One Year Of Blogging In The Books!

A blog, a book, a baby, and one year later I am still here. My husband told me that most bloggers quit after 3 months, so when I started this journey I had to set my bar to ensure that I made it past December 28, 2020. I stand here today to tell you that I have made it to my One Year Anniversary of blogging.

Has it been fun? Yes! Was it awkward? At times, but I am awkward so that was to be expected. 😉 Did I expect to already have 300k followers and generate an income revenue of a few thousand a month? I had high hopes, but I did gain over 130 new followers that stayed (so I must have done something right!).  Did I have to redefine success along the way? Most certainly. Did I have many tears? Yes, but I also had many laughs (mainly at myself and how awkward I am). Above all, I learned so many things, which is something I place a lot of value on in life.

Let me show you a few things I learned over the past year:

People will judge, let them keep judging.

As individuals we are scared to death of what other people will think of us, so it is excruciating to take a leap into the world of Social Media, the monstrous black hole filled with Bernie Sanders memes, fashion bloggers, pyramid schemes, all of which can be harshly criticized from behind a phone screen. I can tell you from experience that people will judge no matter what, and they will judge everything from what you’re wearing, to how close or far away you are from the camera, to what you are saying, to why you never include your children in the videos, allllll the way to why you always tag The Rock (😊 my personal fav)… you name it, people will criticize you for it.

But what people fail to realize is: If they are judging you, they are watching you. This equates to more traffic on your page, more video views, more everything. That is why I choose (most days!) to put myself in a more positive mindset: If people are judging me this means they are watching my videos/reading my blog and maybe just maybe they are learning something from me in the process (and that, in itself, is success in my book).

Not only that, but I have reflected on the, let’s call it, feedback I have received throughout the process to try and improve my product. While not everyone can deliver feedback in a constructive manner, it helps to take any criticism and work to understand why it is being given (there may be a hidden gem in there that will help you improve). So if you are scared to start blogging (or anything, really) because you are afraid of being judged, I encourage you to turn judgment into something a little more positive and a lot less scary. At the end of the day, if you have to tell yourself that they are criticizing you because they are jealous you took a leap of faith in yourself, then let that be the motivation for you to just take the leap.

I can’t even begin to tell you the harsh criticism I received for writing, publishing and printing copies of my children’s book - and I stand here proudly to tell you that my skin gets tougher with each piece of feedback. I have many successful months and others where I think, What the heck was I thinking? But I still continue.

Marketing is still not my strong suit.

I believe so much in what I am doing that I had hoped to sell thousands of copies of my children's book by now, but Marketing is an area in which I need major growth. I graduated with honors in my MBA, but Marketing was by far my worst grade throughout the entire program. One of the hardest parts for me has been trying to convince future customers that they do not need to know a Stay-at-Home Dad to purchase my book. I still struggle with this. You don’t need to eat green eggs and ham or know a wizard to enter into the worlds of Dr. Seuss or J.K. Rowling, and yet we gladly spend good money on these [awesome] books.

I also recognize that not everyone has to buy my book, because every family has their own budget and should be very purposeful with their money. I can respect that. On days where I am banging my head against the computer wondering how to encourage people to buy my book, I often say to myself, “What am I doing wrong? I’m trying to help women in the workplace. Our book has a good message, we give part of the profits back to working moms, and it isn't just for people who know a stay-at-home dad! Why won't you buy it to read to your kiddos at night?” If you can answer those questions, please DM me. I'd love the feedback.

I have to take a step back and realize that, yes, I do want to help, but not everyone is required or wants to support my cause - and that's ok! I can tell you that when you are very passionate about something, this is a hard reality to accept. So, I keep chugging along, banging my head and exploring new avenues to market my book. Don’t think I am doing it alone, I have had a tremendous amount of support along the way.

Unexpected people will come out of the woodwork to support you.

Over the past year, I have been able to reflect on the amazing people in my life. Be it the pandemic, my second pregnancy, or the launch of my small business, I have found support from many unexpected corners. It's amazing how people from various parts of my life have come back because of this new adventure. I think this holds true for anyone on any type of journey - there will be people that you expect to show up who don't and others who you never imagined who walk right alongside you.

One of the first people to buy my book was a friend from High School who I haven't spoken to in years (always loved her, but lost contact after HS). She now has two young children, a working husband, and just wanted to support me. She purchased the book and I have asked her to take pictures with her boys to promote on my social media. I am so grateful she came back into my life.

There are many examples over this past year that I could share of all the people who have helped me along this journey. I don't want to bore you with every detail, so I will say this: 

Thank you to any and all of my readers for checking out my blog, I hope you learned something. To anyone that clicked on my reel or IGTV videos, thank you for suffering through my awkwardness, I hope you had a good laugh. To anyone that has helped me with the innerworkings of Instagram, I owe you at least a round of beers. For all of you that purchased a book, I appreciate you supporting our cause. To my sister, Jordan, who has taken an exorbitant amount of pictures for social media and served as my Technical Support for Instagram, thank you for being one of my cheerleaders.

And with that, we start a new chapter, a new year, and a whole new set of goals. I can’t wait to continue this adventure with you.

xo,

Brittany

P.S. If you enjoy my blogs, please consider purchasing a children's book that gives back to working mamas: A Stay-at-Home Dad?