Welcome to the Get your act together podcast. I am your host, Kelly, I would love to use the last episode of the year, the last episode of 2022. And what a year it has been following you know, the last two years that were also crazy, I'm tired this year is really put me through my paces. So we're going to take the next two weeks of the podcast off, and we will be back in the beginning of January, because we need a break, we need a break around here. And you know, we have Christmas on family here and kid home from school and all the things so we are going to take a little break. And I think that a lot of people are taking a break, I think this year has been harder than we all thought it was going to be, I think after 2020 2021 being, you know, world pandemic catastrophe, I think 2022 is going to be the easier and it wasn't it was complicated, and everything was changing, business was changing. And so I think I think that we're going to all as a business, like society, I think are just going to take a couple weeks off and take a big deep breath. That seems to be what all my friends are saying everyone's just like we're out. So we're going to take a break. But before that, I was going to do like a wrap up episode, I my hair in my face, I was going to do a wrap up episode for the year. And I decided that I can't possibly do that right now. One because the year is over got two more weeks to go. And even though I'm taking off, there are things that I'm going to be doing just not going to be doing new things this year. So I've got things to wrap up. And a lot can happen in the last two weeks. And I kind of feel like I don't want to wrap up a year until it's over. And then I also need a bunch of time to like really absorb what happened this year. Because if you if you've listened this podcast before, you will know that this year was unlike any other year in my business. In May, my largest client, an eight figure business decided to sell his business. And we had, well we had 45 days of due diligence to get ready for it. And then we've spent the last six months transitioning the new business, the old business into the new business and offboarding ourselves. So we've got a couple more weeks of kind of wrapping things up. And it's been a lot. So I mean, this was our best jet revenue year, by far, by like 25% over last year, and last year was a really great year. So it was the best revenue. Okay, like, you can see, I'm not like oh, like it's awesome. But at the same time, I worked really hard for it. And it's not like the easiest. It was not the easiest one, let's put it that way. It was the worst year by far for any kind of balance in my life. Any kind of work life balance where I came to my desk, and I worked and then I left my desk at reasonable times. It was it was terrible for my home life because I felt like I was working all the time. And very chaotically. And irradically, we had gotten to a place where a lot of things were running really smooth. And then this whole thing came up and then it's just chaos. And chaos is fun for a little bit. At least I like the chaos for a little bit. I like figuring out what's going on and and kind of wrangling it all. But chaos for an extended period is exhausting and mind numbing, and sucks. And then you know it was a really terrible year for self care. If you're really ill if you've been listening to my guests, at least into the end of the year, in February, I had a problem where it my wrist started hurting so badly that I couldn't really use them. So I couldn't use the mouse I couldn't type everything hurt can wash dishes, which you know, that seems more fun than it is but it's really aggravating when you can't get anything done. So I started out the year kind of stressed out and not really taking great care of myself and then in May this whole like bomb kind of got thrown in my lap and then we've just been working so there hasn't been as much chill out time or just taking care of myself going for walks getting up from this desk. And that has been unfortunate like I just don't feel the greatest I feel very rundown and I am super, super looking forward to January when everything will chill out a little bit and I can figure some things out. Because I am both hugely sentimental about this year are coming to an end, I'm saying goodbye to a client I've had since the beginning of my business, I am saying goodbye to people I've worked with, like, every day for years. And I'm also super excited for it all to be over all the chaos of it to be over. And to just get the time to like, chill out and like realign and see where my business is going. Now. The ops nerd of me really cannot wait until Christmas is over. So that I can take out that big calendar that I bought, and a lot of paper and spread it all out and just plan to my heart's content. Like, I am really looking forward to that week after Christmas when no one really bothers you. And you can get a ton done like dreaming wise, just sitting there and planning and mapping things out. Like I am super looking forward to that. Because so much this year, feels like it happened to me, instead of me intentionally deciding to do something. I have these clients with these situations where they needed me and I am. I'm very blunt and upfront, but I am a people pleaser. I do like to make sure that things are running well. I do feel I feel it, I felt I fall into the trap a lot of being too nice and being like, Oh, of course I'll stop whatever I'm doing to help you. And when things get chaotic like that. My clients love it, because they're getting really, really good care. But it's come at a detriment, I think, to me, at least. And that is my team has been telling me this, like you need to stop. Not having so many boundaries, you know, like, I have been like, Sure What do you mean, I'll stop everything right now to help you. And they're that like, that's part of my job, or at least what I was doing for them. But at the same time, there's a place where you're like, Okay, it's 830 at night. And I used to have really strict boundaries. And now everything is kind of going out the window. So I really want to focus for the next year on intentionally deciding my life again, I had gotten to a really great place at the end of last year, and the beginning of this year. And then it all kinda went to crap. And I am craving structure, I am craving, you know, making decisions instead of just adapting to what's been happening to me. And just, I want to like, I want to make the plans, I want to be in charge of my life. So for the next week, the week after Christmas, when everything's quiet, I will be looking at these things, so that I can prepare next year to have a better year. All the things right, like, I want to be intentional and have a great year for my work life, my my home life, and then also have revenue coming in, right? Like I want all the things. So we're gonna plan for all the things and then we're gonna see how it goes. So I really want to map out what do I want to accomplish this year? Not just like, I want to make more money, like what do I want to accomplish? Like, do I want to work less hours? Do I want to I don't know all the things. I don't even know what they are yet. But what do I want to accomplish? What is it gonna be my goal for the year, and I have not even been able to think up until now, about any of this. I know some people have been planning things for the next year for months, I have had no space or bandwidth. So what do I want? What do I want to accomplish? And then what do I need to get there? I feel like there has been a lot of it. A lot of time lately, where I look at my week. I plan my week out. And then the next week I write the exact same to do list again from last week because the week went crazy and I got none of the things I wanted done. And that is really disheartening. It makes you feel like crap all the time, makes you feel like you can't do your job like I project manage. I am the organizing ops person. And when you can't get your list done, you can't check things off like it's really demoralizing. So what do I want to accomplish? What do I need to do to get there? Do I need to make more space for myself? Do I need to book meetings with myself on my calendar, so no one else can interrupt? Do I need to just buckle down a little and stop distracting myself? I have noticed that as soon as I have to do something uncomfortable, like make marketing stuff that I don't feel like I'm great at. I don't feel like I'm great at copy. I'm so nerdy and opsy that I put like the blunt thing, instead of like the good copy thing. And as soon as I have to start doing that, all of a sudden my desk gets clean and I organize all these things and then I start going through my spam folder because I should clean that out. Like I tried to like distract myself from the thing I really should be doing by doing all these other things that feel like I can check off off, and I can feel accomplished. But then the thing I need to actually get done doesn't get done. So what do I need to do there? How do I break that cycle? And then what kind of life do I want to lead? i It's not just about business. So this plan, I want to obviously play my business. But like, what do I want to do in life? My son is nine. He's very travel now. Like, do we want to travel more? After those last couple years with COVID? We haven't gone anywhere. Like he's never been on an airplane. Do we want to go places to I want to volunteer more. I've been volunteering all summer, really? At a garden. It's not a garden, but it's this Audubon Society location that got donated, it was all overgrown. And I've been volunteering there on Thursdays, it's like two hours, I go there, I rip terrible overgrown vines out of things. I feel great. And I go home. But like, do I want to add more volunteer hours? Or do I want to do more things that get me out of this house? And out of my office? I don't know. I don't know. Like, how much is too much? How much like, I don't know what I want to do. Like, what kind of time do I want to spend with my son? Do I want to have like things that we do together more often, like out of the house? We used to go to the park all the time this like we have huge county parks here we can hike for days? Probably not if you're not going in circles. But you know, I mean, they're big, you can get lost real easy. Do you want to do that? Do I want to add that in like I want to put all these intentional things in here? What do I want to do with my son, my husband, put those on the calendar. Do I want to do more with my gardening, if you if you're on Instagram, I post some things there. But I have a greenhouse this year we just built it was my birthday, it took a while because we did it from scratch. It's all recycled materials. It's really awesome. It's super cool. I've no idea what I'm doing. But like, I want to go do some more with that. Like, I have a lot of friends who would like to learn how to grow things. So I thought well, maybe I could start a YouTube channel to teach people how to garden to be able to eat better food at home, right? Because there's so many people that have food insecurity. And being able to grow some things would would help a lot let us is really expensive, but it's super cheap to grow, things like that. Like these are all the things that are going in my head. What do I want to do with my life. And I know this is a business podcast, but I'm telling you this because this year has been so much focused on my business and not enough on my life, that I want to say it out loud to you too, if that's your problem as well, like, maybe we're going to just, you know, recalibrate here. And I need to know what I want with my life do I want to build? Or do I want to buy a farm? And if I if I do when do I want to do that? And what do I need to do for that, like, all these kind of dreams, I just want to sit for a week and like dream and think about all this stuff. And then start kind of blocking off that time and making those things a priority? What do I want to do? Do I want to do something every week? Do I want to do something every month, whatever it is, and then blocking that timeout. Because I find that if I say I'm gonna Oh, I should totally do that. And then I don't actually write it down and put it as a meeting on my calendar. It just doesn't happen. And then I need to figure out what kind of boundaries I need to put in place. Because none of this will get done otherwise, otherwise, I will work. I am the person who sat in corporate for some years, I sat down I got my to do list I went went to work. And I've taken care of clients for so many years that like I sit down at my desk and I feel like the first things I have to do or check in on my emails, check in on my slack, see what's going on. And I'll tell myself that it's because I want to make a plan for the day. Which sure that's part of it. But then I tend to just blow past the plan and then just get a whole bunch of work done. And I need to make things more of a priority I need to make this more intentional. And I need to put boundaries around those things. So that is the work that I am going to be doing over break. And I am going to try my best to rest and chill out. We had a virtual team holiday party the other day, everyone on my team go on Zoom. I send them stuff for drinks and snacks. So we had a party and my husband was there. I love he gets to be invited because he's the podcast host and the media department basically. So he was there and he made a comment that I seem to go to work one day in May and never come home. Like I just never came home. And it has been a long, crazy eight months. And I am just ready to putter. I don't relax while sitting still. If I don't feel well, maybe I'm good at like snuggling on the couch, if I'm with my son and we're struggling together fine, but I don't sit still well. So the way I relax is by puttering I putter, by gardening or baking something, I make a lot of bread. Building something yesterday, we put up a whole bunch of curtains in my office or like just little things. And then I feel like accomplished like my life has just gotten a little bit better. And I have a lot of gardening to do. I have a big greenhouse. And there's not really anything in there right now except some lettuce. And I just want to be able to like build the shelves and garden and not feel obligated to be at my desk all the time. So I hope that you all get to take some time to spend with your family and your friends. I hope you eat lots of delicious food. I hope you drink really great wine. If that's your thing. It's fine, as I hope you get to relax a bit. And I know that there is a lot of doom and gloom about the economy or how 2022 wasn't the greatest year are all the things people people love doom and gloom. I get an I have a few podcasts listen to that are just doom and gloom that I can't even deal with right now. Because I think that 2023 is going to be spectacular. I think that there is so much opportunity out there right now. And especially for small business like small businesses where it's where the opportunity is like when you come in and things aren't so great. That's when you figure out how to make solutions for those things that aren't great. And that's when businesses, you know, are birthed and grow. So for us, I think that it's going to be a spectacular year. All those opportunities to help people and to fix their problems and to get paid for it. So I can't really, I can't even tell you how excited I am to see what this year has in store for us. And I hope you have a wonderful holiday. And I will see you in January. Thank you so much for joining me this week. If you have an agency or want to create one, come join my facebook community. Get your agency together where we talk all the things growing and scaling your agency for show notes and more info and all the things head over to Reynolds obm.com Follow me on Instagram and Facebook at Reynolds OBM. And finally, if you enjoy this podcast, I would love for you to give us a review on iTunes.