Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Lindsay Blain, Creator of Self Worth to Wealth Discussing The Power of Inspired Action

Episode Date: March 27, 2025

Lindsay Blain—wife, mom of three, and travel industry mentor living just outside of Memphis, TN. She became a travel agent while pregnant with her daughter, driven by the dream of staying home with her kids while contributing financially to their family. But like many, she struggled to make it work—juggling motherhood, self-doubt, and the uncertainty of where to start. Everything changed when she discovered a system that transformed her business. In her first year using it, she booked over a million dollars in travel.Fast forward to today: Her business partner, Kim, and Lindsay built Castle Explorers, a thriving agency with nearly 100 agents, and their business has grown to over $15 million in travel sales. But her true passion? Mentoring and coaching travel agents. Lindsay believes success isn’t just about knowing how to book trips—it’s about confidence, mindset, strategy, and having the right support system.If you're ready to build a thriving travel business, break past the struggles holding you back, and create the freedom you’ve always dreamed of, she can’t wait to help you get there. Let’s make it happen together!Learn more: http://www.selfworthtowealth.com/

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of Influential Entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have with us, Lindsay Blaine, who's the creator of self-worth to wealth, and we'll be talking about the power of inspiration. Action. Lindsay, welcome to the program. Hey, Mike. It's so good to be here today. Hey, I'm excited to talk to you because I know that with personal development and improving ourselves, I want to hear about what you're doing to take people and guide people to go from self-worth to wealth. That sounds exciting and the power of inspired action. That sounds wonderful. But before we jump into that, give us a little bit of your story and background and what inspired you to create self-worth. to wealth. Well, to give you a little piece of where was at when this program started is, I have a travel agency that I run with my business partner, Kim, and we are loving what we're

doing. We're creating an amazing, we have created an amazing family there of agents, and we are loving it. And I was very busy doing that because it takes a lot of work. And plenty to do. I have three kids married and homeschool my children, which is crazy in itself. And so I didn't need another thing to do. And so there was one day that I had been talking to a few of our agents. And I remember when I started and when I was a travel agent and when I was trying to find success and feeling like a failure and I just had those feelings flood back. And all of a sudden, with talking with a few agents and having them feel the way I felt when I was. I was an agent at first. All of a sudden, I just got this feeling that I needed to do a coaching

program that was more in depth. So we train our agents and we help them along the process and we're there to help and support and coach them. But it was almost like there's something missing for people before they get to that point where they're ready to dive in. It's like the confidence is such a huge deal. And I felt like I needed to talk to people more deeply and really have a hands-on approach and sort of walk them through what I've learned the last 10 years of my life, of step by step of how to conquer that fear. And so that's sort of how it started. And I sat down one night and I'm like, all right, that was my inspired action that I had gotten because I will pray every morning and I had been praying like, okay, help me figure out what I need to do that will make

the most impact. And the day that this was the answer for me, I was like, oh, no. So I sit down and all of a sudden, my husband took the kids. It was at night. And my husband took the kids with him on an errand where he was going. And I'm like, all right, if I'm supposed to do this, help make it easy. And so I just said, okay, let's see what's there. And all of a sudden, within an hour, I had written, the entire program from start to finish. It was an eight-week program, and it sort of just poured and flowed out of me. And nothing has come out of me like that that didn't take way more effort. And so that's sort of how I knew whether I was ready or not or whether I wanted to or not,

that this is a need and this is something that would have helped me so much at the beginning. And so that's sort of how it came to be. You know, I love that story because it's like you needed a need. it and then you sat down to do it and then it just came out because it was time. And inspired action really can be, you know, supernatural from on high. It could be, I'm inspired because it inspires me. It could be passionate and enthusiastic. But the key word to me is action. Like, you know, knowledge is power is really a nice little statement, but it is not true. Knowledge is only power when you put it into action. Right. And so many people, the inspired action part, we talk about that in the program.

Some people feel like it's prayer. Some people feel like it's God. Some people feel like it's gut intuition. Some people feel like it's the universe. So it doesn't matter what your background is and relationship is. It's listening to that voice inside of you that is meant for bigger things and following what those steps are, even through the fear and through the scariness of uncertainty. 100%. You know, real is rare. I think that's a really cool thing to think about it. Then, you know, just you be you. I think that's really powerful to go where are you at? Where do you want to be? And just, just be true to you. And I think that that really will serve you well. So you mentioned your travel agent and you run a multi-million dollar agency. But it didn't start off that way. You weren't given the keys to the kingdom. Take us back to where you started. What inspired? you to take the action to start that agency and really also persevere through the times where it wasn't really easy. Oh, from the beginning of doing this agency. I actually was a part of three agencies before we started our own, which sounds like I agency hot, but I was looking for a place

that felt like home. And I kept thinking just, you know, we doubt ourselves. I kept thinking it was somewhere else and that someone had created that because that was way less. work than having to create myself, which is sort of like how business is. So all of our agents, it's so much easier to just do what people tell you to do instead of creating from an authentic place. But I was trying to find where my place was. And the last agency I was a part of, they were wrong for different reasons or drama or it wasn't a happy place or whatever the case may be. It was wrong for different reasons. And the last one, I'm, I felt like there was a, I had met Kim at that agency.

So if nothing else came out of that, that did, even though I learned lots of since. And I opened up and was helping people and went through this experience. And I actually got fired from that agency because I stood up for what I believed in. And when that happened at the time, I knew that. this person would have a huge problem with me just being me. And that is not a place where you can grow and develop. And so it was really a huge traumatic thing because I felt like I was doing what I was supposed to do. I was following that inspired action. But we also don't have control over people's choices.

And so they get to make whatever decisions they want. And so I was like I had sold over a million dollars. The last year I was there. I was killing it. I was doing amazing and got fired for just being who I was and what I believed in. And when that happened, I remember just being really upset. And my husband that night was, we were talking. And he's like, well, I'm like, what am I supposed to do now? This is what I felt like I was supposed to do. And I felt really strongly about it. And I just said, what am I supposed to do now? And he looked at me and he was like, I know what you're supposed to do. And I was like, what?

And he said, do tell, sir. Exactly. And he said, you're supposed to start your own agency. And at the time, I was like, ew, no, I want to get as far away from this like event and this trauma and this hurt feelings as I can. And I just remember sitting there and I was like, what? And he said, I've already printed off the paperwork. work. It's on the table. And I was like, oh my gosh. So it was like, I was surrounded by these people who believed in me before I believed in myself. And so that whole night, I just kept thinking like,

it was almost like I knew in my soul that that's what I was supposed to do, but it took my head longer. And I was like, did I do that? Would people come? Would we, would they even want to like have what this is a part of? And I knew really quickly the next day that Kim and I were supposed to, to do it together. And that in this world where people are so selfish and like, yeah, could I have done it on my own? Sure. Would it have been anything like it is now?

No. It's so much better when you bring people in to collaborate and when you have that abundant thinking. And so I asked her to do the agency with me. And she was like, what? So from there and feeling like, will people even come? Will people want to be a part of? what we're building. This is this crazy thing that we're doing. And now to look at it, we are,

we have been open for three years. We've had over a hundred agents with us and people have just flooded. I think we've had over five or six hundred people apply for our agency. And we've done over $20 million in sales. But all of that is great on paper. We've hit goals. We're earmarked. You preferred all these really great things that the travel industry really looks at as an asset. But the thing that has been meant the most to me is we've done it in a way where we put people in family first. We care about the individual agent because that is what was missing. There needs to be a place where if you are having a struggle, let's work on the struggle as a person, even if it's not related to work, we are there for each other throughout all the things. So what that traumatic thing brought

was this beautiful birth of something new. And so that. It reminds me of people over profits. Yeah. And it's community over competition. That is truly how we feel. Yeah. Because if you've had, you know, like you probably have a lot of people that work remote and

and things like that. But even if you're in like a room with a lot of cubicles and people all in the same room, those are your competitors, even though you work for the same company. But yet if you are building that community. Now all of a sudden, I want to help that person succeed because it's just the right thing to do. And when we all succeed, we succeed individually as well. I want to go back to your husband because I think we're talking about the power of inspired action. Sometimes we need a little impetus to inspire us.

And boy, he sure was that inspiration for you. So surrounding yourself with good, solid people. Now, obviously, you're married, so you have, you know, you have no choice. but creating that community with maybe masterminds or people that you're looking to to learn from. Sometimes people can see something in us that we don't see because you were just trying to get away from the pain. He saw it like you love the industry. Right, right. And it was, you're so right because I heard this talk one time that they talked about.

If you want to be a duck, stay with ducks. If you want to be an eagle, like you have to hang out with eagles. So absolutely right. And you know, what I realized is I have people surrounding me that see the good in me, that believe in me, that build me up. And I do that for them. But there are so many people who don't have that in their lives or they are doing things by being a travel agent.

And because this is their own business. This is starting out. It's a huge new thing that maybe they have never experienced that. My parents were entrepreneurs. So from the beginning, they owned their own businesses. We watched the struggle. of like not having enough, things not being right, but also like the blessings of creating something like that. And so many people don't have that blessing. And so that's to me what this

coaching program was. Like I, it's more than just step by step processes. It's more than the feeling of it. It is truly having somebody in your corner that believes and has been there and sees what you can become even when the people around you don't see that. But I really feel that I have that and my husband and my sister and my mentor. Like there's so many people I'm surrounded by and that's what we want to be for other people. You know, you mentioned some numbers and been in business for just a short period of time, what, three years now? So it's been like a direct straight line up like a rocket ship, right? So like every day is better than the previous and every month is better than the previous. And you've never had an off.

day and you've never thought about quitting. So, of course, we're being facetious. So rather than saying, was there a moment you felt like quitting? I'm going to say, talk a little bit about the times you thought about quitting. And what did you do about that? Oh, try on the daily basis. I'm just kidding. There's so many times and you're like, oh, is this worth all the work and effort that I'm putting into it? And truly at the beginning before I had an agency, being a travel agent, I remember feeling like I was trying to put myself out there. I was trying to do what the people I saw that were successful. I was trying to do what they were doing to be successful. And I was trying to do everything I could think of and knew how to do to get clients and to be good at this and to attract

those people. And it was like it was not working. And I couldn't get the clients that I needed. And it was, I kept trying to figure out all the steps and do all the little things that I needed. to do and what my brain thought was the successful way. And I still fight this to this day of like the things that seem like they're the exact things that need to happen. But what actually needs to happen is when you take inspired action that makes sense for you and you stop worrying about the how, but you focus on where you want to be, the how will come to you. And you sometimes the how is a shortcut. So sometimes you can do things like feel like you have to have a conversation with somebody that will make you a part of a Facebook group that will bring in leads where you don't even have to

work for it. And that to me feels like cheating sometimes, right? But you don't have to know the how. You have to look for the actions that you need to take that are the right thing for you. So it was it was holding onto those things and truly getting out of my own way in my head. So the fears, the worries, the control that I was trying to hold on to of like what I thought I needed to do and just let go of all of that and work through building that self worth and receiving those answers for myself and trusting that. And when I did that and every time I have done that, it's almost like your progress just skyrockets. and things happen out of nowhere so much easier than I was trying to make it before. It was like this huge struggle because I was trying to make something happen when all I needed to do was just trust that feeling that I had. Yep.

So are you the type of person that journals or documents when those things happen? And then because the reason I'm asking is you said, oh, daily, this comes up. Well, however often that it comes up that you feel like, oh, I'm just not a. enough or I feel like quitting. Maybe one of the things that needs to be done is reflect back to, you know, months ago and go, oh, look, back here, I was feeling this and doing this and here's what I did. And it can serve as an encouragement to you moving forward. Absolutely. That is, that is the big thing that we encourage people. So I have a journal that I use and it's my daily journal and I, it's funny because everybody types, but there's something that happens when you write

it down. So I feel like it's really important. So in this journal that I, I have. I probably have like six volumes now over the last five or six years or whatever, but I write down the things that I'm feeling. I use it as a way to sort of pour out all of my worries and insecurities, but I also use it. So one of the things that we teach in this class is that you're 15 minutes of focus. So every day, that's what I call it for me. It could be, I think you call it something different. What do you call it? In your mind, I don't know. your day off. Oh, well, you know, like you can call it your power hour.

You can call it your, you know, I don't know. I mean, I call it my more, my AM coach, my PM coach, you know, I do the exact same thing. I write things down. You know, here's what I'm grateful for. Here's my prayer for the day. Here's at the end of the day. Here's what happened. And I'm with you.

You can type and we can, we're all electronic. But when you have something, something happens between your head and your hands. And when you're writing it down, it kind of becomes a little bit more. we're real. Absolutely. And so I take that. Mine always starts with a prayer and I'm like, okay, help me figure out how to do what I need to do today and what is my priority. Because listen, I told you I homeschool kids. I run a business. I have people first thing in the morning that are wanting me and some part of that I need to shower somewhere in that morning routine. Right. And eat. Yeah, exactly. If that even happens. But it's crazy busy. But that time is so important to

me because that's where I say, okay, what is my priority? What do I need to do in my day today that is going to make the most impact? And sometimes that 15 minutes of focus brings things that I need to do or there's an agent that needs me or there's something I need to do for the business. But sometimes it's you need to call your mom or you need to talk to your daughter and give her a little attention today. And so those things that there's this thing about balance and we'll talk about that later, but there are these things that come up that balance is a little bit of a myth. And so you want to focus on what is actually important and that I need to get done today. So if nothing else happens, what are the two or three things that need to happen for me to feel accomplished? And that is that

fired action. Well, one thing that I, a word that I kind of melded together, and create it is like when you are starting your day off with that focus and you are praying and you are prioritizing well if you can prioritize your day you're putting things the the right step forward the right foot forward so i think that's awesome that's what i was thinking about when i saw it on on your website i'm like that's exactly yeah yeah i mean i literally just the little story behind that i was uh on a zoom with a group of guys and this one guy said you know something about prioritized, but he must have had an accent. And I was like, he said it in a different way.

I was like, did you say pray oratize? And he goes, no, I said, prioritize. I said, okay, well, I'm taking it because when you can pray or prioritize your day, you're doing it in the right way. I said, so that's really awesome. You had to have meant to hear that, I guess. Right. Exactly.

100%. So are all of the agents that you have in your agency women? No, actually. We have a lot of. This is travel industry is mostly women driven. But we are all about like our husbands are such a huge part of our lives. And we are all about family. So we've got some mother daughters.

We have that do this together. We have husband and wife teams. We have some men and husbands and dads that are doing this as a side hustle with their business. There's a lot of women from all across the board. But we sort of have a little bit of everything. And I love it because we are pro families that. Castle Explorers. Because when you can see whether it's your passion for helping women succeed or family succeed or people succeed or men succeed, the net result is that family.

Because if a mom is helping her family succeed and doing the travel business in between whatever, whether it's homeschool or not, now all of a sudden it's like, hey, we're solidifying the financial resources of families or the really cool thing. I would suspect is, you know, you guys are taking some trips as part of your business. And yes, is providing a buck or two income, but also it's solidifying that family time. Absolutely. And also, we just got back from our retreat in January and we had invited spouses or support people. So a couple of people brought their friends. A lot of women brought their husbands. And it was so fun because we had our husband. And it was so fun to like hear their perspective and and to see the people that are supporting them in their vision and what they want to do. And it's that is so important. That support person and someone that believes in you is just as important for that person to be

on board as it is for you to do what you're doing. Yep. Well, Lindsay, it's been great chatting with you. So if someone wants to learn more about taking that inspired action and becoming successful as a travel agent, what is the best way that they can learn more and also reach out and connect with you. So they can follow me on Instagram. It's exploring with Lindsay, S-A-Y, and then also the website, so self-worth to wealth.com. That's where they can reach out and get more information. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on. It's been a real pleasure chatting with you. Thank you so much for having me. You've been listening to Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders. To learn more about the

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