We were lucky to catch up with Caileigh Blake-Christo recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Caileigh, thanks for joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
I think it takes passion, having goals, and focus to be successful. One thing I love about success is that it varies on an individual level. What’s successful to me may not be what another person deems successful, and that’s okay. Because of this, I am constantly reminding myself that my path is unique and to not compare myself to others. To me, success is a feeling—it’s going after your dreams and feeling a sense of accomplishment. I suppose the feeling depends on the person as well. I’d describe it as pride, contentment, and admiration of self. Having eyes on the end goal, it’s easy to overlook how far you’ve come. Celebrating the little wins brings the encouragement to keep going. I have goals that I am working towards and have to constantly remind myself of all the work and effort that I’m putting in now because the journey is just as important as the destination. One key aspect of success is trial and error. You can’t succeed without failing along the way. Mindset around success and failure is also super important. Failure is just another lesson to show what doesn’t work and gets you one step closer to finding what does. Revisiting goals, reassessing what you’re working towards, and making sure it’s attainable is a great way to keep you on track to accomplishing your desires.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Caileigh Blake-Christo and I consider myself a creative with many hats. After graduating with a degree in Graphic Design, I leaned more into Social Media where I started Social Media Coordinating and Managing accounts for local businesses. I work closely with these businesses to create content that is consistent with their brand identity. My work consists of organic content creation such as photography, videography, editing those photos and videos, infographics, and brand templates. I love acting as creative director for photo and video shoots: building sets, playing around with different camera angles, and being hands on for the creative process. I am also very passionate about mental health and recently started working with a mental health nonprofit as a creative consultant. This role allows me to give input on their creative projects as well as help with designing apparel for an interview series that will be coming out soon. In my free time, I read tarot and journal to help process my thoughts. I also post TikToks that provide journal prompts as a way to help others explore their own mental wellbeing with thought provoking questions. I love being able to use my creativity in a way that helps and uplifts myself and others.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
A lesson I’ve unlearned is that there is no perfect path that everyone “should” be on. I can get caught in thoughts like “I’m behind” or “I’m not where I’m supposed to be” or “I should be more successful by now.” These thoughts are judgmental and easy to get stuck in but ultimately unhelpful. I’ve started catching them more easily because they show me when I’m comparing myself to someone else who hasn’t lived the same life I have. When I was younger, I can recall the many times I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. I think the question instilled some sort of pressure in having a rehearsed answer and being hard on myself if I wasn’t following the blueprint created by others. The funny thing is, I would have a different answer every time the question was asked. This led me to realize I am constantly changing and that is something I now love about myself. I remind myself that everyone is on a unique journey and there is no right or wrong path. I’m thankful to be where I am now and learning to enjoy my story as it unfolds.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is the help I provide along with the freedom it allows me. Currently, as a freelancer, I have the freedom to work on projects that I am passionate about and fill my cup. It’s a unique position to be in and I’m lucky I get to work on things I’m interested in and create a spark within me. I make sure to cherish this time as I am not sure how long it will last. I view creativity similarly to problem solving. I really enjoy the creative process of coming up with ideas and executing them. Seeing the final product and the feeling of accomplishment is an amazing feeling every time. Once the creative momentum starts, I enter this flow state that brings about various ideas leading to immense output. I play around to find what works, that’s the fun of problem solving to me. Collaborating is also rewarding because you get to share the experience and admiration of the work you did.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.caileighbc.com
- TikTok: tiktok.com/@sometimes.i.journal