When I first started blogging almost two years ago, networking was not on my mind. I knew it was super important to help grow my business, but didn’t really know how to start or who to talk to. If you aren’t an OG follower, Elle Wore It started out as a mostly fashion blog, so at that point my goal was to pump out outfit pics and drag Marc to cool locations to shoot content every weekend.
Networking and making friends as an adult is fucking hard. Trust me, this is coming from someone who is incredibly outgoing, connects well with people and will fully admit that I was one of those girls who followed random chicks on instagram that I met while drunk in the bathroom at a club (these were the good old days, when people actually went out instead of sitting on their phones on a Saturday night).
As much as it can be overwhelming, If you are feeling like you want to start meeting new people and expand your girl gang, here are a few things I’ve learned in the past few years that I feel are effective:
1. Find bloggers in your city that you want to meet, and message them on Instagram. Does that sound scary af? Good. I know we live in an era where being rejected is literally the worst thing ever, but if you never ask you will never know. Really though, what is the worst thing that could happen? What if they say yes? The point I am making here is that they are probably trying to grow their circle as well and their friends are over finding a new, trendy brunch spot with them to shoot at so messaging someone asking to hang might work in both your favours.
2. Talk to people at events. I am so guilty of NOT doing this! I am very privileged to have my sister aka my “momager” around to go to events with me whenever I need her to. She’s honestly a gem and her love and support is greatly appreciated, but I find I don’t “need” to talk to people at events and its something I need to stop doing. The next time you’re at an event leave the RBF at home, go up to someone you think looks interesting and say hi, and let things go from there.
3. Go to meetups. I absolutely love my new friend Tina (@eunoia) because she is someone who sticks to it when she makes plans. The first time we met was because she messaged everyone in our Instagram group asking if we wanted to shoot at a cute cafe. I was totally down, so we ended up messaging each other outside the group and set a date to go to Dineen Outpost cafe for brunch. We quickly realized they don’t have brunch LOL and that we both traveled a long ass way to get there, but we laughed it off, got a few cute lattes and treats and took some awesome pics of each other. We hit it off so well that we ended up shooting again a few weeks later at Lovt Studio, where I met my friend Shauna (@shaunawaye). I even made Marc’s brother Dom (@domgullo) tag along, he didn’t seem to mind spending a few hours with some cute girls.
I’m so happy to have met these two gorgeous girls through Instagram, check them out for some seriously gorgeous feeds!
Tina Yao is a lifestyle blogger from Toronto. Her blog Eunoia is about navigating adulthood as a millenial, and I love her cool vintage style. Her instagram is @eunoia
Shauna Waye is a fashion blogger from Toronto. Her insta @shaunawaye features amazing outfits, effortlessly put together and always super cute.
Thank you to Brandon my amazing photographer (@godlovesugly_____) for shooting us!
elleworeit.ca 