Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Courtney Eastman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Courtney, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
My curiosity and sense of adventure are the main driving forces behind keeping my creativity alive! I’ve had a natural curiosity for the peculiar things in life and the stories that are seldom told, and by leaning into that, wanting to showcase the world through a creative-mind’s lens, and wanting to keep history and these forgotten places alive, I’ve allowed myself to show a my creativity through social media. Fortunately for me, the journey I’ve now found myself on of showcasing the world of the weird and strange, the creativity is never truly depleted.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
My name is Courtney, and I’m The Ghoul Guide! I’m a haunted travel blogger, a paranormal investigator, and your new best ghoul friend from Buffalo, New York.
While I’ve had a natural curiosity for the macabre and forgotten history since my childhood years, it wasn’t until the Fall of 2020 when I had allowed myself to fully lean into this interest many would consider taboo. I created the Instagram account, The Ghoul Guide, to become a storyteller of the urban legends and haunted locations I had been surrounded by growing up and then became my escape during the year of lockdown. Not only that, I also wanted to connect with other curious minds who wanted to go on these adventures with me and dive a little deeper into the strange and unknown. And since taking a chance on myself and making that first post in October of 2020, a weirdly wonderful journey had begun of becoming an unexpected content creator, a published author, and a voice to the weird and haunting stories that shouldn’t be forgotten.
Over the past three and a half years, I’ve had the pleasure of sharing haunted locations around the Midwest and East coast while highlighting the dark history and peculiar side to life–and the afterlife! Bringing along my audience of over 100,000 followers collectively, I’ve had the chance to coexist with the unknown and share the haunting tales or weird history that reside within some of the Nation’s notoriously known locations such as the Waverly Hills Sanatorium, the Lizzie Borden House, and Bobby Mackey’s Music World! While there are many who object to this interest in the paranormal and unknown, the histories of these locations and the individuals who resided there all deserved to be remembered and told. Especially now more than ever when places such as former sanatoriums, theatres, and hospitals are all being forgotten to time and left abandoned instead of repurposed.
In-between all of that traveling and content creating, I’ve had the opportunities to have my writing on the occult and morbid history published in Haunted Magazine, issue 37, and The Feminine Macabre Volumes 1 & 3! While we may never truly know what the future may hold, there are some more exciting projects in the works for the year to come that could involve more of my works being published, and of course, more traveling cross state lines to find the weirdest of tales!
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 believe my unique perspective of being able to see beauty within the abandonment and the stories within these forgotten places has been a huge impact on how this journey has progressed, paired with the skills of being able to embody the emotions and energy left within these spaces. Because those two play so well with each other, I’m able to find inspiration within the content I’ve grabbed that’s help further the journey. not only with the unknown, but within the social media pages I’ve created.
I’d say that my only advice for those wanting to start out in either content creating, blogging, or what have you is to have fun in what you’re doing and the rest will all fall into place. It’s so easy to get caught up in the world around us and compare our lives to what we see on social media, that you’ll miss the beauty and the opportunities of the universe working it’s magic when you just have fun and create what YOU want create rather than worrying about when your next video will go virial.
Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
Reflecting back on the last year, I believe one of my biggest areas of growth would my photography/videography. Being a one-woman show behind The Ghoul Guide, I’ve had to take on many roles and step out of comfort zones to keep progressing on this adventure of unexpectedly being an content creator. While the writing side to blogging seemed to come naturally, photography and videography had been a comfort zone I had to figure out along the way, especially since the short-form videos are taking the social media world by storm. After this past year of focusing more slowing down to get the shots, allowing myself to take in the environment, and reminding myself not to put so much pressure on what I’ve created, I’ve believe I started finding my footing and my aesthetic that flowed naturally to me through taking chances.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tiktok.com/@theghoulguide
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/theghoulguide
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theghoulguide
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/theghoulguide
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@theghoulguide
- Other: https://beacons.ai/theghoulguide
Image Credits
All images provided by Courtney Eastman, The Ghoul Guide
