5 Year Blogiversary: A Look Back and What I’ve Learned

It’s my 5 year Blogiversary, and I can’t believe it. It’s truly become my life and this can be a slippery slope between positive and negative because I’ve learned that as an entrepreneur, it never shuts off. Work is never done and there is always something that can be worked on or improved. But this blog has also been the best experience and offered opportunities I used to dream of; and I’d love to share those with you today.

My 5 year Blogiversary: A Look Back and What I’ve Learned

I started City Peach as a hobby because I had a passion that I just couldn’t contain to myself any longer. I wanted to share outfits in a creative way, as somewhat of an expression of art. My purpose has definitely transformed over the years. When I started to style clients in real life and the two elements merged, I realized that through my blog, I wanted to inspire women. I mean this actually a few different ways with the first one being the obvious.

To me, fashion and style has no size, label, or title. It’s a way to express yourself and feel good about yourself. I love giving women the push to try something creative to make them feel good through something as little and maybe frivolous as a new top or shoes. We all love new stuff, but that’s why I love thinking outside the box and pairing things differently. Because buying new things all the time isn’t smart but also wasteful. (and vintage is life) So my mindset is to give that feeling through creativity rather than purchasing.

That is the first way. The second aspect of this position, is using my platform and whatever voice I have built, to inspire women to be strong and support one another. I am very outspoken about this and realized that is my place too. I have some influence and I’m also going to use it to set examples of being a good friend, showing my daughter what a strong and supportive woman is, standing up against bullying, promoting inclusiveness, and helping others find their confidence.

The latter has really come to me passionately lately from seeing examples in my personal life, or online, that I know I do not stand for, and speaking up so that others can follow suit. I’m not saying I’m president or stating my credentials, I’m just saying that I can, so I’m going to. And I just happen to have a following of loyal readers that are watching. So, thank you for that, I hope we can do that together.

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Looking to the Future

This blog and journey at five years, comes to another head. Just like 2 years ago to almost the exact timing, I made the decision to take the blog full-time which meant, make sure I’m making enough to pay for childcare and give myself work hours. I needed time then and it allowed me to grow.

Now I’ve grown and I need resources. My next step now is, that I am being represented by an agency. This is exciting as it is terrifying. It’s hard to give up control of any part of my business, but I need help getting to the next level.

I have found most of my days have been tied up in logistics and left no room for the creative side, which is where I thrive. I’ve been executing contracts, calendars, invoices, cold pitching, etc… all myself and no longer can do it all. I want to come back to focus on the projects and visions I have for sponsored posts as well as bringing my readers true inspo that I just haven’t had the time to do really for the past year. So, again, I am scared I can’t do it. Will it be worth partnering with someone who represents me? Will it be worth the cut they take? It’s all taking a chance, but I recognized that the business needed a plan of action to evolve and I’m taking it.

I’ve learned to delegate things like Pinterest management, get an assistant to help with my newsletter, and just this summer I really took the dive into SEO and hired someone for that. The things that take the most time right now, are emails (responding and staying on top of everything), tracking people down to get paid, Instagram, and writing. Instagram is it’s own beast. But it’s connecting with people and I can’t give that part over. So I need the time to stay on top of it.

It’s all About the Story

Writing is an equal love to styling, and I want to be able to really sit and do so. I absolutely love writing and what you might have realized, is that each blog post is a story. Sometimes it’s a simple story of the outfit and how it’s styled and why. A story with all the details and my thought process. Sometimes it’s a story of the kids and I, and how it involves the mom style that I love creating. You will always see thought out words behind my posts. I’m also sometimes cheeky and use phrases or sayings that some people don’t always catch. I’m not sure if this is apparent, so I thought I would clarify. And this is where I’m at. The contract was signed in July and I figured it was symbolic and just as appropriate to mention that milestone on my 5 year anniversary!

How it all Began

I’ve reflected throughout the years on my experiences and hustle, but let’s go through some of it again for fun lol. I started this blog fresh off of having my first babe Jackson. I was working in a corporate America job in software sales. If you are new here, you can always catch up on these posts that explain more, but I basically hated it. I was an entrepreneur and didn’t know it. I just knew I always broke every one else’s rules. So I questioned and always pushed back on ridiculous parameters.

I started this blog in the shadows of the corporate office; where I would bring my laptop to deserted and quiet floors of the office, to the milk pumping room for hours… and just write. During that time, I would look up other blogs and saw what made them work. I did months of research before I even started my own website. I also didn’t start it to be a full-time business. At least that wasn’t my initial thoughts that something like that could even happen. I just knew I had to do something I loved. Which was styling outfits and sharing them through visual photos.

A Crucial Turning Point

Then, one day, I learned I could get clothes for free. This was something that was very exciting to me, and I will NEVER forget my first collaboration. I remember getting the email at my desk at Airwatch and immediately calling Robert to tell him that a boutique was SENDING ME WHATEVER I WANTED. For so long, those collaborations drove the blog and helped with costs.

When I quit my job to stay home with Jackson right before Elston was born, small paying jobs then helped pay for things that I just couldn’t have Robert foot… like getting my nails done and all the ridiculous things we girls love. I ran social media for a few restaurants and styled clients all over Atlanta to help pay to run this site. (Shout out to Lauren who took me under her wing and allowed me to be one of her stylists). Robert took all my photos and we would squeeze things in on weekends. He watched YouTube videos and each holiday bought us camera equipment. There definitely was a time in the beginning that he was like, ‘so you’re going to blog about… clothes… that doesn’t really fit into our new family budget’. So I found a way. Haha!

Growing that Instagram:

Whew it’s been a job… and still is, and most days all of us bloggers have meltdowns at the daily changes. Back in the beginning, in 2014, loop giveaways on Instagram were new… and effective. I remember the girls that all started around the same time, and we all did giveaways where everyone put in $25 and gained about 2000 followers. This was back when Instagram was pure (LOL!) and we were basically gaining everyone’s childhood friends, family, and acquaintances. I would sit at the dinner table with Jackson as a baby, Robert, and his parents (b/c we lived with them at this time while our house was being built) and have to post at exactly the same time!

It’s All About the Website

Things have for sure changed, and City Peach slowly changes with the times, technology, and trends. But this website has always been my constant and the backbone of this business. It’s what I invested in first. I did spend a lot of time, effort, and years into Instagram which is why my following is strong over there. I’ve shifted to newsletter, Pinterest, and now SEO, and still waver back to IG as that is where brands are interested at the moment. I will always nurse my Facebook audience because you are different and I know who you are as well. I’ve spent years studying my analytics and audience and know exactly who you are and what you respond to. I hope you know who I am as a content creator and what to expect from me as well, because I will never waver from who I am.

What I’ve Learned About Being an Influencer

I have learned so much over the years… about this business, about myself as a business person, about others. There is so much to unpack in that statement. Let’s start with the business side of it all. I strongly believe we as bloggers, have formed this industry as we have gone along, and taught everyone how it’s done. And by this I mean brands. I have walked brands through working in influencer marketing and how to work with bloggers. I’ve also learned how to run all aspects of a business, how to time manage (and learn I’m not the best), and learn my own groove in the work world. I truly have navigated this blogging world on my own, learned as I went, and networked like crazy.

Taking the Plunge and Going Full-Time

Here’s an excerpt from this blog post when I first made the decision to take the blog full-time. This meant put the kids in daycare and just buy myself time to work. And that it did. I broke even every month for about 5 months, and then on the 6th month, finally saw more than was going out:

One time I had a friend complain they were miserable at their job. I simply told them to change it. I have always changed something I couldn’t live with.

When I was 22 I graduated with a poli sci and city planning degree and couldn’t bring myself to take an office job. So I became a flight attendant. When I was 24 I started as an MIT at Abercrombie. I worked extremely hard for my own store and a year and 3 months later, became the store manager. Helping my location to become the top store in the region! I wanted it, so I worked for it.

I wasn’t living true to myself when I was 25 and because of that, harming a relationship and person. So I left everything I knew and fled to where I knew I needed to be (New York). In NYC I sought after a company I wanted to be a part of (Anthropologie) and after 6 interviews and months of preparing, I landed the company and job I wanted in the city of my dreams.

A Pivotal Turning Point

When I was 28, I realized I had not been single since I was 15, it was hard, but I learned. Then in 2014, I was working and had a 5 month old. I live and breathe fashion but had no outlet and was feeling lost in my new identity as a mother. So I needed to do something about it.

Which is why I started my blog. I would take my laptop to the pumping room 3 times a day and pretended to be working but in actuality, was blogging (oops sorry Air-Watch). Along with that, I worked on my lunch break. Investing in a hotspot where, for over a year, I sat in 1.5 hours of standstill Atlanta traffic and worked on my blog. I sacrificed so much to be able to just have my website. There were not many returns, but I loved it and knew where I wanted to be. I had to hustle because there was no other way to get there. 

My First Blog Post Ever!

And what would an anniversary post be without a look back at my first ever blog post. I teased the arrival of my blog the whole summer of 2014. The first post went live on August 1, 2014. I kind of have both a first outfit post, and first photo shoot… and they are different.

My first post was this white summer outfit (PLEASE peep chunky 5 month old Jackson) but that was not my first photoshoot to get a few photos to promote the blog launch. This post is the one I most vividly remember. I knew I wanted to do something special with balloons and tulle… and the city. And that I literally did.

I went with a friend, who shot my photos, to Atlantic station one July Saturday afternoon. I remember stressing being gone for 2-3 hours just to get downtown, park, and shoot because I was nursing Jackson and my milk was filling up by the end of that shoot. Which ended up hurting and leaking majorly. So I actually ended up pumping on the way home from it! Ha, you can see that my cup size looks quite large for me, in these photos.

What I’ve Learned Since my First Blog Post

Basically, I had no idea what I was doing but I knew I wanted to do it, so I just did it! All I wanted to do, and it’s still this way, was create outfits and share them. I’ve mainly kept the blog strictly about the outfit, letting the outfit set the precedence, and the story follows.

I’ve struggled at times with wondering if I need to say more, get deeper, write about something different. But my focus is on style and inspiring people by it. Fashion makes me happy and it’s an outlet for so many people, so I try to keep it that way. Things have of course shifted over the years, and I think now that I would consider myself more of an advocate for uplifting others, for supporting women, for inspiring positivity through clothing and style.

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What I Love About Blogging

I have met so many amazing people along the way, some of my closest friends. One thing that still fascinates me is being able to meet people from all over the US, and world, because we have formed a relationship through instagram. And I use the word blogging more because most of us blog and have invested in our websites for years, use instagram as a marketing tool, but the core of our business is our blog. But it is indeed instagram that has connected me to this community of women and continues to connect this entire blogging world.

Over the years I have had goal lists and slowly checked off goals that I set for myself and for my business. I had opportunities like styling for Atlanta’s Apparel Mart open up to me, which will to this day, be my favorite job I’ve ever held.

My Final Thoughts

I am grateful every single day for the opportunities that have come this way, because I decided to just start my fashion blog. NYFW is one of them high up on that list, and I continue to go because of this blog. I help support my family and give my kids the life I want to, all while showing them hard work has gotten us here, and allowing us to do the things we are able to do.

I’ve gained the confidence that I can truly do whatever I want as long as I put in the work and not give up. I need to remember that when I face my next hurdle, and remember that I was just as scared 5 years ago, 2 years ago, as I am right now. But I have a new list and I hope it’s just the beginning of this new level of City Peach!

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Oldies, But Goodies

Let’s take a look at some crazy old posts and blurry photography! If you ever want to, all you have to do is pull up that side bar to the right and pick the month of posts you want to look at! 5 years and roughly 780 blog posts later, thank you, thank you, thank you for being here. Thank you for supporting, for visiting this site, for commenting on Instagram, and for investing in me!

First Blog Post Ever

My First photo shoot to promote the blog

First Collab – I got to pick out the item and it took me hourssss

The InstaMom post

First post back up after having Elston (looking fresh with those extra 60 pounds)

Taking the blog full-time announcement

Pregnancy Announcement with Elston

Today’s Outfit Details

Here’s a look at my outfit details, and you can shop everything down below too! The sequin skirt and top are so good, and you can get 40% your entire purchase!

How long have you been reading this blog for? I’d love to know, so share in a comment below?