Something that recently really struck a cord with me was something Lydia Millen-Gordon said at the Blogosphere Festival. Now, I didn’t actually attend the festival, but saw a lot on social media on the panelists, the conversations and the day. Zoe London shared a post that struck her, which inevitably stuck me just reading it on her story.
“Don’t look at viral success and expect you’ll grow overnight too. Actually a lot of the fun is enjoying the process, and don’t wish your life or content away- don’t expect it to all happen fast!”- Lydia Millen-Gordon
This really hit home with me, as someone who has been growing her blog from 2014, I know what a long journey growth is. I am getting very close to hitting 30k on my instagram, a number which has taken me over 5 years to reach. And you would not believe the many messages and DM’s I get about how I got there, how to grow your account, whats a quick fix to growth, how they wish they were there…
And all I want to say to them is SLOW DOWN!
First of all, growth takes years, it takes hours and hours of hard graft. It takes years of unpaid work. It takes a lifetime of passion and hard work and dedication. And if you are only in it for the numbers? Then I am sorry but you are in the wrong field, my friend.
People who started blogs in the beginning did so because it was an escape. It was a hobby. It was fun. We never expected to make any money of it and hell, never expected people to really care about what we were saying. We just liked saying it anyway.
Little 13 year old Ellie, who started her instagram account, never did so for money. I got £30 birthday money and that was me set for the year. And little 13 year old Ellie didn’t even know that you could have 30,000 people following one page- and why the hell would they want to follow my page?
The point that I am making is that, for me, this blogging thing has never been WORK. I have never seen it as a job, and never treated it like one. Sure now I have to do a lot of boring, work related things like taxes and invoices and OMG do I have enough do pay my rent this month? But I found growing my account SO MUCH FUN.
Interacting with other likeminded individuals? FUN
Seeing my account go from 100 to 1,000 to 10,000? FUN
Working on content that makes me proud to put on my feed? BLOODY GOOD FUN.
It can be so easy to look up to someone like Lydia, see the success that she has and think ‘my god I wish I had that.’
And sure, make it your goal. Make her what you strive to be in 2, 5, 10 years time. But don’t wish your journey away. The enjoyment is in the journey, so have fun with it!
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Photography- Ami Ford
