LiketoKNOW.it  x  Kendra Scott

Hey, Everyone!!!  Geez, have I missed you guys!!!  Before I get into the LiketoKNOW.it x Kendra Scott event details, let me take a sec to explain why I have been so MIA on blog posts lately.  First of all, it finally feels like pilot season for actors so auditions have been rolling in like crazy … a good crazy though lol.  If you don’t know what pilot season is, it’s between January and April when the studios create and produce samples of new shows, the pilot episode (aka the very first episode of the show).  Then, the shows/pilots that get picked up (or ordered), proceed to episodic season, which starts in July, when they begin to cast and return to production.  Then, you see all of your season premiers around August/September!  New lesson for those of you who didn’t know how television production works!  Sooooo, like I said, auditions have been rolling in; and, on ANY time off, by popular demand, I have been working like crazy on video content for you guys!!!  I am so excited to be doing more video content and once I get this initial haul out of the way and released to you all, it will get much easier with my new equipment.  All in all, my apologies for being MIA but, I promise, it’s all for good reason!  All of the videos will be available on my YouTube channel; but, I will have them right here in the blogs to make it easy for you all, my regulars!  Thank you all for being patient with me and supporting!

Now, on to the real topic for today, the LiketoKNOW.it x Kendra Scott events in Austin, TX!  Kendra Scott, one of my fav accessory companies, was so gracious to host the first influencer chat event with Liketoknow.it and it was so awesome!  I hope they continue to do these!  It was a very short trip for me because I solely went for this event; but, when Dean and I got there, we realized it was the SxSW Film and Music Festival and I completely fell in love with Austin in just that short time.  Therefore, we are going back as “tourists” during the summer and I will do an Austin recap after that for you guys.  For now, I am excited to tell you all about the event!  Side note!  We took the RV, Rhonda, that we are remodeling and it wasn’t quite ready yet, which made for a very interested trip that I will have to tell you guys about at a later date; but, it definitely made for some good laughs and memories!

Sho my look:

To learn more about Liketoknow.it, visit my Instagram profile page and click on the “Liketoknow.it” story highlights!  It’s a free app and it’s a game changer for online shopping from your fav bloggers!  Here’s where you can find details about it on my profile:

I felt so beyond empowered and motivated being surrounded by so many beautiful women, inside and out, from all walks of life!!  Almost all of us were bloggers of some sort but there wasn’t a spec of tense competition or anything like that!  Everyone was so beyond empowering, friendly, and helpful with each other!  It wasn’t about outfits, fashion, or designers but about all of us sharing our tips, tricks, hacks, and even stuggles with each other.  It was releiving to know what we aren’t alone and we all go through the same thing.  Not that we ever want anyone to struggle, but it was so great to be able to advise each other on our own personal tips to help each other.  There was never a moment of feeling anyone was better or more qualified or anything like that, and we had a huge range of audiences from 1K to 200K.  Just in one day, I had exchanged contacts with seven amazing women, who I am so excited to know and look forward to hanging out with again.  It was so very empowering and my heart was left so happy!  Plus, I was able to meet some of my favorite bloggers that I already followed, Dani Austin and Jessi Afshin, and I got to meet so many new ones to befriend, as well, including Melanie from @hautehijab!

If you all follow LiketoKNOW.it on Instagram, you might have seen the live talks from these very successful bloggers giving their own stories, tips, and advice.  They were so helpful and informative and I am so grateful they took their time to put these presentations together for us to learn from their journeys!  I want to share some of my top tips from the weekend with you all.  Whether you are a blogger or not, I think these are helpful in any business.

1. I know we are all frustrated with the Instagram algorithms, am I right or am I right?  Don’t let them get you down.  To me, that’s easier said than done, esp hearing it from someone that has 6x’s my audience count.  But, it reminded me that it’s soooo true!  They’re changing these algorithms daily and we have ZERO control over them.  We don’t make them, nor would we probably know how, at least I don’t lol.  If you do, teach me!  But really, what we do have control over is how we react to them!  For a while, I’ve been searching hashtags that are fashion related and I will “like” and “comment” on other peoples photos whether we are “following” (hate that word) each other or not.  That’s how I’ve found majority of you and became friends on Instagram and I continue to do so daily.  So use the tools that Instagram provides for us!  If you want engagement on your feed, engage on other peoples too – reply to them, like their comment, reply to DM’s, comment on their photos, support them, and show them you care!  You will get back what you put out there!
2. Speaking of hating the word “following” or “follower” lol, yeah, I don’t like it!  We are a community!  Of course, I want to be a leader; but I want to be surround by leaders in all other areas, as well!  One of the speakers, @hautehujab, was saying this exact thing about hating that word and I was so glad to see that I wasn’t the only one!  So, yes, build a community and engage, not a “following”.
3. Don’t be a slave to your email!!!  Who is guilty of this?  I am legit raising my hand right now; and, after this talk, when I met back up with Dean, the first thing that I said was, “We are clearing out date night/us time at least twice a week”.  If we are draining ourselves with it, it may become stressful and we lose our passion and sense of fun with it so we need those breaks for our mind and our health, which go hand in hand!  Plus, by taking them, it helps our creativity when we do sit down to create!
4. I know we covered a lot of Instagram because that is one of the main social media accounts for bloggers; but, honestly, I’ve been give this advice before and was reminded of it this weekend – Make your blog your main priority!!!  Back to the “following” word; but, so many people make that their first priority!  What if Instagram disappeared tomorrow?  Or, with all the algorithms, if we didn’t have to depend on Instagram, we wouldn’t be frustrated.  With that said, build your email list and blog!  Do giveaways and offer people something in return!  Believe me, I am totally guilty of putting my email list on the back burner sometimes; but, these speeches, reminded to get my priorities in order and I’m definitely working towards that! 🙂
5. Although you’re writing for your audience, you’re writing for YOU!  Sure, ask your audience what they want and write for them; but, in that topic, write what YOU want to write about.  If you’re not writing what you’re interested in, you won’t be happy with your work!
6. To piggy back off of #5, it is OK to say “NO”!  In the beginning, we are all trying to monetize and wonder when that day is coming that blogging is covering our bills.  Honestly, it’s not covering mine yet.  I work a few other jobs still, but that day will come, just not overnight.  In the beginning, when some brands originally reach out, we want to just say yes because it’s a paycheck.  I will admit, that’s the one thing that I did stay loyal to!  I am huge on loyalty and it’s a quality that I pride myself on.  I had a perfume company reach out to me and I picked a scent based on the name because it was online; when I received the scent, it was not my style at all.  It wasn’t bad but just not something that I would wear.  I debated for a few days; and, finally, I wrote the company and just told them my honest option.  I told them I just felt terrible risking my trust with you all when this isn’t something that I would wear.  They were so awesome about it and completely understood!  Wait, even better, they asked me what types of scents I would wear and sent me one that I ended up loving so I could post for them!!!  Totally reminded me that honesty is the best policy and I am so glad that I didn’t breach my trust with you all over a post.  Don’t get me wrong, some of you may have liked the original scent; but, when you all trust me for my opinion, I wanted to be honest with you all while at the same time always giving a positive reflection for the company!
7. And one more small tip!  I am not sure of the validity of this one and it’s new to me; but, apparently if you use more than 5-7 hashtags, Instagram looks at your post as spam and it doesn’t show up well in other people’s feeds.  It may be a part of the algorithms but those are changing daily so I don’t know!  I know they allow up to 30; so, if they allow that, I don’t see why it would be looked at as spam, but again, I don’t know lol!

And, on another note, can we all just take a second to admire that the Kendra Scott headquarters is design goalzzzzz!!!  I mean, OMG, give me all the marble and gold light fixtures!!!  I’m in awe!

I hope this elped you all with some insight for your business, whatever it may be!  If you have questions, feel free to comment below!  I cannot wait to start releasing my video content to you all so stay tuned because it’s all in editing and I will release it as soon as the first one is done.  Also, I’m doing more Instagram live sessions so come tune in!! 🙂  I did a makeup tutorial yesterday!

XOXO,

Michelle

written by: Michelle West