Building Community One Post at a Time | Keeping Up In Greenwood’s Maddie Sterba

Maddie Sterba, the driving force behind Keeping Up In Greenwood, has built a digital platform with a thriving community, transforming her unexpected career shift from a healthcare professional after the pandemic into a valuable resource for families in her new hometown.

Stefanie: Hi Maddie, so tell us a little bit about Keeping Up In Greenwood.

Maddie: Keeping Up In Greenwood launched in June of 2023. The whole reason behind it was to help connect families to the community. I'll feel help people feel confident and try new things and just really. Getting out of the house post COVID. I have two young kids and sometimes getting out there and trying new things can be a little bit intimidating.

So Keeping Up In Greenwood kind of gives insights to different family friendly activities or parks or local events. So you feel a little bit more prepared before going.

I call it a digital platform because I use both Instagram and I have a blog. So, the blog includes a little bit more of my written insights as well as my weekly in lists so those are gonna be your local events happening around the southern suburbs and into downtown Indianapolis.

Most of them will be kid friendly, if not, they'll be labeled as 21 and older or adults only.

Stefanie: So tell me a little bit about how this digital platform got started.

Maddie: So my sister-in-law lives in Carmel. She started Keeping Up In Carmel in August of 2022. She saw a huge need up there. She started her platform, and as hers grew early into the next year, she noticed that she had a lot of people reaching out to her from the southside.

So she reached out to me. We both have backgrounds in marketing, photography and social media. She asked me if I'd be interested. I had already created my own in lists, I guess you could say, for my family.

So at that point it was really just time, I guess, to start Keeping Up In Greenwood. We just took off running with it and we haven't stopped.

Stefanie: Let's take it back a little bit further. What were you doing before you created this? I know that you were a photographer and then healthcare. Right?

Maddie: So when I graduated college, the 1st time in 2017 with my 1st associates I focused on medical assisting. I worked in phlebotomy, ended up being a endoscopy technician, kind of like a version of a surgical technician for a local hospital. So even from high school, I knew, okay, I really want to be in the medical field.

That's what I see myself doing for years. I stuck with that for a long time. Then COVID hit. I had my first son in January of 2020. So right before pretty much the world shut down, everything changed. My unit closed because we were in an emergency area. They sent everyone that worked on my floors to the COVID floors while I was on maternity leave.

When I left work for maternity leave, I fully expected to go back to work and it be like nothing had changed. That changed for me. So I took a step back and told my boss, I think I need to be PRN. I won't come back until our unit opens up.

I don't feel comfortable working with a newborn. I feel like I'm being called home to take care of my family first. Immediately after that happened, I was like, maybe I don't want to work in the medical field. Maybe I'm being called in a different direction.

So I went back to school for marketing at that point. Concentration on social media, as well, social media marketing. I just found, this passion for social media. I somehow got connected with a local business that was just starting in 2020. She had no experience with social media, whatsoever, and we jumped right in and started.

She gave me a chance running her social media and being her event coordinator once events were okay in 2022. I then picked up three more businesses to run their social media pages that were local to at the time, the Fort Wayne area. Then my husband's career grew as well.

He got an offer to grand open a store down here in Greenwood for where he works. His family lives on the North side so we felt, you know, we'd really like to be closer to his family. It's still not that far from Fort Wayne. So that was our trip down to Greenwood in December of 2022, two days before Christmas was when we signed our paperwork and moved into our house.

So, you know, after that, my sister in law was running Keeping Up In Caramel and doing an amazing job with it. A couple months later, I think it was March, she had reached out to me. Do you think we can do this before June? I was like, absolutely. So I immediately started my research. Started putting together a full park guide for everything down here. Visiting everywhere that I could that I hadn't already. Trying to get some insights to start sharing about and helping people feel confident in going out and trying new things.

Stefanie: That was a lot. So, 2020, you had a baby. The world shut down. But Maddie didn't. She just started to keep going.

Maddie: I didn't even think about 2021, I picked up a camera for the first time since high school.

I used to shoot photography in high school. Loved it. Took it for three years in high school. Did a lot of sports photography back in high school cause that was the easiest thing to book at that time. You know, you shoot for the football games, shoot for the basketball games, um, which was kind of hard because I was also a cheerleader.

So I picked up a camera in 2021 and I was like, man, I want to get creative again and start taking pictures of my son and my husband and whenever my friends would ask me to take pictures. So Moments by Madison Photography started. I love it. I have my pretty much my set clients.

Um, yeah, started photography in 2021 I never stopped really. I just knew that after COVID happened I wanted to find a passion again.

Stefanie: Sounds like it's sounding like you get to do a lot of things that just naturally come out of you creatively. So I do want to talk a little bit about that, but I want to put a pin in it, and go back a little bit again. It sounds like it was just very easy to just go one, two, three . This happened, this happened, and then that happened, but we forget sometimes that in the moments, there's a lot of uncertainty. We don't know what's around the corner. We don't know how it's going to turn out and it requires faith.

You were in healthcare professional for the longest time, wanting to help people, and then something else showed up for you. Where did the courage to say yes to all those things come from and did you have those moments of uncertainty?

Maddie: Absolutely. I can remember sitting, in the last couple weeks of my maternity leave going... I don't know if I can go back.

My husband did not- he was going to be supportive if I wanted to go back, but he really wanted me to stay home as well. At the time, due to his work, he was considered essential. With a newborn it was at that time it was all about feeling safe.

It was so uncertain because, we were going to lose that one stream of income if I go PRN. Who knows when I'll go back to work. So it was very uncertain and it was just kind of like, okay, at this time we need to sit down together and just put our faith in the fact that something's going to come along.

A lot of late nights for me where I'm sitting there and I'm just thinking and I'm researching, okay, like what, Can I do now that's going to give me a little bit more freedom as mom, do I go back to school, go back to the corporate world- you probably are going to need a degree...

It was just a lot of uncertainty at that time. It was a lot of worry for a good couple of weeks and just like putting our faith in that something was going to happen. There's always going to be something that comes along and it may not be exactly what you thought it was going to be.

My husband is very kind of go with it. I'm the worrier. I like to be very organized. Have a plan. You need to put your focus somewhere and you need to go with it. If you just put your 110 percent into it something will happen. But put the research in before as well. Before you decide to do it.

Stefanie: It sounds like to me that you had a choice in that moment.

You were either going to put your focus on the fear and the uncertainty or you're going to put your focus on what you were stepping into.

Maddie: Yes, absolutely. For a little while there, it was total anxiety and a couple mental breakdowns. But I had a newborn, it was like, okay, we've got to figure this out and just got to go with it. We just got to hope for the best in this moment. I feel like that was a lot of 2020 for us, was just hoping for the best.

Stefanie: We were all just hoping that the best of something was going to come out of something. So now you got out of high school and stepped into college and knew you wanted to help people and that led you into healthcare but there's a difference between being a healthcare professional and this creative field that you ended up going into. Do you feel that being a healthcare professional was a part of who you are? Or do you feel that the truer part of you is this creative side?

Maddie: That's hard because some days I still miss it. I still miss working in the hospital. Sometimes I miss working during the night. Which is so weird. My creative side, I love because it challenges me. A lot of it comes easy but it's challenging sometimes . You're constantly coming up with new things. I felt like with that other world, it was pretty consistent. I don't want to say you knew what you were coming into because that was not the case of every day but you kind of just knew what to expect. With the creative side, it's a constant 'I take certain times every week and brainstorm the different ideas that I want to focus on and the different places I want to reach out to it's a lot more, I feel like, critical thinking. It brought out a different side of me that I hadn't seen in a long time. I just feel like it brought out a side of me that I had really missed . I love that side.

I absolutely just love, shooting content, coming up with all these ideas and problem solving to help other parents and other families around here find things to do. Or at least feeling comfortable and trying something new.

I loved working in Peds and I loved working labor and delivery. I loved working in the family areas the most when I worked in the hospital. I miss working in the hospital sometimes. I absolutely do. But then I'm so blessed to be able to do something that I absolutely love and had no idea that it was in me.

Stefanie: Sounds like you had to rely on two parts of yourself, two different sides of yourself.

When you're in the medical field, there's kind of a system, right? Not that you know what to expect because you can't do that in the medical field as much. When it comes to creativity, there's not as much of a path, you kind of have to figure it out as you go along.

Maddie: And I feel like I'm constantly learning. I was constantly learning working in the medical field. I'm constantly learning here too. I may have a degree but I'm constantly learning new things all the time. If you know anything about social media it's ever changing. Sometimes you feel like you might be chasing an algorithm. I never want to feel that way, so you're just constantly trying to change things up, you're trying to come up with new ideas, and share new things. So it's interesting and I love it.

Stefanie: How have you had to rely on yourself when it comes to the unknown? Because you're creating something that doesn't really have a blueprint. Where did you find the strength to rely on you during this moment of uncertainty?

Maddie: My husband is my rock. We've just always been each other's rocks especially since we became parents. You have to have that person that's going to stand by you and support you no matter what. My husband, I love him, I call him a golden retriever. I don't know how else other than that to explain it.

He is the most supportive person. He has sat there with me through the beginning and watched me, you know, question everything that I thought I had known about myself. What I thought I wanted to do with my life and to see it completely change. He's like, first of all, you're a lot happier now.

The burnout in the medical field is real. He was just this absolute rock. Also my family, I couldn't have done it without my family either. They were also concerned at some points too. They were a little bit unfamiliar in the territory that I was going in. My mom worked in a nursing home and my dad works with HVAC. So totally different types of careers and I wanted to go to school for marketing { laughs} I was a first generation graduate for college as well. So, it was just, I just had this like group of people that were like, okay, everything is changing in the world around us and we'll be there to support you. I could not thank all of them enough for that.

Stefanie: That's a blessing. Not always do people have the support system. So it sounds like the people around you had more traditional jobs and they were in traditional industries and here you are switching to something that is non traditional. I'm really glad to hear that you had a support system. What would you say to the people who don't have that support system but feel like they want to shift into something else.

Maddie: I will say - in the beginning, it took a little bit. I mean, I really sat down and I explained everything to my family because with them being so unfamiliar, not in the beginning were they like super, super, super supportive as they were towards, you know, me going back to school and everything. So just like really explaining everything.

If you don't love it, you don't want to work somewhere or do something that you won't love for the rest of your life. If you're being called in a different direction, it's okay.

I think it's worth it to go for it. I really do. I know not having the support is not easy but just going for it. It'll be better in the end. Once you get to where you want to be in that transition, it's going to be better. It may not be better right in the beginning. It's overwhelming and,you're like, is this the right decision?

But if you just keep going, you'll get there. That's how I feel like my life has been its just keep going. You're going to get there and it's going to be good. You're going to get there

Stefanie: It's like when you're going through the cave, don't stop. There's going to be so many fears in that cave. Don't stop. Get to the end of it. I love where you said that they weren't familiar with what you were doing.

I think that's so important for people who are feeling as if they do not have that support around them to hear. Because they feel like people don't get it. We have to understand that when we're building something new or creating something new we aren't even familiar with it either. We don't even know really what we're doing.

So it makes sense that they would also feel unfamiliar or maybe unsafe with it. But I love the idea of what you were talking about. Just trusting that call, trusting in that something you were being called to. Let that be your guideposts and it's okay if they don't get it. What's more important is that you get it. Sometimes we look to the people around us for that security and that support when you're feeling uncertain about what it is you're creating.

Let's talk about the moments where you were questioning yourself.

Maddie: I was bouncing back and forth in classes. Very, very pregnant. I was questioning things. Did I make the right decision? I'm going to have two kids. Adding another person into the house. I going to be able to balance this life of being a mom at the time?

I didn't have childcare. We didn't do daycare. It was just a very crazy time for us. We knew we were wanting to move while I was pregnant. Everything I've set up here in Fort Wayne and working with all these businesses we were going to move for my husband's career.

So it was just alot of questions of, is this worth it?

I really questioned it because I'm leaving everything that I've done here and I'm going to move somewhere else that I'm unfamiliar with and I'm going to start over.

It was scary at first. I immediately hit the ground running there and started reaching out to local businesses and working with other people. Still doing some things for the people I was working with in Fort Wayne, but at a much smaller scale, cause couldn't go in very often.

So yeah, really questioning but also at the same time, I was like, I've got to trust that I've put in this work this far. If I did it once, I can do it again and if we somehow end up moving again... I'll do it again. I'll start over again. What I love about this creative side and doing social media and creative work for small businesses is those small businesses are everywhere. And yes, I absolutely could go, into the corporate world and do this for a larger business, but I love the small business aspect of it and the business owner. I was like, I can pick this up. I can do it anywhere.

It's hard though. It's scary sometimes.

It was winter with a newborn and a toddler. It's also let's put together this house we just bought and get acclimated with where we are, but also like immediately feeling the need to jump back into working.

The second time around, I really didn't take much of a maternity leave it was such a crazy time for us. We actually listed our house the day I went into the hospital to have him and then accepted an offer the day that I had him which was the next day while still in the hospital.

So, yeah, there was a lot of questioning when we first got here, but also at the same time in the back of my mind I was like ' you can do it'.

Stefanie: What I'm hearing from you is you really had to be your own coach. You had to be your own cheerleader. You had to keep reminding yourself, I've gotten this far. I can do this. It sounds as if you've built a lot of resilience to trust yourself. Do you feel like you had a hard time trusting yourself before this time? Or do you feel like you always felt like you've been resilient and trusted yourself?

Maddie: I feel like I've always been resilient but not always trusted myself, especially younger me.

Fresh out of high school, I did not trust myself whatsoever. And I just feel like sometimes that comes with age.

I feel like that has changed a lot since becoming a mom as well. But also sometimes I still feel like I deal with questioning myself sometimes.

Stefanie: It's imposter syndrome.

Maddie: Yeah, if I could tell my younger self that we did it like we did something, not anything, we thought we were going to be doing but we're doing it and we love it.

Stefanie: When we're building something out of necessity or you have you hit the ground running and you have to figure out something a lot of fear can be there.

Maddie: Yeah

Stefanie: How did you handle your nervous system through all those moments of fear?

Maddie: Goodness. I do a lot of journaling, to be honest. That is my one way of writing down my feelings, whether it be digitally on my laptop or actually writing in my journal. It's a lot easier on my laptop because my kids like to get into every book and pen possible.

I know a lot of people who do devotions. Different ways of meditating. I love yoga. Just giving myself a space to exit out of it. My work, I will be completely honest some days I do struggle with disconnecting . I could be up till 2 in the morning because I get in a groove and I'm creative right now.

My kids are sleeping. I'm gonna regret this tomorrow. I definitely do regret it the next morning. But just creating and giving yourself your own safe space. I'm journaling, that's my safe space. Or if I'm doing yoga, it's my safe space.

It gives me a chance to step back and center myself, because obviously when you work from home, I'm sure a lot of people do, or you work with your kids around you don't exactly know where it stops. My hours aren't a normal nine to five.

I work when I can, most of the time it's at night, or it's naptime. So my hours are going to be different, but I still give myself that time to step back, center myself, and get myself ready for the next day, or get myself ready for the next week,

Stefanie: So let's talk about systems and balance. We're both in creative fields. The one thing with creativity is sometimes it can be all over the place because you're just creating. When it comes to creating a business, there needs to be systems set up.

So let's talk about how you're able to take what you're creating and create systems around that when you are a mom of two small kids. How do you decide what you're going to be working on? How do you take all those creative ideas and filter that into what you are going to choose to work on for the week or the day or the month?

Maddie: Whenever something comes to my mind, I have some crazy notes, folders in my phones that I will jot things down and I give myself time, whether it be Sunday night, that I will go through all of my different ideas.

I use my Google calendar religiously to keep track of different postings, what I need to create that day, or different events I have to go to. Everything is organized to a T in there. Staying organized is really just key and being able to put that system in place.

Stefanie: How did you create the system that you have now? Was it trial and error or did you already know what you were wanting to do?

Maddie: I mean, yes. I have to thank Chelsea for kind of setting the basis of how certain things were going to go.

My page is my page, her page is her page, but we still both have some of the same things that are originals to when Keeping Up in Carmel first started. Those weekly end lists are game changers for a lot of people, and that's been something that we've heard a million times.

We did our park guides where all of our local parks. We each have specific things that are key to both pages and she set that up originally when she started KUIC, and yes, some of it has been trial and error over the last couple years, but from there, she was like, do what you want. It's your page. Be creative with it. Find the different places you want to go and the different content you want to make. Our pages are still very similar but, she focuses up there and I focus down here.

I'll hop on a zoom call if a business can't get together in person or we'll go meet for coffee or I'll meet them at their business. We'll do a whole vetting process if we feel like it's a good fit for the KUIG audience. Then we move forward in the creative process.

Stefanie: So the main takeaway I'm hearing is when you're creating something that you've never created before or that really hasn't been created before, is to create some consistent things that you're working on every single week that you can pour your energy into.

When you have creative ideas, put them to the side and revisiting them. It sounds like to me, you know what you're working on every single week.

Maddie: Yeah.

Stefanie: And you can add new things to it when you have new ideas.

Maddie: Yeah , a lot of times I'll try to create for the month, my idea of what I want to post about or what I want to share.

I might have a few days here and there where I might come up with a new idea. I'm like, you know what? I have an open day here. That's something I already have footage from and I can go ahead and put that together and share it because I feel like it'll have a really good response because it might focus on multiple things that are local or relevant to what's going on right now.

Like today, for example, I put together, we're going through a heat wave right now. So I put together cool activities in and around the South side of Indy. They might feature a pool or the children's museum or different indoor and outdoor activities. But you put it together in one day because this isn't something I thought about a month ago.

In that creative sense, you also have to be ready to change your ideas or change on the dime. It's now 90 degrees. It's going to be 90 degrees for the next few days. People are looking to do different things, whether it be outside or inside, and so you just almost constantly try to think about new things but also stay consistent in your plan.

Because when you plan and you're consistent and you're organized. It goes a lot smoother. But also, in my experience, I feel like it helps you because it's not all over the place. You really buckle down into your niche. It really helps your audience.

Stefanie: That leads nicely into something I want to go into. Having that structure is really important so that you know what you're working on but there are going to be moments where kiddos get sick, you get sick, or something comes along and derails you a little bit.

It can be easy to be,like, "Well, I guess I won't create anything today." How do you move over those bumps when you just maybe don't feel as creative or something comes up with the kids?

Maddie: I always try to put together things up to a week in advance so if something does happen I've got something to go. I don't have to totally focus on it, I may not hop on stories that day, I may not talk, especially if I'm sick or one of my kids is sick and I need to put my focus elsewhere.

But like, it's set and it's ready to go and all I have to do is hit one button and it's done. So, yeah, it's just trying to set yourself up and organized. I just think it's key to continuing to grow but also to keeping that relationship with your community cause you're staying consistent and you're still showing up.

But there are definitely days. This past year for the first time, all three of us except for my youngest, all ended up with the stomach bug for three days. Those are the worst three days of my life. I would rather have another child. Absolutely horrible. I did not do any work during those three days because I physically could not. And that's okay too, if you have to step back for a few days.

And you absolutely can take a vacation. But if you're going to do that, I would recommend planning ahead. That way you're still showing your face or showing your creativity online but you don't actually have to be doing it all. There are different ways that you can schedule all of your stuff ahead of time so you don't even have to worry about it.

You can't plan when things are gonna happen that's why I'm always trying to like plan ahead or have different things tucked in a drafts folder. I might need a filler or if something happened and it fell through then okay I've got something else on deck ready to go.

I love creating different things and being able to be like, okay, this is what I want to focus on this month. It also helps me get to know my audience more as well. To be like - What did they respond to the most this month? Or should I start sharing more things like this? Really getting to know them because the whole point is just being a resource to local families. That's the whole point behind it.

If I help one person every day I've done my job. That's all I want. I get so excited when I get a message from someone. They're like, oh my gosh, I'm not sure if you've heard this in a while, but you're doing great. I use your page all the time. This is such a great resource for me. Or, I'm new to the area and I found your page and this is so helpful. I may not have kids, but you share a lot of different things to do, and your in lists are great. Now I know what my husband and I are gonna go do on Friday so it's just kind of great in that aspect.

Stefanie: That's really nice. Sometimes, in a creative business, social media is the thing that drops off the map because you're trying to create all this content. How do you keep on top of all the content you're creating and still be consistent?

Maddie: Well, first, social media has been my passion for a few years now.

I get the most excited getting to create something that I'm going to post on social media. I love doing it and I don't think that it's ever going to be something that drops off. I will say that I've struggled on my photography page. I don't think I've posted since last year and I've done 20 shoots since last year.

So it's just kind of like but from my personal experience with my photography business, most of my sessions, have not been booked through social media. They've been word of mouth. They've been a referral. They've been you know different ways like that... so I feel like it can differ between the types of businesses. With with KUIG, I'm almost just driven to be consistent.

I get excited, to see my page going up Monday through Friday. And that means more than likely I'm going to see, there's going to be new people that haven't seen my page before and they're going to see it from the local area. They're going to see it. So that's really exciting.

I might help someone new this week. I might help another business. Someone might be like, 'oh my goodness, I had no idea this existed I live 15 minutes from there. I'd never heard of it before. I'm so excited to check it out. I love to see small businesses thrive, especially, after everything that happened in 2020. A lot of small businesses, or even my favorite business in the Fort Wayne area, didn't survive 2020 and everything that happened.

So all I want to do is I want to see people connected to the community. And feel confident going out and doing things. But also I want to see small businesses thrive. Like I want to see new people trying new things and then falling in love with it, continuing to come back and seeing the small business continue to grow.

So it's just like a win win in that situation.

Stefanie: Yeah, I think the key takeaway from that is that not every business is going to rely on social media.

Maddie: Yeah.

Stefanie: ...and sometimes you don't feel as inspired to post on social media, but the pressure to do so because of what we hear is to post constantly on social media.

Maybe we don't actually have something to post or we don't feel inspired to post. But for you, it sounds like it's just a natural thing for you. An actual extension of what you're doing with Keeping Up In Greenwood versus your photography business where your clients aren't even coming from there. So maybe putting all your energy into that isn't useful because it's not a good ROI, which is return on investment.

It seems like the return on investment is clearly there when you post on social media when it comes to Keeping Up In Greenwood.

Maddie: Definitely.

Stefanie: You were just trusting, take it one step at a time, keep going, keep trying it. Some people stop in their tracks when they think, well, can I make any money out of this? Is this going to provide for my family? I can't leave one career to get to another one. How am I going to cover that livelihood?

You did that all during COVID and after that. So what advice would you give to the people saying, 'How do I trust it's going to take care of me?'

Maddie: I'll be completely honest, I do Keeping Up In Greenwood full time. I put a lot of my energy into it. But it's not paying my livelihood yet and that's okay. It will get to that point. It just takes time. Chelsea, my sister-in-law, is my mentor in this and there have been times where I've talked to her and I'm like, ' I don't get it' and she's like, ' It;s okay. It's going to take time. You're also doing your social media marketing for these small businesses.' So it's going to take time.

As you know in photography, when you first started photography, you're like, I'm not making that much. How am I going to pay my bills?

Stefanie: Yup.

Maddie: But, it just, keep going, you know? When I first started Keeping Up In Greenwood everything I did, I did for free. I was like, I got to get my first, I got to get my name out there. No matter the type of business, whether it's photography or creating a digital platform like this, you're going to do things for free for a bit and that's okay.

I one hunderd percent say do it because you're going to network, you're going to meet people that way, you're going to create long lasting good relationships with these people because sometimes people may get the wrong impression if you are just in it for creating that livelihood or making money and just like I 100 percent think that creating those relationships are way more beneficial because they're more likely to tell someone else about you.

Some of my oldest standing partners that I've had with KUIG still recommend me to other people, and I partnered with them a year ago now. Or we'll continue to partner because we've just, we've created that long lasting relationship. We're just in it to support each other and support our communities.

With photography, when I first started, I gave away like 10 free sessions because I'm like need to create a better portfolio that focuses on what I want to be capturing, whether it's families, couples, babies and I'm going to put in that work.

Sometimes you may be out the money doing that but you're gonna be creating what you need to be successful later on. Whether that be a relationship, whether that be a portfolio, or just like putting different things together. I just think that just continuing to go and continuing to grow is going to be helpful in the long run. S

Stefanie: You really never know what it's going to turn into.

Maddie: Yup.

Stefanie: Now you started off with marketing thinking you were going to go that way and it just kept moving and eventually led to where you are right now but with all that you're doing right now with Keeping Up In Greenwood could turn into something else. It sounds like to you are very open to whatever it could turn into.

So, one last question, how do you feel that this whole journey has grown you?

Maddie: I feel like it's brought out more of an extroverted side of me. It's made me feel more confident and trying new things. Back when I had my first son, even without COVID, I feel like I was so nervous trying new things and doing new things.

So I can see what some of these other parents or people are feeling. Even without kids, I was that person that studied the menu before I went out and tried a new restaurant to make sure that there was something that I liked and like a little bit bored. Now I'm a lot more laid back in the sense of like, let's go try something new.

Let's go meet new people. Let's just, let's get out there. I just feel a lot more confident in going and doing these things now. That's just one big change I've seen in myself. But also, I feel like I've trusted myself more.

You look back at yourself maybe four years ago and I'm not the same person and I'm happy for it. I've grown as a person. I have found new passions. Seeing that change and that want and drive to continue to do things or continue to follow my creative side, I absolutely love, and I'm so happy for it.

So seeing that change in myself and seeing me not so timid makes me so excited because for the longest time I was a little bit more timid. I want KUIG to help people feel a little bit more this way versus being very timid or scared to try something new, especially with kids

I'm a little bit more confident and outgoing in that sense. So I love that.

Stefanie: Amazing. Well, thank you so much, Maddie, for doing this interview. Let people know where they can find out more about you.

Absolutely. So if you want to learn more about Keeping Up in Greenwood, you can visit www.keepingupingreenwood.com. Right there we've got an About Me page that goes just a little bit in depth if you want to learn more about me personally. All of the blog posts are on there. If you're a business and you're looking, to partner with Keeping Up in Greenwood, you can check that out there as well.

There's a lot of resources there on the blog. And then as well, if you go to just Keeping Up in Greenwood on Instagram, you can see everything that I've posted there. Also, there's a link to the blog is there as well. You can subscribe to the blog, which is really great. A lot of people do that because you may not remember to check your email or the website as often as you want to.

But if you subscribe, everything that I post goes directly to your inbox. So the weekly in list for the week comes to you on Sunday at 6pm. And then again, at 6pm on Thursday, your weekend in list. So you can plan your events for the week.

Update Since This Interview: In October 2024, Keeping Up in Greenwood and Keeping Up in Carmel became part of something much bigger with the launch of Keeping Up Local. This nationwide platform expands our mission of making local living effortless and enjoyable by providing a personalized guide to the best events, businesses, and community highlights in your area—all curated by a member of your community who is passionate about helping you feel connected where you live. Whether you’re looking for a local affiliate near you or interested in becoming one, visit www.keepinguplocal.com (http://www.keepinguplocal.com) for more information.