Happy Tuesday y’all and Happy New Years Eve! I had a long evening of travel back to the city and have a busy busy day ahead running errands, appointments, cleaning/taking down holiday decor and getting ready for a LOOONG evening ahead. I’m excited because we’re seeing Cheat Codes (AKA one of my favorite DJs that I’ve seen 3x this year already), so it should be a very fun evening to say the least.

I wanted to take today to round up five of my most popular posts in 2019. I spent hours on Google Analytics going through each day and compiling the posts with the most views on specific days, and these were the five winners. Looking through the list, I’m not surprised at all, but I wanted to round them all up in one spot and share a little background to round out my year.

If you’ve been around for awhile, you know that I started blogging in college as a hobby. It was easy to blog full time in college, and even while interning in the summer in New York. When I first got out to the city I blogged for three months full time until I landed my first job, switching from fashion PR to beauty PR one year later. I was hacked on Instagram, lost my entire account and couldn’t gain access to it for THREE MONTHS (read about that HERE). Ever since I had a taste of what it was like to NOT spend every moment thinking about blogging and what comes next, whether a brand emailed you to collaborate or what your commission sales were that week, I’ve slowly started to drift away from considering myself a full time blogger and this year I truly hit a breaking point with everything going on in my personal life.

I hit 25, realized my age and where I was in life and essentially went into crisis mode and developed anxiety that consumed me for the majority of winter/spring. I was constantly stressed at work with the never-ending day-to-day that comes with PR and overall constant change that surrounds you when you’re this age. I was hating the city, had zero motivation to blog because I wasn’t seeing great engagement, gaining partnerships I saw others getting, or even having the time to consider both work and blogging full time. It wasn’t until summer when I really was able to pull myself out of this rut, get into a better mind set and overall treat this as a priority again rather than a hassle; only posting what I want to post, when I want to post. As I started getting back into posting and sharing more personal things on social media, I saw the engagement rising, people interacting and realizing why I began this little hobby of mine in the first place.

I have so much HOPE for 2020 overall. I have strong goals set forth both personally and professionally, I have a system set in place to achieve the goals I have, and I’m in a better mindset to start a new year fresh. I’ve never felt that a new year is a clean slate, but this one finally feels like it will be and the weight of the world is slowly coming off of my shoulders. I was promoted at my job prior to the holiday, I’m pretty set on sticking in my apartment I’ve had for the last two years, and I’ve brought on help to maintain Kayleigh’s Kloset without losing focus on what I set this site out to be. This year I’m set on focusing on this side business just as that, a BUSINESS, while bringing y’all the content you look for and ask for.

Without further adieu, let’s get to the top five most popular posts of 2019!

My most RAW post. Life Update: Where I’ve Been.

Towards the middle of winter I entered this downward slump, I hated blogging and didn’t see much of a future in it anymore because of how much my work life was consuming me. There were other personal factors going on like relationships, friendships and family situations and I really didn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, but the more I opened up about daily struggles and stopped highlighting everything as a curated, conquering-NYC lifestyle, you all started to engage with me more and share your fellow experiences. It just reminded me that no one is going through anything alone and I plan to share more raw posts in 2020.

My most EPIC partnership and overall fun post. #SipOnSummer with White Claw.

Easily the most on-brand partnership for the summer and the most fun to shoot, I partnered with White Claw for the dream partnership throughout the summer where I was able to incorporate my friends into the blog!! The best part about this shoot (on my friend, Mike’s rooftop – yes ladies, he IS relevant) was that Mike’s parents were in town and fans of White Claw, so we had them snap a few family photos as well. Every time I see his sweet parents we talk about that afternoon, it truly was SO fun (if only Nikki could have been involved too, but she was out of town). Special thanks to my friends who rolled out of bed for this Sunday evening shoot, and for Kathleen from Laurel Creative for shooting a weekend.

My most CHALLENGING post series. Wrap Up: No Spend July.

Let me start by saying I have been struggling financially for years now and this summer I decided I wanted to do something to genuinely try and fix the situation or at least make a dent in it. I spent the month of July doing what I called a “no spend July” where I didn’t pay for anything other than necessities. The biggest spend factors in the city are take out apps, grocery delivery services, and paying for photography for the blog. I’m planning to do some sort of monthly spend round up to track my spending, but I’m at a whole new advantage this year going in debt free and with a promotion at my 9-5.

My most TIME CONSUMING post. Christmas in New York Travel Guide.

I’m so happy that this was one of the favorites this year because I genuinely worked SO hard on it! My ultimate New York City Christmas Guide was a big round up of everything to do and see in the city during the holidays and I spent literally days on it. I took my four Christmas seasons and combined the best of the best into one guide, and I hope to continue to create New York guides in 2020. These are definitely more time consuming and take more consideration than a normal post, but seeing how well you all respond to these sorts of posts makes it worth while!

My most STRATEGIC shopping post. Sephora VIB Sale Guide.

I’m honestly SHOCKED that this post performed as well as it did, but I’m so happy to see it did! It actually took a long time to compose as well, but I tried to combine all of my beauty expertise from products I had been testing into the largest beauty sale of the year. Knowing you guys liked this sort of sale post over the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale style post, I’ll definitely try to incorporate this more into 2020 and track ongoing beauty sales from Sephora, ULTA, etc. Definitely let me know if there’s anything specific you all want to see beauty wise!

The end… for this year 😉

For changes in 2020, I’m really going to try to hunker down and spend one full weekend a month where I get all of my posts planned out ahead of time. I may not guarantee a post Monday – Friday, but it’s a goal of mine that I have to be better about it. I also want to start doing a weekend reading segment, sharing my favorite articles and items for the weekend. It won’t be anything fancy, but just some fun round ups for everyone to peek at! I also plan on bringing more content to IG (obviously), specifically IGTV – so stay tuned for greater things to come that have been in the works for a few months!

When it comes to where my analytics hit at the end of 2019, I have to say I am truly proud of myself. When I read the numbers I was nervous thinking how this would shift 2020 overall with my new business strategy for Kayleigh’s Kloset and how Instagram has shifted, but I have to say I’m genuinely proud of this site and can’t wait to see it continue to grow in partnerships, posts, and traffic. I remember back when I was in the Alpha Chi house at the University of Oklahoma posting on my self-made Weebly account and using date party pictures where I’d crop out my friends. LOOK HOW FAR THIS CORNER OF THE INTERNET HAS COME, Y’ALL.

It truly blows my mind each and every day, and I cannot thank you enough from the bottom of my heart for listening to my rants, reading what I think is worth buying and actually clicking through these affiliate links scattered around. I so appreciate you all for making this little side gig still feasible, especially when numbers don’t lie and you continuously come back to read what I have to say. Thank you again! Here’s to an amazing 2020. Have a great NEW YEARS y’all and thanks for reading!