What influencers don't tell you about press/paid-for trips

Long time no talk!

I've recently decided to come back to the blogging scene after a very long break from it and what better way to celebrate my comeback than with a new look for the blog? Cute right?!

October has been a hella hectic month for me both work wise and blogging wise. I've been working my butt off in order to get 2 weekends off in a row so I could go on my trips to Los Angeles and New York. If you're a part time influencer/blogger, you know the struggle! For those who didn't know this yet, I'm also a registered nurse working in a hospital setting so I work 3-4 days a week with weekends as well as managing my content creation/blogger job. 

That being said, the first weekend of October was my first free trip ever as an influencer. We were sent out to LA thanks to my friend Zelata (@zelatakogan) after winning the Juliette Rose competition. We were sent for a weekend trip, all expenses paid, by Veuve Clicquot Canada to attend the 9th edition of the Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic game. Pretty cool, yeah.

Although it might seem extremely cool and it might even seem like I'm "living the life" for some of you, traveling as an influencer is not as luxurious as it sounds. I'll explain why and what I learned through this weekend experience, in this blogpost. 

First of all, the schedule. Going on press trips/paid-for content creation trips are always planned out to the T. You rarely have a say in the schedule that is made for you. Most of the time, there is very little, if none, downtime for yourself. Therefore, you're always on the go, going from one place to the next which leaves no time for you to actually explore the city you're in.

That brings me to the next thing I want to talk about: exhaustion. I have never experienced exhaustion that intense in my LIFE. And I'm a NURSE. We flew to LA on a Friday afternoon, got there in the evening, went out for dinner until midnight and went clubbing until 3am. We woke up early the next morning for brunch, attended the Veuve Clicquot polo match all day and went out for a late dinner again. The second night, we literally had to cancel our reservation at 1OAK (a really popular nightclub) because we could barely keep our eyes open at dinner. It was particularly difficult for me since I worked Monday to Thursday prior to going on this trip so I literally had no time off!

Finally, there's pressure. The pressure of looking good and of looking like you're having fun and the pressure of performance. By performance, I mean that brands expect us to create beautiful, perfect content no matter how we're feeling (tired, uninspired, anxious, etc.) You all know that behind every single image we post, there are hundreds and hundreds of other ones not shown. There is also a constant social pressure that we get, as influencers, to have to post every single little thing we do and to make that look interesting. Those trips may LOOK fun and care-free but they can be very stressful in my opinion. 

Obviously, I am forever grateful to be able to do things like going on press trips or attending amazing events such as the Veuve Clicquot Polo game in Los Angeles. I'm fully aware of the inconveniences of travelling for such short intense periods of time. I just wanted you guys to know the truth about these kinds of trips in the light of my own eyes and share my not-so-perfect experience with you guys, because let's be honest, nothing on Instagram is perfect! Just trying to be real here. 

In hopes that this was informative for you guys, until next post! 

Katie xx