They say that life can be a journey and you should do all you can to explore it, travel the world, and live it to the fullest. Lauren Miller does exactly that and then some. Her brand literally describes her lifestyle. She can’t stay put. Her mission in life is to educate, inspire, and influence people to live their lives with purpose, to be unapologetically confident in oneself, live your dreams, and to ultimately live a #cantstayput lifestyle. Blavity’s Creative Society got a minute to catch up with Lauren for an AMA and to gain insight into her many life experiences.

From a very young age, Lauren Miller has been quite used to traveling. She has been flying by herself since the age of 5 and has seen her fair share of airports. Her mom lived in Atlanta while her dad was in Washington, D.C., so she racked up her fly miles very early in life. This eventually led her to have a profession that centered around this lifestyle that she was all too familiar with.

She had a college degree and a good job, but like many people, wasn’t satisfied. It wasn’t something that she really wanted to do. There was something missing. I’m sure a lot of people can relate. When asked about how she took the steps to create her #cantstayput lifestyle brand, she said she made tons of sacrifices to start.

“I gave up as much of my expenses as possible when I started… so I broke my lease, moved my stuff to storage, and was living on couches and guest rooms for close to four years. I changed my way of thinking. I think that was key. Understanding that journey was going to be tough and not to associate things getting hard with giving up… going through tough times is in fact a part of the journey. Also having strong belief in my vision and my dreams.”

She had a moment of realization at 25.

“It was like something clicked and I started yearning for more. More purpose, more fulfillment… I had a good job. But it wasn’t specific to who I was. I felt as though anybody could do it…” At the age of 25, she had a moment of reflection, and like most people, started evaluating what she was doing and where she wanted to be in life. “The whole year leading up to my 25th birthday I shared with people close to me how depressed I was and that if I spent my bday in California, which was where I worked at the time, I would have a nervous breakdown.” For her birthday, she was gifted with a trip to Maui and she traveled to the Aloha state with a close friend and a coworker. “It was there where I prayed to God to please reveal my purpose to me. I promised him I would run 100 mph toward it. It was the most sincere prayer that I had ever said. Once I got back to Cali, I put in my notice. Still didn’t have a clue of what I wanted to do but I knew I needed to do something big to show God and the universe that I was ready so they could start conspiring.”

After she made this decision, as a gift to herself, she went on a trip back to Maui in order to get back to the place that inspired her to transition into this new life change. While she was hiking through a scenic bamboo forest, she realized that she wanted to be an inspirational explorer. She thought back to when she was little and had so much experience with traveling due to the distance of her parents’ professions.

“ It was then that I realized the privilege I had experienced and I vowed to use that privilege to help people.”

When asked about how she makes this a living and how she monetizes her brand, Lauren said by selling apparel, public speaking, life coaching, creating content, brand partnerships, as well as through other opportunities that come her way. “When I first started, it wasn’t about the money so I didn’t start with a business model. My intent was to help people, so for the first few years, I was hustling, working various gigs, but also doing research and development to determine why people would seek me out for various different services and then from there, developed my offerings.” From there, she began repositioning herself and her brand to a bigger and greater cause. She wanted everyone to live a Can’t Stay Put lifestyle. She didn’t want people to think that because they weren’t traveling as much her that they couldn’t live this lifestyle. Lauren uses travel because it is specific to her. Everyone has their thing that they do, that they are good at, and that allows them to live the lifestyle that they always wanted. #cantstayput.

“I was very candid about my journey, about the hardships, setbacks, the successes, and always offered motivation and inspiration to people who wanted to pursue their dreams or already were. Over time, people started to reach out to me for life coaching advice vs. travel advice and that’s when I realized that can’t stay put wasn’t about the travel, it was a lifestyle. Travel was specific to me, but anyone and everyone can be living a can’t stay put lifestyle… a photographer, a business owner, a real estate agent… people making moves every single day to explore the realms of their own greatness.”

As far as the future, it looks bright for Lauren. She plans on further building her brand and her business. She’s going through another transition in her life to which she calls from founder to CEO. She sees Can’t Stay Put one day being a global brand with a collection of various companies under its umbrella. You’ve got to dream big. “Always make moves to create the life you want.”