Holly Becker on Finding Your Voice with Hope and Positivity

I’m so excited to welcome Holly Becker of decor8 and Blogging your Way to the show this week, where we talk about finding your voice with hope and positivity. Holly started her blog, decor8, ten years ago when she was in design school as a way to document her inspiration around design and interiors. In addition, Holly is the best selling author of three books within the “Decorate” series, with a forth title coming out in September. Holly is also the founder of the popular “Blogging Your Way” ecourses, where she has taught over 9,000 students worldwide. We hope you enjoy this episode on finding your voice with hope and positivity with Holly Becker.

It was wonderful getting to chat with Holly. I’ve taken her classes and have always been so impressed with her passion, her dedication to teaching, and the way she actively works to reach each student, and inspire them to find their own voice. It was amazing getting to speak to her about how she got her start, and soak in her inspiring words about hope and positivity. And, what fun to discover we both had spent time being project managers, only to get a nudge from the universe to get back on track to what we both really love to do.

Here’s what Holly and I talk about in this episode:

(3:12) Holly’s early sparks of joy as a child: teaching bears and dolls, writing, and decorating with her Mom
(5:15) Holly speaks about her two companies: decor8, which is geared towards everything around decorating one’s home and blogging your way, which teaches bloggers about writing, styling, and photography for their blog and social media
(6:20) the detour that Holly’s life took, at age 17, when her parents went through a painful divorce, putting some of her goals on hold as she started working fulltime to support her mother
(7:30) Holly’s shares about her early roles out of (and during) college as an HR Manager, Project Manager, and space planner
(8:00) the nudge that the universe gave Holly in a planning meeting that pushed her back towards her dreams of decorating, design, and interior work and
(9:00) How timing and lightbulb moments play a big part in when we choose to make change in our life, and how we realize who we are meant to be
(10:30) My reflections on having been a “Blogging Your Way” student, and how Holly encourages people to find their own voice (it’s all about getting clear on who you are, and what inspires you)
(13:45) How “heart and passion” come into what Holly does in Blogging Your Way, and how she shares and connects with people in her personal and professional life
(15:00) The power of hope, and the power of knowing that there is something bigger out there, and that each person has the ability to change their life and make themselves happy.
(17:00) holding on to hope, and following joy is important because it makes you happy in the interim, and leads you down a path of experiencing new things
(17:40) The inspiration that led Holly to start blogging 10 years ago while she was studying interior design – to start writing about the work she loved so she could share her work with magazines. For many, this path involves Choosing WordPress or Wix these days, but the landscape was different 10 years ago.
(20:00) What it takes to practice courage as you go after the thing that inspires you, especially in being an entrepreneur (“if you suck, or if you thrive, you can’t blame your boss, it’s you.”)
(25:00) Holly’s advice and thoughts on how to create a great blog (go listen to this part!!)
(30:00) The journey of finding your voice and purpose, and that it doesn’t happen overnight
(31:00) A reminder that even though we see people online, and they are influencers, that no one is perfect, no matter how they present themselves on line, and everyone starts somewhere. What matters is what YOU are doing, and try to look at your time blogging as something special you’re doing for yourself.
(35:00) How to keep going at blogging, even though it seems like “everyone is already saying what I’m saying” (and how to get over that)
(37:00) Holly’s thoughts on how to bring your dream into action (sit with your idea for a while, and form a support structure around your idea)
(39:30) How to Jump Start Joy in your life

Holly has a few upcoming events that she wanted to be sure I shared with you. #Instapower, her class on using Instagram, will be running July 8-15, and registration opens today (May 10, 2016)! It will focus on how to kick butt on Instagram – from growing your audience, finding your Insta-style, taking great photos, styling your photos, choosing your content, networking, monetization, etc. If you can’t wait that long to grow your Instagram audience and you would like to see quick results, you could always get in touch with Social Follow who have experience in helping you get more insta followers to your profile. You may want to wait until you’ve heard what Holly has to say first before introducing any of these ‘audience growing’ methods. You can register by clicking here: Blogging Your Way

And, there are a few upcoming events where you can meet Holly, in person, and get a copy of her upcoming book. In September, she will be at Anthropologie in London, to celebrate the launch of her upcoming book. If you’re interested in getting info around that (along with the date, when it’s released), you can follow her blog or Instagram. Also, she will be speaking and signing books on October 1 in Amsterdam at Meet The Blogger, and you can register at at meettheblogger.eu for that. She will be speaking on the topic of “Collaborations Mean Growth” for 45 minutes then there will be a Q+A session.

Resources

Holly’s blog: decor8
Blogging Your Way: Holly’s Ecourses
Holly on Instagram
Holly on Facebook
Decorate: 1,000 Design Ideas for Every Room in Your Home (Holly’s 1st book, which came out in 2011 on Amazon)
Decorate Workshop: Design and Style Your Space in 8 Creative Steps (Holly’s 2nd book, which came out in 2012, on Amazon)
Decorate with Flowers (Holly’s 3rd book, which came out in 2014, on Amazon)

A special thank you to Holly for joining me this week, and for sharing her heart and her passion with all of us. Thank you!

How have you followed your heart to do work that lights you up? Let me know in the comments.