2018 in Review

As another year comes to an end, I wanted to share with you all a quick recap of my year 2 of blogging!

~This year I didn’t do a ton of blog collaborations. I chose to be picky and only do the posts that I truly loved and that I truly trusted. I don’t ever want to do a review or advertise a brand or company just for money or just for views. I value my readers trust and I don’t want to lose it by advertising things I don’t truly love.

~I will link my full review from last year! I read through it prior to doing this recap and there are a lot of things I want to carry over. I set goals and haven’t achieved them all yet. I believe that setting goals doesn’t mean you have a time limit as to when they need to happen. I want these goals to be achieved and when they are I will make new ones!

~This year I was given the opportunity to work with our local fashion magazine again, and by surprise, I made the front cover! I seriously couldn’t be more thankful for that experience. I worked with a lot of great brands some paid and some trade!

~I attended NYFW for the second time this year, and it was just as great as it was the first time! There is just something about NYC! I cant wait to attend again this year! ~I focused on more interaction over on my instagram! I created tabs of FAQ, Links to hair and beauty products, more family sharing.

For those of you that are new to my blog, I share body positivity, feeling confident in your own skin while wearing what your heart desires. I don’t think fashion should have labels. I think every person should be able to fit and wear what ever style they want and not fall victim to styles only made for “certain” body types.

Goals coming into 2019

1. Pray and Put God first! I have had to be patient and let God bring me to opportunity. I haven’t had paid collaborations and haven’t had huge opportunities, but when I do I will have God to thank for them.

2. Organization is key– I have a handful of apps I use to stay organized. I make lists and cross through them the old fashioned way!! This is the best way for me, then I have papers all over the place from re-writing my to do lists!!

3. Time management and prioritizing!

I have a full-time job, so I always feel one foot into blogging and one foot into my career. I wish I could blog and be successful blogging full time. My career pays the bills and I am the type of person that needs stability over the leap of faith. If I become successful with blogging and it becomes more financially stable I would quit my career job.

4. Plan Plan Plan– I plan all of my posts out, all of my outfits out, all of my shoots out.

working at the hospital I have expected hours and days that I have to work, so for right now, I am blogging and composing on my days off. If family or events happen on my days off my posts may get missed.

5. Doing things that make you uncomfortable, I am very introverted surprisingly. People that know me after I have warmed up would differ and say I am opposite. I tend to not like going to malls or shops alone. Drive thru’s are more my jam, online shopping is more my jam. I get anxiety when I am around a ton of people, I don’t like attention is makes me want to crawl into a shell. I have attended a couple of events this year that forced me to meet other local and non local blogger’s. I am glad I pushed my self to go, because I have met so many amazing men and women in this space!

6. When people make fun of you for blogging or judge you- let it fuel you! Working with a bunch of Nurses, I have had a lot of great feedback from the girls I work with saying that it is so awesome or that they love the pictures and my style, but then you get some of the other nurses that are very crotchety and want to bring you down. The opinions of negative people don’t matter! Just keep doing you and let it fuel you to do better!

7. Find as many blogger groups or educational forums to be a part of! I love Style Collective. Annie Spano is seriously GOLD. I can dm her and email her and she responds and helps me as much as possible. She is someone that can completely relate to my industry that I work in and how awful bullying can be and how bad it is even when working with adults.

8. Make as many connections as possible! While I was in New York, I tried to hand out as many business cards and connect with as many brands as possible for possible future projects!

9. Be kind, and invest your time in your (my) readers! The more I comment back to readers and interact the more feedback I get and ultimately I am making content because it is what I love, but I also want my readers to be happy and stay inspired, so I love the feedback!

10. Have fun, be inspired, stick to your roots, be yourself, stay authentic. Don’t do what everyone else is doing!

I am still learning and I can’t wait to see what this year has to offer! I hope to learn lots from the handful of groups I am apart of and I hope to continue to build my tribe of confident body-positive women. (and men)

Virtual hugs