What fears have you overcome and how?

Public Speaking

I have social anxiety, which makes things like public speaking exceptionally challenging. I remember barely finishing a speech in tears in middle school.

I eventually figured out the secret to my success was to pretend, just for that time, that I’m not just some beginner at this subject. I’m an expert. You can ask me anything, and I’ll know the answer. I am competent and confident. I am here to teach you things.

Anxiety medication and stress reduction exercises, especially breathing exercises, help me most beforehand. Once I’m in front of my audience, I’m the Amazing Justine, She Who Knows All.

I don’t know why it works. It just does.

Promoting Myself

The culprit here is imposter syndrome, but the thing is, there are wildly successful authors whose books don’t deserve the hype they get. They get movie deals for movies that are also mediocre.

If they can succeed with that level of inadequacy or mediocrity, I can succeed with whatever I put out there as long as I actually start putting things out there.

I appreciate everyone being with me on this stage of my journey.

Still, I’ve got a good sense of marketing thanks to college. I can pitch myself, my stories, whatever. I’m a lot more confident than I was even a year ago.

Losing Control

All I did was embrace that everything, including me, is its own type of chaos – which really helped with my control issues.

My author Instagram and Threads are both under chaosthequeen because I was just starting to grasp this concept when that IG was created. I was ready to embrace it.

I can’t control everything. It’s chaos. I can only adapt. I, too, am chaos.