Travel Hacks for Creative Entrepreneurs: How a 5 day Trip To London Rebooted My Creative Spark

I'm battling burnout, and have been for at least year. My come-down from 3 years in a pandemic, with three young sons at home, and a husband that no longer has to leave home for work continues to take a toll on my mental, spiritual and physical health.

In an effort to save my own creative life, I've been designing cheap and surprising effective ways to bring myself back to the moment I am in, things likes lighting wooden wick candles with real matches, taking the time to crane my neck back and look up, touching the roots of my hair, listening to birds. I even wrote about this recently in my essay for Fast Company, and even curated a playlist to help remind me of my goal: To prevent a total flameout.

So when I decided spontaneously to fly to London, alone, to a country I hadn't been to in 20 years, I knew that this wasn't a down and dirty anti-burnout hack. This to me was a f* it, #yolo, tomorrow-is-not-promised type of a trip.

In my imagination, I pictured visiting the Tate Modern, taking photos of myself eating at cafes, and shopping. I even brought an empty suitcase, dreaming I'd come back with one of a kind fashions. I had it all planned out in my mind, a perfect instagrammable experience, ready to share, and maybe even in the hopes of it landing me new clients because ya' know, I'd be looking so unbothered and classy. What can I say? I'm an entrepreneur.

What I got instead sent me on a journey of gratitude, where I located my creative spark, and my younger self's desired to be nomadic, light in spirit and open to conversations with people I've only just met. Here are my five hacks that helped me spontaneously get on a plane to London.

1) Believe you can leave. Just believe it. First, your thoughts have to say yes, I can. And then visualize yourself getting up, packing a bag, taking the train, or Uber, sitting at the airport with a bourbon on ice, stepping into the plane, sleeping, and then stepping off the plane to grab your luggage and then riding the tube to your hotel or hostel. Do a Google search of images to help you visualize every step. Visualizing is required in order to create and before anything else is possible or doable.

2) Pick a random travel date, and make sure to purchase a refundable ticket. This way your stress around the date is reduced, because you know you can always move the date. Fluidity is imperative when traveling spontaneously. Refundable tickets are generally more expensive but if you have an AmEx card for Business, especially a Platinum one, you can earn points, and have more buyer protection services in all of your purchases. Entrepreneurs can work from anywhere in the world now. Don't let the media tell you, you have to go into an office. I took my iPad office with me to the airport, to the business lounge and to business class on United. I got loads of work done, and it was breathtakingly fun.

3) Don't book your hotel until a day or two before you leave. If you are alone, and a woman, consider a hotel versus an AirBNB. You will want a community and more service available nearby. Hotels provide this. Being spontaneous helps with the surprise and a mental exploration process which kick starts ideas and more visualization. I use ChatGPT to help me with hotels. My prompt usually goes like this: Give me five hotels within a ten minute walk of [fill in address of destination]. You can continue along with prompts like: I am 83 years old, can you confirm that these hotels are a 10 minute walk for an 83 year old.

4) Pack lots of underwear, socks, one pair of dark pants, one dark shirt or blouse, one dark colored dress and your make up plus hair products—and nothing more! If you have natural hair like me, load up your hair with product, then keep restyling in ponytails, or wraps for the entire trip. Keep your suitcase empty. If you need clothes, shopping options are everywhere. I made a decision to shop thrift. Thrift shopping outside of your usual local haunts brings an explosion of colors, cultures and often brands you've never heard of. I loved this because thrift shopping in London sent me on a journey of experimentation. I discovered new labels, and struck up conversations with the people that worked at the stores who were always ready to talk. This experience got my creative vision moving again. I loved it.

5) Wander with no hard and fast destination in mind. While in London, take the Tube and get lost. Sit and watch people on the train. It's more fun than riding the subway in NYC. London still has independent stores. Stop in and strike up a conversation with the store owners. You’d be amazed at how happy they are that a customer wants to know about their business journey and how willing they are to share a story or two. These stories can turn into creative ideas for your own content creation process. Ask your business network back home, if there is anyone interesting you should meet while you are there. It’s fun to have a blind business date meeting with someone you don’t know, chill and just go with the flow.

Overall, there is something about traveling alone, without a plan, strategy or structure, that brings the wonder and even a little bit of discomfort that can ignite a new creative thought or idea. I’m ready for 2024, and my next trip is going to be Italy. How about you?