SIMILAR CHAIR | SIMILAR BLAZER HERE AND HERE | SEQUIN DRESS | EARRINGS
Welcome, sis! Lots to dish out on this Wednesday morning, so grab a cup of coffee and get cozy. I’m so excited to finally share with you… I’M A FULL-TIME BLOGGER! Yes, you read that right! I just wrapped up my last week at my 9-5 and to take The Frivolous Fashionista full-time! This has been one of the most thrilling, challenging, terrifying leaps of faith I’ve ever taken. Hear me when I say, this never could have happened without every single one of you.
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
I started this outlet in 2016 but didn’t really utilize all the space had to offer until closer to 2018. My best friend, Garrett, would help me put together colorful photo sessions and spend the weekend running around town mapping out our next location for photoshoots. After building relationships with a few amazing brands, fellow bloggers and finding my rhythm in styling photoshoots, I was hooked. Once I gave Instagram and social outlets more attention, I realized how passionate I felt about putting together creative content in partnership with brands that serve my following.
The part you don’t see? It’s super time consuming. As much as we want our followers to feel like our content is effortless, one post/partnership takes hours to put together. I would leave work, hurry to pick up my little ones, rush through the motions and feel so relieved when I got them down for bed. Just typing that makes me cringe, but it had become my reality. Mornings were kind of a daze because I would stay up for hours the night before trying to catch up on content that Garrett and I photographed the weekend before. I was never fully present because I always felt so behind. I was spreading myself too thin with my family to be more present with my socials. I knew something had to give.
Mario was the ultimate partner behind the scenes. He spent hours working through statistics and playing the role of “logical adult” while I continually hit the panic button. It’s intimidating to try planning your finances around the uncertainty of landing partnerships vs. having the guaranteed income from a standard 9-5 job. He built spreadsheets, tracked numbers and helped me realize this was completely within my reach. My heart was so full – I could continue being creative in building my brand without sacrificing the sweet time I had been missing with our family.
SO, WHAT’S NEXT?
Well, now we get to work! I got super transparent on this post last year, but I wanted to shed light on the brand partnership side of blogging. Companies value creators that value their audience. If bloggers are willing to take every partnership thrown their way, the authenticity of their recommendations comes into question.
“Does she really like that, or is she just telling me to buy it because they paid her to promote it?”
Please hear me when I say there is no dollar figure worth losing the trust of my community with y’all. I would rather put together 5 extremely detailed partnerships that I love than rushing through 10 sub-par partnerships just because they’d pay the bills. Yes, you’ll see paid partnership posts mixed into my daily content. I promise to only take on deals that bring value, that fit into my life and serve the community I’ve worked so hard to build with y’all.
SLOW YOUR SCROLL!
Social media is one of the only spaces you can truly support someone and never spend a dollar. Your likes, comments, shares and saves allow us to see what value you find in our pages. It also allows brands to measure the value content creators brought to their company with a partnership post. If they’re investing marketing dollars in collaborating with influencers, they want to know that audience was actually interested. Make sense?
The takeaway? Show some love! Seeing a post and thinking “wow, love that!” but not showing some love means you’ll see less and less of that content in the future. Come engage with your favorite posts. Engage as much as you can. Likes, comments, shares and saves cost nothing and are more valuable than you’ll ever know.
Wow, that was long-winded! Hear me when I say, I’M SO EXCITED! This has been a dream of mine that I never could have accomplished without each of you. Your support, your love and showing up each day made this possible! I promise with my whole heart to continue bringing value, honesty and transparency to this space. We’re in this together, sister, and I’m SO thankful to each of you for supporting me in this dream!
