One of my favorite yearly rituals is reflecting on the past year and choosing a theme for the year ahead.
Last year, I was all in on leveling up. But if I’m keeping it real, my biggest level-up turned out to be in my ability to overthink.
So, yeah, not great.
Despite my overthinking, I still managed to have some BIG WINS in 2023, even if it wasn’t as straightforward as I’d hoped. I hinted at some of them in my 5th business anniversary post, but some of my faves were:
- I had the highest revenue quarter I’ve ever had in business.
- I soft-launched several new service offerings in 2023. A couple of these offers saw some immediate traction, like my conversion troubleshooting offer, which I’m going to focus on growing this year.
- I spoke at a conference in Thailand.
- I got featured in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) for the first time. Bucket list item.
- I turned the mic over to my podcast editor, Sebastian, who interviewed me for our 50th episode.
- There are now more than 60 recorded episodes of The Remote Work Tribe podcast. This year, I interviewed some dream guests, and the podcast was listened to in over 109 countries.
But I also faced more challenges than I did in 2021 and 2022 combined.
- I struggled with a couple of challenging situations that knocked my confidence more than they should. And it forced me to level up my mindset.
- I grew my email list by 60% but missed my goal of doubling it year after year.
- I wasn’t intentional about planning to take more days off where I didn’t work.
- This past year taught me that I still have a lot of work to do when it comes to hiring and empowering my small but mighty team.
- While I’m taking steps to delegate more of the admin and ops internal tasks, I’m still a long way from my original goal of delegating 80% of it.
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2023 was a year of both growth and learning, and I’m taking these lessons forward into 2024.
For 2024, my theme is SUSTAINABLE.
So why did I make my word for 2024—sustainable—and what exactly do I want to achieve this year?
This goes back to a goal I’ve said since year one. I want to build a business for the long haul. Something that could be around for decades.
A lot of the business owners I look up to the most are the ones who have been in the arena with the same business for 10, 20, or 30+ years.
Making sustainable my theme for this year is my way to keep this long-term goal front and center. I want to make sure I’m setting myself up for a future that’s not just successful but also fulfilling.
It is about being selective and doing work with clients that make sense long term.
It’s about not overdoing it and ending up burned out. And one of the easiest ways to burn out as a founder is to hire people who aren’t self-motivated and need a lot of direction.
This means continuing to invest in building more systems and processes so that projects and tasks get the same or better results while still being able to delegate bits and pieces when needed.
It also means making sure that I free up time each week to focus on my own business development and marketing so I can maintain a sustainable pipeline.
This idea of sustainability spills over into my personal life, too. It’s about investing time in people, skills, and habits that’ll be handy in a few years (or decades). Or just making sure I’m around folks who lift me up. This also means being able to take vacations without having to work like a crazy person before and after.
When I think about the goals that I want to achieve this year, the common thread is a need to grow sustainably without compromising quality or becoming a shell of my former self.
It’s clear to me that there’s always more to learn, and I’m excited to take these lessons into 2024.
Here’s to thriving and enjoying the ride over the next year!
