It’s that time of year again. 3 months to go before the end. December 31: My annual day of air mile reckoning. Can I make it 100k miles again, or not?
For anyone who travels a lot, I’m guessing you’ll appreciate this. If you don’t, humor me, and if you can help me, perhaps there’s a little something for you in it too.
A few months ago, I hit one of the biggest milestones I ever anticipated reaching as a road warrior: I flew one million miles on American Airlines. Yes, I did it. At 36, I’m now a million miler.
Was it exciting? Well, yeah, sort of. Depressing? A little. But then I thought about all the incredible places I’d been, the people I’d met, the adventures on the road and was reminded that I have truly been blessed. (I’ll just for a minute forget the hundreds of hours in airport waiting rooms, delays, cancellations, ground stops, perpetual sleep deprivation, cranky passengers, cranky me, etc. A modest price to pay overall.)
At this point in my travel career, my ability to maintain a certain level status with the airline – specifically, Executive Platinum – which took me forever to finally attain in the first place, makes a tremendous difference in how easily, comfortably, and sanely I’m able to traverse the globe and still keep our business at home going and growing. So, at this stage, it’s 100k or bust.
Last year, to maintain my EP status I did a “mileage run” to Dublin, Ireland in the final days of the year. While I hadn’t realized this before, there are actually a lot of frequent fliers traveling like mad on random trips in December just to accumulate their final qualification miles. Good news is, I had a blast, and even made a great new friend in the tech world.
So, now you see why I’m starting to sweat a bit. Travel slowed down for all of us this year and now I’m going to pay the price if I don’t act quick. I’m looking at somewhere around a 15k mile shortfall to make up for.
Always the creative problem solver, Scott came up with an intriguing idea: Offer to speak for free somewhere on the other side of the planet to a group who can’t afford your usual fees but would be happy to take care of your travel expenses. Genius!
Calling all non-profit leaders, school administrators, corporate trainers, student groups and community activists. Want me to come meet with, speak to, or lead a workshop for a wonderful group, team or conference you’re planning between now and December 15th, 2009? Let’s talk! You cover travel and expenses and I’ll hop on a plane to come visit you in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East or Australia, and waive my usual $10-15,000 US in fees. Seriously!
But the catch is, I can only do one or two trips, so get your pitch in quick so we can pick the most interesting one, book it and plan a fabulous experience all around. We can also document the whole adventure from start to finish and share it online with our friends, fans and followers around the world.
Now how fun does this sound???
For more information or to explore some possibilities, please contact Monique Peltz asap! I’ll be in about 5 different cities in the mean time.
