I love the idea of a yearly recap, yet somehow I haven’t done once since 2015. Of course that feels like yesterday, but it turns out to be seven years ago (which happens to be the age of my daughter, Julia)! So I thought it might be interesting to share one now, and compare the two.
There are a few main points that stand out about how I’ve changed in seven years:
Business-wise, I have better boundaries and workflow. Once I got my workflow really cruising for myself, I shared my onboarding process in my Client Onboarding Toolkit to help other creatives do the same thing.
I’m more selective. I realize now that my time and mental health are precious. I’m choosy about the types of projects I work on; I really want to work with ideal clients and projects, because it lowers stress and increases work-love. I’m saying NO more. There were years when I would work nights and weekends, overwhelmed by taking on too many projects and putting so much pressure on myself. I’m over it.
I started saying yes to myself. Once work felt more balanced, I had time and energy to start taking good care of myself. I work out, eat healthier, go to concerts, catch Pokemon, hang out with my family, and try to hug my now-teenage son, Quinn, as much as he’ll let me. I laugh more, too.
I still love my job. I wouldn’t want to do anything else. But these changes have allowed me to love it—and myself—even more.
Here are my highlights from 2022:
- WordPress websites designed + developed—32
- Blog posts written—8
- Newsletters sent—3
- Conferences spoken at—1 (Creatives Roundtable Marketing Mentor Retreat)
- Page I show up in Google for focus keyphrase, “WordPress Designer”—1st
- Pokémon in my Pokédex—777
- Hours spent on Reddit per day—at least 1 (houseplants, cats with jobs, intermittent fasting, and animals being derps all make my life better)
- Passive income I created because of my toolkit—$10K
- Types of website timelines I’m obsessed with—3
- Times I’ve told clients it’s okay to scroll on a website—countless
- Number of accountability groups I’m in—2 (Marketing Mentor and Creatives Roundtable are the reason I get things done!)
- Concerts attended—6 (my favorites were Manchester Orchestra and The Lumineers)
- Books read on my phone—50+
- Number of pets added to the family—1 (we have a Golden Doodle puppy named Rolo in addition to our Catahoula Pittie mix, Hershey, and standard issue cat, Peanut)
- Times per week I workout and lift heavy shit—5
- Hours of intermittent fasting per day—19 (5-hour eating window)
- Pounds lost on my health journey—50!
I’m doing a lot less of certain things, and focusing on a healthy business, and most importantly, a healthy me. I hope 2023 brings you everything you desire!
