In 2018 I had weight loss surgery and since April I have released over 33kg from my body. I’ve healed physically and emotionally, I’ve released a lot of old pain and bad habits and I’ve created new habits and solid foundations for a healthy and vibrant future.

And this all feels like an analogy for my year in my business.

2018 was a year of re-setting the foundations of my business and releasing what didn’t serve me so that I could emerge in 2019 more vibrant and aligned that before.

2018 was about pulling back and taking a long hard look at my business, my life and lifestyle and both my business and personal finances.

I came to the realisation that I had a not so lean business that was based on a peak level of revenue I’d had a number of years back and that the current business (whilst still a healthy, profitable business) couldn’t support it.

I’d also made a couple of bad business decisions a few years back – taking out a loan for a launch thinking it was a sure thing, not setting aside money for tax and having a credit card. These decisions cost me dearly and set me back close to 2 years in the growth of my business.

Now let me be clear  – my business still makes a profit even with these bad financial decisions but they have limited my freedom to grow over the last 1-2 years.

I had to really stop and review everything – which revenue streams were profitable, which team members made sense at this stage of my business, which expenses were needed and which were not.

I pared back all my expenses to what I felt was necessary so that I could rebuild my business doing the work I’m called to do with expenses that make financial sense. Most importantly I focused on paying back the bad debt I had accumulated.

I think many of us find ourselves here. Perhaps we had a boom in our business that was not sustained but we grew our expenses expecting that it would be. Perhaps we got carried away with expenses and keeping up with the Instagram lifestyle. Perhaps we splurged on travelling to international events. Perhaps we were seduced by ‘Bro Marketing’ or kept looking for that silver bullet by buying very expensive high end coaching or masterminds. Maybe you just spent a heap on non-performing Facebook ads.

Whatever it is for you – it is nothing to be ashamed of – but it is something to recognise and course correct.

You see there are people making 7-figures in revenue who are struggling to get by. That is not success.

The most important number is not revenue but profit.

The energy of 2018

Numerology

I was in a personal 2 year which can best be described as a seed under the ground growing but not yet breaking the surface of the soil. Themes of a 2 year are patience, balance and relationships and like I described it is a year for setting good foundations for the rest of the 9-year cycle. 

Astrology

So I had in astrology what we might call ‘ a shit of a year’ (no just kidding that’s not an astrology term!).

But in all seriousness, I had some big transits going on in my life that made life really hard such as Pluto Opposite my Moon, Saturn Square Saturn and my Progressed Moon in Scorpio which was epically painful. All of these transits shifted around late November-early December and quite honestly it was like the sunshine coming out again. My clarity and vision returned and I felt like a new woman!

My 2018 Theme Words

In 2018 I realised that I actually needed two theme words – one for the first 6 months and one for the second 6 months!

Grounding

The first theme word was grounding. I had spent a lot of 2017 travelling (to Santa Fe, Mexico, Bali and New Zealand!) and I knew that in 2018 I needed to ground my wandering spirit and get serious about setting those foundations. I actually didn’t travel anywhere until October when I went to Bali for a week on retreat.

Creative Devotion

The second 6 months my theme word was creative devotion but really the theme word of grounding continued to apply. Creative devotion was about not giving up no matter how hard it felt – and it felt HARD a lot of the time! Creative devotion was about starting to write my book – I naively thought I’d finish it in 2018 but 20k words in and I am nowhere near finished!

Overview of 2018

Financials

Whilst I’m not going to share my exact numbers with you in this post I do want to share what my profit margin % was as I have told you it is the most important number to focus on.

In 2018 it was 38%.

The year before in 2017 was only 16% profit so you can see that the changes I made in 2018 had a direct benefit to my business in the order of over doubling profits!

I actually made less revenue in 2018 than 2017 but had higher profits and once you take the ego out of the equation that you didn’t grow revenue you can focus on the profit which is what’s most important to live your best life!

Studying Astrology

Every year I try to pick something that I am going to devote to learning and in 2018 I decided that I wanted to learn astrology starting with the basics through to quite complex applications.

I did this and enrolled in a full year program and absolutely loved it. In fact, I swear it is what kept me going this year as I was able to have the perspective of why things were the way they were as well as align myself to my true soul purpose and soul clients.

Launching Launch Mastery & ECLF

I launched Launch Mastery twice and ECLF once in 2018 which meant that I was running live rounds for ¾ of the year.

It was a pretty intense year and we were practically always planning for or running a launch.

Whilst it was fantastic and we created great new assets such as a new challenge – I also want to take a step back in 2019 from live launches and focus on my Mistressmind and creating some new content for a future program.

Clarity Sessions

I did a lot of business coaching in 2018 and the majority was through my one-off Pick my Brain Clarity sessions. These sessions were a great success that have brought in new clients pretty much every week.

I love being able to help people with their biggest questions, blocks and concerns and get them moving again and I think it appeals because it is a low investment way to get my brain on your business.

These sessions will be limited in 2019 due to my Mistressmind clients taking priority but I will open a few sessions each month. 

Downloading my new Mistressmind

In early December as my progressed moon moved from deep intense Scorpio into visionary Sagittarius (thank god!) I had a beautiful download direct from my soul for a Soulful Business Mastermind.

It all flowed out very quickly and easily and I decided to not wait for designers and copywriters and instead wrote and designed the sales page myself – because sometimes you just want to move while the energy is potent!

This Mistressmind (a feminine version of a mastermind) is a mix of business coaching, applied astrology and soul medicine – including my never before taught Energetic Bravery framework.

Even before I launched it clients were saying to me “sign me up!” and as of writing this places are nearly sold out.

You might be interested to know that I selected the “perfect” launch date using electional astrology (something I’ll introducing my Mistressmind clients to in 2019).

Other New Offerings

I did some surveys during the year and listened to my audience about what they wanted as well as creating some offerings that were purely driven by my desires.

Some of these like my clarity sessions and the Mistressmind have been a great success and other’s kind of bombed for a variety of reasons including lack of interest from my list, lack of alignment for me or lack of focus and persistence.

This is totally normal and the key is to go into launching new products and services with an energy of curiosity. Don’t put all your energy into them being a success and know that your ideas are infinite and some will work and others won’t.

Writing my book

I thought I was going to write my book in 2018 – and write I did – but 20k words in I realised this was a multi-year project. I could easily “push out” a book in a week but this book is different. This book is a download of my own healing and activation framework for entrepreneurs and what I have come to realised is that it is experiential – and by that I mean I have to live it first, then write about it, then live it some more.

It’s a work in progress but I have been sharing about energetic bravery with excerpts from my book over on my Instagram page.

Best Moments

• Retreat in Bali with Nisha Moodley and attending the Temple of Chi full moon sound healing, shopping up a storm in ubud.
• Studying Astrology and going from a novice to conducting amazing astrology readings for clients as well as learning so much more about my husband and kids and learning to plan my year, month and week using astrology.
• Certifying as a Soul & Energy Medicine Practitioner and Intuitive Soul Guide with the Soul Medicine Academy
• Downloading my Mistressmind in December and seeing people jump on board immediately.

Big Lessons

• Going lean – I had created a business with expenses that didn’t make sense for my current business model. It’s important to continually review what your business really needs and adjust it regularly. What made sense a year ago – might not make sense now!
• Going back to my roots – I went back to my roots or what it was like when I started my business and had great success. This meant following the intuitive hits, taking action and being in flow and not waiting for copywriters and designers to launch new offerings. Having beautifully professional sales pages is amazing but sometimes it is more important to just get it out there now!
• Test first – In line with the above I learnt (or really remembered!) to test ideas first before investing a lot into them because some will take off and others will not. Invest once you know that it resonates and people want what you have to offer. You won’t really know this until you make the offer (a survey is not a good enough indicator).
• Change takes time – I’ve been going through big changes in my business for a couple of years now and whilst I feel like I’m closer than ever before to my true soul business I still feel like I’m at least another 12 months away from being able to launch my beautiful new business into the world. A lot of what I have done in the last two years has been interim branding or interim programs which have been a bridge from where I was to where I want to be. I’ve had to really be gentle with myself and know that the big growth in my business is not likely to be until 2020 onwards but there is still work to do now to prepare!
• Cash Flow – I took a much more structured approach to cash flow in 2018 (finally!) and I religiously used a cash flow spreadsheet that I set up monthly and updated and tracked at least weekly. This was critical to making headway with our finances and it stopped me from spending when I shouldn’t (I can be a bit frivolous with money!). This made a massive difference as you can see from the fact we doubled our profits in 2018!
• You can’t move forward when you are financially stressed – I hope that what I’ve been writing about helps you to see that if your finances are not in order it is very difficult to thrive, manifest and attract goodness into your life. Don’t be afraid to do what needs to be done to ensure that the money you need comes in even if that means taking on side work or a job. We made some hard financial decisions over the last 2 years but right now as I write this we have had the most abundant December in my business ever. Money is flowing, there is a surplus in our business and personal accounts, our debts are in order and life feels amazing. Typically this is a time of year when my business ‘dries up’ but that has not been the case this year – it all feels pretty magical!

Busting Through Blocks

I had a few significant blocks to work through in 2018 (don’t we all!).

• Writing the book – One of the reasons more of the book has not been written is fear. For some reason, I find the prospect of writing a book way scarier than creating an e-Course or other offerings. This is probably because the topics I need to write about include a lot of my personal story and I am scared to make some of that public. This is of course ironic given the book is about Energetic Bravery but as I said I need to live it and then write about with the final act of bravery – publishing it!
• Vision and direction – I felt very blocked for much of 2018 around my business. I tried a lot of different things – many of which didn’t take off – and I just couldn’t see the forest for the trees. Finally, towards the end of the year, the vision became clear again (I’ll write more about that in the follow-up blog about 2019).

Success Secrets in 2018

I like to see every year that I am in business as a success – and you should too! So here are the things that I think had the most impact on my year.

• Going Lean – paring back to the basics so that I could rebuild my foundations
• Focusing on expenses – we managed to double our profits by critically reviewing our expenses
• Simple Offerings – my clarity session is such a simple concept but has been so successful and it is a great lead in to direct clients to my other offerings depending on their needs.
• Setting up an effective evergreen funnel for ECLF – in the last few months of the year, I finally got serious about an evergreen funnel for the e-Course Launch Formula. I created better nurture sequences, utilised an evergreen funnel tool and created a website dedicated to the e-Course Launch Formula with its own blog and free resources and we have had a steady increase in evergreen sales ever since. This is something we will continue to tweak and improve in 2019.
• Using a planner – I went back to using a physical diary/planner in 2018 as well as my online version and each week on a Sunday I planned out my week and priorities using the planner. It really helped to keep me organized and focused and I built in my Astro-Planning process as well.
• Cashflow planning – Cashflow planning helped me to prioritise expenses, know when I could invest and when I had to save and reduced a lot of day to day stress and meant there were no nasty surprises. It significantly contributed to doubling our profits as well.
• Trust – Despite a lot of great successes and progress it was a hard year for me personally and professionally. What got me through was a foundational trust that I would be taken care of and that everything was happening for me – not to me.

Biggest Challenges

• Adjusting my biz from where it was to where it is – there are no two ways about it – my business has changed. The problem is I had not adjusted my expenses and team to reflect this change. I had to really admit to myself that it is not the same business it was 3-4 years ago and then commit to birthing a new and even better business. This meant going back to basics first and then building back up and I am already seeing the benefits from this.
• Adjusting to the fact the market has changed and I’ve changed – I came into the online business world in 2012 which really was a heyday for online business. I was one of the first people to have an online course about creating online courses and business was booming. Facebook Ads were working and inexpensive (even though we thought they were expensive!), people were not burnt out and jaded from launches and less than reputable providers and I had a great reputation for quality programs (still do thankfully!). Life quite honestly was pretty easy. But the market has changed. It has gotten a lot noisier, people have been burnt and some people have also realised that they don’t necessarily get their best results from a passive e-Course. The market has had to adjust and is still adjusting and finding its feet again. And in all of this, I changed. It was no longer enough for me to “just” teach strategy or automation or the tech. I realised my clients needed so much more and I wanted to give so much more. But change is not easy and I’m still finding my soulful feet in this brave new world.

What I actually did this year!

• Launched the e-Course Launch Formula once with a VIP upgrade and evergreen sales throughout the year
• Launched Launch Mastery twice with an Inner Circle upgrade each round
• Delivered oodles of Clarity Sessions
• Re-launched Your Soulful Year Online to help people feel into the energy of 2019 (and used it to feel into the energy of my year!)
• Created and Launched and nearly filled Your Soulful Biz Mistressmind
• Wrote 20k words on my book
• Had weight loss surgery and lost over 33kg! Time for new photos!

Funniest Moment

Setting fire to a webinar handout during a live webinar thanks to a candle!

What’s Next?

So that was my 2018! Look out for my next blog that looks forward to 2019 and what you can expect from me.

From my family to yours Happy New Year – May it be all you wish for and more!