Do you have a review of your year? What you did? What worked? What didn’t? What brought you joy? What made you want to howl with rage?
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This week on the podcast I’m talking through what happened in my business in 2022.
You’ll find the episode interesting if you’re nosey like me and if you’re looking for a framework to do a review of your own.
I’m sharing a warts and all account including the launch where no-one bought, what happened when I put my big girl pants on, the coaching course that changed my life and what’s new for 2023.
Listen in on the player link below or carry on reading as a blog.
What 2021 looked like
I ran my year long, Publicity for Pet Businesses membership programme starting in January 2021 and had 18 people join.
In May I launched this again, with eight people signing up, along with a Mastermind Programme which offered small group coaching and one to one and eight people joined this.
In September, I changed my membership to a 12 week course, and renamed it the Get Your Pet Business in the Press programme with a follow on Community Membership.
Eight people joined in September and the majority, 80%, of members joined the Community Membership.
My other products in 2021 were Power Hours and Half Days one to one, I was still writing a pet column for a weekly newspaper and pitching as a journalist.
What happened in 2022
When mapping out the year, I planned three launches of my 12 week Get Your Pet Business in the Press (GITP) programme for January, May and September, and two launches of my Mastermind.
I run five day challenges to launch GITP and the first in January saw four people sign up.
I began the ILM Level 5 in Coaching and Mentoring, which involved 43 hours of online learning, lots of studying, 18 hours of coaching practice and three assignments.
In February I reopened the Mastermind Programme – I keep this at a maximum of eight – and had seven people register.
In April, using what I’d learned studying to be a coach, I launched a six week, Be Bold Bootcamp, around building confidence in marketing your pet business.
This involved a free five day challenge and 18 people joined – it was brilliant to be able to do something I feel so passionately about and I LOVED running this course.
I started offering my Get In The Press programme one to one, with dog trainer Niki French being the first to test it – read about Niki here.
In the spotlight with Niki French from Pup Talk.
June saw the second five day Get In the Press challenge, and when I opened enrolment for the course at the end, no-one signed up.
This was crushing – and I needed to move fast to bring money in so I put out a limited Power Hour and Plan Your Publicity for the rest of 2022 workshop bundle at £179 and sold ten bundles and several workshops.
In June and July I did lots of one to ones, hour long and half days, then got COVID.
This meant I sat and did my ILM assignment though! I also sold my old house in Lymm in July.
I took August off, went on a road trip with Patch, and took time to consider what the next steps were with my business.
I’d moved the GITP course to one to one, and worked with five people this way, and I knew I wanted to use my coaching more and move away from being solely focused on press.
In September, I came back, ran my Be Bold Bootcamp free challenge again in the first week of the month and on the Thursday, the Queen passed away.
Read about how to navigate emotional events in your marketing
I paused the challenge; the mood of the nation was such that it didn’t feel right. The course launched again at the end of the month and seven people joined.
At the start of September, I joined the NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator, and decided my project for the six month programme would be my next step with a course or membership.
I knew I wanted to offer something around visibility, confidence building, being consistent with marketing, forward planning and inside a community where people felt supported.
This would bring together the skills I had from being a journalist along with what I’d learned myself building an online business.
The Bootcamp ran for six weeks from October until early November.
In November I put my big girl pants on and spoke on stage at Jan Murray’s Courageous Content live, and online at Megan Kelly’s Vet Rehab Summit.
By now I’d figured out the next step – it was a Pets Get Visible mini-membership.
Read more about Pets Get Visible here
I invited my current Community Membership clients and people who had taken part in the Be Bold Bootcamp in April and October to join as founder members.
At the end of November I did a ‘Plan Your Jan’ challenge and launched Pets Get Visible there. By the start of December I had 70 founder members,
In December, I did a 12 Cs of Christmas social media campaign that tied in with what Pets Get Visible is all about.
Plus a social media and email campaign over Christmas ahead of the founder member price rising from £15 a month or £170 a year to £20 a month or £220 for the year (it’s a year long programme commitment) and sign ups went up to 98.
Finally, my Christmas wish came true and I passed the ILM Level 5 – and yes I did cry when I got the news as it was soooo much work.
What am I taking into 2023?
My Pets Get Visible mini-membership. I LOVE this and it’s making such a difference to small businesses who need support.
Coaching. Now I’m qualified, I feel more confident promoting this, and not like I have to have all the answers. I offer this one to one and through my Mastermind.
90 minute consultancy calls and half days. These are ideal if you have a press release you’d like support with or a campaign to map out.
Learn more about one to ones here
My pet blog and directory. Back in 2017, I started www.thepawpost.co.uk and it snowballed into a book, courses, blog, podcast and membership, and I’m reviving it and adding a directory to it.
This will be a trusted resource for pet parents visiting the site, and it’s going to be live on January 28th, my birthday.
What’s staying in 2022?
My Get In The Press 12 week course. I’ll offer this one to one over a day or two days, but it’s time to retire it as a group programme.
Power hours. There isn’t enough time in an hour to provide the value I want to give so these are now 90 minute sessions.
Thinking I need to do everything for people and have all the answers. The coaching qualification has helped me have a different, non directive approach.
The response from clients is that this helps them to feel more confident and empowered. If you’d told me I’d be writing this a year back I would have laughed in your face!
What I learned
That I have bounce-back-ability – is that even a word?
To pick myself up quickly when things don’t work out (the GITP launch) and create something new fast – this was to bring money in more than anything!
To share the lows as well as the highs – like I’m doing here in this post.
To look at what you’ve gained and measure backwards, rather than looking at what you haven’t achieved. For more on this, read The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan.*
That I’m really thankful to have been able to build an online business alongside working as a journalist, and that good things take time.
Want to chat about working together?
Join Pets Get Visible now and get cracking on feeling more confident putting yourself out there and get your marketing planned so it gets DONE!
If you’d like to chat about working together one to one or in my Mastermind programme, this starts at £200 a month.
And remember you can download my free resources too – tap on the links below
27 ideas to promote your pet business
How to pitch yourself as a podcast guest
How to write a press release – free template
Five steps to get your pet business in the press
Found this helpful? You might like How to set goals for 2023 and stick to them or How to create a publicity plan for 2023.
