Toronto-based Michelle Siman grew up with aspirations of becoming a VJ or radio host based on her love for talking to people and hearing their stories. While other kids played sports, she spent hours on Tumblr and making collages out of magazine pages.
Today, Michelle’s work is a culmination of her childhood hobbies and passions. After leaving the corporate world behind three and a half years ago, she became a Creative Brand Strategist and Consultant, helping brands to better communicate their stories. Around the same time, Michelle launched her podcast Lemon Water, a place to have real conversations with the women she admires in the wellness industry, and @itslemonwater, an Instagram mood board, both with the aim of making health and wellness more attainable.
Who were you at twenty?
I was studying Business Communications at a small university just 2 hours outside of Toronto named Wilfred Laurier University. I’ve always hated school and learning in that kind of environment, I actually made the decision that year to leave and graduate a year early. I was eager to start a “career” but didn’t know what that would look like at the time.
How have you evolved since?
I think the main thing is that I’ve stopped caring about what others think about me, it’s something I was so hyper-focused on when I was younger. Another major thing I think I've realized since then is that great things take time, growing and learning takes time and there is a process to it.
On leaving the corporate world
My aha moment happened when I got laid off at my last full time gig over 3.5 years ago, I promised myself to never work for someone else in a corporate setting ever again. It took well over a year of continuous “no’s” from interviewers, and agencies until a brand had reached out and asked me to support them with social strategy, from there it sort progressed into working on different projects for various DTC brands in the wellness, food and beverage. My day-to-day looks different almost every single day, I support brands with digital strategy, creative production, and strategic partnerships.
On launching and hosting her podcast, Lemon Water
I started the podcast during a time where the wellness industry was in its early rise and just wasn’t speaking to me. I started taking more care of my body during my second year of university, so I was always interested in learning about the topic. It began with having conversations with humans who were in the industry and just hearing about their start, but it is evolving into something else. As I grow so will the content and information, at the moment I'm really into personal and professional development in the creative and entrepreneurial space so I want to be having more of these conversations.
On managing a work/life balance
It’s definitely tough and a constant work in progress in improving, I feel like the balance piece is something that I’m working on. As much as I love my job, to the point of it bringing me joy I need to remind myself that it is important to step away and take breaks. I try to incorporate fun throughout the day like going to a workout, taking a walk with a friend, and grabbing a coffee. I try to give myself days in the week where I do absolutely nothing but just lay in bed watching youtube :)
On pivotal wellness habits
Sleeping and also movement! The most important thing for me is to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep a night. I don’t know how I’d be able to function without a good night's sleep. I do have periods in the month where I have trouble staying asleep and have incorporated things like Magnesium and CBD to help support this. Since the start of the pandemic, I had a really tough time getting movement in when I used to be such an active person prior too, the past 6 months has been about me getting back into my grove, it started out with just doing 10k steps a day and I’m now feeling more called to moving my body more, endorphins are important.
What advice would you give to yourself at twenty?
The advice I’d give to myself at twenty is the same I’d give to myself right now– stop worrying about getting to the end goal and enjoy the process.
What would you say to a twenty-something about finding her place in the world?
The beauty is in the evolution and process! Stop rushing, stop worrying, stop trying to have it all figured out (Wow I sound like a broken record, but it is so important), be nice to people, put yourself in situations that you may feel nervous about, figure out how you work best, seek mentorship and of course make time for yourself and fun ;)
Discover Michelle Siman’s world here