Saturday, March 31, 2012

The Creation of Blogging To Bliss (Stacy's Version)

Moving ahead, I'm sure that many will ask "How on Earth was this brilliant idea born?"  Well readers, I'm about to share with you exactly how this concept came into being. 


About a year ago I was approached by a woman that I had networked with from the South Shore Women's Business Network (SSWBN), who said that her new daughter-in-law, Emily, was considering a career within the Event Planning industry, and would I give her some tips. 


Over the next several months, Emily and I would see each other at networking events, always chatting for a few minutes, and she'd ask if we could meet for coffee so she could "pick my brain."  While I urged her to email me, she was busy with her full time job.  In February I got engaged.  In the midst of being over the moon and feeling like my feet were suspended just above the ground, I knew that this was the right time for us to meet- as I now needed to pick her brain as much as she wanted to pick mine. 


We met over coffee and talked about life, our significant others, families, work, and growing up.  We had an instant connection.  We talked more about what she ultimately wanted and how she could break ground with her idea while still working her full time job and balancing her life.  My advice upon leaving her was "Stop being afraid of yourself, and start taking notes.  Write everything down, and keep track of it." 


Fast forward a few weeks and I had an excellent opportunity to attend the Blog Better Boston Conference, held at the Google offices.  I thought this would be a nice way to figure out how to better utilize the blog I was already working on for my business, Errands, Etcetera.  The room was filled with fashionistas, a few foodies, and me, a professional Time Management Specialist (how to be a sore thumb).  Through this conference I learned that I wasn't capitalizing on my efforts.  I was spending hours thinking about what information I could share, researching, and typing away at my laptop.  This conference really hit home: my clients are VERY BUSY, stressed out women. They don't have time to read about ways to clean the fridge, or recipe ideas; instead, they hire me to do it for them. 


As I said, I'm recently engaged, so some of my blog posts have been about how much my life has changed (in a positive way) in the last month. Pre-engagement, I was following a handful of blogs: www.thebrokeassbride.com and http://bigdayfor10k.com/ are two of my favorites. What I was reading was great content, but I wanted more. I love The Knot and Wedding Wire, but I wanted something more local, and centralized, less overwhelming, and more of a guide. 


So here I am sitting in this conference, realizing that my original blog wasn't making me any money,  or getting me clients;  it was instead allowing me to be a resource and providing me with a creative outlet (which is great, if you're a non-profit, or blogging as a hobby).  It was literally as if someone walked into the room and turned on the lights.  I had such an "AHA" moment.  I could hardly contain myself.  While sitting and listening to the Social Media Platform (thank you so much, @KristinApp, @WorldLillie, @LaceyBean, and @laurensleeper) I was busy plugging in and reserving the FaceBook, Twitter, Blogger, Yahoo and Pinterest handle for this new idea. 


I literally couldn't wait to leave the conference and get started, so much that I missed the after party and went right home to get to work.  I first reached out to Emily, letting her know that we needed to chat ASAP.  While I might have written the first few blogs on my own, Emily and I will be working together on content and production from this point forward to provide our readers with the ultimate resource guide for all things wedding in Massachusetts! 


Thank you so much #BBBos for helping me to think outside of the box!

1 comment:

  1. So glad you enjoyed our panel and were able to leave #BBBos with a great idea! Good luck with it all! And I'm in Event Planning too - :)

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