Finding Your Tribe

I’ve been blogging since 2008; that’s a long time in “blogging years.” Things have rapidly changed in the last five years of blogging due to the shift in advertising dollars to influencers. This shift is due to what I refer to as the smartphone boom. Now that everyone has the internet in their hands, readers can find your content whenever they want to. Need a quick cookie recipe? Pinterest search and boom you’re on a blog. Need to learn how to make slime with your kids? YouTube search and slime away. But the best thing that has come out of blogging are the friendships I’ve made along the way.  Two of my best friends came from the blogging world. Now we do everything together including room together at conferences around the country, family BBQ’s (that aren’t sponsored!), and we even workout at the same gym! I met Serious Krystyn when we both started writing for Fox 5 Atlanta a few years ago. I met Lindsey through the many Atlanta blogging get together’s we have here in Georgia. When you find bloggers that fit with you and your personality you stick with them. They are so supportive of me and my blog and have become such great friends. They tell me straight when I need to hear it and I know they will be honest with me.  We recently spent the week in California for the Mom 2.0 Summit, and it was a great little girls getaway and learning experience. During the conference, I sat in on a session about finding your people and immediately thought of them as “my people.” Whether you want to call it your tribe or your mastermind group, I highly suggest that you find them in the blogging community. I’m lucky enough that mine live close by,  and we can spend non-blogging fun together too. Which puts them in the “straight up friends that happen to blog” category. 

Finding your tribe isn’t just about finding someone that will shoot you straight. It’s about sharing their contact info with a PR contact because they are a good fit for a campaign. Sharing a blog post with your audience to help drive some traffic their way. Watching their videos to see what they are up to and drive engadgement. There is no reason to cut others down in this industry. We should all be supporting eachother in an field that can sometimes take a lot of heat.  We are heading to Type-A East at Walt Disney World in October and we are already planning the ultimate Disney vacation with the Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, Epcot Food and Wine Fesitval, and all the new shows that are coming to the parks this summer. My tribe is even Disney Obsessed just like me! So I made them some cute ears inspired by their favorite Disney Princess and colors. Tutorial on those later.  I couldn’t ask for better friends. 

Here are some other great bloggers I’ve met and roomed with at bogging conferences that I look forward to catching up with. 

Ashlee Marie – She makes the most amazing food creations that will leave you in complete awe. 

Savoring the Good – Another Disney lover that makes yummy recipes and has great reviews, crafts and more. 

Still Dating My Spouse – Marraige goal central! 

Honest and Truly – Parenting and Lifestyle blog. We make s’mores together. 

Recipes That Crock – The queen of comfort food, I’ve become friends with her whole family. Her husband cooks her recipes for videos and her sweet sister and I were pregnant at the same time.