Hello everyone and Happy New Year! I wanted to hop onto my blog to wish you all well, and I wish for all of your hopes and dreams to come true this year! I appreciate each and everyone one of you who have stuck by me, even when I didn’t post regularly, and I appreciate those of you always comment and always have a kind word for me…thank you! It’s for you that I keep going and plugging away!
In past years I usually take this time to reflect on the last year and I’ve come to the realization that I “failed” at my goals for 2019. I wanted to start a podcast, which I had difficulty figuring out how to even go by doing that. I don’t understand what equipment one needs, or what platform to use, because apparently there are tons of apps ranging from apple radio, to Pandora Radio, and it’s all just very confusing. Then I thought well, jewelry is very visual, what on earth can I talk about that would be podcast worthy that would hold people’s attention for at least 15 minutes? I had some ideas, but that goal never got off the ground. I still have plans to one day accomplish that, but for now I’m tabling it until I can figure out the execution.
My second goal was to become a Pandora personal shopper. I kind of did succeed in meeting this goal, but once again I “failed” because there was much more to it than I realized. I used my credit card instead of having seed money from which to spend from so I wouldn’t accrue interest. On some orders I worked very, very hard and I was only charging from $30-$40 which sounds like a lot, but after the effort and energy I put on these orders, at the conclusion of the order, it didn’t feel like enough of a payment. Some customers were a bit challenging while others were a breeze to work with. Taking payment was another issue. I created a business PayPal account in order to protect my privacy, but because it was a business account, PayPal took their cut EVERY time money got transferred into my account which meant I lost even more money or my clients had to pay a little more than the agreed fee. It was ridiculous. Then there was the whole shipping thing! Stressed over whether the package would get there safely, stressed because international shipping prices are a joke, then most of my customers had to pay customs fee, I almost felt like it wasn’t worth it for them either. Then there was one time where I picked up a charm from Jared and shipped it, only for the poor girl to let me know it was scratched!! I was in shock, I had failed to inspect the item carefully and just assumed it was ok when I sent it off in the mail. A lot of lessons learned, and I’m sure more lessons to continue learning. At the end of the day it was a very stressful experience and I ended up getting badly burned out from social media because of it. Kudos to those who have mastered being a Pandora personal shopper, I don’t know how you do it!
I didn’t even touch my other goals, which were a form of jewelry making, opening a Tik Tok and/or Patreon account, but again, I wouldn’t know what content to feature there either. I have a whole lot of half baked ideas LOL and no idea how to execute them!
I also keep using quotation marks on the word failed because I was beating myself up for my so called failures when I realized something. I tend to be very hard on myself , my husband always tells me this all the time and he’s right. I stress about it and really that doesn’t help in any form. It’s not like there’s a deadline that I have to meet or anything like that. It’s ok if I didn’t meet all of my goals in 2019, it’s a brand new year and I can try again. And if I still don’t make it, again no big deal! At least I tried and that’s what counts! I have a very small goal for this month which I hope will actually be manifested very, very soon. I’ve learned that maybe I should also give myself smaller goals in order to be able to achieve them. Anyone want to know what that goal is?? I want to create gifs of my logo and upload them onto Giphy! I’m already in the process and I hope to have them uploaded really soon! Can’t wait to play with them, will let you all know when they are ready!
Among the goals I already mentioned I do want to dedicate more time to my blog, post the reviews I used to post and just post more regularly. I also want to try and grow my YouTube channel more. I’m pretty content with how my channel is now, but there’s always room for growth! I also want to get back to more non-haul videos and already have several ideas planned!
And that’s pretty much it guys! I hope to be able to accomplish some of my goals this year. I’m not sure I want to revisit being a Pandora personal shopper, perhaps if the situation is just right I might come back to it, who knows, never say never right?
Thank you again for sticking with me, especially if you read this post all the way to the end! Here’s to another great year!
Hi! Happy New Year! Great post as always! Honestly I don’t even understand this personal shopper thing.You really shouldn’t even worry about it when there are Pandora stores,Disney stores online and in every major city all over Europe, for sure the US and other continents and the Disney parks are there for everyone who wants to go and no matter what people will never be pleased!
I know but sometimes we have some amazing deals especially at the outlets and I like being able to help others get things they’ve always wanted, especially if the USA has items that have been retired in their countries. But it was very stressful. I think if I were to do it again I would only take one client at a time. Thanks for your support though, I really, really appreciate it! 😘
Keep on blogging your great at it and a huge help doing it! Don’t worry about others! Let them shop themselves!
Thank you so much for your support!! 😘😍🤗
Happy New year!
You really shouldnt be so hard on yourself! You are here and all is good. That is all that matters!
I would love to see more blogposts and YouTube content in the New year!
Take Care.
I know I am very hard on myself, ever the perfectionist lol! Yes that’s the goal, to keep blogging and keep YouTubing!! Happy new year!
Happy New Year and new decade!
Yes I can’t believe it’s a whole new decade!!! Happy new year!
Happy New Year!
First, I’d like to “wade in” – my husband says I do this too much – on the word failure. In my opinion, you did not fail at any of the things you tried. Failing is not even trying. In each endeavor you you learned a lot – about people, the processes involved, and yourself. Personal growth is never failure.
I’m glad you are continuing both your blog and your videos. I enjoy them immensely. Your happy and bubbly personality shines through in both.
I never thought of it that way, about personal growth but you have a point. I did learn a lot! Thank you for this, it’s helped me realize more than I technically didn’t fail. My husband tells me the same thing, I tried, not trying is the failure. And yes I’m still here, not going anywhere, will still be blogging and YouTubing! Thank you so much for always being here, for always commenting and for your words of encouragement!!
Happy New Year! Good to see a new post!
You are crazy – a personal shopper! I don’t know how people do that – especially the ones that are
Disney Park shoppers. So they go to the parks every week, every day?
I tried eBay a decade or so ago and the shipping thing drove me nuts! I obviously do not do it anymore.
To quote Yoda “Do. Or do not. There is no try” – aren’t they the same thing? Or my favorite
from Tom Hanks “There is no crying in baseball” – but what if I get hit with the ball – can I cry then? I am going to try and think of these quotes more often because I think they do apply to many parts of my life and they make me laugh! 🙂 Maybe one applies to you?
Since I don’t know the other social media things you are talking about I would like to see more blog posts and youtube videos, more
images, I really enjoy seeing how everyone designs their bracelets.
In the end you need to do what you want to do and what makes you happy. Life is short.
That being said I am off to the kitchen to get some chocolate!
Yes I know, I do think I was a bit insane to try to tackle that! I have no idea how other personal shoppers do it, and to take on like 20 people at once? I think what they do is they offer up on hard to find item, and whoever is interested in that item then they buy, so it’s not like the shopper is compiling a bunch of items from ten different stores like I was!
And about the social media thing I was talking about, I got burned out on Instagram and just social media in general because that is how I was communicating with my shoppers primarily. So after everything was said and done I was burned out and didn’t feel like posting or even being on social media at all. Don’t worry, I’m still on Instagram, here on the blog and YouTube!
And I hope you enjoyed your chocolate!
Happy New Year 🙂
I always look forward to your blog posts and your you tube videos. I also follow you on Instagram. I really like your style. You are one of the first people I started following for charm related info and inspiration. I look forward to your 2020 videos. 🙂
About “failing”….I agree with your husband you are being too hard on yourself.
I have decided to set a small goal for 2020. My goal is to comment more on you tube videos and blog posts. It must take a lot courage and work to make the videos and run a blog. Thank you for all that you do, it makes collecting charms more fun!
THank you so much for your kind words! They really do mean a lot to me! It’s what keeps me going really, that and my passion for jewelry! I plan to keep going here and on Youtube, I just need to post more often on Instagram! I’ve gotten so bad, I used to post daily and now I’m lucky if I post once a month! I’ll try to do better there! ANd thank you for sticking with me!
Happy New Year,
If I may say, the word failure is not a word I am fond of. I know we all have dreams and want to accomplish things and when these things don’t work out we learn from them and can say we tried. It’s really ok and we move on. Don’t be hard on yourself. A lot of people don’t have dreams at all.
Thanks for all you do and stay positive.
P.S. your instagram has given me a ton of new ways to wear my Pandora especially the rings.
Thank you very much for your comment, I know, I am too hard on myself but it’s nice to know I’m not alone, it’s nice to know that others are telling me the same thing, that it’s not really a failure, failure is not even trying. I’ll keep at it and I know one day I will succeed in my goals! In the meantime I’ll still be here, posting and making videos! And thanks for following me on IG, one thing I can improve for sure this year is to post more often on IG like I used to!
Happy New Year! Just want to let you know that I check your blog almost every morning just in case you posted something new. I have learned so much from you about Charms and beads and have been following you for several years. Thank you for all your effort. I know it takes a great deal of time and thought to do what you do. No worries about about posting more often. Love your videos too!
Thank you very much Shirley!! That makes me feel so good that you check my blog almost daily to see if I’ve posted. I used to do that too with Mora Pandora. I miss her blog very much, and miss the days of checking to see when she would post something new too. I’ll still be here, I hope to be more creative in my blogging. I think I need to revisit my own posts, I think I’ve forgotten my older content, I want to get back to what I used to blog about, not just necessarily reviews you know? Thank you again for your support, I hope not to disappoint!