April Favs and Finds
April really took us down as a family. Charlie came home from school sick one day, and whatever she had was no joke. She was home sick for almost seven days, and so was I. In this time, I completely fell off my workout and weekday routine of wake up, drop Charlie off, workout, shower, work, pick Charlie up, get Charlie fed, bathed, and down for the night. The days looked more like… wake up and bring Charlie into our bed for her bottle, snuggle and wait for her to fall asleep, then grab my laptop and catch up on as many things as possible before she woke back up.
In addition to the horrible ailment, we had two friends who’s parent’s passed, and our house in New Buffalo flooded.
But April wasn’t all gloom and doom, there were a fun things we got to do — celebrated my dad’s birthday and the first birthday of the daughter of a friend, enjoyed some insanely good music, and of course, I finally got to try some products I’ve been wanting to try for the longest time!
Sharing everything and more, below!
Enjoying this? Make sure to subscribe to get weekly recipes for success in life, business, and the kitchen.
What I did in April
Quarterly Board Meeting: Every quarter, two of my best friends and I book a board room at a local co-working space for the day and have our Board Meeting. Per usual, we did the same this month to do a retro on Q1 and an outlook on Q2. One of the things I love so much about this day is it’s a way for my friends to pour into me, to provide perspective, to reflect back to me things I’ve said I wanted in the past and either achieved, or pivoted on. AND it’s an opportunity for me to do the same for them. One of my friends recently started a business, and she’s a marketing/SEO wizard, but ultimately, I was able to lend the perspective that she should really be leaning into sales right now to help the business grow revenues. I was able to share a few of my sales thought leadership articles with her, and she says its been helping (sales meeting prep, ask-get, how to sell anything to anyone).
Chicago Athletic Club: I lead a sales team in the Emerging Brands division of a Consumer Market Research firm. Our headquarters is in Chicago and at the end of April, my whole team flew in to spend some time together. It was such a blast seeing people in person and out from behind the Zoom screen. The company kindly put me up in a hotel for a night so that I wouldn’t have to make the long commute home and could spend more time with my team. I ended up staying at the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel, which is in this gorgeous building on Michigan Ave, smack dab in downtown Chicago. They had wonderful customer service and the coffee shop in the lobby was exactly what I needed after a late (ahem, 11:30PM) night out downtown with my team.
Aire: Tasha, Helena and I love spending time together whenever the constellation of our schedules align, and this date had been on the books for months! The three of us spent a Sunday together at Aire Ancient Baths, getting massages, floating around in their baths, and cold-plunging. It’s such a gorgeous space, admittedly a bit busy on a Sunday (I’ve gone before on weekdays, and the vibes are way more relaxed), but what a treasure to be able to spend such quality time with my besties, in such a stunning space, doing something that left us feeling better at the end of the day. We followed the bath experience with salads and avo toast at Goddess and the Baker. The perfect girls day!
Photoshoot: At the very end of the month, Charlie and I went downtown for a photo shoot among skyscrapers with the one and only Taylor Good. Here were a few of my favorite photos from the shoot. Taylor is simply the best, she always makes me feel so confident in front of the camera, and I love how she’s super detail oriented, if you send her your vision board, she’ll make sure that you have the right light, backdrop, props, outfit, etc. She’s the best!
Content I loved in April
Beyonce’s Album: I can’t talk about the month of April without bringing up Beyonce’s new album. Holy crap it’s so good, I can’t stop listening to Protector (I cried the first time I listened), 16 Carriages, Bodyguard, Most Wanted, Yaya, Jolene, and American Requiem). IT IS SO GOOD. I texted Tasha, I want to get a little buzzed and have a listening party.
Taylor’s Album: I mean, you guys, it’s epic. Charlie really loves it too, we’ve been jamming out to: Fortnight, Florida, thanK you aIMee, The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me, But Daddy I Love Him, and So High School. Some of these song lyrics are so insanely good… I even got on Reddit to see what the Swifties are saying so I could be in on the joke with them.
Emily from Feed Me Newsletter: I don’t miss a day of Emily’s substack. She’s like your smart, cool, super-connected, gossipy but in a good way, bestie who someone is always on top of everything culture and business. I have only 3 paid subscriptions to written content right now, and this is my absolute favorite little, daily, luxury.
Products I Obsessed Over in April
Dotti: I had the co-founders of Dotti on Allowlist this month and they were so cool, nice, smart, funny, and WOW so thoughtful about leveraging consumer feedback to build stunning products. They’ve re-imagined the broom and the sponge and made them actually beautiful and not embarrassing to have sitting around in some corner of your house, or on your kitchen sink. I’m not going to lie, I am obsessed. If you have to have a broom and sponge in your home, why not have one that is beautiful and functional?
Sweedies: You may remember the co-founder gals from Sweedies coming on the pod last season, well, they finally launched DTC in April, and you KNOW that I was the first person to put their MoodRings product in my cart. I can finally attest, they are DELICIOUS, and the high is like this buzzy, friendly, body high that’s not over the top, but like, a glass of champagne at brunch kind of vibe. Definitely check them out.
Exponent: We had Liz Whitman on the pod at the beginning of Season 4, she’s so smart, funny, and innovative. I finally pulled the trigger on some product and loved it so much I got some for me, and my mom. If you want, use code Allowlist20 at checkout for a little discount-a-roo <3
Biggest Lesson I Learned in April
Looking forward to a new month, and the opportunity to get back on track!
