The Journey to Marketable Millennial
For whatever reason, you ended up on this page. Here I go at an attempt to explain why I created this page.
The first time I created my own blog was via Xanga in 2003. Pre-pubescent me had no idea what I was doing, but I really enjoyed making glitter images and sharing my Dollz Mania creations with other folks on the interwebz.
Then comes MySpace soon afterward, and I began to truly see social media in action. I put things out into the world, I read what others are putting out into the world, I engage, I react, we create. My call to fame was creating Rockstarr Layouts, a "layouts page" that quickly grew into a community of more than 18,000 fans who used my profile designs, indulged in chatter with one another, participated in contests, and joined my many rants of being a teenager. Rest in Peace, darling.
With the demise of MySpace, came Twitter, Tumblr and good-ol Facebook. While these were great publishing platforms, it was never enough for me. How was I supposed to complain in under 140-characters? Was that subtle image enough to get my point across? What the heck is a status update anyway?
I needed more.
Years later, I created my very first blog: Don't Cry Over Spilled Green Tea. This space was intended to give my virtual soap box a little more room to truly story tell. As you can imagine, since I'm not an internet influencer with an audience of a million, every attempt at blogging quickly became overshadowed by all the offline work I was doing. Each time I got far, I stopped because #life. I'm not mad about it. I gave myself room to create the life I wanted for myself and all my early experiences with social media and the digital space fueled my career. It gave way to creating my personal mission:
Using communications as a vehicle to advocate for, and uplift, people, ideas and movements.
This decade+ long story turned as-short-as-can-be, is here to tell you why I'm back to blogging. I have a voice, and I still want to use it. But now I have a purpose and that's pushing me to give my voice a new platform to help fulfill my mission. After years of working among some of the best leaders, changers and thinkers, I am also now inspired to use these stories to encourage others toward finding their voice.
What's this page going to be about anyway?
Let's start with the basics: There's Thoughts and there's Lifestyle.
Thoughts: The rants, the epiphanies and the thoughts that help fuel my path. This is where we'll really get to talking about how to live and thrive as a millennial.
Lifestyle: Giving the people what they asked for. The places, experiences and things that make up my everyday life. The soft news, for lack of a better word.
What you're seeing to-date is a series of past published lifestyle articles traced to my freelance posts, old blogs and other internet ramblings. My short-term goal is to get back in the rhythm of long-form content and find what my audience wants to hear more about. In the future, I hope to grow this into a community to not only tell my story, but to make it a place where others can also share theirs.
Why "Marketable Millennial"?
When I sat down and thought about what people truly think of me for, it's been career or millennial advice.
Marketable: I knew what I "wanted to be" earlier than most, and I thrived at it (#selfpromo). This meant others were seeking my advice when it came to similar chapters of their lives, and I've loved being able to share my story to help others grow in their field. I built a brand around myself and want to help others do the same via their triumphs.
Millennial: Time and time I've been dubbed the "token millennial" or "expert millennial" among my companies or friend groups. This all really translates to my ability to understand people and live as an early-adopter. I'm not any smarter than the other millennial you know, I just have a special way of observing, translating and looking ahead. The things I want to talk about are made for my generation (Disclaimer: Hey, it's a 20 year gap so forgive me if things are not always 100% relevant to you).
And the reality is that many of you out there are "marketable millennials." You are the exception to the stereotype, you are the stories we want to talk about, and you are setting an example for the generations that come after us.
Let's continue this journey together.