Level Up! With Shay

Hello y’all!

I gotta say – this blog has been a journey. A journey within not only Level Up!, but my life! To some it may not seem like much, which I get from the outside looking in, but to me, it has been a joy, commitment, learning experience, and sometimes a nuisance. But from what I know, it’s all in the perspective in which you see it.

I’ve had a long, but great day so far! I interviewed a mindset and life coach today for my podcast – that was great! I had a weekly meeting with an accountability partner and friend – we had a great discussion and she pulled tarot cards that fit so perfectly into the conversation and current events in our lives. And today is the day I have access to my new home in Atlanta, GA! I just moved most of my boxes into my room and came back to my Air Bnb (only 4 miles away!) that I have for one more night to chill, celebrate, and watch some tv.

Now that I’ve caught you up on my life, I want to go back to my blog journey. I know I’ve said I didn’t want this blog to be a journal of sorts and wanted it to really give value to the people reading, but today I discovered something. What if the value I bring to others is MY journey? Not 4 Tips on How to Get Better at Making Goals or 3 Things You Should Know About Creating a Podcast. I will say that there will be times when I write those blogs because I really think they WILL bring value, but I found myself creating these ideas in my head about what a blog NEEDED to be and I thought that bringing my own life to the table, just on its own, was not enough.

I think we tend to feel that in our life sometimes too. I was talking with a friend yesterday who is a social media manager and she just recently booked a new client! While she was excited to get a new client, she started getting anxious thoughts like “What if I don’t give them what they really want?” “What if I don’t meet their standards?” Etc., even though they had seen her work and liked it enough to hire her. She took a walk to think through these thoughts and realized one thing – she was good enough right where she was at. She believed that what she had brought to the table wasn’t enough even thought it was some really good, valuable sh*t! Sure, she might make mistakes or get some feedback, but it’s all in the process and it’s not happening NOW.

I was listening to Heather Monahan’s podcast a bit ago. Heather is a former Chief Revenue Officer who’s CEO had fallen ill and then fired when the CEO’s daughter, Heather’s arch nemesis, took over. So Heather went off to figure out what she was going to do. She used her newly unemployed time and wrote a book in which she sold at future speaking engagements and now she coaches individuals, groups, and executives. She called her book, Confidence Creator, as imperfectly perfect and that really struck me. As she was telling this story, I thought, is it ever too soon to write a book? To establish yourself as a creator and a person other people would want to listen to? People have books out there, self-published, with spelling errors, missing plots, no structure, so does that mean it was too soon to put it out there? I really thought out this, slightly offended that someone would put their work out there when, wait – who are they?!

And then I realized the answer was straight up “NO”! If Heather writes a book, it’s not good, but ok, only her family members and friends buy it, she gets no real traction, is that a failure? Does that mean she should never write another book again? Or wait until she gets more experience in whatever field she’s in to put out another one? NOOOOOO. If she had expectations of a best-seller or a nationwide tour and didn’t meet those, then you can consider it a failure…under THOSE specific terms, but it’s not a failure in the big scheme of things. The biggest failure would be to never put anything out ever. If she put out a book, it didn’t do well, then she can retrace her steps and see where she needs to improve and made adjustments for her next book or project. If she never put a book out, there would be no steps to trace.

You will mess up, you will learn “the hard way,” you will “fail,” but you truly have an obligation to help people, provide for yourself, do what you are called to do, or maybe all three. Start from where you’re at, do what you feel is right in this moment, and keep moving forward. That’s all from me today, folks. I’m about to sit back, pour myself a glass of Maker’s Mark, in which I will probably drink only half, and watch as much Arrested Development as humanly possible in 5 hours. Have a great rest of your weekend and I’ll talk to you tomorrow 🙂

#LevelUp

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