Wow! Talk about the longest wait ever. For those that have been following this “launching my blog” journey I announced back in 2020, thanks for still being here. I truly thought by making the announcement and getting held accountable for this goal I set, that it would give me the push and motivation to do it. To be honest, it kind of did the opposite. I pushed myself into more of a scarcity mindset the more I talked about it and I continued to talk myself out of hitting publish. I know it sounds silly.
I was so afraid of failing. I didn’t know where to start, and I didn’t think anyone would care about what I had to say. Or if they did care, they would be very disappointed by what I said or how I said it. But finally, I decided to take the plunge. OH. MY. GOODNESS. This feels amazing! This has been on my to-do list since I was in high school (yea… about 15 years this has been developing in my head). Even though the fear of failing and the thought of other people’s opinions dictated majority of this delay, there were also some other obstacles along the way that I wanted to share:
- One of the biggest challenges I faced when launching my blog was finding the time to organize and execute. I’m a full-time mom, I help run a digital marketing agency, I was also running my own beauty business, and I feel like I’m always tied to so many other social and family commitments. So, it was difficult to carve out time to blog on a regular basis. I overcame this challenge by learning how to be more efficient with my time, and to prioritize blogging as an important part of my life instead of treating it like some silly side thing. Everyday when I talked to God about my purpose and my future, this blog always came up. On the technical side, the getting organized part became much easier when I moved everything from Google Docs to ClickUp. It’s the most amazing tool for online organization for business and personal use!
- Choosing the platforms! This was a completely different language to me. For one, there are so many different platforms and hosting options. I didn’t have the slightest idea of what the difference between any of them were or how to navigate them. After doing a lot of research and listening to A LOT of blogger podcasts, I ended up going with Wordpress and Bluehost as my hosting. There are other platforms such as Wix and Squarespace, but I liked the flexibility to have full control and the ability to customize every aspect. This blog posts from wpbeginner goes more in depth explaining the difference in platforms for bloggers incase you were intrigued.
- Brainstorming ideas for blog posts never ended. This past year has been a lot of back and forth with the Lord about my blog. At first, I was just going to make it about me because I thought that’s what people blogged about, right? I mean, I wasn’t completely wrong. But, God wanted me to create this blog with YOU in mind. So even though my blog posts will be my own personal experiences and from my point of view, they’re really to inspire you to do the things God has called you to do. A lot of my struggle with hitting launch was just me not being obedient to the Lord. I was trying to talk about things I thought I should be talking about or trying to copy what other people were doing because I thought if it’s working for them it should work for me, instead of talking about things I was passionate about. I feel like I’m finally starting to hear my own voice now that God has entered the chat.
- Just overthinking like I do best. Because I was overthinking so much, it was taking me a little longer to gather my thoughts. I wasn’t listening to God, I was just listening to all the chatter in my head. By the way, if you haven’t read Crash the Chatterbox by Steven Furtick, you must! This book was a game changer in recognizing the enemy’s voice when my thoughts got out of control. So over the past few months of finally giving my blogging journey to God, He told me to take more breaks and step away. So I did. The time to be more present with my family allowed life and my own journey to inspire me. Just siting in front of a computer 24/7 got me no where. This is my reminder to you out there hustling hard for you dream: make sure to get up, get some sunshine (which I wasn’t), and enjoy the little moments with your family. I was reminded that if what we are doing is withdrawing us away from what we love and those we love the most, is it really something we love still? I realized my blog was turning more into an obligation and not something I was passionate about or proud of anymore. So things changed.
Even though learning about the technical side, dealing with motherhood and imposter syndrome, it was ultimately listening to the enemy and not God when it came to launching this blog that stumped me the longest. The enemy has been whispering in my ear since I had the idea almost 15 years ago that I wasn’t good enough, no one cared what I had to say, and that I was pretending to be something I’m not. I feel like I’m finally finding the person God created me to be and it feels good for once. Yes, things will change and I’ll get stuck again, but we’ll save that for another post in the future.
If there’s one thing I hope you can get out of this it’s that God will never discourage you. If you have a big dream on your heart that you can’t shake, that’s probably God giving you that good feeling to do it. The enemy hates when we obey God and will do whatever he can to discourage us.
I can not express how great it feels to finally cross “launch blog” off the to-do list. EEEKKKKKK!!
Xx