HEY. PLEASE READ.

    Hey loves.   So, this is upsetting for me to write, because I feel like I find myself in this position with regards to my blog, often than I would like. Me coming on here to firstly apologise for being gone so long and blah blah blah, feels like a broken record. Honestly I feel like this will be the LAST time, well, at least for a while that I will be writing a blog post of this nature. So here goes.  

BLOG REDESIGN

Before going TOO far, I know that if you are reading this at the moment, than you are aware that the blog has a completely different new look!! I’m sooo excited for this! As much as I wanted to announce the whole thing, I kind of thought why should I, I wanted you to see it when it was live, and that’s exactly what I did when it did eventually go live! I really hope you like the new look, and would love to here or rather, read your thoughts down below <3 The blog re design was one of the biggest, most important things I wanted to do for the blog, before I came back, because, the look of the previous blog was honestly one of the reasons why I slacked. I kept looking at the interface of my previous blog design, and I hoenestly wasn’t happy. It felt old, dated, and frankly I was over it. I wanted something fresher, cleaner and more reflective of “ME”.   

This interface has done EXACTLY that! 

It has awoken my love for my blog tremendously, and I couldn’t wait to start putting up blog posts and really just connecting with you all through this platform again. It was a longing that I was ready for! I love it, and I’m soooo glad to be back!  

JUST KATLEHO LOGO

  Maybe this is something you  may not have noticed, but the logo has ALSO changed. I guess you can say, I wanted a complete OVERHAUL of my social media platforms, and the logo was one of them. I changed the logo to something slightly softer, more feminine and clean as opposed to the previous one, and I love this one SOOOOO much! This is honestly the best one yet! I am so lucky to have found two incredibly talented gentlemen to help me out with the site and the logo, and if at all you might want to enlist their services, drop me a comment or a mail, and I’ll link you up with them for sure! 🙂 We all family here.  

THE REAL REASON I DISAPPEARED.

    In all honesty, I didn’t really completely disappear. If you do follow any of my social media, you will have seen that my Youtube account is still going strong and well. I’m also very active on my Instagram page as well. I am still trying to stay afloat, but I was unhappy with my blog, so I stayed away. I spent so much of my time and energy putting my everything into my YT channel, that I deliberately stayed away from the blog. It’s odd, because the blog is my first love. You reading this now, you are reading off of one of my most IMPORTANT platforms. I just couldn’t do it though. I needed my blog to change, for me to reawaken my love for it. If you have followed me from the Gentleorchid days, then you will know that at least once a year, I redesign the blog and the logo. So, this, is nothing new really.  

YOUTUBE.

I love my youtube channel. Do not get me wrong, I love it. What I am about to say however, is not so good. For a while now, I have thought about quitting Youtube. Now I’m not those ones who will just say that, knowing I don’t mean it, I MEAN WHAT I SAY. 100% of the time. I felt honestly, like for the amount of effort and time and quality of content I was putting on the channel, my channel wasn’t growing enough, as quickly as I wanted it to. I was feeling despondent, upset, and felt like for the YT South African community I am in, I wasn’t producing what people wanted to see. Hear me out on this one. I personally feel that because I wasn’t showcasing parts of my private life on my channel, and because I don’t have the “look” for a YT beauty influencer, I felt I wasn’t getting the recognition I wanted to. It’s selfish of me to say this, but in actual fact, if you look at the YT community, your channel is more likely to grow quickly in numbers if you are showcasing your relationship on the channel, getting married, doing hair, being extremely pretty, getting pregnant, and vlogging the whole thing. It’s true. I, however, don’t do that. I vlog about the things I love. Healthy living and eating, parts of my personal life I guess, travel and some beauty things too. I just felt like I’m lagging behind because I chose to do it my way, which isn’t the conventional YT way. In reality, we ALL want our channels to be successful (any YouTuber who tells you otherwise, is lying). I just felt like my channel is moving at snails pace. I was unhappy with that and wondered to myself, why put in all this effort, for what?   My subscribers though, reminded me in a recent video why I started doing YT to begin with. They really lit up the fire in me once again. Comments like:  

“Don’t quit. We’re out here and we appreciate you. There aren’t a lot of S.A. channels with a wellness and fitness focus. I want to start one so I’m looking at you for inspiration. Also Katlego me gona o rekang gym gear!! he e mosadi!!”

“Ausi Katleho Please dont leave YouTube cause you just an inspirational to has young i am 😊❤❤❤❤❤💖💖💖💖😘”

“Please please please don’t leave you Tube…. just came across your channel recently. Love your content, very relatable”

“Much love from Kenya. Please don’t quit”

  These along with many other messages, and DM’s honestly made my heart cry, with happiness. Reminded me that I’m doing this for me, at my pace, at my time. Not only that, there are wonderful people who religiously follow my channel, and watch it consistently. Those are the people I am doing this for. It is also something for me to look back on one day, with my family, and loved ones. I genuinely love it, but every now and again, it does get challenging. Those thoughts though, now, are a long way away… 🙂  

WORK.

I never talk about my job on here, and honestly I don’t intend to start today. My job however, was one of the biggest reasons WHY I had to let some things go, or slow up, on my social media. Again, my blog suffered the blow of that too. It has recently over the last few months been long hours at work, then driving to the gym, and going home, literally to shower, eat and sleep. In that order. I really haven’t had time for anything else.  

GYM.

  Gym has been one of the best new additions to my life since the beginning of the year. Along with gym however, is a mental toll on the body. As much as my body is firming up and makes me so happy, I am also very tired when I return from gym 4 days a week after work. My blog work often happened when I would come home from work, but since gym started, I can barely open up my laptop after work- much less type for 2 or more hours straight thereafter. My blog suffered there too.  

AFTER INTROSPECTION

After lots of introspection, and time to think about things, I know my blog is home. This is where I want to be. This is one place I would never forgive myself for, if I ever let it go. So, I’m back. Hoping to at least do one blog post a week, one YT video a week, and some social media posts too. I’m hoping for a new start, connecting more with everyone who reads this blog, and hoping for the best moving forward. I love my blog, I love interacting with you on the blog too.

I know I’ve been gone for a while, but I am back now. Thank you for sticking around, and I will see you again very soon. Please show some love by telling me what you would love to see on the blog. It’ll help give me some ideas too <3 🙂

  One step at a time.   Thank you for being patient, thank you for sticking around. I’ll see you soon.   Live in Light and Love <3 JK.