Interview with Pro-Blogger Vicki Psarias

I am on holiday right now but instead of leaving you I've organised a few interviews. There are many bloggers out there that I've admired for a long time and I decided to ask them a few questions and reveal their answers here. There will be six interviews, one per week - every Tuesday. 

To introduce the series I wanted to start with a lady who has inspired me, kept me going when I thought it was too hard, and someone who is always kind - Vicki Psarias.


Vicki blogs at Honestmum.com and you can find her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram, amongst others.




Why did you start blogging?


In 2010 when my eldest son, Oliver was 10 months old I hit publish for the first time. I was suffering from a traumatic birth and felt alone and a little lost to be honest, but I rediscovered my voice and a space just for me with honestmum.com. It was all thanks to one of my closes friends, filmmaker Amancay Tapia who encouraged me to write down my experiences and blog.


Four weeks later I was a finalist at the BritMums Brilliance in Blogging Awards in the Fresh Voice category which gave me the most incredible confidence boost. It also helped me to get back on set as a director before slowly making blogging my full time job.




What did you like most when you started?


The friendship and support of other parents who were blogging and tweeting, their were emotional life support. That network, and those women (and now men) became great friends of mine, and even colleagues. To know you're not alone is so comforting especially when times are hard which they inevitably can be with babies.




How long have you been blogging?


4 years and 7 months. I turn 5 at the end of November and it really marks the most incredibly stimulating, creative and rewarding time of my life: combining my greatest loves: my family and writing. Most importantly a blogging career has enabled me to be there for my children, it is a job I can do on my time and my own terms, directing meant 12 hour days on set whereas although I work hard and full time, I can work it around my kids.




What do you love about blogging now?


That I am my own editor, and I can connect with people all over the world, just by hitting publish... that I'm constantly pushing myself out of my comfort zone and learning every single day. I couldn't love my job more.




Do you have more than one blog?


Yes I also have a style blog Mummy's Got Style.




Why?


I wanted to chart mine and my family's passion for style and it works well with my style clients too, offering me another platform to my business within the Honestmum Limited umbrella.




What is the most important quality of a good blogger?


I think there are several really, writing what matters to you, what you, yourself would want to read and feeling happy with what you put out into the world. Connecting too, it's the importance of creating emotion on screen (the same applied to my work as a filmmaker even if the screen was bigger then) to speak directly to your readers, to touch, entertain, inspire them...




As a pro-blogger what is the best opportunity you've been offered so far?


Gosh I am lucky that I've had some incredible opportunities. I love being on camera though so modelling for Nova Harley and featuring in British Vogue, being signed as the face of the Essential One and featuring in campaign films for bareMinerals and NIVEA have been real highlights.




Is there anything you don't like about blogging?


I suppose it can be hard to switch off at times as the internet never sleeps. I'm pretty strict though and I do mostly manage to maintain balance even if some days feel manic! I tend to switch my phone and laptop off from pick up until bedtime unless I'm on an urgent deadline so I can just 'be' with my kids.




If you could recommend one blog to read, which would it be?


I can't choose one, I really can't, there are just too many I love, so I'm going with a big ol' famous blog/vlog/site Marie Forleo's: my hero! http://www.marieforleo.com/






Thank you so much for sharing with us Vicki, and I invite you, dear readers, to head over to Honestmum.com and read some wonderful posts, one of my favourites is Be Who You Want to Be.


blogging mummy