My Creative Story: Part 9 Defining My Blog
Read Why I Am Telling My Creative Story and see each part of the story here. Since I have paid, what to me, is a lot of money for Tiffany Han's Rejection Letter course I am taking it seriously and doing the work for the class. Through the program I needed to get clear on what my goals were for my blog and creative business if I was going to be pitching the right people, taking advantage of the right opportunities and investing my precious time in the right activities The first issue I had to address was choosing activities that I truly loved and ones that benefited me, not others only. So things like writing guest posts for blogs totally out of my genre became a hard and fast NO and participating in courses, teams, projects just because 'it's what all the famous bloggers are doing' also got cut out immediately if they weren't something that made me sing with excitement. As part of the program I had a one on one coaching session with Tiffany and this, this, was where I won all my money back. This was the most expensive online program I had ever purchased, so I was all kinds of nervous to spend that money. But my chat with Tiff made all those fears go away. A One hour coaching session with her literally aligned my brand. She was able to listen to me without thinking of any gain of her own, look at things objectively and had some crazy insight. About 5 minutes after I got off the call with her I immediately changed my blog tagline to Adventure. Crafting. Storytelling. and haven’t looked back since. She was able to see those three things that I am passionate about and boil it down to those three words. My blog officially has a focus and a clear purpose thanks to her insight, oh and me doing the work for her to be able to see into it. I also realized and admitted that I don’t really know that being a full-time blogger is my end game. I LOVE my job. I do and I have no plans to leave it. There is a very possible future that we move schools and we both can’t get a job since we are both so specialized, so Terrell would take the job and I would stay home and then there is this magical, wonderful blog and business I have created that I can now pour all my time into and do full-time. And this would be magic and make me incredibly happy, also. But for the moment, I’m not actively working towards this and that is great. I can relieve that pressure and just focus on projects I love and growing my following and business organically.During my chat with Tiffany, around February of 2015, I had been toying with the idea of an Etsy shop, but don't know what to put it in. It's the creative pressure of the online world to HAVE A STORE! Where the people can buy your things! But I don’t have any things, but I really wanted to figure out what things I could have! After a push from Tiffany, I decided to give it another half-hearted attempt and open up shop with some digital designs that I have been dreaming about making and not worry so much about the long-term plan. So I made the designs and opened up shop. I LOVE the cards. But I have yet to have any other designs be important enough in my dreams to continue on with the cards. So I'm currently working on a plan to continue the shop with some other things that I do love.I have been designing printable travel tools that I do love. I love those: because I use those. Every travel printable I design, I create for my own use and think ‘someone else may need this too’. I send them out monthly in my newsletter where I talk about being an everyday adventurer. Because that, my friends, is my brand. I get constant comments like ‘wow you guys just do so much’. But we don't, we just live a normal life. But adventure finds us, because we are open to it and sometimes seek it, but always choose to acknowledge it. We go and do, then I come home and use those memories, moments, memorabilia and photos to craft and tell our story through an album and/or here on the blog.That is what I want this blog to do: inspire you to simply look up and around you, to acknowledge the adventure that is your life, then preserve it and tell others about it.I had been dreaming of how my blog will take on its own identity and this is how: Through telling my adventure story and helping others do so. That is where I dreamed up my Everyday Adventurer course. This course is new and not yet released. I am still working on it and making it be the exact course I am envisioning to answer all your questions, inspire you and teach you.The Everyday Adventurer Series will start next week, so make sure you are on the mailing list to receive those and eventually the invitation to join me on your own adventure. That is where I am. I have defined my blog as a craft blog, an adventure blog and a storytelling blog. Because those are the three things I am: a crafter, an adventurer and a storyteller. If reading this story has not proven those three things to you, then I don't know what will. But by eliminating things that don't fuel me with joy and passion and chasing the things that do, I have defined my blog in its name, its direction and its purpose. So, I am Lauren. A Crafter. An Adventurer. A Storyteller. But don't worry, the story doesn't end here. There is more to come. See you next week for the next installment of My Creative Story.Read Why I Am Telling My Creative Story and see each part of the story here.