Behind the Scenes of a Blogging Trip + Women Supporting Women

If you follow me on Instagram you know I was in Punta Mita, Mexico with a few of my blogging girlfriends last week. We stayed at THE MOST incredible villa that I cannot wait to tell you all about and had the best time together. I have definitely never stayed somewhere so nice in my entire life and was pretty much having to pinch myself the entire time we were there. Blogging has brought some incredible opportunities my way over the years but more importantly it has introduced me to so many amazing women that are now some of my closest friends. Keep reading for a look behind the scenes of a blogging trip…

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I think some people think bloggers don’t like each other and are in competition with one another but that’s not how it is for me at all. We get along because we can relate and know all of the hard work and dedication that goes into blogging that not many understand. Every single one of us had ZERO followers at one point and only our parents and best friends reading our blogs (shoot I’m not even sure my mom really read my blog much to be honest…). We all worked our butts off day in and day out to get where we are now and are still working hard to reach our individual goals. I am constantly inspired by my friends and other bloggers at the content they produce and the careers they have built for themselves from literally nothing. 

“Another woman’s success does not take away from your own”

I think from the outside looking in it’s easy to look at a trip like the one we just took to Mexico and think “must be nice” or, “I wish I could just sit around the beach all day for a living and post pictures”. But it’s not like that. There is an immense amount of work that goes into these seemingly effortless pictures we share and blog posts we write. Don’t get me wrong, we are having an incredible time and are fully aware of how lucky we are to be given these opportunities, but these opportunities were created from all of the hard work we’ve put in over the years and continue to put in. 

Here are just a few things that go on behind the scenes of a blogging trip…

BEFORE THE TRIP

Outfit planning

Sure shopping is fun but when you go on a trip where you have to plan for 10-20 outfits to shoot you have to be extremely organized and have everything very thought out. This is an area I still struggle with because as much as I try to plan outfits out to a degree, I dress based off the mood I’m in. Some girls take photos of every outfit before the trip, some have spreadsheets with everything from accessories to shoes to lip color. 

Reaching out to brands

Sometimes brands reach out to us and sometimes we reach out to them. A lot of the clothes you see me post were purchased with my money, not gifted. The outfit I’m wearing in today’s post was gifted from Express but I picked it out and agreed to work with them because I love their clothes and love that they always have good deals (scroll to the bottom of this post for my discount code!!). It can be very time consuming looking for contact information for a brand or hotel and emailing back and forth to negotiate whether it be for gifted items, a media stay, or paid partnership. I always disclose when I work with a brand whether it be spelling it out saying “I am partnering with this brand…” or using #ad, #sponsored or “x brand sent me this outfit”. I ONLY work with brands I truly love and will never encourage you to buy something I don’t truly believe in!

Collaborations

A lot of us had brands we were working with during this trip so we had to make sure we not only ordered everything we needed for each shoot but captured any key messaging requirements they had. Some brand collaborations have strict guidelines so it’s always important to read through creative briefs or campaign requirements before a shoot.

DURING THE TRIP

Pictures

LOTS of pictures. We didn’t have a photographer with us on this trip so we all brought our own cameras to shoot with each other. Most days we got up early in the morning to knock out several outfits so we could enjoy the day together and not have to worry about taking more later. While there were countless gorgeous backdrops for photos where we were staying, you’d be surprised how many times we had to move around because of lighting, colors clashing, etc. I feel like I’m pretty laid back when it comes to my photos but sometimes we take 100 just to get one “good” one! 

Punta Mita had a contracted photographer with us for some of the trip taking photos and video footage so we worked with him as well.

Editing

Once the pictures are taken you have to edit. This could mean uploading them onto your laptop to edit in Lightroom or grabbing your phone and using various apps on there to edit. I edit all of my photos in Lightroom and work off of a preset from my photographer. I will add the preset then go in and tweak colors (I always try to make colors as true as possible), lighting, etc. Some photos don’t take long and some photos take forever to get them to look just right. The better the original photo was captured the easier it is to edit!

Social Media

I can be so bad about uploading stories in the moment because well, I’m living in the moment. I normally save them and upload later so I don’t take away from time with my friends. As bloggers though it is a huge part of our job to be constantly sharing to social media, specifically Instagram, whether that be stories or actual posts. Some girls post three times a day, some only post once. I normally post once a day but have been trying to get two posts up a day since our trip!

Linking

Linking… this is a time consuming one. All of those outfits we’re wearing have to be linked so you know where to shop them! So for example the matching set I’m wearing from Express, I would go to the Express website, find the top, link it via rewardStyle, save it to a folder and then find the bottoms and link those as well. It’s super easy but can be tedious when you have fifty items to link from a trip… I tried to link most of what I packed for this trip before we left but it was inevitable I left several things out and had to mess with it while we were there.

LIKETOKNOW.IT

Most of the girls on the trip (including myself) use liketoknow.it to share our outfit details. This means for every outfit you see we go into our rewardStyle app, choose a photo, add all of the links to what we’re wearing then it generates a shoppable image that you can either screenshot to shop or go into the Liketoknowit app to shop (you can follow me there to easily shop too! My username is natalie_keinan). All of these photos are always published HERE on my blog.

Emails

Just because we’re on a trip doesn’t mean the emails stop. We all dedicated time each day to answer emails whether it be responding to new campaign opportunities, touching base with current brands we’re working with or sending links and insights to campaigns we had wrapped up. 

Responding to DM’s

It is very easy to spend all day on your phone responding to questions like, “where is your hat from?” Or “what size did you get in that swimsuit?”, etc. I try really hard to respond to all of my DM’s but sometimes they get lost or it takes me a few days to respond. I try to make it as easy as possible for you to find information on my blog or via the liketoknowit app but I hope you know you can ALWAYS email or DM me if you can’t find something and I will try to help as fast as I can!

AFTER THE TRIP

Blog posts

After the trip we will each do a blog post detailing our stay and share photos. We may have several blog posts we need to write from the different outfits we shot and brand collaborations we had. One blog post can take HOURS.

Analytics

Some resorts and brands ask for a recap of every post we shared and their reach. This means we need to go through each story, Instagram post, etc. to see how many likes, comments, people it reached, saves, etc. Not every brand asks for this but it’s a nice thing to share. This is why it is so helpful and appreciated every time you like and comment on a photo or blog post! It may seem like such a small thing but it honestly makes such a big difference to us and is so appreciated!

 

Ok I think that might be everything… if you think I left something out comment below!

I hope that helped give you a better idea of what goes on behind the scenes of a blogging trip. At the end of the day all of the hard work is 100% worth it and trips like this just make me want to work that much harder. I am so grateful to be surrounded by so many other like-minded women that not only inspire me to push myself but who truly support me and share in any success I have. 

“When women support each other, incredible things happen”

That’s the really cool thing about women supporting women. When you are each other’s cheerleaders and celebrate each other’s successes, life is so much happier! I truly believe the more positivity and love you put into the world will come back to you in an even bigger way! I love that Express believes in this message so much that they launched an actual women’s empowerment line full of graphic tees for March (International Women’s Month) that support women together.

I am beyond obsessed with the matching set I’m wearing that happens to be 40% OFF TODAY making it just a little over $50 for the set! I’m wearing an XS in the top and bottom. It is perfect for a beach trip!

I also love the tropical kimono my friend Lynlee is wearing so much that I got it in the turquoise version as well! You can’t see it in these photos but the bodysuit she has on is AMAZING – I am in love with the back of it! I’ve also been loving all of the new swimwear at Express but recommend sizing UP! I wear a medium in their swimsuits. I am obsessed with this one-piece!

*I did a big try-on haul on my Instagram story and saved it to a highlight in case you missed it! You can shop everything I shared below.

I am so excited to share this discount code with you that gives you $25 OFF YOUR $100 PURCHASE!!

The code is 8136!

A little long winded today but I hope you enjoyed this behind the scenes of a blogging trip and women supporting women post! Have a great weekend!

Thanks for reading!

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Thank you to Express for sponsoring this post! As always opinions are my own!