Justin Froeber is a former medtech COO who now lives in Medellín, Colombia on US business income. Jordan Egbert has visited 141 countries and built a 4-million-follower personal brand doing it. Together they run Elite Travel Hackers — a concierge service that helps business owners extract maximum value from credit card points on expenses they’re already making every month.
Their core argument: business owners are leaving six figures of untaxable income on the table every year. And the mechanism is something most of them already have — business credit cards they’re already using.
They sat down with Jeremy Rivera on the Unscripted Small Business Podcast to break down exactly how it works.
Points Are Untaxable Income — and Most Business Owners Don’t Know It
The IRS has consistently ruled that credit card rewards on business spending are rebates — not income. Unlike a salary bonus or consulting payment, points earned through business card spend are never reported as taxable. For a business running $500,000 through credit cards annually, the points represent a meaningful five-figure tax-free benefit sitting in plain sight.
Most business owners either don’t know this, or they cash out at one cent per point — leaving 80–90% of the available value behind.
The Redemption Gap: Why Cash Back Is the Worst Option
Here’s the math that changes the conversation:
- Cash back redemption: 1 cent per point — 1,000,000 points = $10,000
- Standard travel redemption: 1.5–2 cents per point
- Strategic luxury travel redemption: 4–10 cents per point in premium cabin international flights
That same million points is either $10,000 in cash or potentially $40,000–$100,000 in premium international travel — depending entirely on how you redeem. The intellectual property Elite Travel Hackers sells is knowing which programs to use, which transfer partners to leverage, and which award sweet spots to target.
The Payroll Mechanic Most Business Owners Miss
The most underused strategy they teach: run payroll through a credit card. The processing fee (typically around 2.9%) is real — but it’s a business expense and therefore tax deductible. In exchange, you earn points at scale. On $100,000 in payroll, that’s approximately 200,000 points. Redeemed well, those points can produce $8,000–$20,000 in first-class international travel that would otherwise cost real dollars.
Most small businesses have payroll. Almost none are earning points on it.
This kind of optimization thinking — finding leverage in expenses you’re already making — is the same mindset that good business strategy applies to marketing spend. If you want to review where your current spending is producing real returns, the Digital Christian Collaborative’s consulting services are built for exactly that conversation. And for a broader look at how real founders think about money and leverage, the entrepreneur resource hub on our Training page covers cash flow management, business structure, and financial fundamentals from practitioners who’ve built it in the real world.
Jordan’s SEO-Scripted Video Strategy
Jordan built counting.countries to 4 million followers through organic video content — but the strategy isn’t purely algorithmic. He scripts specific keywords into video descriptions and titles so the content ranks in search (YouTube, Google) as well as in feed discovery. The combination of social reach and search rankability extends the shelf life of each piece of content far beyond a standard social post.
This is exactly the kind of content strategy that SEO Arcade is built to enable for business owners — turning podcast conversations and content into compound search assets that keep generating visibility long after the original publish date.
The Cost-of-Living Arbitrage
Justin relocated to Medellín, Colombia after calculating a straightforward equation: US business income minus Colombian cost of living equals a lifestyle that would cost $10,000+/month in a major US metro at a fraction of that price. Warm year-round weather, modern infrastructure, a growing international community, and a culture he found more genuine than what he left.
The underlying principle is worth sitting with even if Medellín isn’t your destination: where you run your business and where you live are increasingly decoupled decisions. Remote operations, properly systematized — a theme that runs through several of the frameworks in the entrepreneur resource hub — make this possible in ways they simply weren’t a decade ago.
“Points are untaxable income. The IRS classifies credit card rewards as a rebate on your spending — not earned income. That’s a massive advantage most business owners don’t realize they’re sitting on.” — Justin Froeber
The Takeaway
The biggest lesson from Justin and Jordan isn’t about travel — it’s about optimization. They found leverage in a place most business owners look past every month. That same mindset — looking at what you’re already doing and asking where the untapped value is — is one of the most powerful questions in any business.
Hear the full conversation on the Unscripted Small Business Podcast. And if you want to apply the same optimization lens to your digital marketing and business strategy, check the entrepreneur blog for more conversations like this — or reach out directly below.
Ready to Find Your Hidden Leverage?
Jeremy Rivera works directly with entrepreneurs through the Digital Christian Collaborative — helping Cookeville business owners find the gaps, identify the leverage, and build a clear 90-day path forward. $100/hr consulting rate — 30-minute foundational session.