SoSueMe Turns 5!

5 years ago, one evening in July – the 15th 2010 to be exact, I wrote my first ever blog post for SoSueMe! And not in a million years could I have guessed where it would take me! I am so so thankful to be sitting here typing this post to you the readers because without you guys, SoSueMe would not be in existence.

When I wrote that first post, I was a little bit lost in life. When the big R hit, I had been made redundant from a fantastic job that I had worked so hard in and felt at the time like I had finally found my feet.

Loosing that job made me feel so down in myself and stuck in a rut. All that hard work felt like it had gone to waste… and here I was jobless with loans and bills to pay not knowing where to turn.  I ended up on social welfare, endlessly searching for job opportunities that just weren’t there. After many cv drops, multiple online job applications and no responses, I stumbled upon a temporary part-time reception position for a large radio group – Communicorp; 98fm & Spin 103.8, and the rest is history…

From the day I started that job, I loved it and although at the time future opportunities seemed vague – I firmly believe that this was the start of something magical.

The media industry no matter what your role is, is a very exciting one. Meeting celebrities on a regular basis was hard to get my head around.. I dont know what we expect when we meet our idols – but I was stunned to learn that they are just normal people – like you and me. I suppose we expect them to be like this god with beaming lights shining from them…. but I was wrong. We are wrong. Most are humble, polite, fun and HUMAN which for me always made my job an exciting one regardless of it’s basic daily tasks. On the back of that, meeting these ‘celebs’ lead me to receive tickets to their films, the premiers, the parties, the concerts  – all the fun events. Here I was a normal girl, with a normal job exposed to this world with a tonne of fashion/beauty knowledge from my previous jobs, and so the idea went off in my head like a light bulb…..

A blog!

When I started this journey I dived in head first! There were no full-time bloggers in Ireland then, nobody to learn from, nobody to look up to, so I was stepping into unknown territory with no idea what I was doing… and I sure as hell didn’t know you could make a living from it! I think people thought I was mad, I know some laughed! I had my doubts, but fortunately, I didn’t listen to them.

The site was built from nothing. Literally, nothing! No one knew me, I had zero contacts but one thing was for sure – I had real passion! In fact, when I started off, the concept of blogging wasn’t even a word in Ireland. As you know from my book, I was inspired to start SoSueMe because Ireland didn’t have any fashion/beauty/showbiz blogs at the time. It’s hard to imagine Ireland without blogs now, but at the time there was none! I had one or two readers at first, probably the curious 😉 and it has taken a serious amount of hard work to build that to the 1.2 million readers SoSueMe has now each month, (not forgetting the combined follower count of nearly 500,000 on social media!) Those figures still flabbergast me. Why you all follow me, I will never know 🙂

I was an enthusiastic student at school but I was by no means the brightest (though definitely the chattiest!) For me, a person’s attitude is far more important than how many letters they have after their name. I don’t take for granted how lucky I was to have grown up in such a positive family unit and to be surrounded by people who helped me grow into a very optimistic, happy and determined woman. My family have always encouraged me, and they have always had my back. Even when I told them I was starting a blog, they made me feel confident I could do it and they were always there to pick me up when I felt bogged down, let down, upset or overwhelmed.

 

I am so unbelievably thankful for all the good things SoSueMe has brought into my life. I have met and worked with some of the most amazing and inspirational people, I got to travel to the most beautiful places, I have met some of my idols, and I also fulfilled a lifelong dream of having my own product line that is only beginning. Every day I thank whoever is watching over me for the career I now have, because I know what it’s like to be unemployed, demotivated and feeling stuck in a rut. I know what it’s like to feel lost, betrayed, hopeless.. I’ve been there, I still go through those emotions. Probably more now than ever, people will use you, ride your train, jump down your neck and judge you. I have gone to bed feeling defeated and woke up ready to fight again, dont for one second think I have it easy. As my mother would say ‘we all have our crosses to carry in life’… but by being in those horrible, upsetting situations, it teaches us things, it also teaches us to fight back, fight through it and get back up on those feet of yours like a BOSS. Life is a gift and we have to grab it by the bloody balls and live it, and as the saying goes, the sweet aint as sweet without the sour!

The sweet for me has been good…. I’ve enjoyed every minute of this journey and it is only going to get bigger and better. I am always thinking of new ideas of how to make it interesting for you guys. Gaging what is it you guys want more of, and less of for that reason too. With a saturated market, it’s tough to stay at the front, but with my determined streak and your continued support we’ll keep on growing!

Beauty and fashion are not the most important things in the world, but I do know they make people feel good and that’s what my blog is all about. It’s a place where readers can go when they want to forget about their problems for a while and just indulge in all the things they love. I take the things I learned from the times I worked in beauty and fashion and I share them through my blog. If that information helps even one girl to feel more confident in her skin, then that’s amazing! Say what you want about makeup, but I know from the emails I receive that it can help some girls feel on top of the world. That’s why I continue to write the blogs and record the vlogs. That’s why I also only recommend products that I genuinely love.

Emails from readers keep me inspired, and I am so thankful to have such amazing people by my side through this blogging journey. I don’t think I was ever as happy as when I received this lovely email from a woman who read my book. Her words really moved me and when I am having a bad day, I think back to her email in particular and I keep going with my blogging.

Before I end this post, I want to thank somebody who has been there like no other; Dylan. He has been a rock to me and stayed by my side through everything! I have been with him three years now so my blog was only a baby when I met him and when I tell you he has supported me, I literally mean he has been my backbone. When I want to rant, I do with him, when I want to cry, when I laugh. He is there. When I fail, when I succeed and when I smile – I do with him. He is my everything and eggs me on everyday and when I am having my shitty days, he will not let me get off this train even when I think I want to. He believes in me and loves me and that is the most important thing to me.

I also want to say a huge thank you to my family and friends who have always been such big supporters of SoSueMe for the last 5 big ones. You have been there from the start and believed in me. I don’t know where I would be without you! I also want to thank my team, new and old and my management – you guys are amazing and I adore you.

While I have loved every brand I have worked with, I have to give a special shout out to Crownbrush. They were one of the first big brands to believe in me. It was such an amazing feeling to have an international company believe in you and for that, I will be forever grateful.

Most importantly of all……. I want to say a BIG BIG thank you to you the readers. You have stayed so loyal to SoSueMe over the past 5 years, and as clichéd as it sounds, SoSueMe wouldn’t be where it is today without you. So thank you.

You mean more to me than you will ever know, I’m tearing up now…. so I better go… 🙂

If you take anything away from this post today – I hope it is to never give up, always believe in YOU and know that for every door that closes a window opens. You’ll end up where you are meant to.. don’t you worry your little head.

x

Here’s to the next 5 guys, 

Happy Friday!

Love always,