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Welcome to 2023! Are you as excited about the fresh start as I am?

2022 was a crazy year. There were lots of great things that happened like welcoming our baby girl and launching my first two courses, but it was a pretty full on year at the same time.

I’m not sneaking a pregnancy announcement into this post like I did last year (instead you can see cute baby pics below 😂), but there is still plenty to share!

Overall, I’m feeling quite positive with how I finished up the year since I set some big things in motion that I will be building on this year, and I can’t wait to explore them more as this year progresses. 

And with that, let’s dive in!

Here’s what you’ll find in the annual review:

(These links are like portkeys – click and you’ll be transported straight to the section 😉)

• What went well last year

• What didn’t go so well last year (and what I learned from it)

• My favourite courses and tools from last year

• What I’m working on in 2023

And in case you like to peep on these sorts of posts like I do, here’s where you can see my past reviews:

2021, 2020 and 2019

What went well last year?

Growing our family to 4

Let’s start with the top spot for the year… We welcomed little Miss S to the family earlier in the year and she’s the sweetest!

While it’s been an adjustment having another person in the house to look after, she sleeps well, is always happy and smiling, and makes everyone’s day with her cute little giggles.

My pregnancy and her birth weren’t easy (she was an emergency c-section), but we’re glad she made it here safely and that we get to enjoy every little thing about her!

I’m also incredibly proud of how well Mister T has adjusted to being a big brother! He adores his baby sister and she’s smitten with him as well! So much so that she will always find a way across the room to get to him even though she’s not quite crawling yet!

I intended to take from May-August off for maternity leave, but I ended up pretty much taking most of the year off since the pregnancy was so challenging and I wanted to enjoy the time we had with T before welcoming his sister.

Getting up close and personal with my numbers

I’ve always found all things finance a bit intimidating even though I’m great with numbers. This was the year I became besties with money.

I signed up to Money Bootcamp after being scared to invest that much on something mindset related, but it turns out it was one of the best investments I’ve made in my business. I’ve identified and cleared so many money blocks that have helped me immensely with my business and I can’t wait to see where else it takes me!

I also invested in a bookkeeping course. I don’t have a complex business in terms of the number of transactions, but I’m in Australia and charge in US dollars, so I have to deal with exchange rates, and it was getting confusing. It was nice to get all my questions answered and to feel confident tracking my numbers.

Another big shift this year was upgrading my accountant. Long story short, my last accountant gave me a heap of wrong info about my business finances, but my new accountant has helped me overcome the panic and anxiety around taxes that it caused. Plus she said my spreadsheet is the most organised she’s ever seen, so clearly the bookkeeping course paid off 😂

I was incredibly inspired by my client, Kristen, when I created the resources page on her website, too. She’s a financial coach and profit adviser, and her website is a gold mine of personal and business finance tips, so I went down the rabbit hole binging her blog.

I launched 2 mini courses

I’ve been wanting to teach for a long time but was too worried about what others would think. In November, I decided to stop playing small and launched my first 2 courses, and it was easier than I expected!

Blogging for Business shows you how to create a blog that helps grow your business. Blogging is a great way to get found in Google for years to come, and this masterclass shows you how to use it to nurture readers into subscribers and clients

Website Copy Magic helps you write website copy that opens the wallets of your dream clients. You’ll find your voice, map out your website and write all of the main pages of your website with ease, plus you get all my fav copywriting tips!

I still have to design proper sales pages for them, but I’m glad I let go of my perfection and got these out into the world!

I’m using Thrivecart Learn to host the courses, and I love the cart options and how easy it was to bring it all together. The best part is that they currently have a lifetime pricing offer which makes it more affordable than most other course platforms.

I have a heap of ideas for other courses to add to the mix (including Squarespace SEO, using Squarespace and MailerLite together, and a Squarespace crash course). If there’s something else you’d like to see, let me know in the comments or join my Facebook group where you can help shape what I cover in each 🙂

Participated in Lizzy’s Christmas Party

I’ve watched Lizzy’s Christmas Party from the sidelines for the past 2 years after having some friends rave about how well it went. Since I created my first courses this year, I figured it was a great opportunity and decided to apply.

Here are some of the results I’ve had up until the end of December:

• 1473 new students that have signed up for one or both of my courses

• My email list has grown by 1346 new subscribers

• I have 76 new members in my Facebook group

• I’ve made 18 sales of an SEO for Blogging guide

I was aiming for 500 new subscribers from the party, so these results blew me away! It’s taken me 4 years to grow my email list to where it was at, and it doubled in size in December alone.

This massive growth didn’t come without its challenges. I was overcome with a massive bout of vulnerability from getting so visible so quickly. It’s been interesting to watch this play out in my mind, and I’m grateful for all the money mindset work I’ve done to help me move through the process.

I’m becoming a badass Ninja

I started Karate with Mister T, since it can be good for focus, discipline and coordination (plus countless other benefits). He joined for about 5 minutes in the first lesson and doesn’t want to go back 😂

I really enjoyed it so I’m going to stick with it. I’ve been 5 times now, and I’m still pretty uncoordinated and come home aching every time! It’s helping me with my balance and core strength though, which I very much need help with!

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What didn't go so well & what I learned from it

Pregnancy Struggles

My pregnancy with T was a breeze but this pregnancy was the complete opposite. I had horrible morning sickness, I ended up anemic, we thought we might lose the pregnancy, I ended up in hospital for monitoring when T accidentally jumped on my stomach AND I ended up with the-virus-that-shall-not-be-named.

I basically spent the whole time exhausted and anxious. This meant I took more time off than intended. I had big plans for prepping content in advance and working on some course in the lead up to maternity leave, but mine and bubs health took priority.

Instead of having content dripped out over the time I was off, I pretty much ghosted, and I don’t think I even really announced I was off. Definitely not ideal in any way. There were a few things I did prepare in advance though, which I’ll share in another post.

I realised I have ADHD

In the months after having Miss S, I became overwhelmed on a whole new level. I was juggling appointments for all of us, sorting out tax and had a heap of high priority things hit all at once. It felt like my brain failed. Thankfully my husband was a massive help!

I ended up doing the most epic brain dump and once everything was on paper, I could sort it by type of task and priority. This allowed me just get stuff done without thinking, putting out the biggest fires first. Since then, my brain basically lives on paper.

I had already been learning a lot about ADHD to support my son, and I’d listened to Denise Duffield-Thomas’s podcast episode on her ADHD diagnosis and had a chat with Leonie Dawson about being neurodiverse, so I suspected I had ADHD.

When my brain went kaput, I looked into ADHD symptoms for women and wow, I pretty much have them all! I don’t have a formal diagnosis, but I’ve spoken with 2 psychologists that agree, and it’s been quite freeing to learn more about how my brain works.

I am now looking at my thoughts, habits and behaviours through a new lens and I see so many opportunities to change how I work to better support me and my amazing brain.

I '“failed” my daily writing habit

One of my big goals from last year was to create a daily writing habit. I started off well, but unsurprisingly, it dropped off pretty quickly with all of the challenges of the year. 

While part of me is disappointed at “failing” this goal, I’m choosing to celebrate what I did write instead:

• I wrote 5 new blog posts

• I FINALLY created pages on my website for VIP design days and website strategy calls plus I redesigned my portfolio

• I did a content audit to see what I can repurpose into blog posts and masterclasses, and was pleasantly surprised at the amount I write even though it’s not daily

• I went live 8 times in my Facebook group (and each time I wrote notes for what I would be saying before jumping on)

• I organised all my blog post ideas to make things easy for future Jessica to dive in to an already drafted post when I’m short on time or ideas for what to write

• I sent 21 emails to my list, and since returning from maternity leave, I have emailed weekly (except one week where my scheduled email didn’t send)

• I launched 2 course and really enjoy chatting to my students. I’m excited to create more going forward!

• I kept getting traffic to my website and new enquiries from Google based on all the past writing I’ve done on my blog. That’s the power of SEO, baby! 

• I started an guest expert interview series for my blog all about creating a successful website. It covers topics like blogging, website photography, branding, copywriting and more. The first one is live already and the next two will be up shortly

• I was interviewed for the Marketing Without Social Media podcast. I chatted with Viv all about growing your email list through your website and it was a lot of fun!

• I journalled throughout my pregnancy and started keeping notes about the kids in my phone of the things they do that I want to remember

In case you’re wondering, these are the most popular blog posts for the year that kept driving traffic to my website from Google even when I wasn’t creating new content (click the images to read them):

My favourite courses and tools from last year

It’s no secret that I love learning, and this year is no different! 

Here are some of my most impactful courses from 2022:

• The Email Marketing Membership with Liz Wilcox, where you get weekly email ideas and trainings delivered to your inbox to help you master your email marketing

• The Lazy Guide to Affiliate Marketing with Elizabeth Goddard, shows you how to make money as an affiliate of products and services you already recommend

• The Lazy Guide to Street Teams with Elizabeth Goddard, guides you through creating an affiliate program so your students can promote your products for you

• Work Less and Earn More with Leonie Dawson, to get strategies around how to work less but still make a great income (or get access to all of her courses for just $99 a year, which is an epic deal!)

• Audience Success Formula with Nadine at Cando Content, to get all the juicy intel your ideal client thinks so you can make better decisions and write better copy

• Money Bootcamp with Denise Duffield-Thomas, to help you master your money mindset, grow your income and make a bigger impact in the world

And these are the top tools I use to run my business:

• Squarespace for all things website. My clients and I all love it for its simplicity and design capability. Get 10% off your first year using the code PARTNER10

• Dubsado for all things client management. Think sending contracts, invoicing and getting paid, proposals, questionnaires and automating all the admin. Use this link to get 20% off your first month or year when you sign up

• MailerLite for all things email marketing. It’s free for up to 1000 subscribers, super easy to use, and has a lot of functionality built-in

• Thrivecart for hosting my courses, creating my affiliate program and taking payments (it currently has a lifetime deal too, which will save you huge amounts over other course platforms)

Is your website booking you clients while you sleep?

This free website audit checklist will show you what’s working on your website (and what’s not!) so you’ll know exactly what updates to make to help you grow your leads and bookings on autopilot.

What am I working on in 2022?

I share more about how I set goals and plan for the year here. It’s changed a little over the last year but I still like having a plan so I know what I am working towards.

Creating a daily writing habit

While I didn’t get too far with this one last year, it’s top of my list again this year. I’m aiming for 30-60 minutes most days, which could be for blog posts, emails, social posts, website copy, course content, etc.

I won’t be posting daily though, since I’d rather focus on quality content, and that will generally take a few writing sessions to create.

Moving my website to 7.1

While I love my website and get great feedback about it, it’s getting clunky to update. Squarespace 7.0, which I’m currently using, is quite limited compared to the design options in Squarespace 7.1, and I have to use a lot of code to get things to look the way I want, plus index pages are just frustrating and messy. Overall, I’ve outgrown it, which is pretty normal if you’ve had a website for around 3 years or so.

I have 50+ pages and 60+ blog posts to move over, so it will be a mammoth undertaking to go through everything to see what I want to keep and what I want to update. Then I’ll have to actually create it. I’m looking forward to spending time on my own website though.

Restructuring my offers and creating more courses

Now that I’m juggling 2 kiddos, a whole host of appointments for all of us, school schedules and more, so I need to streamline the work that I am doing since my hours are more limited. I still LOVE designing, but I know my limitations, so I’ll be changing up how I work a bit more to suit.

I look forward to helping clients with their websites, but I will focus more on VIP design days. This is great news if you’re wanting help with your website, since you’ll get your updates done much faster at a lower price point than more traditional packages. 

I’ll also focus on teaching more, which means you can still get my help and guidance without having to invest in a website design project that you might not be ready for just yet. If there’s something you want to cover, I’d love to hear!

Final Thoughts

That about sums up 2022 and my plans for 2023. After taking time off over the holidays, I’m feeling refreshed and more creative than I have for a long time, and I’m definitely looking forward to diving in and seeing what 2023 holds for this little business I have going over here!

If you want to snoop my past annual reviews to see if I keep making the same mistakes over and over, you can read 2021 here, 2020 here and 2019 here 😉

Do you do an annual review each year? I’d love to check out yours if you share it in the comments!

Are you ready to create a website that looks great and opens the wallets of your dreamiest clients? You’re in luck - I can help make it happen!