Podcasts about Capital One

Title: Travel Like a Billionaire: The 90% Off Secret to a First-Class Lifestyle with Eli Facenda In this conversation, Eli Facenda shares insights on maximizing travel experiences through strategic use of points and credit cards. He discusses his nomadic lifestyle, the entrepreneurial journey that led him to travel hacking, and the importance of understanding the value of different points systems. Eli emphasizes the need for a structured approach to travel, focusing on maximizing points, optimizing travel upgrades, and effectively using credit cards to enhance travel experiences. The discussion also touches on the significance of having a clear strategy for business owners and how to navigate the complexities of travel rewards. In this conversation, Eli Facenda shares his expertise on maximizing travel experiences through strategic use of points and credit cards. He discusses the importance of community in travel planning, innovative solutions for entrepreneurs, and his personal journey in the travel industry. Eli emphasizes the significance of experiential wealth and actionable steps listeners can take to enhance their travel experiences. Links to Watch and Subscribe: https://youtu.be/c7QqSscsajc Bullet Point Highlights: Seth and Eli kick off with casual banter about van life, audio gear, and the nomad lifestyle. Eli shares his background going from broke entrepreneur to travel-hacking expert. He explains how he got obsessed with using points after a free trip to Thailand changed his mindset. Eli now helps entrepreneurs take $20K–$50K luxury trips for 90% off using credit card points. His 3-part system includes maximizing points, optimizing travel perks, and redeeming for bucket-list trips. He gives a real-world example of booking a $20K ANA business class flight to Japan for just $12. Seth dives into a real-life org structure and Eli explains how points flow to the guarantor, not the LLC. Best practice: 2–3 business cards and 2–3 personal cards tailored to your biggest spend categories. Eli introduces his new “DreamTrip Alert System” that delivers full trip itineraries at massive discounts. In the Million Dollar Monday segment, Eli shares how he made, lost, and remade his first million. His next million will come from scalable digital products and a wider reach through content and community. What makes Eli top 1%: He walks the walk, traveling the world and running a business around it. His #1 tip: Pick your dream trip, put it on the calendar, and commit, then let the how figure itself out. Transcript: Eli Facenda (00:00.059) What's up, Seth?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:01.43) Yo, what's going on, brother?   Eli Facenda (00:03.237) How we doing, man? How we doing?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:05.141) Excellent man, what's happening?   Eli Facenda (00:06.893) Not much. you, how's the audio coming through here?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:11.032) Sounds good, sounds good.   Eli Facenda (00:12.547) it clean? Okay, because I'm, it's basically we're in the middle of a Nomad trip here, so I normally have like a, like a shirt mic like you have, but on the road I haven't had, so I haven't had to test this yet, but I figured the DJI's are pretty solid, so I wanna make sure it's actually coming through decent.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:16.962) Okay.   Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:26.732) Nice. Yeah, no, it sounds good. Sounds good, man.   Eli Facenda (00:29.425) Okay, cool, awesome. Awesome Dave, we'll get to connect with you.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:33.802) Yeah, brother definitely, so I don't butcher it. How do you pronounce your last name? Facenda, okay, cool. Cool Awesome, man. Yeah, we've we've crossed paths on social media. I think or maybe our va's have crossed paths who knows   Eli Facenda (00:39.077) for sender. Yep, yep.   Eli Facenda (00:47.663) Yeah, think that was where, yeah, think we were initially connecting, yeah, totally. Instagram, I think, was the place. Yeah. Because you're out in California, right? Nice, I'm in West Palm right now. And I mean, normally based in Austin, but we're in the middle of a like, six to eight month nomad adventure. And so we are, we're on the road here, and we go to Europe in a few weeks for like the next several months.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:53.42) Yeah, nice, nice, where you at right now? Yep, San Diego.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (01:10.446) Sweet dude.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (01:17.166) That's awesome dude, awesome, awesome. Love it man, that's a long time. So we did last May we did, man it's been like a year, geez. We did like 30, 33 days in a van trip. So we took our van up through Wyoming into Montana and into Canada. That was a long time for us, but 68 months. Right, yeah.   Eli Facenda (01:18.117) Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, man.   Eli Facenda (01:33.455) Nice.   Eli Facenda (01:37.465) sick. Yeah, well vans are intense too. You know, I haven't done van life but my fiance, she did that before and it was like a lot for her. But yeah, so totally depends on the way you're traveling as well. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (01:47.266) Yeah.   Nice, nice. Cool, man. Just give you a quick rundown. our audience, my audience is typically, so it used to be passive investors, right? So it used to be the passive income attorney podcast. I think when we might've tried to schedule before and that was for investors. So accredited investors trying to get them to invest in my commercial real estate deals, that sort of thing. But now I've rebranded to raising the bar, which is more geared towards active investors and entrepreneurs and folks like that. So still,   Eli Facenda (02:10.619) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (02:19.982) Still, I'm sure your clients, wealthy folks that are starting businesses, that have businesses, that are raising capital for real estate or private equity or other types of businesses, that sort of thing. And then we'll do about, we'll do it a little on the shorter side. So we'll do about 30 minute interview, probably at the longest. And then we'll kind of just close that out. And then I do two little smaller sections that I break down into like little five minute episodes. One is a million dollar.   Eli Facenda (02:25.403) Totally.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (02:49.622) Monday I put that in the notes and it's basically just like real quick, like how you made your first million dollars, how you made your last million, how you plan on making your next million. then, yeah, and then the last one is the top 1%. Basically just kind of what separates you and makes you the top 1 % in what you do.   Eli Facenda (02:59.675) Cool. Yeah, I love it. It's great.   Eli Facenda (03:08.699) Okay, beautiful. And then as far as, is there any place you want me to point people that is connected to you or do you care if you're asking about that? I don't have any hard call to action kind of pitch thing, but it's more just like.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (03:19.916) No, man, whatever, it's up to you, man, whatever you want to do, whatever you, whatever call it action you want to use, if want to send it to your website or social media, whatever you want to do,   Eli Facenda (03:26.577) Cause you know what we do have, I can do this. We have a pretty cool playbook that's normally 150 bucks and I'm happy to give it to your listeners for free. So I could give them a code, just say what would be the best code for that?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (03:37.175) Okay, awesome.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (03:43.429) Um, just raise would probably be good. use that a lot for like call to action, like DME raise. So you could use a raise.   Eli Facenda (03:46.161) Cool. All right, so yeah, so I'll just say go to the website and just DM or just put in the code RAYS and you'll get it for free. But it's like a whole playbook on how to maximize points for trips. I've act like legitimately I've had someone buy it and within 48 hours he texted me a screenshot. was like, dude, I just saved 20 grand on a trip from your ebook. And I was like, wow, okay, it works. So it's good. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (03:57.07) Sweet.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (04:09.366) Nice, Cool. All right, man, well, we're already recording, so I'll just jump right in, and then if I need to add anything to the beginning, I'll do that later. And cool, man, yeah, we'll just jump right in.   Eli Facenda (04:14.129) Sweet. You're welcome.   Eli Facenda (04:20.27) Awesome.   Eli Facenda (04:24.913) Let's do it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (04:27.444) Eli, what's going on, brother? Welcome to the show.   Eli Facenda (04:30.181) Thank you man, excited to be here and I we're going coast to coast today so this will be good.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (04:34.382) Absolutely, man. So we chatted beforehand, but I think you're tuning in on a road trip right now. So you're living proof of what you do, right?   Eli Facenda (04:44.065) Yeah, totally. are, well this part's kind of like a road trip. We're in West Palm Beach right now, but this is basically leg number two out of, we'll end up being probably an eight month nomadic adventure with me and my fiance and our little puppy. And so we're in West Palm Beach right now in Florida. We head to Europe in less than a month and we'll be bouncing around different parts of Europe for about four months roughly before we decide where we're gonna go next, which we're not exactly sure.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (04:58.904) Nice.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (05:12.28) That's awesome, man. Are you using all your hacks and secrets and travel tips that you put out there?   Eli Facenda (05:18.449) Absolutely, yeah, 100%. I mean, we just got back from a crazy trip to Japan. This was really cool. I run an entrepreneur mastermind. So we integrated our own trip around Japan around this mastermind event. So I had 53 people come out for like eight days. We went snowboarding in the mountains in Niseko in the Northern Park. And then we went down to Tokyo for the cherry blossoms. But for myself personally, to get there and back and do a lot of the hotels, we used points. We saved over 50 grand just on that portion of the trip. We then...   know, flew down to West Palm on points and then going over to Europe and a lot of the stays over there will also be leveraging the point strategies that I help clients use and then I talk about on social media and the stuff that we'll dive into today. But yeah, I like to be living proof of it because it's pretty awesome. It's something that's really impacted my life. I love doing it. And when I do it, I get to share it too. So has like a multiple benefit for everybody.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (06:06.648) That's awesome, man. I'm excited, dude. I'm excited to dig in here, because it's just for my own personal benefit and education, because I'm super stoked about this stuff, and I travel a lot with my fiance, or my fiance, my wife, and it's something I'm personally interested in as well. We've had past conversations too, so it's great to have you on, man. So just to start off, man, if somebody, you meet somebody in the street, they ask you what you do, how do you explain that?   in a sentence, right? Like without going into some crazy like tangent about all the awesome things that you do. Like what, how do you answer that question?   Eli Facenda (06:36.453) Yeah.   Eli Facenda (06:41.329) Sure, sure, Yeah, it really does depend on the situation, but I oftentimes will ask a couple questions because it makes it easier for people to understand. So usually it's like, do you have any big dream bucket list trip you've ever wanted to take? And they'll be like, oh yeah, Greece. I'm like, well, what we do is we help you get to Greece in business or first class, stay in five star hotels, have the trip of your dreams at about 90 % off. So that's kind of the tagline is take the trip of your dreams for about 90 % off.   I'll get into the whole point side of things, but some people don't know what points are, or some are really well studied in that world. So I just leave with the trip because that's usually what people want. They want to have the experience where it's you and your wife flying first class, sipping champagne on the way to Paris to go see the Eiffel Tower and the points and the credit cards. That's really the mechanism. That's how we make the experience happen. But at end of the day, what we want is the amazing memories, the beautiful experience, all that stuff. So I leave with the trip when I talk about it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (07:37.848) That's awesome, man. Yeah, I mean, you're literally selling the dream, right? Like in marketing, you sell the dream or hit on a pain point. Like you are like the quintessential selling the dream. Like that's what everybody thinks about. So.   Eli Facenda (07:42.969) Yeah, exactly.   Yeah, Right. Well, it's funny because, you know, in marketing, they'll say like, sell the destination, not the vehicle, right? They'll be like, sell the outcome, not how you get there. And so we do that in our marketing. But then when you think about it, when people are taking a trip, what we are helping them do is make the vehicle to get to the destination part of the destination. Because really, when you travel well, and you do it in style, the flight becomes a part of the trip that you're excited for.   I can't wait to see the the drinks and the champagne and the food they're gonna have and how awesome the seat is and the movie selection, how big's the screen. At least for people that love to travel, it becomes a fascination of the trip, not just getting there. So that's a big difference maker when people start to go on these flights, and this is what a lot of our clients will say, and for me, it goes from flying economy to like, I'm counting down the hours to get off this freaking plane.   to like, we do another lap around the city? Cause like, I'd love to just hang out here longer, right? And like the flight attendants treat you really well. So yeah, it's a whole experience.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (08:49.314) That's awesome, man. Yeah, that's great. Was there a trip that you went on personally where you just kind of thought, man, I can turn this into a business, right? Like you're just enjoying it so much that you just were like, like the light bulb went off or how did this business spawn?   Eli Facenda (09:04.515) Yeah, there wasn't one trip that I made the connection between like, trip is awesome, let me start a business. But there was one trip that gave me the light bulb of, my God, I am obsessed with this, I need to learn everything I can. There was zero intention or thought about business that when it first started. And that'll take you back about 10 years. So was around 22 years old and I'm just coming out of college. And basically I'm in my mom's basement and I remember this really...   like heavy feeling because I went to a good university near New York City and all my friends went to Wall Street and they were making like six figures plus right out of school. And I had this like entrepreneurial bug. I was like, that's not for me. I don't want to sit in an office. I don't care if I can make a lot of money. I want to like play life on my terms, even if it means I'm making less. So at this point I have friends that are making tons of money, know, lots of disposable income and I'm making like 20 grand a year. I'm working four side jobs. I was trying to build a company. I remember getting this text.   And my stomach just dropped, because I was like, shit, I'm going to miss out on this incredible experience. was friends inviting me to go to Thailand. And I was like, if I don't figure out a better strategy of either how to make more money or figure something out, I'm not going be able to go on this trip. And I was like, damn, this is going to be just a life of missing out on experiences. Is that what it means to follow my dreams with entrepreneurship? It's like, I have to forego everything that my other friends are doing. And so was like, let me think about this differently. And I had a mentor that told me, you don't need more money, you need a better strategy. And he was talking about growing a business.   But for me, I was like, oh wait, there's this credit card point thing. What if I could figure that out? So I ended up piecing it together. I got a trip to Thailand for free. I had this amazing experience with some of my best friends. It's like still, you know, 13 friends in Thailand at age like 22, 23. Memories you don't get back. So was really grateful to have that. And then I came back from that trip and I got another flight a few, probably a year later to Europe in business class where it was a $6,000 ticket that I paid $6 for. Now after that one,   I came off that flight and I was like, I will read every blog, I will watch every YouTube video, I will learn everything about this because it meant I could travel the world and have this incredible lifestyle without having to go take a corporate job. So was like, I get to have my entrepreneurial dream and the travel I want without any trade-offs and I was like, this is amazing. So that was my first time I got hooked. It took me years of researching and reading blogs and websites and doing stuff for myself before I even had the thought of helping anyone else. I just became obsessed with it on my own.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (11:27.086) I love that you recognize you had the entrepreneurial bug early on, right? Before you got drugged down into the corporate ladder and then you got the golden handcuffs, we like to call it, and that sort of thing where it gets much, much harder to escape that gravity. I know for myself, it took a really long time. ended up going to, I went to med school, then I got my MBA, and then I went to law school, and then I worked in a big law firm, and it just took me all this time to figure out like, I don't want this.   Eli Facenda (11:38.405) Yeah.   Eli Facenda (11:49.201) Mm.   Eli Facenda (11:56.763) Right, well the social pressure alone of like everyone year round is going one way, it takes a lot of guts for you to zig when everyone else is zagging, like it's not easy to do. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (11:57.015) And I think it's.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (12:06.648) For sure, for sure. Yeah, it's tough. It's tough, right? And especially when you see your friends making six figures right out of college, you're like, man, I could do that right now if I wanted to do it, but I don't want that. So it takes guts to be able to go out there and do your own thing.   Eli Facenda (12:21.873) Totally. And I think everyone has their own version of that still. There's even vert flavors of that today that are still existing for me where it's like, everyone's kinda going this way, but when I really get quiet and listen to myself, I'm like, yeah, you could do that, but you actually, what your soul or your heart really wants is to go over here. And so I've always just tried to listen to that more because I think about one of my North stars is, at the end of my life, I'm 80, 90 years old, I do the rocking chair test and look back, it's like,   What regret would I rather not have when I'm 90? I'd always rather be like I bet on myself than like I took the sure, you know, the well-paid path, which is the old cliche, but I think it's really true.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (13:01.004) Totally, I love that North Star, man. Have you ever asked ChatGBT to give you advice as your 80 or 90 year old self on your deathbed? It's great. Yeah. I love it, man. I love it. Yeah, it's great. It you great insight. You start reading, you're like, this is good.   Eli Facenda (13:07.409) Yeah, yeah, I actually created a custom GPT and it's my future me that coaches current me. yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah.   Right. Exactly. Yeah, totally.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (13:21.326) Awesome man, well let's get back kind of on the business of travel, right? So somebody comes to you, they do that introduction that we talked about, you get in a deeper conversation, they're super interested in it, they wanna learn more about these travel hacks and strategies, like where do they start? Where do you point them?   Eli Facenda (13:42.447) Yeah, so in terms of the process, I like to chunk it into three main buckets.   And it's important to have context around this game because if you don't, it just starts to feel like there's so many moving pieces and who has time for that and it's too confusing and then it becomes overwhelming and overwhelm just basically leads to an action. And then that is the person who's like, well, I just don't wanna do that, I'll just take a cash back card or I'll just stick to my Delta card, right? And so when you have the right context, you can start to understand the highest leverage moves to make and then you know really how to get the result you want with the least amount of effort. So that's what we focus on and specifically like I've worked with   probably over a thousand business owners now. And with business owners, investors and entrepreneurs, it's a different, the points game takes on a different context, right? Because usually the constraint we have to solve for is time and complexity. And if you work a nine to five, you know, after five o'clock, you've got hours for your night. But entrepreneurs, it's like every hour is kind of an asset that you can use. So it's a little bit different. So the three buckets are, the first one is to maximize the points that you earn. So this happens from getting the right cards and the right expenses.   because all of these different points are like currency, so you wanna earn the right type of points and then you wanna maximize the amount of them by getting the right cards and the right expenses. So that's the first piece and that's really, really key, because nothing else happens if you don't get that right. The second bucket is gonna be to upgrade and optimize your travel. So you've got domestic trips for a conference, are you getting TSA pre-check and clear, are you getting the best lounges, are you getting first class upgrades and free bags and hotel suite upgrades and free breakfast at the hotels and free wifi. Really it's just like,   There's all these opportunities available for people that are traveling domestically for work, for family events, you know, your kind of ordinary traveling might have. And what we want to do is we just want to enhance the quality of all of that and reduce all the headaches and annoyances by maximizing benefits on cards and status perks and all the kind of like little tactics that you can play. So that's the second thing that just makes your travel more comfortable. And then the third bucket, which is really the most important in terms of impact in your life and the most meaningful piece is to take your dream bucket list trips for 70 to 90 % off.   Eli Facenda (15:45.775) And so that's where you're gonna take the points you've accumulated. You're gonna use some strategies that I can break down here around transferring these points from the banks to the airlines and hotels, and you're gonna get these dream trips for literally a fraction of what they should cost if you're paying cash, or compared to if you were using your points through a site like Amex Travel or Capital & Travel or Chase Travel. Okay, so that's a mouthful, but those are the three. So maximize your points, get the best possible upgrades, and then take your dream trips for 90 % off.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (16:13.934) Yeah, dive into one of those little those connecting strategies there that you mentioned.   Eli Facenda (16:19.183) Yeah. Yeah. So I'll talk first about the cards. That's the order. This is the first mistake that most business owners and individuals are making is they're just getting random cards. They're like, well, I live in Dallas. Let me get the American card or live in Atlanta. So I'll get the Delta card or, whatever it may be. Or live in San Diego and I fly domestic. So I'll just get the Southwest card. Well, they don't realize is that again, these points, these points like currencies. And so if I told you, Hey, do you want 150 Mexican pesos or 150 us dollars for your couch that you're selling on Facebook marketplace?   you're obviously gonna take the US dollars, right? Because the currency is much higher. But with points, people don't realize that. So they might be racking up Hilton points or Delta miles or other points and miles that just aren't as valuable as other ones out there. And then they burn through them quick or they don't go as far. And they end up just basically sitting there being like, I feel like I should be getting more. This is the common thing I hear. I feel like this should be taking me further, but like it's not doing much. And so what we wanna focus on is bank points that are transferable. So certain banks,   have this ability to convert the points to the airline hotel loyalty programs. And what happens is the banks have a different way of pricing than the airlines do. And certain airlines and certain hotels have really good what we call sweet spots or opportunities for you to get the best possible deals. Okay, so when you earn these effective points, which the top ones I recommend are generally Amex, Chase, and Capital One, and there's a new program built actually is out where you can put your rent on a card with no fees and earn points, it's really cool. But when you get those right,   And then you look through your expenses and you say, what do I spend the most on? Is it groceries and dining and the personal side? Cool. There's a card like the Amex Gold that is specifically really good for those types of expenses. Then you look at your business. What do I spend a lot on? Is it ads and software and taking clients out for dinners? Great. The Amex Business Gold earns four points per dollar on those categories, but maybe it's you're spending a lot on flights for company travel, or maybe you have inventory you're buying, or you're paying a lot of contractors, or you have a lot of payroll. You want to assess where you're spending the most money.   and make sure you have the optimal card lined up for that type of expense. So I'll pause there, but that's kind of the first bucket. The other one is on using the points effectively, which I can talk about too, is pretty powerful. But that first one is really the linchpin. Because if you have a bunch of Delta miles and you want to go to Europe, I'll give an example actually one more before I kind of pause. There was an example recently I saw of a client and they wanted to go to Europe and we're looking at different options. This was from JFK to Amsterdam. If you have Delta miles,   Eli Facenda (18:43.547) The ticket for Delta One, this big awesome Delta Suite, was 320,000 miles. That's what Delta was charging to go from JFK to Amsterdam. It's really expensive amount of miles. But the same exact flight, like same flight number, same aircraft, everything, if you booked it through Virgin Atlantic, it was 50,000 miles. One seventh of the amount almost. It's really, really big difference. And so here's the kicker, right? If you have a Delta card, you only earn Delta miles, so you have to pay the 320,000.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (18:46.765) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (19:02.124) Hmm.   Eli Facenda (19:12.497) but if you had an Amex card that earned Amex points, so like the Amex gold or business gold, you could actually convert those points into Virgin to book the Delta flight because Virgin and Delta are partners, and you'd pay 50,000 points instead of 320,000. So this is the part where like, for people that kind of get this, they're like, whoa, and the other people are like, what did you just say? So I get it can be, it can be tricky for some people that are just getting to grasp it, but I want to make sure to lay out the whole game so people can understand really what's possible for them.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (19:34.764) Yeah   Seth Bradley, Esq. (19:42.329) Totally, totally. Yeah, it's just, mean, I'm sure people out there listening, it's both, right? Some people know these things exist, but they don't know the extent of it. And you're opening up their minds regardless, right? Like all the possibilities. I think most people are just like, sure, I need to find a great car that has a welcome offer of some sort. That's usually what people look at. And then they just try to pick, perhaps they take it a step further and they're looking to see like what they spend money on the most and they'll...   Eli Facenda (19:54.139) Tour then.   Eli Facenda (20:04.443) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (20:11.128) calibrate that card to that. But you're taking it step further because you know, it's kind of just opening yourself up to knowing all the possibilities, right? All these different connections, where to spend the points, where you can earn the points, those sorts of things. How thick is your wallet, man? Do you have, is your wallet like this and it's got 25 cards in it or what?   Eli Facenda (20:19.419) Totally.   Right. Yeah.   Eli Facenda (20:28.123) Haha   Yeah. Yeah.   Well, caveat this first by saying when we work with clients and we might do recommendations for people, I always recommend if you have a business, two to three personal cards and two to three business cards. That is a simple way to set this up. That's only four to six cards across both things. That's enough where you're really gonna get some serious ROI, but it's not so much that's really complicated. Some people are kind of curmudgeoned about it, like I only want one card. And I'm like, that's fine. There's no right or wrong in this. It's really preferential, but you should just know if you do that, you're gonna be leaving for most business owners that spend at least a few thousand a month.   that's gonna cost you tens of thousands of dollars of free trips a year. So I'm like, is your simplicity of having one card worth that much? If it is, great, but maybe having a second or third card doesn't add that much complexity. But if you get an extra $30,000 a year trip out of it, probably worth it, right? So that's the first thing. But to answer your actual question, so I have an entire thing called the Credit Man purse. It's like this portfolio binder, and it's just stacked with cards. I mean, I have over 40 credit cards, but I've been doing this for a long time, right? And there's like, here's the thing also with credit.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (21:28.28) Hahaha   Eli Facenda (21:34.041) A big question, a lot of investors, specifically people that are doing real estate or business owners, really want to their credit clean and we're huge advocates of actually not just keeping your credit score the same but improving it over time. And when you get business cards, they don't show up on your personal credit report. Okay, the vast majority. The inquiry will, but the actual card won't. And some banks, you can actually get multiple cards with no additional inquiries. So like when we do a custom card plan for someone or when we're just recommending it, we're always saying like, make sure to look at which banks you already have relationships with.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (21:48.142) Mm-hmm.   Eli Facenda (22:02.373) which ones you can get a soft pull from, the order matters of these card applications. But at end of the day, you just want a couple of specific cards that are really gonna be custom built for you, and you don't have to go crazy with it. If you get excited and you're like passionate about it, you can get 10, 15, 20 cards over the course of several years, and if you do it right underneath your businesses, it's not gonna drop your personal credit score. Your personal credit score will actually go up over time.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (22:26.314) Mm-hmm. That's a good hack, man. I'll get I'm put you on a spot a little bit. I'm gonna explain like what what I see a lot of the people that are probably listen to this show have in place structured wise like organizational structure and it's kind of similar to mine. Mine's probably a lot more complicated, but just to keep it simple, you know, there might be a parent company, right? Like this overhead parent company that owns everything. So let's let's call it parent company, right? And then below the parent company, the parent company owns, let's say a management company.   This management company probably manages funds, manages properties, manages equity for investors, that sort of thing. And then they also might have these other businesses, right? Like it just depends on the person. Like for instance, I own gyms and some other, my law firm, things like that. So they might have these own individual operating companies that owns a gym or owns another business or does these other things. you know.   Eli Facenda (22:55.889) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (23:20.066) Based on that structure, so you've got a parent company, you've got a, let's call it an equity management or fund management or property management company, and then you've got kind of this other operating business. How would you structure, what credit cards I guess would you kind of recommend? Not necessarily specific ones, but like, do they need one for all three or, yeah, how would you think about that?   Eli Facenda (23:27.301) Mm-hmm.   Eli Facenda (23:36.593) Yeah, yeah, but how would you think about that? Yeah, totally. I mean, it's a super common question. Like this is exactly the kind of clientele that we work with all the time where they're like, are you sure this is gonna work for me? I have four rental properties, two companies, one holding company. I have an investment thing. I have this thing over here. It's like, yeah, it all works. So simple is the key. So it's always a spectrum too. Like some people are, again, really minimalist with like what they want. we always, like when we're doing this for a client, we custom build it. But.   The real recommendation there is we wanna, again, assess which of these companies are actually generating the highest amount of spend. And those are the ones we wanna start with first in terms of cards and really optimizing. Now, if you have a bunch of different companies and they all have a bunch of spend, the first key thing to know is that the points will go to the business owner, the person who personally guaranteed the card, not to the business. So there's no business points account. It's underneath your name, even if it's underneath the LLC.   So the points go to you. So if you have like six different companies and you have like three Chase cards and three Amex cards, all of those three Chase cards and all of those three Amex cards are gonna basically funnel up to your account, okay? So that keeps it simple in terms of how you can think about accruing these points. They're not gonna be scattered everywhere where you can't use them. So that's good to know. Same with the airlines, right? doesn't matter if it's an airline or a bank card. So that's the first thing. For these management companies, usually lot of them don't have much spend.   So what we'll tend to do is just get one card that is like a catch-all card. And so this would be a card that we want to have earn around 1.5 to two points per dollar spent. Because what we've done is we've taken the floor of what you're gonna earn on your everyday spend and we just increase it by 50 to 100%. Okay, so like let's say a parent company is used for some client meetings and some basic legal and admin stuff and it's like 1,500 bucks a month just to do upkeep and normal stuff like that.   and it's not a crazy amount of different categories to spend. You're not running ads, you don't have that much software, there's not really a lot travel happening with it. But if that's the case, then what we wanna do is get a card, maybe like the Chase Inc. Unlimited, which earns 1.5x on everything, and we'll say, look, we're gonna keep this simple. That holding company doesn't have a lot of points earning power, so let's make sure we get a card on it just to earn, but we don't wanna like go crazy and get a bunch of cards and try to maximize every dollar. But this company that owns four different gyms and spends...   Eli Facenda (25:52.369) 50K a month on equipment and advertising and payroll and all this stuff, that's the company where we wanna look to get maybe two or three cards that are specifically aligned with that business to spend because that is where you as an entrepreneur, as an owner, are gonna be generating the most return. It's gonna be from that one entity. So I hope that breaks it down in a way that makes sense, but this is also where, again, having your cards across two to three main banks will keep it relatively simple because even if you have four different entities, if it's under one Amex login, that makes it nice and easy too.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (26:22.53) Totally, totally. Awesome, man. I knew you could handle that. Easy, easy peasy. Cool, man. Let's go to number two, right? Using the points effectively. You kind of touched on a little bit of that strategy, but let's jump into that.   Eli Facenda (26:26.682) Easy basic.   Eli Facenda (26:32.709) Yeah, yeah, so the second thing was optimizing the upgrades and all that. I'll cover that one really quick. If you're going through the airport and you don't have TSA PreCheck and clear and lounge access, you're missing out on some really easy perks that will just make your life way more enjoyable. So that's the first thing. There's a lot you can do with hotel upgrades and status. So like when I travel and go to Miami tonight for a conference, I have status at Hyatt. I'm staying at Hyatt for two of the nights down here.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (26:39.628) Okay.   Eli Facenda (27:02.225) I probably would get upgraded to a suite that's worth like thousand to 1500 bucks a night because I know how to use the suite and I certificate, it's my globalist status, I know how to message the hotel the right way. So there's some strategies there where if you do that, whenever you're traveling, you just get a much better experience. You get early check-in, late check-out, the free suite upgrade, much more spacious room. A lot of times they have lounges at the property like when we were in Tokyo, a bunch of us stayed at the Grand Hyatt there. They had a beautiful lounge overlooking the city. They had breakfast every morning.   They had drinks all day. They had a great lounge area. We actually had a mastermind session in there and they like a 15 person breakout room for us to go to. It cost us $0 to use it. They had afternoon drinks and stuff like that. So these are just the things that make your travel much better. So small tweaks that over time just again, make it a much more enjoyable experience. But that bucket on how you use your points, this is one of the most critical pieces. And I've already kind of alluded to it with that Delta One example, but   I'll share another one. So on the way to Japan, right, we flew ANA business class. This is all Nippon. It's one of the premier airlines in the world for international business class travel. They actually have a seat called The Room because it's so spacious and big, your own big sliding door. They have like an omakase menu. You've got ramen, champagne. It's like really, really good. Amazing sake and green tea and all this good stuff.   It was like an incredible way to fly and you know, it's an 11 hour flight and I didn't sleep a wink because I was just eating the whole time. But here's the deal, right? So that flight for my fiance and I, it would have been $20,000 for the two of us. It's 10,000 a piece. Okay, San Francisco to Tokyo. We're going in peak season, mind you. So I have three options to book that flight. I pay cash for it, which you know, I do decent in business, but I'm not dropping 20 grand on flights.   just to get to Japan, like that's out, that's way out of my bucket of what I would ever want to do. The second option, I go to the bank site. Okay, so again, if you have AMEX points, a lot of people have AMEX cards, like the platinum or the gold card, and this is a good start, but when you go to the bank site, each point is worth one penny. Okay, this is the baseline value of a point. So what happens is if you go to AMEX travel, they'll say, okay, this flight would cost, let's call it 20 grand. So 20 grand times one cent for each point equals 2 million points.   Eli Facenda (29:20.977) So my second option would have been to go to Amex's site and pay two million points, which I don't even have. Okay, so I'm like, that wouldn't have even worked, but that's what most people are doing at use points. They're going directly to the bank site and they're booking using Amex travel and they're getting absolutely screwed. Okay. There's kind of, and then there's a third option, which is to go through the airline site. So there's like three A and three B. Three A would be like, again, you only have Delta miles and you're kind of screwed going just to Delta. I don't recommend that. But the last option is what we did.   which is where we had Amex points and Chase points, and I looked at my different options and I said, okay, what are the best partner airlines I can book through to get to Japan? Well, it turns out, ANA is a part of the Star Alliance, okay? United is also part of that alliance. Chase and United have a partnership where I could convert my Chase points into United miles. When I looked that up, I ended up finding the deal and there's ways you have to kind of search this and track it, but that same flight that would have cost me two million points,   through Amex or Chase travel directly cost me 220,000 points to transfer from Chase to United. And I paid $12 out of Okay, so $20,000 flight, I paid 12 bucks. But how did I do it? I had the right points first. I had enough of them because I had the right cards and the right expenses. I knew how to search for this flight. And then I was able to transfer these points from Chase into the airline. So the hardest part of this entire process   Seth Bradley, Esq. (30:30.402) Hmm.   Eli Facenda (30:49.413) is figuring out the points transfers and which partners are the right ones for certain airlines. That gets very nuanced and complicated. It's kind of like, you know, if you were talking to a CPA and someone's trying to explain how like the Augusta rule works, whatever, and like the CPA pulls up like the tax code and is like unveiling this long list of tax jargon. The average person is just like, what, just like tell me how to do it, right? That's kind of the same thing here. There's a lot of different like angles and transfer partners and bonuses and.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (31:12.43) Right.   Eli Facenda (31:17.689) alliances and partnerships and it gets kind of complicated but that's how it works.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (31:22.434) Totally, totally. So let's talk about that. how do you help people keep track of that or learn that or execute, I guess, on these strategies?   Eli Facenda (31:32.241) Sure, yeah, so for us, our company really has two main levels to it. So we have a community-based level where it's like you're just getting the fast track, you're getting help from experts. So I'm really good at this, but I'm more of an entrepreneur than a points nerd. So as I built this, initially I was the one on the phone with all the clients, walking everyone through it, and then I built a team. So I found basically some of the other points nerds in the world that I was mind blown by. I knew them from social media and just seeing their stuff, and I was like, that person has their stuff. So I brought them onto the team.   And so our clients will interact with both me and them inside of our community, but it's not just points. We're also providing really cool travel experiences. So for example, I posted this, but I'm going kiteboarding in Egypt in June on this epic like entrepreneur kiteboard trip where it's 40 entrepreneurs going to learn how to kiteboard together and masterminding on one. And so I'm attending, I sent it out to our clients and I said, Hey, if you want to come on this, our team will help you plan the flights out there on your point so you can get business class on the way out.   So I like to, because ultimately I wanna help people, my mission is to help people create more experiential wealth in their life. There's financial wealth, and a lot of people accumulate dollars, but they're not turning it into experiences. So I'm like, let's create more experiential wealth, and the points are the way to justify it. So we have that community level where you get access to our team, there's calls you can jump on, ways we help you plan trips, and then we have the done for you services, where we basically just handle it for you. That's more like, think of like a travel agency on points for entrepreneurs.   That's more of what that is. And in there we'll do the custom card planning and map out what cards you need based off of what your specific spends are and stuff like that. So we do some pretty deep intake. And we kind of are almost like a travel agent. It's a little bit different in some ways, but that's basically the two levels in how we help people.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (33:12.29) Great, man. I love how you build in the experience, right? Like that's part of it. Like that's what you're teaching anyway. So it's like, it's not like, hey, join this, join this group and then we'll talk about all these things. You're actually doing it. You're actually inviting them to execute on what you're teaching so that they can see it in motion and then they can continue to do it and experience life at a different level.   Eli Facenda (33:32.497) Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, like, I really love it too. like, I'm like, everyone that works with us is really, usually a pretty cool person. Like, if you're an entrepreneur and you have the guts to build your own business, and then you wanna travel the world, like by nature of that, you're already probably a pretty cool person. Like the majority of people that are doing that, I think well-traveled people are some of the most interesting people. If you want the best stories in life, like, someone who's traveled the world is gonna have some stories for you. And so when you combine those two, it's like, these are people I wanna hang out with anyways. So like, I'm going on a trip to Egypt. I'm like, come with, like.   Whoever in the community wants to come, let's have a party, let's go do it. So it's great thing.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (34:04.994) That's great. Awesome, man. How are you raising the bar in your life and your business right now? Like what are you doing to build your business further, building off of some of the things that you're offering right now? Where are you taking it to the next level?   Eli Facenda (34:18.833) Yeah, so we have a new project we're rolling out inside of our community, which I'm really excited about, which is even just in our lower tier membership, and it's called our DreamTrip Alert System. So what this is, is when people come in, this has never been done before in the world of points and miles or travel at all. So we're the first to do this, which I'm really excited about. So let's say you were to sign up. You're gonna come in and give us your DreamTrip destinations, the seasons or windows that you could go, the points you have, your home airport, all this stuff.   and our team is going through and we're not just finding you like a flight, because there are different alerts out there that'll be like, hey, we found a flight. And it's like, cool, one way from LA to London, but like, what am I gonna do when I'm there? Where am gonna stay? How am getting back? Right, it's like part of the puzzle, but it leaves a lot on you to figure out. And for our clients, most business owners and entrepreneurs, investors, they're too busy to piece all that together. So they're like, well, cool, that doesn't really help me. So we decided to do, we said, what if we...   just basically sent people like a mystery subscription box of their dream trips. And so when you come in and you fill that out, we gather it. And then a couple times a month, we're gonna send out alerts where it's like a 30, 40 or $50,000 type trip, somewhere incredible in the world. We're talking Greek islands, Amalfi Coast, Japan, New Zealand, African safaris, Maldives, Bora Bora, places like that, business and first class flights, five star hotels, four pennies on the dollar. So these are like, we get $40,000 trips where people will end up paying a thousand bucks, 1500 bucks, two grand out of pocket.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (35:25.389) Mm-hmm.   Eli Facenda (35:44.337) And so we're gonna send the entire trip to you. So it's like the flights, the hotels, the entire step-by-step booking, the recommendations on the ground, the entire experience. And so we're sending those out so people come in, they tell us when, where, like the things they wanna do, and then they're just gonna get these alerts where it's like every month they're gonna be like, you you're sitting there with your wife, hey babe, you wanna go to Bora Bora in like June? It's gonna cost us like 800 bucks and it would be a $30,000 trip. It's like that's what I want. That's what I wanna create. So that's us raising the bar in the industry and in our business.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (36:06.35) you   Eli Facenda (36:13.615) I'm very excited, it's brand new for us, so I'm just pumped to see that continue to roll out, because it's, for me the mission is to help people live with experiential wealth in the form of travel. And so, usually there's some barriers that get in the way. There's time, there's planning, and then there's cost. And what we're trying to do is eliminate as many of those barriers as we can to make it just easier to say yes to the trip.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (36:34.252) Yeah, man, sign me up, dude. Sign me up. I feel like you've got to get both significant others on your list, right? So they both see it and whoever's like the person is like, we've got to do this, you hit both of them and then they convince the other one to do it.   Eli Facenda (36:36.625) All right.   Eli Facenda (36:49.477) Yeah, right. Yeah, exactly. There's usually one. There's usually like sometimes it's the husband's on the call and he's like, dude, I don't know where we ever travel. Like I'm gonna pay for this, my wife's gonna do everything or it's the opposite where the guy's like, you know, she just shows up and I tell her where we're going. And so like that's my relationship. I'll be like, you know, it's my industry, my passion. I'm like, we're going here and then here. And she's like, tell me where to be. And she just has no idea where we are and she just loves it. And I'm like, I like planning. So, you know, but it's different for everybody.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (37:11.736) Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (37:17.144) For sure, for sure, man. All right, brother, this has been incredible. Tell our audience where they can find out more about you, where they can get involved with all the things, all the incredible things that they've heard on this show. Throw it out there,   Eli Facenda (37:28.859) Totally. Yeah, a couple of main places. So the first thing I'll share is that we have what I call the CEO Points Playbook. This is something I custom built. Took me a long time, and this was not a Chad TBT prompt. Like, I really built this on my own. And it is like a 30 to 40 page playbook that any business owner or entrepreneur can use to really maximize their travel experiences, get better bucket list trips, figure out the right cards for them. And it's normally 150 bucks, but if you go to freedomtravelsystems.com   forward slash playbook and you put in the code RAYS, you're gonna get it for free. Okay, so anyone listening, it is free for you. And so that's gonna be freedomtravelsystems.com forward slash playbook and then use the code RAYS, maybe we can put it in the show notes. And so that'll be the first thing. Second place is if you're like just want done for you services, just take off that forward slash and go to freedomtravelsystems.com. can talk to myself and one of the team members. And the last place, I hang out on Instagram and post a lot there, that's where we connected.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (38:14.049) Absolutely.   Eli Facenda (38:27.595) And that's where I'm sharing the most like behind the scenes and as I'm booking this stuff, as I'm planning it, as I'm showing like what our clients are doing, you get to see more of the visuals and the fun and come along for the ride. And so I love engaging on Instagram as well.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (38:40.27) Great. Thanks Eli. I really appreciate you coming on the show,   Eli Facenda (38:43.973) Thanks Seth, appreciate you having me on.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (38:45.806) All right, brother, talk soon.   All right, sweet dude. Nice. Yeah, right around 30 minutes. Let's see. Yeah, we'll just jump into these last few questions here.   Eli Facenda (38:51.748) Awesome.   Eli Facenda (38:55.205) Perfect.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (39:03.862) Welcome to Million Dollar Monday with Eli Fisenda. Let's just jump right in. Hey brother. Yeah, how did you make your first million?   Eli Facenda (39:09.243) Let's do it.   Eli Facenda (39:13.499) So I actually made my first million in a tour company. Now I made the first million, I didn't get to keep the first million, but what we were doing, we were running sports trips all over the world. This is actually part of how I fell in love with the travel industry and the work that I now do with points. And ultimately what we were doing, we were creating these international tour packages for youth sports teams and families to go on these international tours. think of like a 14 year old baseball team in your, you're in San Diego. We'd like do a selection of kids.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (39:19.694) Sure.   Eli Facenda (39:41.329) from that area and the families would come and they would go to Japan or Italy or wherever and travel for 10 days, experience the culture, have an educational tour and also play the local teams. So we did that in a variety of sports, ice hockey and baseball and lacrosse and all these different sports. And we were growing a lot and then that was ramping right until COVID and that just decimated the entire business. we took us about two years to get to a million and then we started to double almost every year for a few years and that was like.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:02.432) Mm.   Eli Facenda (40:09.399) Really, really tough break at COVID, but that was the first million.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:11.63) COVID man. Nobody saw that coming. mean.   Eli Facenda (40:13.881) No, definitely, you know, group, large, large group sports international travel was like the worst potential. Like you can't go overseas and you definitely can't do it with 60 people. So was, was a brutal industry to be in.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:25.506) Right? Yeah, there were certain sectors that just, I mean, there was nothing you could do. We opened up our first gym actually two weeks before COVID hit in 2020. we had our, us like two years to open and then our grand opening. And then we had a bunch of free clients in those first two weeks. And then they ended up being free clients for about a year because we couldn't charge them. Cause we couldn't get them back in the gym. We're doing online workouts and all that kind of stuff is insane.   Eli Facenda (40:36.817) Ugh.   Eli Facenda (40:47.696) Wow.   Eli Facenda (40:53.337) And that's like where the true entrepreneurial muscles are definitely strengthened in times like that though. mean, like the people that bounce back and figure it out, like you just have a new sense of confidence of like, you know, I can handle anything.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:54.22) But hey, we adapt,   Seth Bradley, Esq. (41:06.764) Yeah, man. I mean, you pivot, right? Like I actually ended up launching my first podcast during during COVID because I was stuck inside and it was like, all right, let's let's do this. Let's get on Zoom and interview people and all that kind of stuff, man. So that leads us right to the next question. And how do you make your last million? How do you make that transition?   Eli Facenda (41:12.859) Cool.   Nice. Cool. I'll it.   Eli Facenda (41:24.143) Yeah, so the last million that I made was in the current business that I have. so essentially what we've been doing there for about four years now is helping entrepreneurs maximize their travel on credit card points. So helping them get their dream bucket list trips, these 30, 40, $50,000 trips all over the world for about 90 % off by leveraging credit card points. And we've traditionally had some pretty high ticket services. I mean, not crazy expensive, but like, you five, 10, 15 K and that range has been the main main service. And so,   We cracked our first million about two years in, so that was 2020, 2024 actually was the first year we made a million there.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (42:00.526) Awesome man, awesome. How about your next million? Where are you scaling to?   Eli Facenda (42:04.305) Yeah, so the next million I wanna make is the same business. love what I do, I really enjoy it. And what I wanna do is do it in a more community oriented and lower ticket way. So I wanna have bigger reach, more digital products, more of the community, more affiliate services and stuff like that. And I'm really excited about kind of cracking the code on that, because we've done it decently with the higher ticket stuff, more agency level, service level stuff, which is great. And we're still cranking on that, we're gonna keep growing it. But I really wanna see what we can do with...   So the lower ticket stuff, creating awesome stuff on YouTube that leads to different channels and distributions there. So that's the next million and same business, just different type of money.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (42:41.57) I love it man, yeah, that's kind of opposite of how some people approach it, right? You usually start with a lower ticket and then you have to build up that base before anybody will give you, you know, higher, pay for that higher ticket product, but you're kind of working backwards because you want to help more people.   Eli Facenda (42:56.677) Totally, exactly, yeah, and there's a limit. mean, what we do in the high ticket is incredible, but it really is a specialized skill. Like you think about like a bookkeeper or an accounting firm or something, like there's like a million bookkeepers. There's like 50 people that know points and travel to the level that I need them to know it to really serve clients with the highest level. So there's a real limit on the ability to scale that. And so it's also just like, we wanna be able to do really quality work for less people, but then serve more people with the other stuff too.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (43:25.368) Totally, totally.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (43:29.518) Cool, let's jump into the next one dude and we'll wrap up. Eli, you're clearly in the top 1 % of what you do. I don't even know if there's that many people out there that do what you do at all, period. So clearly in the top 0.0001%, what is it about you that separates you from the rest of the field?   Eli Facenda (43:49.701) I think it's our ability to actually live what we preach. This is something where, you know, there are other fantastic people that talk about credit card points, but very few of them are actually business owners, like that's who we serve, and very few of them are actually traveling in the way that they're trying to help people travel. So we've done both. I've built multiple businesses, so I understand the psychology and the relatability of how you wanna think about travel and points and the various stresses in your life, the limitations on time and complexity. And I also,   Seth Bradley, Esq. (44:06.062) Hmm.   Eli Facenda (44:20.636) What just happened?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (44:22.998) I'm not sure. We can splice it together, but let's see. Lost the video.   Eli Facenda (44:26.748) Let me see here. Did my camera die or something?   Bizarre. second.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (44:36.076) Yeah, weird. Never had that happen.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (44:42.038) Not a big deal, we can splice it together, but let's see if we can get your camera working again.   Eli Facenda (44:46.992) Don't see my camera get help. Is the audio coming through okay? Did it switch over there to my MacBook from the other one? Or it sounds the same.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (44:51.564) Yeah, I can hear the audio.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (44:57.806) I don't know. All I see is like a car. It's like I don't know. It's a card with a symbol on it I wonder what that is that riverside or is that your symbol? I can't be your symbol   Eli Facenda (45:06.556) weird. Get help.   Eli Facenda (45:12.006) Let me see.   trying to check this out.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (45:19.458) We can also just finish it with audio.   Eli Facenda (45:23.556) Is it, Dude, I don't know what's going on. Sorry about that. I've never seen...   Seth Bradley, Esq. (45:28.654) no worries, dude. We can just finish it with audio anyways.   Eli Facenda (45:31.63) New recording track created the participants have been recorded.   Issue device struggling to record. High load on your device. Try closing all other apps. Give me one second. I don't have any apps open. That's really weird.   Eli Facenda (45:53.126) Yeah, I don't know man. I apologize. I Okay, well yeah   Seth Bradley, Esq. (45:57.219) you're good, We'll just finish an audio and then I'll pull up for the video. I'll just black screen to a logo or something. So all good. I don't exactly know where you're at. If you want to start that sentence over.   Eli Facenda (46:04.048) Okay, cool.   Eli Facenda (46:07.866) Yeah, I'll just, I'll say, I'll just start. So yeah, so not only have we really walked the walk with actually living what we preach, but we also understand that psychology of what it's like to be a business owner, your limitations on time and complexity and all that stuff. And because we're talking about travel, people also want to know like what's actually in store for me in this destination. I've been to 50 countries now and my business partner has been to almost 100.   We have other team members who are all over 30, 40, 50 countries. So we've been to a lot of the destinations around the world that we're advising people to go to. So we know the ins and outs, best places to stay, hidden gems, top restaurants, stuff like that, that really add another layer of personalization and true experience into the service. So I think those are the things that really make us most credible in this space.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (46:57.506) Dude, it's so important, right? Like there's so many, you know, there's so much content out there now. There's gurus and coaches and mentors, whatever you want to call them. Like the ones that are truly valuable and that people should pay attention to are the ones that are actually practicing what they preach, right? The ones that aren't just selling you education or aren't just selling you a product. Like they're actually, they've done what they're selling and they continue to   enjoy or do what they're selling.   Eli Facenda (47:28.635) 100%, yeah, if you're a living embodiment of what you do, it makes it that much easier to communicate it and sell it because you just are the thing you're selling.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (47:38.764) Yeah, absolutely. What's one thing someone listening could do today to get 1 % closer to their dream life?   Eli Facenda (47:45.089) One thing that would be the easiest is to spend 30 minutes, go on Instagram, go on your favorite social media site, go on some travel blog site, look for your dream destination, then pull up your calendar and put a time on the calendar where you're committing to go. One of my favorite quotes is from Tim Ferriss, I forget the exact quote, but basically the idea is that if you don't schedule your fun first, it won't happen.   because your business and your life will take up as much space as you allow it to. So most people find that I'll take the trip when it's convenient. I'll take the trip when I have more time. That time is never coming until you make it a priority. So the one thing they can do to get closer to their dream life is to just make a more bold commitment to putting the time on the calendar and be like, I am going and make some sort of investment, whether you're telling someone, whether you're putting some money down, whether you're learn the point stuff, that's gonna be the biggest leverage you can make.   to make sure that you actually follow through on taking these trips and then you'll find how to get there on points if you need to from there.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (48:50.766) 100 % man, gotta put it, people, entrepreneurs, people like us, we work in all the time, you've gotta put it, put it in your schedule. You've gotta block it out, commit to it.   Eli Facenda (48:59.821) Absolutely, 100%.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (49:04.554) Alright dude, I think we got it wrapped up, man.   Eli Facenda (49:05.743) Beautiful. Awesome, Dan. Well, this was super fun and I apologize agai

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I cover Snowflake's investment in Hightouch to advance agentic AI for personalized marketing.Highlights00:03 — Snowflake Ventures, the investment arm of Snowflake, alongside Capital One Ventures, has announced an investment in Hightouch, a data and AI platform focused on personalized, targeted marketing. In 2024, Hightouch launched an agentic AI solution for lifecycle marketing called AI Decisioning.00:35 — Adam Kaufman, Vice President, Global Head of Industry Go To Market at Snowflake, shared insights about the investment: "By building directly on top of Snowflake's unified platform for data and AI, Hightouch enables marketers to execute faster with less complexity and more control. We're excited to support their continued growth and innovation in the AI Data Cloud."01:08 — This investment represents the confidence that major players like Snowflake have in agentic AI for marketing use cases. Interestingly, agentic AI for marketing was one of the first use cases to be discussed when the technology emerged not so long ago, and has obvious applications, particularly in the area of personalization.01:31 — However, this level of AI-driven personalization comes with its challenges, like data privacy regulations — especially regarding consent, transparency in decision making, and data security. This investment by Snowflake Ventures is encouraging because it should help shape the direction of agentic AI-driven marketing. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Ann Rose is a farmer living off the grid in rural North Carolina, where she's spent most of her life deeply connected to the Appalachian Mountains and forests. After a series of droughts made farming more difficult, she found herself stuck and ready for change. At 58, she set out to kayak from North Carolina to the Gulf of Mexico. The journey brought unfamiliar waters, unpredictable weather, and more than a few alligators.Connect with Ann: InstagramTikTokYouTubeThank you to our sponsors: Capital One and the REI Co-op® Mastercard® Terns — used code “WILD” at checkout to receive 25% off your first order.

(Disclaimer: Click 'more' to see ad disclosure) Geobreeze Travel is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as MileValue.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.  ➤ Free points 101 course (includes hotel upgrade email template)https://geobreezetravel.com/freecourse  ➤ Free credit card consultations https://airtable.com/apparEqFGYkas0LHl/shrYFpUr2zutt5515 ➤ Seats.Aero: https://geobreezetravel.com/seatsaero ➤ Request a free personalized award search tutorial: https://go.geobreezetravel.com/ast-form If you are interested in supporting this show when you apply for your next card, check out https://geobreezetravel.com/cards and if you're not sure what card is right for you, I offer free credit card consultations athttps://geobreezetravel.com/consultations!Timestamps:00:00 Introduction to Mary Ellen and The Wonderland on Points Podcast03:35 First redemptions and early mistakes booking via portals04:30 Switzerland trip that convinced her husband of points value08:00 Flights overview – Air France business class with Amex MR09:25 Return flights – Iberia business class via Madrid + transfer bonus10:45 Layover in Madrid and surprising their son with a soccer jersey11:45 Using positioning flights within Europe with no extra points12:45 Why Air France is family-friendly13:30 Hotel 1: Lausanne Palace via Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts14:55 Hotel 2: Interlaken hotel with Capital One credit15:55 Hotel 3: Paid using Hotels.com gift cards via Fetch16:20 Hotel 4: Mount Pilatus mountaintop splurge 17:35 Hotel 5: Zurich Hyatt Place using Chase points17:55 Using maxfhr.com and strategy for choosing $200/night 19:25 Capital One Travel portal tips & 10x point earnings21:45 Upcoming France trip booked with Capital One Travel22:15 How she earned $200+ in Hotels.com gift cards via Fetch23:00 Fetch strategies – referrals, receipts, game hacks24:00 Fetch = free Starbucks or long-term savings for travel25:45 How they avoid budget blowouts by prepping menus and prices26:45 Using Swiss Travel Pass to cover transport and museums27:45 Saving on rainy day activities with free museum access28:25 Budgeting for big excursions like paragliding29:20 Paragliding Interlaken – why they picked a reputable company30:30 Don't skimp on safety with skydiving, LASIK, or paragliding31:15 Visiting Crash Landing on You K-drama filming locations32:45 How the show created a tourism boom in Switzerland33:30 K-drama favorites: Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Vincenzo, Good Boy34:20 Final tip: pick a dream trip to guide your points strategy35:00 Where to find Mary Ellen online and request her Switzerland itinerary35:45 Closing reflection and full-circle podcast momentYou can find Julia at: ➤ Free course: https://julia-s-school-9209.thinkific.com/courses/your-first-points-redemption➤ Website: https://geobreezetravel.com/ ➤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geobreezetravel/ ➤ Credit card links: https://www.geobreezetravel.com/cards ➤ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/geobreezetravelYou can find the Wonderland on Points Podcast at:➤ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WonderlandonPointsPodcast Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post. The content of this video is accurate as of the posting date. Some of the offers mentioned may no longer be available.

Ken Vrana is a Senior Director at Western Alliance's Juris Banking Group. He specializes in crafting customized capital solutions for law firms, alternative legal service providers, and legal tech companies. With a deep expertise in complex banking relationships, he provides his clients with in-depth guidance on operating and fiduciary account setup and ongoing management, including advising on fraud mitigation tactics, advanced payables, and receivable services to streamline overall firm operations. With over two decades of banking experience, Ken serves as a trusted advisor to stakeholders across the legal community and regularly leverages his extensive network to build meaningful connections. His unmatched dedication to navigating clients' transactional and credit banking needs with ease underscores his long-standing commitment to legal professionals nationwide. Prior to joining Western Alliance, he had significant tenures at Capital One and Citizens Bank, where he helped clients optimize their operations, drive growth, and enhance profitability. Ken received his Bachelor of Arts from Mount Saint Mary College. WHAT'S COVERED IN THIS EPISODE ABOUT LAW FIRM BANKING AND FINANCIAL STRATEGY Most lawyers master the practice of law but struggle with the business side. From managing cash flow to protecting client funds from cybercrime, the financial realities of running a law firm present challenges most lawyers were never trained to handle. Ken Vrana works specifically with law firms to help them make smarter financial decisions and avoid common pitfalls. He sees firsthand how smaller firms are often targeted by fraudsters because they lack the robust protection systems of larger firms, and how many firms leave money on the table by not optimizing their payment processes or banking relationships. From startup firms hanging their shingle to established practices pursuing growth through mergers, Ken shares practical insights on choosing the right banking partners, setting up proper fraud protection, and why the relationship with your banker might be more important than you think. In this episode of The Lawyer's Edge podcast, Elise Holtzman speaks with Ken about protecting your firm's funds, streamlining cash flow, and why treating your banker as a trusted advisor could be one of the smartest business decisions you make. 1:51 - Banking challenges facing large and smaller firms 6:23 - The benefits of using specialized legal banking over a local bank branch 9:43 - Common mistakes by law firms in their banking and financial management choices 14:52 - Guidance for new law firms to start on a solid footing with legal banking 19:21 - Why legal banks like Juris see startup firms as valuable clients 21:56 - Considerations for law firms pursuing growth 23:53 - Culture mismatches as a leading cause of merger failures  27:17 - Players who should be involved in your firm's growth or merger 29:53 - Reasons for having multiple banking relationships 32:19 - The importance of regularly re-evaluating if a banking relationship is a good fit  35:40 - Large firms' lack of immunity to financial management problems, despite having more resources 37:24 - The value of banking relationships and understanding their importance MENTIONED IN BANKING AND FINANCIAL STRATEGY FOR LAW FIRMS THAT WANT TO GROW Connect with Ken on LinkedIn Western Alliance Bank | LinkedIn Get connected with the coaching team: hello@thelawyersedge.com The Lawyer's Edge SPONSOR FOR THIS EPISODE… Today's episode is brought to you by the Ignite Women's Business Development Accelerator, a 9-month business development program created BY women lawyers for women lawyers. Ignite is a carefully designed business development program containing content, coaching, and a community of like-minded women who are committed to becoming rainmakers AND supporting the retention and advancement of other women in the profession.  If you are interested in either participating in the program or sponsoring a woman in your firm to enroll, learn more about Ignite and sign up for our registration alerts by visiting www.thelawyersedge.com/ignite.

Ted Neward currently labors on behalf of Capital One as a Senior Distinguished Engineer, leveraging his speaking, writing, and coding experience to bring a technology-focused and -sharpened mindset to the mortgage industry. During his more code-focused years, he specialized in high-scale enterprise systems, working with clients ranging in size from Fortune 500 corporations to small 10-person shops. He is an authority in Java and .NET technologies, particularly in the areas of Java/.NET integration (both in-process and via integration tools like Web services), programming languages of all forms, back-end enterprise software systems, and virtual machine/execution engine plumbing.   He is the author or co-author of several books, including Professional F# 2.0, Effective Enterprise Java, C# In a Nutshell, SSCLI Essentials, Server-Based Java Programming, and a contributor to several technology journals. All told, he has written well over a hundred articles in both print and online form.   Ted has also been an “insider” of one form or another with a variety of the technology providers of the world: an IBM Champion of Cloud, a Microsoft F# MVP (having also been an Architect and C# MVP in prior years), an F# Insider, C# Insider, VB Insider, INETA speaker, DevelopMentor instructor, PluralSight course author, and a member of various Java JSRs.   Topics of Discussion: [2:44] Ted's career journey and what keeps him motivated in the industry. [4:16] Why Ted believes the industry is overdue for a new mainstream programming language. [8:12] The evolution of case tools, UML, and why generating code has never been the real problem. [15:14] The challenge of keeping architecture simple versus embracing complexity. [22:33] The role of philosophy in software development. [38:01] Lessons from calculators, fundamentals, and why developers must still master core skills. [38:46] The impact of AI on productivity and job roles. [43:25] The Importance of Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs). [56:26] Ted and Jeffrey talk about a recent article in The Economist, “Jane Street's sneaky retention tactic”. [1:01:54] The importance of writing as a tool for developers to structure their thoughts and improve communication. [1:04:02] A few of the upcoming places and events that you can catch Ted speaking live!   Mentioned in this Episode: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at programming@palermo.net. Ted Neward LinkedIn Visual Studio Live! KCDC Voxxed Days, Crete Build Stuff   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

Ralph and the crew spend the whole hour with Omer Bartov, professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University, who grew up in a Zionist home, lived the first half of his life in Israel, served in the I.D.F. as a soldier and officer and is the author a New York Times op-ed entitled “I'm a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It.” Plus, Ralph pays tribute to legendary Washington Post reporter, Morton Mintz.Omer Bartov is a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University. He has written widely on modern Germany, France, the Holocaust, and representations of war and genocide. He is the author of the Mirrors of Destruction: War, Genocide, and Modern Identity, and the forthcoming book, Israel: What Went Wrong?, and he's penned a New York Times op-ed entitled “I'm a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It.”I published an op-ed in November 2023, and I said there were war crimes, clearly, crimes against humanity, and this will become genocide if it's not stopped. And the Biden administration at the time did nothing. President Biden could have stopped that within two weeks. The Israeli military machine cannot function for more than two or three weeks without constant supply of munitions, without constant supply of financial help, and most importantly, without a diplomatic Iron Dome, especially in the Security Council.Professor Omer BartovIf you say that you are shutting down speech because of anti-Semitism, who are the people who are pushing that? It must be all kinds of Jewish interests that are pushing that. And in that sense, this false campaign against anti-Semitism – some of whose leaders are people with pretty good anti-Semitic credentials themselves – is the best way to raise, to promote and incite anti-Semitism.Professor Omer BartovThere's no moral responsibility, there's no empathy being shown, and much of the population shares that view. To me, as someone who was raised in Israel, spent half of my life there, served four years in the army, to see my own society (including some of my friends) show this kind of moral callousness is frankly quite heartbreaking. And I have to say, it's the result of a long process. It's not only a response to October 7th, it's the result of six decades of occupation, of thinking of Palestinians as not really people who have any right to have rights or any right to health, to security. And in that sense, that long-term occupation has corrupted much of Israeli society. And maybe the most surprising thing is that there's still extraordinary people there who are fighting against that, but their numbers are diminishing, not growing.Professor Omer BartovMorton Mintz was hands-down the greatest consumer reporter of his generation. He opened up one field after another because he had a special sense of newsworthiness that other reporters and editors didn't have. He opened up the coverage of the pharmaceutical industry. He opened up the coverage of the auto industry. And he did so with such formidable documentation and research that other reporters started following the same subject area. So he was a pioneer.Ralph NaderNews 8/1/25* Crusading environmental lawyer Steven Donziger has published a new report in the left-wing outlet Orinoco Tribune on the undercount of the dead in Gaza. In this piece, Donziger uses the statistical model laid out by the prestigious medical journal The Lancet in their 2024 study on the Israeli military campaign, which found the direct and indirect death toll could be as high as 186,000. The Lancet study found that as many as 732 Gazans died every day from these direct and indirect causes. Multiplied by the 594 days the conflict has dragged on, this would equate to a death toll of 434,800, or 20.7% of the enclave's population. As Donziger notes, “If the same level of killing and indirect death that took place in Gaza…happened in the United States proportional to population, roughly 70 million Americans would have been killed.”* In more Gaza news, the Guardian reports that, “On Saturday night, the…IDF…intercepted and boarded the Handala, an aid ship that attempted to reach Gaza as part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition…According to the coalition, IDF soldiers beat and choked…labor activist Chris Smalls.” The severity of the attack on Christian Smalls – founder of the independent Amazon Labor Union (ALU) – caused international outcry. From the Guardian report, “Smalls was physically assaulted by seven uniformed individuals. They choked him and kicked him in the legs, leaving visible signs of violence on his neck and back.” The incident also drew criticism for another reason: Smalls was the only Black person on board the Handala. While 21 members of the Flotilla group were detained, in their words ”abducted,” “This level of force was not used.” It is unclear why this level of force was used against Smalls and Smalls alone, other than the color of his skin.* Yet more tragic news from Gaza concerns the death of Odeh Hadalin, the 31-year-old Palestinian activist and English teacher featured in the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land. Al Jazeera reports that footage taken by Israeli human rights group B'Tselem “appears to show [Israeli settler Yinon] Levi opening fire on Hadalin during a confrontation in the village [of Umm al-Kheir, south of Hebron].” Levi, already sanctioned by the European Union and the United States over past attacks on Palestinians, reportedly told witnesses he was “glad about it.” Despite all of this, an Israeli court has released Levi on house arrest. Basel Adra, who co-directed No Other Land with Yuval Abraham, wrote “This is how Israel erases us — one life at a time.”* One positive development is in progress however. According to the Embassy of France in the United States, "France is prepared to fully recognize the State of Palestine, and will do so in September." French recognition of the Palestinian state, will If it ultimately comes to pass, have major ramifications on the world stage. While 147 member states of the United Nations have recognized Palestine, only 10 out of 27 EU countries have done so, mostly former Eastern Bloc states like Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, and Romania, along with the former country of Czechoslovakia. The modern country of Slovakia has reaffirmed their recognition; Czechia has not. In 2024, several more European nations extended recognition, including Norway, Slovenia, Ireland and Spain. France however would tip the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council to a 3-2 majority in recognition of Palestine, along with Russia and China. Moreover, AP reports the United Kingdom is now saying they will “recognize a Palestinian state in September unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza,” among other conditions. If this happens, The permanent members of the Security Council would be split 4-1, with the United States as the lone holdout. This would be nothing short of an international relations sea change on the question of Palestine.* In some more positive foreign policy news, Jeremy Corbyn's new party in the U.K. is getting started with a bang. According to the man himself, over 600,000 people have signed up to register with the new party, which describes itself as “a new kind of political party. One that is rooted in our communities, trade unions and social movements. One that builds power in all regions and nations. One that belongs to you.” Polls show this new party in the lead among Britons aged 18-24 and Corbyn leading Labour Party leader Keir Starmer by “Almost Every Metric,” among members of the rightwing populist Reform Party. That said, the Reform Party is still projected to win an overwhelming victory compared to all other parties in the next elections, though those are not expected to be held until 2029.* In Congress, Bernie Sanders forced a vote Wednesday on two new Senate resolutions to block arms transfers to Israel. Resolution 34 would “prohibit the U.S.-taxpayer financed $675.7 million sale of 201 MK 83 1,000-pound bombs; 4,799 BLU-110A/B General Purpose 1,000-pound bombs; 1,500 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kits for MK 83 bombs; 3,500 JDAM guidance kits for MK 83 bombs; and related logistics and technical support services,” while Resolution 41 would “prohibit the sale of tens of thousands of fully automatic assault rifles.” These resolutions got the support of 27 Senators, a new record and a majority of the Democratic Senate Caucus, but still far, far short of even a simple Senate majority. Perhaps a more portentous development is that Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene this week became the first Republican in Congress to call the crisis in Gaza a “genocide,” according to the Hill. It remains to be seen whether this will help break the dam on that side of the aisle.* In New York City, new polling shows stunning results for Zohran Mamdani. The new poll conducted by Zenith Research and Public Progress Solutions shows Zohran dominating the 5-way race, earning 50% and beating out the other four candidates combined. Mamdani does even better in head-to-head matches against disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo and corruption-dogged incumbent Mayor Eric Adams. The crosstabs are even more astonishing. Despite the breathless and baseless accusations of antisemitism, Zohran is winning 67% of Jews under age 45 and a whopping 85% of men ages 18-34. This second number is key as Democrats struggle to attract young men. One warning sign: a recent Pew poll shows Republicans with an 18-point lead among men in the Gen Z cohort.* In an ominous challenge to the separation of church and state, the Hill reports President Donald Trump released a memo Monday allowing federal employees to “attempt to persuade co-workers about why their religious beliefs are ‘correct.'” This memo cites “crosses, crucifixes and mezuzah,” as displays of religious indicia that should not result in disciplinary action. This bizarre and constitutionally dubious policy seems likely to lead to workplace discord.* In more Trump news, CBS reports Trump has ousted “Two top Justice Department antitrust officials.” According to sources, two deputies to Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater, who leads DOJ antitrust efforts, were “placed on administrative leave last week and fired on Monday for insubordination.” These two figures are Roger Alford, principal deputy assistant attorney general, and Bill Rinner, deputy assistant attorney general and head of merger enforcement. It is not clear why exactly Alford and Rinner were pushed out, but there has apparently been substantial strife within the administration over the antitrust cases against T-Mobile and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. AAG Slater is also overseeing antitrust lawsuits against Capital One, Apple, Google, and other major companies.* Finally, Wired reports the small Pacific island nation of Tuvalu is planning the first migration of an entire country. Tuvalu, which could be completely submerged by rising sea levels within the next 25 years, is seeking to resettle 280 Tuvaluans in Australia each year. This climate-driven mass migration is a stark sign of things to come if the international community continues to dither or deny the reality of the oncoming climate catastrophe. Today Tuvalu, tomorrow the world.This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

In today's podcast episode, we'll talk about how JetBlue bonvoyed Nick, how Accor bonvoyed Greg, and finally, two new transferable points programs and a new credit card that allows us to earn transferable points.Giant Mailbag(00:58) - "I've noticed that you love to be underwhelmed by the Amex Green card. In your recent episode about travel cards, it seemed like you couldn't contain your boredom with it, despite its valuable 3x Amex points for all types of travel ... A major benefit that you may have overlooked is constant Amex Offers from travel providers, which I've combined with the 3x on the Green card for a lot of value."Catch Episode 315 here.Card News(05:43) - Citi Strata Elite. Here's what we expect...(08:59) - Southwest card offers...Crazy Thing: Citi!(15:09) - Citi to Accor 1 to 1Bonvoyed(17:54) - Capital One brings back baseball tickets, but shuts out Venture X cardholders(21:08) - JetBlue's 25% off sale with code SAVE25...but "fares booked with SAVE25 will not be counted towards 25 for 25"Awards, Points, and More(24:15) - Bilt transforming travel portal(30:52) - JetBlue Mosaic first impressions(35:11) - Escape lounge SJU and The Beekman Tower NYC(38:51) - Greg's experience with Accor Live Limitless(46:26) - Greg's experience flying American Airlines with Alaska milesMain Event: 3 new ways to earn transferable points(50:22) - Why we care so much about transferable points(52:50) - Rove Miles(1:00:58) - Consider using our referral link here.(1:01:33) - MesaRead more about Mesa here.(1:08:55) - Rakuten American Express® CardLearn more about the Rakuten American Express® Card here.Question of the Week(1:17:21) - A rep says you can only use an Alaska Credit Card to book companion fare flights... this is a problem when a companion fare cancellation goes to your Alaska wallet (which then can't be used for a new companion fare according to this new policy.) What gives?Subscribe and FollowVisit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe/ to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don't forget to like and follow us on social media.Music Credit – “Ocean Deep” by Annie Yoder

How can product managers thrive in an AI-first world? In this podcast hosted by Shweta Agrawal, Capital One Fmr VP of Product Management Judy Chow shares insights on leading product strategy in the AI era. She discusses how AI is transforming product development, customer experiences, and the role of product managers in an increasingly intelligent technological landscape. Drawing from her extensive experience across Fortune 500 companies and tech startups, she offers a pragmatic and forward-looking perspective on navigating AI's potential.

Today on CarEdge Live, Ray and Zach discuss the latest data from Capital One and other auto lenders. Tune in to learn more!

Bitcoin just hit all-time highs during Crypto Week, but what comes next? We break down the aftermath of the surge, what it means for digital currency adoption, and whether stablecoins or BTC could ever replace the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency. Plus, we revisit the $20K Bitcoin bottom call from 2022 and ask—what's the next “load-the-boat” price for the 2026 cycle?Netflix just announced that its ad-supported tier is set to double revenue in 2025, yet the stock slipped 5%. Is the market finally getting more disciplined with high-growth valuations, or is something deeper going on? We also talk about potential summer pullbacks in the stock market, and whether earnings week from companies like Capital One and Texas Instruments will reveal cracks—or hidden strength.John Hope Bryant joins the conversation live to talk about Black business growth, AI, real estate, politics, and building wealth that lasts generations. He shares actionable insight on mindset, ownership, and how to navigate today's economy with power and purpose.Invest Fest Ticket Link: https://investfest.com#InvestFest #OperationHOPE #JohnHopeBryant #BlackBusiness #EntrepreneurLife #BusinessGrant #BusinessMentorship #LevelUp #SmallBusinessSupport #1MBBOur Sponsors:* Check out PNC Bank: https://www.pnc.comSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/marketmondays/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Earlier this summer, host Shelby Stanger recorded a live episode of Wild Ideas Worth Living with Alex Honnold at the Outside Festival in Denver, Colorado. Alex is one of the most well-known climbers in the world, best known for his free solo climb of El Capitan— the 3,000-foot vertical wall of granite in Yosemite National Park.In this conversation, Shelby talks to Alex about the projects he's chasing now, how parenthood has shifted his relationship with adventure, and what his approach to free soloing looks like today.Connect with Alex: WebsiteInstagramHonnold FoundationIf you enjoyed this episode listen to Making Art as a Couple With Jimmy Chin and Chai VasarhelyiThank you to our sponsors: Capital One and the REI Co-op® Mastercard® Benchmade 

Today, we'll talk about how to make sure you don't lose your points when you cancel a credit card. Since this varies by bank or points-type, we'll discuss tips for each situation.Do you lose your points when you cancel your credit card?(00:37) - Airline and Hotel cards... no, you won't lose your points.(02:32) - Bank cards... yes, you could lose your points.(03:48) - Chase solutions(06:10) - Amex solutions(09:27) - Citi's weird rules(12:17) - Capital One solutions(16:06) - Quick summaryVisit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don't forget to like and follow us on social media.Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads

Don't be caught by surprise. This episode of the Honest Art Podcast will equip you with the must-know topics to protect your art, manage your money, and build a thriving art career. It's time to become the legally and financially savvy artist I know you can be. Make sure to subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss a thing! And don't forget to come hang with me on Instagram @jodie_king_. Interested in being a guest on a future episode of Honest Art? Email me at amy@jodieking.com Resources mentioned: Learn more about Paint It Forward: The Art of Teaching Workshop: https://www.jodiekingart.com/paintitforward  Learn more about Studio Elite: https://www.jodiekingart.com/studioelite Learn more about the Honest Art Society: https://www.jodiekingart.com/has  Join me at my Austin workshop in October: https://jodieking.com/honest-art-workshop-austin-october-2025  Learn more about Capital One credit cards: https://www.capitalone.com/credit-cards/  Learn more about American Express credit cards: https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/  Learn more about Chase Sapphire credit cards: https://creditcards.chase.com/rewards-credit-cards/sapphire  Stripe (payment system): https://stripe.com/  PayPal (payment system): https://www.paypal.com/  Square (payment system): https://squareup.com/us/en  Venmo business (payment system): https://venmo.com/business/start  Grab the Art Biz Mini Course: An Artist's Guide to Instagram: https://www.jodiekingart.com/offers/9xFEJ2E3/checkout  Join Jodie's email list here:https://www.jodiekingart.com/jointhelist  Have a question for Jodie? Ask it here: https://forms.gle/hxrVu4oL4PVCKwZm6  How are you liking the Honest Art Podcast? Leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform and let us know!     Watch this full episode on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC64Vn6NF5BfiwLNTSb_VnDA  For a full list of show notes and links, check out my blog: www.jodieking.com/podcast    

Innovator ETFs' Tim Urbanowicz lays out the market backdrop after earnings from Texas Instruments and Capital One. Our Pippa Stevens tracks natural gas moves. Evercore's Stephen Kim breaks down surging stock moves from DHI and PHM. Compass Point's Ed Engel downgrades Circle after the GENIUS Act. Crossmark's Bob Doll offers a broader view on bond moves and market leadership. Our Diana Olick reports on the rise of “accidental landlords.” Our Brandon Gomez reveals how U.S. spirits sales have cratered in Canada amid a tariff clash. Plus, Gil Luria of DA Davidson previews what to expect from Alphabet earnings.

Why do we instinctively add when the better answer might be less?In this episode of the Truth Works Podcast, we sit down with Leidy Klotz—behavioral scientist, engineer, and author of Subtract—to explore why subtraction is one of the most underused tools in problem-solving, design, and even life itself. From ancient architecture to modern innovation, Leidy unpacks the hidden bias that keeps us adding complexity instead of removing it.We dive into how this instinct shapes everything from personal decisions to global policy, and how changing it could transform the way we think, create, and lead.If you're addicted to doing more, building more, and thinking more—this episode might just shift your perspective forever.Topics:1. Subtraction for solutions: Using subtraction to improve outcomes, inspired by a Lego bridge.2. Default to adding: Humans add to show competence, like bowerbirds building nests.3. Bureaucratic over-addition: Excessive additions cause inefficiency, e.g., 60 sign-offs.4. Effective subtraction: Cases like Capital One task removal, PBS dropping reviews.5. Friction reduction via subtraction: Simplifying processes, e.g., Google's interview limit.6. Netflix's subtraction strategy: Spinning off DVDs to focus on streaming.7. Cutting meetings: Reducing meetings, e.g., Stanford's quarterly shift, Asana's reset.8. Subtraction challenges for juniors: Early-career struggle to subtract, need subtle work display.9. Environment shaping behavior: How environments impact competence, connection, agency.10. Reducing cognitive load: Filtering info, questioning outdated mental models.

APAC stocks traded mixed after failing to sustain the early upward momentum seen at the open following the fresh record intraday highs on Wall St.White House Press Secretary Leavitt said they could see more tariff letters for August 1st.European equity futures indicate a lower cash market open with Euro Stoxx 50 future down 0.4% after the cash market finished with losses of 0.3% on Monday.DXY is steady, JPY is the marginal laggard as Japan returns from holiday, EUR/USD failed to hold onto the 1.17 handle.Looking ahead, highlights include US Richmond Fed Index, NBH Policy Announcement, Fed Chair Powell & Bowman, ECB's Lagarde, BoE's Bailey, Supply from UK & Germany.Earnings from Akzo Nobel, ASM International, Dassault Aviation, Julius Baer, Lindt, SAP, Intuitive, Capital One, Baker Hughes, Coca Cola, Lockheed Martin, Philip Morris, RTX, DR Horton, Northrop Gruman, Danaher, MSCI & Pulte.Read the full report covering Equities, Forex, Fixed Income, Commodites and more on Newsquawk

White House Press Secretary Leavitt said they could see more tariff letters for August 1st.European bourses are in the red and currently trade at session troughs, US equity futures also incrementally lower.DXY is flat awaiting fresh catalysts, whilst Antipodeans lag given the risk-tone.JGBs react to the election, bonds elsewhere have a bearish bias, Gilts lag.Crude moves in lockstep with risk while base metals remain cushioned.Looking ahead, US Richmond Fed Index, NBH Policy Announcement, Speakers including Fed Chair Powell & Bowman, ECB's Lagarde. Earnings from SAP, Intuitive, Capital One, Baker Hughes, Coca Cola, Lockheed Martin, Philip Morris, RTX, DR Horton, Northrop Gruman, Danaher, MSCI & Pulte.Read the full report covering Equities, Forex, Fixed Income, Commodites and more on Newsquawk

Want to work with us? Reach out! inquiries at milestomemories dot com Episode Description This week Citi was in the news for a few reasons. First, they have upped their transfer ratio to Accor by 2X. This might not last, but it is quite valuable. Citi also is planning to launch their new premium Strata credit card next week. While not all of the details are known, tons of rumors have leaked and we'll dive into what this card can be and how it competes with Chase, Amex and Capital One.   In other news more and more travel providers are using AI tools to crack down on travelers, but sometimes they backfire. We look at a couple of these tools and what you need to know. We also discuss: Amex's new sidecar lounge concept, how premium credit cards probably aren't worth it and why Amex is trying to make their benefits easier to use.   Episode Guide 0:00 Welcome to MTM Travel 2:52 Citi's Accor transfer mistake? 6:27 Citi's new premium credit card is coming very very soon 10:45 The rumored benefits for Citi's new card 16:28 The year of the premium credit card? 18:35 Amex's new Sidecar lounge - The lounge boom 23:42 Amex's earnings dive-in - Less breakage & slow bookings? 30:15 A new easier way to connect on international flights 35:14 AI tools and travel - Smoke detectors, Hertz scanners - Reliable? Smoke detector situation - https://x.com/_zachgriff/status/1945959030851035223?s=46&t=B9kWNUIY21TRZnc8tXrfRQ Hertz scanners - https://www.thedrive.com/news/how-to-stop-hertzs-ai-rental-car-damage-scanners-from-screwing-you DFW connection - https://viewfromthewing.com/american-airlines-makes-history-connecting-passengers-arriving-in-u-s-now-skip-security-and-customs-in-new-trial/ Amex earnings breakdown - https://viewfromthewing.com/amex-ceo-admits-we-made-benefits-hard-to-use-on-purpose-now-reveals-plan-for-even-higher-fees/ Citi Strate Elite rumors - https://milestalk.com/updated-citi-strata-elite-details-launch-date-bonus-annual-au-fee-bonus-categories-benefits/   Enjoying the podcast? Please consider leaving us a positive review on your favorite podcast platform! You can also connect with us anytime at podcast@milestomemories.com.  You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, or via RSS. Don't see your favorite podcast platform? Please let us know!

Welcome to the Wild Ideas Worth Living Summer Camp Series! In these bonus episodes, we're exploring camping beyond the traditional tent—from bikepacking and packrafting to camping with kids and dispersed car camping.Felicia Fullwood is an adventure photographer and van lifer who left her corporate career to embrace the freedom of dispersed camping (also known as wild camping) and life on the road. Since her first wild camping trip to Michigan's Upper Peninsula, she's built a thriving platform as a content creator, blogger, and outdoor enthusiast. On YouTube and Instagram, Felicia shares practical advice and inspiration for fellow travelers navigating van life and off-grid camping.Connect with Felicia: WebsiteInstagramYouTubeGear & Apparel Mentioned: Mountain Bike Paddle Board Ooni pizza OvenBucket Toilet Garmin InReach MiniThe Public Lands apponX Offroad is the appThank you to our sponsors: Capital One and the REI Co-op® Mastercard® 

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.”With those words, Warren Buffett reminded us that character and integrity matter—especially in the world of money. Now, after more than sixty years of market-shaping moves and famous one-liners, Buffett is calling it a career. Today, Matt Bell joins us to reflect on his legacy and share what timeless lessons every investor can learn from it.Matt Bell is the Managing Editor at Sound Mind Investing, an underwriter of Faith & Finance. A Track Record That's Hard to IgnoreIf you had invested $100 in Berkshire Hathaway back in 1965, that single investment would have grown to over $5.5 million by the end of last year. Compare that with the S&P 500 over the same period, which would have turned $100 into just $39,000. Clearly, Buffett did something different.One unconventional move? He never issued dividends for Berkshire Hathaway, instead reinvesting profits to increase share value. That patient, long-view approach paid off—and it hints at biblical principles like delayed gratification and wise stewardship (Proverbs 21:20).Buffett famously said, “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.” While Christians would rightly reject greed and fear as motivations, the deeper principle here is about remaining steady and disciplined in volatile times—echoing Proverbs 14:15: “The simple believe everything, but the prudent give thought to their steps.”Buffett often waited with cash on hand until the right opportunities appeared, especially during downturns. That patience and discernment mirrors biblical instruction to avoid impulsiveness and instead seek wisdom in decision-making.Investing Lessons With Biblical ParallelsOver the years, Buffett offered dozens of pithy insights that mirror biblical truth. Here are a few standouts:“If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you'll work until you die.”—This speaks to the wisdom of putting money to productive use—earning a return through thoughtful investing, a principle echoed in the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25). “Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.”—In Proverbs 15:22, we're reminded that “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” Financial ignorance creates risk, but biblical stewardship calls for wisdom and learning. Diversification, emotional control, and long-term vision—Buffett emphasized all three. These align with a measured, prudent approach to money that Scripture continually encourages.Buffett never let global turmoil shake his confidence in long-term investing. He wrote, “In the 20th century, the U.S. endured world wars, recessions, a depression, oil shocks, and more—yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497.” His takeaway: “It's been a terrible mistake to bet against America.”While our hope as Christians isn't rooted in any one nation's economy, Buffett's long view reminds us of the value of endurance and not making decisions based on fear or short-term noise (see James 1:5–6).Generosity and LegacyPerhaps most inspiring is Buffett's commitment to give away 99% of his wealth. He plans to direct his Berkshire Hathaway shares toward philanthropic causes within ten years of his estate being settled. While we may differ on where those funds go, the posture of open-handed generosity reflects Jesus' teaching: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).Buffett's success wasn't just about intellect—it was about character: discipline, patience, and generosity. These are values every believer is called to cultivate. As you manage your resources, consider how biblical principles—often echoed in even the most unlikely places—can shape a wise, faithful financial life.To explore these ideas further, read Matt Bell's full article, The Wisdom of Warren Buffett at SoundMindInvesting.org.On Today's Program, Rob Answers Listener Questions:I've never had a credit card before, but I recently received a pre-qualified offer from Capital One. They mentioned they've reviewed my credit and noticed I'm keeping up with my bills. Should I consider applying for this card, and how can I verify that the offer is legitimate?As a grandmother, I'm concerned that my grandchildren aren't learning essential financial skills from their parents. I'd love to step in and help, especially with my 20-year-old grandchild. What is the best way to encourage them to save money and manage their finances wisely?Over the past couple of years, God has really blessed me with increased income, and I'm incredibly grateful. I live simply, help my parents, and avoid lifestyle inflation—but I want to make sure I'm handling this increase in a way that honors God. How can I manage this money with biblical stewardship in mind?I'm in a strong financial position—no debt, and I tithe faithfully. I just received $15,000 from selling off some business assets and want to invest it wisely. I'd like it to earn a good return, but I also want it to remain accessible if needed. What are some smart options that fit my situation?Resources Mentioned:Faithful Steward: FaithFi's New Quarterly Magazine (Become a FaithFi Partner)Sound Mind InvestingThe Wisdom of Warren Buffett by Matt Bell (Sound Mind Investing Article)Bankrate | NerdwalletOpen Hands FinanceChristian Community Credit UnionWisdom Over Wealth: 12 Lessons from Ecclesiastes on MoneyLook At The Sparrows: A 21-Day Devotional on Financial Fear and AnxietyRich Toward God: A Study on the Parable of the Rich FoolFind a Certified Kingdom Advisor (CKA) or Certified Christian Financial Counselor (CertCFC)FaithFi App Remember, you can call in to ask your questions most days at (800) 525-7000. Faith & Finance is also available on the Moody Radio Network and American Family Radio. Visit our website at FaithFi.com where you can join the FaithFi Community and give as we expand our outreach.

Adam Polikiewicz-Mesa is an endurance mountain athlete and bikepacker who has explored remote regions across Latin America and the U.S. After graduating college, he turned down a financial consulting career to pursue a transformative journey on two wheels. Now a full-time athlete and visual storyteller, Adam documents his adventures through Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil, capturing the landscapes, cultures, and people he encounters. His work blends endurance travel with powerful storytelling that inspires connection and exploration.Connect with Adam: Website InstagramPhoto credit: Leonardo BrasilThank you to our sponsors: Capital One and the REI Co-op® Mastercard® Benchmade

So many businesses throw money at ads, tools, and trends hoping something sticks, but end up with little to show for it. Meanwhile, sharper competitors are dialing into what really matters—clear messaging and smart use of data. It's frustrating watching others break through while your efforts seem to stall. The problem often isn't effort—it's direction. James Harenchar is the President and CEO of Response Marketing Group, a Richmond-based agency focused on data-driven strategies. With nearly four decades in the industry, he's worked with brands like Ritz Carlton and Capital One to refine customer targeting through segmentation and predictive modeling. Today, he talks about how smart use of data helps businesses grow, especially during economic uncertainty. He stresses the need for personalized marketing rooted in analytics to boost ROI and stay competitive. Jim believes good data beats guesswork every time. Stay tuned! Resources: Enhanced Customer Engagement With Relevance & Personalization Follow James Harenchar on Facebook Connect with James Harenchar on LinkedIn

AP's Lisa Dwyer reports there's been a rollback on consumer related penalties for companies under the Trump administration.

Learn more at TheCityLife.org

Welcome to the Wild Ideas Worth Living Summer Camp Series! In these bonus episodes, we're exploring camping beyond the traditional tent—from bikepacking and packrafting to camping with kids and dispersed car camping.Kevin Frias is a cyclist and bikepacker who's taken on multi-day adventures through deserts, mountains, and everything in between. Whether he's navigating gnarly weather or unexpected setbacks, Kevin brings a steady optimism to the ride. His motto? A good map and a good attitude can take you a long way. In this episode, Kevin breaks down the essentials of bikepacking—from planning your first trip to the gear he trusts most on the trail.Connect with Kevin: Instagram YouTubeGear & Apparel Mentioned: Gravel BikesMountain BikesBackpacking TentsHammock tentDaypacksPanniersJetboilDry BagsZpacks Tent & Sleeping QuiltNEMO Tensor Sleeping PadKatadyn BeFree Water FilterSleeping Bag LinerBike Patch KitBike toolsCheck out this Bikepacking Checklist!Thank you to our sponsors: Capital One and the REI Co-op® Mastercard® 

In this episode, we're spotlighting a hidden gem in the MidEAST—Hocking Hills, Ohio. This is our SECOND submission from listener Katie shares all her top tips for visiting this stunning spot, from the best places to stay to must-do hikes and creative ways to book it all using points and miles.We cover everything from rustic-chic state park lodges (bookable through Chase or Capital One) to romantic cabins with hot tubs and even luxury treehouses. Katie has visited in every season and swears you can't go wrong, though fall is especially beautiful—just be sure to book early.Whether you're hiking through Ash Cave, sipping wine at a local vineyard, or cozying up by a fire in a cabin, Hocking Hills offers the perfect mix of relaxation and adventure. This is a road trip you'll want to add to your list—especially if you're looking for a peaceful escape that won't break the bank.Submit Your Summer Road Trip Series Story HEREFacebook GroupFind Us On InstagramMary Ellen | JoHelpful LinksFetch App- Mary Ellen's Referral LinkFetch App- Joanna's Referral LinkAffiliate LinksMary Ellen's Chase Sapphire LinkJoanna's Chase Sapphire LinkMary Ellen's Freedom Flex LinkJoanna's Freedom Flex LinkMary Ellen's Ink Business Cards LinkJoanna's Ink Business Cards Link30% off the CardPointers subscription!Credit Card Affiliate LinksThe above link includes referrals for Capital One Travel Cards. If you need AMEX or Chase please reach out and we would be happy to send you our personal referral links.We receive a small commission when you use our links. This is an amazing way to show your support for the show at no cost to you ❤️

Mina Guli is a water advocate and ultrarunner who has dedicated her life to solving one of the world's most urgent issues—the global water crisis. She runs marathons all over the world to raise awareness, logging thousands of miles across deserts and along rivers to change the way people, companies, and governments think about water.Connect with Mina:WebsiteInstagramThank you to our sponsors: Capital One and the REI Co-op® Mastercard® Ocean Bottle 

In today's Frequent Miler on the Air episode, Greg bypasses 5/24, Nick flies a donut plane towards earning status and 350,000 miles, and we run the numbers on Turkish's million mile promo.Giant Mailbag(01:58) - Virgin Atlantic substantially increases fees on award tickets. But one door closes, another opens.Read more about Virgin Atlantic increasing fees on award tickets here.Card News(04:17) - Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ Card approved over 5/24Bonvoyed(09:46) - Chase Ink Business Premier®: Effective October 7th, 2025, you will be eligible to receive referral bonus awards for new Chase Business card customers only.(13:00) - Chase Aeroplan transfers are SLOW(14:43) - American Express is reducing Emirates transfer ratio to 5:4(18:12) - Will Southwest nerf the Companion Pass next?Awards, Points, and More(23:20) - Flying Blue: better saver award availability for Platinum elitesJetBlue Promo Updates(29:20) - Promo reminder: fly to 25 destinations, get 350K + 25 years statusFind our episode about the JetBlue promo here.(30:13) - Nick comments on why he decided to go for it, why he's flying the Dunkin' flight, and the Capital One travel price match experience(40:52) - Greg discusses his initial evaluation and why he decided noMain Event: fly to 6 continents, earn 1 million miles(53:03) - Turkish airlines promo: Fly Across 6 Continents – Earn 1 Million Miles!(55:55) - Eligible flights(1:01:36) - Example itinerary for epic trip(1:06:46) - Are we going for it?Question of the Week(1:16:22) - This listener saved up American Express Membership Rewards points for a round the world trip, but then ANA eliminated their round the world award chart. Are there other ways to book a round-the-world trip?Subscribe and FollowVisit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe/ to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don't forget to like and follow us on social media.Music Credit – “Ocean Deep” by Annie Yoder

Lise Wortley retraces the footsteps of historical women explorers whose achievements have long been overlooked. To fully immerse herself in their experiences, she replicates the clothing and equipment used over a century ago, avoiding modern gear to see the world as they did. Through these journeys, she shines a light on their remarkable stories and brings their legacies back into focus.Connect with Lise: Website Instagram Thank you to our sponsors: Capital One and the REI Co-op® Mastercard® Ocean Bottle 

This episode is all about your questions—and real answers. I'm back with another listener Q&A, tackling the exact points and miles decisions you're working through right now. Ever feel like you're making credit card decisions in a vacuum? From wondering if it's time to add Capital One or Mesa to your rewards card portfolio, to recovering from redemption regret, I'm walking through the strategy behind each question so you can move forward with more clarity and confidence. We'll cover how to think about applying for “no lifetime language” Amex offers, why you might want to move credit lines between Chase cards, and what to do when your points plan feels a little off-track. This episode is packed with honest takes, strategic insight, and practical tips grounded in real-life scenarios.   Get full show notes and transcript: https://pointmetofirstclass.com/listener-qa-credit-card-points-strategy-2025/ Want to shape the show? Take the Point Me To First Class listener survey and share what you love and want more of! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeAPfb3wIaphMn_NoQzm_fljydsivTELQwh7pYoxrI2uTFoKQ/viewform?usp=header  Eager to learn the secrets of award travel so that you can turn your expenses into unforgettable experiences? Join the Points Made Easy course waitlist here: https://pointmetofirstclass.com/pointsmadeeasy

In this episode I talk to Barbara Boselli about her 3-step process "What Can I Control?" that helps move leaders from being stuck-to moving with intention.  Introduction Barbara Boselli is a leadership expert, speaker, and executive coach with over 15 years of experience leading teams in Fortune 500 companies, including Google. She specializes in emotional intelligence, mindfulness, and leadership development, empowering professionals and organizations to navigate today's fast-paced world with clarity and impact. Barbara has delivered training at leading organizations such as The World Bank and Capital One, equipping leaders with the skills to foster resilience, collaboration, and growth. She holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and certifications from the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute and iPEC. Additionally, she has a degree in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica. By integrating neuroscience, emotional intelligence, and mindfulness into her coaching and workshops, Barbara helps individuals and teams unlock their full potential. Her approach is both practical and transformative, guiding leaders toward greater self-awareness, stronger relationships, and more effective decision-making in their personal and professional lives.   Resources mentioned in this episode Follow Barbara: Website: HERE LinkedIn: HERE Instagram: HERE FREE Resource-Top 10: HERE   Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving a review. Leave comment on what you enjoyed from the episode and if you have any suggestions for future episodes, I'd love to hear from you. Even better, share it with a friend or colleague and turn on the notifications so that you never miss an episode. It really helps the podcast gain more listeners so that we can grow our Lead From Within community. Thanks everyone! Keep reaching for your highest branch! Let's Connect Follow me on LinkedIn Here Visit my website Here Email: mthomson@curisconsulting.ca  Self-Care Guide on Amazon: Canada: HERE USA: HERE Leave me a voice note HERE and have it included on a future podcast! Just click on the "message" tab.  It is greatly appreciated!  

Jim says this credit card giant is a buy. Become a CNBC Investing Club member to go behind the scenes with Jim Cramer and Jeff Marks as they talk candidly about the market's biggest headlines. Signup here: cnbc.com/morningtake CNBC Investing Club Disclaimer

MRKT Matrix - Friday, June 27th S&P 500 turns negative, retreats from record after Trump ends Canada trade talks (CNBC) Core inflation rate rose to 2.7% in May, more than expected, Fed's preferred gauge shows (CNBC) US Consumer Spending Drops in May, Price Pressures Remain Muted (Bloomberg) US Consumer Sentiment Climbs as Inflation Expectations Improve (Bloomberg) Fed's Kashkari Sees Two Rate Cuts This Year Amid Tariff Unknowns (Bloomberg) China confirms details of U.S. trade deal (CNBC) Treasury Deal Kills ‘Revenge Tax' That Spooked Wall Street (Bloomberg) It's a New Era for Capital One. Amex and Chase Are in Its Sights. (WSJ) Microsoft's AI Chip Effort Falls Behind (The Information) Uber in Talks With Its Founder, Travis Kalanick, to Fund Self-Driving Car Deal (NYTimes) -- Subscribe to our newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://riskreversalmedia.beehiiv.com/subscribe⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ MRKT Matrix by RiskReversal Media is a daily AI powered podcast bringing you the top stories moving financial markets Story curation by RiskReversal, scripts by Perplexity Pro, voice by ElevenLabs

In this episode of Quick Hits, DeAndre Coke unpacks the latest developments in the points and miles space—from sweepstakes to shocking benefit changes. He highlights a massive 1 million-mile Capital One sweepstakes in partnership with The Points Guy, as well as a record-high 175,000-point welcome offer from American Express. DeAndre also explains how it looks like ZilMoney is back with the ability to process credit cards for payroll, after a long awaited hiatus.But it's not all good news: DeAndre breaks down the loss of the 35% rebate on the Amex Business Platinum and previews a major overhaul coming to Amex cards this fall. He also outlines current transfer bonuses between programs, such as Amex-Hilton, Chase-Marriott, and Avios, and provides practical advice on when these transfers make sense. It's a fast, insightful roundup of what's happening now in the rewards world—and what savvy travelers should watch out for next. Learn more about how processing a credit card for payroll works hereKey takeaways: Capital One Sweepstakes: The Points Guy is giving away 1 million Capital One miles to one lucky winner.Historic Amex Offer: Amex Personal Platinum is offering a record-high 175,000-point welcome bonus.Business Platinum Downgrade: Starting September 18, the 35% Pay with Points rebate will be limited to your selected U.S. airline.Amex Card Refresh Coming: A major overhaul for Platinum and Business Platinum cards is expected this fall, likely including higher annual fees.Transfer Bonus – Amex to Hilton: Up to 25% bonus on transfers, boosting the typical 1:2 ratio to 1:2.5.No Hard Pull on Amex Apps: You can view approval status and bonus offers without triggering a hard credit pull.More Amex Changes Coming: Expect more statement credits, added complexity, and potential card design updates.

Welcome to the Wild Ideas Worth Living Summer Camp Series! In these bonus episodes, we're exploring camping beyond the traditional tent—from bikepacking and packrafting to camping with kids and dispersed car camping.Today, we're diving into the world of water-based camping with MAK and Owen, the founders of Bound For Nowhere— a popular adventure blog, social media community, and storytelling brand. Gear & Apparel Mentioned: The Packraft HandbookPackraftDeconstructed paddleHelmetRopeDry bagsPFD: Men & Women's KnifeRepair kit: Tenacious Tape, Tenacious Tape mini patches, and Aquaseal AdhesiveCompact Rescue Throw BagBedrock sandalsLong sleeve with a hood Rain shellBroad hatSunscreenConnect with MAK & Owen: WebsiteInstagram Listen to Camp NowhereWatch How To Pack For Packrafting Thank you to our sponsors: Capital One and the REI Co-op® Mastercard® 

Episode 60: Show Notes This year, only one of us had a Memorial Day trip, at least on a plane, and this episode is all about that! This trip also marks Trevor's family's first international long-haul trip since January of this year. From their experience at the Centurion Lounge at Washington, DC's Reagan-National airport, to managing flights with a toddler, Trevor shares the highlights. We start with Tom's fishing trip to Chesapeake before diving into Trevor's vacation, which began on a boat and continued with a JetBlue flight to Madrid via Boston. He talks about lounge experiences, including Capital One and Chase Sapphire, and offers tips for handling naps and meals in-flight. In Madrid, Trevor shares why this visit topped previous ones, from the Thompson hotel to great food. The family then flew to Valencia on Air Europa, explored major sites, stayed at Palacio Santa Clara, enjoyed paella, visited the zoo, and saw local protests. The trip ended with a stop in Frankfurt and a return to New York on a Spontaneous Escapes deal from Singapore Airlines. Tune in to learn what he enjoyed most, what he would do differently, and what he most recommends to listeners. Key Points From This Episode: [00:42] Tom's fishing trip to Chesapeake and the beginning of Trevor's Memorial Day vacation on a boat. [04:33] Trevor and his family's experience of their first long-haul flight since January.  [09:15] Capital One Landing Lounges, the Jet Blue trip to Boston, and his experience at the Chase Sapphire Lounges. [16:30] The Jet Blue Trip to Madrid, timing his daughter's naps, and meal logistics on Jet Blue.  [22:55] Why this experience of Madrid was even better than before and his experience of The Thompson. [24:37] Dining experiences in Madrid, parks, and other activities Trevor's family enjoyed. [28:48] Highlights and lowlights of Valencia which Trevor travelled to on Air Europa.  [33:15] Three incredible architectural sites his family was able to see. [38:26] Staying at the art hotel, Palacio Santa Clara, eating paella in Valencia, and a visit to the zoo. [47:15] Coming across protests in Valencia and visiting the old market before flying to Frankfurt. [51:54] The Valencia Airport and flying Lufthansa to Frankfurt. [56:08] What Trevor is considering for his next trip to Madrid and what he loved about it. [58:25] Taking the Spontaneous Escapes Offer from Singapore and getting back to New York.  Quotes: “One of the great advantages of travel is to be able to see some of mankind's amazing achievements in the arts, and architecture is definitely one of them.” — @TktweetsKim [38:17] “Valencia is known for [its] paella, and it is truly incredible.” — @tmount [39:47] “If you're going to Spain, put Valencia on your list, and if you've got kids, put the Bioparc in Valencia on your list.” — @tmount [46:24] “The city is just so incredibly walkable in Madrid.” — @tmount [56:37] Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: Hyatt Regency Madrid Biopic Valencia Puerto de Indias Palacio Santa Clara Queen Sofia Palace of Arts Musee de les Ciences Air Europa Travelstories Episode 8 El Retiro Park El Calamar Chase Sapphire Airport Lounges Jet Blue Capital One Lounges Thomas Kim on X Trevor Mountcastle on X The Milenomics Podcast Network

Today on another Midweek Mini—road trip edition—we're bringing you a total gem for our Midwest listeners! Bentonville, Arkansas might not have been on your radar before, but it definitely will be after this episode. This small town is packed with surprises: world-class art at Crystal Bridges, a walkable downtown filled with charming shops and restaurants, incredible bike trails, and some seriously impressive food. Whether you're a history buff, foodie, art lover, or just need a peaceful weekend away, Bentonville truly has something for everyone. We walk you through where to stay, what to eat, and all the best things to do to make the most of your visit to this historic and unexpectedly cool destination.Submit Your Summer Road Trip Series Story HEREFacebook GroupFind Us On InstagramMary Ellen | JoHelpful LinksBentonville Interactive MapAffiliate LinksOur personal links may not YET reflect the elevated sign up bonus- but they will shortly! Thank you for choosing to use our links! These links can be used for ANY of the Sapphire cards.Mary Ellen's Chase Sapphire LinkJoanna's Chase Sapphire Link30% off the CardPointers subscription!Credit Card Affiliate LinksThe above link includes referrals for almost all travel cards (AMEX, CapitalOne, co-branded cards)We receive a small commission when you use our links. This is an amazing way to show your support for the show at no cost to you ❤️

Sean Jansen, a lifelong surfer and adventurer, standup paddled over 1,000 miles along the coast of Mexico's Baja Peninsula with his camping gear, food, and camera strapped to his board. His goal was to document the journey and raise awareness about the vaquita, an endangered porpoise native to the region.Connect with Sean: Website InstagramPurchase Sean's book, Paddling with PorpoiseThank you to our sponsors: Capital One and the REI Co-op® Mastercard® Ocean Bottle 

BOSSes Anne Ganguzza and Tom Dheere, your "real bosses" and co-hosts, connect to dive deep into the critical world of online security and scam prevention for voiceover professionals. They unpack Tom's recent harrowing experience with an AI voice cloning scam, offering a candid look into the crucial insights needed to navigate digital threats and build a truly secure business in today's landscape. Listeners will discover the essential role of vigilance and proactive measures in protecting their assets, gain an understanding of emerging scam tactics, and appreciate the power of community in safeguarding their careers. Anne and Tom also discuss practical pathways for secure transactions and the evolving nature of digital defense.   00:01 - Anne (Host) Hey guys, it's Anne from VO BOSS here.  00:04 - Speaker 2 (Announcement) And it's George the Tech. We're excited to tell you about the VO BOSS. Vip membership, now with even more benefits.  00:10 - Anne (Host) So not only do you get access to exclusive workshops and industry insights, but with our VIP plus tech tier, you'll enjoy specialized tech support from none other than George himself.  00:22 - Speaker 2 (Announcement) You got it. I'll help you tackle all those tricky tech issues so you can focus on what you do best Voice acting. It's tech support tailored for voiceover professionals like you.  00:32 - Anne (Host) Join us guys at VO BOSS and let's make your voiceover career soar. Visit voboss.com slash VIP-membership to sign up today.  00:45 - Speaker 3 (Announcement) It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a boss, a VO boss. Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Hey, hey, everyone, welcome to the VO BOSS Podcast.  01:04 - Anne (Host) I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza. Hey, hey everyone, welcome to the VO BOSS Podcast. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, and I'm here with my real boss, Tom Deere. I had to think about that, Tom. We've been together so long. I was like what is our subtitle here? We are real bosses.  01:20 - Tom (Host) Yeah, we're real bosses. Thanks for having me back, Anne.  01:23 - Anne (Host) How are you doing, Tom, my real boss? Co-host.  01:26 - Tom (Host) All things considered, I'm doing okay, I had a weird experience recently which it seems like a lot of voice actors are experiencing. I got an email from someone expressing interest in wanting to cast me for a voiceover project. Oh yes, I looked at it and it was this long-form project, something like 9,000 and change words. And I looked at it and I'm like and you know I was reading the ins and outs of it and I'm like, huh, like my spider sense was tingling a little bit, but I'm looking at, I'm like this one is worth replying to and getting some information about.  02:00 So there was a little bit of back and forth about it.  02:03 - Anne (Host) So you did reply, and then there was.  02:05 - Tom (Host) There was more conversation.  02:06 - Anne (Host) Yeah, there was more conversation, which is what I always do when I'm trying to find out more information about a job to make sure it's legit.  02:12 - Tom (Host) Right Now, around the same time, maybe a couple of days after that, someone posted on a Facebook group hey, I got this email. It was saying this and this Did anyone else get it? Does it seem legit? And it looked like it was the same email that I had gotten, so I was following that it turns out.  02:28 It was posted by our friend, bridget Real, who is the co-founder of VA for VO, the virtual assistant site that helps voice actors, and we talked about it a little bit and we're both like, yeah, we're going to keep digging a little bit and see what's going on. And then her business partner, lynn, also got the email and I was getting ready to accept it just to see what would happen. And that morning I got a message from her saying hey, did you accept this project? Yet I'm like no, why? And she said because both of us accepted the project. We both got cast for the same exact project. We both got the same exact script. They sent me the script.  03:00 So then I did this. I went to Gemini, google Gemini, which is my AI bot of choice, and I did the prompts. I said you are an expert at detecting scams. Please analyze this script and let me know if you think that this script could be used to harvest a voice actor's voice to clone it. A voice actor's voice to clone it. And it did its analysis and I've got like the 2.5 advanced. So it takes a little time. And it wrote back oh, yes, it does. And here are all the reasons why this, this, this, this, this, this and this. And then I sent that information to Bridget and Lynn and they're like we knew it. We knew it. So then she created a wonderful post on LinkedIn talking about it. And then I wrote a blog with all the information and, like what happened, it was the most read blog I've had in like three years or something like that.  03:52 Yeah, it was crazy.  03:53 - Anne (Host) What's so interesting is it could have been a legit job, like for payment. You would have done it, they would have paid you for it, but they would have used your voice as an AI voice.  04:05 And so therefore, legally right in the end. Right, if you found out later on they could say, oh no, no, no, we paid you. I mean, it was a job that we paid you for and there was no extenuating circumstances or contracts to be signed which, by the way, I'm going to bring up Nava and the AI writer For all your jobs. You should be attaching that AI writer so that your voice is not going to be used as an AI voice, for sure, for sure.  04:37 - Tom (Host) So, to let everybody know, the website was GigLumin G-I-G-L-U-M-I-N. And if you do a Google search of GigLumin and this is what Bridget had figured out is that the website was only a month or two old. And there's these scam websites that you can enter the URL of a website in and it can tell you how likely that's a scam. It checked every red flag, every box, every single box.  04:56 - Anne (Host) So, yes, vo people, bosses, beware, right. So beware of emails. And you know, it's funny because it's lately, just because of the whole AI thing. Anytime I get an email with a job from someone that I don't know, right, that is just out of the blue, that I didn't audition for, where they have large amounts of words, the hairs on the back of my neck kind of stand up and I immediately, immediately check into it. And I think this really warrants a discussion, bosses, because it's very timely that you want to make sure that these jobs are legitimate. So the more research you can do. And I love, Tom Dheere, how you used AI to fight AI Again.  05:37 We had our previous episode on tools that we use. I mean, we are utilizing it as a tool to help us in our day-to-day jobs, and so I think, being aware of possible scams out there, we absolutely have to be, and I'll tell you if it's somebody that I've never heard of and they don't have a signature file. I've gotten to the point where I don't even like and it's not like from a company.com. I don't even literally take it seriously anymore. I don't know about you, Tom, what do you think?  06:05 - Tom (Host) Yes, I'm equally skeptical these days but, I, really like what you said about when you receive the email, check to see if there is a signature at the Tom of it with the company logo, website and contact information. That is one of many red flags and I don't know how much you've noticed lately, Anne, but since I would say about early April, there has been an explosion of scam attempts going on in the voiceover industry. We've had the overpayment scam. That's been going on for at least 10 or 15 years.  06:37 - Anne (Host) Gosh, at least, and bosses. If you haven't heard about it, Tom, let's talk about the overpayment scam for just a minute. Yeah, yeah, Okay so what happens is it's very common.  06:45 - Tom (Host) It's very common. It's been going on for a really long time. So basically they email you and say hey, we've got a project for you, da-da-da-da-da-da. The classic one was the game show host voiceover.  06:55 - Anne (Host) It has since evolved.  06:56 - Tom (Host) And basically they say that we've booked a studio in the area nearby. We're going to get paid or pay for the studio and then send us back the difference and something like that. And it's never a gig.  07:12 - Speaker 2 (Announcement) All they're trying to do is get you to cash that check and send them money, which is fraudulent, by the way.  07:18 - Anne (Host) And, by the way, I've gotten to the point where, if I have a new client, the only way they can really pay me is electronically.  07:25 And I figure, if you don't have electronic means to pay me immediately before the job and it's even in my terms and I've done this for years, Tom, I always have payment in full prior to job start is appreciated and other options available upon request.  07:39 But if it's a new client, I'll take that out because I must have that money in my bank account before I will even consider finishing that job or sending a file. And I'll tell you what, Tom for all of my career it's worked for me Because if people are serious about hiring you, they know that you're a professional, they know that you're going to get the job done. Of course they have to put their faith in you. But in reality and I'll even say because you're a new client I require payment up front electronically. And here are the ways that you can pay me. And so I'll send them, like a QuickBooks invoice, or I'll give them a PayPal account or however that works, and I expect that money in the account and I wait for that money and I make sure that I have the money and then I'll proceed with the job.  08:21 - Tom (Host) That's a really good idea. There's nothing wrong with even asking for 50% or 25% or just some percentage of it. The fact that they're actually going to fork over money with no expectation of an overpayment or getting it back or disputing the payment or anything like that.  08:37 Once it clears, you know that they're serious. And there's a bunch of like. I use Wave apps, for example. That's a great way to do it and I'm pretty sure they can do a partial payment. Or you can just make one invoice just for the deposit and then issue another invoice for the balance If they're a legitimate client that actually has money that they're planning on paying you with, they would have no problem with paying at least a portion of it up front.  08:59 - Anne (Host) Yeah, a lot of my clients nowadays the larger clients that used to like work off of purchase orders, and then it would be like 90 days after the job has been submitted. We'd have to wait for that check, they'd have to generate the PO and everything. You'd sign contracts like vendor contracts and that sort of thing, which I've done a lot, and so if they've got a contract for you to sign, that's vendor, nda, that sort of thing, and you know the company. It's like a well-known company. They're on the web. They've been on the web for years. I mean you can pretty much trust in that where I'll do the job and then I'll get paid. If I've worked with them before, I know that's typically how larger companies work and so that's when I'll accept a check. But even now most of those companies they're going to electronic deposit, like ACH they call it.  09:42 ACH, yeah, so it's direct deposit to your bank and most of the companies I know will do that and that's a form of payment that I trust and that would be a client that I would trust. So if it's a larger company that I know they exist on the web and they talk about, well, you're going to have to do the job first and then we'll be able to pay you once the purchase order is created, blah, blah, blah, blah, and you sign these contracts. I feel fairly good about that and I don't have to think, oh, this is a scam. But whenever I get an email without an actual signature file that comes from an address that isn't companycom, right, if it's a Gmail or a Yahoo or whatever, even a Microsoft what is the free Microsoft one?  10:20 Hotmail, hotmail, yeah, even if it's Microsoftcom, I feel like there's some sort of free sort of Microsoft. You know what I mean Like email that says that I just don't trust it and I'll immediately. The first thing I'll do is look for a website and when I get to the website I'll look for a phone number and then I'll actually try to call that phone number. What are the steps that you take, Tom, to ensure that your job is legit?  10:41 - Tom (Host) Everything that you just said. I also, by the way, I do love the ACH direct deposit because there's no fee. When PayPal, there is a fee, or wire transfer. That's really nice. Here's one thing that I've been doing lately is, if I get a we'll call it a solicitation, for lack of a better term from a company saying hey, and it'll most often be we found you on Google, we found you on Voice123 or some other front-facing thing. You know what's an interesting thing to do? Go look for them on LinkedIn.  11:11 Look for them on LinkedIn. Look for the company and look for the individual and see if you have any mutual connections. I mean, it could be anybody, whether it's a voice actor or somebody in some other profession, and you can reach out on LinkedIn and say, hey, I got an email from this company and you have a connection with them on LinkedIn. What's your experience with them? And that could give you some really quick insight. Sometimes it's just like, oh, I've been working with them for years, or it's oh, they're a huge scam. I forgot to disconnect with them. Run, run, run. Or I'd sent a rando invite, or they sent a rando invite and I don't have any information for you. But it could increase your chance of vetting them a little bit better. Another thing is that I keep an eye out, for is if they ask me to send them a W-9, the more likely that they are legitimate.  12:00 Yeah, yeah, absolutely, which I find interesting because if they were a real, true scam artist, they would want that W-9, because now they would have your social security number and now they can steal your identity too.  12:11 - Anne (Host) Well, oh my gosh, Tom, and that's scary actually, but that's why you don't put your social security number. You put your EIN number, because you're a company right, and you don't have to give up your EIN number, which is, by the way, one thing. I'm glad you mentioned that like we should all be having an EIN number. I'm glad you mentioned that, like we should all be having an EIN number.  12:30 - Tom (Host) Yes, it's very, very simple to get. It takes very, very little time. So it's a very easy get. I just reminded myself and we just talked about identity theft is that I almost had my identity stolen yesterday.  12:43 - Anne (Host) Whoa, that's scary. Yes.  12:45 - Tom (Host) How do you?  12:46 - Anne (Host) know like what happened.  12:51 - Tom (Host) Okay, so it was about a little after 10 am yesterday is when things started happening, so within a few minutes of each other, I got an email from Credit Karma, norton which, because I have my Norton 360 antivirus software package, I pay a subscription through that and Experian. For those of you who don't know, there are three major credit bureaus there's Experian, there's TransUnion and there's Equifax. I have a free account with Experian and I have a free account with Credit Karma. All three of them, within a few minutes of each other, messaged me and said that there was a hard inquiry.  13:30 - Anne (Host) Yeah.  13:30 - Tom (Host) So what that means is if you are applying for a loan, a mortgage, a credit card or something like that, the company that you're applying to will do a credit check. So they will check your credit and see if you are a safe credit risk to make the loan or to get the credit card, for this was a hard inquiry. If you get enough hard inquiries on your credit, your credit will go down.  13:55 - Anne (Host) Yeah, absolutely. I know that because I'm a stickler about my credit.  13:59 - Tom (Host) Me too. My credit rating, oh my gosh. If mine isn't at least 800, something I freak out, oh my gosh.  14:04 - Anne (Host) Yeah, no, mine has to be like almost close to perfect, and when it goes down like two points, I'm like wait why? Why did that happen? Right? And it's just because you put a charge on it for a few hundred dollars, and then you pay it off next week and then everything's fine, so that's normal.  14:18 - Tom (Host) So all three of them told me at roughly the same time that there was a hard inquiry. So I clicked on all the emails and all three of them said that somebody was applying for a Discover credit card, I think in Salt Lake City, and someone was applying for a Capital One credit card in Delaware, and I was in New York City neither applying for a Discover credit card or a Capital One credit card. I certainly wasn't in Salt Lake City or Delaware at the same exact time.  14:49 - Anne (Host) You know, what's so interesting, Tom, is that, like I don't know, a few months ago I don't know if there was a discussion circulating or maybe I got an email but somebody said, and like I should have done this years ago, I mean you can freeze your account so that if you don't open up a credit card every other day which I'm certainly not right Because again, it affects my credit rating and I'm anal about that and so I'm like well, I don't need to apply for any other credit cards, so you can go and freeze that, so that you can actually reduce the risk of somebody trying to open up credit cards or identity theft.  15:19 So and it's super simple to do it, as I said, everybody should have that free account. You should log in, you should check your credit scores regularly I think they allow you once a month, I think even my credit cards. My American Express will tell me oh, your FICO score has changed, right, so they're monitoring it too, and so literally, I get lots of notifications when that rating goes up and down. But I know that I've reduced my chances of identity theft, which is a very scary thing, by freezing those accounts and it's very simple to unfreeze. So, if you know you want to apply for a credit card. You just got to go and unfreeze it for a certain amount of time so you can apply for it and then freeze it back up again. So that way it reduces the risk.  15:57 - Tom (Host) And all those emails that I got, all those notifications did give me the option to do that. I was also able to say this because it, literally, when Norton 360 popped up and it took me to their website, it literally said is this you and you can check yes or no? And I wrote no and then the whole screen turned red saying okay, we know this is a problem, we will look into it.  16:17 It did it with all those and then I called Capital One Bank. It took me a few people. It had to get escalated a couple of times to the credit card fraud department.  16:25 - Anne (Host) Well, don't you say, they give you a special number, right?  16:27 - Tom (Host) They say call this number if it's not you, or you can call this number. I just called the general number because all that was on the notification, I think, was the Capital One in Salt Lake City or something like that. So I called directly and said please state your problem. I'm like I think I'm getting my identity stolen. And then it got up there and then they manually rejected the credit card application at least for the Capital One.  16:50 And then this morning I got another Credit Karma email saying that there was a check on my Equifax report not the Experian one and I looked at the date of it. It also said yesterday. So that means Credit Karma had my back twice and Experian had my back and Norton had my back twice. Right, right, and Experian had my back and Norton had my back and everybody bosses. This is the takeaway. Creditkarmacom is free, having an account with Experian is free, it doesn't cost you a nickel.  17:18 - Anne (Host) All of them TransUnion, they're all free TransUnion, Equifax, they're all free.  17:23 Exactly and you can check your scores and, like I said, a lot of banks and a lot of credit cards are actually adding that on as like a value add kind of service, but you don't have to pay anything for it. I think there's a lot of it going on, Tom, which is kind of scary. We got to be careful about scammers, that's for sure. And anytime, even in your email, right, if you get like again, if I find something that doesn't have a signature and then they have an attachment like PayPal has been well-known scams where you get like oh, you've got a PayPal invoice, right, and you have to pay this amount and it looks legit. I mean, they've got like the PayPal logo. I've gotten quite a few of those over the last six months.  18:01 - Speaker 2 (Announcement) And.  18:01 - Anne (Host) I just ignore anything. Just remember that most financial institutions will never email you for information and they'll never text you necessarily for that information either, and you should also, Tom. We should have a big discussion on having multi-factor authentication.  18:19 - Tom (Host) Yes.  18:19 - Anne (Host) This is extremely important.  18:21 - Tom (Host) It's annoying as hell or two-factor, two-factor authentication For every account that you have, especially the financial ones, you should have two-factor authentication, which means either they send you a text message and you just click on the link and you're good to go, or it sends you an email and it'll usually give you a passcode of some sort and then you go to the website. When you're trying to log on, you enter that passcode and then it'll let you do it, and most of them are only good. Some of them are only good for 30 days. Sometimes you can check a box saying this is my private computer. It's okay for a certain amount of time, or they make you do it every single time, which isn't the worst thing in the world. Yes, it's annoying.  18:55 - Anne (Host) You know what I just thought about. It is annoying but it keeps you safe. It's funny how much like value you put in that number, that phone number, in this phone which, by the way, I just got a new phone but in this number for the two-factor authentication, right Like text me at this number. So think of the power that these phone companies have right, and that is scary. I mean it used to be a thing where I always thought like the large scale communication companies were a little bit of a monopoly, depending on the area that you're in. I mean, when I lived in the East Coast it was always Verizon right, verizon everything, verizon this, verizon that. Out here it's a couple of different companies but still, if you think about it, I mean I'm glad to have the two-factor authentication and it's super convenient on the phone.  19:39 But, it's interesting to know that you wouldn't want the hackers to get smart right and then start really infiltrating the phone, you know, and impersonating a phone number.  19:50 - Tom (Host) There's a couple of things about that is that, when it comes to authentication, when you're logging on your phone, I've got it set up where I just use my thumbprint for a lot of it.  19:59 - Anne (Host) I love that, or Face ID yeah the Face ID is a great one.  20:05 - Tom (Host) There's also a thing for a lot of the websites where I have a personal PIN that has nothing to do with the PIN or the password to access the site itself. If I am using my phone to log in somewhere, I can enter a four-digit PIN that's different from everything else, so it also increases the chance of having a secure whatever. Also, just as a rule, I don't do anything financial on my phone, with the exception of like Venmo Well, I have mobile banking If I'm like sending money if, like me, and the guys are having pizza, you know what I mean.  20:31 - Anne (Host) I have mobile banking and I do have Apple Pay.  20:35 - Tom (Host) Well, I have GPay too.  20:36 - Anne (Host) Yeah, so.  20:36 - Tom (Host) I'm a Google guy but like I will unless to my bank accounts online or Wave app or Wise or PayPal on the phone, unless I absolutely have to.  20:49 - Anne (Host) Interesting. I go to them quite a bit. Actually, you're probably fine because of all the precautions that you're taking, but I'm just a little extra neurotic about it. Oh, it's constantly got multi-factor authentication, but I get that. I totally get that. Wow, yeah, being careful, and you know what.  21:02 What's interesting is, back in the day and I'm going to date myself when I was working at the school and we had text-based email okay, and text-based email, I could have something and it was all based on like the Unix systems and so like hacking into a text-based, like I don't know how to say this, but hacking into a system like that, like a Unix system, and reading your email with text-based, you didn't always have like the conditions of people attaching things that could be viral, loading a virus on your computer. So I was always proud to say that I used text-based email and I used something called a PGP signature, which was a digital signature at the time, which meant that when I sent mail out, my PGP signature, it would actually negotiate and verify with the person that I would send it to so that it could be a verified digital signature. That indeed, yes, this mail did come from me, and I think that Norton probably has something like that now right. Is that with your email or no?  21:59 - Tom (Host) Yeah, it has all kinds of functions.  22:01 And it works on my desktop and it works on my laptop and it works on my phone. The most important function that it has is when I'm not home and I'm on my phone or my laptop or my tablet is the VPN when you can turn it on to make sure that if you're using Wi-Fi at a cafe or something like that, that it's secure, because apparently there are people who just like sitting around at a Panera or a Starbucks with their laptop and just waiting for someone to have an insecure Wi-Fi connection and they can just steal their life right there through their own laptop.  22:31 - Anne (Host) Well, it's funny how this conversation has turned into a big security conversation, starting off with scamming. Which guys you got to be aware? It's one of the reasons why, for all of my years and because of my years working in technology, I like wired connections. I mean Wi-Fi. I mean it's a wonderful technology and it's convenient as anything. However, it's not as secure as a wired connection, because a wired connection is basically, you know, your digital numbers flowing back and forth along a wire, versus all this information out in the air where, if somebody is sitting outside of my home, they can possibly hack into my wireless network and then they can run some sort of a tracer to see and to actually get my passwords, which is something that you don't really want that to happen. So you should really be cautious, guys, and I think it's always a good idea that, if you are working from home, if you have the opportunity to have a wired connection to your router, I think that that's better rather than using Wi-Fi. Number one it's more stable, right, it's faster and it's also more secure.  23:32 - Tom (Host) I agree. If you have a desktop at home and you are doing any kind of recording or you're doing basically anything, you should have an ethernet connection. That yellow wire with the big old phone jack that plugs right into the back of your computer and plugs into your Wi-Fi router.  23:47 - Anne (Host) And it sounds old school, but it's still the most secure method of data transfer.  23:51 - Tom (Host) Without question so if you are recording from home. If you're doing whatever from home, you have a desktop ethernet. If you have a laptop, I are recording from home. If you're doing whatever from home, you have a desktop Ethernet. If you have a laptop, I think the newer laptops don't even have an Ethernet connection. I have to think about my laptop and whether I even have one anymore, and here's the simple reason.  24:06 - Anne (Host) Think about it. It's a wire, guys. It's a wire. It's not like data floating around in the air which people can listen to. Somehow the frequency of the data traveling in the air right? Wi-fi works on frequencies when your data is traveling via a wire like a physical cable, unless somebody like I don't even know, unless they tap into that wire, right, somehow.  24:26 I don't know how they do that, and we're talking about your wire in your house going from your computer to your router. Right, that's as secure as it gets, right, unless somebody's coming into your house and hacking into the wire and tapping into it.  24:38 - Tom (Host) You've got some foreign embassy bugging your home.  24:41 - Anne (Host) Yeah, yeah, doing some fancy work, you're not going to have to worry about your data being transferred. So if you're working on the internet right, at least the data that's transferring from your house to your router is absolutely secure. And then it's up to your internet provider right on the router, to their routers, to make sure that things are encrypted, things are secure and for the most part I mean that's been handled right. I mean there are hackers out there that they can hack into networks. They can hack into things like that, but you want to be as safe as you possibly can, so wired is best.  25:14 - Tom (Host) Yes, it's fascinating. We talk about hard security and soft security, yes, that's hard security, that's hard security.  25:20 - Anne (Host) So, if we go back to talking about the scams that are floating around these days, one thing I wanted to mention is I think one of the best applications for groups, facebook groups and social media groups and discussion groups is for that thing, so that you and Bridget were talking to one another about this job that you both got, and then it's really wonderful that we can come together as a community and protect each other right and say, hey, look, watch out for the scam. So it is one of the best advantages, I would say, of being a part of the social media groups in that way. Otherwise, we've talked about how it's hard to sometimes they're toxic, sometimes it's really hard to be on social media. But I would say one of the best reasons to be on social media, in those groups and in those forums, would be because of the protection that you're getting of us banding together and saying, hey, watch out, this is a scam.  26:09 - Tom (Host) Absolutely, it's one of the most important things. Community is more than just about you know rah rah and whoop whoop and you know we support you and feel better if you're feeling down, but like just actual education, along with inspiration and commiseration can literally save your identity Absolutely.  26:27 - Anne (Host) Wow, what a great conversation, Tom. So bosses out there, be aware of scams. Be cautious. Research, research. Take a look at those signatures when you get emails coming in, when you get something that's asking for lots of words and a good price and it seems too good to be true, guess what it might be. So make sure that you're communicating with the community as well, checking those jobs out and attach that AI rider to every one of your jobs. Now, it's simple. It's there at NAVA and it's free. You can attach that rider to every job. If you have a new client, make sure you're very careful with the payment options. You know we spoke about that. I always make sure I get money up front, or partial money up front, first to make sure that it's a legit client. What else did I miss, Tom, in this recap?  27:14 - Tom (Host) Hardware and software VPNs.  27:16 - Anne (Host) EINs yes.  27:19 - Tom (Host) Oh yeah, VPNs, EINs, Two-factor authentication.  27:20 - Anne (Host) I love it. Yeah, Make sure you guys are implementing all of that to keep yourself safe and secure. So great topic, Tom. I like geeking out like this.  27:30 - Tom (Host) Yeah, it's fun and helpful.  27:31 - Anne (Host) Yeah, I'm going to give a great big shout out to my sponsor, IPDTL. You too can connect and network like real bosses. Find out more at IPDTL.com. Guys have an amazing week and we'll see you next week.  27:52 - Speaker 3 (Announcement) Bye. Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host, Anne Ganguzza, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voboss.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies and new ways to rock your business like a boss. Redistribution, with permission. Coast-to-coast connectivity via IPDTL.   

Chase just launched a new business credit card and rolled out changes to the Chase Sapphire Reserve—but are these updates actually worth getting excited about? In this episode, I'm joined once again by Kelly from The Points and Miles Doc for a candid review of what's new in the Chase ecosystem. From rising annual fees to underwhelming credits and a business card that looks a lot like what already exists, we're breaking down the updates—and what they really mean for your wallet. We also talk about how these cards stack up against competitors like Amex and Capital One, when the new benefits might be worth it, and why we're not jumping to add either of these to our travel strategy just yet. If you're holding the Chase Sapphire Reserve or considering a new business card, this episode will help you make a more informed decision.   Get full show notes and transcript: https://pointmetofirstclass.com/chase-sapphire-reserve-business-review-2025/ Want to shape the show? Take the Point Me To First Class listener survey and share what you love and want more of! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeAPfb3wIaphMn_NoQzm_fljydsivTELQwh7pYoxrI2uTFoKQ/viewform?usp=header Eager to learn the secrets of award travel so that you can turn your expenses into unforgettable experiences? Join the Points Made Easy course waitlist here: https://pointmetofirstclass.com/pointsmadeeasy

Today on Wonderland on Points, we've got BIG NEWS!Chase just launched a brand-new welcome bonus for the Sapphire Reserve as well as ENTIRELY refreshing the earning and benefits and we're breaking it all down in this episode. We're joined by our go-to credit card correspondent, travel and finance journalist Katherine Fan, who helps us unpack all the details.We'll walk you through the updated annual fee, the refreshed bonus categories, and the current lineup of card benefits to help you decide whether the new Sapphire Reserve deserves a spot in your wallet. AND we will announce the BRAND NEW SHINY welcome offer.After you listen, we'd love to hear your thoughts! Are you planning to apply for this revamped card, or is it a pass for you? Come join the conversation in our Wonderland on Points Facebook group and let us know!Sponsors For This EpisodeTour Radar MomentsFind Us On InstagramMary Ellen | Jo | KatherineHelpful LinksKatherine's SubstackOur personal links may not YET reflect the elevated sign up bonus- but they will shortly! Thank you for choosing to use our links! These links can be used for ANY of the Sapphire cards.Katherine's Chase Sapphire LinkMary Ellen's Chase Sapphire LinkJoanna's Chase Sapphire LinkAffiliate Links30% off the CardPointers subscription!Credit Card Affiliate LinksThe above link includes referrals for almost all travel cards (AMEX, CapitalOne, co-branded cards)If you need Chase links please reach out! We would be happy to send you our personal referral links or the Daily Drop newsletter link that will allow you to access our affiliate links.We receive a small commission when you use our links. This is an amazing way to show your support for the show at no cost to you ❤️

In this episode, I sit down with SAIC Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and longtime Federal/Defense leader Bob Ritchie to discuss his experience securing public sector digital modernization, including everything from large multi-cloud environments to zero trust, identity, and where things are headed with AI.Bob starts discussing SAIC and his background there. He went from intern to CTO over 20 years with this public sector industry leader, including a brief stint with Capital One on the commercial side.We covered the current state of the federal cloud community across multiple clouds (e.g., Azure, AWS, and GCP) and some of the challenges and opportunities on the security front.We often hear phrases such as “identity is the new perimeter,” but the perimeter is porous and problematic, especially in large, disparate environments such as the Federal/Defense ecosystem. Bob touched on the current state of identity security in this ecosystem, where progress is being made and what challenges still need to be tackled.The government is doing a big push towards Zero Trust, with the Cyber EO 14028, Federal/Defense ZT strategies, and more. But how much progress is being made on ZT, and where can we look for examples of innovation and success?We dove into the rise of excitement and adoption of AI, GenAI, Agentic AI, and protocols such as MCP, A2A, and where the public sector community can lean into Agentic AI for use cases ranging from SecOps, AppSec, GRC, and more.Bob explains how he balances a good business focus while staying deep in the weeds and proficient in relevant emerging technologies and nuances required as a CTO.I've known Bob for several years, and you would be hard pressed to find a more competent technology leader. This is not one to miss!

In this Midweek Mini, we take you to the cobblestone streets and Spanish moss of Savannah, Georgia—submitted by Wendy. It is an amazing spot for a charming, walkable weekend escape. We chat about the best times to visit (spring and fall are ideal!), where to stay for easy access to the city's highlights, and the can't-miss food and experiences that make Savannah so memorable.We share our love for the historic district and accommodations like the Andaz, which even includes bike rentals to help you explore. From iconic Southern dining at The Grey and The Old Pink House to strolling through Forsyth Park or along the river walk, Savannah offers something for everyone. We also touch on the city's vibrant culture, including its lively nightlife and, of course, the wildly entertaining Savannah Bananas baseball team.Whether you're into history, food, or just soaking in the charm of the South, Savannah is a weekend destination worth adding to your list.Submit Your Summer Road Trip Series Story HEREFacebook GroupSponsors For This Episode30% off the CardPointers subscription!Find Us On InstagramMary Ellen | JoAffiliate LinksCredit Card Affiliate LinksSign up for the Daily Drop NewsletterThe above link includes referrals for almost all travel cards (AMEX, CapitalOne, co-branded cards)If you need Chase links please reach out! We would be happy to send you our personal referral links or the Daily Drop newsletter link that will allow you to access our affiliate links.We receive a small commission when you use our links. This is an amazing way to show your support for the show at no cost to you ❤️

Jessa Williams is the founder of Intrsxtn Surf, a Los Angeles-based surf collective dedicated to empowering Black women and women of color through surfing. After discovering the ocean as a space for healing and self-discovery, she launched Intrsxtn just one year after learning to surf. Since then, she has introduced hundreds of women to the waves, creating a supportive community that challenges traditional surf culture and celebrates inclusivity, resilience, and joy in the water.Connect with Jessa: Instagram Intrsxtn Surf website & InstagramThank you to our sponsors: Capital One and the REI Co-op® Mastercard® Ocean Bottle 

*Our apologies for the occasional connection issues with Nick's audio*What the heck does "Mattress Cycling the Hyatt Numbers" mean? We'll find out in today's episode. We'll also talk about using online chat with Hyatt to get your way, and we'll predict the details of the new Chase Sapphire Business card.(01:25) - Did we just beat a Pulitzer Prize-winning podcast?Listen to Tim's origin story episode here.(02:51) - You can now move your Chase credit lines between cards online(05:26) - Capital One Spark Cash: $1500 after $15K in 3 months. $95 annual fee waived 1st year. 2% on all spend(07:52) - Rakuten closing accounts for too many "ineligible" orders.Read more about Rakuten account shutdown here.(11:28) - New Hyatt promo is offering up to 16k bonus points on stays at Hyatt Place, Hyatt House & Hyatt StudiosRead more about the Hyatt promo here.(16:01) - How to turn this mattress run into a mattress cycle...(19:07) - Hyatt buys some all-inclusive group that included properties in a number of other ecosystems (Hilton, IHG, Wyndham). But all award reservations were cancelled with no notice -- not honoring awards booked through other programs. Some people really got a raw deal here, being cancelled on a few days' notice with no alternative accommodation offered(23:37) - JetBlue restricting access to Mint for partner programs(26:17) - Updated RRV process(29:55) - Highlights from Nick's 2.5-week trip to Europe...Main Event: Predicting the Sapphire Business Card(39:28) - What we know for certain: nothing beyond "coming this Summer"(41:33) - What we think we know about the refreshed consumer Sapphire ReserveRead more about our predictions for the new consumer card here.(51:23) - Questions about the business card...(1:06:43) - If our predictions are correct...would this card still be worth it?(1:09:55) - We've heard you talk about Capital One miles and Major League Baseball tickets. Can you use cash to get the same tickets?Read more about this opportunity here.Subscribe and FollowVisit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe/ to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don't forget to like and follow us on social media.Music Credit – “Ocean Deep” by Annie Yoder

Watch us on YouTube! Richard got the chance to stay at one of the new Standard Hotels in NYC. Take a look at his first experience, including the upgrade he scored on his stay. Capital One made some big changes to lounge access. This will impact all Venture cardholders starting next year. These are changes you need to know about if you hold one of these cards. Alaska Airlines has some new promo awards to incredible destinations around the world. Rome, Bangkok, Lisbon and more! They're launching nonstop service between Seattle and Rome, and also have a great new credit card offer that can help get you to all of these destinations. There's a targeted Chase offer for $100 off a hotel stay when booked through Chase travel. And, Hyatt has rolled out new promo tracking in their app that drastically improves the visibility of all the various promos franchisees are available. #standardhotels #capitalone #capitalonelounge #alaskaairlines #rome   If you enjoy the podcast, I hope you'll take a moment to leave us a rating. That helps us grow our audience! If you're looking for a way to support the show, we'd love to have you join us in our Travel Slack Community.  Join me and other travel experts for informative conversations about the travel world, the best ways to use your miles and points, Zoom happy hours and exciting giveaways. Monthly access Annual access Personal consultation plus annual access We have witty, funny, sarcastic discussions about travel, for members only. My fellow travel experts are available to answer your questions and we host video chats multiple times per month. Follow Us! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/milestogopodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@milestogopodcast Ed Pizza: https://www.instagram.com/pizzainmotion/ Richard Kerr: https://www.instagram.com/kerrpoints/    

Melissa Arnot Reid is a legendary American mountaineer, adventure guide, and author who has summited Mount Everest six times—more than any other American woman. She was the first American woman to climb and descend Everest without supplemental oxygen, pushing the limits of human endurance. Through extreme challenges and high-risk climbs, Melissa has found strength, resilience, and purpose in the mountains. Connect with Melissa: WebsiteInstagramSubstackGrab a copy of Melissa's book, EnoughThank you to our sponsors: Capital One and the REI Co-op® Mastercard® Ocean Bottle 

What do you do when you don't have enough hotel miles? And why aren't we letting all 100K Vacay competitors use Chase points? We answered these and many other questions on the Ask Us Anything hosted live on YouTube which first aired on June 4th, 2025.(07:36) - ​​What is your favorite all inclusive you've stayed at? I've been to Punta Cana but want to try other locations. (10:14) - Do you keep the points when you PC Wells Fargo cards? For example if you PC to the no longer available Visa signature card can you then use the points for 50% more for airfare? (11:07) - Does purchasing gift cards count towards welcome offer spend? (15:02) - How can you tell what resort fees IHG will charge when booking award stays? (16:59) - Hello, thoughts on changes to amex biz plat dell credit? #1 Using buying groups for $1k credit? #2 Thoughts for the future, meaning more discounts instead of 1:1. (21:26) - ​​Does anyone know what to expect with United/JetBlue partnership? I'm moving from Houston to Boston this fall and ready to divorce Southwest. (25:48) - What do you guys do when you have an overwhelming amount of airlines miles, and not enough hotel miles? Read more about Capital One Shopping changes here: https://frequentmiler.com/capital-one-shopping-gift-card-redemption-options/(39:12) - what do you think about the lounge changes that are coming to Capital One? (41:56) - I plan to start funding a 529 for my wife's law school payments. I will be mixing in purchases of the $500 GoC cards. I am worried about clawbacks. Do you know of any data points for clawbacks? (43:06) - Why not let someone use Chase points on the upcoming Challenge since it was the 100K from getting the Sapphire Preferred?Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe/ to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don't forget to like and follow us on social media.Music Credit – “swappin' back n' forth” by up @ night

David Kilgore has been a lifelong runner who found his stride in the world of ultra marathons in his 20s. Rather than pursue running as his sole profession, he charted a unique course— joining the early team at On Running while continuing to compete at an elite level. From setting records to winning the Great World Race twice, David's journey has made him a standout in the global running community.  Connect with David: Instagram Thank you to our sponsors: Capital One and the REI Co-op® Mastercard® Teva