Photo of Jen by photographer Dave Wheeler

I first “met” Sydney-based British born Jen Bishop via email in 2008. She was rounding up people with specialist skills as expert contributors for Australia’s highest circulating small business magazine, Dynamic Business. She gave me the digital marketing gig and I followed her career since, quietly impressed with her meteoric rise in magazine publishing (well, more like green with envy really!). A few years later, I started to notice her tweets on interiors (and frequent visits to the gym) amongst all the news and business related updates she distributes on social media as magazine editor. I always wondered if this woman ever slept! That marked the start of her blogging journey and I was witness to the creation and evolution of Interiors Addict.

Fast forward 2012 and things changed dramatically in her career. The magazine closed its doors and Jen lost her job. In a recent interview with Cleo, she revealed the devastation of losing what seemed like an amazing career. That career was all she knew in Australia. But once she got over the shock, she realised she had to look at the positives.

I had my fiance, family, health, blog. Designers and entrepreneurs started telling me I should pursue my blog full time and although I’ve never been a risk-taker, I thought, ‘ Maybe, I can do it’.

Working for someone else was never an option. Losing a great job at the height of her career gave her the push needed to get out of her comfort zone, take the plunge into full time blogging and get paid for it. Now boasting 25,000 readers a month, Jen is designing her life and living the dream.

In this interview, I chat to Jen about her journey and her new life as brand custodian of Interiors Addict.

Tell us about Interiors Addict?

Interiors Addict is a leading Australian blog dedicated to interiors and homewares. It hopes to inspire the everyday “interiors addict” enthusiast to create a stylish home for themselves, whether they have the big bucks or not. It’s also a hub for industry news and interviews with the personalities behind the interior design, styling, homewares and furniture worlds. You can find photos of people’s real homes, the latest projects by the country’s top interior designers and everything from where the best sales are to how to inject personality into your living room or choose paint colours.

What was your inspiration for the blog? How did it all get started?

It all started less than two years ago as something just for me. I was always tweeting interiors-related finds and I wanted somewhere to keep all my images together (this was before I discovered Pinterest!) so I started a tumblr. Slowly but surely my friends started reading it, and then their friends, and then somehow it turned into something so much bigger. Even I’m not quite sure how! I now have 25,000 readers per month.

What does a typical day look like?

I get up and have coffee and check social media (as a blogger, that’s definitely work!), then I try and exercise before breakfast, either a long walk or interval training at the gym. I get started on my email on the walk home from the gym. I might spend the morning writing content or interviewing people and researching for the blog. I tend to keep afternoons for client work like social media consulting or ghost writing. Or I might be discussing a sponsored post partnership with a blog advertiser or sending invoices. As a one-man band you really do do everything! There are so many industry launches and parties, the evenings often involve some kind of networking event with a champagne in hand. My biggest challenge is finding enough hours in the day!