Small Business Big World
Tips for Traveling for Business
Ever wondered how small business owners manage everything when it comes to traveling for work? Join us as Kortney Nedeau, a small business professional, shares her fascinating journey from her grandfather's shoe leather sales legacy to building her own thriving business. With Kortney, we explore the relentless world of travel for business. Learn how she uses certain hacks to streamline her travel and maximize certain (tax!) rewards.
This episode isn't just about logistics—it's about the art of balancing work and personal life on the road. Discover Kortney's approach to managing her schedule and the importance of embracing local culture to enrich each trip. Whether you're a seasoned business traveler or gearing up for your first trip, this episode is packed with tips and inspiration to make your journeys more efficient and enriching.
Ever wondered how small business owners manage everything when it comes to traveling for work? Join us as Kortney Nedeau, a small business professional, shares her fascinating journey from her grandfather's shoe leather sales legacy to building her own thriving business. With Kortney, we explore the relentless world of travel for business. Learn how she uses certain hacks to streamline her travel and maximize certain (tax!) rewards.
This episode isn't just about logistics—it's about the art of balancing work and personal life on the road. Discover Kortney's approach to managing her schedule and the importance of embracing local culture to enrich each trip. Whether you're a seasoned business traveler or gearing up for your first trip, this episode is packed with tips and inspiration to make your journeys more efficient and enriching.
This is Small Business Big World, our weekly podcast prepared by the team at Paper Trails. Owning and running a small business is hard. Each week, we'll dive into the challenges, headaches, trends, fun and excitement of running a small business. After all, small businesses are the heartbeat of America and our team is here to keep them beating. Welcome to Small Business Big World, our weekly podcast talking about all things small business. Today, I have Courtney Netto with me. Thank you for joining me, courtney, welcome.
Kortney Nedeau:Happy to be here.
Chris Cluff:So today we're going to talk about traveling for business, for work kind of thing. So lots of Courtney does hundreds of thousands of miles a year, probably traveling A lot of miles.
Chris Cluff:So we're going to talk a little bit about that Before we get into that we're going to. I want to make sure everyone is liking, following, sharing rating, reviewing us all over the internet, wherever you are Instagram, facebook, apple Podcasts, spotify all that fun stuff. Don't forget to tune in and like share rate, review all that fun stuff. If you have any questions, certainly feel free to email us. Podcast at papershellscom. If any of our guests, you can get in touch with us and we'll forward that along or we'll answer your questions on future podcasts. So, courtney, talk to us about what you do and why you travel so much.
Kortney Nedeau:Absolutely yeah. So I own my own business helping brands in America and Europe source footwear materials for brands. So you name the brand and basically I'm bringing to them all the components that they could use to create a shoe. So I travel to LL Bean, for instance, or Red Wing Boot Company, meet with designers, developers, and they are designing next season's shoes. I show them all the components, from leather to suede to textile to foam, everything that you could need, made up from all different sources across the world.
Chris Cluff:And you're helping them source that from wherever it needs to come from Directly yep.
Kortney Nedeau:So everything is you know from beginning to end. So, looking at catalogs all the way 18 months until production and then re-reorders.
Chris Cluff:That's really neat. It's kind of a really neat niche. How did you get into that?
Kortney Nedeau:So I got into that. My grandfather sold shoe leather for 67 years for Prime Tanning in Berwick, maine. And when he turned 90, a couple of the factories the shoe factory owners came to Kennebunk and were wishing him a happy birthday. And I happened to bring lunch over and they said why don't you sell shoe leather? I was like shoe leather, I'm a woman, I'm not selling shoe leather, this is a man's world. And they said, courtney, come to Asia, we'll see if we can change your mind. So I went over to Asia for two weeks. I was in China, taiwan, hong Kong, vietnam Day. Three weeks. I was in China, taiwan, hong Kong, vietnam, day three. I was like this is a no brainer and you know, just decided to jump in headfirst and had the best mentor for two years before my grandfather passed away. And now I've just kind of grown it and continue to grow it every week.
Chris Cluff:So where, where are you traveling? You're leaving here, you're leaving Maine. You're headed, headed out. Where do you go?
Kortney Nedeau:Yes, I do about 120 days a year. Obviously, COVID kind of threw that off a little bit, but Asia, typically China, Taiwan, Hong Kong or Vietnam, those are the key. Eventually we obviously have to follow the shoe market and where things are being made. So that could turn into Cambodia, could turn into Thailand. It kind of depends on where the next market is. That's usually two to four times a year, depending on what the brands need. I'm really just following up on quality control and things like that, but primarily in the States. I'm hitting about 30 of the US states a year, usually two to three times per state per year. That's crazy, it's nuts 120 days on the road 120 days.
Chris Cluff:You're the road warrior. You're in the airport. You're the road warrior.
Kortney Nedeau:You're in the airport, you get your pre-check. I'm sure Got my pre-check global entry, apec, all of it and those are your key things, right?
Chris Cluff:If you're going to travel a lot, 100%. Certainly, I'm traveling a lot more for pleasure than I am for business, right, but those are must-haves for me, right?
Chris Cluff:Pre-check global entry get them about this in a second, but your credit card might even reimburse you 100%. The credit card is a way to do it, so let's talk about that. So how do you structure your expenses when you're on the road? Right? So are you. Do you have a company credit card? Do you have a personal credit card? What's your budget situation? What's all that look like?
Kortney Nedeau:Yeah, so everything is self-employed. So I'm kind of like a contractor with five different suppliers and every brand I'm going to. I could be representing all five suppliers or just one supplier, and I have to divvy up those expenses accordingly. So everything is very well tracked, basically for me. I have a personal card. I actually have two. I use the Chase, sapphire Reserve for all of my travel airplane tickets, trains, you name it and then I use an American Express Hilton business card for all my hotels. So I'll be versatile between Marriott and Hilton. But if I go Marriott I'll use the Chase. If I use Hilton I get 10 times the points using the Hilton Amex. So I'll go that route. I manage all of my bookings on my own. So a little hack I do is I'll rebook maybe three times before I actually travel. I'll keep track of the prices and you know I don't have to do that. But if I can show less spend to my suppliers, then that's more money for me to make, right, sure. So I spend the extra little time to do that.
Chris Cluff:And I get all the points. Do you set, like Google, alerts for that, or how are you tracking those prices?
Kortney Nedeau:So I kind of have an Excel sheet of my trips and I have an Excel sheet of you know what hotel and I have an Excel sheet of what the trip is, what city I'm going to, what airline I'm flying, what hotel I'm staying in, what rental car company I'm gonna be with and I utilize, obviously, all the credit card benefits of certain car rental companies and things like that.
Kortney Nedeau:But it really just depends Like, right now you can't really be loyal to an airline, right, because they're just a cluster and so scheduling is whatever can get me there, I'm gonna do it, and so that's kind of what you have to do. My goal is to get status with as many airlines as I can. But from back to a budgeting perspective, you know, I think for me I try to keep it as reasonable as possible. The key things that matter for me with a hotel is the most convenient, making sure it's in a clean and safe location and that it's a reasonable price. I'm barely in the room, you know, but I don't want to be staying 40 minutes away for a meeting that's across the street just because there's a hotel that's cheaper up the road, like it just makes more sense.
Chris Cluff:Well, when you have to get an Uber or whatever, take a taxi Exactly. You know that's the cost too right 100% you might have saved $100 on the room. But guess what? You just paid $100 to get to the meeting.
Kortney Nedeau:That's exactly it, and so trying to kind of manage that piece of it is so key and it just depends Am I going to be down there for a couple of days? Am I having luggage? Am I walking? There's so many variables, but for me it's really just. I know the city now, Like Columbus, Ohio. I was there last week. I'd never been to Columbus before Columbus. Now I have my hotel I go to. I kind of switch between two. I know the flight number now to get in and out of there.
Kortney Nedeau:And you know, I just try to stay on that schedule.
Chris Cluff:I know, and you get your little hometown routine away from home, so that's fun. So what are there any apps that you're using? Or you just have your spreadsheet. What do you use for tracking your flights and all that kind of stuff?
Kortney Nedeau:No, I got my spreadsheet. I keep my spreadsheet very organized, very detailed. The apps for me, like some of them, are just missing one component. That it just doesn't make it work for me. Sure, you know, when I was working in corporate world, I had a expense report app. Now it's just a cluster because I have to divide it by so many suppliers. So even with that, I keep it just simple with the Excel sheet. It's the death of me, is these?
Chris Cluff:expense reports.
Kortney Nedeau:But that's everybody, yeah, so no, I just keep that updated and I keep a tab per brand I'm going to visit, so then I can track each city year over year to see where I stayed, how much I spent and kind of budget myself out for the year.
Chris Cluff:So what's your favorite airline?
Kortney Nedeau:Ooh tough Overseas. I love Cathay Pacific to Asia and to Switzerland. I love Swiss Air To Europe in general, lothansa and in the States. I'm a big fan right now of Delta. Yeah, Delta's pretty good, I know, but I've been a JetBlue gal for so long. Those mint sweets. You know the mint sweets.
Chris Cluff:I was in one last week.
Kortney Nedeau:Oh, those mint sweets they're just like they tickle you pink. But the Delta lately has just been the most versatile, newest planes, just the best service on time, things like that, that's great, that's awesome.
Chris Cluff:So when you're on the road, how are you managing? You know, I think a lot of folks are traveling a lot how do you manage your life, right? I mean your work-life balance when you're on the road? You know, how do you? You know most people have a routine, right, you get up at this time we have our breakfast, we go to work, we do this whatever you know. How do you manage that? Your sanity on the road, like with jet lag and not being in your home right, you're living out of a suitcase.
Kortney Nedeau:How do you make that work? No, that's a really good question. So we actually talk about that a lot, right? People always say to me you are so busy, how do you do this? You're just so busy. And I just try to remind them that life on the road is like 24 one hour chunks of time. Right, when you're working in eight to five, you know that you're at your desk from eight to five generally. Or if you're a 12 hour person, you're seven to seven. 12-hour person, you're seven to seven. Everyone just knows their schedule.
Kortney Nedeau:But for me, I have to be over-organized because I'm working in one-hour chunks. I could travel to a city and I'm only in a one-hour meeting while I'm there. For me now, with airlines and how things have been since COVID, I have to arrive the day before the meeting to make sure that I'm there, and so I kind of have time to settle in. I'm in the hotel. I hate being in the room, so I'll find a local coffee shop. Always support small, local business wherever I am.
Kortney Nedeau:Try to kind of look at it and think this is just their Kennebunk, this is just their small town, right? And so I'll pop out in the city and just go around and find some small local dive and have a drink, have dinner and work from there in a little corner by myself, and you know I just make that my home office for the day. The next day I get up, know my hotel staff because I stay there a lot go out to the brand, have the meeting always bring the same treats, go to lunch. You know you just kind of get that routine and it took time right, but it's all about just like diving in and making it the comfort of home and then you know you just experience so much that you otherwise wouldn't have if you just stuck to the comfort of the hotel breakfast and the hotel coffee bar. It's all about experiencing the city I'm in while I'm there, as well as working.
Chris Cluff:Yeah, that's a great side benefit. I think you know most people don't. Maybe don't stop and go out, and you know I went to a conference last year with my team.
Chris Cluff:We went to California, it was in Palm Springs. None of us had ever been to Palm Springs. We were in this huge Marriott conference center which had everything we could ever need and, of course, the conference had events from 8 in the morning to 10 at night and every vendor wanted you at their party and this and that, and I said no, no, no, 4 o'clock we're out, we're going to go out.
Chris Cluff:I've never been here. I want to go see this. I want to go check the, you know. I want to go see the local restaurants. I want to go downtown and see the Maryland roast at you.
Kortney Nedeau:You know whatever, A hundred percent.
Chris Cluff:You know that stuff I've never seen before. Let's go do it. I've never been to the desert of California before.
Kortney Nedeau:No, that's literally exactly it to a T and, to be honest, it kind of reminds me of it right Like last week was going to be Portland, oregon, to Bozeman, montana, to Nashville, tennessee, to Boston, all in a four day stretch. So boom, boom, boom, boom. But you just get it down. That would freak some people out, right. They can barely go to Boston for you know, in three days they're like you're going to make me go to Boston for three days.
Kortney Nedeau:Is that enough time? But for me, you know, I can do across America and back in a day if I had to. It's just becomes routine. And so, yeah, I mean you just have to get, you have to be flexible, right? You have to be willing to dive in and see it. You have to think about it like you're just going to walk out on the street and ask the locals where should I?
Kortney Nedeau:go to dinner tonight. It's funny too, because everyone's always like am I staying at the best hotel? We're staying at this five-star hotel? When are you even in the room? You know, for me it's like I'm not even in the room at that conference. I'd rather spend my money out in the city and see it. So, yeah, that's, that's kind of what I do and the routine you do try to keep to as much routine as you can, though I've struggled with this this year. But you know, getting up, using the gym and the hotel and trying to do your stuff, check the things and whatever, keep yourself sane, right?
Chris Cluff:We all have our own personal stuff we have to deal with, that's exactly it, and Zoom is key A lot of plane time.
Kortney Nedeau:you can get the other stuff done right. So when you get to the city, I don't have any more emails to check, I'm just on foot, get a few thousand miles or steps in and call it a day.
Chris Cluff:So that's one of the nice things I mean I've appreciated that. I was on a flight this week and it was during the day, and guess what?
Kortney Nedeau:We had great wifi on the plane and I was working away Right and I was far more productive.
Chris Cluff:I wasn't watching a movie, it wasn't in a book.
Kortney Nedeau:I never watch a movie on a plane, Chris. I do activate texting because when the turbulence is tough to contact the ground with my anxiety. But other than that, I'm just getting my work done, Typing all my emails in note form. If I don't have email and just wait, land and press send, and then I'm done.
Chris Cluff:Yeah, that's great. I think that's been a huge advancement in business travel the last few years 100%. Pretty much every airline now has. Most of them are going free Wi-Fi. Yep, Some of them still are, getting us even. But if you're on an EVA flight for 15 bucks to pay for the flight. I would. I gladly pay that, because I need that productivity time. Yes, you know, getting my use out of that time rather than again watching Barbie. You know, on the little seat back.
Kortney Nedeau:I can picture you watching Barbie.
Chris Cluff:I did actually yeah that was actually a couple weeks ago, my last conference last month. We went and it was a late night flight, so I didn't have to work this morning.
Kortney Nedeau:You were like I'm kind of in a Barbie mood. I'd never seen it. It was good. It was good. I'm glad you liked it. I fell asleep about 20 minutes into that one.
Chris Cluff:I missed the end but I think I, because I did fall asleep at the end.
Kortney Nedeau:But I think it was pretty good you got the gist I, where I've watched sad ones on the way to meetings and just been.
Chris Cluff:A mess when you get there. No like a disaster.
Kortney Nedeau:Like absolutely unwell. And I'm just like what was I thinking? And I'm like I'm not doing this anymore. I'd rather deal with the stress of these emails in my inbox than this depression Like it's terrible.
Chris Cluff:Well, that's good. So you're talking about budget, right? So how are you? Do you get a budget from your vendors that say, hey, we're happy to have you come meet with us, but that doesn't mean you get to fly first class, it doesn't mean you get to stay at the Four Seasons. You know, you're not uber black everywhere. We need to be making sure that we're responsible, right? I'm assuming they give you a budget, right?
Kortney Nedeau:Yeah, kind of so bovine, like cow leather. I have one tannery that does split suede leather and then I have a textile supplier, a lining supplier and a foam supplier. Each of them give me the same amount of budget. So when you think about that, it's like each of them say I tell them hey, the average price I spent in each city.
Kortney Nedeau:Looking back at the Excel sheet last year was about about $225 a night for a decent four-star Hilton in the city, convenient, whatever. So $225, they each will approve me for that amount in most major cities. So that means I have. Really, if I wanted to bill each of them, I could spend up to what $1,225? That's not my brain. So instead I and look for the you know maybe three, 50, $400 a night. That's most convenient. And then I split it between five suppliers. They're only each paying, like what?
Chris Cluff:50 bucks for me to stay in this.
Kortney Nedeau:It's, it's, it's a lot less, but that's ultimately how I do it. Now, that is like a very unique situation, right? But again, like you know, for flights, if I'm flying within three hours, I just fly economy. There's no reason not to. I don't know, I'm just not bougie like that. I know you are, but I'm just not. And if I'm going across the country over five hours, I'll fly at least premium or business, sure, whatever. And then, at this point though, I'm pretty much getting upgraded every time anyways. So I'm always flying at least extra space. And then overseas, I fly premium or business, depending on you know where the trip is.
Chris Cluff:It's a long way to Hong Kong. What's available, yeah?
Kortney Nedeau:And you know you're sleeping. So it's kind of like a hotel night mixed in with Right. That's how I look at it. But yeah, I think the budget piece is kind of the last in mind. It's really for us what's most convenient to have. To come from Asia to America would cost my entire week's trip, for just the flight. So they're pretty lenient with what I spend. But I am very frugal when it comes to spending Well, like you said.
Chris Cluff:So here's the deal. Right, you're, you know you are self-employed, right, so you can write all these off of course no tax, you know implication or good tax implications, but certainly the less you spend, the more you make right. Correct, yeah, I mean.
Kortney Nedeau:I try to turn around and say, hey, so this year I only spent X, I'd like you know, so much more a month in my, for my contract. Well, why did you? Why do you deserve that? Well, I deserve it because this was what I turned around for results in my job. But also I saved you X amount in travel last year by spending only X. And now, hey, that's not not bad, we'll give you. You know, we're both there saving. I'm making a little more and it works out.
Chris Cluff:That's good. So what kind of travel? What are your must-haves for travel? Do you have a like? What are your must? What are your hacks? I guess what do you have to have every time you travel, or something you do every time you travel?
Kortney Nedeau:Don't check a bag. Okay, a bag Like for me. I will. Um, I'm very committed to the carry on. I have a nice toolie roller and a nice toolie backpack. That's my jam. For me, it's, you know, a three day trip is three pairs of pants, three tops and like one pair of bed stuff. Um, my packing is like what's Marie Kondo? Is that her name, marie? What's her?
Chris Cluff:name. She's the's the organizing lady.
Kortney Nedeau:I've never even watched or read any of her stuff, but I've heard about her and I'm probably like her when it comes to packing.
Kortney Nedeau:So you know, I just I'm minimalist, right. For me, the real keys are comfortable clothes on the flight, very rarely wearing business clothes on the flight because I'm not really having a meeting that day, and just I don't need to overdress and I don't need to bring 17 outfits, especially when you're saying seeing three different brands, you can just wear the same pants with three different tops. None of the brands would even know. So less is more. And as far as like stuff on the plane, I try to bring snacks. I hate airport food.
Kortney Nedeau:For the most part, the lounges are like okay, but sometimes, yeah, they're hit or miss and sometimes they're like 10 gates away or terminals away and it's just like there's no lounge. Come on, so I just bring a little bag of snacks from home. Um, that just kind of give me that sense of home as well and routine. And I always bring a pair of dress shoes and always travel in sneakers. There's no real reason for it, but if I'm walking a lot, sure you know, yeah, you want to be comfortable, so, um, that's what I do there. And then, uh, a good, wireless charger, because sometimes on the flights you don't have the plug-in and it can completely disrupt your productivity, or the airport ones. You know, they're always falling out of the seats and pissing everyone off. So yeah, one of those, and then a collapsible bottle for water.
Chris Cluff:Collapsible bottle?
Kortney Nedeau:Well, yeah, because then it doesn't take up much space and you can just kind of pop it open and it's there.
Chris Cluff:Dump it out before you go through security. That's it.
Kortney Nedeau:Yep, and so that's kind of been one of the coolest things I've brought, and always you have everything on board. You just don't lose anything when you don't check a bag, if you're forced to Put an air tag in yeah that's exactly it. But you know, for the most part, no check bags.
Chris Cluff:Even when you go to Asia.
Kortney Nedeau:Even when I go to Asia.
Chris Cluff:That's a lot of stuff for a little bag.
Kortney Nedeau:Yeah, it is, and so you know, with Asia they actually have pretty good laundry service in the hotels. That's nice, yeah, and it's cheap, obviously Much different than here, where a shirt's $28 or something.
Chris Cluff:I dropped something off at the dry cleaners. I think it was like $12 to have a shirt done. Yeah, I mean it's ridiculous.
Kortney Nedeau:So going there I can do that pretty easily and it's very accessible and affordable. But I also, if I have to bring stuff home, I just buy a luggage there, bring it back and then donate it or something like that. It's cheaper than like flying it back. And then the third hack or item, I guess, is I always bring gifts from Maine. I always bring something, some small token wherever I'm going, even if it's just to Columbus, ohio or Red Wing. I love Maine and I love like bringing stuff from our small businesses to them. That's a nice touch and it kind of opens up the conversation of so how is life in Maine? I'm like when I'm in New York, I'm like good, all your neighbors are doing great. Yeah, you know, because they've all moved here.
Chris Cluff:They've all moved here.
Kortney Nedeau:Yes. So yeah, I have you know, I kind of play on that a little bit. That's funny.
Chris Cluff:Yeah, it is.
Kortney Nedeau:That's great. The day's over you're going out checking these things out. What are some of the cool things you've seen or done or while you've been out there? Oh goodness. So I've seen a ton of cool stuff.
Kortney Nedeau:Most recently, I was in milan and I was at linea pelle, the fashion week, and my wife was traveling with me and her friend. They had a spa day at this like old train terminal, and I was at the linea pelle show and after I got out of the show and they got out of the spa, I just went online and booked a dinner reservation at this place called Sensorium and, lo and behold, it was on my chase. Credit card recommended restaurants but it wasn't sponsored. It didn't have. It was like this little hidden thing.
Kortney Nedeau:I was like sensorium, like what is this? It had 300 five-star reviews and that was it. I was like this is bizarre. And so I started reading about it and it's a meal that, um, uses all of your senses throughout the meal. That's kind of neat, very neat. I thought. Is this going to be cheesy, like one of those you know theater dinners where it's all choreographed and you know whatever? It wasn't, it was down an alleyway, it was a three man team and it was probably a top three meal I'd have in my life.
Kortney Nedeau:It was like a mixture of sensorium in Milan in like a little dead end alleyway. It was just absolutely incredible. The theme was ayahuasca. We did not do ayahuasca, but they tried to recreate what an ayahuasca ceremony feels like. And so you did. You used all your senses and it was like light and sound and the taste it was just nuts. And in Vietnam I had a similar meal at another restaurant that was called Noir. It was completely dining in the dark and the staff was all blind, like apps, actually blind, not just blindfolded, but they were hard of seeing and they were our servers. So you have to check your watch and your cell phone in the locker at the lobby and they guide you to your table. I've never seen such darkness.
Kortney Nedeau:I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. There was every language in the world being spoken in the room, but you couldn't see anybody because it was a tourist thing. It was the coolest thing, and so those two things were really neat. But I've been into mosques and been into different churches and just every national park and breweries and coffee shops, just stuff that exists.
Kortney Nedeau:That's just you know, you don't know about, and I think of Maine and you know our botanical gardens and like St Anne's Church and little stuff like that that I send people to and that's what I seek out. So, yeah, I mean those are some of the cool stuff that I've seen. There's also a Facebook group called Girls Love Travel and I have been. It has millions of members and I've been very active in that since my business travel. There's also a points hacking not the points guy, but another points and credit card hacking Facebook page and I'm very involved in those now that I've had business travel as well. So those are some of the things that I've connected with through these travels and experiences and found like the coolest stuff.
Chris Cluff:That's really neat. So that really sounds like a hack in itself. Right, you found these Facebook groups, right? I mean, use the community, use the world.
Kortney Nedeau:Yeah, use the community, use the world. I'm not a big TripAdvisor gal, try not to be much of a Yelp gal. I really just try to use the human connection. You know, when people come here to Maine, I love to show them the stuff that you couldn't really find on Google or the stuff that looks like it's way down the Google search results, but really in my mind it's more of a number one or two and you don't want everyone to find it. The unsponsored stuff is what I go after. Right, if you have to sponsor your ads, in my opinion, as a restaurant I'm kind of like I don't know Right.
Chris Cluff:There's a reason.
Kortney Nedeau:There's a reason. So, yeah, that's kind of what I go for and just life in general, though. What I've seen, you know Hong Kong, taiwan I've been to the Earthquake Museum in Taiwan and just China in general. You know our perception of some of these places, living in like little podunk.
Chris Cluff:Kennebunk, maine. It's just hysterical to me to kind of think of the perception of, like our classmates and our town townspeople. You go over there alone and I'm like, yeah, you know, and I I think that's a great point.
Kortney Nedeau:I mean, most people are are afraid of the different cultures and the different experiences, and mostly because they just don't know it's literally just that they don't know, and you know, ignorance is bliss right, and for me, I have learned more in six years of this job than any book or college could have ever taught me.
Kortney Nedeau:You know, right before I started, I drove America. I did 44 states by myself, 12,000 miles. It was the best thing I ever chose to do in my life and that was in 2017. Since then, I've had this job and you just start to appreciate realizing that everyone else is living in their little corner of the world, just the way that they live, right, wherever they are, and you just learn so much. It makes you appreciate your business so much more. And the clothing you're wearing the shoes I'm wearing Because everyone else in America that doesn't experience this is sort of just like shoes on sale great.
Kortney Nedeau:But, there's no mindset to the fact that, like 85 to 150 people touch those shoes before you get them. That's great, it is. It's that's their life, that's their world, and so I don't know. It's kind of cool to me to think.
Chris Cluff:Is this a devil wears Prada moment, where you just no, no, no devils.
Kortney Nedeau:No devil wears Prada moment. For me, that's good.
Chris Cluff:That's awesome. So what? What other you know? What are the last closing thoughts? In terms of, you know, travel, what are the one things? If you said you could travel for work?
Kortney Nedeau:what would you say? Don't forget to do? Just first of all, if you have the opportunity to travel for work, be excited, take advantage of it. You know, don't overly prepare for the unknown, because it will all change when you're there. Um, just trust your intuition, know that you are safe pretty much anywhere you could go, really, and the countries that you could go to that aren't safe. They know that you're going to feel that way in most cases and they're going to make sure you feel safe.
Kortney Nedeau:But just prepare yourself and be aware in your surroundings and represent America and your town the way that you best feel about it and be hospitable to the people you're with and to me. That in itself will get you a long way. But you know, in terms of your actual preparation, don't just jump on the first deal, you see, don't just jump at the best looking hotel. You know, do what fits for you in that trip and do what's going to get you the most benefit and bang for your buck. And just be smart. And, you know, don't just run and make decisions Like do a little research. The Tuesday thing about booking flights is a false thing.
Kortney Nedeau:Like you're supposed to book six Tuesdays before your trip. That's fake, I mean, if any you know travel agency came on here and said it's true, I'd be like, all right, we'll prove it. I've never seen it. For me it's just prepare your trip around that and you can kind of move things in and out to stay within your budget. But it's all very obtainable as long as you take the time to do it.
Chris Cluff:That's really cool. So how do people get in touch with you if they want to learn more about this kind of stuff? Yeah, they can Instagram or email.
Kortney Nedeau:Yeah, they can look me up. So they can look me up on Instagram at KENEDO23, k-e-n-e-d-e-a-u-2-3. Also, you can send me an email themain like M-A-I-N-E resource at gmailcom. Happy to connect with anybody, happy to sit down and help you look at credit card hacks, travel hacks, cool hotels, whatever. Always welcome conversation and maybe just coffee for fun.
Chris Cluff:So anyone, anytime, great, awesome. Well, thank you, Courtney, it's been wonderful and I'm ready for my next trip.
Kortney Nedeau:Thank you for having me.
Chris Cluff:I'm headed out in a couple weeks again.
Kortney Nedeau:Where are you going this time?
Chris Cluff:Going to St Lucia.
Kortney Nedeau:St Lucia.
Chris Cluff:Yeah.
Kortney Nedeau:One of these times I'm just going to hop in the back of the plane when I find out you're going somewhere your trips are epic. I don't know, maybe you should have run this one.
Chris Cluff:No, it's good. This is great stuff, Cool, Good, All right. Well, thank you, and remember everyone like follow, rate, review, share. Everywhere you listen to podcasts is where we are, and certainly also on social as well. So check us out there. And again, if you have any questions, certainly feel free to reach out to Courtney, but you can also email us at podcast at paper trailscom. Thank you so much, everyone. We'll see you next week. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of a small business, big world.
Chris Cluff:This podcast is a production of paper trails. We are a payroll and HR company based in County bank, Maine, and we serve small and midsize businesses across new England and the country. If you found this podcast helpful, don't forget to follow us at at Paper Trails Payroll across all social media platforms and check us out at papertrailscom for more information. As a reminder, the views, opinions and thoughts expressed by the hosts and guests alone. The material presented in this podcast is for general information purposes only and should not be considered legal or financial advice. By inviting this guest to our podcast, Paper Trails does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific individual, organization, product or service.