My Push To Restart

Contributed By: Qualatrice of iJourni

Sometimes you may have to take a moment or two to sit back, observe, evaluate and redirect yourself. When you really want something you have to put in the work and make things happen for yourself. Throughout my journey of restarting my blog I have learned I must be consistent and push myself to keep going.

When I moved to North Carolina in 2015 I had a game plan. I told myself moving to a new  location will be rejuvenating and allow me to get back to writing more and re-branding myself. However, my idea of a fresh start didn’t take off as quickly as I hoped it would.

​Upon my arrival I was focused on perfecting and developing myself for the job I moved to North Carolina for. I put all of my time and energy into developing myself into the leader I would love to have and who my staff wanted to have.Therefore, my game plans were paused so I could focus on my current situation in order to learn how to balance it with the things I wanted to do. To gain a true restart on my blogging I wrote down 6 things that would help me birth my ideas.

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1. Less Talk More Action!
Revamping my brand and blog was not easy. It took several long talks with my friends and  line sisters to make things happen. It got to the point where I realized I was making a lot of noise but not making any progress. Meaning, I was talking about the things I wanted to do but was not making any movement. Therefore, I flipped things around and started planning the revamp of my blog. It took a lot of scratch paper of planning and thinking about my audience, topics, things I enjoy writing about  and the things I am knowledgeable on. I wanted the content I was putting out to my audience to be valuable, positive and uplifting.

2. Gain Knowledge  
Becoming knowledgeable in the area you are pursuing is the key to enhancement. I wanted to gain knowledge on content development so I did my  research on different seminars and online classes for content development. I found several courses that lead to certification in my area of interest. I finally found a program through Cornell University that I was amazed with however, the amount of the course was out of my budget. Since I didn’t have the money for the course up front I began to look into the free route which lead me to Hubspot Academy’s free online courses for content development and marketing. I took the classes to learn how to improve the content of my blog and to reach an audience of readers who was not already following my blog.

3. Believe In MySelf
Throughout my revamping I had to learn to be my biggest cheerleader and motivator. There were times when I got into my head and asked myself questions like “What if no one reads my content? What if I offend someone? What if I am not good enough? What if people laugh? Or, what if my readers trash my work?” Those questions made me move slow in the process. However, one of my friends at the time was consistent with asking me every time we talked when was the last time I wrote something; I would always use my tiredness as an excuse for not writing. However, the truth was, I was writing but there were several things in my draft box not posted because I worried if my work was good enough to share with others. One day I was staring up at my quote wall in my apartment and my eyes landed on the quote, “ If your dreams don’t scare you, they are not big enough.” From that moment I started editing and posting everything in my draft box. Come to find out the articles I worried about the most were the ones I received the most feedback on.

4. Write and Read Everyday
​I pushed myself to write everyday to get my creative juices flowing even if I only wrote about the things I did throughout the day. When it comes to reading, I am a firm believer that reading helps to stimulate the mind. I use to be an avid reader but during college somewhere between studying for exams and writing 2-3 papers a week reading for fun was nowhere in my thought process. In order to increase the amount of books I read I signed up for a library card in my new area of residence. I even search for relatable articles online through LinkedIn and several other platforms.

5. Stimulate My Desires
I work a lot and sometimes I forget to play so, I started to make the attempt to do things I enjoy. One of the main things that really fuels and stimulates my life is travel. Traveling is rejuvenating  and opens the mind to new things. Every since the decision was made to travel more I have traveled to several places to my own surprise: Montego Bay, Jamaica, Cancun,Mexico, Los Angeles, CA, Asheville, NC, New Orleans, LA, and the list goes on. I want to share my experiences  with my audience so I began to plan more adventures locally and internationally.

6. Networking
I have been working with people for years however, I still find it hard to network at times. In order to make connections with other bloggers, influencers and entrepreneurs I joined several networking groups and attended a few conferences which allowed me to unleash my skills. Most of the networking groups are online but a few of them meet up once a month. Making connections with go-getters and bouncing ideas off of like minded creators is such an amazing feeling. Two of the first online networking platforms is Muses and Black Bloggers United which really helped me to communicate and collaborate.

Restarting and re-branding is not easy. There are so many things to add into the equation such as figuring out who you want your audience to be, marketing, content development, ROI and etc. However, I personally found out when it comes to restarting and really revamping anything putting in the work and having consistency is the key. You have to be dedicated and really want whatever you’re going after. ​
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Qualatrice is a travel and lifestyle blogger. She is originally from South Carolina but resides in North Carolina where she works full time in retail management. She spends majority of her free time traveling, blogging and hanging out with her friends & family.
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Her favorite place is the beach and she dances when no one is looking!

​Facebook: I Journi 
Instagram: @qualatrice
Website: I journi Blog

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