2023 Recap

5 min readFeb 1, 2024

2023 has come to a close, which means it’s time for another yearly recap.

Truthfully, I put off writing this recap. In fact, the version you’re reading is my second draft (the first one sounded WAY too depressing, only focusing on the negatives. Long story short, I felt like I sh*t the bed bad in my business this year. Not in an “I found a new meaning of life” type of way, but in a “I wasted a lot of time and regretted a lot of what I focused on” way.

If I could sum up my year in one word, it would be chaotic. I operated from a state of chaos that prevented me from leveling up my business in a way I knew I could. Instead, I ran around in circles, second-guessing every decision, and felt paralyzed from moving forward.

In the spirit of having a more well-balanced recap, I’m going to take my formula from last year and tweak it as needed. Here we go…

Wins

I don’t feel like I had too many wins in 2023, but here are a few I’d like to highlight:

My first guest blog
My first podcast interview
Being a founding member of Pollen
Writing over 80 pieces of content
Working with 6 brand-new clients
Volunteering at a new maker space in my area
Co-working & coffee dates
In-person networking events
Getting back in touch with my creativity
5 press pieces

All in all, it was just a ho-hum year for my business. I didn’t launch anything or optimize anything. I just was. I learned that not every year will be life-changing for us and our businesses. There are seasons of prosperity and seasons of stagnation. Just because you’re in a period of stagnation doesn’t mean you failed; you’re just waiting in the wings for your moment. And that’s ok. Although 2023 didn’t match my definition of success, it doesn’t mean it was a failure. I learned much about what was important to me and how I wanted to run my business. I got the clarity I need to take my business forward to 2024.

The Milwaukee Bucks’ Gianni Antetokounmpo sums it up perfectly:

What worked

Moving all of my appointments to Friday to keep my Monday-Thursday workflow protected
Using a goal accountability group to keep me accountable for my monthly goals
Keeping my Fridays open based on what I need them for
Finding other ways to do meaningful work
Dedicating time during the week to work on my business projects

What I’d like to improve

Having a good marketing and sales pipeline to keep my plate full. I lost a retainer client early in the year, I was scrambling to find work, which completely derailed my goals. To be honest, I’m still not great at this, but it is one of my focus areas for 2024.
Spending my time and effort climbing a ladder placed on the right wall. Stephen Covey famously says, “If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster.” I realized that what I was doing wasn’t what I actually wanted to be doing; I just thought that was what I wanted. I spent a lot of time focusing on the wrong things when I could have spent my time doing activities to grow the business.
Confidence in my offers. I spent a lot of 2023 going back and forth about my offers, trying to find the right things that represented me and my skill set. What held me back was thinking I just needed to offer *one* thing. But that’s just not me. I’m multi-passionate and creatively divergent, with expertise and interests spanning different disciplines. Once I started to embrace that, it became easier to market myself in a way that felt authentically me.
Leaning into systems and routines to optimize my workflow. I wasted a lot of time switching productivity systems. I’d like to stick with one and establish a single source of truth that my brain can trust.
Estimating my workflow. I tend to do too much in a week without properly estimating how long things take. I’d like to get a better handle on this so I don’t constantly feel overwhelmed with my workload.

Lessons learned

Confidence is the best trait any business owner can have. Clarity gives you that confidence
Don’t be afraid to embrace the “and”
Always have a marketing and sales pipeline in place
Just because someone else finds success with something doesn’t mean it’s the right thing for you
Don’t be afraid to pivot
There’s nothing wrong with being a jack of all trades master of few
Don’t act out of desperation
Business advice is not canon; take what you need and leave what doesn’t apply

Looking ahead to 2024

After doing some future vision casting, I realized that what I really want in 2024 is more whitespace in my calendar. I don’t want to overbook my weeks to the point where I can’t focus on my non-work priorities and projects. I really neglected other areas of my life this year because of the time I wasted when I was “working.” So, the goal is to optimize my work time strategically so I can get everything done so I can start living life a little bit more.

That said, I have some pretty audacious goals for 2024 (what can I say, I’ve always been a very goal-oriented person). Here’s what I’d like to do:

Build out a sustainable marketing and sales engine to keep a full pipeline
Write more consistently, whether for my website, a newsletter, etc
Publish my own newsletter
Pivot my offering to be more focused on brand and marketing strategy. It’s where I thrive and is the best use of all my talents and areas of expertise
Shift from being just a freelance to a consultant
Expand my graphic design skills so I can start designing brands (Fun fact: one of my biggest regrets so far in my life is not majoring in graphic design. It’s time to change that)
Build out a library of SOPs
Build better daily routines and systems
Explore potential non-consulting opportunities for 2025 to kickstart a true portfolio career
Be a guest contributor to an industry publication

Thank you to everyone with whom I’ve connected this year and who has helped me along my journey. I couldn’t have done it without you!

A special thank you to:

Hillary Bush and the entire Pollen team for building an awesome community
Brandy Cerne for giving me my first podcast interview!
Emily Merrell who helped me nail my positioning
Austin Church for creating AMAZING actionable content for freelancers (seriously, check him out)
PrimoStats for posting my first guest blog
My family and friends for always being in my corner