Annual Review for 2023 - The Year Of Rinse & Repeat & New Beginnings
2023 marks my 5th full year in business. I was a little hesitant to review this year as it has been, without a doubt, the most challenging year of my life.
However, here I am writing it out, because I know the value of this process and I love that I can read back on my last 5 1/2 years in business and see how much I've grown and changed.
My review always centres around 3 simple questions:
What went well and why?
What didn’t go so well and what did I learn?
What am I working towards in 2024 and how will I make it happen?
WHAT WENT WELL IN 2023?
I rinsed and repeated my 2022 evergreen strategy, at a time when I had very little to give
I went into 2023 was very little headspace (more on that later).
Thankfully, I'd ended 2022 with my business in a great place and the final quarter of 2022 was my best in business yet - around 84K turnover. I had spent 2022 further perfecting my evergreen system into my group programme and I had a solid process to follow.
So in 2023, I followed and refined my process. I ran ads, continued my email marketing strategy, ran a monthly webinar, and ran my 3 day workshop series twice with 600-700 participants in each. I felt so grateful I had a strategy to fill my programme because I definitely wasn't on my A-game.
My evergreen ads strategy meant by email list grew consistently all year, without any organic effort me
Amazingly, 2023 was my highest income year (just shy of £300K). I enrolled 30 clients into Amplify and launched 3 new offers: a Mastermind, a 1-1 offer called The Authority Blueprint for those not ready for Amplify yet, and Weeks That Work with Greg Faxon.
I’m proud I kept my business pretty consistent throughout the year despite personal circumstances, although it definitely didn’t feel like it at the time.
2023 taught me just how much business is about doing the required actions. Your business doesn’t care how you feel. Sure, energy matters and it did affect my sales, but not significantly. And this is kind of reassuring.
Ran a mastermind with some of my favourite clients.
Clients coming out of my core programme Amplify had been asking for a follow on programme for a long time, but I hadn't had the time and headspace to create the offer.
In April 2023, I didn't enrol any clients into Amplify. This was actually the first ever month I haven't enrolled a client into Amplify since I started it in September 2021.
Granted, I took 2 weeks off for Easter, but my head was also all over the place. I had 6 sales calls for Amplify and none had turned into clients. I knew my energy was off and my heart just wasn't in selling.
As often happens when you're in a cash crunch, I started thinking about different ways I could make money and revisited the Mastermind idea. The thought of working with clients who knew me well was incredibly appealing at a time I felt so emotionally vulnerable. I invited some former clients onto a Zoom to share with me what their ideal Mastermind would look like. I used this to write a simple Google Doc of the offer, which I shared with 8 former clients.
7 clients jumped in in May, and I had another 2 join the following month.
Our first Mastermind meet in Nottingham
The super talented Skye Barbour joined us in Birmingham
The Mastermind was a mix of weekly online sessions with different formats, and a bi-monthly in-person meet up and it worked so well. The in-person sessions truly made it and we finished the year with a Christmas party which was loads of fun.
I am so grateful for these women. Jumping on a call with these powerhouses every week was a huge energiser for me and it was really such a privilege to hold space for them in this mastermind.
Launched Weeks That Work with Greg Faxon
Greg was my first ever coach in 2018 and I'd worked with him several times over my entrepreneurial journey. He'd done a few talks for my free and paid communities and is someone I trust deeply.
Greg reached out in September about doing a talk on being disciplined with your time and focus, avoiding distractions, and staying motivated day after day.
This is a topic I’d been thinking about a lot too. I help my clients create a group programme and grow it, but if they don’t take the action, they don’t succeed. I knew the ‘taking action’ piece is something a lot of my clients and audience need help with.
So I asked the question to Greg…
A few Zooms later, and we got pretty excited chatting about what it could all look like.
I honestly never thought I'd collaborate on a programme with someone. I'm such a serial introvert and have always loved doing things on my own. But after a tough year, working with someone else on a fun project with shared creative energy had me feeling super excited. I was nervous, but my gut said it could be awesome.
Working with Greg has been one the highlights of my year. We worked together well, bouncing ideas of each other, complimenting each other's strengths. The launch of Weeks That Work exceeded our expectations and we enrolled 87 people into our beta round.
I've never offered something this low-ticket before (£497 beta pricing for 12 weeks), and it was fun doing a casual launch and seeing that we got the messaging right.
I’m excited to see where we take this next.
Completed 52 new things in 52 weeks
Last January, I wanted a positive project to focus on. I wanted to focus on re-building my life in an aligned way so I came up with this challenge: what if I did 52 new things in 52 weeks?
On average, that would be 1 new thing a week. Some could be big - like visit a new place, some could be more day to day, like hit a new milestone in the gym. A few people told me this was unrealistic and maybe to aim for one new thing a month, but I liked the sound of 52 things in 52 weeks, so I ignored them.
Here's some of the things I did:
I’m super proud that I did it. I'm a self-proclaimed 'starter' with no finishing power. But I mostly kept a focus on this all year, and have done some amazing things. Most importantly for me, in what was the most challenging year of my life, I felt like I lived life to the fullest.
If you value experiences like I do, this challenge was such a great way to focus on having more of them.
Worked on leadership, processes and team with Skye Barbour
I’ve always been a bit of a reluctant leader in my business. I’m not super detail orientated, SOPs bore me to tears, I move at a million miles an hour and am constantly implementing things last minute making me tricky to work with.
Skye had been on my ‘must work with’ list for a long time, as I’ve known for years I’m the main thing holding my business back from growing and I’d heard such great things about her.
Working with Skye and her right-hand woman Hannah has been wonderful. Skye just gets it. She understands my patterns, has helped me develop my team structure, make the right hires, upskill my existing team, make us all communicate better, put in processes that work and don’t have tasks coming back to me all the time.
My awesome assistant Cerian has become my Online Business Manager and somehow they’ve actually got me using Asana for everything.
Working with Skye was a great reminder of the power of the right investments at the right time. When people can see your blindspots and help you move past them, so many of your problems melt away.
My words for 2023 was ‘less’ and ‘leader’, and this investment allowed me to really step into this.
CHALLENGES AND LEARNINGS
My emotional state was all over the place
In October 2022, my marriage ended and going into 2023, I was emotionally drained with zero creative energy. Coming out of a relationship after 10 years together was incredibly hard and the pressure of keeping everything going in my business which was our sole income felt huge.
There were days I didn't want to get out of bed. Days I felt totally apathetic to my business. Days where showing up to a client call required every ounce of effort I had.
I think having my business to focus on was a saving grace, but when I hit challenges, I found I had very little resilience. So I spent more of the year catastrophising when things didn't go to plan rather than just seeing it as part of the ride.
I dropped some balls with clients, such as upsetting one client (I can be a little too direct sometimes) and my most cringe mistake: thinking a paid 1-1 session was a sales call and running it as such. Thankfully my client was incredibly understanding and we booked in another session.
My emotional state also impacted my sales. I found myself dreading sales conversations and my call conversion went down. This then created more stress as I had to get creative to hit my income goals, at a time when I wasn’t feeling the least bit creative.
2023 reminded me of the importance of systems and support. Good systems mean you rely less on your daily performance, which can go up and down. And a right-hand person who knows your business inside and out means things get moved forward, even when you need to step back.
I stayed consistent with my marketing all year, not because of my own discipline, but because my marketing and sales systems are so clear. I just need to show up and execute.
Another big learning was the value of exercise. I'd cemented my 3-5 days training regime in 2022 and I stayed consistent with this in 2023. No matter how shitty I felt walking into the gym, I always felt better walking out. I found training such a huge emotional release and on more than one occasion found myself in tears whilst squatting.
Financial pressure
It’s weird to reflect on 2023 being my highest revenue year when it really didn’t feel like it.
My outgoings were a lot more. I invested more heavily in my team, joined a mastermind and needed to take more from the business due to my personal situation. I made very little profit (after all expenses, tax, pay) in 2023 and it felt way more 'month to month' than I would've liked, which meant my stress levels went up and I had to borrow from my tax fund on more than one occasion to cover my high expenses.
That said, some of my highlights of the year came as a result of those hairy months... launching my mastermind, launching a new 1-1 offer called The Authority Blueprint and launching Weeks That Work with Greg Faxon.
Revenue split by offer
I’m proud of the turnover I achieve working 25 hours a week, but 2023 was a reminder of just how vulnerable my business is. It’s so reliant on me, and I don’t have much cash reserve if I have a lower income month.
In 2024, I want to focus on making my business more stable, with more profit and a rainy day fund so low income months don’t panic me as much.
Attending in person events
I set myself the goal for 2023 to attend more in person events and I definitely did this.
I went to Expert Empires’ 2 day conference in London twice, a retreat and Tad Hargrave’s workshop in London. I also joined a Mastermind that has monthly Birmingham meets, ran my own workshop in London and my own mastermind meets.
This taught me a few things. Firstly, big extroverted events just aren’t for me. Pumping music. Large crowds. It’s not my gig.
Small, intimate informal workshops are much more my style. I loved the one I ran myself in London. And I loved Tad’s workshop.
However, all of these in person meets required a huge amount of energy from me, both in terms of travel, paying attention and staying focussed (not a strong point of mine), conversation with lots of new people and impact on my workload. I felt so drained after them and spent the following week playing catch up as I don’t have a lot of wriggle room in my 25 hour work week.
So in 2024, I’m going to attend less in person events, run less in person events and generally make very conscious choices about what I do attend.
Social media marketing
I’ve been out of love with social media for a long time. I don’t like going on there, it drains my energy, I dread responding to comments.
All year, my social media marketing was decidedly half-arsed. Doing something, but not doing it well, doesn’t feel good to me. It holds brain space which I just don’t have.
The thing that stops me coming off it completely is I get quite a lot of leads from social media and I haven’t yet replaced this with another strategy other than ads, and I don’t want to be 100% reliant on paid advertising.
2023 reminded me I need to make a decision on whether I’m all in or all out of social media. And all in doesn’t have to mean doing it myself. So in 2024, I’m changing my social media strategy and using my team to implement it, so I can focus on my zone of genius… running workshops, writing long form content and creating videos.
WHAT AM I EXCITED FOR IN 2024?
Review and improve Amplify. This is my third year running Amplify and although most of the core content will stay the same, there are some new things I want to share as my own evergreen strategy has evolved and some things I want to update.
Focus on YouTube. I finally started my YouTube channel in 2023, but have only really dabbled so far. On writing this, I have 109 subscribers. This is my big marketing focus for 2024 and I’m excited to experiment here, hold it lightly and see what works. Come subscribe to my channel and make it 110 😉
Trust my gut more. The best decisions I’ve made have come from me. I think I’ve been somewhat scared to go it alone so usually I have a coach or mastermind group to support me. This hasn’t always worked out though, and often I get distracted by the things they teach, rather that listening to my gut. So 2024 is the year for thoughtful investments and trusting myself more to know the right path for me.
Connect more with aligned souls. 2023 taught me I’m not a fan of big extroverted events. I’m better in small groups or 1-1. Some of my highlights of the year were my partnerships with others… Skye Barbour, Tad Hargrave, Greg Faxon. So in 2024, I’m staying open to connections and partnerships with aligned souls who energise me.
THIS YEAR’S THEME
2023 was a huge year of personal development for me. I learnt a lot about myself, what I value, my boundaries, how I want to spend my time and the type of people I want to surround myself with.
Going into 2024, my priority is being true to myself. Listening to my gut. Surrounding myself with likeminded people and being open to new connections with aligned souls.
My word of the year is trust. And I’m going to stay open as to what that means.
Read my other annual reviews here:
Interested in working together?
If you want help scaling your business with an evergreen group programme, head here to book a call about Amplify. Watch my training series if you want to learn more about this model first.
If you’re not yet ready for Amplify, The Authority Blueprint is my 12 week 1-1 programme for online service-providers who want to start a group programme. but first need to nail their niche, connect with their audience and build their audience and authority ahead of launching. Simply email gemma@gemmagilbert.com with the words ‘Authority Blueprint’ and we’ll send you our simple google doc with all the details.
