Balancing Business With A Blog

Happy blog anniversary to whatmayawears.com! 

Kind of.

I started this blog in July 2014

Although the earliest published post dates back to August 2014 (thanks to a couple of archived posts). July is officially my blogs birthday.

My life has evolved a lot since starting this blog. School - Done. University - Done. Job - Done. Buying a House - Almost. And I have evolved a lot as a person. I’d like to think I’ve grown up and matured (debatable). However 5 years have passed and I’ve handled almost everything life has thrown at me. Almost.  Okay, maybe on the verge of handling it, barely holding on. When I started this blog I was a child and it had it’s own challenges. I didn't want people at school to find out about it. University was the complete opposite, I’d happily volunteer the information that I had a blog. And at present, as a working women, even though I’m proud of everything this blog has taught me, what it has achieved, who I’ve met from it and the opportunities it’s given me, the school girl mentality in me comes back at times and I find myself not voluntarily sharing it with people at work.

I sat down and made myself get to the bottom of this, why is it that I don’t want to openly share my blog? What was the reason? The potential judgement as people may think I’m a narcissist? An embarrassing post from the original days of my blog? Believe me there have been a few. Or the fact that it shows a completely different side of me to the person I am at work?

So I delved down into all three...

People will judge me as narcissistic.

On my list of blog articles to write is the post "Does blogging make me narcissistic?"

But then Lauren Black said everything I wanted to say beautifully in her blog post, Is Blogging Narcissistic? Making me think, 'Why do I need to write one?' when she says it all. When you scroll through my instagram, 98% of my feed is me, with the occasional food picture or sunset snap, because you have to switch it up every once in a while. To the outsider looking in, it would look like I love myself so much I just have to plaster pictures of me everywhere. Well as Lauren so eloquently puts it, 'the blogging world is seen as narcissistic...we all have our own insecurities, just because I enjoy being photographed it doesn’t mean I don’t notice my flaws. I’ve gotten comfortable with the camera, comfortable with someone taking photos of me with the real deal kinda camera, comfortable with lights flashing at me in a studio – and isn’t that a good thing? I’m more confident in just being me'

I remember watching an old video of Patricia Bright explaining that she kept her blog/youtube channel a secret at work. And I thought 'Patricia is achieving so many great things with her blog, why would she want to hide it?'. I didn't understand it then, but now I can relate to her on all the levels! 

I wonder if this is more of a driver because of the industry I’m in. I work in a industry very far away from fashion, beauty, travel and lifestyle blogging. It’s one of the more traditional corporate jobs that is often criticised for its lack of diverse genders and races. I have always thought in order to fit in and conform in the professional work place, I need to have the same interests as everyone else. And I don’t think everyone else is interested in what the new-in items are on Revolve or New Look …I could be wrong!

Embarrassing posts from the past
Disclaimer: When I say 'past', I mean 2 months ago.

The Internet is great. You have access to so many things at a finger touch away, but it's also harmful...     I sound like one of those cyber security lessons you get whilst in school. But anyway, having a blog is a great way to express your creativity, how you think and reach a large audience whilst doing so, but say something that sheds a bit too much information i.e. the post 'A Letter Of Advice to 17 Year Old Me' (sop central) and it’s always there. Even if you delete it. It’s always there. I guess, there’s nothing really to be fearful of as long as your posts aren't super negative or can cause harm to yourself or anyone else. But there is - maybe a lesson for me not to write a soppy blog post and hit the publish button after a glass of wine.

Blogging shows a completely different side of me
Is there such a thing as having a quarter life crisis? If not, there should be!

Although it’s often said to bring yourself to work and feel comfortable in the working environment so the same 'you' that is around your friends and family is the 'you' that you bring to work (some limits of course), I have struggled to do this. Perhaps for the reasons aforementioned, thinking that in order to fit in and conform in the professional work place I have to have the same interests as everyone else.  It’s taken me two years of my career to realise that this isn’t the case, it’s okay to be different people and you shouldn’t have to force yourself to change who you are. If you are, then it’s not right for you.

Again, as long as I’m not saying negative things, I shouldn’t feel like wanting to hide something I am passionate about. And that’s not to say I’ll be shouting it from the roof at work, but with smaller improvements like when people ask what I do in my spare time, as well as netball, travelling, exploring new restaurants, reading and all the other things I have used to tip toe around saying I have a blog, I'll explicitly say 'I blog'.

And Finally, say HELLO to my typical work outfit.  There are some days where I will go standard corporate style, see Exhibit A, but then there are some days I prefer a more casual outfit so wear a variant of the pictured outfit. 

Outfit Details

Top - Everything 5 pounds*

Trousers - H&M 

Bag - Zara (Black 1/2418/304/040/03)

Shoes  - Primark 

Mx