Hey Friends! Today, I am excited to add another post to the “Inspire Me” series! (To read the post that inspired this series- click here.) This week I am over the moon to have Sherry of Young House Love visit and share her story and some great advice. If you’ve been a blog reader for any length of time, you are undoubtedly familiar with Young House Love. John and Sherry are the basically blog gods! But they certainly didn’t start out that way. . . as a matter of fact they had humble blog beginnings just like many others. Let’s listen to their story!
If you told us five years ago that we’d be full time home improvement bloggers we probably would have laughed for ten minutes straight! Although it was always something we had an interest in (even back in NYC seven years ago we painted our apartments and DIYed art and generally tried to make those tiny white boxes feel like home) we just never thought it would be our actual profession since we didn’t have any plans to study it or actually earn a formal degree. Plus we both loved advertising, which we thought we’d stay in for decades.
Sherry’s NYC apartment.
DIY Art in Sherry’s NYC apartment.
Two DIY painted canvases over John’s bed in NYC.
So in 2007 we started the blog purely as a hobby… and four and a half years later here we are! I think we just realized that if we loved doing something as a hobby, it would be even more amazing if we could turn that hobby into a profession. What’s that people say about doing something you love every day and it’ll never feel like work? But of course it took years (and thousands of posts) for us to realize that our blog could be anything more than just a side-thing for fun. So it definitely was a combination of hard work over the course of many years along with a few lucky breaks. But we’re so glad we (corny alert) followed our hearts to see where we’d end up!
After leaving NYC for Richmond in 2006, John got a job at a local ad agency while I became a freelance copywriter from home (many of my clients were in Cali and NY). So I was lucky enough to have time to work on the blog when I wasn’t working on tv scripts and radio spots and print ads for different brands and companies on either coast. This meant that some days I worked 8 hours on ad stuff and spent a few hours at night on blog stuff for fun, and some days I was able to work 4 hours on ad stuff and 4 hours on blog stuff.
After leaving NYC for Richmond in 2006, John got a job at a local ad agency while I became a freelance copywriter from home (many of my clients were in Cali and NY). So I was lucky enough to have time to work on the blog when I wasn’t working on tv scripts and radio spots and print ads for different brands and companies on either coast. This meant that some days I worked 8 hours on ad stuff and spent a few hours at night on blog stuff for fun, and some days I was able to work 4 hours on ad stuff and 4 hours on blog stuff.
One of our first blog posts. . . we’ve come a long way baby! 🙂
This flexibility afforded me the opportunity to slowly phase out more ad work as the blog picked up and gained momentum. But it still felt like a huge risk to turn down paying advertising gigs to grow/nurture a blog that made us ten bucks a month. Haha. But it was just something I wanted to see through. I knew my clients would take me back if this all was a bust (at least I hoped they would!) so I decided to give the blog more of my attention for a few months to see where it went. And thankfully advertisers started signing on and I started offering paid mood board services and even opened a print shop, so by spreading out into all of these areas, it allowed us to make a very small income. It was a huge pay cut, but it was so much fun I just decided to “ride the wave” for a little while to see where things would lead.
Anyone who runs their own business will probably tell you that it’s the hardest job they’ve ever had, and we’re no exception. This is definitely a more demanding job than our old ones in advertising. Not only is the sole pressure on you to bring home the bacon (there’s no boss to look to in times of worry) you also usually end up working 24/7 since it’s hard to “shut off” such a personal endeavor. We work on nights, weekends, and even on vacations and over the holidays. Since the internet is always on, so are we! But the upside is that working for yourself can also be incredibly rewarding! You’re your own boss! So while it’s never fun to pay for your own health insurance and file quarterly taxes and do all of the “business” stuff behind the scenes, it’s nice to control your own content (we write about whatever feels right to us – not about things that clients mandate!). And it’s amazing for us to watch our little blog baby grow. Almost five years (and 2,000+ posts!) later, we’ve put so much time, attention, and love into this home diary of ours, so it’s awesome to see how our readership slowly grew from ten people to 5 million hits a month.
Anyone who runs their own business will probably tell you that it’s the hardest job they’ve ever had, and we’re no exception. This is definitely a more demanding job than our old ones in advertising. Not only is the sole pressure on you to bring home the bacon (there’s no boss to look to in times of worry) you also usually end up working 24/7 since it’s hard to “shut off” such a personal endeavor. We work on nights, weekends, and even on vacations and over the holidays. Since the internet is always on, so are we! But the upside is that working for yourself can also be incredibly rewarding! You’re your own boss! So while it’s never fun to pay for your own health insurance and file quarterly taxes and do all of the “business” stuff behind the scenes, it’s nice to control your own content (we write about whatever feels right to us – not about things that clients mandate!). And it’s amazing for us to watch our little blog baby grow. Almost five years (and 2,000+ posts!) later, we’ve put so much time, attention, and love into this home diary of ours, so it’s awesome to see how our readership slowly grew from ten people to 5 million hits a month.
Here’s a quick peek at the evolution of our blog. Over the years we’ve updated the layout, written longer posts, added more pics, and thankfully gained readers and advertisers along the way.
It definitely wasn’t an overnight thing (we always say that blogging is probably one of the least get-rich-quick things you can do since it takes years just to match the income you probably already make doing something else) but if you’re doing what you love, it’s a pretty sweet deal. And totally worth all the blood, sweat, and tears!
However, at the risk of sounding like a downer, we always say “don’t quit your day job!” – I mean eventually you can quit it, but John and I worked full time in advertising for a long time while tending the blog as a hobby on nights and weekends, and then I segued to working part time while John worked full time for another long haul until it was enough for just myself to make an income while John continued to work full time for another nice long stretch of time. So our best advice is always just to “do it because you love it – not because you want to make money.” We started Young House Love before we knew blogs could make a dime. We devoted nights and weekends to it because we thought it was a fun hobby! It truly was something we loved to do – and still love doing! That’s the key to unlocking you dream job in most cases I think. Figuring out what you would do if no one was paying you a penny, and trying to nurture that dream behind the scenes without doing anything drastic for a while (until you can successfully make the transition without putting too much strain on the ‘ol finances). We definitely took a number of risks and pay cuts along the way, but they were always calculated decisions that we thought long and hard about before diving in. I think another key to finding happiness is to set yourself up for success, so taking it slow and putting in the time/work will definitely help stack the deck in your favor. It certainly beats doing something drastic and then panicking if you’re not making ends meet within two weeks or some crazy-tight deadline that you’ve laid out for yourself!
However, at the risk of sounding like a downer, we always say “don’t quit your day job!” – I mean eventually you can quit it, but John and I worked full time in advertising for a long time while tending the blog as a hobby on nights and weekends, and then I segued to working part time while John worked full time for another long haul until it was enough for just myself to make an income while John continued to work full time for another nice long stretch of time. So our best advice is always just to “do it because you love it – not because you want to make money.” We started Young House Love before we knew blogs could make a dime. We devoted nights and weekends to it because we thought it was a fun hobby! It truly was something we loved to do – and still love doing! That’s the key to unlocking you dream job in most cases I think. Figuring out what you would do if no one was paying you a penny, and trying to nurture that dream behind the scenes without doing anything drastic for a while (until you can successfully make the transition without putting too much strain on the ‘ol finances). We definitely took a number of risks and pay cuts along the way, but they were always calculated decisions that we thought long and hard about before diving in. I think another key to finding happiness is to set yourself up for success, so taking it slow and putting in the time/work will definitely help stack the deck in your favor. It certainly beats doing something drastic and then panicking if you’re not making ends meet within two weeks or some crazy-tight deadline that you’ve laid out for yourself!
Our home office.
A huge thank you to Sherry and John for sharing their story! I don’t know about you, but their sound advice and words of wisdom definitely inspired me to believe that by taking one step at a time, I can get to exactly where I want to be!
One thing Sherry didn’t share is that she and John will soon be releasing their very own DIY book full of amazing projects and tips! It seems by following their hearts and of course working their tushes off, even more dreams have opened up to them that they never would have realized otherwise.
So, what’s your first step? What do you need to do to start moving closer towards the dream you’ve been imagining?!
Sherry and John are 2 of my favs! It’s great to know their success comes from passion and is well-deserved!!
Love that the ‘keep it real’ and let everyone know their success didn’t happen overnight!
Kara… another great post. Thank you so much for the inspiration. BTW.. I hope you don’t mind, I shared this post on Pinterest. I didn’t see a “PinIt” button, but I saw a Like this button and a Digg It button so I didn’t think you would mind sharing on Pinterest.
It is nice to know that their success didn’t just fall in their lap, but that they have worked really hard to live the life they want. Glad you enjoyed the post Becca! 🙂
Absolutely Dana! Sometimes people get that “big break” out of the blue, but the story is so much better when there are odds to overcome and perseverance to admire! 🙂 Can’t wait to have you in the series soon!
Thanks Angela! Of course, share away! I want this series to reach as many people as possible! 🙂 PS- way to go on the knitting video!!
What a great story, I’ve read their blog for a long time but hadn’t heard all the details until now! Thanks for sharing!
Oh sure Jenna! We have admired Sherry and John’s hard work from afar so we were very happy when they agreed to share their story here!
Aw, thanks again so much for having us! Such a fun series!
xoxo,
s (& j)