Finding inspiration while wearing sparkly bunny ears – A thank you to The Blogcademy
When I walked into the sun-drenched, white-washed Curtain Road Studios in East London and saw the three headmistresses watching as their new cohort of pupils entered the classroom, I instantly knew that it was gonna be a good weekend.
I was stepping into The Blogcademy – a 2-day interactive blogging workshop like no other. Hosted by the effortlessly sassy Gala Darling, Kat Williams and Shauna Haider, us ‘Blogcadettes’ were in extremely capable hands. These ladies are seriously awesome, intelligent and incredibly successful to boot. Who wouldn’t want to follow in their footsteps!?
As the date drew closer, I was a little apprehensive and worried that I’d be totally unprepared and uncool compared to the 29 other pupils. But once I’d met the lovely ladies (and gents), I immediately felt welcome, confident and part of an awesome team.
And then came the goody bag…
And what a goody bag it was! Full of glamorous, sparkly wonderfulness, I felt spoilt and like Christmas had come early. Screw the learning, the goody bag was worth the trip alone! Here’s what we got…
1. AlternateNormality hairclip. 2. Junk Jewels bracelet. 3. Head Full of Feathers star necklace. 4. WordPress for Beginners by Reeta Krishna. 5.Polka-dot head scarf from Remixed by jacki, and of course 6. The famous Crown and Glory sparkly bunny ears.
Then the learning commenced and the Headmistresses are full of knowledge, experience and “learn from our mistakes” tips. There’s nothing like being able to ask all those questions you try to Google but never seem to get a genuine answer for. And that’s what you get from the Headmistresses, genuine answers. They don’t profess to be the most technically-minded of ladies or SEO geniuses, but between the three of them, they’ve pretty much experienced everything a blogging career has to throw at you (the good, the bad and the ugly!). And this knowledge is invaluable to budding Blogcadettes like me.
The course is interspersed with short exercises to get us thinking practically and to start applying the things we’d learnt to our own blogs. This is when Gala, Kat and Shauna circle the room and get some one-on-one time with us pupils and offer tailored advice. It’s also a chance to share ideas with the other Blogcadettes and bounce ideas off each other.
With modules on finding your inspiration, branding and making money from your blog, the weekend course covered pretty much everything you could think of. There was even a short section on taking the perfect photograph, with tips from professional Photographer David McNeil. We were all incredibly snap-happy and it felt so good to be in a room of like-minded people, people who didn’t mind taking the same photo of you 10 times with slight variations, people who were happy to talk about Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest with you all day every day.
When Sunday drew to a close, although exhausted, I don’t think any of us were quite ready for the experience to be over. I wanted to come in again on Monday morning and learn more, do more, blog blog blog! Encore! I have been totally bitten by the blogging bug and feel incredibly inspired and seriously motivated to keep this up. A lot of that is thanks to my wonderful husband of course, who’s helped me along the way, but also thanks to three incredibly savvy ladies who offered up their brains for 2 days, to make the most of at our will.
So thanks to The Blogcademy…I feel you’ve made me see the best in myself and my blog, you’ve highlighted the potential it has and you’ve encouraged and shared within what can be a competitive and judgemental world. I highly recommend The Blogcademy course to anyone, at any stage of their blogging career, as there is something for all and knowledge to be gained at all levels.
I look forward to keeping in touch with the Headmistresses and all the other Blogcadettes and checking-in on everyone’s progress and developments. Tres excited!
#F-ingLoveTheBlogcademy!
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