Saturday saw me train-it to Birmingham, taking my Mum along for the ride (my biggest supporter, it was so sweet she wanted to hear me speak) as I shared my experience as a full time blogger at Tots100's Blog Camp in Birmingham.
Rules, rules, rules. I get it, many, many rules when it comes to creativity, be it screenwriting to blogging and beyond, are incredibly useful for insight, guidance and inspiration but rules, my friends were made to be broken.
Bloggers/business owners/brands depend on social media to grow, expand and thrive.
Social media is an easy, instant way to connect with friends and potential readers/consumers.
I've worked with a Publicist for a while to help me with the load as my blogging business is rapidly expanding but I've always believed and practised promoting my own work whether that was filmmaking, my journalistic work to right now, as a full time professional blogger.
Oh the irony that this in itself is a commissioned post (!) but it is of value to you and my tips will hopefully help you too get work.
You see, I'm a full time professional blogger and have been for over 2 1/2 years, working with clients and brands both big and small that fit my blog and importantly my audience: you.
If they're of interest and use to me, products and services I would use myself, then I'm happy to endorse them on this blog here and mummysgotstyle.com, my style blog.
Here are my 5 tips for freelancers juggling work and kids. It really is a juggle too but hopefully these tips will help make you feel empowered and less alone!
Yesterday was a whirlwind of a day as I spent it in London with my Mum (we arrived the night before) so I could speak on a prestigious panel for Mode Media first thing (Mode represent the display ads on my blogs) and set up this breakfast meeting with a panel on pro blogging and brand endorsement for a large audience of major UK brands.
It was an honour to be asked to speak on two panels about my professional blogging career this weekend at the Tots100 Blog Camp in Birmingham and share what I know.
It was fabulous to meet so many of you and I'm so glad with the feedback that my sessions informed and inspired so many of you.
For those who couldn't make the brilliant event (I hope you can book the next one), I wanted to share 10 of my top blogging tips from my sessions.
Yes I'm a full time professional blogger but I'm always learning. Some refer to me as an expert but this is an ever-changing, exciting brave new world so not sure about that but let me tell you, parenting bloggers are HUGELY influential game-changers.
BritMums Live was a total and utter whirlwind of a weekend of which I'm not sure I'm even remotely recovered from, but I'll try to articulate my highlights for you here... It was a weekend sponsored by wine (literally) thanks to Lindeman's Wine so forgive me if I've forgotten anything or anyone.
I'm often asked what my career is and although I'm a trained, award winning filmmaker and adore directing, the last few years have seen me become a full time blogger, a career that happened organically and is one I LOVE.
Being creative can be hard work. Hard to get the words onto the screen for that next draft, hard to get the confidence to write the book, launch the blog, heck even write that funny tweet. Creatives are riddled with self doubt. Fact.
I recently read a superb article in the Guardian on what inspires some of the greatest creatives out there. It got me thinking about what inspires me, whether it's writing a feature screenplay, animation script or this blog right here. Here are my tips to becoming inspired. Happy 2012!