My interior design blog is nominated for a Liebster Award!

My blog was nominated for a Liebster Award! I know what you're thinking, what the heck is a Liebster Award? Before I get into that, I thought this might be a great time to talk about my journey.Yep, I'm gonna get all cliché on ya, and call it a journey because that's absolutely what it's been.I spent almost 15 years in marketing, which I started as a graphic designer. I continued down this marketing path, because I kept convincing myself it didn't make sense to throw my years of experience down the drain. Problem was...I wasn't happy. And most days I felt like a fraud. But then you hear about "imposter syndrome" and you start to wonder if that's all the anxious feeling is.

Thanks boss for giving me the pink slip...

That's right. I instantly felt thankful when I lost my job last November. I actually said "I really think this is best for you and for me." In between tears of course, because...well, I'm a crier.The six months leading to me losing my job had been absolutely terrible for me. Not because it wasn't a great work environment, because it was. My boss was great, we had a ping pong table, beer, wine, the whole nine. But deep down my body kept telling me I was on the wrong path. I was getting panic attacks at work and I wasn’t sleeping. Oh, and there were tears. So many tears.I kept thinking I was going to lose my job, and I kept telling Dave, my partner, I would. The universe finally gave me what I asked for. You know the old saying 'thoughts become reality'. Turns out, our thoughts and our words are insanely powerful.That's the thing about the universe it has a way of giving you exactly what you need, exactly when you need it.Like I said, I definitely shed some tears, in front of my boss, in true "Michelle form" (definitely wasn't the first time he saw me cry). But just as quickly as I shed those tears, I wiped them and decided to finally follow my passion for interior design and forge this new amazing path (see I told you it was a journey!).And just like that I decided to start my new blog and interior design business. The best part was the unconditional support I got from my partner, my in-laws and my friends and family. I couldn't be more grateful for them!

My five year plan, became my right now plan...

Holy f%!#.Sure, it felt right and for the first time in 15 years, I felt confident. But you better believe I was also terrified. And still am.But I ignored the fear, I signed up for an online interior design course, and I launched my website, portfolio and this blog.Here's the thing about this blog. When I started, I promised myself I would be completely and unapologetically myself. It's scary let me tell ya. But it's also incredibly therapeutic. It started with my first post '10 fun yet totally irrelevant facts about me' and somewhere along the way I decided that making videos and posting them on the Internet for the world to see would be a good idea.Turns out, it was.This has probably the scariest thing I've done so far. I didn't care about what strangers would think, but what the people I know think? But there's this quote I heard (wish I could remember where) that has always stuck with me. Probably because I have it printed and posted it on my wall...This is something I try to remind myself of every day. And after reading the quote on my wall, I decided to hit "publish" on my first video.Something amazing happened. Something bigger than me following my dreams. I finally started to figure out who I am, and what it's like to be my true self.But you know what's even crazier? I've never felt more confident in my life!I'm starting to feel like I should have been nominated for the "cheese award". Whatever.

Last week was tough...

Ok, so even if I'm feeling totally on the right track, I'm bound to have bad weeks, where I doubt myself. Last week I finally had a moment of rest, when my mother came to visit. And I think my brain decided it was time to doubt all the things I was doing. It was all... "What are you doing Michelle? Are you sure you can do this? Bla bla bla. I'm tired. I should nap, bla bla bla".The result was me completely feeling unmotivated and struggling to get out of bed.Remember, when I said earlier that the universe has a way of giving you exactly what you need, exactly when you need it (obviously, I just said it...).

Enter the universe, in disguise...

Late last week I got a message from Katie Momo of brilliantmediamarketing.com, saying she wanted to nominate me for the Liebster Award! She said she loves interior design and loves my blog.Oh ma ga!I was sooooo excited, it felt so amazing to have someone say they loved my blog. A huge thank you to Katie for her kind words, it really means so much to me!

So, who is this Katie Mofo, errr I mean Momo?

I mean, other than the universe disguised as a petite blond entrepreneur? Katie is a Social Media Strategist, who helps grow businesses through digital marketing and social media management.Her blog is packed with lots of amazing tips and tricks to run a killer business. If you're curious about why you should treat your business the same way you treat your hair, then definitely check out this post! I love how relatable her posts are, and the interesting spin she puts on them.

What is the Liebster Award?

It's an award that is presented to bloggers by other bloggers, such a great concept to have peers recognizing each other! To accept the nomination, I do have a series of challenges (see them in the offish rules below). One of them is to post a blog about my favourite blog, which is hands down Amber Interiors, click here to read more about this amazing designer.

My blog nominations coming soon to a universe near you.

See what I did there? I'll be nominating 5-11 bloggers for this award as well! I love that I can pay it forward.[line]

The Offish Rules

If you have been nominated for The Liebster Awardand and you choose to accept it, write a blog post about the Liebster Award in which you:

1. Thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog. Try to include a little promotion for the person who nominated you. They will thank you for it and those who you nominate will also help you out as well.
2. Display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.) At the bottom of this post I’ve included a whole lot of images you can use for your 2016 Liebster Award.
3. For the 2016 Liebster Award I will be shaking things up! Write a 150-300 word post about your favourite blog that is not your own. Explain why you like the blog, provide links.
4. Provide 10 random facts about yourself. (This year I’m making this optional. If you wish to engage with your readers it’s a great idea to include random facts about you.)
5. Nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 200 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!)
6. List these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here.) Once you have written and published it, you then have to:
7. Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post or mine if you don’t have all the information so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)