Coffee Date: Lauren Bryan Knight of Aspiring Kennedy

I had the pleasure of interviewing one of my favorite bloggers, Lauren Bryan Knight, of Aspiring Kennedy. Lauren’s blog is one of my favorites because of her beautiful photography chronicling her travels (I especially love her photos from Oxford because they remind me of my time there), her outfit and accessory suggestions, and her openness with her readers. Lauren’s sincerity is illustrated in her “meet the author” page she explains that, “Aspiring Kennedy started as a way to articulate my passions & make them prettier in Photoshop. But after countless posts of talking about what I love…it’s grown into so much more. {Who knew so many other people love things like YSL lip gloss, lemon tarts, & Roald Dahl?} After several years in luxury markets, I gave up my office, handed in my keys, and headed East with the love of my life. Our story continues in England. After one year of reveling in Oxford’s academia, we found ourselves in the daily hustle of London with a springtime in Paris on the horizon. Welcome to our adventure.”

Now that you’ve been properly introduced shall we proceed to the interview?

How did you come up with the idea or focal point for your blog? I’m not sure I have one main focal point for my blog. In fact, if someone has an idea for what it would be, I’d love to hear it. It’s really just feels like an outlet to show what I see in the world and how it looks to me.
If your blog had a mission statement what would it be? To enjoy every day- wherever you are. And if you aren’t in a place in life you enjoy- if you work hard enough at it, you’ll be somewhere better soon enough.
What advice would you give to people who have just started or would like to start a blog? Blog every day…. plan on spending more time on your blog than you want. Then after a while, stop obsessing & blog when it feels natural. Your blog will take a direction of its own, and you can just enjoy it for what it is after that point.
What forms of social media or widgets do you use to gain readers and followers? I’m the worst at this. I blog, I tweet, I pin, I have a Facebook page… but I figure after that, people are probably sick of me.
How have you been able to gain friendships with other bloggers? Commenting & emailing. I know it may seem like your comments aren’t noticed- but they are. Because of my travel schedule, I’m terrible at reading other blogs. But if I see an email from a name of a regular commenter, I will do everything I can to reply in a helpful manner. I’ve had dinner, given tours, sent gifts, etc to those people because I feel very loyal to them. In turn, I have made some great friendships.
What goals do have for your blog? To create something that my (imaginary) children can look at in time and say: My mom wasn’t lame. I also do it to remember. Our lives are so full of adventure, I honestly forget what we do unless I write it down. I love clicking back through the archives to read past entries.
How do you get inspiration for posts? Living in Europe it’s hard not to find beauty… sometimes, the hardest part is trying to sort through the beauty to find one idea to articulate.
One of my favorite parts of your blog is that you include personal moments like photo shoots with your husband and photos with your friends. How do you decide how much to put out into the blogosphere? That’s a really good question. I probably over-show, but that’s because my professional background was in PR. All I did in PR was push personal details to grow a connection to the public… With regards to other people- I typically show friends that have their own blogs or read mine enough to enjoy seeing themselves on it.
You have ads for J.Crew, the Sunglass Shop, and La Perla. How do you gain relationships with companies and begin featuring ads on your blog? I write Aspiring Kennedy for myself. When I meet people that read my blog, my response is always the same: “You do?! Why?” I can’t believe people actually read it- it is SO flattering. So I actually don’t pursue advertisers. If I get an email from a company that I actually love and has products that I like, I’ll work with them. If not… well, who cares?
You were featured in Heart and Home Magazine. How do you gain relationships with the press? Honestly, all the press mentions I have made are through blogging friends who have grown into press platforms. I think I started blogging at a sweet time- so many great people were just starting out and we all did it together. It was like, we all knew & read each other when no one else really was… so we stick together. Find bloggers that are in similar stages to you, and make relationships with them. You’ll grow together & be a good network.
Where do you blog? On hotel beds. 🙂
What is your favorite outfit? Something that makes my legs look long. I have the longest torso and the result is something similar to the Tasmanian devil. I really do love tights & flats.
Your blog says that you get paid to travel. What do you do? I direct study abroad programs for a US university. A semester in France, a summer in Scotland, an office in London, taking groups to the Olympics. It’s all in a day’s work…. Not only do I love getting to explore the UK & France, but I love the students. It’s the perfect job for me.
You feature such beautiful pictures on your blog how did you figure out how to format everything so beautifully? I hacked away at Photoshop & illustrator until it looked like I thought it should. I would look at editorial and fashion blogs and try my best to piece together something that looked similar. The truth is, I actually don’t know either programs that well… I just have figured out how to fake it. (And I take all my photos with my phone!)
You put together such beautiful outfits in your “wear” section. What type of program do you use to put these together? Illustrator! I’m quite proud of figuring this out… because it took many lessons of trial & error to get all the elements uncovered. 🙂