I’m officially self employed! Or without a permanent job. Either way, it’s scary as shit! And it’s very surreal altogether. Let me fill you in…
I’ve been in the same job for 9.5 years which is mind boggling, because when I started back on the 08.08.2008 (three weeks after my marriage ended), I was agency staff, working week to week on contract before applying and interviewing for my own job and being made permanent. Oh yeah, I’ve always been pretty vague about my job in the past, mainly because it had no connection to the blog or my “online life”. I worked in the Dermatology Department in St Vincent’s Hospital doing admin, learning loads about skin, sun awareness and had the best craic with the girls over the years. I made some lifelong friends, have belly laughed until I cried and learned that there really is a link to a full moon affecting all the madsers! I started blogging in September 2010 and sometimes I still think what I did with my free time before that. And then I remembered. I existed. I went to work, I came home, I had my dinner and I either watched TV or YouTube and that was it. I was going through the motions of life, not really having a focus or direction, just wanting to work to be able to pay the mortgage on my house by myself. My Dad had passed away the year before and it was a rough aul year, but starting the blog was the distraction I didn’t know I needed. I wrote and wrote and wrote, building myself a lovely little audience in my corner of the internet and as the years went on, things changed in the blogging world. Social media platforms became things we had to keep updated constantly, almost becoming as important as the blog itself. And if that wasn’t enough, I decided I wanted to start a YouTube channel in 2013. I had the chance to do some overtime in work so it got to the stage where I was starting work at 6am and working through lunch for a few years to build up the overtime, all while trying to keep all things Lovely Girlie Bits on the go. No matter how exhausted I was, I loved blogging so much and couldn’t just sit and watch TV in the evenings. 
To cut a long story short, things in my life have changed over the last couple of years and for the first time, creating content as a job became a real possibility. And that’s still so weird to even think, never mind say out loud! I’ve had so many really lovely messages from people and just one from someone saying they hoped I wasn’t leaving my job to be a blogger or an influencer… We had a really good chat back and forth and while I don’t identify as an influencer (that’s a whole other blog post), I’m proud to be a proper blogger. But I’m more than that. I’m a photographer, I’m a writer, I’m an editor, I’m an administrator, I’m a content creator and I do it all myself. Ain’t no team here! And how feckin lucky am I now to be in a position to do what I love with all of my guts as a job? I will never take this for granted. I’m not about the numbers and will happily grow slowly if it means producing great work. I’ve never pulled the wool over yizzer eyes and never will and I have a post in the works on what you can expect from me for the rest of this year. So as of February, I’ll be working in house at a PR company three days a week doing content creation and social media management in a consultancy capacity for some whopper brands and for the other four days, I’ll be doing my own stuff. I want to be able to have more content everywhere – the blog, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook and I’m hoping I’ll get my love back for Twitter some day too. When I first made the decision to leave my job, for about 30 seconds, I thought to myself, maybe I’ll be able to have some more time off and take things a bit easier. But I know me. I can’t sit still and if I have more time to create content and work, that’s what I’ll be doing and I can’t wait. I’m going to work my ass off and see what it’s like to look forward to going to work, be excited at the day ahead and see where it takes me. I’ll hopefully be doing more brand collaborations and that will give me the freedom to give you lots of free content. So many of you are really supportive at the collabs I’ve done so far and I promise to keep up a high level of creativity, honesty, transparency and craic! I’m also going to be doing some more projects off camera, sharing my knowledge and skills with others. The fact that I actually have proper knowledge and skills boggles my brain! And with those skills, I’m going to be working with businesses and brands with their social media, their photographs and videos and I can’t wait to get stuck in. Me? Teaching people stuff?! See, I’ve always been average. I’ve plodded along through life not knowing what I wanted to be when I grew up and up until last year, I thought I’d be working in the hospital until I retired. But I’m actually good at this! I can take a mean photo and I can string a sentence together. I’ve taught myself how to edit videos, have researched photo and video techniques for hours at a time and I’m creative. It’s taken me a while to feel confident in my abilities but I’m finally there! I know I’m taking a big risk and a huge leap of faith leaving my permanent, solid, comfortable job but I think and I hope this will be the making of me.
Now I do realise that I’m at the start of this whole big chapter of my life and everything is rainbows and sunshine and I’m full of positivity, but I’m going with it! It might go diddies up and if it does, that’s ok. I’ll have tried. I’m 41 and I’m starting a business and a new career out of a hobby I began in 2010. I don’t know what the next year holds, but I’m dying for the challenge! If it doesn’t work out, I can get another job. But right now, I’m taking that leap and following my dream. Jesus I’m like a quote on the front of a notebook! Thanks for all yizzer continued support everywhere lads. It doesn’t go unnoticed and it’s never taken for granted. I won’t let you down because you’re the reason I’m able to do this. I’m going to make you proud lads. I promise.
