We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amberly Lambertsen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amberly below.

Amberly, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?

Davis County Date Nights (Davis County Dates) was born out of my love for planning and going out on dates with my husband alongside a desire to become more familiar with the area where we’d grown up and were choosing to build our life together. I have a background in Family Life Education with a passion for helping couples create a strong marriage relationship, which includes connecting and having fun together on date night. I also love where we live, but sometimes felt like our area didn’t have as many cool things to do, places to visit, or restaurants to eat as some of the other areas of Utah.

Building a website and a social media presence that shared all of the exciting things to do in Davis County took a lot of energy and time, but it was fun and became something that I looked forward to doing! I spent hours scrolling Google maps, checking out all of the businesses across Davis County, and finding unique things to do or places to eat. I’ve learned about so many amazing people who live and work here in our community and whose own passions and businesses provide a great space for couples to enjoy time together without having to travel far while adding novelty to date night and learning to love where they live.

There have been times when I struggled with the motivation and creativity to keep Davis County Dates going. I even shut down the website for a bit in 2019/2020. But any time I run into a follower in the community who tells me they follow Davis County Dates, love what we share, and appreciate the ideas and content, I remember that I’m doing this not just for me, but for others in the community who might not know what Davis County has to offer or who might be looking for fresh and fun ideas for date night, family adventures, and more.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My background is in Family Life Education. I received my Bachelor of Science Degree in Family Studies and a Master’s Degree in Education with a Family Life Education emphasis, and I am a Certified Family Life Educator. My focus as a family life educator is helping couples create and maintain a strong and enjoyable relationship. I use my expertise and creativity to put together date night ideas that will help couples keep the fun and romance alive in their partnership. Then, I share how they can put those date ideas into action right where they live!

I’m proud of how I combine my date night and relationship expertise with my knowledge of Davis County and the connections that I have in the community to help other Davis County residents connect with each other while supporting local businesses and talent. One of the most popular parts of our website is the upcoming events calendar. I work to keep the calendar page up to date with events and activities across the county that might make a fun date. That resource is one of the most visited pages on our website and is used regularly to help families and couples find fun things happening in their own backyard.

In addition to a calendar of local events, I have created many date idea roundups that are seasonal and holiday-based. I come up with unique combinations of food and fun for date night (i.e., barbecue food and axe throwing), suggest ways to make the date more exciting, novel, and connecting, and then provide locations in Davis County to go on that date. You’ll also see me share what we do for our own date nights, whether it’s a tried and true favorite that we repeat often or something completely new to us. I strive to be the go to resource for couples in Davis County looking to add more fun to their relationship when they go out together, and even when they’re staying home.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

While a large amount of the content that I create for Davis County Dates resides on the website, social media is one of the places that I am most active. I have come to love social media for the opportunity it gives me to be more personal, connect with my audience, and direct traffic to my website, where all of that content is at. My social media following has grown, but slowly, and that’s ok! I know that those who follow me on social media are there for the content that I create. They are there for the date night ideas, information on local happenings, news about Davis County, and to see how we as a real-life couple put those ideas into action in our relationship. Success on social media isn’t about your numbers, it’s about knowing that the people you reach are there for the services and information you have to provide.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Five years ago, the entire world was pivoting when the pandemic shut things down for an unforeseen amount of time. At that time, I was posting occasionally on the Davis County Date Night social media accounts, but the website had been down for a few months because I was overwhelmed with life and uninspired with date night ideas. As we watched all of our favorite summer events and traditions cancel for the coming year, I wondered what we were going to do for date night and thought there wouldn’t be much to share on Davis County Dates, so it was ok that I wasn’t fully invested at that moment. But then I watched the world become creative with how they lived their lives as normally as possible under the current restrictions. And I found inspiration again! I started sharing all of the creative events and activities popping up that allowed people to social distance while still enjoying some of their favorite activities. We enjoyed parking lot concerts, curbside takeout for date nights at the park, at-home taste-offs, and more. I put together round-ups of social-distance-friendly date ideas for various seasons, date ideas for the 4th of July, and other holidays that looked a lot different that year. I even revived the website to ensure that community members had somewhere to go for up-to-date information on events and activities happening locally. It was a pivot that revived the passion I had for creative date night ideas and solutions and my love for sharing those with others.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.daviscountydates.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daviscountydates
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/daviscountydates