When I took my creative leap and shucked my stable life in Boulder for a year as a Creative Nomad in Europe, I didn’t realize that I’d be doing damage to my business’s brand.
In my business, I’m a certified coach, workshop leader, author and speaker, specializing in helping people bring their brilliant ideas into form. Writers, artists, entrepreneurs – those juicy people who need support building confidence and practices to make their dreams happen – that’s who I help to succeed.
Imagine my horror when a friend recently called me the “Go-to Girl for Europe.”
Bless her for thinking of me when she was planning a trip to Barcelona, and kudos to her for asking for help on finding things to do in Barcelona. But I haven’t been to Barcelona since 1991 and I’m certainly not in the travel agent business.
Mind you, I love helping people. It’s my guiding principle, and when I can, I have offered advice on visiting Paris.
But it’s not my Great Work. My Great Work is guiding creative transformation. My excursions to Europe aren’t about travel – they’re about transformation, creative exploration, and adventure. Being in a foreign city dedicated to art and beauty facilitates that transformation all the more.
I don’t blame people who write to ask for travel advice. After all, I’ve written extensively about my travels at JourneyJuju. I sell travel-related products – The Creative Toolkit for Travelers, The Graceful Return and Go For It! Leading Tours for Fun and Profit.
But if you look carefully, you won’t see anything about how to book train travel in Europe, how to find great accommodations or how to hack your way through the world on a budget or traveling with no baggage. My guides reveal this: travel + creativity + coaching = transformation.
I blogged about my adventures on Journey Juju to show that when you take a creative leap, you are rewarded with unexpected and delightful boons. Your creative adventure could be adopting a baby, or starting a business, or finding your perfect love partner. You may even write about it. But that doesn’t mean you become the Go-to person for it.
I take responsibility for muddying up my brand by sharing my wanderlust. Now I don’t have time to dispense travel advice. But, since I am here to help, I can share the resources I use when planning a trip.
Going to Paris? Tune into Secrets of Paris. My friend Heather Stimmler-Hall dishes all all things Parisian and she’ll even guide you around the city if you’d like.
Want to find out how to travel around the world and even go luggage free? Rolf Pott’s site Vagabonding is the go-to source for the extraordinary and long-term traveler.
Need tips on how to use frequent flyer miles, become a Travel Ninja and other strategies for living an unconventional life, Chris Guillebeau is your man. Head of The Art of Non-Conformity, his guides will show you how to travel on the cheap, in your way and your style.
I get my airline tickets at Kayak.com. I rent apartments in Europe through AirBnB, Roomarama and craigslist. I meet new friends through group events posted on Couchsurfing. I find good food by googling for food blogs – “Rome food blogs”.
Thank you for understanding. Please seek my support in how to get writing and creativity into your life, how to write your book, how to launch your own creative leap and how to live your authentic creative self. It’s all at Original Impulse. I’d love to help.
*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links.
Cynthia – I love your new site! It’s lovely and elegant looking, and of course, very creative. It’s a pleasure checking it out.
Thanks, Alex! I’m so glad you enjoyed it here. Thanks for commenting – it helps me test the system!
Happy Friday….
I loved it before, but this one is more colorful, exciting, and inviting. I like how you explained the difference in a travel agent and the wonderful work you really do, which is help people fgind themselves in their creativity.
Great job! I appreciate it.