Need Inspiration?

Last year I read a blog post from Necole Bitchie, telling her story about the road she took to get to where she is today and I was damn near in tears after reading it. I remember retweeting it in hopes that it would touch someone else as much as it did me.  I can honestly say it inspired me to write my post ‘From My Heart To Yours‘. It helped me to understand that everybody has a story and even more that I should tell mine. I get a lot of feedback on my post, about how it inspires and uplifts people (which brings me so much joy & rocks my world!). So I decided to share with you guys something that once inspired me (and still does because my journey isn’t over :))

In the words of Necole Bitchie:

I have just a few things to say…

I know I haven’t checked in in a good minute but I’ve been kind’ve dealing with certain situations and haven’t really felt like talking or blogging about it. I know this blog’s foundation was built around celebrity gossip with just a tad of Necole thrown in every now and then but I’m sure you all would much rather hear about celebrities every day then my lil issues…lol.

Anywho, so last week I flew out to Chicago to take part in the Female Success Factor seminar sponsored by Rolling Out Magazine and Cover Girl Queen Collection. The seminar was targeted towards african american women who were interested in entrepreneurship and the panelist included myself, Chilli (TLC) and Caryn Ward (CW’s The Game).

Well I was under the impression that we would be introducing ourselves briefly and then taking questions and having a panel discussion. Some of the organizers of the event kept asking me throughout the day “Do you have your speech ready” and I kept brushing it off. So imagine the horror at the event when I realized that I would have to go up in front of all those people and say a 10 minute speech that I hadn’t even prepared. My first reaction was “I don’t know these people!” but then I realized that I talk to tens of thousands of people through my site every day. It was the same scenario but only this time I was looking my audience in the face and not hiding behind a computer screen. I looked out in the audience and I see all of these young african american women, that probably were going through testing times and just needed assurance that “it will be okay” and “you will make it”. I remember thinking to myself “If I just touch and inspire one person” than my job here is done.

Unfortunately, not being able to hide behind my computer made me very vulnerable and as I told my story I sort’ve blanked out and had an out of body experience. Somewhere in there I cried. I cried in front of all those people. Necole Bitchie, the girl with this hard exterior and there I was, crying as I told my story. It was just something I had been needing to do for a long time.

When I started the Necole Bitchie website, no one really believed in it. People would say things like “another entertainment site”, “How is yours gonna stand out from all the other sites that are out there”, “what makes you so different?”. It’s alright that people doubted me, because that’s just a natural thing that you will run into in life. And just because people doubt you don’t really mean they don’t believe in you. Alot of times they say things to discourage you from achieving your goals and dreams because they’ve given up on theirs and although the things they say may hurt you, alot of times those things stem from envy. And then there are those people that will discourage you, not because of envy, but because they care about you enough that they don’t want to see you fail.

You see, It was just six months ago I was back at home (in the town I grew up in). I had no money (the IRS came and took all of it). I had no career. I had just walked away from my career in Detroit radio to explore opportunities in New York and unfortunately that didn’t work out exactly as I had planned. I had lost both of my parents by the time I was 23. (So much for making them proud, huh) So I’m sitting in this room at my aunts house thinking to myself “I’ve failed. I’ve truly failed miserably at life. What are people gonna say about me?” and I remember crying for three days straight. I was embarrassed, so much that I didn’t even let my friends know what was going on. They were under the impression I was just visiting my family for the holidays and that I was going back to New York to work at some big job where I was getting PAID. In their eyes I was doin’ it!

So I remember to pass the time away, I started blogging. Anything I could find on celebrities I would write about it and I would add in my little personal blogs (like this one) every now and then. And when people started coming under the blogs and commenting, I was like “oh sh*t!!! i like this. I got friends!!! People really care what I have to say” It’s like, it gave me that little extra push to continue to write and update the blog everyday.

But of course, there is always something or someone that will rain on your parade. My family was consistently taunting me for “always being on the internet”. My aunt, she thought i was a low life that wasn’t doing sh*t with my life so she eventually told me I had a month to find somewhere else to live. So I packed my ish up that day, and there I was going down 95 south on my way to Atlanta. I stopped at friends houses on the way, sleeping on their couches and all the while, I continued to blog and never once did I share what was going on with the readers of Necole Bitchie.com. Looking back, my ass was homeless but there I am still updating because I felt like I had to continue to provide my readers with updated quality content, no matter what my situation was. I learned while interning, whether it be a radio station, record label, accounting firm etc, they don’t care what your situation is at home. They don’t care that you have no money, that you may have walked five miles to get there every day, or that you may have a sick parent at home to take care of. All they care about is your performance while you are there at work, and one slip up and someone else will snag that job that could have been yours.

I’m saying that to say, despite what I was going through in my life I still stayed dedicated to my site because at the end of the day, it was all I had. I had lost everything and I wasn’t about to sit up there and let the one thing that I built and created be snatched away from me.

It’s six months later and I’m not sleeping on any couches anymore. (I’m sleeping on the floor actually). *laughs*. I finally settled into Atlanta and moved into my own place, A place I can call home. My site. Wow ya’ll have really been very supportive is all I can say. Let’s just say I’m amazed when I look at the stats and see all the people that loyally log on every single day. I look at these lists that come out and people have ranked me the #1 fastest growing urban blog on the net as well as have me placed in all sort’s of top 20 urban blog lists with the big dawgs (yea i’m talking the concrete loops, the nahrights and the ybfs). That’s truly amazing to me! I’m not out here trying to be the Number 1 blogger nor did I set out to do so. All I wanted was to have a voice, to continue to be “real” with my readers and to ultimately do something I loved while getting paid for it. I thank Sean and Kieth at Power 92 for allowing me to do entertainment reports on their show as well as Pezo in the Crib at Hot 1079. Kenny Burns who put me on the radio at V103. Rolling Out Magazine for the feature and letting me be on this tour. I was sitting next to Chilli thinking back to when I used to listen to my “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg” tape and now I’m sitting beside her on a panel. Mama I made it! *laughs and cries too* That’s the one thing that hurts the most is knowing the person that would have had your back and supported you the most, won’t be around to share that success with you.

And as for the family member that told me to basically “get gone”, they sent me an email recently that said the following:

What you have gotten all high and mighty you can’t
write nor call anymore what’s up with that. Just a little
wisdom. The same people you met going up the ladder
will be the same ones you’ll met going down.

To say I was hurt when she told me I had to leave her house was an understatement. Especially when I had considered her place the only home I had to go to and she snatched that away from me. I’m not mad though, because it was truly a blessing. It only gave me one option, and that was to make it.

I haven’t responded yet but the gist of how I feel is this. A successful actor is only as good as his supporting cast. In life it’s up to you to choose your supporting cast wisely. So, unfortunately not everyone you expected to be there can take that ride with you. It’s not meant for everyone to join you for the ride and some people you have to just let off at the next stop.

So to my readers, especially those who were here from the start, Thank you for taking that ride with me…

And I just have to say one more thing. Six months ago a person told me “I understand that blogging is your passion but I don’t consider it a real job”. Well guess what, it’s not only my “real job” but it’s my career and it’s opened up far more opportunities than most of the positions I’ve been turned down for would have.

So in a nutshell…

I’m still here, and I ain’t going nowhere…

Don’t ever let anyone steal your shine. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you aren’t worth it, or you won’t make it. If you truly believe in yourself, it doesn’t matter what people think because ultimately no one can stop you, and you will WIN!

i know i have..

~Necole

*sigh* I just read it and got teary-eyed again…but even more inspired! I’m not sure if this will ever reach Necole, but I’ll put it out into the universe that I would like to tell her “thank you”…