The Rise and Rise of the Influencer
Do you have a favourite blogger? YouTube Channel? TikTok star? Pinterest Pinner?
I have a bunch of favourites myself, and for years, I – let’s be honest here- kind of envied them. I had ‘normal’ jobs that I wasn’t that invested in, so when I met a girl at work who was quitting her day job to be a full-time money blogger, I was sceptical.
Well, I was wrong. She did great- won awards, got in the press and her brand went from strength to strength. While I really admired her, I was envious too. I was still trapped in the cycle of finding a job that I hoped would fulfil me, realising it wouldn’t, then seeking another opportunity as soon as I could.
That is not really a sustainable course of action, it turns out! In a previous life I had been a restaurant manager, and I quickly recalled that the best part of that job was being the leader, being the person planning the shift or week or month ahead, and had the organisation and drive to make it happen. Sounds a grand way of getting all the customers served with the meals they ordered, but ultimately, I realised I enjoyed getting sh*t DONE!
So, screwing my courage to the sticking post- like the girl I had admired so much for getting her blog so successful that she could make a full-time job of it- I started a blog.
Several times, in fact.
I even had my cousin pretty much set up one of them, because I was just so stumped by the technical aspect of all – not a great moment. In fact, it was pretty embarrassing, as she had the whole thing done in about an hour! But, alas – and I hope she isn’t reading this – I gave up on that site. I didn’t have the faith that I could learn how to change or fix things on the blog, which I could have learned. More importantly, I didn’t have the faith in myself to make a success of it, that anyone would be interested in what I was writing.
Fast forward to today, and I am settling into blogging very nicely thank you very much. I’m still not amazing at setting up a blog, or any of the tech bits – and I’m talking about the simplest stuff here – not coding or anything remotely tricky! I’m pretty sure I’m making many mistakes as I go along, and I know my sites don’t look amazing, but I now appreciate that it’s just part of the journey, and that the tech know-how will come with practice. Well, that’s what I’m told by the lovely community of bloggers and influencers I have found myself immersed in lately, anyway!
I also have less worry about who will read my output now than I did. At some point, I just decided I was going to blog for myself, and if other people want to join me and read my posts, then they will be welcomed with open arms!
There are so many fabulous bloggers and influencers out there at the moment that I didn’t have to look far to find some inspiration to get me going in this world, even aside from the household names we have all come to hear about the last few years.
I’m pretty partial to a makeup tutorial myself, an eco-friendly blog here and there, and of course, anything with a recipe on it, so I have a million people on the internet to inspire me or learn from a so many different ways!
The wonderful thing is, in this online world we are creating around ourselves, we can choose to learn and grow in whatever direction we decide we want to, and that is exactly what I have done myself.
I went from envying the people blogging or being influencers to becoming a blogger myself. It was hard, not because I didn’t understand how to start a blog site or how to change the colours or add pictures, though of course that was, and remains tricky! But it was mostly hard because I didn’t think I could even have got this far, but guess what? I have.
