I've spent the past couple of weeks in London, Berlin and Amsterdam, teaching Blogcademy workshops and exploring everything these wonderful places have to offer. It has been a pretty crazy time including two workshops in London, followed by our first mixer event, a class in Berlin, another in Amsterdam - oh and a couple of photo shoots thrown in for good measure!
The Blogcademy Online launches this Thursday (eeek!) so to celebrate and get you all warmed up, I thought it would be fun to do another Q&A post. But to throw a cat among the pigeons, I decided to record myself talking through my responses, instead of just writing them!
It's hard to believe that this time next week I'll be in LA where it's currently 25 degrees Celsius! I'm there to teach the first Blogcademy workshop of the year and we're staying right by the beach which is just what my sun-starved skin needs right now!If you'd like to come to our first workshop of the year (and our only US class until September!)
I'd heard so many amazing things about Morocco, so when Gala suggested the three of us go there after our last London Blogcademy I was so on-board for a little (big!) adventure. Not knowing much about Marrakesh other than it's loud and colourful and chaotic, I was a little nervous about what was in store, but as always, super excited to explore somewhere new.
I hope you've all had a fabulous week. Have you managed to nab yourself a copy of Rock n Roll Bride magazine yet? It's been SO EXCITING seeing all your posts on Instagram, it makes me so incredibly happy, I can't even tell you.As you read this I'll be boarding my flight to San Francisco where I'm heading for the penultimate Blogcademy worksho this weekend.
I used to make so many excuses for not travelling. "Oh I like being at home", "I've just got too much work to do" and "I hate airports" were my favourite justifications. And then The Blogcademy came crashing into my life avoiding travelling just was not an option! Now, I literally can't get enough. I love love love experiences new places and meeting new people. I'm even starting to weirdly enjoy airports.
It's hard to believe that in just under a year The Blogcademy has taught over 300 women (and a few token men!) about blogging and how they can conquer their corner of the internet. When we first launched the workshop we thought we'd meet some people, teach them some stuff and that would be about it. Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine just what an impact attending this two day class would have on the attendees lives... and ours!
The majority of the women we meet and teach at The Blogcademy are just starting their blogs or businesses and most of them simultaneously hold down a full or part time job. Most of them tell us that their ultimate goal is to quit these jobs so they can focus on working for themselves. While we encourage them to do that when they’re ready, we’re also keen to share with them the huge benefits of working a day job while pursuing their dreams.
I look at a lot of blogs. Not only am I a fanatical reader, but though running The Blogcademy I've now critiqued over 300 of them! In class, each attendee receives a report card where we give them some personal feedback on their sites. And after doing so many of them over the past 12 months, I've realised that most of them are making exactly the same mistakes. To ensure that you're not doing the same, here are the five main blunders I see being made over and over again.
It's that time again. It's the week before I go away on a big Blogcademy trip and I'm trying desperately to write and pre-schedule three week's worth of blog content before I hit the road. Something weird has happened to me this time though. Usually, I chain myself (metaphorically speaking!)
Pete and Leila had a modest budget for their Southsea wedding, just £5000, but that didn't stop them having the wedding of their dreams! After meeting Leila at The Blogcademy in London last January I already know what a resourceful and all-round fabulous babe she is, and so I'm thrilled to share this gorgeousness with you all today.
We often shy away from being too personal here on the blog but we love to engage with our readers so after watching the keynote speech from Joy Cho at the recent Blogcademy where Joy talks about sharing more, we've decided that in the interest of you, our beloved readers we'd share something new today!
It's been a big week. Going to see my all time favourite movie on the outdoor silver screen (you HAVE to go!), making big plans for The Blogcademy and even bigger plans for Rock n Roll Bride... JUST YOU WAIT. God, isn't it really annoying when bloggers are all cryptic like that?
I'm not going to pretend for one second that I'm some kind of expert in the world of travel or honeymoons. BUT you may have noticed that I've done rather a lot of globe-trotting over the past 12 months. And as we're about to launch our 2014 Blogcademy world tour in a couple of weeks it would appear that it's not really going to change any time soon! So I figured, why not share some of the places I've visited and the experiences I've most enjoyed with you lovely lot? First up is a honeymooners paradise - Santorini.
Last weekend I attended The Blogcademy, which was amazing. Next week I will sharing some of the photos from the two-day blogger event and sharing some of the highlights. Till then, you will have to simply enjoy the week that was in blog posts and my first ever instalment of a new weekly segment, Sal's School of Biz.
My head is buzzing from everything that's been going on this past week. It's been FULL ON. I've been on the road with The Blogcademy, on the other side of the planet in fact, teaching classes in Sydney and Melbourne. Tomorrow we have to get up and 5am for our flight to Auckland to do it all again too!
Austin was a short but eventful trip. We may have only been in the city for a few days, with two of them being hauled up in a warehouse space with no windows (it was beautiful though!) teaching The Blogcademy, but we still certainly made the most of our time there. We strolled down South Congress, ate extreme ice creams, walked for miles to get our B balloons filled with helium (in 40ºC heat - fun!) and ate more delicious Mexican food then can be considered healthy (although, PS just say no to queso!)
There's so much I love about teaching The Blogcademy; meeting so many inspiring babes, travelling the world, talking about my favourite subject and getting paid for it... it's a pretty sweet gig. Now something you may or may not know about me is that I am frightfully organised - when it comes to my work at least!
It's the same old song and dance. I got to Australia for our final leg of The Blogcademy 2013 tour in a little under two weeks (cue major freak out!) and so I'm spending most of my waking hours desperately trying to get as much blog content written and scheduled for while I'm away. This is no mean feat when you have at least two blog posts per day for three and a half weeks to do (not to mention the blog posts before I go as well!) ARGH.
I've been dreading it for months, but today I woke up a thirty year old. I almost can't believe it! It's true what they say though, time sure does fly when you're having fun!It feels like just yesterday that I met Gareth (aged 17), we started dating (aged 18), we got married (24), I started this blog (24), I produced a print magazine (27), we launched The Blogcademy (28) and I designed my first headpiece collection (29) ..!
I thought I'd quickly fill you in on what I have planned for the next few weeks. It's going to be MENTAL. First up, its the Blogcademy workshop this weekend (13th and 14th June) in London! I can't wait because the UK workshops are always so fun and colourful.
October is proving to be one of my busiest months EVER! On Tuesday The Blogcademy announced it's 2015 dates as well as a Level 2 workshop (YAY!) and I did some filming in my house for something else we're launching in a few weeks time (I'm even more excited about this one and I think you will be too).
When the initial email from Celeste at Tourism and Events Queensland came into The Blogcademy inbox asking us if we’d consider an all-expenses paid trip to Queensland I nearly deleted it, assuming it must be spam. I mean, this kind of opportunity doesn't exactly come knocking on your door everyday. After verifying that Celeste wasn't, in fact, just playing a rather cruel prank, we started to plan our epic adventure down under!
Another month has come and gone and we're now heading head-first into February. January was a particularly epic month for me with the launch of the print magazine and The Blogcademy Online!! While tooting my own horn might be terribly embarrassing, I do have to say that I am so incredibly proud of how both these ventures have been received.
This week, hum, what can I say? It's really been pretty uneventful. I've basically been catching up with emails (oh so many emails!), writing and making Blogcademy-related world takeover plans... all from the comfort of my sweat pants. Yep, it's true, being a full time blogger/ writer/ entrepreneur/ business owner (whatever the hell you want to call it!)
