Meet Elle! – Just Share For You

If you follow me on social media, you probably know I spend a lot of time with Elle. I also brought on Elle as my brand manager to help out a bit with The Champagne Edit back in October!

Elle’s basically been my sounding board for blogging (and really in life if we’re being honest). I bounce every single idea off of her, I add her to every single brand partnership email, and I bank on her to let me know when I’m slipping behind on Instagram, deadlines, etc. That’s why she’s my brand manager. Elle and I met through blogging, so I knew she was creative and liked to write. I wanted to introduce her on the blog so that we can prepare you guys for the newest series,

Elle’s Edit.

I want this space to reach

everyone

, whether you’re a blogger or not. Bringing in Elle’s perspective will definitely help with that!

Tell The Champagne Edit readers a bit about yourself!

Hey everyone! My name is Elle and I’m really excited to connect with you all on Elle’s Edit. A couple of months ago Dana asked me to

become her brand manager

, and be a little more involved on helping her with her blog. Outside of The Champagne Edit, I have a full time job as an analyst at a major CPG company. Essentially that means I look at numbers all day and help brands grow at their retail stores and online. I was born and raised in Fairfield County, Connecticut, and went to a Jesuit College in PA where I majored in Marketing and Management. After college, I moved to Minneapolis, MN and worked for a major retailer (hint: you go into this store for milk and end up spending $500 and not getting milk) and then ended up moving back to the east coast. In April, I will hit my 2 year anniversary of living in NYC and couldn’t be happier!

Some fun facts about me: I am a massive sports fan, watching trash TV is my guilty pleasure (Bachelor, Summer House, Vanderpump Rules, you name it, I’m watching), I’m an only child, I love Veuve just as much as Dana, ice cream is my favorite food ever, and I have MAJOR sidewalk rage (if you live in any city you know what I mean).

How did you get into blogs?

To be honest, I have no clue! I started reading blogs my sophomore year of college (2011/2012) so right around the time they started gaining momentum. I’ve always really been into fashion (I worked at J.Crew during the summer months of college) and would look online for articles about the latest trends. What I found when looking at those articles was that they weren’t speaking to me and I found a hard time relating to them. Long story short (aka I don’t remember what happened), reading blogs soon became part of my every day routine.

You used to have a blog. How did you start that and how did you know it was time to end it?

I did (RIP)! I started it Christmas break of my junior year of college, I think 2012? I knew it was something that I’ve wanted to do for a couple months now so I just took the plunge and registered for a WordPress account. I had absolutely NO idea what I was doing and to be honest, I wasn’t the slightest bit worried. I knew what I wanted to accomplish and frankly didn’t care if anyone read it. I had a twitter account already with my blog name (I did this reverse for some odd reason), a couple months before, and started gaining a following there which ultimately helped me gain some traffic to my site. What was awesome with creating a blog early on was that I was able to engage with my favorite bloggers

Carly

and

Krista

(SORRY DANA but you never made the cut) and learn a little more about them. Fun fact, I actually had them both answer a couple of questions for me and I featured them on my blog!

What I loved so much about blogging was that it was a way for me to have a creative outlet. Now you are probably saying, “Elle, that is what everyone says *eye roll*” but it is really true! I was a business major in college and honestly spent hours looking at numbers every day. I knew I could never go down the PR / advertising route (I’m not very creative) so I figured blogging would be perfect for me. I was pretty consistent with posts in the first two years because it was something that I was truly passionate. I wanted the momentum to continue since I had many engaged readers who were invested in my blog.

Things started to turn when I moved to Minneapolis after college to start my first big girl job. I was getting adjusted to Corporate America and a new city that was so far away from home (I’m from Connecticut). None of my friends, even my best friends, knew about my blog (I was too afraid of what they would think) so when I was out in a new city I really didn’t have anyone cheer me on and tell me to get back to it. I had some really awesome engaged readers that would email me asking when my next post was coming or if everything was okay but I honestly didn’t know how to respond. I felt horrible and felt like I was quitting something that I was really passionate about. So I gave blogging a break and posted only when I was truly inspired or a really cool brand who I loved wanted to work with me. At the time, I felt like I cheated my readers because I was so inconsistent with both my content and timing. When this time came, the blogging world was just so over-saturated that I knew if I ever wanted it to become something, I would need to put in a heck of a lot more effort and at that point in my life, the timing just wasn’t right.

I truly miss blogging and that’s why I was thrilled when Dana asked me if I wanted to contribute every now and then to The Champagne Edit!

What are you most looking forward to with Elle’s Edit?

Writing again! I miss being able to have an outlet to share my thoughts or ideas. Luckily I still am active on Twitter and I still do just that but I still miss sitting at my computer and putting together a blog post.

As a typical blog reader, what is your favorite thing about reading blogs?

I love learning about the person behind the blog post. Same with people on Instagram, I love when people get personable with us and share bits and pieces (not everything) about their life! As I mentioned above, blogs allow me to fully relate with someone and their message they are putting out there. I still read blogs every single morning around

7am

when I am eating my breakfast and watching the news (you can call me a mom, that’s fine, I’ve accepted it). Every blogger who I follow has something different to say and bring a new perspective to the blogging world..and that is what makes this community so cool.

What type of content are you going to bring to The Champagne Edit?

My envision is to bring content that is from the “outsider” perspective. If I asked bloggers what percentage of their readers are non-bloggers I’m sure it is a pretty small amount. When Dana invited me to a seminar about the blogging/Instagram community, what really struck home for me was along the topic of engagement and who is engaging in your platform. If your IG comments and blog comments are coming mostly from other bloggers what does that really say? Sure it is awesome to have other bloggers support you but I think in order to grow and reach a vast amount of different people (bloggers and non-bloggers) you need to create content that everyone can relate to. And that is my hope!

I have a couple of ideas in mind but would love if you could say some examples of what topics you would like for me to discuss or touch on. Again, it is important for me to understand who Dana’s readers are and how I can connect to them while at the same time bring in new readers.

I know for a fact you guys are going to love Elle as much as I do! I can’t wait for you to see what we have in store for The Champagne Edit and Elle’s Edit!

photo by allie provost