Why Sales Alone Won’t Save You: Mindset & Abundance for Travel Advisors

Hey there! Welcome to The No BS Travel Advisor. This is the solo edition. Just me, Marcie Muensterman, my mouth, my mistakes, and the real stories from 19 years in this wild-ass industry. There will be no guests here. No censorship, no filters, just the truth behind how I burned out, rebuilt, and finally learned to run this business like the CEO that I am. And if you're an independent advisor who suspects your host might suck, hate Hates working for free and appreciates a well-placed F-bomb, you're in the right damn place. So let's go. Hey y'all, welcome back to the No BS Travel Advisor Podcast. I'm Marcie, and I am so glad to accompany you on your walk today while you're having your coffee, your car ride, that moment of time you are taking for yourself. If you are a red wine drinker, I love a good Chianti Classico, so cheers. Cheers to you for being here. I really have been overwhelmed and honored by the feedback I have gotten the last few weeks on the solo pods, and I really do read every single email, every single message, and I do try to respond every single time. Sometimes it takes me a little while, but it really does mean a lot to me. So please keep it coming. Today, gosh, you guys, today. We are going to get into it. We are going to get into the big thing that can really fuck up an otherwise good business idea. Any plan, not just for travel advisors, for anyone doing anything entrepreneurial. It doesn't really matter if you've prepared, if you've gotten your LLC and your T&Cs, and you've gone through all these motions of setting up your social media. If you signed up with the perfect host and then you put all the care in the world to getting your business up and going, none of that will matter if your mindset is all jacked up. If you have a scarcity mindset, if you let the fear of what others think control any of the business decisions that you make outwardly. All behind the scenes is easy to do. It's where no one is really paying attention. There's no one back there, you know, nitpicking at you, especially if you on your own. And I think it's so interesting that so many of us can get really down into the decision paralysis mode. We think about imposter syndrome, or we get that imposter syndrome going in our minds and the stories we tell ourselves about what success looks like in this business. And it can really mess things up for movement forward. Because what our brains believe about the things we are doing, it is 100% true inside of our minds. Those stories become real. They can really destroy those steps forward that you're taking every single day, especially when it comes time to actually launch and be public. You worry about, what are my colleagues at my other job going to think? What is my mom going to think? What if my best friend thinks this is the stupidest thing she's ever heard? Like, you really get all of those negative thoughts going based on past trauma, based on past experience, based on the fact that we've all, over time, lost a lot of our awesome, as Henry Cloud says. And it is so depressing to think about. And I get a lot of messages like, I'm so jealous of your confidence. I wish I could put myself out there like that. How do you do it? And it's hard, you guys. There have been times when I'm sitting here on this podcast freaking the fuck out about what you're gonna say about the pod. And over the weekend, there was a post in another Facebook group— not my Facebook group, not in a host Facebook group— about how much people dislike me, how they really find that I am dangerous for the industry. They called me names. That was, that was a, I was like, whoa. They said I was the worst and they emailed Asta about a recent award nomination I received. And it was really, really hard to see those posts. And it makes you want to quit sometimes. It makes me question where I'm coming from and it makes me want to defend myself and it's just exhausting some days. So I understand where it can be in your mind that you're not deserving And what if somebody says something mean to me? What if I get trolled? It's hard. Those things can happen. But I definitely step into a space where I say things about the industry that not everyone agrees with. I have made it my entire brand to talk about that there are certain business models out there that do not put the independent contractor at the forefront and do not follow independent contractor law. So I bring awareness so that you are more educated when you're making decisions. It is not about me trying to take down small businesses. In fact, you are all each a small business. You get up every day and you want to plan amazing vacations. And I want you to be able to do that with the freedom and the audacity to be amazing without fear of any sort of retaliation. From a small business travel agency owner, so I have taken to the airwaves. I've taken to Facebook, Instagram, and I post information that's actual from the IRS website. I have done tons of research. I've talked to tons of lawyers. I've listened to education on this particular point of view, and not everybody likes it. You know, and I get that. I often wonder. How someone can call me unprofessional while literally calling me names, but I hope that that made you feel better. I hope that you feel better. Yes, I am very sensitive. Yes, I'm very out here, but I'm also very sensitive. And I do my very best to keep specific people away from me so I can continue to serve with confidence the community who needs to hear what I have to say. If that's not them, I don't see what the big deal is if they're removed from my spaces. I am here for the independent contractor. I am here for the travel advisor, and I want you guys to feel confident as you walk through each stage, each chapter of your travel advisor business. And I have also been there. I've been in situations where I had imposter syndrome. I My confidence was shot down. My ideas were told they were too much. I was told I was too much. I'm still being told I'm too much. And so some of that can really get into the innards of your brain and you start to believe it. You start to think, I don't deserve this. I shouldn't be saying that. I don't belong at this table. But you belong wherever you want to be. You belong in the spaces that you want to grow in. You have chosen an entrepreneurial path if you are signed up as a 1099 independent contractor. You are a business owner if you are an IC, and you have to start believing that. So your mindset is so key to your success. And I always kind of put success in quotes, quote unquote success, because I also want you to be thinking about what success means to you. For a long time, I always thought success just meant really high sales, really large numbers being produced by me, selling millions in travel. I was booking so many trips. I was doing so many weddings. I was positioned to be top seller in my organization many, many years, you know, top 3 at least. That was always my goal. I wanted to be top 3 in sales. For me, success Looked like black and white numbers and it looked great on paper. But honestly, at the end of the day, we know I burnt out. If you've been following me for any amount of time, you know, I burnt out because I was not taking good care of myself, both physically and mentally. I didn't operate from an abundance mindset. I operated from pressure, from competition. I was afraid to lose any momentum, take any time off. I took my laptop everywhere. It lived in my car in case somebody called and I had to pull over and take care of it, which I did sometimes. I felt like I constantly needed to prove myself, and that was so unhealthy. It destroyed friendships. It almost destroyed my marriage. I didn't really parent in the most loving way, and I really beat myself up in those quiet hours in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep. So By the time I decided to leave the industry and take a break, I was a battered and bruised person. I burnt all the bridges down. I felt so guilty when I left travel, and I felt so paranoid about those relationships I had lost. And I knew I needed a break, but I also needed to rebuild. I needed to believe In myself again. And what I didn't understand then, and what I absolutely understand now, is that success without abundance is absolutely going to lead to burnout. The other thing about abundance that you need to understand is that it isn't about more, more, more, more, more. It is about having enough. And I never felt like I was enough. And so many of you have told me that in those private conversations that we're having in the DMs. Your host makes you feel like you're not enough. Your travel agent owner says you don't travel enough. Your colleagues say you don't sell enough. Sometimes they put limitations on if you can go on FAMs or have travel experiences or get your CLIA without enough, enough, enough. And by the way, if you didn't know, getting your CLIA and BART card requires zero in sales. Of course it's important to have sales. Of course Your travel agency owners and host companies are allowed to put limitations, but I just want you to know that you are enough. And sometimes it takes us a while to get those sales and get those commissions up. And if you're being paid a low commission, it's even harder to get to those commission minimums that they have set for you to get your CLIA Embark card. With the IATA card, your personal card, it does— they do require $5,000. Commissionables brought home. But again, if you're making 60/40 and somebody else you know is making 90/10 on the exact same amount of sales, who is going to get there faster? You have to take into consideration these things when you're choosing your partnerships and know that it's not just about selling more. It's about partnering with travel agencies that operate in abundance as well, that want you to be successful in ways that you don't feel like shit while trying to get there. Those fear-based business models Are completely fucking outdated. They were never okay, but they are absolutely not okay now, which is why I discuss it constantly. It's why I'm pissing people off all over the internet. And it's not about me showing up and battering down small businesses. It's about understanding that you, I see, can make different decisions. And as you make different decisions, your confidence will grow. Your abundance mindset can take over. We don't need to gatekeep and hoard information. And that goes for even sharing about travel and helping others. So many of you come into the group or you go into other Facebook groups and you complain about people wanting to pick your brain, or you complain that so-and-so reached out to me for their 5th cruise and they never book. What am I supposed to do with these people? And the conversation always goes into scarcity. Every single time it's, oh my gosh, tell them to fuck off. Don't even work with them. Block, like basically ghost them or be as rude to them as they are rude to you. And I used to think that way too. I used to think, gosh, if these people would just leave me alone, I would have a lot more time on my hands to work with people I want to work with. Why do they think I just give away all my information for free? Well, you guys advertise that you're free. So that's one reason you're attracting some of that. The other part is if we looked at it from an abundant mindset, it would be, I am thankful that they know I'm a travel advisor and that they slid into my DMs to pick my brain because they believe it's pickable. And I don't mean they want to take advantage. I just mean they remembered because my marketing is out there that I am a travel advisor. And that is the shift from scarcity to just telling them off to abundance, which is being grateful that someone is aware That you're a travel advisor. And that's the kind of advice you're going to get if you are in Maximize Your Travel Advisor Business Facebook group, which is where we really talk about the business and how to respond to some of these DMs. I know it's frustrating, especially if it's the 5th time that you've gotten this message and they never book with you, but I would ask you, are you walking them through A process that makes it easy for them to work with you? Have you educated them on how it is you work? I would encourage you to just help them and send them a Calendly link if you want to work with them. And if you don't, just release them with kindness, with the idea that the more goodness you put out, the more goodness will come in. That's abundance. It's not a negative reaction. To those DMs that we're so annoyed by. And it has been so long that I've believed this, that it's just a natural instinct for me now to not roll my eyes when somebody wants to pick my brain about travel or send me a text about how she can get over to Barcelona for the cheapest price. I just help. And as many of you know, in the world of coaching and mentoring, so many of you slide into my DMs. And if I did not help you, what would you feel? When you see me posting? What would you think when you hear the podcast? You'd be like, she never responded to my DM. She doesn't even really want to help me. And the more I have helped, the more I have given back in both travel to even the tire kickers and to the travel community, the better my businesses have gotten. The more I have given, the better it has gotten. And not always financially, just in the joy of seeing people happier, more calm, feeling good about their decisions that they are making. If I get to be a part of that, it is so special. And I think that's abundance, thinking about it from that perspective of, this is special that I get to have this conversation, that they know what I do, That they trust me enough to ask. That's what's going to give you the edge. And honestly, that is what is going to bring that karmic universe abundant, all the goodness come into your life. Because the more you want to shut things down and be negative and be competitive with your fellow advisors, the more that trust is like, it tastes bitter. The more annoyed you are. The more people can feel that in the day-to-day. They can feel it in your posts. They can hear it in your voice when you're talking to them on the phone. And until you're willing to take ownership of your negative thoughts, of those annoyances, nothing will shift. You will never feel successful, even if your numbers say otherwise. Building from the inside out. Takes effort and intention every single day. Every day that you wake up as a business owner, as an independent contractor, as someone who is hoping to fulfill vacation dreams for others, you have to put yourself in the right mindset and you have to believe in yourself and believe you are deserving of more commission, of earning fees, of getting those fees. Get paid. You have to believe that you deserve to work in wonderful partnerships with vendors, hosts, travel agencies, and colleagues. You do deserve that. So you have to stop believing all the noise outside of yourself. Compete only with yourself. Stop punishing yourself for not working 24/7 or not working enough hours or for not closing enough sales. Take time off and don't feel bad about it. It does not equal failure when you are resting. You actually don't have to earn your rest. And in fact, I believe rest is what makes us stronger, makes us allow for that creativity to come through, because you don't need to overwork and prove that you are good enough through working 24/7. And it is not an unknown because I've talked about it a lot, but like, I want to make 6-figure selling travel, but I am only going to work 10 to 15 hours a week. And I have found that the more abundance I operate in, the more money financially, better clients, and amazing opportunities come my way. I'm making more money now working 10 to 15 hours a week than I did when I was grinding at 60+ hours with nickel and dime clients, because I have changed how I feel about my own business. And who I serve and who I deserve to be in this industry. And I see myself completely differently. And that is what I want for you. You can have less work, less chaos, less volume, less hours, and more peace, more alignment, more profit. None of it happens by accident though. That happens when abundance, not fear, leads the business. When abundance became my foundation and I stopped chasing every client, I stopped trying to prove who I was constantly to both myself and the people around me. I stopped reacting emotionally to every single setback, every single thing I thought was a failure. When I started trusting myself and built out a workflow process for both sales and service, When I started giving freely and stopped gatekeeping every little piece of information, the energy shifted. That version of me now exists after the burnout. I'm more grounded and confident. I'm less reactive and I'm more fulfilled. Do I still get emotional? Am I still a very sensitive person? Absolutely. Do I still carry the weight of what others think? Absolutely. It's impossible to get rid of 100%, but this is the version of yourself that you can build to as well. You can get to a place where it matters less, where it doesn't take over an entire week. I used to let the negativity just get me so far down. Even as recently as last Christmas week, I was a mess last Christmas week, and I let it almost ruin a beautiful week at the beach with my family. And I really had to do a hard reset coming into 2025. And I'm having to really do that now, be really self-aware of what kind of person I want to be when I wake up. And I want to be joyful and giving, even when I'm struggling, even when I feel like things aren't fair or I'm not being treated with kindness. So I just want you to think about all this. As we really dive deeper into how to shift mindset around not just your business, but your entire life, and really putting aside that comparison of what is this person doing and what is that person doing, and they've only been doing this for 2 months and they already have sales. We have to set aside what we even are worrying about because what will sneak up on you and attack you, those feelings of jealousy, those feelings of, I'm not good enough. It's like, you're only seeing a little bit of their story. And if that's what you're going to focus on, you're going to get torn down. You're going to feel worse about yourself. You might see somebody on Instagram just blowing up, but we don't know if they're actually closing sales. We, we don't know if they know how to do that. So when you're thinking, why not me? When you see someone else looking successful, Remember, you don't know how much it costs them to get there. You don't know what kind of support system they have, the personal costs, the sacrifices they may have had to make. You're only seeing a highlight. And I would say that's probably even true when you look at me, because sometimes I get messages and I'm like, really? Is that what you guys think? I'm just so uber confident. It's more just, I do this even when my heart is beating out of my chest. I do this even when my anxiety is super high. And that is tough, but if you do it when you're scared, abundance will flow because comparison is not going to actually make you better. It will slow you down. It will cause hesitation. And that decision paralysis will cost you years sometimes. Take it from somebody who should have come back to travel after a year instead of waiting 3. But there was a point where I was terrified to come back to travel. And so I made zero movements forward. I said I was being careful, but really I was just scared and I wasn't ready. I wanted to feel 100% about my decision. And honestly, even the day I decided to come back, I really had to do it anyway, because confidence is actually not a prerequisite. It's actually the result of doing it scared. And I'm not like a fake it till you make it kind of girl either. I think the biggest breakthroughs in business come from just jumping. And doing, building the net on the way down, saying to yourself, I will figure it out as I go and it will be okay even when I mess things up. Everything is fixable in business. But this is where I need to be very clear. Believing it is the number one step. Belief is not pretending everything is fine. In fact, that's where I hate the fake it till you make it. Belief is this quiet, Internal, intentional decision. It's a rewiring of your brain because you have to believe things and show up when everything is quiet. Like when you're not getting any leads, when you aren't getting a pat on the back. It's like when you launch your business and everybody's so excited for you, and then a month later it's crickets. You still have to believe. When someone badmouths you or says something negative, you still have to believe in yourself, even when others don't. Even if they're loud, even if they're out there saying negative things about you, you know what's true. You have to trust yourself when you don't have proof because you know who you are today. There's always going to be those seasons where it's really hard to do this, especially when you don't know the outcome. But I believe you can handle it. And if you believe you can handle it, that's all the motivation you need to go out and do it. And you have to know why you're going out and doing it. Whether it's for the flexibility, the financial freedom, whether it's because you just love to travel and want to travel more, it has to be known. Because if you don't know why you want to be a travel advisor, it's gonna be really hard when those people start chattering or when you are worrying about what everybody else is saying about it. So there's gonna be waves, okay? There's gonna be ups, there's gonna be downs, there's gonna be times where you're not Booking. There's going to be times when you're slammed, but if you want freedom, peace, enjoyment, this is supposed to be a really fun job. You have to believe in that. You can have that freedom, peace, and enjoyment. And maybe you're 20 years into this and you're like, what used to get me out of bed doesn't get me out of bed anymore. Then you have to go find it. You have to readjust. And that is allowed. You're allowed to pivot your business. You're allowed to make new decisions. You're allowed to put your out of office on and build out a different business plan. It's okay to not serve every single person you've ever been serving for 20 years. You shouldn't feel guilt about making change. And success is not one size fits all. For me, success went from, oh, I want to sell $2 million a year in travel to I want to successfully set firm boundaries and business hours. I want to have the freedom to go take my daughter and son to school in the mornings and then pick them up in the afternoons. I wanna never miss a softball game unless I'm in another country. I wanna be able to drop everything and go get them if they're sick. I want to take naps every single day at 1:30. I want to go to my book club without interruption. I wanna travel laptop-free. These were all new versions of success that equaled me being a happier person, happier mother, happier wife. And a happier travel advisor. It wasn't all about the money anymore, but what came from that was more money, more respect for my clients. I had way more flexibility in my schedule when I got my calendar under control. I believe that I deserve to go on a vacation without a laptop, and I do it, and I take that time multiple times a year, in fact. And that's what life is all about. So while you're still learning and growing, there will be times where we do have to sacrifice. And we have to change our plans because a client needs our help. But that is so much more rare than you actually think. This last year, I lost my dad and I was grieving horribly. I still am. I can barely talk about it. And I took 6 whole months off from travel. So unless I already had them on the books, I didn't take any new clients. And it took me a long time. I felt like way too long to come back because I think I was afraid that like, if I was happy planning somebody else's vacation, it meant I couldn't be sad about losing my It's like such a weird fucked up thing grief is. But I was also caregiving for my mom, trying to take care of my kids who lost a grandpa. I was coaching and mentoring. It was tough to take that time, but I'm really glad I did. And when I came back, they were waiting and they're still here. And I still had a really strong 2025. And I'm really proud of myself for not just pushing through those hard times, for really honoring myself through that grief. And you deserve that too. We should not feel guilty for grief, for stepping away, for slowing down. Guilt should not be a motivator to do your job well. I mean, we should not feel guilty just living in our authentic selves because it can become draining and really cause a lot of problems. Because when you're not doing things well because you are grieving or because you are tired, you make more mistakes. And that was something I knew because I had taken that time and burnt out. Yeah. Before, and I just didn't want to go through that again. So you have to really start trusting your instincts, be self-aware of what you need, and start affirming yourself every day. That was something I never did before I met Miranda Leach, was affirm myself. But mindset is going to be 85 to 95% of putting both feet on the ground every day and knowing what you want just today. And living in an abundant mindset just means really opening up and honoring yourself and trusting the decisions you make and knowing that if you make a mistake, you can fix it. So I have a few affirmations I want you guys to think about today. There's actually a lot. And so just take one, take two, take what really resonates with you, because if you start talking to yourself with this positivity, It doesn't mean perfection. It doesn't mean like, I'm gonna be rainbows and puppies every day when I get up. Like, life is still gonna happen. People are still gonna be dicks. We're still gonna be worrying. I mean, my kids, my kids are my biggest critics, right? A couple weeks ago after we left Indianapolis— I'm from, I'm from Indiana, and we fly up there for every Thanksgiving— and we were coming home, and every time, you guys, my kids get stopped in. TSA, and I decided to make a quick reel about it. This is the point of view of 2 teens who get stopped no matter what, even though they both have their own PreCheck. It was a fun, hilarious reel to us because it was like, we do have to get there early because they're always going to get stopped. Coming back to Tampa, they both got stopped by TSA. It just made me kind of annoyed. It made me laugh. Like, it was like, what's the over-under that Max is going to get stopped? What's the over-under Jude's going to get stopped? And then they both did, and we just were cackling about it. So I made a reel about it. Has 890,000 views now. And it was the first time I've ever had a reel get over like 80,000 views on its own. My kids were like, that is not viral, mom. That's not viral. You don't have enough likes or comments to be viral. I mean, I had trolls on there arguing in the comments. No, this is viral, y'all. Especially when I only have 6,000 followers. This is viral for me. But you know, they're always gonna bring you down a notch. So you have that. Already, but what I'm trying to say is you're always gonna have haters. You're always gonna have people that are like, "What is she doing now?" In that negativity, or "I wish she would do it a different way." She's not doing it the way I want her to do it. Well, I don't give a fuck, and neither should you. I'm 45 years old. I have way less fucks to give about what other people think. It has taken a long time to get here, but through it is the work, the internal belief, and the affirmations. Helps so much because it is a rewiring of the brain. So for identity and self-trust, if you're struggling with that, you could start your day with, I trust my judgment more than outside noise. And that outside noise could be as close as laying next to you in bed. If your partner is unsupportive and can't get on board, don't expect somebody to give you the affirmation and validation you need. You have to give it to yourself. You can say, I don't need consensus to move forward. You can also believe that you don't have to know all the answers right now. You can say, I can be unsure and still be right. I make strong decisions even when they scare me. I am allowed to believe myself before others catch up. I love that one. I am allowed to believe in myself before others catch up. I like to write some of this down on the window next to my desk in dry erase marker. I've also had some made up and printed and put on my mirror, in my car, on my computer screen. It can be like a little Post-it note for all I care, just so you can see it, read it, believe in it. If you're struggling with abundance, consider these affirmations. There is more opportunity out there than I can physically handle. So one of the ways I think about this is— I can't remember who told me to think of abundance in this way, but a long time ago, somebody said, when you look out a plane window and you guys are coming into a city and you're looking out the window and you can see all those little houses underneath the plane, the tiny houses like in the— in all those different neighborhoods, and especially now with all of the growth into all of our farm fields, you can see thousands of houses. You cannot possibly Be their travel agent. Not all of them. You probably can't handle even 1% of the houses you see down there. Think about that. When you're looking out the window and you see all those houses or all those cars on the highway, you cannot possibly by yourself handle every single person that you see right now. And that really helped me have a visual on abundance. Like, I know that there are millions of people. Like, we all know that. Okay, you're right. I can't serve all those people. There's way more opportunity out there than I can actually handle. Giving does not make me smaller. It actually proves I trust myself. So when you give freely, stop gatekeeping information from those tire kickers, know how to release them after helping them. It builds trust within yourself and it also builds trust with them. They very well might refer you even if they go book their own cruise because you helped them. I don't want you to spend hours helping them. I want you to spend less than 1 minute. Helping and giving to someone else every single day and see what happens karmically as you give. I can assure you, it may not always come back in commission, but it will come back to you in positive, wonderful experiences. Another abundant thought is that money responds to clarity, not desperation. The more desperate you all come across, and I know that you Like, don't think you're coming across desperate, but I can read it in some of your posts. I can feel it when you post and you're just like, I have been doing so, so much and nothing is coming from it. And I just want someone to book with me and I want someone to show up for their appointment. It's like, I can feel the anxiety and so can your clients in all of your marketing. If you shift to a non-desperate approach, and you have to really know if you sound desperate, you have to really look at yourself. But if you feel anxious every time you post, like this has to be the a post that converts into a sale every time you post. Like it's, that's desperation. When you were just like, if I post 7 times a day, I'm gonna get a sale. If I show up to every networking group I've ever been invited to this week, I'm gonna get somebody new in my business. Maybe. But if you're doing it from a desperate point of view, you're going to exhaust yourself and your prospects can feel it. And that's where then we get compared to car salesmen. We don't want that. We want to show up, give, and realize that when you are looking for money abundance, you almost have to give more of yourself freely than you'd like to. We cannot do so in a desperate place though, because it's a block. It is a money block. When you are posting or expecting or hoping too much, it's like, I gotta do this. I gotta do that. That desperation, that tight grip is going to feel suffocated. It's gonna feel choked. The more you loosen your grip, the more money can flow to you. The more those bookings will open up, the more those aligned clients can find you. When your marketing isn't coming from a desperate point of view and it's coming from an engaging, educational point of view, when you're having fun in your marketing, when you're taking the selfie with your mug on your balcony, those are the moments that people look at you and go, oh my gosh, she's so relaxed. She seems so happy. She's not desperately screaming for me to book with her. I want to book with her. An affirmation you could say at this point is, my worth is not measured by this month's sales numbers. Quiet months are not punishment because they allow me to recalibrate. I am building something that compounds over time. This is going to bring you more. This is going to be where you are able to relax when you start believing that you are building something that compounds over time and that you don't need to rush. Through everything to be successful, that quiet months are absolutely not punishment. They're allowing you a recalibration, a rest, a time to reevaluate, and that your worth is never ever measured in your sales numbers, and especially in each month's sales numbers. So say you're good with all of that and you're just like, actually, Marcie, I just, I don't have enough boundaries. I really want to And take time off without my laptop, stuff like that. It's like, well, then you need to affirm. You need to affirm that urgency is not your responsibility every single time. And in most cases, their urgency is not going to equate to a sale. So you have to start believing that they can wait. I get to decide what access to me looks like. Repeat, I get to decide what access to me looks like. I will not abandon myself to be 24/7 available to others. Resting makes me sharper and more clear, not lazier. And in fact, guys, I fucking hate the word lazy. I don't know a single woman on this planet who could be considered lazy. I really have come to remind myself that rest doesn't equal laziness, and it's been such a great mindset shift for even me because I used to not sleep at all. And I still struggle with sleep. I would say it's my number one issue. I still want to check my email, like as soon as I wake up, make sure no fires have to be put out at 6:00 AM. But the more I have set boundaries, the less that happens. And in fact, I did check my email this morning because it's Monday and I had 2 emails and neither one of them were clients. And I was so like, oh my gosh, this has happened to me because I have done such a great job setting boundaries. I can wake up on a Monday morning and not have any client emails. Because they know what my working hours are. And I know that I have implemented change over the last 6 years that's allowed me to wake up to this moment. And it doesn't mean I don't have business. In fact, I have an abundance of new leads this past couple of weeks, and I'm actively working on some of those. But my clients do not overwhelm me because they know what to expect from me. And I have set that boundary. If you are playing around in the comparison detox game, this is tough. I know it because whether you're new or you've been around forever, or you're part-time or you're full-time. Like, there's so many things to compare in our businesses, and no 2 businesses look exactly alike in travel. But you have to start repeating to yourself, someone else's success doesn't reduce mine. I do not need to match anyone else's pace. I can admire someone without competing with them. I don't need to understand someone else's path to trust my own. This is your story. And so you have to think about doing it scared because the world needs you. Your clients, your future self needs you to wake up and know your why and put your feet on the ground and do it. And you don't need certainty. You don't need to know what's going to happen to move forward because clarity comes from Action, you guys. You can't get clarity. You can't get the result until you take action. Repeat. I can build my travel business while I am learning. I am allowed to figure out my travel business out in public. Whew. That one's tough, but you're allowed. You're allowed to make mistakes out in public. Mistakes do not disqualify me from having a successful business. Guys, there's so much here. There's so much mindset work that has to take place because when you are building or rebuilding, it all comes from somewhere else. Experiences we've already had, decisions that were made sometimes for us, or when we learn something new. I learned recently that there is just no way— like, I used to believe that I couldn't reset or I couldn't pivot. Right? Because I'd been doing this whole thing a certain way this whole time. And I think that's something we really get set in our ways and we think we have to keep doing it a certain way. But if we really think about it, pivoting and rebuilding is not a regression. It's a refinement. It's something that allows us to get better, be stronger, be more mature in our businesses. We don't have to rush to the next chapter. And I love this affirmation. So I started saying, I trust the version of me That prevailed. I trust the version of me that prevailed. Last, here are some affirmations just for you to really believe that you're so deserving. You're so deserving of whatever you want in this business, whatever you want in this life, how you want to build it, who you want to build it with, the way you want to build it. I do not need permission to want more. I am the safety net in my success. I do not have to suffer to prove I care. I am absolutely allowed to enjoy my travel business experiences. I mean, guys, you are all these, like these, these are you. These are me. These are us. I don't expect you to write all of these down. There's a lot here, right? And everybody is going to take something a little different from today. But I do want you to think about picking one. That resonated hard, that made you almost like cry in your car, because I cried a little bit today. Just something that really makes you pause and think and maybe a little uncomfortable, you know? That's really the one thing that you probably need the most. It doesn't have to be all of this. It's one day at a time, one step at a time, one minute at a time. If you're here and you're still listening, maybe you had to pull over. I don't know. If you are showing up in your business already. This is so true. That belief is already inside of you. You don't have to fake it till you make it. You don't have to pretend to be somebody else that you're not right now. You just get to be you, the version of yourself that brought you here. You also need to thank her because she knew you could do it or she wouldn't have let you start it. And when you really start to believe in that and trust that, that's where everything gets better. It's where abundance truly flows to you. And just honestly, guys, no amount of sales will ever save you if your mindset's not right. I mean, think about it. I was at like $2 million a year when I left, but I was a hot fucking mess. I didn't believe in myself anymore. I was making horrible mistakes. I was just, uh, I was just terrible to myself. I treated myself like shit, but I refocused and I changed my story. And that's how we got here today. And that's why it feels like I have so much more confidence than you, but that was So long ago now, and I've had so much time to work on myself and believe in myself and change my story, right? And if you're just starting today, just trust that your story brought you to this moment to listen to this podcast, to be in this space right now. If you feel seen, shoot me a message. I'm here for you. If you just want to talk, you can send me a PM, you can send me an email. We don't do perfection in here. Perfection is over-fucking-rated when it comes to building a business. You don't have to be 100% ready to move into the next stage. And sometimes a conversation can help with that. So I just hope that as you listen today, that you're able to take something into your business and make the changes that you need that make you feel better, but you have to tell the truth to yourself. All right. Thank you for trusting me with your time today. I cannot wait to hear from you. Please leave a 5-star review if this resonated with you. Those helped me more than you could ever imagine. And I hope that as you navigate through the next few days, that you think about the things you really want and you write those affirmations down and you start to rewire your brain to believe that imposter syndrome is a big fat liar, that anybody who's going to hate on you, call you names, talk about you in the group chat, make you feel like shit, they're not your people. And you can leave. You can walk away from those toxic situations. You can ban, you can block. You have control over who you let close to you, but the most important person that you can't get rid of is yourself. So don't be the toxic mean girl to yourself. Be your own best friend. Believe that you are deserving. Have a great weekend, y'all. All right, y'all. That is the end of another episode of the No BS Travel Advisor Podcast. Thank you so much for being here. And remember, I am not a lawyer. That is my disclaimer. I am a coach and mentor in the travel business with a ton of big opinions. So don't forget to leave that 5-star review, and if you need anything, I'm here for you. Bye! Bye!