Pop the champagne, sound the alarm, tell ALL your friends because today Kirsten and co. turns 6!
Recently I sat down with the editor of a non-existent magazine to answer a few of her burning lukewarm blogging questions.
It will be going to print the day after never, which means I’ve finally got the green light to share the interview with you here. Exciting!
Let’s have a read, shall we?
faux interview person: Hi Kirsten. Thanks so much for joining me. I can honestly say I’ve never interviewed anyone in the stationery aisle of Kmart before…
Kirsten: Really? That surprises me. Although when you suggested meeting at my favourite place to shop, it was a tough choice. My local Westfield would be the obvious choice, but then I thought that’s too obvious, you know?
And of course I do a lot of shopping online, but I didn’t want to suggest we meet on Tinder because AWKWARD.
But then I remembered I needed some more rose gold paperclips for a flat lay I was about to do and here we are!
faux interview person: ok then. So your blog, Kirsten and co. is celebrating its 6th birthday today —
Kirsten: OMG is it? How did I not know that? We’d better get ourselves over to the party section quick sticks! Come on, let’s go. But be warned, this is the only cardio I ever do so my pace is brisk.
faux interview person: Well alright. Can we walk and talk?
Kirsten: Have you even SEEN my Friday Night Live chats? I could probably talk under water with a mouthful of marbles. Fairly sure we’ll be fine to walk and talk *resists the urge to eye roll out loud*
faux interview person: Great! Ok, so can you tell me a bit about why you started Kirsten and co?
Kirsten: Originally I started the blog because I fancied myself as a bit of a Martha Stewart type. Don’t look at me like that. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to wear an apron in the kitchen and bake all day! My kids were little and I loved throwing together a party table for them, so I shared that sort of thing too.
It was purely a hobby back then and I had the self-confidence of a flea. Assuming someone has studied the self-confidence levels of fleas and those levels come in at zero.
I kept the blog a secret from everyone – except my husband, Scott, and cousin, Dal – and shared recipes and party tips when I had the time.
faux interview person: I had no idea you used to write about cake!
Kirsten: Oh I wrote about cake alright! In fact the first cake I wrote about, way back in 2011, went viral.
faux interview person: No way! Viral back then. How did that happen?
Kirsten: My daughter, Sophie, had just had her birthday party. She’s born 5 days before Christmas and had asked for a Christmas themed birthday party, so I knocked together a party table which featured a Kit Kat cake.
That party was picked up by Amy Atlas and The Tom Kat Studio – two huge US-based party sites – and the blog post and Facebook page went nuts! Honestly, I couldn’t keep up with the shares and comments. It was incredible. I think I only had about 200 Facebook followers at the time but by the end of that week that number had grown to over 1,000.
faux interview person: That’s amazing! So what did you do to leverage that growth?
Kirsten: What I always do when it looks like a big break is coming my way – nothing. Please refer to the self-confidence flea thing.
faux interview person: *quietly* oh.
Kirsten: I know. It’s ridiculous. Or I should say, it was ridiculous. I’m not like that anymore.
faux interview person: I didn’t think you were. So what changed?
Kirsten: To be honest, a whole lot of things changed. The blog evolved as the kids grew up and I evolved with it. I wrote less about parties and baking and more about other aspects of my life. Funny stories began to emerge and the more I wrote the less I cared about what people thought. I feel in love with writing and the community that was hanging out here every time I hit publish on something.
faux interview person: I love that. Tell me a bit about the Kirsten and co. community.
Kirsten: They are SUCH an awesome group of people. They’re always so supportive and leave wonderful comments. They hang out here, on Instagram and on Facebook – although that is SO hard to grow.
Here’s a tip for anyone starting a Facebook page – DON’T call it something vague like Kirsten and co.
Facebook likes to know exactly what it is you’re trying to share/sell/communicate. Kirsten and co tells Facebook nothing.
Call your Facebook page exactly what your niche is and you will grow fast.
faux interview person: That is such a great tip! Do you have any more?
Kirsten: Honestly, I have so many I could write a book – told you the self-confidence thing is sorted *gives a cheeky smile* – but my biggest tip would be to always listen.
I attend a lot of events and I always listen.
People LOVE to talk about themselves. They hardly ever ask you any questions – have you noticed that?
I’ve talked about myself this entire interview. Haven’t asked you a single thing, although I am keen to know your thoughts on mini pinatas. *holds up mini unicorn pinata*
faux interview person laughs
Kirsten continues: So yeah, people love to talk about themselves. About their success, about their goals, dreams, what they had for breakfast. Except I usually already know that bit because I follow them on Instagram.
So I’ve spent the last 6 years listening. Taking it all in and applying it to my own blog and sharing it with my blogging mates.
But the downside to always being a listener is that people tend to assume you know nothing. They’ll offer you advice, thinking you need it or have no clue so I do need to work on piping up more. I probably need to write that book!
faux interview person: You probably do. Maybe they think you need advice because blogging is a numbers game?
Kirsten: *long pause in interview tape* Sorry, I just eye rolled so hard I think I saw the back of my brain.
Here’s a fun fact you might not know about me, but I used to be a teacher. So hold the line caller because I’m about to put my Mrs Smith Teacher Voice on and get all ranty for a minute.
Engagement and honesty are more important than the numbers.
Big numbers don’t always mean an engaged community.
And don’t get me started on people whose fingers freeze whenever the words gifted, sponsored or ad are required to be put at the beginning of an instagram or blog post.
I don’t understand why anyone would want to hide that from their community? There’s no shame in working with brands and to trick your followers into thinking you bought items when you were actually sent them is beyond unethical.
faux interview person: do people actually do that?
Kirsten: All.the.time. But let’s not dwell on that because we’re in my happy place and no, I’m not being paid to say that!
faux interview person: Speaking of happy things, are there things that stand out as blogging highlights over the last 6 years?
Kirsten: There have definitely been a few. I love a good list, so here goes:
- A lovely reader nominating me for the Kidspot Voices of 2014 awards. That thoughtful nomination led to the blog landing a place in the Top 30 Personal and Parenting category and was the wake up call I needed to turn this blog from a hobby into a business.
- Writing the Real Housewives of Melbourne recaps. They were painful and hilarious to write all rolled into one. When Chyka started reading them I may have lost my tiny mind.
- Having a chapter published in Mrs Woog’s book, Primary School Confidential is something I will always be grateful for.
- Working with amazing brands that I genuinely love and use on a daily basis is still a pinch me moment.
- The friendships I’ve made through blogging. How good is it that meeting people on the internet isn’t weird anymore?!
- Joining the Styling You team as a Community Manager. Nikki is such an inspiration and being on her team is just like being in her #everydaystyle closed Facebook group – supportive, fun and full of style!
- organising and hosting the annual Kirsten and co. charity events. Coffee with Kirsten and Pop Fizz Chic have been a lot of work but so much fun. Thanks to amazing support from the readers who attended to the businesses who donated prizes, to date we’ve raised $3,802 for The Pyjama Foundation.
- The love and support that comes from the readers of Kirsten and co, especially in recent times when I’ve been battling some fairly hefty health issues.
faux interview person: *looks at watch* Sorry to cut you off but I’ve got to wrap this up. I’ve got another interview to do next. It’s with someone who has created a range of all natural face oils. I forget the name of it now *flicks through phone* Oh here, it is, SKIN BOSS. Have you heard of it?
Kirsten: I have! Face oils sound like they’ve got a hippie vegan vibe going on – are you meeting at some sort of Acai Bowl place? Please tell me kale won’t be involved.
faux interview person: *laughs* Well I’ve been following your How To Quit Kale program for 3 days now, so there will be no kale for me. We’re actually meeting at her house. Apparently she’s not a vegan at all but has a really interesting story about her health and that’s what prompted her to create SKIN BOSS.
Kirsten: That is so cool! I wonder if she’d like to do a giveaway on the blog….
faux interview person: I’ll ask. Thanks for chatting with me today. There was just one last question I did want to ask you though….
Kirsten: It’s not a perm.
faux interview person: *bursts out laughing* OMG how did you know I was going to ask that?
Kirsten: After 6 years of blogging, it’s still the ONLY thing everyone wants to know.
Well that and, “Does your husband really eat a Mars Bar every night?” Yes, yes he does. With a glass of full fat milk.
faux interview person: Are you serious? I feel like we need to chat more about the Mars Bar situation, but I’m out of time.
Kirsten: Plus the young girl who works here keeps looking at us. I think she’s wondering why we’re standing next to the Pinatas with clipboards. I’ll write a blog post about it – the mars bars, not the clipboard pinata thing. Although I could probably belt out a semi-interesting blog post about that too.
faux interview person: *shoves clipboard in handbag* Perfect. *flings bag over shoulder* Thanks for your time today. I’ll let you know about the SKIN BOSS giveaway.
Kirsten: No worries. I’m fairly sure she’ll say yes *tries to wink but has always been crap at it. Shuts both eyes instead*
faux interview person: Are you ok?
Kirsten: Yep, I’m fine. For my next trick I will either spill something down my front or trip over nothing. It’s the trifecta of gifts I was born with.
Kirsten and co turns 6 – the giveaway
This giveaway has now closed. Thank you to everyone who entered. The four lucky winners have been randomly selected by Rafflecopter and contacted via email. Scroll down to see their names below.
As luck would have it, the person who created the natural face oils said yes to the giveaway!
{spoiler alert for new readers: that person is me. You can catch up on the story here.}
To celebrate Kirsten and co’s birthday, there are four bottles of SKIN BOSS up for grabs.
Each winner can select their choice of either the day face oil – GET UP AND GLOW – or the night face oil – SLEEP ON IT.
The four lucky winners will have their prizes sent to them when SKIN BOSS launches on July 7.
We’ll be releasing product information in the weeks ahead, so make sure you:
To be in the running to win one of four bottles of SKIN BOSS face oil, enter your details in the Rafflecopter box below and leave a comment answering this question:
Which SKIN BOSS face oil would you like to try first? GET UP AND GLOW or SLEEP ON IT?
GOOD LUCK!
Full Ts & Cs on the Rafflecopter widget. Entries available to Australia and NZ residents only.
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