December 2017 recap: investments and holidays
I'm back with another edition of monthly recaps, the posts where I take you behind the scenes of the studio, and show you what I've been scheming up, as well as the successes and the failures (*ahem - lessons learned*).
It feels kinda odd to write another one of these as I just finished up my business recap of the entire year, so I feel like I'e done a lot of reflecting and recapping lately, but I don't want to skip a month, and some really interesting things did happen in December, so let's get into it!
BUSINESS IN NUMBERS:
Site stats:
Monthly page views: 28,803
Pages/session: 1.92
Average session duration: 2:19
BUSINESS NEWS:
Meeting Holly Becker of decor8
Admittedly, this happened at the very end of November, but I straight up just forgot to include it in last month's recap post, so it's getting added in here!
Holly was hosting an event in collaboration with The Rug Company in Hamburg, Germany, just an hour from the city both Holly and I live. Who would have guessed I'd move to a rather unknown city in Germany and find out I have a neighbour that has built one of the most successful design blogs in the world!
Holly chatted with us all about the use of color as well as personal design style, before we got to work creating our own mood boards. The Rug Company co-hosted the event in their beautiful showroom location, it's a little slice of light and bright designer heaven.
Thank you Holly & The Rug Company for hosting!
Joining Mariah Coz's Acellerator
The cats out of the bag, I let you know in my 2017 wrap-up post that I'm launching a course in March 2018. I decided I want to do this thing right from the get-go to ensure my course ticks all the boxes in terms of providing the exact content and learning environment y'all need, as well as launching the thing with a bang! I enlisted the help of course building expert, Mariah Coz of Femtrepreneur.co to help me do just that!
This was by and far the biggest investment I've made to date, which I'm super excited about, because nothing lights a fire under your butt to get something done and follow through even when the going gets tough like investing a few thousand dollars.
I am highly confident you'll get some emails letting y'all know that the course is open for enrolment in March, because I know Mariah will kick my butt to the finish line.
I won't mention jussst yet what my course is exactly, as I haven't finished positioning it and deciding on how exactly I want to present and market it. Though if you've followed the blog for a while, you could probably take a fair guess at what I blog about a LOT, and therefore what my course will be focused upon. 😉
Planning for 2018
I can't tell you how excited I was to plan for 2018. Last year at this time I was almost nervous to plan for the New Year. How can I plan or set a financial goal when I really have no idea what I'll make or whats in store for me? I had little past experience to compare to and to use as a jumping off point for setting goals. I also was a little too nervous to design a dream life or dream day. It all felt so unrealistic, and so while I had wild dreams, I didn't really let myself set them as goals for fear of being let down. I set realistic goals, and this year I set crazy ones which get me all sorts of excited!
This year I knew what was possible, and what I could count on and expect. From there I went wild with dreaming and goal setting and it was so much fun!
As I mentioned in my 2017 yearly recap I used the prompts in Amy Porterfield's podcast episode #183: How to Create Your Promotional Calendar (The New Year Planning Episode) to help me set goals and plan my year. So if you're looking for something to help you do the same, I def suggest that fab free resource.
Vacation
I finished up a client project in the first week of December and then have basically been on holiday since then, proceeded to do a whole lot of nothing the rest of this month. I've completely given myself the grace to be fine with that, if I write a blog post in a day, I'll call it a success.
I intentionally gave myself very little to do in the month of December, because as I mentioned in my yearly recap, I'm straight up tired y'all.
I traveled home to Canada for a week to hang out with friends and family, then came back to Europe and stopped by the Christmas Markets to drink mulled wine every day for a week straight. Then it was Christmas in Germany, where they celebrate for 3 days straight (the Germans know how to do Christmas well y'all).
I'm preparing to pack my bags for a week of skiing in the Alps, before setting off for Bali where I'll be in full on course building and launching mode for 3 months. I've cleared my schedule of all client work in that time, so it's just me, a beach, yoga and building and launching a course.
I truly see the next 3 months as the payoff and blessing of working SO hard at building my business this past year. It's a wonderful place to be, and I truly want that for each and every one of you business owners out there too.
PROGRESS ON DECEMBER GOALS:
For the first month, I didn't set any goals. I was looking forward to really relaxing and taking some away time from my business, and I did just that!
January goals:
Fully be present on my ski vacation, write blog posts in advance and then go enjoy myself
Find a villa in Bali to call home for the next few months, join the coworking space and make some friends
Get fully invested and set into working on building my course. Set the foundation of the course, and then plough through all of the work Mariah sets
Find and book the perfect brand photographer to create a new set of brand photos
Books I'm reading:
Brand Brilliance by Fiona Humberstone
Good to Great by Jim Collins
New on the blog in December:
Past months business recaps:
