50 Things That'll Happen When you Start A Blog

To say that this last 6 months has been full of highs and lows would be an understatement.

The chaos has included, but is not limited to, Matt’s final semester at Uni, Matt looking for a job, worrying I’d have to move to Auckland, winning an Absolutely Positively Wellingtonian Award, being published in Vice.com and going on the Radio, working lots in my day job, seeing a family member start a new trajectory, some incredible paid projects/sponsored posts with awesome brands, completing 100 resident interviews and finally, after 14 months, FINALLY GETTING ULTRA FAST BROADBAND INSTALLED (thanks, Chorus). *Also – just realized how ironic it is that it is called Ultra Fast Broadband when it has been ULTRA SLOW!*

And so, I come to a fork in the road where it pays for me to reflect on some life lesson’s I may impart on those of you wondering what it is really like blogging like I do (with a 9-5 work day – 4x weekly). Do not let this put you off! We need more blogs, vloggers and grammers, especially in Wellington because no one can tell the story the way YOU do! I hope you have a giggle and maybe even learn a thing or two. Again - know I say this all the time – where is the year going?!

Now I'm off to the NZ Film Festival Gala! So take all my whinging with a big pinch of salt...

1.       You will get a sore hand from using your phone faaar too much.

2.       You may develop a 'gambling addiction' with Facebook advertising.

3.       You will become VERY familiar with iCal.

4.       You will get used to getting packages at work all the time- one of the best things – this never gets old.

5.       You will get sick of people asking whether you are now full time on your blog… after two months, 6 months, a year.

6.       You will treat it like a job and build on your previous successes only to be constantly beating up on yourself that you haven’t exceeded your own expectations of yourself. Every. Single. Month.

7.       You’ll get to eat a lot of free food and drink free drink.

8.       You’ll have to learn to negotiate like a bad ass and sit there stewing that you asked for too much/too little/not enough.

9.       You’ll feel like tearing your hair out when you spend hours interviewing/drafting/shooting and editing a piece for some (usually young male) hot shot who then fails to share it with their own audience despite you telling them to many many times over. Seriously – you’re not paying me for any of this – it is free marketing! SHARE.

10.   You’ll hopefully have one very understanding partner or friend to tolerate your late night blogging sessions and who will help shoot with you on demand. Also, they should be good at helping you choose the best photos.

11.   You’ll spend faar more money than you intended (but on a spectrum of ‘businesses’ your overheads are super low – yep, keep telling yourself this). 

12.   You’ll meet amazing humans who even when you are tired, grumpy and don’t want to see anyone will sit you down and tell you an incredible story that will make you feel alive again.

13.   You’ll realise that if you don’t ask you don’t get.

14.   You’ll learn how to become a half decent photographer that can use Lightroom.

15.   You’ll hate Instagram half the time and love it the other half

16.   You’ll consistently hate Twitter.

17.   You’ll find yourself at parties cornering people so you can discuss the latest changes in Facebook algorithm and wonder why their eyes are glazing over.

18.   You’ll stop going out.

19.   But when you make yourself go, you’ll realise you have to get out and about and not hermit yourself.

20.   Your inbox will become both a treasure trove and nightmare. You’ll never know what opportunity might fly through it this week…or unsolicited spam.

21.   You’ll learn the value of hard work creatively – no, the ticket to your COMMERCIAL event which only grants me entry and then I have to pay for my own drinks IS NOT compensation for 5 hours of my time creating content for you.

22.   You’ll get very irritated every time someone calls you an "influencer".

23.   Then you’ll get used to it and give fewer tosses.

24.   You’ll give fewer tosses in general.

25.   You’ll try and fail multiple times to upload weekly videos to YouTube.

26.  You’ll find the way that SOME pockets of the mainstream media lacks understanding about the hard work that social media and blogs take frustrating, especially when then speak down to you or get facts wrong. But when they're on your team, it's the best!

27.   You’ll carry around too many bags.

28.   You realise booze is more damaging to your mental health when you have a website about parts of your life and will get paranoid you’ve made a huge mistake by putting youself out there.

29.   You’ll relies the importance of sleep.

30.   Ditto exercise.

31.   But then you’ll get up early and stay up late just to maintain your schedule.

32.   You’ll meet wonderful fellow creatives who get your hustle 100%.

33.   You’ll meet amazing friends on Instagram.

34.   You might lose some friends too.

35.   You probably will come to realise they weren’t true friends anyway.

36.   The friends who stick around – you’ll have it confirmed, once again, they are friends for life.

37.   Organisation and chaos will rule your life.

38.   You actually continue to go to the supermarket in soft pants because who cares.

39.   You DO care, oddly, about having good nails so they look nice in photos of things.

40.   You’ll fall in love with buying cameras/laptops/phones/tripods/ anything that makes your work 1% more professional.

41.   You won’t care whether it becomes a job – you just want to strive to be better – because you love sharing your journey so much.

42.   You’ll actually enjoy swapping between your day job and blog job – the change can be refreshing.

43.   You’ll appreciate how hard it is to get freelance work and be able to pay rent.

44.   You’ll get pissed off if you feel that you've been taken advantage of and not given credit - more often that you'd like.

45.   You’ll realise that what makes people in Wellington unique is that they say yes to almost anything.

46.   You’ll cherish people's time.

47.   You’ll cherish quiet time.

48.   You’ll have to say no far more than feels natural.

49.   You’ll care about your blog so much your boyfriend keeps telling you that you love it more.

50.   You might feel like you are finally starting to become a writer.

(51.   You can handle the comments, even if you think you can't. And if it gets really bad, just DM resident #1 Alice Brine for a pep talk).