School of Rock (n Roll Bride): A Review

November 29, 2011

Last Friday was my first School of Rock (n Roll Bride), organised by Cherry Sorbet. I was asked if I’d take part in their Cyber Savvy series and host a workshop all about blogging. So, still slightly full of flu, I got myself to the gorgeous Drink, Shop & Do in Kings Cross with photographer Shell de Mar in tow to document the event for me.

I’ll be honest I was seriously nervous beforehand (the thought of public speaking brings me out in cold sweats), but I needn’t have been. The 20 attendees were all gorgeous and wonderful and lovely. It was just like hanging out and chatting with a big bunch of mates over tea and cake. I loved it!

I’ve also realised that I talk with my hands a lot. I’m surprised I didn’t smack anyone in the face…

The workshop is primarily aimed at people who want to blog as a business (i.e. how to have a blog that is your sole income) however we had attendees at this one who wanted to blog to support another business (i.e wedding photographers/stationers/designers) as well as some who just wanted to blog for fun!

The topics covered included how I got started as a wedding blogger, finding your voice, being yourself & knowing what to blog about, building readership, leveraging social media, keeping on top of your workload and creating a schedule, image use and copyright, building a brand, making money & taking on advertisers and dealing with the not so nice bits…

As you can see it was quite a lot to pack into a two hour workshop but we managed it! All the attendees asked some great questions and I hope they all left feeling as inspired as I did after chatting to them all.

Some tweets and feedback from the attendees:

@biffyarespiffy “I was tickled pink (literally!) to meet Rock n Roll Bride and all the other lurvly workshoppers yesterday…the room was bursting with inspiration! I’ve definitely got my writing-mojo back”

@shelldemar “I know I talk to Rock n Roll Bride pretty much everyday but I was genuinely inspired by her talk today. Love you missus you did so well!”

Claire Jackson (via facebook) “You saying how you felt when you met Gala Darling was like me meeting you Kat…I was totally in awe, so apologies if I seemed…errmm…flustered at any point. You’re just a normal, lovely down to earth gal like the rest of us tho so there was absolutely no need to be nervous!”

Charlie Loves Lucy via email “I just wanted to email to say a massive thank you! I just got in from School of Rock (n Roll Bride) and you were brilliant. Wise, funny, lovely and best of all very honest. I’ve come away with much more of a sense of direction as to how I should go about deciding what to post on my little site’s blog, as well as more consideration of the feel I’d like to put across.”

Awww! Thank you all of you. Now stop it, you’ll give me a big head!

The December School of Rock (n Roll Bride) is sold out but fret not, Gareth & I have been scheming and dreaming up plans for expanding the workshops for 2012…and maybe even doing a mini UK tour (!) We don’t have anything concrete in place yet but be rest assured doing more of these events is one of my 2012 goals!

I’d love to know where you think I should take this little tour and if you’d be interesting in attending a School of Rock (n Roll Bride). Let me know in the comments that this isn’t a totally cray cray idea would ya? If we did take the workshop nationwide I might need help finding venues and stuff… if any of you fancy hooking me up then drop me an email. Let’s make this happen!

Thanks to Jo for organising this first event and to Shell for taking the photos! I love how smiley everyone is…that’s a good sign huh?

Photography Credit: Shell de Mar Photography