Feb 13

Feb 13 Less and Less of IG

I love social media; I hate it so much. It’s a both/and for me. I think it’s an excellent tool to inspire our lives with beautiful ideas and concepts, places to go, and ways to live; I believe it’s a wildly toxic atmosphere for so many. I love scrolling it, but I professionally don’t love keeping up with it, at least for Fortitude. My more prominent career lives here, and for Élan (said career), I love platforms like Instagram. It’s a really lovely way to promote commercial storytelling photography and creative marketing for my clients. It offers them beneficial exposure, and creating content for it feels dreamy.

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

I was sitting at a cafe table in a weird coffee shop in Monument, Colorado, when I first learned about Instagram. My friend said, “It’s so cool; you can follow blogger’s lives and see what they’re up to daily.” I looked at her, completely baffled, and expressed my confusion about why anyone would want to watch someone day to day and, more so, why they’d want to put their lives on display to the world.

ROLLING YOUR EYES? Me too…

But like any good millennial would— here we are. With pieces of my life fully filleted, others semi-revealed, and much of it left somewhere in the wind. The standards of the algorithm- ugh, who’s the sickest of this phrase? It makes things more complex and less enjoyable. There was a time when so many of my “followers” loved my songs over my videos, then IG made it difficult because honey, if a song isn’t “trending,” your video isn’t getting seen, and if your content isn’t being seen what value is it adding to your collaborators? So much of the quickest changing portion of it was happening while my personal life was going through unexpected upheaval and with a literal baby and a toddler close to my side often and oh a pandemic was doing a number on my insides.. I didn’t have the time/energy/capcity to keep up. The followers who stumbled upon Fortitude and loved that space no longer saw me easily because—?? Who knows. IG just hides people haha... But most of all, above all the agitations as a content creator, to be honest, I’m just feeling more and more similar to my originations of being a bit private.

BEGINNING, MIDDLE, END?

At times, I have likened myself to a baby boomer——-stay with me in terms of the way I held business. I was raised to be efficient and to work like hell. I built a business using a creative medium (an anomaly in my family)— photography, and my company doubled in business for the first three years. I found what I felt was success and felt great. By the time I left NY (having worked for another company) I realized I needed to get my sh*t together with my brand work. Since I’d originally started my company I saw that social media had created an expectation of exposure to any creative person's life, and I was feeling very vulnerable. In my BB state, work and vulnerabilities didn't belong in the same room. Those who followed along through Facebook and, in real-time, were my close friends, family, or clients who had likely become friends. And while so many knew a portion of things, so few understood the inner workings of my heart and mind; to spill it publicly felt too uncomfortable and unreconcilable. So I started Fortitude and Finn. A place completely separate from Élan where I could potentially feel fine saying the things I felt without feeling like I was spouting to clients or making my family/friends entangl further into my big thoughts and feelings. IG wasn't suggesting friends to anyone then, and I could then get more comfortable with my voice here. I wanted Fortitude to articulate the stories of life that perhaps could help spare someone of ache or strain along the way.

It took me a while to find my lane… to even realize I needed a specific lane. I did the mom-blogging thing for a while, then payed attention to how compromised I felt putting the kids face on a public account. I dabbled with network marketing. I did a myriad of stories covering several different things. And then, I realized the area I felt added the most value to others and that I enjoyed most was, how we host. It’s allowed space for meaningful connection time and time again. I’ve had really intimate gatherings and a mixed bag of more broad events. I’ve been able to tie companies together that usually wouldn’t be, as well as people. This has all held beauty. It holds beauty. This piece isn’t leaving. But I’m changing the approach….

WITHOUT YOU, I’M NOT SURE HOW I COULD’VE EXPERIENCED THIS 👇

I am formally folding Instagram’s version of Fortitude and Finn into my Boutique Creative Studio, allowing a creative universe called, The Elan Studio, to concert my efforts and concentrate on my company's overall creative marketing vitality.

My work on social media and in the physical space has been to tell a story through photography that I didn't know I'd ever get to procure, develop, and share in the ways I have. Fortitude and Finn came from a wanting to draw people together through sharing stories—it grew into much more, gathering humans that likely wouldn't otherwise coincide through dinners and preceded by overlapping interests in visual assets. I've represented companies as an ambassador for global brands, and my company has active imagery in massive ad campaigns.

When I rebranded @theelanstudio a few years ago it helped articulate the type of storytelling I'd be specializing in for companies and business owners. This rebranding made my two spaces merge seamlessly. Something, I wasn’t sure of how to do. It was as though the development I'd experienced through working with these large scale companies in an intimate way that naturally exposed to me how my two business concepts would marry.

The Elan Studio will now home content centered around Storytelling through connectivity and visuals that convey my clients and the art of expansive togetherness.

HOW TO STAY CONNECTED WITH ME, KARE, AND INTENTIONAL INFORMATION AROUND HOSTING, HOME + RECIPES— STORIED LIFE.

Most of Fortitudes content will be dished up through this blog, my newsletters but I’ll be focusing my primary intentions through Substack channels. Your support there means so much to me. There is a free publication that comes out each week, as well as a paid version. What’s the difference between the free and paid subscription? I like to keep free posts quick bullets that help enhance life. The paid posts are more spanning—more details and links, more stories around life’s unfolding, and prompts and direction around building relationships in a really full way. By joining me in the paid subscriptions I’m able to give a more intentional experience to you.We can basically text each other here, q&a vibes, a ping, whatever you need. It lets us co-mingle a little sweeter. I’m kicking off an intro chat today. Would love to see you there.