Ok so last night, as I spoke before a bunch of mostly tech guys about my pretty, light and bright blog and my all-girl team and how I built my blog from nothing to something quite robust... I felt intimidated, a little nervous and well, quite a fish out of water. I wondered what they thought as I waxed on about my books and showed the pretty covers in my happy slide presentation. I wondered if I was cool enough to present along with others who were there to talk about virtual reality headsets, online insurance portals, travel websites, etc. But like a good girl, I played along and spoke about my work with joy because well, I love what I do. I enjoy spreading a little magic as often and as far as I can. When I throw seeds out there and someone grabs one, grows it, and becomes a successful entrepreneur based off of something I said, that's my fuel forward. I'm proud of blogging but even more proud that after celebrating my TEN YEAR (!) blog anniversary in January, that I still have passion for this and so many readers popping by regularly to see what we have to show next on decor8. Thanks, guys. I'm honored, flattered, and extremely joyful that I can wake up each day and approach my work with a happy heart. Not all days are sunny, I have some rubbish ones like the rest of us, but all in all my career has made my life better than I had imagined it as a young girl dreaming of my future. I wish I could give everyone with big dreams the courage to go out and make them come true. That is why I started running e-courses exactly 7 years ago this month, to share everything I know, to motivate and to plant seeds of courage. I love to empower others to set their plans into action and to let people know that it is possible to get some, or even all, of what you want. But also the hard reality of it is this: IT IS NOT EASY or OVERNIGHT.  

After presenting last night, I stepped off stage to a mighty applause. Those guys respected me and were happy I shared my story. Afterwards, they told me so as I collected business cards from men who were so intrigued by my "self made" profession and, that I was a women, was even more interesting to them because the tech world is still largely made up of men. I ended up inspiring a group of people that I never thought I COULD inspire. I only thought fellow bloggers, mostly women, were curious.... But for the first time in many years of speaking about blogging publicly, I spoke before a group of people that I seriously thought would nod off as I spoke. It was quite the opposite. They smiled, they laughed at my corny jokes, they were pleased when I read the titles of my German books in my best German accent, some even whistled. How about that?

When I got home, I thought about the upcoming Blog Power e-course that we just opened for enrollment last night... And how I want to pull 1,000%, my absolute all, into this class like no class before it. I want to do video, more podcasts, try a webcast live, and really TALK to my students and interact in fresh new ways because I need this class as much as my students. Not only was last night a massive lightbulb moment - that people REALLY genuinely are still very interested in blogging, but they want to hear from the success stories and they like knowing that other people are out there making their dreams come true - it's encouraging - it gives hope and at the end of the day, HOPE is the fire inside that keeps us going, gets us up in the morning, makes us reach a little higher towards the light. HOPE.

A LOT of bloggers are due a little hug right about now, a sign of hope along with a big kick in the pants to wake up and stop feeling so sad about blogging and to appreciate this platform now more than ever. Instagram keeps changing it's game. Facebook is becomingly increasing more political, depressing, ad driven, a source for finding the depressing news, rants from friends, the next horrible problem... It's all so bleh. The only things about Facebook that I really like are the Groups and the live videos that you can do if you are a special Facebook member with a blue check near your name. Those are gold and I love the live vids. Pinterest doesn't really have my attention anymore. Periscope is interesting, but only when you are lucky enough to be awake at the same time as your favorite blogger who happens to be broadcasting live or you catch it before it's deleted. Snapchat, well, okay that is fine but nothing you can look back on and say, "Look at when I did that!".

Yet blogs remain.

And they remain the same. No one can come in and change our game (though big companies try) and no one can come in and take away our look and feel, our voice or buy our audience overnight. We run the show. In this sense, blogs are GOLD people. We are IN CONTROL.

It's time for more blog power.

It's time to recognize the value we STILL VERY MUCH HAVE as bloggers, as influencers, now more than ever because a blog is still a very powerful, personal, largely independent, massively popular platform. Why not ROCK the hell out of it?

That's why I decided to title our next three week e-course, BLOG POWER. Because I'm still earning a living from blogging, as are many others, in fact I'm doing better than ever. I have a team of writers now that are doing beautiful work. My readership is growing. I'm seeing more page views now as people are starting to get a little bored again from the other places they've been hanging out... And I think that's a sign that blogs still have clout, are still being read, and some are still very much alive, well and leading the pack.

Blog Power will be lead by me Holly Becker along with Holly Marder from Avenue Lifestyle who is a photographer, stylist and journalist working in the Netherlands, and Irene Hoofs from Bloesem Design which is a blog, a creative studio, shop and workshop and an online gazette. Irene is a real dynamo. We are all working mothers with young children, we all have blogs, and we all are working professionally with clients, on assignments, living as expats in foreign lands, and meeting the challenges of everyday life just like the rest of you.

We know the recipe of how to build an amazing company and earn money doing it, all from our blogs as the base, and we are going to explain how we do it.

Together, we'll cover:

• How to find your passions and identify your core skills
• How to decide how you want to “look” online in two parts: For those new to social media and to all currently branded online looking to change things up.
• Can you realistically do what you love for a living? We’ll break it down and explore this topic.
• How do you generate an income when you don’t know what market rates are or even what your work is worth?
• How to avoid discouragement when growth and engagement isn’t as expected, and then, what to do about it.
• How to work alone successfully as a freelancer when you only have yourself to learn from and talk to all day…
• How to stay focused and keep reinventing yourself when you think everyone is already covering what you want to do.
• The hard stuff: the reality of working for yourself and how to overcome the hurdles and finding success
• How to balance being a parent while also hoping to start (or keep) your business going
• How to know which tools to sharpen to become better at what you do
• Ways to keep your content strong and flowing
• How to find great stories in everyday life (even if you don't live in an exciting city!)
• The future of blogging and social networking in general and what it means for us.
• Tours of our studios and how we organize things for our small business

... And so much more!

We are hosting this online workshop for only $99 if you register by April 1. After that, the price will be slightly higher, so grab a seat at our special rate. For $99 you cannot afford to miss this class - because we are going to all work very hard with our students to deliver content that will leave you buzzing with motivation, excitement and energy for blogging for months later. It's going to be a truly powerful three weeks and together, we're going to show you how to grab hold of your blog power and take what you are doing online - blogging, Instagram, etc. to a whole new level. You don't have to wonder how the pros are doing it. We're going to tell you how in only three weeks.

REGISTER HERE.

We can't wait to see you! #bloggingyourway #blogpower

(Photography: Irene Hoofs + Holly Marder)