Turn Your Passion Into a Business

Many people ask me how I was able to turn my passion into a full-time business, so I thought I'd share some tips for those of you who are thinking about venturing out on your own.

Do You Have a Positive Mindset?

First, I have to say that starting your own business is not for the faint-hearted. If the thought of failing gives you a severe anxiety attack, then this may not be the path for you because there will be many times that you fail. If you can learn from those failures and move on with even more focus and passion, then you will get far.

When I launched my very first online business, I went in with the mindset that I was going to be doing this for the long-term. I was open to anything and soaked up as much information as I could. It was 2001 and the idea of online businesses was pretty new. I really had no idea what I was doing, but I was determined and driven to succeed.

Blogging With Purpose

Lately I've been thinking more about how I can make an impact with my blogging. While I love the fact that everyone can share their thoughts and opinions at the push of a button, we've turned into a world full of noise. Some of it good and some of it bad.

This past year I haven't been really consistent with writing on any one particular blog except for Beauty Is Within, my beauty and fashion blog.  I started that blog because I was tired of seeing the same type of content on other beauty and fashion blogs - those that talked about what celebrity was wearing what or those blogs that hyped up beauty products without giving us a "real" review.  I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with those types of blogs, but they didn't serve any purpose for me.   Maybe that's because I'm getting a little older and it just seemed like most beauty/fashion blogs were geared towards 20-30-year-old women. 

The Beauty of Social Media

"It's about being creative and doing good work...and then that work can be translated somehow. It can become a film that gets out on the web. It can be something you write that gets out through Facebook..." --Conan O'Brien

When I started blogging back in December 2004, my intention was to share random thoughts in the hopes that someone would find inspiration in them. Ever since the first grade I've kept a journal and I liked the idea of publishing an online journal. My first blog post was titled "Time for Vacation" and it was three sentences long.

Little did I know that blogging would turn into this huge phenomenon and would be regarded as "new media". A friend told me the other day, "Wow, you were so ahead of your time!" I still have friends who don't really understand what I do.  Heck, my boyfriend doesn't even know how Twitter really works and doesn't care much for Facebook either. 

Me (left) and Stephanie (right)

Why I Love Social Media

These past six years I've been able to connect with so many creative people that I probably would have never met had it not been for blogs, Facebook, or Twitter. Just recently I took a trip out to Arizona and was finally able to meet one of my favorite bloggers, Stephanie Quilao, IRL or "In Real Life". Stephanie has been blogging about the same amount of time that I have, so we chatted about the different challenges we've faced and current projects that we're working on.