We all have a story that holds true and unique to us as individuals. My blogging journey has been quite an experience. Such an experience that turned into a valuable lesson for myself and I hope several others who read this; stick with your Plan A. When it’s all said and done, I am happy God redirected my path. It was April of 2015 during my junior year of college when I made the decision to start a fashion blog. I read several articles about women making 6 figures as fashion bloggers and living financially stable lives. The Young 22 year old me was ready and willing to do whatever it took to get there. When I look back on my first post, it makes me cringe. It included erroneous grammatical errors and awkward sentence structure. It was just a hot mess. But at that time, you could not tell me my blog and outfits were not the hottest thing out there. I thought I was all that and a bag of chips despite my grammatical errors and awkward sentence structure. Let’s take a moment of silence to thank God for his grace and growth!!
After a year of blogging on and off, I felt like I wasn’t seeing results. It felt as if I needed to try a different approach because I wasn’t seeing much success with my current approach. It was more of an instant gratification; wanting to see immediate results without putting in enough work. I realized I was talking about the same thing as every other fashion blogger, and this bothered me. I wanted to be unique. I sat myself down and formulated ways I could make my blog stand out more. couldn’t come up with anything. I eventually stumbled across a fashion blogging course and enrolled immediately! After I finished the program, my 1970’s style blog was born! Dayloustyles.com! Inspiring women through 1970’s style and inspiration. I thought the topic was unique, and there wasn’t another 1970’s Fashion blogger at the time. It was a unique blog topic niche and I was all in! I still believe the idea is gnarly. I stuck with this blog topic for 8 months. I eventually started to become bored with the topic, and I noticed I was lacking creative juices to further create engaging content. Moreover, I also was yearning instant gratification. I didn’t see immediate results so in essence I took this as a sign I should focus on something else. Notice the pattern here already huh?
I never lost passion in writing or fashion at the time. I felt as if I needed to shift my focus on other areas in the fashion industry where I can pursue a stable career. Wish I consulted God about this. These were all my plans, not his. My next plan was to begin a career as a Fashion & Editorial Stylist. Styling is and always will be a strong area of interest, and one of those things I have a natural gift for. I then found myself enrolling yet another course- Online Fashion Stylist Certification Course by School of Style. That took off pretty well. Everyday I received emails about internships and was eager to get the ball rolling with my fashion styling career. As I referred back to my notes and a few of the lessons in the course, I remembered the horrendous pay schedule of an editorial stylist. I knew it was something I did not want. It can potentially take a company 3-4 months to pay you after style job. I wasn’t in a space financially to take on that kind of stress nor did I have a remote interest in doing so. This is something I would’ve had to start in college. Here I am stuck yet again because I didn’t feel as If I was pursuing the thing I was supposed to be pursuing nor was I seeing the fruits of my labor. My gut told me something wasn’t right about pursuing a fashion styling career at the time. I knew this was God’s wway of saying “I’m redirecting you to bigger and better places” I did not ignore my intuition nor God’s message; I took it by the horns and ran with it. After this moment I entered a clarity filled season of “stillness” I didn’t make any moves or spend exorbitant prices on online courses. I used this season of “stillness” to my advantage to level up and examine the things that truly made me happy and that could potentially change the lives of other people. It was the time for me to reflect, grow, and focus on the things that brought joy to my life. There is a season for glowing up, a season to be still, and a season of growth. There are several different seasons we endure that are essential to our growth.
I am very keen on being transparent. This is a great way to connect and inspire people. I actively was attending therapy sessions most of 2018. During one my sessions with my therapist, she influenced me to make a huge 360 with one of my side hustle businesses I was working on. (again my plans, not God’s) God truly used her as a vessel to speak to me. In short, I explained to her my deepest interests and things I know I am naturally good at. She knew what I liked, disliked, what I loved and did not love. After listening to me vent about how annoyed I was at my job and hearing discuss the things I loved, she softly uttered, “You sound like you’d make an amazing blogger”, have you thought about getting into that”, “You clearly have influence”. I was so taken back by clarity in that moment. It was as if that light bulb turned on in my head. I wanted to immediately shoot a response, but instead I went silent for 10 seconds looked at her and said you’re right. It was something that made the most sense.
She truly served as the catalyst for my blog re-launch. I knew I LOVED writing, I have a great sense of style, and fashion was life to me. I had enough experience to create both fashion related and encouraging posts to motivate and impact potential readers. Without God using her as a vessel to speak to me, who knows where I would be. I know for certain, I would’ve been getting frustrated with the process of starting an online boutique and would have eventually given that up. November 7, 2018 marks the official day I relaunched my blog as Dayloustyles.net! I was nervous yet also doubtful, but I persisted despite those feelings. I knew my message, story, and content would surpass all the doubt I was succumbing to. Even though I spent all that money on those courses, I do not regret one cent, because in turn I was directed to where I am now. Everything along our journey happens for a reason. There is no straight road to our final destination or success so to speak. there will be turns, dangerous routes taken, re routes, and all of the above to direct us where we are supposed to be.
I hope my transparency and personal struggles is just what you needed to motivate you on your journey. Don’t give up, and focus on your Plan A, you were there for a reason. You have to keep going despite persistent doubt.
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