Interview: The Business of Travel Points with Eli The Travel Guy

Eli Facenda runs Freedom Travel Systems, and basically is like a travel agent for people with credit card points.0:00 - Intro0:20 - How the Internet Replaced Traditional Travel Agents1:00 - Eli: The CPA + Travel Agent Hybrid1:46 - How I Accidentally Built Up Over a Million Points & Traveled for Free for 7 Years3:40 - What Is a Travel Agent Now? Two Modern Roles Explained5:45 - How Eli Makes Money: Commissions, Fees & Memberships8:20 - Travel Avatars: The Nomad eCommerce Guy & Family Luxury Travelers9:25 - Why Credit Card Optimization Is So Hard to Follow10:30 - Asking Nomadic Matt About Credit Cards (Most Don’t Have This Access)11:35 - Points Per Mile: How to Calculate Value for High-End Travel13:35 - First-Class Flights vs. Cool Hotels — What Do People Prefer?15:38 - Sam’s Private Jet to Middle Seat Story (The Struggle Is Real)18:12 - Why First Class Reduces Travel Variables (Coach = Chaos)19:30 - Why Hotels Feel Like a Bigger Ripoff Than Flights22:15 - Ranking Points: Non-Transferable, Airline-Specific, or Transferable Bank Points23:59 - Why Airlines Use Complex Point Transfer Structures for Huge Deals25:35 - Airlines Are Just Banks with Airplanes26:32 - How the Internet Ruined Loyalty Program Benefits (But Increased CC Signups)27:45 - Subscribe to Us!28:41 - Why Travel Blogger Monetization Has Dropped Because of AI30:10 - Joe’s Shift From Selling $10 Travel Guides to Personalized Itineraries31:55 - Where Travel Bloggers Are Pivoting as Competition Increases33:15 - How Travel Bloggers Monetize: Affiliates, Sponsorships & Travel Insurance35:00 - Buying an Instagram Account With 200K Followers for Free Perks37:29 - The Virtual Concierge: Hotels Paying for Itineraries That Boost Destinations39:14 - Why Online Travel Agencies (Like Orbitz & Expedia) Are Affiliate-Driven39:35 - The Ultra-Luxury Travel Market: Planes, Yachts, Helicopters & Private Villas41:40 - My Private Jet Experiences (No, I Didn’t Pay!)42:50 - Amex Platinum FHR: Extra Perks at Luxury Hotels44:08 - Can 9-to-5 Workers Accumulate Massive Travel Points? (Yes, But It’s Hard)45:40 - eCommerce Businesses That Break Even—Just to Earn Credit Card Points47:25 - Eli Accidentally Lived in a “Creator House” With Internet Personalities49:09 - Social Media Follower Inflation: Why Many Numbers Are Fake50:35 - Eli’s 25M+ Instagram Reels Views (Great for Credibility, Bad for Leads)51:40 - Why Email Is Still King for Monetization (Even for Big Creators)54:00 - Ross Hudgens: Niche Videos With $10M Lead Potential55:10 - iOS 14 & Privacy Laws Ruined Traffic Tracking for Social Media56:20 - How Mini Case Studies Inspire People to Take Action57:40 - Why People Buy Travel Services Just to Force Themselves to Go58:25 - Costco as the New Travel Agent: Pre-Set Trips & Big Bookings1:02:00 - Why Eli Uses Skool for His Community (Simple & Focused)1:04:00 - Why Communities Need a Purpose, Not Just Private Access1:06:30 - The Kopywriting Kourse Rebrand (And Why I Miss the “KK”)1:08:30 - Fun Coincidence: “elitravelguy” Sounds Like “Elite Travel Guy”1:09:05 - Join the Copywriting Course to Become a Great Copywriter!🟢 Subscribe for more videos like this:https://www.youtube.com/kopywriting?sub_confirmation=1✉️ Signup to the ultra-popular SWIPES Email Newsletter:https://copywritingcourse.com/newsletterFollow Eli Facenda 🖥 Website: https://www.freedomtravelsystems.com📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elitravelguyFollow Copywriting Course and Neville:👨🏼‍💼 Join As Member: https://copywritingcourse.com/join🖥 Website:...

Mike Feldstein started off in the Floods, Fire, Mould Removal, Disaster Chasing business, and currently is a huge seller of indoor air purifiers that look like a giant Alexa device. We did a pod about it that people loved. Follow Copywriting Course and Neville:👨🏼‍💼 Join As Member: https://copywritingcourse.com/join🖥 Website: https://copywritingcourse.com🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/nevmed📘 Book: https://amzn.to/3xUlUJQ▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/kopywriting🎤 Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/neville-medhora-talks-copywriting/id1501246238

Bilawal Sidhu is the host of the TED AI Show, a company scout for venture capital firm A16Z, a creator on YouTube TikTok with 1.4M subs, used to work at Google, and has a focus on AI, AR & VRCheck out the notes here: https://copywritingcourse.com/courses/interviews/bilawal-sidhu-interview/Follow Copywriting Course and Neville:👨🏼‍💼 Join As Member: https://copywritingcourse.com/join🖥 Website: https://copywritingcourse.com🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/nevmed📘 Book: https://amzn.to/3xUlUJQ▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/kopywriting🎤 Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/neville-medhora-talks-copywriting/id1501246238

Don’t just plan for next year—envision the life you want by 2030. Reflect on key questions: What lifestyle, career, relationships, and home will you have? Align your goals with your current priorities to create a clear path forward.The years will pass anyway—start now to live with purpose and intention. “People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going.” Where are you headed?Read the postFollow Copywriting Course and Neville:👨🏼‍💼 Join As Member: https://copywritingcourse.com/join🖥 Website: https://copywritingcourse.com🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/nevmed📘 Book: https://amzn.to/3xUlUJQ▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/kopywriting🎤 Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/neville-medhora-talks-copywriting/id1501246238

Meetups for hit podcasts, leveraging their success to build community and connect with hosts when they visit!Follow Copywriting Course and Neville:👨🏼‍💼 Join As Member: https://copywritingcourse.com/join🖥 Website: https://copywritingcourse.com🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/nevmed📘 Book: https://amzn.to/3xUlUJQ▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/kopywriting🎤 Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/neville-medhora-talks-copywriting/id1501246238

For $3,000/month, I produce and share more content than a 100-person team 30 years ago—thanks to modern tools and streamlined processes!Follow Copywriting Course and Neville:👨🏼‍💼 Join As Member: https://copywritingcourse.com/join🖥 Website: https://copywritingcourse.com🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/nevmed📘 Book: https://amzn.to/3xUlUJQ▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/kopywriting🎤 Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/neville-medhora-talks-copywriting/id1501246238

How Elon bought his company. What they are working on. Check out the full notes here: https://copywritingcourse.com/courses/interviews/daniel-osheaFollow Copywriting Course and Neville:👨🏼‍💼 Join As Member: https://copywritingcourse.com/join🖥 Website: https://copywritingcourse.com🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/nevmed📘 Book: https://amzn.to/3xUlUJQ▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/kopywriting🎤 Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/neville-medhora-talks-copywriting/id1501246238

Nick Gray is the master of developing a great friend network, we go over some of his success in this area, his book The Two Hour Cocktail party, and his past business successes. See the full blog post and long notes here: https://copywritingcourse.com/courses/interviews/making-friends-nick-gray/0:00: Start0:05: Making T-shirts with friends faces for $20 is an amazing investment.  2:00: The t-shirts started with Noah Kagan and I made custom shirt with an iron-on paper, but then started using Canva. 3:20: Nick Gray is one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met, it’s difficult to describe him and all the fun he brings. 3:40: He started a company called MuseumHack which he sold in 2019, and also helped build his family's aviation company from the ground up before selling it to a big private equity company.”4:20: “I’ve been on more private jets than anybody but they’re all broken.”4:50: His engineer dad built a product in their basement that shows an in-air flight display (like you see in airlines) but for private jets. Nick joined as employee #1 and helped grow it to 80+ employees before selling in 2014, then got an earnout from the company. 6:30: Working with a family business was very informal, and while there was a small amount of butting heads overall it was a great and fun and easy experience and in fact BROUGHT HIM CLOSER TO HIS PARENTS than ever.8:16: Nick’s involvement for Flight Display Systems (FDS) he took over marketing and international sales. He learned everything on the fly (no pub intended).9:00: Middle East clients had INSANE private jets and essentially unlimited budgets. People would request showers, glowing floors, and all sorts of things and they would engineer it and build it. Their bread and butter was in-flight entertainment. Nick’s dad figured out how to make the standard $70,000 “Flight Map” for around $10,000.10:53: Sales all came from a small network of aviation professionals and tradeshows, specifically one called NBAA which his whole family would all go to every year. 11:34: Nick did something innovating with pricing in the aviation industry. Talking about prices was considered uncouth, so he zagged and made Best Buy style giant price tags at their tradeshow booth. Other booths were making fun of them, but their booth was completely full of end customers! 12:53: Nick learned to be very upfront by asking: “What do you need, what do you want, what can we do for you?”14:17: Do you still think tradeshows are still the best way to get leads? Yes…but “conferences” are hard, but “tradeshows” are super profitable. 15:13: If Nick ever started a business it might be a tradeshow (not conference) because you can monetize them so well. 15:40: For Nick’s 42nd birthday he threw a “Birthday Conference” where people paid ~$1,000 to come to a three day event, and it was really cool high up people and felt like an expensive conference. Price anchoring for conferences is very hard. He sent out a survey how much people would pay and it always ends up at $1,000. Unless you get very big sponsors it’s hard to make big money with conferences. 17:04: There’s nothing like meeting in person to connect with a person. Something still very different from online. We went to a HubSpot conference and met a lot of people we knew online in real life. Even brief moments of meeting IRL are impactful.18:48: In early 2000’s the only way to hear amazing people speak was at a live conference. But with the rise of TED, YouTube, and podcasts all of a sudden you could hear BETTER versions of these in person speeches. The benefit of conferences quickly shifted from hearing a speaker to meeting other conference attendees. 19:51: We went to a conference where we saw some famous names, and honestly it’s better to listen to a podcast than the live...

Ayman Al-Abdullah was the CEO of AppSumo who got it on track to doing over $80m in a single year, then became a meme lord, then started Agoge Consulting and is doing great getting CEO’s as clients.

Mike Feldstein is the founder and CEO of Jaspr that makes cool looking giant air purifiers. 10+ years ago he got into the “Disaster Business” by restoring homes after big floods, then started a generator business to combat ice storms, then started restoring homes after wildfires, then saw air quality sucked so he made giant industrial level air purifiers for the home, then Covid hit and all of sudden it was mandated in Canada doctors offices had to have large purifiers and Jaspr became a hit.