Episode #35: "My 2024 Year in Review: Navigating Perinatal Depression, Making 6 Figures in Revenue & Building a Business That Runs Without Me”

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Written By Eman Ismail

It's finally here! My recap for 2024 🎉 I share everything from major milestones and setbacks to important lessons I’ve learned.

You’ll get an update on how my micro-agency building is going, and hear me talk about how I've tackled personal challenges like perinatal depression. PLUS I'm sharing my life and business goals for 2025.

This episode is both a reflection on 2024 and a roadmap for what lies ahead.

Enjoyyy!

 
 

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If you loved this episode, take a screenshot, post it on Instagram, and tell everyone you know that this is the podcast to listen to. Don’t forget to tag me! @emancopyco

  • Eman Ismail: Hey, welcome to Mistakes That Made Me the podcast that asks extraordinary business owners to share their biggest business mistake. So, you know what not to do on your road to success. Mistakes That Made Me is brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network the audio destination for business professionals and I'm Eman Ismail your host.


    This episode is not an interview. It's actually my 2024 end of year review. I'm finally sharing how my year went. So two things, first of all, first thing is that I strongly believe in waiting until the year is actually up before I do my review. So I always like to do it in kind of early January rather than at the end of December, which is why this is coming now.


    And the second thing is I did intend to share this. Like a week ago and I did see that I was going to apologize so it's a little bit late. But I really needed a break over the holidays. Once I stopped working I just could not bring myself to work again. And so I realized I really didn't need the break. So I decided to prioritize rest and figured the year in review could wait a week, right?


    but i'm here now and I am glad I waited because this You Episode now has so much more kind of juiciness to it because I had the energy to go get all the data and figure out and really just like, you know, reflect on the year and figure out what I liked about it, what I didn't, what went well, what didn't go well, all that good stuff that you are here for.


    I do want to share a trigger warning. I am currently seven months pregnant, so the topics of pregnancy and perinatal depression do come up in this conversation. So if that's something you don't want to hear about right now, it might be best to listen in another time.


    How this is going to work. I'll start by reminding us of my 2024 goals. I did share all those goals for 2024 in my end of year review for 2024, which I recorded back in January, 2024. So we ended that episode with my goals for 2024. So I figured it would be nice to start by recapping those goals and seeing if I actually achieved any of them.


    And if I did, how did it go? If I didn't, How did it go? So we're going to assess whether I hit those goals or not. And talk about that a little bit, then I'm going to specifically talk about what didn't work in my business in 2024. Then we're going to talk about what worked in my business in 2024. Then I'm going to set some goals for 2025.


    But before we go into the end of your review. I want to ask you to do something for me. I'm not going to ask you to do all three things. I just want you to pick one of these three things. If you love this podcast, I would love for you to either follow or subscribe because it really does make a difference in telling me and also the podcast platforms that people are listening to and loving this show, which encourages them to Put it out to new audiences, but also just motivates me to keep going because there's nothing like, you know, getting that feedback and seeing that people are listening and enjoying. Number two, I would love for you to leave a quick rating or review, go to rate this podcast. com slash mistakes, and it'll walk you through how to leave a review. Or if you already know how to just head over to your favorite podcast platform, whether you're listening on Spotify, Apple podcasts, whatever it is, and just leave a rating or review.


    I would love that so much. And if neither of those two options work, I would be so grateful for just your screenshot in this episode, posting it to your favorite social platform and tagging me so I know you're listening. I'm at emancopyco on most social platforms. Or Eman Ismail on LinkedIn. I always love seeing those screenshots, because you usually include where you are in the world and also what you do in.


    And I think it's really amazing that I can be getting on with my day and someone on the other side of the world is, I don't know, making a sandwich for themselves, listening to the podcast or on a walk, listening to the podcast. I just find it amazing. So I always enjoy seeing those posts. Okay. Are you ready?




    2024 business goals, were they achieved or not? Let's talk about it. First up. The first goal I set for myself was to launch a new website in 2024 and to launch as a micro agency with me and a few team members. So I'm very excited to say if you've been following along during 2024, you'll already know that I did do this.


    And this was a huge, huge thing because I basically, I changed my entire business model and we're definitely still in a transition period and I don't see that transition period being completely done for the next six to twelve months, honestly, change has been made, but in terms of just transitioning through the changes and, making sure everything's working smoothly, setting up all the new processes and systems and all that kind of stuff, that's going to take some time.


    And I think knowing that is going to take some time takes a little bit of pressure off me. Because I just, I know that it's going to take some time. but then I also have some pressure on me because I'm going to be leaving for maternity leave in less than two months. So I've also got a lot to do in two months.


    I would actually say that my to-do list may be a little impossible. But you know, here's to hoping. I'm like, that's 60 days. That's a lot. That's a lot. I'm telling myself we can do a lot in 60 days. and I'm hoping for the best. So yeah, in terms of that rebrand and relaunch, the new website, the new business model, bringing on new team members, all of this stuff, gosh, the rebranding itself was.


    Between 12 to 13, 000. actually it was probably a little bit more when I consider all the little costs that I actually didn't include, like, or, uh, hiring a designer to like brush up my case studies for the website and things like that. So it was actually probably a bit more. I definitely went over budget on that, but honestly, I am so happy with it.


    The website with how it turned out. I absolutely love it. and I'm really happy with the new business model. I'm very excited about it. And I don't think that I have mastered everything yet. I think I'm still new to this micro agency world, but I'm enjoying it. And I like it. What I'm aiming for now I'm not going to do a big deep dive into this because I did record an entire episode about launching and building my micro agency that came out a few months ago.


    So if you just have a quick scroll, you'll find that episode. It's called building my microagency behind the scenes. And I go into so much detail about what it looked like building this. And that was like a six month process. So I'm going to let you listen to that episode to get all the details. But what I will do now is give you an update on how this is going.


    So my current team now is. A VA, she's called Nicole. She's absolutely, absolutely fantastic. And I just love working with her. I have two copywriters. I have an email copywriter, Audrey, and a sales page copywriter, Ash. I have two researchers. They do customer research and insert insights. so they are in charge of doing surveys, interviews, for our clients, customers.


    That's Melissa and Natasha. They're both fantastic too, as are the copywriters. We have our editor, Sarah, and, we have our email tech expert, Yusuf, who we haven't made much use of yet because the implementation slash setup part of the emails for clients is optional. So not all clients want it. Was to set up their emails for them.


    and I haven't gone down the path of, not giving them that option. We could be the kind of agency that says, Hey,we need to do the setup too, which some agencies do, and I told it totally makes sense. You know, we might do that in the future, but for now, I give clients the option of whether they want to set up their emails because they might have their own team members that they want to do it, or they can hire us to do an excuse of who will do that, but we haven't had many clients yet who've opted for the, email set up.


    I should just mention in case you don't know what I do, I'm an email strategist and a copywriter. I'm the head email strategist and founder at email and copy co. We are a micro agency. We do email marketing. We help you take your emails from potential to highly profitable. So when I'm talking about email, it's the email marketing that we're doing, that we're strategizing, writing, setting up.


    For clients often, oh my gosh, course creators, membership makers, service providers, coaches, even charities and nonprofit organizations. We've worked with quite a few of those because my background is in charity work. So that's the type of work that I'm talking about. That's who we do it for. Now I have just been hired.


    A sales lead, that is someone who does the sales calls and who kind of, sends the proposals and things like that. And I'm in the middle of hiring. As in, I have an interview tonight and the other two interviews tomorrow. I'm in the middle of hiring for a project manager, which I'm very excited about.


    And that is like my ideal team. I will also add that I have our podcast producer Zuri. Zuri works on the podcast with us, but that feels a little bit separate because it's not the email agency work. Right. But that is the team and I don't see myself adding. anyone else to the mix anytime soon. it feels bigger than I wanted it to be, I actually created an organization like map.


    and on that map, I kind of had to detail, What roles do we need? So that I'm not the one doing all the execution and these were the roles And it's become even more important now that I have those roles in place So that the agency can run without me during maternity leave because that is the aim 


    I see maybe some space for one more copywriter, maybe, but we'll see. We'll see what happens. We'll see how it goes. So that's what the team looks like. That's the kind of, that's the update. My website is, I'm just in love with it. I actually. Just read it sometimes, cause I'm just so excited about it.


    And I'm really excited about what's happening kind of behind the scenes of the business in terms of building the business, building a team, building structures, the processes, the systems, all that kind of stuff. And I'm excited to get the project manager into place. so I can just have someone tell me, this is what we need to set up, go do this. Because it's often, it's the thinking work that I don't have the energy for right now. I would love someone to tell me. What to do in terms of systems processes, and then I'll go do it, Sounds amazing to me right now.


    Stick around. Don't go anywhere. We'll get right back to this episode after this quick break. 


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    So the other goal that I had was, it was all around my newsletter and I wasn't very specific in my notes.


    So I don't remember exactly what I said, but I'm sure it was just making more money from my newsletter and sending more emails and sending better quality emails. And I, and I've done all of those things. Definitely. So I upped my emails from two times a week in 2023, to sending three emails a week in 2024.


    And that was after I had a conversation with Laura Belgray, who encouraged me to email more. And that conversation happened on this podcast, by the way, it was the interview with Laura Belgray, where she talks about. ghosting her email list. She challenged me back then to send more emails.


    In 2024, I did send more emails. I send three emails a week. Mostly I did kind of taper off towards the end of the year because I was just tired.but that also meant that I sold more digital products passively than ever before, because I was sending more emails and that's not a surprise to me.


    I know that email. That doesn't surprise me at all. I think in terms of list growth, I definitely saw a lot of list growth, but because I was sending so many emails, I obviously got more unsubscribed. So it kind of balanced out in the end. So my goal towards the end of the year was really, To build my email list and to get fresh subscribers on my email list and I spoke about this in 2024 But I really still think that I think paid ads is the way that i'm gonna go at some point to help with Email list growth, because I really, I think that I've hit the ceiling in terms of organic list growth.


    And now it's just time to get strategic with ads. I also set up two evergreen funnels for two of my digital products. Those worked really well. Except until I completely changed the sequence of one of them and then it stopped selling. I'm just gonna switch off the new sequence I was experimenting with, switch it back to the old sequence that was selling so we can get back to selling.


    It's always interesting with evergreen stuff because it really, it's not set and forget, it really is set, experiment, test, rework, optimize, and then you know, check results, all that kind of stuff. So, yeah. I'm redoing one of those products and I have already redone and relaunched the other one for that.


    So there were a lot of changes. I changed the audience that I was marketing to. So, there were a lot of moving parts to that. So that's still, I guess in the experimentation phase, but I'm really happy with the results of all of this because one of my goals was to increase the products, basically the product sales that made up my, like the percentage of my revenue.


    So in 2023, My digital product sales made up 20 percent of my revenue. And my goal for 2024 was to increase that. And the goal was to increase it to 30 percent and I didn't quite get there, but I'm happy with 24%. We increased to 24%, which is great. And so we just need to keep increasing that. Like, let's just keep going, doing more of what I've been doing.


    That tells me that. What I'm doing with my newsletter, with my email marketing is working and I just need to do more of it and just keep getting better at it. So, yeah, I also just have a lot of fun with my own newsletter. Obviously I do a lot of emails for clients, and I get to have a lot of fun there, but I have the most fun with my own newsletter cause I just can experiment more and I can test things with my own newsletter that I can't really play around with and test with clients until I'm sure that it works.


    So. It's always just fun. And I want to make more time to create my own emails, my own email content as well. I also experimented with reposting to LinkedIn, reposting my most popular emails to the LinkedIn newsletter that worked really well, and also reposting my most popular emails to Instagram.


    That also worked really well. So yes, for repurposing content, I'm so for it. I'm still playing around with that. But. It's good to see that it's working and email is always going to be my top nurturing content because it demonstrates and kind of showcases what I do so that people hire us. I found that a lot of the people that do hire us are on my newsletter before they hire us.


    So I got to keep that newsletter kind of fresh and exciting and experimental and just working. So in terms of my 2024 newsletter goals, I hit most of those. I was 6 percent off my sales target for digital products, but I'm still happy with that. My next 2024 goal was to launch the Mistakes That Made Me. Private membership with some kind of private podcast bonus content, which I did. I did that and that was a really great and kind of fun experiment. And I knew at the time of launching that it was going to be an experiment. I wanted to see how it went.


    I have since decided to close it down. So the private podcast for Mistakes That Made Me in the private membership that came with it, It was a membership where people were paying either 9 a month on their kind of founders membership or 11 a month. And at one point, I think we were making about 400 a month from that private membership, which I think is great considering how kind of a low ticket it is.


    But of course with churn, with people leaving and then people coming and then people leaving and then other people coming in, by the end of it, we were probably making half of that a month. And so I really needed to consider whether it was really actually worth the time and energy that I was putting into it, because even though I automated it to the max and did everything I could to automate the systems and processes behind it.


    So all I had to do was turn up and record. It was still. Work that took me away from all the work. So I kind of had to assess, is this working? And I felt like it wasn't, I felt like for me, sorry, I should say it wasn't working for me because I feel like the content that I was putting out and all the kind of business coaching I was doing through the private membership was really working for the people who were in it.


    The people who were in it loved it. were really receptive, would, you know, send me, amazing emails. Responding to an Instagram DMS as well, responding to what I was saying, the private membership. And so I think it really works for the people in the membership, but it didn't work for me. And actually someone messaged me at one point asking for an annual membership.


    And I think, by the way, I would have kept a lot more members if I had given them the option for the annual membership, instead of only offering a monthly membership. So when that person did ask me for that, I actually. I said, no, I'm not going to offer the annual membership because I didn't know how long it would go on for.


    I didn't know how long the membership would continue because I knew in my head that this was an experiment. If it works, then eventually, yes, I'll offer an annual membership. But in the like, I'm not sure if this is a long term thing, I didn't want to commit myself to a year, another year of this, when I wasn't sure yet.


    So had I offered the annual membership, I know I would have locked in a lot more members. But. It just didn't work for me and what I kind of wanted to do. So in terms of, I guess, moving forward with that, there's so much content in that private membership that I don't want it to just disappear. It is a year of business coaching, With me in like 20 minute, super digestible, episodes.


    And then also there are guest interviews as well. That's super valuable as well. I don't just want that to disappear. And so I am actually going to offer that, at some point very soon. as a kind of one off, a one off price lifetime access to a year of business coaching with me. And then that means you get access to this weekly business coaching that I did from February 2024 all the way till December 2024.


    And it's just so valuable. So I'm excited to share that with you at some point soon.so you can get access to it. Because I just, I don't want it to disappear. I don't want it to just die. And so I'm going to keep it alive by offering it out and seeing who's interested in getting what is basically a year of prerecorded coaching with me, on all different topics.


    And some of them were, a lot of them were Q and A's as well. So people were asking fantastic questions and I got to answer those questions in detail. So the next 2024 goal that I shared with you was to redo and relaunch existing digital products. So they served all business owners and not just copywriters basically.


    So, I have two big digital products. I have a boss, which is my business course. It's a course for business owners, originally for copywriters, but now it's for service providers. So I'm kind of, I'm opening it up because as I was looking at the content, I was like, all of this content is relevant for service providers without me needing to water anything down without me needing to, actually change too much of it, it's still going to be super relevant for copywriters, but it's.


    Also really relevant for non copyrighted service providers too. So that was the goal for Likeaboss. And I had the same goal for, Design your VIP week. Now design your VIP week is called design your VIP day. So I updated the title, and made it more specific about my VIP week process. And honestly, it was, it really was about my VIP week process.


    I just probably didn't name it very well. So design your VIP day becomes design your VIP week. And I again opened it up so that it was available to service providers. I did that. It's a masterclass. So like a three and a half hour masterclass. I actually did that live and then the recording is available for sale to whoever wants it.


    It's always available on my website So in terms of that goal, I'm 50 percent there. Design your VIP week. Yes, I did redo and relaunch it so that it serves service providers, not just copywriters. It's available on my website. If you want to go find that under the courses tab, I didn't do that with a boss, but my aim is to relaunch like a boss, my, My business course for service providers before I go on maternity leave.


    that's why I was saying my to do list is, my to do list is full. It's full of stuff that I need to do before I can take a step back. And that's something I really want to do. So, It took me a while to decide whether I was going to launch my email course before I went for my tenancy leave or relaunch like a boss and it felt like the smarter thing to do was to relaunch like a boss because I know that it's a great course and actually As I was kind of trying to make this decision there were two people who posted about like a boss actually one person posted on linkedin and the other person sent me an email both people People who had taken like a boss they'd bought it last year And they sent me an email or posted about it, telling me how amazing it was, how much it helped them.


    One person said, I just, I just secured my biggest contract ever with a client. my highest project, highest paying project ever. And that was because of being like a boss, which is just amazing to hear. And. Hearing feedback like that helped me make the decision that oh my gosh I don't want to create a brand new email course right now from scratch I also don't have the energy considering I'm officially seven months pregnant But what I do have the energy to do is Rework my existing course and relaunch So that's what I decided to go for.


    So I am currently working on re-re launching like a boss so that it's suitable for service providers and not just copywriters. That doesn't mean the content is being watered down. If you're a copywriter that's listening, if anything, I'm still going to be giving you all the examples and templates and things from my business.


    So it's still going to be super relevant to you. but it also just includes non copywriters as well, so they can benefit from it because there's no reason they can't or shouldn't. So, yeah, I am still planning to do my email course. That is one big thing that's missing from my business, is a signature email course.


    It's really funny because most people assume that I have one and I don't. Don't so that is something I'm going to be working on. I have the waitlist up in the background. and I'm kind of like, I'm working on that. and that's something that I think I'm just gonna let kind of marinate. While I work on other stuff because of that signature course, I want it to be exceptional.


    and I don't want to rush it, which is why I don't want to try and start it from scratch right now. I'd rather spend the two months that I have reworking a program I already know is amazing. And where I don't have to start from scratch. So there's going to be no rush with that. So yeah, I've got a lot of work to do.


    My final 2024 goal was to create more revenue streams. And one way I wanted to do that was through podcast sponsorship to help keep the podcast going because I don't get payments from HubSpot or anything like that. I've said this a lot, I've been really transparent about this.


    It costs a lot to keep the podcast going, especially at the, I want to say like high quality that we do it, in terms of production and things like that, and so that's something I really wanted to work on and I I did achieve that through the private podcast membership, and again, that worked really well.


    Well, the membership worked really well for people in it, but it didn't work so well with me. I also didn't enjoy a low ticket. Like this was an experiment for me to see if I liked selling low ticket products and I didn't. I really didn't. I really really didn't and I think that's because with low ticket items, you need higher volume.


    So you need to be speaking to bigger audiences. You need more people to buy it in order to make it in order for it to make a dent in anything. Right. and I just don't like that volume game. I prefer a higher ticket. Lower volume, which is why I only work. I work with less than 10 clients a year.


    and, and I'm still able to hit six figures because I'm focusing on higher tickets. Lower volume. So it was an experiment for me. I didn't love that side of it. I've brought it to a close. I still now need to find some kind of monetization for the podcast. I'm still experimenting with that. Whether it's going to be pitching sponsors, I have a couple that I'm kind of talking to you at the moment.


    or I could experiment with. Affiliate marketing basically where my ads are affiliate ads and that's how I kind of monetize the podcast. That could work really well because that I then get to choose who I am promoting, like which companies I'm promoting. and obviously it will only be the companies that I.


    Actually I really believe in and like, and actually want to promote to you. So that would feel really kind of aligned and authentic, but I'm not sure which way I'm going to go. We'll see with that. Now, the other kind of path that I had for creating more revenue streams was speaking. So. In 2023, I was doing a lot of speaking, but most of it was unpaid. However, in 2024, I told myself I'm going to, I'm going to start charging more for my speaking.and while I still usually offer kind of free speaking engagements and stuff, depending on who I'm talking to, and, you know, how lucrative I think it's going to be. I mostly do paid speaking engagements now. And I'm not talking about like podcasting and things like that, but a lot of the time, if someone's asking me to come and speak in a community, they're asking me to go speak, you know, to that, maybe that membership or that course or whatever I charge now, because it's my time really.


    And my time needs to be compensated for. So I have been charging. Between 300 to 400 to 1, 000 for online speaking. charged 1, 000 twice in 2024 for one hour. I think one was 90 minutes and one was 60 minutes. And I changed the price depending on whether they require me to, you know, create.


    An entire presentation for them, that kind of thing, the length, that kind of thing, and another speaking engagement at the end of 2024 paid me 500. and so I'm still kind of experimenting with what I'm charging. But for me, the point is to just get used to charging and to ask for money.


    Because I think a lot of the time it's just a habit thing, right? You get so used to saying yes, yes, yes, yes to everything and doing everything for free that it becomes hard to Ask to be paid or to expect to be paid and also on the other side of it people stop expecting to pay you And so that's been really interesting It's I've definitely been doing more paid speaking, which is fantastic.


    And I hope that that only increases but I think the important thing here is to just be really strategic so yes, i'll still do free stuff occasionally but it really depends on how lucrative I think that's going to be You In the long run. I heard someone recently say that, wait, no, I need to find it because I don't want to get this wrong.


    Because it was such a great quote, it was such a great quote. There are some opportunities you take to earn and some opportunities you take to learn. And I just, I can't even, I can't remember who said it. I don't even think the person who said it, like, made it up, but they also didn't attribute it to the person who said it.


    But, wow, there are some opportunities you take to earn and some opportunities you take to learn. And I think that really is the approach I'm going for with speaking and deciding when to charge and when not to charge. Because for some opportunities, you need to pay me. You need to pay me and other opportunities.


    It's like, you know what, I'm going to get something else from this. And so the immediate payment isn't what's important here. It's kind of maybe what's going to happen in the long run. Because of this, maybe I build relationships with someone, or with new people that will be helpful for me or valuable for me.


    Maybe I'm going to learn something I didn't know. Maybe it's just going to be a great experience. Maybe. It's going to bring more paid opportunities later on down the line, if I can be patient. So that was, that was a really great, yeah, moment for me. And I think I, I spoke in a talk, if you remember, if you're with me, if you've been with me that long, you'll remember that I spoke at Atomicon in 2024, in the UK and it was, gosh, it was such a fantastic event.


    but I didn't say yes to that event because. I was being paid a lot for anything like that because I wasn't being paid a lot. That opportunity was not about the pay. It was about being at this great event, being firstly going to an in person event again, one that's super respected and that I've only heard amazing things about.


    It was about building relationships with the other speakers and the hosts. It was about being able to meet people from, My own community and the other millions of, you know, the thousands of communities, business communities out there online that, you know, I know these people online, but I've never met them in real life and this would be a really great time to meet them.


    There were just so many reasons to say yes. And I think also at the end of the day, I made that decision and I often like to think about this when it comes to me having to travel internationally for events, I'm going to make sure. The money isn't the only reason I'm doing it or the expectation of gaining clients and making money.


    Isn't the only reason I'm doing it because often with speaking engagements and speaking events, you don't see immediate results. Sometimes you don't see any results. So for me, I really had to think, okay, if I go and I travel to do this event with my kids. Which is, you know, a much bigger expense bringing my kids with me.


    I didn't bring them to the actual event. I took them home. so they stayed with my family in the UK while I then traveled to Newcastle for the event. So I got a few days, a couple of days in a hotel to myself, which was lovely. All that fun got to meet up with friends and just.


    Have a lot of fun, but what if I get nothing from this like literally nothing, no opportunities ? I don't get paid very much to do the actual speaking event. What if nothing comes of it will it still be worth it? That's the decision that I base international travel on now for speaking events and for this event the answer was yes, even if I get no clients it will absolutely be worth it.


    The event itself will be worth it. I'll have an amazing time at the event, and I did. it will be really great to be able to, you know, add to my speaker kind of experience. That was great. And also I got to spend a bunch of time with family and friends as well. So even if I hadn't gone to speak at Atomicon, I would have just had an amazing time with family and friends too.


    So those are the kinds of decisions, the decision making kind of questions and tools that I use and ask myself to decide whether I'm going to charge for speaking and whether, I'm going to travel for speaking as well. Okay. So I've covered the 2024 business goals. Now let's talk about what didn't work in 2024. I got to tell you about the half marathon. I've got to update you. Okay. Because if you were, if you're with me. Around the summer, I was really excited and I was training for a half marathon. Okay. I really was, I was actually training, which by the way, is unheard of for me. I can't tell you how much this is just not me, but I did it anyway.


    And I was super excited about it. And I told you about it. I told everyone on this podcast about it because I was hoping that like the shame of me potentially not doing it would make me keep training and would make me do it if I held myself publicly accountable. So basically what happened was. In July, I found out I was pregnant and I had actually gone for my run the day before.


    So I was still like, not knowing that I was pregnant. And I know by the way, it's fine for people to run while they're pregnant, but this is just my story. Let me tell you my story. The day before I'd gone for a run and I was like, feeling good. It's summer. I like having the best time. The views are lovely.


    I'm really enjoying the run. and then the next day I found out I was pregnant. After finding out I was pregnant, I came home, I put my dressing gown on, and I got in bed. And I was like, yeah, I'm done. I'm done. Because again, while it's possible to continue training for a half marathon while you're pregnant, and I support those women that choose to do that, like I do, I'm amazed.


    I am just amazed by you. I am not that person. I am just not that person. Okay. So the half marathon training. Completely ended, immediately ended when I found out I was pregnant because I am full as Hannah from Big Brother said, Big Brother UK, said, I'm for the soft girl life, okay? I can't do that. I can't do it.


    I can't do it. I just can't do it. So, that was my half marathon training done. And it was really sad, actually, because I signed up my whole family. Another three family members signed up because of me. And then I was like, oh, sorry, by the way, I'm pregnant. I will not be running that half marathon. Good luck.


    Have fun. take some pictures for me. Enjoy. And they went and did the half marathon themselves and they really enjoyed it. So it was still a fun family activity. It's just one that I organized and then happened to not be a part of anymore. So, yeah, that was that. I also had to give up my basketball, which was really sad, actually.


    I had been going to basketball for a year. It's just a basketball club, a women's basketball club. I loved it so much, and fell back in love with the sport. I injured my finger, as in it is permanently injured now, okay? for the sport and, obviously the moment I found I was pregnant, I couldn't go back to basketball.


    So I also had to give up basketball. So, that was really like physical exercise, like routine, just out the window, just gone. and I know I could have made smart choices and decided to like, I don't know, gym, do something else instead, but let's be, let's be honest. I just didn't, I just didn't. And I also had a really, really tough first trimester, which I'll go into in a minute.


    So. yeah, it wasn't really much of an option for me. So there's the half marathon update that I've been kind of dreading telling you, that I've been meaning to tell you for the past few months. I just thought I'd just make it public here so everyone could hear it at the same time.and then the second thing that didn't work in 2024 was my health.


    so just health just did not work. so I was actually three months pregnant on the way to my three month ultrasound when I tripped on something. Like, so basically the pavement was weird and I Like fell into like this dip in the pavement and I tore a ligament in my ankle and oh my gosh the pain. I was convinced it was broken at that moment.


    and there was a lot of screaming in the street. It was in the city center as well So like everyone was just there and I was trying so hard not to scream but I was in so much pain that I was just screaming my head off and I Yeah, thank God my was with me because I probably would have had to call an ambulance because I just I couldn't I couldn't move I couldn't move and then we had all these people these lovely people stopping and like trying to help and is she okay and are you okay what do you need and oh my gosh it was it was all a lot it was a lot but I'd been waiting for this three month ultrasound for a while and I was Completely like nothing.


    And I mean, nothing was going to stop me from going there. So, we hobbled to the three month ultrasound and, in the end, I couldn't hobble anymore. So we had to jump in a taxi. God, I was just in so much pain. My ankle is swelling now. I couldn't, I couldn't get my shoe off. I wouldn't let anyone take my shoe off in the first place, by the way, cause I was in so much pain.


    I was like, no, don't touch it. Don't touch it. Don't touch it. Don't touch it. And then by the time I was like, Oh, I should probably take my shoe off. My uncle had just, Oh, it was just twice its size. When I couldn't hobble anymore, we jumped in a taxi, got to the ultrasound, got through the ultrasound.


    The ultrasound was done and then I was like, okay, I think I need to go to the hospital. So I immediately went to the hospital. I had my ankle in a brace for a month and I was in so much pain. Initially the pain did get better, which is good. I would say now, three, four months on, the pain is now completely gone.


    I still don't have full mobility in my ankle. but Up until a month ago I think I was probably still feeling pain, but I'm doing much better now. The issue was, you know, I was at the end of a really difficult first trimester. I was really struggling health wise because, I mean, if you, if you've been pregnant or you know anyone that's been pregnant or you know anything about pregnancy, just the first trimester is usually the hardest and it was just awful.


    And, This happened at the end of, towards the end of my first trimester. So now I can't walk and I've got my ankle in this brace and I'm staying inside and I'm not going out as much and I'm starting to feel really down and frustrated and tired of the pain, just tired of the pain in my ankle, tired of the, all the pregnancy pains and illness and sickness and Not being able to eat and not wanting to eat.


    There had just been no food in the world that I wanted to consume.and unsurprisingly, I fell into depression. I really struggled with those first trimester symptoms. I then struggled with my ankle injury on top of being pregnant. And by the end of the first trimester, I was diagnosed with perinatal depression.


    Just to kind of clarify what this is, psychiatry. org says perinatal depression refers to depression occurring during pregnancy or after childbirth. The use of the term perinatal recognizes that depression associated with having a baby often begins during pregnancy. So just to give you a timeline, that was between July and September.


    And it was really, really difficult. So to give you some context, I grew up with a village, a whole village around me. And as an adult now raising a family, I don't have that village close by anymore. My family and friends are all a plane ride away. And so I didn't even have one. Support and I don't mean support as in support with the kids, which would be lovely but doesn't exist I mean just emotional support and yes, of course i'm still in contact with my family and friends So you kind of can get that emotional support But it's just not it's not the same as having someone to go to and like have a cup of tea with or just chat to It was really isolating.


    So I was mentally not okay. I didn't even recognize myself anymore. It felt like I was just not me, quite frankly. I just didn't feel like I was me. I didn't recognize myself. I remember going to my midwife and she was actually my midwife for my last baby too. So she knew me pretty well. As well as a midwife can know you.


    I was going to say she knew me quite well, but as well as a midwife can know you. And, I remember her saying to me, yeah, you don't, you don't, you're not, you're not right. You don't seem like yourself. And I really just didn't, I would just, I just was not me. I was struggling to keep up with just daily tasks.


    I was so tired. I was sleeping a lot. That's obviously because of the pregnancy. The pregnancy had me exhausted.but then I'm sleeping a lot and now I can't work and now I'm behind on work and now I'm frustrated because I'm behind on work, but I'm still exhausted. So I still need to sleep. So I'm still sleeping. Then I came back to work and now I'm behind and now I have to do more to catch up. Then it was just this horrible vicious circle and I It was a lot.


    I've just felt completely out of control. Like mentally, like nothing was, nothing was in my control. and physically nothing was in my control either because my body was changing and even just on a, like, just, it all just felt awful. so at one point I decided that I needed to go speak to my midwife and I had a midwife appointment coming up and I knew that she'd asked me, how are you feeling?


    And they have this whole, like, tell us how you feel and fill in this form so we can get a. You know, you're doing mentally and usually I breeze through those tests because honestly I'm not totally open about how I'm feeling. I don't know if that's a cultural thing, but like culturally we just, we don't, doctors and midwives are not the people that we tell when we don't feel good in my culture.


    Like you, you, you, you. just deal with it and get on with things basically. Now I have tried to change that by seeking therapy and being someone who seeks therapy and who is very open to therapy. And so, you know, I've done a lot of work to not just sweep things under the rug and just keep going as my culture kind of teaches me to.


    But there's some things like telling a doctor that I don't feel good, mentally, that is just still very difficult. But I knew this was one of those times when I would have to, and so, I told myself I was going to be honest with the midwife when she asked me how I felt, and I was not gonna cry. I was just gonna tell her, you know, I'm not feeling too good actually, feeling a bit depressed and then the conversation would go really smoothly and really easily and that was that and I walked into the appointment I was like, I'm not gonna cry.


    Everything's gonna be fine. I'm not gonna cry. I sat down and the midwife asked me how are you feeling? And I immediately started subbing. And I subbed for the whole hour of the appointment and, yeah, so that was that, that was, that was how my don't cry thing went. And, by the end of the conversation, we had set up therapy for me, which was great. I didn't want to go on any medication. So, I said, I said, no, it's the medication. I fully support anybody who needs it.


    Taking medication for me and my personality and the other things that I struggle with. I know medication is not right for me. Therapy was right for me. So I did go for that option and I basically decided to step back from work a little bit and just follow what my body needed. So I didn't close down the business or anything.


    I didn't stop working. but it was a quiet period in my business as well. I had fewer clients. And so I had the space and the time to not have to do client work, and really just listen to my body. So I took on less work. I let my body just rule the show for a while. When I needed to sleep, I slept.


    Some days I would like take the kids to school and I would come home and I'd be like, yeah I'm gonna work and then I just like, nope, I'm getting in bed I get in bed, sleep for a few hours, wake up, have some food and then it's time to pick up the kids from school again and If that was all I was able to achieve that day.


    I was happy with myself and it felt like the harder I tried to hold on to things in the business, the worse I felt about it all. So I, I just decided to just let go and just focus on my health for a little bit.by November, actually, I felt so much better.I felt like me again, I felt like the fog had lifted, my ankle had healed pretty well, and I was now in the second trimester of pregnancy, so my pregnancy symptoms were much more manageable.


    And I just felt like me again, like I couldn't, I can't explain to you how much I didn't recognize myself. I remember thinking like, I don't even know what's wrong with me, I don't know why I'm so sad, I don't know, I don't know why I'm so sad. all the time. I have no control over this feeling of just despair.


    And then by November, I'm feeling like, Oh, okay. I don't feel despair anymore. I don't feel sad all the time anymore. I think I feel good again. And so with that, with my mental health, feeling better with my physical health, feeling better, it felt like work got better as well and I would really like to get my head in the game again.


    And so by November I had clients coming in again and I felt like I was able to take on the client work and, you know, manage it well. And then I had a really busy November and December. Really busy November and December. So, yeah. Yeah, and I felt like it was important to talk about that because, first of all, I try to be quite open anyway about mental health stuff.


    because I think part of running a business is acknowledging that it's not just the business side of things that's important. It's also us, like we are whole human functioning beings and, you know, life isn't always well, let's just say life isn't always as easy as we want it to be. and isn't as easy as we need it to be when we're also running a business.


    And so the ups and downs of life, I think matter just as much as the ups and downs of, of business. So I hope this helps anyone listening. I hope it doesn't worry anyone who is listening, who is pregnant or who wants to get pregnant, because not everyone experiences this. So, anyway, I hope that you get something from me sharing that.


    The next thing that didn't go so well or according to plan was my accounting experience. I had a lovely accountant, she was lovely, but I should say that accounting isn't my strong suit. Like, I maths, generally, all that stuff, tax stuff is not my strong suit. It's not something I enjoy doing.


    Actually, it brings on a lot of anxiety for me. And, I did say during that period of depression, anxiety was a huge issue for me. And so it was very important that I kind of mitigate any other source of anxiety in my business or in my life. And accounting was one that added to my stress.


    At the time I had an accountant who, again, she was really lovely, but the approach that we were taking to my accounting was very passive. It was just like ticking the boxes. Do you want it to be done? she would, she was very helpful in answering any questions that I wanted answering, but the issue is sometimes I don't know what questions I need to be asking, you know?


    And so I would only get answers to the questions I asked. So much of the time, especially because this is such a specialist area. This is an issue of like, I don't even know what questions I need to ask sometimes, so I need a more proactive approach. So I changed accountants. I've just started working with a new accountant, so I don't have any, I can't really share any reviews or anything so far.


    but I chose this specific new, accountancy firm because the They take a really proactive approach because they, you know, assess what's going on with my, you know, income and revenue and, expenses and, and taxes as well, and they suggest ways to optimize taxes instead of waiting for me to ask, Hey, is there any way I can optimize my taxes?


    Like, so. I'm very excited about this. It took me a long time to find an accountancy firm I was happy with because I really, really wanted to work with a female accountant or women accountants. There's so many reasons just because I already know that I would feel much more comfortable having money conversations and also asking what feels like silly questions to a fellow woman.


    Also, I just love watching and supporting women run and women led businesses, so that was important to me as well. And I'm excited. I'm excited about working with this new firm. So let's see how that goes. It didn't go too well in 2024, but I'm hoping that there'll be improvements now in 2025, so I'll keep you updated on that.


    Hopefully I'll only have good updates. The next thing that didn't go so well in 2020. bore was, I wasn't making money when I wasn't working. Now I've said this before, I said it in, I believe, 2022, 2023. I said it in 2024.I've said this over and over again, when I'm not working in the business, my business isn't making money, which is really frustrating for me.


    And it's one of the reasons, one of the biggest reasons I switched to a micro agency model so that that isn't the case anymore. And as I mentioned, I'm still making this transition. Well, the transition is made, but. In terms of it being smooth and everything being able to run without me, everything cannot run without me yet, but I've kind of got everything in place for it to run without me.


    And we're working on that and I'm hoping that everything should fully be in place in the next two to three months. but what all of this meant was that when I slowed down with work between July to October, cause I took some time off in the summer, I wasn't expecting to be super ill, towards the end of the year in Q3.


    When I did slow down, I made less money, which again is really frustrating for me, but it's something I'm continuing to kind of work on. And I have all these things in place, the micro agency business model, and also my evergreening strategies. My digital products have all these things in place to hopefully, just mitigate this and make sure this isn't something that continues because I don't want it to continue.


    I don't want to create a job for myself is what I'm saying. I want a company that can make money without me being, needing to be at the heart of it. Again, work picked up in November when I felt healthier and I felt better. I don't think that's a coincidence. but again, all of this just showed me the importance of my business being able to run without me.


    So yeah, I'm still working on that but luckily I am much further ahead than I was last year when I was talking about this last year then, so I'm feeling really positive about it. Next thing that didn't go so well, you know what? This is one of those things where it went really well but it's also like, hmm, made me think a little bit.


    I took a lot of time off in 2024. I took a solid three months off. That's all my kids' school holidays. There's one week in January, one week in March, one week in October. I took half of June off to travel and speak at Atomicon and I took all of July off, because I take July off every year. My kids are off school and we just had a great summer.


    That's our time together. I took it. off a lot of time between August and October. I don't even know how much time I took off then. but that was due to the pregnancy and depression and then I took it out just I can't, like, even quantify how much time I took off for my toddler's sickness. Anyone who has a toddler or who has had a toddler knows that they get sick a lot if they're in nursery.


    So, there's so many days that I would have taken off throughout the year for my toddler's sickness. But there was a week in, early on in the year where he had surgery, so I was off for a week. And then two weeks in December as well. I was off for two weeks in December. So that's a solid three months off.


    Plus all the days that I can't quantify, that I didn't count up, I would say it's closer to four months. I will say taking all that time off did interfere with my momentum.definitely made less. money revenue wise, because obviously, again, as I said before, in 2024, the setup I had mostly was if I'm not in the business, we don't make money.


    but also I kind of have no regrets because I'm intentionally building a business that is a life first business. I work so I can live and that my priority is building a life that I want to live, that is flexible, that is, you know, family friendly versus a business that gives me no flexibility and doesn't help me build the life that I want to build.


    So I just have to be mindful of the fact that I take a lot of time off and I take a lot of time off most years. So that really does kind of impact again, this, if I'm not in the business, I'm not making money. So this is what I'm trying to change. I want my business to be able to run without me and not just for maternity leave, which makes it even more important now, not just for when my toddler's sick, but also for when I just don't want to work.


    and also my kid's school holidays and things like that. Okay. The next thing that didn't go so well. So I had a hiring issue in 2024. I hired someone who worked really closely with me. Ultimately it didn't work out. It didn't work out. And that's all I'm going to say about that.but it did teach me a lot about compatibility in terms of the people that you hire.


    I always felt like the most important thing is that someone is good at the job, like has the skills to do the job at hand and 2024 taught me that that isn't. Yes, it is very important that the people you hire have the skills to do the actual job. Yes, a hundred percent, but that isn't the only thing that matters.


    And so once I learned that I changed how. I basically changed my hiring process. I did rehire for this role and I have someone in place now that I am just so happy with and that thankfully I cannot see any of the issues that we had with the other person happening with this person. I'm just, I'm really, I'm really, I'm really happy with how it all kind of ended in the end because it brought me to the new person I hired and you know, everything is a lesson learned kind of thing.


    but one thing that this whole experience made me change was my hiring process. So I added an extra step to my hiring process. Thanks to the advice of Tasha Booth. So what I used to do was. have people fill in one application form. So we'd have application form one, and that would be all about like a skill set and experience and like, you know, how much are you like, right for this role and then the next step would be an interview and then the next step would be, the final step would be the paid task, but now I have an extra application step after the first application form.


    So now I have an application form. Which was for skill set and experience. That's still the same. Usually I would go straight to the interview after that, but now I have a second application form and that application form number two assesses whether we're a good fit when it comes to communication style, personality.


    Culture add and conflict resolution styles. All things that I realized were really important. And I just want to note that I have specifically said culture add and not culture fit, because I really don't care about culture fit because I am that I am the kind of person that if I was being hired for like a traditional nine to five, the person isn't going to hire me for a culture fit.


    It's unlikely that would fit into your culture. And I don't like that. term, because I feel like it's usually very, very exclusionary, very exclusive, very, everything but inclusive. So as someone who is Muslim, who doesn't drink alcohol, who doesn't go to the kind of environments where alcohol is, is usually,being kind of consumed in spaces like bars, pubs, clubs, that kind of thing.


    I wouldn't fit into the average company culture. I have had experiences where people have been offended and upset by me not going out after work to pubs, bars, that kind of thing. and I absolutely do want to spend time with them outside of work, but they take that as I don't want to spend time with them outside of work.


    And so it gets a little bit frosty and they feel like I'm a little bit antisocial. That's not the case at all. I absolutely want to socialize with them, just maybe in a different space. So. Now that I kind of have that experience as someone who doesn't fit nicely into most company cultures, in terms of, and I'm very much just talking about the socialization aspect, but we all know that that's a big part of company kind of, culture fit that people talk about, I know I like to use the term culture ad.


    So I don't need people to have the same culture as me. If I hire them, I don't need them to have the same background as me. I don't need them to fit in with whatever I want them to fit in with. What I do need is for them to add to the culture. and I really like it. I really like that term versus, I really like culture and versus culture fit.


    So yeah, we're looking for communication style, personality, culture and, and conflict resolution styles because, lord, will, we sometimes require conflict. Resolution as I found in 2024.as I said, I learned a lot. I've now found someone that I absolutely love working with. They seem really happy working with me too, which is of course just as important.


    And I regularly check in like, Oh, he's still good. Is there anything that, you know, we can be working on This hiring issue also taught me that is to be frequently checking in and to immediately deal with any of those small issues that you hope won't turn into something bigger, will always turn into something bigger if you don't deal with them when they're small.


    Gosh, I learned so much. But in the end, I'm really happy with how it all worked out. The next thing that didn't work out too well in 2024 was, I had too many evening calls. So I have a lot of international clients. I have a lot of sales calls with international leads. And that means a lot of evening calls for me after I've put my kids to bed, which honestly is exhausting.


    And there was one point where my son actually said to me, you're on calls every evening. And I, and this is usually after he's, after I put him to bed, where he's supposed to be sleeping, but he's not. And he said to me, you're on call. Every evening. And I was like, I really am because it's not just sales calls.


    It's not just briefing calls. It's wrap up calls with clients. It's, podcast, podcasting stuff, like recording for this podcast Mistakes That Made Me as the host, but then also be guesting on other people's podcasts. and when they're abroad, when there's definitely, when they're in kind of, us time zones, it's always evening for me and it's, it got really difficult.


    So. I came up with two solutions. The first thing is that I hired, I hired a sales lead to take my sales calls now, which is very exciting because she's actually based in the U. S. and that means that, her, it's going to be easier on her to speak to the U. S. clients, which is great. And the U. S. leads.I did hire that role specifically because I'm going to be away for my maternity leave soon and I need somebody to be taking calls.


    but the benefit of that, the extra benefit was, oh gosh, this is not just going to be for my maternity leave that this person is in place. Hopefully it's going to be, you know, just moving forward. And so the benefit is that I get to take less calls, which is very exciting.And then the other solution I had for the two minute evening calls was I actually decided to create a few weeks for calls on my calendar.


    So week A is open for calls. Week B is not open for calls. So this week is a call week, but next week is blocked off. No calls. People cannot book me for any calls. And so that means while I'll have, I might have a call intensive week this week, I won't have any calls next week, which is amazing yet.


    It's still difficult on those call intensive weeks, but hopefully having the sales lead in place. We'll take some of that pressure off me as well. Okay. So the final thing before I move on to the things that did work in 2024, the final thing that I felt did not work in 2024 was one aspect of this podcast.


    So in 2024, I was pitched by a lot of business owners to be on this podcast. It was either pitches that were kind of done through the proper channel through the website or people I know quite well, just having a conversation with me and saying, Hey, do you want to do a podcast swap? That kind of thing.


    And, I still think we had great guests and we had great topics, but because The show in 2024 was kind of led by guests who pitched themselves and chose their own topics. It kind of meant that I felt like I didn't have much control over what we discussed. And I felt like I kind of lost control of the show a little bit.


    And I also need to acknowledge that I'm a people pleaser. And that it's really hard for me to say no sometimes, especially to people that I don't want to say no to. and that's not to say I don't say no. I absolutely do say no if someone pitches me, for the podcast, but, for whatever reason, I either don't want them on or, we don't have the, just the calendar space for them to be on.


    Because again, we only put the show out twice a month, so we have limited spots. Or maybe I just don't think that they're right for the show. I will say no, but it's very difficult for me. And, I don't enjoy it. And so I'm kind of just, I want to go back to the place where I'm inviting the guests really intentionally, where I'm looking out into the business world and I'm saying, I want you on the podcast.


    I want you on the podcast. And so that requires me to pitch those guests. and that's how I can be more in control of. who's on the show and also what we're talking about and where the topics are going, that kind of thing. So I want to do more inviting and less accepting pitches this coming year.


    and, you know, I also noticed that my solo episodes always perform the best, which isn't Well, it was a surprise to me, but it shouldn't have really been a surprise because I guess people come to listen to the show to listen to the host because hopefully they like the host, you know Uh, so my solo episodes always perform best and I think I definitely want to do more solo episodes.


    Okay let's talk about what worked in 2024 and, you know, I'm not going to be able to go through everything because I mean, I was hoping that I'd be done with this by now, as in, I didn't want to keep you for this long. so I'm actually going to cut some of the ones that I was going to mention because, I'm just, I don't want to keep you here forever.


    So the first thing I'm going to talk about is revenue. I'm not going to give exact figures for two reasons. Number one, because we haven't actually nailed down the exact figure. We're in the middle of changing processes and systems. and so we are currently setting up a whole, like revenue tracker in Airtable, which has been fantastic thanks to systems over stress. 


    But. What that means is, yeah, I don't have exact figures. However, I do have like, you know, I have been able to see what we've tracked across Thrivecart, Dubsado, and where else? I think it's just them two, Dubsado and Thrivecart. and so I have a rough idea. Probably, it's not an exact number. Because it's not exact, I'm not gonna give it to you.


    I will say, the other reason is because I'm like, toying with the idea of maybe not sharing my revenue figures. Maybe. I don't know. I haven't decided if that's something that I want to keep doing. So while I don't have the exact figures, I thought, this is the year that I'm going to experiment with potentially not sharing exact figures, but I still do have a lot of juicy numbers for you.


    Okay. I do want to remind you that what the numbers I'm talking about here, is revenue. This is not profit. so I'm talking about revenue. I need you to consider that out of revenue comes expenses, including my salary, my corporate taxes, my, or the business expenses as well. Tools, software, contractors that I now pay.


    So let's get into it. The company did hit six figures this year in revenue, which was great. I did not hit my goal, which was 200k like I wanted and 200k USD. I always, I generally talk in USD because I charge in USD, but I know that that's because number one, I took a lot of time off. and number two, because of my health and I took a lot of time off for my health.


    So those were related and I'm okay with that. I, of course, hope that I will reach my 200k goal at some point. I don't know if 2025 is going to be the year that I do because I'm going to be off from maternity leave for most of 2025. So we'll see how that goes. But the thing is, I wasn't far off.


    You know, it's not a crazy goal. I don't see why in the next few years I shouldn't be doing it. You know, in the next couple of years, I shouldn't be at 300 K plus, honestly. if I can really knuckle down, I would say that that would be, you know, possible sooner, but of course I'm, I'm having a baby in the middle of all this.


    So I'm going to need some time. I need you to be patient with me, but in terms of just breaking those numbers down.in terms of that revenue, 66 percent of that is, remember ish. Okay. So about 66 percent of that came from one to one agency work with clients. So that's the services that I'm providing.


    24%. Ish came from digital product sales and 10 percent ish came from brand deals. She's very exciting. I should also mention a few K is that is from speaking, but it's not, it's not that much. So yeah, I should probably mention that too. Now, in terms of breaking that down, re-clients and projects, I had nine clients in 2024, but one of those did include.


    Me being a copy coach in someone's course. So it's kind of a little bit different to my general, like one to one done for your services, but let's call it nine clients, 15 projects. Four of those nine clients were repeat clients. In terms of those repeat clients, three of those were repeat clients from 2023, and one of those was a repeat client from 2022.


    So of the clients that we had in 2024, 44 percent were repeat clients. And then we also had five consult calls, which is about just over one consult call a month since launching that service. I would love for that to go up to two, at least a month, but we'll see, we'll get there. So I think it's interesting to note that in 2022, 2023 and 2024, I had nine clients, nine clients every single year.


    So that feels like the sweet, the sweet spot for me to hit six figures. So, I mean, now that we have more contractors, more copywriters, hopefully we have, you know, we'll have more capacity for more clients and we can make more so for 2025 we're on January the 13th, we've already signed four clients.


    Thank God. of those two are completely new clients to the agency and to our repeat clients from 2024. So, I'm excited about that. And hopefully the only way is up from here. The next thing that went really well is the microagency launch, the new website, the brand photo shoot, everything that came with it.


    I'm not going to go into this cause I kind of mentioned this already in terms of the goals we hit. But just so much thought and strategy went into this. So much money went into this, in terms of, the strategy, like business strategy, positioning, services, pricing, So much work went into it. And I just, I love my website.


    I love my business model so far. Everything feels more strategic, more intentional, more aligned. And I also learned that maybe we make things a bit harder than they need to be, because I was worried that some clients or leads wouldn't accept that it was just me anymore who was working on this, and who was working on executing that emails and work, but actually 99 percent of clients have accepted it just fine.


    And I've been really excited for me and have been excited to all the copywriters too, so, you know, it wasn't as complicated and as worrying and as scary as I thought it was going to be.


    The next thing that went really well by the way, I'm skipping three things here because I looked at how long I've been talking I'm like Oh my god, let's just remove these three Things that went well, so let's skip to the next thing that went well brand deals so I have partnerships You Well, I did have partnerships with three brands, Kit, Interact and HubSpot.


    Most of those don't pay me, And. I think it's important to note that I just decided recently to end my brand deal with Kit, which is interesting because it was my dream brand deal. And anyone who knows me knows that. But I decided to end it because that felt like what was best for me.


    No kind of weird, dodgy reasons or anything like that. Everything is good. I'm still on great terms with the team at kit. I still love it. I still use it. I will still be promoting them heavily, because they are just fantastic. And kit, formally ConvertKitis the tool I'm talking about. but I won't go into too much detail here, mostly because I've already everything in.


    One of the episodes that I recorded for the podcast private membership, which is now going to be a year of business coaching offer. And I am going to put the offer out into the world repackaged as a year of business coaching with me. and you can find out why I decided to end the Kit deal there.


    But I will say it's been really interesting. It's been a really interesting experience. It taught me more about what I want as a business owner and content creator. And it also taught me that sometimes. You know, even when something is a dream of yours, like it's okay if it doesn't work out how you want it to.


    it's, it's okay. Like, it's okay. I think it's really interesting that it was a dream of mine and I ended it. If someone had said that to me, back in January, February of 2024, you will end this dream partnership. I would never have believed them, but I think over the years I gained the confidence to be able to figure out what works for me and what doesn't.


    and so I'm really happy about that. Something else that worked really well was affiliate marketing. I made a few extra thousand dollars actually, being an affiliate, being an affiliate for. Teachery, which is the course platform that I use, which is fantastic. The link is in the show notes already for Teachery.


    They actually have a lifetime deal right now that you don't want to miss. As in you pay one time for this course hosting platform and you never have to pay again. So you can replace it with your Podia. You're this, you're that, you know, you're teachable, all of it. Teachery is the course platform to be on.


    and then also Kit, formerly ConvertKit, they, it's not a lot, but they, their payment kind of system is monthly for the, Kind of new signups that I get for them. So it's monthly, revenue that is recurring. So that's been interesting and I am going to be working on automating that affiliate marketing so that when I'm away on maternity leave, it's still working for me in the background, which I'm excited about.


    So I'm going to be experimenting much more with affiliate marketing and kind of linking affiliate marketing with my email marketing has been chef's kiss gold. and I will be continuing to kind of. experiment with that, play around with that. Try and make a lot more money with that. 


    The next thing that really worked for me in 2024 was not joining any masterminds, high ticket masterminds or high ticket coaching or anything like that. I spoke about this. A couple of times in 2024 on this podcast, but not joining any high ticket masterminds or high ticket coaching, which by the way, I love those kinds of settings, those environments.


    I love it, love it, love it. But I've just been in the space of the past couple of years where I just needed to not be in those spaces because I needed to figure out if I could. Do this business thing by myself without being advised all the time. And so that I could just trust my own instincts and get more.


    And also basically just feel free from being coached really like, can I do this myself? And I've realized I absolutely can, which is very exciting. and. a big relief. So, I've not been spending lots of money on coaches for the past two years, which has been brilliant. Instead, I've been solving very specific problems in, kind of low priced communities or memberships.


    I've still bought the odd workshop and stuff. As a problem comes up, I will find a solution for it. And it's not. A coach or a mastermind. It's an expert in that field.teaching me how to do a specific thing or advising me on a specific thing. I found that consulting like paying for strategic consults has been really helpful and useful.


    and of course I'm hiring contractors now as well. So instead of me paying. 5, 6K from masterminds to ask a coach questions. I am hiring people who can do the job, which is exciting. and I think the result is that I just, I feel free. I feel de-influenced, which is the term I've come across on TikTok.


    I trust myself more. I know myself more as a business owner. I know what I want and I've been able to figure that out myself. And that feels really, really, really good. Okay, the final thing that worked really well for me in 2024 was actually something personal, but it was a highlight of the year, so I have to mention it. When I was in the UK for Atomicon, I also went to Birmingham to see Hamilton and it was truly amazing. the highlight of my year. One of the highlights of my year.


    I used to act a lot. I am one of those 30 kids that people talk about. and I stopped probably in my late teens and it just felt, it was such a special experience to be back. In a theater, even if I was just in the audience, instead of being on stage at one point, my cousin who I went with, and we definitely helped make the trip amazing, just spending some time with her at one point, my cousin looks across at me while we were waiting for the show to start.


    And she was like, she asked me, do you miss it? Do you miss being on stage? And I said, yeah, I've really, really, really done. And it's so bizarre being on this side of the stage, sitting in the audience, but I just, I loved it just as much. And it reminded me how much I used to go to the theater and watch plays and things like that.


    And I don't do that anymore. And so first of all, Hamilton was just exceptional. It was truly exceptional. and. I felt like I was home back in that theater when it just reminded me of the things that I used to love that I don't do anymore. And so I'm gonna make more time to go to the theater and watch plays because I really, really, really love it.


    So yeah, Hamilton was amazing. I hope that I will one day be able to see the original cast. I don't know how that's going to be possible because I know that they don't do the show anymore, the original cast. But I don't know, maybe they will in the future. Who knows? Never say never. Right. Don't make me sad if you know something that I don't, I'm just going to cling on to never say never, but those are the things that I loved about 2024 that worked really, really well in 2024 in my business and in that final one in life as well, Next up, I'm, I'm going to end on my 2025 goals.


    What am I aiming for? What am I working towards? That's it. So you can hold me accountable so you can hold me accountable the following year. 


    I don't have a lot of 2025 goals because I'm going to be busy in 2025 having a baby.I still have probably set too many. I have four, well, like three, I have three and a half really. and I feel like even that's a lot knowing what comes with having a baby. But, I mean, there's nothing wrong with having a goal, even if you don't reach it, right?


    So the first goal of 2025 is to have the baby and enjoy maternity leave, honestly. Right now I'm feeling like I want this to be my last baby. I have two boys already, we're expecting a third boy, and, can I just say that I'm gonna feel really silly if I have to come back to this podcast and say I'm pregnant with a fourth child.


    So I'm just gonna reserve the right to change my mind, but right now, I feel very strongly that this will be my last baby. and so I want to enjoy the final firsts, knowing that, I'm probably not going to have these firsts again. so I don't want to be worrying about work and thinking about work.


    And honestly, if I'm being honest with you, the best way to probably have done that, to make sure that happened probably would have been to just pause the business while I'm away, like I did in my last maternity leave. I just paused the business. And that meant I really, I was obviously thinking about it, but I wasn't thinking about it too much because it wasn't running in my absence.


    It was on pause. This time though, I'll have a team running the business without me. So, that feels a little more stressful. That feels like it's gonna be a little bit more stressful for my maternity leave because I know that things are going without me and I struggle with control, which is something that's always been a thing, but this is the way that I want the business to go.


    I'd already launched the agency. I, this was the whole point. I launched the agency so that the business could run without me. So, I mean, I was never going to have a better opportunity to put everything into place. So that the business can run without me. And honestly, it's, it put a kind of deadline on me and it made me do certain things that I don't know I would have done.


    I don't think I would have done it if I didn't have my turn to leave hair coming, telling me that I need to make sure this stuff is in place. I don't think I would have hired the sales lead to do the sales calls for me, and I don't think I would have hired a project manager either. So specifically those hires that are integral to the business running without me, I don't think I would have done those if I didn't have my turn to leave.


    Like just right behind me telling me to speed it up So that's that's been an interesting kind of process But my main goal take a maternity leave from early March to January Actually, I will not be back in the business till January That is the plan right now, and then I will probably come back part time in January because I imagine I won't have childcare, in January for my hopefully then 10 month old.


    And I honestly don't want to put them in a nursery for 10 months. I had to do that with my first son because I had to go back to work, this time, and I didn't have my business. My business didn't exist back then. But now that I have my own business, I'm hoping that going back to work will mean only needing to work as much as I want to work.


    So yeah, that'll be different. I imagine I'll be back part time before I come back full time. and I don't know how long I'll be going part time, but I'm open. I'm flexible. Let's see what happens. So my first goal, have a baby and enjoy maternity leave. The second goal, have the micro agency run without me.


    So, I mean, I've spoken about this a lot, so I won't go into it again, but have the micro agency run without me. There's so much that we need to do and that we need to put into place before I'm gone. And this is all like systems and processes. I am not at all concerned about the quality of the work that my client's going to get.


    I've hired really great people. and so. I'm confident about that. It's just the behind the scenes, the systems, the processes, everybody knowing what they need to do, when they need to do it without me being here to delegate stuff, tell them that this needs to, and that needs to do it. And, you know, just everything is just running like a well oiled machine.


    That's what we're going to be working on over the next couple of months. The third goal is to relaunch my business course for service providers, like a boss. So as I said, it was currently for copywriters. But it's going to be for service providers and I'm really hoping to launch that before I go off for maternity leave.


    So, in the next six weeks, I want to say you should be hearing about it on socials. You should be hearing about it in your emails. If you're signed up to my email list, if you're not you can do that by emailing me. Signing up for the quiz in the show notes. And yeah, I mean, I'm also not going to put too much pressure on myself because I am towards the end of my pregnancy now and it's getting real.


    I mean, it was always real, but it's getting really real now. but I, I, I really want to do this before I go. So hopefully you'll get it. The announcement that that's coming in the next six ish weeks. And then the final thing is, which isn't really, it's just more of like a thing in me, it's a mental thing.


    It's not going to be like, I need to sit down and do this. Just while I'm away for maternity leave, while my creative juices are kind of going, but I don't have any outlet for them because. I won't be working and I know, okay, so initially I know when I have a baby, I am obviously exhausted and dealing with c sections and all sorts and I'm having a planned c section after two emergency cesarean sections, so I know what my past experience was, which is, you know, the recovery period that's needed after a C section.


    And then also, you know, the exhaustion of having a newborn. And then once I'm kind of out of that initial exhaustion, about three months, I know that it takes me like six months till I feel like I'm me again. Hopefully. I mean, I'll take it sooner, please. Yes. But you know, usually it's about six months.


    I'll start feeling like myself again. and then at that point I'm bored. No, no, no. I'll honestly say by like month four, I'm kind of bored. I need to like to use my, I need to use my brain. So that's what I'm hoping for. I'll get out my notebook and just start lightly planning my signature email course. I have all these plans and you know what?


    If none of it gets done, if it doesn't get done, it's totally fine. But if I need a creative outlet, I'm hoping that creative outlet will be me planning mentally my signature email course and just planning who it's for, what's going to go into it. Blah, blah, blah. So that when I come back, I have a course to launch that I will pre-sell because we never ever create products, before we sell them, well, I don't anyway.


    And I highly, highly, highly recommend that you don't either, but yeah, those are my 2025 goals, have a baby and enjoy maternity leave, have the microagency run without me, relaunch like a boss, coming very, very soon and mentally plan my signature email course. And then in terms of the podcast, this podcast, in terms of Mistakes That Made Me for 2025, you're going to be seeing more solo episodes.


    You're going to be hearing a solo series from me because I'm not going to be doing guest interviews while I'm away. You'll also be hearing me featuring on other people's podcasts and talking about topics that I am really passionate about and that I think you will find very interesting and valuable as well.


    So the podcast will continue, but I won't be doing guest interviews. It will, it'll be me, it'll be me. So hopefully you like me enough to stick around for just me. And, I will keep you updated and let you know kind of what, what's going on and what's happening. But in terms of the next couple of months, you can expect that the show will continue as usual.


    And then when it hits my maternity leave, I'm going to let you know that I'm away from maternity leave and I'm gonna I'm gonna share again what you can expect then just so you you know, what's happening and you stick around Okay, I hope you enjoyed this year in review. I think we're at about an hour and a half. I was really hoping it would end in an hour, but I do think this has been juicy. I do think this has been really interesting. I just want to add one thing.


    I didn't do too well in 2024. It was like I had my goals, but I didn't. I didn't transfer them from my notes to like anywhere to make sure that they actually happen. Luckily they were all in my brain and they were all a priority for me mentally anyway. So I worked on them all, but actually I think what's going to be really important now is that I take these 2025 goals and I put them in my task.


    management software, which is Asana for me. And I actually have them in there so that I can refer to them. I can put a due date on them. I can break them down and figure out what they mean. And also just so I can see them so I don't forget about them. Because often the most important thing is that, you know, we just don't forget about our goals.


    If they're not in front of us, usually we're not. We're not focusing on them. And as it is Star Wars, this quote that I once heard from in, I think Star Wars, which I am not a Star Wars person. I don't watch Star Wars. I don't even know how I heard this quote, but I'm pretty sure this quote is from Star Wars.


    Your focus is your reality. And I think, you know, what you can't see, you can't focus on quite frankly, which is why I have so many notepads and notebooks and write things down so I can see my thoughts written down. I think it's gonna be really important for me to put these goals in my Asana and break them down, date them.


    I put due dates on them so that I can see my goals so that I can be reminded of my goals throughout the year so that my goals are my focus and that focus becomes my reality. I hope you had an amazing 2024. I will be back in a couple of weeks with another Mistakes That Made Me episode. So you're not going to get rid of me right now.


    You still have a couple of months. I'll speak to you soon. Have an amazing week. 

Eman Ismail
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Episode #34: "Trusting coaches too much made me lose trust in myself"