Happy New Year friends! I feel like I just wrote this post… This will be my 6th year in review on the blog. I love keeping up with it because 1) seeing all of your hard work summarized in one place is really humbling. Putting it together makes me reflect on all I’m proud of and grateful for, and I love that process. And 2) I get a few messages each year after posting it from people saying they enjoyed the read and they liked keeping up with what I was up to. I love following blogs and LinkedIn posts and staying up to date with some of my fabulous connections that I don’t see or speak with often.
I ended my 2024 in review blog saying, “This coming year (2025) is all about peace, self-care, skill development, travel and being selective about where I pour my soul and expend my energy.” I can confidently say I held to that and am really happy about it. I poured into myself in multiple new ways, traveled to new places, and kept my energy focused on a few big goals. In past years I tried to say yes to almost everything, which lead to stretching myself too thin and then I couldn’t show up as the best version of myself for me or the people in my life/network/community that needed my help.
Excited to share this year in review and of course in true #ClaireShares fashion there will be resources linked along the way. (: Let’s do it!
2025 in Numbers
I thought I’d start with this because it’s fun, and then I’ll get into some specifics on some of the topics (:
- Completed 150 classes at Hype Fitness Studio šŖ
- Spoke at 5 conferences š¤
- Filled 73 jobs as a Senior Talent Acquisition Business Partner at ATI š©š¼āš»
- Screened 480 job candidates š (I can’t even believe this. I got to meet 480 new people via phone and hear their stories, interests, experiences, etc. I love talking to people for a living.)
- Caught 20 concerts (only counted Warped Tour in Orlando as 1!) š¶
- Showed up to 38 sessions with my amazing therapist Jennifer š
- Had a blast in 9 cities – Nashville, NYC, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit, Dallas, Denver, Orlando. āļø
Wellness and Fitness
I need to start here because this was truly my biggest accomplishment of the year. 2025 was the first year ever I was consistent with working out weekly for the entire year. I became disciplined about moving my body and eating cleaner – a version of myself I always wanted but never prioritized. First I focused on improving my eating and protein intake. I was eating about half the grams of protein a day that my body needed. Working remotely really helped me achieve this goal as I was able to cook a protein packed breakfast each morning, and walk to the fridge to make a healthy snack every afternoon (and shoutout to Eat Rite meal prep for lunch every day – so yummy!) Earlier in my career before I invested the time to learn about the importance of wellness and fitness, I’d prioritize a few more minutes of sleep in the morning and then rushing out the door to commute to work over planning my meals for the day. I wouldnāt have been able to put on the muscle I have and love this year without first focusing on my eating.
Shoutout to Hype Fitness Studio for helping me fall in love with working out. Their Strength and Pilates class is my favorite – the playlists are always fire, movements are intentional, and instructors are coaches. I started going consistently in October 2024 and kept it up this entire year. I took 150 classes this year! Feeling so strong and this is only the beginning.
I hurt my left knee and hip in early November which prompted me to join an open gym so I could still workout but at my own pace and focusing on different muscle groups compared to the group fitness class environment at Hype. I actually fell in love with weight lifting and now have some fun goals for that in 2026. My biggest lesson here was to trust the timing of my journey. Being injured was really hard and took a toll on me mentally – it was so hard to not be able to work out at full power and effort – but it lead me to explore another avenue I likely wouldn’t have without that happening. This year I’m going to keep moving, taking care of my body, and trying new things. Who knows – I may learn I love swimming laps! (Doubtful lol but I also never thought I’d be confident in the gym!) I love all of the benefits of weight lifting and knowing that I’m now taking better care of my future self.
This Year’s Conferences
It wouldn’t be a Claire year wrap up without reminiscing on the conference fun this year brought! I always tell people – if I could be a professional conference go-er for a living I would. I love to learn, connect with people, and just soak in all the hype. I spoke at 5 conferences this year, and 2 of them were new! I was so excited and grateful to be invited back to SHRM Talent, HRUnite! and the NY State SHRM Conference. I presented my signature Elevate and Uplift the Next Generation of HR Leaders session at SHRM Talent and HRUnite! and Building Your Personal Brand session at NY State SHRM.
New this year were the Michigan Recruiters Conference and the Northern Ohio HR Association Conference where I got to build out a new session called Recruiting Best Practices: Play the Long Game! I received great feedback on this new content at both sessions which felt amazing – so many new HR friends said it was helpful and of course I shared all of the templates and processes with them that I mentioned in the presentation and use every day in my role at ATI. I love the creative process of building a topic Iām passionate about and shaping the slides, flow, and stories for the audience. Sharing the finished product to help my fellow HR pros is so rewarding. (Descriptions of all of my speaking topics is over on my speaking page!)
Thank you Tim Sackett, Tom Daniels, and Tina-Marie Wohlfield for having me at your conferences. I deeply appreciate their support of my growth and speaking journey! (:
I also attended a new conference this year – Unleash America in Las Vegas! I wrote a post on the experience here. Thanks to my friendĀ Ben EubanksĀ andĀ Lighthouse Research and Advisory for hosting me as their guest at this incredible event! I will definitely be back. (:
Resources Created for My Community
A goal I have almost every year is to create/share helpful information with my network and connections. (I have a few ideas lined up for toolkits to create in 2026 and I am pumped!) I hope you find these helpful. ā¤
- Building Your Personal Brand – I presented this webinar for the University at Buffalo Office of Alumni Lifelong Learning. I love when my alma mater invites me back to share a topic I’m passionate about. Their webinar series is incredible – free to all. Here is the link if you want to view the topics and sign up for any upcoming ones!
- A Day in the Life of a Senior Talent Acquisition Business Partner – I presented this session for my local HR Association. I love helping young/emerging HR pros understand what it’s like being in a recruitment role especially if they are considering it for their career path!
- Plan with Me! My first time recording a video for YouTube myself WITH editing and transitions. So fun! In this video I go over how I use my planner, stay organized, and consistently reflect, celebrate, and keep a growth mindset throughout the year.
Coaching and Teaching
I also worked with career coaching clients 1:1 who were on their job search or career advancement journeys. I help individuals and organizations take their careers and businesses to the next level with a relationship building and personal branding strategy. Connect, post and engage intentionally online to attract opportunities to yourself, build your network, showcase your personality and voice, and reach your goals! If I could help you, please reach out to me or book a call with me through my services page. I canāt wait to chat with you!
I successfully taught my first semester as an Adjunct Professor at Niagara University in the Spring of 2025! I teach undergraduate HR: staffing and training. This was a deeply rewarding experience. I built my class from scratch. I got a syllabus template and a course description but the rest was up to me to create! What a fun project. I picked my text books (one for staffing, one for training) designed all of the classes, lectures, homework, activities, etc. Of course I had a few calls with trusted mentors and other adjuncts in my network to help me out along the way! I learned A TON. Being a teacher doesn’t mean you have all the answers – it’s about applying the text book theory to real workplace scenarios, using my experience and stories to help the students develop their skills and outlooks on the world of work/HR and also helping them appreciate (and hopefully fall in love with!) the subject matter. I knew if I didn’t make my class enjoyable and interactive, then they’d hate the HR subject matter, and I’m out here trying to create the next generation of HR leaders lol. I’m so excited to share that I’ll be back for the Spring 2026 semester kicking off in just a couple weeks here teaching the same class.
What I Learned
So let’s wrap up with the main things I learned this year. For starters, taking care of my health is most important. For the past ~12 years since I started working in HR I hustled and I don’t regret a moment of that, but the truth is I didn’t prioritize my wellbeing. I’ve learned that I feel so much better in the morning if I sleep on a heating pad and with a pillow under my knees lol! I learned to be diligent with my vitamins and supplements. (Luckily I’ve always loved drinking water.)
I learned how much I love working remotely after doing it for a full year. I honestly wasn’t sure if it would work for me since I’m an extrovert. You can absolutely be productive and have quality connections with coworkers remotely. I’m great at what I do and my hiring managers and candidates get top notch service. Meanwhile I can spend more time with my boyfriend and elderly dog. She loves to sleep in her bed in my office during the day and keep me company. We can walk her on our lunch break. (I can’t believe I used to pay a dog walker 5 days a week to come over at lunch when I worked in the office – but that’s what you have to do!) I’m not rushing home after work, and then rushing back out to the office or an event. I also recognize that I wouldn’t have liked being remote early in my career and don’t think I would have been good at working remotely then either. It’s a great fit for me now with where I’m at in my career and my lifestyle. I feel so much more peace and love working in my home office feeling balanced and productive, and then in the evening I’m ready to get out of the house for a bit and bring my full energy to a networking/community event or the gym.
Lastly, I learned how important it is to stay true to me. How cool is it that we can be so many things, and whatever we want to be – a tattooed/purple haired HR leader, adjunct professor, career coach, public speaker, gym regular, traveler, blogger, etc.Ā For the longest time I thought I couldn’t be tattooed working in HR (And in some cases I still keep them covered at work/events – I understand for some they are a distraction from my work product and I’m not going to let that impact my career) but the truth is that your communication, behavior, performance and relationship building skills are what’s most important.
Though there were some tough moments this year, I choose to focus on the good! Proud of everything I accomplished and thankful for the amazing people who were along for the ride. I canāt wait to see what opportunities come up throughout the year ahead – fun things are in the works! Connect with me onĀ LinkedIn letās stay in touch! I wish you a healthy, happy and successful 2026 where you accomplish everything you set your mind to. Take care of yourself friends. Please reach out if thereās anything I can help you with. I’m looking forward to doing more career coaching, recruiting, speaking and traveling in the new year. Cheers!
Claire is Coaching 