Today we’d like to introduce you to Victoria Faith Tinsley
Hi Victoria Faith, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I have always known I wanted to be a creative ever since I was a child. I would become so happy when my mom would bring out her sony handycam and ask my little sister and I to sing and dance. All throughout my adolescence I felt the creativity pour from me and into my everyday life where I would take photos, record videos, and write poetry. Though as I got older the pressures of landing a job and making a stable life for myself came to the forefront.
I remember first having the idea of creating a youtube channel back in 2011. By that time I had experience with a small blog that I had via tumblr and I loved the space it gave me to create openly and freely. It was there that I experienced creating video and photo content and I fell in love with the process of curating an online space that was visual and completely me. I dabbled with youtube and blogging here and there and I went through many years of trying to juggle creative and corporate life. It was in 2022 that I finally decided to leave my job and pursue my creativity full time which was super scary at the time but now I know it was necessary for my creative and entrepreneurial development.
It’s been two years now and my creativity is at an all time high, it was in leaving my corporate job and a longtime relationship that I found my creative identity again. I learned to put myself first and fitness became a very vital part of that process for me. I started to record my fitness journey for youtube and found so much joy and a community of people who also longed for self identity and personal development.
The creative path can be very hard and there are a lot of ups and downs but it’s the little lessons in the day to day that built me up and helped me realize it really is about the journey and not the destination. It’s in the day to day that you learn more about yourself your strengths and weaknesses that both play a vital role in the growing phases of any business. My fitness journey has taught me so much but the most important part it has shown me is that everyday it is important to show up and do the hard stuff, everything else becomes so much easier because of it and it really does open up your life to abundance. I have realized that the hard work I put in matters and output is so much greater than I could have ever imagined it.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Yes, there have been so many challenges I have faced on this road to the creative life. I think the biggest struggle that no one really talks about is how hard early life can be for the creative. A lot of times we are led into working jobs or getting into careers because they “pay the bills” and help us to sustain a certain lifestyle. Most of us are talked out of the creative path because people don’t understand the ability to monetize creativity. I wish that our school systems and people who deal with children and their development understood that we are living in different times and now more than ever is the time to live and lead a creative path and life. The internet is such a powerful tool and I think there are plenty of examples in todays market that there is plenty of space for people to lead through creativity, make money, and contribute to society in ways they never would have by going into careers that don’t suit them. Sadly, I believe we are missing out on some of the best artists because of this and I really believe it is something that should be changed. Creativity is a path and it is a career for many and it should be encouraged in our youth, they are the future after all.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
In the past two years I have fallen in love with video creation more than ever before. I have put so much time and energy into creating fitness content because I realized that health and wellness is vital in sustaining a happy and healthy life. Not only has it provided me with all the benefits that come with working out- like increased energy levels, better sleep, not to mention a healthier looking physique. It has provided the most profound mental clarity that I have ever experienced. It is in my own observation that I learned that I have the ability to share the power of fitness and taking control of your life and your personal goals. Whether thats becoming a creative, going back to school, or even just strictly getting into fitness for aesthetic reasons- taking control of your body means taking control of your life.
This year I decided to get back to my first love of digital creation which is blogging. My website thissweetfeeling.com will focus primarily on health and wellness and the importance of fitness in your everyday life. My mission is to inspire others through workouts via video curation, as well as recipes, and showcasing tools whether physical or mental that they can use in their own routine.
I would say I specialize in video content curation and visual direction. I resonate deeply with being a creative who uses visuals and aesthetics to inspire and lead others. I want to be known for being a leader in the health and wellness space and plan to utilize my blog this sweet feeling to do just that,
I feel proud of my ability to empathize with others and my community, going through my own personal struggles and overcoming obstacles has led to a path of leadership. I feel like I have always been called to lead but for a long time I didn’t know in what capacity. My own fitness journey has led me to the realization that fitness is more than just movement it’s becoming in tune with your mind and soul, it’s so much deeper than people think. Fitness changes lives.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
So many people struggle with this ideation that things need to be in an alignment of sorts. For example, “I’ll be happy when I have this” or “I’ll be able to do this thing, if only I had that thing” and I was someone who suffered from this. I thought I could only create videos if I had this camera, with this lens, and this lighting, etc. The truth is you’re never going to be ready like you think you should be.
So many people are focused on the future that they don’t even realize the present moment is actually all they have. Once you become aware of this, your life changes and opens up in so many ways. I read the book by Eckhart Tolle called The Power of Now. It completely changed my way of thinking about my life and my “circumstances”.
My advice to people who are starting out in anything is just do the thing. Learn the fundamentals, the basics, and then apply them and do the action. Something I wish I knew when I was starting out was it’s okay to be a beginner, I struggled with perfection and wanting things to look a certain way, to be a certain way and when they didn’t turn out like how I envisioned I got discouraged. It’s okay to suck. As a beginner you should not be the best, that’s a privilege that only comes with time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thissweetfeeling.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/victoriafaithtinsley/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@victoriafaithtinsley/
Image Credits
photos taken by Vanessa Blair of @desertlightstudio
