loader from loading.io

Episode 70: Saying Yes to the Right Invitations with Colin Stroud

On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self

Release Date: 05/01/2026

Episode 79: Why Altitude Humbles Even Experienced Climbers with Karl Frank show art Episode 79: Why Altitude Humbles Even Experienced Climbers with Karl Frank

On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self

  What do you find out about yourself when the mountain sends you back down? In this episode of On Adventure Podcast, Josh talks with Karl Frank, a Colorado native, mountaineer, and President of A&I Wealth Management in Denver. Karl grew up hiking out the back door of his family's home at 7,000 feet, and he is now working his way through the Seven Summits. They discuss two very different trips up Kilimanjaro, a December summit of Aconcagua that most of the group did not finish, and a winter ascent of Mount Whitney where a single misstep by a teammate...

info_outline
Episode 78: Adventure Has No Expiration Date with Beverly MacDowell show art Episode 78: Adventure Has No Expiration Date with Beverly MacDowell

On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self

Adventure Has No Expiration Date with Beverly McDowell What if some of your greatest adventures are still ahead of you? In this episode of On Adventure, Josh sits down with Beverly MacDowell, a retired educator, hiking guide, trail maintainer, and lifelong learner based in Asheville, North Carolina. She’s also the sister of actress Andie MacDowell - but Beverly has carved out an adventurous story entirely her own, much of it after age 50. Beverly shares how hiking became a source of joy, confidence, community, and purpose, from introducing women over 60 to backpacking to maintaining...

info_outline
Episode 77: The John Muir Trail, Leadership, and Running Toward Adventure with Alex Potts show art Episode 77: The John Muir Trail, Leadership, and Running Toward Adventure with Alex Potts

On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self

What happens when you stop running away from the pressures of life and start running toward the life you actually want? Alex Potts grew up in Sunnyvale, California, riding BMX bikes through the apricot orchards that would eventually become the heart of Silicon Valley. Raised by a single mom who taught elementary school and worked hard to keep their family afloat, Alex learned early lessons about money, service, resilience, and taking care of other people. Those lessons followed him into a remarkable career. Alex spent more than three decades helping build what became Loring Ward, a firm that...

info_outline
Episode 76: Summit Fever and Close Calls - Knowing When to Turn Back in the Mountains with Stefan Gruber show art Episode 76: Summit Fever and Close Calls - Knowing When to Turn Back in the Mountains with Stefan Gruber

On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self

  What happens when you build your work around the life you want to live? In this episode of On Adventure, Josh talks with Stefan Gruber, a climber, photographer, traveler, and customer success professional at Levitate. Stefan shares how remote work and his wife Sarah’s career as a travel nurse have helped them create a life centered on movement, creativity, and outdoor adventure. They discuss climbing, film photography, international travel, dangerous moments in the mountains, and the judgment required to turn around when conditions are not right. At the heart of the conversation is a...

info_outline
Episode 75: Hard Things Are Worth Doing with Justin Smith show art Episode 75: Hard Things Are Worth Doing with Justin Smith

On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self

Episode Description What happens in the dark hours before sunrise on day two, when your body starts asking what exactly you are doing out here?   Justin Smith teaches high school in Santa Cruz, California, where his classroom is a working  bike shop. By day he runs a Career Tech Ed program through Project Bike Tech, teaching teenagers to fix bikes, build resumes, and solve real problems with their own hands. On his own time, he is an ultra-endurance athlete who has finished the 2,700-mile Tour Divide from Banff, Canada to the Mexico border in 16 days straight, raced the Fiji...

info_outline
Episode 74: Carrying a Language Home with Gil Jackson show art Episode 74: Carrying a Language Home with Gil Jackson

On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self

Episode 74: Carrying a Language Home with Gil Jackson Episode Description What does it mean to be so connected to a place that even your name carries it? Gil Jackson, known by the Cherokee name Dohi, meaning outside or outdoors, was born in Robbinsville, North Carolina in 1951 and today lives on 30 acres just 200 yards from the spot where he came into the world. He is a fluent Cherokee speaker, one of roughly 130 left, an elder of the Snowbird community, and an educator who has taught at Stanford, UNC Asheville, and Duke. In 2014, he thru-hiked all 2,200 miles of the Appalachian Trail,...

info_outline
Episode 73: Running is Life with Aaron Saft show art Episode 73: Running is Life with Aaron Saft

On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self

ON ADVENTURE PODCAST |  EPISODE 73 Episode 73: Running is Life with Aaron Saft As a species, we only do things if there is truly a reward on the other side. So when the reward is pain, struggle, suffering, and danger, what exactly keeps driving us back out the door? Aaron Saft has spent his life chasing that answer. A five-time ACC champion at NC State whose teams finished third at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, he traded the track for the trail, ran his first 100-miler in 2016, and has since become one of the most experienced ultrarunners in the Southeast. Today he coaches...

info_outline
Episode 72: Risk in Every Form with Greg Winchester show art Episode 72: Risk in Every Form with Greg Winchester

On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self

ON ADVENTURE PODCAST |  EPISODE 72 Episode 72: Risk in Every Form with Greg Winchester    Episode Description What does it take to keep saying yes to risk, in the boardroom, on the trail, and across all seven continents, for forty years and counting? Greg Winchester calls himself an armchair explorer, but the title sells him short. Over a 40-plus-year career in commercial real estate, he has worked through the savings and loan crisis, the 2008 financial crisis, and COVID, first as a banker, then as a co-owner, and today as an investor through his family office, Summit...

info_outline
Episode 71: Solo Female Travel, Real Risk, and the Belonging We All Crave with Amanda Black show art Episode 71: Solo Female Travel, Real Risk, and the Belonging We All Crave with Amanda Black

On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self

ON ADVENTURE PODCAST | EPISODE 71 Episode 71: Solo Female Travel, Real Risk, and the Belonging We All Crave with Amanda Black            Episode Description What does it actually take to step on a plane alone, head somewhere most people would call risky, and come home a different woman? Amanda Black is the founder of the Solo Female Traveler Network, a community of more than half a million women that started as a small Facebook group during her expat years in Australia. Ten years and roughly thirty tours a year later, she leads women into places...

info_outline
Episode 70: Saying Yes to the Right Invitations with Colin Stroud show art Episode 70: Saying Yes to the Right Invitations with Colin Stroud

On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self

ON ADVENTURE PODCAST  |  EPISODE 70 Episode 70: Saying Yes to the Right Invitations with Colin Stroud                                Episode Description What if your next great adventure is not a destination at all, but a willingness to say yes to the breadcrumbs life keeps dropping in front of you? Colin Stroud is a 26-year-old credit card rewards consultant, founder of Go Somewhere, and one of the fastest growing voices on...

info_outline
 
More Episodes

ON ADVENTURE PODCAST  |  EPISODE 70

Episode 70: Saying Yes to the Right Invitations with Colin Stroud

                              

Episode Description

What if your next great adventure is not a destination at all, but a willingness to say yes to the breadcrumbs life keeps dropping in front of you?

Colin Stroud is a 26-year-old credit card rewards consultant, founder of Go Somewhere, and one of the fastest growing voices on LinkedIn in the points and miles space. He grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the son of an OB/GYN and a nurse midwife who met delivering a baby together, and he was on track for a more traditional path until a six-week Spanish immersion trip to Oviedo at 16 cracked the world wide open. From there it was Italy on a $380 flight, a Catholic mission to Poland, an unlikely run at Ave Maria University in south Florida, an early marriage and a baby on the way before he had even graduated, and a first job in life insurance case design that he knew almost immediately was not it.

What followed is a story about paying attention. A coworker mentioned the Chase Trifecta. A LinkedIn post about points went viral and got picked up by The Washington Post. A side hustle turned into consulting calls, then into a community for business owners, then into a full-time business helping families and entrepreneurs unlock travel they thought they could not afford.

We talk about why early travel rewires you, what it actually takes to leave a steady paycheck, the difference between dopamine and meaning, why family life and entrepreneurship feel like the truest adventures of his life right now, and the surprising decision he and his wife made after almost moving to Hawaii. Colin makes a strong case that the go somewhere life is not always about getting on a plane, and that learning to be rooted where your feet are can be its own kind of expedition.

 

Episode Highlights

00:00  From cheap flights as a teenager to a full-time business helping people unlock travel

06:00  World Youth Day in Poland, six weeks of Spanish immersion in Oviedo, and catching the travel bug

14:00  Marriage, a baby on the way, and a first job in life insurance that did not fit

18:00  Discovering the Chase Trifecta and stepping into the points world

23:00  The first viral LinkedIn post and a Washington Post quote that changed everything

25:00  Quitting in November 2024 and going full-time on Go Somewhere

30:00  Almost moving to Hawaii, pumping the brakes, and rethinking what travel does for young kids

34:00  Why family life and entrepreneurship are the truest adventures of his life right now

39:00  Measuring yourself: finally finding feedback after years of feeling stuck

47:00  The two ingredients behind a viable internet business: clear writing and consistent humility

55:00 What adventure means now and where to find Colin online

 

Connect with Colin Stroud

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/colinstroud

Website: gosomewhere.world

Newsletter: The Go Somewhere Newsletter at gosomewhere.world

Email: colin@gosomewhere.world

 

Connect with the On Adventure Podcast

Hosted by Josh Self, financial advisor and everyday explorer.

Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major streaming platforms

Follow on Instagram for short-form clips and behind-the-scenes content

Connect on Facebook: On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self

Connect on LinkedIn: Josh Self

Subscribe to the Patreon for more content!

If this episode resonated with you, leave a review and share it with someone who needs to hear it