Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Caroline Makepeace. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Caroline, 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?
It’s rare that a person grows up with natural confidence and high self-esteem. Life has so many bumps and challenges, – many out of our control – that can negatively impact how we feel about ourselves. Therefore, developing confidence and self-esteem is a practice that needs daily attention and implementation.
Confidence comes with participation. Instead of running from what you find difficult, jump into the ring and use it as an opportunity to develop confidence. You need vulnerability to do this as you’re leaving yourself open to failure and criticism. So, surround yourself with supportive people. Those who understand the journey you’re on, and those who are where you want to be. The more you do this the greater your confidence and self-esteem will grow as you’ll see how much you’ll grow and strengthen.
Keep a list of all your life’s achievements to look back on in those moments when you sink into the despair of feeling like a failure and not being good enough. It will remind you that you’re in fact a warrior, that you’ve succeeded before, and you’ll succeed again. Then dig deep and jump back into the ring.
I strongly recommend you stay in your own lane and refrain from the crippling disease of comparititus. Of all the challenges I have faced in my 13 years of running a global online media, this is the one that threatens my confidence and self-esteem the most. Thankfully, I am very aware of it now, so I rarely last longer than three scrolls through my social media feed, before I recognize it’s happening: those words that say, “You are such a loser Caroline. Everything you do is terrible You’ll never be good enough.” And then I’m out.
There is nothing on social media that can benefit me enough to move beyond those three scrolls. The impact on my self-esteem and confidence is never worth it. Because I need that confidence and self-belief to keep getting back in the ring and fight for my dreams.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am co-founder (with husband Craig) of two online brands: This is Raleigh, a platform for anyone looking to explore the best of Wake County, and YTravelBlog, one of the world’s most influential travel blogs.
I’m Australian and started traveling the world in 2017, three days after graduating from university as a teacher. I was hooked on travel immediately and knew I did not want to live any other life. So since then, I have created a life with travel at the core of it.
I used my teaching profession to live in other countries, earn local currency and travel in between. In 2010, I started our travel blog with Craig, which quickly became our sole source of income and gave us the ability to live and work wherever we wanted. For us, that was Raleigh. We’ve lived in 5 countries and traveled to over 60, and Raleigh is the only place that feels like home. We’ve lived on and off here since 2004. We now have green cards thanks to the success of our travel blog and have been settled back here since 2017.
In addition to the travel blog, we now use our blogging and social media skills and passion for Raleigh to help those living here connect to the vibrant lifestyle of the city and help those who want to relocate here settle in.
Our genuine passion and love we have for sharing Raleigh is evident and contagious. This is more than just a business to us. We fought for 17 years to earn the right to live in this city when we could have lived anywhere, including across the road from the beach in Australia. People feel that from our content and so trust that we’re genuine. People also see us actually experiencing what we’re sharing so they know it’s not content created from behind a laptop.
Because we’ve had decades of global travel experience, people trust our opinion.
At the moment, we’re really excited about the in-depth neighborhood guides and videos we’re creating. I am also a licensed Realtor and have a team of qualified agents I refer those buying and selling who are part of our community. We’re always looking for ways to diversify and be unique. Our passion has always been to help people experience joy and personal fulfillment. We hope our content and services is a pathway to that for them!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. I am an expert in travel and creating a lifestyle that you love. I said no to the corporate ladder and the white picket fence and said yes to what I really wanted: freedom, adventure, discovery and joy. There has been no greater impact on my life than travel and how it has allowed me to grow into a more tolerant, compassionate, open-minded person. That impacts all of the work I do and how I connect to others.
2. After 13 years of blogging, I know quite a bit about crafting content that resonates with others, tells a unique story and has a long-lasting impact. Being at the top of the travel blogging world has allowed me many exciting opportunities and opened doors to things I’d never expected – like a green card! I love that we could start This is Raleigh with a high level of expertise. IT helped us gain quick success.
3. A high level of self-awareness – this has come with years of personal work and a daily meditation practice. Self-awareness is a game changer. It helps you recognize, revaluate, not take things personally, and sit in the space of presence – the only place where life exists and the place of pure magic!
As mentioned in the first question, you just have to keep getting in the ring. You have to be okay with failure – learn from it and turn it into a lesson – you have to be okay with rejection. You have to be okay with sacrifice and getting uncomfortable. All of these things will only help you grow if you don’t quit and learn how to walk with them. Many people think living the life of your dreams is something that only happens for a chosen few. Well, it does, but that’s because those select few have selected themselves.
It’s not about your credentials or who you know (although these can help). It’s not just about where you were born or how much money you have. It’s about your choices, how healthy your mind is, how big you dream, how bad you want it, who you hang around and the consistent daily action you take.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
I have not chosen a life that has been easy for my parents, especially now I have two daughters. They have missed many years of their life and my own. But they have never once made me feel guilty about this. They have always supported my choices with the simple, “You have to do what makes you happy.”
It’s truly the greatest gift anyone has ever given me. It’s given me the freedom to pursue fully the passions in my heart and follow where life calls me. This is the gift I intend to pass onto my daughters. Their life is not about me, I gave them life so they can express it fully, in whatever way that resonates with them. But I am 100% offering my services as their study buddy when they go and study in Oxford University, UK.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thisisraleigh.com and https://ytravelblog.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/thisisraleigh https://instagram.com/ytravelblog
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/thisisraleighnc https://facebook.com/ytravelblog
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/makepeace/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/thisisraleighnc https://twitter.com/ytravelblog
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/thisisraleigh https://youtube.com/ytravelblog
Image Credits
This is Raleigh
