2021 Year in Review

Ruth Poundwhite 0:00
2021 started out with me taking an unplanned month off and having a dip in income followed by the launch of my biggest programme yet, massive wobbles more confidence in my craft than ever before, and hitting over 1000 Students of my courses, there was a lot that was hard last year, but even more to be grateful for so here is my Year in Review. You’re listening to quietly ambitious with conversations about how it really feels to build a business that honours your whole self unapologetically. And that includes who you are, how you feel, what you really desire, the impact that you want to create, and importantly, the money you want to make. I’m your host, Ruth Poundwhite. And my superpower is supporting sensitive and ambitious humans to make more money by fully expressing and owning all of who they are. And let’s dive in.

Ruth Poundwhite 1:03
Hi, and welcome back to another episode of The quietly ambitious podcast. Today’s episode is my 2021 year in review. And I just want to say, if you prefer to read this, I actually have this in blog post form on my website at Ruth poundwhite.com. So you can read or you can listen whatever you prefer. Now, when it comes to yours in review, I am obsessed with reading other people’s posts like this. And for me writing my own years in review, is that how you say it has always been like a really powerful experience and great opportunity to reflect. And if you go on the show notes for this episode, you can find the links to all the previous years I’ve done so far 2020 2019 and 2018. But this year, just like last year, I am writing this and releasing it on the podcast way later than I originally planned. Like Ideally, I’d be doing this around the new year. But it’s almost the end of January, right? Once again, life has happened. And I think it might be finally sinking in that life is always going to happen. It is up to me to design my business in a way that supports all of it. And I’ll be honest with you, when 2022 started, I was kind of reflecting on 2021 as having been another hard year. And you can see the introduction to my 2020 review for more about what was going on for me personally. But honestly now as I’m saying this, I have totally changed my perspective, I can’t wait to build on what I got started in 2021. There is so much to be glad about. And the best way really to describe how I’m feeling right now at the start of 2022 is grateful with a little side of tired 2021 was the year that my fatigue really set in. It was a year that I took massive risks in investing in my business. I up levelled as a coach and as a leader. And it was the year that I really made the commitment to go for everything that I wanted in my life, which I’ll talk a bit more about in a sec. So let’s start by reflecting on my 2020 intentions. So as I do every year, and I will be doing soon for this year. So look out for that episode coming soon. In January 2021. I said 2020 reflection intentions tonight, I meant 2021 intentions in January 2021. I shared my word and intentions for the year. So my word for 2021 was harmony, which really was a declaration and a promise to myself that I get to have it all the life, the relationship, the home, the family, the business, the freedom, everything. Obviously, that is a bold declaration. And if you’re familiar with my work, you’ll know that I am absolutely honest about the fact that it’s not all easy, right? It can be very hard at times. So what I’m talking about here is not some mythical, always happy, always happy, spiritual bypassing kind of thing. It’s about choosing how I want to live my life as a whole, acting in alignment with that when I can and taking the challenges learning from the challenges as they come. The truth is that January 2021, me didn’t actually know that the word harmony was going to mean all of that. She was more concerned with the day to day stuff, the following of my internal cycles, the balance of the masculine and the feminine and the work life balance. That stuff is the foundation and it is also so important. But the vision that I have for my life has been the beautiful lesson that has come out of all of that. That’s what harmony really means to me. So here’s how it worked out in practice. I had periods of very good balance, and I had periods of way less balance. I didn’t meet my money goal, but I did increase my income. I cultivated an infinitely better relationship with social media and I’m going to talk about this stuff as we go I made changes to my schedule, and I coached more on Voxer. To create more freedom. I got more into my body. Although this was often challenging with my ongoing fatigue, I was deeply supported, but I could have been more so. And I am so bloody proud of how much I created, although sometimes it did come from a place of pushing. And like I said, I’m going to expand on a lot of this as we get to it throughout the review. And there’s gonna be a separate blog post slash podcast episode soon with my word and intentions for the year ahead. Okay, so let’s dive in. Let’s start with the winter when life happened. So our year started with the aftermath of a significant family loss, and a house clearance that took three months and a lot of energy to complete. So I took January fully off my business to deal with this really challenging time, I was exhausted from travelling three hours each way to the house every other weekend. And from the very physical work that clearing it demanded of us, honestly, it was really hard. My income took a nosedive, especially since I had cancelled the group programme that I was supposed to start in January 2021. But I didn’t really honestly have the headspace to dwell on it. And I do have a separate podcast episode about taking that month off, if you want to listen to that. It’s from early 2021. What that time did make clear to me was just how much my business and income relied on me to be there for it. My previous business had really amazingly reached a point where it ran really well without much input from me. So I basically made the decision in that moment in January 2021, to guide this business in that same direction. So I’m talking more funnels, passive core sales, email sequences, more support more automation. I’ve made huge progress, but there’s still a way to go. And I think honestly, it takes time to build a business that runs itself it like let’s be real, reconnecting with my business. So one of the only business II things that I focused on in January was attending the one live with Suzy Ashworth. Now, attending this event event in 2020, had actually been genuinely life changing for me and the 2021 version. Although it was now a virtual event because of lockdown had a similar effect. In fact, I actually made the decision to invest five figures in coaching with her as a result of that event. It was a big, bold move, especially at a time when my income has just had just tanked. I was definitely in the winter phase season, I was in the fertile void. But I’m so glad I made that decision. Now, I didn’t actually create anything new in my business for the whole first quarter of 2021. But when I came back in February back to sign to work, I came back with a bang, I had over 300 people registered for my free email marketing challenge, which I had run in the past before. And after that I launched a new live version of my pre existing course cultivate. So the theme there was really reusing, reopening, reworking what I had already created. And in March, I raised my prices to the 5k mark, which felt like a huge business milestone for me though, since then I have actually raised them again, which I will talk about a little bit later. Oh, and I also made the decision to write a book more on that soon. So let’s get to the spring, working around intense fatigue. All of the stress of the early part of 2021 meant that my fatigue flared up big time. The only way I could cope with this and still work was to work drastically less. So what I did was I started working five hour days at a maximum and spending the rest of the time resting or doing low intensity activities that lit me up. I also around this time started doing regular breathwork sessions with my beautiful friend Kathy Bell, which have supported me so much, and I’m still doing them monthly with her. Now all of this wasn’t just it turned out that it didn’t just help my fatigue, it also made me feel happier. And that’s a really important learning, right. And I didn’t stick to the five hour days all year because my energy levels did actually improve at different times. But it is something that I’m working back towards in 2022. Like I don’t need the fatigue in order to justify me working five hours a day, if it makes me happier. It makes me happier. And by the way, as a side note, in case you’re wondering,

Ruth Poundwhite 9:45
I spoke about my fatigue to different doctors and specialists throughout the year. Honestly, that is a whole job in itself to manage that and it’s a lot of you know, actual work and emotional work. And at the time of recording this I’m waiting On a referral to a chronic fatigue clinic, although they said it would be at least a year, which is very upsetting and disheartening. Honestly, I could do a whole other podcast episode about this process being supported by medical professionals. But that’s all I’ll say about it. For now, it has been a lot. Anyway, now we come on to planning and launching my biggest programme yet. So behind the scenes April and May was spent preparing for my big new programme rest and rise, I was stretching myself in totally new ways, taking group coaching to another level and combining it with a whole training framework. So basically really claiming what it is that I do with my people. Now I am super proud of what I’ve created with that programme. And the humans that I get to work with are so amazing, like it is a brilliant group. Now I am just so proud to talk about it. But at the time, when I was creating it behind the scenes, it was a new level for me, which means that it makes sense that my brain knowing that I was stretching, was feeling uncomfortable with that, to say the least. So I launched the first intake of rest and rise with a brand new five day challenge, sharing content I have never shared before. Again, another stretch. It was my first five figure launch in this business, which was incredible. But the roller coaster of emotions honestly was real. With that launch, I had a huge and I mean huge wobble about whether to even run the programme at all. And this is after I’d already sold it. And I am so glad. So glad I can’t tell you how glad I am that I was supported through that wobble to make the right decision, which was to carry on with it.

Ruth Poundwhite 11:45
And as a side note, I also relaunched my quiet ambition course off the back of that launch. And in contrast, that was so incredibly easy to put out there to sell and to run because I’ve done it before, right. So that brings us to summer, high energy and high output summer once again, As had happened in 2020. So the easing of lockdown and a huge surge in my energy which meant that I really took advantage of that energy and created a lot in the space of a few months I ran my magic of you and masterclass magic programmes for the first time, which I I’m obsessed with those programmes especially magic of you. I love that programme. And I created not one but two free master classes on soulful selling and sensitive email marketing with another easy live round of my email course cultivate in the mix. So I was doing a lot, I was releasing a lot, I was launching a lot, I was putting a lot of stuff out there. And the best thing about it all was that it all felt so fun. And so free. Basically, I was just following whatever felt good to create at the time, I was taken advantage of my energy levels being higher. And I was I’m thankful that I happen to have a lot of energy for a few months back to back. Even better, I relaunched restroom rise. And the difference between this and the first launch was like night and day. Remember the wobbles I had in the first launch right? This time, I had another five figure launch. And I called in wonderful humans. And the difference was I did it with complete ease. And a lot of that was of course because I wasn’t wobbling about starting the programme because I’d already done it. It wasn’t new anymore. But it was also thanks to a lot of deep mindset work and support around leaning into failure. And knowing that I was enough no matter what happened, which I talk a little bit more about in the episode what your business results mean about you, which is episode 99. But yeah, that belief is game changing for me. So moving on to celebrating my certification and quitting Instagram so alongside all of this stuff, I officially graduated my intense but magical certification that included NLP time techniques, EFT hypnosis, it was a lot and I was already coaching before that, and I didn’t need a certification to validate what I was doing. But honestly the extra tools and techniques that I now have under my belt and I’m using with my clients one to one and invest and rise are so powerful, I have never been more confident in the work that I do with my people. And as a result I decided to add monthly mindset sessions for both my one to one clients and my rasterized clients. All of this was happening around the same time as me deciding to quit Instagram for a while. So since then I have actually been backing on stories on and off but I have barely been posting so I was quitting Instagram and taking time off for August and the truth is I had my best month in August whilst working a lot less which is such a welcome reminder for me that a more money does not always equal more work and be I don’t need to be all over social media to sell my stuff. That is a really important realisation for me. So that brings us to the autumn, what I was putting out there, I went into autumn feeling more confident than I ever had in my craft my business, my income, I was fully booked with clients after raising my prices yet again. So I already raised them at the beginning of the year, I raised them again, September, October time, and I do actually have a podcast episode, if you’re interested on raising your prices, it is episode 95 Highly recommend listening to that, because raising prices is something that comes up so much with the people I work with.

Ruth Poundwhite 15:36
Around this time, I started sharing regular behind the scenes updates, and you can go to the show notes or find on my blog that updates for September, October and November, I’ve actually decided to do these quarterly going forward, because I found it too much to give up with doing the monthly but I also do find them a really helpful exercise. So expect to see those quarterly for me. And I ran my new course connected content which had been in my heart for so long. So that felt really good to finally be putting it out there. And honestly, it was all going amazingly like I don’t think there has been a better time in my business than around like August, September, October. But then, in October later on in October, I had my first bad launch of restaurant rise. So I’d had two really great launches up until now. And then it kind of flopped, it did get one person sign up. But I was definitely hoping for more. And interestingly, it hid differently than I think it would have even a year earlier, I didn’t feel the same sense of pressure didn’t feel the same sense of failure. In fact, I actually felt really proud of myself not just for creating an awesome free course in the run up and growing my email list as a result, but also for showing up the way I did. And I did sell and run my course quite ambition again at the end of the launch. So all wasn’t lost in terms of income. But yeah, it certainly wasn’t the launch I had intended. And again, I do have a podcast episode about this, if you’re interested. That’s episode 98. What to do after a bad launch.

Ruth Poundwhite 17:10
So that’s what was going on. That’s what I was putting out there. So what was going on behind the scenes. So I got loads of visibility in this time, thanks to one of my brilliant mentors, Elizabeth Goddard, I was invited as a speaker at her online business playground Summit. And I spoke about my art of aligned action taking exercise. And I was also a contributor to her Christmas party bundle. So all in all, I grew my email list by like 1000, or over 1000 people thanks to these opportunities. In December, I also had over 400 people register for my free play with possibility workshop and I hit 1000 clients registered on my courses within my podia platform where I host my courses, which interestingly enough, it turns out, I had written down having 1000 clients. I’d written this down in January 2021 in my journal as an outrageous goal, like I didn’t know how I was going to make it happen. And I wrote that down in my journal and then totally forgot about it. And it’s only when I revisited that journal January 2022, that I found I’d written that down. I was like, wow, that actually happened. Isn’t that amazing? So yeah, even though my main launch was a bit of a flop, big things were still happening behind the scenes. looking back in hindsight, though, I recognise now that I wasn’t in that free and fun creation mode that I had been in the summer, I was entering the zone of pushing and burnout. And it all culminated with my husband and son getting COVID in December having my son at home for two weeks just before Christmas, and basically I totally failed to properly end my work here at all, like it just all fizzled out, couldn’t do anything. It was all too much. So I am grateful to myself that I had planned for extra time off. It just turns out that it wasn’t at all relaxing. It also meant I couldn’t put as much effort as I wanted into my price rise sale, but I decided to go ahead with it anyway, because I had known for several months at this point. And when I talk about price rise sale, I mean for my courses and programmes. I had known for several months at this point that the lower prices weren’t aligned. And it was something I’d been humming and hawing about going back and forth about for a while. So I finally just bit the bullet did it raised all my prices. So that is my year in review everything I got up to how I was feeling behind the scenes. So what’s next? A lot of the year was personally hard, but there was so much joy and growth so much that I get to keep building on in 2022. So what is in the works for 2220 22 is exciting, but I’m gonna save that for a future post. Ensure I am ready to go deeper in building the life of my dreams. And I know that sounds big I know that sounds cheesy But honestly, the life of my dreams is a lot of it is about the simplest things, just being there for the simplest things. Plus, there’s a whole new level of embodying what I do, living in integrity and building even more freedom into my business. Oh, and there is a book coming very soon, which I’m quite nervous about haven’t even really talked about in my year in review, I’ve realised, so yeah, I’ll definitely have to share more about the book processing. Now, I really recommend you have a look at the blog post version of this podcast episode because I’ve also linked to my greatest hits from 2021 So my top five podcast episodes were episode 99 What your business results mean about you a pep talk for tricky times? Episode 95, raising your price, when is it time and how does it work? Episode 79, accepting ourselves down letting go of the shoulds and defining success on your own terms with Kelsey Mac, Episode 92. How to run your business your way advice from 12 business owners, and episode 93 What being quietly ambitious means to me and how I really own it. My top blog post of the year, which is literally the same every year, like this blog post just does so well, like organically is how to start a podcast. So if you want to find that on my website, just search on my website, and you can download a free checklist for starting your own podcast if that’s something you’re interested in my top freebies these were actually updated in 2021. So first I have an email marketing checklist you can find that Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash email hyphen checklist, the art of aligned action taking free bundle, which is really good, by the way and I have barely talked about to my existing audience. So definitely go on my website, on the blog post version of this episode and find the link to that. And my How To Start A Podcast checklist and the top five programmes I sold number one, of course arrest and rise, you can find out more about rest and rise at Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash rest forward slash rest hyphen rise. The magic of you probably my favourite programme that I created last year, connected content, quite ambition and cultivate my email marketing course. And the top investments I made was a year of group coaching with Suzy Ashworth and Elizabeth Goddard’s profitable playground. And I’ve linked to them in the show notes as well. And actually the easiest way for you to find links to all of my stuff is to go to Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash everything. Literally, everything I do is on that page. I hope you’ve enjoyed my urine review. Like I said, there’s more to come, I’m going to share with you my intentions and my word of the year which is already playing out in such a good way. But yeah, that was my year, ups and downs. But overall, I am so grateful for the momentum for the growth that I saw in 2021. It’s just a case of taking it to the next level in 2022. And I’m excited about that.

Ruth Poundwhite 22:59
Thank you so much for listening to another episode of quietly ambitious. If you have a moment to rate and review know that it really does make a difference. And if you’d like to carry on the conversation, then you can connect with me on Instagram at Ruth Poundwhite Join me in the Facebook group or my personal favourite. Sign up to my newsletter letters to quietly ambitious humans. Just go to Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash newsletter to subscribe and keep doing what you’re doing because your work really does matter.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai