Chris Koerner on The Koerner Office Podcast

The Credit Card Side Hustle No One Talks About

⏱ 39 min video · 3 min read16 May 2026Worth watching

TL;DR

26-year-old Colin Strad built a $231,000/year business as a credit card rewards consultant, charging $875 per consultation to help business owners optimize their credit card strategies and book trips with points. The video breaks down exactly how he built it, priced it, and grew it entirely through LinkedIn content with zero outbound sales.

Key points

Colin charges $875 for a one-time package: a 75-minute strategy call, a written optimized credit card plan, implementation support, and one trip booking included

He made $231,000 gross revenue in 2025 (his first full year), with roughly $40,000 in expenses, and was at $89,000 revenue by April 30, 2026

All clients came through organic LinkedIn content posting 1-2 times per day, 6 days a week — zero outbound sales, zero paid ads

The AMX Business Gold card caps 4x points on advertising at $150,000/year — high ad spenders should consider the Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business which earns uncapped 3x on all ad spend

Points devalue faster than the US dollar every year across all major programs, making hoarding points a losing strategy — earn and burn is the correct approach

Actionable insights

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Start by spending a weekend reading blogs like The Points Guy, Frequent Miler, One Mile at a Time, and The Daily Drop, then prompt Claude to fill gaps — this alone puts you ahead of 99% of people and is enough to begin charging for basic consultations

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Use Seats.aero to search 25 airline loyalty programs simultaneously for award availability instead of checking airline websites one by one

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Practice by researching and mock-booking real trips all the way to the payment screen without completing them, then post what you learned on LinkedIn as a case study — this is exactly how Colin got his first viral post and validated the business

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High ad spenders on AMX Business Gold are likely earning near 1x on most ad spend once they exceed the $150,000 annual cap — switching to Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business unlocks uncapped 3x on all advertising

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Credit card affiliate links (approx. $400 per premium card signup) can become a meaningful revenue stream alongside consulting — share links in a newsletter and on social content

Notable quotes

“If you spent a weekend with some of these blogs and Claude, you would know more about credit card points than 90% of people in the world. I mean, probably 99.”

“Points inflation is a huge problem. Every single one of these programs continually devalues year-over-year at a much worse rate than the US dollar is devaluing. And so holding points is a generally terrible idea.”

“I don't do any effort to find clients. They show up in my inbox every single day. And that has been basically been that way since the beginning. I have no experience doing outbound sales. Zero.”

Worth watching?

✅

Worth watching the full video?

Worth watching if you want to see the live mock consultation with Chris (around the two-thirds mark) — it shows exactly how Colin diagnoses a client in real time, including the AMX ad spend cap insight that most high-spend business owners miss entirely.

Topics

Business Finance

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