Meet Left Hvnded

We recently connected with Left Hvnded and have shared our conversation below.

Left, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

It came one step at a time, with a lot of frustration and failed attempts. Learning to be confident takes effort, you have to work at it, but a thought that makes it less overwhelming is you just need to take the first step. An idea that really helps me is that even though a skill or goal may take a long time, the time will pass anyways. Each time you are a little kinder or more patient with yourself that builds your self-esteem, no matter how long it takes.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I grew up during the rise of the social media, and studied fashion as a way to learn how marketing connects to the human behavior behind purchasing. A lot of people don’t understand how I relate fashion to any of my past jobs or volunteering, but name one person you know who doesn’t wear clothes in their day to day life. Clothing represents every person of every culture in different ways, and learning why paints a really detailed picture of how they go about their lives. While I can adapt I do have a specialty – I help small businesses, brands, and charities that give back to their community truly connect with their target audience. I create websites through the Shopify Partner Program and hope to start interviewing people who put care into their work to celebrate them for how they give back.
I use the monniker left hvnded with my content creation online but I am only on those apps to genuinely put the social back into social media – stylizing the name lower case is an homage to bell hooks, a writer who changed my life with her words!

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?

Being curious helps, actively making an effort to learn new things, and being accountable. Learning has grown to be fun, but I make mistakes or get wrong information sometimes, and even if it’s embarrassing it is okay to be wrong, apologize, and try to grow. I also make it a point to be kind! Since I definitely have a New Jersey-bluntness to me, I really try to share compliments and make them specific to the person so they feel appreciated. When I find myself “doom-scrolling”, I make it a point to swipe until I saw someone who’s outfit I could comment and say I liked, or I could say something positive about the video. It’s also elevated my overall social media experience – it’s much less stressful opening any app since making that a regular practice, which I think the algorithm caught on to it too.
#hopescrolling?

Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?

Being able to volunteer more! When you have the news on 24/7 or are around spaces that feel bleak or hopeless, sometimes seeing the direct effect of a soup kitchen, an animal shelter, or even just a local event by a creative really gets you out of your head and helps you connect. There are websites dedicated to volunteer opportunities and I haven’t found a regular shift just yet, but there’s so much, including fostering pets – you may be able to make a difference by cuddling a kitten at home, and that makes life a little easier all around. During the winter it’s vital for me – sadness hates a moving target and it sure does get dark at 4 pm.

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