“Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a certain way.”
—Aristotle
If you want to be wealthy, you must act wealthy. “But how do I act wealthy when I have no money today, Nathan?” This is where you must embrace “fake it until you make it.” The unique take I’ll share with you in this chapter is how to get exactly what you want without paying for it. It’ll surprise you how I got my $350K white Rolls-Royce Ghost for free. I explain this in the next few pages. You’re going to do this the smart way. Stupid people fake that rich lifestyle by going broke spending all their money. You’d be amazed how many people screw themselves by doing this. That won’t be you.
You’re going to fake it by getting all the luxurious stuff that the New Rich love, for free. And once you’re rolling in cash you’ll keep getting it all for free, or for very little. That’s another one of the New Rich secrets: They aren’t rich because they make (and spend) a lot of money. They’re rich because they make a lot of money, keep it, and figure out how to get anything they want without spending much.
I’ll also show you how to bring in cash with very little effort. So when you can’t get what you want for free you’ll at least know how to bring in easy money to either grow your venture or fund your lifestyle.
I want you to jump-start your New Rich lifestyle before you can afford it, for two reasons. First—well, because you can, even if you think you can’t. But the more important reason is that once you give off the perception of being successful, more success will find you. It’s just how the universe works.
Most of the strategies here just involve knowing which tools to leverage to get what you want. Others, like getting an Airbnb mansion for free, will be more involved, but all you need is audacity and hustle. You’ll get as much as you’re willing to ask for.
There is easy money out there for the taking. You just need to know where to get it. These tactics alone won’t get you entry into the New Rich, but cash is cash. Get it, keep it, and make it work for you as you build up your empire.
I travel year-round and tap into two great tools when things go wrong: ClaimCompass.eu and AirHelp.com. With both sites you just submit your boarding pass and fill out a short form to submit your claim. I usually get a few hundred dollars back for each claim ($400 seems to be average). You get paid for delayed flights even if you still took the flight.
How it works is that airlines legally owe money to millions of consumers for lost bags and flight delays. But you’d have to hire a legal team and dive deep into the airlines’ terms of service and end-user license agreements to get what you’re owed. No reasonable person would do that. So these companies have lawyers on staff who do it for us. They sue the airlines over and over via class action lawsuits. Then they pay out that money to people who submit a claim to their site. It’s so quick to do, and it’s an easy way to make $400, which is kind of cool if your flight only cost $300.
If crowdfunding is your thing, FundedToday.com can spike your contributions multiple times over. You pay Funded Today a percentage of the money they help you raise, but considering you’d only have made a fraction of that without them, it’s worth it. CEO Zach Smith says their success rate is well over 95 percent. It works because they have email lists of millions of people who have already donated to Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns. When you work with them, they market your launch to those lists and can essentially guarantee funding.
This one’s fun, and you can go as far as you want with it. Go on eBay and look for an auction or a first sale that’s about to close. Then look up the same item on Amazon. If it’s more expensive on eBay than it is on Amazon, buy one or two on Amazon and then list them immediately on eBay.
This isn’t totally hassle-free. eBay takes a cut of your earnings, and you have to deal with shipping the item. There’s also the risk of your buyer wanting to return the item. But it’s worth it if you resell big-ticket items like electronics. You can make an easy $1K or $2K in one weekend if you focus solely on flipping expensive items.
Traveling on the cheap, or for free, is the only way to do it. But this doesn’t mean roughing it. Far from it.
I recently left Austin, Texas, en route to Bangkok for a forty-five-day trip. I traveled in first class and very much enjoyed the Hello Kitty–themed bed I slept in, dishes I ate off, and TV shows I watched. For normal people who haven’t figured out the ways of the New Rich, they’d pay $9K for this sort of first-class ticket. I got it for free. How?
To start, I put all of my business expenses through my Chase Sapphire Reserve card to rack up as many points as possible. This includes Facebook ads, paying for my email marketing provider, literally any expense. I know you’re thinking, Nathan, great tip! I bought this damn book and your recommendation is just to use a card that gives you points? Hold your horses. . . .
Next, do not try to use the points yourself. Go to Flightfox.com and have their experts figure out the most efficient and most luxurious way to fly you around the world. I paid $50 for the service, and they ended up basically handing me a $4,800 check.
The best offer I found on my own was a business class ticket for $3K. No bed. Limited food. No amazing selfies of me fully laid out being dressed by my flight attendant in the flight’s pajama evening wear. My out-of-pocket for this would have been $1K. Points covered the other $2K.
Flightfox.com used the same number of points to knock $8,880 off the price of a ticket, so I only had to pay $120. When I tried hunting for a deal myself, I used the same points but saved only $2K (off an inferior $3K ticket).
I use Flightfox every time I travel. You just tell them what frequent flyer points you have and where you want to go and their travel experts find you the best possible deal. You can also keep it as open-ended as you want to get the best possible deal, just saying something like, “Hey Flightfox, tell me sometime in the next six months when I can fly to China, Japan, or Sydney for under $500 using my points and going on the cheapest dates.” They will figure it out for you.
This is all the direction I gave them for this forty-five-day trip across three countries:
Description
Need to land in Bali Feb 10th. Flying out of Austin Texas. Would land back in Austin sometime late Feb.
Have booked these hotels for their respective dates:
Bali:
http://www.samabe.com (Feb 10 and 11)
http://jamahal.net (Feb 12 and 13)
http://www.alilahotels.com/manggis (Feb 14, 15, 16)
Would love to try and figure out how to also get to:
Australia 3-4 days
Bangkok Thailand 3-4 days
Japan 2-3 days
I don’t care about order except that Bali is first.
Can you help?
This chapter starts off easy. Anyone can generate cash or save money by using the resources I mentioned. Little or no effort required.
You can stop there and be happy. But if you’re willing to do some smart hustling you can get luxury anything—mansions, cars, clothes, vacations—for little or no money.
I want to vomit every time I see an Instagram or Facebook “influencer” posing in front of their new car or mansion, or posting selfies from their exotic vacations. You know damn well they don’t own—and can’t afford—those things, yet they act like they do. (Most of them are broke.) If they’d be up front with you, you’d learn a new way to live like royalty without spending royalty kind of money. They’d never admit to any of this, though, so I’m here to reveal their secrets for them.
Annoying as they are, those influencers are also smart as hell. They’ve figured out how to maximize the one commodity they have that companies are desperate to tap into: clout.
Companies need to get eyeballs on their products. That’s nothing new. And it used to be that advertising was the most effective way to connect with the masses. Remember, it’s how Ted Turner built his TV empire in the seventies and eighties. You know that’s not the case anymore, though. When is the last time you bought something based on an ad? It’s more likely that your buying decision was influenced by an online review, or a recommendation from someone whose taste you admire. Target can spend millions on ads promoting their new home decor line. But they’ll get more traction sending free stuff to people with big Instagram followings in exchange for a post tagged #targetstyle. Best part: consumers will see the product plug as an organic recommendation from a friend (even if that “friend” is someone they’ve never met). Free promo for Target. Free stuff for the influencer. Everyone’s head explodes from all the winning.
Anyone with a big following leverages their clout for free stuff. If they say they don’t, they’re lying. It’s how I stayed fifteen nights in luxurious five-star villas in Bali for a grand total of $0.
You can have clout even if you’re not hot on social media. The key is to create an inventory of things you can trade that the other person wants. Again, it’s usually exposure: I have my podcast, where I can offer to put people on my show in exchange for something; my email list; my Instagram account. These are all things to trade.
If you don’t have that kind of reach you can still leverage the quality of your connections.
Don’t have quality connections? Go out and make some. Just think about the kinds of people a company, or whoever owns the things you want, wants to get in front of. A hotel owner may value a review on a particular travel blog like TripAdvisor. So tell them you’ll publish a feature about them on that site if they have room for you to experience their property for a few nights. (Pro tip: Ask for the “media rate.” Every hotel has one, and it’s usually north of a 30 percent discount.) At the same time, pitch the article to that blog. The blogger will love the free, quality content and you’ll make a new friend. Win-win-win.
You can apply this thinking to nearly anything. Introduce yourself to CEOs, Instagram influencers, or the leader of any big community that a company would want to get in front of. Tell the company you’ll share your pictures, article, or whatever you can create with that community. You’re essentially trading your marketing services for the free thing you want. Jump to this page for more on how to broker deals like this.
If you’re skeptical that trading can work, maybe my experience at the five-star villa will change your mind. . . .
Bisma Eight in Ubud, Bali, lists nightly rates on its website at $325. Tucked into a busy side street where the roads are made of two-foot-by-two-foot lattice concrete pavers with grass sticking up in between, the resort’s pool hangs thirty feet above the forest on the back side of the villa where I stayed. I was there for a total of three nights, which would have retailed for $900+. Instead, I traded three Instagram pictures like the ones below, one per night, to stay for free.
If you want to copy me, below is the exact email script my partnership manager (Zach) sent Bisma Eight’s hotel manager to negotiate the free stay.
Subject line: “Collaboration”
Content:
Hi, I’m NAME,
I would love to take some photos and share my experience on my account which gets engagement from celebrities and successful entrepreneur friends in exchange for complimentary nights at your hotel in your best room for January 22-27th, 2017, two people, plus anything else you would like to offer (airport transfer, food, spa experience etc etc).
We can do the following:
1. Create One (1) positive instagram post per complimentary night (min of 2 nights) 2. Create One (1) positive review (5 star) on Trip Advisor and Facebook.
Our social media channels are @nathanlatka, @mygoodtravel 2
Million+ reach on Instagram with a special concentration on influencers in Hollywood. Demo: 70% female age 18-40 in the United States (85% US followers and 15% European followers).
Our posts will hit the top posts of all of Instagram. So when people search #balihotels #bali, #balispa, etc etc, they will see my post first. They will click on my picture, look at the caption, click on your Instagram page or website which will create more leads and sales for you. I’ve worked with everyone from the Four Seasons & Sheraton to boutique hotels, villas and resorts like Hotel Villa Carlton in Salzburg, Hotel Muse in Bangkok, Mandala Spa and Villas in Boracay and many more.
Please let me know if you need any references etc, thank you very much!
This is the response Zach got back:
Robbie Woodward
To: Zach Benson
Re: Personal email
New contact info found in this email: Robbie Woodward █████████
Hey Zach
Do you mean us Ohana? Or Bisma Eight?? Either way that would be awesome.
Also please accept this email as formal confirmation of stay for Nathan Latka.
Influencer exchange of:
3 night stay in Canopy suite
17th – 20th February 2017
Inclusive of daily breakfast
1 x evening dinner
In return for:
1 x daily post on IG during stay - @mygoodtravel
1 x post of IG after stay (max. 2 weeks after) #throwback - @mygoodtravel
1 x TripAdvisor Review for Bisma Eight
2 x Snapchats
2 x IG Stories
Can you confirm that Nathan would like to go ahead with this?
Best
--
Robbie Woodward
Managing Director
Use the other negotiation tips I write about in chapter 5 and you’ll be sitting on a king’s ransom of free luxury experiences before the end of next week.
We did the same deal with the Alila resort in Bali: I posted and tagged them in this picture, and also left a TripAdvisor review. Their rate is $400+/night. You can see how this starts to add up. Anyone viewing this picture might think: “How does he pay for all of this!?”
The answer is, I don’t. I got to stay for free by trading assets.
OK, so you don’t have a big online following and you’re not about to buy a company so you can get a built-in audience overnight. Don’t worry. You can still hustle your way to luxury living, especially on Airbnb, by leveraging your quality connections. Even if you don’t have them. Seriously. It’s called Elephant Hunting—in other words, using one thing to get the other.
Go on Airbnb and find your dream property. Sort from most expensive to least expensive. Then email the owner and say you want to use the space to host a private gathering with top-level people in that city. It can be any group with a high profile—CEOs, artists, VCs, or whoever you think the owner of that property would want to meet. Say you’re inviting these people over and name a few, even if you don’t know them. Just say you plan to invite them. Once you get the place at a deep discount, use its beautiful pictures when inviting the talent whom you might not even know. They’ll feed off each other. When you do this, you’re basically becoming a broker between the Airbnb host and the guests you’re bringing in. Anyone can leverage this strategy. It just takes balls and courage to go out and actually do the negotiation.
Here’s an Airbnb exchange between me and an Airbnb owner that shows exactly how I did this to score a San Francisco penthouse at less than half the $799/night listed price:
The cold outreach and negotiation:
Hey Tommy –
I’m looking for a place I can both stay at in SF and host a 10-15 person mastermind in (will do over dinner one night).
The quoted price is above my budget though. Are you willing to be flexible? What is the best price you could offer for the night of the 24th, 25th, and 26th (last day check out at 9pm).
Thanks,
Nathan
Mar 5, 2014
Nathan:
What you are asking for is 3 nights. We can’t let you stay beyond noon on the last day and not pay for it. That night is lost if we do.
The price quoted is already deeply discounted for us for 3 nights. I’m a fellow entrepreneur so I’m sensitive to costs. Give me an idea what a “mastermind” is so I have some sort of idea what your use case is for the rental.
Cheers!
Tommy
Mar 5, 2014
Hey Tommy,
My intent is to host a 10 person mastermind the night of the 23. 24 and 25th*.
24th night: Will be inviting CEO’s of San Francisco based Creative Agencies, will have dinner catered via http://www.kitchit.com/bay-area [inactive]
25th night: Will be inviting CEO’s of SF based Tech Companies, will have dinner catered via Kitchit.
26th night: Will be inviting thought influencers and speakers I am sharing the stage with at eMA summit, dinner catered by Kitchit.
I absolutely don’t want to take advantage of the gorgeous property you own. $799/night puts me over my budget though.
Do you have interest in joining in on the masterminds (these will all be movers and shakers, for example Rick Rudman, CEO of Vocus $200MM market cap came to the last one I had — this is the profile of folks I’ll get there) in exchange for a discounted rate?
All the folks I’ll be inviting are also all potential future renters of your penthouse too — great marketing opportunity.
Let me know. I understand if you don’t have flexibility though.
Thanks,
Nathan
Mar 5, 2014
— TOMMY SENT A SPECIAL OFFER $560/NIGHT —
Nathan:
that sounds like a deal. lets do $1500 for all nights and I’ll plan on sitting in. I’m actually running something called Miinsu, which is a hosting and hospitality layer on top of Airbnb-like services for apts like this one, and networking is both a need and a despised activity :)
Let me know if that works. The cost includes cleaning which is normally $180 on top of everything.
tommy
Mar 5, 2014
Hey Tommy,
My total budget for the 3 nights and 3 masterminds is $2200. Below is me thinking through the math.
10 plates x $50 = $500/night on food (three masterminds)
Your offer (thank you!) = $500/night (three nights)
Total cost: $3000
I could do:
10 plates x $50 = $500/night on food (two masterminds)
$500/night for two nights
Total Cost: $2000
I’d hate to loose the third mastermind though. Would you be willing to do the following?
10 plates x $50 = $500/night on food (three masterminds)
3 nights for $1000 to you
Total cost: $2500
You’d be at each mastermind, get exposure to the folks I’ll work to invite, get exposure for Miinsu, and hopefully land a few future renters!
If this works for you, I can work hard today to increase my budget $500 and likely commit tomorrow.
Really appreciate the flexibility. I hope we can create 3 nights of really cool experiences at your place!
Mar 5, 2014
Nathan:
Yeah, wtf, why not? Sounds interesting.
Do me a favor and work a bit harder and grab me the $180 cleaning cost, thats a direct pass through for my cleaners. I’ll manage my partner’s expectation on the rent.
Cheers,
Tommy
Mar 5, 2014
So in summary, I got a place for $1K ($333/night) that was listed for $2,400 ($800/night). That’s more than a 60 percent discount!
Try this, even if it sounds absurd to you. Anyone can do cold outreach to anyone else. Most people, CEOs included, are willing to meet you if you just ask. They may even come to your party at your swanky Airbnb penthouse. Reach out, give them a good reason to show up (like the chance to meet other like-minded CEOs), and see what happens. Never mind the sick property you’ll get to rent in the process. You’ll likely make long-term connections with people who become business partners, clients, or mentors in your New Rich journey.
My favorite way to take a bathroom selfie was in the $4,500 Balmain biker jacket that I got to wear for free. Hair coiffed, selfie posted, I hit the streets of Austin in my Rolls-Royce Ghost—a $350K car that I was driving, you know . . . for free.
I got both of these things so easily, it’s almost embarrassing. I didn’t even ask for the jacket. Someone else encouraged me to take it.
Sure, I had to return both items after a couple days. But who cares? None of my Instagram followers knew the jacket wasn’t mine, especially since I’m standing in my bathroom while wearing it. Looks like I just pulled it out of my closet where it sits alongside my Tom Ford suit.
I don’t need to fake being rich—I’m already there—but if you’re still working on it you can easily fake a rich lifestyle through your clothes. You see this all the time on social media even if you don’t know it. If you’ve ever wondered how someone affords their crazy expensive clothes, the answer is that they don’t. The clothes aren’t even theirs. And if they can afford them, they probably still don’t own them. Why buy when you can borrow for free? I’d rather put that $4,500 into my next business investment.
The next time you need to buy a nice suit or dress do it through a stylist. That’s the easiest way to get access to hot clothes. Once you buy one thing from them they’ll want you to buy more, so they’ll bring you new clothes every month and try to get you to wear them. If there’s something you see that you kind of like, tell them you want to think about it. They’ll usually tell you to take it home and try it out for a few days.
That’s exactly what happened with the Balmain jacket. I’d recently bought a suit through my stylist when he told me about the jacket he’d just gotten in. I said I didn’t want to pay that much and I probably wouldn’t buy it. His response: “No, no, take it for the weekend and try it.” Boom. Bathroom selfie.
That’s how you live like a king and feel filthy rich without putting up a penny. It’s called leverage, and if you’ve ever bought a suit or a dress, you have that leverage. Make sure you’re maximizing it.
Now, your stylist will be on to you if you try to exploit that leverage too much. But it’s a reliable way to get superexpensive clothes on occasion. If you want to flaunt designer clothes more often, you still don’t have to buy them. The sharing economy has your back, again. You probably already know about Rent the Runway. If you don’t, it’s a site (and store in a few major cities) that lets you rent designer clothes. You can also use rental and clothes-sharing outlets like StyleLend.com, DesignerShare.com, LeTote.com, TheMrCollection.com, and TheMsCollection.com. You do have to pay to wear the clothes, but with the perk of being able to cycle through new outfits all the time. You never pay retail. Nobody ever knows the clothes aren’t yours.
Meanwhile, that $350K Rolls-Royce . . . my secret for getting that is so revolutionary, I may be in line for the next Nobel Prize. You ready for this?
I just asked.
Yup.
Here’s how it went:
From: Tobe Nguyen █████████
Date: 12 January 2017 at 2:00:23 AM GMT+9
To: █████████
Subject: Rolls Royce
Hi Zach,
My name is Tobe. I’m the main contact for marketing for Auto Exotic Rental. Thank you for reaching out to us. We can definitely work with you. We have the Rolls Royce Ghost. Is there a particular date that you’re looking at? So I can check the availability for you. Please feel free to contact me at any time. Hope to hear from you soon.
Regards,
Tobe
What you’re seeing in that email screenshot is Tobe, who works at Auto Exotic Rental in Austin, emailing back to Zach, my administrator. Zach pitched Tobe and said, “Hey, I work with an influencer, he has 15,000 Instagram followers. If he posts a picture inside one of your exotic cars would you be willing to give it to him for free for a day?”
Tobe was happy to accommodate.
Renting that car at the daily rate would be about $2K. So never mind the car’s $350K price tag. I didn’t even pay for the rental. That’s $2K for free for one Instagram post.
This all ties back to finding things to trade that the other person, or company, wants. If you don’t have a huge online following, can you connect with someone who does? Or can you host a meet-up with high-net-worth individuals the rental company wants to woo as clients? You can get to anyone you want—you just need to ask.
Naysayers, I hear your dissent: “Sure, must be great to be able to flaunt your big Instagram numbers or call up your CEO friends and get what you want. Not everyone has those perks!”
If you’re worried the strategies in this chapter won’t work for “the average person like you,” you need to stop aiming for average. You’ll never join the New Rich if you refuse to push out of your comfort zone and build the connections and following that you’re frustrated you don’t have.
You can’t “live like a king without owning a thing” if you don’t put in the up-front effort. (That’s why this chapter isn’t called “Live Like a King Without Doing a Thing.”) But the connections you make, the audiences and communities you build, will all tie into your New Rich plan when those people also become your business partners, clients, customers, listeners, readers, and followers. Which leads to more free stuff—cue the positive feedback loop.
