[Transcript starts at 1:10]
Hello, hello, hello, my podcast people, and thank you for joining me for yet another episode of my favorite podcast. Today is Thursday, August 31st, and I hope you are enjoying the final, quote unquote final, days of summer before your kids head back to school. I realize in certain parts of the country, kids are already back in school, but where I'm from, on the East Coast, dirty Jersey, we didn't go back to school until September.
You went after Labor Day, whatever the holiday is, next Monday. So right now we are very much in that kind of like winding down, summer, crying because we got to go back to things. Uh, maybe you're happy because you're like, thank God kids are going back to school. I don't really know, but hopefully you are enjoying this kind of trend, these transitional days.
So I have a trip next weekend and by next weekend, I mean, after, the weekend after this episode drops, um, the September, I don't know, 6th, 7th, something like that. And we're going to Sacramento to cheer on one of my best friends in a CrossFit competition. CrossFit's still a thing. It's actually still a thing.
She's still doing it. My mind is blown. Um, but we booked tickets in July and that booking experience along with a Threads conversation that ensued after the booking incident, um, is what inspired today's episode. So when we were booking the tickets, we were actually, my friends and, so it's the three of us, it's me, Camille and Brenda.
And we call ourselves the squad. We used to do exercise together. We used to do CrossFit together. Um, but then like my legs broke off and I was like, I'm too old for this. Um, so we still hang out. We just, we're not doing CrossFit. But, uh, we go out to dinner, you know, once a month or so. We all live in the South Bay.
So it's not like we're from all over the country or anything like that. I met them here. You know, they all live in Redondo, I think Brenda lives in Torrance, but either way, we're all in the South Bay and, uh, we go out to dinner. And so we were out to dinner and Camille was like, so are you guys coming to the, to the competition?
Cause she had told us about this months and months ago and I was waiting to hear if she was still doing it. And she was like, are you coming? And I was like, are you still doing it? And she was like, yeah, I was like, let's book them right now then. Like it's, the competition's in Sacramento. I already had the days booked off, blocked off on the calendar.
And I was like, let's do this. So I'm looking on American. That's my preferred partner because I've flown with them just a bunch because of all the travel I did for, for work, um, but there's no direct flights, right? I, it's direct or nothing for me, especially for this short little flight. I'm not, I, what am I, what kind of connection, I might as well just drive there.
So we look on Delta and I'm looking on Delta. First, I'm looking on the app. Right. You're going, we're gonna get into this, but like always buy directly from the provider. So on the Delta app and the beautiful thing is, even though I don't have status with Delta, I have status with American, which I have now paid for.
Um, you can pay for that with any airline, right? You can always pay for priority boarding. You can always pay to be able to pick your seat. I obviously chose that. I chose to have a direct flight. I chose to be able to pick my seat and I want priority boarding. It ended up being like a hundred dollars more.
So I think the total flight was like 300 bucks round trip, something like that. My friends did not pay. And I was like, my mind was blown. I was like, why would you not do that? It's not like it was 5, 000 more. It was a hundred dollars more. And I was like? So I wrote a Thread about this I think that night or the next day, and about how it speaks to, the actions that were taken, the fact that I bought those things and they chose not to, speaks to what people value, right?
I value priority boarding because I want the overhead space. I never check a bag. Checking a bag is amateur hour. I don't need to, I went to. I almost said Alaska. I did not go there. I went to Australia and the reason I checked it back was because I had to bring tape with me as well to give out at that course.
Otherwise, I wouldn't have checked a bag and I was there for three weeks. Like, wash your clothes. It's fine. You can just take a carry on. So I want priority boarding so that I know that I have the overhead space. I want to be able to pick my seat because I want to sit in the front of the plane. It's easy to get off the plane and I will never sit in a middle seat.
I am actually a window seat. would love to hear from you. You a window seat person? You're an aisle seat person? I'm not like, Oh, I gotta go to the bathroom. Like once I'm on the plane, that's it. I'm done. I'm staying in that seat until we got to get off. Uh, and I will always get a direct flight. I mean, sometimes it's not possible, but I will do everything in my power to get a direct flight.
My friends, however, wanted to save their money, and I think more than wanting to save their money, they just didn't see the value in paying more money, right, because it's only a hundred bucks. And I get it, it's subjective how much these things are, um, and such, but, or how much like, you know, a hundred dollars is and what that means.
But in reality, to me, it's just that they didn't value being able to pick their seats. Though Camille did say if middle seats were an option, she would have paid to not have a middle seat, because it's only two, it's a small plane, there's only two on each side, so there's no middle seats. Um, so Camille, she's like, I would have paid that in that case.
So it was just very reminiscent. You know, y'all know, I just had Thanksgiving in July with my family and my youngest brother, he's 20, he's in the Marines. He flew home, surprised us, but he had like a terrible flight experience. And I was like, because you didn't pay more money. And I get it. Like, he's 20. He can't, and when I was 20, same thing.
I remember flying home from Florida one time at the, the back of the plane. The seat did not recline. I may or may not have been very hungover and I was like, this is terrible. So I understand that. Fast forward a few years, like I don't know if you know, but I used to travel a ton for work. So I, I worked for Rock Tape.
I went, I went on to be one of their lead instructors. I traveled the world and in doing so, I traveled so much that I got status with American. I got priority boarding. I got a bunch of first class upgrades. I flew first class actually over to Dubai. Um, so I had the reclining seats. It was pretty amazing.
Within that, I, I got TSA pre check. I got global entry. I, for a bit, I had Clear as well. I paid for lounge access. Cause I started to see the value of having these things. It exposed me to the mental benefits, the mental value of traveling this way. If you never had access to those things, you never were put in that situation, or you never tried traveling in that way, then you might think that it's purely about status, or it's purely about keeping up with the Joneses, and so you're like, oh, I don't need to be in the lounge, oh, I don't need to have priority, like, and you feel some kind of way about it.
I learned, you know, being privy to these things, that it's not just about creating a better travel experience. It's definitely not about keeping up with the Joneses. It's about creating a better experience all around. I know whenever I go to the airport, it's a clusterfuck. And I just look around, I'm like, this feels so bad.
Like, it's very easy for me. I go there, I live close to the airport, very strategically close to the airport. I have, um, lounge access. I have pre check so I can go right through, but I watch people and it's frantic, and it's because most people are not frequent flyers. They don't know what to expect, they don't know what they're doing, they probably have not paid to have a better experience.
Alright, most people at the airport are like my friends, and they value the money. Or they haven't been exposed to the value of paying for certain things and paying in this case for certainty and convenience.
So the point that was brought up on Threads, um, and it was a really fun conversation. The point that was brought up on Threads was that people might value the destination.
Or they, let's say it again, people might value the destination experience more than the travel experience. And so that's why they're like, well, it doesn't matter, like, I'm just, I just want to get to that place. And I thought about it and I was like, yes, I can see that. But the reality is the travel experience can greatly and typically does greatly affect or contribute to the destination experience.
You pay for a cheap flight. Do you even get there? Does the flight get cancelled because it's a cheap flight and the airline doesn't give a fuck? Always also book directly through the site. I said that a bit earlier. Do you have to check a bag suddenly? And then it gets lost because you didn't pay for priority boarding.
There's no more overhead space. You have to check it. It gets lost. Now how's your experience going? Do you have to sit in the middle seat? And it's a long flight and now it's terrible. Do you not know where your shit is because you didn't pay for these things and you left a lot up to chance, because you didn't know the value of paying for it, you just knew the pain of paying for it?
The only reason I say this, and largely kind of the only reason I'm having this episode, is that I see people stressing out. Like, if people were like, ah, whatever, I don't fucking care. But like, my brother was like, stressed out after it. He was like, telling the story, and part of it he's telling the story just for like, you know, the comedic relief there.
But I'm like, this doesn't have to be the case. Right? Maybe people like feeling that stress. I know some people like living in chaos, but my whole shtick is helping people live their best life. And I am throwing out this episode for anyone who wants to catch it. Or if you're like, I like my stress, I don't give a fuck, then let this whole episode fall right to the floor.
That is, that's, that's totally fine.
So what is the point of this episode besides trying to help people live their best life who want to receive this? There is a business lesson in it. If you want to go and read that, um, Thread, we'll link that. But the long and the short there is, you know, don't look to market to every single kind of person.
You got to market to the person who values the things that you do and values the service because you see just in the, how, what was being purchased there, like I'm a different consumer than Brenda and Camille. So we're not looking to vet to, we're not looking to market to everyone. Yes, those air, certain airlines have changed things to try and capture more customers and they have different tiers of fares for that.
And this is why you can buy status, right? So there's a workaround within that, but even still, if we zoom out, we see that different airlines cater to different people. Where Delta is like the most bougie and like what Spirit is like people like I don't give a fuck I just need to get there. Like maybe. I don't even care if I get there. All right. So there's different people there. But the business lesson that is one business lesson and you're more than welcome to take away whatever business lessons you want, but we'll link that Thread.
But in general as I was outlining this episode and as I'm giving it now like it really feels like this episode has turned Into one of those create your rich life, identify your rich life and your best life, one of those episodes, one of those chats, right?
I just wanted to share this story because I thought it was really fun, that story actually, but as a like a discussion about seeing the value of money not just in terms of currency and what you're losing by spending it but in terms of what you can gain by using it and in this case It's the ability to control the controllables, to impart some certainty, and you can still do that while supporting your values and the things that you value.
So just some food for thought there. It was a definitely a fun experience. I just, watching them. I wasn't, and I didn't try to convince them. I'm like, oh no, but you have to get this and this. It was literally just me sitting there listening and being like, this is so, so different. And I wonder if they understood the value of creating this certainty, if they had experienced it, and perhaps they have to experience it not on their own dime first, because it's tough to experience this thing while you also have the pain of losing the money.
Right. The pain of paying. But if they could experience this and then see like, oh, there, this is certainty here, and I've removed a pain point. I've removed a potential pain point, which I get it. This is why prevention doesn't really sell folks. I get it, right? I think you'd have to really hit someone immediately after a flight got canceled or something and then they're like, yeah I'm never doing this again, although people tend to forget, but that pain tends to be so significant that people will change. But I wasn't trying to convince them of anything I was just like sitting back and you know my mouth's on the floor, my jaw's on the floor, and I'm like wow, we value different things because we've been exposed to different things.
Also, we just inherently I think value different things. But It was really interesting to see because it was $100. It wasn't $1,000. It wasn't $10,000. It was $100. And the, the pain of paying outweighed the potential benefit of certainty around this trip and the mental, um, happiness, I don't know, the mental unloading of of paying for, you know, knowing what seat you're going to have, actually having the seat locked in, having that access to priority boarding so you can put your over, your luggage in the overhead.
So just fun, something to think about and something that I wanted to share with all of you. I got no reviews for you today. There may be more by the time this episode comes out because I am batching all of the episodes on the same day. So that's why there's none right now. But I would love to hear from you if the spirit moves you.
You all know I stay asking for them because I love reading them. I wouldn't ask if I didn't like them. It's a unidirectional platform and it's great to hear from you. So if you've already submitted one, thank you. If you're thinking about doing it, thank you in advance.
One announcement and then I'll leave you all alone.
Doors open next Monday. I can't believe it's already here. Next Monday, September 4th, for registration for round 14 of my Instagram Intensive. The Instagram Intensive is my six week online group coaching program that teaches health and fitness pros exactly how to use Instagram for online business. So if that's something that sounds interesting to you, or maybe it's been on your radar for a bit, now is the time. Get ready. Marky mark the calendars, circle it, September 4th.
That's next Monday. I know it's a holiday. So if you want to wait till Tuesday that's fine as well. Um, but doors will close on Friday the 8th. We will link that in the show notes and, uh, we'll link that- we won't actually. Next week, we'll link it in the show notes. Just keep your, keep an eye out for that. Um, and then if you have any questions, slide on into the old DMs and I'd love to chat with you about it.
I'd love to have you in the Intensive. All right. All right. That's all I got for you today. Until next time, friends, Maestro out.
Watch this episode on YouTube!
Get in on the Instagram Intensive! Doors open next Monday, September 4th!
Check out the discussion on plane tickets on Threads
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