My Biggest Tip For Running A Blog/Business

I always wanted to make sure that before writing or giving any tips to others, that I had
truly experienced all of these things for myself first so that it was stemming from something real and not just speculation or assumption. Otherwise, why would you trust what I have to say? There are so many lessons that I have learned along the way over these last 5 years. I feel as though this industry is constantly teaching me something new. So much of what I have learned has been through my own trial and error. I’m actually thankful for all of the mistakes that I have made because each and every one of them has helped me grow not just as a blogger, but as a business woman.

I do consider myself to be an entrepreneur, paving my own career path. I started with
nothing other than a new creative idea that organically transitioned itself into a full-time
business and I get to be my own boss every day. I still don’t know how it happened, I mean it still blows my mind that this is my job. It can sometimes be hard for me to explain it to other people because I know that not everyone understands or even considers it to be a real job. I may not be categorized as one of the “top bloggers” in the game nor do I have a whole team behind me every day, but I am doing pretty well for myself. More importantly, I love what I do and I’m proud of myself for all that I have been able to achieve on my own. By no means has it been easy. There have been lots of sleepless nights, many tears, self doubt, countless cups of coffee to keep me going and plenty of set backs along the way. It’s never been perfect. It’s not always glamorous. It sure as hell has been worth it though.

I look back on my life when I was working in finance and I will never forget how completely miserable I was every single day. I think I knew at a young age that I had this creative, free spirit inside of me. Working a regular 9-5 office job was torture for my soul. That might seem like an exaggeration, but I kid you not, I felt trapped. I felt as though my authentic self had to be caged. The truth of the matter is that not everyone is cut out for the typical 9-5. As crazy as it may seem, I prefer the 24/7 365 hustle type of life because essentially, that’s what this is. If you work for yourself and if you want to keep building and growing, you have to make moves ALL the time. It’s chaotic and exhausting, but I live for it. It drives me. It keeps me hungry and passionate. One of the biggest questions that I have asked myself so far this year is, “Where do I go from here?” I want to expand. I want to get to the next level. I just want to keep growing. So right now, I am trying to figure out what my next steps are going to be so that I can take action because it’s time for more.

I say all of this to build up to what I consider to be another one of my biggest tips for not just blogging, but for running your own business, whatever that may be. You might
remember the post I wrote focusing on quality vs quantity. That is still one of the best pieces of advice that I could ever share. I felt inspired to dig even deeper and shed some light on one of the most important lessons that I have learned throughout these last 5 years.

BUILD A RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR AUDIENCE

I can’t tell you how long it took me to not only figure this out, but to pay close attention to it. In the beginning of this whole journey, I was so focused on creating and putting out
content that I often neglected to pay attention to how it was being received. While I always would say “thank you” to someone who left a sweet comment, I didn’t always take the time to expand on that and have an actual conversation. In order to build a relationship with
anyone, you must first get to know and understand them. This is so important. Over time, I started to do this more and more with my audience. What are they engaging with the most? What seems to get them interested and excited? What am I putting out that makes them feel more connected to me?  These were just some of the questions that I needed to get answers for.

I do believe that whatever you do has to be for yourself first because that is when it’s
authentic and not forced. However, if you fail to recognize what is resonating the most with your audience, then you really are only putting out content for yourself and no one else. At first, I solely focused on fashion. I was shooting outfit after outfit and while that got a good response for awhile, it started to fizzle out over time. I know that for some bloggers, their readers are ALL about shopping their looks, so they build on that. Or their audience lives for their beauty tutorials. It’s never really been that way for me. This doesn’t mean that my readers are not interested in those topics, I just think they have always wanted something different from me.

 I knew that something needed to change. This didn’t mean that I had to stop sharing my
personal style all together, I would never do that, but I knew that I had to start introducing other forms of content to my audience. I tested the waters here and there to see what worked and what didn’t. The turning point came for me when I first introduced my Life Chats series. I was blown away by the response and feedback. I knew instantly that I had to expand on this because not only did I love writing more personal pieces, but I found that this was 100% how my readers connected to me the most. I was providing them with more value and substance that I know they weren’t getting as much of with my outfit posts. This allowed me to be so much more transparent and open up a conversation that had some real depth.

Once I knew what everyone loved the most, I was able to take it a step further by
introducing other similar content, like these tips posts, sharing my solo travel
adventures, and even my most recent series, Life Lately. All of this has allowed me to not just build my relationship with my audience, but to also strengthen it. I can’t tell you how many girls will send me private messages that will reference one of my personal pieces. It makes me SO incredibly happy and what that does is open up a genuine and authentic
conversation that goes beyond the exterior. For me, this is what my audience wanted all along. It took some time for me to understand this all, but once I did everything started to come together. Expanding on my content has also helped bring in new opportunities for me that I probably wouldn’t have had before, which allows me to run my business in the best possible way. I have made sure to create a certain balance with my content so that I am not just giving people what they want, but also remaining true to myself and my own needs in the process. Finding this balance is key.

I really hope that this piece of advice can help you figure out new ways to understand your audience better and to build a relationship with them. I truly believe that this is an
essential part of running any type of business. Let me know your thoughts and if you would like me to continue expanding on topics like this. Happy weekend! ❤️