How One CEO Mapped A Journey From Worldwide Travel To Worldwide Impact
“What would happen if I quit my job and traveled the world instead?”
Maybe you’ve entertained that same thought. Lindsey Puls knows how you feel. Trapped inside a career that kept her confined to a physical location, Lindsey’s wanderlust for world travel rose like an unstoppable force from deep within her being.
“I had been working as a morning show news producer for a local TV station and was getting tired of the long, weird hours and less-than-stellar pay,” Puls recalls. “My husband was in a similar funk with his career at this time.”
Together they dared to ask the question that changed their lives forever.
Why not?
“Someday” became “see you later” when Lindsey’s husband landed a job in Japan. “When I moved with him, I made the shift to taking freelance writing gigs and started my blog as a way to document our travels and to keep in touch with family,” she explains. “My goal wasn’t to become a blogger. The more time and energy I devoted to my site, the more I realized my true passion. An added bonus was discovering I could make money in the process.”
“Have Clothes, Will Travel”
What started as a hobby blog became a high income, high impact career.
Have Clothes, Will Travel offers carefully curated online shopping guides and tips for travelers, as well as detailed reviews and outfit ideas. Lindsey also clothes customers in her most valued accessory—her lived experiences. “I share in-depth travel guides for the places I have lived and visited,” she enthuses. “Even though I’m from a small town in Wisconsin, I’ve also lived in Russia, Argentina, Japan and Australia.”
Changing the World One Post & One Purchase at a Time
Lindsey’s true North star as an influencer is framed as a single question guide that illuminates how to stay aligned with her value of doing well and doing good.
“What problem am I solving when I write this?” she advises. “And for whom am I writing this post? It’s important to ask yourself these questions before you create any content. It’s OK to occasionally be self-indulgent with your creations, but if you want an audience that continues to come back for more, you have to create useful content for them.”
Lindsey integrates her career and her calling in the content she creates. “The fashion industry accounts for 8–10% of all global carbon emissions and nearly 20% of all wastewater. This industry is constantly pushing the newest and latest trends, encouraging consumers to buy, buy, buy,” Lindsey laments.
“On my social media, you aren’t going to find me promoting the latest trends, but instead, promoting items that are versatile and will last for years to come.
A goal of mine has been to, personally, be more conscious of the businesses I support regarding their sustainability and fair-trade practices.”
One critical question propels her from intention to impact. And encapsulates the legacy Lindsey wants to leave. “How can I promote these practices on a global scale?” The answer, she discovered, is her followers.
“I share the small businesses (I discover) with my followers to promote a more ethical option for their clothing purchases as well,” she states. Along the way she also hopes to change the way society-at-large views self-employment.
Inspiring a Movement
“There has been a shift in our culture where it is now seen as more important to work for a large company than to create a company of your own,” she observes.
“If I could inspire a movement, I would want to encourage education at a young age about how to successfully be self-employed. This didn’t even feel like an option while I was going through the steps of my schooling (unless I was specifically taking business classes in college),” she recalls. “Our country needs more future small business owners, not more Amazon employees.”
In a world of constant consumerism, Lindsey advocates for conscious consumerism. “Now I define success as having a career where I am financially stable and able to help travelers and online shoppers make educated, ethical decisions before they spend their hard-earned money,” she states. “At the same time, having a good work/life balance is how I am defining my success for now.”
For more inspiration, check out Have Clothes, Will Travel and Lindsey’s social media channels — Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.
#worktravel #successfromanywhere #adventureseeker #doyoutravel #lovetotravel #openmyworld #goexplore #travelbloggers #wanderlust #inspiringamovement
Comments