Ladies I Love: Confidence, Social Media & Crowding Out the Clutter w/ @Dancing.for.Donuts!
Before we hop in, I wanted to preface that I will be doing a series for the remainder of February (the month of LOVE) highlighting ladies that I love and admire on the gram! I’m a big believer in the fact that the more we lift each other up, the better we become ourselves, we rise by lifting others as they say. Bringing confidence to others and elevating each others strengths will just make the world that much better of a place!
Today, I feel so lucky that I’m writing this blog post (and not sure why it’s taken so long for this to happen), because I’m featuring one of my BEST friends, Jordan Drankoski of the popular blog Dancing for Donuts! Jordan and I connected on Instagram, we met IRL at a HelloWellness event and have been pretty much inseparable ever since.
Jordan is one of the kindest humans that I know, my best friend in LA and one of the most selfless, positive people who is always spreading pure goodness. Outside of being a GEM of a woman, Jordan is the founder of DFD Creative, a female focused social media consulting agency, holds her MBA from UCLA, the blogger & vlogger behind Dancing for Donuts Instagram and YouTube and an all around badass, lovely lady!! With that, let’s dive in..!
On Social Media: The Good, The Bad & The Biz!
Q: One thing I admire so much about you is your attitude around social media. Having an amazing platform like you do, as well as a business that literally revolves around social media, you have such a positive relationship with it. Can you share how you handle the pressures surrounding social media, and how you stay in a positive mindset rather than always playing the comparison game?
A: Ahh, that’s such a good question! And a tough one because if I’m being honest, I totally get sucked into the comparison trap every once in awhile – it’s hard not to! But I think the key (for me, at least) is to only follow accounts of friends and those who I’ve really connected with either online or IRL. As someone who used to be in the entertainment industry, I’ve spent many an hour sucked into the black holes of Instagram models whose lives I can’t relate to, and it made me feel like garbage. I learned from that time to only follow people who inspired me, had similar values to me, and shared content that I could learn from.
Sometimes that means not following the massive influencers everyone else does, but I feel like the community I have online (aka the people I’m following, not just followers!) is one that really motivates me everyday as a content creator, business woman and human.
Q: Speaking of your business, last year you took a HUGE leap and launched DFD Creative, your own social media consulting agency. CONGRATS (again, lol)! This takes insane confidence and the ability to believe in yourself. What tips would you give to someone who is wanting to take a risk on building confidence in themselves?
A: Thank you so much!! I can’t believe it’s already been a year, it flew by! I think what really gave me the confidence to go out on my own was a combination of my education/work experience (even if that meant corporate jobs I wasn’t super stoked about but still learned from) and an incredible support system.
Sometimes it’s the jobs we don’t love that teach us exactly what we want – the kind of employee we want to be, boss we want to be, kind of work we want to do, etc. – if you asked me 10 years ago if I wanted to be an entrepreneur, I would’ve said heck no!
But years of working in all kinds of different jobs, learning a variety of different skills really helped me figure out the career path I wanted. Having experience and work to showcase on your resumé/portfolio definitely helps with confidence! And like I said, surrounding yourself with people that believe in you – the haters can take a back seat, you don’t need that noise in your life!
On Clearing Out the Clutter, Confidence & Loving Ourselves
Q: I think the most important and influential thing that you preach is that wellness is not a one size fits all approach. You’re relatable and you pick and choose what works for you, and what doesn’t. Can you weigh in on this and how you were able to get to this place in your wellness journey vs. allowing all of the clutter on the gram to get overwhelming?
A: Overwhelming is such a good word for it! I feel like every other day there’s a new wellness trend that people are sharing and it’s easy to want to hop on all of them to experiment, which can be good, too! But I know myself – I’m a former athlete that thrives off moving my body in a way that feels good (no running or CrossFit for me!), but I also love dessert more than most things in this world…lol. That’s something I’ll never give up! I believe in a version of the 80/20 rule. We can choose to be good to our bodies most of the time by choosing the salads and green smoothies, but then indulge when it makes us happy as long as we don’t go overboard!
I definitely didn’t always feel this way or even think about wellness (I danced 35+ hours a week and grew up on takeout chicken fingers), but as I’ve gotten older and have had to navigate a life that doesn’t revolve around exercise, I’ve learned what works for me both mentally and physically. Long story short, it was definitely a process!
Q: To go off of the above, I would say that this takes a certain level of confidence, which you exude in every way. Have you always been confident in yourself and in knowing what is best for you or has that been a journey?
A: Omg thank you!! I am slowly learning to feel more and more confident in myself, but I truthfully don’t think I felt this way until a couple of years ago. It’s too bad too, because I feel like the best dancers have the most confidence, and that wasn’t me at all. But everything happens when it needs to!
Confidence comes when you know who you are at your core and I think for me, being kind to others and receiving kindness back gives me confidence.
It’s funny because cultivating so many incredible friendships through social media has really made me realize that in the best way possible!
Q: And finally, in the honor of the month of love & lifting ourselves, and other women up, what do you love about yourself?
A: Hmm…I’ll pick one physical trait and one mental trait! I love my long, strong legs and I love that I am friendly. I’ll tell ya, being the “nice girl” and often times the quiet girl growing up didn’t necessarily feel good at the time (I wanted so badly to be outgoing and popular!), but now it’s the best thing there is about me, I think 🙂
Now I’m sure you are a bit more in tune with why I love Jordan so much. An all around inspiration of a woman and genuinely kind soul. With that, I’m off to count the days until she returns to LA from Asia 🙂
xoxo
Alysia (Purely) Pope
PS, If you liked this interview, check out this one with Bianca from HolisticRX all about a holistic approach to health, nutrition & fitness!
