Today I want to share why I started my blog because this week I celebrated my three year anniversary as a blogger!  I get asked this question all the time so hopefully, this answers some of your questions!

Year 1: Classy Career Girl: Consultant by day. MBA student by night. Join me as I journey through my final year of business school.

Year 2: Classy Career Girl:  A girl on the search for success, happiness, and balance.

Year 3: Classy Career Girl: Helping you become successful, happy and balanced.

When did you start your blog?

I started my blog in March 2010, when I was in my second year of business school. I had absolutely no time to blog since I was juggling my job and business school but, for some reason, over Spring break (when I had no classes or homework) I thought it would be a good idea.

How did you come up with the name?

I am an introvert and it is often hard for me to let the true me come out. So I knew that I wanted to be anonymous and I needed a name to go by. I wanted it to be about career advice so I listed all of the topics that I wanted to write about and all of the possible names. I always brainstorm with my husband over things like this because he is always good at jingles and putting words together.  I think he thought I was crazy for starting a blog since I had absolutely no free time.

But, like the great husband that he is, he encouraged me to do it because he knew it was something that I really wanted to do. I am not sure which one of us said the name Classy Career Girl first. All I know is, one of us said it and it stuck. I never looked back because it perfectly described me and the advice I wanted to give. I looked up the definition of class: elegance, style, high standards of personal behavior, skill and grace.  Name: check!  Now, what to blog about…..

Why did you start your blog?

To be honest, I never would have thought of myself as a blogger. In high school, I HATED writing and reading. It was the worst. My strengths were in math, and I don’t even remember reading a good book in high school. It is terrible to say it but I think I may have gotten away with a lot of Cliff notes (sorry mom).  In college, my roommate would laugh at how many times I would write something and then hit the delete key over and over. I hated to write, and if my English teachers knew I was a blogger right now, they would probably laugh.

Fortunately, after college, my friend convinced me to join a book club, and I realized that I loved to read and went on a reading frenzy. In business school, I had a marketing class where we had to write three-page papers every week.  The first couple of weeks I just stared at the screen, and it took me HOURS to do one paper! I soon realized that I didn’t have time to waste so I decided to just write whatever I thought and see how fast I could get the stupid papers done.

The more I wrote, the easier it became, and at the end of that marketing class, we had a project where we had to complete a marketing project on selling children’s clothing. My job on my team was to analyze what blogs we could market and advertise to. My friends sent me some blog recommendations, and I started to become obsessed with reading A Cup of Jo, Oh Happy Day, and Black Eiffel. The best part of this is that it was for a school project so I could read blogs all I wanted to! 🙂

I started thinking that if they can write these blogs, then I can write a blog.  I knew I had a creative side somewhere inside, but I never knew how much of a creative side I really did have.  I was also in a very analytical financial job so really never had an opportunity to let that creative side out until I started my blog.

How did you start your blog?

I started my blog with blogger.com. Just a very simple design because I knew nothing about widgets.  It was so easy and so addicting. After six months, I won a blog design from the fabulous Angie at Strosgirl’s Designs.  It was perfect and my site finally got the look that I wanted it to.  After a year and a half, I decided to transfer from Blogger to WordPress only because I knew I wanted to grow my blog even more and there were things in blogger.com that I couldn’t control. For instance, I didn’t own my blog, blogger.com did. I now am self-hosted on WordPress.org and I highly recommend it.

Have you ever thought about starting a blog? What are you waiting for?