I remember the first time Katie and I skyped about 4 months ago. I had no idea what to expect as I am sure she did not either. There I was sitting with a white v-neck tee, messy bun, big geeky tortoise shell glasses, and my black sharpie pen ready to jot down notes. And Katie had this rockin dark hair, stylish top, and oh yes her pink pen with feathers on top. At that moment I knew we were perfect for whatever was about to happen. I loved how girly she was in comparison to me. She loves mimosas and getting dressed up for going out to brunch and I am the girl with the cup of black coffee in a sleek white mug wearing my leggings, long white tee, and a cardi while someone tosses up some french toast at home for me. Those differences were what I knew meant we were supposed to work together. If we were too alike we would not be able to connect with such a wide variety of people, styles, or interests. Other than our styles Katie and I are super similar and I was surprised considering how far we lived from each other (she in LA in the big city) and me in little old Traverse City, Michigan that you must purposely come to or else you never will. But we both have goldens, we are obsessed with blogging, we have husbands who are talented and smart that love to snowboard and surf, and oh yeah we both dig sparkly heels and sequins (in our opinion the most important thing ;)!
Katie and I became instant friends and quickly shared life every week as we began developing our collaboration. That is about when the light went off and we knew we wanted to make this happen for bloggers everywhere. Our blogs were growing quickly from each other's encouragement, sharing our "tricks", and mostly giving advice when developing new ideas. It was so powerful to see that from one person being open with another the difficulties we each were having were feeling simpler and easier to over come.
This is when Blog Brunch was born. We tossed around ideas, names, and directions for almost a month till we landed on the idea of Brunch. We felt what is better than to center the meet ups and community around one of the best meals, brunch. Some of us bloggers have full time jobs and cannot be involved in things during the work week but if you have the ability to have access a twitter meet up (using the hashtag #blogbrunch) on a Saturday that you can contribute to while you are running errands, lounging in front of the tv, hiking, or whatever else any Saturday involves for you all you need is your phone, laptop, ipad, or any other internet device you prefer. We felt it was accessible, easy, fun, and best of all inexpensive.
Our hope is these twitter meet ups (aka Brunches) will open the door to sharing, communicating, education, advice, and support that the blogging community has been lacking for some time. There are many wonderful conferences that provide this for a few days but shouldn't there be support year around? We want you all to find like-minded partners and strong support in your blogging venture. Our hope is that this community will become stronger, more supportive than it already is, and grow by leaps and bounds because of what we have planned for Blog Brunch.
Katie and I are not beginning Blog Brunch because we feel we know everything but rather because we know we don't and we know we aren't alone. We want everyone of all levels of blogging to feel able to be apart of the community. No matter where you are in blogging there is always a need for support, education, and growth.
Our hope is that down the road we will be able to have physical Blog Brunches in a city near you to get you connected with people in your city or near by. We hope for these events to be the ultimate brunch and look forward to collaborating with bloggers in the area to make these parties happen. So if you are interested in doing this we would love to begin conversation with you.
Our first brunch will be October 1st and will continue to be the first Saturday of every month. So go ahead and mark your calendar now! The first brunch will not have a special guest host but rather be the prelimenary to answer questions about Blog Brunch and get things rolling for the first time. After that every month we will be bringing in a new guest host to give their advice, expertise, and so you can ask questions about whatever you would like. We also will be holding giveaways at every brunch to help you connect with a potential advertisers or new products to feature on your blog. If you are ever interested in giving something away please feel free to contact us! We would love to hear from you!
This is just the beginning and we cannot wait to get to know you all more and more. We have been so blown away in this process by the response we have received from all of you. Such a big thank you to all of you!!! If I could hug you all I would! It's been a lot of planning and hard work but it is moments like this that make it all seem so worth it.
Check out the new site, grab the badge, and sign up to keep up to date with what is happening. Soon we will have a blog with more info. We also would love to hear your feedback and suggestions because this community is about everyone and not just us. We would love to hear thoughts from you all.
THANK YOU!