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Welcome to Travel Buddy
In this episode of the Travel Buddy podcast, Brandon Giella, James Houchin, and Ian discuss their recent and upcoming travel plans, both personal and professional, while sharing insights from various conferences they attended over the summer.
Key Highlights:
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Conference Experiences:
- Total Rewards in Cincinnati: Focused on rewards and recognition solutions in HR tech.
- Loyalty Expo in Orlando: Explored loyalty programs and saw diverse brand interactions.
- SHRM Chapter in Atlanta: Highlighted evolving benefits, including travel as a wellness benefit.
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Trends and Insights:
- Increased Demand for Travel: People are eager to travel and disconnect from digital life.
- Travel as a Wellness Benefit: Companies are looking to incorporate travel into employee rewards, emphasizing mental health benefits.
- Non-Traditional Loyalty Partnerships: Examples like Marriott and Starbucks show innovative brand partnerships to enhance customer loyalty.
- Global Presence: Switchfly supports a global footprint, offering travel solutions worldwide with multiple suppliers and currency options.
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Challenges and Opportunities:
- Travel Industry Complexities: Setting up a travel platform involves navigating various regulations and obtaining merchant processing.
- Switchfly PRO: A solution designed for quick implementation of travel rewards programs for employers, making travel accessible and customizable.
- Global Expansion: Switchfly's ability to support multiple languages and currencies enables rapid global deployment.
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Personal Travel Plans:
- James: Plans to visit South America, highlighting the affordability and accessibility of international travel.
- Ian: Heading to the French Riviera for a belated honeymoon, noting the cost-effectiveness of travel compared to domestic trips.
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Cultural Shifts and Accessibility:
- Desire for Experiences: There's a growing preference for travel and experiences over material possessions.
- Technological Advancements: Travel has become more accessible with improved technology, making it easier to plan and navigate trips.
- Generational Changes: Younger generations prioritize travel, leveraging the flexibility of remote work and digital nomad opportunities.
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Final Thoughts:
- Accessibility of Travel: It's easier and more affordable than ever to travel, whether for personal or professional reasons.
- Switchfly's Role: Switchfly facilitates travel through innovative solutions, making it possible for companies to offer travel benefits seamlessly.
The podcast concludes with Brandon expressing excitement for their future travels and episodes, appreciating the personal and professional insights shared by James and Ian.
Transcript
Brandon Giella (00:01.315)
Hello, James and Ian, and welcome back to another episode of the Travel Buddy podcast presented by Switchfly. Today, we’re gonna talk a little bit about your travel plans this summer. So as I understand it, you guys have traveled all over, so there was a couple of conferences this summer, and then you’ve got some personal travel coming up soon. So let’s take it one at a time. But we’ve got...
James Houchin (00:07.182)
you
Brandon Giella (00:26.754)
Total Rewards, which is a massive conference that was in Cincinnati, Ohio, talking about rewards and recognition solutions in the HR tech space. And then soon after that in Orlando, you had the Loyalty Expo. And then after that, you went to Atlanta for the Shurm chapter, for the Atlanta chapter for the Shurm organization. So tell me a little bit about those conferences. What was your experience? What did you love? What could have been better? And then what’s your big takeaway?
James Houchin (00:41.006)
you
James Houchin (00:56.942)
Yeah, definitely went through my own personal side of those point accruals and earning status traveling the whole East Coast of America. One of the big things was people are really hungry for a way to get away. I just had a call this morning with an expert in the HR space where she’s like, you know, I’m just gonna burn out and I really just wanna kind of reset.
Brandon Giella (01:08.352)
That’s great.
James Houchin (01:24.046)
And people are hungry for just something different. I don’t think I ever need to watch Netflix again. That seemed to be a pretty universal sentiment that we’ve all kind of caught up on any binge watching we’ve ever wanted to and more. We all have got closets or garages full of junk. People are really just looking to disconnect online and really just kind of get that R &R that seems so rare these days.
you know, the other thing too is, there’s just kind of a, there’s an offering or a solution for pretty much everyone we’ve had a conversation with. it wasn’t really one of those like, Hey, you know, love to hear about your, you know, loyalty program. That’s a really cool, you know, employer brand you have, but we can’t, you know, what’s really exciting about this year is, you know, with the onboarding or the launch of go, we’ve got a solution for pretty much any size or shape of brand.
or employer, as well as continuing to have conversations around more of the traditional white label travel solution, both in the loyalty as well as in the HR tech space. And the other thing too is being at Loyalty Expo, hearing and seeing what a bunch of brands are doing was super interesting as to what’s your gas station versus we even talked to a...
telecom company that was looking on onboarding, you know, potentially like just giving value away to their members because, you know, if they didn’t want to just be seen as a utility where because I live at, you know, this lat long.
this is what you get and this is the only solution. But really how do we bring value to our brand and build relationships was a theme literally across the entire East Coast. And I’m assuming the West Coast as well. Just happened to be where we landed the last couple of weeks.
Brandon Giella (03:24.928)
Great. That’s great. What did you, did you feel, how was the energy or the vibe at some of these conferences? Cause I’ve heard mixed reviews. I’ve heard some conferences are really great, you know, post COVID, people are excited to get back into, you know, talking to each other in real life. but then I’ve heard other, like just since COVID, it just hasn’t been like the same vibe, you know, as it was in 2019 and before, like, did you feel any of that while you were there?
James Houchin (03:51.214)
A little bit of all the above. I really think there’s some really strong positive interactions and there are a couple where it’s just a different vibe. And they all were good conversations and good venues. But total rewards, like I talked to a lot of common benefits people where traditionally that’s more of a rewards type conversation. So it’s interesting to see kind of how that space and the faces seem to be changing.
It’s hard to put a, it’s really hard to tell was this because, you know, we’re in Cincinnati, which is a little bit of an atypical trade show town versus, you know, like a New York or a Vegas would be. But then again, you know, we were at a smaller footprint show at Loyalty Expo down in Orlando.
People are just excited to talk. You know, it was a lot of new faces where, you know, hey, I might be from a brand that hasn’t traditionally offered loyalty or, you know, we’re trying to really rethink how we do our loyalty programs as well as we’re seeing a lot of synergies in different brands partnering together. I was just reading or talking to someone who was taught who, you know, connected their Marriott and Starbucks accounts, right? Like those aren’t two brands you really would, you know, maybe there’s a Starbucks in your hotel.
But some of these non -traditional point unifications, and I think we’re gonna be seeing that more and more, is brands trying to team up or partner up so that they can have relevancy even where I don’t need a hotel most days of the year, but coffee is a little more day -to -day in my life. So just kind of everything and all the above, and then to kind of wrap it up on the Sherm note. Super interesting to be able to do a much smaller venue.
say a little under a hundred people there. And you know, just practitioners are hungry to look at non -traditional or kind of these, you know, evolving benefits with, you know, travel as a benefit becoming one of them. I mean, literally everyone I talked to said, how can I get this in the hands of my employees? You know, I love travel. We really, you know, we’re really passionate about bringing this to our team. And I mean, this isn’t, you know, just your fast moving tech brands that you’re going to hear about.
James Houchin (06:10.446)
you know, your business journal or something like that. But, you know, I talked to one company, they’re responsible for over 80 % of all the wiring in houses in the US or, you know, buildings. You know, not probably more of your like steak and potatoes type brand in a more rural part of Georgia.
They’re like, you know, hey, we’re really looking to expand our footprint. We really are trying to think differently about how we engage our people and this would be great. The other thing too is when the program is free to the employer, it definitely eliminates a lot of the financial conversations and it’s much more, you know, does this align with the corporate ethos? How can we leverage this in a way that really enhances our unlimited PTO? It’s able to...
Brandon Giella (06:49.216)
you
James Houchin (06:59.118)
you know, be a lever for that employer brand and that employee experience that we all talk about. But, you know, typically it’s throwing more money at the problem versus how can we really incentivize people to, you know, take a step back and get away, which, you know, is something that I think Ian and I are both looking forward to, me a little bit sooner than him, but, you know, I’m excited to just take some time off after, you know, like occurring all those points and all those miles and, you know, just kind of.
Brandon Giella (07:09.696)
you
James Houchin (07:29.038)
coming back rested and ready to go.
Brandon Giella (07:33.184)
Amazing. Sounds really positive. What recession, you know? Sounds like a lot of like really great growth expected and just a lot of good, I don’t know, I guess good energy coming in the future. I’m excited about that, especially around travel and around loyalty and all that. That’s awesome. Ian, what about you? What was your, yeah.
James Houchin (07:47.406)
for sure.
Ian (07:48.914)
I think, yeah, so, so just to wander around the topic a bit. I think it speaks to kind of some cultural stuff that’s been going on for a while, like even pre pre COVID. I don’t want to say it’s a generational thing per se. I think it just happens to land that way of, of we’ve, we’ve talked so often on this podcast and other places about how like,
Travel and experiences are now a lot more in demand than physical stuff, you know, regarding employee rewards and things like that. And I think it just, it’s this weird confluence of like new tech availability for people to actually travel that, you know, didn’t arise in the past.
you know, we’ll complain about like how much an airline ticket costs or something, but like in reality, it’s pretty freaking cheap, you know, compared to like, if you want to go drive across the country versus fly across the country, it’s far less expensive, right? So just that availability that’s never really been there on such a mass scale, along with like, just our access to,
daily news across the planet opens people’s eyes more than ever before to like what’s out there, right? And we hear so much every day about what’s going on in Ukraine or Gaza or anywhere. And I think that sparks a curiosity for people to like learn more about not only those places, but just places in general, right? And
Brandon Giella (09:42.56)
Mm -hmm.
Ian (09:43.538)
once you learn more, you want to go see it for yourself. You want to travel, you want to like experience that stuff and just coupled with that shift of getting away from like, do I really need another blender for the house or another car? Like, you know, my car is running fine. Do I really need to buy a new one and upgrade? Or can I go to Greece this summer or go to Australia or
Brandon Giella (10:05.024)
Mm -hmm.
Ian (10:12.306)
Utah or whatever. I think there’s just this kind of weird convergence of generational tech access, logistical improvement, all these things that are just making travel so exciting in a way that it might not have been 30, 40, 60 years before.
I know I’m wandering a bit. I don’t know where all that’s going other than I think we’re in the right space and it’s making our jobs very interesting as of late to kind of figure out how to fill those needs for people and the different ways that it can be done. Both like James talks about of the going loyalty rewards through your bank or your local hardware store.
or just through your employer. The fact that we can for free to the employer have their own personalized customized travel platform that their employees have exclusive access to and they can get special rates, they can really make it their own.
I think it’s just, it’s exciting, you know, that, that, that kind of thing is available now versus shoot five, 10 years ago, that stuff wasn’t really available, you know, widely without paying a lot of money for development and customization, you know? So I think it’s, it’s pretty awesome. And, and, you know, I’m, I’m headed to France. My wife and I are taking a kind of belated honeymoon. Later this summer, we’re going to hit the Riviera and
Brandon Giella (12:06.215)
Cool.
Ian (12:10.066)
flying into Nice and spending about 10 days just kind of going up and down the French Riviera and Yeah, yeah, and it’s exciting and and all things considered it’s really not that much money right like compared to Shoot her and I went to New York for a long weekend last last summer and I I Mean, we’ll see when it’s done, but I I would put Guess it it’s probably gonna be about the same
Brandon Giella (12:16.807)
So cool.
Brandon Giella (12:23.206)
Hmm.
Ian (12:39.986)
you know, like end expenses for 10 days in Southern France versus four days in New York.
Brandon Giella (12:40.262)
Mm -hmm.
Brandon Giella (12:46.917)
Amazing.
Ian (12:48.786)
You know, like that’s just, that’s, it’s wild. And that’s something that could you imagine that, you know, in the seventies or something, there’s no way that those trips would be even remotely comparable price wise, you know? So I just think it’s, it’s really cool.
Brandon Giella (13:02.629)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
James Houchin (13:04.782)
One, to touch on that, to touch on that too, it’s so much more accessible. I moved to Israel in 2011 and that was right as people were starting to move over to smartphones that the iPhone had only been out for two, three years at that point. And I mean, obviously a little less common of a foreign language for people to learn. I took Spanish in high school, not Hebrew, but...
I mean, man, it was so much more difficult to get around the country. You know, like there’s a couple of times I almost got stranded once at the Dead Sea over Shabbat, right? Like literally I can push a button on my phone in rural Wisconsin and have someone show up within, you know, probably an hour or two, but like have someone show up reliably and take me anywhere I want to go. Like it is it is so stinking easy compared to what it’s been even.
as little as what 14, I hate to age myself, but 14 years ago, and just the leaps and bounds in it every time we go somewhere on a country or even in the country, it seems like it’s easier and easier. Like I’m gonna be in South America a little bit, in Argentina and Peru. And I mean, shoot, I can have someone like the Doordash guy or Doordash equivalent cost, you know, pennies on the dollar. They’re there within 20 minutes and the food is.
Sadly, much healthier and fresher than even in the States. I’m spoiled by, we’re spoiled for choice too, right? I haven’t left the Western hemisphere in a couple of years and it’s really hard for me to even wanna go through the jet lag process now, because I can fly for 14 hours, be on the southern tip of South America and there isn’t even a time zone change. Plus, if you’re into steak, hard to beat Argentina.
Brandon Giella (14:53.473)
Hmm.
James Houchin (14:57.742)
You know, the world is really anyone’s oyster and obviously, you know, there is cost here I don’t know, you know, it’s kind of hand wave it away, but it’s pretty darn accessible to Ian’s point earlier That you know for us the most expensive part is just getting there I mean you can have an amazing world -class meal in Peru for you know under 50 bucks where I don’t remember the last time I went to Kroger and spent under you know, 30 or 50 so, you know, it’s
Brandon Giella (14:59.617)
Hmm.
Brandon Giella (15:19.808)
Mm -hmm.
James Houchin (15:25.198)
It’s amazing, you know, what’s out there, like how affordable it can be. And again, it’s like, I had a friend who said, you know, just to pick out kids, for an example, like they’re as expensive as the parents make them and, you know, trips are as expensive as you make them. You know, that you can pick anything from five bucks to 5 ,000. But, you know, there’s a lot, there’s a lot out there for people to see, explore. And really, you know, the, the data is just stronger every day.
Brandon Giella (15:43.52)
That’s true.
James Houchin (15:55.022)
This is one of the most impactful things you can do for your well -being holistically, whether that’s a person to a consumer brand. Just to go back and pick on that telecom example, I would never have thought that I’d be booking a trip through my cable provider. But I mean, shoot in a world where I’m booking trips through Costco, it’s not very far away from reality. And then the employer, the classic example is I can buy
Brandon Giella (16:20.286)
Ha ha ha.
James Houchin (16:25.166)
I can save on my washing machine and I can buy a Dell computer. Why can’t I book a trip? And you know, now that’s a possibility as well. So just, you know, completely different than, you know, a couple of years ago when I grew up, you know, we travel within the US, just mostly road trips or we’d fly, you know, once or twice a year, Christmas at Graham’s kind of thing. But, you know, I can hardly think of, you know, driving more than four or five hours these days because to Ian’s point.
The cost is comparable and by the time you add a hotel room, it’s a no -brainer
you know, give them like longer drives.
Brandon Giella (16:59.292)
Yeah, yeah, I’m with you guys.
I went to, to London a few months ago with it was me, my wife and my, 16 month old daughter. And, I think in a week in London, we were staying at two five star hotels, one in Oxford, one in London. And I think for the entire week we spent flights included, it’s been like $2 ,000. I think for the whole week, something like that, where I just think, and it’s with points and it was, you know, we were trying to be savvy about the way that we could use our credit card rewards and things like that.
Ian (17:26.066)
Wow.
Brandon Giella (17:32.909)
But I mean we got super cheap flights and then Yeah, we’re just able to just have a great time and it’s just amazing what you can do and and I think I think for our generation I don’t know if you guys feel this way But there’s a little bit of like FOMO when you’re seeing people traveling all over on like Instagram and you’re just like constantly like seeing all your friends out and you know seeing other people out I know this is true from for my wife, especially she’ll be like, man, this person’s in Greece You know or this person’s going to Europe or whatever like I want to go so bad especially because it’s a
Ian (17:42.322)
Yeah.
Brandon Giella (18:02.828)
billion degrees here in Texas during the summer. But yeah, I just think it’s like there’s this pressure, but also this opportunity that you can capitalize on that. It’s really exciting.
Ian (18:13.778)
Yeah, especially like to your point Brandon of the FOMO, there’s so much information out there that you can not only like see, okay, I wanna go there, but there’s somebody out there that’s like, here’s how to do it on a budget. Here’s how to do it five star, here’s how to like.
That information is so readily accessible these days of if you want to do Europe on the cheap, you know, there’s information out there easy for you to get that walks you through like, okay, stay at a hostel here, do this here, like, and just walks you through it where, you know, 15 plus years ago that would have been just you manually putting in the work.
Brandon Giella (18:52.984)
Mm -hmm.
Ian (19:05.074)
calling people, you know, like really having to dig in and figure that stuff out yourself where now, heck, you can chat GPT, like, give me an itinerary for, you know, my week stay in London for, you know, inexpensive and it’ll spit out, you know, pretty good itinerary for you. So just that access to information not only helps people like us at Switchfly.
Brandon Giella (19:13.783)
Mmm.
Brandon Giella (19:25.751)
Mm -hmm.
James Houchin (19:34.286)
you
Ian (19:34.802)
package and put together those travel options for you, but really helps you do the research on what you want to do as well. And I think, you know, it just, all those things together, you’re just combining to make travel so much easier and more desirable as we go forward. And then you throw COVID in the mix where people have to spend a year of their lives not traveling, you know, that just added this whole new layer of
James Houchin (19:54.99)
in.
Ian (20:05.042)
Yeah, actually it was having a conversation with a friend of mine not too long ago regarding kind of during COVID. What did you miss kind of things? And, we were talking about professional sports of like when the professional sports leagues have having to start shutting, you know, shut their seasons down. I didn’t miss that at all. You know, like it was like, all right. Like, but I miss taking trips, you know, my sons and I would often take little three day.
Brandon Giella (20:31.317)
Mm.
Ian (20:34.77)
weekend, you know, just quick little hops somewhere. I miss that stuff. I didn’t miss watching the Packers on Sunday or something, you know. It’s so I think it also helped people focus on what’s important to them and travel is always been, you know, a big one.
Brandon Giella (20:45.237)
Mm -hmm.
James Houchin (20:56.238)
Yeah, and to your point Ian, I remember getting out of the airport in Tel - or in, yeah, in Tel Aviv and I didn’t even know how to say my school’s name in Hebrew. Cause you know, but the whole meaning doesn’t really roll off the tongue. It took 10 minutes to just tell the taxi driver where the heck I was going. Cause he didn’t speak English. Like you, you couldn’t do that if you tried today, if you have a smartphone. Like it’s, you know, a single app, you type it in, press a button. I mean, it’s, it’s kind of a -
rolling joke whenever in South America, because you’ll see a foreigner on a date or something. These people don’t even speak the same language, but they’re on a date with a mobile app. That’s a completely separate conversation itself, but the world is just so accessible. It’s wild. There’s just so much out there to do and see. I’m turning into this gritty travel hipster where I only go to places that people vaguely can find on maps.
Brandon Giella (21:38.581)
Mm -hmm.
Brandon Giella (21:44.085)
Yeah.
James Houchin (21:51.694)
I mean, shoot, I know several brands even or employers where, you know, they’ll have a pretty much like, we won’t ask where you are program where, you know, I know one specifically, they just tell their employees don’t show up for, you know, the month of August and you can go work anywhere in the world you want. So now, you know, and, you know, at Switchfly, we’re pretty lucky with how the flexibility to, you know, say you wanted to add an extra couple of days on a trip in France, you know.
Brandon Giella (22:16.933)
Hehehehe
James Houchin (22:21.23)
time shift a little bit and boom, you know, you have, you can extend your trip for another week and get a completely, you know, extra experience or, you know, that plus something like we work to work out a latam. It’s, you know, you know, basically, you know, gigabit internet for a hundred, 200 bucks a month in a world -class off it. Like the bleasurer potential even of, you know, having a business trip and extending a couple of days onto it. Like there’s just so many options that.
Brandon Giella (22:28.373)
Yeah.
Brandon Giella (22:41.333)
Mm -hmm.
James Houchin (22:49.934)
you know, even five, 10 years ago, really weren’t even a thought except for a very small cut of the population. And now, you know, what is it? At least is it 40 or 50 % of the employee base now has at least some work from anywhere or hybrid work environment. And I know we’re kind of seeing the pendulum swing back to being in office, but I think that’s more, I think it’s.
Brandon Giella (23:10.101)
I’ve heard something like that.
Ian (23:15.41)
But we’re also seeing a lot of resistance to that as well, right? Yeah.
Brandon Giella (23:18.165)
Mm -hmm.
James Houchin (23:18.254)
That’s what I was going to say. I think as soon as some of these business leases start going, we’re going to see kind of a regression to the mean. I think COVID just pressed the gas pedal on speeding up flexible work and work situations more than an exception or a unique moment in time.
Brandon Giella (23:35.061)
Mm -hmm.
James Houchin (23:40.078)
At least that’s the hope.
Brandon Giella (23:40.565)
I’m curious what y ’all think. Yeah. Given, given work from anywhere, given the accessibility of travel and, and some of these things we’ve been talking about and, and especially for employees. and yeah, just where they’re going to be. I was talking with a colleague earlier this week about how.
It’s kind of, it’s kind of difficult to figure out like where you want to live as a family. Cause you have all these options in front of you and all the success ability and you know, maybe even languages like to your point, James, aren’t even that big.
Barrier anymore. Do you guys feel that is that a generational thing? Is that like do you guys talk about that with your your spouses or your families where? At one time you you want rootedness and community and relationships and that takes a long time to kind of build those roots and networks But then at the same time like I could get on a plane this weekend and be in you know France working for three months there You know because it’s just is so you can just turn it on you can get an Airbnb and a flight and I’ll be there in a week
Ian (24:38.386)
Yeah.
Brandon Giella (24:41.495)
I can stay as long as I want.
Ian (24:42.066)
Yeah, so actually my wife and I talk about this quite a bit because she’s originally from Mexico and we talk often about especially, you know, when my kids graduate from high school, do we want to stick around here? Do we want to spend half the year down in Mexico? You know, I have a lot of roots in Wisconsin. Do I want to spend, you know, half a year up there?
Brandon Giella (24:50.197)
Hmm.
James Houchin (25:03.31)
you
James Houchin (25:10.414)
No, no, no, sorry.
Ian (25:12.53)
I think actually, depending on when you’re there, I think Madison in the summer is my favorite place on earth. You know, the the the point the like, yes, the people want people want the roots and I don’t think that shifted but your ability to like our base has grown right like you don’t need your mother next door.
Brandon Giella (25:13.653)
Hahaha!
I’ve never been that far north.
James Houchin (25:22.446)
It’s the best two weeks of the year.
Brandon Giella (25:27.221)
You
Ian (25:42.61)
to be as connected as we were in the past, right? Like you said, I can jump on a plane and be there for relatively cheap this weekend. And so it’s not that we need those things less, that we want that community or all those routes less, it’s that our ability to have them more spread out is there. And so yeah, sure, you can pick up and move.
You know, once you have kids and they’re in school, it gets a little more inelastic. But, but for the most part, you know, heck, why not? Why not go spend the summer in, in Europe or Africa or, you know, is there, is there a region on earth other than like Antarctica that you can go spend half a year, you know?
James Houchin (26:25.742)
you
Ian (26:40.658)
between internet and everything. That’s why I said region. I don’t mean specific country. Region. Yes. So. But I...
James Houchin (26:41.774)
North Korea might be one of the few.
Brandon Giella (26:45.542)
hahahaha
James Houchin (26:47.566)
I’m sorry.
I apparently I’m just here to poke holes in Ian’s dreams. Sorry.
Ian (26:57.714)
My dream of spending the summer in North Korea is gone.
Brandon Giella (26:57.83)
Yeah
James Houchin (27:02.126)
Sorry.
Brandon Giella (27:03.718)
Know your dream, the dream to live in the south of France though, I’m with that. Yeah, I would love to go do that.
Ian (27:07.282)
Yeah, right. Yeah.
James Houchin (27:10.414)
Well, and then I mean, what is it? I was just reading how there’s almost 30 countries offering some version of a digital nomad program right now. I almost moved to the Republic of Georgia back in 22 or sorry, 20, excuse me, 20 because they have a year working program. They actually claim to have invented wine. Armenia fights them for that tooth and nail. I have no dog in that fight, so I’m not going to even venture a guess.
Brandon Giella (27:20.486)
Yep.
James Houchin (27:40.238)
But you know, like you can live fairly well, even by contemporary standards for next to nothing. I mean, I knew some people in Lima, they run it a 2 ,500 square foot house, private elevator, three bed, five bath, because things are a little different there. And I mean, they’re doing it on social security, right? Like, it’s wild what’s out there. So, you know, like, I mean, go ahead.
Ian (28:07.442)
I like how James was going to go to the Republic of Georgia, so his runner -up was moving to the state of Georgia. That was...
James Houchin (28:14.222)
Hahaha!
Brandon Giella (28:14.438)
Hey, I’m from Georgia. There’s nothing wrong with that, okay?
James Houchin (28:17.934)
You know, so like my ideal would be probably six to seven months in Georgia. You know, like I love being able to walk out in shorts and not, you know, an insulated jacket in the month of January. It’s just right now I am not there because it’s 98 and 100 % humidity and Brandon and Dallas can attest that’s not anyone’s happy place. I’m pretty sure there’s some days in Georgia where I see a guy running around with a pointy tail wearing red.
Brandon Giella (28:41.702)
No, it’s not. It’s terrible.
James Houchin (28:47.438)
It’s just not fun or enjoyable at least for me But again, like you know, where do you live when you can live anywhere is is kind of this interesting problem that’s popped up the last Decade or so and you know like up until I moved to Georgia I mean, I didn’t really have a reason to you know, pick anywhere in particular, you know The running joke was my house is my backpack or my you know my suitcase and you know I wouldn’t advise anyone do that long term, but
Brandon Giella (28:48.87)
Sounds alright.
Brandon Giella (28:57.798)
Yeah.
Brandon Giella (29:09.574)
Yeah.
Brandon Giella (29:13.03)
Yeah.
James Houchin (29:16.75)
You know, kind of to your point, Brandon, like, you know, say, say you, you know, your family wants to, you know, somewhere somewhere and your employment situation allows it, like, why are you sitting in Texas?
Brandon Giella (29:32.422)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. It’s true. It’s true
Ian (29:34.034)
Yeah, well, and we’re seeing that. I mean, think of 100 years ago, the urbanization process of people moving off farms into the cities, because that’s where the work is. And now we’re seeing the opposite, right? We’re seeing this kind of de -urbanization of moving back into more rural areas, just because I have, I mean, I live.
James Houchin (29:35.086)
Nothing that gets text this most of the year.
Sorry.
Brandon Giella (29:40.006)
you
Ian (30:02.226)
I live about halfway between St. Louis and Memphis, which are the two nearest major urban areas. It’s about two hours either way. There’s a few towns nearby, both of them are under 10 ,000, but so it’s pretty rural. And I have better internet than James in Atlanta. There’s no reason for me not to live.
Brandon Giella (30:23.654)
Hmm.
James Houchin (30:26.158)
Annoying.
Ian (30:30.482)
in a rural area, right, like, because I can, that’s where the work is for me. It’s anywhere I want to go as long as there’s an internet connection. So I think we’re going to see that de -urbanization process continue. And like you said, Brandon, if you’re not specifically tied to an area for a particular reason, why not take off?
Brandon Giella (30:51.378)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, there’s this YouTuber that I like. His name’s Ali Abdaal and he had this...
James Houchin (30:53.55)
And then just to -
Brandon Giella (30:58.694)
video that he came out with like a month or two ago where he just sold everything, got his laptop and he got like a hundred dollar little road mic and he was gone. He could work and he’s traveling all over the world for a year and it’s like, man, I’m jealous of that. Now I have a kid and you know, it’s a little bit harder. My wife’s business is here and it makes it a little bit harder for her clients and things. But the idea that you could just, you know, just throw all your stuff in a backpack and just go. I just love that idea. I think it’s so fun.
Ian (31:26.514)
Yeah.
James Houchin (31:27.694)
Well, you know, just to reel it back into, you know, something that might be more relatable to some people listening, you know, even if you’re a teacher or something else, you get at least a couple of weeks off a year. Like, there’s no reason you can’t, you know, at least taste test some of this. You know, pretty much anyone short of, you know, being under house arrest should be able to, you know, go and explore. And, you know, that can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people, but...
Dang, it’s never been easier to move around. And to Ian’s point, the costs have gone up a little bit in some of this, but there’s still a lot of deals to be found.
Ian (32:05.394)
Well, and the working thing, my parents are retired and live half the year in an RV park outside of Phoenix. And they have a lot of friends who during the summer to get out of out of Phoenix, there’s these sites and groups that have and promote seasonal work for like different and it’s
It’s a range of, somebody needs help in their accounting office during tax season. Or it’s, I think some of their friends go and watch the gate at an oil rig that hires people for like a month at a time to just kind of watch the gate and check IDs. And they do that for three, four hours a day or whatever, just to make a little extra cash, right?
Brandon Giella (32:55.91)
Hmm. Hmm.
Ian (33:04.018)
So if you got, like James said, if you’re a teacher and you got the summer off, why not go travel? There’s gonna be, if you can’t afford it, there’s gonna be work. You don’t have to work online at a computer. There’s going to be something you can do. And now with our ability to access information so easily, it’s gonna come to you, right? Like the work’s gonna find you.
James Houchin (33:32.174)
Yeah, and to kind of end on that note, maybe the gig economy and all the predictions from 10 years ago are starting to come to light. It’s supposed to be what half of the workforce is supposed to be contingent and we could all kind of do this plug and play, Uber -esque type thing, but there really are some options there. So whatever you want to do, there’s a way to get there and Switchfly is the way to get away. So anyway, that’s a great point to kind of wrap it up on.
Brandon Giella (33:58.086)
Yeah, I love that.
Ian (34:03.026)
Perfect.
Brandon Giella (34:03.366)
Sounds great. James, Ian, thanks so much for your insight. So excited for your travels coming up here personally, professionally. And I love that you guys are not only, you know, can talk about travel because of your job, but you guys live it as well. And I think that’s really fun that you get this personal experience and wisdom from what you guys are doing in your lives. So thankful for you and excited about next episode. We’ll see you next time. Bye.
Ian (34:27.698)
Awesome. Thanks Brandon.
James Houchin (34:28.846)
Thank you guys. Take care.
