2018 Year in Review

Jessica what have you been up to?  Good question... Let me take you back a little bit.

When you’re a mom, or caring for others, day in and day out, sometimes you tend to lose a bit of your own identity, at least I did.  That was me back in 2015. 

We'd moved our family from the south of France and we'd gone through some pretty transformational and life-changing experiences. My inner world was flipped upside-down, unexpectedly, and I was in a place where I was craving to expand and grow, and really find myself, find my passions, what I believed and discover what that meant for me at this stage in my life.   

So, I decided to give myself permission to explore, to try new things, to go deep and re-ignite what it was that I loved to do.  I started taking action on the things that were interesting, and focused on things that brought me joy.  I started creating, working, and mastering skills in areas I loved.

I gained a ton of experience, read a lot of books, went through a business school, took some more programs and courses, implemented what I was learning, I served clients and I learned so much about personal development, business, wellness, marketing, mindset etc…

 It’s been quite the journey.  

I'm jumping you forward to 2018, and sharing with you some of my top highlights of the year.  

Growing a Website & Mobile App Startup
In 2017, I had the opportunity to jump onboard a growing startup that was opening its doors in the USA, with other offices and team members across Europe. 

I previously knew nothing about tech, websites, e-commerce and development, so it was a challenge to learn the trends. They'd offered me a contract role within the company and I decided to take a chance, and see how I could help. 

I did a lot of copywriting and editing, landed new partnerships, worked with clients, media pitching, creating landing pages, marketing videos, running Facebook Ads, email & marketing campaigns, video marketing, creating and editing blog content, working with SEO all the while working with an international team, some of which were not fluent in American English.  So there were definitely some challenges there for me.  

The business grew to 30 employees & experts and became a top ranked agency. 

Las Vegas: Magento Imagine Conference

Attended one of the biggest conferences for e-commerce/online shops industry leaders.  I networked like crazy and landed new partnerships with leading business and agencies, made great connections and learned a lot about the latest e-commerce trends. 

Traveled to Kauai

We took our family on an epic vacation to Kaui. It was fun for everyone, we stayed at a great resort, went surfing, boogie boarding, hiked Sleeping Giant, yoga on the beach, It was truly a dream come true.  One for the books. 

Met and connected with some of my mentors 

Brendon Burchard, Jay Shetty, Lewis Howes, Mel Robbins, to name a few. 

Traveled to France and Spain

Went together with Jake, to where we lived in Europe, and I got to reconnect with good friends, visit my favorite places, took surfing lessons in Biarritz, a dream come true, and we dined at our favorite places.  Went to Paris, San Sebastian, Biarritz, Ahetze, Bayonne, Bidart, and the surrounding areas.  A dreamy trip, feeling really grateful for this experience and that we made it happen. 

Created Sante Naturelle, an online wellness community

I’m a big believer in creating multiple streams of income.  In 2014, I'd started a business in France, spearheading the growth of an essential oils company, in a market that didn't yet exist. My friend and I started hosting workshops, teaching, creating marketing materials from scratch, doing webinars and planting seeds.  It was a lot of ground work with very little return, at the time. In 2018, the business took a boom, the team keeps expanding globally, lots of business growth in France and Europe.  Created and launched new webinars, team trainings, created social media content, designed new marketing materials and gaining team leadership skills.

Created and launched an Ebook

It was so exciting to create and get it out into the world. 

Created and launched a “Love Challenge,”

Some of you participated in this.  I felt so inspired to do and to create this.  It was so fun to put this together and I hope you learned some new things and enjoyed it.

Buying a home and remodeling. 

Our biggest accomplishment of the year, by far.  Jake and I worked hard and made sacrifices to save up and make this happen.  We shared one car for 5 years, my husband took the bus to work.  We saved and earned as much as we could.

We cut unnecessary expenses and became laser focused on what we wanted most, a great home, in a great neighborhood.  We didn’t want to settle.  We sold a lot of our belongings when we moved to/back from Europe.  We had to start over with a lot of our things. 

We lived in a small 2 bedroom apartment (all 5 of us!) for 3 years, and later had a family friend, from Ukraine move in with us too.  Six people in 2 bedrooms, it was challenging and intense at times for everyone, and things didn’t quite go as planned, but we all survived and it was character building, for all of us.  

We bought a home in our dream neighborhood and decided to remodel.  It was a lot of work and got stressful during the process.  I did all of the selections, planning and execution of the project, working alongside a general contractor and we hired a designer for a couple of sessions to help with direction.  We love how it turned out.  We reached this huge goal of ours and made it happen! 

Lots of my dreams coming true this year, some great experiences, some ups and downs and lots of milestones reached.  I'm really looking forward to the year ahead.

What was your year like? Was there something you're really proud of or something that didn't go as planned? Comment below, I'd love to hear from you.