I waltzed into 2021 ready to officially relaunch the business after a year off, eight months pregnant, and just sure that 2021 would be our “come back” year.

Well, #spoileralert, things didn’t quite go as planned.

Turns out having a baby, deciding to move back home halfway across the country, living in house limbo for two months, and then two straight months of hosting family and friends for the Holidays (not a complaint!), all without childcare doesn’t leave a whole lotta room for consistent work hours!

What I thought was going to be our biggest year yet as far as revenue (hello lofty goals), turned out to be one of our lowest years in revenue… ever.

What I failed to account for was the time it would take to rebuild.

My 2021 Goals

Personal

• Be mentally & physically well (yes and no)
• Put Family First (yes, but not like expected!)
• To Love our Home (yes, but not like expected)

Professional

• Update The Blueprint Model (done)
• Create Content I’m Proud of (yes, but not enough of it or consistently)
• Prep our new membership program (in progress)

Financial

• $1 Million in Revenue (laughable, nope.)
• Bring 1:1 services back (yes!)
• Update & Streamline Courses (Partially).

Lessons Learned

I had (3) major ‘aha’ moments as I was prepping our end of year review.

1. Setting the Wrong Expectations for the Year

The first came when I was reviewing how I spent my time (using my favorite time tracking tool, Toggl). I pulled a report for the entire year and realized I had worked over 1000 hours.

Estimating I worked 8 months of the year (3 off for maternity leave and 1 off for Holiday sabbatical) that would be an average of 28-30 hours a week.

WHUUUUUTTTT???

Honestly guys I felt like I didn’t work in 2021. Once March hit, I spent the first 3 months on maternity leave, the next 3 months completing a major home renovation, and moving across the country, 2 months in house limbo living with the in-laws, and the next 2 months hosting family or friends at our home almost every weekend.

Work was sporadic at best and a lot of burning the midnight oil as that seemed to be the only consistent work hours I got in.

This did not and does not work for me! I thrive in routine. Must not repeat. 

I told a friend this week I feel like in 2021 I did the bare minimum to keep the business running. I kept the train on the tracks but that’s about all, it’s definitely not moving forward! I struggled with that so much.

But again, I framed the work year totally wrong. I went in thinking “come back tour” Taylor Swift style let’s sell out the grandstands, when in fact it was a year of rebuilding.

What we did accomplish:

• • Completely updated our website, branding, and did a brand photoshoot 9 months pregnant!
  • Completely updated my signature program, The Blueprint Model (and got rave reviews!)
  • And built out brand new 1:1 services after 3 years of not offering individual coaching.

As a “come back” year, yea… the year fell short. But when I frame the goal of 2021 for what it should have been, a rebuilding year … well, then it was a huge success!

2. Review Your Goals Often

Ok, this is slightly embarrassing to tell you since I have an entire program on annual planning including guided monthly review pages … but hello, newborn life. So here it is: I barely looked at my goals last year.

I wrote them down, and then didn’t revisit them again.

So, *surprise #2* when I finally did sit down to revisit my goals in 2021, I had actually accomplished several of them. Seriously guys, I really viewed 2021 as somewhat of a lost year business-wise and it’s because I was only using 1 metric to measure our success: my sales goal.

And I came NO WHERE NEAR IT. Like laughably so.

How sad would it be if that’s where I stopped. If I defined my business year as a flop because one goal wasn’t achieved when six others were?!

Did you know that celebration actually increases your likelihood to accomplish goals in the future? You achieve more when you celebrate often.

So yea, 2021 was a joy tornado filled with a lot of sweet baby snuggles, and inconsistent work days. But that means I accomplished my most important goal : Putting Family First.

Repeat for those in the back (and because I need to hear it again): review your goals often! You might just be further along than you think you are!

3. The Internet is Noisy. You don’t have to yell, but it would help if you show up!

This last aha moment comes back to my time tracking analysis again (Have I convinced you yet to track your time?!). I really wanted to analyze where my time was spent in 2021, especially now that I’m only working 3xs a week. It’s more important than ever to use my time wisely on the most profitable, effective, and enjoyable tasks.

Here’s how my time was spent in 2021:

• • 10% marketing / content creation
  • 22% admin work
  • 68% products/ client work (including redeveloping The Blueprint Model and all new systems for client work).

See: only doing the bare minimum. I gave time and attention to the urgent things: ie: client and student commitments. I’m proud of that. I gave my all to my paying community.

But that sadly left me with not enough time to serve a growing audience of potential new clients. I did not blog consistently, nor create new content as I had hoped. In fact, I didn’t show up very often at all. I truly struggled with this.

My hope this year is to give my time more evenly to each of my roles : ⅓ to growing our audience reach with amazing free content, podcast interviews, and partnering with affiliate brands, ⅓ admin tasks, ⅓ client work and student coaching.

Someone once told me your revenue follows work you did six months ago. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I do know I need more time to grow the front end of audience reach and brand awareness.

That brings me here:

My hope for 2022 is Harmony.

Harmony of work, rest, and play. Harmony of reaching potential clients, serving current clients, and keeping the books up to date! I believe that balance is like a dance and I hope to be intentional with each facet of my life this year.