Toronto Blogger Chronicles [Part 2] – Two Events in One Day

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: 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.

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.

Hum