Rachel is the founder of the Confused Millennial, a site dedicated to helping Millennials live their best lives while they figure out this whole adulting thing. But today, she’ll be sharing a story that she’s never actually fully shared publicly before. It’s a pretty shocking story, but I’m so grateful for her courage and daring to talk about an episode in her life that she’s not all that proud of, in the hopes that it might help other people.

Highlights

[04:58] – After exploring internship options, Rachel began working in counseling and got her Masters in mental-health counseling.
[06:03] – She soon discovered that being an employee was miserable for her.
[07:19] – She immersed herself in self-care, but was still so miserable at work that she ended up getting fired twice.
[10:39] – Rachel realized that she needed to spend time working on herself and finding what she wanted to do.
[11:35] – Rachel had built a great reputation as a counselor, and she had several millennial clients.
[12:20] – She created a life styles curriculum and started teaching lifestyles for about a year. She also did consulting.
[13:48] – She then launched the Confused Millennial blog. This was the first time in a long while that she had the freedom to do and say what she felt.
[15:52] – It took about a year for the blog to become Rachel’s main revenue stream. She helps others embrace who they are while navigating being an adult.
[17:54] – Millennials are just more willing to be vulnerable and call things what they are. They may be the first generation to admit that people are just making it up as they go.
[22:40] – Rachel had a rough childhood, and she was drinking heavily by the time she was a teenager. She was driving and was in a car accident where two people died.
[24:37] She was trying to escape her hurt and ended up creating more hurt.
[25:14] – She had to get to a place where she was unlearning everything that had been taught to her spoken or unspoken. She felt it was her job to make everyone else happy. Realizing this helped relieve her depression and anxiety.
[26:52] – She also learned that she was responsible for killing her own wounds.
[27:30] – Rachel began going to therapy.
[28:34] – Medication and therapy helped Rachel as she went on to college, but she didn’t know if she was going to be prosecuted for the car accident.
[29:19] – Breathing helped with the anxiety.
[31:00] Rachel ended up going to jail for a year. It was very scheduled. The system is truly designed for people to fail.
[35:51] – Rachel prepared for jail by getting a lot of books to read including, Man’s Search for Meaning.
[41:15] – Rachel was afraid of the permanence of having an online presence. She stopped overthinking everything and just started doing what felt right.
[44:04] – Rachel breaks all of the rules.
[45:02] – Asking questions and always learning is a form of self-care for Rachel.
[46:10] – Rachel has recently been focusing on her YouTube channel and taking care of her baby.
[47:15] – Her journey has been about trusting her own advice.