Two Year Blog Anniversary

I cannot believe I have been a blogger for two years!! Growing up, I was the kid that always gave up after a short period of time. If I didn’t succeed right off the bat, I was on to my next activity or project. It wasn’t until college when I learned the value of tenacity and sticking through something in order to grow. Through this lesson, I was then able to slowly develop my personal brand and create a page I was truly proud of. With two years under my belt, I have become so confident in my work and am thrilled to continue on this journey with each and every one of you.

Now, before I get into my lessons, I wanted to give a quick back story as to how my page came about. During the spring of 2019, I was starting to be asked rather frequently “Lauren how do you style this garment” or “What should I get for this event?” I honestly was growing a bit tired of repeating myself so I talked it over with an old friend and asked if I should just make a fashion Instagram account. She was totally supportive and gave me that push to start somewhere.

What happened next was truly mind blowing. I grew incredibly slow in the first 7 months. I genuinely have no idea how I managed to pump out daily content for only a few hundred people! It was during my winter break that I really sat down and researched how to grow a social media account and took my page to the next level. From there I started to grow at a steadier rate and by the fall of 2020, I was going viral on reels! That was actually surreal; having hundreds of thousands of people watch your work is mind boggling.

With the surrealism came an even greater achievement, hitting 10,000 followers! That day occurred back in March and I finally had the coveted swipe up links. Now I am at around 10,100 followers and have made thousands on my page from brand deals to consultant jobs. Let’s dive deeper into my work and what lessons I picked up on the way!

1) Going Viral is Surreal

The screenshot above is from my most viral reel. When I tell you it still feels surreal, I am pinching myself to this day! As I was looking back through my content for this post, I noticed some comments I didn’t get to. While creators go on Instagram to grow and blow up, it can be a bit stressful at the same time. I remember getting overwhelmed with messages and comments (some of which were not nice!) which deterred me from making videos for a bit. Now I’ve gotten back a bit into reels but there is now a bit of over-saturation in the video department. If you ever get the chance to blow up though, it is kinda cool.

Also, it took me months to actually go viral on reels. I was posting fairly consistently since reels first came out and it wasn’t until 3-4 months into posting that I actually got traction. My key to success has been taking popular Tiktok sounds and adding information about social media growth and monetization. I think I need to freshen up my approach going forward but it really added to my overall follower increase and engagement!

2) Network as Much as Possible

I swear I feel like a broken record when I say this but social media was always supposed to be social!! Oftentimes we get caught up in vanity metrics and want to get as many likes as possible while also growing as much as we can. With that growth though needs to be actual human connection. Due to the pandemic, in person meetings have been cut short but I am still making it a point to connect with people on zoom and now out to dinner or drinks.

By networking, you are also creating a community for yourself and content becomes far easier to create. I know blogging can be a bit isolating since you do work so much from your computer. As lame as this may sound, I know I am better at talking to people behind a screen as opposed to in person so in some ways this has been a huge help to my social life.

Some of my favorite ways to network is to look through relevant hashtags to your location or personal niche. I found my strongest community in Seattle Bloggers, some of which I’d consider good internet friends! The upside to local gals is the ease of visiting each other. Not only do you have a new person to spend time with, but they will also help you with content creation and vice versa!

3) Remember you’re Worth Payment

One of my biggest lessons as a creator has been demanding compensation for my work and learning to charge more than $50. For the longest time, I was severely undervaluing my work and since I want this to be a full time job one day, I needed to increase my rates. I’ve also grown more confident in pitching and will always ask brands what their budget is for creators. If it’s too low, I decline and for free posts, I now relegate them to my stories.

When working with brands too, remember to be kind and look into longer term connections. There are so many options for paid content these days that you can get fairly creative! I try to make as much as I realistically can from posts and I have noticed my first couple thousand in 2021 coming from sponsorships. They are more valuable than you think!

4) It’s Okay to Evolve

When you first start on social media, you think you have your niche all figured out and what you do early on is how it’ll always be. In my case, that was so far from the truth! While yes, fashion always has been and will always be the core of what I do, I’ve now found so much joy in consulting nano influencers and sharing social media tips!

Now, I haven’t always been successful in this. At first I tried an online course that totally failed and I attempted a solo social media business that really only brought on one client. From these “failures” came so much future success because I learned what I didn’t want to do and I had more time to focus on what I actually enjoyed.

Nowadays I just focus on my personal brand and growing my sponsorships and affiliate commission. I’ve also learned how much I love working with small creators one on one to grow their brands. It’s far simpler than managing entire pages. My next goal is to make enough income to do content creation full time! I feel like I’m heading in that direction and I’m thrilled.

5) Celebrate all the Victories

Yes I got a giant cupcake for pictures. And yes I did proceed to just have the frosting.

Finally, I think we need to spend more time celebrating all the victories. Whether that’s with a cake or balloons, there is something so fun about a special photoshoot celebrating YOU! When I hit 5, 10 thousand followers I made it a point to share the success through a special post. I also just love getting cute props and taking a million pictures! These photos are also a great reminder of how far I’ve come in just a few years. Sometimes I question WHY I share daily pictures and choose to work online but I absolutely love the connections and have so much fun getting creative for you all. Here is to two more years and all of the excitement and growth. I can’t wait to keep celebrating!

Thank You!

I just want to end this with a huge thank you. If you guys didn’t support me and follow along on this crazy journey, I wouldn’t be here! This job has provided me with so much financial peace of mind and has pushed me in ways I didn’t think were possible. I absolutely love working in content creation and I hope in 12 months I’m recapping my third year as a full time creator 💖

Much love,

Lauren

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