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Fairface Podcast transcript / show notes
INTRO
Hello my friends! Welcome back to a little bonus episode of the Fairface Podcast!
I felt like doing a podcast episode a little more off the cuff today, as I've been thinking about the past year and the year ahead.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, Hanukah or whichever holiday you celebrate.
I don't know about you, but every year it feels like it's all about the anticipation of the holidays for weeks and then all of a sudden it flies right by.
On Christmas Eve, my nephew said, "I can't actually believe it's Christmas Eve, even as I'm sitting here!"
Exactly. I felt the same way.
Now that the holiday is behind us, I'm curious,
Do you like the week between Christmas and New Year?
I've heard yes's from some and no's from others.
I personally like it because it's a week to come down from the stress and the Christmas high and plan out the upcoming year and kind of ease in to January.
As a side note, we had a huge snow storm drop 8" on us here in Seattle the day after Christmas, and it's even snowed a little bit since then, and it's been beautiful! It was quite a surprise because normally, we don't get snow here like this.
The only draw back has been worry over driving in it and the fact that we've missed spending more time with family because of the icy roads.
We're in for more snow this weekend, which, like I said, really is rare here, despite the strange last couple of years where we've had crazy snow, so hopefully we'll be able to enjoy it and be tucked in at home for the weekend. I hope the weather is behaving where you are.
Personally, this week, (today is Dec 28th) my energy has been all over the place. I've felt totally productive and in planning mode one minute, and the next, I'm seriously contemplating watching a movie and calling it a day. It's so weird.
If you're in a funk, maybe doing a year in review would help you look at your accomplishments and help to spark some new ideas and energy for the time being, and for the year ahead.
I decided this would be good for me as well.
So lets get to it.
A look back at 2021
I actually went back and reviewed my podcast episode from last year, ironically enough recorded on December 28th as well, where I reviewed what we had accomplished that year and goals for 2021...
Did I accomplish everything I set out to do this year?
No, I did not.
But I did make big strides in some areas and sat on others, that's the truth.
The great thing about life, is you can decide whether to keep something on your to-list or let it go.
Everything has a season, so maybe this is the season to do some of those things that were left undone this past year. That's how I like to look at it.
Here are some of my highlights this past year:
- We survived a crazy January wind storm with a power outage of 3 freezing days, and a snow storm on Valentine's weekend.
- On the other extreme, we had the hottest days ever recorded in Seattle since like the early 1800's, this past summer. I think the highest temperature I recorded at our house was 113 degrees. Every day we braced ourselves to see what the high temperature was going to be. I worried the power would go out or our air conditioners would go out, but luckily, by the grace of God, they never did. It was a sweltering and scary experience, but luckily we had our air conditioners blowing and took every precaution we could think of to cool down the house, and we survived Seattle's extreme heatwave of 2021.
- We got fully vaccinated, I know this is a very controversial subject, but for us it was a blessing.
- I recorded and released 12 Fairface Podcast episodes (well, 13 if you count this one). I give myself props for being consistent throughout the year, and honestly, this podcast is one my most enjoyable parts of my business - is being here talking with you, so I look forward to more in the coming year. While I didn't get out of my comfort zone and have guests on, like I planned on doing this past year, it is a goal I've moved to this coming year, 2022.
- I wrote 21 blog posts and released 3 new Fairface products.
- I had ambitions of releasing more products, but as I was working on each one, reality hit hard that I was clearly taking on too much trying to release too many products in one year, so I've slowed my roll a little bit. I just got very ambitious. I had lists of things I wanted to do and the reality is, it takes a lot of time and effort to get every single thing done well, and done correctly, so I kind of had to put a few things on hold.
Our new Fairface products released this past year, in 2021, were our
- Silk-cotton Pillow Cases - this lovely blended silk fabric is a luxury sleeping experience while gentle on skin and hair
- Hair scrunchies - some made with silk cotton fabric and others made with our soft white flannel
- Fairface Mini's - our soft flannel facial pads for taking off eye make-up or putting on different skin care products. We use the same soft lovely flannel that we use on our washcloths. They have been well loved by the people who have tried them.
I'm really proud of all 3 products
and as I said, it took a lot of work to get all of those cut and sewn and the packaging designed and made, so I feel good about what we accomplished even though I wasn't able to tackle all the products that I wanted to release this past year...because this was all on top of cutting and sewing thousands of our Fairface washcloths, in all 3 styles
In case you're not familiar with our Fairface Washcloths, the 3 styles are:
- Fairface Delicates, we make these with 2 layers of double sided soft flannel, and those come in 2 sizes
- Fairface Dual Washcloths with one side soft flannel and the other absorbent terrycloth, and the 3rd style, are similar to the Fairface Delicates, and these are-
- Fairface Darks, made with 2 layers of our soft, double-sided black flannel and those also come in 2 sizes.
As far as upcoming products go,
we did work on samples of our stretchy bamboo terry headbands but haven't perfected how we're sewing them yet, so I put those on the docket for this coming year to review again...and I'm going to focus on our website, that has been haunting my dreams.
Updating our website
I've been directing our customers to our Etsy shop lately, because I'm still in the throws of migrating our Fairface Washcloths website from one platform to another...it's been kind of one of those things that I side-eye constantly.
I opened a Shopify website, but ran into some issues with technical know-how and my motivation dropped and I would keep trying to work on it and run into a problem and honestly, didn't want to look at it again, so I ended up just putting the whole thing on hold and it has now moved to a new goal for 2022.
I keep wondering what the resistance is all about? I'm a pretty tech savvy person, but the set-up has just not been as intuitive as I hoped it would be and it's also more complicated moving an existing website from one platform to another without some risks - of website ranking dropping, or disappearing, or links from other websites not working, so it's more complicated than just starting a brand new website through Shopify.
So, it's been a thorn in my side, that's the truth, but I'm going to relook at it once the new year comes and decide if I'm really all in, then I'm just going to do it and hope for the best, and hope those risks are minimal.
On a personal note
- I tried my hand at some water color painting this year. I did some with my mom and some by myself on the weekends, which was really fun (you can see it on Instagram under the "Life" highlight bubble.)
- My husband and I also took some forest walks, which I love, bike rides and beach days around the beautiful Puget Sound.
- Our biggest outing last year was probably when we drove the Mt. Baker Hwy, which is North of Seattle, where I saw some of the most stunning views of my life. It was truly amazing.
- We had some wonderful family visits from out of town family, and also some huge scares this past year with serious family illnesses and hospitalizations, so we are even more grateful for the blessings of having good health and the love and lives of each member of our family.
A look ahead at 2022
We have some upcoming challenges we're facing this coming year with housing, so that's a huge stress that is always looming in the back of my mind, but we're hopeful we'll find another place to live that has been just as wonderful as where we are now.
- We can do so much with our thoughts which direct our feelings, behaviors and outlook.
- I want to focus this coming year with intention, to make it a priority to guide my own thoughts toward positivity and growth and tap into the power that creates, to direct my future.
- That feels like the key to everything, doesn't it? It reminds me of that quote from Shakespeare when Hamlet says, "...for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."
- So my plan this "no-name week" in-between Christmas and New Years is to map out some areas of my business and life that I'd like to work on and take the time to schedule them in.
It's not about just letting life happen to us.
It's about living with intention, to decide what you want and then take steps to make it so.
What's not fun about planning out an intentional year filled with positivity? I want to look forward to my future, so that's how I'm going to start planning it this week.
CONCLUSION
Well, those are my thoughts for today. I hope that you enjoy the rest of this week, the...I don't even know what to call it, the "no name week" in between Christmas and New Years.
I am so grateful for you and I appreciate you being here so much, and I look forward to talking with you again in January.
Happy New Year! Wishing you all the best and I will talk to you again soon!
xo Shannon
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