My 2024 Top Ten Moments
including the top posts you loved the most
I don’t think there is a person who has met me that hasn’t reminded me how hard I am on myself. My haircolorist says there must be an “AA equivalent” for workaholics and if so, I should sign up.
He sees me every 4 weeks. I come in, open my computer and pound away, making very little conversation. I feel joyful to be doing work I love and making great money at it, but I could be better at balance.
My friend Carlyn sent this bracelet to me to remind me that my 2024 word was “ease.”
My quiet whisper to myself under breath, when things got overwhelming was “Joya, you are doing the best you can.”
Looking back, 2024 was a year of healing and I don’t think I fully healed until I arrive in Nice in June. One of the best things I did for myself was to work with a spiritual coach Tara Greenway. Why a spiritual coach? There were lessons that kept popping up again and again, that I needed to learn —once and for all.
My business is 12 years old!
2024 I made good on two major things: I would live out of country for 2 months.
2023 I did 2 months broken up over the year in France, Spain, Turkey.
2024, I pushed it to 2 contiguous months in France.
I need this time to be off the grid. Alone with my thoughts and just walking, thinking about my business.
I installed sales systems so I wasn’t doing everything myself. I spent the year interviewing talent. Onboarded them by September.
I learned to ally with really really smart people to plan my retreats. I don’t have to do it all by myself. Chiara on the ground in Paris. Monica with Nice. Emily with Corfu. Ariel mangaing my digital community. Sheryl my right hand person. An entire sales team.
I can’t tell you how amazing it is in my leadership to have arrived at this place.
I upleveled my video and photos with my Sony EV-10 camera.
I grew my following to 13k in two years. I had 1,046,317 impressions, up 1,750.1% year over year. I had my first video go viral (446K views) Thank you for reading my writing, commenting on them, liking them, sharing them. Writing is my greatest joy. I feel I have dialed into what my audience wants (scripts)
My top posts you liked in 2024
Anatomy of a Good "No": The "Acknowledge, Address, Align" technique
For delivering bad news6 words you’re using in a difficult conversation (that aren’t working)
and 6 better ONES6 words that undermine your authority at work (And how to fix them)
I launched my digital community, allowing me to organize my content in easy to find ways.
Next year, I plan to
Hand off the sales discovery calls. I’m doing 7 or 8 a day to fill the Mastermind.
I want to pivot my business to more B2B. I hosted 2 really successful workshops Bucknell and Stanford this year.
Continue building my brand, brand partnerships. Add an “Anatomy of a Good ‘no’ Podcast” shot in video.
Eliminate sugar
Stack a new diamond ring on my old one, to mark this year in business. Maybe with sapphires.
3 months in Europe
My 2024 Top Twelve Moments
Airbnb in Nice June and July. My happiest moments are when I am observing my top core values: adventure, beauty, freedom, fun, friendships. I’m lucky that I have clients, clients-turned-friends, partner, and clients’ partners who get on a plane for all of my hair-brained ideas every single year.
Walking the Cours Saleya market in the early morning hours as the vendors are setting up, feeling the sun on my shoulders.
Waking up to this view of the Mediterranean every single day for 8 weeks.
Lavendar fields of Valensole, France. Eating cheese butter sandwiches and some of the best wine I have ever had at the German farmer’s backyard.
Being in Paris when I learned my clients’ TEDxtalks had gone live! and celebrating at Bar Hemingway. Okay and just getting into the damn bar was a big deal. There is usually an obnoxious long line.
Riding horseback in Moab, Utah, viewing the mountains, right after my surgery. I’ve become an able bodied horse back rider. I got my friends and partner to join this hair-brained plan too.
My client, Chef Nitin hosting his first supper club at a private dining room in Little Italy.
Client successful. Joya’s successful.
Discovering GTHR yoga and House of Flows studio in the BK. Maintained my lifting schedule 3x a week. Established a steady journaling practice.
All the well wishes that flooded in when I went into hospital. I’m just posting each day, about my life. How I’m feeling. Never realizing how many are listening.
This day—I learned just how many were.
On background, I’m grappling with a tough menopause. I passed out on the sidewalk one fine day in February. I had just lost too much blood.
Matt was screaming. I don’t I ever heard him cry before and I heard it as I was rushed to the hospital for so many transfusions, and ultimately surgery.
My 2024 lesson —always put health first.
10. My Mastermind for 2025 is filled with a great pipeline of talent, thanks to the sales systems I put into place in 2024
11. Waking up to that view of Paris each day
12. I turned 52 in Paris, Jane, my oldest friend from New York and I running across traffic at the Arc de Triomphe, laughing. (We are normally very law abiding citizens btw)
Would you like me to teach YOU how to tell better stories about yourself ?
If so, the deadline is fast approaching. Enrollment for the upcoming 2025 Mastermind closes on 11:59pm ET on Dec 31st, 2023.
The kickoff retreat is on Jan 25th, 2025 in New York City. Over 12 months, myself and a group of 8 women will hold each other accountable to refining their story to become the rocket booster behind their brand.
If 2024 is the year you’re finally ready to make your dreams become a reality, then hit reply with the word “Interested” and I’ll send you more details within 24 hours.
In leadership,
Joya
