Don’t you love when creatives pull back the velvet curtains to show you sneak peeks of what it really takes to run their businesses?

I have to admit that it’s one of my favorite things.

And, that’s what this month’s tag is all about.

If you missed the tag experiment that I started last month, you can check out all the details here. Basically, I’m coming up with a topic, asking questions, answering those questions and then tagging others to answer them on their blogs.

When I announced it last month, I said that I would continue it the next month if the first was successful. More people than I could’ve imagined participated so I’m deeming it successful.

So, here we go with round two and it’s all about spilling the jellybeans about your business—letting your readers see what happens behind the scenes.

THIS BLOG TAG TOPIC: Behind the Scenes of My Business

Here are the questions and my answers for this topic:

Question 1: What’s your two to three sentence bio? (You know, what the heck do you do?)

April Bowles-Olin is a writer, creative business consultant, marketing strategist, and photography dabbler.  She wants to live in a world where artists and makers adore their blogs, write with confidence and know how to get their unique work in front of people who love it—and scramble for their credit cards because they just ‘have to have it.’

Question 2: What’s your favorite part of your job?

Teaching in all forms—through blogging, online courses and speaking to live audiences.

Question 3: What’s your least favorite part of your job?

Technical stuff like website coding. Yuck! That’s why I hire it out.

Question 4: What are the top three tools you use the most in your work?

Macbook Pro, Dell 27-inch monitor, and Nikon D90

Question 5: What business goal would you love to reach before the end of the year?

Have 15,000+ live viewers for my next CreativeLive courses. RSVP right here to watch live for FREE and help me reach my goal.

Question 6: Who are three creatives that inspire you?

Mayi Carles, Bonnie Christine, and Austin Kleon

Question 7: What do you listen to (if anything) while you work?

Music (some favorites: Train, Florence + The Machine, and Third Eye Blind) and podcasts (some favorites: The Unmistakable Creative and Online Marketing Made Easy with Amy Porterfield)

Question 8: Morning person or night owl?

Night owl.

Question 9: How many employees do you have and what are the main things they do for you?

None. I hire out when needed like with web design, videography, and accounting.

Question 10: What’s your favorite social media platform?

Instagram—love seeing bits of peoples’ lives and businesses through visuals.

Question 11: What’s your least favorite social media platform?

LinkedIn. I haven’t checked that site in over a year. I’ve been considering just deleting my profile.

Question 12: What works best when it comes to marketing your business?

Building my email list.

Question 13: What’s one thing about your business that your blog readers probably don’t know?

I make the least amount of money from one-on-one consulting even though I charge $495 per consulting client and the most amount of money from online courses.

Question 14: If your business were a fashion accessory, what would it be?

This camera bag in caramel—chic, well made, and traditional seeming on the outside with lots of flair on the inside.

Question 15: What’s your top tip for someone who wants to do something similar to you for a career?

Spend time every day (just ten or fifteen minutes works) building genuine connections.

I’m tagging these 6 people to answer these questions in a blog post (via video or text) on their blogs:

1. Rebecca Nash because she was the very first person to participate last month and I’d love to see how she answers these questions.
2. Sarah Shotts because she’s a League of Supers rockstar. If you don’t know what that is, you’re not in the cool crowd. Just kidding. (Kinda)
3. Amanda Creek because I’m really enjoying the connection we’re making via the comments on Blacksburg Belle.
4. Michael Nelson because we connected through my course on CreativeLive and I think she’s awesome.
5. Richelle Shadoan because she attended my last CreativeLive course and has been making changes to her business and blog ever since.
6. YOU! Tag, you’re it.

Here’s how you play:

1. Copy and paste the questions below and then answer them and publish as a blog post. Or, record a video answering these questions and upload it to your blog post.

2. At the bottom of your post, tag anywhere from 2-10 bloggers you want to see answer these questions. (I also suggest hitting up your tagged people via social media just to let them know you tagged them to do this tag challenge.)

3. Use the title: Behind the Scenes of My Business Blog Tag. Once you’ve hit publish, leave a comment below with the link to your post.

4. Use the hashtag #MyBizBlogTag when sharing on social media so we can all find your awesome posts!

As you can see from my answers, your answers can be super short.

If you want an intro to include at the beginning or end of your post, here’s one:

This blog post is a part of the ‘Behind the Scenes of My Business’ Blog Tag started by April of Blacksburg Belle. She began this blog tag experiment to build community among creatives, help us bloggers to connect more and get to know each other better. This month’s topic is all about sharing the behind the scenes stuff of our businesses. If you’d like to participate or want more info, check out this post right here.

(Disclaimer: It’s totally cool to NOT participate if I tagged you and you either: don’t want to do it or don’t have the time. You won’t totally crush my feelings.)

Easily copy and paste the questions below OR read when you film your video:

Question 1: What’s your two to three sentence bio? (You know, what the heck do you do?)

Question 2: What’s your favorite part of your job?

Question 3: What’s your least favorite part of your job?

Question 4: What are the top three tools you use the most in your work?

Question 5: What business goal would you love to reach before the end of the year?

Question 6: Who are three creatives that inspire you?

Question 7: What do you listen to (if anything) while you work?

Question 8: Morning person or night owl?

Question 9: How many employees do you have and what are the main things they do for you?

Question 10: What’s your favorite social media platform?

Question 11: What’s your least favorite social media platform?

Question 12: What works best when it comes to marketing your business?

Question 13: What’s one thing about your business that your blog readers probably don’t know?

Question 14: If your business were a fashion accessory, what would it be?

Question 15: What’s your top tip for someone who wants to do something similar to you for a career?

Working by yourself from home can get a tad lonely.

When you say you blog, your in-real-life friends think you’re one of those weird internet people. So you don’t talk about it.

You can’t tell anyone that your business idol retweeted one of your hilarious tweets cause they just wouldn’t understand even though it made your entire day.

You can’t explain why you’ve stayed in your pajamas for two straight days, not showering cause you’ve finally figured out exactly what you want to sell and you’ve been in a creating frenzy. When you’re in the flow, you can’t stop. You just can’t. But, your nine-to-five friend won’t understand.

One of my goals for Blacksburg Belle this year was to build more community aspects—the stuff that connects each of us together. The bloggers, artists, creatives, life coaches, jewelry makers and writers who understand what you’re going through cause they’ve experienced similar things: blogs being hacked, hateful customers, feeling like a fraud, loads of doubt, excitement over that first sale, feeling like you’re gonna vomit when you realize someone actually gave you money for your ebook or necklace, and the need for more and more Instagram likes.

So, I’m starting an experiment today and I’d love to invite you to play.

Introduction time.

Have you heard of BookTube? It’s this really awesome community of people who discuss books on YouTube. I found it a month ago and I can’t get enough. I love reading and discussing books. If you’re not familiar with the BookTube community, it’s okay cause the only reason I’m telling you about it is because they make these fun “tag videos” where each booktuber discusses something specific like their favorite book couples or the worst books they’ve ever read. At the end of the discussion, they tag other booktubers to film a video discussing the topic to add to the conversation.

Basically, it’s just a way to get the community talking about a specific topic at the same time while getting to know each other better. Pretty cool, right?

Well, I’m gonna take that concept and pull it into the creative blogging world.

I’m going to pick a topic related to creative businesses or the people who run those creative businesses, make up some questions about that topic, answer them and then tag other people to answer them on their blogs.

If they accept, they either write their answers or film a video answering the questions, and publish it on their blogs with the tag title. Then, they tag other bloggers they want to see answer the questions.

That way, we’re getting to know each other even better, talking about some of the same topics at the same time and connecting on a more personal level.

If you’re at all confused, you’ll see what I mean shortly. Keep reading. (Who knows…I might’ve tagged you!)

THIS BLOG TAG TOPIC: 20 Things You Might Not Know About Me

I thought it was only fitting that we start by getting to know some of our favorite bloggers and each other much more personally.

Here are the questions and my answers for this topic.

Question 1: How tall are you?

Answer: 5’3”. I’m short. When my husband and I first met, he used to call me shorty cause he’s a foot taller than me. Romantic nickname, right? Not!

Question 2: Do you have a hidden talent? If so, what?

I’m double-jointed. Does that count?

Question 3: What’s your biggest blog-related pet peeve?

Having to “sign in” to comment. I don’t want to jump through hoops to add to your conversation or tell you that I love your post.

Question 4: What’s your biggest non-blog related pet peeve?

People who blow their noses at the table when people are still eating. GROSS. ME. OUT.

Question 5: What’s your favorite song?

Ice, Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice. Cheesy? Yes, but I can’t help but dance every single time I hear it.

Question 6: What’s your favorite Etsy shop that isn’t yours?

Coco and Bubbles—best candles ever. Favorite scent: Lavender + Vanilla.

Question 7: What’s your favorite way to spend your free time when you’re alone?

Reading young adult books.

Question 8: What’s your favorite junk food?

Potato chips of basically any flavor.

Question 9: Do you have a pet or pets? If so, what kind and what are their names?

Three dogs, all lab mixes and their names are Kaya, Max and Dubbya (Yep, like as in the president, George W cause we thought he was a tad mentally slow when he was born. My husband named him and I laughed harder than I have in my entire life when he came up with that name. Obviously, we were meant to be.)

Question 10: What are your number one favorite nonfiction and fiction books?

Fiction: The Time Traveler’s Wife

Nonfiction: Eat, Pray, Love

Question 11: What’s your favorite beauty product or tool?

The bombshell. It’s a curling iron.

Question 12: When were you last embarrassed? What happened?

About a week ago, the police and animal control were outside of our house because we called them when we found a dog roaming around the neighborhood and couldn’t find his home. No tag. It was embarrassing because neighbors were staring like we were in trouble or doing something crazy. Mind your business, people.

Question 13: If you could only drink one beverage (besides water) for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Honest tea. My preciousssss.

Question 14: What’s your favorite movie?

The Little Mermaid.

Question 15: What were you in high school: prom queen, nerd, cheerleader, jock, valedictorian, band geek, loner, artist, prep?

Cheerleader.

Question 16: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

Blacksburg, VA. Go Hokies!

Question 17: PC or Mac?

Mac for life.

Question 18: Last romantic gesture from a crush, date, boy/girlfriend, spouse?

Husband brought me flowers today cause he’s sweet like that.

Question 19: Favorite celebrity?

Chelsea Handler cause she’s hilarious.

Question 20: What blogger do you secretly want to be best friends with?

Kris Carr.

I’m tagging these ten people to do this ’20 Things You Might Not Know About Me’ Blog Tag by answering these same questions in a blog post:

1. Mayi Carles cause she’s one of my bestest friends and I still don’t know all of her answers from these questions.

2. Kris with a K cause I think we’d totally be friends in real life and I wanna know her even better.

3. Jessica Swift cause I can’t get enough of her art. LOVE IT so very much! And, she’s such a bubbly, sweet person. All around awesome.

4. Lisa Lehmann cause I love her personal-ish blog posts. And, she creates the most beautiful jewelry for our world.

5. Sage Grayson cause she’s adorable, smart and so much fun.

6. Bonnie from Going Home to Roost cause we recently connected via creativeLIVE (thank you, Bryan), her course was AMAZING and I’d love to know her better.

7. Meghan from Meghan G Photography cause she recently left her day job to go full-time with her business! Yay Meghan! (And, who doesn’t wanna know their photographer a little bit better before signing a contract to photograph the most romantic day of their life?)

8. Emily from Indieshopography cause she seriously cracks me up on a regular basis. I wanna know how she’d answer some of these questions.

9. Jennifer Kennedy from Create Amazing Online Courses cause she’s super sweet and I loved getting know her when she attended my creativeLIVE course.

10. YOU! Tag, you’re it.

Here’s how you play:

1. Copy and paste the questions below and then answer and turn them into a blog post. Or, record a video answering these questions and upload it to your blog post.

2. At the bottom of your post, tag anywhere from 2-10 bloggers you want to see answer these questions. (I also suggest hitting up your tagged people via social media just to let them know you tagged them to do this tag challenge.)

3. Use the title: 20 Things You Might Not Know About Me Blog Tag. Once you’ve hit publish, leave a comment below with the link to your post.

4. Use the hashtag #20ThingsBlogTag when sharing on social media so we can all find your awesome posts!

As you can see from my answers, your answers can be super short.

If you want an intro to include at the beginning or end of your post, here’s one:

This blog post is a part of the ’20 Things You Might Not Know About Me’ Blog Tag started by April from Blacksburg Belle. She began this blog tag experiment to build community among creatives, help us bloggers to connect more and get to know each other better. This month’s topic is all about sharing just a little too much information about yourself. If you’d like to participate or want more info, check out the beginning post right here.

Let’s get to know each other and build the best community vibe ever.

(Disclaimer: It’s totally cool to NOT participate if I tagged you and you either: don’t want to do it or don’t have the time. You won’t totally crush my feelings.)

Easily copy and paste the questions below OR read when you film your video:

Question 1: How tall are you?

Question 2: Do you have a hidden talent? If so, what?

Question 3: What’s your biggest blog-related pet peeve?

Question 4: What’s your biggest non-blog related pet peeve?

Question 5: What’s your favorite song?

Question 6: What’s your favorite Etsy shop that isn’t yours?

Question 7: What’s your favorite way to spend your free time when you’re alone?

Question 8: What’s your favorite junk food?

Question 9: Do you have a pet or pets? If so, what kind and what are their names?

Question 10: What are your number one favorite nonfiction and fiction books?

Question 11: What’s your favorite beauty product?

Question 12: When were you last embarrassed? What happened?

Question 13: If you could only drink one beverage (besides water) for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Question 14: What’s your favorite movie?

Question 15: What were you in high school: prom queen, nerd, cheerleader, jock, valedictorian, band geek, loner, artist, prep?

Question 16: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

Question 17: PC or Mac?

Question 18: Last romantic gesture from a crush, date, boy/girlfriend, spouse?

Question 19: Favorite celebrity?

Question 20: What blogger do you secretly want be best friends with?

If this goes well, I might make this a monthly thing (while tagging new people and choosing a new topic each time) for the next six months or so to build community.

If it flops, oh well. This could be the first and last. I’m experimenting!