Annual Review for 2020 - The Year Of Balance
Every year I sit down and write an annual review. You can catch up on 2018 (my first few months in biz) and 2019 (my first full year in biz) if you want to binge on my whole journey.
I recommend you take the time to write an annual review too. I personally find it fascinating reading other people's and it's usually my most popular blog of the year (wouldn't be hard this year as I barely wrote any lol). But write it for you too, as being able to look back at your whole business journey is priceless.
Here’s 3 simple questions to ask:
What went well and how did you make it happen?
What was challenging and most importantly, what did you learn from this?
What are you excited about in 2021 and how will you make it happen?
Gold Star Moments in 2020 (AKA what went well)
Tripled My Income. Pandemic aside, 2020 was a cracking year for me biz wise. I feel so grateful to have an online business that has been sustainable during this time. My goal for 2020 was to break six figures and I smashed it. My income growth was a culmination of raising my 1-1 prices, tripling the size of my membership and launching my signature group programme The 5K Experience. I also did some one-off stuff like a graduate programme and a marketing workshop.
I hit the VAT threshold in August, which although I knew was coming, crept up on me a bit quicker than I was expecting. Putting 20% on all my prices felt HARD and I decided to absorb this cost for the members in my membership, many of whom had been with me in it from the start. But in itself, hitting the threshold is a win and speaks to the health of the biz so hurrah for tax!
Learning: staying laser focussed on a few core services allowed me to quickly scale my income in 2020 whilst still serving deeply.
My husband quit his job. My husband had been wanting to quit teaching for years but we could never quite see the way forward which would allow him to make money doing something he enjoyed. Hitting an income level which would allow him to stop working and follow his passion (making music) was a huge driver for me. I had a magic number in my head which would comfortably allow us to cover all costs and I hit this in September. Hubby now focusses on his music for 3 days a week and looks after our son Charlie for 2 and we are all so much happier for it. Doing what you love is ace isn't it?!
Learning: doing what you love is way more important than making money but making money also gives you the opportunity to do that.
Upped our membership game. I launched my membership Mummy's Got VIP Clients in September 2019 and by the end of the year had 56 members. In 2020 we grew this to 172 members. Big member influxes came from some pretty epic challenges (if I do say so myself). 380 people signed up for Double Your Leads & Bag A Client and 44 joined VIP from this. 400 signed up for Easy-Peasy Clients School and 39 joined VIP from this. We also ran a number of softer promotions throughout the year.
I was super grateful to have this offering when the first lockdown hit as amidst all the panic of 'what will this mean for business', it provided a reassuring recurring revenue stream. We took a bit of a hit from some members leaving due to financial struggles, but were able to offer those people a 3 month payment break and open the doors to let in new members to recoup this income.
As well as the growth, we put a lot of work into our member onboarding, site navigation and general member experience and thinking where we started in 2019, I feel pretty chuffed with all this. I couldn't have done any of it without my right-hand woman Bethany who shows me every day the value of a great team.
I am so proud of the membership community and resources - it’s such a positive and inspiring place and has supported women to achieve incredible results.
Learning: recurring revenue is the best, my business can survive a pandemic, working with awesome people is priceless.
Completed my coaching qualification. This was a big personal win. I started my coaching certification back in April 2018 and had completed most of it by the end of 2018. BUT there were a couple of essays hanging over my head, my business took off in 2019 and I just never got round to doing them. There was a lot of 'does it really mean anything to be certified?' and 'should I just sack it off' thoughts and the pain of seeing the direct debit come out every month I didn't finish it. Anyhoo, I did it. I got the fuck on with it, finished the essays and got a shiny certificate. It's funny as I used to look at the number of coaching hours you needed to get certified and think it seemed impossible. Now I laugh to think I've probably done 500 coaching hours just this year.
Learning: completing things is satisfying, things hanging over your head take up headspace, qualifications are not always meaningful but the personal sense of achievement and commitment to study is.
Created a signature programme The 5K Experience. This had been one of my 2019 annual goals which didn't get done and then became my core 2020 goal. Finally creating a structured group coaching programme and now being on my third round of delivering it feels awesome. I love the structure of it and it’s awesome to see the results it’s helped people achieve including creating their first high-end offer, filling 1-1 roster in a week, selling out group programmes and creating consistent 5K months. I was surprised at how quickly the programme became 'known'. I had people reaching out specifically wanting to do The 5K Experience because of the results people had achieved on it.
Learning: being known for something works, results speak for themselves, programmes can quickly gain credibility
Here’s a few screenshots of the results just a month into the beta of The 5K Experience in May 2020:
My 1-1 clients got awesome results. I heavily reduced the number of 1-1 clients I had this year to focus on my membership and my group programme but I worked with 7 incredible clients. Seeing your clients literally step forward and create their dreams is amazing and being a part of it feels super special. I had clients double their membership, fill all their 1:1 spots, sell out their group programmes and hit their first 30K month to name a few top level results.
Learnings: working with soul-mate clients 1-1 is incredibly rewarding.
Work life balance was pretty good. 2019 was not a good balance year for me. So much so that 'balance' was my word of the year for 2020. And on the whole, I'm pleased with how I managed it. I rarely work evenings or weekends and generally am able to switch off. When lockdown happened, I shifted my workday to take a 2 hour lunch break to help with childcare and it didn't really affect my work at all. I just worked less and achieved the same amount/perhaps more. Needless to say, I've kept that 2 hour lunch break ever since!
I've found I go through periods of bad habits before I catch myself. I still have the habit of taking on too much - too many clients, leaving launches to last minute - and this creates a lot of last minute stress. Working closely with a team who can manage this last minute style helps a lot.
I also started reading Harry Potter before bed (inspired by Greg Faxon) and this has been a game changer. I've been sleeping way better as a result.
Learnings: I've made big strides but there's room for improvement. No technology past 8/9 is super important for my brain to switch off. Work life balance is a choice - not something that just happens. Having people 'in' your business is a godsend.
Books I read (honestly, it felt like more than this ha!)
Never Split The DIfference - Chris Voss
Made To Stick - Chip & Dan Heath
Gap Selling - Keenan
Everything is Figureoutable - Marie Forleo
The 5 Second Rule - Mel Robbins
The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg
Atomic Habits - James Clear
7 Habits of Highly Successful People - Stephen R. Covey.
Harry Potter, books 1-7 - J.K. Rowling
Wading Through Treacle (AKA Challenges & Learnings)
Health, Exercise and Routine My health was really up and down in 2020. We got covid in April, in the middle of a membership launch, and I was still feeling the effects of this 6 weeks later. All year I had monthly hormonal migraines and a tonne of other migraines too. Sometimes I'd have 3 migraines in a month which would pretty much wipe me out. I got pretty disheartened with exercise after realising this was triggering them too and am still not back in a routine with this. My morning routine also went out of the window in the first lockdown and I’ve felt so emotionally drained (thanks pandemic), I still haven’t got it back at the end of the year. The thought of getting up at 5:30am seems completely alien right now. I am learning to listen to my body more and know I need to prioritise my health in 2021.
Learnings: your health is everything. Without it, you can't do anything.
I’ve felt resistant to social media. Social media is a brilliant tool, but as the year’s progressed I found I was wanting to spend less and less time on there. I find it draining and takes me away from being present in my daily life, even when I put strict limits on it. This led me ultimately to stop using Instagram and LinkedIn all together and focus my efforts entirely on Facebook which has always worked brilliantly for me. Letting go of Instagram and LinkedIn felt good but I still feel the constant pressure to get back on there as I know it would work well for me to reach new audiences. I have to remind myself that I choose my work life balance over reaching new audiences, which I can do in other ways. In 2021 I am choosing to do less social media marketing in general and focus on content-driven marketing strategies with longevity (YouTube & Blogging).
Learnings: Just because something could work well, it doesn’t mean you have to choose to put your time and energy there. I consciously choose to be present in my life and relentlessly limit technologies that detract from that.
Felt confused with my message. For most of 2019, I had one core offer (my 1-1 service) and I knew my message inside out. In 2020 my offering has grown to include a membership and a group programme, as well as my 1-1, and the messaging for each of them is slightly different. At times, I ended up feeling super confused about which message to share and this led to a writer’s block in sharing content, which I’d never felt before. I crave simplicity in my business and getting clear on how the messaging strands tie together is important to me to feel in flow. As someone that is usually a spontaneous content creator, I found I had to take more time to process the core messages to ensure my content was bang on for the ideal client for each offer.
Learnings: when you’re confident in your message, things flow. Your messaging evolves with your business and you need to do the deep work at each stage.
Getting a dog was harder than I expected. I knew getting a dog was going to be a learning curve but I had no idea how hard it was actually going to be. The first few months with Ringo were challenging and I spent a decent chunk of time thinking we’d made the biggest mistake ever. From the lack of sleep to the early starts to the constant walks, I couldn’t see how having a dog was ever going to feel like a good thing. Thankfully, we’re past that. We’re back to the 4 year old waking us up instead of the dog, I love being forced to get out with nature and it’s kept us active over lockdown two. Ringo is just the happiest soul. We all love him.
Learnings: challenges are temporary. Dogs are awesome.
Creating the content for The 5K Experience. I have always been a last minute person and creating content week on week for my new group programme was intense and stressful. There were many a 4am wake ups to finish the sessions every week. It made me fully appreciate the undertaking it is to create an awesome programme that gets results - and then there’s the changes you want to make. Every round of 5K I’ve run, I’ve ended up swapping round the order, tweaking sessions etc. I realised I put way too much content in the first round and am now streamlining the programme for impact and results.
Learning: creating an impactful programme takes time but is so worth it. Live creating the content each week keeps you accountable to a strict deadline.
What am I excited about for 2021?
Content-driven marketing strategies. This year I’m excited to explore long-form content strategies outside of social media. At the moment, I’m thinking this will be my blog and YouTube. Video has always been a huge part of my marketing and a medium which allows these videos to be more visible and searchable by a wider audience off social media is appealing to me. As for my blog, I see such potential in creating a core bank of content to serve people for free and am excited to focus here in 2021.
Giving the membership a makeover. I started my membership is true-Gemma fashion - without a whole load of planning and very last minute. We’ve outgrown the membership platform we’re on and it’s time the membership had it’s own identity and branding. So in 2021, we’re giving Mummy’s Got VIP Clients a complete makeover - from the name to the branding to the platform we use. Watch this space.
Launching a brand new offering. Towards the end of 2020 I kept coming back to the idea of a collaborative mastermind which brought together a small group of women scaling to 10K months and beyond. And thus the Freedom & Ease PowerMind was born. A beautiful mix of group sessions and 1-1 to support 6 powerful women in building their empires and increasing their impact in the world. It starts in March 2021 and I have 2 spots left so if you’re reading this and are interested in hearing more, ping me an email.
Implementing a business structure that supports the way I work. For a long time, I beat myself up about my last minute nature and feared I couldn’t scale my business whilst I worked this way. Growing a multi-six figure business over the last 2 years has shown me that’s bollocks. Now I’m choosing to build a team and structure that supports the way I work. At it’s core, that means having a Head of Operations type who manages the detail and a virtual assistant heavily involved in the business who is able to act quickly and enjoys the fast-moving pace of my business.
This year’s theme
2020 was the year of balance and considering the world situation, I think I nailed it. I started this business to create the freedom and flexibility to see my son whilst doing something I love and I lost sight of that in 2019. I pulled this back in 2020 and was able to achieve amazing things in my business without working every hour.
My word for 2021 is Aligned. Aligned marketing strategies. Aligned messaging. Aligned clients. Aligned services. Aligned working hours. I'm doing 2021 my way.
Read my other annual reviews here: