BNI 840: Business Matters 127 - International Travel

Summary

BNI Podcast Summary: BNI 840 - Business Matters 127: International Travel

Podcast Title: BNI & The Power of One
Host: Tim Roberts
Guest: Michael Martin
Episode: BNI 840: Business Matters 127 - International Travel
Release Date: July 23, 2025

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Introduction

In this engaging episode of the BNI podcast, host Tim Roberts sits down with Michael Martin to discuss the intricacies and experiences of international travel, especially in the context of business and family. The conversation delves into Tim’s upcoming epic journey to Shanghai, Michael’s extensive travel experiences, and valuable tips for managing long-haul flights and jet lag.

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Tim’s Upcoming Epic Journey

Tim begins by sharing details about his imminent trip, highlighting the extensive planning and the unique aspects of traveling with family.

• Tim’s Itinerary:
  "At the time this comes out, I will be on my way to Logan to fly to Shanghai. So I'm going Boston to Detroit, Detroit to Shanghai, which is 15 hours and 15 minutes." [00:46]

• Family Considerations:
  Tim emphasizes the significance of traveling with family, describing the trip as "the Griswold's Take Asia trip of epic proportions" and acknowledging the challenges his family faces with such long-distance flights.

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Extensive Travel Experiences

Both Tim and Michael share their extensive travel backgrounds, offering listeners a glimpse into the demands and rewards of frequent international travel.

• Tim’s Longest Flights:
  "The longest I've ever done was Bangkok for an international conference... Dallas to Hong Kong, which was 17 hours." [01:25]

• Michael’s Travel Frequency:
  "Between 2 and 4 really depended on what was going on... I would hit kind of that whole Pacific Rim for sales and distribution while I was over there." [03:37]

Michael elaborates on his role, which required him to traverse the Pacific Rim, including countries like Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Australia, and New Zealand, underscoring the demanding nature of his travel schedule.

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Managing Long-Haul Flights and Jet Lag

A significant portion of the discussion focuses on strategies to combat jet lag and efficiently manage time zone changes during long flights.

• Tim’s Preparation Strategy:
  "I was at the gym at 5:15, like I'll take a nap probably at like 4:00 o'clock, but to try to be exhausted... so I just want to be tired by power through getting on the flight." [05:09]

• Michael’s Jet Lag Tips:
  "Eat your big meal like six or seven hours before your flight... open up your window shade and there's a little bit of light coming through that'll reset your food clock." [08:17]

Michael introduces the concept of a "food clock" in tandem with the circadian rhythm, sharing his successful method of adjusting meal times to align with the destination’s time zone. He notes, "I tried it and I never went back to doing it the old way." [09:38]

• Flight Paths and Their Impact:
  "When you fly from here to Asia, you do go north... the shortest distance is actually up and over as opposed to going all the way across." [13:07]

Both speakers discuss the intricacies of flight paths, explaining why flights often take seemingly indirect routes due to the Earth's curvature and the concept of great circles, which represent the shortest distance between two points on a sphere.

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Cultural Considerations and Adaptability

Tim and Michael highlight the importance of cultural sensitivity and adaptability when traveling internationally, especially in business contexts.

• Respecting Local Customs:
  "Remember is you know, you go to some other place, you are a guest, but you have to be a humble guest... you have to be open to seeing other things and doing other things while you're there." [18:23]

• Adapting to Different Environments:
  Tim shares his observations about cultural differences even on cruise ships, noting, "They don't have that on this ship because it's rude to walk and eat in Asia." [19:34]

Michael echoes the sentiment, emphasizing humility and openness to new experiences to fully enjoy international engagements without being hindered by preconceived notions.

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Final Thoughts and Encouragement

As the episode concludes, both Tim and Michael encourage listeners to embrace international travel, highlighting its benefits for personal growth and professional networking.

• Tim’s Enthusiasm for Travel:
  "You don't have to. I would encourage everybody who doesn't travel to travel more and more. It's just, I like it and I'm forced to recharge because it's literally a 12-hour time change." [20:11]

• The Value of BNI Membership:
  "The beauty of being a part of BNI now, is you can literally go almost everywhere in the world and get connected with somebody, do something." [21:07]

Tim wraps up by expressing his excitement for future opportunities through BNI, reinforcing the podcast’s theme of leveraging connections to enhance business success.

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Key Takeaways

• Preparation is Crucial: Effective planning, including managing sleep and meal times, can significantly reduce the impact of jet lag.

• Cultural Sensitivity Enhances Experience: Being a humble and open guest allows travelers to fully appreciate and adapt to new environments.

• Leverage Networks for Seamless Travel: Utilizing networks like BNI can facilitate international business connections and opportunities.

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Notable Quotes

• Tim Roberts:
  "This is the Griswold's Take Asia trip of epic proportions." [02:49]

• Michael Martin:
  "Eat your big meal like six or seven hours before your flight... that'll reset your food clock." [08:17]

• Tim Roberts:
  "You don't have to travel to recharge, but it does force you to." [20:11]

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Embarking on international travel, especially for business, requires meticulous planning and adaptability. Through their shared experiences, Tim and Michael offer invaluable insights, making this episode a must-listen for BNI members and business travelers alike.

Transcript

[A]

Welcome back to business matters. B and I and the Power of One. Tim Roberts with me, Michael Martin. How are you?

[B]

Morning.

[A]

How's it going?

[B]

It's going good. It's going good.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I'm, I'm, I know we're recording this the day before you're about to leave on an epic. Your longest probably trip, right?

[A]

No, second longest. So, yeah, yeah. At the time this comes out, I will be on my way to Logan to fly to Shanghai. So I'm going Boston to Detroit, Detroit to Shanghai, which is 15 hours and 15 minutes. So the longest I've ever done was Bangkok for an international conference. That was Boston to Dallas, which was like four and a half run to the plane, get on a plane, literally run to the plane. Dallas to Hong Kong, which was 17 hours. And then Hong Kong to Bangkok which was three and a half hours. That was my longest.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then before that, before this one, the second longest was Boston to London, London to Mumbai, which is long.

[B]

London to Mumbai is a long flight.

[A]

And that was in the same year. So I almost circumnavigated the globe. Whatever Mumbai to Bangkok is, was the gap that I didn't like completely.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Because I went opposite directions.

[B]

Yeah, you're close.

[A]

So. So, yeah. And then next year in May, I'm going to speak at a conference in South Africa, which will be really exciting. I've never.

[B]

That's a long flight.

[A]

Never been to that continent yet. Yeah. I think that's Boston to London, London to South Africa, I think is the way that one goes.

[B]

Yeah. If you go non stop, it's like 17 and three quarter hours in the air.

[A]

Yeah. Which I've done.

[B]

JFK to Johannesburg used to be. Used to be the longest flight in the world.

[A]

Yeah. Now it's New York to Hong Kong, I think.

[B]

I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Up over the top. Yeah.

[A]

So.

[B]

Oh, that's cool.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So I thought how are you, how are you preparing yourself for this trip because you're bringing along family.

[A]

This is the Griswold's Take Asia trip of epic proportions. Yeah, it's me, my kids, my wife, obviously, and then my wife's parents and brother. So it's. Who have never flown like this kind of distance before.

[B]

Distance. Yeah.

[A]

This will be the longest for my kids ever. My kids have pretty well traveled, but they've done Germany, they've done Poland, they've done London, like those kind of things. I think the longest they were in the air for what at one time was like 10 hours. Maybe they've done Hawaii, but that's always like a six and six for us.

[B]

Yeah, so this, I remember those days.

[A]

Yeah, it'll be really. Yeah, you traveled more than, I mean again like you're travel. Although I, I know that if I didn't fly American for three years when I was working for BNI Corporate, my, I'd be much closer to my million mile status. On how many, where are you at right now for Delta flight?

[B]

Yeah, about a million and a half.

[A]

It's crazy. So how many trips to China would you do a year?

[B]

Between 2 and 4 really depended on what was going on. But I would go to China. But I also, while I was over in that hemisphere, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, like I would hit kind of that whole Pacific Rim for sales and distribution while I was over there. But yeah, they were long trips. I would, you know, sometimes I, I would go to China for very specific things, whether it was a trade show or product development or a new factory set up or something like that. And, and, and then I would come back. But more often than not I would kind of go over there and then hop around little different spots so I didn't have to keep going back and forth. But ultimately I ended up going back and forth quite a bit.

[A]

So yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot, lot, lot, lot, lot. So I have a buddy of mine who works for New Balance who does that kind of travel. Now every time I see him, he's like the only one. Like we talk travel all the time because he's the only one that travels more than I do in that sense. And like, yeah, but we've been, yeah, we've been to similar areas. He's like, have you ever been here? I'm like, no. I'm like, have you ever been there? He's like, no. Yeah, conversation. I love traveling. I mean I, if I don't have a trip booked, like I get anxiety. Like it's just like I need to know the next place I'm going. But it does take preparation, which we thought like, hey, we've, you know, it could be a fun topic to talk about because I know a lot of people listening to this are going to be preparing to go to BNI's international convention this year which is in Sydney. I unfortunately am unable to go, but that'll be a trip for most of the world.

[B]

That's a long one.

[A]

Yeah, in some ways. And you know, as you travel, I think the people, like I've been telling my wife and my in laws like kind of how to prepare because otherwise like this kind of trip can absolutely wear you out just getting there if you don't prepare ahead of time. So yeah, my plan is. So our flight pattern is 5am out of Boston to Detroit, which is like two hours, three hour flight I think. And then um, we have a three hour layover to then get on a 15 hour and 15 minute flight to Shanghai. So our car is coming at like 2:30 in the morning. So my plan right now is to basically power through today, stay up as much as I possibly can. I was at the gym at 5:15, like I'll take a nap probably at like 4:00', clock, but to try to be exhausted, like I just want to be tired by power through getting on the flight in Boston, fly to Detroit, stay up, stay up to the layover and then when I get on the plane, pass out and try to sleep like six, seven hours if I can on the plane out to China. So that when I wake up I still have a lot of time left in the air. But I will be kind of on Chinese because it's a 12 hour time change. So I want to be like somewhat on Chinese time because when we land, so we leave 5am on Wednesday, we land at 1:45pm Thursday with the time travel and then. Yeah, and it's crazy because it's just like it is time traveling. Like when we come home.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

We leave at quarter 4pm on Saturday and we land at 1:40 in the morning Sunday. So you get all that time back. Yeah, and my plan's in reverse. Like that plan. I want to just like get on the plane and then kind of power through as much as I can. So when I land I'm exhausted and I can go home and go right to bed. Right. I don't want to be like up and be like bouncing around at 1:40 in the morning.

[B]

Right, right.

[A]

So.

[B]

Well, so we're talking off air. I know I've shared this in the past, but for those that have long trips, you know, and someone who I would say I'm a fairly seasoned global traveler.

[A]

Yeah, I would say that you qualify for that.

[B]

Learned a few tricks along the way from other travelers, which was great in terms of how do you, how do you combat jet lag and how do you kind of get your, get your body clock set to a new time zone? And what's interesting is I always found it worse like in the shorter distances. So the three hour time difference between Boston, where basically where we're out of and Los Angeles is always Worse on my body.

[A]

Yeah, you say that. And the last time we went to Europe, which is only like five hours, five and a half hours, it was like way worse for me than when I did the Bangkok trip or something, or Hawaii or something like that.

[B]

And, and there's, there's a couple pieces. So there's kind of like your, your circadian rhythm, which is how your, how your body works when it's exposed to sunlight. Right. The light of day and the dark of night. And then the other one that's important that I didn't learn until probably midway through my traveling but then really helped me out was your food clock, which is interesting.

[A]

I never thought of that.

[B]

You mentioned they, they, they work in tandem. So you know, like for, you know, you may wonder. Okay, well, if you're listening, well, I don't travel internationally. How's this going to help me? Well, if you go on vacation, it can also help you. If you do any kind of travel. There's things to take care of yourself, some little tips. So one, one of the things that I learned again halfway through my career, I'd spent a lot of time traveling between Boston and Europe. And that jet lag always got me.

[A]

Yeah, I don't know what it is.

[B]

And I didn't sleep on the plane. You know, I get on the plane, I'd eat the dinner, I'd have some, have a couple cocktails or whatever and then try and sleep. It never really worked and I was just wasted the entire first couple days that I was there. And someone was telling me one time that he goes, I got the ultimate care for jet lag. And of course you hear that a lot, a lot of it is, you know, drink yourself stupid, you know, take massive amounts of sleeping pills or do whatever. This guy had an interesting one, which was eat your big meal. Like if you're flying east, eat your big meal like six or seven hours before your flight, if there's a six or seven hour time difference. And I was like, well, what the hell is the point of that? You know. And he said, well, if you eat your big meal, get on the plane, you can drink water, no alcohol, no food, except for when they wake you up for the breakfast service, which would.

[A]

Be, you know, it's an hour to.

[B]

In your mind, it's one in the morning because, you know, but if you eat a light breakfast like it is in the place you're going, which is seven in the morning, and you open up your window shade and there's a little bit of light coming through he says that'll reset your, your food clock which works hand in hand with your circadian rhythm. And I was like h and I tried it and I never went back to doing it the old way. I would literally go to the airport really early. If I was like flying out of jfk, I'd have to make a connection. So I leave, you know, early, late morning, early afternoon, get to jfk, eat like a dinner and then wait for the plane, get on and try and just put, put the little blinders over my eyes immediately when we started taxiing. And even if I didn't sleep well through the flight by eating only at that last one, I found myself like I would get picked up at the airport at you know, 7, 7:30 in the morning in Milan, Italy and I'd be ready to go.

[A]

Yeah. So it kind of seems like.

[B]

And then I went to sleep that night, you know, like and slept right through the night. So you know you can, you can do some tricks to kind of help you get over all of that. I feel like everything with melatonin and.

[A]

Then you get messed up. I think east is harder because like going to Europe it's like it's not that long of a flight but the time change is significant. It's like almost as much, you know, like where west is a little different. Like so that's kind of my plan similar. I'm going to go, I'm not going to. I'll eat dinner normal time tonight I'm going to power through, get to the airport 5am not going to really get to Detroit and then I'm going to eat the meal that comes early because I'll be like dinner and then pass it like a couple of hours later sleep and then wake up and I'll be kind of on know also have hours to go but I'll be, it'll be morning Chinese time for me, China time. And then I'm landing in the afternoon. I'm curious. I'm, I'm. I've kind. Because it's been a few years. I forget I'm pretty sure like we just chased the sun the whole way. Like I don't know that I'll even see darkness. I'm gonna have to like I picked the middle seat. Like we are flying business one way, just one flight out. Cuz I want to sleep and I pick the middle because I don't want to be near the window and I want to like just black out as much as I can.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But I don't think, I'm pretty sure we see the sun the whole way.

[B]

And because it's summertime and you're probably going to fly from Detroit over the Arctic, right?

[A]

Yeah, I think we just see the.

[B]

Sun when they get perpetual sun.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So you're probably not going to get. You'll get kind of a twilight.

[A]

That's about it.

[B]

But you're not going to get really all the way dark.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And, you know, so if you have. The airlines are getting really good about the lighting systems in the aircraft and kind of the mood lighting that they set, so they'll. They'll darken it up pretty good. For those that want to sleep, the problem is you get people that are watching TV the whole time, so you got all this kind of regular light all around you. So if you could put something over your eyes, that would also help. But it's also important that there's no food or booze even on that first piece. So you can sleep well and then wake up, you know, eight hours in. And. Yeah, you know, you can.

[A]

I'm not a big drinker on. On planes. I think I have, like, 40 Delta drink vouchers.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I know our cousin who's, like, flying. I'm like, I'll just print a bunch of them.

[B]

And you're at a level where you don't have to spend them, actually.

[A]

Yeah, that's the other thing. You fly so much, you just get them anyways. It'll be. I always found that interesting, too. For those who don't know, when you fly from here to Asia, you do go north. I remember when I left. Yeah, I remember when I left Dallas, and I'm like, watching the flight map, I'm like, why am I over Colorado right now? That seems like the opposite direction. Like that.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then you realize, yeah, you go up because they want to be near land the whole time.

[B]

You go. You go up and over. It's also, you can't. Sometimes going what you think is a straight line is not because the Earth is curved. Sorry for flat earth believers. But, you know, they travel by what they call great circles. And those are actually the shortest distance between 2 points on a sphere. And so when I remember doing the same thing, I was like, okay, well, China's west. Why aren't we flying west? And it's like, no, because the shortest distance is actually up and over as opposed to going all the way across.

[A]

It's kind of interesting when you, like, think about it and you're like, oh, yeah, I would never have thought of that. And, yeah, it'll be Interesting to see. So you've been to Sydney and that kind of area too?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

What kind of travel. What is. Have you flown direct there? Like, what's that travel like?

[B]

Yeah, I actually, on the way back, I should say, because I, I flew from Tokyo to Sydney when I, when I spent a few weeks in that kind of.

[A]

Which is still a pretty long flight, isn't it? How long is it?

[B]

It's a really long flight. It might be like 11 hours because you're going from kind of like the North Pacific all the way down to, you know, people, you know, Australia, as nice as it is, it's really close to the Arctic Circle.

[A]

You look like you just look at maps. Yeah, you look at maps. You're like, that's not that far. And it's just like so far.

[B]

Melbourne is down on that kind of southern coast. Southeast coast is kind of the equivalent of like Montreal, Canada.

[A]

Yeah, I know, it's crazy.

[B]

So, you know, I was there in the, in, in their summertime and it was like cold. I was like, wow. It was like in the 50s and 60s down in Melbourne. Sydney was great. It was like in the 80s. And that's. And that's even a big, that's like a four hour flight.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. Australia is huge.

[B]

Australia is a, a massive continent and country. So, you know, I, I guess it's, it's interesting. Like for, so for those in BNI that are gonna go to Sydney, you know, just make sure that you're planning kind of your body rhythm, you know, a few days out. That's actually the best way to do it. So if you don't travel a ton and you're gonna make this one thing rather than say, well, this is only a once in a lifetime thing, so I don't really care. I'll just recover. Just a couple days before you go, try and kind of do things, whether it's your sleep cycle or your food kind of consumption, to kind of get yourself on that local time. So it just makes the transition a lot easier and you can actually enjoy the event without being. So you know what happens. A lot of times people don't even get out of bed.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And the other thing that's important for traveling, I don't care if you're going, if you're going even just cross country or you're going anything more than three or four hours. One of the most important things you can do after flying, get to your hotel and then just go for a walk.

[A]

Yep. I usually go to the gym. Something.

[B]

Yeah, go to the Gym, but get your blood pumping and you know, like I'll try and do, you know, two to three mile walk whenever I get somewhere, regardless of the time that I land. Because that's also another thing. Like if you land during the daytime and you've had a particularly long flight and you go for a walk, it tends to wake you up to the local time. And if it's dark and you go for a walk, it tends to put you to sleep.

[A]

Yeah, it's kind of like a relaxing.

[B]

So it's like a very nice relaxer. And you know that that's always a good way to kind of set it and you'll just want to go to bed, you know.

[A]

It's crazy. I love traveling. I'm super excited for this. We're going to see the largest and third largest cities in the world on this trip, which is kind of cool. Yeah, Tokyo is number one and Shanghai is number three.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Delhi.

[B]

That's going to be a lot of fun.

[A]

Yeah, it'd be interesting.

[B]

They're, they're, they're just massive places and they're very sprawled out. So I know you're going to Shanghai for a couple days, you're going to Tokyo for few days, you're cruising to other places, right?

[A]

Yeah, we go to. I been approach your names. Is it Osaka?

[B]

Osaka.

[A]

Osaka and Kobe.

[B]

Yeah. And Kobe. Yeah.

[A]

So those are Kobe beef. Yeah. So those are the three stops on the cruise and then it's like three days at sea going around. Because you literally sail like around Japan.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

But yeah, I love traveling. New cultures, new things. I know my family's got like high anxiety because they've never done anything because again, like, like you. When I did the Bangkok trip, it was for BNI conference, I flew basically by myself. Like, you know, I mean it was just different than like the family thing.

[B]

But so here's, here's the other, the other piece that's good. So like just for people to remember regardless of where you're traveling, to show a little bit of humility about where you're at, that you're in a different culture. So just enjoy it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, you, you, you don't, don't bring all your sensibilities with you in terms of who you are, you're not going to get the same product you're going to get in your local neighborhood and that's okay.

[A]

You know, even this one, this one is crazy. The cruise ship alone, I was watching and realizing they change some of the things on the cruise ship because of the Culture. So like even that like just realizing like if you're. I'm not a huge cruiser. My family, my parents are and stuff and I, But I've been on a number of them. What you're used to is different. Like so one example is on most cruise ships in the Caribbean and those kind of things, they'll have like a big, I don't know, whatever they call it, boardwalk center thing and in there there'll be like an ice cream shop and like a pizza shop and like those kind of things. A little snacks to go kind of thing. They don't have that on this ship because it's rude to walk and eat in Asia. So it's going to be completely like even that's different. And it's like those are the kind of. I like those, like seeing those things and, and st stuff. I know my in laws are going to be like stressed.

[B]

Yeah, it's going to be great. And I, I think that's the important thing for people to remember. Remember is you know, you, you go to some other place, you are a guest, but you have to be a humble guest and, and if you're focused on the things that you left behind, you're not going to see all the awesome things directly in front of you and, and that kind of, you'll lose the experience.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, so, you know, I think you, you have to be open to seeing other things and doing other things while you're there and kind of get out of your own head and it's important to do it. You know, we've always talked on this podcast that you need time to kind of reset and recharge.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

So these experiences are a time to do that and you know, that's important that you actually get out and, and make that happen.

[A]

Yeah. You don't have to. I, I would encourage everybody who doesn't travel to travel more and more. It's just, I don't my, I like it and I'm forced to recharge because it's literally a 12 hour time change. So even people like some of my family member, like you know, workers like, oh well, will you have email? I'm like, yeah, but I'll be 12 hours ahead of you. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Response time is going to be very different from what you send me and when I reply and, and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, anyways, yeah, we'll wrap up with that. I think it's, it's, I'm excited for it. I know my family's anxious for it, but I'm excited for it and just thought it'd be a fun topic for people to, you know, think about traveling. You should go traveling. It's. I think both of us are big advocates of it, but it does take.

[B]

Some time, and I guess if you get a chance to go to the big event in Australia, you know, you should.

[A]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's the beauty of being a part of BNI now, is you can literally go almost everywhere in the world and get connected with somebody, do something. There's conferences now that they're moving around. I'm a little jealous because I want to see Sydney. It's just the timing didn't work out for us this year. But I will definitely get out there and I'll just.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Won't be beat.

[B]

It's a. It's a beautiful. It's a beautiful place.

[A]

Yeah. I can't wait. All right, M. Thank you, and I'll talk to you when we get back.

[B]

All right.