How to Balance Blogging with a Full Time Job and the Power of Networking ft. Adrianna Naomi

I want to start a monthly feature on my blog where I collaborate with other bloggers and talk about topics that are relevant in the industry. This month’s feature is with my dear friend Adrianna Naomi and we decided to talk about balancing our day jobs and personal life. Just to give you guys a little background, Adrianna and I met over Instagram a few months back. We clicked off the bat as our conversations flowed naturally. I met her in person not too long ago and it was no surprise that we were vibing without trying. She’s a down to earth, genuine and funny individual with a little bit of sass like myself, which is why I think we get along so well. We also have similar insights and perspectives on different topics, especially the ones we covered in our meeting today.

We met at Cha Cha Matcha because I thought it would be an Instagram picture worthy place and I am obsessed with matcha! It was such a productive and great day even though the weather was a bit gloomy and rainy. I love meeting people for afternoon coffee/tea dates because it’s such a great way to get to know them on a one to one basis. For my outfit, I wore a basic blue skirt from Agaci (affiliate link), black tank top from a random boutique (similar item, affiliate link) and my go to black sandal heels from Naturalizer (similar item, affiliate link). So without further or due, I’ll jump right into our Q&A, in which the answers are a summary of Adrianna’s response.

Q1: Define your personal style? 

A: Adriana started to answer this question with the belief that “beauty of simplicity is really important.” She kept reiterating that her personal style is to stay true to herself. Instead of jumping on trends like off shoulder tops and dresses, she likes to make her own trends. Currently, she’s feeling the 90s nostalgia vibe, consisting of chokers, cute silver backpack (like the one she wore today) and spice girls, clueless, Brit pop and grunge inspired looks. Depending on what the occasion is, Adrianna would wear converse to platform shoes, however if heels aren’t required, she wouldn’t wear them. (And I honestly don’t blame her because I’m not a heels person either!)

 Q2: How do you balance your 9-to-6 with blogging?

A: Adrianna is a Marketing Manager at Warner Music Groups and has been working at her company for two years now. As her job title suggests, she has a pretty stressful and time consuming job as she works 9-6 M-F but in reality, she actually works around the clock due to her role having an international focus. It really took time for Adrianna to balance work and blogging. Her ultimate dream is to blog full time (I hear ya girl!) but it isn’t a reality at this current moment since the cost of living in NYC is so high. However, she is thankful that she is in the marketing field because she can use her creative skills to meet her responsibilities and deliver a good work product in an industry which she is incredibly passionate about.

The key to balancing work and blogging, according to Adrianna, is to set up specific time-slots during the day, which are dedicated to blogging. For example, she uses her early morning hours from 6-7:30 am to catch up on social media and organize her content. During her lunch breaks, she will interact with her followers on her social accounts and on her blog. She finds it to bethe most effective time fordeveloping and curating her blog posts either after work and/or during weekends. However, she is still trying to play with different methods to balance her work life, personal life and of course her passion for blogging. All in all, she finds balance by separating and allocating specific time periods dedicated to those three aspects of her life in her schedule, but she truly believes that blogging has given her an incredible outlet to put her creativity and time management skills to the test and is truly succeeding.

 Q3: How important would you say finding like-minded people in the blogosphere is, to both support you and to learn from one another?

A: Adriana laughs as she answers this question because she believes this is the most important thing about blogging! She feels that the industry is so saturated and there are so many innovative women doing the same thing and trying to live their dream that it has “turned blogging into a competitive environment where it can be borderline catty.” So to find genuine bloggers who aren’t about pettiness and are actually willing to sit down with her and bounce ideas back and forth and share their experiences is huge for Adrianna. She values those relationships the most because she feels like those conversations and contacts are the most meaningful.

At the end of the day, Adrianna stresses that it is extremely important to “find people who share common ground with you.” She wants to meet bloggers and form beneficial relationships that actually turns into real friendships, but finds it difficult especially in NYC because it’s such a competitive setting. She doesn’t take those relationships for granted because she truly believes that we shouldn’t focus on what we can get from each other, but rather what you can give to each other instead (Amen sister!).

After all this talk, she expressed that she wasn’t trying to discourage people from meeting bloggers and that there are truly genuine and down to earth people out there. She’s grateful to have met a few because if there are any opportunities that come her way, those are the first people that she’ll want to invite since it’s a reciprocal relationship. Adrianna believes it is extremely imperative to surround yourself with people that understand what you’re doing because she’s realized that a lot of her friends just don’t get the blogging world and bloggers can relate and empathize more. Her last words were she wants to meet bloggers who “help you grow like how you want them to be successful.”

 Overall, our meeting was better than I expected. I truly learned a lot from our conversation and it was so refreshing to talk about our blogging experiences, concerns, questions and future life goals. Adrianna is such a sweetheart and I am so happy to have collaborated with her on this month’s topic. If you want to meet and connect someone who is real, who wants to support you as a blogger and who is positive and fun to be around with, be sure to visit Adriana’s blog here and follow her on Instagram: @adriannanaomi.