The Ultimate Blog Podcast - 27. A conversation about mindset, confidence, and encouragement to push forward in your blogging business with Melissa Pepin

Episode Date: June 21, 2022

Melissa Pepin is a confidence coach for female founders and she is on the podcast today sharing a lot about mindset, confidence, and encouragement that can help you push forward with your blogging business.Melissa has been in entrepreneurship for nearly 17 years, starting out as a photographer and then moved into coaching as a confidence coach. She is so motivating in today’s episode and shares so much value that we know will help you whether you are thinking about blogging or already a seasoned blogger.Check out the show notes (link below) for links and resources mentioned in this episode!Thanks for listening! Connect with us on Instagram: @sparkmediaconceptsIf you need questions answered before you start your blog, check out The Blog Depot, an online course and membership community!SHOW NOTES: www.sparkmediaconcepts.com/episode27

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast with Amy Reinecke and Jennifer Draper. We're on a mission to empower women who want to start or grow their own blog. This podcast is for women who want to learn blogging basics and who crave inspiration and encouragement. Whether you're just getting started or have been a blogger for years, we're excited to welcome you into this space where we are passionate about creating community over competition. We are bloggers who want to encourage you to believe in your potential, step outside the norm and step into a life where you create your own schedule, your own success, and your own story. Join us for weekly episodes as we navigate blogging

and work from home life all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. Okay. We are so excited to chat with Melissa Pepin today. I've connected with Melissa on Instagram and it's just been such a joy to communicate with her and learn from her. And I'm thrilled to share her with you all today. So Melissa, welcome to the ultimate blog podcast. Yay. Thank you, friends. I'm so excited. I'm pumped. Yes. We have been so excited to have this conversation. You're a confidence coach. So how about you share a little bit with our audience about who you are and what you do and how you serve? Amazing. Thank you guys so much for having me here and letting me talk to your community. That's huge. It's such a gift and it's not lost on me. So there's that.

I am a confidence coach to female founders. So my journey in entrepreneurship started almost 17 years ago. I told my husband I might want to start a photography business and he came home from class because we were still in college. And he was like, Hey, I went and got you a business license just in case you want that. And I was like, hey, I went and got you a business license just in case you want that. And I was like, well, I guess we're doing this. And then it started this love affair with business that just never went away. So I've been a photographer for 16 and a half years and worked weddings. I did portraits, large commercial ads, national ad campaigns type things forever.

And just felt a real draw out of that a couple of years ago. And so I started just diving into other forms of business about three or four years ago and did speaking and mentoring and all kinds of things. And right at a year ago, it led me to coaching. And it has been the most fun to be able to use all my years of experience to help other female founders just embrace their roles as CEO in their business and help them grow in confidence. Because when we're not confident, it affects everything from our pricing to how we show up online, just everything. Our confidence can make or break a sale. And so I get to help women

just fall in love with the business that they do and put all that goodness out in the world. And it's just so fun. I love that you're using your own experience and then in turn helping others. Because I think you're right that confidence can hold a lot of people back from moving forward. A lot of our audience are either already bloggers or they're considering becoming bloggers. So some of them might be seasoned and having products of their own and things like that. But I think that finding that confidence is something that can be challenging for a lot of people because they're not really sure where to gain it from.

How do I build confidence in my business? So when someone is feeling like that, they feel like they're being called to do something or show up in a certain way, what is a way that they can kind of borrow confidence? I think as they're growing in their business or whatever, they feel like they're being called to do. I think that, you know, that popular saying, fake it till you make it right. That, that only gets us so far in business. And I am all about doing that to begin with, just because it will give you this almost like false sense of encouragement to be able to go out and let me showcase myself, let me present myself to everybody. But eventually, if your confidence

is not real, it shows as lackluster and there's no hiding that you're not confident in what you're doing. I think you really have to be grounded in the product or the service that you're offering and the content that you're sharing. You have to know that you know that you know it. And that can feel super, super intimidating because saying that you're an expert in anything can feel wrong because there's always going to be somebody

that knows more than you. There's always going to be somebody that can do it better than you. But if you can just step into the gifting and the calling that you have, then that's all that matters. I think one thing that I walk through with my clients is defining what success looks like for you as an individual and not just successes. And I want to be able to buy my parents a house. I want to be able to pay off debt. I want a new car, not just things like that, but I'm talking the nitty gritty details of what success would look like for you. I grew up with a single mom and she was never able to pick me up from school,

like elementary school. And I was the kid who she would work two or three jobs and I'd have to call every day at 2.30 and say, are you coming to get me? And it's not that she didn't care, I didn't want to, but it's that she was exhausted and she was ripping and running all the time. So for me, when I first started my business and we began talking about having a family, I said, this is a marker of success for me is that I'll be able to leave my job every day, no matter what it is, and pick up my kids from school. I just want that one thing. And so it started there, just really having that deep desire for success to be something that wasn't monetary, for success to be something that wasn't for anybody else. It was for me. And so I think that if we can correctly define what

success looks like for us, it'll help us create clearer steps to selling and sharing and writing and creating content, doing all the things that we need to in our business, which then in turn leads to confidence because you're doing the work that it takes to build something that's sustainable. And you can't help but be confident when you realize that you know more than you thought that you knew. You said something, that story made me feel a little teary because I have never thought of that as a measure of success. So I was raised with parents as entrepreneurs who are entrepreneurs and being able to pick up my own kids from school was a huge thing for me as well. But I've never necessarily thought of that as a measure of success. I think that we're often told

it's all within the numbers and it's all within the income that we create and all of that. But maybe it's not just about that. Maybe that is an important piece of the puzzle when we're thinking about having a blog or creating a business or whatever. But maybe the other big piece are the things that we want in our life or the experiences that we want to have for ourselves or we want to give to our families. Maybe that is just as important. And I love that you brought that to light. That's not actually something that we talk about very much, to be honest. So thank you for, I think, just putting words to that because I think so often we can look at the balance sheet or whatever and be like,

well, I didn't do what I was going to do last month or what I thought I should do in my business. But at the end of the day, did I get to pick up my kids every day from school? I did. Did I get to show up where I needed to be? I did. And that is important. Right. So when someone is... Basically, most of the people here are doing some form of home-based business. So whether it's a blog or coaching or whatever, how do they know what experiences that they've had that are worth sharing with others? Like if they're trying to figure out, okay, I want to have a business at home and I want to be able to help others. And they've maybe had some life experiences that can, that they want to share or help others with. How does a person go about finding a niche is what we

call it in blogging? How would they go about finding what would maybe resonate with others and how they could help? Absolutely. You know, it's funny because the saying is the riches are in the niches, right? And although that may be true, you just said it a minute ago with how we define success being more than just the dollar amounts, being more than just the monetary result from launches and sales and campaigns and things that we do. And I think that what you share, it all comes down to how vulnerable you're willing to be and what kind of connection you're looking to build with your audience and your community. I think that there is a fine line between sharing so much that you become a victim and sharing just enough to be vulnerable and connective with people. I actually did a whole series about connectors. They're those people

who you'll walk into. You could be in a coffee shop in a different country and you're going to see somebody you know and be like, how does this keep happening? Those are the connectors that always have somebody that links back to somebody that links back to somebody. And so there's a big difference between being a connector, being somebody that is vulnerable enough to build those connections, but not so open and exposed that people start to feel sorry for them. And I think that it has so much to do with how you're trying to gain an audience or how you're trying to nurture the audience that you have. If you're looking for pain point marketing, you're looking to that to be the only way that you sell or the only way that you share, the only way that you gain, that I feel like runs

out. It runs out eventually. It becomes, oh, here's another story. Here's another woe is me. It's the dark and the heavy. When people read your content, when they read whatever it is that you put out there, the main thing that I encourage people to do is think about how you want them to feel when they're done. Do you want them to feel encouraged? Do you want them to feel like, I agree with that, that that happened to me too? Or do you want them to go, man, her life was hard. And what I want them to do for me is to feel seen, heard, connected. I don't want them to end their thoughts with anything that I share, having it be back to me. And so I think that as long as you are sharing from a place of transparency, it's like you do have to just

cognitively decide what is too much. And I love the saying that says, if you feel like I'm too much, go look for less. Because there are some people who just have naturally really big personalities. But the beauty in being able to share all of that is being able to draw people in with almost like meekness. That is like, what is it? It's like, have power, but you can control it. And so I think that it has a lot to do with being willing to be vulnerable, but knowing when to pull back. Because also then it's going to maintain mystery in your relationship. You don't have to expose everything. You don't have to tell everything. I know people who have thought about starting blogging. It feels like,

I guess I have to be a Kardashian where I'm putting everything on TV. And it's like, no, ma'am, we don't need to know that. We don't need to know. And for me, one thing that's really been eye-opening was just even through Instagram, collecting insights on my account, seeing which posts and which stories and things get the most traction. And I realized about a year and a half ago that that stories about my kids or school were like a snooze fest. And instead of looking at that going, oh, man, nobody wants to hear about my kids or my life. I go, oh, well, then that's something I do not have to worry about sharing or exposing or creating content around. They're fine. They're fine. Now I have an 11 year old daughter who is sassy and people love her, but people are way more interested in my neighbor, Tina, because she's hilarious and so funny and kind of crazy. And they want to hear

about that. They don't care so much about my kids. And so that's like freedom to share the things that are important to you, but also to not. I think that you brought up boundaries, right? Isn't that just a boundary that we set? I used to share a little bit more about my kids. And then I did the same thing, looked at insights. And if I would share anything about my kids and stories, it would tank. People don't care. And Jennifer said that before too. She's like, I mean, we all love our own kids, but like, we might not care as much about like looking at other people's kids all that much. And so I feel the exact same way. Like that's totally fine. That doesn't need to be a part of my business. And honestly, like for safety reasons, I'm like, my kids are just not going

to be on my blog or my Instagram. Like, and I'm totally okay with that. So I think it is good to see like, what are people resonating with? What are they engaging with? What do they want to know more about within the boundaries that you're willing to share? So when I started my blog, I was very personal, dove very deep into my past with binge eating disorder. And I shared, started sharing on Instagram in 2015, and then started my blog in 2017. And as I've healed through my journey, like I've gotten a point, I'm like, I don't want this to be my story anymore. Like I, I don't want to talk about this anymore. And so I've way backed off, you know, because I do think that when you kind of stay

in a place and we're talking about people who are using like experience such as this, that are very vulnerable and it's putting you out there. I just, I got to this point that I'm like, I'm on the healing side now. And so I kind of don't want to talk about staying in the victim mentality. I'd rather talk about how, yes, there's a space and a time that we can deal with that trauma, but we can also move forward and there's healing on the other side. And that's what I want people to see is how can we heal from the things that happen, you know, to us. And so I think basically what I'm saying is it's okay to shift. Also, you don't have to stay the same just because you've

decided to have a blog. You should shift. And I hope you do change. And I hope you grow and are willing to share some of the experiences that have helped you grow as a human being, as a business owner, and as a blogger and business owner, all that. Absolutely. In the Business Reboot, which you had my business partner, Corey, on the podcast last week, and it was so good. I listened to the whole episode. It was great. One of the things that we talk about at Business Reboot is building, which it's a retreat for business owners because we have seen since the pandemic hit, so many incredible business owners, small business owners in creative industries closed their doors because it became hard to

book clients or because the way that they were building their business wasn't sustainable. And really, they'd fallen out of love with the back end of their business. And so it became not worth it anymore. And I'm not saying that you should push into things that don't feel worth it anymore. But I am saying it is a tragedy to have so many incredible, talented artists in many different facets and forms close their doors because they just feel like they couldn't do it anymore. And so we wanted to help tend to that. And what has been really eye-opening in the last even week is seeing certain people who are big in coaching or big in podcasts or big in all different genres of creative industries say, I'm pulling back because I'm burned out. I'm pulling back because

I'm tired. I'm pulling back because this isn't relevant anymore. We started laughing because Corey and I, she's in her mid forties and I am closing out in the thirties this year. And I was like, we have to go back to the way that we started it, the new and the trendy and all. Like, there's a reason that we are almost two decades in business.

And it's because the way that we grew up doing it still works. But we were talking about how your audience and your community, and I say community more than audience because there's a difference. Audience is the people who are going to throw tomatoes if you mess up or cheer when you do something good. And a community are the people who are going to donate to your GoFundMe when your dog gets hit by a car. We want to build the community. And so we talk about how in business, it doesn't matter if you pivot,

if you take such good care of these clients, you could be a dog groomer one minute and the next minute, you could be selling candles on the street corner and they're going to buy your candles because you've been such a good dog groomer. And so it just builds this longevity and relationship with your clients or with your community. And when you're talking about shifting, I actually, I feel like you guys were listening to my coaching sessions yesterday because I was talking to one of my clients about how we have these markers. We have these identifiers that we identify ourselves by. And for me, it was, I grew up with a single mom. I experienced childhood trauma. I had divorced

parents. I was the first person to graduate high school and college in my family. And it's like, those things become markers of success for us until you heal past them. And it no longer feels like the shiny story that gives you credibility to people. And so, which is great, but people want to move on with you. And so, I think if people looked at the content that I produce now if people looked at the content that I produce now, they looked at how I'm coaching, how like the business things that I'm doing and growing, they would never look at me as she came from this really broken situation. She came from the school of hard knocks and she had to bootstraps her whole life and she

had to do all these things. Like they would never look at my story now and know that. And it almost allows those really tender pieces to become yours again, because you're, it's just this constant rotating circle of things that you get to share. And it is, it helps you go on a growth journey, but it also helps your clients because the people who have been there the longest, the people who have been in your community that have read everything you've produced or watched you grow as a person, they're going to remember those. And it almost becomes this, if you know, you know, just build a depth of relationship with your people. And then it allows you freedom to change

and they want to change too. So I think it just can beautifully morph into this extended relationship that has a lot more flexibility than we probably even realized. I'd like to dive into this idea of community a little bit more. And I want to come at this from a perspective, a little bit from my perspective, I guess, from a food blogger, because there's been this trend in food blogging over the last few years where it's just pump out content, SEO optimized. People don't want to hear your story. Just give them the facts, give them what they want and move on. But what I hear you say is, as you're growing in this, in your blogging and you're offering things to your readers and things like that, they're not connected to you in any way. You're just pumping out content. They're going to find you once. They might sign up for your email list and then they're gone. and then they're gone. So how can you kind of balance that out between providing people what they came for? They came for a recipe, but connecting with them in some other way without like oversharing your story. How do you figure out that balance that feels good to you and also,

you know, serves those people as well? First of all, I love food blogs. I love them so much. What I don't love is when I just want the asparagus recipe but I have to hear about how grandpa Jim grew these on his farm in the 20s and then I gotta scroll and scroll and scroll but but that is because the place in life that I am where I have young kids living at my house and I just got to get the asparagus on the grill real quick like I'm I am not going to be the target demographic for storytellers when it comes to certain things. But I think it has so much to do with one, being content to know that your content is not always going to be for every single person. There are going to be some people,

and I have a client who just her goal has been to start a newsletter. And she's just released her second newsletter. And she told me that she got contacted by a mom who follows her. And she said, my mother's day gift to myself was a hot bath. And I saved her newsletter all day until I got in that bath. And I just wanted to read it. And I was so excited. And that like, what bigger compliment is that? Right. I also think that it is really important in any business, any content creation sphere at all to go back to the beginning. Go back to how you felt when you had your first reader open that email or open that blog or sign up for your RSS feed back in the blogspot days. Remember that because if you can steward your 50 people well, then when you have 50,000 people, you're going to maintain the same composure with them. And so with Business Reboot, we always talk about how small is the new big,

like intimate is the new megachurch type situation. And I think that you just have to be really grounded in what you're sharing. And also know that you have to do what you've been called to. It doesn't matter how much money it's've been called to. It doesn't matter how much money it's going to bring in. It doesn't matter how many views you're going to get. It doesn't matter how many people are being exposed to your story. You have to, at the end of the day, close your laptop knowing that you've done exactly what you need to do. You've shared exactly what you need to share and trust that the people are going to come. The beautiful part about blogging is that it's evergreen. You can put that thing there and you plant it and you tuck it in

the soil and then you walk away and that it's just going to grow. It's just going to grow. It's something that you can always reference back to. And it's just, it's everlasting. And so just be content knowing that you're doing the thing that you need to do and the success, whatever that may look like, like it's going to come and you just need to be willing to share what you individually feel is appropriate and trust that it's going to get in the hands and the, in front of the faces of the people who need to see it. And I think that that takes patience and that can be so hard, you know, patience to like have that faith that the person who needs it is going to find it and see it. And if I keep showing up the way that I'm called to do, because I think we all have those nudges.

I think all three of us sitting here have felt nudges. Otherwise we wouldn't be doing the businesses that we're doing. Right. And if we ignore those nudges, then where would we be? You know what I might be doing? I might be making burlap wreaths. That's what I was doing before I started my blog. And I hated it. I wanted to be a waitress when I was in kindergarten. So I'd probably be hitting up the Olive Garden right now. And I'm just kidding.

But really, if we never listened to the nudge, if we never walked on the other side of it and asked ourselves, okay, but what if, what if this works? And the only way that you're going to know is if you actually take that first step towards it. And then sometimes it's sitting in that uncomfortable space when we were talking before we got on that you're not seeing a bajillion people show up on your blog or only one person buys your product or whatever. And so you kind of have to sit in that uncomfortable space and you're like, but hold on. I thought I'd been called to do this. And now like, where are the million people and where is everybody? But I think it's finding

the courage to stay there and be patient and continue serving and showing up in the way that you've been called to do. And knowing that if you just keep doing that in a way that feels good to you and your soul, and even if you're getting one person to come to your blog, you're touching one life, you're getting one person who's excited to read your newsletter or buy a product, then you're doing what you've been called to do because we all have a beginner story. You know, nobody who's super successful, like had a million people ready to buy or ready to visit their website out of the gate. Right. We all had a beginner story, but I think that we get really caught up in comparing our journey to somebody who's been doing it much longer and thinking, well, I'm not where they are. And so I'm, I'm failing or I shouldn't be doing this and I should just quit.

Right. And I think that we all have to be very careful when we are looking around at people that we're comparing ourselves to, because I guarantee you, they're not even where they look like they are sometimes, even in just the last couple of weeks, I feel like we are watching a collapse almost of people in creative spaces that online things look really, really good. But you guys, it is real easy to disguise miserable. It is real easy to disguise like fake things, you know, whether it be how much is in our checkbook to, you know, what our plans are or the advances that we're getting. And so I think you just have to be really grounded in the reason that you're doing this.

And, you know, if you were to, and this is like trigger warning, but if you were to be driving across a bridge and you saw somebody standing on the other side and they look like they were contemplating something that could be very scary for themselves. And you stop your car and you get out and you talk to them and you pull them over the rail of that bridge. You were not leaving going, it's just one person. You were going, oh my gosh, I just helped rescue this man's life. It was huge. It was so huge. And you just almost have to be counter world right now where everything feels like, especially in the online space, it has to be bigger. It has to be different. It has to be original. It has, no, I love y'all, but we ain't come up with nothing creative and original ever. Okay. Like everything is being recycled. That is why the nineties fashion is back. And I'm not saying that I'm sad about it because, you know, give me some cool lots and all that, but I'm not saying that I'm sad about it because, you know, give me some culottes and all that. But I'm just saying that I know, I know, but I'm just saying that I think that it is really

important for us to almost put on like blockers, like put on sunglasses that we used to wear when we were having basketball practice where they would have like blinders on the sides. And all you can see is what's in front of you. Because if you do, you are going to attract the people who feel the exact same way that you do about sharing. And you're going to be able to appreciate the content that you put out even more. I look back at the posts that I've created just through Instagram. And I had a blog for years. I started it in 2006 and it's still there. It's just hidden. And I ran it for years and years and years. And it was never, and I say like air quotes successful because there were never,

I was never running ads on it. I didn't know anything about blogging. I was a photographer and I was sharing stories and pictures and using catchphrases like, aren't they so cool? And like posting really cool pictures of like brides against brick walls. It was what we did back then. And, but I look back at some of that content. I look back at some of the pictures. I look back at the things that I've created on Instagram. And it's like the stories where I am telling it about me, but making it about my community and figuring out a way how to turn the experiences that I feel like are our superpower, our individual experiences into something that can be helpful to other people. Like those are the ones that still, when I read them myself today, I'm still moved. I still feel something. And I think we just have

to be really grounded in our stories. And we have to be really grounded on the reason that we're even doing this to begin with. Because if you started a business so that you would make a lot of money, the joy will run out eventually. Even if the money doesn't, the joy will. If you started blogging because you thought you were really good at something, well, eventually you're going to find something that you're not good at and it's going to take the joy away because you're going to become self-conscious about it. But if you start it because you feel like you have something that the world needs to hear, you are going to be a well, a well of information, a well of resources, a well of

encouragement to people around you. And that's going to keep a readership coming back. Do you want to start building a foundation for your blog? Do you have questions you need to answer before you start? Do you wish that you had someone there to hold your hand through the process? We are so excited to share that we have created a membership community just for you. The Blog Depot is an online course and membership community that will teach you the foundations you need to build a blog. We teach you about niching down, finding the right mindset, the best platform to

build a blog on, and so much more with monthly coaching calls inside the community. You will find the support you need to finally make your dream a reality. The doors are open to join this amazing blogging community, and we can't wait to help you. Find the link to join the blog depot in the show notes. So if somebody feels like this nudge, like I have something to share, but they're not sure, like, is this enough? Is anybody even going to want to hear what I have to say? Like, how can they either gain that confidence or how do they know if they should move forward in sharing this, if it will ever reach anybody, if it will ever be successful, if they feel like, yeah, nobody really cares about what I have to say, because it's not,

it's not that important or it's not that big of a deal. It probably won't help anybody that much. I tell them they're probably right. It sounds so cold, but I say you're probably right. And if you still want to do it anyway, then that's when you know it's time to put your foot on the gas and go. You're probably right. Because if this is like my marker for popularity and success is if you can walk into any Walmart in the United States of America and call out my name over the loudspeaker and people go, oh yeah, we know who that is. Then they're really famous. Okay. If you go and you're, you know, somewhere and you're like Meg Ryan, they're gonna be like, yeah, I know she was in, you've got mail. She's whatever. I mean, okay. So she's old. So people probably might not know who that is, but you know what I'm saying?

Like they will, they will know. But if you go to Walmart and you say, Pepin, it will, if it's in my town, I'm a connector. I probably know somebody there, but that's it. Like there is, there is no level of popularity or success that, that we're going to have the possibility. I mean, it's, it's possible you could, but even I think about people who are the height of my personal industry, they couldn't even go into Walmart in 10 states over and say their name over the loudspeaker and know who they are. And so you just have to, again, it goes back to being grounded and you feeling the call and the nudge and just put the action to like, put the words to action, just do the thing.

And I promise you that there will be not, I don't guarantee a whole lot in coaching, but I will guarantee that your people will find you if you are willing to be bold enough to just put it out there. Know that you may not be recognized at the Walmart in St. Louis, but you were going to have people, even on Instagram, I look at people who have a hundred followers and I'm like, do you understand that's a hundred people who at some point have opted into your, what you have to say. And if you were to have every single one of those people book you for whatever it is that you're selling, pitching, doing sharing, you would be exhausted, you would be out of, you know, commission, because you would be have such a full plate. And so knowing that,

like, you just treasure those numbers of people, nurture them, build into them, they are going to bring their friends. And it doesn't have to feel so permanent. Does that make sense? I feel like people hesitate because they feel like every decision is going to be the last one they get to make. And I'm like, y'all, the level of permanence, if you can reinvent yourself, what was it? Julia Child started cooking

shows and things when she was in her like sixties, I could be making that up completely, but I think that's what it was. And so I'm like, there's never, it's never too late to start the things. It's never too late to do over. And so it just feels like the question you should be asking yourself is why not? Why not? So basically stop overthinking it and just do what you feel called to do. Yes. If you, you know, what's funny, they say in real estate that the first offer you get on your house is going to be the best one. Right.

But we tend to be like, no, no, I'll wait and see. Or my gut reaction to something. It's like, no, no, let me just analyze this for eternity until I, you know, move. And the truth of it is, is like, just do it. And that is the difference between people who are going to be quote unquote successful and not because the people who just stop holding themselves back and just do it, just go for it. They're the ones who look like they're making the biggest waves, but it really it's because they just put action to their words. And I think that in the world of Instagram,

the entity metrics tell a different story than what's really going on. I love that you've talked about a small audience because I think that that's important. I have like, I don't even know, over 30,000 followers on Instagram and extremely low engagement. And so it's like that number means absolutely nothing. It means nothing. And we at Spark, we're able to... We have a much smaller audience, but we've been able to be successful with the course and grow a community and serve people who want to blog. And you would look at the two and think, well, the larger account's

doing better. And I think that we get so wrapped up in that. We get wrapped up in a follower account. We get wrapped up in all of these things. It's like, no, like you just said a while ago, if you're helping one person, one person, you've done it. I want to take a moment and read something that I got this morning. I've now admitted that I don, and read something that I got this morning. I've now admitted that I don't get super high engagement on Beautifully Broken Meat, but I had somebody who reached out yesterday. I talk a lot about people just being advocates for their own health. And, and sometimes that feels super scary in our, in our day and age. And I

talk about my journey with my autoimmune disease and where I've been the last two and a half years. And it gave someone the encouragement at a doctor yesterday to say something's wrong here. And so she sent me a message and says, I'm thankful you share truth on here. I probably would have listened to half of what that doctor said yesterday. Had I not known better and I do not have a medical degree. I'm just telling people, listen to your gut instinct, listen to what you think feels off or doesn't feel like you're able to do. And there's some days me sharing my truth feels so scary, but today getting that message that just gave me the encouragement to keep sharing and keep going forward and keep

telling women, especially don't stop listening to yourself. Don't stop listening to that inner voice. Don't stop listening to the nudge that's talking to you and telling you something like, something doesn't feel right here. And I need to find more answers. Be willing to listen in that way. And that's only one person, but that message to this one person meant a ton to me today. And as a creator and as an entrepreneur, that just gave me strength to continue moving forward. And so don't discount what one person's response could be. Like you don't know the lives that you're impacting one at a time, because in truth, we're not only impacting one at a time. You say something to one person

and that one person's life has changed. And what do they do with it? They turn around and they change another's life and another's life and another's life. And there's a ripple effect. And that's the joy of what we get to do in this space is by touching other people's lives that way. So don't discount it by saying, I only have a hundred followers or my blog doesn't get that much traffic. I mean, if we, you know, we've had food bloggers, we've had wellness bloggers, we've had all kinds of people take our course and they're building these communities and we're getting to watch it from the ground up and knowing like they could have the potential to have this huge impact. But in the beginning, we get to watch them make these small, what they

think are small, little impacts, but they're actually causing this ripple effect that is beautiful and amazing. And I want everybody, if you feel that nudge, don't ignore that nudge for the thing that you're supposed to be doing. Don't be afraid to show up in the space that you've been called to show up in because you're afraid of what somebody might think or what if nobody can relate because the likeliness of that is highly unlikely. Like someone is going to be able to relate to your story or to the content that you're wanting to share, whether it's personal or not. Like Jennifer shares slow cooker recipes. She might not be sharing like really vulnerable things, but that is helpful. Like slow cooker recipes are helpful for so many people.

So that doesn't make her content any less valuable than somebody who's trying to share with somebody about how you can beat depression or get through a mental health crisis or something like that. We all have these valuable pieces to offer, whether it's emotion-based or just solution-based with something that could just make our lives easier. Right. I've talked to my clients and coaching about elevator moments. And I'm referencing, because you already know I love Meg Ryan, but the elevator scene from

You've Got Mail, where Tom Hanks is in the elevator and it breaks down and he's got like a sweet old lady in there. And he's got his girlfriend who's like this high powered corporate. She's a grump. Let's just be honest. And then they've got the like bellboy there who is, you know, the elevator is broken and the older lady is sitting there and she's talking about her dog and her family. And he looks over at his girlfriend and she's just being really impatient. And she's like, Oh, you know, I wish we could hurry up and get out of here. She's trying to let her fingernails dry because she's painting them in the elevator, which by the way, rude,

because that's fumes and everybody's breathing them, ma'am. And then the bellboy is like, you know, if I get out of here, I'm going to marry my girlfriend. I love her. I don't know what I'm waiting for. And he sits there and he's listening to everybody and he's taking in the things that they're saying. And he watches his girlfriend get really impatient and blow up because somebody ate the last Tic Tac and she's been in the elevator for an hour and the door opens and they get out and you see him pack his bags and like leave. And he, he like, obviously they end the relationship and he walks out and he said, the thing that I realized is that when I was in a situation of crisis and I watched people around me, I saw somebody that knew exactly what they wanted and they were going to go for it. And I saw what my life looked like and that's not what I

wanted. And so I created the change. And it's like those little moments, those times where we get to decide whether we're going to move forward and share something that feels important to us, or we're going to let it, whether it be our current life situation or the fears and worry that we have stop us, like it just completely makes like game, game changing time, right? This is legacy work that you're doing as a content creator with putting things out in the world that are going to be there forever. Okay. I mean, if the internet goes down, like maybe print out hard copies, I don't know, but,

but like you're building stories that are going to add to other people's stories. And it takes one person believing in you for you to start to believe in yourself. And you might just be that one person for somebody. And so the work is just really important. It's really important. And it's really important if you feel the nudge, if you feel the pull to do that, that you go for it. Because this is not dress rehearsal for life. We get to live another time. This is like the thing. This is the one. We get the one. And so if you can look at it in that perspective, you have nothing to lose by just trying. And if you're worried and afraid of what people will say or how people will react, you just need to

find support from somewhere else. I mean, get a coach, get a friend, tell somebody that you know, that you trust, that believes in you and just go for it. Put pen to paper and do the thing because it could almost be cruel to hold back something that could be helpful to other people. If you're not willing to share, you're not willing to tell your story, you're not willing to offer things that may be helpful, right? You know, I think about like slow cooker recipes, right? Compared to somebody who's sharing about mental health. And I'm like, well, let me just tell you,

if it's a school night and I come home and it's daylight out until 8 p.m. now, it's 7.59 and we still haven't eaten, you know what's going to rescue my mental health? Having something that slow cooker. Okay, so it's like we all, it all plays a role. And really the overarching theme of this is that blogging and sharing, like it is used, it is a useful role. And really the overarching theme of this is that blogging and

sharing, like it is used, it is a useful tool to help people live better. And so when you, when you put it in perspective of how it can help equip people and nurture people, and like, these are lives that you're, you're touching and there there's no number too small. And I think at the end of the day, it's all going to be worth it. If you can just go for it. Mic drop. Boom. You're amazing. Thanks. Yeah. This has been so good. I hope that the people listening to this feel encouraged and I feel like many of them are. I am. I'm going to get off here and make a decision for myself and something that I felt nudged to do. So thank you for this. You're changing lives and that is no small thing. Thank you for using your story for good. Thank you for showing up in a space that

was probably scary. And the ripple effect is going to be huge, is huge already. So thank you. I know that people will want to find you and connect with you. So if you can please let them know how they can do that. Yes, absolutely. So you can find me on Instagram at life with Melissa Pepin, P-E-P-I-N, or you can reach me at melissapepin.com. I offer coaching services and I'm available for speaking engagements and all of those fun things. And then I also have a business with my business partner, Corey Frazier, who is a photographer and branding expert. But we run the Business Reboot, which is a retreat for female entrepreneurs and creative industries to help them fall in love with the back end of their

business. So we are a retreat that meets twice a year. So we did one in January. Our next one is in Charleston in September, and we have just a couple of spots left. And we'd love any female creatives that feel like they just need a chance to reboot, pivot, odd offers, change what they're doing, walk away from their current industry and step into another one. We're there to help nurture them into building a business that will help them live the life that they're trying to live. And I say this to both clients and coaching and with the reboot, we will build businesses until we're blue in the face. But then you get so busy with those that you don't actually get to live the life that you are working so hard for. So we don't believe in that. We want, there's no such thing as balance. It's all priority. And so that is like

my goal for all of the things that I do for work to help women feel fulfilled and advance, make the money they need to, and that they want to, but also be able to lay down at the end of the day, close their eyes to go to sleep and just be full of gratitude that they have the life they get to live. So that's it. You can reach us at business reboot for creatives.com or business reboots on Instagram. Amazing. Thank you. You're so welcome. Thanks so much for tuning in today. If you'd like to continue the conversation about blogging with us, please find us on Instagram at Spark Media Concepts. You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter where we share blogging tips and inspiration. You can sign up by finding the link in the show notes. For those of you who are ready for the next step and want to start your

own blog, join the waitlist for the ultimate blog bootcamp. The link to join the waitlist is also in the show notes. Go out and make today a great day.