Get over your ick and do the thing
A conversation with Isabel Unraveled
Of all the conversations I had for Whoa, Volume 1, the one with was definitely the most challenging.
As in, it challenged me. It still does.
The way she writes with positivity and hope without a shred of irony? We talked about how she pulls that off, turning darkness into something useful, and the strange art of trusting yourself.
Isabel writes , is a great Twitter follow, and “coach,” a label she so eloquently unpacked in what is easily my favorite segment from our talk:
We all need to go through our emotional baggage with the word coaching. But honestly, it's just the most efficient word. When I ask people I work with 1-on-1, ‘is there a better word for coaching to describe this?’ they're like, ‘this isn't coaching, but I don't know what this is.’ And I'm like, ‘yeah, me neither. I guess we're sticking with coaching.’
The whole waiting until we get over the frictional ickiness that we have with offering something to the world or not having the perfect words for it – that was definitely a block for me. But it's just delaying the delivery of our gifts and our potential to the world. Like, you are good to go. You are ready. There won’t be a perfect moment or perfect version of yourself.
This is why I feel like people who are less cerebral and less aware of all of the ways in which they are imperfect, they just blast past everyone else. Because they're just doing things. And they get better so much quicker. So I think that's a message I want to give to the world. You're good to go. Just start doing things.
To read, listen, and watch the full conversation, grab your copy here if you’re in the US, and here for international.
That was a great interview, Alex.
should i change my substack bio to Unironic Optimism