5 Lessons Learned from fashion blogging

In December of 2016 my daughter said, “I want to start fashion blogging.”  I remember exactly where we were too. About a day or two later I said, “I’ll do it with you!” We both have a love for all things fashion and wanted to share that passion with the world. We took a month to come up with the perfect name that wasn’t already taken. THAT WAS HARD! But here we are, two fashNcurious souls connecting with you.

It’s been an awesome year. Along the way we’ve met some incredibly beautiful, and talented women. That is reward enough. We’ve also done a lot of learning and growing as mom and daughter, and bloggers. We are sharing some of the lessons we learned as well as behind the scene photos from our journey — even grainy ones.

 Patience:

Managing expectations is an art when blogging. It’s so easy to look at other bloggers and their growth and expect to grow that quickly or be at their level. If you’re not careful you’d get discouraged and want to give up. Be patient with yourself and with the process. And be especially kind to yourself as well. A self-beating is the worst kind of beating. Many, many, many years ago they could not build Rome in a day. That’s still true today even in fashion blogging, despite technological advancement. We also learned to have patience with each other as the dynamics of working together vs mom and daughter is quite different!

Resilience in fashion blogging:

That dreaded “no” from brands can crush your spirit. If you get turned down however, keep trying. I’d tell my daughter shake it off move on to the next one in job hunting– same thing with fashion blogging. No does not necessarily mean no, not ever, but no, not right now. So keep reaching out to brands. Even the big brands. There is zero harm in asking especially if you go in with the mindset that you’re just trying to get on their radar.

Finding yourself:

When we first started blogging, we’d emulate other bloggers. If that was working for them why not us? That was not rewarding for us, however because it was not who we were. We also had to find what resonated with our audience. As my daughter says, “do it for the people!” (She cracks me up!) We had to find our own path on the blogger journey. Yes, we love clothes and shoes and everything fashion. However, writing from our hearts and inspiring other women gives us the most joy. Even when writing our captions if it doesn’t resonate with me, I’m not posting it. I have a thing for speak to me shoes, speak to me captions too!

Planning:

Blogging like anything else takes planning. Yes, you plan your photo shoots, your outfits etc. The critical piece of blogging however is planning your blog posts and your Instagram posts. Plan a week at a time if a month is too daunting. It eliminates the everyday scramble and the question, “what am I posting today?” Plan your captions too!

How to take “decent” pictures:

Yes, I say decent because we are still learning. But looking at some of the first pictures we posted we’ve come a long way. Flatlay? What’s that? We were so very clueless. We could not afford to hire a photographer and I was just learning how to use my Nikon. Many times, my daughter is the model and I am behind the camera. She struggled to pose, and didn’t know what to do with her hands. My solution? Just dance, keep moving, forget that the camera is there.  And then, S.T.A.M.I.N.A with a photo shoot of a million outfits. That was huge. We’ve gotten a lot better at not taking so many pictures that we never use. We also do a better job of limiting the number of outfits we shoot in one day. And yes!!! Photo editing is critical!

What have you learned from your blogging experience? To celebrate our one year anniversary we will be hosting several giveaways! Our first one is posted and easy to enter?