This year, I sold six dozen macarons and sixty-five ornaments. 

This was way above my goal. 

Things got a little crazy, but I pulled it off. All of the ornaments were done on time. One order of cookies was late. All in all, I am accomplished. 

Here’s what I learned from my most ambitious year yet. 

I learned that people are interested in what you can talk about. 

This is something I already knew, but it was confirmed time and time again over the last month. 

People are more inclined to buy something if they’ve discussed it. 

They feel more invested in the product. 

I realized that people bought ornaments if I could talk about the process. How I made them, how long it took, what the making entailed… anything that brought substance also brought sales. 

I ended up posting a few videos of wood burning on Instagram. These brought in two orders from my Etsy shop. 

It was fun to experiment with “sharing my work.”

I learned that getting overwhelmed could have been more helpful. 

Somewhere around the 50th ornament, I started fighting to keep up. Even on mornings when I was opening at work, I stayed until 9:00 or 10:00 to finish orders. This led to me oversleeping for a few days and fighting a near-constant headache. 

Overall, it was not my best choice for my health, but a reasonable effort in my projects. 

I learned that I can be proud of how hard I worked. 

I dropped off my last order after leaving work on Christmas Eve. 

After that, I felt so exhausted at the clear finish line that I didn’t know what to do with myself. 

We had a down day for Christmas and just watched movies. 

It was a much-needed break.

I learned that I do love freelancing. 

There is something so gratifying about deciding exactly how much I should earn. 

I love seeking out projects, completing goals, and having a significant say and influence over my work. 

Even though it is not suitable for me right now, I could see myself doing freelance work down the line.