Hola gorgeous ones!

Phew! What a big year!

I like to do these round-ups at the end of each year to document everything I’ve done, celebrate what goals I’ve achieved, what I’ve learned +  what miracles have happened.

This year I:

• filled out my 2015 goals workbook (as always… I’m more of a rabid fan of them than anyone else. They’ve been such an important tool for me, my business + life the last 7 years!)
• sold our house in the rainforest in Kuranda, Far North Queensland
• said goodbye to the many beautiful friends + souls we met there

• drove down to my Dad’s farm to spend some time with him + Jack the miniature horse + my brother + his kids
• flew across the country to move our family to Tasmania for 6 months to fulfil my husband’s life-long wish
• stayed in the most amazing historic B&B… when we go back to Tassie on holidays we are staying there again!
• lived in a gorgeous house that looked over Mt Wellington… it made my husband giddily joyful to look out over that mountain each day!

• went on a mini-retreat at the turquoise cabin by the sea
• wrote + illustrated Hyperemesis Gravidarum: the Illustrated Zine
• watched Bethy take her very first steps
• flew to Melbourne for my very first business conference (yep… I’ve been a hermit for YEARS!) – I saw Jim Collins, Verne Harnish + Liz Wiseman speak at the Growth Summit (my illustrated notes HERE)
• visited the army barracks my love spent his teenage years growing up in
• re-wrote + re-designed + re-illustrated 3 books + 2 products (that looks SO SIMPLE when I write that down. LOLZ HOLY SHIT IT WAS NOT. IT TOOK A HUGE AMOUNT OF MY BRAIN SPACE THIS YEAR. You can read more about that here.)

• ate a lot of cookies with the two Hobart designers I worked alongside for months while we designed the 2016 product collection
• went to a Steve Biddulph parenting lecture (here’s my illustrated notes) and got a selfie with him. That bloke is such a heartsoaked dreamboat for parents.
• had my dear old school friend Lena + her daughter Freya come + visit us in Hobart. Little did we know, a few short months later we would end up making a spur-of-the-moment decision to move back to Canberra and be neighbours with them again!
• hired Grant our Chief Operations Officer and Academy co-teacher – one of the biggest transformations the company and I personally have gone through in a long time
• went to Zoodoo Wildlife Park + got to feed ostriches + zebras!!!!

• gave myself the gift of a tubal ligation. No more babies for me! And more specifically: no more hyperemesis gravidarum for me! The operation and recovery process ended up being far longer + more intense than I expected, but I am SO relieved it is done.
• spent many happy hours walking along Kingston Beach
• loved visiting Margate Train (again + again + again!)

• had my US-based team do an in-person retreat that I got to attend as a head-on-a-stick
• went to a women’s circle afternoon (WANT.MORE.OF.DIS.IN.MY.LIFE.AGAIN)
• visited MOMA – but only lasted a quick 10 minute walk of the gift shop because we have children. LOLZ!
• built and designed a brand new membership site for the Academy
• organised a Hobart meetup at Pancake train

• illustrated a 100 page colouring book (you can download for free here)
• harvested apples and pears from the trees in our garden… Tasmanian apples are AMAZING!
• gave myself a Mother’s Day gift of a night at a hotel by myself. I went WILD. I stayed at Henry Jones Art Hotel, went to Fuller’s bookstore, had a bath, ordered room service + fell asleep by 8pm.
• had a road trip across Tasmania with my friend Jill to Launceston
• did a speaking gig at a business women’s conference in Launceston

• got interviewed on ABC radio
• had snow days in Hobart! SNOW! SNOW!!!! It was magical + made us all long to experience a white Christmas! (Grant + I have a secret project of luring my husband to want to do a family trip to the States… Grant sends him photos of the snow that is currently falling in Colorado. My husband is a total snow-head and is falling for it! Look out America… one day in the future when Beth is less nuts… we will come visit… IN WINTER!! YEAH! WOO!)
• moved across the country again to Canberra
• saw our new house for the first time – we bought it off the internet. The gardens are enchanting! This place has good juju!
• was reunited with some of my nearest + dearest friends, especially Deb, Lile + Lena. Have had many happy times since then with them. It’s goooood to be back amongst my tribe!
• settled Starry into her new school
• went to a brilliant musical

• was a finalist for Ausmumpreneur of the Year Award + Ausmumpreneur Making A Difference Award
• flew to Melbourne for the live judging + Ausmumpreneur conference + had an incredible, fulfilling time (my illustrated notes and photos HERE)
• spent some wonderful afternoons “masterminding” (eating cake at a cafe) with my mate Dr Kate
• Granto ran our first US Academy event in Denver + I did live Skype Q&A with them

• did a full day mastermind with Dr Kate + Denise Duffield-Thomas which was awesome!
• welcomed 900+ new members into the Academy in September (!!!!)
• went to the Women’s Collective conference (my illustrated notes here)
• re-watched Pride + Prejudice series (the one with Colin Firth OF COURSE, all else pale in comparison!)

• had a full day photo + video shoot for the 2016 product collection… it felt SUPER uplevelled and profesh!
• was a top 6 finalist for Australian Business Woman of the Year Award
• took a leisurely bus ride to Sydney to attend the awards night, hang out with my bestie Sone + run a Sydney meetup group
• appeared in my hometown paper

• launched the 2016 product collection at last – after working on it all year!!!!
• sold out of one of our new products – the To Do List pad – within 24 hours of opening the cart (!!!)
• hired more customer service staff to keep up with the 2016 product collection demand
• had my dad come visit for a week
• re-entered the world of sewing + toy-making after a break that went too long… started by renovating some very well-loved dolls from Starry’s kindy!
• instituted Friday Framily Fun Days with Lile + Lena + our bevy of girls. We’ve gone on long walks, choo-chooed on miniature trains, had picnics at parks + set up a sweatshop to make summer sun dresses for our girls!

• turned 33 and celebrated with a long blog post + a stuffed unicorn head for my office (OHHHH YEAH I LIVE WILLLLLLDDDD)
• are ending the year with our biggest year ever in business by far.

Lest you think this year was perfect + sunshiney however, there were some hard parts too:

• I spent a large chunk of my six months in Tasmania on bedrest with 3 chest infections, recovering from surgery + a badly injured foot from a fall.
• I made mistakes with my team + it was bloody painful + heartwrenching.
• It’s been completely ecstatic on one hand to have Granto join the company – dude is a total soul brother + our mission is very much aligned. AND we’ve also had to learn how to work with each other. We’ve been a sacred mirror for each other, argued our asses off + healed a lot of our shit in the experience. One I’m very grateful for – but holy shit is it gruesome + tender to do that growing and head-butting process. Just incase you ever think it’s easy to grow + heal + communicate – I just want to say, in my experience, it’s not. It’s messy.as.fuck. It’s GLORIOUS. But gross in the process. As Glennon would say – it’s brutiful. Beautiful and brutal all at once.
• I worked hard to keep up with the pace of growth in the company. My work-life balance needs adjusting again. I’m still working part-time, but I let some of my boundaries about not working on weekends + evenings get blurred. I’m committing to shifting that back to healthy + aligned in 2016.
• I didn’t take any holidays except for my turquoise cabin mini-retreat. All work + no play makes Leonie a burnt out girl. I LOVE my job and what we do so much and I LOVE our work family. So it is so easy to just keep saying yes to it. But I am a big believer in breaks making you saner + smarter. Next year, we’re planning on taking an office-wide holiday so we all actually, you know, have to stop doing work.
• Moving across the country (twice!!!) in less than a year was dummmmmmb. I mean, it was needed, and divine timing, and all that shit, but OMG: DUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMB. We all well and truly hated moving by the end of it. It’s taking us a while to settle + get our shit together now. Me + Mr Dawson both feel a bit shellshocked by just how much has happened in the space of a year. And looking back at that list, it’s easy to see why! Ha! Lesson learned for next year: Seriously. No more fucking moving. Ever.

All up this year I:

• wrote 3 books
• created 2 products
• went to 3 business conferences
• wrote 60+ blog posts
• created 12 new courses + workshops for the Academy
• lived in 3 houses

It’s been a huge year. And I’m SO excited to dive into the 2016 Life + Biz goals workbooks + start mapping out what we can create next year!! Even now, as CEO of a multi-million dollar company, the workbooks are my framework for serious business planning + joyful life design. I made it for myself first and foremost.

Big love,

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