Hi #PashFam!

Angel here! We are now more than 3 months into the year and Passion Planner is finally getting into a good groove after the past two years of unpredictability with the on and off chaos of COVID and its chain reactions. *Collectively breathes a sigh of relief and gratitude*. For me, the start of 2023 has felt like the first 5 minutes after a hard workout. The first minute I am catching my breath and getting my bearings. And the minutes following, colors seem brighter, the air feels crisper and small things like a sip of water feels divine. Anyone else feel that way?

When Passion Planner went from selling 4 planners a day 4,000 planners overnight in 2014, it felt like repairing a car while moving. Things shifting and changing, outside entities out of your control swerving into your lane. Having to adjust things on the move. You generally know where you’re heading, but every so often must check if you’re on track. And then there’s luck and it’s paternal twin, bad luck. One minute you feel like you’re coasting downhill hand cutting waves through the wind, and the next you have a nail in your tire. It’s all a part of it! 

As a company, and even larger as a community, there are many parts working together to create progress toward our collective goal. Our destination is a world where everyone has access to have the tools to live a fulfilling life. This is why we show up every day. I am proud of what we’ve built and how far we’ve come together. This year we celebrate ten years of Passion Planner. Ten years of Passion Road Maps filled out, Game Changer Goals reached, reflections filled with memories..  and just like the Honda Civic my dad had for what feels like forever, we’re still kickin! 

Thank you for being here and thank you for being on this journey with us. 

What We’ve Been Up To!

Within the Company

• Started recovering and closing up our busiest time of the year! 
• Took 230 days off as a team collectively through paid holidays, rest days, vacation days, and Passion Weeks. Go rest! 
• We started our plan to roll out a 4 day work week in 2024 by first making every other Friday a half day for full time team members.
• Gave a minimum 3% raise to our entire team! 
• Each team met with the Executive Team to define the vision and goals for the year, ensuring we are all in alignment.
• Celebrated 2022 with our annual Team Banquet! 
• Rolled out some new branding (new fonts, colors, graphic elements to freshen up the vibe!) that we have been working on for almost a year! 
• Prepared for and completed our April launch – one of our biggest launches to date! 

In the Community

• Launched NEW Academic Weekly Planners, Daily Undated Planners, and two new sticker books - Friendship and Cottagecore! 
• Donated 7,659 planners to orgs including Maui Humane Society, Hugs & Bags, Women’s Gender & Sexuality Studies Student Association, Coalition for Headache and Migraine Patients, Hamilton County Recovery Court and more. 
• Donated $30,000 to Our Own, Malala Fund and charity: water
• We hosted a Passion Road Map Workshop, where I walked the #pashfam through setting up their Passion Road Maps - you can still watch and fill yours out here! 
• We attended and sponsored local events including Passion Roadmap Workshop, Passion Planner Quarterly Check-in, Creative Mornings, Journey to Impact (hosted by our partner Dreams & Ducats), Black History Month panel (hosted by East LA College Prep)
• Opened up our donations application.
• I attended a painting retreat with Sari and 7 of the 12 people at the retreat knew what Passion Planner was! Sari the artist that put on the retreat even used her planner to plan her retreat and one attendee said “Omg, are you Angel from Passion Planner? You’ve changed my life. Hold on, I am fangirling right now.” 🥹 Sometimes, I forget that we are such a big part of some people’s lives and in those moments I am super grateful.
• Incorporating more A.I. into Customer Service so customers can get help ASAP! 
• Hosting tons of sales including our Pi day sale where select planners were only $3.14! We sold almost 30,000 planners over the 40 hour sale!
• A few team members and I attended GoWild, a planner conference with more than 1750+ attendees where we got to meet and interact with lots of the #PashFam
• We were featured in a ton of articles including:
• NPR: Calendars are for managing your time. But planners are for dreaming without limits. The reporter really really understood the deep relationship that someone can build with their planner, their goals and their time. 
• “The real magic in planners, to me, comes in the negative space where I reflect on the past and envision the future. Cracking open a fresh week's layout on a Monday morning and seeing the empty pages expand like a canvas waiting to be filled, the tone of the week yet to be set, the possibilities endless. Organizing disorderly thoughts into orderly lists in the blank space. Starting every year, month and week writing down goals and dreams without limits. Looking back on past victories and failures and memories that may get lost in the daily churn of life.” - Ariana Stone, NPR 
• Forbes - Time Management Tips To Make the Most of This New Year
• “One of the best things about the Passion Planner is that it has built in space to reflect back on this process. I regularly check in to see what adjustments make sense in any given season. Having this process in place for goal setting and time management really lessens my mental load, and creates space and freedom in a very full, multi-faceted life.”
• CNN: The 12 best academic planners to help students crush their goals in 2023, according to experts
• People: The 11 Best Planners to Get Organized in 2023 - Best Motivational Planner
• Brit+Co: The Best Planners To Keep You Organized And Creative In 2023
• Our first feature as the Best Digital Planner via OnFocus News!
• We we’re even recommended by Peloton Instructor Rebecca Kennedy as a product they love on Popsugar
• We were even included in Cosmopolitan Magazine’s Aires Gift Guide!
• I also appeared on NPR’s LifeKit Podcast - 7 Tiny Hacks that Can Improve Your To-Do List

Thanks for reading, see ya next quarter! 

Angel