Today we’d like to introduce you to Anastasia Hansen.
Anastasia, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
What started as a fun passion project in November of 2014 has evolved into a business and creative outlet that just celebrated its 5th Blogiversary! From searching for the perfect brunch to TV appearances and ambassador trips to Germany, I’ve written hundreds of articles and had millions of views on the It’s Not Hou It’s Me platform.
I’m particularly passionate about the travel series, where I’ve documented the highlights from my trips across the US, Europe, Asia and Africa. I’ve collaborated with hotels, airlines, car dealers, tourism bureaus, grocery stores, retailers, and more to bring the best of Houston to the world and the best of the world to Houston.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
As with all things there’s definitely been some learning curves to starting, growing and sustaining a blog of this size. At the beginning, we didn’t have a clear understanding of our voice, how to tell stories, or what our audience wanted from us. You can go back and look at old articles from 2014 and laugh as I attempted to create recipes and still used default Instagram filters.
When I entered the blogging space, the world shifted its focus onto social media as a primary driver of influence. I didn’t realize making money via social media was a possibility until a few years into creating content. I remember Natalie, my blog partner, disregarding the need for a media kit back in the day because it wasn’t “necessary”. Now it’s essential for doing business!
Also, working with a friend brings its own challenges. Natalie and I have certainly had our fair share of disagreements over content quality, partnerships and blog direction. Early on, I had identified that creating Houston centric content early-on was an important driver to our growth, but you can see many of her articles still pertained to the Bachelor and beauty hauls two years in because our priorities were drastically different. I would highly recommend to anyone else embarking on projects with a friend to make sure you clearly outline ways of working, goals, priorities, and boundaries to ensure that you can maintain a friendship and business.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
It’s Not Hou It’s Me is an indispensable resource for Houston residents to learn about the hippest places in town. From trending restaurants and new fitness studios to cultural events and art installations, we provide inside tips for readers to fall in love with their hometown! In our travel series, we recount our stories from a distinctly relatable Houston perspective, and our Newstonian Guide breaks down where to go and what to know about the hottest neighborhoods in town for new Houstonians.
As the most diverse city in the US, Houston attracts young professionals from all over the world. Most of our readers live in Houston and surrounding areas and have lived in Houston less than three years.
We’re Houston experts. We’ve got a pulse on what the city needs and have built up a huge network of connections and trust within the community. Our readers come to us for recommendations on everything from where to live to where travel. We’ve collaborated with hotels, airlines, car dealers, tourism bureaus, grocery stores, retailers and more to bring the best of Houston to the world and best of the world to Houston.
What were you like growing up?
I’ve always had a full schedule and a solid creative streak. I didn’t like downtime then (or now!). I was always filling days with orchestrating plays or puppet shows in an upstairs bedroom, sewing a prom dress or planning a holiday party–my favorite was 4th of July!
I always was an active child. I dabbled in all the sports until ultimately sticking to swimming and water polo that took me through college.
Travel has been a big part of my family’s priorities as well. We always road-tripped over the holidays to see a new state capital or visit family. I’ve been to all 50 US states and nearly 40 countries.
Contact Info:
- Website: itsnothouitsme.com
- Email: anastasia@itsnothouitsme.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/anastasiachansen
- Facebook: facebook.com/itsnothouitsme
- Twitter: twitter.com/itsnothouitsme
- Other: youtube.com/itsnothou
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