Pastor John got me again.

It was Christmas Eve, and I was (clearly not inconspicuously enough) sitting in a middle pew in my red sweater, waiting for the candles to be passed out, listening to my dad go on about how the white-haired guy he just said hi to was his same age, and could I even believe how good he looked for 68?

Sure, Bob, you look great, but I’m trying to worship the Lord over here.

Just as my dad was done reflecting on his childhood memories to me — something he does every time I see him, what a sentimental man — Pastor John approached our pew.

We greeted him with a smile and a Merry Christmas, expecting him to continue on and have the same interaction with the next pew.

He didn’t.

Instead, he asked me to do a reading.

Again.

I don’t know why I didn’t expect it — he does this at least every other year, probably because he knows I’m not going to say no.

(I would’ve at least brushed my hair if I knew the entire congregation would be watching me as I read to them about Mary’s journey from Nazareth.)

After I read through the passive 6 times to make sure I knew how to pronounce everything, I found myself in my own hyper-reflective moment (maybe Bob inspired me?) thinking about sitting in that same pew last Christmas Eve.

“I’ve lived an entire life in the past year,” I thought to myself.

At the end of December 2023, I didn’t know anything that was about to come in 2024.

It was simultaneously (a word Wesley learned and learned how to spell this year) one of the best and one of the worst years of my life.

Here’s why.

2024 By The Numbers

1 first date.

1 beautiful relationship.

1 ex(ish) boyfriend.

1 unexpectedly devastating heartbreak.

1 new (dream) house (accidentally) purchased.

1 SEXY new (dream) car (intentionally) purchased.

1 new Kindergartener in the family.

1 death in the family.

1 life-altering Noah Kahan performance at Fenway. (More on this later.)

1 website copy course sunsetted.

1 new website copy course reimagined and relaunched.

1 Get More Clients Challenge started and finished (with 300 participants!)

1 girls’ trip with my business besties.

1 girls’ trip with my not-business besties.

1 new podcast soft launched.

1 new pair of cowboy boots purchased (sexy blue Tecovas, obviously).

1 mind-blowing $62,000 month.

1 not-surprising $2,000 month.

1 new weekly newsletter created, dedicated to complete money transparency (and chronicling my journey to making $1,000,000 in gross course sales in 2025. Subscribe here!)

1 new Tuesday morning “coffee shop” opened.

1 new brand shoot.

1 launch flopped.

1 new website copy template created to match the hottest new Showit website templates.

1,874 Google Docs pages’ worth of copy written.

10 (big ass) client websites launched.

3 personal-record-breaking 5-figure invoices sent.

4 website copy projects over 25 pages.

162 launch emails written.

1 launch email workshop taught.

5 other live workshops taught.

10 blogs written for Showit.

9 Chamber events.

12 months of “ins and icks” posted on Instagram.

134 chai lattes consumed.

1,982 new followers on Threads.

A lot less videos posted to TikTok than I meant to (but somehow I still made it to 13.2K followers on there, so slay?)

7 months of every single day spent in the gym.

3 months avoiding the gym.

1 and a half months oscillating between being down bad crying at the gym and being on top of my shit on the Alive app.

15 pounds gained anyway.

472 likes on this post.

Several viral Threads.

265 students taught (between my email marketing course, Site Series® SPRINT, and my group mentorship program for copywriters, Success Story).

52 Tuesday Table of Contents newsletters written, as always.

14 tasks moved to the back burner (per day).

Only 4 new tattoos, sadly.

365 books read to Wesley.

30 books read to me by Wesley, because one day he came home from kindergarten and just… could read? Out of nowhere? At almost a 2nd grade level? The fuck?

(I swear to God, his teacher told me that he came into school, started reading a book to the class, and all the kids freaked out over it, asking her if he was “really reading the words or just guessing” — so she investigated, and he was, in fact, reading the entire thing.)

3,190 hours spent rewatching Grey’s Anatomy for the 4th time.

74 hours spent wondering whether rewatching Grey’s Anatomy for the 4th time might be a culprit in the rising of my cortisol.

Countless #1 spots on Google.

2 trips to Phoenix.

12 all-nighters.

18,945,632 audio messages sent.

900 tears shed.

142 Defying Gravitys screamed in the car.

90 tantrums dealt with.

(84 of them were Wesley’s.)

67,983 cackles cackled.

So many new websites in the queue to brag about the second they launch.

2,000+ new email subscribers.

Probably 1,000 unsubscribes.

40ish new Jellycats acquired for our collection.

1 extremely formative year for your favorite squirrel.

What Surprised Me About This Year

To put it plainly… EVERYTHING?!

If you had told me at the beginning of 2024 that pretty much any of this year would happen, I wouldn’t have believed you.

Business was business as usual (despite finally hitting the income goal I’ve been trying for since 2022, by the month of October 💅🏼 then surpassing that goal and hitting my reach goal in December) but my personal life was… so random? Really good at points and really bad at points?

I never expected to start (another) podcast (again).

I never expected to use Substack for anything more than my newsletter archive, let alone a brand new (fear-inducing) paid weekly newsletter launched on a proclamation that I’ll be making $1M in 2025, and chronicling the progress of the entire journey every Friday.

I never expected to make my website copywriting course evergreen, aka available for purchase all the time, 365 days a year, after using a launch method since 2021.

I never expected to go from a single parent to a solo parent (although, looking back, why didn’t I expect that?)

I never expected to be in a relationship in 2024.

I never expected that relationship to end when it did.

I never expected to buy a house in 2024.

I never expected that house to be in my hometown.

I never expected that house to be so crooked.

I never expected to end my “spending money is an ick” series so early (but since the goal was saving money to purchase a house… and then I purchased it 16 months earlier than I planned to… it felt kinda fake to keep going).

I never expected my parents to buy a Cape house in 2024 (or ever, honestly… I thought I’d be the one to make that purchase).

I never expected to spend $5,000 on a year-long mastermind.

I never expected to earn back that $5,000 before that mastermind even started, per the promise of Vix (who is apparently a wizard, bc I def didn’t believe her that I’d make my $$$ back but I did, times 3).

How I Measured Up To The 2024 Prologue

As aforementioned, this year was wildly unexpected. It’s almost comical to look back at my 2024 Prologue and read what I assumed would happen, and the things I wanted to happen.

Some things came true beyond my wildest dreams.

Some things came crashing down.

Let’s see how much I accomplished from The 2024 Prologue 👇

→ “Book 6-8 more website copy projects for this year” — check!

→ “Work with as many mentees as possible” — check, I think? I decided to switch things up and solely offer my group mentorship program for copywriters (details here) and 1:1 strategy calls (details here) and I’m happy with how everything went! I’m sure I could’ve taught more but I LOVE all the mentees I worked with this year.

→ “Grow my email list” — check! You probably know this, but email marketing is what I always call “my one marketing task” bc it’s really the only thing I focus heavily on, and everything else (IG, blog, etc) all are secondary for me.

All of my email marketing resources are right here!

→ “Educate more” — big check! In addition to my signature online courses, I taught a lot of little workshops this year, guest taught in a lot of group programs, educated on a lot of podcasts, etc.

I felt so, so fulfilled by education this year, and watching my students and mentees get so excited about their results — whether it be a new newsletter developed, a new website launched, prices raised, or simply the validation that they made the right choice about something — made ME so happy, too.

It’s the best feeling ever to help someone else feel better about themselves (or their brand).

→ “Make sure Wesley has the best kindergarten year ever” — check! He absolutely LOVES school and is genuinely excited to go every day. It was a little bit of an adjustment (he came from a very chill Montessori preschool) but I’d say this goal def deserves a check.

→ “Go to more concerts” — no check deserved here.

HOWEVERRRRR! I did get to see Noah Kahan twice, and his Fenway concert will always be extra special to me.

The morning of his first show at Fenway, I randomly decided to go tour a house in my hometown.

I wasn’t actively looking for houses, but when my realtor (aka my friend Sophia) sent me the listing for this one and told me I needed it, I decided she wasn’t wrong.

But, initially, I told her no.

I said I didn’t want to spend that much money to live in my hometown. I wanted to buy a house on Cape Cod.

…and then I toured a (smaller, less nice) house on Cape, realized my interest rate would be fucking mental, thanks to it being my secondary residence (I would have kept my apartment and also purchased the house), and decided FINE, I’ll reconsider suburbia.

So, I toured it.

And I fell in love with it.

When the sellers’ realtor said they had an open house that upcoming Saturday, I said “cancel it. I’m buying this.”

Before we left for Noah that night, Alli, my lovely mortgage lender slash best friend, wrote me up the offer.

It was accepted right before Noah walked on stage.

Fast forward through the summer, Noah surprise-launched his Live from Fenway Park album on the day I moved into my house.

Special!

→ “Save all of my damn money!” — the biggest joke of the year. I think I spent $900,000.

(But, to be fair $605,000 of that was my house, and I have 29 years left to pay for it.)

→ “Ditch dating apps” — check! I was in a relationship all year, and we met in person, so this one was easy.

→ “Learn to ski” — I’m not giving myself a check for this one, despite taking a few ski lessons. The snow sucked, I was too busy at work, and this goal remains pushed off til next year.

And I was right about one thing for sure: 2024 was definitely a money year.

& even better than I could’ve hoped for in my Prologue? It turned into a money year without me being (too) burnt out.

Most Transformative Moments

#1 — Buying a house.

Obviously.

Becoming a homeowner was a wildly unexpected, special, and transformative moment for me this year.

Especially doing it all on my own.

I remember being in middle school, dreaming about my future, envisioning myself in a beautiful home office, typing away on my desktop computer for a living.

And I also remember, very soon after, squashing my own dream, telling myself that if I wanted to make enough money to afford the life I wanted, I’d need to aspire to something more sensible, like becoming a doctor or a lawyer.

(And despite my Grey’s obsession, I had no desire — or ability — to ever become a doctor, but I WAS great at arguing, so law it was!)

I am so happy thinking about that 13-year-old writer getting to become this almost-30-year-old writer, who now runs a business that earns 3x what lawyers her age make.

And now not only does she have her own home office with her blue desktop iMac, she also has a reading & craft room AND a bedroom with a king-sized bed AND a front porch AND she can walk everywhere from her house.

(She would’ve thought all of that was so cool.)

#2 — Relearning how to be in a relationship, then relearning how to be alone

Even though it ended, my first relationship post-divorce could not have possibly been better. He was nothing less than I deserved, and he cherished me.

And while I’m thankful for the princess treatment this year, relearning how to be alone was more difficult than I’d ever considered it might be.

I’m an “only only” — only child, only grandchild, no cousins — so I’m VERY good at being alone.

I got even better at doing everything on my own when I got divorced. And that was fine with me.

…until this year, when I felt what it was like to NOT have to do everything for myself.

In fact, I rarely had to do anything with or by myself.

And going from being completely on my own, to having support in that way, to NOT having that support anymore? Well, that just about killed me.

#3 — Taking the time to REST (for real!) between Christmas and New Years.

The second my son was out of my care (for the first time all year), it’s like my body KNEW it was safe to fucking chill.

Obviously, because I’m me, I had 700 things I planned to do during my deliciously free week, but the motivation just… wasn’t there. And, for once, not in a way I felt guilty about.

Despite me knowing better, that beautifully awkward week between December 23rd and January 2nd feels like the ONE week where it’s completely okay to be OFF.

Offline. Off from your routine. Just, OFF.

Now, of course, I’m aware that rest is possible during other times of the year, but also… it’s kind of not.

I take July off every year from work, and even though I pretty much spend the entirety of it baking my skin in the sun and blissfully ignoring my email, it’s not truly “off” because everyone else is ON.

The last week of the year, everyone else is OFF, too, so it feels extra relaxing.

This is my personal note to self to spend next December’s off week truly OFF, because THIS was divine.

(It’s also the first time in 3 entire years that I’ve been able to truly unplug, bc my Capricorn ass always says yes to the lucrative end-of-year project in favor of bank account > sanity, despite it being one of my core business values to NOT choose my bank account over my sanity.)

(I’m very proud of myself for not being a complete dumb bitch like that^ this year.)

The 2024 Recap… might be incomplete?

I write this post every single year, and I usually start drafting it in late November / early December, as the year comes to a close, and I think about everything I’ve accomplished (or not).

This year, though, as you can tell from this post, has been a whirlwind, and reflection hasn’t felt easy.

At some points, on the surface, I was completely thriving, living my best life, in shock and awe of everything coming my way.

At other points, I often found myself thinking “have I ever been this sad? I’m literally divorced… I had to have been this sad back then, right?”

And all of that has made ~reflecting~ feel less exciting than normal.

2024 was the year my dreams came true.

And the year they broke.

You know what they say about two things being true… yikes!

What I CAN say with certainty, though, is that I am beyond proud of myself for everything I’ve accomplished this year. It was easily the most impressive year of my life.

And to Future Me reading this, I love you. You’re doing great. You’ve done more, and gone through more, in your (almost) 30 years than some do in 60.

Keep it up. 🩵