For the last few months, I've been working pretty much nonstop on my premier online course, Illustrator Essentials. This course has been over a year in the making, and all that “making” has been filled with more ups and downs than I can count.

Throughout this massive rollercoaster of an endeavor, each victory and hiccup has seemed life-altering. But as the close of my first launch of the course grows near, I'm finding it much easier to look back and recognize the lessons that matter most from this journey.

As you may have already heard, I'm taking a new approach to launching my Illustrator Essentials course. I leaked the course landing page a week before launch and I'm not going to run a bunch of ads or try to hard-sell anyone once enrollment opens.

Instead, I'm hosting a series of giveaways and live interviews to celebrate the launch, support other small businesses I believe in, and introduce you to some incredibly inspiring brands in the process. I'm so excited to share all of this with you today!

I'm a firm believer in taking care of ourselves and avoiding the hustle-for-hustle's-sake culture that seems to be so prevalent in the business world these days. Hustle isn't a badge of honor, it's a means to an end.

This past week I had the enormous privilege to return to Columbus, GA for my second Creative South! While the weather and Delta airlines gave us a bit of a hard time getting there (in varying degrees), it was well worth the haul to reunite with my creative family and connect with lots of new friends too!

Came as Friends

Beyond the awesome workshops and incredibly inspiring speakers, there's something so magical about connecting in person with other creative souls that really understand the struggles and victories we deal with on a daily basis, and to finally meet those friends from the internet.

Speaking of speakers, the line-up was killer and so full of insight, passion, and vulnerability. For those of you who didn't attend (and even those who did and just want to take a trip down memory lane), I thought I'd share my favorite quotes and takeaways from the talks this year.

I'm so excited to share what I've been working so hard on over the last couple months... my first eCourse! That's right—in the next couple months I'll be releasing my very own course teaching creative folks how to harness Adobe Illustrator for their brand needs. It's going to be called... wait for it... Illustrator Essentials!

Note: It's been my privilege to deliver fresh brand insights to you each week for over a year. However, my recent holiday hiatus has fostered some new clarity for my priorities and goals for 2017. These require lots of time and focus. As a result, I'll be scaling my blogging efforts back to a couple times each month.

During this time, I encourage you to revisit my archive of posts since your 2017 self may need some reminders and discover new nuggets of wisdom you missed the first time around. I'm excited to continue bringing you new content this year and can't wait to see what this year holds for all of us!

Looking Back at 2016

Seeing all the recaps of 2016 from my favorite brands and talented friends, I've been inspired to do one of my own. Plus, as my amazing friend and accountability partner Alicja Colon pointed out to me, this will give me a snapshot of my first year (and the years that follow) to look back on as my business grows and evolves.

So without further ado, I give you my review of 2016!

The holidays should be a time of loving, giving, and soaking in lots of quality time with the ones that matter most. Many of us (myself included) get so wrapped up in our own agendas and bottom lines that we forget—we forget the real reason for the season.

My first year in business has been such an amazing whirlwind and sharing weekly branding insights has introduced me to such an amazing community of passionate small business owners and entrepreneurs. However, as Christmas approaches I'm recognizing that I need some time to rest, recharge, and dedicate to loving on my dear ones. So in light of this holiday season, I've decided to take my own advice, slow down, and unplug for the rest of the year.

Today I'm honored and totally thrilled to have my post “Bulletproof Business Practices for Introverts & People Pleasers” featured on the Rising Tide Society's blog! They're such an empowering group of creatives, who share my value of community over competition. I'm so thankful that my content resonates with them (and this isn't the first time either!), but most of all, I hope that this helps spread my posts so they can help more people.

Many of the folks that sign up for my newsletter say that they're struggling with building a strong, consistent brand and extending their reach. Aligning yourself with another brand that supports the same values is a great way to help grow your following in an intentional way and find more of your people.

As a small business owner, it's easy to get bogged down with the day-to-day grind. We're constantly switching hats and are so focused on where we want to take our dream that we forget to look around and give thanks for the blessings we've got right here and now.

As I approach Thanksgiving and the one year anniversary of me taking the crazy wonderful leap, I think it's time to slow down, take a step back, and identify what I'm grateful for in my business right now.