moving the needle: jamie grimstad lifestyle blogger and creative consultant
(photo credit: jamie grimstad)
jamie grimstad started her blogging career in 2013 during the rise of what are now known as “influencers.” her platform jamiegrimstad.com is a creative hub that runs the gamut covering everything from health and fitness to beauty and fashion while incorporating individual stories of people, places and things. jamie shares with “the void” her personal struggle of developing a platform that no one truly understood and overcoming her own personal obstacles on her journey to success in her career.
the void: what was your biggest fear starting on your path and how did you overcome it?
jamie grimstad: i started my blog super young, around the time when the term “influencer” as we know it now didn’t really exist. people were really confused what i was doing and it was hard to explain it to them. i was in high school at the time, and really trying to put myself out there…and i don’t know why but a lot of people kind of treated it like a joke.
i think that it was the hardest for me to have my peers (and friends) question what it was i was trying to do, and constantly make fun me for it—even though it was probably in a joking way. people would always be like, “oh, why do you keep posting with all of those hashtags?”—and people still do this…maybe because they don’t understand the industry? i still haven’t figured it out.
with that being said, i think the biggest challenge for me was getting into a mindset where i didn’t really care about all the noise around me. what i mean by that is: in order to succeed, you have to believe in yourself; you have to have so much passion for whatever you are working on that it pushes you forward, no matter what people are saying. yes, of course, being young can sometimes be a disservice: agencies and brands are skeptical about your work ethic, your following that is “not quite developed,” etc…but then the satisfaction comes when you begin to prove people wrong.
the void: failures happen. what made you pick yourself up and believe in yourself when it felt impossible?
jamie grimstad: going into my freshman year of college—and for about a year after that—i kind of lost myself a bit. i was recruited to columbia’s xc/t&f team and within 5-6 months realized that it wasn’t the right path for me. i made a huge decision to quit the team, but following, became sort of paralyzed in a way—from running, from doing the things that i love doing, from working on developing the brand that i had begun to create in high school. while i did things here and there, my life was so different during those two years. my confidence was so low and my mental health was not in great shape—and it was hard to come to terms with that.
this year, however, i realized how sick i was of people constantly comparing me to my “old self,” of people constantly questioning whether i was still running or still blogging. while i felt like i had failed myself during the past year and a half, i finally decided that it was time to turn things around.
this summer, a close family member asked me to train for the tcs ny marathon with him [november 5, 2017]. the thought of saying yes was intimidating but i stepped back and was like, “f*ck it, i’m just going to do it.” on top of that, i decided that i would simultaneously do a major push with brand building, consulting, etc…i really just needed to get back on it.
deciding to do the marathon has been such an exciting journey—especially since i have been training with my dad all the while. i never thought that this would be something that i would do, or that i would be here today doing it. but, hey, i ran 20 miles last sunday on a training run and was like, “wow. this is amazing. i can do this.” that was such an important moment for me because i proved myself wrong.
i have realized more than ever that nothing is impossible—you have to just want what you’re striving for and believe that you can reach your goal, whatever it may be. if you go through life doubting yourself all of the time, you limit yourself, you limit your potential to grow and prove yourself wrong. a huge part of this is to just stop letting people get in your head, stop letting people tell you you aren’t good enough, that you can’t do something, that you don’t have it in you.
stop listening to all the noise because in the end, its your mindset and your motivation that matter most.
make sure to follow jamie @jamiegrimstad and check out her blog here!
(photo credit: jamie grimstad)