Three years ago, I decided to start a website that would unknowingly change the course of my life.
*Cue dramatic orchestral music*
You probably know that website as “The Nectar Collective.”
But what you may not know is that, three years ago, I started TNC as a different person.
At the time, I was living in Tokyo as an English teacher. I was the most stressed I had probably ever been in my life, was earning $2,500/month in one of the most expensive cities in the world, and was still doing the important and terrifying work of figuring out who the heck I was.
So I started a website to connect people and to help them figure out who they were, too.
And yet, while preaching self development and positivity…it was one of the most unconfident periods of my life.
I had this constant “vulnerability hangover” each time I shared something about myself on my blog. I wasn’t ready to be seen. I felt unworthy of anyone taking my advice. So it was much easier to create “The Nectar Collective” and hide behind a different name than my own.
But the more I wrote, the more of a community I started to find and grow online. The more emails and comments I’d receive from people, letting me know that my blog was changing their life. Soon, their support — your support — started to change mine, too.
Nine months into blogging, I quit my day job as an English teacher to run my new web design business full time. It was one of the scariest leaps of my life, but I watched as my newfound confidence expanded to fill the different layers of my life.
And that confidence and sense of empowerment only increased with things like my thriving e-course business, active Facebook group, and packed webinars.
It was like a little jolt in confidence each time I pushed myself to do The Scary Thing. To be seen. To help people from the most vulnerable place possible.
But there came a time when I knew I needed to stop hiding if I really wanted to grow a connected community of people online.
Because community? It isn’t built on hiding who we are. It’s about revealing ourselves together, knowing that people will be there to cheer you on, even after you’ve unwrapped the deepest parts of your soul.
And if I wanted to preach that, I needed to practice it, too.
So, last week, in what felt like my biggest leap yet, I changed my brand name from “The Nectar Collective,” to simply, “Melyssa Griffin.”
The TNC name has meant so much to me over the years — like a very dear friend — and it was a difficult decision to let the name retire.
My sincere hope is that in deciding to stop hiding behind something else…a small part of you will feel encouraged enough to stop hiding, too.
I also struggled with the fact that “The Nectar Collective” was ambiguous. It didn’t have a face or a heart for people to connect to. To me, the name started to feel like some sort of commodity, rather than something with a living spirit.
Instead, whenever someone interacts with my brand, I want them to see a real human with flaws and talents — someone that they can genuinely connect with. Because real connection is where community is born from.
I used to think that changing my business name to my own name would mean that I was making things all about “me.” That I needed to keep the “Nectar Collective” name if I wanted to build a genuine “collective” of people.
But that was the unconfident, fearful girl from three years ago talking — the one who existed when I started my site and who still makes seldom appearances in the midst of Big Decisions. She was trying to keep me hidden.
In reality, some of the best community leaders in the world unify people under their own name and vision. And my vision? To give you the BEST and warmest advice that helps you turn your passion into your full-time business and your life into one you love living.
So, this name change? It’s about us.
It’s about empowering ourselves to be seen and to be vulnerable.
It’s about choosing to share our best talents and gifts with the world, even if it scares the absolute crap out of us.
And it’s about supporting each other within a community of other passionate go-getters.
The content on MelyssaGriffin.com will still be the same, but it will come from a more empowered place. I find that the more I share the inner crevices of who I am (including my downright silliness), the more you are able to connect with and learn from me in a deeper way.
With this name change also comes a brand new website design, which I am SO excited about.
I designed the site to make it easier for you to find the things that speak to you most (without a bunch of other junk in your way) and it was developed by my talented friend, Brian Gardner. Here are some of my favorite features:
- In the sidebar, you can easily browse the most popular categories (and aren’t those little icons cute?!).
- The archive pages are easier to navigate with a gallery of past posts.
- If you scroll down, there’s a video of me introducing the site. More importantly, I’m showing off some of my sweet dance moves. 😉
- At the bottom of the site, you’ll also see links to some of my most recent e-courses.
- If you’re a student of mine and forget where to login, you can just click the “courses” button at the top of the site and it will take you to my e-course website where you can login.
- On the homepage, you’ll see a “Take Action” section, with links to some of my favorite things.
Woohoo! I hope you love it, friends. 🙂
