Some inspo on how to achieve your goals 🙂

Hi everybody! So little update here… Things have been absurdly productive for me lately. Lots of fresh and inspiring new projects coming into my life, all of which I can’t wait to tackle! Along with this, I have been doing a lot of thinking about my goals, milestones, and things I want done in my life. This past week I spent at SXSW in Austin, Texas. Anyone else go? It was THE BEST. I absolutely love that event, it is the spot for all tech, music, and film. Anyways.. at SXSW I was talking to someone who mentioned a quote by Peter Thiel (c0-founder of Paypal) that really resonated with me so I wanted to share it with you all.

“How can you achieve your 10 year plan in the next 6 months?”  – Peter Thiel

THIS IS SO REAL.

Think about everything you want in 10 years. Chances are, most things on that list can actually be achieved in 6 months if you really commit. I took the question posed very literally and wrote down everything I want to achieve in 10 years.

6 out of the 8 goals I wrote down are achievable within 6 months.

How am I going to get there? HUSTLE. That’s right folks. Good old hard (and efficient) work. 

You guys should really try this too. I mean… why the hell not. Write down things you want to accomplish in your life in 10 years. Look at this list, and realistically assess what you can do in 6 months. It will likely surprise you as much as it surprised me! 

Comment below, I want to hear your thoughts 🙂

xx,

Suit: Moana Bikini

Hi! For those of you who follow me on Instagram (@robynkimb) we did a bit of a Q&A on my instastory last week. Thanks for submitting all your questions, I picked my favourites and have answered them below! Hope you likey 😀

Q: How do you collaborate with brands on your blog?

A: Having the opportunity to collaborate with brands I love on Skinny Belle is definitely one of my favourite parts of being a blogger. There’s getting to know the team behind the brand, learning more about their values, and (obviously) getting to show off what I love most… the product! So, how do I collaborate with different brands? There’s actually a few different ways that I go about it. First, it is as simple as an email. Realistically you can reach out to any company you want and say, “Hey! Love your brand, let’s talk.” Nobody is stopping you. Good old fashioned knocking on the door can get you pretty far in life. I choose to reach out only to companies who I am obsessed with, as I like to be selective on who I connect my own personal brand to 🙂 Another way I collaborate with brands is through instagram! Instagram is a fantastic platform for getting to know other bloggers, brands, and just friends in general. Start posting things you love, and the opportunities will begin to pop up before you know it.

Q: Any tips for beginner bloggers to start collaborating?

A: Just do it! Seriously… just start reaching out to companies you like. Start posting on your blog and really get to the core of what your own personal brand is. This is definitely key.

… Leading into our next question…

Q: How did you create your own brand?

A: Honestly this is a significant struggle for a lot of bloggers – the way I see it is your blog is YOU. So your blog should be filled with things you genuinely love. This is a big one for me. I never post anything on Skinny Belle that I don’t truly love… because, why the hell would you ever do that. It literally doesn’t make sense. Your authenticity will be compromised, your readers won’t appreciate it — a lose/lose situation in my books. Skinny Belle is a place for me to share all the things I love with the world. From cute swimsuits, travel photos, to recipes I am addicted to — it is all me! And that is how you start to build your very own brand. Just do you, honey boo. 😉

Q: Who shoots your photos?

A: Hah! I love this question and get it all the time. Total realness: My friends shoot for me, my mom shoots for me.. anyone can do it. Let me be clear: handing someone a camera and telling them to shoot will never compare to professional photographers. After 8 years of modeling, I can say that with absolute certainty. BUT, if you invest in a quality camera (I love the Nikon D7100) you can do a pretty stand up job on your own. Shout out to my mom for being a down as hell to take photos of her annoying daughter all the time. She always says: “Robyn, look ‘bitchin’”. Whatever THAT means.

Q: Do you edit your own photos? What program?

A: Yes! I love editing with lightroom! The program is so easy to use and super fast. Great for editing large quantities of photos. My favourite feature is being able to make pre-set filters that are easily applicable to all your photos – and can be adjusted once applied too! Super easy, and costs about $15 per month.

Q: How did you start blogging?

A: Okay so this one is a little bit of a story… I was on exchange in Prague for my last year of university. Discovered that the education system in Eastern Europe is notttttt exactly as challenging as it is in Canada (no offense to my euro friends, this was just my experience at this particular school.) My classes were 3 hours long and I was SO BORED because who can sit in one place for 3 hours and learn next to nothing? Not me. That’s who. So, I started lurking the internet…. Hard. I began finding more and more blogs that I loved, and was SO inspired by the unique fashion and different styles of writing I saw. I knew that I too needed my own little spot on the internet to share the things I love. So the planning began. I actually took about 6 months to plan out my blog, everything from how it would look and feel to what my core message was going to be. The first version of Skinny Belle was designed by me and painstakingly coded by my friend who was so kind to make a website for me. It took a long time, but I was SO happy with the final result. I used the first version for my two years, and switched to this new one about 6 months ago. The new look of Skinny Belle was curated to be a more visual space to share the things I love! Having a blog has been endlessly rewarding for me, and I am looking forward to getting to know more and more of you over the years to come 🙂

Okay that’s all for now! Hope you guys found these answers useful, if not, hope you were at least amused by them. ?

Talk soon!

x,

Top: Hollister / Bottoms: Billabong

Nobody ever believes how frequently I shop at Hollister, especially in the summer. You can really find some awesome stuff there. I love their jumpers, sweaters, tanks, swimsuits, etc. Totally relaxed beachwear and perfect for vacation! The other day when I was on one of my Hollister trips, I found this super cute frilly swim top. There was a matching pair of bottoms too, but for me it was just way to many frills in one outfit haha. So just went with the top — more me.

If you don’t go in Hollister because it gives you nightmares of early 2000’s fashion, just give it a go. I have found some jems there 🙂

Paired my Hollister swim top with these dope Billabong bottoms! As you guys know Billabong has been one of my favourite brands for years. I love their beach style, and focus on surf culture. Brought tonssss of Billabong with me on my trip to Hawaii and did not regret it! So great to have them as a Skinny Belle partner. 

Also, thank GOD american companies are finally making euro-style swim bottoms. For a while there we were all walking around in diaper-style swimsuits… not cute. I am all about the sassy and cheeky swim bottoms (though my family gave me a bit of a hard time for it though lol ?) But you gotta do you!!

Hope you guys enjoy these pics from Hawaii, and love this little swimsuit as much as I do! Happy Valentines day 🙂

x,

Top: Billabong /  Bottoms: Billabong

Hey guys, sharing my Hawaii vacation pics at a bit of a delay here. I went in full vacation mode — nothing more than instagram was done for a whole week! It was AWESOME. Sometimes it is great to unplug and unwind.

But baby I am back! My Oahu vacation stories are long overdue, so here we go…

To start, SURFING. Love it like crazy, and go at every opportunity possible. The first time we went in Oahu (see my last post) it was an astronomical failure. We ended up at this military beach (random?) and had to find military personnel to “sponsor” us to be allowed to rent surf boards. Honestly had never heard of something like this before so the concept was all new to us. After stalking down and bothering a couple military guys (lol) and getting them to sponsor us, we were finally out on the water. The waves were TINY (like, the smallest) and the wind was crazy. There wasn’t enough surf to actually catch anything, so we ended up drinking margaritas on the beach and eating a bunch of junk food haha. #closeenough

Anyways, found another beach a few days later and killed it! The waves were a bit bigger and the wind was minimal. Surfing is so addictive, once you get a good wave you just want to go again and again. 

If you can’t tell, slightly obsessed with surfing and know it would be a huge part of my life if I actually had the opportunity to do it at home. More Hawaii pics and stories to come!

A big thanks to my friends at Billabong for this dope suit! 

x,

Top/bottoms: Billabong

Longboarding today! Got out there in some pretty savage waves/wind to do some surfing. Definitely was far from my best day on the water (like, the farthest), but it was still awesome to get out there for a little bit.

Enjoying our resort in the Ko Olina area today and relaxing for the remainder of the day! Have some super cute beach looks coming for you guys soon <3

xx,