We recently connected with Austin Lincoln and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Austin, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
Confidence hasn’t always been my strong suit. I grew up with tremendous support around me, but the one person that I was lacking support from was myself. It wasn’t until I graduated high school that I discovered who I wanted to be. Despite my conscious self telling me that I had so much to offer the world, I would constantly be afraid of the people I had to see every day when I was packing my lunch and getting an outfit ready. I almost forgot about how to take care of myself and my body during this period in my life. Once I graduated, I had no plans other than to become an actor or a photographer. I continued to indulge in my passions within myself; I wanted to be an artist. Throughout the years, I became so in love with nature and being outside. This allowed me to build a connection with the life that I was living and helped me see what was right in front of me. The beauty of this life and the way everything systematically flows so flawlessly allowed me to be grateful to be alive. I made a promise to myself that I would never allow myself to feel less than ever again, and ever since I was granted the freedom to explore my identity and the world we all live in, I have felt more confident than every before.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Throughout the years I have been indecisive on what I wanted to do professionally; I have far too many things I am passionate about. A couple of the things I have been lucky enough to dabble in for the last six or seven years would be acting, photography, drawing/painting, music, and real estate, all while working as a barista. I wanted to find something I was passionate about that would grant me a stable income while also finding a way to combine most of my passions. It all seemed impossible to reach a point where I knew where I was going. Looking around me, I realized a lot of the people in my life are working in healthcare. Although this didn’t seem like something I would love, I could see where helping people would be so rewarding and there is a creative side to the field. I am currently in nursing school working to get my RN, and I plan on going straight in to try and get my NP as well. Despite having chosen a completely different path than where I saw myself going, I am making a small income off of social media. With the platforms I’ve been able to grow on, I’ve been able to combine my passion for photography, acting, and influencing people by sharing inspirational stories. I am only in the early stages of who I am meant to be, but looking forward, I plan to continue sharing my art with the world and also becoming a nurse content creator. I believe that my experiences and stories are valuable in inspiring other people to not give up on themselves; everyone has their path to take.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I would say that one of the qualities of my newfound confidence that impacted where I am today is my persistence. I am no longer a person to take no for an answer when it comes to being the highest level of happiness I can be. Another part of me that I would say has impacted me the most is the willingness to fail. It isn’t easy to admit that you will never absolutely be in love with every aspect of life, and a lot of the things you try to do will fail, but it’s when you fall in love with the process of failing and discovering who you are that everything starts to come together. The success of my social media I would say stems from my knowledge in the creative fields I attempted to get into years ago. The bravery I had to create content and share my vulnerable side is a huge part of my success. It was bravery that pushed me to move out of my parent’s house and start nursing school as well. My advice for anyone early in their journey is that persistence is key. With persistence, you will discover new parts of you and skills that you will be able to use in future endeavors.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
At this moment in time, my social media is very broad and lacks a niche, although I have been diving more into creating content for nurses, nursing students, or aspiring nurses. I’ve created a new account on TikTok for example geared towards nurses where I reached 41k views on my second video. I’ve also reached 21.1K followers on my account by posting relatable content with my highest viewed video having 70 million views. I would like to collaborate with other nurse content creators or any artist in general, whether that be photographers or videographers to create viral content that is relatable. I have so many ideas that I would like to bring to life so if you think that is you, you can reach out to me on my social media links attached to this article. My TikTok accounts are @itsaustinlincoln and @imaustinlincoln. My Instagram is @imaustinlincoln and my email is [email protected]. All of these would be great ways to get in touch and discuss collaborating.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imaustinlincoln/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/austin.lincoln.54
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSghNpH_MPX8K10S6Z6ED4Q
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@itsaustinlincoln
Image Credits
Cover by Abigail Joyce May
