Hey All!
So I was debating on honestly not doing a year in review this year hence why I’m so late in writing this. When I look at my last years year in review and what I hoped to accomplish in 2018, I felt so disappointed by how much I didn’t get done. I didn’t want to write up another one and get let down next year again. I also had a serious love hate relationship with 2018 and honestly it mostly one large dumpster fire of a year. I’ve finally come to terms with it all and I figure sharing it all will help purge it all from my soul. For me, 2019 is the year of honesty and I’m going to be super honest with you in this post. You have been warned.
Getting pregnant after years of trying and the birth of my son last year was probably the only good thing to happen to me last year. I didn’t grow my business or focus on my business, make new friends, launch new products, and do a slew of other things I planned on doing. This year I’m changing my expectations and focusing on what changes I want to make in my life and in my business that I know I can achieve. I also make a cute printable bucket list to make it easier for myself to keep track of what I’m accomplishing through out the year. You can download it for yourself HERE! Before I get into all the things I would like to do and want to accomplish in 2019, let me first share a few thoughts on 2018.
Last year was a year I chose to cut out all the things that stressed me out and the one thing I learned that stress me out the most was Instagram and the people who I thought were friends who I met through Instagram. I really came to the conclusion that I hated Instagram with a passion because it essentially has thrown my entire business for a loop and has essentially negated all the hard work I’ve done as a blogger and social media manager for the past ten years. People began to treat me as if I had started my blog yesterday simply because I don’t have a 100k on Instagram. It’s a hard pill to swallow and it’s hard to grow a business when your clients and all that work with you essentially say who cares that you have a site that has been around for over 10 years and has a built in dedicated audience and you have a ton of experience working with brands. I’d rather work with someone who has 200k on Instagram and just started a blog last week just because they have 300k on Instagram. Who cares if half their followers are probably fake. I like their pretty pictures. I spent a lot of the year fighting to try and explain to brands, pr reps, and anyone who would listen that this is a backwards way of thinking. I tried to warn some folks who I thought were my friends that they were following a crazy person who has police reports out there for stalking bloggers and trying to steal their identities, but it fell on deaf ears because said person has a lot of Instagram followers. I learned and came to terms with it that we live in a day and age where people don’t care what you do. You can be murdering people, but if you have pretty pictures and a lot of followers people will continue to follow you and pray you repost one of their photos. It’s essentially R. Kelly syndrome. Where people turn a blind eye to stuff they know is wrong and just admit it behind closed doors but continue to publicly support the person. I just had to let those people go and cut them off. It just became to much to handle and I simply just gave up the fight. I also stopped working with a lot of people and cut back on Instagram all together because of it.
I’m not going to lie and say that I didn’t struggle financially last year because of all I mentioned above and I’m still feeling that struggle. I took campaigns I honestly would never have taken in the past simply to keep paying the bills. I also realized living from pay check to pay check and having to fight to be paid for work was not how I wanted to continue to live. I just focused on my baby and the life I want to build for me and my family and vowed I would make 2019 different.
This year has started out rough, but I’m trying to get control of it. I’ve come up with a plan and bucket list for this year and here are my plans for the year.
1. I’m letting go of my hatred of instagram and focusing on reaching 100k this year. I’m doing everything I can and even investing in a social media manager who specializes in Instagram to do this. I’m also focusing on reaching 100k on Pinterest and Twitter. The channels I have the most engagement and reach on, I’m focusing on reaching 100k. It’s a goal I’m hoping to achieve by the end of the year or come close to.
2. By growing those channels I play to raise my rates as they go to bring in more income. I plant to also spend some money to advertise my channels.
3. I’m going to focus on more personal content and DIY’s that are family friendly.
4. I’m going to organize everything in my life including my home, business and schedule. I failed miserably last year at this and I’m not going to this year. I’m using the Marie Kondo method and cleaning house. I’ve already done the first step of clothing and I’m moving on to bags and shoes.
5. I’m going to try and secure a manager this year for my business, so they can negotiate contracts and securing payments. It’s the one thing I HATEEEEEE doing with a passion.
6. I’m going to focus on building the friendships I have already and try to make more local mom friends. I spent so much time last year trying to make friends and build a tribe of friends through instagram last year. I realized 90% solely only wanted to be friends with people who have 100k or over. They honestly don’t want to be friends with anyone unless they feel they can boost their own numbers. It’s so hard to make friends when you’re older and trying to make friends through social media just has not worked well for me. I’m not a fake person and it seems like too many people on social media are, so I just don’t fit in with the clicks here in Los Angeles.
7. I’m going to look seriously into places we can move to. I want to leave Los Angeles and find some place we don’t have to struggle to raise a family in. I’m hoping to find some place to move to by January 2020. I’m giving myself a year to get ready to move.
8. I’m not going to spend as much as I did on clothing and trying to keep up with the trends this year. I’m going to try and use as much as I can in my own closet for as long as I can.
9. I’m going to practice being more positive and truly living the Brite & Bubbly lifestyle I’ve been preaching about. I realized that it’s all I try to project in my work and brand, but I honestly wasn’t being very positive and hopeful behind the scenes. I know it had to do with how much we were struggling last year, but I really do need to focus on gratitude and not what other people are doing and other people’s success. It’s something I’m being very conscious of this year and I know it’s only going to make me less stressed and much more happier this year.
10. And last but not least, I’m going to get back to doing what I love to do, which is to share and create fun, unique, personal and helpful content here on the blog and on my social channels that can bring a smile to your day or help you in your daily lives. I realized last year since I was pregnant, I didn’t really focus on that. I kind of dropped the ball and felt uninspired by everything. I felt like everything looked the same and all I could think about was the baby. This year I feel like I’ve found some inspiration in the every day and I’m focusing on channeling that inspiration into all that I do.
These are the ten things I’m focusing on this year to make this year my most successful year both personally and professionally. I also hope to knock some of my bucket list off this year too. Here are my Bucket List hopes:
1. Visit: Family In NYC. I have family and friends in New York who still have not seen my baby and I would love to have them see him asap!
2. Read: I want to read more and I’m starting by reading Marie Kondo’s book to find joy in tidying up.
3. Eat: Healthy. I want to find and create quick, easy, and healthy recipes this year. No more junk food for me. I have a ton of baby weight to lose!
4. Donate: I am donating a ton of clothing, accessories, and more as I clean out our home!
5. Watch: I’m going to watch more educational programs and instructional videos this year. I want to gain more knowledge this year and that’s how I’m going to do it.
6. Do: Something nice for someone each week. Weather it’s telling someone they look great or giving someone a shout out online. I’m going to actively do something nice each week for someone.
7. Grow: I’m going to grow my business.
8. Create: I’m going to create something that hasn’t been done before.
9. Explore: I’m going to explore the city of Los Angeles more. I want to find fun things I can do with my family.
10. Travel: I would love to take a trip this year if we can find someone to partner with and host us. The dream is to go to Australia or Italy.
11. Craft: Something Daily.
12. Bake: Cookie Cakes. It’s going to be a year of cookie cakes!
13. Try: A new crafting technique each month and to make more videos.
14: Play: I’m going to play more with my son!
15: Enjoy: Days doing nothing more often! I’m going to take more time for me and my family.
16. See: Friends more often.
17: Learn: To play piano!
18: Be: More open and honest with you all here and on social media. I’ve always tried to keep my personal life private, but I want you all to get to know me better and I want to get to know all of you!
Here’s hoping I check off all of my bucket list this year too!
Sorry for the super long post! It’s taking me days to get this written up and posted, but I hope you enjoyed a little peek into my mindset for this year and I hope you like this free printable bucket list as much as I do! Again you can download it for yourself HERE! I hope you can mark off a lot of it this year too!
Here’s to a great year together #BubblySquad!
Welcome!
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