011 - 11:6:25, 17.46

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, and welcome back. It's been a very busy few weeks for myself. I'm gonna be honest, I've gotten a little bit behind on my recordings. S recently, my wife and I have purchased a home, . I've taken the time , to pack up and move to the new house, and it's been a very exciting moment for us but it's also taken a lot of our time, and we've also this past week in hosting an event, which I'll be touching on very soon. But I didn't wanna miss an episode. I, I really want to be as consistent as possible with this podcast. And even during the most chaotic times, I wanna keep showing up and I can feel myself slowly improving on the mic.

I know how nervous I was at the very beginning. [00:01:00] Stumbling across my words, like I still am, I'm still very new, but I, I want to keep showing up and providing value to you. The things that I've learned that I can pass forward

And today's episode is going to feel a little different. Definitely this is more of a personal life update, uh, behind the scenes look, if you say, , at rewarding routes and what's coming up in the next few months. 'cause I have some very exciting things coming up so that event that I was talking about this past weekend was actually a baby shower that my wife and I hosted, and I know a few of you already know this news, but my wife and I are expecting our very first child, a boy this January and we are very excited as well as nervous since it's our first child.

But that's why getting this home for us. Was [00:02:00] what's important. I wanted us to have a place that we can grow our family here and call home for the future. So this exciting news, we had found this out back in May. This was right when we came back from our three week trip from Japan and South Korea, and already coming off of a high of this amazing trip.

To find out that we were having our first child was so exciting as well mixed in with a little bit of nerves. And with that also came motivation for myself, this podcast or the desire to do something that I'm passionate about. Uh, I overthink it a lot and I know I mentioned this in some previous episodes, but

once I knew about us having the child, I knew, I don't know, the sense of motivation came upon [00:03:00] me and it made me want to create this passion and there were no more excuses. For me it was, this is the time or it'll never happen. I know this will change our whole perspective in the way we travel and our priorities, but this is a challenge.

We are looking very forward to, and it's wild to think soon I'll be teaching someone else about this big world. Maybe even planning their first big trip to Japan one day. And I know we have smaller domestic trips that we're planning, maybe some road trips. Um, but it's gonna be a process to learn to be first time parents.

And I'm aware of the challenges and I'm sure there's some that I can't even imagine, but that's part of the process and we're excited and we're in this [00:04:00] together. Travel has been such an important part of our lives, and we wanna make sure that we incorporate that into our baby's life. And even if the trips are completely different from what we're used to.

We're okay with that. We're okay with letting the baby dictate the trips, even if that means taking food up to the hotel room and eating there instead of restaurants or just strolling through parks or walking around neighborhoods, not having any real big activities. Just making sure that we're all comfortable and that the baby's comfortable.

I. Because I know the baby won't ever remember these trips, but we sure will, and we would love to have those moments with our child and to have those memories for our child [00:05:00] when our baby boy grows up, and that excites us. It's also kind of crazy to think that it took me 32 years before I finally made it out to Japan and.

Our baby boy might visit before he's a 1-year-old. That's kinda wild, but yeah, I got a lot to learn, I'll make sure to share everything and all my experiences along the way.

'cause I'm sure it'll be valuable to anyone who's parents right now. And I'm going to incorporate what traveling's like with points of miles with a child. And that's something that I'm gonna be very new to. But I'm definitely gonna share my experiences and pass that forward of what I've learned. Over to you guys who are listening.

So kind of behind the scenes now between this whole move and me currently working a full-time job and preparing for this baby coming in January. Right now it's November. [00:06:00] Um, things have definitely. Tested my time management and I thought I was pretty organized before, but I find myself having to structure my days more wisely and my time, you know, between working a full-time job and in my personal life here at home while taking care of my wife who's pregnant.

And in doing this podcast, it's definitely been an eye-opener and a learning curve for myself, and I've started to. Slowly develop habits to make the most use of my time, and to find pockets to work on the podcast or create ideas or do research or even learn. You know, during my commutes to work, I'm listening to audio books about being a dad and.

There's a lot going on, a lot of new going on. So I find myself trying to [00:07:00] find pockets of time to really, uh, take everything in. 'cause a lot's happening right now. And it's, it's all very exciting. It's all very good, but it's all also very new and I'm trying to find ways to adapt to it and to grow from it because.

You know, I want to try to be the best, , version of myself and now that I have a baby on the way, I want to be a great role model for the baby, and it's gonna take a lot of work, but I'm here for it. What really is important to me is staying consistent, and it's something I've struggled with throughout most of my life, is staying consistent with certain things or maybe it's certain habits I'm trying to develop, and sometimes I do well in something I'm trying to develop and in a habit, but most times I fail.

One thing I've [00:08:00] learned is that consistency doesn't have to mean perfect. It just means showing up. If you feel strongly about something, just show up. No matter if you know you're not gonna be perfect or if things might not be going your way, I just want to show up and I want to pursue what I'm passionate about.

I'm passionate about travel. I'm passionate about more consistent travel, more affordable travel, using points and miles. And I'm gonna be passionate about being a dad. So these are all things I want to show up for and I want to pass that forward for anyone who's listening and anyone who can get value from this.

That's what rewarding routes means to me. And you're probably wondering what's next for rewarding [00:09:00] routes? Well, there's a lot actually coming up. I'll go ahead and tease a few episodes, but just like my flights episode of how to book Flights with Points, I'll be doing the same thing for hotels. Uh, I'll be looking at specific brand of hotel.

I'm also working on a side project that will be coming out in December. I've already recorded a trailer for that and. I'm excited to announce it, but I'm not gonna announce it until the end of the months. I'm trying to get a batch of those recorded so I can get really ahead of my recording so that moments like this, um, chaotic moments like this don't, uh, put me too behind as I'm recording the day before I release this episode.

And I want to be, um, I wanna be way more ahead and, um, batch my episode so that I'm weeks ahead. And if there's anything that ever, like any breaking news or a [00:10:00] topic that I really want to cover, I'll go ahead and make an episode about it and, and edit it and have it out. But, uh, I'm, I'm learning from all this.

It is, it's been a process, but it's been ex an exciting moment for me to. To really learn and grow from doing this podcast, and it's taught me a lot and I have so much more to learn. I also have an episode coming out about what's in my wallet, so what cards do I carry, and I'll go ahead and talk about a card that I just applied for and was approved for, and now it's going to be a signup bonus that I'll be work working towards.

There's also another, , benefit that comes with it, and I'll be talking about that in a episode, uh, coming up very soon. It might be actually the next episode I come out with. I am going to experiment a bit with episodes I'm going to do. , Some shorter episodes, some longer episodes so far. I do [00:11:00] enjoy the longer episodes because I can go into a real deep dive.

It just takes me a lot of research and a lot of time and outlining to get those episodes done. So I have to experiment and see. Kind of what works and what doesn't, but that's what this is all about. Also not being perfect and just experimenting and finding my way, and finding my groove, and being transparent with you and taking you guys along for the journey.

So now that I revealed that we're having our first child, you can expect some future episodes to. Include family friendly travel, as I start to learn more about it from earning points for family trips and getting a passport for an infant but I could promise you I'm gonna be committed to releasing every week, and some weeks might be shorter, some weeks might be longer.[00:12:00] 

But I wanna make sure I still provide value to you listening and taking your time to listen to this podcast. And I wanna say thank you so much to those who have, and it means the world to me to get feedback from you guys. And yeah, I'm here to answer any questions you may ever have about either travel or using points in Miles or Japan itself, or credit cards or, or whatever it is.

Uh, I'm here and you can always reach out. I'm going to answer back. Just know you can find me. My handle on Instagram is rewarding routes on email. You can find me at Rewarding Routes podcast@gmail.com. Um, check out my stand store. It's in my link in my bio and my Instagram. M Stan Store slash Rewarding Routes.

If you wanted to visit. I have all my episodes listed on there. I have, uh, some templates that you can download for free, uh, some referral links for [00:13:00] credit cards that I recommend. And yeah, I want to thank you all for being a part of this and coming along for the journey. And like always, I'll catch you next week.

See you.