Sweatshirt {ThePreppyMag Boutique}

Happy Monday! It is the start of another week in Quarantine. The fifth Monday for me and I know a lot longer for others. I won’t deny how hard these days have been for me but I also know that they are a lot harder for those who are sick, those working in hospitals, those who may be losing their jobs, and many more who are facing the repercussions of this pandemic in much bigger ways than I am.

I am motivated and inspired by collaboration. I love working with a team towards a shared goal, so working alone from my couch over video conference with not always reliable internet has been tricky and really frustrating sometimes. The one thought that is keeping me going is that there is going to be an explosion of creativity and entrepreneurship that comes out of this movement. Just like there was during the 2008 financial crisis when this little thing called blogging became a real, profitable career.

Today, I’m launching a series called Prep Talk. It is a weekly content series featuring the voices of influencers and entrepreneurs on how they are staying inspired and motivated during this time. Many are no stranger to working by themselves and experts at turning lemons into lemonade. I hope that the weekly interviews with successful entrepreneurs will inspire you that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is going to be SO much brighter than before.

Each interview will have the same set of questions to keep this focused on the current landscape and how we are staying motivated. In the coming weeks, you will hear from eCommerce experts, fashion photographers, bloggers, and more. Today, I’d like to kick us off with how I’m personally staying motivated.

1| Tell us a little bit about your business. What is it? When did you start it? And what inspired you? 

ThePreppyMAG started as a fashion blog while I was interning at an Italian fashion house over the Summer in between my junior and senior year of college (2013!). Each morning before I left for my commute into New York City from my parents’ home on Long Island, my mom would snap a pic of my outfit and I would post it here with the details. See HERE for my first post. 😂 Since then, ThePreppyMAG has evolved to be much more of a lifestyle blog documenting my life as I navigate New York City as a twenty-something. I still cover an outfit here and there, but I also chronicle my travels, career advice, my favorite skincare products, and my newly launched Book Club. In addition to the blog, I’m also the owner of ThePreppyMAG Boutique, a seasonal pop-up shop that opens every year during the holidays.


2| How has the COVID-19 crisis impacted your business? 

I’m lucky to say that it hasn’t had any significant impact. Mostly because my pop-up shop isn’t currently live. That being said, I’ve definitely seen a slow down in brand partnership requests. Working with brands is one of the most profitable ways that I make money as a blogger, so this is definitely going to impact my year-over-year revenue. That said, I’m still seeing strong performance from affiliate links and readership so hoping that things will turnaround in time.

3| What has your daily routine looked like these days? 

I’m currently staying at my parents’ house out on Long Island so, in addition to adapting to the WFH life, I’m also adapting back to living under my parents’ roof, which has been both fun and interesting. 😂 Each morning, I wake up around 7:30-8 AM (I really wish I was more of an early riser). I take a shower, grab some coffee and head to my “desk” (a little place I use to do my homework back in high school). I’m pretty much bound to my desk for the full day to take virtual meetings, work on projects and send emails. Sometimes the email is a little spotty, so I’ve been bouncing to and from my basement where the internet is the strongest. Once the day has wrapped, I head out for a walk around my neighborhood with my dog Duncan and honestly the first time I set out for this walk, it felt like I was going trick-or-treating. I come back from our walk, we eat dinner and I start working on the blog for an hour or two. Before bed, I read at least one chapter of the book I’m reading and I head to bed. The past few weeks have been truly crazy and I feel like I’ve been working almost non-stop but now that I’m taking a bit of a breather, I’m hoping to take some more time to work out and make that a bigger part of my routine moving forward.

4 |How are you staying motivated on working on and growing your business during this unpredictable time? 

It has been a true struggle staying focused and motivated on the blog these days. After working 10-12 hour days for my day job, it felt exhausting to switch over to work on the blog. Now that I’m settling into more of a routine it is becoming easier and easier. I’m staying motivated by creating new content inspired by what is making me excited and happy about this time. For example, I’m finding a lot of solace in reading before bed instead of endlessly scrolling through the current news, so I created The Preppy Book Club.

5| Do you have any WFH hacks on how to stay productive? 

Schedule every minute of your day. I am a slave to my Outlook calendar and planner. I plan every hour with a specific project that I want to work on. It is so easy to start snacking or to get distracted by the other individuals in your household, but with a specific hour set aside in between meetings or presentations to get a project done helps me finally check that nagging project off my to-do list. Without this, I’m left with hours of work to do at the end of each day so this is almost mandatory for me at this point.

6| How is your work/life balance in a world where your bed may also be your desk? 

Ahh! I have somewhat alluded to this a bit above but the beginning of this quarantine was ROUGH. I felt like I was working non-stop with little time to take a breath and actually realize what was happening around me. In some ways, it was a coping mechanism. Now that I’ve settled into a bit of routine and this truly is a new normal for us, I’m getting better at breaking for lunch, stopping at 6p for my nightly walk and getting to bed early.

7| How are you staying connected to your work family? If you are a one-man-show, how are you staying connected to those you care about at this time? 

Every day we set aside 30 minutes to have lunch together over video chat! I love my team so much and even though we are apart, I know I couldn’t get through this time without them. We also have various group text and DMs set up so we barely miss a beat of being with each other.

8| Has the quarantine life inspired you in any new ways?  

I’m investing more time in my craft. Working from home means more uninterrupted time to really learn and dive deep before finalizing a deliverable. For the blog, this means working a few days in advance to really perfect a post before clicking publish. In my day job, I have more time to join online webinars on things I’ve been wanting to learn more about and read articles without the impromptu desk driveby. Usually, I working up until the minute something is due so this extra time is allowing for higher quality work, which is something I’m always thankful for.

9| How is your business or you personally giving back in this time of crisis? 

I’ve donated to a few organizations that I’m passionate about. The first being Bethenny Frankle’s organization, BStrong. She is such an incredible entrepreneur and philanthropist and as a native New Yorker, I know she’ll give back to my beloved city. I have also given back to Feeding America.

10| We’re about to see an influx of new entrepreneurs join our community, what is your advice to them? 

Whenever someone asks me this question, I give the same advice– just start. It’s not easy to start a business or a blog or whatever you want to call it but I promise that starting is the best thing you can do for your business. You can plan everything a hundred times but I promise it will change one million more times, so why not just get ahead and start.