This is the third year I’ve writing a personal ‘year in review’ style blog post and I’m finding them SO useful! To look over and digest what happened. Scrutinise what went well or not-so-well.
And doing it after a proper break at Christmas (I even took the social media apps off my phone!) is such good timing because I’ve got more clarity and perspective on the whole thing.
Here it goes!
Personal stuff and how 2024 started
My 2024 started with a whimper.
My mum had been getting steadily sicker throughout 2023. She collapsed in January and was rushed to A&E. She’s a lot better now but she still feels very weak. ☹️
Looking back to my personal review of 2023 it was clear that I was putting a brave face on it all and was pretending everything was fine.
Everything was not fine.
I was on the verge of some sort of burnout with the stress of keeping everything going while my mum was going downhill.
In February, my body decided that I shouldn’t do any work yet by making me the sickest I’ve ever been in my life. I couldn’t do anything except gaze at the curtains from my bed for a couple of weeks.
Then my amazing mother-in-law got diagnosed with bowel cancer and died in June. This was my little tribute to her.
And my cat died. And my daughter’s anxiety flared up again. And my son started wigging out about school…
Sorry- I feel like I’m oversharing somewhat here! What I’m trying to do is paint a picture of just how heavy the first part of the year felt. And I’m going to reference some of this later on when I talk about the conferences I went to and what support I sought out.
The whole ‘running a business while horrible things are happening’ inspired me to write this blog post. It’s called How to keep your business going when something horrible has happened. It’s not just me wanging on about myself (like this blog post 😂), I’ve got other people to chime in with their experiences and suggestions too.
Anyway, moving on!
Support I got
At the time it seemed like the death of my mother-in-law hit me harder than my husband. With hindsight I realise that it was the cumulative effect of keeping going while feeling stressed for so long. Then trying to all the plates spinning while Rich (my husband) spent time grieving, sorting out the stack of death admin and finding care for his elderly dad.
But I’ve never been one to be shy to ask for help, so that’s what I did!
Meditation
I did one of Roseanna Croft’s meditation and self knowledge challenges and joined her Lotus membership. She holds such a a calm and loving space. I’m not in the membership any more due to time clashes, but it was exactly what I needed at the time.
Coaching
I started working with a therapy style coach. I don’t know why I thought it was a good time to dig into childhood stuff and work though old scripts. It was rough going on top of everything else. But again- it felt right. I’ve come on leaps and bounds in the last 6 months as a result.
I also joined a group programme of a marketing coach I’ve been following for years. That personalised feedback on what I’m putting out there has been soooo good! 2024 was not a good revenue year for me- I just didn’t have the energy for selling. But I had plenty of other measurable successes in the latter half of the year (see ‘Good things’ below).
You know I’m a marketing coach don’t you? If you’re a coach who wants to earn more without slogging your guts out check out The Freedom Giver. Or have a browse on my website for some of the other things I do.
Productivity
Make It Happen Club is something that I’ve been a member of for a couple of years now. Run by Louise Miller, it’s for people who have tonnes of ideas but struggle to get things done. I’m proud to say that my perception of what I’m able to achieve has shifted. I start the week with a list of things I want to get done and I end the week having actually done them! Sound intriguing? Have a read of her blog post called How Make It Happen Club helps solo business owners be more productive.
I’ve also been running a peer-to-peer mastermind for a while now; a group of business owners I respect and who I can use as a sounding board. We meet every couple of months and it really is a joy.
Health and fitness
A key thing that contributors mentioned for the blog post on running a business while horrible things have happened/ are happening was moving your body. I found it invaluable. Lots of long walks in nature. And I stepped up my Pilates. I’ve been a member of Louise Humphrey’s Studio 44 Pilates online membership for years now, but I was only doing two sessions a week. Better than nothing, but not enough to progress. From September I started doing four times a week and I feel so much stronger! I can see actual progress now and it’s so good for me on every level.
Book writing
Towards the end of 2024 I’d planned to redesign and relaunch a workshop series of mine. I don’t know what came over me, but I decided to write a book instead!
I joined Vicky Quinn-Fraser’s Microbook Magic in November and I’ve only gone and written the ruddy thing already! As I type this my beautiful BETA readers are making notes and sending me their thoughts. I’m aiming for an end-of-March launch. But do I do an in-person launch or an online one…?
Non-fiction Books I read
I get a lot of mental nourishment from books. So I’m glad that I managed to find time to read a few this year!
Here’s a list of the non-fiction books I read in 2024:
- Daring Greatly- Brené Brown: I’ve been meaning to read this one for ages. Would I recommend it? I remember that it was good, but I couldn’t really tell you anything about it now. 😆
- Everything you’ve been taught about sales is wrong- Anna Payne: Stuffed full of common sense. Anna’s advice chimes with how I look at sales.
- Neuromarketing in Business- Benny B. Brisemeister and Werner Klaus Selmer: Read partly for book research. Quite dense.
- Dirty LIttle Secrets: Why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell- Sharon Drew Morgen: Good book. more written for sales people.
- Think and Grow Rich- Napoleon Hill: I thought I’d better read this classic but I’ve consumed so much literature on mindset that it feels derivative, even thought this was probably one of the original texts. It’s quite dogmatic- lots of opinions presented as facts with nothing to back it up. Meh.
- How to work with a virtual assistant- Kathy Soulsby: This is a classic example of procrasti-learning on my part. I’ve been meaning to employ a VA for ages and keep putting it off. So I started reading a book on it instead despite having worked with several VAs perfectly well in the past. Ha! But I did come to my senses halfway through and crack on with it. She starts with me this week.
- Stop acting like you’re going to live forever- Jodie Cook: I paid £1.99 for this book and it was £1.99 too much. It’s obviously all written by AI. I should’ve realised that it would be- Jodie’s business is all about AI. DOH! Needless to say, I didn’t finish it.
- Into the woods- John Yorke: I’m a wannabe fiction writer of some description! Will it be a novel? A film? A sitcom? Who knows! But again, I thought I’d read a book about it instead of taking actual action. 😄
- Infinite Receiving- Suzy Ashworth: Suzy spoke at Atomicon24 and she was fab so I thought I’d give her book a go. I really enjoyed it.
- Tough Titties- Laura Belgray: Laura will be speaking at Atomicon25 and someone told me she’s hilarious. And she is! This book isn’t a business book, it’s an autobiography. So refreshing to hear from someone who isn’t a A-type personality. It took her a long time to start on the road to her version of success.
- The Gap and the Gain- Benjamin Hardy: Someone told me about this concept a year ago and it’s a strong one; if you focus on the gap between where you are now and where you want to get to, you will forever be in ‘lack’ and feel crap. But if you look at how far you’ve come (the gain) then you’ll be motivated to keep going. That’s pretty much the whole book. It’s good, but it didn’t need to be as long as it is.
To end on a high – I’ve just started The Science of stuck- Britt Frank, which I am LOVING! So useful. I’m reading it and doing the brilliant exercises. I’m also thinking about how to use it with my clients and even with my kids!
When looking back at my kindle to see which books I’d read on there last year I noticed that there were 13 books on there that I’ve never read! Whoops. In fairness some of those could have been bought before 2024, but nevertheless…perhaps I’ll make a point of reading them in 2025!
Conferences I went to
Due to aforementioned reasons I had limited energy and headspace for conferences this year.
But I did drag myself along to my two faves. You Are The Media: Creator Day run by Mark Masters and Atomicon run by Andrew Pickering and Pete Gartland.
My lovely mother-in-law was in a hospice when I was at You Are The Media; she could’ve gone at any minute. I felt guilty being away and dashed off to get home as soon as I could.
And at Atomicon, she’d just passed away and the funeral was just 3 days later. I put my glad rags on and slapped on a smile but I can see quite clearly that I’d been crying just before this photo was taken.
Yes I met Davina McCall. #SoLovely
Good things
Going back to that point about ‘gap and the gain’ it’s easy for me to think about all the things I didn’t do in 2024, but despite all that I managed to do a lot of good things. In fact, I was amazed when I listed it all out. (A good reason to do one of these blog posts for yourself..?)
Here are my list of success from 2024:
- I ended the year with 26% more subscribers on my list
- Partly because of my best performing lead magnet ever; The Coaching Sales Jetpack FREE mini-course.
- Partly because I committed to blogging consistently, one high quality piece per month. This is the first time I’ve ever managed to sustain content production for a whole year! I maintained my visibility on LinkedIn too, posting on average 4 times a week. Flipping astonishing considering how hideous I was feeling half the time
- And partly because I pulled my finger out and went on 13 podcasts and spoke at 2 online summits. I also joined Debra Levitt’s Match Me To Podcasts membership
- I ran a workshop before summer that got over 100 sign ups, 13% of which booked a call with me as a result which was fantastic. Only then did I realise how exhausted I was and ended up not launching what I was intending to, to avoid collapse. I’m still going to take it as a win!
- I have been consistently getting extremely positive feedback from my blog articles and content all last year. And people on sales calls regularly mention them so I know it’s working.
- I started to get clients from networking. Check out the ONLE Network. Such lovely people and really great members.
- I did the Natwest Accelerator and as part of that I met Kate Davis and did my 5 voices (it’s like Myers Briggs) which has been revelatory for how I approach my marketing.
- I wrote a book! It’s for coach-shaped-people who want easier yeses from their sales and marketing. Sign up here to the waitlist: www.easy-yes.com
- And last but not least I took two full weeks off at Christmas and even deleted social media apps from my phone. Definitely something I’m going to do again, and not just at Christmas.
Even if you don’t write a review of your whole year, do write down all your successes from 2024 at least! You don’t even have to share it publicly if you don’t want to.
If you don’t usually make a point of listing your successes you might struggle with it to begin with. The more you struggle, the more you need to do it. You know that, right..?
One of the biggest learnings, and successes I suppose, is that I ended the year knowing that I had chosen the situation I was in.
I didn’t have the energy to do a tonne of sales and marketing, so I got fewer clients. Which as it turns out was exactly what I needed. So that’s in effect what I gave myself.
I know what I want to do differently this year and I’m realistic that, if the sh*t hits the fan again, I know how that’s going to affect my ability to create content and serve clients.
Looking forwards to 2025
I’m not usually a ‘word of the year’ kinda gal, but one is screaming at me from the rooftops; INTENTION.
I feel like 2024 was a raging storm and I was merely a bit of flotsam on the waves. Dashed about hither and thither.
I’m entering 2025 feeling fully refreshed and with a plan.
Q1 is going to be focusing on editing and launching my book.
My other plans include launching some super fun and snackable online courses as well as Janineifying my one-to-one offers. I’m going to drastically improve my email marketing game.
And I’ll be learning to trust my instincts more!
Deciding to write a book at the end of last year was not a logical move, but it felt right. It was me moving towards what I wanted rather than doing something (or not doing something) out of fear.
I hope 2025 will be full of more of that sort of joyous leaping!