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Dear Diary,

I had a vision that I would update this series a lot more often than months later. But let me explain why it has been since June 18th since I last wrote about my blogging journey. It has been BUSY! I am being grateful for every nanosecond of it because it has been an amazing experience. It’s not the entrepreneurship I always had in mind for myself but that’s okay. This is a lot more fun! A lot has happened since June. I’ll sum it up for you:

– I did a lot of full days of content creation. Like that one day of foodie IG stories – one at an event and the other was a collab. I love photographing food! This was so much fun.
– I launched a new website for GNC
– I was a part of the Laura Mercier x The Kit campaign. They brought me into the studio and did a video shoot of me getting ready with Laura Mercier products. I got featured on The Kit site and tried many Laura Mercier products. I was so humbled to receive this opportunity alongside some of my favourite make-up artists.

READ MORE: The Kit x Laura Mercier – TORONTO MAKE-UP INFLUENCERS

– We went to Bogle Seeds Farm the day the unfortunate event happened.

events toronto
Dress: H&M – Fanny Pack: Gucci

READ MORE: HOW TO PREPARE FOR SOCIAL MEDIA FAME FOR BUSINESSES

– I worked with GO Train and Niagara Parks to bring an experience to YOU.

READ MORE: A FUN FAMILY TRIP TO NIAGARA FALLS WITH GO TRANSIT

– I co-managed my first influencer event for GNC Canada. This was really interesting because I’ve always been on the opposite side, a guest at media events. We worked from every angle on this event. Picking our A-Team of influencers, venue, theme, schedule, entertainment, digital plan and so much more. It was a lot of work but also satisfying to know that we executed it really well.

During this time I felt a surge of energy. I felt like I wanted to do it all. Getting offers and invites is exciting and it would make me a bit anxious that I must do it all otherwise I wouldn’t meet my goals as I had planned.

One day I accepted 2 events in 1 day. Then I accepted 3 in 1 day…

And that’s when I crashed. It can be exhausting and can get to a point where you’re not enjoying yourself, which defeats the purpose of taking in the brand experience. After that day I promised myself that I would learn to say no. If my schedule was full, then there should be no exceptions. I’ve capped my days now to whatever I feel comfortable with. Plus, working full time and then spending my evenings hopping from one event to another, is beyond exhausting.

On Instagram direct messages, a commonly asked question I get is how
do you get invited to media events?

Honestly, guys, there’s no magic trick here. I am genuinely passionate about the stuff I share with you. For 5 years I’ve been blogging, creating content, tweeting, pinning and posting. Only last year did the events, paid collaborations and opportunities to work with brands start to come through. I took the time to figure out my voice online, allowed myself to treat everything I do, with my full creative potential and consistency.

events toronto bloggers

It’s as simple as that. Continue to be YOU and share authentically. It’s not about growing numbers, it’s about growing your community. Instead of getting sponsored, it’s about getting paid for the hours of content creation. However you decide to grow, just remember it’s not a race and to stay true to who you are and don’t worry about what everyone else is doing. You’ll spend so much time trying to copy someone else that you’ll forget to be YOU. And something that doesn’t come naturally to you will show obviously to others. Being YOU is exactly what will make you successful.

In a world full of copies, be the original.

Work on your brand, decide on your messaging and figure out your “why”, set goals and then start tagging brands, introduce yourself to agencies and then be found. But trust me when I say this if you don’t do all of that first, it won’t matter how many followers or engagement you have. Brands want to know if you’ll align with what their values are. If there’s no alignment, it doesn’t matter who you are, no go.  Plus, I believe it’s the time for micro influencers to shine. But I’ll save that for another post.

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Blouse: Aritzia – Pants: Zara

Dear Diary,

I wish I had kept a real-time diary of the first day I actually started to feel like a “blogger”. What does that even mean? Like, I guess getting a bunch of stuff in the mail, having a handful of video and photo equipment, when I actually got paid for my work/hobby… these are just some of the things that made me feel like: “okay, this is my title.”

Let me first say, “Hi, welcome to my Toronto Blogger Chronicles diary.” Just a messy free form of me writing out my thoughts, as raw as it can be. So if I have any grammatical errors here, and if it grinds your gears, let me know in the comments below and I’ll make sure to edit it, just for you Mr/Mrs Fancy Pants.

So my first blogger event that I went to was actually in 2017. This was a big year for me. It was my second maternity leave and it was a lot easier than the first one. I knew what was up and I was able to focus A LOT on my blogging -career. Yeah, I think I’ll call it my career now. It feels a little weird to say that though because I think of it more as a hobby. Let’s put a pin on what to call it. It’ll come to me.

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Rose Gold Heels – Wittner Canada
Purse – Prada

The first handful of events, I would go to and converse with a few people and then leave as soon as possible because my all-time shyness would kick in. Believe it or not, I’m not a social person, with strangers. But if I’m in my comfort zone with my friends, I’d like to think I’m super social. But I’ll let my friends tell you that.

Toronto Blogger Chronicles [Day 1] – First
Blogger Brunch

The game changer for my shyness was when I went to a bloggers brunch. It was at a place I was really looking forward to going, but I knew no one there. Oh, and I was also pregnant. Very pregnant. I stepped into this place and to my surprise, there were two extremely friendly bloggers who signaled for me to come over to them. I got super nervous because I knew who they were. The “popular bloggers”.  They introduced themselves confidently and immersed me into their “popular circle” by introducing me to their friends and then we even sat together and made jokes and conversation as if we knew each other for years. So you can imagine, I was sitting there, hearts in my eyes, thinking, wow. God bless you guys. I also made a mental note, that if I were to ever get to that point in my blogging career journey, then I would never change how kind, real and friendly I was. Talk to everyone, not get cliquey. Which now takes me to some of the other experiences I had in 2017.

READ MORE: FLOWER MARKET PR EVENT

The blogger world can sometimes feel like you’re back in high school. I’m not kidding! There are some bloggers who really think highly of themselves when they have a certain amount of followers or sponsorships or if they’re managed by someone. But let’s get real, we all started somewhere and there should be a lot of humble pie being passed around. At all times. It’s not hard to see who those people are. You can tell even by how they engage with others online-

1. They watch all of your stories, all the time and don’t ever like or comment on your posts
2. At events, they give you the silent treatment as if they don’t know you at all.
3. They only start to talk to you when you’re on the same campaign together
4. They only message you to ask you how you got a collaboration or what PR you’re working with

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…and if you see them at an event and you say hi or even try to introduce yourself they may give you a quick hi and an odd look but quickly enthrall themselves into their clique. But that doesn’t bother me. It actually is a great indication of whether this person is really who they say they are online. Ugh, but the bittersweet part for me is even if they decide to change and be nice, I’ll be there with open arms.

I started to think, maybe these bloggers are afraid to open up. Maybe they’re super shy, just as I was. I always give everyone the benefit of doubt. It’s just so much easier and happier to do that than to think negatively of someone.  Anywho, I’ve got some cleaning to do, and I’m starting with the kitchen. So until next time. Toodles! 🙂

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toronto blogger diary
I had the pleasure of going to the Nine West Preview for Fall 2017 and Spring/Summer 2018. I love shoes. All sorts of shoes. I’ve never met a woman who has said the opposite. There are so many beautiful shoes to choose from that I always have a hard time deciding on “the one”! I’m breaking it down for you to make your life just a tad bit easier. So feel free to window shop through this post! nine west

NINE WEST 2017/2018 PREVIEW & POMBONS [FASHION]

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I love everyday flats that look unique and stand out. Everything above is my jam.

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Love these open toe heels and sandals for Spring Summer 2018. Also, love that they’re very minimalist in black and white.
How cute is this black bucket bag?nine west purses

nine west

I love strappy black heels. They can be worn with anything and it can be really sexy. If you want it to be. 😉 I lean towards skinnier straps vs thick ones.
shoetease
Shoetease rocking sexy strappy red heels with pombons
Cristina from ShoeTease styled an entire room for the Nine West preview and let’s just say I went home that night thinking of shoes, heels, pumps, loafers and those damn cute pombons! Which I purchased and received in lightening time.
shoetease pombons nine west preview
So cute right?
You can place these cute pombons anywhere! Shoes, purses, clothes.. whatever! Of course I got the pink and grey.

https://pombons.com/

nine west and shoe tease
Cristina the founder of https://pombons.com/ #BossBabe

nine westnine west canadashoes heels holiday shopping

I love how most of these shoes for the holidays have the most beautiful gems and embellishments on them! Making them really unique and definitely categorized as statement shoes.
Toronto Fashion blogger HumJK
These were one of my favourites for Spring/Summer 2018

See below for some fashion blogger favourites and one sneak peek of what’s to come for Nine West Spring/Summer 2018! Okay, so excuse me, I’m going to head over to Nine West and see what I can get for the holidays. Follow along on my Instagram (@HumJK) stories to see what it is.

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Blogger Cat Forsley LOVES these! Click image to head over to her Instagram page
maggie over exposed blogger toronto
Blogger Maggie Adhami LOVES these! Click image to check out her Instagram page!

NINE WEST SPRING SUMMER 2018

NINE WEST

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