Well, if you’ve been paying attention to my streams as of late, you might have noticed some serious changes taking place. In the course of six months, I changed the name of this blog to The Culture Tripper, changed it back to The Culture Mom, started a new site The Holly Chronicles which I’ve since shelved and done some irreversible damage to my social media channels.
What was my reason for my midlife blog crisis?
The reason? Couldn’t really tell you other than the fact that I must have had a mid-life crisis and taken it out on the Internet!
In all honesty, I thought I wanted to get away from mom blogging, but the truth is that I carved a space for myself as The Culture Mom, and once the rug came out from under me, I missed the brand I’d built. I must also admit that The Culture Tripper wasn’t that creative. There are blogs out there called Culture Tripper, The Culture Trip, Trip Culture…I could go on and on. The epiphany I had in the car when I thought of the name must have been because I’d seen the name before? Who knows. At the time, I thought it was brilliant. And yes, I could have kept the name regardless and not spent a small fortune on having this blog revamped (I’m not technical at all), but I decided to go back to where I started. And it somehow feels right…..after months of trying to shed the mom part of me here, I kind of missed it. I am The Culture Mom, that’s all there is to say about it.
Unfortunately, I lost the Twitter handle and Facebook page. Some guy in Russia is using my old Twitter handle – I’m not sure why – perhaps it’s to capitalize on my existing audience (warning: do not follow him!). He may have scooped up my Facebook page, as well, and it’s literally been a short span of three months since I gave it up so he’s fast! However, I will resolve these issues and march on.
Savvy social media friends advised me against changing up my brand for months before I made the change, but I was determined to change. Believe me, I went through dozens of names, had a designer do a mock-up of one (The Cultured Nomad, it was called – also not a good fit). But none of them worked like The Culture Mom. I knew as soon as my blog changed that it was not meant to be and I regretted the change immediately. To all of those friends who knew the change would not work, yes, you were right – I was wrong.
But here I am again – back as The Culture Mom and I’m psyched. I will no longer mind the “mommy blogging” insults and I will no longer mind the cracks made about the community I’ve embraced and felt so comfortable in for over four years. I did it well then and I’ll do it well again. I will remain true to my niche, blogging about what I am passionate about. You won’t find product reviews here, but you will find info about travel, culture and advocacy. I’ll bring back my fun giveaways and more.
I’m not running away from The Culture Mom anymore – I’m embracing it. I hope you’ll stick around. I hope you never left. I hope you”ll let me know how you’ve been while I was having this mid-life blog crisis. I’m glad it’s over and I’m looking forward to chatting here again.
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I can completely identify with this post. I went through the same thing a few years ago and I STILL constantly think of new, clever (at least I think so) ways to rebrand myself. My husband always tells me, “If you devoted half as much time to writing content as you do trying to dream up new ideas, you’d have the success you’re looking for.” Can’t argue with that.
Welcome back – although you never left truly. I continued to think of you as the Culture Mom. It’s a good thing.
Thanks, Jenny, I got lost and found!
Great! Embrace it! I do always find it hard when blogging buddies take on multiple twitter accounts, etc. I like to follow people at ONE spot. 😉
Ha! Good point, Nina. I am not at multiple accounts, though. Please note @TheCultureMom is now in Russian!
Always love reading your postings no matter what you call yourself
You are the best, Gigi! Feeling loved.
Glad you are back….
Thanks, Sandra! I never left – I was right here! But me, too.