I’ve seen a few friends publish personal ‘2022 review’ blogs recently. And although I feel like ‘who’d want to read mine..?’ I devoured theirs with relish because I’m a nosey sod. 

So this is for all the nosey sods out there! : )

I hope to get several things out of this exercise:

• To give me some perspective and make sure I’ve captured the learnings from the good and the bad that happened last year.
• To get a ruddy blog done because I have some biz buddies holding me accountable and I don’t want to look like a berk in front of them.
• Perhaps you’ll read it and get to know me better? You might even get some ideas for your own 2023 plans. Or even help you make some decisions you’ve been deliberating over. Woah there Janine, better not over-egg the pudding!

Let’s go.

How it started

I started 2022 with a clear vision. To refine and scale my Your Sizzling Hot Offer (YSHO) group programme. I was already knee deep into my first cohort and I was loving it.

My group programme was going to be my MAIN THING and I was really excited about it! 

I joined a coaching programme to accelerate my business growth and it was agreed that a group programme was a good way to go, but it was suggested that I change my positioning of it (who I was helping with what). 

Against my gut feeling I tried to launch it. 

And it was rubbish.

Only one person bought it in the way I wanted to run it.

The wobbles kicked in and I sold a spate of lower-priced, shorter-length one-to-one offers which went against my general ethos that; to get to a place where you have a perfectly positioned offer that’s easy to sell takes time and a bit of trial and error.

Especially when your overarching ‘what makes me different’ isn’t completely clear yet. I’d panic sold and I don’t feel like I did those clients justice. (Don’t worry, I made sure they were satisfied in the end!)

Now, you could argue that it flopped because I wasn’t 100% behind the idea. Whatever the reason, I realised that I don’t like being told what to do. I might need help learning how to execute something but for the bigger decisions I’m better off going with my gut and following the fun.  

Once I’d realised that, my mindset was stronger than ever! So in a way the experience was totally worth it.

What happened next

Despite a 7 month delay, I did manage to launch a refined (but not yet scaled) version of my group programme. And it was more in line with the direction I wanted to take.

In the past few years, I’ve been working to establish myself as the service offers expert; positioning, packaging, messaging and pricing for service-based business owners.

And it was working!

The downside of this was that I attracted some clients who ONLY wanted to work on their service offerings. They saw me as a short, sharp fix and then went to work with someone else on the sales and the content side of things. Which was frustrating.

I’d just got to know their business inside and out. Dug into what their favourite types of clients were on the lookout for. 

Promo content and sales decisions are so much easier once these bits have been uncovered! 

But they didn’t realise that I could help with the other stuff so they went elsewhere.

That’s why for the group programme I launched in September 2022, I broadened the area of focus and I renamed it The Freedom Giver. 

Why ‘The Freedom Giver?’

Everyone I know set up their own business to get more freedom in their lives (including me) but how many people can truly say they’ve achieved this..?

So The Freedom Giver group programme helps you engineer your business to give you more freedom in your life by reworking your core, high-ticket offer and promoting it in a way that’s as effortless as possible.

**This is now live check it out here>>> The Freedom Giver: for 1:1 coach-shaped-people who want to earn more without moving to a more complex business model and without slogging their guts out. 

My target audience

I also refined my target audience. Call it niching if you like!

I don’t like the word niching because it sounds scary and restrictive when actually all you’re doing is defining who you generally want to work. And then you can sharpen the focus for each offer you create. Read me whinge in a controlled manner about niching in my blog ‘Why you don’t have to niche (but what you need to do instead)’.

Anyway, getting back to my newish target audience…

For the next round of my group programme, I’m calling to seasoned coaches and consultants who work 1:1 with their clients, but who still aren’t earning enough money to merit all the hours they’re putting in. 

They’re asking themselves ‘why am I working so bloody hard..?’ 

They’re busy, often with non-client work like content creation. And every so often it’s squeaky bum time because they haven’t done enough selling or aren’t able to articulate why people should pick them clearly enough.

The Freedom Giver will help you earn much more from your 1:1 work without knackering yourself out or moving to a one-to-many business model (yet).

Book a gameplan call with me if you think you’re a fit for this. 

My secret goal for this year is to craft my group programme so it delivers the same results as if I were working with people 1:1. 

How? By:

• Creating tutorials on the bits I find myself saying over and over again. 

• Giving clients plenty of access to me via a group platform like Slack, group calls and 1:1 calls when needed.

• Targeting the programme at people who have the same problem so a) I can standardise the process to near-as-dammit guarantee results and b) to an extent, they can help each other. 

And I’m getting help. Right at the end of 2022 I started working with a coach/ consultant who does a similar job to me. She’s helping me with my positioning, my offer and my audience building. 

Judge me if you want! I got over the “what if people know I find this hard to do myself!” ages ago.

I’m sh*t hot at helping other people with their messaging and offerings but I lack all objectivity on my own business because I’m human.

As a wise woman once said ‘you can’t read the label if you’re sitting in the jar’. 

Jollies

Er, I mean conferences : )

I do love a conference! The only downside is that there are so many fab ones to choose between and there aren’t many that don’t involve at least one night’s stay in a hotel and a train fare. They can be expensive.

Last year I tried to be good- I limited it to three and I was speaking at two of them. 

Kickstart, Dublin

First off there was Kickstart in Dublin In April 2022 run by Louise Brogan, Amanda Webb and Carmel Seery. They had a great combination of speakers. Also, ROI and financial planning was covered which is bizarrely rare in a lot of entrepreneurial conferences.

You Are The Media Creator Day, Poole

In May I spoke at Mark Master’s You Are The Media Creator Day. A slightly different format this year with lots of workshopping time. The event was held in the Lighthouse, Poole, which was a great venue. And the food at YATM events is provided by Lunch’d and is always fab. Also speaking were Joe Glover, founder of The Marketing Meetup and Ella Orr, founder of Much More Social. Mark had asked me to talk about ‘Who is your audience’, which gave me license to rant about talk about the differences between niching, target market and audience. 

Will I be going to the Creator Day again this year? Yes, ticket already booked. It’s only £45! 

Killer Mastermind, Newcastle

Andrew and Pete asked me to do a talk on ‘Creating Service Packages to Die For’ at their Killer Mastermind on 31st October (it was all Halloween themed). It was a really great day- they always manage to gather lovely people together. Other speakers on the day were Melissa Love, founder of The Design Space and The Marketing Fix membership and Kay Peacy founder of Slick Business and the ActiveCampaign Academy. 

I also went to Janet Murray’s Courageous Content Live, which I’m not counting as a separate event because a) it was the very next day after the Killer Mastermind and also in Newcastle so I didn’t have to do any extra travel and b) I’m telling myself the story that I *only* went to three conferences in 2022.  Needless to say, it was a great event. Good buzz. Lots of fab people there. The lead magnet surgery with Janet, Melissa Love and Rob and Kennedy was a real highlight.

I’ll also be going to Atomicon in June 2023, run by the aforementioned Andrew and Pete. I’ve been to every single one of the Atomicon conferences and had the honour of speaking on stage at Atomicon21. (It’s a rule of mine that whenever a conference is mentioned that I’ve spoken at, I mention it. ) (I also spoke at a Janet Murray event in 2019, but annoyingly she’s rebranded since then so my rule doesn’t strictly apply for that one…)

Is it worth going to conferences?

For me these events are more about the networking than the learning. If I hear something new that I can implement that’s a bonus. I’m there for the hobnobbing! 

And I’ve been doing the rounds long enough that I go to these events and feel like I know everyone. A big ol’ room full of friends!

Having articulated that I now wonder if ‘networking’ is actually what I’m doing here. Perhaps I should start going to different events and meet some new people! 

Racism

Ooh, this is a bit left-field isn’t it! 

I’m currently reading Sharon Hurley-Hall’s book I’m Tired of Racism and she talks about how the silence from so-called white allies is deafening. 

So this is me not being silent about racism but also not talking about things I don’t know about.

Are you on a similar journey to me? Want some suggestions?

• Pay and subscribe for Sharon’s Anti Racist Newsletter. And don’t forget to read it! Sometimes I’m trying desperately to clear out my inbox but I always read Sharon’s otherwise what’s the point? Apart from sharing her perspective, she regularly shares a digest of other anti-racism writers so you get a lot of bang for your buck!

• Read some books. I’m only a third of the way into Sharon’s book at the moment but it’s good so far. She’s an excellent writer and it’s a collection of her articles. I’d also recommend Hush Money by Jacqui Abram, Deborah Harris and Delilah Harris. It’s written as a novel but shares real life experiences of people working while black. And White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo was very useful although I bought it before realising that it’s written by a white woman. Doh! 

• Look at your newsfeed. Is it mainly white people? Mine was in the summer of 2020. So I started following plenty of non-white people. It felt weird at first, like I was sticking my nose in. But it’s a really simple way to inject a bit of variety into your social media consumption. And of course, supporting and commenting on people’s posts helps their reach.

Could I do more? Of course. But drip, drip, drip it’s sinking in. 

And as a side benefit, I’m noticing all of the other ‘isms’ that reside sneakily in my head. They’re all in there! If you believe you’re not racist/ sexist/ homophobic/ ableist etc. then you’re fooling yourself. It’s only once you start noticing the secret internal narratives that you can start doing something about it.

Goals

Despite having some clear goals for 2022, I didn’t hit any of them!

I don’t know why I put ‘start a podcast’ on that vid. It was getting myself back on video that I wanted to do! 

In 2022 I wanted to :

• Properly launch scalable group programme

• Get back on the video creation wagon (you couldn’t tell now, but I used to be known for my fab vids!)

• Save £10k to put into kids uni fund

• Be able to run 5k in under 30 mins

But I did have successes that I hadn’t set goals for:

• Increased my revenue by approx. 50% 

• Focused on some fabulous collaborations with business friends e.g. launched a group intensive with zero sales calls. Nice!

• Decided that I needed to start building a team and set the wheels in motion to get the right support in place.

• Got consistent with my Pilates (twice a week) and meditation (every working day).

2022 was the first year I felt like I was fully out of my shell again after the pandemic. I saw friends and family more than I have done in years. I did a stand up comedy course that ran for seven consecutive Saturdays in London and culminated in a live show. I’m focused and determined. That feels like success to me. 

So what about 2023

We’re already a month in and I feel like I’m moving in the right direction to hit my 2023 goals:

• Enrol 16 group programme participants by the end of November

• Reduce the proportion of income I get from 121 work to max. 20% of revenue.

• Feel stronger and fitter (I now take Monday mornings off for a mountain biking group)- I know this goal is too vague. Perhaps my wellness goal could be to define my goal better..? 

• Put £5k into a uni fund for my kids. (Feels a bit more manageable and they’re only in primary school, so I’ve got time, right??)

I had decided that my word of the year was ‘freedom’, but having written this I’m expanding it to a phrase of the year. And it is this

Going with my gut and following the fun.

Bring it on 2023!