LiveBlogged: The Myth of Doing It All #typeacon

The closing keynote speaker is Liz Gumbinner, @mom101. Liz has a writing background. After having a baby, she began Mom 101. Soon after, she met Kristen Chase, another blogger, online. They started Cool Mom Picks. She’s always had a passion for mom entrepreneurship and artistry. This fall they started Cool Mom Tech because they got so many pitches about tech for parents. She has two girls and contributes to several websites.

She says when people ask her how she does it all, she tells them she doesn’t do it all. She talked to someone who told her that the question of how do you do it all is the worst question. So she wrote a post talking about all the things that she doesn’t do. She says she doesn’t do it all, and she doesn’t want to and reads her post about it to the audience.

When she started posting what she doesn’t do, her readers started sharing what they don’t do. Liz gives some fun examples. Liz loves the idea that there is consensus in the blogosphere about this. She wants to lift the veil of the false image of perfection. She says maybe there is a Wonder Woman in all of us.

She wants to talk about this topic because it can be liberating and would like to change the language from women who do it all to women who do a lot — no one does it all. Men do a lot as well, but women have a special set of circumstances. Women who blog do work. We are redefining what it means to be working moms.

Liz is learning to live by a few rules for herself:

1. Know why you blog.
2. Know what you’re good at.
3. Know what you’re bad at.
4. Do what you want to do.
5. Learn how to say no.
6. Learn how to say yes.
7. Know your worth.
8. Be annoyed less.
9. Love what you do more.
10. Make yourself a priority.

Liz then opens up the floor for Q & A. How can women who don’t have the resources to outsource manage to prioritize for themselves, etc.? How do you see things differently now than when you first started? Liz says she gets what that is like. She says that she said no to a lot of things early on because it helped Cool Mom Picks to grow. She suggests having an additional source of income while building your blog, such as technical writing, etc.

The next question talks about finding your voice or niche — how do you discover that? Liz suggests writing list of things you love and are excited about. Part of what’s great about personal blogs is that you can find yourself and your voice, and your readers will be excited to go along with that for the journey.

Related posts:

1. LiveBlogged: Power Monetization #typeacon
2. LiveBlogged: Leveraging Your Social Capital to Earn Through eCommerce #typeacon
3. LiveBlogged: How to Sell a Blog #typeacon
4. Liveblogged: Engaging with Email Newsletters #typeacon
5. LiveBlogged: Blogger Outreach That Works #typeacon