2024 was… a year, wasn’t it? It’s not quite over, but we know that many of you will be wrapping things up so you can enjoy some much-needed downtime. Plus, who wants to work when the days are short and the air is cold?

If you follow “seasonal cycles” at all, winter is the perfect time to reserve your energy, reflect, and rest. The Rendezvous gals are about to take that to heart — we’re all planning to go to ground here in just a few short days.

But before we do, we wanted to do a debrief on 2024. A postmortem, if you will. While we are scattered across the U.S. in different time zones, we wanted to do this “year in review” here so that you can see how Rendezvous has grown. You’ll hear from all three of us in our own little interview-style sections — just imagine us all curled up on the couch, chatting back and forth.

We also invite you to use these questions to engage in your own 2024 year in review. Thinking about the year that’s gone by will give you information and insights you need to thrive in 2025! 

Without further ado, here’s our 2024 year in review:

AN INTERVIEW WITH MEGAN

What was your favorite part of the year?

My favorite part of the year was our discovery call with Keely of The Talk Toolbox! It felt like a milestone moment: a brand new business that wanted to make sure they had EVERY duck in a row as they launched, both visual and verbal, and they wanted us to make it happen. It felt so very validating that this idea of having a “one-stop shop” didn’t just make sense to us but was clearly valuable to someone outside the team AND outside the “business building” world.

What was your favorite thing you worked on?

Building out the “onboarding” page for Uncanny Unedited was so fun! I love building Nicole’s gorgeous designs and being able to build out the incredible experience Latasha had laid out with copy and Nicole had laid out with the design and graphics was so gratifying.

What was your favorite thing we did together?

Forcing us to choose is cruel and unusual punishment and is the clear winner for least favorite activity 😉 Seriously though, our first call with Keely of The Talk Toolbox felt MAGICAL. Not only was the project ahead of us a dream, but it was also fun to see how each of us has such a distinct and unique perspective on brand development, business strategy, marketing strategy, etc. It’s one thing to know your fellow agency owners are damn good at what they do – it’s transcendent to watch it happen in real-time and get to be a part of it.

What was your favorite thing someone else on the team did?

Admin-wise: omg Latasha, you saved our butts by calling the IRS to confirm that, yes, we did indeed file everything we needed to. Ugh, what a nightmare.

Creatively: Nicole’s ability to create cute and approachable reproductive organs astounds me.

Marketing-wise: the copy Latasha wrote for The Talk Toolbox lead magnet landing page had me in stitches.

What element of your work forced you to grow this year?

Task management in general – I don’t have a team in my own business, so my task management system is my own, and checking the tasks off doesn’t matter nearly as much as when working with a team. If it’s not checked off, there’s no way for anyone but me to know if the thing is done or not. This also led to my personal revelation – acceptance? – that my ADHD is far more debilitating than I’d like to believe, and I’ve had to do a lot of work to build systems for myself to support what doesn’t come naturally to me.

What’s one thing you’re taking away from 2024?

Working as a team is so much fun. Having all the brand development pieces in one place is indispensable. Sex education in the United States is (not-so) shockingly abysmal.

What’s one thing you want to do in 2025?

I would LOVE to do a client retreat/sprint! We had a dream of doing a client getaway and brand sprint when we were first dreaming up what we wanted RC to be, and it may be a stretch, but I love me a lofty goal – I would LOVE for us to have our very first in-person client sprint.

AN INTERVIEW WITH NICOLE

What was your favorite part of the year?

This summer, Megan worked her magic on our project workflow and the Rendezvous Roadmap to make it even more seamless than it was before. I wasn’t sure how it could get better, but Megan always proves me wrong! Seeing the new flow reinforced how much of a difference a clear process with client experience at the forefront can make or break a project. It made me so excited for our future clients and grateful for the way her brain works.

What was your favorite thing you worked on?

GAH. It’s a tie. I LOVED working on the tentacles for Uncanny Unedited. Wrapping those suckers around other design elements made me so happy. (Like I did for this sticker!) But creating cartoon versions of reproductive organs for The Talk Toolbox is something I never thought I’d get to do.

What was your favorite thing we did together?

Everything?? I’ll always remember our long (semi-serious) discussions about how best to place facial features on penises, vulvas, and boobs. But overall, I also loved how much we supported each other during The Talk Toolbox Project. There were definitely moments when I was second-guessing everything I created and going in circles. Megan and Latasha always steered me back to reality, confirming that what we were making was on track, but also providing much-needed suggestions, too.

What was your favorite thing someone else on the team did?

Thank you, Latasha, for filing our taxes for 2023 and then spending hours on the phone with the IRS when they lost our submission.

What element of your work forced you to grow this year?

Handing over the management of the Waves of Change Grant to the entire team was a big growth moment for me. I feel so personally attached to and protective of the grant. 

However, managing all of the moving parts and making sure it evolves in ways that benefit all of the participants requires someone willing to step back to evaluate how it’s going. It’s been a great reminder to me that when you work with an amazing team, the results are always greater than the sum of its parts.

What’s one thing you’re taking away from 2024?

We have SO MUCH FUN working together on the projects we take. Our clients are seriously amazing. I want to show more people what this process is like and how many cool things we get to do.

What’s one thing you want to do in 2025?

I want an in-person reunion! While we spend so much time face-to-face over Zoom, we haven’t been in the same room in a couple of years. I’d love for us to get together or to host a client sprint like we dreamed of in the beginning!

AN INTERVIEW WITH LATASHA

What was your favorite part of the year?

I’m biased because Uncanny Unedited was my project, but we officially launched in February 2024 — and it was so much fun to bring this idea into the world. Unedited was one of those lightning strike moments that came to me in the shower and we did the thing!

It couldn’t have happened without Nicole and Megan.

Outside of that, my favorite moment can be boiled down to this screenshot. (Context: Nicole was working with our client, Keely, to finalize illustrations of anatomically correct genitalia and sexual health products.)

In what world can you say, “I like Penis var. 2 and Testicles var. 1”??? This one! 

What was your favorite thing you worked on?

The Talk Toolbox website is — I’m not even kidding — some of my best copywriting work. Sex ed in this country is a joke, and The Talk Toolbox came to us with a mission to make sex ed fun and helpful for families.

I am the product of a teen pregnancy, so ending the shame and stigma around sex hits very close to home for me. The mission, the voice, the playfulness… it was all a home run for me! 

What was your favorite thing we did together?

Since The Talk Toolbox has not officially launched as of this writing, I am going to say The Laundry Basket project, for our Waves of Change Grant 2023 winner. The grant means so much to me and seeing such a fun brand come to life for such an engaging, passionate woman was really motivating for me. Plus, I got to write copy like “Do my laundry!” and “Let us lighten the (laundry) load for you!” 

We launched the site in July 2024 and Hyacinth (owner of The Laundry Basket) has already expanded into new markets and we’ve heard from so many people that they love the work the grant team did! 

What was your favorite thing someone else on the team did?

It’s a team effort but basically I am in LOVE with every website our team builds. Nicole designs and Megan builds the site and they are just so freakin’ good at it. Between Uncanny Unedited, The Talk Toolbox, and The Laundry Basket, I’ve seen the most amazing websites come to life with their amazing design and build skills.

What element of your work forced you to grow this year?

I feel like every project I work on is a learning opportunity from a voice/copywriting perspective — as well as a marketing perspective. Working on the Uncanny Unedited launch so intimately, it was the first that I realized what a nightmare launching can really be. 

Everything went great on the build/prep end, but OH-EM-GEE is it exhausting to have to launch something online. I have a newfound perspective on launching and have adapted marketing and launch plans to try and alleviate that for our clients and grant winners as much as possible. It’s still a big lift, but I want to make it as easy as I can. 

What’s one thing you’re taking away from 2024?

What we offer here at Rendezvous is so, so, so needed. In my own business, I’ve seen people come to us for marketing strategy and copywriting… when they don’t have the foundational pieces they need to get the best results from our work together. 

To succeed in 2025, businesses have to know their values and those values have to come through in their offers (how you deliver them and how you market them) and their branding. It’s the biggest shortcoming I see in businesses right now and I just want to help all of them. 

What’s one thing you want to do in 2025?

Help more people! Seriously, I just want everyone to benefit from our Rendezvous Roadmap because we’ve seen it work — both here at Rendezvous and in our own businesses. I want to give more small women-owned businesses the chance to thrive in a market that has massively changed since they started out. 

So… if you need help in 2025…. Give us a ring 😉