Lessons I Learned from 2022 (+ 5 Things I'm Doing Differently in 2023)

Money lost, missed opportunity and getting sloppy. All of these things happened to me in 2022 were embarrassing, but it really caused me to stop and start thinking about the big picture goal of my business and really how I want my business to fit into my life in 2023. Because of those missteps or miss happens in 2022. I'm making some big plans to do things really differently in 2023 and I challenge you here at the beginning of the year to paus and think about this as well. In fact, I've asked four other entrepreneur friends of mine who have YouTube channels to also share things that they are going to be doing differently in their business in 2023. I'll be sharing all their videos at the end of this video and I also have them linked below in the description box for you to watch after this video as well. So if sharing what I'm doing differently and why I'm doing it differently can help just one of you, @ least all of my missteps will be worth it. One of the first things that I plan to do differently in 2023 is adapting a rinse and repeat system. What is that? Well, over the last seven years in my business I've been personally in a cycle of idea, create, launch, idea, create, launch on repeat. And I was at a mastermind back in November of 2022 when my business coach talked about the cycles of business and entrepreneurship. And now this doesn't relate directly to calendar seasons, but your business should go through seasons. Spring, summer, fall, winter, spring being where you come up with the ideas and you start to plant those ideas. Summer being the part where you are working on that idea to make it actually happen. Like all the back end stuff, all the hard work. And then fall is basically where you harvest, right? You launch it, you put it out into the world world. And then winter is then where you rest, you take down time, you give yourself time to recuperate, relax so that you can be excited to jump into spring again. Now, like I said, this doesn't necessarily have to relate to the actual calendar and it doesn't have to be a full year cycle. This could be a monthly cycle, this could be a quarterly cycle. But when I heard this I realized, ah crud. I am in a constant spring, summer, fall, repeat, spring, summer, fall, repeat. I was never wintering, so to speak. Meaning I was always chasing my tail. I was in this constant cycle of go, go, go, go, go. And it was. It's almost like this constant cycle of having adrenaline pumped through you, right? We all know that's not good. And I never took the time to actually take a beat, not even evaluate what I had done, but just let my brain rest. I do honestly believe that this has contributed to me getting sloppy not only in my content, because I know what YouTube videos that I can create that y' all would like. And so I just do it, check it off the box. And I creating that kind of content. And it's also caused me to get sloppy in my, I wouldn't say customer service, but in how I envision my clients and my customers experiencing my brand with me. Because I just create, I launch it, I put it out there, I believe done is better than perfect. And then I don't want to revisit it. I just go to the next project. So what I plan to do differently in 2023 is stop creating. Now. I don't mean YouTube videos. In fact, I have plans I'm going to be sharing later on my YouTube channel about what I want to do on YouTube in 2023. But I' not creating any more programs or courses. I'm going to focus on the three programs that I have right now in my business. All roads, everything that I create is all going to be focusing on my number one program, which is my group coaching program, 10K on replay. Then we are going to have a smaller ticket item to help entrepreneurs get started with video content going video coming out later this month. And then of course my Done for you agency. We recently brought in a new employee who is covering the entire agency and all of our clients over there. So I'm going to continue to create content to get us clients in the Done for you agency as well. And that's basically what in 2023 I plan to focus on without adding more to my plate and actually scheduling in a winter. So winter is coming. All right. This next thing that I'm going to be doing differently in 2023 is probably one of the most talked about topics when it comes to the entrepreneurship world. It's kind of cliche, but I've had a big mindset adjustment or shift when it comes to self care. So what I want to share here. Well, it's not just self care because we all know that's important. I want to tell you how I'm approaching it differently in 2023 and giving you a way to think of it a little bit differently too. Go ahead and comment below. That's me. If you've always felt like self care particularly meant like getting a massage, going to the spa, something along that line of what we typically think of self care, because that was totally me. And I had a hard time accepting that. I'm like, yes, I'm going to schedule a massage. Okay, cool. I love a massage. Absolutely. But it's not necessarily my idea of self care. And I thought, well, that's what self care is. If I'm not sitting in a bubble bath or getting a massage, like I'm failing at self care, I'm going to be sharing more in the next couple of weeks about how the end of 2022, especially in November, was a huge pivot for me in not only my conf in my business, but my confidence in me. And I realized self care is something totally different for me. And self care can be something completely different for you as well. You want to think about what really recharges you, like what really breathes life into you. And when I took a step back and I thought about that, for me, it's traveling. And I realized how depleted and how mentally drained I had been for the past two years. Because let's be real, none of us are really traveling the past two years. And I realized that's kind of where I get my energy, that's where I get my ideas and my creation. And it's really kind of get my mojo from. I personally would take the money that I would spend on a massage or at a spa and put it towards a trip. And I realized that's kind of what I did in 2022, because in 2022 alone, my family went to Disney World, we went to Disneyland, we went to Denver, we did our two week vacation on the beach. And then my husband and I did an extended weekend in Savannah together. But more every one of those trips, I didn't do any work. And that's the first time ever that I had done that amount of trips without doing any work on those trips. In fact, even though Disneyland was just my husband, my kids and I, I had so many ideas come out of that trip. Just like literally walking to a ride or waiting in line at the airport. And while the kids were crazy and there was a lot going on, that type of thing, being able to get out of my normal space just breathes life back into me and just gets my creative juices flowing, so to speak. Now I know we all can't go traveling. Don't worry, that's not what I expect to do every single month. The other thing that I love doing that I personally believe is my self care, and I've been embarrassed to admit it is Just laying in my bed with my iPad, watching trashy TV. Whether that's real Housewives, whether that's Summer House, whether that is something on Netflix, that is my self care. I don't need to leave the house, schedule a massage. I can literally just lay in bed and watch some TV by myself. And that breathes life back into me as well. The key to self care, though, is picking something that you love, not being embarrassed about it. Because self care can be anything that breathes life back to you and putting it on your calendar, treating it like a dentist appointment, and actually doing it. Because I will tell you, if you go too long without having some of that self care time, you will burn out. I have experienced panic attacks and you've got to take that time, whatever it is, to just chill. I'm also planning to make more connections in 2023. This is something that I really want to do differently moving forward. You might not realize it from watching me here on video or maybe you saw me on a stage, but I am incredibly shy and an extreme introvert. Absolutely, hands down. Can walk on a stage, fifty hundred people and be fine. Because I know what I'm doing. I have my talk prepared. I know what I'm talking about and I'm super excited and I love doing that. But throw me into a room of 30 people and not really have a topic and have to break the ice and like engage and communicate. Yeah, you're gonna find me hiding in a room, slowly backing out to get to my room. I've also, in the past, even in my business, have been majorly disappointed by friendships and relationships that I thought I created with fellow business owners, only to really be burned badly by those people. And so I've been left kind of jaded and cautious about putting myself out there to make connections and friendships without being used or being burned. In the end, like I said earlier back in November, I went to a mastermind, and for some reason I was really experiencing this shift in my personality, in my confidence, and I decided to sit at a table of these two girls that I really wanted to get to know. They looked really fun. They seemed to be having fun, like, that's what I want to be doing. Try to shake all that old baggage of being burned before and just open myself to new friendships. And I'm going to tell you, that was an amazing decision. I have kept this relationship with two of these girls. We communicate daily, if not every other day. And it's really been a great support system, especially around the holidays when a lot's going on. And when you know the people you see on your day to day life normally don't know what it is you do or what you struggle with and you don't have somebody always to lean back on. And so going through that experience, I realized one of the things I want to do differently in 2023 is not only make connections with more people like that, but make more connections with people who are following me. Making time to connect with my clients more, making time to connect with members in my programs more and just starting to get to know more about people. Getting out of my Cocoon or my B.O. here in my room and just start connecting with more people because you really will be surprised about the ideas or the excitement or the potential that you have when you start making more connections. Because it can be very easy to sit and hide away, but it can be so much more exciting and so much more fulfilling if you make these connections. Now, just like I said, with self care time, you need to make time to do these connections. So every single week I'm going to be adding a time in my calendar to personally reach out to one to two people every single week. Just like a dead disappointment, not skipping it. That's what I'm gonna be doing differently in 2023. To be honest, for the last seven years since I started my business, it was December of 2015 that I officially, officially started my business. I've been on this rat race of pretty much chasing money. I started my business and then primary goal was to make money, get back to that income that I left at my 9 to 5 job and make money. The problem with that is though, once you start making money, you want to make more money. Once you hit that revenue goal, you want to hit that next revenue goal. And I really found myself in that rat race of chasing income goals that didn't really truly have a bigger purpose behind it. So what I'm doing differently in 2023 is slowing down. The past seven years have honestly taking a huge toll not on my physical health, but my mental health as well. And I never really wanted to accept how running this business, while it's been amazing, it's giving me huge opportunities. It's allowed me to, you know, take the kids to school and be around in the summer. It has left me kind of depleted personally and I never really accepted that till again. This huge event that I had in November of 2022. I realized by the end of that week when I was flying home and just kind of thinking about everything that went on that I'VE got to slow down, which means less launches, less product development. So stop trying to think of the next big thing to release that into the world and focusing on what I currently have, because I know the programs that I have are freaking good, and I want to spend more time on those programs to make them even better than what they already are. The other reason why I want to slow down, particularly slow down in my business, is because I want to take more time that I'm spending on my business and kind of redirect it to bigger things, like deciding on causes and charities that I want to participate in. I want to make a change. My children are small, but they're getting older. They're starting to realize, you know, these things that we can do, and we can do it together. And so Instead of spending 247 into my business, I really want to take not only the opportunity that we've had with my business and the money that it's made, but the time that I have to work on a bigger cause, a cause that's going to make a bigger change than just chasing after a money number that doesn't have an ultimate change part to it. You get what I'm saying? If you are following me back In April of 2022, I talked a little bit about this, but I'm going to be doing much more of this in 2023, and that is simplifying my business. And I am going to share with you a huge step you can take today and starting to simplify your business. But I first want to share with you some of the things that I've done since April 2022, when I announced kind of this process that I was going through of simplifying my business. Since that April, I've gotten rid of three major software tools that were costing me around $250 a month and was able to tie in with one tool, FG funnels. It's not only my landing page, it's not only my course platform, it's also my email platform as well. And I'm only having to spend $97 on all of that. So that's been really beneficial to have everything that I need in one particular platform and save some money doing it. I'm also planning to simplify my customer or client journey. So if any of you kind of like, find me out of the blue for the very first time, where do I want that person going, and how do I want that person experiencing me and my brand? This is something that I didn't think about enough. And for a While it was very scattered, I admit my brand was very scattered, what I am focusing on. And so in 2023, because I said earlier, we're really stripping away a lot of different offers and we're focusing on main ones. So we allow me to take my customer, take my client through the journey that I want them to go through to learn more about me so that I can create those deeper relationships that I mentioned earlier in this video as well. I'm also going to be simplifying my learning. Now. This is an ever going process of trying to stop buying programs, trying to stop buying courses. But I have a coach and this is my third year, I'm going into my third year with her and she has a plethora of content that I haven't even cracked into yet. And so instead of going out and buying another course on another platform, I'm going to be just focusing predominantly on everything that she has to offer and really implementing everything that she has to offer in utilizing everything in the Mastermind and including connecting with the other clients inside this Mastermind as well. Because just one course on Instagram or one course on YouTube, or one course on copywriting isn't going to solve your bigger business strategy. And that's kind of where I'm at personally in my business is really simplify and solidifying the business strategy that will take my business beyond five years. I'm not just thinking, you know, one year at a time anymore, I'm thinking five years out and how I can simplify what I'm learning to put that into place. Now that action item that I mentioned to help me continue simplifying and doing the rinse and repeats and really staying on track in 2023. We've been doing this for the last three months and it's called creating a parking lot. So what I do is anytime I have an idea, like I said, I came back from Disneyland with lots of ideas. My marketing manager and I created just an asana board. This caught idea parking lot. I actually learned this process from a friend of mine, meredith, from learn gr writing.org and what you do when you have all these ideas, instead of chasing another shiny object syndrome and getting distracted from what you're focusing on, put your idea down for me and in asana board. And then what I do is I review that with my marketing manager every time we do a 90 day plan. So we kind of sit it there on the side when I review my quarter, my last 90 days and I look at the next 90 days. Do any of those plans plans fit in the next 90 days. Sometimes they do. Sometimes we can make them work. Sometimes we just leave them in the parking lot because they don't make sense. Right now they are a great idea, but I am working on this path and I don't need to get distracted on a side path. But I have those ideas down to come back to so that they don't get lost. Now let me tell you that I believe so much in sharing how to make changes for the year ahead and kind of giving my path experience that I have four other entrepreneurs that are sharing with you things they are doing differently in 2023 as well. I will link to all of their videos in a playlist on your screen right now and I'll link to each video down in the description box below. I highly encourage you to learn from others mistakes that others had made. Decide which one that you could really implement into your business and use them because we are really opening up and sharing our experiences is with you. And I would love to know after watching this video, what are you hoping that you're going to do differently here in 2023? Let me know down in the comments.