my 2020 year in review

Wow….what a year!

2020 is one that we’ll certainly never forget.

A year of lessons.  Of loss.  Of fear and hope.

A year of change.  Of opportunities.  Of uncertainty and focus.

A year of solitude.  Of deep connections.  Of boundaries and compassion.

my word for 2020 was GROUNDED

In January, I created a vision board and assigned a word to how I wanted to feel in 2020.

That word was grounded.

2016 – 2019 had been full of a lot of turmoil for me.  I got through it all (and also had a lot of great times!), but I was ready to feel grounded.

And by that, I meant that:

• my businesses (and income) would be stable and sustainable
• I’d be making time for myself and things that made me happy
• my goals would be clear and I’d have a plan + support to reach them
• and that I would stop f*cking around with people who distracted me from achieving what I want

I wanted to feel really grounded in who I am and what was important to me.

the universe had a different interpretation

Fast forward 2 months and the universe showed me a VERY different interpretation of grounded <smh>.

I felt like a grounded teenager who broke some sort of rules.

I couldn’t see any of my friends, had to be home by 7PM and all my privileges of eating out, going to the gym and traveling had been revoked until further notice.

And I felt like a grounded bird who couldn’t take to the skies.

I used to travel A LOT.

At a minimum, I travelled to Mombasa on a monthly basis.

Most months, I would be in the skies 2+ times, around the region and sometimes to Europe or the US.

Sometimes I was gone for months at a time.

This year, I stayed home for 150 consecutive days.

being grounded was exactly what I needed

It removed all my distractions and gave me all the time I needed.

It forced me to consider things from a different perspective,

And it allowed me to make progress.

what I thought I wanted for 2020…

At the start of the year, my professional goals looked a bit like this:

• launch a group program and a new one-to-one offering
• run the second intake of Storytelling School
• creating external partnerships for coaching, training and facilitation contracts
• automate more of my business
• delegate more to my team
• expand the Afri-love Connection Club to a third city and further growing our network of female founders
• double my meagre salary!

what actually happened in 2020…

I achieved my goal of creating a new group program and a new one-to-one offering, but they both look very different from what I’d imagined.

My plan was to have two extra offerings added to my list of services.

But what I realised was that in order to make my business run better and get to the next level, I actually had to reduce my services.

So in 2021, I’m only going to be offering three things:

• Simplicity, the group program to accelerate your business so you get focused, get confident and get customers
• The VIP Experience, an invite-only strategic partnership to maximise your professional results
• Bespoke consulting, training, and speaking engagements

Everything else is going!

my team completely changed

I started the year with 2 team members and finished the year with 3.  I expected the change in number.

But I didn’t expect the change in faces.

There were about 5 months during 2020 that I was completely without a team.

I’m grateful things were pretty quiet then because in my “normal” life, I wouldn’t be able to do it all on my own.

But eventually I was reminded l that in order to grow my business, I shouldn’t be doing it all on my own.

So I made one of my best decisions of 2020 and made 3 new hires.

we closed the Club

Our business model wasn’t sustainable.

In order for the Afri-love Connection Club to grow, we had to find a way to increase our membership without needing Lulu and I to be physically present at everything.

Although we wanted to expand to another city, we knew we could maybe only handle one more.  There were only so many meetings that we could run per month.

So long before the pandemic made our in-person model impossible, we had plans to add an online offering.

Being grounded forced us to reconsider.

We both lost our salary from the business in March.

But we regained so much time.

And with that time, we both focused on our individual businesses.

We realised that running a business and co-running another was exhausting.

We admitted that we weren’t excited to become an online offering.

And, we decided that we wanted to close.

so we did

It was a sad decision to make.

But it was absolutely the right decision to make.  It gives me the space and time to focus on all the things I’m excited about in 2021!

I’m so grateful to everyone who shared in our journey over the past two years.

I met so many incredible, inspiring, passionate, and fierce female founders throug the Club.

Asenteni.

my meagre salary changed

But in the wrong direction.

Rather than double my salary, I reduced it significantly from April and then cut it completely by August.

This year was a reminder of the importance of a financial safety net.

Having some savings to fall back on meant I didn’t have to panic about how to pay the bills.

I could stay focused and make progress on my goals.

And by doing so, I have ended 2020 earning more in my business than I did in 2019.

Plus, I have worked out my monthly revenue targets for 2021 that will let me take a proper salary again.

Those targets feel achieveable.  And I feel confident!

some words of gratitude

Thank you for being here and reading the words that pour out of me.

Thank you for supporting my business.

And thank you for being my reason to do the work that I love doing!

over to you

What are you taking from 2020?  What are you most proud of achieving?  Drop a comment below and let us know.