15. Say “Hello!” to Your Fears, with Michelle Poler

Michelle talks to us about facing fears, getting away from the ‘norm’ and why inspiring people makes her happy.

Show Notes

Our guest this week is Michelle Poler, better know as the Fear Girl! A year ago, Michele did a project that became incredibly popular called 100 Days Without Fear. She wants you to know she’s also a Youtuber, which makes her very, very happy.

So, what makes Michelle happy besides Youtubing? Why, Inspiring people and helping them achieve their desired lifestyle, of course! She never really thought she had the power to inspire. In fact, the project she started last year was a personal quest to become more brave. After the project became so widely known, she began receiving emails from people all around the world, thanking her for inspiring them to face their fears and find happiness. This is when the focus of the project shifted.

Michelle tells us it’s not always easy to believe we get to inspire people before we actually inspire them. She gained the courage from celebrity Tavi Gevinson who seemed so strong and fearless, yet posted a picture of herself getting an ear piercing for the first time as an adult. Michelle was inspired by this and thought, if one person could inspire her by being open about their fear, she would like to do the same for others.

Fun fact: 100 Days Without Fear wasn’t just about inspiring others or learning to be brave. It was originally meant to be a portfolio piece for Michelle’s Master Degree in Branding at SVA. She studied in New York where things have to be pretty unique to truly stand out and be seen. We’d like to think she definitely made that happen!

There is one strong message Michelle would like others to gain from this project: we are all powerful, not just because we face our fears but because we share them. She feels that when you only share things about yourself that are positive and perfect, your attributes will seem unattainable. However, when you share the fears you’re overcoming and rejections you’re facing, people look at you as real person and think “Ok. This is achievable.”

Michelle tells us she was constantly training to be perfect and live up to other’s standards except her own. She made a resolution this year to simply be happy in everything she does. If she’s happy, she knows she can make other people happy, too.

What’s the end goal for 100 Days Without Fear? To create a worldwide movement where everyone in the world knows her story, what she did and how it impacted her life. She wants to make this as big as possible to help people conquer their fears.

When asked who inspires her? Herself. Michelle dreams big, and whenever one dream is accomplished, she moves on to the next. While living in Miami years ago, she began to understand the importance of having goals and learning to inspire herself. Her husband—a long time advocate of helping her face her fears—couldn’t be happier about this.

Michelle has already received mainstream media coverage all around the world for 100 Days of Fear—which makes her happy because so many people who believe in her project get to follow her. That’s not where it ends, however. She plans on moving away from the project and focusing on her established brand Hello Fears.

What else makes Michelle happy? Her husband makes her happy every day, New York is her happy place and she is happiest when her work makes her happy. To her, happiness means achieving her goals.

Feel free to follow Michelle on her websites or via her YouTube Channel which we’ve linked to in this bio!