MY BUSINESS IN 2016

This past year was one of those years where I felt like nothing came easily, but so much fruit came out of my hard work. It almost felt like every day I was thrown a curve ball or pitched a fast ball, and each time I stepped up to the plate, swung my bat as hard as I could and, by the grace of God, I scored a lot.

I wanted to share the areas in which my business grew this year with you because I think there are some key tools and nuggets of wisdom that helped make them successful. I'm going to break everything down into multiple blog posts though because there is simply too much to say for it all to fit. I'll share a new post a day for the next week or so. Be sure to check back and read the next.

2016 ACCOMPLISHMENTS

  1. More than doubled my Instagram account from 4,000 to 10,800
  2. Grew my Pinterest account by 37,000 people
  3. Published by top magazines & companies (Rue Mag, Lonny Mag, Domino Mag, One Kings Lane, Anthropologie, Martha Stewart, Adore, Elle Decor)
  4. Most partnerships to date. To name a few: The Home Depot, Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Gold Peak Tea, Fisher Price, Hudson Jeans, Coleman, Living Spaces, World Market, Decorist. See my collaborations page for more.
  5. Hired an assistant, photographer, intern and babysitter regularly
  6. Spoke at the most conferences to date (Alt Summit, Mom 2.0 Summit, Haven Conference, BlogHer Food).  I will be headed to Alt Summit again in 2017.
  7. Launched my online Pinterest classes for passive income
  8. Began Pinterest account management for Chatbooks and Guesterly, and will be taking on more.
  9. Decorated six rooms (master, girl room, nursery, guest room 1, guest room 2, living room)
  10. Managed to continue to raise two children, have a marriage and friendships

What helped me accomplish all of this? 

I don't say this to sound trite, but I truly believe what I have been given comes from God. In particular, I think the wisdom in knowing which business partnerships were wise and unwise, as well as which people to hire were guided by Him. Some people say they go with their "gut." For me, I do the same, but I believe it's a spiritual "knowing" deep within my gut. 

I also put in a lot of elbow grease and found some insanely great business tools to help me, and I would love to share them with you in the days that follow. Starting with Instagram...

Photo by Katie Jameson