How the Young House Love Bloggers Turned Their Hobby into a Career

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• October 14, 2011
• By Jaclyn Schiff
• 31 Comments

So there’s this awesome job, the sort of job you’d just die to land (and tell your friends about)! But the awesome job isn’t nearly like the job you have now. So how do you make it from current job to awesome job?

In our podcast series, we’re hoping to provide insights and answers to that very question. We talk to young people who have amazing jobs or are doing something really cool and interesting and ask them how they did it. So listen along for good information and some inspiration, too.

Awesome, true story alert!

There’s this young couple who just bought their first home. It’s a fixer-upper to say the least, but the young couple are excited to dive in and make it their own. So they start documenting their DIY projects for their friends and family.  Before you know it, their blog starts growing, gets a lot of press attention, they turn it into a business, quit their jobs and work on it full time!

Whew. And it really did happen just like that.

Luckily, I got to interview one-half of the Young House Love couple (Sherry) to hear the story piece-by-piece and learn exactly what it is like to be a full-time blogger.

“It was completely my husband’s idea and I was like, ‘That’s weird!’” Sherry said of the blog’s humble beginnings. But eventually she changed her mind.

They started off by slowly selling ad space and after a little bit of money started rolling in, Sherry decided it was time to focus more on the blog. “I took a huge pay cut to do it. It was more like we’ll just see where this goes and after a year, it probably won’t work and I’ll go back to copywriting,” she said.

But of course, several years later, she’s still blogging and not copywriting.

Listen to the interview below (or download it) to hear more about their story.

 Sherry & John Petersik

Oh! And I couldn’t resist including this adorable video of John playing with their sweet little one-year old Clara. Enjoy!

Jaclyn Schiff is managing editor of Brazen Life. When she’s not Brazenly thinking about careers, she can often be found writing or tweeting about obscure diseases or media trends.

Brazen Life is a lifestyle and career blog for ambitious young professionals. Hosted by Brazen Careerist, we offer edgy and fun ideas for navigating the changing world of work. Be Brazen!