Influencers Have Jobs?
I run a profitable blog and have a full-time job. How do I do it? Let’s talk about it!
About 9 months ago, I started working for Virtue Labs. I am on the Social Marketing team, which manages all social posting & engagement, influencer relations, brand partnerships, and community management. I started with Virtue on a part-time basis, as I was at a pivotal point in life and wasn’t sure if I could really juggle a new full-time job, moving, and maintaining my blog and the partnerships I have here.
Working with Virtue has truly been the highest learning curve I have experienced in my professional career thus far. Other than creating this platform completely from scratch, on my own, and making it profitable in the first 3 months of blogging when my platform was titled, Unapologetically Kelly. But, that was a different type of learning curve. That, I would call a creative learning curve. This professional learning curve is no joke, hunny! So much so that I’ll be changing “Blogging” here on HH to “Business.” This category will share both blogging and business tips, insights, tools, skills, and processes that have worked for me. Stay tuned for that!
So, back to being a blogger with a job… I tell all of my blog coaching clients (Did you know I can help you start or grow your blogging business?! Read about it here) that the absolute worst idea you can make in the beginning of your blogging career is to think it can replace your full-time job quickly. It can’t. And truthfully, if you could make a significant income in your first stages of blogging where the discussion of quitting your job is on the table, I still don’t recommend you take that route. Here’s why-
Being a successful businesswoman does NOT necessarily translate to being a successful business OWNER. Despite the fact that being a good business person and a good business owner go hand-in-hand, I believe the creative process behind the two avenues are fundamentally opposite. Put simply, the things that make me a successful career woman are the reasons I’m successful in my blogging business. People ask me all the time, “When will you quit your job and blog full-time?!” I answer the same way each time-
“Honestly? I don’t want to quit my job. I hope and pray that I am able to one day, revert back to working part-time because my blogging business is growing beyond a capacity I can maintain with a full-time job. Oh, and cause I’m raising my kids. But, I love working. I don’t foresee quitting my job anytime soon.”
I hate that I hop on Pinterest and search, “blogging” or “become a blogger” and the first articles that come up are about how to “quit your job in the first 6 months of blogging” or “become a full-time blogger.” Again, here’s why-
The majority of people who read my blog are women. My analytics tell me that you are between the ages of 15-40. For my younger girls, you have so much in front of you. Finishing high school and starting college are your most present stressors. Or, maybe you’re fresh out of college and looking to quit the 9-5 desk job you got 5 minutes ago and already can’t wait to leave. Wherever you are, you have so much to learn. You need to learn from other people. Why? Because you’e been in school for most of your life thus far. You are not self-taught. You have been told almost weekly how to do something by someone who has been trained to teach you. You are incredible, you absolutely can do anything, but you can’t grow without learning.
My mid-twenties girls, hi! I’m right here with ya! I’ll keep ours short and sweet. We are entirely too stressed with figuring out how to build a career, live on our own, build credit, pay off debt, find a life partner, drink water, workout, and not lose our shit once a day. Why on EARTH would you leave a guaranteed income to have to work your ass off to (save time?) by not working on your blog after hours? What’s wrong with just, hustling and grinding? The struggle and the hustle are not to be confused. Just work hard. Build your life. Remember that perfection does not exist, and then make decisions. We don’t have anything figured out yet, for real. Have a seat, sis.d
My 30’s and up, along with any and everyone reading this right now… Let people work their 9-5 jobs in peace. We’re not here to make everyone think they should be a business owner. No one should feel pressured into having a side hustle become their career. Do what lights you up. If that’s a full-time or part-time job and blogging on the side, amazing! You can! Stay focused and take things a day at a time. Don’t forget to pray. We all need God, hunny.
To wrap this up, within the first 9 months of working for Virtue, I’m proud to say, I’ve recently been promoted! I feel more stressed than I ever have, but I’m more fulfilled than I’ve ever been. I feel no pressure AT ALL to quit my job or blog full time. You absolutely can do it all. My best advice to people on the fence about this topic? Trust your gut. Your gut is your soul aligning with or rejecting vibrations. Go with it, hunny.
xx
Kelly