I finally believe this popular Kate Spade quote applies to me!
Today marks the end of #bloglikecrazy — See Jane Write’s annual challenge to post a new blog post every day for 30 days in the month in November.
Usually I survive #bloglikecrazy by planning ahead. I usually spend October brainstorming ideas for dozens of posts and will even start drafting some of them. That wasn’t the case this year. Because my fall has been so busy, I was often developing the idea for and writing a post the same day I published it. But I’m glad things turned out that way because this year’s #bloglikecrazy taught me something valuable: When it comes to writing and blogging, I actually do know what the hell I’m doing!
I suffer from major impostor syndrome, that feeling we women often have that tells us that we’re not good enough and that we don’t deserve the position or power that we have. I often feel this way about writing and blogging. Because of the popularity of See Jane Write, people in Birmingham regard me as a blogging and writing expert, a title I often shirk because I don’t have a New York Times best seller on my resume and because I don’t seek to make money from my blog through advertisements or sponsored posts.
But when See Jane Write members emailed me questions about blogging (questions I had promised to answer in the form of blog posts this month) I could answer their questions thoroughly and easily. I didn’t have to consult any “expert.” The answer was already beneath my curly coif! And on days when I didn’t have a question to answer I was able to easily come up with a blog post idea and write it quickly and concisely while still making it an interesting, inspiring, or informative narrative.
Who knew that, of all things, this year’s #bloglikecrazy challenge would help me overcome my impostor syndrome!
I’ve realized that I may not know everything, but I know a lot, and I’m smart and resourceful enough to figure out and learn the things that I don’t.
What did you learn from this year’s #bloglikecrazy challenge?
For about a year and a half now I’ve had the honor of writing a monthly column for WBHM 90.3 FM, Birmingham’s NPR station. And for the past year, in addition to writing for WBHM.org I also discuss my post for the month on air.
This month’s essay is about learning to love my name and learning to be proud of where I’m from.
Having a name like Javacia isn’t easy. When I introduce myself to people they typically look at me as if I’m a green girl from Mars. And there was a time when I worried that my unique name could be a liability. One look at my name and you know I’m black and I’ve been told that some potential employers might not hire me because of that. In my WBHM post I discuss how becoming a writer changed how I viewed my name.
Being from Birmingham isn’t easy either. People who’ve never stepped foot in the state of Alabama think they know what Birmingham is all about and criticize my Magic City. And to make matters worse, some Birmingham residents are ashamed of their home. But just as I had to respect my name before I could expect other people to do so, we must be proud of our city if we ever want perceptions of Birmingham to improve.
Visit WBHM.org to read my post and listen to my radio segment.
Each day in November for #bloglikecrazy I’ll be publishing a blog post that answers your questions about blogging, social media, writing, wellness or women’s empowerment. Send your questions to javacia@seejanewritebham.com.
Image by Alexander Baxevanis via Flickr/Creative Commons
What’s the point? There comes a time when every blogger will ask herself this question.
Creating good content on a consistent basis is hard work and most of us aren’t pulling a paycheck from our posts. So why bother blogging in the first place?
Well, some folks do get lucky. Some bloggers build a massive following and grab the attention of big-name brands. Some bloggers generate enough revenue from ads, sponsored posts, and affiliate links to quit their day jobs.
But most of us do not. But here’s why you should keep blogging anyway.
Blogging can make you a better writer. Writing is a practice. Just as athletes must train to get better at their sport, writers must practice to get better at our craft. Blogs make for a great training field. Blogging has taught me how to be more concise in my writing and taught me how to write faster, even faster than I did as a reporter with the Associated Press! If you set a posting schedule for yourself, blogging can train you to meet deadlines, too.
Blogging can help your writing career. Blogging will only help you as a writer if you’re striving to post quality work. And it’s important that you don’t put out crap just to say you’ve updated your blog for the week. People are paying attention. Your blog could land you a book deal or at least opportunities to write for some of your favorite publications. Case in point, I have a journalism degree from UC Berkeley, but the editors I work with couldn’t care less. Nearly all of the regular freelance gigs I have right now I snagged because I blog. So while I don’t make money directly from my blog, I do get paid for my freelance work and so blogging like crazy is worth it.
Blogging can help you establish an online platform. And you can use this online platform to promote your book or business or to spread ideas.
Blogging can help you find community. Blogging can help you find like-minded people with whom you can wax poetic about your passions or just hang out with and have fun. You thought you were the only 35-year-old black woman in the South who loved comic books, graphic novels, and video games. But then you started a blog about this obsession of yours and now you have a gaggle of geeky gal pals to take with you to Dragon Con.
Blogging can help you position yourself as an expert. As I mentioned, most people don’t make much money directly from their blogs. But your blog is a great way for you to promote your expertise. So use your fitness blog to promote yourself as a personal trainer. Use your fashion blog to promote yourself as a stylist. Take for example, Megan LaRussa Chenoweth, who owns the style coaching service Southern Femme. Chenoweth a top-notch, in-demand image consultant and personal shopper and is also a stylist for several magazines and fashion shows. But Southern Femme actually began as a fashion blog. Chenoweth used SouthernFemme.com to show off her style expertise and soon she went from bloganista to businesswoman.
Why do you blog?
Are you interested in blogging more but having trouble finding the time to do so? Then don’t miss the launch of my time management e-course. To be notified of the launch date, simply click here and sign up for my personal blog’s newsletter.
Each day in November for #bloglikecrazy I’ll be publishing a blog post that answers your questions about blogging, social media, writing, wellness or women’s empowerment. Send your questions to javacia@seejanewritebham.com.
Carrie Rollwagen is representing for the Birmingham Janes! Contribute to her Kickstarter campaign and she’ll represent for your blog or business too. She’s also offering a nail art workshop as a reward.
What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
I have a long list of answers to this question: do a one-year blogging challenge, write and publish a book, strive to run a profitable small business, launch a Kickstarter campaign. But my list could be summed up with one statement: Be Carrie Rollwagen.
Rollwagen is a small business owner, a prolific blogger, a social media guru and much more. She also has the cutest nails in town. And now she’s about to add something else to her resume — published author.
Rollwagen, co-owner of Church Street Coffee and Books and the writer behind the Shop Small blog, is now about to publish The Localist, a book that’s all about shopping locally. Rollwagen decided to self-publish the book and recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund her project. She reached her fundraising goal in less than a month!
I had a chat with Rollwagen recently — at a locally owned coffee shop, of course — about her book project and her secrets to success.
Becoming a Localist
Rollwagen’s interest in local shopping began when she managed a small book store in Mountain Brook. She believed that the camaraderie she experienced at that store was unique to locally-owned shops. But then she worked at Starbucks and found the same sense of community there as well. Rollwagen, a former full-time journalist, wanted to investigate.
“I’m a frustrated journalist,” she says.
And so in 2011 she challenged herself to only buy from locally-owned stores for one year. She launched the blog Shop Small to chronicle her adventure.
Rollwagen admits that she thought her “Shop Small” challenge would be extremely difficult and extremely expensive.
She was wrong.
“I spent far less money that year than I usually do,” Rollwagen says.
She explained that when you shop small there’s less of a chance for impulse buying. There are very few, if any, displays set up in locally owned shops to entice you to purchase things that aren’t on your shopping list. Furthermore, because local shops weren’t as easy to get to as big box stores, Rollwagen would often talk herself out of buying things. And she wasn’t eating any fast food.
Finding stores at which to shop was easier than she expected. She often found what she needed simply by asking friends or doing a quick Google search. Rollwagen was even able to go to the movies thanks to the Birmingham-based theater The Edge opening that year.
What was Rollwagen’s conclusion after this year of shopping small?
“Local is almost always better,” she says.
Rollwagen is a localist, but she’s also a realist and she makes no claims that small business owners are somehow better people than the owners of big box stores.
“It is in the financial interest of a small business owner to be a nice person,” she says. “Small shop owners have a better incentive to treat people well and build community.”
If you have a bad experience at Target most likely you’re going to go back to Target nonetheless and even if you don’t chances are the Target employee you had a bad interaction with doesn’t care. Small shop owners know that it’s good customer service and a sense of community and camaraderie that will bring you back.
While Rollwagen doesn’t recommend that other people take on her extreme shop small challenge, she does stress that we should all buy local as often as we can as this is a great way to improve your community.
As Rollwagen explains in her Kickstarter campaign video, for every $10 spent at locally owned stores four to seven dollars goes back into your community. When you shop corporately only three dollars, at the most, goes back into your city.
Think of the local place first, she says. Amazon doesn’t pay taxes in your state.
Deciding to Self-Publish
Rollwagen admits that she hasn’t been a fan of self-publishing in the past — and for good reason. As many avid readers know, a book needs good editing, good design and a good marketing campaign to be successful. Most self-published authors don’t have all these skills or the resources to hire someone who does.
But Rollwagen’s book is centered on Birmingham and she thought a book a that was this, well, “localist” wouldn’t appeal to traditional publishers.
“Just because it doesn’t have a national market doesn’t mean it shouldn’t exist,” she says.
Rollwagen’s Shop Small blog was quite successful thanks to her fresh, informative content and effective social media marketing. But she knew she had more to say.
“I wanted to tell this story in a new way,” she says.
So she decided to write a book and self-publish it.
The book is part memoir, focusing on her life as a localist and even offering a few tips on how people can shift their own shopping habits to support small businesses more often.
The book is also a study of buying patterns — why you like big box stores, why they’re not all bad, and the effects of our shopping on us as individuals and on our communities.
The book also offers a behind-the-scenes look into Church Street Coffee and Books.
To ensure that her self-published book would be of high quality, Rollwagen launched her Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to hire an editor and designer.
How to Rock Your Kickstarter Campaign
Rollwagen reached her fundraising goal of $5,000 in less than a month. Now she’s working on her stretch goal. She’s hoping to raise an additional $3,000 so she can go on a book tour to spread the localist gospel to other towns.
Rollwagen offered these tips on how to run a successful Kickstarter campaign:
Apply the tips that Kickstarter gives you and look at projects similar to yours for promotion ideas.
Produce a great video and in it be sure to convince people that your project is something that you can actually do. Also, explain exactly how you plan to use the money.
Have enticing and creative rewards and be sure to include their cost in your project budget. One of Rollwagen’s rewards was nail art! For a donation of $10 or more, Rollwagen would decorate her nails with the name of your company. Nail art was a perfect way for Rollwagen to help promote her project because whenever someone would say “Oh, I like your nails!” she could strike up a conversation about her Kickstarter campaign.
But these conversations could only happen if she was out and about. So Rollwagen’s other piece of advice is to be sure to network during your campaign. And carry business cards that include a URL for your campaign.
The Birmingham Jane is a See Jane Write series of profiles on women in Birmingham who are making a difference in our city. If you know of a woman who is making a difference in Birmingham please send your nominations to javacia@seejanewritebham.com. And don’t be ashamed to nominate yourself!
When The History Press, a small publishing company located in South Carolina, contacted Carla Jean Whitley and asked her if she’d like to write a book, she gave the answer most of us would — “Uh, YES!”
And with that Whitley set off on an adventure of combining her love for music and the South to write the book Muscle Shoals Sound Studio: How the Swampers Changed American Music. Whitley wrote this book while juggling her job as managing editor of Birmingham magazine and teaching college-level journalism classes.
At a recent See Jane Write members-only event, Whitley shared how she managed her time during this process and how she’s managed to successfully promote her book. Muscle Shoals Studio was released in July and is already in its second printing.
While writing her book, Whitley said she wrote before and after work every day. She set small daily goals for herself to make the task of writing a book less daunting and more manageable. But she said she also gave herself grace on those days when she don’t accomplish those small goals.
She also was careful not to forget about self-care. She made time to decompress by spending time with friends or doing things she enjoys like yoga.
Here I am with Carla Jean at her first book signing this summer!
Though the History Press is a small publishing company, Whitley has had the privilege of working with a publicist. Whitley raved about her publicist and recommended that all authors have one. For non-fiction writers, Whitley said it is especially helpful to have a publicist with connections in a field related to the topic of your book.
Whitley stressed, however, that you are your own best advocate, even if you have a publicist. You must promote yourself with book signings. Look for local businesses with which you can partner to host different types of events that will help promote your book.
Blogging is a great way to promote yourself and your book as well. Not only can you use your own blog to show off your writing and help potential fans get to know you, you can also guest blog for other people’s sites to expand your reach.
Leading up to the release of her book, Whitley wrote a series of guest posts for Church Street Coffee and Books’ blog. Church Street now carries Whitley’s book and, thanks to those blog posts, many of their customers were eager to buy the book once it hit the shelves.
Whitley recommends having an email newsletter too.
Today Whitley is working on her second book which will be about the history of beer in Birmingham.
