It is 2022.

It seems crazy to me to think that come October, I will be blogging for 8 years.

8 years!!!

Where the last 8 years went, I have no idea.

I can look back and remember moments as if time whipped past me. Like I was just a spectator for all of my memories.

I can look back and remember moments as if they stood still. Like time was never going to move forward and I was stuck living in a moment forever.

8 years ago, I was a completely different person. We all change throughout the years but in my life, there have been two distinct moments when I felt myself become a different person.

One of those times was the day I was raped. I lost who I was, who I thought I was becoming, and everything in between. A crack became evident and there was no way to fill it.

The second time was when I decided to start my blog. In 2014, when I had nothing left to lose.

My life didn’t feel like mine.

My body didn’t feel like mine.

I was broken because that crack that had started 11 years prior, didn’t stop expanding.

It wasn’t until I made the choice to share my story and hit publish for the first time that I felt a second major change in my being.

I no longer had to hide. I could share my story and grow into who I was meant to be. This became my moment to save myself and the life that I had always envisioned. It meant that I was taking control of my life, my story, and where I was heading to next.

But there is so much more to my story.

LISTENING TO OTHERS AS A BLOGGER

I started my blogging journey as a mental health blogger. (More on my blogging story here.) I never labeled myself that way but looking back now, I know that is what I was doing. I remember being a beginner and how I second-guessed everything that I was doing. I soon learned that in order to see what is going to work and what isn’t, I just needed to go for it.

Dive right in and see what happens!

Throughout the years of blogging, I weaved in and out of different niches BUT they were all interconnected. They all had pieces that glued them together. It never felt unnatural or wrong to blog in the niches that I was blogging in. They made sense together. It was as if my two pieces had come together like a puzzle and became one. It all made sense. It all created this beautiful landscape of healing and teaching.

That is…

Until someone told me I was doing it wrong. In order to be successful, I needed to choose a niche and stick with it. I couldn’t combine my niches in any way because that meant I wasn’t reaching who MY audience was or who my audience should be.

I listened and stopped. I broke up my blogging niches and started to blog separately. Something felt off. It was as of I couldn’t create content because those pieces that were so perfectly intertwined were no longer there.

I would walk away for weeks at a time because nothing felt right and I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong.

Thinking that someone else would know my business, my blog, and even my niches better than I did, kept me stuck and focused on all of the wrong things. I would believe that I was doing everything wrong.

My weakness is thinking that I don’t know what I am doing. Questioning myself until I don’t even know what I want anymore. Anyone else like that?

I was looking for approval. Not only that, I was looking for a way to succeed faster than I was. I thought that if I hadn’t made it yet then I was doing something wrong. And so I began to question myself. Began to think that maybe they were right.

Maybe I was blogging wrong the whole time.

BLOGGING, NICHES, AND HOW THEY SHOULD TRULY WORK TOGETHER

I still have two blogs.

I still struggle with people telling me that I need two blogs and two separate audiences.

These voices still tend to clash in my head. But the thing is, when I listen to these voices, my writing feels off. I am no longer connected to it. It begins to feel disengaged and unempowering. Everything that I am not!

It also means that one blog gets attention and one doesn’t BUT the content is different. I try to fit myself into the box that I was told to fit into and I can’t write that way. It doesn’t work for me and I eventually walk away, discouraged, defeated, and feeling like a blogging failure.

So why am I telling you all of this?!?! Because there is something that I want you to know. The BIGGEST mistake that I have made during all my years of blogging is this…

Letting those outside voices tell me that I am somehow blogging incorrectly.

You see, the thing is, there truly is no wrong way to blog.

There may be many out there that disagree with me on this and that is alright but when it comes to blogging, it comes down to who you are, your experiences, and what it is that YOU want to share, teach, and experience with those who read your blog.

When I tried to take away mental health from the blogging aspect of my blog, I couldn’t write. I would get disconnected because I wasn’t putting all of myself into my writing. It may have taken me longer to find my audience BUT they have found me. I am here teaching women how to blog and blog for businesses because no matter what niche I am in, they can see the value and the knowledge that I carry.

For me, that means combining those pieces of my story in a unique way that ONLY I can share. It means that I can’t take one away and still make the other one work.

It means celebrating and sharing the WHOLE me. Cause who doesn’t want to be truly seen?

The biggest mistake that you can make blogging is listening to all those outside voices. The ones that are telling you that you should do it this way and not that. Listen to your own guidance.

What feels right?

What feels off?

Guess what? I can see you too.

If you are struggling with what niche to blog in, what stories to share, or even how to show up consistently, it is time that you shut those voices down, dig deep, and start writing. Write what comes out. If you need help with ANY piece of blogging, let’s connect so I can help you share your WHOLE story in a way that makes sense to you and allows you to grow and build a blog that fits into your life.

There is an easier way to blog and I can help show you the way.