It’s January 2nd, 2024 and I’m unofficially back at my desk ready to start the new year. Truthfully, there’s a list as long as my arm of tasks I need to get done this week before I kick back into client working mode next week. Buuuut, I have ADHD folks. So I’m going to ignore that list and work on this blog post instead! 🤣 (IYKYK) The thing is, the year-in-review post is always one of my favourites to tackle, even if it does seem to take forever to do. And I’ve tried various methods of keeping this interesting and on point over the years. Let’s see how this one is gonna go shall we and take a look back at the now infamously known 2023?
First up, a look back at some of the goals and aims I set myself for the year.
2023 Word of the Year
For the first time, I opted to go with three words – a main, central theme with two supporting words. They were:
We’ll come back to whether those words held true for the year or not a bit later in this post… (ooh, I do love me a little open loop!)
2023 Goals
First up, this post isn’t all about the numbers but they will get a mention because revenue is always on my goals list.
My revenue goal for 2023 was $96K. That’s pre-tax and expenses, of course. But I aimed to consistently pay myself $4K per month (so would need to bring in $8K).
Another goal was to work on my website’s SEO by regularly blogging (once a month), and finally tackling one of the many SEO courses I have to figure out keywords and what I need to do, with the possibility of also working with an SEO expert too.
I wanted to increase my mailing list to 500 subscribers. At the start of the year, I had 164 subscribers.
I wanted to work on increasing my visibility by guesting on some podcasts and writing some guest blog posts.
I also wanted to get to work on my second course, the About Page Copy Kit, to follow on from my Home Page Copy Kit.
And finally, I wanted to get into the weeds of my business and refine the BTS so I could provide a really awesome client experience.
So what actually happened, then?
Here’s how the year actually went down.
January
I threw myself into the new year by going straight in and releasing The Home Page Copy Kit.
You might already know this but that course had been on my mind and clogging up my motivation for MONTHS. I needed to get it done and out there so I could move past it! My less-than-perfect, massively MacGyver’d course, was put out into the world on Jan 16th and I couldn’t be prouder of it. Ultimately, I knew the content was good and that, for me, mattered so much more than having something that looked perfectly put together!
I also properly got started on a new service I had launched at the end of 2022 – a brand voice and messaging guide for Rose. This ended up taking a bit longer than I’d initially anticipated, but I was SO proud of how it turned out. I can’t wait to do more of them!
And who says you can’t do photos in January? Yes, it was wet and a bit gloomy. But I commandeered my husband to hold bags and umbrellas and then we all went and played games and ate food afterwards, so it wasn’t SO bad.
February
It’s always lovely when a client asks me to come back and take new photos for them, so I was thrilled when Larina got in touch for her second session with me (and for a third shoot later in the year too!).
I also got to work with the lovely Natasha, from Natasha’s Pies, again for a few product shots of her delicious pies (seriously… best Apple pie I’ve ever had!).
And from a copy perspective, I was still working through Rose’s brand voice and messaging guide but I also got to work on a website copy project for a conveyancing company.
Other than that, February was mostly about cheese! 🤣 We hung out at our local dairy farm a bit and Stu bought me a delicious cheese charcuterie board from them for Valentine’s Day. The man knows the way to my heart, what can I say?
March
March definitely felt like a bit of an awakening. It was an incredibly busy month!
I had an epic photo shoot with a private paramedic academy which was a lot of fun and seemed like the best combination of my years of skills and experience!
I also delivered the brand voice and messaging guide this month. The document I produced was utterly epic and I’m so incredibly proud of it. I immediately wanted to get started on my own but knew I had to wait to do that.
This was also the month I was nominated as the Copywriter in the Spotlight over in my copywriting membership group, Confident Copywriters. I got to do a really fun little interview with my coach, Belinda Weaver, and we talked all about how I prioritise my creative time to help me run my business better. That’s a topic that kept recurring throughout the year!
March was also a mix of highs and lows in that I had to sadly miss the writing retreat because I just didn’t have the funds to pay for the flights, which also meant missing going to Ireland for my sister’s partner’s birthday, where my parents would also be. That was a super rough time for me as I was missing my family and friends right then.
We did head off to Nova Scotia at the end of the month though. And here’s a little reveal… we were heading there to explore and see about possibly moving there!
Truthfully, at the start of the year, we were struggling financially. Mortgage rates were climbing and climbing, all the bills were going up, and gas prices (yeah, I say “gas” now instead of petrol!) were at an all-time high. Stu and I were considering all our options and one of them was potentially moving across the country to Nova Scotia, where we’d heard it was a lot cheaper than here in BC.
That trip helped me realise a couple of things…
- This country is VAST. After two flights and a full day of travel, we arrived in the same country we’d left. Seriously… huge.
- I didn’t realise just how hard I found the time difference living in BC until I was in NS, which is only 4 hours behind the UK. (Crazy fact, Halifax NS is physically closer to Dublin, Ireland than it is to Vancouver BC!) It was an immense pleasure to be able to message friends and family even in the early evening, knowing I wouldn’t have to wait until the next day as they were probably asleep.
- I like quiet, but there is a limit. And NS was just too quiet for me.
So, long story short, we quickly decided NS wasn’t going to be the place for us and that we would miss the mountains too much. And despite the time zone difference, we decided to stick things out in BC instead. NS is incredibly beautiful though and we definitely want to head back there for a summer trip in the next few years!
April
April was all about finding my feet with networking in person again. Yes, I’d basically been a hermit for close to 3 years! Thanks pandemic! But it felt nice to go to places and meet people and marvel at the fact that they have legs.
I learned a valuable ADHD lesson in April too. After putting off finishing a macrame plant hanger for my sister for OVER A YEAR… I watched a video to help me get past the problem that had blocked me and had the damn thing done in about 10 minutes. 🤦🏻♀️ And I finished a second one at the end of the year for Stu’s Mum.
And another thing… I was feeling really annoyed at myself for not being a bit braver and going to see Elizabeth Gilbert by myself for another Big Magic talk a few weeks earlier. When I finally got brave, all the tickets had sold out. So when I saw Margaret Atwood was doing a talk in April at UBC, I grasped the opportunity with both hands and bought myself a ticket.
Without a doubt, it was one of the highlights of my year to see her on stage and listen to her speak. She was so inspiring, motivating, supportive and, well, funny! I got permission to bypass my book-buying ban to buy a signed first edition of her new short story compilation while I was there too.
From a work perspective, I wrapped up a website copy project and started another for a UK wedding and family photographer. I also finished up the brand voice and messaging guide project by delivering a fully branded PDF and Canva template so my client can keep adding and building on the information contained there going forward.
May
Ahhh May! I had forgotten, for the most part, about May until I dug into my calendars and then I was suddenly filled with joy! Because here’s what happened…
My friend, Lucy, came to visit!
It was so lovely to have her come stay and I loved being able to show her around some of my favourite places.
Of course, that was the highlight of the month, but I did also get to work on a fab website copy project (I’ll be showing that off soon, now the website has gone live!). May also became the month that I jumped into lots of quick chats with fellow business owners as I finally realised that I needed to expand my network and get out there a bit more. It turns out, as an introverted person, I don’t mind one-on-one conversations with people over Zoom so I threw myself into those chats enthusiastically and met some awesome people.
June
June was another joyful month for meeting up with friends, but I’ll get into that in just a minute.
First up, I got to work with an awesome photographer on her website copy at the start of the month (new website coming soon!).
I also finally got my hair done again (ahhh I did miss those vibrant colours!) and Stu and I made our annual day trip to a local lavender farm to enjoy all the gardens AND the lavender scones and lemonade… of course.
And then, right at the end of the month, I got to have an epic day out wandering around Stanley Park and Gas Town with my Big Magic friend, Chris.
Picture courtesy of @imchriswoodley on Instagram
Chris and I met about five years ago at Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic Workshop in London. We were sitting next to each other and partnered up on some of the tasks we had to work on. At the end of the workshop, EG encouraged us to share our email addresses with a few people we didn’t know and could keep in touch with. Of course, Chris and I exchanged email addresses and what began was a lovely letter-writing relationship for the next couple of years.
When Chris reached out in early 2022 asking for my help to find a wedding photographer for his and Eram’s wedding day, I found some names to refer to him.
And when he reached out this year asking for tips on where to visit in BC as he and Eram were coming for a work thing-slash-honeymoon, I excitedly gave him a list of places to look at. And, of course, dropped in that he and Eram were more than welcome to come visit us too.
Getting the chance to meet up with Chris, 5 years after we’d met one time and had only been in touch via emails and the odd social media message, was absolutely magical. It was just like meeting an old friend and we had an absolute blast chatting, reminiscing and sharing how much our lives had changed since we first met at that workshop.
And then he and Eram came to stay for their last weekend here and we had a fab time, taking them kayaking at one of our local lakes, going out for dinner and having a barbecue before taking them back to the airport for their return trip. Seriously, another absolute highlight of 2023!
July
My widening community continued in July when I decided I couldn’t waste the opportunity to get some fresh new photos with my newly-neoned hair. I put a shout-out online for local photographers who might be able to fit in a short brand shoot. I had every intention of paying, but when Stef reached out and offered a shoot swap, I couldn’t pass up the chance.
Stef had been at the peripheries of my circle for a while. I’d seen her name pop up frequently in groups we were both members of, we had a few mutual friends and we’d kind of skirted around each other for a while. So meeting up with her and swapping some headshots around Downtown Chilliwack seemed inevitable really! And I’m so glad we did because she is now firmly part of my world!
This month, I also got to tackle a meaty sales page project for a remote photographer based in the UK but with an impressive ability to capture teams and businesses all around the world. He’s even photographed a person in every single US state in one day!
Other highlights from the month included getting to see a friend’s pandemic project pirate ship he built in the roof space of his garage (it was just like being inside an old galleon ship!) and seeing some of my photos appearing on a billboard!
August
Aaaah my birthday month. Yes, I said month 😉
As has been the way the last few years, August is a very hot and sticky month but we made the best of it. From a work perspective, I worked on building a lead magnet and finishing up a course workbook for a client and a whole bunch of content for another.
There was definitely more play and personal activities this month though!
First up, I went to see Barbie at the cinema with friends. I hadn’t planned on seeing it but I couldn’t resist the hype and I wasn’t disappointed!
Stu and I went on a twilight walk at the local Blue Heron Nature Reserve where we explored the bushes and got to see what could be foraged there.
Mid-month, we took the ferry over to Vancouver Island for a weekend to celebrate a friend’s wedding up in the mountains. It was a really lovely weekend although my shoes didn’t survive, unfortunately!
I also went to another networking event towards the end of the month, one of those paint nights with the pouring paints. It was a lot of fun and I love my paintings which I’ll have to put up in my office at some point.
My birthday was a quiet celebration. We took the kayaks to Buntzen Lake which is actually a reservoir that feeds the electricity company here in BC. We’d heard it was beautiful and we definitely weren’t disappointed. And better yet, as we arrived we were greeted by a mamma bear and two baby bears walking across the road right in front of us! Quite possibly the best birthday gift a gal could ask for 😁 It was a super hot day so we only spent an hour or two paddling before retreating to the shade of the shore for our picnic lunch (in our newly acquired cool bag – really getting into this Canadian way of life!).
September
In September, after our tenth wedding anniversary celebrations (very low-key this year but who knows what next year will bring, right?!) I got to work on an email sequence, held a copy intensive session and updated a client’s website copy in a VIP day session. It was also great to do some more brand photos for a therapist client I’d worked with previously.
Towards the end of the month, exciting times as I headed to Los Angeles to see my lovely writing retreat friend, Kerrin. We’ve been in contact ever since we first met at the writer’s retreat in 2022 and, since we’re in the same time zone, we often meet up for writing sessions each week over Zoom. Kerrin has even done reiki on me!
Being able to head to her neck of the woods was a real joy. I flew into LAX on a Friday and by that afternoon I was wandering around Disneyland and riding the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. This was my first ever trip to Disneyland and I couldn’t have asked for a better introduction. A guided tour from a former Disney princess, my very own Minnie Mouse ears and enough sugar to keep me hyped up for days! LOL We even got to see the fireworks in the evening. It was magical.
As part of my visit, I gifted Kerrin with a photo shoot. She has a wonderful business selling pop culture prayer candles and she’d been wanting some photos to showcase her business for a while. I had so much fun capturing those photos for her, especially as she is so on-brand in every part of her life!
The rest of the weekend was spent being thoroughly spoiled by her and her husband, Michael, fussing over her cute pooch, Ophelia, and being shown the local sites. We had a drive into Hollywood and saw just a tiny bit of that (man it was busy!) and then went into downtown LA and wandered around a Mexican market and one of the most incredible bookstores I’ve ever seen.
The weekend was over far too quickly but it more than made up for not being able to go to the writer’s retreat earlier in the year and I loved spending time with Kerrin. She’s been so supportive of my writing. Oh, and watch this space. She has written the most incredible novel that will hopefully be published soon!
October
Once Thanksgiving (or Turkey Day as I like to call it) was out of the way, I was able to get to work on another email sequence, another copy intensive and another sales page. The words have been flowing pretty well this year!
October also brought a lot of casual invigilation work with it. Earlier this year I was able to get back on the books as a casual exam reader and invigilator for the Justice Institute and it seems October was exam season. I spent most of the month driving backwards and forwards to Vancouver!
It was also the month I got to see the one show I’d booked this year… Eddie Izzard on her Remix Tour. It was so much fun and I thoroughly loved seeing her live again. It’s been a good number of years since I last saw her in Brighton with my Dad!
November
Things felt like they were starting to wind down in November. I was already thinking about what I wanted to do for 2024 and other than a brand shoot with a previous client later in the month and my first-ever copy strategy session, there wasn’t too much in the way of client work to do.
I did get to have my first in-person meet-up with a new mastermind that I joined. I also recorded the final episode of the Creative Reboot podcast for the year with my lovely co-host, Carla. And later in the month, I decided to sign up for Freelancing School.
December
The last month of the year is always a bit of a weird one for me. For the last couple of years, I’ve designated it a “no client work” month which allows me to focus on planning for the new year and, y’know, take time off on random days to visit Christmas markets and stuff. I did exactly that this month with a day trip to America where I did a little Christmas shopping and bought way too many yummy snacks from Trader Joe’s (oh how we need one of those this side of the border!). I also went and had dinner with my friend and bookkeeper, Megan. I had my first in-person Christmas party since I left the ambulance service 5 years ago. And then we spent the night in a nice hotel in Vancouver, went to the Christmas market and got to see the most incredible gingerbread house display (one was built like the Grand Budapest Hotel!).
Christmas itself was a peaceful one, with brunch at a friend’s house, home to Zoom the family around noon and then dinner later that afternoon. And that pretty much brings you up to speed.
Some facts and figures for the year (and whether I hit those goals or not)
Revenue
I hit 35% of my annual revenue goal this year. That’s not including what I brought in through the casual work I was doing but I won’t count that as part of my business.
That figure was a real disappointment to me. Not being able to hit my revenue goals meant having to sacrifice a lot of the things I wanted to do this year—like go to the writer’s retreat and visit my family in Ireland, or do any other travelling for that matter. It’s been a year of surviving and trying to make it through despite the rising costs and bills.
Somehow we have made it though and we live to fight another year. Keeping it all 🤞🏻 that things pan out better in 2024!
Website Traffic/Analytics/SEO
I didn’t do much in the way of working on my SEO throughout the year. I wrote a total sum of three blog posts all year (and those were in the first couple of months before it dropped off entirely). And, of course, I’ve seen my traffic numbers steadily drop through the year until December, when I took part in a bundle so I’ve seen a definite spike in traffic due to that.
That being said, about 20% of all my enquiries came through Google this year, so that’s not too shabby. I think I’d like to increase that to at least 35% for 2024 though!
Mailing List
At the start of the year I had 164 people signed up to my mailing list and I was hoping to increase it to 500. All while emailing my lovely list three times a week and trying to keep them engaged and interested. Don’t worry, you wouldn’t be the first person to give me a “what now?” when I mention I email my list three times a week. It’s all good though, I swear. The feedback I’ve been getting has been awesome!
Anyway, the numbers.
At the end of December, I finished up with… *drumroll please*…
One thousand, one hundred and ninety-three subscribers. Yes, 1193!
I completely blew through my 500 target sometime in June and I’ve been continuing to work on increasing it ever since. Again, I took part in a very big, very lively bundle at the end of the year and this has helped IMMENSELY. Way better than I could have imagined. I won’t be going mad with bundles though. Now I want to work on nurturing the audience I do have!
Other facts and figures about my email list.
I sent out 152 emails through the year, including a couple of launch-type sequences and emailed my subscribers most Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (give or take a few here and there that got missed).
Each email takes me, on average, 15 minutes to write and about 5 minutes to load up and schedule on Mailerlite. And I probably spent about an hour digging out links for my Wednesday Wanderings email.
And the important figures that I just found out today… My average open rate over the whole year has been 48% and my average click-through rate (which, let’s face it, is probably the more accurate one) is just over 4%. Oh, AND over the year, I’ve had a total of 217 unsubscribes too, and my list has still grown by more than 600%! So, the point being there is don’t fret about those unsubscribes. 😉
Visibility
I found this a real struggle this year. Between suddenly changing all my plans when I realised we were no longer considering a move to Nova Scotia (and feeling a definite “what now?” vibe after that) and the struggle to keep income flowing in, being visible was the furthest thing from my mind. Even more so as a self-confessed introvert.
That being said, I learned about the power of one-on-one conversations this year so I feel I increased my visibility in this way, meeting other awesome business owners and getting to know them with the potential for referrals and collaborations on both sides later on. And I did get some great referrals and work through some of those connections this year.
I didn’t manage to broach guest blogging for anyone, although I did feature in a few articles in the latter part of the year.
And apart from my guest spot as “Copywriter in the Spotlight” in March, I only managed to feature on one podcast this year (the excellent The One That Works For You podcast with Martha Barnard-Rae and Liv Steigrad).
I did record another though which will be coming out soon, so I’ll be sure to share that one with you!
The About Page Copy Kit
Simply put, it didn’t happen. But that’s ok. I’ve got a better plan in place to get it done in 2024!
Client Experience
I like to think that my client experience is pretty darn good. At least, that’s what my clients tell me! But the inner workings of my business were a bit… untidy… this year. All my workflows were a little disjointed and out of date and they definitely needed tweaking. I decided to try and move to a new CRM later in the year and was originally dabbling with SuiteDash. Honestly, though, I found it clunky and hard to figure out. It was just TOO MUCH of a system. I’ve got a lifetime deal on it though so I may still use it in future for its learning platform capabilities.
I discovered Moxie around October, though, and it is a delightful, intuitive system built for and by freelancers and I’m a little bit in love. So I’ve been working on moving everything over from Dubsado to Moxie for the last couple of months and I’m aiming to have it all set up and ready to go in the first quarter of 2024.
I’m excited to see how it all pans out!
Lessons learned
And after all that, here are the lessons 2023 taught me.
Intention, Consistency & Enough
As I look back over 2023 and think about the words I had chosen for this year a few thoughts spring to mind.
First up, I find it very easy to lose any kind of intention when I’m struggling or go into panic mode.
Secondly, despite my struggles with consistency of quantity and timing, I somehow do manage to maintain consistency in what I have to say and how I say it. And I’m pretty damn proud of that.
And finally, while this year hasn’t been one of “enough” for me, it’s a mantra I firmly believe in and I do want to keep striving for enough rather than for the stars and moon and the world on a glittery stick. That’s why I’m taking ENOUGH into 2024 with me.
Community & Relationships
I’ve learned that despite my obvious introvert tendencies, my fierce independence and my ability to live like a hermit as I relish being in my own company, I cannot do this alone. I’ve had some struggles with friendships this year but it’s also been the year I’ve stuck my head out of my shell and said hello to a few new people and found I quite liked it. I’ve definitely had to find my own way of building these relationships and my little community, but it is being built, nevertheless.
By the way, if you’d like to be part of my circle or have me get to know you better, I offer Little Chat sessions a couple of times a month. Hit the link and book a chat with me if you’d like!
Get Focused
Tell me you’ve got ADHD without saying you’ve got ADHD…
Yeah. I got diagnosed back in October 2022 and let’s just say 2023 has been a bit of a devolvement and a lot of relearning since then.
It turns out that the more stuff I have, the harder I find it to focus. Who knew? Oh, yeah, you all did. Not this one over here. Well, as is my way, I found myself getting massively distracted by all the things and, by midway through the year… I WAS CONFUSED. It took another couple of months for me to realise that if I’m confused, then my audience definitely must be.
I have taken that learning to heart for 2024. Seriously, you should see how massively pared back my goals and tasks are for this year!
Be 1000% You
Actually, I’ve known this for a while but I guess I just hadn’t fully leaned into it until this year, when I started to realise that when I just be me, people are a lot more engaging with me. Now that’s a learning I can’t ignore.
Who I am, by the way, is basically a 14-year-old in a 40-something-year-old’s body. And I’m more than happy to own that.
You know what really helped me to realise this, though? I did that Top Nine thing on Instagram and 8 out of the 9 top images were pictures or reels of me. Ok, ok, I get the point! I’ll be fully embracing this in 2024!
It’s OK to Say the Hard Things
Seriously, the moment I chose honesty when people asked me how my business was doing, it unleashed something and I saw a huge change going on around me. Suddenly, people were opening up to me and telling me how hard things had been in their business too. And just like that, none of us felt alone anymore. Life doesn’t always have to be rainbows and kittens (although it’s lovely when it is!), but do we have to keep pretending everything is ok when it’s not? No! I know for a fact that owning my struggles and sharing them this year has helped other business owners like me feel not so alone. So that’s something I’ll be remembering and keeping going forward.
On a personal note…
Of course I’ve chatted a lot about business with the odd personal thing thrown in for good measure, but I did set myself some personal goals for 2023 too. They were, in no particular order:
Complete the first draft of my novel
Take 3 trips
Visit a gallery or museum once a quarter
See at least 2 gigs or shows
Read 50 books
Reintroduce the Inner Strength Project
Start doing yoga
Hire a regular cleaner
If you’ve read any of my previous year in review blogs, you’ll notice that most of those have carried over from the previous year (for shame!) and, well, some of them will be carrying over into 2024 as well.
Let’s start with what I did manage…
The Novel
…Is almost finished. I kind of ran out of steam in December (I totally could have finished it by the end of the year if I’d pushed through… gah!). I’m in the very last part though, probably another 5000ish words to write so hoping it’ll be done by the end of January!
The Reading List
I won’t go into detail here because I’m about to write a reading review of the year in another blog post (and here’s the link to it), but I managed 48 books for the year. I’m pretty proud of that!
Travel
I did manage three trips this year. Our trip to Nova Scotia in March/April, a weekend on Vancouver Island (we crossed water, it counts!) and a long weekend in LA. I’ll take that. But definitely hoping for more travel in 2024!
And what didn’t happen?
I completely forgot about going to any galleries or museums at all. So I’ve chosen some to visit this year and I’m going to schedule them on the calendar. I did manage one show (Eddie Izzard) but would like to do more. Why are gig tickets soooo expensive though?! And I totally failed to bring back my personal project, start yoga or hire a cleaner. But there’s another year to keep working on this, right? RIGHT!
And that’s where I’m going to leave it folks. I think this has been one of my longest year in review blogs yet. Don’t believe me? You can read the last five posts here: 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018
I do love doing these posts though. They help me to reflect on how the year really was, instead of the warped, often disillusioned view I have of the year in the last month or so. It helps to remind me as much about what I DID achieve as what I didn’t. And that can’t be a bad thing. Now I’m excited to get this new year underway and see what’s in store!