Welcome to Hey There, Chelsie
This has been a long time coming. When I did my first major redesign of Life with Rosie back in September, I had been debating about rebranding back and forth for months. The results from my very first reader survey had my panties all in a bunch and I was having a hard time sorting through them. Some of the responses said they didn’t like reading about Rosie and some said they wanted more posts about Rosie and many, many people still thought MY name was Rosie. (It’s okay if you were one of those people, I won’t hold it against you…probably.) I think I chatted to Dustin about rebranding or redesigning and the constant battle back and forth for hours on end, trying to figure out what to do. I reached out to several designers and got quotes. I started saving up. And then I let my attachment to my pup and my fear get in the way and I backed out. I ended up doing my own design, sticking to LWR and thinking it would be okay. I started to get paid posts, my page views were slowly climbing and I didn’t want to do anything that would mess up my hard work.
But, as my blog continued to evolve and my plans for the future started to keep me up at night, I knew I couldn’t ignore the problems I was having with my brand. I was at a complete loss at how to style my photos, my ideal color story wasn’t working on Pinterest and people were still calling me Rosie. At the end of December, I sat down and had a #realtalk with myself about what I wanted to do with my site and how I wanted to do it and it all kept coming back to this: a complete rebrand.
(Here’s a clear example of the various branding identities I tried out through 2015. I was all over the place!)
And so I reached out to a designer on a whim, started chatting with her and before I knew it, I was on my way to a new site.
Hey There, Chelsie
So, how did I go from Life with Rosie to Hey There, Chelsie? First, I knew I wanted to have my name in the blog to clear up any and all confusion about what my name actually is. The “Hey There” comes from a poem in one of my all time favorite books Love That Dog by Sharon Creech and it pays homage to several parts of my personal life. It’s a nod to my brief (but still important) teaching career, as I used it in my poetry unit for the creative writing class I taught. And, it’s about a dog, so that’s a nod to my darling girl, Roo. Warning: if you love dogs, read this by yourself on a night where you have nowhere to go and have plenty of tissues on hand. You will shed tears, in the most beautiful of ways.
Hey There, Chelsie also represents a little bit of a shift in my focus here as a blogger. I’ve been chewing and chewing on my mission statement and trying to narrow it down and figure out what exactly my purpose is here and while I was in the middle of the Caribbean Ocean last week, praying for the sun to come out, it finally hit me. Here, at Hey There, Chelsie, I want to encourage women the two following things:
Here’s the thing: After blogging for almost a year, I became totally smitten by the whole process, community and relationships I made. But over the last 6 or so months (since I decided to blog full time) I really struggled with motivation spurts. I would get super motivated, work so hard on my blog for a couple weeks and then just crash and burn for about a month. I just couldn’t keep up the momentum, I was getting discouraged and anxious about my success (or lack thereof) and would avoid my big dreams all together. Combine that with the ongoing battle I face with finding peace with my body and coping with some PTSD, I was all over the place.
But in the last couple of months, things started to pick up. I made over 900 dollars off my blog in November and have kept a steady income since. This last month I am ending at my highest pageviews yet at 23,000. I haven’t felt burnt out in weeks. And as I was thinking about all of this, I realized that the reason why I was finding so much success in blogging was because I had started to love myself a little more. I started putting myself first during the day instead of my blog. I got up a little earlier and had breakfast. I took Rosie for a walk. I did my makeup. I got my hair colors. I put on a cute outfit. All of these small things I was doing helped me realize that when I practice self-love, when I take the time to say: “hey body, I just want you to know that I’m trying today to not hold a grudge against you,” everything else in my life became a little bit easier to work on, especially my blog.
And so, at Hey There, Chelsie, I want to encourage others to first love themselves by sharing what’s been working for me: makeup, hair, fashion, Rosie, and a new interest in a healthier lifestyle. And I also want to share how that’s been helping me in the blogging world: how I’ve been getting sponsored posts, what I’ve learned about Pinterest, tips and tricks I’ve been using to grow my email list, etc. etc. That’s what HTC is all about: encouraging women to love themselves and then using that empowerment to love their blogs.
So, what’s new?
The URL, hopefully! A combination of some last minute tech issues with my hosting company and a sponsored post being boosted on Facebook that is bringing in overwhelming amounts of traffic has caused me to have to wait to get my new URL switched over. By the end of next week, you should be able to go to heytherechelsie.com and it will bring you right here, to this site. And don’t worry, I’m working closely with my hosting company to make sure all redirects are properly assigned, so lifewithrosieblog.com will still take you here as well.
If you have recently been blinded by the sun or a laser and cannot see, I have a new design, logo, brand and everything. I’m still working out some minor design things with the theme, but most of it is done. I’ll be sharing more about my journey to finding this brand soon, but I was inspired by succulents (and my new life in AZ) and that’s where the color palette and logo came from. My AMAZING designer Sabra from Midnight Photography and Design worked so hard to make my exact vision come to life. If you are looking for an affordable and dedicated designer, she is YOUR girl!
My About Me got a facelift and the mission statement there got adjusted as well, so make sure you check that out!
What’s the Same?
Well, me. I’m still here! I’m still the same Christmas Music obsessed, hot cocoa drinking, Rosie snuggling blogger I was at LWR! I’m sad that the Patriots didn’t make it to the Superbowl, but also relieved because I don’t think anyone stands a chance against the Panthers and I’d rather have the Bronco’s get their bums kicked. I’m still burning my salted caramel candles from B&BW because it’s Salted Freaking Carmel and I refuse to accept that Christmas is over. I’m miffed that The Bachelor ended on a cliff hanger last night (c’mon Ben, just get rid of Olivia and her abnormally large month) and I’m actively ignoring the laundry. So basically, yes. It’s still me behind the blog!
And Rosie is here, too! She’ll still make frequent appearances because she is just too dang cute not to feature. She’s currently sleeping in her puppy bed, kicking her feet in a puppy dream. If you follow me on snapchat (add me @cwhit145) you know that she’s constantly chasing and barking at something in her sleep.
What’s still to come?
More big plans in the works, some which will be revealed tomorrow! I’ll probably be fine tuning the site over the next couple days, adding a few more things here and there and tweaking the menu a little bit more, but the majority of the renovations are completed! Hooray!
I’m really excited to be starting this new year off with Hey There, Chelsie and really hope that you all stick around for the ride. And let me know below: what do you think of the new site? Do you struggle with branding and what do you struggle with the most?
