We were lucky to catch up with Erica Calhoun recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Erica, thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

For years, I secretly held a desire to become a blogger, but never seriously pursued that desire for a number of reasons. Then I finally realized how easy it was to make your own website, and I was instantly filled with regret for not trying to do it sooner. Sometimes I think of where I would be with my blog if I had started it years ago. However, I also think everything happens at exactly the moment it is supposed to. The one thing I learned from not pursuing this passion sooner was not to let fear or other obstacles get in the way of MY 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?

I am the owner of a lifestyle blog known as Loveletterslattes.com, which I launched in 2021. It had been in the works, off and on, for about nine months before that, but it was the personal challenges in my life that gave me the push to finally get it done in May of that year. I would get home from work everyday and stay up until dawn working on it. With that determination, I had it finished and online in about a week, which I was pretty proud of. I initially wanted the blog to be a personal online diary about my life that everyone could read, but then it morphed into including several other topics such as food, beauty, my favorite reads, and more. The drive behind it was a bit selfish because I wanted an outlet for the frustrations and challenges I faced in life, since writing is how I always handled those things. As a teenager, I would read blogs written by black women about their everyday life and some about cultural news or the latest beauty products all the time. Those blogs were further inspirations for creating my own blog one day. I want my readers to feel that Love, Letters, & Lattes is relatable, candid, and useful to their lives in the same way that the blogs I grew up were for me.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I do think that most people can appreciate and recognize that creating something, no matter how trivial, requires a lot of time, dedication, passion, and work. However, there are a few people out there, who may not understand the importance of what we create. As a pianist for 15 years, I definitely heard my fair share of, “why would you wanna be a musician for a living?” or “”isn’t there something better you could pursue?” I expect some people will also not understand why I put so much time and effort into blogging or creating content for social media. It’s important to understand that one person’s view is not everyone’s view and there are many people who will be extremely grateful for the music you create or the wisdom you share online. Without creativity life would be a dull and uniform existence.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

The best way to support artists, creatives, and bloggers, is to share, share, share their content, product, or person. Instagram, Tiktok, and Facebook have share buttons for a reason. I know I get supper happy when I see that someone share one of my blog posts or social posts. You never know where sharing can lead a person.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.loveletterslattes.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diariesoferica/
• Facebook: Love, Letters, & Lattes Facebook Page

Image Credits
erica calhoun