I received a text from a friend this week that said, “is it just me, or is this week the weirdest week of the year?”.

While you may feel just like my friend, that after Christmas before New Years I’m not quite sure what to do with my time vibe, I have actually come to love this week. I love the intentional time of reflection and planning— yea, I have an entire course on it! I love sitting down and analyzing what worked, what didn’t, and digging into the data to move into a new year with new intentions, new plans, and new budgets (you knew I had to throw that in!).

I sit here writing this just a few sleeps before New Years Eve, with a lot of jotted notes and half-baked goals for 2024— but full of gratitude. While I didn’t reach all of my goals this year, I am abundantly aware of how grateful I am for my family, our health, a new little baby on the way, the work I get to do, and the hope and possibility that comes with a new year.

I look back at my goals for 2023 and see a lot of “in progress” instead of DONE, yet I know a lot of meaningful work was done this year. Work that I am confident my future self will be thankful for!

Whether 2023 was your best year yet or one of just scraping by, I hope the turning of a calendar year brings new hope and great goals to chase down! 

And before the clock strikes midnight, I cannot walk into 2024 with saying “thank you”. Thank you for supporting this small business owning mama, for purchasing our products, reading our emails and blogs and listening to the podcast. Thank you for putting trust in us to help you understand your own money better. From the bottom of my heart, we are truly so very grateful.

Now, without further ado, my complete 2023 recap!

What Worked in 2023

1. Growing our team 

You don’t have to hang around here long to know that I am a big fan of growing a business lean— meaning that I personally do not want nor thrive with a lot of financial pressure. However, with a toddler at home and no consistent help with child care until August of this year, having more hands on deck was a must. I am so beyond grateful for Megan and Lauren joining our team this year. They truly are both God-sends. 

Lauren has been my right hand gal since March and has pretty much stepped up whenever and wherever needed. We are both very excited for her transition into a more specialized role in 2024 but I am grateful for her team spirit and willingness to do pretty much anything I needed this year.

Megan reached out to me via a cold email back in April and after a few calls and trial blogs, she stepped in as our podcast writer. She is incredible and was the blessing I didn’t know I needed! I am excited to continue working with her in 2024 and look forward to the day we can take advantage of her incredible copywriting skills to an even greater extent.

Looking back at my 2022 recap, it was cool to see “hiring and asking for help” as one of my intentions for 2023! I can confidently say that yes we made that happen this year!

2. Enrolling MJ in the best preschool ever!

For the first 2.5 years of Madelyn’s life we did not have consistent outside childcare. We are blessed with a wonderful babysitter for date nights, a high school student that came a few hours a week, and for a while Kyle’s sister was watching her a few hours a week— but other than that, it was mostly Kyle and I trying to grow a business during nap time and tag-teaming child care. 

In 2021 we had Madelyn on multiple waitlists for preschool and though it felt really challenging that we weren’t able to get the consistent help we’d hoped for, I’m honestly so glad we had that extra time with her at home with us.  But it is hard to run (let alone grow) a business in less than 15 hours a week with an active toddler at home. 

That’s why this February we camped out in a parking lot for 36 hours (yup, that’s real life) to get Madelyn into what we believe is the best preschool ever!! Sounds crazy but we met some dear friends that were also crazy enough (read: desperate) to do the same. 

Preschool has been a game changer for us and for Madelyn! Madelyn absolutely loves her teachers (praise!) and loves going to school. And while preschool doesn’t eliminate the inevitable sick days, this has been the most consistent help we have had in the past three years! 

I am already thinking about what this will look like in 2024 and continuing to get more help once the new baby arrives. I am beyond grateful for our sweet preschool and incredible teachers who love our little girl so well.

3. Launching the Creative Money Shop! 

In 2016, I released my first (and signature) course The Blueprint Model. Since then we have also produced a personal budgeting course and a goal setting course. Prior to this year, these were basically the only three products you could buy from us outside of working with me 1:1. And while these programs are incredible, I know that sometimes a simple spreadsheet or solution is a) an easier purchase for someone new to our brand and b) all you may need in this season to help with your finances! 

I dreamed up the Creative Money Shop as a way to offer some of the spreadsheets I use to manage our home and business finances to more small business owners who may not be looking for an in depth course.

BEST SELLERS OF THE YEAR: 

Master Your Money Financial Checklists (formerly CFO checklist)

This monthly subscription provides financial accountability at a super affordable price (just $12/mo!)! It was a joy to provide an option for business owners looking to feel more organized and less stressed about money at a price-point that is doable. I am excited about the new format launching in January to include a video tutorial with the checklist to make staying on top of (and understanding) your money even easier. 

If you haven’t already, make sure to check out the “Master Your Money Monthly Financial Checklist” subscription! 

Business Stats Tracker

This was hands down our best seller of the year and for good reason— it is seriously my favorite spreadsheet to update each month! With a simple to use data tracker to see a snapshot of your business financials and marketing stats all in one place. See trends and progress over time equipping you to make data-backed decisions to grow your business! This one is a must buy!

4. Changing our Sales Strategy

One of my biggest goals this year was to tear down our sales & marketing strategy and rebuild it from the ground up. Since 2016, we have primarily relied on big launches to fund our business and personal financial needs. Our programs would be closed for most of the year and then open 1-2xs per year. That meant (outside of 1:1 work which I don’t take on very often), most of the year we had nothing for people to buy and no way for others to learn from me.

Seriously, what was I thinking?! 

While this strategy worked for years, I recognized in 2022 that this was no longer working. The industry changed a lot after covid and my season of life changed. As a new mom, now with baby #2 on the way, we needed more consistent revenue while I only have part-time hours to give. Not to mention, I wanted to serve more small business owners with our education products without forcing people to wait on my timeline for this content to be available. 

We spent most of the year reworking our programs, our sales funnels, and basically rebuilding the course side of our business from the ground up.

We still have some finishing touches and tweaks to make to get our new sales systems fully up and running, but for the first time ever I can confidently say that within a matter of weeks our business will be set up to serve new customers in an even better way— the finance education available when you need it!

5. Finance Friday— Our Weekly Email Newsletter! 

I quit social media in 2017 and transitioned our marketing strategy to content market— blogs, emails, etc. The thing is, until last year when we launched the podcast, I never (EVER!) was consistent with producing content. I would show up every now and again with some blog content or a youtube video and very rarely talked to my email list. 

This year I finally found my groove with our “Finance Friday” emails! Since I’m not actively on social media, the newsletter is a way for me to connect with the community and it’s been such a joy. Also finding more of a “theme” for the emails helps shape the content and gives readers an idea of what to expect each week. Finance Friday tips have been a huge hit and I love getting to share.

It is such a privilege to show up in your inboxes each week and to continue dishing up some quick finance tips to help more small business owners like you earn more and then manage it well! 

If you aren’t on our newsletter yet, join 10k amazing small business owners and get yourself on the list!

6. Mindset

There were a lot of things that could have gotten us down this year: financial goals that weren’t met, struggling to sell our house, dreams we just couldn’t seem to chase down, hanging onto stress, and a lot of sickness in between!

I like to feel in control and a lot of things this year felt out of our control. Yet in the midst of the slow progress and delayed goals, we often look at each other and just speak out the gratitude we have for each other, our health, our sweet little girl, our life, and our family. I have said often this year, “if we have to go through something hard, this is a hard I would choose.” 

While I definitely didn’t count my blessings and celebrate progress as much as I could have, I can tell that my mindset has shifted a lot this year. A lot more grace and a lot less frustration over things that are out of my control, for that I am grateful. 

What didn’t work?

1. Brand & Audience Growth 

As mentioned above, most of our time and effort this year was focused on rebuilding our business model (along with serving our current students and clients). This did not leave a lot of margin for focusing on our marketing efforts. That is absolutely shifting in 2024! We want to see more people who are struggling with either 1) earning money in their business or 2) managing that money well—FIND US! We are ready to be a household name (hello Today show?!), and I’m excited to really make marketing a big focus in 2024!

2. Optimizing my Time

I feel like I need to caveat this one— I did not do any “busy work” this year. However, I am keenly aware that my time isn’t going to magically expand in 2024 (especially with a new baby on the way and a 3 month maternity leave on the calendar). That means some really good things (things that were even on my highlights list in 2022), are getting put on the chopping block. 

• We are cutting out all my 1:1 work for 2024.
• We are being very picky about my “yes’s” especially when it comes to podcast interviews and speaking events. 
• We aren’t creating any new products so I can focus my time on making the products we already have even better. 

“Less but Better” in 2024. We are doubling down on what is working and eliminating any and all extras with the goal to free up my time to focus solely on creating great content for the blog and podcast (solo shows in 2024?!) and making our current products the best they can be.

By the Numbers: Business

• 4 Team Members
• 1182 hours worked 
• 22 average per week
• 2 in-person speaking events (both in Maine)
• 10 Features: 5 Podcast Interviews, 4 Mastermind Speaking events, 1 Virtual Summit 
• 90 Blogs Published
• 41 Podcast Episodes Released
• 12 Student Spotlight Success Stories Shared

By the Numbers: Personal

• 5 trips taken
• 7 concerts / shows attended
• 10+ date nights
• 2 Baseball games
• 3 trips to the zoo
• Countless trips to the playground
• 11 books read (my favorite book of 2023!)
• 4 visits to Dollywood
• 1 Family Photoshoot
• Thousands of happy memories made

Words I’m taking into 2024:

While I’m still mulling over my goals for 2024 (which if you’ve taken My Blueprint Year you know I frame these as “outcomes” instead of goals)… here are some words I’ve scribbled down during my annual planning time that have really resonated with me. I know these quotes will shape my focus and intentions going into the new year. (sorry I don’t have the author for all of these). 

“The true measure of success is a calm nervous system.”

“Hard work beats talent.”

“The more concerned we become over things we cannot control, the less we will do with the things we can control.” – John Wooden  

I heard this one from Jenna Kutcher and loved it, “Boundaries create a perimeter around the sacred.”

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We had the sweetest year soaking up our little girl! She is so fun to be with, smart and silly. She has grown so much this year and is our little sidekick. We love watching her play and imagine and tell us stories. We are also so grateful for our small but mighty team! I haven’t always loved being a “boss” so I’m keenly aware at how special our current team is! They are all really good at what they do, shine in their roles, produce work much better than I could do, and are just easy to be with.  Last but definitely not least, we are thrilled to welcome a new little one in 2024!

If you’re looking for a way to go into your year with intention, stay focused on what truly matters, and a guided journal to help track progress: Check out My Blueprint Year!

Here’s to a new year, full of possibility!

Shanna

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