{Celebrating Personal and Business Wins!}

One of my goals for 2020 was to review the progress of my intended goals for the year to see where I started, how far I have come and reassess where I’m headed. I’m feeling pretty accomplished looking back and given how 2020 has been. I’m sure for most people, goals might have just all gone out the window this year, but I really wanted to stay persistent even in a hard season. I don’t want Covid to define my business or my year. And I hope it doesn’t define yours!

So let’s review!

2020 Personal Goals:

• Take More Images Of Our Family with My “Big Camera”: I blew this one out of the park! And it was so fun for me! I’m so excited to make one big family book to showcase all of our adventures at the end of the year! I decided to write a family review blog post every month to keep me on track. This encouraged me to keep shooting during times when I could easily forget.

• Travel More: Ppffsshh! HAHA! This was a cruel joke! Obviously there was none of this happening this year thanks to Covid. We didn’t even take our annual summer vacay in Okoboji. 🙁 I miss traveling!
• Finish Our Basement: I am so flippin happy to say we are finally in the dry walling stage and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! It’s getting there and I’m getting excited!

• Once a Month Date Night: This is such animportant goal of mine because I strongly believe all marriages should find time to get away and spend QUALITY one-on-one time. Especially after having children. Because of Covid we had put date night on hold for several months but in October we started back up again and I couldn’t be more happier!!
• Less Social Media: I’m happy to report that I have made a conscious effort to take intentional time out every evening away from social media and to focus more on my family. I am far from perfect and certainly could use some more improvement but the steps I take have been working really well. Being a small business owner it’s hard to step away because there is always an email to return or a question to answer and since it’s only me, I have to wear all the hats. But knowing the emails and messages with still be there in the morning, there really is no rush to be in that space all the time but is MUCH MORE important to spend that time with family.
• Drink More Water: Well let’s just be honest…this was a flop! HAHA! What was I thinking!?!?! I actually think I drank less water this year and more cocktails! HAHAHA!

2020 Business Goals

• Revamp My Senior Spokesmodel Team: This was such a huge win for me!! I had SO MUCH FUN with my girls this year!! Even though Covid shutdowns delayed many of our plans, I still pulled it off and had a blast hanging out with my girls! Check out my fully styled shoot from this summer here. I’m so excited for many more years to come with this program and I’m already planning next year’s! I have so many fun ideas up my sleeve!!!

• Be More of a Wedding Planning Resource for CBS Brides: This fall I started a series on my Instagram stories every Wednesdays called “Wedding Trends I’m Loving.” It features a handful of my favorite trends and ideas that are circling the wedding industry at this current moment. My brides are LOVING it! I’m working hard on some more concepts to really push this goal forward more. There is so much more I want to offer to my brides!
• A New Look for the Studio: Check this one off the list! I totally revamped my gallery wall and canvas displays, plus gave a fresh new look to my wood wall backdrop! The studio is major eye candy now!

• Being Featured in Top Wedding Publications Like The Knot, Style Me Pretty and Martha Stewart Weddings: Ok, it’s 2020. In the middle of a pandemic. Weddings have been “furloughed” this year. My options for this goal was pretty limited. But honestly, this is an extremely tough goal to put on myself. It’s incredibly difficult to get featured in these publications because they receive SEVERAL thousands of submissions daily. The hardest part is that these publications are looking for ahead of trend wedding styles that aren’t widely seen. They want weddings with over-the-top florals, unique details and stories. Shooting these weddings would be a dream! And it’s still on my goal list, though! Someday!
• Being Featured in Top Senior Publications Like Modern Senior, SeniorMuse, Senior Inspire, Senior Year Magazine and Seniorologie: I can’t believe I’m saying this BUT I smashed this goal, not only once, but TWICE!!! SeniorMuse has featured my work twice in their quarterly printed magazine with the second time giving me a whole page! Check out the blog posts here and here. There’s not stopping here though! I plan to get many more under my belt as possible!

Today, I’m celebrating what I have set out to accomplish for myself in the midst of a tough year. I encourage you to do the same! If you are a goal person, I strongly suggest for you to review your achievements against your goals and celebrate your wins! Especially the small ones! The wins that are almost “expected” of you. These wins are just as important as the big wins. Because if you don’t celebrate them, then you slowly strip yourself of motivation to keep moving forward. When you celebrate wins you start to be grateful even if it’s not the biggest goal you have ever achieved. And then you start to realize that you not only survived a tough season, you thrived!