[Announcement] Building Something Bigger Than a Podcast

0:00This episode is sponsored by Smart Travel, a new podcast from Nerdwallet. If you're anything like us, you don't just book trips, you run the numbers first. Is this flight actually a deal? Is that premium card pulling its weight? Should I use points here or save them for something better? Well that's exactly what Smart Travel dives into. They break down which travel cards actually earn their keep and which ones just look impressive in your wallet. They'll walk you through the quick math for knowing when to pay with points versus cash. And they explain how to get real value from your rewards instead of settling for that tiny reward button at checkout. It's thoughtful research back travel finance delivered in a way that feels approachable and actually useful the next time you're about to hit purchase. Travel smarter and spend less with help from Nerdwallet. Follow Smart Travel wherever you get your podcasts. This is a VoyageScape Podcast. You can find all of our travel podcasts from around the world at voyagescape.com.

1:06Before we start the show, I want to let you know that we have the first ever Boldly Goed Live happening February 5th through 7th, 2027 in Miami, Florida. Join us for a welcome reception, a live podcast and panel conversation event, community activities, and a weekend hanging out with fellow travelers and points and miles enthusiasts. Spaces limited, so if you'd like to join us, visit BoldlyGo.world slash meetup or click the link in the description. We can't wait to see you there. What is up everybody? Deandre Co. here on the Boldly Go podcast for a bit of an announcement and something a little bit different. I absolutely love what we put out with Boldly Go, the podcast, the videos, all of those different things. I love what we've been able to build over the years here. For anyone worried, no, none of that is stopping at all. But I want to talk about something that I had in mind to do and we have finally done it

2:06and you have an opportunity to be a part of it if you would like to. When it comes to all the great things I hear about our community, whether it's people talking about the ability to take their family on an amazing trip for the first time, fly in business class, how something they heard in one of our episodes, help them or a tip that they got within our WhatsApp community was so valuable or how the payroll on credit card strategy that I've talked about many times has completely changed people's ability to travel and do amazing things. All of that has been an absolute win and a blessing for me and just absolutely makes my day. Over the years, people have always asked how can they contribute, what more can they do? I've always said, hey, like leave a rating, subscribe, do those things and that is still going to be the case and that's always going to be the case. Now, a lot of creators that are in the content creation space, no matter what the subject is, whether it's travel or basket weaving or you name it, they typically start charging

3:07fees for exclusive access or content or guides or courses or any of those things. Well, there's nothing wrong with that to be very, very clear. I absolutely support and embrace that 100%. But I want to do something a little bit different because what I've wanted to do is build something much bigger than me and it's never about money, income or business or anything like that. Thankfully, by having my own practice, as many of you know, I'm a financial advisor, I own my own practice. That is my day job. That is not going to be ending at any point anytime soon. I'm not leaving that to do this. So this has always been about being bigger than me. So I've wanted to be able to create ways that we can do more, give back more, but people can support, but not have a cost to do that or not create exclusivity by doing so. So the announcement is we're going to be creating a Patreon, but this is not going to be your typical Patreon. If anyone's not familiar with what a Patreon is, very simply it's a way, it's a tool to

4:09website that a lot of creators use where you can subscribe to them, basically with some sort of monetary contribution and typically there's tears. So if you give at x level, you get something and at y level, you get another access and at z level, you get even more. We're going to do that, but it's going to be different. So you can give a dollar, you can give five, you can give ten, you can give a hundred and everything in between and even more. But this is really just about anyone who's gotten value out of our community, out of our show and wants to support it. But I want to be very, very clear, two things. One, that's not going to create any sort of special access or exclusivity, whether you get a dollar level or a hundred dollar level, there's no difference there. Everything that we put out will continue to be free. Everything that we put out will continue the same. There is not going to be extra releases or anything like that that someone gets that not everyone else gets.

5:11Before we put out, everyone will have access to it, whether it's podcasts, episodes, bonuses, you name it, everyone gets it. It's always going to be free and that's my goal to be free forever. That includes the WhatsApp community as well. There's nothing that's going to change with that. If you want to be a part of it, it's free to be a part of and there's no plans to change that at all. I never want anyone to feel that they need to pay to belong here or to get information. I want to put it out there. The tips, the tricks, all the things that I do, that's why I've never charged for creating information on how to create payroll by credit card or anything like that. I want everyone to benefit from all of it. The show has real costs to produce. I put out a good amount of money every single episode, every single month for all the content we do because I honestly don't have time to edit and do all the things that's needed to put it out myself because I'm running a practice on a day-to-day basis. I'm kind of working two full-time jobs still with the amount of stuff we put out and that's

6:12not even including the editing time, but that's completely fine. I love it. I do this because I love it. As I've built my financial planning practice over the years, it always was about having an abundance mentality. It was always about giving more than I receive. I've always tried to put people first as opposed to money first. I've wanted to do the same thing with Boldly Go where I have something that I know that's much bigger than myself. This really has nothing to do about benefiting me at all. In fact, I wanted to add a charitable component to this as well. 20% of all the funds we receive every single month is going to go to give kids the world village. If you haven't heard of them, they're a really cool, really interesting organization. I'm going to read a little bit about them straight from there about us page. It says, give the kids the world village as an 89 acre whimsical nonprofit resort in Kissimmee, Florida that provides week long, cost free wish vacations to children with critical

7:15illnesses and their families from around the world who've won a visit central Florida. Since 1986, give kids the world has welcomed more than 205,000 families from all 50 states and 78 countries. The village is made possible by the support of generous donors and community partners as well as thousands of passionate volunteers. A stay at the village is much more than a vacation. During one incredible week, wish families laugh, play and create priceless memories together away from the hospital visits and medical procedures. It's a magical week of yes where wish kids can experience the simple joys of childhood and where families can recapture some of the precious moments that it may have been missed due to illness. So again, 20% of everything that we receive is going to go straight to give the kids the world village. And on top of that, I'm going to have my financial planning practice match whatever that number is as well. And to be clear, this is just about saying thank you. There is no again, no special access or anything like that.

8:15If we have 10 people that want to give a dollar a month, great, that's going to be $2 that will then donate to give the kids the wish. If we have 100 people wanting to donate a dollar, if we have no one wanting to donate anything. All of that's completely fine. The content's still going to go out there. I wanted to do this because I wanted to be able to create something again bigger than myself and able to give back to an incredible organization and also be able to continue to do what I have been doing as well. So if you learn how to do payroll by credit card and through that, you've funded an amazing trip and that's worth $3 for you, thank you. If you've been able to fly your family and business class because of things that you learn from our podcast or blog or videos or something on those lines into you, that's worth $5. Thank you. But at the same time, liking, leaving a rating, subscribing, chatting in our community, all of those things are also a thank you. This is always going to be about being a thank you.

9:17I do appreciate each and every one of you and that's going to continue as well. Whether you choose to give or not, please continue to listen, please continue to share, please continue to engage in our community and keep traveling and doing really cool things with your families. I love hearing about them and I love sharing the experiences that we get to have as well. Again, bold to go is more of a mission. It's about traveling well. It's about living boldly. It's about all of you way more than it's about me. I'm happy to continue doing that no matter what and happy to have you guys all along for the ride. That's it. I also plan to share what I've donated to charity each month as we go along as well. I think that would be really cool just to put out there what the community's been able to do and create, including what will it be able to match on top of it. This thing grows. I have no idea what to expect. It could be $2 a month. It could be $200 a month. It could be $2,000 a month. In general, you guys are all amazing and I can't wait to do more with you all.

10:21I can't wait to see you all in Miami as well. Let's keep doing some really cool things together. Take care. Luxury flights and hotels can be had for free. The world of points and miles sounds too good to be true, but it's actually real, but only if you know what you're doing. And frequent myelons are on the air, Greg and I, I'm Nick, discuss all the ways to earn points and miles and use them for outsized value. Join us every Friday for our full episodes and every Tuesday for our quick, single topic, coffee break episodes. See you there. Hi, I'm Pauline Fromer, host of the Fromer's Travel Podcast. We post new episodes weekly, detailing the kinds of money saving tips and cultural insights that will make your trips richer without making you significantly poorer. We do so by interviewing real travel experts like TV hosts Samantha Brown, Fromer's authors

11:24from around the globe and such public figures as Free Solo's Alex Honald. It's a fun travel party. I hope you can join us. I'm Max Hortzorn, host of the Gronoma Travel Podcast. Working for a fast dose of travel inspiration, my episodes run just five to eight minutes, but they're packed with unusual destinations, great characters and the kinds of stories that make you want to grab your passport. From hidden European villages to wild adventures across the globe, we cover a huge range of enjoyable, surprising travel topics. Tune into the Gronoma Travel Podcast and take a quick trip with me. No luggage required.