Nurture_Podcast_CashFlowConnections_InflationDebtDestruction_2025-06.txt

Freedom is just the beginning. Like, what good is it to travel and not be comfortable to ride in economy and get a cheap hotel? Have you ever stayed in a one bedroom hotel for a week more with two kids and a wife? Like, it is not comfortable.

So, Pete, good to be here with you and I'm super excited to dive in and hear more about your feedback and working with our team. Your travel, your trips. I love to know a little more around, like, why do you feel like travel is important for you and your family right now?

I'm 40, almost 43, and from the age of, you know, 15 to 40, I just worked my, my tail off and never really traveled. All the money that I made, I, I saved and I reinvested and that was just what I knew. I was living frugally. And something changed when I turned 40 and I decided that I wanted to see the world and travel the world and enjoy some of what I've saved and invested. And I came across a couple older, older mentors that, you know, were in their 60s. One, well, one was in the 70s, I think. And they basically told me to travel now before my body starts aching. And, and I need medicine and I need doctors because they had waited till they were older, you know, and thought, you know, they were going to wait till they had the money and the time and, and the kids were out of the house and stuff and they, they don't enjoy it because it's just, it's painful. And so I took their advice to heart and, and you know, the mental shift was okay for me. Travel is no longer like this thing that I shouldn't do. It's. I, I consider it an investment now. So like, I have a separate budget. It's a travel budget. I call it an investment budget. It's an investment in my family, in, in my life. And so maybe it was just the time, you know, timing for me turning 40, but that's kind of a shift that I had.

You got into real estate and some of the business businesses that you're in because of freedom. So I'd love to hear more about, like, why you value freedom as an entrepreneur and how travel plays into that.

You know, I was running a contracting business for, for many years, and although it provided, you know, a good income for myself and my family, I was always stuck to my phone and to my clients and my employees. And I was starting to build up a rental portfolio, but not much. But back in 2018, I started this whole, like a big, hairy, audacious goal for myself. I called it five years to freedom. And my mission was basically to, to have enough rental properties to kick off enough income to where I didn't need the contracting business anymore. Because to me, you know, income producing real estate was, was the best path to get to a life of freedom. Now there's definitely other paths you could do it, but to me that was the most realistic. And so, I mean, every day I woke up just inspired, you know, working my tail off to earn money to buy real estate, to achieve this life of freedom. Right. And so, you know, over, after a few years, I got there, I got there and you know, I started traveling a little bit more with my family. And it was kind of funny. Like, you know, you spend a little bit of time traveling, living this life that, that you've been pursuing for many years and you're like, well now I'm kind of bored and my kids actually don't like traveling as much as I do. So I decided to get back to work and create, create a new goal and be productive. But you know, there's a big switch. Like I started realizing that, that freedom is really just the beginning. You know, know the, the ability to choose what you do, what you're working on. It allows you to start working on things that you have a little bit more passion for, things that might make more of an impact in your life, whether it's personally or professionally. And you know, just, it changes things for the better once you get there.

Nice. And how would you say that being able to leverage your points and use those for the trips, does it feel like it gives you access to more of that freedom or helps you justify some of the trips you want to take that you maybe wouldn't want to pay for? Like, how does the points piece play into that, that freedom goal?

So here's a good example. After I had reached this level of freedom, we started traveling. And one of the trips was overseas to Ireland. And so it was our first international trip, my first trip over the ocean, definitely my family's first. All four, four of us, me, my wife and two kids. And I mean, I was a big spender, you know, flying over. We had this big trip. I spent a lot of money and I was proud of myself. This is me like living out my dream and we're about, you know, I don't know, halfway through the 13 hour flight over there and so uncomfortable, so uncomfortable in economy, my kids are complaining and my son, my 10 year old son looks me in the eye and says, dad, why aren't we flying first class right And I'm like, holy smokes. I wanted to smack to aside his head. Like, are you kidding me? I never got to do this when I was a kid. Like, you ungrateful little bastard. Right? But so at that moment I was like, I don't know, you know, I was so pissed off that he didn't, he wasn't living the dream like I was, I was just so pissed off. But after it, it lingered on me. I was like, well, maybe my goals are too small. Maybe my son has higher expectations of me. Like, freedom is just the beginning. Like, what good is it to travel and not be comfortable to ride in economy and get a cheap hotel? Have you ever stayed in a one bedroom hotel for a week more with two kids and a wife? Like it is not comfortable, right? And so this lingered with me for a week or two. Like, damn, I need to, I need to set my goals higher. And shortly after that is when you guys were introduced to me by a friend of mine, referred. And maybe it was fate, maybe it was timing, but I talked to you guys and you showed me a way, right? Like you showed me a way to take what I was already doing and step it up a notch. And instead of being able to travel, you know, just travel it was now I could travel in comfort and luxury and that's the next level, right? And so I could do that now essentially with no extra money out of pocket, maybe even spending less just by showing me the system that, that you've got there, doing what I'm already doing. But once I once I got on board with that, it also motivated me to start growing my business more, my contracting business and other businesses. Because the more I grow the business, the more credit card spend I have, and the more credit card spend I have, the more international trips I get with my family, which is why I do what I do. So I got to this point to where I was ready to coast. I was going to coast with my business. I was comfortable, I was going to travel and it wasn't what I expected. I get introduced to you, I realized, okay, I could do this in comfort and luxury and first class, but I could do more of it if I grow my business and don't coast. And so it all was like, it just tied everything together for me.

I'm curious to hear what were some of the feel like we go back to the Ireland trip or trips before you were using points. Did you even think about flying business or first class? Like what were some of the feelings, the thoughts, the emotions you were experiencing that Prevented you from being like, I'm going to take the first class trip.

I was just ingrained. You know, you don't spend on stuff like that. And so it's economy. I mean, just go. Just going on a trip like that, that was already my dream. And so the thought of spending that extra money, just excessive, unnecessary, a waste. Right. But then again, I hadn't, I hadn't taken that flight in economy before. But honestly, like, if it wasn't for my son saying that for me, I'd probably, you know, that kind of flipped my switch. Like, I would be okay being uncomfortable to travel because, like, to me, I get it. But you know, when somebody gives you a little nudge and they're like, there's more to this, you just got to figure it out. Well, it kind of inspired me if.

There'S been any changes in.

Yeah.

In your relationships from being able to take these trips or how has it impacted your family, your relationship with your wife, things like that, to be able to take the big trips, to do it the way you want to. How does it make you feel as a partner, as a father, as a husband? I'm curious to hear a little bit about those relationships.

Yeah, it feels good. So we, we did one, me and my wife did one international trip after that and we flew first class and. Or business class, I guess. But when you get a taste of that, there's no going back. And the thought that you could do it with very little cash out of pocket, it's just, you feel good, you know, you feel good about yourself and you look good to your spouse and your family. And so my kids haven't done that yet. But next year I've already got one booked. We're flying, we're all flying first class to France. We've got another one going to Egypt. I haven't booked the flights yet, but we're going to do a business class on that too. And so it's really, it's a sense of self accomplishment. Right. That you're doing something really, really cool that not a lot of people get to experience. I mean, when we got off of Qatar Airlines, number one. Qatar. Qatar. Like, I mean, you're drinking champagne the whole way there. We had caviar. It's just insane. But even when you get off, you get to use that lounge out there and you see everybody going and lining up at the customs line. But then they take you to the business class lounge and there's nobody there and they greet you, they walk you right to the front door of the Customs. I mean, it's just, it's just special, you know, and it raises the bar. I think it raises the bar of your own expectations. And there's no two ways about it. Like, my, my wife is super happy, my kids are going to be loving it. You can't go back from that. So I don't know. Does that answer your question? No.

It does.

Yeah.

And it's funny because I always feel like I'm like this, this first trip you take in business class, it comes with a warning, which is you ain't going back. Once you go up, you're not going to be happy doing it at least. So you'd probably known a little bit about points before. I think you had a cash back card. Walk me through, like how you thought about leveraging credit cards before and after, starting to talk to us and work to us. How did that shift in your head in terms of like, what credit cards, the role they played in your business, in your life?

Yeah, I was strictly a cash back guy. 2%, you know, the spark, 2% cash back, which was great. I mean, I could get a check at the end of the year and I thought that was amazing. But it was simple, it was understandable. I always thought that the points game was just too confusing and that the credit card companies were smarter than I, I was and that I was going to wind up losing out, you know? Know what I mean? And I just never took the time to, to figure it out. I had heard that there was ways to figure it out, but I just like something simple. And so, you know, when I got introduced to you guys, what, what really caught my eye was, you know, it's, it's not really a loophole, but it's figuring out the system. And I think most business owners resonate with that. It's like, oh, well, how can I get more out of what I'm already doing and like this whole conversion thing and using different cards for different points and that's one thing. But when you tie it into what I was really after, which was the international travel, getting to explore the world with my family in and make it in a way that I can also kind of gamify it and get a multiple on what I'm spending, you know what I mean, it just kind of checked all my boxes and like what you guys did was like a turnkey program. I mean, I didn't have to do much legwork. I mean, you know what I mean? You made it so easy. Had to apply for some cars and just make change. How we use them, but it's really simple and it became a game and I feel like it's a game that I'm, that I'm winning. So that works.

You mentioned the process felt pretty simple. So can you share more about how the process went working with us? Were there any surprises, things that you felt stood out as like amazing or simple or anything that was maybe too complicated? How did, how did that, that go for you?

Yeah, it was pretty simple. I don't think anything was overly complicated. I think it started with a request for me to send over like my business spend and somebody at the office kind of analyzed it and broke it down. And then it seemed like you had a different sheet that kind of broke it down. Like, hey, move this type of spend to this card, this card and this card. It was, it wasn't overwhelming. We started with I think a couple of new cards and maximizing like the sign up points. And there was a whole plan behind it too, like start with this, this card and then apply for this one. And there was a reasoning behind it in terms of like how your credit gets pulled. So there was very little thinking involved. It was just doing, taking action, which, you know, requires a little bit of work. But to me it was worthwhile. It wasn't much. Had a few questions along the way and got. Got answers pretty quick. So yeah, it was easy.

Cool, cool. Good. Love to hear. That means we did our job right. Awesome. And if you were going to say, you know, for other business owners that were considering getting into the points game and being like, I could probably figure this out on my own versus, you know, hiring someone, whether it's us or someone else out there, other experts, teams that can help, what would you advise them on between the path of like learning this on your own versus working with a professional?

Yeah, well, it's leveraging your time and your knowledge. Right. I mean, a lot of business owners hire coaches, consultants and we hire people to do jobs that we don't want to do or that are better fitted. Outsourcing. So it's the same thing, right? I mean, yeah, anybody could probably learn it on their own, but it's going to spend, you're going to spend a lot of time figuring it out. I've got buddies that have kind of been doing this for years on their own and they're like, yeah, it's, you know, I've done it and I've learned it, but it's a pain in the ass to figure out. And even like the searching for flights and actually like making that conversion happen for the best ratios. It's just time consuming. So my point of view is, you know, I'm already busy. I need to spend my time doing what my time is best used doing, which is not figuring out the credit card points gang. I just want to build my business. And so I was fairly easy decision for me. I mean, honestly, I think I had one conversation and I was like, okay, let's do it. You know, I mean, I didn't even have to think about it once I. Once I understood the cost and the, and the benefit to me. But again, it was timing because I was already at that point to where like I'm going to start traveling the world. I had set a goal to travel to 50 countries like the year before. I had set a goal to travel to 50 countries in the next seven years as part of my new like big, eerie, audacious goal. So part of you coming into my life and your business is probably has to do a lot with that timing because if you had come in five years prior, it just. There's. I don't think it would have worked for me at that point. Totally. Yeah.

You already committed to a life of freedom, a life of creating your. Your trips and your dreams and. Well, Pete, thank you so much. Really appreciate the time. This is, this is really helpful and I just am such a big fan of yours just as a person, as a friend. And thanks for sharing your experience with us. It means a lot.

You bet. Eli, thanks for everything you guys do.

Thanks, man.