First Time Out The Country
The passport, the paperwork, the money, and what actually happens at the airport.
Under fifty grand, one in five people got a passport. Over a hundred grand, it’s two out of three. Same country, same airport, different information.
Free · 11 pages · Nothing to buy
You been told a lie about travel. Not on purpose. Nobody sat you down and lied. It just never came up.
Here’s the lie anyway: that leaving the country is something other people do. People with money. People whose families already did it. People who had somebody to show them.
I’m not finna pretend money don’t matter. It does. But I watched people spend more on a weekend in Vegas than a week in Belize costs, and the difference wasn’t the money. The difference was one of them knew the steps and one of them didn’t.
Look inside it
Eleven pages. Here is three of them, straight out the guide.
No sample, no preview, no part two. You get all eleven pages.
What’s actually in it
- The passport, and the two-fee thing that turns first-timers around at the post office window
- Why the birth certificate in your drawer is probably the wrong one, and which one you actually need. This is the part that quietly ends most first attempts
- The money trick that costs you a little bit on every single swipe, all trip, and most people never notice it happened
- The phone call to make before you leave so you don’t get a bill after you’re already home feeling good
- What actually happens at the airport. Six steps, and four of them you already do flying to see family
- Five things that cost first-timers money, every one of them free to avoid
One thing you won’t find in it
Dollar figures. On purpose.
Passport fees and processing times change, and a number printed in a PDF goes stale and makes a liar out of me. So the guide teaches you the process and points you at the official government page for anything with a price on it. It’ll still be right next year.
The birth certificate in your drawer is probably the wrong one.
The hospital one with the little footprints on it ain’t it, and a laminated one can get you turned away at the window. That’s where most first attempts quietly die, and it ain’t got nothing to do with money.
Find out which one you need before you spend a dollar on anything else.
Or don’t. Find out at the counter, hand the lady the wrong paper, and start the whole clock over.
Send me the guide
Type your email. It downloads right here, and a copy lands in your inbox.
I’m David Hawkins. I came up in Chicago, I still work a full time job while I build this, and I ain’t a travel agent.
What I am is somebody who figured out the steps and got tired of watching people decide this wasn’t for them. The whole idea behind Chicago Minded is handing somebody the whole trade instead of the one trick that gets them through the week.
Dig for what you don’t know. Build something real with it. Grow into the life you actually wanted.