Photo captured by TCC crew member, Alyssa!

What’s better than Friday? Um, a snow day on a Friday WOOT WOOT! I was slightly tempted to take today off but I felt like I had to get this post off my chest.  

The other day I was chatting with a friend, typical right, and she asked me, how I grew my viewers. Sounds like an easy question, but I  had the hardest time thinking of an answer. 

I knew I worked on my blog every day, posted consistently, used hashtags, created quality over quantity; but to be honest there wasn’t ONE THING that grew my brand. 

It just took time. Yet today with FOMO, social media and live streaming, everyone wants to hear NOW not four years of hard work. 

So I”m here to tell you the truth about gaining a following, NOTHING comes overnight, especially in the influencer realm. I would bet money on the fact that every blogger you follow has put in countless hours of work, experienced small success and heart aching failures, and has hustled their way to success, OVER TIME! 

‘Overnight Success ‘ is a Lie and here are three reasons why!

The Daily Grind: 

It has taken me four years to grow my Instagram following. & let me tell you NOTHING HAPPENED OVERNIGHT. & frankly, if it did, it would be a tad fishy.

When it comes to gaining a following, slow and steady wins the race guys! my Instagram following of about 45k people was a daily grind. In fact if you do the math out I gained exactly thirty new readers a day, over four years, to get where I am today.

No big leap in success, it was all one big, slow, daily grind.

entitled: 

‘I don’t care how I want it now’ – Veruca Salt

Here’s the thing about running your own business, you need to be patient. You can’t just start a blog, write one post and expect 83,000 Instagram followers and paid collaborations.

I always like to think of Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka, screaming ‘I don’t care how.. I want it now’ before she was kicked down the bad egg chute, we’ve all had those moments of feeling entitled but running your business is a humbling experience, to say the least.

It’s one of those ‘the world doesn’t owe you anything’ kind of experience. The kind of experinence where not one, nor two but a thousand doors get slammed in your face.

 If you could see the piles of rejection emails I received from companies, other bloggers and unsupportive people you’d be amazed. I can remember once talking to my dad on the phone when I first started blogging in college, and him saying ‘Wow, it’s impressive how you bounce back from rejection’ but to me, I knew rejection was part of the journey and that the blog was a HUGE work in progress.

Basically, I was proud of my work, I was proud of my daily grind and I kept plugging along; no entitlement. I was humble and hustled.

10,000 Hour Rule:

Marketing Majors unite!

In my consumer behavior class at USD we read a lot of Malcolm Gladwell books, read them if you haven’t, but one of my favorites was Outliers. In this book Gladwell talks about the 10,000 Hour Rule, basically, the rule states that: 10,000 hours of “deliberate practice” are needed to become an expert in any field.

& while many scientists have debunked this idea, I still believe the essence of practice makes perfect, when it comes to success. Think about it, in order to be successful, especially in blogging, you need to produce good content and good content takes practice. The content I produced in 2013 is way different than the content I produced in 2015 and way different than the content I produce today.

I actually cringe looking at my 2013 content, think bad lighting, iPhone 3 camera photos, weird ‘artsy’ angles, and a crap ton of moody selfies (EW). My apologies to all the OG TCC readers out there, but in 2013, I thought my content was good.

What I’m trying to say, is being successful not only takes time but it takes skill, which takes time to develop. Whether that’s being a photographer, writer, painter, salesman or blogger. Learning your craft and excelling at it takes time and does NOT happen overnight.

 Okay! I hope that was helpful and gave you some insight into my personal blogging journey. Just stay patient and enjoy the weekend, I’d love to hear what you guys think of ‘overnight success’ and any tips on overcoming the stigma. xx Aubrey

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