2025 will be a milestone year for me, God willing, because it is the year I will turn the same age my dad was when he lost his very short battle with cancer. 

He died when I was 17, and back then, 44 seemed SO old. My dad owned a popular restaurant and catering business and a beautiful home, had five kids, was happily married to my mom, and was a powerful, charismatic presence. 

Now, as I approach the same age, I realize just how young he was and how his life was really just beginning. 

Losing him at such a young age has given me a unique perspective on how precious my time is and has majorly impacted my priorities. It is also why I spend time every Friday reflecting on how I spend my time every single week. 

As I plan for 2025, I reviewed all my notes over the past year and noticed some consistent themes of things I didn’t enjoy or realizations I had that I ignored for MONTHS. 

And this is NOT the year for me to hold onto anything that does not serve me. 

So, in honor of my dad, one of my all-time favorite humans in the entire world and the person who has had the most significant impact on who I am today, here are the 11 things I’m saying BYEEEEE to in 2025. (in no particular order) …

This summer, I worked less on purpose. My team and I intentionally scaled back—no new clients, fewer projects, and a plan to keep things running smoothly while I tapped out for a bit.

I’ve done this before (read about my summer slowdown of 2022 and how to implement a slowdown in your own business), and each time brings its own set of lessons. Some I expected, and others caught me off guard. 

Now that I’m back into the swing of things and have had time to reflect, I want to share what I learned. If you're balancing family, business, personal goals, and trying to stay healthy, I think these takeaways will resonate with you.

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After my restorative and impactful solo business getaway in January, I decided to make it a tradition to get away for a few days every quarter to focus on the business and reset. I just wrapped my second “getaway,” and once again, it was amazing. 

A little backstory before we dive into my takeaways:

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A friend of mine is in the process of starting a business and asked if I could share a few pieces of advice with her. I don’t often talk about my own business, but I thought my response to her could be helpful for those in the beginning stages of starting a company or for those who might feel stagnant in their growth.

Here are the tips I shared with her:

Does it feel like you're always working in your interior design business, and even when you stop, the to-do list in your head and the urge to do “this one last thing” are always there? 

As an entrepreneur, it's common to be consumed with your business, especially in the beginning when you have adrenaline and excitement running through your veins at the thought of what’s possible, giving you that boost to persevere and accomplish so much. But eventually, the excitement lapses a bit and you get into a groove with the day-to-day operations of working with clients and running your business (two separate things; don’t miss the second part). 

And then, the to-do list gets longer, the inbox fills up, project scopes increase, responsibilities quadruple, and the constant pressure makes it feel like you’ve created a monster. 

I get that.  

So what do you do when you have more work in a week than you have time for? 

Owning a business can feel a bit like an experiment at times. Packaging things up, testing them, refining them, and testing them again. It’s only by going through this process that you can actually know what works and doesn’t for you and your clients. 

With Dakota Design Company being my second business (my first was a wedding and event planning company that I ran from 2007 to 2014 in Arizona and Illinois), I’ve certainly experienced my share of failures, but I’ve always learned from them (even if I needed to grieve and beat myself up for a bit first). 

There are always lessons to be learned in failure. Something that I think resonates with my clients is that I am a done-for-you service provider, just like they are.

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