If you publicly discuss your goals, that means you are held accountable to them right? Not like my annual New Year’s Resolutions that I usually fail within a week? Well here goes nothin…

2012 has brought me many blessings and I couldn’t be more grateful for each and every one of them. However, as I continued climbing what seemed to be a never ending hill, many things fell at the waist side. Since I didn’t keep written goals, it was easy to overlook. It’s also easy to focus on certain things that are right in front of your face (like massive amounts of editing rather than marketing). So please, if you are reading this, you may rightfully throw banana peels at me (er… insert your choice of humiliating objects here) to hold me accountable to these goals if I appear to be slacking.

• BLOG! I am so jealous of super bloggers out there. I do not attempt to blog every session (sheesh, I had over 150 sessions for 2012, can you blame me?) nor do I want to blog every single session. HOWEVER, I would like to blog a couple sessions a week, and maybe a personal/advice/trend article. So THREE blogs a week. Does that sound reasonable? Maybe a weekend blog for a wedding/session, a mid week wedding/session, and a Friday personal, etc? Any advice on this is greatly appreciated! I also need to get better at making beautiful blogs. I usually throw something together in a few minutes and throw it up there. So disrespectful to my own work, wouldn’t you say?
• Balance personal AND business life. I SUCK at this. SO BAD. I am horrible at balancing my business and personal life. I focus on one side and go full force, resulting in my other side miserably lacking. Whether this is spending more time with family, focusing on more branding, I am awful at organizing my own life. I tried a couple years ago to create normal business workdays and hours. You can guess how long that lasted. I think 1 day? My first baby step is to dedicate every Sunday which is not booked for a wedding to strictly be a PERSONAL day. Yes, you’ve read it so now I need to follow up with this. I AM TAKING SUNDAYS OFF. This may result in a decline of family or other sessions, but simply, I NEED to have a family/personal day. I don’t think anyone can counter this argument reasonably. This is one small step, but it is HUGE for me, as conflicted as I may be with it.
• Submit to more blogs. I have gotten super awesome at creating a submission section in my workflow, where I submit to a blog before I even do a sneak peek since they often take so long to come back with an answer. By also providing my clients with a vendor worksheet BEFORE their wedding, I already have all the info I need to submit. If you aren’t submitting, then what are you doing this for? I want to reach a larger audience, gain new clientele, and be seen and acknowledged much farther than locally. Don’t we all? With so many blog features in 2012, I am addicted. It has done me SO well, I can’t wait to keep publishing my work! But there are still a few I have yet to be published on and I am DETERMINED to get in!
• 1 main second shooter. The past year I used quite a few people to help me with weddings. Everyone was AMAZING but I’d like to be able to have one super trustworthy mini-me for all weddings to create the KLP dream team! I have been meeting and talking with people for this position and am hopeful to have the seat filled in the coming months.
  
• Education. This is for myself and for others. I am SO excited to be a part of a workshop this coming March and am excited to launch my own exclusive KLP workshops. Now, it really irritates me when everyone and their Grandma thinks they can “teach” others who just literally picked up a camera themself. I will not be claiming to be the best photographer since Ansel Adams, but I would love to help teach some of the several people who have reached out to me for hosting a workshop or mentoring. And you are never TOO good to learn more yourself, and I am so excited to attend workshops and classes myself! I could learn a new trick or two
• Receipts. Who keeps paper anymore, honestly!? I have already purchased a little folio to start keeping all my receipts in (starbucks consultations really add up!). 
• Organization. A clean desk is a happy desk. And fewer papers NEAR the garbage can and not directly in it would be nice rather than having my pups munch on them.
• More Editorial shoots! I live and breathe for editorial shoots. It’s the best way to release any ideas and inspiration you’ve gathered. No matter how busy I may get, I must at least do 1 per season.
• SENIORS. When I worked at portrait studios while attending school and just starting my business, my #1 passion was shooting seniors. Since then, I haven’t had much time to devote to marketing for seniors. I honestly find so much enjoyment from capturing these youthful, energetic, gorgeous teens– I get to relive the good ole days and catch up on gossip afterall! I am going to roll out a senior model search soon so I can get back to where my passion began.
• Meet new photographers! I have been a rockstar with this the past year, since I rarely networked before. I’ve made the best photographer friends, and I hope to continue to add new friends to my circle this year.

I’m sure there are many more I should have listed here, too. Let me open up the floor to YOU; what would you like to see from Kristin La Voie Photography this year? Be honest!

I think I already deserve a gold star– I started this post this morning and revisited it 3 more times before publishing it BOOYAH!

*The images included in this blog post came from a fabulous Fall inspiration shoot with Yellow Diamond Events and florals by FlowersFlowers, featured on Le Magnifique! Check out the feature HERE! Totally in love with their blog