Two and a half months ago I found myself crying on the bathroom floor at 7am.
Why? Dumb freaking Instagram.
I woke up, opened the app (like we all do first thing in the AM, let’s be honest), and saw that a girl I know had just been featured in a MAJOR online publication. She’s amazing, her work deserves to be featured, and it’s hard to describe how genuinely happy I was for her…but still felt so awful about myself at the same time.
Every day I would open the app and scroll through my feed, seeing the success of all these amazing entrepreneurs who were so much farther along than I was. They’d been at this online business game for years, they had 50x more followers than me, and they all seemed to share success after success after success…
And it just broke me.
I felt impossibly behind. I was taking (too many) internet courses about running your own online business, trying to cram what felt like a decade of knowledge into just a few weeks. I was tired of seeing this shiny, seemingly unattainable picture of “success” on social media and wondering, “what do they have that I don’t have?”
And in my puddle on the bathroom floor, I posted THIS to Instagram:
And I was just HONEST. I let all those feelings of “not enough-ness” pour out of me, right there in the open for all to see.
I thought I would probably lose followers. I thought people would see my honest feelings about how hard it is to pursue a passion or have your own business and decide I wasn’t enough of a “fancy, cunning, expert Businesswoman-With-A-Capital-B”. I felt vulnerable and scared that I was shooting myself in the foot.
But you know what happened? The comments started pouring in…
– “I wish everyone on the internet could share and read this, thanks so much for sharing your honest and beautiful words, Kelsey, you move mountains through your voice!” – @lizzyhackl
– “I also deal with vulnerability and anxiety. Same here, lady. Same here.” – @complex_creative
– “Oh my GOD. Yes. A million times yes.” – @typewritelove
– “Oh boy did I need this today! ️” – @samathafillerup
…and on and on.
It was the highest engagement I’d ever seen, and it was the most vulnerable thing I’d written about myself and my business. Plus, it felt freaking GREAT to finally talk about it with others going through the same thing!
As the weeks went on, I became kind of obsessed. I was talking to everyone in the comments, DMs, emails, phone calls and more about what it’s really like for them behind the scenes of pursuing their dreams.
Everyone I talked to had such great stuff to say that I decided: why not take it a step further and share these conversations with the rest of the internet?
So I called up a bunch of AMAZING women who are artists, entrepreneurs, creatives, businesswomen, and more and asked them to sit down with me to talk about the realities, challenges, and rewards of forging their own path.
I’m so excited to start sharing those conversations with you in my new series: FIND YOUR MAGIC!
This is the official trailer for FIND YOUR MAGIC! A series of conversations with entrepreneurs, creatives, experts and friends that explores what it’s really like to do what you love.
We’re talking about everything from mental health, to business, to the creative process, to imposter syndrome, to relationships, and everything in between. So grab a cup of tea and join the conversation as we take a look behind the scenes of “success” and what it takes to Find Your Magic!
Give it a watch, and if you know someone who would benefit from it, please feel free to forward and share.
I’m aiming to release a new episode each MONDAY in July while I film the next batch of conversations.
So stay tuned (or better yet, SUBSCRIBE!) to “Find Your Magic Mondays”! I hope each time you listen you get a dose of inspiration as you realize: you’re not alone.
