like any situation in life when you start something new you will have the expected outcomes and then you will also have all those weird unexpected experiences along the way and let’s be honest that just makes life more fun if we always knew what was going to happen every time we started something new life would be so boring so in this video I’m gonna list a couple of the unexpected things that’ll happen to you when you start your blog hey guys Alison Lynch from here at Alison Lindstrom calm be sure to check the link in the description box below because if you haven’t started your blog already you can find my tutorial down there as well as a list of over a hundred and sixty different blog niche ideas so if you’re all gung-ho about starting a blog but you’re not quite sure exactly what you should be writing about or how specific you should get in a certain category that list is going to be so helpful for you so just head on over to that page you’ll enter your email and I will send it to you right away because I really want to give you the best leg up that I possibly can and help you and helping you find that niche that is absolutely perfect for you so when you choose your niche and then you finally start your blog things are going to get exciting by exciting I mean scary lots of exciting things will happen and then lots of really weird fun great awful wonderful amazing things will happen as well to be honest with you it’s one of the most fulfilling parts about blogging it helps us identify more about ourselves than we ever anticipated and it also helps us connect with people throughout the world which is just honestly it makes it the best job but the first unexpected thing that you’re going to experience is not great and that is how to deal with critics so thankfully social media has helped us kind of dip our toes into the water with dealing with critics it’s not fun I don’t personally love it when anybody tells me I do something wrong or tells me a way that I could have done it better do I love constructive criticism I’d like to say that I do sometimes it’s a lot harder when I have poured my heart and soul into a blog post that everybody hates but this has taught me a great lesson and that is how to deal with that criticism you will certainly absolutely have people who will have this incredible amount of confidence in telling you how awful you are in writing something sharing something doing something it doesn’t matter what it is whether you’re a blogger that knits or a blogger that cooks healthy foods people are going to tell you there’s a better way to do it and obviously they’re also not going to share their name or any sort of identifying information because really they’re just hiding behind their computer and saying it mean things but dealing with those critics can actually be really good for us the second unexpected thing is you are absolutely going to get out of your comfort zone now you’re gonna think you’re in charge and you’re the boss and only you will really be able to dictate where it is you go and how comfortable you’re gonna be with what you write or what you create and things like that no you’re going to want to push yourself to the limits and before you know it you’re going to be getting out of your comfort zone whether that is learning how to run the business side of something learning how to become a better photographer learning how to become better at customer service writing filming whatever it is you’re not gonna be in your comfort zone anymore because if you’re truly passionate about running a blogging business it just means that you want to provide the best content ever and sometimes that means really getting out of our comfort zones and figuring out what to do I would say the largest percentage of my students find themselves getting out of their comfort zone with filming in particular it’s very nerve-wracking to sit in front of a camera and it’s one of the things that most of them begin my class by saying no definitely not going to be doing that I am NOT interested in doing video whatsoever and then by the end of the course they’re like okay actually now I have my confidence up now I’m a bit brave I want to be better I want to be competitive against all the other bloggers in my niche so I was starting with the video and it’s really exciting to see that growth if you’re not quite sure by the way what course I’m talking about it’s my blogging course blogging to win you can find more information at valuing calm or by going to the link in the description box below we’re accepting new students right now if you’re interested the next unexpected thing that you will have happen to you is you will become a teacher so a lot of people who start blogs are teachers so I really feel like I have a leg up on the rest of us but those of us who are not teachers in any way shape or form when we start a blog we don’t actually think of being a teacher but if you watched my last video I will leave it linked up here I actually talked about how part of our job as being a blogger is creating a really safe learning environment what I mean by that is the most successful bloggers are the bloggers that are inspiring or teaching people to do something in particular so if you want to teach or inspired someone to do something in particular you’ve got to be good at teaching them you have to be good at kind of outlining how you would do something outlining a tutorial or showing them you know hey I blog about knitting and I’m going to show you how to knit a baby blanket here’s how you’re gonna do it it you have to figure out how to translate your instructions into a blog post or into a video and in that way you figure out how to become an instructor essentially and it is a very very fulfilling part of the job I did not expect that becoming a teacher in a way was going to be a part of my journey and the fact that it has has made this you know every 5 a.m. morning incredibly worth it the next thing that you’re gonna learn is how to run a business so we all think that starting a blog is really all about the writing and taking photos and honestly that’s the first question a lot of people ask me it’s kind of be a blogger if I don’t know how to write very well or if I don’t write well or if I’m not a natural writer and and that is just a percentage of becoming a successful blogger you also need to be really good at business and maybe you’re not right now and that’s okay because you can learn that that’s that’s the blessing of becoming a blogger you’re your own boss and that means that you can be really proactive about learning things for example if you took my blogging to win course I walk you through not just the blogging part where you set up the blog and then you learn how to write the blog post but also how you should manage the business component of it because if you have just the writing and just the social media and just the pictures you only have a portion of the whole package that you need to have a consistent business that will continuously bring in an income for you and become an actual career you can’t be a blogger who blogs as her career if you don’t have the business aspect figured out and so if you don’t know that right now if you don’t have all that figured out right now that’s okay you can learn from someone else who has the business background or you can learn those things over time but you will learn how to become a businesswoman by starting a blog and by growing your blog the next unexpected thing that happens is you start to identify whether or not this entrepreneurial path is actually for you so I wish I could say that blogging is for everyone but then again it wouldn’t be any fun that way if we were all blogging I feel like blogging is a beautiful journey and just like every other journey out there it’s really not intended for everyone it’s a good fit for some people not a good fit for others and when you start your blog and you actually start writing and then you’re setting out these strategies and you’ve got business plans and you’re growing and learning and teaching people that’s when you truly begin to learn whether or not this is something you want to do for a long period of time or even a short period of time you’re not really going to be able to know that until you kind of dig in a little bit it’s like you know learning how to ride a bike do you know whether or not you’re gonna enjoy riding a bike until you actually get on there no if you just sit look at the bike and you say yeah that’s just not for me it’s not my thing I hate it nobody’s gonna believe you until you actually get on the bike then you try to write it and then you can actually decide whether or not it’s a good activity for you the next thing that you’re going to experience is identifying what it is you’re truly absolutely passionate about and what topic or what hobby out there you can eat sleep and breathe you think you know it now but when you start a blog and you’re waking up at 5:00 a.m. because that’s the only time you have and the kids don’t need something you know it’s the only quiet in the house and you’re writing these blog posts and you’re you’re editing these photos that those moments are when you realize wow I actually don’t love this topic as much as I thought I would or oh my gosh my passion for this hobby runs deeper than I even imagined and and when you get to that point where you can identify something that you are so passionate about something you are willing to eat sleep and breathe it’s a powerful moment it’s an exciting moment because you start to understand even who you are on a deeper level the last unexpected thing that you will experience when you start a blog is you will either tap into a task for the first time or you will get even better at tasks that you struggle with so if you start a blog and you grow enough to where you can create your own product and you start selling your own products or maybe you’ve never even seen or known what a sales funnel was a day in your life well you’re gonna get good at it and then when you hire somebody to help you with your Pinterest account you’re gonna become a really good manager and maybe you’ve never managed people before maybe you become so good at writing that you didn’t realize you actually had a knack for it and kind of tapping into those different tasks at tasks and you know trying new tasks for the first time is something that we don’t really think about initially I know for myself anyway when I thought of starting a blog I thought of two things I was gonna be writing a lot and I was probably gonna be taking like some sort of pictures and posting those on the blog as well running a blogging business is so much more than that those two things are probably 1% of what goes on behind the scenes and that’s great because that means there’s just a lot that we manage and it’s honestly we’re never bored we cry sometimes but we’re not bored and kind of getting confidence in knowing that anything could be thrown at your way and you could manage it because you have the confidence and you have the strength to just figure it out is very powerful and eventually that confidence bleeds into your personal life as well which is obviously absolutely amazing so that wraps it up for the unexpected things that you will experience when you start your own blog and don’t forget if you’re interested in grabbing that list of over a hundred and sixty different blog niche ideas I will leave the link down below it’s so helpful in helping you identify kind of exactly what category you should be writing in and hey don’t forget that my blogging to win course is only open for a short while longer before we close this enrollment period and then you’ll have to wait until the next period before you can purchase the course I’m Alison Lindstrom guys I hope you have a wonderful day I will see you next time [Music]