We recently connected with Kristy Mickelsen and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kristy, 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?
Honestly, learning to be confident and have a good self esteem took a lot of time. When I was younger way back in my early childhood and teenage years, I got made fun of a lot! I was the short heavy set girl that wore nerdy clothes and glasses that weren’t exactly cool. As I hit my mid teens I changed my image as a party girl just to get away from the nerdy girl image. But even then I was never cool enough for the in crowd knocking my self esteem down even lower. However one day after I turned eighteen years of age I looked at myself in the mirror and said “You can be anyone and anything you want to be! And I refuse to settle for less!
So I started dieting and exercising, got a job and started buying my own clothes and make up, little by little I transformed myself into a person I was happier with. I soon got married and had children.
But something still seemed like it was missing. I just didn’t know what it was, until one day in 2004 my life turned upside down was my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 Renal Cell Carcinoma. I moved my family in with my parents to help care for my dad. That’s when I started journaling to get my feelings and emotions out during this difficult time.
Through my nightly journals I realized what had been missing was my dream career of being an author, but once again my self esteem issues arose. I kept telling myself I wasn’t good enough to be an author and I put myself down at every writing attempt I tried.
But one day my son saw me writing in my journal and challenged me. He said mom try it professionally, and when I put myself down and said no, he looked at me and said “if you can give up on your dreams, I guess I can give up on mine!
Well long story short I wasn’t about to let that happen so I wrote a very short read a little novella about how my kids were diagnosed with Autism called “Nine Months to Autism.” I put it up on the self publishing platforms and to my surprise I got sales! Well that really boosted myself esteem!! So I looked at myself in the mirror daily and said you can do this!!! And I started researching everything on how to be an author, I started telling myself that I can be an author and I am good enough to accomplish my dreams. I had to remind myself daily that I can do anything I want to achieve! So I guess you can see I built myself esteem from the ground up by taking the steps to fix the things I felt wasn’t good about me. My looks, clothes, career etc.
I still occasionally doubt myself but then when I catch myself doing that, I remind myself that everyone in this world has something wonderful and special about them. We all have a unique gift to offer this world and I am no different. And truth be told you need to make sure you have self confidence and a good self esteem to be in this business. It’s definitely a tough and competitive world and people will try to knock you down. But you have to have the self confidence to get back up try again.
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?
My name is Kristy Mickelsen, I am a Romance book Author, a Podcast Host, and an Advocate for causes such as cancer, autism, and lupus awareness. I started writing and self publishing books in 2018, and fell in love with the challenge of the business!
Writing books is a lot harder than what people may think because it’s not just about sitting down and putting pen to paper. There are steps and formulas to think about, outlines and plots, character fleshing, story development and pacing. I mean the list goes on and on. And then of course there is the promotion and marketing department which is another hard and tricky part.
It takes a lot of drive and dedication to make it all work. But regardless of all of the hard work. I love it! It’s very rewarding to see it all come together.
A few years after I got started I added podcasting to the mix and it has been such a fun and wonderful experience. I have made some great friends and new business connections through podcasting! The podcast has also boosted my sales along the way and opened the door for other exciting projects!
For instance back in December I planned and hosted a Christmas for the senior citizens of Amarillo Texas Skilled Care Nursing Center and I used my podcast to help spread the word and get donations for gifts for these wonderful residents!
And last but not least Podcasting has opened the door for me to add an extension to my author brand called Random Rose Author Services and Talent Promotions.
This extension of my brand offers services to new authors needing help in the writing and publishing world. We also help a variety of talent such as Authors, Musicians, Models and more get exposure to their name. We do this by getting them interviews on podcast’s, written interviews for blogs, meet and greets, magazine submissions, radio talk show interviews etc.
We pretty much do what we can to get the talents name some more exposure!
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?
That’s a good question. But I think I would have to say my three skills would be my ability to research the heck out of everything so I can take what I have learned through my research and apply it in all areas of my career and add my own twists along the way. I also took a saying that I learned from my brother and I took it seriously.. it’s actually just 3 words. Drive, Dedication and Determination. He used to say that to the kids he would coach during little league baseball season and the words stuck with me. If you want something bad enough you need to have the Drive to want it, and be determined and dedicated to get it. I took those words of his and I applied it to my own goals and those three words push me to succeed. In fact I think I would say those same words to people new in their journeys to success. If you want it bad enough you have to have the Drive to keep going even when things get tough, you have to remain dedicated to the end goal, and the dedication to keep getting up no matter how many times you fail and
Fall. It’s a long winding road along the path of success. But if you keep going eventually you will reach your destination.
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
There are times when I feel overwhelmed either by my career or my life in general. So for me it depends on what I am feeling frazzled or overwhelmed by. When I am feeling overwhelmed by a project at hand, such as a new book or a new charity or community project I allow myself time to walk away from it for at least an hour or even a day to refresh myself, and rethink the task at hand. Sometimes taking a step back and looking at a project with a fresh mind and new perspective can really make a difference.
However if I am feeling overwhelmed by life I pretty much do the same thing but I use my allotted time away to give myself a little self love and care. I might use the time to go shopping and buy myself a new outfit, or get my nails done or just anything that makes me feel good again.
I think self care is very important especially as an entrepreneur or author or whatever your path you are taking on the professional road to success.
After all if you are not in a good place then it will show in your work and to the people around you.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.kristymickelsen.com
- Instagram: Kristymickelsen43
- Facebook: Kristy Mickelsen
- Linkedin: Kristy Mickelsen
- Twitter: @kristybooks
- Other: W.W.A.A. Podcast on Spotify, Applepods, Goodpods Iheart and all podcast platforms.
