Life Update: Transitioning to Full-Time Blogger

Well, it’s been about four months since I left my day job to be a full-time blogger. It’s been a huge learning experience and a completely new normal. There are days when I feel like I conquer the world and there are others where nothing gets accomplished no matter how hard I try.

I’ve gotten a lot of questions lately about how the transition has been and I thought it would be fun to write a post about some updates and how it’s going. As you know, I did not take this decision lightly and I have focused 100% of myself into my little business. Let’s just jump right into it.

The Initial Leap

I previously mentioned this, but I taught school for ten years. Eight of those years was teaching and directing high school theatre and the past two years I taught part-time junior high theatre.

I’ve been blogging for about eight years, and have taken it seriously with monetization for about the last 3-4 years. This wasn’t something that happened overnight for me. It was a lot of hard work. A lot of failing. A lot of even wondering if I should quit. A lot of persistence.

When the opportunity presented itself for me to make the leap, I did.

The initial leap into full-time blogging didn’t feel significant or amazing or anything. It was the end of the school year, just like any other school year. Now I had to navigate full-time blogger status with two small children home for the summer.

It was a struggle, and I heavily relied on my gym’s childcare and my husband. I was running myself ragged and felt drained, but my income was steadily increasing. I also brought on management who was starting to get me paid far more on partnerships than I could on my own.

Then Harvey happened. It totally messed up everyone’s schedules, and the kids were home for two weeks. I wondered if I would ever get into some sort of routine. School happened again and here we are about a month and a half later.

What’s it like to be a full-time blogger?

I’ve learned pretty quickly that there are good days and bad days, just like any other job. The only difference is when you’re a full-time blogger, the work never ends. LITERALLY NEVER ENDS.

Once you’ve accomplished what you need to, there’s more to be done. More content to create, more photos to take, more emails to answer, more contracts to sign… It. Never. Ends. I cannot “take time off” like I would with teaching. There is no “clocking out.” There is no summer or winter vacation. The success of my blog 100% depends on the work and effort I put into it.

That’s a scary feeling to have, but if you’re doing something you love, the work comes easily. Yes, I have bad days just like anyone else, but as a whole, I absolutely love my job. I love being creative, I love writing, I love taking photos, I love making videos, I love chatting with my readers and Instagram followers, and I love my little space on the Internet.

Now that school has been back in session for a little while, I feel like I have somewhat of a routine. Kennedy’s in kindergarten and in school from 8-3, and Caroline goes to Mother’s Day Out five days a week from 9:30-2:15. I have from 10-2 to get the majority of what I need done finished. Some days I’ll schedule coffee/brunch with other bloggers, some days I’ll get some personal items scratched off the to-do list. Most of the time I head up to my office and plug away.

I try to use the daytime to get a lot of my content creation started, especially photos and filming video if need be. I then typically spend a good amount of time on emails and scheduling on social media.

Once my kids are home and it’s nap time, I continue to plug away. And then once they’re asleep for the evening, I finish up any upcoming posts or projects and try to make it to bed before 1:00 a.m.

It’s insane to think about how many hours I put into this during the week, but I try to take weekends off from work (unless I have a deadline with a quick turnaround). I need sanity.

Do I Miss Teaching?

That’s another question I get a lot. There definitely are days when I miss teaching. I miss the kids, for sure. I don’t have any coworkers anymore, so that’s kind of weird, too.

I miss the environment of teaching, that’s for sure. But I do love this season I’m in. I absolutely love that I can drop what I’m doing to be there for my kids, or see Kennedy get an award at school.

I’ve said a lot that teaching will always be there for me if I wanted it. My blog may not.

The Plan from Here on Out

I’d like to say that I have all these amazing things in the pipeline, but right now my goal is just to survive and surpass. Survive every day and surpass my expectations.

I have low expectations for myself, but big dreams and goals. I think it’s what keeps a fire lit within me. I have a huge drive to share and create, but low expectations that anyone will care or think it is as amazing as I do. After all, it’s the Internet. There are few people in this world that hang on every word that I say.

Having this mindset has helped me stay positive, even though I do have bad self-esteem days and feel like I’m blogging to a brick wall. I love what I do, so that’s good enough. Right?

So, yeah. The plan. Ride this train and ride it well. Diversify my income and get creative. Always stay humble. I guess that’s about it. There are some big, long-term goals I have but right now I will continue to survive and surpass.

Perhaps I’ll continue these life updates and share more as things change. I want to get back into the habit of more personal blog posts. I am really looking forward to the future and to see where this gig takes me. As always, thank you so much for your continued support and love!