My Personal And Business Reflection On 2022

I am doing a really special episode for you today. It is my reflection on 2022 in my business and personal life, I'm going to be sharing, I'm going to be oversharing, I'm going to be sharing stuff with you, that probably is going to come up as I talk, stuff that I haven't planned to necessarily share.  So it's going to be interesting, this is going to be a roller coaster.

I haven't really got a massive structure for you today. I know I often give you my five top tips, practical advice, but this is going to be more of an episode where I share things with you, I offload and you just get to know me a little bit better.

I will be talking about my highs, I will be talking about my lows, and I'll be just thinking back on 2022 itself.

I would really recommend that you do this yourself. I have another episode, which is about getting you ready for 2023 in your business. In that episode I  give you practical advice to get ready yourself and plan for your next year. But in this episode it is all about my reflection.

There's been some massive highs, but also some lows that have been really challenging. So I would love, love, love to hear from you. And here's my question of the podcast what has been your biggest moment of the year? It could be a great moment. It could be a tough moment. It could be anything, just what's been your biggest moment of the year.

Follow me on social media, it's @jenlistercoaching on Instagram and LinkedIn.

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Music and production by the amazing Strike Productions

My website is Jenlister.com

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to The Jen Lister Podcast. Here I'll be chatting about life, business growth strategies and sharing my personal journeys along the way. And we'll also be interviewing some incredible guests who are experts in their field, see it as my little black book of business. 
Hello, and welcome back to The Jen Lister Podcast. I am doing a really special episode for you today. It is my reflection on 2022 in my business, I'm going to be sharing, I'm going to be oversharing, I'm going to be sharing stuff with you, that probably is going to come up as I talk, stuff that I haven't planned to necessarily share. And I'm also going to be sharing about my personal life to what's gone on this year. And reflecting on it. So it's going to be interesting, this is going to be a roller coaster. 
I haven't really got a massive structure for you today. I know I often give you my five top tips, practical advice, but this is going to be more of an episode where I share things with you, I offload and you just get to know me a little bit better. I will be talking about my highs, I will be talking about my lows, and I'll be just thinking back on 2022 itself. And I would so recommend that you do this yourself, I have another episode, which is about getting you ready for 2023 in your business. So I'm going to be helping you in a practical way in that episode to get ready yourself and plan for your next year. And as part of that, I always do a lot of reflection. This is an element of my reflection for the year. 
I'm going to start at the start of the year. One of the things I knew that was going to happen coming into 2022 was I was getting married. I don't know if you know this about me. But when I was 30, I was single and I really really didn't think I'd ever be able to have children because I'd had some fertility tests. And somehow, fast forward three years, I was with my partner Ben with our daughter, Mabel and getting married. So yeah, that was something that was happening and did happen, I can tell you on the first of April this year. And it was so special and wonderful. And I'm just so grateful we had a really, really small, do a really small thing at Colchester castle on the roof of the castle. And it was just so magical. With the light shining in through the glass roof. And then we had private dining room afterwards. And a really small kind of gathering with just close friends and family. And it was just amazing, amazing, amazing. And I guess I'm telling you this because this is a massive part of my journey. Like, for me in business, there is no point in having a great business that makes you really happy if your other elements of your life aren't happy and fulfilled. And not everyone wants to have a child and not everyone wants to settle down. But for me getting married and falling in love was a really big part of my life goals. Absolutely. I'm not afraid to say when I was young, I knew I just wanted to get married and have a baby. It was something that I was really, really passionate about. So getting married, also brought to me an element of financial stability as well, me and my husband now oh my goodness, that sounds so weird saying it. We were joining in every way possible and sharing in all the life challenges that will be brought to us in the future. So for me, it was just a really important part of my year and I had to absolutely share that with you. It was probably my favourite day and my proudest moment of my year, if not my life, I guess. Okay, so and enough of the gushy stuff. But actually, what I wanted to say is in the run up to our wedding, I got really unwell. I just felt like I constantly had a cold. I remember like my whole head was banged up. And it wasn't COVID, by the way. And we also were getting our bathroom done at the time. And I was like, so stressed. We also were planning the honeymoon, which was a big honeymoon. So all of those things are absolute luxuries Do not get me wrong, but I definitely took on too much. And I wish we hadn't got the bathroom done just before the wedding. But anyway, that is me reflecting and in hindsight, that would have been ideal because at the same time, I also have my business to run.
So I put too much on myself in the first quarter of this year. And I am holding my hands up and saying that. And in fact, I think I spoke to a few of my networking buddies and friends and past clients later this year. So around sort of September time and said, Yeah, I've realised I've taken on too much this year. So I think I have got a tendency to do that. And I think through the summer things felt like good in terms of level of busyness with my business. In September. I've got myself a little bit overwhelmed and stressed again. And right now, things feel really, really good. So so that's a good thing. So yeah, the first Just a quarter of my business was, it's actually really hard for me to remember. But what I do remember was that I realised I was doing a lot of work, and not valuing myself enough. So I was trying to bend over backwards to be able to help my clients in a way that was affordable to them, because I really wanted to, and I was really passionate about it. But in doing that, I was making myself super, super stressed and trying to deliver way, way more value than really one I had the capacity to, but also that I'd given the pricing and the investment for. So that was a big learning for me. And it was a bit of a weird time in my business, because we were getting married and going on a three week honeymoon. And we had a really amazing time we went to Europe, with Mabel for three weeks, went to Italy and Switzerland, and it was just super, super lovely. But my plan for that was to completely cut off from my business or that whole period. And to not focus on that at all. And basically, I came back with just a handful of things booked in genuinely. And that was kind of scary. But I was so confident. And so Okay with that being the situation because I just wanted to absorb every minute of me, then and they will being together. So actually, the other thing I wanted to share that I did at the start of the year was back in February. So it was a bit of a weird situation. So towards the end of 2021, I had decided that I wanted to have someone else in my business. So I wanted to have probably a virtual assistant of some sort. And I think I spoke to someone else that was a coach that had one. And I was like, oh, that sounds really cool. I want to do that at some point. And I I planned it in I say a plan to him because you know, I'll have a plan. But in my head, I thought that would happen around the end of the summer, going into autumn in 2022. I don't know how it happened. But somehow it happened in February 2022. So as you can see much earlier than I planned. And it happened in a really weird way. So I had a bit of a strange situation where I was talking to a really amazing lady about being my VA and she's just incredible. And I was at the point of going Yeah, I think I'm up for that. That sounds great. And then my brother had started a business as a VA. And he said to me, Jen, will you give me a chance. And actually, he'd already been doing that work with his wife, my gorgeous sister in law Lucy Baldrick for the past few years, and absolutely knew what he was doing. But he was looking to expand into new clients. And I was, I had lots of different kinds of things come up for me personally, because he's my brother. He's my bestest friend, I adore him. And we've got an amazing relationship. And I was a little bit nervous about bringing him into my business because I didn't want us I didn't want our relationship to change not because I don't think he's amazing, because I do. But I spoke to the lady that I've been speaking to unexplained situation. And she was just amazing. She was so kind and understanding. And actually, she also works with her brother. So she totally got it and was super, super supportive of me making that decision to work with my brother, which I made in the end. So the long and short of it is my brother became my VA in February. And I'm smiling, because that has been one of the most fantastic decisions for me in my business. And I'll tell you why. Me and my brother were talking about this yesterday. It was it's been amazing because he, he does the stuff that I find. So draining, I find it draining Emotionally, I find it takes me so much longer than it takes him to do. So for example, one of those things is sending my contracts to my clients. This is so important. I can't work with my clients without a contract. However, it would take me ages to do I'd get really stressed about it, I put a lot of emotion into it. And he just does it. He just gets it done. It's not a big deal. And it's a tick in the box. Now that sounds like a really small thing. But actually what that has done is given me the headspace to focus on growing my business. And that is what has happened. My business has grown so significantly since I've started working with my brother. And yes, it's a cost in my business. But as a service based business. I believe that cost is absolutely worth it. I see it as a massive investment in my business. And he's helped me so much this year on so much stuff. So another thing that I did later, so more like quarter two of the year. So the second second quarter of the year was I worked with my brother on my branding, so he helped me redesign my logo. He's completely revamped my website completely and please have a look at it at WWW dot Jennie lister.com And tell me what you think. I'm so grateful for that because Again, the website, I can do that my websites on Squarespace. I know how it works, I can do it. But in doing that, I'm switching my brain away from income generating activities, which is marketing, sales, speaking to clients doing my client work client facing work into that kind of back office background admin. So now that he, he's completely done my branding, he's completely done my website. And I'm so so grateful for it. And I love it. And it just feels super aligned to me. And that's something that, again, was an investment, a time investment, and a financial investment. But I'm so glad that I did that. So then what happened? I've just realised the other thing that he did with me, for me, however you want to put it that we did together, was we launched the journalist, a podcast. So that launched I was looking at this the other day, my first kind of social media post about the podcast that was in May, I think it might have even been the first of May. I can't quite remember. Yeah, I think it was the first of May. It was just after we got back from our honeymoon. And I was so scared about putting myself out there. So so scared, I was also scared about what should I call my podcast. And as you know, it's called the journalist podcast. So it's pretty basic. But I really wanted it to represent me as an entrepreneur, but also me personally, because I'm, I'm a massive oversharer. And for some reason, I just feel like it helps to share these things. And you go through what you go through, right? I've just had like a bomb drop, because I'm thinking, there's something that I want to share with you. And I don't know whether I should on this episode. So keep listening, folks. And you might find something out. So yeah, launching my podcast was I'm breathing a sigh of relief, because it's something I've thought about for the last couple of years. The reason I wanted to launch a podcast is one, I love podcasts. I do believe that when it comes to marketing in your business, and let's be honest, podcast is a marketing strategy. It's growing brand awareness for my brand. You've got to do stuff that you're aligned to, I remember talking to one coach, and she's got a Facebook group. And honestly, I am not a fan of having a Facebook group for my business, saying that I've actually got a Facebook group for my networking group. But I feel like that is is for me is different. But she said this coach said to me, I just don't feel aligned to having a podcast, even though lots of coaches obviously have got podcasts. And I was like, that's totally fine. It's really nice and refreshing to hear people focus on the marketing strategies that feel aligned to them in their business. Because we don't want to be copycats of each other. We want things to be unique. And actually, I've spent quite a lot of time recently reflecting on my podcast, because six months or so in, you kind of go okay, sorry, what was that all about? What am I doing it for? Why am I doing it? Who Who am I targeting? Who is my audience? And what do I want to be speaking about? I want to be adding value to people and I want it to be something that people enjoy. So the podcast thing has been a massive journey for me. I I struggled a little bit in July, August. And that was for personal reasons that I might go into later. But I struggled to keep the consistency up. The other element of my podcast that I will share as a massive High was when I first started my podcast, I was like I know I need some music. And my cousin Tom is a music producer. He's extremely talented and just such an awesome person. And I sit here now recording this in his music studio in ethics. So I am extremely grateful. But I remember saying to my brother, do you think Tom could create me some music for the podcast. And then we had a family gathering. It was my nan and granddad's wedding anniversary. I can't remember how many years I feel like it was 40 or something crazy like that. It was it was just amazing. It was really lovely. And as we were together as a family, I said to Tom, I said, Oh, I've started podcasts. I was actually gonna ask you about making some music for me for it. Because I know that you're good at that. And that's what you do. And he's like, yeah, absolutely. So we've been on this journey together. And my brother Dean, my cousin Tom and myself, creating this podcast branding. So Tom's created me a brand sound. And we've spent lots of time in the studio coming up with ideas on how to format the podcast. He does he does so much stuff. So if you listened to one of my first episodes, you'll hear the sound quality is not so great. If you listen to my more recent episodes, you'll hear that the sound is wonderful. And just working with him and having the ability to use his studio to record because I was really struggling to record episodes like this where I was sharing my strategy expertise and tip top tips for you. I was really struggling to find a time for that I was I was fine with guest interviews but I was not finding the time to do my own stuff and I really want to share my own messages like the journalist a podcast is about sharing my stories, My Messages, My tips for growth. for you in the world,
and I was really struggling to find the time for that. So the universe has aligned working with Tom I now booking slots, and I record multiple episodes at once. And it's just working really well. I've still got my guests coming on, and I can do those ones from home. And I love my guests episodes so much. I've got some really exciting guests coming up for you in the future as well. So yeah, absolute high was launching the podcast. But also, it's also been hard because let's just talk about this for a minute shiny object syndrome, do you sometimes get that you, you just want to do something new, you do the thing, you launch the thing you build up to it? And you're really excited. And it's like this really cool thing? And then you're like, Oh, is that it now, so I've just got to keep recording episodes and keep putting them on Buzzsprout and uploading them and and marketing them. And and that's it like it's just a conveyor belt. Now it's part of my business as usual now, and the shiny object syndrome, like that's it. That's it, it's all done. So yeah, I definitely had a little bit of that. And that's when I had to do the soul searching and think about my purpose with my podcast and what it's all about. And I'm really grateful for it and really loving, working collaboratively with people, my family that I truly, truly respect and love. The other thing that I've experienced for the first time this year in my business, which is a higher and trust me, I will be going on to the lows is inquiries coming in. That sounds really basic. But when you first start a business, there is a lot of hustle. And I think I've talked about this before because Ben, my husband, I still feel weird saying that he has had his business for over 20 years. And he's a mortgage advisor if you don't know. And he gets phone calls all the time, he gets messages at the weekend, he gets texts at night, he gets phone calls throughout the day, he just gets inquiries coming at him left, right and centre. And I'm like, wow, you absolutely need to be so grateful for that, especially when the market is tough. I don't have that in my business. I certainly didn't have that in my business. When I first started this year is the first time I've actually had cold inquiries come my way. So that has felt really exciting. And I'm really grateful for that. It's come through a mixture of Instagram, and Google because my brother has done quite a lot of stuff on my website and my Google and I've been seeking Google reviews and things like that. So there's there's various things you can do to encourage those things to happen. But yeah, getting getting cold inquiries, just through being consistent with my marketing in getting people reach out to me and saying, I want to have a chat with you and talk about coaching. Like that's amazing. That's a that's a lead that that genuinely wants to speak to me. And I have no words because I find that really magical in business when you get to that point that that people just just want to reach out to you. I think it's a beautiful place to be and I'm really grateful and don't get me wrong, I'm not getting inquiries come left, right and centre like my husband does. But I am grateful for the ones that I do have. And I like seeing that kind of tick away and have that in the background. Okay, so another high. Actually, this is a high but it's really also a low. So something I've done this year, which you might know is launched my first group programme, the strategy Growth Hub. And actually there's an episode all about the strategy growth habit, if you want to have a listen, I say it's a high and a low. And I say it in the context of the fact that I have definitely done too much this year, I launched my podcast, I've launched a group programme for the first time I took a month off to go on honeymoon and get married. I have definitely feel like I've taken on a lot this year. So I always think it's important to get into your customers mindset. And just to share my little top tip, when it comes to that for you. August is such a quiet month in business. I spoke to so many people, they all tend to agree we've got families that have got kids of school age, that is the school holidays, it's just a harder time to get things done both when you're in a job because I definitely felt it when I had my corporate job. Things just slow down because so many people took took the holidays and you'd be waiting for approval from someone and you couldn't get it because they were a way that we can just things get delayed and get slower. And when it comes to the entrepreneur life. Again, my client, Paul, like there's less people around at the end of the day in August. So I always take that as a bit of a development month. So I was really focused on my customer mindset and thought going into autumn September, October was when I wanted to launch my group programme because I felt like it was the right time to do it. If you watch any of my social media, you'll know that my biggest fear when it came to my group programme was that nobody would book on. And I'm really pleased to be sat here and saying that is not the case. My group programme is running. I have people on it, and I am absolutely loving it. I genuinely don't have that shiny object syndrome with it. Like launching it and actually delivering the coaching and the growth has been the best part for me and actually the day that I did my first session for my current programme, I had this relief, I just was so happy that I was actually delivering the coaching. But when I talk about Lowe's, I was really struggling with impostor syndrome, I was really struggling with the fact that I didn't think I'd get I'd given myself enough time for marketing for my group programme to get people booked on to it. I was really struggling because I was so conscious of the economy and the recession that we're experiencing. And I felt like maybe I done it at the wrong time. And maybe I should just pull the programme altogether. I was hearing from people that had genuinely shown interest in it, that they wanted to do it in the new year. So I was like, well, maybe I've got this completely wrong. And it needs to be a January thing. And it really threw me because I'm really passionate about planning before the event. So I love to plan now ready for January. And again, this is going to be another podcast episode. But I know that some people don't start their business planning for 2023 until January, I know that they won't be doing that until January. So maybe I should have booked it in for January instead. So I was thinking about just changing it all together. At one point,
I'm pleased to say that I worked with my amazing, amazing therapist had a couple of sessions with her and she just, she was just sorts me out and just calms down that imposter syndrome, that inner voice that goes, You're not good enough, or you can't do this, or it's all gonna go wrong, no one's gonna become and I got through it. And I'm so glad I did. And I'm so glad I didn't decide to pull it. But I nearly did. And I just want to say that to you. Because I remember hearing something, which is just a standard quote that you hear that's great happens when you step out your comfort zone, or whatever it is. It's there's quotes like that left, right and centre. And I remember hearing it. And I'm like, really, is that really true, because this feels so uncomfortable right now. And I just don't want all this stress, like my business to me, needs to really work for my family and my life, and I want to love it. And I absolutely do love it. But at that point I was just really struggling with, had I done the right thing. But not only did I have my therapist, who was just amazing, but also my brother and my VA Dean, who he's much more than just a VA to me, like, when we have our catch ups, I can tell him exactly how I'm feeling. This is the situation, what do you think? What should we do? And Dean absolutely helped me set up so much stuff for the strategy Growth Hub, in terms of the website, my social media staff, just just helping me talk it through and make it a reality. Because sometimes when you're running your business on your own is so lonely, and you have these ideas, but to operationalize them, you've just, you've really got to do it all yourself. So having someone else involved that can kind of just take ownership and take the emotion out of it. If I said to Jane, right, we're going to set this up, let's set up his webpage. He'll just get it done. And if I did it, it would take me loads longer, I'd be stressing about every single word, I'd be overthinking it, I would be worrying about is it actually going to work, but but by working with him, he just takes the emotion out of it. So I'm really grateful for that. So I've talked about the grip programme a lot now. And it is really important to me because the reason I wanted to start it was for No, it was purely for a time leverage thing. I want to help more people, I really truly want to help more business owners take that step and step, I say step up to strategy, like really step up in their business, launch that business and grow that business. And the only way I feel like I could could do that because I was getting to the point where I was booked out with one to one clients was with a group programme. And I guess that does lead to a high that I should I should genuinely highlight is I am booked out with one to one clients. And that is just wonderful. Like, the fact that I can say that is just amazing. And I'm really grateful for every single client that has worked with me in the past year and a half because yeah, I just wish I could give them all a really big hug because I'm so so grateful for every single one of them. I only work part time in my business. I say only I work part time in my business. I'm very ambitious. And I say that with confidence. And I say that proudly because I actually listened to Megan Merkel's interview with Serena Williams, which is her podcast archetypes which I'm a big fan of. I listened to that yesterday in the car and hearing them talk about ambition and how there's negative connotations associated with women that are ambitious. And how women's behaviour at times can be commented on as aggressive. When an equivalent men's behaviour doesn't get those kinds of comments, like things like that just really wind me up. And I kind of remember where I'm going with this comment. I guess what I'm saying is I'm really proud that I'm ambitious, but I'm also really proud to be a mum and balancing that this year has been so tough but so rewarding as well. I'm quite strict in that my Mondays and Fridays. Our days and weekends are family time. So Mondays and Fridays I am with my lovely daughter. And we go to the most amazing class called sing and sign with the most amazing teacher, Catherine, I will I will link out to her as well in the notes every single Monday. And as an aside note, if anyone is a new mum, sing and sign baby sign language is the best thing I've ever done with my child. And I was told about it from my dear friend Anna, who did it with her daughter. And I have loved it I've done it's from from when maybe it was two months old to now. And I say that is a high from this year because you're seeing Mabel grow and develop having that dedicated time with her. Each week has just been so beautiful. And we've got lots of memories that we can treasure. So I am really, really grateful for my little girl. I am going to record this bit. But I don't know if I'll cut it out. So we'll see. But one of my loads from the year was in the summer I had a miscarriage. I've never had a miscarriage. And I knew I was so naive. I didn't think that would be something that I would ever experience. So for me, it was a massive, massive shock. I was really in denial when I was actually pregnant. And I was like no, no, I'm pretty sure I'm not pregnant, not pregnant. And then I found out a little while after that I had a miscarriage. And it really threw me it was in the summer. So it kind of correlates to some of the doubts I've had in my business. And some of the challenges I've had with consistency in my business. I went off social media for like a good week or so. Which sounds like this sounds so dramatic. I went on social media. It was a really hard time. It's really hard to talk about it. And I'm sure I'll talk about it more in the future. But yeah, it was a it was a hard time for me emotionally. And I now have a level of understanding of people that experienced that baby loss that I didn't have before. And I was so naive to think that I would just be absolutely fine. And I wouldn't ever experience that. And the shock was was one of the big things. There's lots of things I could share. But I think I'll just leave leave it at that. So yeah, that was a hard thing for me to navigate for Ben and I to navigate. And obviously having my daughter who I adore, I had to navigate to it with her when she's Uh, she's just a little two year old. So yeah, she definitely saw me crying. Why is Mommy crying? All of those questions. She's very cute and very funny. So that was probably and I'm literally sweating now talking about this, that was probably the biggest low of my year. And that was a personal low. But obviously all these things do impact on your professional life as well. It doesn't matter if you've got a job or if you've got a business that you're still going to, you're still going to feel an impact from something like that. So I guess something I've realised this year is that I have done a little bit too much. I think I've launched too many things. I have tried to commit to grow my business way too much. And although I'm still here, and I'm happy, I am planning for 2023 to have a more considered year and more of a kind of stabilisation consolidation year. So I would hope that you would see consistency when it comes to my podcasting, you'll see consistency when it comes to my group programme, I will still have my one to one clients, and absolutely enjoy working with those and bringing in new one to one clients throughout the year. But I'm going to try and get my brother to not let me launch anything new next year. We shall see I bet I will. But we shall see. The other thing I'm really excited about proud of this year actually is I've got a lovely, lovely friendship with someone called Paris, her Instagram is journal to dreams at journal to dreams. And we had a really lovely podcast interview not long ago. And we talked about black women in business. And it's an issue that's really close to my heart. I'm really grateful to have planned and held our Black Women in Business workshop at the end of October. And I want to do more because I realised it's what you do throughout the whole year. And I do believe I do stuff throughout the whole year. But I want to make that more considered more part of my strategy. I want to be deliberate. And I am completely aware that I'm a white woman talking about this issue. But what I've come to realise from Paris is that she sees me and her community see me as an ally to the black community. And she was telling me how she has been to this award ceremony recently. And they actually had a category for allies to the black community. And I think and she said she thought that was so inspiring. And I think that's so inspiring. And, wow, one day if I could win an award, because of the stuff that I've done to help educate help, I don't know, change transform the situation when it comes to black women in business. I would be really happy person and that comes from wanting to be a role model to my daughter wanting to change the world that we live in. And we all have stuff like this. We all have fire in our bellies for various issues. And I urge you to explore those areas for yourself, whatever that means to you, and actually try and make a change in the world. So there you have it. An emotional roller coaster, but my reflection on my business and my life in 2022. Getting it all out. I feel a mixture of emotions right now. There's been some massive highs, like absolutely great highs, but also some lows that have been really challenging. So I would love, love, love to hear from you. And here's my question of the podcast what has been your biggest moment of the year? It could be a great moment. It could be a tough moment. It could be anything, just what's been your biggest moment of the year. And I'll leave it at that today. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for listening to the generalist podcast. I truly appreciate every single one of you. If you'd like to leave me a review on your podcast app, I would love that. And if you'd like to follow me on social media, it's at genista coaching on Instagram and LinkedIn