In This Season: 2 Year Blogiversary & Three Lessons I’ve Learned

It’s officially my 2 year blogiversary!

I’m so humbled and grateful for how far The Millennial Stay-At-Home Mom blog has come and I have some exciting new content planned for year 3! 

If you’ve been following me since the beginning, not only have you been through the logo and theme changes, but you may have also noticed a change in pace and direction.

When I initially started this blog, I simply wanted a place to share my tips and tricks as a young mom, as well as my struggles embracing the new season that I was in. I also enjoyed sharing all the blogging tips I learned along the way.

Things had been going really well and I was blessed with opportunities to work with some of my dream brands.

As soon as I started gaining momentum, we learned that we were pregnant with our youngest baby Jo (check out his 1yr old smash cake pics here), and things in the blogging world had gotten a little rocky.

I found myself burned out and I knew that I needed to revisit and re-evaluate my ‘why’.

So I Took A Step Back…

Once baby Jo was born, I knew that I would be taking a bit of a break from blogging and focusing on settling into my new role as a mom of two.

Since then, I’ve been faced with many obstacles and tests that have definitely helped me grow and mature in my new roles as wife and mama.

But I wasn’t sure if I should share the nitty-gritty of what life was teaching me in this new season.

It was just too… personal.

& honestly, at the time, it was just way too hard

As an introvert, I’m a firm believer in keeping my personal life private. I believed that whatever lessons God was teaching me were mine to learn.

Then I remembered that while my journey may very well be for my personal refinement, it’s a whole lot bigger than me. 

By sharing my struggles and revelations with my beautiful community of readers, I open up a safe space for dialogue among women like myself who are simply trying to find purpose in the season that they are in.

And THAT is what The Millennial Stay-At-Home Mom blog is all about!

With that, I’d like to welcome you to the first of many installments in my brand new blog series: In This Season.

In This Season is an opportunity for me to be transparent about the highs and lows of life as a wife and mom and hopefully, my truths will encourage you and remind you that no matter what season you’re in, you have a purpose!

So in honor of my 2-year anniversary of launching The Millennial SAHM, I want to kick the series off by sharing three crucial lessons that I’ve learned since I’ve been blogging full time.

And no, this isn’t your typical ‘what I’ve learned blogging’ post that encourages you to ‘network’ and ‘post consistently’.

While both of these things are important, the tips that I want to share with you today are more so focused on the purpose behind your content and how that plays a role in the overall longevity of your blogging career.

So, let’s get into it shall we?

Stay True To Yourself

I know I know.

This is a pretty cliche’ tip but bear with me. I’ve learned that this is one underrated piece of advice that is worth looking at a bit more closely.

As children, we are encouraged to ‘be ourselves’ and take pride in who we are. Fast forward a few years and a few life lessons later, and while this advice stays with us, I’ve found that we aren’t as confident or proud of who we have become.

As a result, as it pertains to the wonderful world of blogging and content creation, you may notice that everyone seems to be doing the same thing. 

Everyone blogs about the same topics.

Everyone makes the same type of videos.

Everyone has a perfect Instagram feed with their picture-perfect family in color-coordinated outfits in front of their beautiful home because, well, their life is perfect right?

Well, I won’t bore you with the whole ‘Instagram is just a highlight reel’ speech, but I will ask you to consider what you actually gain from following those perfect feeds on Instagram?

Or reading blog posts on blogs with beautiful themes and perfectly stages pictures?

Don’t get me wrong, just because someone has a perfect feed, or a great looking blog, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t providing value to their audience.

However, if all you do is compare your life to what you believe theirs is, you may want to reconsider why you follow them in the first place.

As a creator, your greatest strength lies in your power to be your unique self.

The lessons that you’ve learned and experiences that you’ve lived through have value, and your audience can greatly benefit from your vulnerability.

The caveat here is that vulnerability requires you to stay true to yourself. 

You can’t tell someone else’s story and expect it to have the same impact, nor can you expect your audience to be able to relate with ‘Perfect Patty’.

All that to say, there is definitely a balance and I’m still figuring out what that looks like.

But one thing I know for sure is that your story matters.

So remember, beyond all of the perfectly edited photos and informational ‘how-to’ posts, it’s sharing your unique life experiences that can unlock the potential for you to not only connect with your audience but to leave a lasting impact.

Which brings me to my next point…

Impact / Influence

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I never refer to myself as an influencer.

Personally, I’ve never been a fan of the term, but I’ve also adopted a slightly different perspective as it pertains to the ever-growing ‘influencer’ population.

A couple of months before my youngest was born, I realized that while I was sharing helpful tips and advice here on the blog, beyond taking what they needed from the posts, the content probably had very little lasting impact on the person reading it.

Since many of my posts provide actionable tips that the reader can follow, I knew the value was there, but something was missing.

While I may have been influencing my reader to implement a certain pumping schedule or to try a new recipe, I realized that it stopped there.

There was no real lasting impact from the content that I was creating, at least not that I could tell.

And I don’t know about you, but that realization did not sit well with me.

This isn’t to say that NO ONE has ever been impacted by a post of mine, but I definitely didn’t feel like I was actually connecting with my audience.

It wasn’t until I got this comment:

“Why has no one asked about the “cup connoisseur” or mentioned that you’re an INTP! So what is with the cup thing?”

My initial thought was a light-hearted

‘because they don’t care’.

But then it hit me, why would they care? 

I was so comfortable creating content that solved specific problems (& sharing my favorite recipes), that I didn’t consider that my readers might actually want to know more about who The Millennial SAHM is.

I did a little research and I realized that all of my favorite content creators impacted me in one way or another.

I’d read (or watch/ listen) to their content and feel compelled to comment or engage with them in some way. Letting them know that I really could relate to them (or the topic) and I almost always found myself thanking them for sharing.

It was then that I realized that creating a lasting impact with my audience is way more important than striving for more pageviews or attempting to ‘influence’ them to buy something.

This is easily one of the most important lessons I’ve learned during my blogging journey and I highly recommend that you strive to not only connect with your audience but to leave a lasting impact on their lives.

Self-Development Is Necessary

Whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned blogger, if you aren’t growing and improving yourself on a regular basis, you may experience moments where that you don’t feel ‘cut out’ for this whole blogging grind.

Make no mistake, this tip doesn’t only apply to bloggers either.

No matter what type of content creator you are, if you are looking to grow, you have to ensure that you are equipped to handle the next phase in your business – whatever that looks like for you!

& yes, I said business.

If you aren’t treating your Blog/YouTube/Instagram/Podcast like a business, no one else will.

Self-Development, in its many forms, is a discipline that I encourage each and every content creator to immerse themselves in. You have to be willing to work on yourself and be determined to improve the areas of your life that are holding you back.

How can you expect to crank out more content if you’re always procrastinating?

How can you expect to post consistently if you don’t implement and stick to a schedule?

More importantly, what will you do on those days that you aren’t motivated?

Or when you aren’t getting any page views/engagement?

Or when it seems that no brands are interested in working with you?

As content creators, not only must our ‘why’ be bigger than the seemingly stale seasons that we will face in our business, but we have to learn how to use our strengths to persevere through them.

In order to do so, we have to be able to identify the areas in our lives that need improvement and then, we have to do the work!

Read the book.

Take the class.

Choose the healthy option.

Buy the course.

The more that we practice making the conscious choice to improve ourselves, the more prepared we will be to step into the next season of our journey.

Besides, you know what they say:

If you aren’t growing, you’re dying…

There you have it!

Three of the most important lessons that I’ve learned on my blogging journey.

As The Millennial SAHM enters into it’s 3rd year, I’ll be sharing a lot more content about myself and my struggles (& triumphs) as a wife, mother, and woman who’s simply striving to be the best version of herself.

All while intentionally leaving the door open for you to hopefully be able to see a bit of yourself in me.

Now, I’d love to hear from you!

Are you a content creator? If so, did any of the above tips resonate with you in some way? What lessons have you learned on your journey?

Be sure to subscribe to be the first to know when the next installment is live!

Cheer to Year 3!

-Kermilia