Over the years I’ve learned that the creative process has cycles. This year, I decided to add a column letting you behind the scenes of my creative process and the challenges and triumphs of a small business owner. Meet the creative process series. Have questions or anything you’d like to talk about? I’d love to hear from you! Let me know in the comments below. Now back to today’s post.

While the beginning of the year spurs goals for many, the beginning of the year marks evaluation and process for my brand and business as well. We all have questions when it comes to what we want and these are the ones that have been driving my process over the past month.

Why do I do it? Why do I go back to the drawing board every year?

After a year of blogging, it’s easy to look at the competition and worry. Am I doing enough? Does my content look good? Am I rocking every social media channel I have? The questions, education, and ways to improve are endless. Sometime limitless possibilities are awesome and other times they’re absolutely crippling. The most important question is this: has my voice and direction gotten nebulous among other the voices on the internet? At the beginning of the year, I go back and revisit things. More than anything, I’ve noticed that while new and fresh content is great, the quality of my posts writing and content original is far better.

When I first started the blog, my writing direction and purpose was super clear. It had refined focus. I knew what my brand was about- plain and simple. Somewhere along the way, I’ve forgotten. Forgotten what I wanted my voice to be and how I long to be the face of my brand. The other night I found myself reading older posts. What were the best ones? The posts that you (my beautiful and amazing readers) and I love the most are the ones that were honest. They were pure and more than anything they were true. True to my story and who I am.

What do I want to create?

After long deliberation, I’ve asked myself this question and I think I know the answer. I love art direction, styling, and creating original content. I love dreaming up shoots, coordinating props, and building solid collaborations. Here are a few things that I loathe. Mornings spent writing emails, collaborations that span for a long time, and branding projects that resist closure. I love the tangibility of print, beautiful paper, and building intentional spaces for connection to happen and ideas to be nourished. Hand lettering is a skill I want to master and I’m continually drawn back to the classic skills of smoothing out my curves, mapping out type, and past styles of etching and linotypes. (Take a moment to look at the detail on a one dollar bill or a botanical print. This work is amazing.) I hope to build out some time and space to improve these skills. Now where to put my analog desk.

What do I want you to experience?

More than anything I want you to come to this space and find grace and margin for yourself, for your imperfections, and for the simple moments that fill your days. How do we embrace the beauty of simplicity and find the notes of intention to flourish? With this in mind, I’m working on a site redesign that is going to refresh the look and improve the way this space functions. The goal? A new site launch by April. There are things I will be adding and some small improvements along the way, as well as updated content. Be on the lookout for that.

What about you? How are you improving your brand? Do you have ways you evaluate your business every year? Any topics you would like to cover in the creative process series?