Brand Story

Lauren “Lomillie” Miller is an Inspirational Explorer, defined as a visual storyteller, content creator, travel personality, and on occasion, a muse for artistic expression. Born and raised in Atlanta, Lauren started flying by herself at the age of 5, averaging 7-10 solo flights a year due to her father raising her in Atlanta and her mother living in Washington, DC. Because of her parent’s professions and their understanding of the importance of experiences, Lauren’s introduction to the world via international experiences at a young age groomed her to be a fearless traveler.

In 2012, Lauren was working as an Event & Marketing Manager at Picán, a fine-dining family owned restaurant in Oakland, California. She started off as an intern (not getting paid), was soon promoted to the Event Coordinator and eventually the Event & Marketing Manager. Her plan was to get real-time entrepreneurial experience. Due to her Uncle owning the restaurant she learned the workings behind managing labor, meeting sales goals, developing marketing initiatives, schmoozing potential clients, coordinating major events for fortune 500 companies, and more. She always knew she would eventually do her own thing, but didn’t know what her thing was. As her 25th birthday started to approach, Lauren started to feel like it was time for something different. She was ready to start the journey to create the life she wanted. Without a clue what that was, she experienced a lot of depression and anxiety. During this time, she was very vocal about her frustrations, especially to a close friend at the time. She told her friend that if she was in Oakland for her 25th birthday, she would surely have a mental nervous breakdown. Having expressed this in early 2012, as October approached her friend surprised her with a trip for her and her close friend to Maui for her 25th birthday. It was there, on October 1st, where Lauren prayed to God, “Please reveal to my purpose, I promise I will run 100mph towards it. I promise!”

Upon her return back to work in Oakland, she put in a 3-month notice. She still didn’t have a clue what she was going to do, but she was so ready and serious that she knew she needed to do something drastic so God and the Universe could start conspiring to reveal her purpose. After working through the restaurants’ busy season and saving as much as she could, January 15th was her last day. Upon her departure, Lauren gifted herself with a trip back to Maui as tickets were only $250RT plus she wanted to celebrate this start of a new life into the unknown. What she didn’t know was it would be on this second trip to Maui where her purpose would be revealed. While on the road to Hana, (a popular experience in Maui), in the middle of a bamboo forest, Lauren was doing a lot of praying and meditation. She was opening up her soul to hopefully receive guidance from the man up above. It was there she had her “aha moment”. God said, “You need to figure out how to do this.” She was confused by what “this” was. God said you need to figure out how to inspire people through your experiences. She then thought about her life and what her upbringing and background had afforded her in experiences and wisdom. She started flying by herself at the age of 5, bought a ticket with sky miles by 12, had been groomed by her father, a powerful businessman in Atlanta, and mentored by her mom, a major consultant and former White House appointee. She realized her privilege and she had a message that could help others. She didn’t know exactly how it was going to work but right then and there she said, “I’m going to be an Inspirational Explorer.”

She returned to California and the Sunday after her trip, she attended One Church LA, where the message that Sunday was “You must sacrifice for your amazing.” She knew that this particular message was for her. She went back to Oakland, broke her apartment lease. Moved all her things into the garage of her former co-workers. She told them she didn’t know how often she would be back, but when she was back she would need a place to crash and probably something to eat but she promised to cook and clean. She told them she was about to be out in the world finding her way. She opted to embark on this journey while living on her best friends coach in LA. The next week at a networking event, she ran into a life coach. She told him, “I really need to meet with you. I have an idea of what I want to do but I don’t know what I need to do tomorrow. But I also quit my job, so I don’t have any money to pay you.” He told her, “ A lot of people say they want to change their lives, but they don’t want to put forth the work. I’d much rather you not waste my time than pay me.” Lauren took this as a slight. They ended up meeting two days later. Essentially what he told her was, “Lauren you are what it is that you want to be, the world just doesn’t know it yet. You need to start branding yourself as that.” He gave her list of things to do and that night #cantstayput was born. She got the name #cantstayput because it was a name that her friends had always described her as. She knew that she needed to try to go as many places as possible to start the branding process. While she was hustling to travel as much possible she started working on the first official CSP Experience, a month trip to southeast Asia to document how to travel on $30 a day. She put together a proposal with her mission and vision and how much money she needed to raise. For the first time, she was working on something she wasn’t certain was going to work. She started to send out her plan to any and everybody. She got plenty of no’s plenty of people who didn’t respond. She even had a close friend tell her he would buy her a book on southeast Asia and to be satisfied with that. People told her it seemed like she was trying to run away from her life. Like other people, she didn’t get bit by the travel bug in college, she’s never known a life without travel. Although she didn’t have all the answers she knew she could make something of her plan. After many no’s, she finally got her first yes from someone she had met through her job. They told her, they didn’t really understand what she was trying to do but her passion and go-getter spirit was so refreshing that they knew she would figure it out. They wanted to be one of the first people that believed. She ended up raising $8k with raising the total amount just a day before her and her assistant took off. The rest is history.