Stand in Your Light
Why doubling down on your natural gift is the most sustainable decision you can make for your creativity & wellness.
There’s nothing I love more than peeling back the layers of something that inspired me to see what it’s made of and then remixing it into something that shifts how people see themselves. I live to dissect, decode, and re-serve information in a way that’s both motivational and perspective-shifting. Especially when it sits at the intersection of intellectual and creative. That’s my gift, my playground and where I feel the most alive.
Taking a passing trend and turning it into a cultural framework or flipping a moment into a metaphor is second nature to me. But for most of my career, I didn’t share that part of myself. I was one of those IYKYK creatives : known in real life but unless someone personally introduced me, you would have no clue what I did. Not because I wasn’t talented, but because I didn’t think the way I thought was valuable so I barely shared it.
I assumed that because it came so easy, it didn’t count as a real talent and because there was no title, structure, or certificate for it, it didn’t feel legit. ← That’s the trap a lot of naturally talented creatives fall into. When something flows naturally, we assume it’s not special. We confuse alignment with laziness and convince ourselves it doesn’t matter unless we have to struggle a little.
Here’s what this newsletter will cover :
• A 5-step plan to help you stand in your light with clarity and confidence
• Why ease isn’t laziness, it’s actually your most aligned signal
• The psychology behind why we downplay our gifts (and how to rewire that thinking)
• My personal story about public speaking, and the moment I realized I’d been hiding my light in plain sight
Life is hard. Your gift is supposed to be easy.
I don’t know if it’s a Saggitarius thing or what, but I convinced myself that if something didn’t bring me to the brink of crashing out at least once, then it wasn’t valuable. If I didn’t sweat, overthink, or get anxious about an idea then it wasn’t good enough. I didn’t even realize how deep that belief was until I caught myself brushing off the things I’m actually great at just because they come easy.
Turns out I’m not crazy, there’s a name for that. It’s called the effort justification effect. Basically, humans tend to believe that the more effort something takes, the more valuable it must be. And when it comes to dating? I’m not mad at that logic. A man should work to court a women. He should put in effort, show up with intention, and prove he’s serious. Because when people work for something, they tend to value it more.
But that mindset doesn’t translate the same way when it comes to your creativity. If you constantly make your creative process harder just to feel like it’s “worth it,” you’re not building discipline, you’re building distance from your natural gift. You start to center your struggle, not the skill. The thing that comes easiest to you is what you should be leading with not running from. It’s the most creatively efficient decision you can make for your mental health. It’s not a red flag. It’s your inner compass.
Which brings me to one of the most underrated moments in pop culture history…
What’s your “Blue Sweater”?
You remember that scene in The Devil Wears Prada where Miranda Priestly obliterates Andy over her “blue sweater”? Andy thinks she just threw on a random top from a pile, and Miranda hits her with one of the most intellectual reads ever captured on film:
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“That blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs, and it’s sort of comical that you think you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry, when in fact… you’re wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room, from a pile of stuff.”
That’s exactly what it’s like when you’re talented and don’t even realize how refined your instincts are. You think you're just doing your thing, meanwhile, you’ve been wearing cerulean. You’ve been carrying taste, vision, perspective, and ease but brushing it off because it didn’t feel “hard” enough.
That was me with speaking. I’ve always had the ability to walk into a room, grab a mic, and turn a chaotic brainstorm into a clear, aligned idea with no script, no stuttering, and no sweat.
But I never led with it professionally. Before last week, you’d barely see it on my Instagram unless someone else recorded it because like I said earlier, in my mind, it didn’t count if I didn’t suffer for it.
The truth is speaking is my light. And I was standing next to it, not in it.
So let me ask you this, What’s your version of that blue sweater? What are you wearing every day, creating every week, speaking on, etc without even thinking that you’ve been undervaluing simply because it doesn’t feel like a fight?
Creative Wellness Starts Where You Shine
If you’ve been feeling off, burnt out, or like something isn’t clicking, I want you to pause and ask: Am I standing in my light? Or are am I standing off to the side? Because those are two very different things.
Creative sustainability doesn’t come from chasing trends or forcing output. It comes from building from your core, the part of you that’s already rooted and planted firmly beneath the surface.
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