Goodbye 2020

2020 what a year it has been. For my last post of the year I thought I would take the time to reflect on all that has happened in 2020.

The Highs

For me the biggest high has been growing a network of amazing people. Every single one of them has kept me positive and driven me to be the best I can be. We may only know eachother though virtual means but it has been a blast talking to them, learning from them and getting valuable advice and support. Especially as my business has now become my full time occupation. Which leads us very nicely onto the next high.

Running my business full time.

This year I took a leap and fully launched my business and while it hasn’t fully been smooth sailing (see The Lows below) I honestly don’t regret it. Its been a rush waking up every day and deciding what I do with it. I’ve been enjoying creating my own content, setting my own deadlines focusing on what I want to focus on.

I’ve also loved working with my clients, there may not have been many but those that I have had I have enjoyed working with/for. Each have been for a different aspect of what I offer for my business and each have taught me valuable experiences. Some have grown in ways that have been wonderful to see and some have continued to thrive and work towards their full potential.I don’t think that I’ll ever stop feeling proud and excited about what they do in the future.

2020 also brought the launched my first ever course ‘Your Business and the Journey into Branding’. A course I am proud of and hope has been helping all those who have downloaded it. I learned a lot of the experience of creating, promoting and distributing the course and I hope those that I plan on launching next year are going to showcase all that.

However with the highs have to come the lows.

The Lows

I’m sure like most 2020 come with a bunch of lows with most (if not all) being a result of Covid-19. I was forloughed for a few months and then upon my return lost my job a few months later due to my contract coming to an end and there being no financial way of extending it. So in a way I knew it was coming but with everything covid related going on leaving my place of work felt bittersweet. My secured income was lost and there was no way of telling if my business would sustain me – low point number 2.

As I mentioned in my highs this year I decided to go full force into my business, I was confident and had some early leads that made me believe that I could make it work. Then you guessed it, the pandemic struck and with it everything I had really worked on. It was tough especially in the later part of the year when I no longer had secured income. Which played a factor in the last of the lows.

Imposter syndrome.

I’ve mentioned in the past that I (like everyone on the planet) can have intense Imposter Syndrome. It’s one of the downsides I feel that has been a result of the social age that we are in. This year there many moments where I simply felt like I wasn’t good enough, where I doubted myself but with support from my network and support base they didn’t last long. I kept going and for that I feel more empowered.

Everything in Between

There have also been those things in between, things that have been both good and bad or don’t have a full result yet. For me, a big thing I have been working on this year is learning. Afterall if I am having to spend time inside I may as well do something so why not develop myself. I’ve learned a lot be it how greek myth influences art, crochet a blanket or even best practices for social media.

However, there were moments where what I learned wasn’t what I expected, there has been a few times this year where courses where named one thing but acutally should have been named something else, where what I learned wasn’t what I was advised but I took those moments and turned them into lessons learned.

What I have loved about learning is putting skills into action and trying new things with a lot of these experiments happening over the past few months. Since October I have been placing more effort into Instagram Stories, I’ve went Live twice and using LinkedIn with the results of this work still being processed as I’m writing this post. I can’t wait to see how I experiment in 2021.

Hello 2021

2021 will be most welcomed, after the year that 2020 has been 2021 has to be better. So what’s to come form me? Well from January, a new strategy based on my analysis of this year. Which should mean more consistency in regards to showcasing my value, posts on channels being geared towards what is performing on them and of course more tweaks of experimentation. I cannot wait for you all to see it.

Tehy will also be a updated procing strategy so that it is clear about what my offering is, what you get as part of the service and how much it costs. I have noticed that a lot of people aren’t transparent about their costs and I don’t want to be like that. I believe transparency is so important given the world we are in at the moment. Plus I hop by doing so I can ensure that any client has access to the very best service I offer.

Most importantly, as I started this section saying. I am looking forward to the promise of a better year. To seeing where it takes me and how I progress both in terms of business and non business life. I’m looking forward to may being able to actually see people again and interact in person with my network, audience, clients and general people.

How has 2020 been for you? Let me know below