Ella Dvornik is a Quitter

Ella Dvornik Is A Quitter

Member Name: Ella Dvornik

Occupation: Travel and Lifestyle Blogger

Job She Quit: Mobile Advertising Account Manager

Ella found her way into Fohr Card’s Quitter’s Club in 2015 when she decided to fully invest into her travel and lifestyle blog I Am Ella. Just a year into her full-time career as a writer and model, Ella has travelled the world while working with brands like Converse, Pepsi, Radisson Blu and Rimmel London. Oh yeah, and she was just voted one of the top three lifestyle blogs in the UK.

Camp Time: “There’s a camp called Luethi-Peterson Camps that was founded during the post-war ‘50s so kids from different nationalities could meet for one month. My mom sent me there when I was eight, and there were kids from different cities speaking different languages like Korean. I’d never seen an Asian before, and it was so exciting for me to see all of these different people. I was away from my family for a month and I had no problem. My mom sent me for three years, and after that I always really, really, really loved just going somewhere different.”

Just Start Blogging: “People started following me on social media for no reason. I was just posting statuses and stupid stuff. My boyfriend travelled for business and I was just spamming people with these holiday pictures, and everyone started unfollowing me. It was like, ‘Oh, again, her on the fucking beach.’ And my boyfriend, he’s like, ‘Oh my God, you can’t post so many pictures. Why don’t you just start a blog or something so you can post all of your stuff there?’”

Not So Easy: “When I started, I thought I was going to have a lot of readers because I already had a lot of followers. But I was wrong because my topic wasn’t relevant to them. And then I had to do what everyone else was doing: I had to start from the beginning and create a completely new follower base. So I started concentrating more on the US and Great Britain, and Switzerland and Germany, and all of these demographics that are interested in traveling. It took me a year, which is actually not that bad. But I was all day every day into groups, emails, everything I could possibly do to attract followers.”

The Quit Decision: “Eventually I had to quit my job because I realized that if I don’t get myself 24/7 into this, it’s never going to happen. Obviously, I had some savings and everything. But the thing was that the moment when I decided to quit my job was the moment that I decided, ‘Okay, I need to make money from this now.’”

Go Big Or Go Home: “I got in touch with a couple of brands. I decided I don’t want to do street style anymore because I’m really bad at it, and I don’t want to go somewhere where my expenses aren’t paid. So I invested further, and I got a professional photographer, an editor, a makeup artist, a hairstylist, a studio, like, whatever you can imagine. I figured I’m going to start doing editorial photo shoots, because maybe it’s worth a little bit more to people. And that’s when things started happening for me.”

Break Free: “If you look at someone’s fashion or travel blog, you know exactly what to expect. That’s the challenge that I’m facing now. I want to, not necessarily be the best, but definitely be the most different. I’m testing things. All my blog posts look different. I look at what was most interesting to people, what posts were most engaging, what people find personal. So instead of maybe writing a generic review of a hotel, how do I make this experience interesting to someone who is reading it? And to be honest, I’m still working on it.”

It’s A Fashion World: “I started my blog with a lifestyle focus, because I like to travel a lot. But I’m a girl, so I also like fashion. And I don’t really see the point of just choosing one when I love both of them equally. And my audience is mostly women from different age groups, and they have similar interests to me. When I travel, there are always pictures of me somewhere and people would always ask, ‘Where did you buy that?’ Most blogs today, even those who do just lifestyle, they still work with fashion because it’s just something you can’t avoid. It’s connected.”

Everybody Loves A Winner: “In December, I applied for the UK Blog Awards about maybe six months after I made my blog. And I was like, nobody is going to pick me. But I’m shortlisted as a finalist in two categories. And I’m not hoping to win because there are people who have had their blogs for a really long time, but when you get shortlisted for something like that, that’s when the magic happens. Because before, I used to do the outreaching, but now people are noticing me more because of this blog award and they notice the hard work and then they approach you. And it’s a nice feeling.” [Editor’s note: Ella was voted a top 3 UK Lifestyle blog]

Never Bored When Abroad: “When you travel, you learn about different cultures, about food, languages – all of these things that you could never understand unless you go and see it for yourself. And it changed my priorities, because I decided I’d rather collect memories than things. I’m not a person who sits in the office from nine to five, and I don’t like being told what to do, and I don’t like being at the same place for too long. And travelling is a way for me to escape that and switch into another reality. If I could do that and nothing else, I would be the happiest person in the world.”

Be Better: “I would like nothing else but to say I’m completely satisfied with my blog and the way I write. But I’m not. I’m not because I always think that there’s always a little bit more you can do that can be better. And it’s constant; you have to constantly be working on it. I’m happy with everything that I’ve done so far. But I want more. I want it to be better. I think if you want to be good at something, you always have to try and be better at it.”

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