You can never be too much you – My journey as a blogger

By Elena Sandor

December 17, 2016

She was a middle-aged vocational trainer, all grand and impressive. We’ve only been known each other for a couple of minutes when she asked me about my profession. I am more of an enthusiastic person, all cheerful and fun, so I told her without hesitation: “I’m a blogger”. She looked down on me, with superiority, almost smiling ironically, like my “job” didn’t matter. I’ve met similar attitudes in 10 years of blogging, and you’d think I’d have a thick skin by now, but I am only human with feelings and a lot of work behind what I do, so things like that still affect me. My husband once told a lady who asked about my profession, that I am just a stay at home pregnant woman. He forgot to tell her about all the shootings I organize, writing and branding, besides being a wife and future mom.

People imagine blogging as a child’s play, with no important meaning in the adult playground. It started that way, actually. I found myself stranded in the kitchen with a recipe book and a pot. I did my best, and for 6 years it became my life. I had no idea what a blogger was. My mom gave me the idea to start a website sharing my recipes, mostly like a diary in the world of cuisine. I’ve messed up a lot, my food tasted bad, I almost burned down my kitchen a couple of times, and I became obsessed with cooking. I am a perfectionist, so in the end, my blog picked up, just as my skills, so I got to enjoy all the perks of a well done “job”. My work got recognised in successful magazines, websites, I won a few cooking competitions, and I met a lot of people with the same passion. All of these came as a reward for a hobby taken to extreme, not because I set my mind on a gold medal.

You might think blogging as a career is for little girls who didn’t do well in school and look for easy money. First of all, blogging is tough. It takes 25 hours per day (yes, you’ve heard it right), a lot of investment, sweat, and most often with no financial return. Second of all, I did pretty well in school. I finished a Ph.D. in Economics at 28, but I don’t mention this when people ask me what I do, because it doesn’t seem appropriate. I tried this route, working in Canary Wharf, Europe’s financial and business centre, but I didn’t fit in. Feeling trapped in a gray world, when you see in colours, doesn’t take you anywhere.

I’ve decided it’s better to be poor but with a vision than unhappy, so I started Eat.Wear.Travel as a lifetime project. I talked about investment. You can’t imagine what’s behind a professional blog. You need an IT specialist, assistant, top of the range camera, editing software, analytics apps, on a monthly payroll. You’re not doing one job, but multiple: project manager, sales person, PR, photographer, editor, writer, researcher, and the list always updates. Your job doesn’t start at 9 and finishes at 6. It is a way of life. And there are months when you end up paying more bills than cashing in. But I’d rather be a blogger, than an investment analyst in some corporation.

The perks of being a blogger? A professional one, to be more precise. First of all, you get to discover so many skills you never knew about yourself, pushing your limits more and more, until new grounds are uncovered. Second, when your work starts being admired and required by important brands, you know this was the right path all along. The hard work didn’t go unrecognised. Then, it’s all about the places and people you normally wouldn’t be able to come across to. I am so thankful for all the events, workshops, brunches, parties, organized in the most prestigious buildings, restaurants, hotels in London. As an immigrant, I got to experience opportunities normal Romanians can’t even imagine to exist, or don’t have time to think about. Traveling to Disneyland, attending catwalks for fashion week in London, Milan, and Paris, spa days, royal treatment at different events and hotels, Micheline star dinners, not to mention tons of products to review, you might call it the blogger dream. I worked hard for what I have, and I am still investing a lot of time and effort into my always-different “job”. The crown of my job so far has been an invitation to speak at the University of Lincoln, in front of many students, about what sets apart bloggers and content creators, and how to be successful in this activity. I know my journey has a long way to go, I still have a lot to learn, but I am living my dream. It didn’t come easily, I often think about my life if I would’ve chosen a different path, but happiness has no price. I am never too much. And so are amazing women all over the world. Danish brand Georg Jensen knows best since it launched a campaign featuring five strong females who have defied conventions and risen to the top of their industries. I love to think of myself as a strong woman who came from a rough environment and managed to build her dream from scratch with determination and vision. This is why I find the message of this campaign so important to me.

“You will always be too much of something for someone: too big, too loud, too soft, too edgy. If you round out your edges, you lose your edge.“

There are many inspiring women all around us. Writers, chefs, politicians, businesswomen, athletes, humanitarians. Don’t ever think you can never leave your fingerprint on the world, the only setback is you. There would come struggles, fights, tears, disappointments, but if you dream it, then you can make it! Taking about Dominique Crenn, the first female chef in the U.S. to earn two Michelin stars, also the Best female chef this year. I remember watching a documentary about her on Netflix, and I was so impressed with all the hard work and determination in a male world, no wonder Georg Jensen replaced models with role models such as her in the campaign to influence women to become successful on their own terms.

The campaign also includes award-winning comedian Sarah Kendall from Australia, award-winning film Director Susanne Bier from Denmark, world champion welterweight boxer Cecilia Braekhus from Norway, and Benhaz Shafiei a professional motocross rider from Iran. The brand wanted to create a reality about beauty, focusing on power, strength, achievement, and personality. If you set your mind to do what makes you happy, no matter the circumstances, you will end up influencing people. And this is what is important in life. What is your dream?