How Blogging Helped Me Find My Voice–Even When I Felt Invisible Online.
In 2016, I started a blog for my company, Inclusive Fitness. It was about child development, family health/wellness and Physical Literacy.
Growing up, I was really shy. I hardly spoke in school (my classmates actually thought I couldn’t talk — That’s a story for another time). But when I was comfortable writing my feelings. I loved journalling and creating stories. Writing always allowed me to express myself in ways spoken word just didn’t.
So, when I started Inclusive Fitness, I immediately started a blog. It was a topic I loved and what I had studied, so it came naturally. I also tried to create a YouTube channel, but that was way harder (even when I simply just read my blog script).
I’ve always loved writing, and that was wonderful because it allowed me to express myself in a safe, low-stakes way (just for myself)…
But blogging gave me my voice…
While speaking will probably always be hard for me (I’ve recently discovered it’s a lot more than just shyness), I still have a voice. I have opinions; I have ideas; I have passions. Speaking on stage or in videos is only one way to get your voice into the world. And while literally speaking might be a more obvious and easy way to get your voice out… It’s not the only way.
When I started blogging, it gave me a way for me to get my voice out into the world in a safe way that worked for my communication style. All of my life, I was told that being shy was bad. I constantly had people trying to teach me not to be shy or force it out of me… Little did they know that actually made it worse. My AP English Lit teacher actually docked me half a letter grade because I “wouldn’t speak in class.”
Speaking never felt safe. It always felt like an attack, and my default setting was to freeze and hide. But with blogging… I never had to be afraid. I was never afraid.
Why safety is important:
Here’s the thing. People who aren’t shy and are outgoing don’t understand that it’s not just about pushing out of your comfort zone. People who aren’t shy but are maybe nervous to make a video or speak on stage can generally push past that fear and step out of their comfort zone and get used to that. For those of us who are shy, real, life-long shyness, there is no pushing out of the comfort zone.
Trust me, I spent YEARS trying. But nothing worked. I don’t like speaking.
I realized this has a lot to do with perceived safety. This is a very valid thing. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise. Constantly putting your body in what it interprets as an unsafe situation or feeling is not helpful. In fact, given that this is a clear way to skyrocket your cortisol, I would say that it is actually detrimental. If you don’t feel safe doing something, putting yourself in that situation will have long-term damaging effects.
But, don’t you need to make videos in order to run an online business?
The answer is no. Lots of online coaches will tell you, you have to, but let me be the one voice to tell you… You really don’t.
Even as we head into 2026, blogging is still a powerful tool. There are lots of people who feel super overwhelmed with the constant stimulation from videos, and while not everyone wants to hear this—not everyone is an auditory learner. They can’t all retain information by listening.
When people are researching or wanting to learn something, they often turn to blogs. Let’s be honest, we aren’t truly learning on social media. People have it in their heads that they can’t give any real information on social media because then people won’t buy. Maybe that’s true, but I don’t think every piece of real information should have a price tag.
If I’m looking for information on symptoms I have, I don’t believe that information should be gatekept. That’s important information to have readily available. If there is a newly single mother who needs to make some extra income and wants to do digital marketing on the side, I don’t think she should have to pay a bunch of money to get started. Sure, down the road, of course, she’ll pay, but not everything is worthy of the price tag they have on them.
The key is you need to keep showing up when no one's reading.
Here’s the thing. People will often start a blog, get busy and start slacking on writing it, and after a fairly short amount of time, decide blogging doesn’t work and move on. Often, they see far more instant results by posting videos on TikTok every day. Blogging is not an instant thing, unless you already have a big audience. Blogging takes time to grow.
Your first blog probably won’t have any readers, and if it does, it might only be a few. My first blog on Inclusive Fitness and my first blog on this blog probably looked like they flopped; they had no readers. Not because the blog itself was bad, but because it takes time to build traction and get Google and other search engines sending people to your content.
If you write one post and get 2 views on it, your success in blogging will be determined by what you do right after that moment. Will you decide that blogging isn’t worth it and stop writing? Or will you keep writing, week after week, until you start to build some momentum and really start seeing results? The choice is ultimately yours, but I would definitely suggest the latter.
For me, it actually was better that things started slowly. I got to work up to writing more vulnerable pieces that included more stories. I got to practice getting my written voice out into the world in a low-stakes way. For a shy person, that’s kind of the best-case scenario. It was actually easy to show up when no one was looking, and when people started looking, it felt like not a big deal because I was already used to writing these blogs.
Here’s the thing…
No one is born with confidence. People aren’t just naturally confident. Honestly, even the ones who look and show up confident almost always report not feeling confident. The trick is to practice that confidence muscle. It’s like going to the gym. Someone's first day at the gym, they’re pretty unsure of what to do, and they definitely can’t bench 300lbs. So, you need to find a way to show up and practice. Just like if you want big muscles, you have to go to the gym consistently and lift weights, you need to lift those confidence weights.
But that doesn’t mean throwing yourself into the deep end. Start slow. Blogging is a great way to do that. It’s not your face showing up, and you can even write just an informational blog with no personal stories to begin with. Then, slowly, you start adding more of yourself into blogs, and people will start reading them.
Honestly, in this age of AI, shy people especially have a harder time being seen. Just because you’re shy doesn’t mean you don’t want connection, to be validated or to be heard for the opinion you have. Blogging is such a great way to pour your heart and soul into something. It allows you to flex your creativity muscle, to become a storyteller, and to create real human connection.
Blogging is not an overnight sensation. It’s something you build up to.
I struggled for many years, not feeling seen or heard… But when I went out of my way to try to be seen or heard, it never felt safe. Blogging was always my safe place to land. It gave me a real and genuine voice. I am not anti-AI; I use AI to help me create outlines for my blogs, if need be. But I do think there is something so different and way more special when a real human heart and brain are used.
There is no connection with AI. It’s not you. But that’s a discussion for another day.
I started writing a blog for me… And eventually it grew into something I could do for other people. It was a way for me to write, be creative, and build confidence in sharing my opinions and ideas with the world.
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