Imagine if you could.

• Your client will pay for a trip to Richard Branson’s private island.
• Get to know the top industry players and discover how your business can do better than theirs
• Be sponsored and collaborate with the top brands

Julia Menez, one of my Earnable Students, is able to do this as she has transitioned from her job as an actuary to owning Geobreeze Travel.

Her story is something I am excited to share with you. First, let me tell you three things that Julia has done to make her Rich Life possible by starting her own business.

Free trip to Richard Branson’s private island

Julia said that Richard Branson's trip to his private island was "probably the epitome a Rich Life." The place we stayed looked like a yacht perched on top of a hill. It is the most luxurious thing that I have ever seen."

Bilt, a credit program that allows you to earn points on your rent was promoted by Julia. They invited Julia to join them on Branson's island, British Virgin Islands, for a mastermind consulting session to thank her.

Julia stated that she was able to meet points-and miles celebrities. "I was invited to join Bilt's advisory committee going forward and to continue to promote their program."

Julia stated, "Different collaborations such as this wouldn't have been possible if my business wasn't built out." "And a lot that's due to the different strategies I learned through Earnable."

Building a community and meeting new people

Julia stated, "A lot of my Rich Live is being invited to social functions and building friendships."

She said, "Having a podcast allows me to get to know people." They're fascinating and have amazing stories about their strategies... I get the opportunity to interact with coaching clients... And I've made many friends via the internet and meeting up in person.

She has spoken at numerous conferences including The New York TimesTravel show and was able to share the stage with "huge names" in the industry. It's amazing to be able to share the stage together with them.

Julia gives a wonderful insight into the idea of a Rich Life. "I think part a lot of people’s Rich Life is some sense of being a small time celebrity." (Indeed!) "Being a well-known or growing voice in points-and-miles has really opened up networking opportunities."

It has also allowed her to grow her business.

Travel tips and profit donations

Geobreeze Travel has Julia in a clear niche. Julia is a first-generation immigrant daughter, giving her an uncommon perspective in the points and miles travel industry.

She gives a great example. This card is all you need. Sign-up bonuses cover your six-hundred dollar ticket. "You can see your family.

Julia stated, "I can tell someone that in 10 seconds." However, it can be life-changing for them. They can go home to Asia, South America or Europe to visit their family, regardless of where they live.

This is amazing!

Julia has another major way of helping people: Julia donates all her profits at the end the year to charities that are voted for by Patreon members. Last year, she donated more than $32,000.

These are the three Rich Life experiences Julia can have -- she is able go on luxury trips, network with key industry players, and help others with 5-minute tips or thousands of dollars.

It was all because of her business.

She hasn't done this for a long time -- she started it last year!

Julia shares two secrets. Hard work and Earnable. She said, "I was able take advantage of these possibilities through the lessons I learned in this course."

Let's now look at Julia's business idea and niche.

Find your niche and help people build a business that is profitable

It takes thousands of hours to become an actuary. Julia was interested in actuarial positions that could allow her to travel internationally, such as Thailand, Hong Kong, or Belgium.

Why quit this early in her career? -- to start her own business?

Julia was able to take a lot more time after she had completed her studies and passed her exams. She also started to get into points-and miles travel and personal finance. In her first venture, she set up a travel agency. However, it was closed down by the pandemic.

To share tips and tricks on how to use credit cards miles and points, she started an Instagram account. Although she didn't enjoy writing, she enjoyed talking with people so she created a podcast instead of a blog.

Julia decided to adopt a collaborative approach because she had experienced the opposite when she started out.

"As I started to get more into points and miles, and wanted to travel free of charge, I noticed that almost all the major bloggers were white men from the same age group. Nobody looked like me. I didn't find anyone who could relate to my background stories. I realized that there were probably many other people who felt the same way.

"Sometimes people were very rude when I asked a question on Reddit. I wanted to create a community that could discuss points and miles but also view points from the perspective of people who aren't usually featured in points-and mile media

"As someone who is clearly not white, my perspective on how to approach miles and points is slightly different." There is so much information out there about how to get the best cents per point valuation by transferring your points into Emirates First Class or Singapore First Class. Etihad Apartments and other things, but they don't always cater for everyone.

This is a wonderful illustration of what I mean by "Your Rich Life Is Yours." "Richness" does not necessarily refer to "first class." Not every wants that.

Julia stated that she wanted to make it easier for people "to find someone who suits their specific points-and miles strategy." Sometimes you need information for solo female travelers and other times you need information for large families. Sometimes, you need something that is very business-traveler-focused. You might be a consultant, salesperson or someone who travels a lot. If so, you may want to know how to get a lot more points and where to spend a lot through credit cards. There are many strategies.

Julia recognized a market opportunity: "I felt that it was a very one size-fits all or maybe three sizes-fits all -- with people who like tinkering and basic family blogs but nothing that catered for women, people of colour, and first-generation immigrants."

Julia was able to speak at several conferences about how BIPOC women use points and mile or how points-and miles travel applies to families with multiple children but no travel budget. Being able to help people who thought that a luxury lifestyle was not for them, and being able to offer those opportunities to them is a great feeling. These channels .'... don't have people who look like me. I love being able tell them that you can travel free of charge too!

Julia stated that "from a business perspective," Julia said, "it has opened up so many opportunities because there is quite a movement on Instagram as well as the internet at large in making all of the financial and travel industries more digestible to people who usually haven't had seats at the table."

This is a great perspective that she has on helping people and building a business.

Julia discovered something she enjoyed and was good at and found a gap in the market. She then created a profit-making solution.

Let's now see how Julia managed to create multiple revenue streams using her ideas.

She made $60k her first year of business

Julia has diversified her business's income streams. Here are the reasons why this is important.

Julia was Julia's first year with Geobreeze Travel. The company brought in nearly $60,000 in revenue.

Julia stated that her goal for this year was $8,000 in total revenue per month. That'll bring me to close to $100k in total revenues. This is more than enough for most people to live on if someone has a business like that.

Julia decided to purchase Earnable after she had studied the points-and-miles bloggers of celebrities a few years back.

"I thought, "Well, if they do it, I bet they can do mine too...How do they do this?" Let's see if we can do something similar without spending all my time writing blog articles, optimizing SEO, and hoping someone clicks on the links.

Geobreeze Travel has five total revenue streams:

• Coaching calls for private clients
• Credit card affiliates
• Instagram sponsored content
• Podcast ads
• Patreon master classes

Credit card affiliate sales make up the largest portion of Geobreeze Travel's revenue. Julia stated, "It's enough for me to pay rent every month in my New Jersey apartment with a view over Manhattan."

She doesn't want one stream to her income. Julia stated, "It's nice if I have low credit card affiliate sales months, because it is the most variable. It's not going to completely wreck the business."

Julia shared her ideas about how to start a coaching business, and how to automate scheduling. So you don't have to send people emails asking if they are available on Thursday at 7pm. You can create an automated calendar that allows people to sign up for coaching when there is a spot.

Diversifying is important because you never know when Facebook, Instagram, or any other service will alter their algorithms and impact your business. An email list is essential.

It's something Julia is focused on.

Julia does it in a way that I love: She shares an email script as a bonus to signing up for her newsletter that earned her $1k worth of upgrades at Grand Wailea Maui.

Yes! Yes! I love scripts. I love scripts.

Julia shared a fantastic email template for hotel upgrades. The $500 hotel room was booked by Julia. She requested an upgrade to the $650 suite. She was upgraded to the $900 hotel room in the gated area of the hotel. This has views of many Hawaiian islands, a balcony and complimentary breakfast.

It's not difficult to send an email.

Julia now offers a free 15 minute coaching call every week to anyone who clicks the link in her weekly email. She said, "I think that I got that idea from Earnable too."

It was amazing to see Julia apply what she learned from Eligible to her unique situation. She discovered something she enjoyed and was skilled at and found a gap in the market and worked to create a profit-making solution.

A mindset that makes you a successful entrepreneur

Julia has had multiple Rich Life moments through her business. She developed a niche and diversified her income streams.

Let's now look at mindset, the most important aspect of being an entrepreneur.

Julia, like many students, binge-watched Eligible as she signed up for her first business.

She said that she hasn't stopped learning the lessons, particularly for email templates and if she needs ideas on how to write something to pitch to a company or to pitch on a collaboration.

Julia is seeing something in her business that I often see in mine: "Many people are hesitant about investing in anything that has an associated fee." This is a common problem in the credit card industry. People will tell you that there is a $95 annual charge. We reply, "You're going get $2,000 worth." Why would you pay $95 for a $2,000 vacation?

Here's what she says to people who are interested in investing in a program, whether it's a credit card program or a business program: "Don’t you believe enough in yourself to get that type of ROI?"

It really lights a fire under your feet, and you'll say, "OK, I invested in this." She said, "I have to do the work to recoup that money and build my business."

This is what I have seen in my most successful students. They invest in themselves, and then use that to motivate them to invest in their businesses.

I have also seen students with imposter syndrome, feeling years behind others and therefore shouldn't start.

Here's Julia's advice:

I think that when someone starts a business they feel the need to have everything perfect. Or they look at someone they admire in their field and are like "That took 14 years." I don't have fourteen years. Because they have an advantage, I won't be able to catch up. But the world is constantly changing and you don’t have to be the best in your industry. You can make incremental improvements if you are able to grow a little, then grow more.

We tell people the exact same thing in miles and points when they say that they don't have enough points to fly around the world first class. That would save them $50,000 and $200,000. I tell them, "Do you really need to?" Would you be happy to hear that you receive $5,000 worth of travel each year? Isn’t that remarkable?

"I believe people get caught up in the Instagram comparison game. This is similar to everything else. You feel scared to start your own business when you see someone who is so successful doing the same thing as you, and you believe you will never catch up.

"You'd be amazed. Sometimes you do. Some people I believed were above me have been surpassed by me. They were at one point way above me. I've also surpassed them in terms of Instagram followers and revenue.

It's okay if you don’t make enough money to cover rent. Even if your lifestyle is not covered, and you don't have enough money to retire in two years, it's okay.

YES!! This is a beautiful statement.

Let me challenge you. If you already have this mindset join Earnable to start building your own business. Earnable is for you if this mindset is not working for you. We include a lot of material about mindset, both yours as well as your customers.

Julia Menez is a Rich Person. Read her story at 11 Ways to Make Money.