Well that was a whirlwind.
As I sit here and write this on my last working day of the year, I find myself a little overwhelmed. Nothing major happened in my business this year, but a lot of smaller things happened. It’s hard to choose what to pick.
GOT ENGAGED
If you would have told me four years ago I would be engaged to a pilot, I would have asked you what you’re trippin’ on. But it happened. Glenn proposed. And I got schooled.
I finally understand what its like to be a newly engaged bride with a billion different things to think about.
SYDNEY + TRAVIS AT THE ROLLINS MANSION
I have always looked at the Rollins Mansion as that venue that means you’ve made it as a photographer. You’re a true professional. You’re in the “in-crowd.” I know that’s not really true, but I’ve always looked at it that way.
SH*T JUST GOT REAL
And by shit, I mean me. I pressed more into being authentic in my business, and my brand evolved. I paid so much attention to what the algorithms want and how to please people at the expense of who I am as a company. This year I pressed into who I am as a company and that’s a big scary risk. You don’t know if people are going to like you. The truth is some people won’t like you, and that has to be okay.
One of the things that is changing is that I’ve split my Instagram and Facebook accounts into a design account (@elcdesigndept) and the already-existing, @emmaleecreative (/eleecreative on Facebook). I’m still navigating how to handle this on Facebook and Twitter but there is a chance that those will split, too!
Stay tuned. Shit is going down.
FAVORITE IMAGES OF 2021
Glenn planning a cross country in January and a P51 Mustang preparing for departure from Flying Cloud in Eden Prarie, MN.
2021 GOALS
Work 40+ hours/week.
Whomp Whomp. I probably actually did work closer to 40hrs/wk than I think, but I didn’t track it, so I don’t have much to show for it. This is going to be a goal in 2022 goal as well.
Be disciplined in doing difficult tasks with integrity.
NAILED IT. Seriously, I did much better at this. I learned about ways to make less exciting tasks easier, like switching from Hootsuite (which limited the free features and the cheapest paid plan was $50/mo) to Buffer. This has helped me engage with my followers in a little bit different way. I saw a great improvement in my workload management when I stopped taking on more than I could handle. Setting limits made what I had on my plate less daunting, and easier to approach.
Keep up on the basics: blog and social media.
Yeah, no. That didn’t happen. That failed badly. That’s it. That’s the tweet.
2022 GOALS
Work 35+ hours/week.
And I’m going to track it this time. When you run a small business there are absolutely 40 hours of work to do in a week. I have to give myself room for other things like eating, taking care of the house, Dr. appointments, etc., so we’re going to aim for 35. In 2021, I logged 514:30 of work, which shows you that I did a terrible job of logging my hours. The goal for 2022 is between 1500-1800 hours for the year, and 35 hours/week.
Keep up on the basics: blog and social media.
I shared 18 blog posts in 2021. Yikes. This year I’m going to focus more on valuable content, and not be as concerned with quantity. I’m thinking two posts a month plus an update post, for a total of 36 blogs.
Learn more about how to market effectively.
Marketing is by far my weak point and as a business owner that’s rough. I will be spending this year working on my marketing and adapting my branding accordingly. My company is going to go through some big changes this year, and it should. My company is not what it was when I branded my company back in 2014. When I branded it, I didn’t even know it was going to be a company. It was just a personal brand. That has changed, and the company needs to change along with it. I will be looking at two marketing campaigns and before I put them out, I’m going to be doing my homework and putting what I learn into practice.
2021 saw some good things.
I hope 2022 will continue on that track.
Here’s to new year, new you, or perhaps you in the new year, because new you doesn’t happen overnight. Cheers to what hopefully isn’t a nuclear dumpster fire of a year.