33, you were good to me! Here’s a look back at this year. I made just about $650k in cash and have mixed emotions about this honestly. On the one hand, I know that I’ve made more in the past and it’s not the easiest thing to see your income drop. AND, when I look back at everything we DID this year, I’m reminded that this is literally the whole point.
(Note that the screenshots below don’t include my PayPal account which is why the total is more than shown here.)
The Year in Travel
In August, my youngest sister had her first baby in Costa Rica. This was a milestone trip because it was the first time I left my baby as he exclusively nursed for a year, which was bittersweet. But I was so happy to be able to go to Costa Rica and be there for my sister just four days postpartum.
As a family of four, we traveled a lot this year! Trips with just us included…
The beaches of Florida multiple times
Our annual trip to Disney World
A spring break trip to Mexico
As husband and wife, we were able to get away three (!) times just us two, which didn’t happen for over a year beforehand. We got to go to:
Newport for a nautical getaway
Vegas to pretend we were 22 again
London to go to a soccer game and shop!
I also made it a priority to travel for work, which felt great. With our AI world, I’ve talked a lot about how I feel in-person events are the most important things you can do right now. And I was extra craving it after a year postpartum. I traveled:
to Washington DC for an event with my paid ads mentor
to Philadelphia to support a client in a fabulous event she hosted
to PARIS to host an international Mastermind retreat
to Los Angeles for Maria Wendt’s event
to Tampa for a gathering hosted by former coach, Lacey
to Atlanta just to go an event that Sara Blakely and Jesse Itzler speak
to Los Angeles again for Social Media World
One of my highlights of 33 was taking my two young sons on a mommy-and-me wellness winter retreat.
Purchasing our Colorado Home
Finally, a huge highlight of the year was the purchasing our home in Colorado.
As I’ve shared before, my dad passed away suddenly eight years ago. He was skiing in Colorado on a beautiful winter day with his oldest friend, and he didn’t make it down the last run.
I’ve written about it before, and I will probably write about it for the rest of my life, because losing him changed everything. He was my best friend. My business exists because of him, because grief cracked me open wide enough to finally bet on myself.
The house in Colorado was his. The last place he ever lived.
This year, we bought it.
I cannot fully describe what it felt like to make that decision. The analysis was real. The spreadsheets, the conversations at midnight that went in circles. Buying it from my mom felt sacred and enormous and also completely terrifying.
I had just had my second baby. We live in the most expensive city in the world. The voice in my head was loud: Leah, can you ever just take the path of least resistance?
But here’s what I’ve noticed about my own life: I have never felt ready for the things that mattered most. And I have never regretted doing them anyway.
I quit my job before I was ready. I hired my sister before I could afford it. I had a second baby while we were still figuring out the first. And in every case, doing the thing created the person who could handle it. Not the other way around.
We bought the house. We became the people who could manage the house.
My oldest son is named after my dad. Walking through those rooms with him has been one of the most profound experiences of my life. My dad would have loved it.
Family Highlights
What actually made it possible.
This isn’t all because of my funnels.
Yes, I have a strategy. Yes, I teach it, and it works. But if you want the real answer to how I built what I’ve built, especially this year, it comes down to other things:
My husband. I keep my marriage out of my public platform as much as possible, intentionally. But the truth he’s my rock through all of this. The right partner changes everything. He has made every big decision with me, including the Colorado house, including this business, including how we parent. I could not have done this without him.
My faith. I have never felt closer to God than I did this year. The religion piece is complicated to talk about publicly, because of how intertwined it’s become with things I don’t want to be associated with. But my prayer life this year was more active and more felt than at any other point in my life. I am not ashamed of that.
My circle. Very small. Very intentional. I have fewer casual friendships than I’ve ever had, and deeper close ones. That shift happened slowly and I didn’t always love it. But it’s made me a clearer, calmer person.
Owning who I am. I am an extremist. I accept it now. I won’t work away from my kids in a conventional way, but I will host retreats in Paris and take solo strategy trips and build a business that requires my full creative presence. I’ve stopped apologizing for the contradiction, because I no longer think it is one.
What 33 actually looks like.
It looks like buying your late dad’s house and crying the first night you sleep where he slept.
It looks like weaning your baby and feeling the specific grief of a season ending.
It looks like Stripe notifications coming in while you’re at Disney World and still in disbelief this is your life.
It looks like being unapologetic about your ambition in a world that still finds that a little uncomfortable in mothers.
It looks like praying more than you ever have and feeling heard every time.
It looks like making more in a month than a 9-5 job paid you in a year, and also wanting more growth.
If you’re reading this and you’re building something, I want you to know: the version of this that belongs to you is possible.
