Jen Saunders is the blogger/chief editor behind Wild Sister, which is a monthly online magazine geared towards empowering and inspiring women, and MySmilingHeart, Jen's personal blog. The Wild Sister concept as explained by Jen is that the 'Wild' part refers to a woman accepting herself for who she is(all the good and the bad or the perfect and the imperfect) and live a life that she wants, i.e. not let your society dictate what you do and the 'Sister' part defines a banding together of like minded people, a covenant if you will.Each issue of the magazine is generally based upon a theme and offers inspirational articles, words of wisdom and tips for a more fulfilling and joyous life. The articles are written by a group of writers who are writers, artists, poets and mums etc., who have been carefully selected by Jen herself.
On MySmilingHeart too she shares her personal views on living life to the fullest and in the most fulfilling way. As she herself quotes on her blog - "I’m finally finding my own voice, getting in touch with my soul and letting my light shine.My Smiling Heart is where I come to dance with words, paint with love, connect with kindred spirits, bare my soul and listen to what my heart has to tell me." Read on to find out more about Jen and her passion:
Hello Jen, Please introduce yourself, Wild Sister and My Smiling Heart to our readers.
Hi there! As a painter, writer and Empowerment Artist, I'm passionate about inspiring women to love themselves, follow their hearts and change the world.
I’m the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of Wild Sister (http://wildsister.com/), a monthly online magazine and community for women who are changing the world. Created and written by artists, coaches, mamas, seekers, bloggers, lovers, creatives, gypsies, entrepeneurs, muses, and authors, Wild Sister is positive media. We focus on promoting self-love, inner exploration, sisterhood, and empowerment.
My Smiling Heart (http://mysmilingheart.org/) is my personal blog that I’ve been writing since 2010. I started it as a way to keep a journal of my experiences living in China for a year, and since then it has grown into a positivity and self-development resource for people all over the world.
What was the motivation to start Wild Sister as an empowerment magazine for women? Do you have a story to share with us?
Living in China, I often felt very isolated and I experienced some tough times early on, and one of the things that helped me through it was reading positive blogs, such as Positively Present, Kind Over Matter, Roots Of She, The Kind Life, and Goddess Guidebook. I was also blogging at My Smiling Heart, and I started connecting online with some of the women who wrote my favourite blogs.
I thought it would be awesome if all my favourite inspirational female blogger could collaborate somehow, and the idea of creating a women’s empowerment e-magazine was sparked not long after.
As the editor-in-chief of Wild Sister and the blogger behind My Smiling Heart what according to you is the ideal frequency of posts on a blog? Can you give our readers any tips on how best to judge this for a given blog?
When I first started blogging, I did maybe two to three posts a week. But I was in China at the time, I only knew a small group of people in the city, and during Winter the temperature reached -30 degrees Celcius and lower, so I had a lot of time to devote to writing.
Since I started Wild Sister Magazine and have been back home in Australia, I haven’t had the time to blog as often as I used to – now I average maybe one post a week.
It’s always good to post regularly, but I think it depends on what you want to do and why you want to write a blog. If you want to tell your story and grow your readership, then posting regularly – at least once a week – is best. Again, it’s up to you. I know very successful bloggers who post every day, and other equally successful bloggers who only post once a week. Find what feels right for you.
How did you go about banding together the regular contributors to Wild Sister? What were some of the difficulties that you faced in getting the site to fruition?
I had been guest posting on some of my favourite blogs for a while and as a result had become friends with many inspiring women. When I had the idea for Wild Sister Magazine, I immediately asked many of my favourite female bloggers to be regular contributors, and almost everyone said yes. We also publish around 5-10 submissions from readers in every issue.
I use Wordpress to run both the My Smiling Heart and Wild Sister sites, and once I figured out how to navigate it and understand it all there were no difficulties at all.
What is the biggest compliment that you have received since you started Wild Sister?
I’m always so blown away when a woman emails/tweets/blogs/vlogs about how much they love Wild Sister, but the biggest compliment I ever receive is when a woman thanks Wild Sister for inspiring her or for helping her through a hard time.
That said, the fact that so many women love Wild Sister enough to buy it every month or subscribe for a year is compliments enough for me!
Which other bloggers/writers do you admire or draw inspiration from and why?
So many! I love Gabby Bernstein (http://gabbyb.tv/), Danielle LaPorte (http://www.daniellelaporte.com/), Lori Deschene (http://tinybuddha.com/), Dani (http://www.positivelypresent.com/), Brenda Rodriguez (http://loveinfinitely.org/), Amanda Oaks (http://www.kindovermatter.com/), Leonie Dawson (http://www.goddessguidebook.com/), Rhonda Hertzel (http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com.au/), Amanda de Cadenet (http://www.theconversation.tv/), Alicia Silverstone (http://www.thekindlife.com/#) and countless more!
These women inspire me because they are dedicated to being a positive force in the world. They are working hard to get where they want to be without pulling anyone down in the process. They are using their lives to add more kindness and love to the world. They follow their hearts and encourage other women to do the same.
Let us have a rapid fire round:
Tea or coffee? Tea. (Especially chai!)
Blogger or Wordpress? Wordpress.
1 deep secret no one knows about you? (We will only publish it!)
I don’t really have any secrets that no-one knows about – I’m terrible at keeping secrets!
What motivates you to keep you going?
Passion. Inspiration. Knowing that I can make a difference. All the amazing women in our Wild Sisterhood.
Your favourite quote?
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ~ Howard Thurman
Your favourite blogging tool?
Wordpress. It has everything I need and more to create a website and blog without any experience or techy know-how. I love it!
How do you like to spend your spare time? What activities do you enjoy when you are not working on Wild Sister and My Smiling Heart?
I am a huge movie buff, so one of my favourite things to do is go to the movies with my family or get comfy on the couch with my husband and a DVD. I absolutely love painting, reading, cooking, and spending as much time as possible with the people I love.
What are your future plans for Wild Sister and My Smiling Heart? Do you plan on introducing new modules/eCourses on Wild Sister? Do you plan to go into a printed version of the eMagazine?
At the moment I just want to keep improving Wild Sister and making each issue better than the last. I just recently created the Wild Sisterhood (http://wildsister.com/wild-sisterhood-2/), an online community for readers that also serves as a subscription to the magazine. I had planned to eventually go into print versions, but I love that Wild Sister is completely eco-friendly as an e-magazine so at the moment it’s still being considered.
As for My Smiling Heart, I’d like to offer more of my art sometime in the future but for now I’m happy with everything the way it is.
What advice would you like to offer to aspiring bloggers and entrepreneurs?
The best advice I could give is to do what makes you happy and don’t give up.
Thank you Jen for taking the time for this interview, we wish you and Wild Sisters the very best for the future.
You can read more about Wild Sister at:
Website
We also publish around 5-10 submissions from readers in every issue.