Life Update: Becoming a Full-time Blogger and Social Media Consultant

BIG LIFE UPDATE! 

As some of you may know, I have been on a personal leave from my work as a Digital Strategist at marketing & communications agency Calder Bateman (ZGM) since January (2019). This leave was an attempt by Mike and I to see whether some time off of a fairly hectic day-to-day schedule would help our Unexplained Infertility and journey to have a baby.

The life update today is not to say “it worked! We’re pregnant!” unfortunately, it doesn’t look like my few months off has helped in that sense (though we are certainly still hopeful and of course, still trying).

But my leave comes to an end this month (March 2019) and after a lot of thought, I’ve decided I will not be returning to the agency life, and will instead be going full-time with this blog and my personal social media, as well as with my own freelance social media strategy & consulting business. Yay!

Going out on my own is something I’ve wanted to do for many, many years.

It’s something I thought I would do naturally after taking a maternity leave but that timeline kept getting pushed because as you know I’ve never been able to get pregnant. The leave was just what I needed to reassess and make the decision to finally be my own boss!

I’m so grateful for the time I was able to take off from full-time agency work (I’m aware I was still pretty busy with personal projects. I fully admit it’s extremely hard for me to do ‘nothing’ but my life does have a lot more balance in it since going on the leave, I swear! lol)

I’m also truly grateful for an employer that was kind and understanding enough to give me personal time off just to see if this would’ve helped with our pregnancy journey. I’ll miss working with the agency team on a day-to-day basis (particularly my immediate team, shout-out to Chris Henderson, James Lo and Chris Mikulin), and know it’s not the last time I’ll get to collaborate with some of the most talented folks in the industry.

But I’m thrilled for this next step in my personal and professional life!

I’m so excited to go full-time blogger and social media consultant! (Photo Credit: Seth Van Camp)

Over the next few months I’ll be updating my blog with a new look and feel, better categorization, putting out (hopefully lol) even better and more useful content for my followers and readers, getting some presence up for my new business, and throwing myself into organizing the upcoming June 1, 2019 Edmonton International Cat Festival.

I’m also taking new social media strategy, consulting and training clients and am so grateful for everyone who has been referring clients my way already—unsolicited, which I’m especially excited about now that I am soliciting lol. I’ve always had a passion for teaching, training and presenting in particular, and hope to focus most of my social media consultancy work on that. I’ve also got particular interest and experience in influencer marketing (from both sides—as an influencer and as a marketer working with influencers) so exploring further what I can do in that sector is a priority. Readers will also know generally that I love being part of and supporting as well as creating community initiatives, and hopefully being on my own will give me even more time to explore how I can continue to do that (and do it even better).

There’s lots of ideas swirling in my mind often, and I look forward to seeing which ideas get executed now that I’m doing my own thing. 

Of course I could not write a post like this, or make a huge life decision like this, without thanking my incredibly supportive husband and very best friend Mike. Although my blog and social media work has now gotten to a pretty healthy point, I couldn’t do it full-time, or feel comfortable doing this full-time, without Mike’s support, something he has given completely.

And of course I want to thank YOU for following and engaging with me, my social media posts and this blog!

I’m so lucky and so happy I’ve been able to turn my hobby (social media!) into a career. (Photo Credit: Seth Van Camp)

I love hearing from you. I love creating work that is useful and interesting for you. I don’t take it for granted that people trust what I say and look forward to what I share. I’m incredibly grateful.

I feel so lucky and so happy that I’ve been able to turn my longtime hobby (this social media thing lol) into a career, in such different ways, and now based at home with my sweet fur kids. I’m truly looking forward to what this next chapter in my life looks like and I’m excited to take all of you along for the journey as well.

All photos in this post were taken by Seth Van Camp.

Linda

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