Last month I ran a challenge for over 250 bloggers. We assessed our year and made killer plans to ensure we all kick-butt in 2017. I shared my goals last week, but I also wanted to reflect on 2016 for my blog. I think it’s important to learn from the things that didn’t go as planned, let the lessons we learned sink in, but also to give ourselves a pat on the back. Often we work in isolation and we need to be our own cheerleader; giving ourselves credit for the things we achieve. So here goes, my 2016 highs, lows and aha moments.
Highs
- Went to Monaco/Cannes with Bridgestone
- Outstanding contribution award at MADS
- One of only 15 bloggers to be invited to a Parisian Blogging conference
- Diversified my income streams to include courses and coaching
- Launching and running two free challenges which each had over 250 bloggers involved
- Launched my first ecourse and sold over 50 during the initial launch
- Launched pre-sales for my second course with great sales so far
- Made it to number 6 of Tots100 (9 now!)
- Increased my DA to 50
- Doing my first Facebook live and totally falling in love with it
- Twitter followers: 2016 goals was to go from 14,400 to 20k. I have ended 2016 on 21,463
- Instagram followers: 2016 goals was to go from 4141 to 10,000. I have ended 2016 on 11,400
- Pinterest followers: 2016 goals was to go from 2,500 to 5,000. I have ended 2016 at 5036
- Started to work as BritMums Social Media Manager
- Being booked for my first speaking engagement (Blog Camp), then being asked to speak at BlogFest too
- Signing my 6 biggest contracts with brands
- Going to Germany with Pampers
Lows
- Too many late nights
- Not enough time to focus on the parts of my business that I love the most
- Too easily distracted
- Facebook likes: 2016 goal was to reach 8k likes (5074 at the end of 2015) – I only reached 6629
A-ha moments
- Don’t trade time for money. You will always lose out
- Don’t do what everyone else is doing. Go to the place your competitors won’t go
- I wrote about lots of my other a-ha moments here
So there’s my 2016 in a nutshell. I have probably missed off something notable, but I had to write this from memory. This year I am keeping track of all of these things as I go through the year; will make reflection much easier!