How was 2022 for you?
After talking to several people, it seems many had quite a turbulent year and I wasn’t exempt from this.
There’s the saying everything happens for you not to you and it can be a great way to look at these events as opportunities when they’re not going exactly to plan.
Because when we dig deeper, what does struggle, strain and challenge create?
Character, strength and growth.
We are shaped by our experiences and no matter what experience you go through, you can always turn it into something that benefits your evolution.
So with saying that, would you like to see how I did that for myself in a tough year?
Here’s my 2022 year review..
A Challenging Year
2022 was one of the more challenging years of late. From the death of my Grandmother to countless random health issues to low-grade depression as an affect of the health issues. I struggled a bit and it left me feeling uninspired, unmotivated, unconfident and unsure of myself. I spent several months just parked in front of the TV numbing out to Netflix and playing PS4 waiting for inspiration to find me again.
I know people will tell you you’ve got to do everything to get out of that state but I’ve been through this rodeo many times in different forms to know it passes, just like everything else does. Highs and lows, successes and failures, mistakes and lessons, they all pass. Could I have tried to bring myself out of it? Sure, but I trust myself, and I trust the universe, and I knew there was something to find here. What? I couldn’t tell you, but I chose to trust the path.
I kept telling myself was, “This will pass. One day it’ll be clearer and you’ll know what to do.” And sure enough, by August the health issues began disappearing and I started to come out of it with a new set of priorities and desires. More on that soon.
Slower Business
Because of the health issues, I had to scale back on my work to focus on my health, which meant less income coming in. My base income remained unaffected (a mix of recurring payments, payment plans and income through affiliates), but it was quite a mental battle not running my usual offers and I’m grateful I had built up a solid mindset practice to move through this.
In saying that, having that break gave me a lot of time to think about my business without being in it, and what I realized was where I thought I had lost my mojo and needed to find motivation again, I had actually grown out of my business model. 😱
As I shared, my priorities changed and I found myself deeply craving simplicity. I wanted to go back to basics, slow way down, drop the overwhelm, stop trying to be everywhere, no more doing things because everyone else is or someone is having massive success with it. I just wanted space to develop my own voice and vision again.
Understanding that I had grown out of my old business model was such an important distinction because it freed me from the guilt of not wanting to do things how I did before while also giving me freedom to explore the new way I’d like to do business. There, of course, was a grieving process, and once that processed, I began by cleaning things up. I closed my Facebook group, left ConvertKit, stopped posting frequently on Instagram, set a shorter work schedule (2 hours per day max) and started a Podcast. And this year I will completely restructure my offers, follow a ‘less is more’ content strategy and discuss new topics I haven’t before.
So while I made less money, I gained massive perspective and an entirely new direction, which I think if I had kept trying to do business the old way (which was out of alignment), I would have made way less money in the long run because I would eventually wind up hating my business.
A Podcast was Born
The next thing I wanted to do was re-establish a high quality content publishing routine. For a few years I got very caught up on the social media hamster wheel of posting almost every day in order to stay “valuable” and “relevant.” Since the lifespan of a post is between 15 minutes to 48 hours depending on what platform it is, you can see how this easily turns into a circus where you feel like a performer who has to present a new trick every day as well as run an entire business.
Doing this for years created bad habits like posting for the sake of posting and becoming too fixated on when to post and what type of content will get seen and less about the type of business I want to run. This felt so sloppy to me and so I made a conscious decision to pull way back and post only when it truly felt inspired.
That gave me space to start a podcast and refocus on high quality long form content. I missed connecting with my people in a truly deep and meaningful way like I used to when I first started my business (without using social media). The final push to launch was hearing Steven Bartlett from Diary of a CEO say that his Facebook watch videos would reach 20 to 30 million people, but when he started his podcast, although the number of listeners were 100x less he would constantly get stopped in the street and receive essays from people sharing how much his episodes impacted their lives. It meant way more to him than getting big reach numbers and he found the depth more enjoyable. This is what I want to focus on, depth and impact. And since I started my podcast, the amount of DM’s and emails I get now about each episode shows me how worth it it all is.
Building a Membership
Something I never thought I’d ever do again is start another membership. I had burnt out from them before and didn’t want to do it again, until I kept getting the nudge to start one to help people establish a money mindset practice. It was once I learned through the Membership Geeks how you can structure a membership so you didn’t burn out that I dove right in.
It has been the best decision ever! I feel so connected with my members and love watching their progress. The content production is easy to do and doesn’t feel overwhelming at all. It also provides stable and consistent income each month which eliminates time and energy you’d otherwise need for launching and running new promotions, meaning you can channel that time and energy back into the membership.
This year the membership is going through a name and branding change that aligned with the new direction I’m taking my business, which will help my members succeed even better with their mindset work. I can’t wait!
Ready to manifest your Best Year Ever? Next week on the January 9th we kick off our annual Manifest Your Best Year Ever 21-Day Challenge and I’d love you to be a part of it! More info is coming out about it over the next couple of days, but if you’re ready to make this a year where your goals and dreams actually happen, sign up today!
That was my 2022 year review! What a massive growth year it was! I’m grateful for it all and very excited to get started with 2023. Let’s make this the best comeback year ever!
And if you’re still in the thick of the challenge, I know it can be hard to see how it’s all working in your favour when the fruits of your labours and sacrifices haven’t yielded yet. It’s coming. Trust the process. One day it will all make sense and you’ll know exactly what to do. I believe in you.
Now, I’d love to hear from you: If you did your own 2022 year review, what would be the most important lesson you learned?
Let me know in the comments below!
xo
P.S – If you need a little push to manifest your best year ever in 2023, join my 21-day challenge starting next week on Monday inside the membership!
