After Every Storm Comes a Rainbow: Meredith Hill's Story of Finding Hope

And sometimes you just wish there could be something to help you out.

Well, if that's you, you might want to check out today's sponsor.

And that's Naked Warrior Recovery, offering the highest quality CBD products on the market.

Be sure to check out today's show notes where you can grab an exclusive discount offered only to the listeners of Grit Grace and Inspiration.

SPEAKER_04: Some of us were freaking out more often than others, but we were all, we would all have our little moments of complete panic that we didn't want anybody else to see because we knew how important and powerful it was to keep a positive, we're looking forward, we're not looking at the ground, we're looking forward.

SPEAKER_00: Yes.

SPEAKER_04: At where we're going and where we're going is amazing.

And you know what?

You focus on expands, and you get what you expect.

And we expected an amazing comeback, and we got an amazing comeback.

SPEAKER_03: Welcome to Grit, Great, and Instrate.

I'm your host, Kevin Lowe, and I'm excited to welcome you inside.

This is the kind of place where your glass will never be anything other than half full.

Because we choose to focus on the positive side of life.

Now that doesn't mean that we shy away from the real talk.

No, not okay.

Matter of fact, we explore all aspects of life.

From the good, the bad, and the ugly.

But all of that is done with one curve.

To inspire you to never give up on life, even when it makes seem like life has given up on you.

Now I get it.

Life is hard.

But starting today, you've got grit, great, and inspiration.

What's going on?

And welcome back to the podcast.

My name is Kevin Lowe, your host, and today is episode 135.

Inside of today's episode, I am joined by a lady from my past life as a travel advisor.

Her name is Meredith Hill.

And Meredith is probably one of the most beautiful women I have ever met.

It's the mindset that Meredith shares that is just so incredible.

And I was thrilled to have the opportunity to invite her here on to Grit Grace and Inspiration.

I knew Meredith while operating my own home-based travel agency because she is the founder of an amazing organization called Gifted Travel Network.

Today's episode, you're going to get to hear all about her journey through her careers, through life, and what has led her to be living in what she says is her rainbow.

Because after every storm, there's a rainbow.

And Meredith, she's experienced the ups and the downs of life just like everybody.

From career transitions to divorce, she's experienced it all.

And I think that's why you're going to be able to relate so well to her story.

Because we've all experienced the highs and the lows of life.

And Meredith Hill is no exception.

If you are somebody who are at a point in your life where you're thinking, man, I could really use some power.

I'm going through some stuff.

I've got some big decisions to make and I'm just not sure what to do.

Well, have you ever considered working with a coach?

If so, well, this is your opportunity.

Because when not here on the podcast, I work as a life and business coach helping people just like you.

And for the holiday season, I am offering an exclusive discount to the listeners of this podcast.

I'm offering all of my coaching packages at a 50% discount.

All you have to do is send me an email.

That's podcast at lowdownmedia.com.

Again, simply send an email to podcast at lowdownmedia.

That's l-o w e-d-o-wnmedia.com.

And let me know that you heard today's episode and are interested in learning more.

I have a wide variety of packages, all the way from my one-time breakthrough clarity call to a month-long deep dive, as well as my three-month-long signature coaching program.

All of those are being offered at a 50% discount to you, a listener of this podcast.

Now, in case coaching isn't your game, and instead you'd rather just be able to take something to solve your problem.

Well, then today's sponsor is totally for you.

Naked Warrior Recovery is a CBD company offering only the highest quality CBD products to help both your physical and mental health.

Be sure to check out today's show notes where you can find a link and discount code to save 20% when shopping at Naked Warrior Recovery.

That promo code is low L-O-W-E.

Use that promo code at checkout to get 20% off.

Again, just go to today's show notes where you can find the link and that information.

So no worries if you missed them.

With that said, it's my pleasure to introduce you to the absolutely amazing Meredith Hill.

Enjoy today's episode.

SPEAKER_04: Had a very, very successful career on Wall Street as a bond analyst.

And so I was getting paid a lot of money.

I had a really great life, lifestyle, happily married, about to give birth to our first child, living in a dream home, working with people that were very, very intelligent and thus stimulating.

I had everything except one thing.

I didn't like what I was doing.

So I had no fulfillment at all.

I was really good at what I did.

I had a great quality of life outside of work, but you know, I was working 60, 17 hours a week.

And I, you know, it hated going into work every single day.

And so eventually had my daughter, and that was 22 years ago.

And I was on maternity leave for about six months.

And during that time, you do a lot of reflection because you have a lot of time to yourself.

SPEAKER_01: Yes.

SPEAKER_04: A lot of time to hear the voices in your head that you don't really listen to when uh you're busy and just moving on with life.

So I did a lot of reflection, and what I realized during that time was that I wanted to love what I did.

And I I enjoyed working.

When I finally did go back to work after my six-month maternity leave, I realized, you know what?

I do like getting out of the house.

I do like, I don't want to be a stay-at-home mom.

I made that choice, but I really wanted to do something that I loved and had a passion for and felt fulfilling.

And I was willing to give up the security, the certainty of this great paycheck and this great environment to work in to just take a chance and roll the dice.

And so I did.

I left that Wall Street career.

And um, I went and worked at a travel agency.

I wanted to start a travel business.

And the only way I could figure out how to learn the business was to go into an agency and work next to people who were booking travel and knew how to do it and could kind of mentor me and show me the way.

So wow.

SPEAKER_03: Wow.

Okay.

So I have to ask first off, what made you get into Wall Street as a career choice?

SPEAKER_04: I kind of fell into it.

So I just I was guided by get the best job you possibly can get, right?

And that was, and that's one of the lessons that I've learned in life is so many of us are chasing someone else's definition of success, not our own.

And, you know, it's it's it's a very powerful exercise to kind of stop yourself and just be like, wait a minute, is this my version of success or is this somebody else's version of success?

And I'm trying to make them happy, or trying to get their, you know, respect or love even.

And and I was chasing my parents' version of success from the day I graduated from college, and I got a great job when I graduated from college.

I got a job actually for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago as a bank examiner.

And that led me into finance and analyzing banks.

I got very, very good at knowing how to analyze a bank.

And I won't bore you with the details, but a couple years later I managed to figure out how to move to London, get a job in London that was permanent, not just like a temporary work permit situation.

And I was hired for an investment portfolio because they needed someone who could analyze US banks.

Um and so in that job in London, I ended up being on the what we call the buy side of the business.

And when I was ready to move back to the United States a few years later, I had all these connections through being on the buy side of the business to the sell side, which is the investment banking side.

And I had like five or six interviews with investment banks when I was moving back to the States and got a job with one of them.

SPEAKER_03: Wow.

So, how long were you in this field, in this industry before you had this epiphany, this awakening that this isn't for you?

SPEAKER_04: I would say five or six years.

SPEAKER_03: Okay.

Okay.

SPEAKER_04: Yeah.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: So so walk me through the process of not only how you finally because it's one thing I think a lot of us think that, you know, in our current situation, let's take career for instance, that we don't like it, but it's it's what we have to do.

SPEAKER_04: Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: What transitioned enough from that to I have to make a change?

SPEAKER_04: Well, a couple of things.

I was born a risk taker.

So I already have that in my blood.

It's just part of my DNA, it's part of who I am.

I really have an appetite for risk that's higher than most people.

I was also married to someone who had a full-time job, steady income.

I was making probably twice or three times as much as he was making, but we weren't stretched by any means.

And I got paid a nice bonus every year.

So we had been banking that away.

And so, yes, I'm willing to take a little bit of risk, but I also had some security blankets or security nets.

SPEAKER_03: Yes.

Now, when you decided that you were gonna do this, you were going to get out of this, and and and let's let's just face it, make a total 180 in in terms of going into travel.

I'm curious what was the reaction you got from your parents, from your husband.

SPEAKER_04: Yeah.

I mean, my husband was very supportive of it.

He wasn't excited about it.

And in hindsight, that could have been what led to the breakdown of our own of our marriage.

And we'll get to that in a second.

That's the second thing chronologically.

But and my parents, my dad was one of the most conservative, you know.

Here he has this third child who is this gambler.

I mean, I'm not I'm not a gambler, but I have that.

I'm willing to take risks.

And he was the most conservative person you would ever meet.

And, you know, he just it just gave him anxiety all the time.

So he was not all that excited about it.

But at the same time, I don't think he felt all that upset about it because, you know, my husband had a job with benefits and at least some kind of steady income, steady cash flow coming into the house.

SPEAKER_03: Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

Well, well, well, that's good.

So so walk me through then what it was like for you to actually make this transition.

And I guess before we get into that, is talk to me a little bit more about what led you to choose travel of all things to transition away, you know, from your current job.

SPEAKER_04: Great question.

I, you know, had this, I'm like, I really need to pursue a passion, follow your bliss, right?

That kind of thing.

Pursue your passion.

And if you pursue your passion, the money will come.

It was kind of the pie in the sky philosophy I chose to adopt at the time.

And I had two passions.

And so I was actually on the fence between the two.

One of them was interior design and the other one was travel.

And eventually I just decided travel was a better way to go for me.

My husband at the time is from Zimbabwe, and I knew a lot about travel to Africa, and I figured that kind of connection could play well and make it easier to start a business.

Yeah, just, you know, as things started to a side-by-side comparison analysis of interior design versus travel, it just seemed like travel was the path of less resistance.

SPEAKER_03: Yes.

Do you ever feel like you should have chosen the other one?

SPEAKER_04: No.

SPEAKER_03: No.

SPEAKER_04: No.

No.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I love, I love to design spaces for myself.

I have a really hard time designing spaces for other people and adopting their taste.

SPEAKER_00: Yes.

SPEAKER_03: Yes.

So when you made the transition, did you first start out working for another agency, or did you go straight into entrepreneurship and open your own business?

SPEAKER_04: Basically both.

I went straight into entrepreneurship, opened my own business, because when I went into travel, we were already post-I think it was like 1998 was when World Wide Web came out.

And then early 2000s was when, no, it was after that.

But long story short, the host agency had already been developed.

And most travel advisors were working from home as independent contractors.

And so that was already put in place.

But like I said, I really wanted to train.

And so there was a travel agent.

I worked in this big, beautiful corporate building in Charlotte, downtown Charlotte, the Bank of America building.

And we were up on the fifth floor.

That's where the trading floor was.

And it had this lovely mall that connected to other corporate buildings in the downtown area or uptown area is really what they call it.

And so we would go to lunch every single day, come down the elevator, make left, and off you go, finding whatever place you wanted to go to that day.

But you'd get off the elevator and straight ahead was a travel agency and the window of a travel agency.

And so one day I just marched right in there and said, if I become an independent contractor with you guys, would you let me sit in here and learn from the other advisors here or the other agents here?

And she said, yes.

Now I didn't strike a great deal.

I think she was like, Yeah, but you all have to pay me 50% of all your commission.

And I'm like, oh my gosh.

So, but it was, it was really, I mean, talk about questioning your choices.

One day I'm sitting on a trading floor talking about bonds and reading prospectuses.

And the very next day I'm in this travel agency and they put me in a desk that was in that window.

And at lunchtime, I would see my former colleagues come off the elevator.

And I think there are many times they were like, wait a minute, why are you in there?

They missed that I had left.

SPEAKER_03: Oh my the irony in this whole situation of kind of in your face of you you better want this bad because I'm gonna make you stare at what you just left, you know?

SPEAKER_04: Exactly.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: Wow, wow, wow, wow.

So so talk to me then about, you know, you you start off there, but then you know, to take me through the next process there.

SPEAKER_04: So it's the classic entrepreneurial story where I, you know, I I took the big gamble, and but then if I had known the roller coaster ride I was in for, I don't think I would have had the courage to do this.

Uh so I quit.

I started in the um office there, and six months later, Kevin, I kid you not, six months later, it was September 11th, 2001.

SPEAKER_03: What?

SPEAKER_04: Yeah.

Six months after I did that.

And so the travel industry, as you know, took a little bit of a dive.

Just a little.

Just a little.

And I eventually, once that happened, I stopped coming into that office.

So I got about six months in that office.

And then I was working from home.

And, you know, as most people did in the travel industry, they took, you know, the next nine months to a year to just recoup and recover.

And I worked on my branding.

But then I really thought, oh, people who know me will reach out to me.

And so then I had to go dive into the deep end in learning how to market as a solopreneur.

And I spent the next five to six years trying to figure out how to do that and not making money the entire time.

You know, my expense base kept growing faster than my revenues.

And, you know, the only way to make money is to figure out how to grow your revenues faster than your expenses.

Yep.

And I wasn't doing that.

And so it took me a while.

And I consumed everything I could possibly get my hands on to figure this out.

And it ultimately I started putting things into place and things started working.

But I had to go outside the travel industry to figure out how to market and how to attract clients and how to truly monetize this passion that I had for travel.

And I finally figured that out.

And now all of a sudden, I'm 10 years into it, and I have a couple of employees, and we're making money, we're paying ourselves salary, and I decided that it was time for another roll of the dice.

Because as I was on this journey of figuring out how to not just become an entrepreneur, but to actually have a sustainable business as an entrepreneur, where I found fulfillment, I found financial satisfaction, and I found the freedom that you want, that most people want when they become an entrepreneur.

So I found all three.

I had travel advisors asking me, not about travel to Africa, but about how did I attract luxury travel clients?

And that's when I started to realize there was a huge, huge need and calling.

It really felt like a calling for me to start the organization where I met you, which is the Global Institute for Travel Entrepreneurs gift for short.

Because there were so many travel advisors who worked from home.

So they were solopreneurs, they were isolated, and nobody.

Was teaching them how to run a business selling travel.

Everybody, you could learn how to sell travel.

That wasn't that hard to get that kind of training and how to book travel, but nobody was teaching them how to run a business selling travel.

And not just run a business, but a profitable business, sustainably profitable business.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

Well.

SPEAKER_04: So that's that's where that journey ultimately took me was after 10 years of selling travel and booking travel to Africa, I went out and started another business called Gift, which we sunsetted last year.

So Gift was, I think, 11 years old when we sunset the business.

And that's now led me to where I am today.

SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's amazing.

So now that's incredible, but I but I want to go back to the other aspect of life.

And that is your family.

unknown: Yes.

SPEAKER_03: So during this whole journey through entrepreneurship, what was happening with your family?

SPEAKER_04: With my family.

In my personal life, I let's see, it wasn't until after I started Gift, it was August of 2012.

For some reason, I know the date in my head.

And we just passed the end of August 8th of 2012.

So 10 years ago, a week ago, my husband sat me down one evening and he said, I want a divorce.

And my kids at the time were 12, 10, and 5.

And we had built this beautiful home together.

And yeah, so that was just a year after I started Gift.

I started Gift in 2011.

So 18 months into that journey, that's when the crack in a massive crack in my foundation.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: And I was brought to my knees.

I did I know something was missing in the relationship?

Yes.

But did I think he was ever gonna it was ever gonna come to that?

No, never, never.

I thought we'd figure it out, we'd work through it, right?

As all people, you know, all relationships have their ups and downs.

And so for him to be so final, it really, really w brought me to my knees.

And I felt like my heart was shattered into millions of pieces, and and I white knuckled it.

I did not want to let that go.

I did not want a divorce at all.

And so there are so many unbelievable life lessons I have learned in going through that.

You know, I call it my own.

People go through cancer, they go through other health challenges, rock bottom moments, curveballs, life's curveballs.

That was my big, huge life's curveball.

And um, ultimately what I've learned is that don't dodge them, you know, embrace them because there are some tremendous gifts in the curveballs.

SPEAKER_03: Yeah.

And in coming from your perspective of a woman who has has found great success in a career, and in you've whether in Wall Street or then creating your own business and then pivoting, you kind of hit a block wall though, in your life.

SPEAKER_04: Yeah, absolutely.

Yes, I white knuckled that.

I clung to a chapter.

I mean, that's how I see it now.

Looking back on it now, and I even tell my kids this, I was clinging like a white knuckle grip on a chapter in my life that was ready to end, and I didn't want it to end.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: And what I learned is that when you surrender and just let that go and let go of that grip that you have, there is something better on the other side.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: And I remember saying to friends or my therapist at the time, I just remember feeling like the kick in the stomach wouldn't just kept coming at me.

And uh, and I remember saying, when is my rainbow coming?

When is my rainbow coming?

Because it just felt like every day felt so long during that time.

I really struggled to get up out of bed, face the world.

And there's that, is it Katy Perry song?

I think it's is it, no, it's is it Katy Perry?

By the grace of God, I picked myself back up.

I took, wait, how does it go?

The lyrics, I mean, it's just I felt the exact same thing.

By the grace of God, seriously, by the grace of God, I picked myself back up.

I took one look in the mirror and decided I wasn't gonna let love and decided to stay.

I wasn't gonna let love take me out that way.

Yes, that's that was what I went through.

It was a very, very dark time in my life.

And I was thinking about it the other day about how it wasn't that long of a time, but man, did that feel like it was forever when you're going through it.

You know, when you're going through the darkness, it just feels like there's no end in sight.

And there is.

And there is.

SPEAKER_03: What do you what do you credit to your ability to finally find that rainbow?

SPEAKER_04: Surrender.

SPEAKER_03: Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: Yeah.

Just true surrender, just let go and trust that everything is always working out for you, even when it looks like it's not.

SPEAKER_03: I love that.

I love that.

Now, here's the other part of this this whole equation that when when I hear this, I think, how in the world did she do it?

You had a business you're operating at the same time.

Yeah.

How did you manage it?

SPEAKER_04: I had angels in my life.

SPEAKER_03: Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: I really did.

You know, some people come into your life for a season and some people come in for a lifetime.

And I had some pretty amazing people in my life who just wouldn't let me.

They they wouldn't let me stay on the ground or stay in bed.

SPEAKER_00: Yes.

Yes.

SPEAKER_04: In my puddle of tears.

SPEAKER_00: Yes.

SPEAKER_04: Vanessa in particular, who is, you know, now my business partner and co-founder of the business that I own now, she was possibly one of the greatest angels in my life at that time.

And we had just started working together.

She she didn't know me that well.

Again, I look back at it now and I know that she came into my life at that time.

It was the perfect timing for her because she was exactly what I needed.

She we went to a travel industry event, a conference in Colorado, and we had to get dressed and go to some you know evening thing, and I'm laying in bed.

And she's like, You are getting yourself up now.

You're not wallowing about this.

I mean, she really did.

There were moments where she really had to physically push me out the door and put a smile on my face.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah.

Wow.

SPEAKER_04: But yeah.

So surrounding yourself with support, I did work with an incredible, I would call this person a coach, believe it or not, a relationship coach, whose theory was if you want to have, you know, an unshakable love, you have to start with yourself.

And so she really helped me and my ex-husband navigate the divorce so that we could maintain a rock solid co-parenting relationship.

And we actually have the most amazing relationship today, he and I.

He's like a brother.

I feel like it just it was like a transformation for me.

The relationship had to transform.

And I, and as soon as I stopped fighting it, it just kind of happened very lightly and effortlessly and gracefully.

But it wasn't happening as long as I was white knuckling it and resisting it.

And so it was all in my control.

SPEAKER_03: Yes.

And and I and I just I love that.

And I and I feel like it's just such an important lesson in all aspects of life is such an important lesson, you know, and in in is just to to let go.

To stop trying to control everything.

Yeah.

And you know, and because we we feel like we we know the direction it it's going and we try and force it, we try and steer it that way.

And instead, sometimes you just need to go with the current.

SPEAKER_04: You just need to go with the current.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: And guess what?

The current's gonna take you exactly where you want to go.

SPEAKER_00: Yes.

SPEAKER_04: And that's why that one reframe, or I don't know what you call it, mantra that I would say to myself all the time everything is always working out for you, even when it looks like it's not.

Because man, it was looking like it wasn't.

SPEAKER_01: Yes.

SPEAKER_03: Yes.

Well, yeah, well, I have to ask, I mean, we're talking about travel, we're talking about entrepreneurship, and how did that progress for you?

Especially, I mean, we we talked about 2001, a massive event with 9-11.

Right.

But then we've also had, you know, another massive event.

Yeah, you know, with with COVID.

Talk to me about that.

What was that experience like for you personally, for your business partners, and just company as a whole?

SPEAKER_04: Yeah, no, great question.

I think the personal life curveball that I got thrown when I was, you know, in my early 40s was the the breakdown of a marriage.

And it, but it completely awakened me.

And that's the gift that came out of it is I awakened to my emotional fitness.

And there's my inner power, right?

Not just your outer power, but your inner power.

And I, over the course of the last six to eight years, I have cultivated a really rock solid emotional fitness.

And so now when the pandemic hits, yes, you're right.

I am the owner of a growing, fast growing business.

I have a team at the time, we had a team of about 12 people paying salaries in the travel industry, and not just 12 employees, but a network of 300 advisors who are all entrepreneurs in in many different phases of their journey, but still like in this pandemic hits, and we were rocking and rolling just before the pandemic hit.

I mean, our growth was off the charts, everybody was excited.

And now we have a pandemic and no one's traveling.

And oh my, what those advisors went through at the very beginning, unraveling itineraries that they painstakingly put together months before crying while they're doing it, you know, totally in tears, trying to get refunds for people, trying to navigate cancellations and future cruise credits and all of it.

And we, because of the emotional fitness I had cultivated in the six years prior, I brought that to our team, I brought that to our network.

And I'm so proud of how we navigated the last two years as a network because of that emotional fitness.

And my team, they were right there with me.

And we we were determined to keep a positive attitude.

We were determined to be there and support them.

And so we just stayed in front of our advisors week after week after week, and we we continued to pump them with confidence and positivity.

And like we just kept saying the entire time the comeback is always better than the setback.

And we know that this will be the greatest comeback the travel industry has ever seen because it's the greatest setback the travel industry has ever seen.

SPEAKER_01: Yes.

SPEAKER_04: And we were right, we were right.

I mean, I'm looking at my numbers today, and we have grown our I mean, it's just our growth is like 380% from over 2019, and 2019 was our a massive year.

So, and 200 over just last year.

I mean, we are growing like leaps by leaps and bounds.

We now have a team of 27 people.

We have 400 advisors we're supporting, and they are just they're doing really, really well.

So I'm very, very proud of how we navigated that.

And financially, we were almost embarrassed to admit this publicly to people because we actually made money in 2020.

SPEAKER_03: Yes.

So that's just incredible, though.

SPEAKER_04: We're the only travel host agency that I know of that did not fire or furlough people.

Many went out of business.

Not only did we not fire or furlough people, we actually added a team member during that time period when we were all working from homes.

Um and now our team has doubled in size.

We've just moved to new office space because we outgrew the other one.

Yeah, no, it's all good.

SPEAKER_03: Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: It's it's amazing.

SPEAKER_03: Well, I I must share that as one of those outside agents, travel agents who worked underneath of Gifted Travel Network back at the time of the pandemic.

I must say that from my perspective of one of those travel agents who was in tears as everything I worked for basically came to a halt within a week's time period on the year that was supposed to be my best year on record.

Yep.

I must say, though, that you and the other amazing women at GTN handled it like true leaders.

SPEAKER_04: Because thank you.

SPEAKER_03: I, you know, I know that you guys had to be freaking out behind the doors, but in front of everyone else, yeah, you were nothing but encouragement.

You had Vanessa, her sparkly self, just keeping us upbeat.

You, Meredith, are just like the captain of the ship, who everybody knows just follow behind Meredith.

You had Jen, who was just keeping us up to date on what to file, what to do, where to go.

And every one of you were absolutely incredible and you know, just true leaders.

And and so when you say how well things have rebounded, I say it's no wonder because you women are just phenomenal at what you do, what you've built, and all of you undergoing your own, you know, drama in life.

You know, you're you're you're people separate from business owners and all of that.

Right.

You're just people.

And you've overcome.

And I could say from from my point of view, you know, I just applaud all of you.

SPEAKER_04: Thank you.

I appreciate it.

I mean, I appreciate your perspective because you hit the nail on the head.

Yes, some of us were freaking out more often than others, but we were all, we would all have our little moments of complete panic that we didn't want anybody else to see because we knew how important and powerful it was to keep a positive, we're looking forward, we're not looking at the ground, we're looking forward.

SPEAKER_00: Yes.

SPEAKER_04: At where we're going and where we're going is amazing.

And you know what you focus on expands and you get what you expect.

And we expected an amazing comeback, and we got an amazing comeback.

And again, it was a gift.

The pandemic was a gift to the travel industry.

And I know it's hard to see it that way, but if you look at it that way, I wrote this blog article right in, you know, in the end of March, I think.

So at the very beginning, and uh it's probably the article that I've written that I'm most proud of.

And it's all about how the pandemic, what if the pandemic was the cocoon that we've all been asking for so that we can all emerge transformed like a butterfly?

SPEAKER_03: Wow.

And that right there sums up the amazing person that you are because you you that is just your mindset.

You are the mindset master who would view the pandemic as the cocoon when the rest of us were like, what are you talking about, Meredith?

SPEAKER_04: I'm tired of being at home.

Tired of ordering out and not being able to go to a restaurant or a movie theater or a business center.

SPEAKER_03: Exactly.

Exactly.

Oh my goodness.

Well, Meredith, one of my last questions that I have for you is for the woman who's listening to this podcast today, and she's you working in a job that's not for her, what would you tell her?

SPEAKER_04: I would tell her to surrender.

I well, first things first, I would say have patience and faith.

It doesn't have to be this hard.

And there is an end.

You know, there is a light at the end of this tunnel.

And it's it's not just a light, it's bright and beautiful and amazing.

And everything happens for a reason and it serves you.

And even if it feels hard or like a hardship or a failure, or it's happening, you're not a victim.

Nothing happens to you.

Everything happens for you.

And not only that, everything happens by invitation of you.

So yeah, I would I would tell her to just hold tight, have faith, trust.

It's all gonna get better.

Everything is working out for you, even if it looks like it's not.

And there's a rainbow on the other side.

SPEAKER_03: Yeah.

Meredith, you're absolutely incredible.

I want to thank you so much for for taking the time out of your day to be a guest here on the podcast.

And it just it truly means the world to me.

So thank you.

SPEAKER_04: Well, thank you, Kevin.

It was an honor to be here.

And for anybody listening, I hope I could instill just a little bit of inspiration and hope and faith and trust that all is well.

SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Well, thank you, Meredith.

And for you listening today, I can only hope that you have enjoyed this conversation with Meredith as much as I have.

Meredith is just a really incredible woman.

And my goodness, she states things that I talk about all the time on this podcast, like this idea that things in life, they're not happening to us, they're happening for us.

And things like, you know, everything in life happens for a reason.

And I believe a good reason, even the bad stuff.

So even when it seems like there could be no good to be found, you just got to keep traveling down the roadways.

Keep living.

And soon you'll be able to look back and understand how it all was working out for your good.

Until next time, hope you have enjoyed today's podcast.

Remember to be sure to follow wherever you listen to this podcast.

And as always, keep living and enjoying life like it was meant to be.

I of course hope that you've enjoyed today's episode, but more importantly, I want to remind you that I never want you to listen to an episode of this podcast.

There's something that I have to say or that my guest has to share.

And think, wow, I wish I could be like that.

I wish I could overcome my own challenges and do the great things that they are doing.

But I just can't.

Well, friend, that's when you're wrong.

unknown: You're wrong.

SPEAKER_03: You are capable.

You are able.

And you darn sure are deserving of having all the information of life.

There's nothing special about me or any guests I have on this podcast.

We are all just normal people trying to make it look like.

And so I encourage you to take a look at yourself in the mirror.

And remind yourself that you know what?

I can do it.

Now, of course, if you would like out along that way, reach out to me.

Whether that's a letter of the podcast of grid, or if you'd like to work with me as a code.

My contact information is inside of every episode of show notes, just like this one.

So go down, check out my contact information, and reach out to me today.

With that said, I encourage you to take on the day every day.