For my last three year in reviews, I’ve recorded a New Year’s Eve recap video. This year I remained in minimalist mode completely through the holidays. You can read about my minimalist Christmas HERE. While I love tradition, sometimes it’s necessary to just “be”, so that’s what I did. And while 2018 was a good year for me, I’m looking forward to the next 365 days.
Having moved into my brand new home mid-2017, being consumed with getting it to a “standable” point decor-wise, while yet being only one person with one income, I spent a lot of time this year fine-tuning my home to where I’m content and comfortable. No, it’s not altogether the way I’d like it, and yes, I have a massive “To Do” list, but I’m thrilled with how it’s turned out. I was able to finish decorating all the rooms in the house, the linen closet and even the garage. I’ll be premiering the finished garage decor in my next post. You can read about the garage makeover launch HERE. Here’s a snippet look back to my decor escapades. To check out my 2018 decor posts, click on the “decor” tab under “Blog” in the menu.
Yes, decoring. I made up a word. You know me, haha! And I actually changed the home office into what I call the The Glam Room, which is more of a sitting/working/guest bedroom now. But more about that later, in a future post. So in addition to focusing a large amount of my attention on my home decor, I also re-defined some friendships, got in tune with how I’m able to flow in my own little busy world, and decided it was okay to do things my way, and started the path to ordering my financial world, yikes!!! But mainly, my focus was on one thing… and that was getting my book out! I was determined, having finished writing it two years prior, that it was going to be published and released the Spring of 2018. And praise God, it was!
The first quarter of the year was dedicated to getting them printed and shipped. I’m telling you, there are a lot of moving parts to publishing a book. And I’m so grateful I had a wonderful and, more importantly, knowledgeable mentor and publisher named Ari Squires, who patiently guided me through the process. Her publishing company is called SheEO Publishing, and if you’re thinking of writing a book, you should definitely do yourself a favor and get in contact with her. I wrote my own book because I love to write and I’m comfortable with writing, so I didn’t need a ghostwriter (where someone works with you to get your story and writes it for you). That’s half the battle. But after getting the book written, there was interior and exterior graphics, printing, publishing and copies to be shipped. Then there was Marketing to be done and a launch party to be planned and business strategies to be leveraged. Whew! Publishing this book was a tremendous accomplishment for me for many reasons, like… seeing an idea through to fruition, having the courage to put myself out there, especially given the subject matter, and all the work it took to get to that point, while maintaining several other major responsibilities. I am very proud of myself.
Table Set up at The Release the Chains Revenue Retreat, August 2018, Las Vegas
I can say with all certainty that one of the happiest days of 2018 was the day of my book launch party. Having diligently worked on the pre-launch and marketing and the planning of the event itself, I was very pleased with how everything turned out. I celebrated with friends and family, some who traveled from out of town, had one of the greatest floral and event designers I know provide the venue and handle the event decor, as well as a fantastic photographer to capture it all, and I truly felt like my best self that night. Here’s a capture from the party below, and if you want to read more about this fantastic evening, you check it out HERE.
And then there was Essence Fest. Wow, what a time!
Although I probably won’t be back, I won’t say I’ll never go back, because if I can go as a VIP, you can count me in! Despite everything that I talked about here in this post and video, my friend Susan and I had a wonderful and quite memorable time on our Girl’s Trip. Definitely one of 2018’s highlights for me.
Welcome 2019, Nice to meet you!
Looking back at this year in review, I’m so thankful to God that 2018 wasn’t one of those years I’m glad to say goodbye to because of any major setbacks, missteps or personal tragedies. I’m just anxious to dive into my 2019 goals. It’s taken some time, but I’ve learned to scale down my New Year’s Goal list to only three things, usually one big thing and two smaller things that actually apply to the one big thing. This year I’m focusing on the business of book promotion, recording an audio version of my book, or at least getting all the information together on it, and implementing changes to my budgeting tactics. Yikes, I’ll share more on that later in the year! I’m taking it quarter-by-quarter, and breaking those goals down month-by-month, and then planning for quarterly assessments and tweaks.
As I begin this year’s journey, I pray that you will experience abundance, peace and joy in greater measure than ever before, and that you accomplish that “one thing” you’ve been dying to get done year-after-year. Make this your year to bring it to fruition. Happy New Year to you! :)xo
