J’adore My Brand Interview Series - Izzy Matias
I believe your manifestations are a collective effort - they're your responsibility, but they're not all on you.
I believe in the power of surrounding yourself with high vibe female entrepreneurs to uplift you higher and inspire you along the way.
I believe nothing speeds up success like having a team around you. A team who can hold you through the emotional rollercoaster, help you figure out the best route to take practically and strategically, and share the wisdom of their own experience with you.
And I am so grateful that I have met lots of amazing female coaches, founders, and bloggers. Their brand stories inspire me and I would like to share my interview with them and I hope you will gain insights and inspiration from them too.
J'adore My Brand Interview Series
Brand Stories of inspiring femme brands
Izzy Matias
Author and blogger
Please tell us about you, what you do, and about your business.
I’m Izzy Matias, an author and full-time blogger. I help content creators start their dream blogs, make money and create a life of freedom. I share the good, messy and in-between of building a blog and online business while having fun.
What's your own background? How did you start your brand?
While I graduated with a degree in Finance and Wealth Management, I’ve always loved writing and wanted to write full-time. I started my first blog over a decade ago as a hobby and a way to document my love for music, but it was when I learned that there were people who earned a full-time income from blogging that everything changed.
I began to take blogging more seriously with the goal of turning my blog into my career. And it was through blogging that I was able to mix the different things I loved learning about: business, writing, traveling and being creative.
I used to be a music blogger for more than five years, but decided to start over when being a music blogger didn’t align with me anymore. It was scary to start over, but I’m glad I did because everything slowly fell into place after that.
When I launched izzymatias.com as a place to help other content creators, I finally started making money and I felt like I was on the right path. I started booking paid collaborations, making affiliate sales, and was able to launch my signature online course to help other creators build a profitable blog.
What's going well right now? What are you grateful for?
I’m grateful my writing career has been going well! Aside from blogging full-time, I offer consultancy services for content creation, and just earlier this year, I published my debut novel, a contemporary young adult novel about music called The Hush Society Presents, and it ranked as a #1 New Release in Amazon’s Teen & Young Adult Music eBooks category.
What are your 3 biggest goals when it comes to building your business and brand?
- Build a loyal and supportive community of bloggers and content creators
- Be able to provide valuable content
- To prioritise money-making activities
What's important to you about reaching these goals? What is your "why" building your brand?
My “why” has always been about being able to live a life of complete freedom doing what I love, and in order to achieve that it’s important to be able to give value to others and to build a supportive community because blogging can be lonely and frustrating especially when you put in the work and don’t see the results you’re hoping for. I want to be able to encourage other bloggers to keep going especially when it gets tough because you never know how close you may be to your success!
What are your key challenges today? If you have a magic wand, what would you like to change about your brand? How are you planning to tackle the challenges?
One of the key challenges is to focus on platforms where my community is most active. It’s so tempting to try and be active everywhere especially when so many platforms are emerging and rising. One of the ways I’m planning to tackle this challenge is to remind myself of my “why” and my ideal community member. Just because there’s a new rising platform doesn’t mean that that is necessarily where my community members are. I’ll be strategic about where to focus my time and energy.
How do you see yourself in the next 12 months?
In alignment with myself, levelling up to my next version of “me”, and focusing on the processes of content creation that I truly enjoy while still being able to help as many bloggers and content creators!
Which are some resources, books, articles or podcasts that have been useful to you, and would share with your readers?
One of the resources that has been a huge help to my blog is a content calendar because it’s helped me be consistent and strategic with my content.
If you could go back to 5 years ago, what advice would you give yourself?
I would tell myself to start my latest izzymatias.com sooner as well as to view blogging as a business sooner. Though I invested in learning before, I was still treating my blog as a hobby, which is why I didn’t put in more time and effort. But when I treated it as a business, that’s when I saw a lot of results! Another would be to just keep moving forward and to not give up even when things get hard.
You can find out more about Izzy by checking her website and social media:
Free Resources from Izzy
Free resources like checklists, guides, and templates that will help you grow your blog & business: