HOLLY BECKER

Blogging Your Way founder Holly Becker is an American best selling author, founder & editor of decor8, workshop leader, and an interior design consultant. As a pioneer of the design blog movement, she  launched decor8 in January 2006 with only a handful of readers and quickly her site became an online destination  for decorating enthusiasts, independent artists and designers looking for tips, inspiration and a supportive  community to plug into on a daily basis. On decor8, Holly shares decorating ideas, interiors, art, products and  services and is known worldwide as an inspirational place that helps readers to  live a more fulfilling, creative life. Building her blog from the ground up, today decor8 has over 48,000 daily readers and continues to be a must-visit source on the web for interiors and  creative decorating ideas.

Holly’s blog generates enough income for her to fun the site full-time, putting her in the small percentage of bloggers on the web who earn a living from blogging. She believes that decor8 is living proof that through passion, consistency, vision and determination a success story can result through blogging and social networking – and that it is possible to blog for a living while still maintaining a personal voice and vision – that you shouldn’t have to compromise to enjoy success.

In addition to decor8, Holly is a Wall Street Journal Best Selling Author (her debut book ranked at #2 less than a month after it’s release!) and a published freelance writer and interior design consultant with an impressive client list including Real Simple, Domino, Cookie, the Boston Globe, HGTV, HGTV Ideas magazine and Boston magazine. Her work has been published worldwide, including distant lands such as Hong Kong and Singapore. Holly is a weekly online columinist for Real Simple magazine (since March 2008) and her first book, Decorate, was recently published by Chronicle Books, Jacqui Small Publishing and Murdoch Books and quickly became a Best Seller reprinting 4 times within 7 months in both the US and UK. Decorate is currently being translated into Finnish, Czech, German, French and Polish in the coming months and #1 on both Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com for over 7 months in the decorating/interior design category. A highlight of her career is the recent book tour that Chronicle Books and Anthropologie sponsored where she traveled around the USA to meet her readers in Anthropologie stores. Holly owes all of her success to blogging and her amazing readers who support what she does and makes living her dreams possible. This is exactly why she loves to teach Blogging Your Way, her passion for blogging runs deep because of the success it has brought her.

With 10 years of corporate teaching experience, Holly has most recently given workshops and/or lectures for such clients as Anthropologie, Liberty of London, ACE Camps, Brigitte magazine, Meet The Blogger and DaWanda. Upcoming in-person lectures include Anthropologie, 100% Design, Decorex, FOCUS, Mydeco.com and The Creative Connection. Twitter: @decor8

Co-Teacher Information

LESLIE SHREWRING

 

Leslie Shewring is a stylist and photographer from A Creative Mint, who will lead the class each Friday with creative ideas for photography, styling photos for your blog, how to communicate ideas visually and how to make your blog more beautiful using your camera, photo editing tools, and lovely borders and fonts that can help you to create a blog that stands out from the pack. Leslie is a wife and a mother and has a degree in architecture, a second degree in interior design and she has extensive product design experience — Leslie has developed, designed, and handled packaging direction for many products sold in major retailers throughout North America such as Target. Some of her most recent clients include American Greetings, Matthew Mead Holiday magazine and Stampington magazine. Leslie is also an experienced workshop leader and sought after photographer. Twitter: @leslieshewring

 

 

THORSTEN BECKER

 

Thorsten Becker is the glue that holds the course together and another instructor that you will meet during Blogging Your Way. Thorsten is an IT expert with 20 years of professional experience and he blogs his personal inspirations and photography on Alternate:Words. He has worked for such noted companies as KPMG, Continental, BMW and Fidelity Investments providing IT consulting, project management, data architecture services  as well as teaching PC classes, Web/Graphic Design and IT certification courses. He also has experience in both voice over and localization work for companies such as Adobe, Microsoft and Lionbridge. Thorsten studied economics and holds a master’s certificate in English though his native language is German. He has a journalism background and has written many features, reviews and columns for German computer magazines, television and newspapers. He currently manages all technical aspects of decor8 and BYW and will provide technical assistance within the class website through the BYW Tech Support forum and through instructional videos. Twitter: @alternatewords