Hi lovelies,

We’re currently undertaking at our company our 2015 review.

We look back at our 2015 workbooks and see what goals came true and what didn’t.

We work through the questions of the 2016 Biz Goals workbook and see what worked and what didn’t, so we can be more effective next year.

This kind of review process is worth GOLD. It’s the kind of reviewing + planning that accelerates business growth exponentially.

Just one of the things we look at is the marketing that worked over the last year. I get my team to review our traffic + see what our most popular blog posts were for the year, I’m fascinated by what was popular and what resonated with you all.

This year the content that was most popular were:

• vulnerable sharings about my mistakes
• controversies + strong opinions
• illustrated conference notes
• posts by Grant (the COO I hired this year) and
• free e-books.

Let’s go more into deets, yeah?

STORIES OF MY OWN MISTAKES + CHALLENGES

These posts were vulnerable for me to write – I shared about when I made mistakes with managing my team, what I was struggling with and what I was finding hard in business.

I was fascinated that it resonated so much, but realised that it makes sense in lots of ways.

Business can be hard work. It can be difficult learning about where you need to grow and change.

Not all of it IS easy. And we ache to hear the real stories behind the scenes.

I think for those reasons, that’s why my tales of fuck-ups were so popular this year.

My Most Popular Fuck-Up + Challenges Posts This Year:

• A Prayer For The Fuck-ups
• The Story Of A Fuck-up
• A Short List Of Things I Struggle With Even As A Somewhat Successful Entrepreneur
• The Golden Rules of Leonie: If I Forget These, I’m Fucked!

CONTROVERSY

I’ve always steered away from writing about the harder stuff.

I didn’t want to upset anyone. I didn’t want to ruffle feathers.

I wanted to be all peace love + harmony baby.

But the thing is – I have opinions. Ohhhhhhhh do I have them.

What intense Scorpio doesn’t?

This year I had the balls to speak up about things.

And farrrrrrrk did people respond!

(Now – just to be clear – I would never write something just for the joy of being controversial. That’s not my style. That’s kind of like train-wreck blogging. I only wrote when I was sincerely passionate about something.)

My most controversial posts this year:

• Dear Mr. Mean Man On The Internet, Thank You But No Thank You (on weird internet dudes having commentary on my face)
• Kardashian-Gate: Why I Don’t Think Kardashian Kids Is A Good Idea + How Some People Think I’m A “Loco Bitch” For My Views (this one was a surprise controversy. I had no idea that people would adore so ferociously the Kardashian Kids range to the point of calling me “sick in the head” for thinking otherwise. Still, it was super useful because then I got to share some of what I’ve learned about the sexualisation of our girls and how we need to be more discerning. #fuckinghippy)
• On Trolls, Vulnerability + Speaking Your Truth Anyway (this was without a doubt the scariest thing I’ve ever written.)
• Letters From My Trolls Answered (this is one of my favourite things I’ve ever written. Straight for my sore but love-soaked heart.)
• The Aspie Goddess (this one, I had no idea would cause any kind of controversy. Some peeps were ginormously pissed that I don’t have an official diagnosis about this – which as I explained in the original article – I have no practical need for. I also got some weeeeird fucking Facebook comments that I was making it up for fame, marketing + scam purposes. Which totally made me have my WTF face! Still, I’m proud and happy that I shared this post.)

MY ILLUSTRATED CONFERENCE NOTES

I started attending conferences this year for the first time after living like a hermit in the mountains of remote Australia for years.

And each time I would take along my journal and felt tip pens and draw my notes… not for any purpose but for me. I am a visual thinker, so I need to process auditory information into visual.

At the first conference I was at, I started snapping photos of my pages as I went along + sending them to Grantacular so we could discuss. As an afterthought, I shared them on Instagram. They ended up being loved + appreciated by + helpful to other peeps as well which was a unintended but wonderful side effect.

And so they became a tradition!

Here’s all my illustrated conference notes from this year:

• Growth Summit (this was the bigdaddy of the conferences… I got to see my darling Jim Collins speak as well as Verne Harnish + Liz Wiseman! #businessboner)
• AusMumpreneur Conference
• Women’s Collective Conference
• Raising Girls – Parenting Wisdom From A Steve Biddulph Lecture

These ones? These ones?

I have no fucking clue why they were popular, or why they struck a chord.

But there you are.

TED talks, planner pimping + fallopian farewelling. I talk about it all here!

• 10 TED Spiritual Talk That Will Change Your Life
• Fun Ideas To Creatively Pimp Your 2016 Planners
• A Dispatch From The Creation Station! And Farewell, Fabulous Fallopians!

And of course… the goodies!

I always love to create + give + share widely.

Our most popular freebies this year were:

• FREE MEGA COLORING BOOK! 100+ Pages Of Creativity, Mermaids, Unicorns + Colouring Magic (I gave away the biggest undertaking I ever did this year – a 100 page hand-illustrated colouring book that I worked on every night for many, many months.)
• Hyperemesis Gravidarum: The Illustrated Zine (This one was incredibly healing for me to write. I did it for me. I needed it on paper to purge it from weighing down my soul.)
• Things You Need To Thrive (A Printable Worksheet) (I urge you to print it out + fill it out. I gots mine hanging in my studio! Super helpful!)

I’ve got even more planned in the works for 2016, but I’m immensely proud of what we’ve created in the last year.

Thank you so much for sharing this magical journey with us!

All my love,