Cheers to One Year!

It's Gabopicasso's First Birthday!

Wow. I still cannot believe it. March 3, 2019 was the day I launched my blog after having a long conversation with Antonny if I should. I walked into the shadows of fear in pursuing the blog because publicly making your life available for all to see is honestly a scary thing. Now and days, what you do  is interpreted as 'living your best life' when that is not the point. No one is perfect and I for sure know my life is far from it. Because of this, I wanted to start my blog to help those who seek it in all things we go through on a daily basis. Lifestyle, hardships, beauty tricks, styling tips, recipes because its always hard think of what to cook, blog mentoring, balancing school, work and relationships, mental health - all of these things are completely uncensored, authentically communicated and what I dreamed about for Gabopicasso. 365 days and 37 (now 38) blog posts later, Gabopicasso turns one year old and I am completely blessed and humbled for this journey. 

1. Time Management or Time Consuming?

Full-time in school, full-time at my job, full-time in my personal life/relationships and (basically) full-time influencing and blogging. This all sounds like a big ball of anxiety and  believe me, it is. A year later and I am still learning how to manage my time between all of these. I make time to do my homework even if it means staying up late, I spend my full shift at work five days a week, I try to keep my friendships going with planning days in advance and I maintain my relationships by making time for Antonny and my family. I like keep two planners - a planner to stay organized on events/plans and another for all of my content creation. I find that scheduling EVERYTHING is the best way I work. Day to day, I make a list of tasks I need to get completed for the day. I then set a certain amount of time to do each item. Giving myself a duration to complete everything helps with staying focused on one thing at a time and all of these include putting the phone down for the entire time because my attention and focus is on who I am with and what I am doing. Quality time spent is always more important and since I am constantly on my phone or computer, it is nice to give my eyes a break from looking at a screen. I have also learned to not give into the pressures of posting a blog post every week or to post content everyday. If I have the content, I will post. If not, I focus on getting more content, which brings me to number two.

2. Learning The Three C's

Consistency

Create

Commitment

3. Authenticity 

There is nothing more I can emphasize on than being your true self on and off social media. If someone follows you and gets the chance to meet you in real life, your personality and own being should reflect exactly what you perceive online. Being in the world of bloggers and influencers, its hard to not look at someone else's life, do what they are doing, use what they use and dress how they do. This can grow into imposter syndrome and it can get so toxic to where you feel bad about who you are and what you are doing. It is one thing to get inspiration from a blogger and another thing is to completely duplicate yourself with their style, poses, content, and life. DO NOT conform to the societal norms of what a blogger/influencer should look like or be like. This should also be how you show yourself to brands. You do not have to say "yes" to every brand because of the free products, exposure or huge compensation. If you aren't passionate about a brand or what they stand for, why promote them? With the amount of work that goes into creating content, it isn't worth wasting your time creating content for a brand that doesn't not reflect what you stand for.

4. The Positive Outcomes

• I have never met so many people in my life and I am the type to keep all of my circles small. Little did I know I would be creating a whole new small circle. It is such a good and comforting feeling to have my bloggers and influencers that understand what I am doing and know how the business goes. Being able to connect with other bloggers has been such a beautiful experience and today, I am so happy to call my small circle my closest people.

• I am very independent and I absolutely love that I have my own schedule for my blog and content. The second I get the chance to make blogging my full-time job, I would most definitely take it.

• I am always learning something and I absolutely love it! Whether if it is an app, a new way to engage, learning about new people, or new editing styles, I am constantly learning new ways to improve my skills and techniques to improve my platform.

5 Bumps in the Road

• Navigating through all of this alone has been a challenge. No one helped me set up my blog, no one talked to me about newsletters, SEO, engagement or what to do. Hours of research and figuring out the algorithm has helped me with being where I'm at today and with hard work comes great success. With this hard work, I have been able to grow as a blogger and person.

• My schedule is incredibly hectic and overwhelming with school, work and the blog. To be honest, I have no idea how I do it but when you really want something, you MAKE it happen. I want to get better with time and once I graduate from school in Spring 2021, hopefully things will get easier.

Thank YOU!

**insert happy tears** I would have never imagined my life the way it is now and it is because of all of YOU. It started with posting skincare stuff on my Instagram stories to now a growing brand. A like on a picture, a comment or an emoji does not suffice the gratitude I have with all of you and I only wish to grow and inspire with you. The future plans I have for Gabopicasso are in the books and I could not have done any of this without you all. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I keep each of you close and I am grateful and blessed for all your support and love! Thank you for letting me inspire you and help you out in anyway I can.

xx