We recently connected with Lacey Keigley and have shared our conversation below.

Lacey, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

When I think abut how I learned to write, that idea feels vague, foggy, long ago. Who remembers when they learned to write letters on a page? Who really remembers deciphering words and sounding out the mystery that is our phonetic language?

But I do remember when I started caring about words on a page. I remember when stories captured me.

And I remember that the most effective way I Iearned to write as a young person is the same effective way I learned to embrace as a young adult, hoping my words would be read.

In a word – PRACTICE.

Write and write and write.

Some of it will be garbage. Some of it will make you cringe later. But the only way to get better is to keep doing it. Write when you’re sad. Write when you’re happy. Write when you’re bored.

I have tried to not write what I think people want to read. Instead, I write what I need and want to write and I trust that someone needs to read it too.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Write what you know.

That’s the advice I was given early on. And, early on, what I knew was what was in front of me. For a long time that was my own life. Growing up on a dairy farm. Writing for small town newspapers. Teaching literature and writing and theatre to high school students. Navigating the foster care system as a foster parent. Understanding adoption through that same agency. Raising a family with six children. Changing my education views. Embracing homeschooling. Starting a homeschool co op. Enduring a painful divorce and the end of a twenty year marriage. Reinventing myself. Starting a business. Learning to travel the country – and the world – on a budget with a lot of kids.

I’m proud of the taking a life that turned in a direction I wasn’t choosing and making it beautiful. I’m proud of my children for being kind and good humans. I’m proud of the ways creative living and creative wage earning has played out in my life.

But mostly, I am proud of being the same on your computer screen as I am in your living room. That matters to me. Authenticity.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

So much of what I do currently is online content. And the majority of that work happens on the Instagram platform.

Several years ago my Instagram account was hacked and taken over my scammers. As in, they actually hacked into my account and began sending all of my followers direct messages, asking for money. The scammers set up a ruse that said I was in a contest and I needed my followers to click a link to gain their support.

I had spent years building up the trust of my followers and they are a kind bunch. Many of them thought they were being helpful and they followed the list the scammers sent them. Their accounts were hacked and stolen as well.

The hackers emailed me and tried to blackmail me into paying them money to return my account back to me.

It was upsetting because, of course, there was a financial aspect to it, but more importantly, my reputation was being put at risk. My account was compromised.

I refused to barter with a scammer so I had to look for other options. I started a direct text service to communicate with my audience. I learned the difference between “rented” and “owned” properties online. I learned to focus more heavily on what I can own – my email list, my website, my weekly newsletter.

While I eventually was able to reclaim my account without paying the scammers, thanks to a clever friend with a unique background, I maintained the lesson of focusing most on what I can control and what offers less risk of being changed by a platform I do not own.

How did you build your audience on social media?

It just cannot be about the numbers.

You can buy those. You can inflate those. You can manipulate those.

What it MUST be about instead is a real and true connection with your audience.

Do not put content out there for the sake of going viral. Goodness knows there is enough of that already that we quickly scroll right past.

If it’s important to you, it’s probably important to your audience. Do not think of them as consumers or as dollar signs. Think of them, if you must think of them at all, as friends. Real humans.

Create content you care about with messaging that matters to you. Those who need it, will find it.

I am convinced that one thousand committed folks are better than 1 million casual scrollers.

Create what you love and let others decide if they love it too.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://laceyeibertkeigley.substack.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soeveryday/ and https://www.instagram.com/travelersresthere/

Image Credits

Jane Howard Photography