the right places, the wheels roll in every direction. It just is very easy to travel with and I love doing carry ons. So I love this Tumi bag. It's well worth it for how much I travel. But there's another company called Away that is like the Casper or the Warby Parker for suitcases and check it out, I've seen them, they have a shop in New York but I think it's mostly online and they also sell pretty awesome looking rolling bags that I think some of them even have chargers in them which is cool.

Variation. So let's call tip number seven. I try not to change or pack my toiletry bag, meaning it is full, it has everything I need and whether that's shampoo, hairbrush, contact lenses, whatever I need, it's all in there and I try not to pull that stuff out. The only thing that goes in and out of my suitcase is my toothbrush. So by having all the toiletries already pre packed, this was something I only started doing this year. But it's a game changer. It just makes it way easier not to forget anything. So when you get home, if something is gone, what I do is while I'm traveling, if I notice that something goes out, let's say I run out of shampoo and conditioner or I ran out of something like Q tips. I make sure that as soon as I get home, before I finish unpacking, I replenish whatever is missing and then it all goes back in my suitcase. So by the next time that I'm packing for a trip, I don't have to wonder well what toiletries do I need? What am I missing? Because it's already in there.

Moving right along. I'm going to forget what tip I'm on pretty soon. So that's seven and eight. Let's call clothing nine. I use these mesh bags that I got from a little Japanese store. They were a dollar but I don't know, you can find something similar. What I do is every time my socks and underwear goes in the same has two zipper compartments and then I don't know how to describe these mesh bags but essentially all my shirts get Stacked in this mesh bag and then I zip it up and then all my pants get stacked in a mesh bag and I zip it up. So my packing is very modular, it's very organized. I learned this from my mom actually. And you can easily take things in and out and you always know where to find your shirts and your pants. Another thing you can do. Tip nine, ten. Oh boy. I'm gonna have to stop counting is roll shirts into your shoes. That's a good way if you're running out of room. Hopefully your shoes don't smell too bad because that might not be good for your shirts. But if you roll shirts, I find the stack works well. But if you roll them, they don't get wrinkled either. Another thing I do say. Tip 10. Speaking outfits, two parts. Number one, believe it or not, I just buy like three. So listen, I'm in yoga clothes 95% of the time. And when I give a speaking gig once a week or once every two weeks, then I pull out some nice clothing. Every now and then I have to go to an in person meeting. So I'm getting more dressed up for that. But I don't have a closet full of the most beautiful, amazing clothes. What I do is once or twice a year I go buy like three outfits or let's call it six or seven pieces. I might spend 1500 to 2000, which sounds like a lot, but I wear these for every single speaking engagement and nice meeting that I have or if I'm going to be on camera. So I end up getting a ton of use out of them. And unless you're needing a variety of pictures, let's say you're just starting out and you want to have lots of different photos, different looking photos, then maybe it doesn't work to wear the same outfit outfit. But in my case by just having like three go to outfits number one, I always know what to pack and I'm not worried about it. I always feel nice, I always feel good. But I just do this twice a year, once for each season. And so I'm always really packing the same thing. Consider that I've done 28 speaking gigs this year. I've probably worn some variation of the same five outfits all year long. And that doesn't even include, like I said, meetings and things like that.

Tip number 11, keep your clothes on their hangers. So I'm hanging my nice clothes. There's a nice compartment in the Tumi bag for this. And I did buy these two Tumi specific hangers. But what I end up doing Instead, my whole closet at home is these black velvet hangers. Just helps everything stack together nicely. Hangers aren't all sugarna because they're different sizes and shapes. And I try not to keep clothes on the dry cleaner hangers because it just doesn't seem nice to the clothes. I don't think that sparks joy for the clothing. So I have these black hangers. They're pretty flat, they're very stackable. And let's say I'm grabbing six hangers that has maybe two pieces on each one and then I just fold them, put them in the bag with the hangers. So when I get to the hotel I can easily just pull out this hanging set and hang it somewhere that I won't forget it. On that note, to not forget it, I always make sure that I pull them from the closet or wherever I am the night before. And in general, when I'm in a hotel room, even if I'm going to kind of spread out my stuff, I keep it all next to each other. And if I ever put something down in a random part of the hotel room, I go get it because I'm like, I know I'm going to forget this if it stays here. And funny enough, right now I'm in a hotel room that I didn't ask for it. It just is like this where it has two rooms. It's actually twice the size of where I live in New York. So it's quite. I don't know what to do with myself with all this space.

One tip that I got, tip number 12 that I got from my friend Petra is she always packs a candle and I love that idea. So I don't. Sometimes it doesn't make the cut if my suitcase is extra full. But I have this beautiful little Voluspa candle. It's like bourbon vanilla I think is the flavor. Again, I'll put it in the show notes but that's really nice to kind of personalize a space, feel relaxing, feel calm and just unwind at the end of the day. So I always have that candle and matches. I have a little match set that fits right in the candle. And don't worry, that doesn't get ever get checked at the TSA or anything. So that's a nice touch if you have room in your bag. And these little Voluspa candles are small.

Tip number 13, I think we're at is. Let's talk about the plane, what to pack for the plane. So I have this puffy jacket that's really good for almost all weather. Conditions and like I can wear it even in the deep winter in New York, which I know is not nearly as cold as where some of you live. But the puffy jacket's really great. It's a very light down, puffy. It could just get shoved in my bag. So if the plane, if the flight is cold for any reason, then that's really easy to pull out. And I always book a window seat. So that's just something that helps me sleep when I'm on flights. And let's talk about tip number 14 is just getting yourself set up for the flight. So one thing that I do is get everything I need offline because somewhat on principle, I just don't like to buy WI Fi. I think the last time I checked I was on a Virgin flight and it was something like $33 for two hours. Like something just the most price gouging thing I had ever seen. But also in principle, I still cherish my time in the skies of being for deeper thinking, deep work, deep rest, anything, just some amount of freedom from the day to day. Every now and then I'll buy WI Fi if I really just know. Okay, this has got to be an email Sprint. I'm really behind. But some things you can set up Gmail off, some of you may or may not know about this. It is not perfect, let me tell you. But if you go to Settings in Gmail, there is a link for Gmail offline and when you click that link, it will pull up Gmail in a new tab and you need to give it some time to load. So make sure you do this when you're at home before you leave or in the airport. But it does take a minute because it's going to download all of your emails and attachments and then when you're on the flight you can respond to all these emails. One thing that I do when I do that is as soon as I land before deplaning, I pull up my laptop, tether it to WI Fi on my phone and I make sure that everything syncs and that my outgoing messages send. Because what I don't want is that, oh, I forget to open my laptop until the next day. So nothing got sent.

And then somehow things get all, I don't know, just misaligned. If people email me and I had already drafted something, every now and then I have this issue where GMA offline just goes berserk and it sends like three copies of the same message or it sends it a week later. So in general, I don't know I don't rely on it completely, but it is good if you're in a pinch. And it's certainly good to just know what's in there and start drafting replies or start thinking through things that are going to take more consideration. So you're at least better set up when you land part of tip number 14. So, continuing on the offline theme, I make sure that my favorite Spotify playlists are saved to offline. There's a little button that you toggle. I have Spotify Premium because I love it and I love music and I hate ads. So I recommend that listen. I don't mind going pro for services that I use all the time and I know it can feel like death by a thousand cuts with some of these online services because $5 here, $10 there, they all add up. But I don't mind. These are providing such value to me that I just make the choice to go for it. And I'm usually, I usually don't regret it because there's so much clutter now just even trying to read a frigging article online. There's so many pop ups and they're so intrusive and I'm tired of it. So I like not having ads on things like Spotify. I download any podcasts. Some of mine download automatically. Hint, hint, maybe you already downloaded this one and that's how you're listening. But as you know, if you're behind on podcasts like I am or you just subscribe to way too many like I do, they don't all download to your phone. So a lot of them are just in the cloud and they show up in your feed. So you might want to just go make sure you press the download button to to get them offline if you want them. I also preload my iPad. I use Kindle on iPad when I'm traveling. I love buying hardcover books and I still do when I'm at home, but I also love having a different type of book for when I'm on the road. And so I'll. I'll load up my Kindle before I go and with some new books that I'm excited about. And.

Another thing I do, by the way, Amazon, even Amazon and Netflix, you can download episodes. I don't actually watch a lot of content when I'm on flights because I just, I don't know, I love the reading, thinking, journaling, sleeping thing. But you can.

If you're going to use wifi, whether in the airport, on the plane, in your hotel room, there's a service called Encrypt Me. And this came from one of my very first Pivot podcasts with Willie Jackson. We did an episode on cybersecurity because it is insane how vulnerable you can get to hacking when you're on these open WI FI networks. So check out Encrypt Me. That's a good thing to have to just protect you while you're using the Internet, whether on your phone or on your computer. All right, let's count that as tip number 15. So tip number 15, 16. Once you get where you're going. I try to stay in my same time zone if possible. This is definitely quirky and it means I'm going to bed at very odd times when I'm in a different place. But this really helps me. So oftentimes, if I'm doing a domestic speaking gig, I always stay for two nights. I arrive in the night prior so that I make sure I get there and then I can sleep. I'm fresh for the next day, and then I try not to leave that night. I actually stay a second night so that I'm not rushing from the stage to the airport as some speakers have to do. I liked I don't want to be stressed when I'm answering questions or signing books. And so that gives me a chance to unwind from an event. And what that means is that I don't want to get off my schedule too much when I'm traveling. So just because, for example, right now I'm two hours behind New York. So I will go to bed at 7pm Edmonton time or 8pm and if I'm tired, I'll go to bed even earlier. I just close all the curtains and I try to go to bed at whatever time I would be wanting to sleep in New York and even earlier. So even if my average bedtime in New York is now 10 or 11, I will still try and get to bed by like 9pm New York time. When I'm on the road, just because I'm alone, there's not much to do. You know, I usually don't feel the need to go out touring and making the most of every city. My priority is to stay healthy, stay rested, keep up with my routines as much as I can. Sometimes even when I'm visiting family in California, it just can be really hard to try. And, you know, like if we were to go out to dinner at 7:00pm, that's 10:00pm New York time. So by the time I'm home and asleep and it just, it just screws me up more Than maybe more than for some others. So even with family, I'll try and request that we could go to an early dinner, maybe 5pm or even a linner like a lunch ish dinner type thing. And then I will say that I'm up super early so I'm able to hang out with everybody in the morning. So I don't feel like I'm not getting any time. But I kind of prioritize the mornings, as you know, if you've been listening to this for a while. So let's go on to tip number 16, which is all about the morning. How can you keep your morning routines and rituals or evening routines and rituals even while traveling? For me, this means waking up having here I'm having decaf coffee because I learned a tip from Mark Marin. He wrote in the New York Times Book Review. They interviewed him and he said as soon as you get to the hotel, immediately ask for more coffee packets and water. And I always call and ask for more water. But then he says, double up on the coffee packets and you'll have better coffee. So I wanted to try it even though I don't really drink coffee anymore, ever since I got vertigo, which is another episode from a while back that was about two years ago. Anyway, now I'm drinking decaf with two packets just to try Marc Maron's advice. So that's gonna be. It's gonna be tip 17, but back to tip 16. Keep your routines as much as you can. So this might mean things in the morning like coffee or tea. I like to read. I do try to meditate. I have to say, I don't always have the energy for it, but I do try to do yoga or Pilates in the morning, even on the day of a speaking gig. Though sometimes I find when I'm traveling I'm just tired, so I often have to cut myself a break. Like this morning I'm recording a podcast and hopefully I'll get to exercise, but we'll see if, if even if I don't do a full yoga session, sometimes I'll do legs up the wall, which is really restorative. You just kind of scoot your butt to the wall at a 90 degree angle or like perpendicular. And then you, you bring your legs up so that they are perpendicular and. And it's almost like a shoulder stand, but it's modified and it just helps with circulation. It helps with. It just restores the body so that it can feel really good. I'm telling you, try it for 20 minutes and see how you feel afterward. But just thinking about it can be easy while traveling to, like, let everything go out the window, just what you're eating. And I do this. I am so guilty of it. Like, where I'm like, oh, I'm traveling, I'm on the road, and I eat food that I wouldn't normally eat when I'm at home. And then I feel gross. So it's not like, like, oh, you know, I have to be so vigilant all the time, but I just don't feel good if I eat too much crappy food. And it's not always as easy to get great, healthy, fresh, organic everything when you're on the road and in hotels. So I try to plan ahead and just bring healthy food. And then, you know, if I'm going to go out to eat, I try to make healthy choices, but I don't always. And like I said, I try to work out and I just do my best. I mean, that's the thing here. It's not aiming for perfection. It's just, how can you kind of do your best?

Part of that brings me to number 18, which I'm going to call booking boundaries. So I used to book flights based solely on price, and that was important to me. And of course, we all go through phases and stages of life where that may be a requirement for you, too. But now, kind of every year, and as travel becomes more part of my work, I really make an effort to have boundaries around how I travel and what I'm willing to upgrade for something really simple I now pay for on Virgin. When I travel on Virgin America, the plans change. Pass. It's $25. And it just gives me this feeling of flexibility that sometimes when I'm on a trip, I realize, oh, I booked my flights for the next day too late, I'm going to get home too late, I want to change it. Or, oh, I want to stay an extra day, I'm going to change it. Whatever it is. That has come in really handy and in the past, I used to think, oh, I'm not going to pay for any extras ever. Another thing is no connecting flights. Avoid them at all costs. Unless I absolutely have to connect in order to get somewhere, I won't do it because there's just too much risk of the connections getting screwed up. Oh, my goodness. Let me tell you one of them. So I was traveling recently.

Oh, man, this was brutal. Okay, so I was going to San Antonio and I had to fly from LaGuardia through Dallas, I believe, and then on to San Antonio oh, my goodness. Okay, I'm having flashbacks. Trauma. And on my way in, the flights got all screwed up. There were four hours delayed. It almost seemed like I wasn't gonna make it that night. There was risk of me not making it that night. And my speaking gig was the next day. So I was kind of freaking out. I was running. I was trying to change my flights back and forth. Which plane was gonna leave first. Finally, I get on a flight. I'm so relieved. And I still got in at midnight the night before. Speaking gig was, which is not ideal, especially for me with my early bedtime. But in all of that hullabaloo, I guess the gate agent accidentally canceled my flight home when they were making these changes. So when I showed up at the airport two days later, I did not have a flight home. You can imagine I started freaking out. And I'm at the desk and I think I even had a speaking engagement or something back in New York the following day. So I had to get home. This was not a game. I was not going to stay. No matter what it took, what I had to pay, I was going to get home that day. So the agent, she's like, really started at first not working with me. Then she says, okay, I can get you on a flight home to New York, and here's how it's going to go. It's already boarding. So I had to sprint through the airport. And it was going to go from San Antonio to Houston to Dallas to New York. So I had to go through every single stop in Texas, running from flight to flight to flight because they were so close together. Switching three, like San Antonio to Houston to Dallas. I forget which order. In any case, it was so stressful. The whole day was so stressful. I had four or five flights just to get home to New York. And every single one, I was almost missing it. And it was just so traumatic. And trip it pro definitely comes in handy for things like that. I even had my VA team from she can coterie bless Brittany. She was just so helpful. She was like helping me book backup flights in case I needed them and then canceling them. And what a runaround. So anyway, that's my connection horror story. And I just avoid them at all costs. Even if a flight is to going to cost a little more money. I have an absolutely no red eye policy unless I'm traveling internationally. And the only way to get somewhere is to go on a red eye. For example, getting to Beirut, it's probably 25 hours of travel altogether. There's no way to avoid being traveling overnight. But if it's for speaking gigs, especially if it's domestic, that's just zero. Absolutely not, not going to do it. Because I have gone on Red Eyes where it takes me an entire week to recover from that.

Those are some of my booking boundaries. I. Someone asked me recently if I fly business class. I don't, but I know people who do. I know people who don't do it domestically, but they, they do internationally. Either their company pays for it or if they're a speaker, they. They say, here's my fee plus first class travel tip number 18. If you are doing speaking gigs. Or are we on 19? See, man, I'm going to keep messing this up. Let's call it it 19. Yeah, let's call it 19.

Is when I quote my rate. I also ask for travel stipend. This is one of the best pieces of advice I ever got from another professional speaker. I learned this from Scott Stratton, and he's also been on the Pivot podcast. I talked to him about how he earns a million dollars a year from keynote speaking. So that's a great one. And why he chooses not to scale himself or his business. He likes being the one delivering the speeches and he purposefully turns down consult. Go listen to that episode if you haven't already. But he does a travel stipend. So for domestic, let's for example, 1500. And then he books all the flights. He has the organization book the hotel because that's usually very easy for them to put on a credit card. But he books the flights, the car service, his meals. That way you're not submitting any reimbursements when you get home. So I love doing that too. And I usually don't travel. I mean, I really never do upgrade to business class. But I'm starting to think if I travel a lot more, maybe I'd pay for the $35. Like slightly more legroom. But as long as I get a window seat, I'm usually happy.

On the subject of receipts, let's go on to tip number 20. I use a service called Shoeboxed. And so if you're someone that does have to save receipts, you run your own business or you are reimbursing. I have a business envelope with me while traveling and I put all my receipts in this envelope. And then when you get home, I just. Well, every month I send this envelope to Shoeboxed. And Shoeboxed is a service that they scan all your receipts and they save them electronically. So that way you don't have drawers and drawers of receipts at home because taxes require you to save three years of receipts. So this way they're all saved digitally. And by having the envelope with me while I travel, everything goes in there. So ideally, I don't have to scrounge through all my bags to find all my receipts. Okay, tip number 21. Ish. Because who knows how many we really did. Last but not least, it's easy to see travel as a burden, something that's kind of getting in the way or something to dread or resist. And partly because, like I said, I really do enjoy it. I like hotels, I like hotel beds. As long as it's a relatively nice hotel. That's another part on my travel boundaries. I'm trying to just stay in nice places that doesn't have to be the Ritz, but just where I feel good, I can get good rest. But tip number 21 is try to see travel as a recharge, opportunity and a reset, rather than this big barrier to everything you've got going on, which I used to see it this way. I now take travel as an opportunity to reset myself. How can I get extra sleep while I'm traveling? How can I catch up on work or reading or rest? What can I do to treat myself? Treat yourself from parks and Rec. So how can you see it at a way as an opportunity to step out of your day to day and recharge yourself somehow? I remember back when I worked at Google, I met with the nutritionist there and I was telling her at the time, I was just, I had built up such great momentum around exercise and eating well and I was worried. My family were going on a trip to Hawaii and I, I don't know why I was talking to her about being worried about, oh man, it's always so hard to stay on my routines. And she said, but it could also be so much easier to stay on your routines while traveling. Maybe you go for a long walk on the beach and you have really fresh, healthy food. And something about that conversation just shifted it for me. Where this year, you know, after Pivot came out, one of the things I was hoping it would do was bring me more keynote speaking gigs, because I absolutely love it. And it did in the beginning, I was traveling and I was kind of like just upside down, you know, I wasn't really maintaining my routines. And then I remembered that conversation and I thought, oh, yeah, I've got to see this as a great opportunity to get me time and to step out of the day to day and to reset however I see fit. So that really helps me look forward to travel, to make the most of it, and to honor myself and whatever I might need while on the road. So I encourage you to do the same. I know holidays can be a tricky time, not to mention just all the family time and they can be more chaotic than usual. And and so I would love to hear from you if you try any of these tips and if you have any of your own that I'm missing and that I've gotta know about, please let me know again. You can find the show notes for this episode@pivotmethod.com podcast travel and I just wish you all the happiest travels. Enjoy your time in the clouds, getting from wherever you are to wherever you're going, and I'm just so excited to wrap up this year with all of you. Stay tuned for a set your 2018 strategy episode coming right up. And let's take this thing pro in 2018. I'm just so excited to keep going and to have you all here. And one more time, if you want to join the community on Patreon, join us. It's at patreon.com pivot and there are all kinds of bonus goodies and it's just a way to be an even closer knit part of the Pivot Podcast community. So thank you all for listening, happy travels and I will talk to you all again soon. Bye everybody.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Pivot Podcast. Make sure you don't miss an episode or my insider tips and templates by signing up for Pivot List, a curated twice monthly newsletter where I share the inside scoop on what I'm reading, watching, listening to to, and the latest tools I'm geeking out on. Sign up@pivotmethod.com pivotlist get show notes from this episode@pivotmethod.com podcast and connect with me on Twitter ennyblake.

Remember, build first, then your courage will follow. Hasn't it always.