Just an Epic Life

We fasted for 72 hours, and 48 hours in, Nick had a seizure. This is our honest story of the fog, the fear, and how it pulled us back toward our faith. If your faith feels low right now, you have our permission to press pause and come back when you are ready. In this episode, we talk about what brought us back toward faith after years of feeling far away, why we chose a 72 hour fast, and the clari...

Life changes fast. In this episode, Nick and Keslie sit with grief after saying goodbye to a dear friend, adjust to an empty nest after dropping their child off at college, and reflect on how differently the last two "Chicagos" looked: a points-funded trip in person a year ago, versus presenting at this year's conference over Zoom. They also talk through what "welcome week&quot...

The quiet after your kid leaves can be louder than the goodbye. We’re recording from a little “datecation” in Sacramento, celebrating our anniversary and bracing ourselves for the biggest family shift we’ve felt in years: launching our first child to college at the University of Puget Sound. We expected emotions, but we didn’t expect how layered they’d be, pride sitting right next to heartbreak, a...

Dealerships don’t just sell cars, they sell urgency, emotion, and time traps. We’re not playing that game. We’re buying two replacement vehicles and we share the exact strategy we use to stay unemotionally attached, lock in the out the door price, and avoid spending an entire day stuck in a showroom while someone “talks to their manager.” We walk through how we choose the right used car for a kid...

A heated marble slab, a scrub glove that removes evidence of your entire past life, and a bubble massage that looks way fluffier on TikTok than it feels in real time. That’s how our Istanbul day goes from “spa plans” to “what just happened” in a matter of minutes. We’re at the Conrad Istanbul Bosphorus with Isaiah and Lilyana, recording immediately because there’s no way we’d remember the details...

Istanbul isn’t just a backdrop for this one. We’re sitting there with our special guest Isaiah, fresh off high school graduation, looking out at a city that used to be the center of the world and trying to take it all in. We talk about why he picked Istanbul for his senior trip, what it feels like to finally see Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque with your own eyes, and the kind of awe you can’t get...

A business can look “fine” right up until you stop paying attention and then it quietly starts to die. We talk through the real story of what’s been built inside our “Big Dumb Stupid House” from a sound and lighting side business to a growing real estate team to mobile home investing and a travel brand that suddenly became a lot more serious. Along the way, we unpack a simple truth for entrepreneu...

Your kid’s childhood doesn’t end with a bang. It changes in a hundred small ways you don’t notice until you’re staring at graduation photos and realizing you’re closer to “see you later” than “see you after school.” We’re Nick and Keslie, and we talk through what it’s like to parent an 18-year-old graduate alongside a younger teen who still wants the freedom of the next stage. We also get real abo...

We land in Santa Barbara and realize something: the best trips aren’t always the ones you plan for months, they’re the ones you’re ready for. We talk through how we turned a random day off school into a real weekend getaway by using a simple habit we swear by, putting “travel windows” on the calendar years in advance. That one move makes last-minute travel feel calm instead of chaotic, especially...

Four million views. No trending audio. No script. Just a tripod aimed at an SRP irrigation valve in Glendale, Arizona and a perfectly timed moment when the neighbor shuts their valve and the water finally flows. Sitting oceanside at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel, we try to make sense of why the most mundane clip we’ve posted turned into our biggest viral hit, and what that teaches us about conten...

What if “work-life balance” isn’t the goal… and never was? In this episode of Just An Epic Life , we’re recording from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (Terminal 4) on a travel day—heading to Houston, then Galveston, for a cruise. But this isn’t just a travel episode. It’s a real look at what it actually means to build a life where work and life aren’t separate anymore. We kick things off inside the Cha...

Remember when your children thought you hung the moon and a family vacation was the highlight of their year? Nick and Keslie take you on a heartfelt journey through the evolution of family travel as kids transform from eager adventure companions into independent teenagers with their own priorities. Through stories of month-long California beach trips, Costa Rican jungle adventures, and rainy Disne...

The glossy social media versions of our lives rarely show the struggles, setbacks, and periods of suck that everyone experiences. Today we're getting brutally honest about the challenges we've faced in our businesses over the past six months. Our flipping business hit a major slowdown, with only one property purchased between November and May. Each unsold mobile home was bleeding $1,300...

Driving home from Sedona provides the perfect backdrop for a candid conversation about travel hacks, relationship dynamics, and how we approach the end of vacations differently. We explore unexpected money-saving strategies and innovative business techniques while sharing embarrassing personal stories against the stunning red rock landscape. • Our $27 charcuterie board appetizer became lunch for t...

Family dinner isn’t what it used to be—and for many families, it’s not working anymore. In this episode of Just An Epic Life , we share a different approach to family connection, parenting teenagers, and intentional living —recorded from our vacation setup in Carlsbad, California. Instead of forcing traditional routines, we’ve created something that works better for our family: “Island Time.” This...

Have you ever walked into a situation absolutely committed to saying "no," only to surprise yourself by saying "yes"? That's exactly what happened during our impromptu getaway to the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona.  Sitting poolside at the historic Arabella Hotel—where Elvis Presley once requested the very diving pool we enjoyed—we unpack our unexpected journey from timeshar...