Another year down, another annual recap post! 2019 has been a year of growth, but not really in big financial ways or massive sales. It’s been a year of growth in terms of how I run my business. I worked less this year than I have in awhile. I took things off my to do list that weren’t really doing anything to make a real difference in my business. I spent the majority of my time zeroing in on what had the best return on my investment (investments of time and of money). I focused on perfecting one product — my course, The InDesign Field Guide — and getting it in front of more people.

At the end of last year, I stripped away a lot of little things that had run their course (no pun intended) in my business, so I could focus on just this one InDesign course. And now looking back a year later, I think that really paid off. My business made about the same amount of money that it did last year, but I didn’t work nearly has hard for every dollar. I volunteered at my daughter’s school. I took naps – praise the Lord for naps, all my Enneagram 9s! I picked up some creative hobbies. I went to lunch and playdates with friends. Maybe I didn’t grow my revenue a ton, but I certainly grew the freedom and flexibility of my schedule to do other things besides work. And that one change is totally worth it to me.

Here’s a recap of what my 2019 looked like:

January

I added a new feature to The InDesign Field Guide – the Toolkit Library. It’s a library of mini-classes that focus on how to use InDesign for specific types of design work, each one including less than an hour of training, plus tons of fully-designed templates. Each toolkit is designed to help you learn something very specific and implement it quickly. In January, I created the first three: the Social Media Toolkit, the Blogging Toolkit, and the Workbooks Toolkit.
I got organized and prepped for the biggest overhaul of The InDesign Field Guide I’ve ever done – re-recording the entire course! Here’s a blog post on how I planned it all out.
Co-hosted a workshop with my friend Jamie from Spruce Rd. about becoming a freelance designer.
Taught an online session for the Creative Hub Conference about using lead magnets to build your email list.
Wrote this new 2-part blog post about my experience self-publishing my book with Amazon KDP.

February

Hosted a quarterly live Q+A call with my InDesign Field Guide students.
Started the official re-recording of The InDesign Field Guide – finished Lessons 1, 2, and 3. This was SO much work, but was much needed to record everything on the newest Creative Cloud version of InDesign (it was recorded on CS4 originally!).
Hosted a fun little Galentine's Day giveaway on Instagram with my book, Strong Girl, Brave Girl.
Snuck away for a girls weekend with some of my dearest friends to Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Got to be one of my favorite podcasts for a second time! We laughed way too much and discussed all things book and self-publishing on Shailey + Katie’s Lemonade Stand (you can listen here).
Wrote Part 2 of the blog post series about my experience self-publishing my book with Amazon KDP.

March

Hosted my annual birthday sale in my Etsy shop, while Poppy and I escaped to Nashville to see family and ring in my 31st birthday!
Re-recorded Lessons 4 + 5 for The InDesign Field Guide, nearing the end of this huge project!
Co-hosted another workshop with my friend Jamie from Spruce Rd. about creating a pricing guide with Adobe InDesign.
Got to talk about my book on the Tales of Moxie podcast, listen here!
Hit publish on this new blog post all about growing your email list with lead magnets (soooo much great info in here!).

April

Wrapped up the re-recording of The InDesign Field Guide with the last few miscellaneous videos, and officially assembled the brand spankin’ new 2.0 version of the course.
Taught a session for the Simply Profitable Designer Summit about some of my favorite new tools that were added to Adobe InDesign in the last year.
Took a much needed weekend trip with my fave single mama friend Leah to Bentonville, Arkansas. We spent aaaall day at a spa and it was glorious.
Was interviewed on the Get Back to Design podcast talking about how to niche down your design business and avoid burn out – listen here!
Wrote this new blog post all about how I organized the big task of re-recording my entire course.

May

Revealed the new 2.0 version of The InDesign Field Guide for its spring launch, and hosted the Think Like a Designer live series on Instagram (and archived in this post if you missed it!).
Hosted a quarterly live Q+A call with my InDesign Field Guide students.
Took a family trip to Chicago with family for Mother’s Day and my mom’s birthday – it was way too cold for May, Chicago what’s your deal?!
Wrote this new blog post on 5 myths about using InDesign that are totally false.

June

Hosted my annual mini-class summer sale for my two popular mini-classes – How to Design the Perfect Ebook and Launching for Introverts. (Pssst... more mini-classes coming in 2020!)
Created another new toolkit to add to The InDesign Field Guide — the Calendars Toolkit.
Co-hosted a workshop with my friend Nesha Woolery about 5 ways to automate your design process with Adobe InDesign.
Attended the Craft + Commerce conference by ConvertKit for the second year – so. much. fun. Amazing speakers, inspiring conversations, and one epic dance party.

July

Started experimenting with Pinterest ads with the help of the Pinterest course from Redefining Mom.
Took time off to do all the fun summer things with Poppy before she started kindergarten – trip to Nashville to see family, celebrated her 5th birthday with a rained-out pool party, and lots of playdates with friends.

August

Hosted a quarterly live Q+A call with my InDesign Field Guide students.
Co-hosted a workshop with my friend Cami Farey about how to design a resource guide in InDesign to use as a free opt-in for your website.
Made a big shift in my email marketing that I’ve been thinking about for probably a year – I started sending weekly emails instead of monthly emails, and it wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be!
Poppy started kindergarten – what?! how?! Ugh.
I started learning to weave with the help of Rachel Denbow’s amazing courses at Smile + Wave.
Picked up blogging again, after taking the summer off, with the ultimate guide to being your own designer for your business.

September

Added two new toolkits to The InDesign Field Guide – the Print Books Toolkit and the Website Graphics Toolkit.
Hit publish on a new blog post comparing popular design programs and apps with this funny chart.

October

Celebrated my 1 year book-iversary with a week-long sale, and a big ‘ole thank you to everyone who has read the book, shared about it, left a review, or supported it in some way!
Decided to skip my usual fall launch for The InDesign Field Guide and do a Black Friday weekend launch instead, so I got a head start on prepping for that.
Loved chatting with Gemma on the Passive Project Podcast about aaaaall the many twists + turns my business has taken over the years, listen here!
Checked off a very big house project that’s been on my list for years — painting the exterior!

November

Kicked off that Black Friday launch for The InDesign Field Guide – it was an interesting experiment that I’m glad I tried, but next year I’ll stick to my usual spring and fall launches for the course. Trying to stand out amidst all that Black Friday noise felt a little icky and not what I wanted to be thinking about over my holiday weekend (even though everything was scheduled out ahead of time, it was still on my mind a lot).
Hosted a quarterly live Q+A call with my InDesign Field Guide students.
Spoke about all things marketing at the Creative Founders Conference in Pensacola, FL – this was my first business-related speaking gig and it was so fun! If you’re looking for an community of makers, artists, designers, and creative women, this intimate conference might be the perfect place for you.

December

I’ve been taking some much needed time off and flexing my creative muscles with Olivia Herrick’s Holly Jolly Design Challenge, and it’s been so fun to get back into design a little bit, with no real purpose other than to practice my craft.
Planning all the things for 2020… stay tuned!

what’s next for 2020?

In November, I attended the Creative Founders Conference, and Emily Ley, founder of the Simplified planner, stopped by for a Q+A one afternoon with all of us. She was so kind and open to answer our questions, and there was one thing she said that stuck with a lot of us long after she left. She said she runs her business switches back and forth between a year of building followed by a year of re-building. In a year of building, they’re creating new products, new ideas, new offers, testing out new things. In a year of re-building, they’re focusing on products and offers they already have and how they can improve them.

This made total sense to me, and I noticed that over the last few years I’ve been unknowingly following a similar pattern. And my energy each year seems to lean into that pattern naturally – a year of creating, a year of refining, a year of creating, a year of refining. 2019 was a year of refining and re-building and improving what was already working. So 2020 will be a year of creating and building some new things. I hope to add some new classes and possibly courses to help you with more topics around design and marketing and digital products. You in?!

If you’re feeling lost on what the new year might have in store for you, or how some of my other yearly recaps have panned out, check out these other posts:

Watch me design a printable planner from start to finish

What happened when I focused on ONE thing all year — 2019 review