Ep. 34 Developing Your Voice, Putting Yourself out There, and Staying True to You with Elana Lyn Gross
Happy #SeekTheJoy Tuesday!
On the podcast this week is Elana Lyn Gross, freelance journalist and the founder of the personal and professional development website, Elana Lyn.
Elana is a contributing writer for Forbes, Fortune, Women's Health, Popsugar, Business Insider, Well+Good, Dell, Cornell Tech, and Monster. Her writing has also been published in TIME, Teen Vogue, Cosmopolitan Magazine, USA Today, Refinery29, Brit + Co, Google, The Huffington Post, and Glamour (to name a few!!)
Elana Lyn is an incredible resource that provides millennial women with actionable job search, career, lifestyle, and wellness advice. More than 250 women from a wide range of industries have been interviewed in her Career Profile series for Elana Lyn and Forbes. When she's not writing, Elana can likely be found running, biking, walking, or getting ready to start at Columbia Journalism School!
I was SO excited to chat with Elana for Seek The Joy Podcast. I've been following along for about a year, and her blog has been such an incredible resource for me both professionally and personally. For someone who is stepping out in digital media and excited to follow her passions and create something of her own, Elana has been such an inspiring force for me.
On today's episode we chat all about how Elana got started blogging, what it's been like making her writing public, sharing her voice, vulnerability, and passions with the world, and taking a leap of faith to transition into writing full-time. We also talked about remaining authentic, how she's been able to resist the urge to compare herself to others, what turning 30 taught her, developing self-love and self-care habits (like a great morning and evening routine!), joy in her life, and Elana also shares some amazing advice for aspiring freelance writers.
“Once you develop your voice, everything becomes so much easier, authentic, and fun.”
After graduating from college, Elana became a paralegal at a law firm in New York City. She quickly realized how much she missed writing, having ownership of a project, and a creative outlet. Cue creating her blog - Elana Lyn. It's evolved from fashion to career advice and lifestyle. She shares her experiences, mistakes, and stories.
When she started her blog Elana Lyn, she never imagined that anyone outside of her closest friends and family would read it. Well, millions of people have read her blog and she's become such an amazing voice for college and newly graduated women who are navigating this whole thing called adulthood.
Elana started a blog for fun, but blogging has introduced her to a world that she hadn't even known existed. The founder of a women's career development startup followed her blog posts on Twitter, and after writing about her company a few times and volunteering for them, Elana was invited to join their team as the social media manager. Shortly after, Elana discovered she enjoyed writing both short form and long form content, and she started writing for them and other publications.
Since starting Elana Lyn, Elana has grown so much both personally and professionally. It was so great to hear her reflect on her self-love and joy journey, different tools she's incorporated into her routine, and what she's learned along the way.
To learn more about Elana make sure to check out her website elanalyn.com
You can find Elana on Instagram @ElanaLynGross and Twitter @elanalyn
We want to thank today's sponsor Sudio! Sudio wants to revolutionize the way we see headphones - not just as a tech device but also as an accessory. I've been using The Regent (in white!) and they're officially a staple in my daily walking routine. I'd love for you guys to check out Sudio and their products here: https://goo.gl/s2hEcT and enter the code SEEKTHEJOY at checkout to receive 15% off any purchase.
Until next week, ✨ #SeekTheJoy - hit SUBSCRIBE - and it would mean so much if you could give the podcast a rating and/or review on iTunes ✨💛🎧
Ratings and reviews help Seek The Joy get seen by new people, and I'm so grateful to each and every one of you who has rated the podcast!
If you rate/review the podcast on iTunes make sure to e-mail us a screenshot of your review to sydney@seekthejoypodcast.com and as a token of my appreciation and gratitude for your love and support, I'll send you my NEW #SeekTheJoy Guide for Infusing More Joy into Your Life document! I've created this guide based on what I've learned from these #SeekTheJoy conversations. Along with this guide, you'll also receive two limited edition Seek The Joy Podcast stickers which I will mail out to you!
The sixth episode in our series, The Power of Storytelling, airs on June 21st! We want you to be part of it! To learn more and to submit your story, visit the Share Your Story section of our website. Fill out our interest form - and we'll get back to you ASAP.
Listen now on iTunes, Soundcloud, Google Play, Podbean Stitcher or Spotify!