We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lauren Baughman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lauren below.

Lauren, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

The travel blogging industry is very saturated, but there really is a place for everyone wanting to share their stories and unique points of view. I focus on hidden gems, primarily because they are what I’m most interested in finding when I travel, but also because I know just how helpful word of mouth is when it comes to sharing or promoting small businesses.

One of the hidden gems I found while I was in Spain in 2022 is actually where I’m hosting my first yoga retreat later this year!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I started my travel blog in 2017, before the Instagram/influencing side of blogging was really a thing. I was working in the hospitality industry planning events, and traveling as much as possible whenever I had free time. Friends and family were always asking me about my trips, and I’ve always loved writing, so I decided to start blogging about my travel to help more people figure out how to maneuver certain destinations, etc.

My blog eventually took off, and when Instagram became popular, I started a correlated account and began building an audience there, too. Since then, I’ve been able to connect with so many people and share more of my travel stories and tips that don’t necessarily fit into a full blog post.

Now, I have partnerships with properties and brands, I offer custom travel planning worldwide, am leading my first yoga retreat in Spain later this year, and am still blogging! I thrive on being busy and having different realms of work, so I love that I can make decisions like deciding to add another branch of my business, while still sharing what means the most to me on the blog, and connecting with my audience in real life!

How did you build your audience on social media?

My audience was started with friends and family, and grew as those people told their friends and family about my travel advice and planning services. Over time, I’ve connected with many people I don’t know in real life, including other creators who are so supportive, as well as those not in the creator field who appreciate my travel tips and itineraries.

My biggest piece of advice is to be authentic, and to be you. The travel blogging industry might be saturated in general, but your personal point of view and story will never be too saturated.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think non-creatives have very little idea of how much work actually goes into social media and blogging. Especially with travel blogging, there are so many fun elements that go into it, but the work is not just the time spent traveling. It’s doing hours of research beforehand, negotiating contracts (if I’m working with brands), taking hundreds of photos and videos, editing the photos and videos, creating captions and blog posts, posting the content, responding to comments and DMs, pinning posts on Pinterest to link back to my blog, any additional brand partnership requirements, and so much more.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thetogolist.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/thetogolist
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/thetogolist