We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Angel Krause a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Angel, so great to be with you and I think a lot of folks are going to benefit from hearing your story and lessons and wisdom. Imposter Syndrome is something that we know how words to describe, but it’s something that has held people back forever and so we’re really interested to hear about your story and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
I think the short answer is, I don’t. I believe in normalizing these things in anyone’s journey. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves as humans sometimes and rather than being hard on ourselves for feeling like we are an imposter, I think we should embrace it as part of the journey. There was a time where we wouldn’t allow ourselves the chance to have a reason to call ourselves imposters. So the fact that we have something out in the world proves we’ve already overcome a fear we had to get out to begin with. I work to embrace the negative and use it to encourage myself and others to do the same. Ignoring those feelings or pretending like they aren’t normal is a less healthier way of accepting success. Everyone’s journey looks different, but everyone has doubts. I find inspiration in that.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am a horror YT creator and horror writer. The writer part is a bit new, so sometimes it feels odd even saying that. Our horror channel is built to be the most diverse horror experience online. We do reviews, gaming, books, interviews, collaborations, etc. If you have a love of anything horror, you can find it on our channel. I’ve been writing on and off my whole life but never really had the courage to put out writing until 2023. I had a story acceptance in 2022, but my first publication of just me wasn’t until Nov of 2023.
I think the most exciting part about what I do is the conversations and the community. My co host and I work hard to build a safe and collaborative space for anyone that is a fan of the horror genre. I think with the internet being such a scary place and people being, well, not the greatest; it is important to us to be a place people know they can go and find safety and joy. That will always be, I think, what makes Voices so special. When I started publishing anthologies, including other people’s works, I found it to be such a rewarding experience to work with authors that other publications haven’t given a chance to. I’ve met incredible people being in the writing scene and it has been an absolute blast to grow with these amazing humans.
Currently a dear friend of mine is working with me to collect stories for an epistolary zombie anthology. We are pretty excited to get that closed and worked on soon. That will be released in May, because May is zombie awareness month. As far as content, we have a lot of series that are continuing. We host the first ever horror morning talk show called ‘The Coffee Crypt’. The series you can find on our channel are Found Footage Fridays, Horror Movie Remakes & Continuations, Horror Video Game Adaptations, Influential Horror, Horror Television Series, and more. The newest series I’m doing is a mini series with horror author Cat Voleur, where we dive into all the horror games (think like Bloody Mary) she has played in real life. It has been such a blast hearing her stories of all the spooky details of things she has experienced. I’m always so grateful to all the wonderful people who do content with us.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I think for me, the three biggest things are I wanted to build a sense of community, I have a passion for horror and what it means to people, and I really believe in giving smaller voices louder platforms. As a newer channel and writer, I see how different groups treat my content and my work. I never want to be a place where anyone feels discarded or insignificant. Building a strong community to share passions with is really important and is at the heart of everything I do. I believe that the genre of horror, specifically, has so many great things to talk about and break down. Horror inspires people. Horror bemuses people. Horror heals people. I always love talking about what it does for people in various walks of life. I will always strive to be someone who lifts up others that people who are higher try to ignore.
My advice? Do whatever you want. When you want to commit to something or start a project, don’t let anyone tell you not to do it. Or that you’re going to fail. When I started my channel I was told no one would be interested because it was so well rounded, and I have the numbers to prove that that isn’t true. In fact, quite the opposite. I get told often it is one of the things people love most about what we do at Voices. Do what you want. Follow your passions. Ignore the people pretending to know what you bring to the table.
What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
When I first started Voices, I didn’t want to work with others. It is terrifying opening yourself up to the internet. That was three years ago. I want to answer this question not about what I grew from, but rather how I did it. When I first started putting myself out there, I started to very slowly build a tiny circle of people I could trust. That circle grew with more people and turned into a much larger horror online family. I think this is an important thing to talk about because I didn’t just grow on my own. It took three years and it took others helping me evolve the content, the writing, and the online presence. It took starting small and being patient and building over an extended period of time. Growth isn’t a jump from step one to step one hundred. It is a crawl to fractional marks on the path. I’m much more comfortable working with others and letting others into my space. While I still get extremely nervous (sometimes to the point before interviews where I want to throw up), I never regret the opportunity to meet someone new or share their story.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/voicesfromthemausoleum/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/voicesftm
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/FromMausoleum
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbDnPfk4bPzJwv6AMJ0XDDw
- Other: https://hy.page/voicesftm
