Member of the Month: Jeniese Hosey

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Jeniese Hosey of the fashion blog The Jenesaisquoi is having a moment — her moment, her time to shine.

The past several months have been quite eventful for her. Last fall she was featured on the cover of Redbook magazine as one of the winners of the publication’s Real Women Style Awards. She’s been featured on Essence.com and in People’s StyleWatch. She landed a brand campaign with Catherines, which included a fun, fashion-filled trip to New Orleans. And she was even recently featured on a billboard for Macy’s in Times Square in New York City!

Jeniese is indeed a perfect example of what being a boss lady blogger is all about and that’s why she’s the See Jane Write member of the month for May.

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5 Things to Try This Month

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Sometimes I get so restless.

Sometimes I feel so fed up.

When my business isn’t growing the way I want it to, when I feel my writing career has become stagnant, I get so frustrated.

But then I get to work.

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How to Turn Your Blog Into a Business

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When I started See Jane Write in 2011 it was just a small women’s writing group and a simple Blogger blog. Now it is an award-winning business that has allowed me to make money and make a difference. In fact, just this year Southern Living magazine included me on its list of Innovators Changing the South because of my work with See Jane Write.

In my e-course Lady Blogger to Boss Lady, which is now open for enrollment, I share all my secrets as to how I’ve grown See Jane Write and used blogging to land paid freelance writing gigs and speaking engagements.

Here are the seven steps I took to turn blogging into a business:

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Build Your Brand with Speaking Engagements

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I have three speaking engagements over the next two weeks. (More info on those below.) Though I’m getting paid for two of these gigs, I didn’t really accept any of these offers to speak for the money.

Speaking at conferences, meetings and other events is a great way to get the word out about who you are and what you do. Speaking engagements are a great way to build buzz about your blog, book, or personal brand.

If you want to delve into public speaking, but you’re not quite sure how, here are a few tips to get you started:

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Member of the Month: Lauree Ashcom

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There was a time when Lauree Ashcom felt she had to hide her love for poetry.

“I always wrote and read poetry secretly,” she says. “When I was in school, teachers seemed to teach that there were only certain types of poetry, that it mainly rhymed, that the only great poets were dead.”

And so Lauree would perhaps sometimes send a poem to a family member or friend, but mostly she kept what she describes as her “real heart words” in journals and on note cards tucked under her bed or in hidden in her closet.

“About ten years ago I began to feel more free and more rebellious,” she says. “Maybe it had something to do with suddenly having an empty nest. I created an alter ego under a pen name and began writing and posting in poetry groups on Facebook and other sites. Not all of these were sites that a proper southern woman should be visiting, but even that helped me break the bonds of the rules that made me live in fear.”

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Lauree started entering and becoming a finalist in writing contests. This helped her to eventually land a book deal. “I would have been happy to just have a chapbook printed, but I got a contract for a full length book,” she says. 

I’m excited to announce that Lauree Ashcom is the Member of the Month for April, which is also National Poetry Month.

I recently had a chat with Lauree about her writing process and journey.

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