Follow Your Fear

“Follow your fear. It’s a GPS for where your soul wants you to go.” -Marie Forleo

I’ve been blogging since 2011 but I’ve been doing so under the radar. I didn’t really start treating it like a brand until last year. Why? I was scared. Scared of rejection, scared people wouldn’t like what I wrote, and terrified no one would read it at all. After living in Hawaii for a few years, I started my blog while in grad school at UGA as a rediscovery of  the South and creative outlet. In the beginning when I started talking about the blog, I heard things like…”shouldn’t you be concentrating on school” “what’s the point” “people who write never make any money.” Despite some negative comments, I kept blogging, but quietly. Who knows why people say what they do but I’ve realized now that if you want to do something, just do it; other opinions be damned.

I’m a really shy person first off; not one to walk up to someone I don’t know and start talking. Now that I’m several years into the social media and blogging scene I’m a lot more comfortable sharing stories, talking about my blog and connecting with other entrepreneurs and bloggers. I’m no longer hanging in the corner constantly looking at my phone and actually enjoy working the room (a little bit). I have The Southern C Summit to thank for helping me break this habit. Being their social media manager for several years forced me to be more outgoing than I would be by nature. And thanks to this conference I’ve met a lot of brilliant entrepreneurs looking to connect with like minded people and picked up lots of sound advice to help push my blogging and giving me inspiration to put myself out there and charge into the freelance world.

Last year I decided to quit waiting for people to find me and started pitching hard. Pitching collaborations to different hotel brands, small businesses, and magazines. Some pitches didn’t work out but to my surprise and delight many were successful! Navigating the freelance world is tough; I frequently reference my summit notebook and read through some of my favorite nuggets of wisdom from the summits over the years…

• “Pimp it out like the rent is due.” – Jaime Meares of Furbish Studio
• “Don’t be afraid to seek out the people you want to work with. The worst they can say is no.” Chassity Evans of Look Linger Love
• “Don’t be an ass unless that’s what you’re trying to be.” – Mandy Rye of Waiting on Martha
• “Magazines never say no to you, they say no to the project. There’s nothing personal about it at all.” Robert Leleux of Domino Mag
• “Smart brands are trend setters not trend followers.” Eddie Ross, author of The Modern Mix
  “Don’t be afraid to reach out to people. Position yourself.” The Laundress NY

Don’t let the fear get to you.  Here’s to the hustle!

Are you coming to the Summit in Charleston? Look forward to meeting you!