iF uR NoT GrOwInG, uR dYiNg!!1!

Ah, that old chestnut.

Such an encouraging mindset for a business owner to have: If you’re not getting more clients, making more money, hustling harder, achieving new heights of productivity, doing more, more, moremoreMORE…

Well, you might as well hang it up 📞

‘Tis the season where we business owners of the world set our sights on the year ahead — though I guess if you’re “on top of things,” you’d probably have started all that a skosh before now.

Hey, resolutions aren’t just for weight loss and bullet journals, — they’re for business, too!

Well, I’m not doing resolutions this year.
(Are you shocked? 🤔)

💗 I love my clients. I’m going to tell you about them soon, actually.

💸 My business did fine in 2023. The math was mathin’, and for the foreseeable, I will not be living in a van down by the river.

✅ Patience was my “word of the year” for 2023, but I got some things done. I wrote some delightful websites. I did a lot more messaging and copy coaching. I grew a new tibia all by myself. I launched a group program, for heaven’s sake.

We’re told that growth looks like getting wider, taller, bigger. Y’know, hulkin’ out.

But what about what growth feels like? Could growth actually feel like rooting down? Grabbing onto something? Reaching for what nourishes you? 

A tree can’t grow without a solid root system, after all… 

So although patience will forever be a word in my yearly vernacular, my word for 2024 is root.

I spent a lot of last year branching out, putting myself out there, hustling and struggling, trying new things, spending an inordinate amount of money on those things for my business — mein Gott, the courses and programs.

For the next 362 days, I’m choosing to ground and root down instead.

🌲 To think about why I love my current clients and hunt for new ones that delight me just as much. (#squadgoals > #revenuegoals)

🌲 To reinvest in the investments I’ve already made. (idk, finish literally one course?)

🌲 To further live my belief that “your words attract your herd” and lean harder into my voice. (And figure out a way to teach other people to lean into theirs.)

🌲 To make Story School even better for its next close-up. (I learned so much from my first launch… Just ask my therapist!)

🌲 To stop throwing spaghetti at the wall and tuck into this gorgeous bowl of cacio e pepe I already made. (Why are we wasting pasta?!)

Dammit, I guess it’s true that if you’re not growing, you’re dying… But growth takes so many forms.

So, what felt good for you in 2023? (Did it all feel like garbage? What about the year before, then?) What’s worked? What can you leave behind?

I hope there were a few ideas in here worth exploring for your own business.

Wanna be a tree with me this year?
I’m excited to see what sprouts up top when I choose to dig in a bit more…

Join me if you’re feelin’ the photosynthesis 🍃