It’s time for a glow-up! Introducing Flourish With Holly, my re-branded personal blog, formerly known as HollyGoesLightly… I hope you’ll love it here.

What is Flourish With Holly & why the change?

Great question! I started blogging back in 2010 and created my HollyGoesLightly blog a couple of years later in 2012, which was the launch-pad for building a brand with absolutely no knowledge or intention of doing so. This is OG-blogging! When blogging was for the pure love, enjoyment and creative outlet that it provided. I blogged about weddings (back then I was a wedding planner), life and relocating from London to Manchester.

Back then, I used to tweet.

Then with the rise of instagram, content creation became a “thing”, I was on the wave of the influencer marketing boom and enjoyed exploring my new-found side-hustle. Content became quicker, more bitesize and we all got swept-up in the rise of social media.

I was never entirely sure of place within it all, but went along for the ride, winging-it and figuring things out as I went. I founded an incredible community for Northern Bloggers, called WeBlogNorth and The Northern Blog Awards and enjoyed creating content for the love of it and for brands… I was being paid… who knew that would ever become possible!

I did all this after being made redundant on my first maternity leave and whilst figuring out parenthood with two little’uns in t0w.

But then lockdown happened…

…and I honestly didn’t know which way to turn. By this point, I had turned my side-hustle into a small but growing business – but it was a business that relied on connection, events and me being “in the mix” of blogging and influencing. But my brand work dried-up pretty quickly, as it seemed only the huge accounts got the brand budgets and to be honest, I felt pretty disillusioned with it all and my future within it.

I decided to study a Masters in Psychology and go back to the drawing-board, to figure out what the next chapter would look like for me.

I became a Digital Marketing Mentor…

…it was a natural progression, as I was constantly asked “how do you make money from blogging/insta?” and “how do you grow a following?” and by that point, I had over 10 years of successfully growing a brand online. I had knowledge of SEO, Social Media, Email Marketing and Brand Personality… so it made sense to pivot my business into mentoring and coaching others who wanted to grow a business online.

I loved it! And it took off!

To separate or not to separate?

…that was the question! As my content became more “business-y”, I noticed my social media engagement start to drop-0ff. As my focus was on building a new business, my life was a little less glamorous… and I’d stopped blogging. Between the impact of lockdown, home-schooling, studying and trying to stay afloat financially, I’d lost my passion for my blog. And I didn’t know where/how it fit anymore.

Then the insta algorithm changed! And it meant that no-one was seeing my posts. I lost some of my audience and I couldn’t seem to split my account into lifestyle and business, in the way that I’d hoped.

So I started a whole new account, in line with my new business and brand, called The Flourish Mentor in the hope to separate work and life. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but it seemed a necessary one at the time. And guess what? It’s really hard to focus on growing two accounts and two brands! So HollyGoesLightly got a bit neglected as a blog and as a social media account.

Finding my voice with Psychology…

…I continued to study Psychology in the background of all this and went on to complete a certification in Positive Psychology Coaching and began to truly find my voice with it and redefine my mission and purpose with work (and the world!).

I realised that Positive Psychology was changing my life, my self-awareness and my well-being. It was having the most incredible impact on the work I was doing with my clients and the ripple effect was immense! I was feeling like a better parent, wife, daughter and friend. I was feeling more aligned than ever before. I was more confident in my decisions and choices…

…I was flourishing! And I wanted more people to feel like they’re flourishing too!

Where it all comes together… Flourish With Holly…

As it’s all unfolded, I kept coming back to this blog. I could have quit it years ago. I could have dropped-it and started again. But something always held me back. I guess it’s been a huge part of shaping me as an adult… I mean I was 23 when I started-it, so I truly was discovering who I was as a person. I documented my life in a new city, my marriage, my journey into parenthood… that’s big stuff! And I had the most incredible experiences because of HollyGoesLightly. I am so grateful.

So I don’t want to leave it, I don’t want to drop it or end it. I want to pick-up where I left-off (ok, a few years on!) and continue to write, share and create from a place of love, passion and joy. I want to be a content creator, I want to be a blogger, I want to keep building this community. And now, it’s from a more aligned place.

I want to share all the things I love sharing: travel, food, family, style. And I want to talk about my business and the behind-the-scenes of being my own CEO. And I want to share the power of self-awareness and Positive Psychology with the world. All of those things intertwine to create my flourishing journey…

…and I want you to flourish with me. So that’s where Flourish With Holly comes in.

The new-look blog… which isn’t really that new, it’s just re-vamped. It’s a current depiction of where I’m at in my journey and by sharing, I hope it’ll help you.

Whether that’s discovering the best places to eat in Manchester, being inspired to travel somewhere new or embracing Positive Psychology in your parenting. It’s all there (or it will be!).

So although in some ways I’m letting go of something, by changing it’s name, I’m not saying goodbye to HollyGoesLightly – I’m just saying farewell and thank you! You’ve served me well. You’ve helped me grow and you’ve been a lot of fun. But like Britney reflected in “I’m not a girl, not yet a woman”… I guess that’s where I’ve been with my blogging journey and this brand… somewhere in between. But now I’m a woman (stay with me!) and I’ve grown and so too must my business, brand and blog grow.

So Flourish With Holly is that growth. And I’m excited to see what’s next.

I’ve written another post with more details on what exactly I’ll be sharing in this blog.