What if There's Gold in the Garbage?

Storytime with Kate

For the past 60 days, Ruby and I have made 100 posts on instagram... each. It's a challenge created by Simone Seol called the Garbage Post Challenge.

Ruby and I both felt so burned out on posting on social media after selling our brick and mortar businesses in 2021 that it felt impossible for us to show up for the My Self Study Practice on socials even though Self Study Coaching, the My Self Study Practice Guided Workbook and Journal, and the Self Study Program are all alive and well irl! But you wouldn't know it from the internet.

We both believe in the power of the My Self Study Practice so deeply in our cores that we knew we had to get out of our own way when it came to social media... so we dove in. Whole-body style like we always do.

It's been truly wild.

And here's a recap of what showing up, rain or shine, want to or not, like it or not, 100 times over, has offered me and I hope that in sharing these little lessons, there's one in here that you might need to hear too:

• It can take some trial and error to figure out how to do something new in an authentic way.
• The ways that work and feel good for other people, doesn't mean that's the right way, and it doesn't mean it's the right way... for me.
• There might be an easy-to-use formula, but that doesn't mean it's an easy-to-use formula... for me. It also doesn't make it ethical.
• I prefer relationship building over hooks or marketing or tactics.
• Being misunderstood comes with the territory... and just because someone else doesn't understand me, doesn't mean I'm doing anything wrong.
• Going viral won't necessarily help you meet your goal of finding the people who actually want what you have to offer.
• Sharing openly on the internet has been a gift for me: a practice of reflecting and offering what's coming up for me to people who want to listen is wonderful
• Deciding to be honest requires you to let go of having any control over the outcome. You cannot have both.
• Doing something hard with someone else helps me continue showing up.
• We > me every time
• Self-acceptance is the fastest gateway to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging
• Showing up fully does not mean that everything is nice and fine and rainbows and unicorns. 
• Showing up fully isn't for the faint of heart because you WILL be judged.
• You need people in your corner to remind you that they love you and that other people can be jerks - you don't have to sift through an internet (or irl) troll hurting your feelings alone.

I'm going to break all of this down for you in the themes of the My Self Study Practice. I hope it paints the story of where we started, and where we are now:

Presence: We feel stuck and don't know how to move forward and we also know that the Self Study Practice is IT for both of us.

Acceptance: We both felt afraid of showing up online again. We hired a marketing coach to help us break through the stuck.

Trust: There's a lot of resistance in doing what the coach is telling us to do... we're not sure WHY the resistance, but we do know that what he's telling us doesn't feel right.

Courage: Garbage Post Challenge?! Take away all the barriers and just post something and call that a win?! Fine. We're in. Let's go.

Freedom: Wow we actually don't have to do it the way the coach is telling us to do it and we're both finding our voices again! Having to post so much is also giving us a lot of time to reflect on ourselves and wow we are tender.

Boundaries: ok so posting at night doesn't work... neither does spending two hours on a reel only for instagram to crash... neither does getting super attached to the outcome of the post. Don't hold on to the last one, move on to the next one.

Rest: posting during the day helps me sleep at night. 

Compassion: reflecting on my life like this really felt like a practice of seeing myself more deeply. I'm so grateful for my relationship with Ruby, for my work, and for how doing the next right thing has gotten me here.

Connection & Community: I have a lot of friends who follow me on instagram and that's so great 🙃 also, my friends aren't always the people who want to buy my stuff or hire me as their coach and that's a good thing! But because of what I've been posting, we have about 100 new followers who ARE into what we're posting and who ARE into hiring us! It's been so refreshing to know that what we have to teach and share is being noticed and feels welcome. We belong in this space.

From loneliness to belonging in 200 posts 🧡

onward,

xo,

k