A Cuppa With Molly Forbes

It’s always nice to sit down for a cuppa and a chat, doubly so today as we’re joined by the infectiously enthusiastic Molly Forbes. Won’t you join me while I pick her brains?

Hi Molly, why don’t you tell us a bit about your blogs

I blog at Mother’s Always Right and Roost. Mother’s Always Right is about my life as a mum with a strong emphasis on real life stories and opinions, interiors and travel. There’s a bit of everything in there! Roost is a collaborative interiors website and YouTube channel dedicated to stylish family living. It’s my newest baby and launched at the beginning of February. We have big plans for it this year!

What first inspired you to start blogging?

I started my blog when I was on maternity leave with my first daughter five years ago. It was an outlet for me to chat about all the things I was going through as a new mum that I couldn’t necessarily share with many of my friends who weren’t yet parents. I didn’t want to be a baby bore, yet I felt like there was so much I needed to say and get off my chest as I navigated this new role of motherhood. At the time I was on maternity leave from my job as a broadcast journalist for a radio station, so I hoped that the blog may become an online portfolio of sorts that I could use to pitch for writing work which I could do from home. I had no idea what I was letting myself in for though – blogging became about SO much more than the initial things I started it for!

What have been the high points of your blogging journey so far?

The biggest high point for blogging for me has been making some brilliant friends. No matter what the brand collaborations, travel opportunities and life-changing career changes it’s brought me, nothing can compare to the real life friends I now have through blogging. These are people I’ve shared holidays with, trips to the pub, New Year celebrations and much more. They’re people I’d never have known had I not started my little blog just over five years ago.

What do you find hard about being a blogger?

This answer will change depending on when you ask me! At the moment, my biggest challenge is time management. I have two young children, one is at school and the other is still at home with me (she’s 17 months old). Although my littlest goes to a childminder two mornings a week, and I have childcare help from my mum every other Wednesday, I still end up spending long evenings at my laptop. Something many brands (and people who don’t blog) often don’t understand or see is the hard work that goes on behind the scenes of a blog. The hours spent editing photos and videos, replying to emails, plugging posts on social media, replying to comments – not to mention the work that goes into actually creating content. It’s a labour of love, that’s for sure.

The other thing I find hard about being a blogger is that it can actually be a rather lonely existence. When you’re sitting at your laptop working in an office at home you don’t have anyone to bounce ideas with, like you do in an office environment at work. There are also times when it can feel a bit pointless – when you think no one’s reading or there’s just too much noise. In a regular job you’d have a bunch of colleagues to give you a kick up the backside and tell you to get on with it and buck up, but when you’re a blogger working at home in a potentially very competitive area, it can be easy to feel your confidence being sucked.

What are you excited about right now?

I’m REALLY excited about my new project Roost. I had the idea for it in the summer of 2015 and it took a good six months to get off the ground, working with a team of other dedicated bloggers and interiors experts. I’m SO pleased with how it’s been received so far, it makes all the hard work getting it started worth it. As well as a blogger, I’m a journalist specialising in interiors (I write for various lifestyle magazines), so it’s really great to be able to marry my “work hat” with my “blogger hat” in one fun project. We have a YouTube channel (Roost TV) which is proving great fun to work on, a curated shop where people can buy the products we recommend direct from our website, plus some very exciting spin-off projects planned for later in the year.

What is your top tip for a new blogger?

Do what you love – your passion will shine through and help you have an authentic online space you can be proud of. Write about what you’re passionate about – it’s far easier than faking enthusiasm you don’t really have! Work hard and don’t expect the rewards to come overnight. Jump in and engage with other bloggers – don’t be shy. Remain true to your own voice – it’s the one thing you have that no one else has. (Sorry, I know that’s more than one tip but I couldn’t help myself!)

Thanks for joining us Molly. Now quick, let’s finish off the biscuits before the kids see them!

Molly Forbes is a lifestyle journalist and blogger, living in South Devon with her husband and two young daughters. Molly’s been blogging for over five years at her family lifestyle blog Mother’s Always Right and has recently launched the collaborative interiors site and YouTube channel, Roost. As well as writing about interiors for various magazines, Molly also blogs for the UK’s largest parenting site BabyCentre. Molly loves hot cups of tea, cold glasses of wine and a bowl of posh salt and vinegar crisps.

You can find Molly on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook or chatting about family interiors as @roostblog on Twitter and Instagram.

[If you missed last month’s cuppa with Becky Goddard-Hill where we chatted about her 5 (yes, five!) blogs and her new shop then you can find it here.]