No man (or woman) is an island – Embrace the Community!

No man (or woman) is an island; we must embrace the community to fully realize our potential.  

So what am I getting at with the idea that No Man (or woman) is an Island?

For starters, the mile and point community is an amazing group of people, and everyone helps each other out. In fact, I was truly proud to partner with the Rich Kerr and his Travel Hacking 101 Group to collect ~50 toys for Toys for Tots. And we will go even bigger next year!  

The fact is, that people want to help each other, I believe this is in our very nature. Our DNA. All too often I hear of folks that are doing amazing things, but may not realize that there are others doing similar feats. The goal of this post is to try to connect the dots. More to that point, there are very few self made women or men.

Frequent Travelers and Travel Hackers

There are a ton of communities that you can join!

• Flyertalk is perhaps the one that has been around the longest
• InsideFlyer – founded by many of the folks involved with FlyerTalk
• Saverocity Forums – This is probably more focused on travel hackers, and Weekend Entrepreneurs. Matt, the founder–and also the host of this blog–consistently surprises me, looking at things from a different viewpoint. I’d argue that this is the community that will challenge your assumptions.
• Travel Hacking 101 – Founded by Rich Kerr. I’ve been lucky to be a part of this community, and have been very impressed with it. Its not just about travel hacking, but its also about coming together and doing good. Rich also has a Travel Hacking Advanced, but I think it currently has a waiting list.
• There are also meet-ups like Dia’s Family Travel for Real Life (FT4RL) series, where you can meet folks in person.
• Jeanne and Ed also host less formal Geeky Pizza happy hours frequently in the DC area; there are similar meet-ups across the country coordinated by others.

Reselling for Miles, Points, and Profits

I think the phrase “manufactured spending” first came up and you will likely find some of those topics in the above grouping. But for me, I found that reselling was the logical path for generating miles, points, and profits.

• I would be remiss, if I did not highlight Phil Hall and my Mile High Reselling Club (subscription based). We provide insight for new, intermediate, and long term sellers. We have also introduced a Deal of the Day, a pre-negotiated CPA, and various aids and guides (like for reseller certificates which get you tax exemptions).
• Shawn of Miles to Memories recently started a Reselling Facebook group as well, which has had explosive growth. 
• Similar to how Dia holds her FT4RL, I have hosted a number of ResellingDO events, and plan to continue to do so.

Conclusion – Embrace the Community!

I have been blessed to have had the chance to meet and keep in contact with folks like Matt, Ed, Gary, Rich, Jeanne, Gideon, and many others. I won’t call them the titans of the community, but they are certainly some of the folks that have contributed a great deal, in many cases, with little personal gain.

We all have great potential. Individually, I am convinced that we can all do great things. But with the inspiration and advice from others, I think we can do even more. Helping each other, we can realize great things. I often tell folks that “a rising tide floats all boats.” This is a perfect case for that. Lets remember that not a single one of us started in a vacuum. Further, lets remember to help the next generation of travel hackers and resellers; to do that, we must embrace the community regularly.

Are there any communities that I’ve missed? If so, please share in the comments.