I was asked by Rachel at the School of Rock (n Roll Bride) on Friday why, if blogs and online media are gaining popularity, I had decided to do a print magazine. “Well,” I responded, “print certainly isn’t dead, it’s just changing… evolving… and that’s something I want to be a part of. I don’t see Rock n Roll Bride magazine as a rival to any of the national wedding magazines, but as an evolution and extension of my brand. Something for my readers to collect and keep.”
Both my blogging workshops and the magazine are actually quite tidy examples of ways I’ve tried to push myself, evolve my business and stay ahead of the competition over the past few months. No one ever won a race by standing still after all.
Life is constantly in a state of evolution, and it’s only if we dare to think that we’ve ‘made it’ that we will begin to fall behind and fail…and I don’t want to do either of those things!
I’m a wedding blogger, but my work isn’t confined to these digital pages…or even just to weddings in fact. I’ve extended my brand with my magazine, the School of Rock (n Roll Bride) workshops, the parties, the photo shoots, the external writing gigs… For me, expansions like these are not about short term gain (i.e. making money) but are about evolving and constantly improving brand Rock n Roll Bride, so I can stay ahead of my competition and push myself to improve.
Blogging about awesome alternative weddings is easy. I love it, but it doesn’t push me. Making myself work hard for something is much more personally empowering. These Post It Notes for example take longer for me to write every week than any of my other blog posts, but the satisfaction I get from hearing that the blog posts are useful to people is palpable.
Your competition will always be there. It can be frustrating, maddening even at times, to see them in your rear view mirror, but instead of wasting time and energy complaining – evolve. Really think about how you can push your business forward and make yourself stand out. That way, I promise, you’ll never get left behind.
