My Professional Goals For My Online Brand in 2022

2021 was a surprisingly good year for me professionally. I say surprisingly good because how I’m living life during a Global pandemic is really different and this difference has impacted how I run my business. As a lifelong extrovert, this forced ongoing proximity to my hometown has really changed how I do what I do. In person connections is a key part of how I grow my brand and not being able to attend in person conferences, meetups or even coffee dates has necessitated that I change how I market and think about sharing who I am and what I do.

In 2021 I leaned even more deeply into niching down the different parts of my business. This action was both risky to do and difficult as well because it meant that I was breaking up my business into different much more distinct content funnels. If you’re listening to this episode and are a multi-passionate online entrepreneur/content creator continue listening to this episode. I had some very distinct goals for 2021 which were to earn more, hopefully work with brands and maybe win a Plutus Award for my content in the personal finance space.

At the end of 2021, I’d exceeded my goals winning 2 awards this fall for content creation one awarded by the Plutus Foundation, the other awarded by Women in Content Marketing an organization that was new to me at the time. I ended the year having collaborated on two very large brand partnership deals for me. I earned the most that I’d ever earned in my business at the end of the year and I attended Podcast Movement in Nashville, Tennessee, FinCon in Austin, Texas, CampFi in San Diego and was flown out to San Francisco for a brand collaboration. In this episode, I’m going to quickly share what worked and what didn’t work in 2021 and my goals for 2022. You can listen to my last episode of 2021 where I share lessons learned in my business.

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Related Episodes

• 2021 Online Biz End of Year Wrap Up-Lessons Learned

• Creating Your Business Financial No No Map

• How to Decide if You Need an Online Business Coach and How to Pick the Right One

• How Lack of Access Impacts POC Online Businesses

Show Notes

• First, I would like to say that I had no idea how much attending conferences would wear me out. I was so excited about seeing my friends and colleagues that I way underestimated the impact that attending these events would have on me. I didn’t even party. But, the uncertainty around travel and how other people would behave in relation to COVID and other issues made me a little uncomfortable as I made my way out there in the world.

Attend Only 5 Conferences Max

• I plan on attending a maximum of 5 conferences in 2022 and that includes events held in my state. Currently I’m looking at attending the following events:
  • Outdoor Retailer Snow Show-I run a niche website about Colorado called “Square State Colorado” Outdoor Retailer is a massive show that has all of the businesses and communities in the outdoor space from all over the world under one roof here in Denver. This show is held at the end of January.
  • Podcast Movement Evolutions-this is a smaller event than Podcast Movement and I won’t be attending Podcast Movement in August. Podcast Evolutions will be held in Los Angeles in March.
  • 20Booksto50K in Madrid-I am a self-published author of both non-fiction and fiction books. In fact, I’m working on my first personal finance book “Not a Financial Unicorn” as we speak. I’ll share the link to my “Michelle is Money Hungry” Podcast episode where I talk all about it. Anyway, this conference is for self-published authors and I really want to begin earning more with my books. This would be my first overseas trip since the end of 2104 when I went to Australia for 2 months. This event is in May 2022
  • FinCon22-I have no idea when or where it will be, but I do plan on attending.
  • Denver Startup Week 2022-I LOVE this free event held in Denver typically held in September.

• I also like that these events are spaced apart so this gives me time to recover and focus.

6 Figure Earnings

It has taken me awhile to diversify my income. Longer than what I would like. But, it has absolutely been the right thing to focus on. Currently I earn money in the following ways:

Brand partnerships

Podcast Sponsorships

Freelance writing

Speaking Gigs

Events (hosting)

Affiliate marketing

Ebooks

Make Money with Ebooks Course Sales

Coaching

And, in 2022, I’m working on adding one more revenue stream which is ad revenue generated on my Square State Colorado website. My big area of focus is passive income in 2022. I just want to wake up with sales coming on my books, courses, etc. This totals 10 different revenue streams not including applying for grants and scholarships.

Saying “No” More Often

I’ve actually created a list of all of the activities, actions, collaborations, etc. that I don’t want to do. Understanding what I’m going to say “no” to now saves me a lot of mental energy later. These activities could include, but aren’t limited to the following:

• Collaborations

• Attending events (online or in-person)

• Hanging out in online communities that distract from building my own brand

• Being off schedule-I’m pretty good at working a schedule, this year I plan on tightening my schedule up a lot more.

• Anything that distracts from my end goal

Publish Not a Financial Unicorn

I’m super excited to publish my first personal finance book called “Not a Financial Unicorn.” It’s a love letter to all of the people out there making unsexy financial changes that need to be celebrated. The current publishing date is May 2022.

Focus on Community

The last 2, going on 3, years of living in a pandemic has really impressed upon me the importance of community and people. I’m starting a local Meetup group here in Denver and I’m really thinking about how I can nurture and foster deeper relationships with the amazing people in my life.

Understanding What’s Important

Because I have earnings specific goals for 2022, I’m not as focused on the following:

• Winning awards-I love winning awards but the actions you take to win an award are different from growing income.

• Social Media-I’ve actually broken down which platform performs best for each niche. Understanding the breakdown makes focusing on what actually moves the needle forward in different aspects of my business.

• Having to show up everywhere-I’m focused on showing up where it makes the most sense for me and my brand

Track My Data

I have done a crappy job of tracking the data associated with my business. This data includes, but isn’t limited, to the following:

• A deeper understanding of hours vs. earnings in my business
• Podcast downloads
• Pitches and sponsorships
• Page views
• Email sign ups
• Social media statistics and the time I spend on social
• I have a good idea, but I need to do a better job at keeping track of these statistics.
• Basically I’m needing to
  • Take better records
  • Grow my hourly income and have a better understanding how long it takes me to do a certain task
  • Understanding what tasks I should be doing vs. having my virtual assistant or podcast editor doing
  • Batching my work-I have always been slightly behind my content schedule or just barely ahead of my schedule. Not any longer. In fact, I already know what content I will be publishing for all of my platforms for Q1. I have a busy year ahead of me and trying to figure things out the a few days before content needs to be published or even a week before it has to be published is really stressful.

Financial Organization

I’ve reorganized my expenses so that I’m paying myself at the end of the month from all of my earnings. I used to get paid once a month from my old job at the university for 10 years and I didn’t realize how much I missed that system until I became an entrepreneur and my money was so inconsistent. Now (knock on wood) my earnings are pretty consistent so I will be moving over certain predetermined amounts into different accounts at the end of each month. I love having this fairly predictable income coming in.

Dressing Up More

This last area of focus may surprise you. I actually LOVE dressing up. But, during debt repayment and a pandemic I slid into depression and soft clothing as I emotionally ate. In 2022, I want to dress up like Emily in Paris and have FUN with how I present myself to the world. I survived (so far) a PANDEMIC. So, here are my goals for 2022. I would love to hear what your goals are for your online business in 2022.

What are your online business goals for 2022? Let me know! Do any of these resonate with you? Don’t forget to get my “Do It Ugly” tool kit today.

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