Calling your voice? Tired of leaving yet A-N-O-T-H-E-R message after the beep?

I get it. I get it. Fitting in is exhausting. Plus, it leads to ice cream + one too many sangrias.

Now, letting go of who you think you should be to embrace who you are isn’t a Gondola ride either. Voicing a controversial opinion + sharing a new creation + trying something new that you still haven’t mastered is scary pants. The brown bag please.

Those Chicken Soup for The Teenage Soul Book’s that told you, “Be you, everyone else is taken”, forgot to add the warning label: Caution: When you go against the grain + put yourself (and your work) out into the world your feelings will get hurt + you may experience shame + fear.

True. No point in Splenda coating it. Standing your ground + owning your story is hard but not nearly as difficult as spending your life in hiding.

So, if you’re feeling audacious, here’s little dose of Friday Video Time to help knock some eye rolls + “Who does she think she is” whispers off a cliff.

how about you?

Do you have some voice-finding-anti-people-pleasing pointers of your own? Sweet! Plug them in the comments below. Be my guest… be my guest, put your brilliance to the test.

xo,

Mayi Carles

Enthusiam. En·thu·si·asm (n-thz-zm)

n.

1. Great excitement for or interest in a subject or cause.
2. The realization that it’s, in fact, Friday Video Time.
3. ALL CAPS + exclamation points in your sentences!!!
4. The feeling you experience from pealing that thin plastic film off new electronics.
5. What you need to make one of these videos, every week.

Warning: These definitions may or may not come from an official source. But hey! you’re still here, instead that Wikepedia-ing their validity, which proves my point: No one has time for boring anymore.

So how do we unlearn to be boring? How do we un-school ourselves from years of “Don’t make that sound!” + “Elbows underneath the table!” + “Paint goes inside the lines!”?

The Anatomy of Enthusiam will surely be the title of my first New York Times Best Seller but in the meantime let’s work on the opening act, shall we? Let’s heart-storm some clues as to where enthusiasm comes from + how you can use it to avenge the trolls that get in the way of our metaphorical Mario Bros. Princess.

My unwritten masterpiece with no agent or book deal might take a while, so if I were you I would hit play to get the advanced sneak preview. If anything… I promise it won’t make you yawn.

answer this

What things are you enthusiastic about, but feel are “silly” or “wrong” to be excited by because you’re an adult? I want to turn the comments of this post into a personal declarations of enthusiasm. With your help. Don’t be shy I get VERY VERY excited about getting the perfect Lucky charms to ratio.

xo,

Mayi Carles

True tale: Found a battalion of eggplants in my fridge this morning. Pondered: “I can’t freeze them. I don’t think I can juice them. What am I gonna do with these?”

I Googled.

A Baked Eggplant Parmesan link popped up. I start salivating.

Clicked on the link. No pictures. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

Next.

Couldn’t get pass the pic with a flash. I mean, have you seen how radioactive food looks with a flash?

After 5 rounds of clicking + whining, I’m basically about to lose it. Mayi’s hungry people. H-A-M-B-R-E!

Lightbulb goes on: You Tube. Cue the celestial soundtrack. That’s where I met Dani Spies. Where have you been all my life girlfriend? Her clean twist on yo’ mama’s Eggplant Parmesan had me at play.

Made it. Ate it. Danced the champion song. That’s when I had the revelation: People wanna see how you do it!

Sure they like how to’s. Bullet points + checklists are nice too. Pretty pictures without flash are super. But sometimes, most times, people just want you to show them, not tell them, how it gets done. Skip the advice + the tips + the tricks. Show me, please!!!

Now, this goes against everything I’ve been thought + know to be true. Mayi, that’s me talking to myself, “You don’t give people the fish, you show them how to fish so they never go hungry again. Right?” Right.

That’s years of Catholic School for ya’.

But what if (stay with me for a sec), what if instead of giving people the 1 2 3′s + recommending them what fishing gear to get or empowering them to find their own fishing style, I just show them how I do it. Follow along. Like karaoke.

At first, I suspect they will just copy. Copying is bad, but not if you’re baking Eggplant Parmesan for hubby or not launching an Eggplant Parmesan e-book tomorrow.

First attempts are scary, so we’re tempted to follow the instructions word for word. But practice seeds confidence – confidence to break the rules + play + experiment + tweak a little something here + whoops why not add some carrots there. Bam!

We don’t stay amateur for very long when we admire our mentors. We honor their guidance by making up our own recipe.

Until now, I’ve only shown you how to fish. Today, for the first time E-V-E-R I want to show you exactly how I fish, so you can copy me, if you want. So you can practice with a life vest or like we call them around here “flotis”. So you can reach confident. So you can find your voice. So you can make it yours.

Your own is good.

To start the show not tell saga, I’m letting your inside my entire pre Friday Video Time ritual. Ta daaa…

i want to hear from you

Was this helpful? Did you like it? Was this crazy? Am I crazy? Okay don’t answer that last one.

vlogging 101 series

As promised, here are the links to my FREE video making mini course:

• Prep Work (video + worksheet)
• Live + Camera + Action (video + worksheet)
• Editing Magic (video + worksheet)
• Finding Your Voice (video + worksheet)
• 5 Fresh Ideas to Make Your Video (More) Awesome (video)

xo,

Mayi Carles