Your Biggest Supporter

I am stepping in front of the camera more often these days. It’s partly an exercise to become more comfortable with my body and accepting myself where I am, as I am, how I am, while also creating a documented trail for myself of the transition from this level to my next level. It’s also about using my voice in ways to connect with people better and to be my own best client. To SHOW you instead of just telling you how you use your voice and do so in a way that engages you to join in and share your thoughts and change your life, whether we work together or you just stop by to read the posts and talk on social.

I’ve been behind the scenes for so long that stepping back out front has been less than comfortable. I enjoy supporting YOU and lifting YOU up. But one day I offered to jump on the phone with a wonderful brand strategist and designer I met and one of my questions for her was why her social media didn’t line up with the great work I saw on her website. It was good and beautiful, but inconsistent with the level of effort that clearly went into her website. When she mentioned a lack of time, I heard myself say, “I know I am not one to talk, but we should be our own best client.”

OUCH.

“I know I am not one to talk…”

Imagine me talking with the youth and young adults in my life about healthy relationships while I lived in toxic ones. Imagine me telling my daughters to live their best lives while not living mine. I can’t! But I was doing essentially the same things to clients and readers by not showing you the things I tell you to do. So I spent time in May investing in local businesses and in myself by taking time to step in front of the camera and do some photo shoots and video shoots. During the video shoot, we captured me exactly as I am. ONE TAKE for each video! ONE! Because I LOVE talking to people and sharing my heart. I LOVE empowering others. But I realized as we were recording what the problem was at home and why it was so different from here.

ME.

I am not my biggest supporter. I am my biggest critic. So it takes me a couple hours to do all of my clients’ social media but takes me months to think of a post. It takes me moments to share strategy with clients, but years to think of showing up for myself. I’d rather focus on THEM. When I do for me, I tell myself everything that is wrong and only a few things right. When it is for me and not for someone else, it takes me so long! But that has to change… I can’t be my best client without treating myself like one!

So in June, I am going to show up for me the way I believe you should show up in your business, writing, and life. The way I tell you to show up when we meet for calls or when you hire me. Voice Discovery Coaching is a way of showing people who to use their voices to impact the world in authentic, confident, responsible ways. I work with my clients to show up in this world as they are, how they are, where they are. Not perfect. Not “there”. Not with all the answers. Just as they are. It covers stepping into your voice by learning who you are and what you are called to, who you are here to serve, and how you connect best with them (which platforms, media, etc.). I personally love public speaking but dislike social media unless there is true engagement. I am more of a one-to-one than one-to-many gal. However, I know that I met most of my clients through social media over the years if I think about it since 90% have been word of mouth from other people who know or have heard about me through social media or past clients. So I have to show up there and do well at it. Just like I have to blog here more regularly about business things not just life.

In the first video, I share the revelation of why we hold ourselves back from success by not being our own supporter. More to come this month, as well as some thoughts on being still versus being stagnant, and a special reading of the title poem from my poetry book!

I’d like to see you do the same thing. Challenge yourself this month to SHOW UP for yourself. To go deeper with your commitment to being your best by giving up perfection and showing up where you are. If you need to, grab someone who is currently your biggest supporter to walk with you until you can do it yourself!

Leave me comments below on questions you have, or feel free to fill out the Contact form, on voice discovery coaching, stepping into your purpose, and writing. I will do my best to get you answers.

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Coming up in June.

Here are the various ways I am committing to showing up this month for myself as a business owner (Shell Vera) and writer.

Book Commentary & Snippets on IG & The Essential Creative

I will be sharing on Instagram and Facebook, snippets from books I really enjoyed reading this past month, while going into more detail over on my creative lifestyle blog. You can see the books in the post below from the blog’s IG account.

View this post on Instagram

I read. A lot. I also listen to audio books. Sometimes I read Kindle books that aren’t out as paperbacks yet. I sometimes read a book on Kindle while deciding whether to buy the paperback. Fun fact about these seven books I have read in May and will be sharing with you in June: I read four of them on Kindle first. I listened to one of the on Audible first. Im looking forward to sharing with you how each of these books affected me. Eight authors, seven styles of writing, seven very different personalities. ALL good books I recommend. ••••••• Starting in June on @shellvera333, I will be sharing posts about the books I read the previous month and lessons I learned from them. Every single book inspired thought, brought me to the next level in at least one area of my life, and was a great book to read with by myself or with friends. ••••••• On this blog, I will share the post with expanded thoughts, so be sure to subscribe to the blog for alerts when I make new posts (visit TheEssentialCreative.com and click follow) so you can hear my suggestions and reasons for recommending these and others books as part of your summer reading list. • #booklover #recommendedreading #booksilove #summerreading #shellssummaries #bibliophile #authorsofinstagram #bookrecommendations #creativecommunity #bloggersofinstagram

A post shared by Shell Vera – Creative Blog (@the_essential_creative) on May 20, 2020 at 9:10am PDT

Sharing More Frequent Posts on How to Use Your Voice

We will be talking here about using your voice even when you aren’t sure you are saying things correctly. It’s more important now than it’s ever been. If you feel like you have something to say, don’t allow a fear of fumbling to make you stay silent. Your voice matters and contributes to the healing and solutions we need to solve the systemic racism in this country. We have to get it out of our schools, government structure, and justice system by talking about it more in our homes. It is at all levels, top down and bottom up, that we have to attack this plague before we segregate more than ever. While I will be sharing from the context of social justice using examples from work I do within the domestic violence survivor and overcomer space, the foundational elements apply to anything you have to talk about that will bring change. So don’t let this subject make you so uncomfortable you don’t read if you feel you have a message you would like to share. Come and be part of the conversation and learn.

View this post on Instagram

Now more than ever, it’s time to speak up, use your voice, and become an action starter! As a human, business owner, and writer, my mission includes empowering those who don’t know how to use their voice to learn how to shout with a whisper and ensuring that I never allow others to determine my voice, even as I’m working it out. In situations like we are in right now globally and here in the US with the circumstance around Mr. Floyd’s death and it coming to brighter light how the plague of racism is systematic and infiltrates all areas of our lives, there are many voices heard above the others. Don’t be afraid to share yours and contribute to the conversation. Even if you feel uneducated, like your voice is saying what others say, or like you don’t know what to say, there are people reading your posts and listening to you who need to know you care and are willing to stand with them. Together we can accomplish the impossible! • #georgefloyd #istandwithyou #timetochange #speakup #useyourvoice #jointheconversation #timeforaction #letschangethisworld

A post shared by Shell Vera (@shellvera333) on May 30, 2020 at 1:24pm PDT

Sharing More Creative Writing

I will also be sharing some more creative writing, as I realize that I don’t do that as much as I would like to. I LOVE writing. I write all of the time. So I should be sharing some of that with you so you see that I do what I teach. So this is my commitment to showing up more in that way as well.

Follow me on social media (@ShellVera333 on IG and FB; I am on Twitter too but seldom use it), including YouTube so you get alerts of the new posts.

Sharing My Story with You So You Can Learn How to Share Yours

If you’d like to read about falling in love, overcoming trial, and how to hope even when things look dark and hopeless, download my book When I Stopped Remembering Tomorrow. It’s available on Amazon, free to all Kindle Unlimited users. Be sure to finish reading it if you download it, as we do earn our royalties based upon how far in the book you read. If you stop reading, send me a message so I can learn from you. Authors improve through your feedback and reviews. I appreciate both.

Happy June! Let’s make this last month of this first half of the year our best one yet!

~Shell

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