The Ultimate Blog Podcast - 15. Amy's Blogging Journey

Episode Date: March 29, 2022

Hey there! It’s Amy here and today I am solo. I am sharing with you all about my blogging journey and what led me to where I am today. It is truly amazing how things worked out and the things that led me to starting my blog, Beautifully Broken Journey, and the business that I run with Jennifer, Spark Media Concepts. Listen in as I share this journey with you!Check out the show notes (link below) for links and resources mentioned in this episode!Thanks for listening! Connect with us on Instagram: @sparkmediaconceptsThinking about starting a blog? Check out the Ultimate Blog Bootcamp!SHOW NOTES: www.sparkmediaconcepts.com/episode15

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast with Amy Reinecke and Jennifer Draper. We're on a mission to empower women who want to start or grow their own blog. This podcast is for women who want to learn blogging basics and who crave inspiration and encouragement. Whether you're just getting started or have been a blogger for years, we're excited to welcome you into this space where we are passionate about creating community over competition. We are bloggers who want to encourage you to believe in your potential, step outside the norm and step into a life where you create your own schedule, your own success, and your own story. Join us for weekly episodes as we navigate blogging

and work from home life, all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. Hey there, I am so excited to share a bit of my story with you today. It's Amy here. And today I get to kind of dive back in time and talk to you about where my blogging journey began. And it began actually long before my blog, Beautifully Broken Journey, if you follow me there. I started my first blog actually on January 4th of 2010 on a platform called Blogspot. So blogging back then was kind of new and upcoming and it was a thing that a lot of people were starting to do, but it was done very differently. It looked so different than blogging does today. So I had decided to start a blog because a couple of years prior,

I'd gone through a pretty difficult time in my life. I had actually struggled with an eating disorder and I found through therapy and my healing that writing was a way for me to find like solitude and sharing my story was helpful for me. And so writing on a blog was a way for me to document my journey and connect with others. When I started my blog, I started, it was really a personal journey that I was sharing. So I shared about my health and wellness journey. I shared a little bit about my marriage,

and then I also shared about my relationship with Jesus. I had been Catholic all growing up, but didn't really have a relationship. And in the midst of my pain, I developed a relationship with Jesus. And so I decided to share about that as well on my blog. So that first year, so 2010, I blogged pretty consistently. I actually went back and looked before recording today and I blogged over 200 posts that year. So I was really consistent actually in 2010. It was so therapeutic for me. I was connecting with people and I look back and I have no idea how I was even connecting

to be really honest. I don't know where they were coming from and I wish I did. Looking back, I wish I knew how I was connecting with these different people, but somehow I was, and I was connecting with other people on their blog spots as well. When things got a little different was when I saw people actually switching to WordPress, and then when I heard that people could actually create an income blogging. That was not something I was doing. I was merely blogging because it was therapeutic and it brought me joy and connection and it made me feel less alone. And I loved it. Quite honestly, I didn't have kids then. We were married, but we didn't have kids. And so I kind of told myself as the blogging world

began to shift that I didn't belong there anymore. I kind of sold myself short before I ever even allowed myself to explore more and told myself I could never figure this out. So I just stopped blogging as often. In 2011, I had our first son and I obviously became a busy mom, full-time mom. The year before in 2010, we'd actually suffered a miscarriage and moved to a new city and I got pregnant early 2011. So it was kind of unexpected. And to be honest with the pain that I'd been through already with my eating disorder and treatment and all of that, I didn't know how much about my miscarriage and how much I wanted to share necessarily about having a baby. I was super scared early in my pregnancy

and I felt like, I'm not really sure I want to share this on my blog. So I didn't as much. And I was okay with that. I kept the blog and I would blog periodically from 2011 to 2014, but I was never consistent. I would sit down and tell myself, I can do this again. And I would love to do this again, but I just didn't know how to go about it. So I was still on the same blogspot platform that I was on, but I just didn't have direction with it. And I just, I just didn't know what to do. So in 2014, I kind of hung up that hat and thought to myself, you know, blogging is just not for me. This isn't something that I'm ever going to be able to be good at. Then 2015 rolled around and I heard about a new platform called Instagram. And it was a big deal back then.

So at that point, I'd had our second child. And once again, my body was going through something. I had to have back surgery when he was just 12 weeks old. And when I had back surgery, the doctors told me you will need to lose weight. Otherwise you will have to have back surgery again someday. And that terrified me. But with my history of eating disorder and all that, I was super nervous about how to do this. And so I decided to start an Instagram account and share my personal weight loss journey. So back then, Instagram was really easy to build on, if I can be honest. I grew an organic following pretty quickly. I was niched down.

I was connected to a certain specific diet at the time. And a lot of people on that diet were on Instagram. It was way easier to build and connect with people, I think, more than it is today. So I built my Instagram pretty quickly back then. And I was happy with that for the most part. I don't think I realized how much time I was actually spending on there. If I go back and look, there were times I was posting two or three times a day. And this was long before Instagram stories or anything like that. But I did really find a community there. And it did bring me a lot of joy.

But I was spending a lot of time. And at that point, I had two kids. I was still staying at home with them. But I wasn't earning an income at all on Instagram back then. So in 2016, a neighbor of mine, actually my direct next door neighbor, put a post up on her Facebook page saying that she needed help with her blog, Slow Clicker Gourmet. Now, you guys know now that blogging was something that I had done and I was super intrigued by it. I had always wondered after

I gave it up, how do people make money? Like really? And I knew that this person was staying home and I knew that she'd adopted two kids at this point. And I'm like, how is she doing this? Like, how? So I had always done odds and ends things since becoming a mom to earn money. I'd worked in the church daycare a couple of days a week sometimes.

I even one year had a burlap wreath business and I made over 500 burlap wreaths in a year. I had sold Usborne books. I'd sold Arbonne. I'd sold, I'd done all these different things. I'd even done like taste test studies at different businesses here that they would actually pay you to come and like give your opinion about different products. I would sign up for things like that. So I was always doing like odds and ends thing. If you can tell here, I've always been an entrepreneur at heart. My parents are entrepreneurs. They have owned their own business since I was young. And so that blood kind of runs in my veins. So when Jennifer

put up a post saying that she needed someone to help with her blog, I jumped at the chance. I was like, this is awesome. I can stay home. I could see what this blogging thing is behind the scenes. This would be so much fun. So I immediately responded to her and said, I would love to help you if you haven't already found someone. Little did I know when she put that post up, I was the person that she'd had in mind to help with her blog. And what's funny is at that time, we were just neighbors really.

So our kids would sometimes play outside together. We would wave or small talk chat because we were right next door to each other. And living here in Kansas City, our houses are pretty close together. So you can't avoid your neighbors. So we would chat. And I always enjoyed our company. But other than just that occasional like hello or the kids playing, we didn't have a relationship outside of that. But little did I know the story that God had decided to weave at that time and weave our stories together. That person is Jennifer, and she's the one I host this podcast with. Her and I together own Spark Media Concepts. And today, many years later, we're the best of friends. Not a day goes

by that we don't talk to each other. And it's just been this beautiful thing that's developed because of a simple decision that she had to hire help with her blog and a decision I had to share my story on Instagram. So it's so crazy to me to think that we were actually neighbors for four years and we're just acquaintances at that time. It's, it's just, it's funny how that, how that happened. But I started working for her then in 2016. And at the time she needed help with her Pinterest. And then she was doing a new blog called garnish plate, and she needed help with her meal plan that she had on the blog at that time. So I would test some recipes for that blog and meal plan and do some photos. And I loved it. I loved it. I quickly gave up the burlap wreaths I was doing and didn't sell the books anymore. And I just wanted to do that. I found so much joy

in looking at new ways that we could help her grow her blog and what we could do. I was having a total blast. Now this whole time I was still on Instagram and I was building my community there and I was really enjoying it still. I loved it. I loved the community I was building. But one thing I didn't really see for myself at that time that Jennifer did see was how hard I was working for free and how much time I would take away from my kids sometimes to serve others in that space without really anything in return. And that was something that back then I just thought was fine. But Jennifer really did want to encourage me and say, hey, it's okay if you want

to make money. But I just didn't see how that was possible still. And so I think I had some imposter syndrome like, well, there's no room for me. And so in 2017, I was still her virtual assistant is what I was called. And we went to some blogging conferences together. And I went as her virtual assistant. And there I would tell people, I just have my Instagram. And a lot of them were like, wow, they really admire Jennifer for asking for help and for getting a virtual assistant. And that was something that was just interesting to me that a lot of them didn't have it. But Jennifer has always been one to recognize when she can delegate and ask for more help so she can spend the time on things that will help her grow. And I really, really admire her for that.

So these blog conferences were so amazing. I got to meet all these people and hear their stories and see what they were doing. And I loved it. I just soaked it all up. stories and see what they were doing. And I loved it. I just soaked it all up. We went to a few that spring and there was a forum that we were at basically, and there was an ad network company there. And the ad network company was talking about how people, what they earn basically by having a blog. And at one point they threw a number out there as to what somebody could earn, you know, like a typical blogger could earn per month just by having a blog, by having ads running on their

blog. And I was flabbergasted because at this point, I'd never come out and ask Jennifer, which is kind of shocking because I'm pretty bold. And I generally would just ask people any questions that I have, but I hadn't asked her like, how are you paying me? But I figured it out that day. And I was just like, what? I'm sharing all this stuff for free on a social media platform. What if I decided instead to put this on a blog and do this instead? And it just really got my wheels turning. And I loved my community on Instagram. So I wasn't ready to give that up, but I just wanted to add the blog as something else. But I was scared.

But on the way home, we were in the plane. I'll never ever forget this moment. We were in the plane and she looked at me and said, so what did you learn this time? And I said, I learned I need to quit working for you and I need to start my own blog. And all I can say is that she is the most encouraging friend. And she looked at me and she said, I've been waiting for you to realize this.

And that was super, I felt so much relief when she said that because I was scared. I was scared because I didn't want to let my friend down. At that point, we'd spent so much time with her blog and I felt like I was letting her down. But instead, she knew that there was something in me that I had to offer others that I was kind of squashing to help her chase her dream. So I'm so thankful that she was appreciative of the help that I was able to give when I was able to give it. But she also saw that I was not being true to who I was and what I needed to do in order to grow and be who I needed to be. Have you ever wanted to start a blog, but had no idea where to begin,

or maybe you have a blog that you'd like to update and want some help to make it the best it can be. We know that there are many people out there who have big dreams for their own blog that never happened because they simply feel stuck. The Ultimate Blog Bootcamp is an eight-week course designed to help you create a solid blogging foundation by teaching you how to treat your blog as a business, find your audience, design a website that is optimized for SEO, all while providing support via online coaching calls each week of the course. There's a private Slack channel for students as well, so questions will never go unanswered. The Ultimate Blog Bootcamp will give you the tools and support to create a blog that has the potential to turn into a profitable business.

We are committed to helping each and every student feel empowered and confident with the foundational principles of blogging and the behind-the-scenes work that goes into it. If you don't want to blog alone, we can help. We keep each round small in order to provide each student the attention and support we believe you deserve during this process. Since space is limited, get on the waitlist today so we can help you with your blog. The link to join the waitlist is in our show notes or go to sparkmediaconcepts.com and click on the ultimate blog bootcamp. So the summer of 2017, I took a big leap of faith and started my own blog, Beautifully Broken Journey. This time I did it all the right way. It was on wordpress.org. I got a theme, set it up right, but I could have never, ever, ever done it without

Jennifer and her husband, Sean. I was terrified. I was scared I wouldn't have anything to write about. I was scared I couldn't be consistent. I was scared I'd never make a dime. I was afraid of putting myself out there. For some reason, I was afraid of that, even though I was already doing that on Instagram. Having a blog just felt bigger, but this time I knew I was going to do it the right way. And so I just needed to see this through. So like I said, I couldn't have started my blog without the help of Jennifer and her husband, Sean. He's in IT and we definitely asked Sean a lot of questions back then.

So there were many nights and Sunday afternoons I can remember spending at their kitchen table trying to figure things out for either my blog or her blogs. And it's been a blast. There's been a lot of really fun moments that I would have never otherwise had if I wouldn't have decided to take that leap of faith. So after launching my blog in the summer of 2017, we were sitting, Jennifer and I were sitting at my kitchen table and she had shared with me that she had this little dream about helping other people start a blog. I think helping me with the blog, she kind of saw that there was

a need for that. You know, there were probably other people out there like me who had something that they wanted to share or were sharing it on Instagram and not sharing it anywhere else. And they had no idea what to do. And she wanted to be able to help them. So I can remember when she told me, I want to start this business someday and help people start their own blogs. I remember thinking she was kind of crazy. I was like, who's going to pay anybody for that? But little did I know in just a few short weeks, I would find our first client. So she had said it was like a Sunday dream. And when I hear that, I think to myself like, oh, let's make that happen kind of thing, even though I thought it was

kind of crazy. So I called her on my way home after finding our first client and said, hey, you know that dream you had that you shared with me the other day? She's like, yeah. I was like, well, I found our first client. And she's like, what? So we had no business name, no idea how we were going to do it, but we jumped in scared. We did it anyways. And that's how Spark Media Concepts was born in 2017, December of 2017. So just a few short months actually, after I started my own blog is when we decided to help others do the same. So blogging has given me something to do for me. And by starting Spark Media Concepts, it's also allowed me so much joy to help others do the exact same thing.

By having a blog, it has given me so much joy. I love talking about health and wellness, and it's given me the courage to keep working towards dreams that I wasn't even aware I had, to keep working towards dreams that I wasn't even aware I had, to be honest. I can remember one time when my first child was little, I had just given everything to motherhood. And I feel like there was a part of me that had lost myself, to be honest. And I can remember sitting on my back porch. It was late. I was upset one evening and crying and saying, what happens when I lose myself? And I thought to myself then, I need something for me. And so I kind of put that out there. I think I was kind of telling God, I need something for me. I need something for me that isn't all wrapped up in motherhood. And there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with, quote unquote, just being a

mom. There's not, but it's also okay if you want more. And I did, I truly did, but I wanted the best of both worlds. To be honest, I wanted to be able to stay home with my kids and also do something that I found valuable and something that I loved and blogging fits the bill for both of those things. Writing is still so therapeutic for me. So when I sit down to write a post that I know is going to help someone, that brings me so much joy. When I send that out and I get responses back like, this is so helpful, or you've taught me something that I never knew before, or you've given me courage and inspiration to

do this too, I can't tell you what that means to me. It's given me purpose. And that's amazing. At 39 years old, almost 40, it feels so good to be showing up in a space that I know I'm able to help people all over the world. That's incredible. That's a gift and one that I do not take lightly. So now with our business, Spark Media Concepts, Jennifer and I get to coach people as they start their own blogs. And I love what we do. I love it so much. I love showing up here on the podcast because you guys

fire us up and we love walking alongside you on your blogging journeys. We love learning too and sharing what we've learned and what we're doing and how we can help other people grow their blogs as well. We are the people that we needed when we started. That's what Spark Media Concepts is. And that's why we decided to launch this business. What I've loved about blogging since 2017, so I'm heading up on almost five years, is it's always there. I've had seasons of my life that have been busy since then,

and I'm not as consistent, and that's okay. And I know that. I put the expectations on myself that I can actually do, and I try very hard to be realistic with what I'm capable of now having three kids. So back in 2019, when I had my third daughter, my world was literally turned upside down. Three kids was and is, quite honestly, a challenge. It is something that I am constantly still finding ways to be productive and consistent and all of that.

Three kids has just kind of made me feel like every day is a bit of a sprint. And what I'm thankful of is I have a job that's there. So I was lucky enough that when I started my blog in 2017, I worked super hard and I was able to get on an ad network within that first year. And so I earned that passive revenue income on my blog, which is nice because then when I've had to take time off or I'm not able to be as consistent with my posting, I'm still generating revenue. And that's helpful. I do think that me having that ability to be on an ad network back then, there's a couple of things that went into play then.

One, the threshold to get on an ad network then was actually lower. And also I had a larger, much more engaged following on Instagram back then. And I do believe it helped me with that. To be honest, my community on Instagram isn't as engaging as it was before. But I think part of that is because the platform has changed. But you know what the beauty of that is? My blog is still out there. It's still serving people who don't follow me there. It's still serving people who don't follow me there. And I'm not relying on Instagram anymore, quite honestly, much at all. And that's amazing. I'm thankful I've spent time on Pinterest and SEO to help me gain traffic to my blog. And that's where I see it being super important to make sure that you're not just

spending all of your time on social media. I know that if you have a social media following and you're on Instagram and you're enjoying that, I totally understand. You're like, it's working. Why would I change it? Why do I need a blog? Take it from someone who knows your Instagram following or your social media following will change. It will shift as you shift and it is not a steady. So just keep that in mind. When you blog, it's always there and your content can always serve. It's not going to get buried in a feed or anything like that. People can always come and see what you have there. What I love about blogging is everyone can go at their own pace and follow their own path. For a long time, I thought that my journey

needed to look like Jennifer's. It's not often that two bloggers are actually together. That's something that we've learned over the years and working together. We get told a lot, you guys are so lucky. You live close to each other. We're no longer next door neighbors. I live like three streets over. But they say you're so lucky because a lot of bloggers don't have somebody that can come over and you can work on your blogs together throughout the day or whatever. But we do love that we have that ability and that we found that in one another. But I think for a long time, I used to tell myself like, I'm not able to work as much as Jennifer, but you know what? Her kids are older than mine and they are in different seasons of life and we have different priorities. And that doesn't make hers right or wrong or mine right or wrong. They're just

different. And that's the beauty of blogging is everyone can go at their own pace and follow their own path. There are so many different avenues that you can go with your blog and the opportunities are endless. And I'm so glad I finally come to that point that my journey doesn't need to look like anybody else's. My journey can look like my journey and that's good enough just the way it is. With a blog, you have the ability to be creative, to use your passion and to be driven towards the life

that you want to create and the kind of life that you wanna live. I see opportunity now where I never saw it before. I see how I can serve where before my worth was really all wrapped up in motherhood. I see how even on part-time hours, I can make an impact and help people. I see that blogging is a constant, unlike social media platforms that are always changing and unsustainable. I can't tell you how thankful I am that I stepped out of my comfort zone in 2017 and started a beautifully broken journey. It has brought me so much joy. It has been so exciting.

It has brought me fun opportunities and people that I would have not otherwise had. It's brought me people that push me, that see the best in me and encourage me to keep working on what I want out of life and also be willing to dream new dreams. And that it's also okay if that journey looks different from year to year because I'm changing and growing just like my blog is. My advice to you if you're nervous about starting your blog is just do it. I promise you it's never going to be the right time. So if you're waiting on that feeling, you're going to just keep on waiting. You will always, always, always find a reason not to start a blog. But what if, I just want you to ask yourself, what if this simple decision could change the trajectory of everything? What if it brings you confidence and hope and it breathes new life into you and

your journey? What if you can use your passion to help others? What if it's the one thing you need to do for you because you are always pouring yourself out to everyone else? What if? Thank you so much for letting me reminisce today. Thanks so much for letting me use my story to inspire you to lean into yours. I never want to forget my story because I love it. I love it so much. I would love to connect with you. So please visit me on my blog at beautifullybrokenjourney.com and you can always find me on Instagram at beautifullybrokenjourney. Thanks so much for tuning in today. If you'd like to continue the conversation about blogging with us, please find us on Instagram at spark media concepts.

You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter where we share blogging tips and inspiration. You can sign up by finding the link in the show notes. For those of you who are ready for the next step and want to start your own blog, join the waitlist for the ultimate blog bootcamp. The link to join the waitlist is also in the show notes. Go out and make today a great day.