![]()
LET’S GET PERSONAL
LET’S GET PERSONALI don’t even really know how to begin this post. It’s definitely a lot more personal than what I’m used to but hey, we’ve been friends for almost 9 years here on this blog!
The beginning of January is always such an overwhelming time for me. I’ve become super reflective as I’ve grown older. So of course, when January rolls around my mind goes haywire and starts reflecting the shit out of the last 12 months.
Let’s reflect 2017, shall we?
Blogging Full time– I started 2017 accepting a new position at a well-known clothing brand as the director of digital marketing. After only four months I was put into a position of either quitting my blog or my job. I’m sure you guys can guess which one I chose.
Getting old AF (jk!)- I celebrated my 30th birthday and many more 30th birthdays with my close friends.
John and I survived our first year of marriage
Took several vacations– I traveled as much as I could. I went to Mexico, Hawaii, Aspen, Denver, Seattle (twice), Catalina Island, and New York.
Improved my health– I joined a gym and ate paleo meals 50% off the week (which you can read about here).
Re-launched my Youtube Channel- Which still needs some work but very excited.
Milestones- Hit my 100k followers mark on Instagram!
Spreadfashion Team– Built a small team that works closely with me on my blog and videos every week. This was a huge step for the blog.
So far, so good right!?!
Well… there were also some struggles:
No more 9-5 corporate job- This was such a weird transition for me. Transitioning into full-time blogger and even saying “blogging is my job” was very weird. Leaving the corporate life, a team that I built, a six-figure income, a crazy AF CEO, a ton of heavy responsibilities that my job entailed behind was empowering but so confusing. The first few months, I had no clue on what I was doing. After all, blogging was a hobby, not my main source of income (to note, I would’ve left my job if blogging wasn’t providing enough and/or the same income- just being financially responsible is all) so I really had no idea what to do with all this “new” time. There were no set hours, no prominent deadlines, no intermediate schedules, no team (at least in the beginning), no weekly, monthly, yearly calendars to abide by, so everything was completely up to me and how I wanted to plan my next moves.
At some point, I just got sick of it all. I’ll go into detail about this another blog post since it’s a much larger issue but let’s just say I was overanalyzing all my posts, needing validation from brands and companies, and constantly stressing over my engagement (# of likes, # of comments, etc), and it wasn’t ideal.
Flashforward 3 months, I finally got into the groove of things blogging full-time that works for ME. At the end of the day, I stopped caring about brands and other bloggers. I say this all the time, but I would rather make you guys 10000% happy by expressing my true opinions than making any brand happy. I started to turn down tons of campaigns and have requested many of those gifting packages to stop if the brand wasn’t right for me. Yes, I receive 70% fewer packages now and I’m glad. I would rather receive fewer gifts and work with brands that I love, use every day, or purchase on my own than with brands I would never use or isn’t something you guys would like.
But there’s always room for improvement and that’s exactly what I’m going to focus my energy the most on this new year. More videos, more blog posts, and more authentic content for you guys!
Body issues- I’m sure you guys have seen all the things I eat since I’m always posting on Stories, and you know by now I love food. But with that comes bloating and weight gain. I’m pretty grouchy, bitchy, lazy, and just unhappy when I feel unhealthy. For a long time, I didn’t know why I felt the way I did. It took awhile to understand what made me truly happy. As cliché as it sounds, finding a work out routine that I love not only improved my health (duh) but my mind. Yes, food makes me happy, but more importantly, I realized being healthy and active makes me happier. My routine consists of eating healthy Mon-Thurs (you can read about my diet here) and let myself indulge Fri- Sun. Also taking 2 classes a week at Equinox is key. Going to aim for 3 classes in 2018!
The first year of marriage- Definitely our first year we hit a lot of growing pains. Figuring out what our goals are and what our lives are gonna look like in the next 10, 20, 50 years changed our perspective on life. Learning to save money together (like huge sums), figure out our expenses, future budgeting for our “future” family, raising two crazy ass dogs together, tolerating each other’s habits, motivating each other to do better, accepting one another’s flaws, was all very real. All in all, marriage is a wonderful thing when two people have the same goals and focus in mind, and it takes a lot of work and patience to get there. And well, we are still trying to get there… slowly but surely.
So what’s next?
I have no idea. Improve on all the things I mentioned above- yes, but my main focus is my relationship with you guys!
I’m just going to continue to work hard on providing you guys with even more honest, authentic, genuine content. Write more blog posts, create more videos- basically making more content and turn this channel into what used to be a creative outlet for me. Just going to do my best to forget about things not being perfect and just have fun with it all the while being informative. This post was step one- new, different, authentic, and 100% me. I can’t wait to continue sharing my life with you guys and to explore more opportunities in 2018.
I’m thankful and grateful to you for following my journey and being part of Spreadfashion! Love you all!
Wearing: Shop Sincerely Jules Sweater | Levi’s Shorts | Soludos Tassel Sandals