Meet Amy Schadt

We recently connected with Amy Schadt and have shared our conversation below.

Amy, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

Ugh – this is a tough one!

In all honesty… it’s an ongoing battle. There are some days when I wake up and think… why would anyone want to hear what I’ve got to say?

But then I go out into the world and have a few conversations. Anytime I end up talking about what I do, people are really interested and have literally NO idea how it works. That’s when I’m able to remove myself from my own inhibitions and realize I’ve got a skill that people want to learn, and I want to teach them. It also helps to re-frame it. Instead of thinking about what I’m lacking, I start to think that I’ve got something to give that can help bring people joy. And that not only makes me happy, but it reminds me that I do actually have a lot to offer. So the imposter syndrome quiets down.

That doesn’t mean that I wake up every single day and feel like a total success. I can honestly say I don’t know anyone who wakes up feeling that way. It just means that whenever those feelings of inadequacy or worry do arise, I’m able to go out and find the perspective I need to get over it in that moment.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Up until recently, I had a completely separate career as a Reality TV Producer. It was an incredible job—high-energy, creative, and allowed me to jump from project to project. After each production wrapped, my husband and I would take time off to travel before I’d dive into the next show.

But once we had kids, it became clear that the long, unpredictable hours weren’t sustainable for the kind of parent I wanted to be. Around the same time, we sat down with a financial advisor and quickly realized that raising two kids in L.A. meant our travel dreams would have to take a backseat—something that was really hard for me to accept.

Travel has always been a huge part of how I connect with the world—and how I wanted to raise my kids: seeing other cultures firsthand, learning history beyond textbooks. So I did what any seasoned producer would do: I researched.

I’d already spent years casually learning about travel hacking, but now I zeroed in. I wasn’t interested in teaching abroad or working on a farm. I focused specifically on credit card rewards—because if I was going to spend money raising a family, I wanted those expenses to work for me.

I dove deep into the fine print, spent way too much time on blogs and social media, and made plenty of expensive mistakes. But I learned. I got better. I started booking trips with points—and then helping friends and family do the same.

That’s when my producer brain kicked in. I started breaking everything down into digestible, story-driven lessons—like mini learning pods—and that eventually became Travel Points Academy, my online course platform for teaching people how to turn everyday expenses into nearly free travel.

It’s been incredibly rewarding to merge my storytelling background with a topic I’m passionate about—and help families like mine see the world without breaking the bank.

And since becoming a parent, I’ve never traveled without young kids. So I’ve become a sort of expert on how to handle the ins and outs of that too. Because there’s a lot you don’t realize you need to think about when it comes to extensive travel with little ones.

It’s not always easy… in fact sometimes it’s downright hard, but we’ve got some hilarious stories, we’ve built a lot of memories and we’ve shared a lot of laughs. I wouldn’t change it for anything.

I was recently named the “Best Family Travel Expert in the U.S. of 2025” by the best of best review, which kind of blew my mind. This little hobby has really become something I’m proud of. I get to watch people make their own travel dreams come true all while teaching them financial responsibility – it’s so rewarding!

I’m also finding myself sort of coaching women to figure out how to pivot to the next career. It’s been an unintentional side effect of building my own business and I’ll probably do something more with it in the future, but for now it’s just really fun to have those kinds of conversations with women and guide them in the steps one should take when starting their own business.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The best 3 skills I’ve got that have helped me so far are:

1. A hunger for learning new things – seriously always researching, trying, failing, learning from mistakes and trying again. It’s the only way to move forward.

2. My storytelling skills. I love a funny story. I started posting some of the hilarious stuff that’s happened on our travels to social media, which has attracted people who want to learn how to do what I do.

3. The ability to acknowledge when something isn’t working, or when my fear is getting in the way. I Unplug for a beat. Re-set my mindset, and dive back in. There are always going to be days when you feel like a failure. The thing that’s helped me get to this point is that I can acknowledge it, but not dwell on it for too long. I stop and think – did I ACTUALLY fail? Or is this just a temporary feeling? What could I have done better? Then I’ll do my best to fix the problem and move on.

Also I’m a huge fan of small goals that are easy to achieve. I didn’t set out thinking “I’m going to write an online course that has 2 levels”. I just started to break down the information I was sharing with family and friends into one little short lesson at a time. Over time those turned into a full-fledged course.

My suggestions to anyone starting out on their own…

1. Figure out what you love and then just start writing down small pieces of it like you’re talking to a middle schooler. Eventually you’ll get into the hang of creating small, achievable goals and you can build on those to create something big.

2. Before you go create something fantastic, look into a branding trademark. You don’t want to create this thing that you then have to re-brand before you even launch because you’re stepping on someone else’s trademark.

3. If it’s not fun, don’t bother. Seriously, you’re going to spend a lot of time working on your thing. If you don’t enjoy it, that will come across and nobody else will enjoy it either.

4. Lastly, find a few great friends that will be your support system along the way. Because at some point you’ll need to talk out an idea, or have someone tell you you’re not a failure. That support is important.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

I love a good partnership!

I recently partnered with an amazing finance coach and found it to be helpful to both of our audiences. She talked about shifting your financial perspective and how to make small changes that have a big impact and I talked about how to elevate your credit score all while earning basically free travel.

I’m always open to partnering, learning, supporting other entrepreneurs and would love to hear from anyone who’s interested in the same.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://momsgonewandering.com
• Instagram: momsgonewandering

Image Credits

All images taken by Amy & Kevin Schadt