Although life takes different dips and turns, I still enjoy setting up quarterly and yearly goals. I like to sit down, light a candle, drink some coffee, and indulge in something sweet as I pour my heart into what I want to give to the world. It’s fascinating to look back and see how these goals were met, surpassed, or even changed due to life’s unpredictable surprises.

Where do you go after ten years in business? In April, I celebrated ten years as a stylist and business owner. Honestly, I was sort of in a state of shock. I knew it was a really big deal, but I didn’t quite know how to take it all in. I went back and forth from throwing a huge party to taking my team on a vacation, but nothing resonated with me.

In my heart, what I really wanted to do was put more time and money into the work behind the scenes. I wanted to take care of my business so that my projects could help more people.

This is the part that no one sees. You see all the magic afterwards, but we hide the sleepless nights, writing and rewriting content, hashing out ideas, navigating how to put thoughts into comprehensible words, slipping past due dates, and those moments where we feel like we’ve taken five steps backward.

I want to share the tips that helped me achieve this year’s biggest goals. It wasn’t easy, and I know these three things may seem simple. But let me tell you, these points have made a HUGE difference in the outcome to everything I’ve done this year. I hope you can take one and put it into practice for your big vision goals in 2020. I want to see you push through those obstacles and stay committed to your work, no matter what!

 

Backstage at with Luly Yang at her fashion show. Check out the latest podcast ‘Embracing Every Challenge’

Big Projects I Completed This Year

Growing Our Team

It’s necessary to invest in a supportive team to work together towards accomplishing tasks. Doing it all with just me and an assistant stylist just wasn’t enough anymore. We had so many ideas we wanted to work on, and all the little to-do items could easily be passed to someone else. I love checking items off and don’t really mind office work, but I knew it was sucking time away from other things that needed my attention.

Successful people in business constantly preach about growing your team, but they don’t share how much of a challenge it really is to find the right team members. Even though we’ve gone through a couple office assistants and video editors, I finally feel like we’re in the right place. You really have to practice working with others to discover better ways to communicate, create workflows, and find people who lend a fresh perspective to your work environment.

My favorite part of sharing ideas with my team members is hearing their thoughts on how to improve things. A team really brings life to a brand and a business.

Recording most of Lifepreneur Project from our home base at The Riveter

Lifepreneur Project

I’ve had many people ask me why I’m starting a podcast about handling change. As a stylist, I work with people going through changes in their lives. That’s usually why they end up hiring us—they realize that their wardrobe just isn’t aligning with how they want to feel at work, at home, or for themselves.

My clients, for the most part, are not into fashion. Shopping is the most overwhelming thing for them to do on a Saturday morning. They just want the basics of how to keep up their wardrobe. Most are busy men and women who are adjusting to a new life in the city, becoming parents, their changing bodies, illness, job promotions, divorce, dating, a recent graduation, and other life transformations. I felt like this podcast would be a great way to continue staying connected with the people I work with.

It was also inspired by my best friend who passed away over a year ago. She was a leader in our community who was loving yet honest, so passionate and opinionated. I loved the strength she had to achieve so much for herself. I truly missed our conversations and found that the podcast has been a way to continue learning and connecting with other women leaders in our community. The Lifepreneur Podcast has brought me so much joy because I’m not one of those people who enjoy small talk. I like getting to the point and going deep into personal topics. The one-on-one time I get on the podcast is great for our listeners to be part of the conversation and learn along the way.

If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, click here to see all our episodes.

 

Our Functional Fashion Formula COMING Spring 2020

Creating an Online Style Course – THE FUNCTIONAL FASHION FORMULA

This has been on my to-do list for AT LEAST two years. I’ve been styling clients for almost eleven years and have helped countless men and women build their wardrobe. During a one-on-one session, there isn’t much time to share how all the magic works, but my mind runs on formulas, techniques, and ideas that come to me as second nature. I’ve finally been talking it all out and writing a course to help clients do what I do on their own time.

Most clients want a stylist to assemble their wardrobes for them, but there are others who want the tools to shape their own closet. It’s finally coming together in a four-week course with videos, worksheets, and an interactive group! We’re launching Spring 2020!

Working with local blogger A Man About Style on Gender Neutral Fashion Choices

How I Achieved It

Commitment

This has sometimes been hard for me because no matter how much time you put into creating content, planning events, and training your team, sometimes things don’t quite turn out the way you hoped they would. There have been times in the past where I’d give up because I didn’t get the results I was expecting. What I did this year was stick to it. I only chose projects I wanted to see through until the end, and I kept at it, even if I felt like no one cared.

Sticking to our projects has helped grow our audience and following, and it has helped me see my plans out to the end. It has also brought stability to our content.

To stay committed also involved scheduling and making a plan. We created a blog and social media calendar that extends out until March of 2020! My assistant knows exactly what she needs to work on, when it’s due, and when it goes out. Everything has worked out so much better this way.

 

Learning

I’ve always highlighted learning, but I think I put it into practice a little differently. Podcasts are my thing, and I love getting my daily dose of Marie Forleo, Lewis Howes, Oprah, and Rachel Hollis. They’ve been my mentors from afar, and their positive vibes come back to me and help me keep up my energy on days when it’s not running so high.

Putting my own podcast into the world has opened up my circle of friends and mentors to learn from in real-time. I’ve been able to ask questions I wouldn’t normally get to ask someone and dive into topics that I’ve always heard about, but never got to participate in. It’s made me more vulnerable in asking for feedback and advice. The experience has truly been wonderful!

I also invested in taking an online course with the wonderful business coach, Amy Porterfield. I’ve been wanting to take a course and wasn’t sure which one to do, so I decided to go with her course creation program because it aligned with my goals. Let me just say that the timing has been crazy! I started this project five months pregnant, but there’s no perfect time to do anything. It just felt right.

 

Workflows

When I started to grow my team at the beginning of the year, I knew I had to create workflows for everything so I don’t have to repeat myself a million times. I needed standard procedures, processes to follow, expectations from each member, etc. I started doing this in January. It’s now December, and I’m STILL revising and working on refining these processes. Even so, it’s been a great way to train new people and also see what we can add or take out of our daily procedures.

 

2019 has been a year of struggle, but that also means it’s been a year of growth. Every challenge, difficulty, and learning experience has brought us to the place we are now. We couldn’t be happier!

 

What are your big goals for 2020? How do you plan on achieving them? Share in the comments below or tag us on Instagram @thecloset.edit!