Episode 67: A behind-the-scenes of my biggest shifts in 2021 (Part 2)

Get ready because everything is about to change. There's a new way of living life and doing business that will blow your mind. This is a podcast all about the timing of life and the timing of success. It's what we call the Right on Time Life. And you are listening to the Right on Time podcast with Amber McHugh. Hey hey. Welcome back to the Right on Time podcast. It's Amber McHugh, your host as we move into part two in our two part behind the scenes debrief of 2021. So if you have not listened to the last episode yet, you might want to check that out. I just share openly and directly and reflect on what 2021 was for me and those milestones and those highlight I thought may be helpful to share with you as lessons learned because if there are mistakes that I have made or things that I have learned along the way that will help you, I want to share them because we can help each other out. No need to recreate the wheel. So this episode we are picking up in late October 2021 early November when we ran the plan a thon and we welcomed new CEOs into the modern CEO Experience M program and that I mentioned over the summer we redesigned the Modern CEO so this was our second time welcome people into it. But we also from summer to the plan a thon time we spoke with our clients who are in a program that we've hosted from 2013 to 2021 called Freshly Implemented, which was an implementation incubator for entrepreneurs and freedom seeking business owners. And we realized in this implementation incubator that they needed the Modern CEO and that there were opportunities to support people in Freshly Implemented through the Modern CEO and same the Modern CEO we pulled through some elements of Freshly Implemented. So during this time between the Modern CEO Summer edition and October, we met with our clients, we completed focus groups and that would actually probably be an episode, a great episode for us to connect on in and of itself around how to complete focus groups with your clients remotely in person. It could be done as well, but how do we structure that in a unique way? So it was loving and we got great information from our clients so that we can improve the experiences and the programs for them. And what that led to was not what I expected. I expected that we were going to be able to quite frankly that we would streamline more, that we would cut more, that we would change more. But what it actually led to were some areas. Yes, we made some big changes. Big. Like we added a new accountability model, we added a gamification element. We. What are some of the other cool things? We redid our online portal and space so it's more about our online space and when we connecting calls. And we're leaning a little bit less on the Facebook group because of the shifts we saw that I mentioned in my last episode. So if you didn't catch that, you may want to, may want to circle back to that episode because we're picking right up from where we left off. So we redesigned the Modern CEO and we pulled through more elements of what used to be freshly implemented. And we integrated these two programs under the Modern CEO in the fall enrollment of the Modern CEO and the feedback again on it. Ah, relief, Right? Because as I was going through speaking with clients, I'm like, how are we going to do this? I see what they're looking for. I see what we need as an online community, as a community of CEOs who are scaling and growing businesses. And how am I going to. How are we going to do this? So it was an incredible thing to go through that experience to redesign and to collaborate and pull client wishes, my wishes, my team's wishes. Because one of the things that we stepped into on those focus group meetings with our clients is we want to create a first class experience for you in the Modern CEO. We don't want to throw everything at you. We want you to be able to pick what you want and use it right on time for your business. In your business. Previously, it felt just like too much. So much. So we did scale back a little. I mentioned that in March 2020, we added calls and we ramped way up because we needed that support. But over the year, in 2021, as things were getting back to a new normal, we noticed that, okay, not as many people are coming to the extra calls that we added. Everybody was showing up somewhere, but we didn't need to do as many because first class for our clients was one piece of our objective, but also first class for us as a team and those of us who are creating and running the program and supporting our clients. I want us all to be going first class in our lives. And so this was one of the evaluations that we were making as we move through the program. We said, we want this to be a first class experience for you as a client. And yet then we said as a team, we also want this to be a first class experience for us. And yeah, that's not just me as a business owner, but that is for our entire team. We want this to feel incredible. So we redesigned the program with that in mind and integrated again, the modern CEO and what was freshly implemented into the modern CEO. So this kicks off in November. It kicked off in November of 2021. And then the other place that I am going in November very much is planning for the growth of our businesses in 2022. Now, I mentioned in the last episode that I shifted our goals a little bit in March of 2021. Typically, I don't do that. I set the goals at the beginning of the year. They are the goals and we work towards them and we've met them every year. But this was the first year that we bumped our goals up a little bit. And in Q3, I was like, I don't know if this is going to happen. Right. The ads issues were happening. I was not seeing the exact path forward. It was a little hazy, it was a little foggy. And I wasn't quite sure if we were going to be able to reach those bumped up goals that I set. And so I was nervous. Then we got to the end of November, like, wait a second, I think we're actually going to do it. I was looking at numbers, I was recalculating some things. I'm like, it is actually happening. So that was a beautiful thing to observe. It was a beautiful experience and lesson for me in trust. Right? When your intuition is telling you something, when you are aligned to the goal, the chances of you reaching that goal are a whole heck of a lot higher than if you are setting goals that aren't for you, that don't feel like they're for you. Right? I want us to stay ever so aligned as we are pursuing our goals and our mission. Because when we do that, you unlock something inside of yourself that allows you to take those steps forward, even if you don't have all the answers. But you know things are aligned so you can keep moving forward. And that is exactly what we did in 2021. I had questions, I had doubts, I wasn't quite sure if we were going to make it happen. But I trusted and I stayed the course and we made it happen. We made our revenue goals happen. Now I will say the 2021 was an unexpected year in terms of expenses increasing those Facebook ads are one that I mentioned. So our ad costs went up. It was a growth year in our photography business. In 2020, we added 10 cities to our photography business and went to 26, 6 cities in 2021. So we added 10 in 2020. We added 10 in 2021. And we know sometimes with growth there are Investments that we're making, we're investing in training, we're investing in recruiting, we're investing in advertising, we are investing in supplies and product samples for each of those new cities and teams. So in both of the businesses, while revenue was aligned, profitability was not as much aligned. My profitability on the Amber McHugh side was higher. There's less overhead there, so that makes sense. But on the 3B side, while we were profitable, we were less profitable than we've ever been in all the years that we have run our business. For a high overhead business, I like to see profit margin in that 10% range. Now, as business owners, this profit is a little bit skewed because what we make, right, I take all of that home and we have two business owners in our photography business. So, you know, if we didn't have two owners, could that revenue look a little, the profit be a little bit higher? Yes. Right. So there are some variables that play into that that we do consider when we're setting our profit targets. But because our historicals had us running at a, a 10% or more right. Profit margin, I wanted to see us get in that 5 to 10% range even after the growth. So we have grown, we have invested. And now in 2022, shifting gears now because in November, I was starting to plan where I was organizing with our team strategic planning sessions. We had incredible virtual. We intended to come in person for a lot of these things, but things were rapidly changing again on the global pandemic front. So we did our virtual strategic planning sessions. We set our goals, we aligned who is doing what to help us reach those goals. We debated some things. Some members on the team said no more growth until we streamline and stabilize again. Like, oh, okay. So we defined what does streamline and stabilize look like. Okay. Now when these things are done, because we've defined what it is to streamline, then we know when we can expand into more cities, when we can do our next effort of growth. Maybe it's not new cities, maybe that growth looks like something else. So that's what we looked at in November. And one of the key objectives as we did our strategic planning in November with the 3B team, was, all right, what is, what is increasing our profitability look like? How can we streamline, stabilize, reset for profitability again and then move into our next growth season? So we had those conversations over, actually was a eight hour primarily virtual strategy session. And then on the Amber McHugh side, I do my planning a little bit different at year end because I'm hosting planning retreats with and for my clients, so I host them at different times so that we can hit all time zones. In the modern CEO, we have a morning U.S. eastern session, early morning into afternoon, and then we also have an evening US Eastern session so we can support people on the other side of the globe. So we run those sessions. And as I'm planning for that virtual retreat in the Modern CEO, I'm also going through the work myself and then I take that back to the team and we discuss and we fine tune it and massage it. In addition, I host a private retreat for our clients in our Accelerate Mastermind level where we are doing planning. It's a little bit more intimate, it's a different experience because those business owners at the Accelerate level are at the six figures up. So we are planning a little bit differently and I do that with them. I am in this with you, very much so as a business owner and an entrepreneur. So then again, take that back to the team. We're going to massage things. No more on what outcomes we have for 2022 from both of those planning sessions in our 2022 episode, which will be next. But I also had something big happen that I want to share with you because it impacts my life. And we know when things impact our life, they also impact our business. You are not doing business in a vacuum, isolated, separate from everything else that is happening to you as a human over the years. I am going to back it up and tell you a little bit of this story so you can understand the 2021 outcomes that were happening in my life. But I got my first migraine when I was in third grade and it didn't hurt. It was a migraine that was silent and I had auras, a flashing light in my eyes. Half of my face got droopy. I was living in Saudi Arabia at the time and I was in gym class that had really bright lights, canister lights all over, and I thought they were just flashing. I thought there was something wrong with the lights. And then my face started to droop and my hands were tingly and so they thought I was having a stroke. Turns out, no migraines. Very grateful that I was not having a stroke. And over the years of growing up, I had had migraines and in college they really tampered back. Migraines went away, went away until I was about 27. I was in a yoga class and it's like, oh, slurred speech. Oh, I can't think right. Oh, man, words are not coming out, right? So I got to the end of the class, which I was paying for at the end, and I said, can't talk, will be back. Migraine. I got a few words out to say, I'll be back to pay. Sorry, I got to go. And I bolted. And I got home, recovered from that migraine. And I had them on and off until I was about 32. And was I 32 when I was pregnant with Audrey, or was I 30? I don't remember. We'll come back to that. And so. Oh, I was 30. I was 30. And so 27 to 30. Light migraines. Nothing too drastic. I was able to still work late nights and way too late nights and work way too much and just have so much going on and for it to not impact me. But when I was pregnant with Audrey at the age of 30, those migraines came roaring back. When I was about seven months pregnant with her, my speech went again. It was total gibberish. My business partner and colleague in our corporate environment at the time definitely thought I was having a stroke. I could not get words out. I was trying to just tell her, just a migraine. I needed someone to pick up my daughter. Pickup daughter, like hell. Emergency room. And so ever since that moment when the migraine came roaring back, they have been chronic, right? There have been ups and downs. For example, when I was living in California, did not have a big problem with migraines. Such a relief. And I was able to identify if I didn't sleep enough. This was progressively over the years. If I didn't sleep enough, there would be a migraine. Too much stress, migraine. All sorts of reasons, right? Triggers that we can have. I have to observe them for myself. I hear things. Okay. They get their migraines because of that. Is that me. Track that, watch that. So I was learning. And other things would come up that I didn't know what they were, and I would just blame it on the migraine. So Raynaud's syndrome. Or my hands would turn blue. I would get pain in my hands and really pain in my feet, even if it's in the middle of the summer, cold feet. So lots of different things that could be. I Google a little. I mentioned different symptoms to doctors. But it wasn't until summer 2021, just before summer, late spring, when I was working on the modern CEO redesign. And my hands would hurt so bad, so bad I wouldn't want to type. They would clamp up. And it was really a hard experience. And I got through it. Took some motrin okay, we're making our way. We're making our way. You really got to get the modern CEO done. Keep going, keep going. You're going to go a little bit slower, but you've got this. And I did. This is what we do, right? When we're moving through things, we keep going. And then it was still happening. It was happening. And I noticed that when I didn't touch the keyboard and when I was on that road trip, you know, my muscles, everything had a chance to relax, but it came back immediately after the road trip. You know, the road trip, we were out west for most of the time, so it could also be a weather thing and an environment thing. So we came back and I went to a general practitioner, new general practitioner. I hadn't been to one yet here in Chicago. And I shared my history with her, and she said, you know, let's test a couple of things. So I knew from Googling that I didn't think this was carpal tunnel. And then I was thinking a little bit more as the year moved on. Like, you know, my grandmother had rheumatoid arthritis. Maybe it's that. So I mentioned that to the doctor, like, yes, we should test for this. So she tested for that and some other things, and wasn't that. And so I came back into her office, and we were talking about some things. She said, you know, with the symptoms you're talking about and your history of migraines, I want you to look at fibromyalgia. Oh, okay. So had a conversation in 2022 with someone about fibromyalgia, and she said, yeah, there are a couple of other things we could rule out. This is definitely looking like that. And so a couple of things flow through my head when I hear that, number one, relief again, that, like, oh, there's an explanation for this. This is something. But this isn't new for me. This is something I have been dealing with for a very long time. But I started looking up the symptoms of fibromyalgia. Chronic fatigue. Oh, man, the muscle pain, Right. And a whole list of other things that could be tied to fibromyalgia, which is a little bit of a unique thing in and of itself. And like, oh, it explains so much. It explains so much. And so on that end, I feel relief, and on the other end, I feel like it's something else to manage. This explains why I've sort of been feeling like I've been excited and motivated and engaged to do things and not having the energy or the physical capacity to actually do them. It also sort of pulls a bunch of things together. Like with migraines as well, you're worried at any moment you could get a migraine, right? Any moment this, things could shift for you. And you thought you were taking care of things, but, oh, you missed something, or, oh, here's a new trigger. Oh, you're living in this new area and the temperature impacts you differently and the allergens impact you differently. So any moment. But similarly, I didn't realize with learning a little bit, and I like, know a sliver of a sliver about fibromyalgia right now. So I got to learn there's probably. You may know a whole lot more about this than I do at this point. So I'm just speaking about personal experience where I'd be so excited to go on a hike. I'd be so excited to go on an adventure with my family, and then I would hit a wall. In fact, I was recently on a hike with my family, and it was a very difficult hike. It was like one mile, but it took us an hour and a half. Like, up, up, up, up. Hold onto the bar, hold on to something. There was a bar for a little piece of this hike because it was so slippery. But we. I, in the mid hike, had to sit down and take a break. I'm not getting a migraine. My body is about to quit and I'm feeling a radiating pain up through my shoulders. And so I just sat down on the hike for 10 minutes, recharged, and I was ready to go again. So these things have been happening throughout my life. So again, nothing new, but now I just have an answer and I have an explanat. And now I'm also thinking like, oh, how am I going to do all the things I want to do and manage my energy and manage the capacity that I have for that and not feel like I'm letting friends down, right? Because when you never know when something's going to happen, you start to isolate yourself. And if something else is happening in life, like, oh, gosh, okay, now I've got to manage this and I got to help the kids or I got to manage this and I got to make sure I go to their thing. So it's this constant juggling act that is uncomfortable, that is confusing, and it's a little bit frustrating, but still, we can do it. And so now I'm just figuring out now that I have this answer and I have these things to research, to support, how can I give myself care, communicate with others about this. I'm also getting more connected to that so I can understand it. Release and eliminate as much as possible through taking care of myself. So that is another big thing that happened in 2021. Actually it happened in 2022, but there was some build up coming in 2021 as I was realizing some different aches and pains and pulling things together and having conversation with people. And this is why in life, in our businesses, I think it is so important to get in conversation with people about what you're experiencing, to share what we're experiencing and to talk to people about it. Because you never know who will have an insight for you. You never know who will have gone through this before and can share or you'll never know who will say, hey, I experienced that as well and here's what helped me. So even when with migraines over the years, I see some people online say, don't give me any advice. And sometimes there's a time when like, nope, don't want anything on that. I'm a little bit the opposite with these sorts of things. But my give it all to me. If you have had an experience with this or know someone that has and something helped them or got them down the right path, I want to hear it. I want to learn from what other people who have walked the path before me have gone through. So I try to share in that way as well. We're pretty transparent about our businesses, especially in our client conversations, in our experiences, but also here with you. And my health directly impacts how I can show up and run and support my team, my clients in the business. And I prioritize a couple of things. I prioritize clients. I always feel better when I'm in space serving and connecting and feeling the energy of my clients team. Although I will say my poor team, throughout the years I've observed like I gotta shift my energy on how I'm showing up on my team meetings because I get on the team meeting, I'm so excited to be there, I'm so engaged and I'm so ready. And then by the end I'm drained. I am drained. I'm like, oh my gosh, it's not them, they're not draining me. What is happening on my end where I am feeling drained and I have some clues now, I have some clues now because of the conversation that we just had and everything that I just shared where I can start to make shifts so I can be a better team mate. And same thing with my family, like, all right, this is how my Husband has. Is so incredible, is always so incredible. But he's one of the first people to say, do you want to rest right now? Like, do you need something? Is there any way I can help you? So just proactively communicating on my end when something is coming up so that I don't take down plans. Because, you know, there's a little bit of guilt that comes with this as well, especially for family, teammates, clients. There have been like, three times over the years where I've needed to move something because of a migraine. So three times in 10 years. Not too bad, but you still feel it when it happens. So this is it. I'm rolling into 2022 with some plans, with some lessons learned and some findings that I'm continually going to be uncovering more and continually going to be adapting and adjusting how I show up to best support you and my clients and my team, but to also effectively support myself so I can stay aligned in everything that I'm doing and I can show up as the person I want to show up as. There are some frustrations around that this year. Like, no, this is what I want to be feeling right now. That's what I want to be feeling. So I've got to reconcile some of that still so I can continually stay at peak performance as I define it and as that is for me and so that I can deliver the absolute best for my clients and my colleagues and my team and my friends and my family and all those people that I want to show up for in my life. So with that, thank you for being on this journey with me. I'm feeling things, but I do know that as I shared with you, when we started 2021, I was not feeling it. I was not loving it. I wanted things to have changed and shifted a little bit more for me. But at the end of every year in our virtual retreats, we write a letter to the year could be to yourself in the year. It could be to the year itself. And I shared with 2021 that it did not start so great, but it's ended really well. We've hit goals, we've worked hard, we've learned, and there's more to learn, and there's more we want to create and there's more we want to do, and we will right on time. Thank you for being here and sharing your day with me. I'll be back in the next episode to share about our goals for 2021. And, you know, I will continue to weave through tidbits of lessons and strategies you can also put into your business and potentially put in practice in your life, should they be aligned for you. So until then, I say thank you, I love you, goodbye, and don't stop believing. Hold on to that feeling because you've got this. Stay aligned. Stay in action. It's happening. Happy New Year.