057: 2021 in Review: Lessons Learned and Plans for 2022
Doing a year in review is one of my favorite ways to put things into perspective and take a deep dive into where I’ve come and where I am going. In this episode, I talk about some of my biggest ups and downs from 2021.
You’ll hear about the shifts that I made within my business, big personal changes I made and so much more! If you’ve been thinking about doing your own year in review, I encourage you to take a listen for some inspiration and a look into my year.
What’s in this episode:
My realization that I did accomplish things on my 2021 vision board
Struggles I faced in 2021
My biggest wins over the last year
Shifts that I made within my business
My encouragement to you for the new year
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The Transcript:
057: 2021 in Review: Lessons Learned and Plans for 2022
My encouragement to you is just to not give up. And to remember that you don't have to do everything. That there are amazing people out there who can do things maybe even better than you do, which sometimes is hard to swallow in your business. And just keep going and keep moving forward.
Welcome to the Wild Home Podcast, where we talk about podcasting, life and all the wild in between. Join me, Caroline, every week as I share a peek into the world of podcasting and my wild life as well. Ready. Let's get into it.
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Wild Home Podcast. Welcome back from a little break. Maybe a bigger break than I was anticipating, but I hosted Christmas this year and needed a break to get ready and also to just spend time with my kiddos during the holiday season. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season.
If you are listening to this, not in real time. I am recording this in January of 2022, which is really weird and strange to say. I keep writing 21 thinking that we went from 2020 to 21 and I don't know about you guys, but it certainly feels like we've been in some weird time warp the last two years. And like, I blinked and it was 2022 and so much has happened in the last two years in my business and in my life. I mean, it's a lot to kind of like, sit down and take stock of everything that's occurred.
And so I got to thinking I was like, you know, most of my clients and listeners are business owners who are starting podcasts to support their business marketing. And so why not share a little bit about my business and what's happened in the last year? And so I thought it would be really fun to start the new year off with a just a review of last year and kind of what I'm looking forward to doing, and I really encourage you all to do this because it just really puts everything into perspective. I was getting ready for a meeting with my business coach last month, and I remember thinking to myself, you know, one of the questions that she asked leading into the call was, "What are you most proud of accomplishing?" And I said to myself, I don't really feel like I accomplished that much this last year. And at the beginning of the year, we had done like a visioning exercise where you basically created a vision and it was like, These are the things that have to happen in order to achieve your vision. Like you put action steps to your vision, which I highly recommend doing. By the way, like this exercise was a game changer and I didn't create it. I didn't come up with it. And it was it was led by somebody in our mastermind.
And so anyway, I had taken that vision and created it an Asana board with tasks, and I had been going through them and checking them off throughout the year. And somewhere along the way, I totally forgot that I had been doing this and I was thinking to myself, I haven't accomplished anything in this last year. And then when I went back and remembered, "Hey, I have Asana board and looked at it, I was like, "Oh my gosh, I actually did accomplish quite a lot of things that I had put on my vision." There were still some things that I was working on, but I had started the process of working on them at the end of the last year. And so it really was amazing to sit back and see that I had actually accomplished a lot of what I had set out to do.
And it may not look perfect yet. It may not look exactly the way I want it, but things are really close to that vision that I'm creating. And so anyway, I just think it's such a neat exercise to really sit down and examine where you were and where you've been and where you're where you're going. And so I wanted to do that in this episode with you guys, and I hope that this will inspire you to do the same thing. But also, I really wanted to share some of the things that I have been struggling with and some of the shifts I've been making, because maybe you're in the same place and you're making some similar shifts or you're having some similar struggles.
So I want to start with the business part of things, actually. You know what? I want to actually start with the personal side of things. So last year, I feel like was an incredibly difficult year for me personally. It was also an amazing year, and I'm definitely going to share wins. But I want to start with just some of the struggles. I don't know what it was about last year. We have, you know, just been so blessed in the last two years. We had a baby. She turned one this last year and we were able to celebrate her first birthday with family, which was a really big deal because hashtag pandemic. And yeah, it was just it's just been really neat to get to do this. I have a 10 and an eight year old and now I have a one year old, and to be able to to do this again has been just such an amazing blessing that we didn't even know we needed.
But there were a lot of things that we were struggling with, and I don't know if it was just because we had a baby and a toddler again and things, you know, there's a dynamic shift in the household. Or if it was because, again, hashtag pandemic. I mean, we've all been going through a lot and there's like collective trauma that I'm sure as a society we're going to be dealing with for a while. But I just found myself incredibly anxious, and I've always struggled with anxiety, I think I've had anxiety since college. I was a ballet major in college and if that doesn't give you anxiety, then I don't know what will. And that in the six cups of coffee I was drinking a day I'm sure didn't help either. I've been managing it a lot better than I ever have. I've been given a lot of tools that I've been using and just trying to take care of myself, and somewhere last year, all that went out the window. And I think it had to do with having a toddler, having two kids that I was home schooling still kind of experiencing some of the things that have been happening during the pandemic. And then also at the same time making huge shifts in my business. And so I ended up in this incredibly anxious, almost crippling state for, I would say, about three months where I felt like I couldn't really move forward. I felt like I wasn't really taking any steps in my business to move forward. I was getting stuck on a lot of things. I was forgetting to do a lot of things because I wasn't feeling myself. And it just it was a really difficult time for me.
I think what helps me to kind of switch that was to again take stock of everything that I've done, but then also start to prioritize my health and wellness again and my needs. I think that I had put everything before myself. I mean, and I'm talking like simple things like actually having a skin care regimen and fixing my hair the way I like it. Silly stuff like that. But it really made a difference because I think I have forgotten so much of myself in the busyness of life, which I think any mom can relate to. I think that's perfectly normal thing to happen. And so that was a really that was a really hard time for me.
The other thing that was a real struggle last year was homeschooling. It has not been a walk in the park like it usually is. I think we've had it pretty easy up until this last year and this last year for some reason just felt really hard. And you know, you start to have the doubt like, are we doing the right thing or are we making the right choices? What are the alternatives? Can we do the alternative? I mean, it just felt like a lot of things were popping up. And so all of that on top of work stuff was just a lot.
I will just tell you right now, like, I am feeling a lot better, definitely feeling a lot more like myself. I'm feeling like I can actually get things accomplished and be supportive to my clients, my team in the way that I need to be, which was something that was not happening. I was not able to support anybody, which I think was detrimental to my business, and that's going to bring me to something that I want to talk about in some of the shifts I made. So just hold that thought for a minute. And homeschooling is going better now because we have put in a pretty strict rhythm again. I'm not going to use the word schedule because we don't necessarily stick to the schedule, but we do have a rhythm, meaning that there is a certain times a day where we do certain things and it is written down on paper. And I have found that having a rhythm is is incredibly important. It makes life go a lot smoother, especially when you're home all day, all the time. I think also because my kids are vaccinated and now we're able to kind of get out back out into the world and my kids are able to interact. I feel like the environment has just really changed.
Also, you had a big change at the end of last year, which is one of my wins. But I think sometimes we underestimate how much change can affect us. And even if the change is a really, really good thing, sometimes that change can be difficult. And I just think I underestimated what my kids needed for me, the kind of support they needed during that big change, which I talk about in a minute. So that's kind of the struggles we went through and where we are now. And again, I think these are all like normal mom, CEO, homeschool mom struggles. And so I really wanted to share them and be honest about them.
And that brings me to like some of the wins. So I mentioned that my baby turned one and we were able to celebrate with family. And honestly, when I was looking back on the year, I thought that happened the year before in my brain. That happened a long time ago, but it actually wasn't. And anyways, I just can't believe that and she's going to be two this year, which is crazy.
But that was just such a win because I had had her during the pandemic and I had had her at a time when things were not good and there was a lot going on in our family on top of the pandemic. And so I basically we had her without any support. My mom was able to support us a little bit. My sister in law was able to support us a little bit, but it wasn't the kind of support that we had with our other two girls when they were born. And it was just it was real heavy, really heavy. And so to be on the other side of that and have her able to meet her family and not on Zoom. Was just really, really incredible, so that was really cool.
My husband works in health care and as you can imagine, it's been a tough couple of years, but he's doing really well and hanging in there, and I'm going to call it a win because I think the health care workers are really underappreciated right now, what they're experiencing and going through, and he's just carried that weight very well. And let us support him the way that he needs to be supported. So that's a huge win for me. And any striving in his job, which I think is really cool.
And the last thing is is like, we bought a house. Remember that big change I was talking about that happened. We bought a house when we had the baby. I lost my office in our last house and I really thought, This is no big deal. I don't really need an office. I can work from anywhere. But the fact of the matter is when you're trying to up level your business and there are certain things that you need to feel like a CEO, which was something I really struggled with this year, which are going to talk about in a minute and not having an office, I think was really starting to impact how I saw my business. And so I have an office again and it is the best thing in the world. I love it. I can come in here and do what I need to do and kind of get away from the rest of the house and then come out and go into the rest of the house. And so I feel like work and life are kind of in two separate places, which is really important, I think, for keeping a quote unquote balance, which I don't really think that balance exists, but for keeping that rhythm right, for not working.
One of the things that my kids like constantly tell me is if I'm working too much and they like to keep me grounded in that respect. And so having the office and like they know that when I go in here, it's work time and when I come out, I'm not working. That's been really, I think, a game changer for us as a family because I think not having an office and having my laptop everywhere meant that work was accessible everywhere, which is it's just not good. It's not a good way to go. So that was all the personal stuff.
Now I want to talk about business. So some of the big shifts that I made was moving to part time employees. This was a huge shift. I had had on my vision to hire an operations manager for forever. I mean, probably for a whole year, I knew that if I was going to be homeschooling and having the kind of lifestyle that I was envisioning for myself where I was spending a lot of time with my kids, then I can't be at the helm of everything, right? Because I'm already at the helm of some pretty big stuff in my personal life. And so to be the person driving the ship of my business, it just it was becoming really overwhelming and I had had like somebody in this position before, but it wasn't done the best way and I knew that I needed to do it the right way.
So I was finally in a place where I was like, OK, I'm ready to shift to having a part time employee. My first part-time employee is going to be this operations manager position. I was very fortunate to be able to hire within my own team, a contractor who had been with me, and she's amazing and she's doing an amazing job in this position, and I really can't imagine anyone else doing it. She's just fantastic. But that was huge and really exciting. And so I converted. So I have a part-time operations manager, but she is also an editor. And then I have two part time employees who are shownotes writers. And so as we start to grow now, knowing how easy the process was of converting now, I will say if you're going to convert part time employees, get, you know, get some, some help. And I would be happy to give you some resources if you want to DM of how I did this because I know the taxes and the logistics of it can be a little daunting for sure. But luckily I had some people to help me kind of walk me through it.
And so that was a huge, that was a huge change in my business, and I think that that kind of started was the catalyst for being able to have a different vision of how we're going to grow in the future and how we're going to grow is very important to me. It has to be intentional because I have an amazing team that I want to keep. I want to make sure that they're taken care of. I want to make sure that their work life balance or rhythm is in alignment with how I want mine to be as well. Like, I feel like I should not be the only person who has this amazing work life balance. I want everybody to have that. And so kind of creating that culture and that being important and being a real key like a way that we grow are a real key test in how we grow. And so that's been completely amazing and a game changer for me, just because I know that the way we have things set up now is going to allow us to grow very intentionally and in a way that works for everybody.
So it kind of went into what I'm looking forward to because that is a huge piece of it as well. And that's funny because that's also kind. A struggle is figuring out that way to grow right, and I think that's just a common business, you get to this point where, you know, you can't take on more work, but you see a bigger picture for yourself, for your family, for your team, for your business. And it's like, how do you get to that next phase? What are the things you need to make happen? And for me, it meant expanding my team. It meant changing the way that we manage podcasts, which honestly was a huge improvement. So remember when I said that I was struggling because I wasn't able to support my clients in the way that I wanted when I was dealing with my anxiety and all of that stuff. Having other people on my team who hold that knowledge and hold my business the same way that I do, where would where I doing all the things that they're doing has been a game changer.
And I would say that it probably is really good for all of us because the cool thing now is is if something happens and somebody needs to step in, it is so much easier to do so than it was before, when I was keeping everything in my head, in my brain. It's really hard to be the thing that is driving the business all the time and to not be that person has been incredibly freeing. It's allowed me a lot more time to do the things that I love to do. I don't necessarily have to work till one two a.m. anymore at night, which has been amazing. I'm working on a better sleep schedule, so it's just crazy how it's all related.
And you may be listening to this and feel like you're so far from that. And I want to tell you, like, I have been doing this for over five years now. Well, I think maybe seven, OK, we'll do the math later, but it's been a long time, and most of that business iteration was me hustling with maybe help from one other person or to other people. And it really isn't. It hasn't been until the last year, year and a half where I have seen it like actually shifting to the point where I don't have to hustle necessarily right. And when I see hustle, I mean, like working in the business on the busy work every day. I'm still, you know, there's other things I'm still hustling in, but the things that we're kind of keeping me up at night, I'm not necessarily having to hustle in those areas anymore, and it's really amazing.
But there's a huge shift that has to happen with that and that is definitely stepping into the CEO, CEO role and what that means for you. And it also means that I now hold like the biggest vision for my company, and I'm the one that makes that happen. And so if I'm not showing up and, you know, doing what I need to do to drive the business forward, then it just stays stagnant. And so as we look forward into this year, one of the things I'm really looking forward to is really stepping into that role. And just really, like I said, growing my business in an intentional way that makes sense for me, my family, my team, my business, all of those things.
I'm also just really excited for this year, even though it seems like right now we're still kind of in in it as it were. I can really see there are exciting things happening in my family. I get to be in a wedding. I, you know, my kids are going to summer camp this year. My husband has a big birthday this year. There's just a lot going on personally, and it's really exciting because I feel like this is the first year where I can look at the calendar and look at these things and say, "You know what? I can take time off" and actually like, focus on these personal, exciting things and not have to feel like I have to work when we're on vacation or while I'm taking my kid to summer camp or, you know, the week before the wedding when I'm supposed to be helping prep.
Yeah, it's just a really cool place to be, and it took a long time to get here. And I'm super grateful for all the time it took because it has definitely made me into the business owner that I am today. And so I think if you get anything out of this episode, if you listen to all the way through my encouragement to you is just to not give up and to remember that you don't have to do everything that there are amazing people out there who can do things maybe even better than you do, which sometimes is hard to swallow in your business and just keep going and keep moving forward. And there are going to be setbacks. I mean, for crying out loud of the last two years, I've been taught us that then I don't know what they're going to be setbacks.
But there's the saying that I've always had a really strong connection to the symbolism of an arrow. And I would just like to say, for the record, I liked arrows before they were popular. I've had an arrow stuff in my house, you know, since there were arrows everywhere. And I saw this saying once, and I think I have it saved on Pinterest. I'll try to find it so we can put it in, the show notes. But it basically says, like the whole point of an arrow is that sometimes you have to pull it back to propel it forward. And I definitely feel like last year was that it was we were being pulled back in certain places in order for us to shoot forward into this next phase of my business and this next phase of our lives.
And so I am really excited for this year. I am entering it with bells on and just really, really thankful of the opportunities that I have been given and the blessings that we have been giving. And I just I want to go into this year with that gratitude and just the drive to keep going for my business and my family.
So thank you so much for listening. I will be back next week with a new episode and we'll be talking about something much more podcast. And let me know if you have any specific questions or topics you would love for me to cover on the podcast. Please email me hello@wildhomepodcasting.com or you can DM me on Instagram @WildHomePodcasting, which I haven't actually checked in a long time. I've been on a bit of a break, so I'm going to go on there and check. And I just thank you for being here along for the ride. I'm excited to keep doing this podcast and sharing with you the things that I'm learning about podcasting, the things that I've seen and look for a new episode next week.
Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. To stay in the know, head to WildHomePodcasting.com and be sure to connect with me on Instagram @WildHomePodcasting. See you next week!
