You might have heard of the popular blog “Coming Up Roses”, founded by the inspiring and fashionable Erica Ligenza. I had the pleasure of meeting Erica at HerConference last summer, where she was a panelist. I saw her in the lobby, and she had the CUTEST pair of Valentino knock-offs on. So I had to ask her where the heck she got them, because I think we could all use a pair of those beauties. And we got to talking, and I got to hear more of her story.

Erica is 23, a full-time fashion and lifestyle blogger, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. Her story and advice are enough to make you want to stop everything and make your dreams come to life.

1. Tell us about your story and how you got to where you are now.

“I started Coming Up Roses beginning of sophomore year, and I had been writing for my school’s fashion magazine. I loved the creativity it allowed for, but I hated the editing experience. The editors would add their own creative flare to it, and “my work” didn’t even sound like me. Because this process was no longer fun for me, I was led to think I should start my own thing.

So that’s why I started my blog, Coming Up Roses. I wrote on it once a week, and I would post every Wednesday as a hump day pick-me-up. I wanted something that would be uplifting, fun and joyful. It was not professional or really good quality at all, and I really didn’t know what I was doing (you can tell in the archives). Then I got to the point where I was loving it, and once a week wasn’t enough for me. This led me to write three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and this is when things were really picking up. Brands were noticing me more because of my consistency. Once I was approaching graduation, I realized that I could take blogging full time if I wanted to. Now here we are, over a year later from making that decision.”

2. How has your life differed from working on your blog in college vs. out of college?

“As I was approaching graduation, I remember thinking the one thing I needed was time. In college, you’re trying to juggle all of these different avenues (sororities, clubs, and extracurriculars). However, I know bloggers who work a 9-5 job and also blog and have kids, so it really comes down to scheduling yourself. I know if I want to be free after 5:00 and hang out with my husband or friends, than that means I have to wake up earlier to write, edit or respond to emails.

I’ve found through all of these experiences, organization is key. Even though I have “more time” to work on this blog because I’m doing it full-time, I’m married and have friends and family so I have to make sure I prioritize relationships ahead of work. If I know a deadline is coming three weeks from now, and if I know I have a day dedicated to something, I just tell myself, I have to do this. Push through. Have discipline.“ 

3. Staying disciplined is certainly necessary to your career. Did you have to learn this lesson the hard way?

“If I procrastinate a post, I have to literally wake up at 6am and do every element from start to finish to stay on schedule. It took enough mornings of hitting snooze and being late, being miserable waking up that early in the morning, or even getting sick from a lack of sleep, that I had to say enough is enough. I need to plan my time better. And if I know I need to get this done, I need to plan a more effective work schedule instead of being up at 6-o-clock in the morning.”

4. Tell us another career hurdle you had to overcome.

“There are a couple. One ongoing struggle that most content creators have is it’s not a transparent business. It’s not like being a doctor where you have a specific path to follow, and you can’t Google what you’re supposed to be making or charging.

It’s mostly being able to create your own path and vision, get lucky on the way, and meet the right people. It kind of feels most of the time like you are winging it. I get comments like ‘You are such a boss! You so have your life together!’, but there’s nothing that’s going to tell you the standard. This is difficult for me because I am very Type A and I want to know the standard so I can meet it and excel.

It also can be difficult to navigate partnerships with brands because influencer marketing is a relatively new field. Some people get it and others don’t. It can be challenging when people think you should work for free or for product. But that doesn’t go away, no matter where you are in the journey. You have to toughen your skin and carry on.”

5. What has been your greatest victory throughout your career?

“If a brand offers me my raise or more than my raise than that’s obviously a huge win. But I think what means more to me is the community aspect of blogging. Being on the panel at HerConference was a life changing moment for me, just because you can get used to being on your computer by yourself in your house with your cats, and you forget about the personal connection with your readers. It’s so easy to become obsessed with the numbers and forget that they are real people.To be in a room with people who actually read the blog and have people come up to me is amazing, because I started it with the intention to inspire people and be a virtual girlfriend.

I was bullied throughout grade school and there were so many points where I didn’t have any friends, so I started this with the intention of creating a positive place, where if somebody was alone sitting in their dorm room and thinking ‘Man I have no friends, my life sucks’, I want this to be a platform where they think ‘I’ll just email Erica. Or I’ll just go on Coming Up Roses. I know she’ll give me something to make me feel better or make me smile or have something fun to do’. For me to meet people in person that echo those feelings make what I am doing such a victory. I feel that’s how I’m meant to serve other people.”

6. What drives you to blog?

“I mean it really is to help and inspire other people. When I publish any post, it’s my goal to have a helpful or tactical takeaway. Sometimes I’ll want to make somebody laugh, or a real-talk that makes you feel like you can take on the day. If it’s more style focus, it could be a new trend to try. But I never want it to be like ‘Here’s a new trend to try, and I like it’. I want it to be, ‘Here’s what I am wearing, here’s how it will work for you. Here’s what you can pair it with in your closet, here’s how to style it, here it is on sale, and here’s a coupon so you can buy three more colors.’ I want to enrich somebody’s life in some way no matter what the context is, where it can be worth the time of their day.”

7. I love how you are others-focused. What’s the importance of keeping that outlook in such a “me” focused world?

“I really encourage other girls who are starting a blog to start out that way. As harsh as it may sound, nobody cares and nobody knows who you are. This is similar to walking into a coffee date with someone you’ve never met before and saying ‘lemme tell you about me’. It’s not going to fly. You have to build a relationship first so people will be interested in knowing more about you.

It’s the difference between walking up to someone and saying ‘Look how cute my shoes are’ and ‘these are my shoes. Do you like them? If so, they would look really good with those jeans in your closet, or if you want let me show you a lipstick to go with it too that’s in your collection already, and it’ll change your life’.

8. Many college students are unsure of what they want to do with their lives. In that retrospect, what is your advice to those still on the search?

“My process was backwards in a sense. I thought about what I couldn’t do, which led me to what I could do. I thought about if I could be a doctor, but I knew I fainted at the sight of blood. Then I thought well maybe I’ll be a marine biologist, but I don’t want to move to sea world and be away from my family. So it’s a process of what sounds good, analyzing it with a fine tooth comb and relating to your values.

To be honest, I started thinking about my post grad life in high school because I knew it was about the long game for me, where I knew I wanted to be married and have kids but also have a sort of “boss” life. I knew I wanted to raise my own kid and not put my own kid in daycare all day. I knew my values when those times would come.

9. How did your college years reveal what you want to do with your life?

I had two internships the summer after my freshman year, where I did social media marketing for a startup and I worked in a boutique. This led me to start crossing things off my list of what I liked and did not like. Then sophomore year summer I started a corporate marketing internship. I knew I was very fast paced, and I’d want to implement my ideas right then and there. Instead of doing this, I’d hear ‘No, we need to see check with so and so’ and then the idea never gets accomplished. So then I knew corporate wasn’t my thing.

I then worked for a consulting business that was more along the lines of brand strategy. And I loved how creative it was, but I knew it was more numbers based. So I narrowed it down on the bigger scale, and then down to the nitty gritty details. This is the best approach I could’ve taken, which very quickly led me to want to be my own boss and do my own thing, which led me to entrepreneurship.”

You can find Erica’s blog at https://cominguprosestheblog.com/.

And make sure to follow along with her on Instagram and Facebook.