Ashley Chiasson, M.Ed

The statement ‘New Year, New Me’ never really spoke to me until this year. At the tail end of 2018, I accepted a  full-time position as a Senior eLearning Developer at Traliant, and I’ve been MIA from the blog because I’ve been insanely busy ramping up with them (and learning so much!) as well as ramping down with my other obligations.

What is Traliant?!

Traliant is an e-learning company that develops compliance training – primarily Sexual Harassment and Preventing Discrimination and Harassment Training – that truly looks like something you would find on a news channel or streaming service (e.g., Netflix or Hulu). I’ve only been with the company for just shy of a month, but I’ve already fallen in love with the quality of the content, the excitement and enthusiasm of the team, and the sheer volume of exciting clients that have come across my desk so far!

What You Can Expect from Me

Aside from being MIA for the majority of this month, things will be ramping back up with the blog in the coming weeks/months. I love maintaining this blog, and there are a ton of things I’m really excited to share, so stay tuned for more content, more screencasts, and a new design (coming soon, THANK YOU, Erin)! I’ll be getting back into a normal routine with the blog, so keep checking in.

What Else Have I Been Up To?

To be honest, when I haven’t been doing something work-related, I’ve been taking time to wind down:

• Listening to lots of podcasts (I recently started the Monster podcast)
• Watching lots of Netflix (Birdbox, F is for Family, The Punisher, the Fyre Festival documentaries)
• Enjoying time with my little family
• Going gluten free (since November) – I hate to admit it has helped my migraines, but it really has (still looking for a solid pizza crust recipe though!)
• Planning my conference schedule for 2019 – I’ll be at ATD ICE and DevLearn this year for sure
• Helping organize a Halifax Articulate Roadshow (!!! so excited about this and will be happy to share details once they’re available)

Random

I am still waiting on a knee surgery from a baseball injury this past July. It’s progressing in that I’ve received my MRI results, received confirmation that I do in fact have to have a meniscus repair that hasn’t healed on its own, and I have a consult with the surgeon for the beginning of March. That being said, it is extremely discouraging to know that with a 3-4 month recovery and no surgery date as of yet, I’ll be unable to play softball this season (maaaaybe in the fall, but we’ll see). It’s also been extremely hard, mentally, to do zero physical activity requiring my legs (I’d even settle for a 15 minute dog walk without a swollen knee at this point).

I hope everyone is enjoying their New Year’s Eve. In reading last year’s recap, I realized that our household was in quarantine with the flu and right now I’m trying to fend off whatever feels flu-y. It’s sort of comforting to know that it’s a trend. A ton of things happened in 2018 that I’m extremely proud of, but that’s for another day! Reflecting on how much I accomplished from my goal list, I feel incredibly happy with what I managed to do.

In addition to everything I accomplished, I also won Best Academic Solution at DevLearn 2018’s DemoFest, I delivered my first full-day pre-conference certificate workshop (and received pretty darn good feedback), bought a new house with my husband (and sold our first home – which was a PROCESS!), visited one of my besties, Erin, in Aspen, got to spend an entire week with my best friend, Rachel in Vegas (she will be my new Vegas pal…AMEN!), and accepted a new job that I hope will become my career. It’s been wild!

2018 Recap

Personal goals:

• Slow down and enjoy the present; – I have made this goal for many years in a row and I SUCK at achieving it. 
• Maintain a consistent exercise schedule; – This is a half-achievement. In July I tore my medial meniscus in my left knee, so exercise has been just a nice thought since then and until post-surgery (whenever the heck that will be…AMEN to universal healthcare).
• Be more mindful of the food I’m putting into my body and make positive dietary changes; – I completely forgot that this was a 2018 goal, and I actually achieved it. This past year I went gluten-free, which has been both a blessing and a curse. I hate to admit that it’s been effective with my migraines and visual auras…because GF pizza crust just isn’t the same, but I’m sticking with it!
• Run the Bluenose Half Marathon and participate in a relay race (should be do-able since I won’t be attending ATD ICE this year); and – This didn’t happen because I did end up going to ATD ICE (which was amazing).
• Travel to Toronto with my husband for the Blue Jays Home Opener and plan and execute an epic 5-year anniversary vacation. – Went to the home opener. They got crushed. It was still great! Executed a 5-year anniversary vacation to Portugal, and it was beautiful.

Business Goals:

• Increase business income by 25%; – Business income has been blown out of the water.
• Attend 2 conferences; – I actually attended 3: ATD ICE, ATD Core4 Toronto, and DevLearn 2018.
• Speak at 1-2 e-learning conferences; – I spoke at 2 conferences: ATD Core4 Toronto and DevLearn 2018. 
• Participate in the e-learning heroes community challenges (period – not regularly, just participate); – I’ve realized that to do this, I need to discover cloning technology…I would LOVE to participate, but have been swamped.
• Blog regularly; – This definitely happened!
• Break 1,000,000 views on the blog; and – The blog has hit 1,025,000 thereabouts! And I cannot believe how much love and support (from you folks) that I get for this blog and the content I produce. When I hit 1 million, I actually teared up. I’m not crying…you’re crying!
• Get more courses up on Sprout. – Essentials of Instructional Design and Articulate Storyline 360 Essentials both launched and have been enjoying a very successful learner-ship!

2019 Goals

Personal Goals:

• Slow down and enjoy the present;
• Have knee surgery to repair the torn meniscus;
• Rehab the knee and then return to a maintaining a consistent exercise schedule;
• Make additional dietary changes (maybe get rid of dairy?); and
• Hit the cottage at least four times for max relaxing.

Business Goals:

• WORK LESS;
• Work smarter – implement processes that will make my work-life easier and more efficient;
• Hire an accountant (something that I’ve been long overdue for);
• Maintain relationships with my existing clients;
• Invest in sprucing up the blog;
• Blog regularly; and
• Continue to grow Sprout E-Learning.