Former celebrity gossip blogger Necole Kane (Bitchie) just got real about the pitfalls of leaving a successful brand behind to purpose other endeavors.
Last year the blogger, still at the top of her game in these innanet streets, decided to shut down the successful her entertainment platform, NecoleBitchie.com, to launch a new website.
On starting the new site Kane says she believed that, “I gotta do something for young women of color. I gotta do something positive. I spent all these years blogging about stuff that didn’t matter. It was entertaining, but I felt like I needed to be a positive contribution to the internet. Especially with so much negativity going on. I felt like I needed to provide balance.”
And that she did with the launch of her new site, a lifestyle blog for women of color, xoNecole.com.
“XO Necole was going to be a place where women could go and share their stories. We were gonna do girl boss interviews,” says Kane. “I wanted women to log in every day and feel inspired.”
And how has the new venture been for the blogger? “I’ve run out of money, three times,”she reveals. “My new website was completely self-funded by me.”
On why she didn’t seek out investors Kane adds, “Sometimes you have to invest in yourself before other people invest in you. So I was willing to spend every dime I had left to see this site succeed. Because I believed in it so much and young women, especially young women of color, they needed this.”
People were comparing us to sites that had millions of dollars in investors, staffs, offices in two cities. I’m at home in my slippers, blogging [laughs], faking the funk, like I got an office. We ain’t had no office. We were on Glip, all of us like a little chat room every day.
For the first six months I think I did a good job of making the site look like it was poppin’. I ran out of money pretty quickly, then I borrowed some money. That just put me in debt. And then I ran out of money again.
Upon uploading the truth-bearing video to her YouTube channel Kane’s cation read:
Over the past year, I’ve seen many people comment to me that my life is #goals. That my rebrand was flawless and I’ve been looked at as though I have the golden touch. That is far from the truth. It was a complete struggle to get to the happy place I’m currently in.
In a world that rewards pretending and is obsessed with showing only the highlight reel versus the deleted scenes, I felt it would be a disservice to the people who follow me and believe in me if I didn’t tell the truth about my transition from the celebrity gossip blog NecoleBitchie.com, to eventually launching a new site xoNecole.com. I felt the new site was a better representation of the woman I’ve evolved into, and would solely be focused on empowering stories from young women of color.
It’s been rough, but I’m still here pushing through. And I’ve made so many mistakes and learned so many lessons along the way that I wanted to share with you.
To aspiring entrepreneurs: comparison is evil. It creates fear, self-doubt and can drive you off the path to success. Also, Never forget your “why.” Why you do what you do is far important than what you actually do and it’s what will keep you pushing though the hard times. It’s a reminder of your purpose.
This is my life reset.
Thank you guys so much for your support.
Watch the full video confession below and share your thoughts
Are you inspired by Kane’s story and revelation?
