Last week, I asked you all to submit any questions via my IG Stories for a Q&A that I’d publish on The New England Life. They ranged from work-related questions to reasons why we moved to basic baby product suggestions. A few were asked more than once, so I grouped the most common questions and answered below!
Why did you move?
This was the number one question I was asked. I realized I had never really explained on IG why we were selling our house. Here’s the very long story short…
Jeff and I moved out of Boston and into our first home in the ‘burbs back in 2016, before we were even married. It was a…. project… Soon enough, we realized we were way in over our heads and that everything we had dreamed of for our first home just wasn’t going to happen here. Luckily, Jeff’s uncles are both general contractors and helped us throughout the entire renovation process. We completely re-did the entire first floor of the home, did a ton of work on the outside of the house, adding a pretty large fence around the property, and started work on the second floor once we found out that Isla was on her way! I was obsessed with our first floor. We literally had our dream kitchen. We had picked every paint color and floor stain. It was a complete open layout and perfect for entertaining, etc..
When I was about 8-months pregnant though, we knew we were eventually going to have to re-do the second floor of our home to re-design how the bedrooms were set up. Honestly, I think we figured we’d just figure that out in a few years when we were getting ready for baby 2. We were very over doing any renovations on the home for awhile.
At the time though, we were subscribed to our local realtor’s listings emails and one morning, Jeff turned to me and said “I think this is our home.” He showed me the listing (it was just a 5 minute drive from where we were living) and I knew we had to look at it, even though we hadn’t even been thinking about selling our home for a few years.
A week later, our house was on the market, we put in an offer on our new home, and a few months later, were moving into our new home!
I won’t get into all the nitty gritty details about selling and buying a home with a 2-month old. It’s hard – because at the time, in hindsight, I’d tell you that I don’t ever suggest putting yourself through that. But now that we’re all settled into our new home, I just look back on the experience as something we had to get through and that long-term, it was necessary.
How do you get to work?
By day, I run RPR, but by weekend, I blog on The New England Life. Which means, I’m commuting every day into Boston to our office. To get there, I take the ferry. Most people ask — “Well, isn’t it cold in the winter?” And many are surprised to hear that it’s not, because we sit in an enclosed area of the ferry, which is pretty toasty warm during the winter. During the summer, it is an a-mazing way to get to work and back, especially since there is a bar on board and I’ll often get a beer on Friday nights and enjoy it on the ferry’s back deck when it’s warm out.
Where are you from?
I grew up in Fairfield, CT!
How old are you?
I’m 31!
What’s your favorite brewery?
I’m a huge beer fan. I recently discovered Vitamin Sea Brewing in Weymouth, MA. It gets very crowded though on the weekends because the only day they are open is Saturdays from 12pm-8pm. And, have to give a shout-out to our local brewery, Untold Brewing. We actually went there tonight and ordered a few beers, brought our own pizza, and let Isla run wild.
Must-have newborn baby product?
100% the NoseFrida. Isla was born during cold season, so I always felt like she was congested and had a runny nose her first few months. She hated the NoseFrida, but it’s a safe way to help your baby out, especially at night when they’re having a hard time sleeping.
Favorite Boston coffee shop?
I LOVE Tatte Bakery. The owner has done such an amazing job with both the design of all of the cafes, as well as having an amazing cafe menu, from the cappuccinos, to matcha lattes, to the oh-so-delicious shakshuka. It’s my favorite place to meet people for coffee meetings, especially since they opened up a really convenient location near South Station, which is pretty centrally located for a lot of people who live either in the city or in the suburbs.
The good and the bad about owning a business?
Many people that follow me on IG know that I own RPR, a public relations, social media, and creative agency. For those that don’t, well now you do 🙂 That’s my full-time job, while my Instagram / blog is just a fun side hustle.
I’ll start with the good… It’s very exciting and rewarding seeing the work that my team does for our clients. When our clients succeed, it is such a great feeling, since we know we were an integral part of their success. And getting to pick and choose which clients we work with, having control over who works on the RPR team, creating my company’s own culture and policies… at the end of the day, I love looking at what my team has built and knowing that if we continue on the track we are on, the next few years will be super exciting.
The bad… it’s what every business owner deals with, no matter the industry. The stress of knowing you’re responsible for your employees’ livelihoods, dealing with difficult clients, having to wear a million different hats when you’re a small business (HR, new business, client management, accounting, etc), and never knowing when to clock-out.
At the end of the day though, I’m so passionate about what we do at RPR and I’m so obsesed with the team we’ve built, the pros outweigh the cons by a billion.
Where is RORY?!
He’s still here! Prior to Isla, of course, he was my number one fur baby at home. Now, with a 14-month old, my focus isn’t all on him anymore. Not to say he doesn’t receive attention, I just obviously have to share my attention! He doesn’t always like it, but he’s incredibly patient with Isla and calmed down a lot once she was born. It’s crazy to see how a dog’s behavior changes when you bring a newborn home. It’s like they KNOW they need to be on their best behavior and that there’s a precious little nugget that needs to be cared for.
What are Isla’s favorite snacks?
LOL – this one came from my dad. Her favorites right now are Cheerios, POPCORN, cheese sticks, strawberries, and goldfish.
What are you currently reading?
The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
Do you miss San Diego?
Sometimes! For those that don’t know, Jeff and I lived in San Diego for 3 years before moving back to New England. It was very much a growing phase of my life, as I felt like I needed some time to escape and start over with my personal and professional life. I’ll always love visiting San Diego, but don’t think I could live there again. I love the four seasons too much!
Tips for new bloggers trying to get noticed by brands and agencies?
Don’t be discouragred by your follower #. Often times, I’ll see micro-influencers get frustrated by growth and then do loop giveaways to see faster growth. Do. not. do. this!!!! Our agency obsessively looks at SocialBlade every day and can see when an influencer gains or loses a ton of followers and no matter how amazing your content is, if we see a huge jump in followers one day, we see that as fraud.
Now, on a more positive note… to get noticed, focus on quality content and use hashtags + geotags that’ll make it easy for us to find YOU. Whenever we do a new campaign at RPR for a brand, I’ll always take a look at the #bostonblogger hashtag to see if any new influencers popped up that we might be interested in working with, rather than using the same people over and over again.