In a nutshell, the “brand” of “Nicole Goes Interesting” was inspired by two YouTube videos… But there’s SO much more to the story.
I originally thought my brand would be called “Successfully Myself” where I’d focus on self-improvement as a niche. I even registered for a domain name on Bluehost, and paid for it for years without doing anything.
Yes, the date is correct. I wanted to become a blogger in 2014!!!!!!!! I think I wrote maybe 3-4 blog posts and just saved them as a draft on my WordPress site. That’s as far as my commitment went, and I let the domain expire in 2017.
In 2019, I was about to quit my full-time job and go ALL IN on my new travel blog, “Coffee Cup Quest.” This was around the time that my coffee addiction started, and I was not in the greatest place mentally. I was struggling with loneliness and binge eating disorder. I wanted to go on a quest to discover the best coffee and views that Canada had to offer, and also to discover myself. Most of all, I wanted to finally achieve my goal of starting and running a blog.
Another $100+ later, my Coffee Cup Quest account was well, not exactly set up… But paid for. I even bought a paid theme from ThemeForest. I am nowhere near “tech savvy,” so anytime I’d hit a roadblock in WordPress, I’d give up.
I caved into an offer with my job that I could not refuse, and by no means do I regret that decision. By accepting the offer, I got to accomplish two big goals of mine that I was originally willing to sacrifice for my blogging quest. I am glad I didn’t though, because everything happens for a reason, and I grew enormously as a person because of that job.
Needless to say, Coffee Cup Quest was not “motivating enough” for me to do on the side. In reality, I was just too narrow thinking.
I couldn’t figure out what my “niche” was going to be with it. Coffee, travelling and self-discovery is way too broad! …At least that’s what social media kept telling me.
…Until I saw this video of Gary Vee telling a young man with similar concerns to mine that “Your niche is you as a human.” You can watch the video here (start at 3:00 if short on time). Honestly, I felt an immense amount of liberation when I listened to Gary’s advice.
I hated the idea of having to only share one sliver of my life. If I focused only on coffee, I couldn’t show cute pictures of my fur babies. I couldn’t share a recent home renovation that I was proud of. I already felt boxed in without having started. That is why it wasn’t “motivating enough.”
Gary’s video made me realize that my brand needed to include me. So, I decided that Nicole had to be a part of it. Many Youtubers I followed for years just recently re-branded to just their name.
I wanted my visitors to be curious about the name of my site, and I didn’t feel like “Nicole Macpherson” gave them much.
I then watched this video by Vanessa Van Edwards. You NEED to watch it!! Literally everything she described about uninteresting people was me to a T.
I feared I wasn’t interesting…
I was very lazy…
I watched Netflix every single day… and
I expected others to make conversation and plans with me.
Vanessa concluded her video with: “If you want to be interesting, put some work into it!!”
And “Nicole Goes Interesting” was born.
This time I decided to sleep on the name before I committed another $100+ to my registration, because we all now know my track record.
Every time I put on my Netflix show that night, the back of my mind was shouting, “FIGHT THE LAZY, BE INTERESTING.” I’ll be real with you, I couldn’t yet fight the urges to watch the next episode of Big Brother, but it was a start.
Baby steps.
Well, there we have it. Three domain names, hundreds of dollars, and seven eight years later, I now have a blog with actual published posts.
I hope this can serve as motivation and reassurance that if you are in a rut, you can get out of it.
It may take some time, but do not give up on yourself and your dreams. Most importantly, don’t put yourself in a box.
….I highlighted in red what I planned to write since I was so convinced I was actually at a time in my life where I would follow through with my blogging dream. Unfortunately, I hit more roadblocks and gave up before I did publish anything. It is now another year later, making it EIGHT years of “trying.”
The voice saying, “be interesting” still lingers every single day, but I have yet to figure out a bulletproof way to listen to it. My ultimate goal with my blog and my brand is to be REAL. Even when sometimes it might be embarrassing, shameful, and disappointing. The reality is, though, we are all human and are far from perfect.