Year’s End Pep Talk
Dec 27, 2023
Listen to my voiceover here.
I believe in pep talks - both giving and receiving.
Since it’s the holidays, I’m serving up something nice and gooey-sweet for my weekly news. If you roll your eyes when people talk about ‘vibes’, you might want to just skip this one. (Don’t say I didn’t warn you.)
Here’s my pep talk to myself as I reflect on the year behind me and the year ahead of me. I hope it resonates for some of you too. (Does anyone else talk to themselves like this?) This is a little hard to share, but I do love being honest and saying what I feel, so here goes:
Good job baby! What a year. You started your own business eight months ago. You always wanted to have your own business; you thought it was going to be a thrift store - but okay, you’re trying a consultancy first.
You dove in head first with no clients and it felt like forever to get some, but they arrived.
You went through some rocky times when you called your BFF and/or your work wives every day wondering…. Did I make a big mistake? Am I wasting all my savings? How long is this going to go on for? They were always kind and supportive. They are your community.
One by one your clients found you and paid you for your experience and expertise, and not just any clients, clients doing interesting work that you are excited to be a part of. You gained confidence - although you still have a lot to get better at.
You learned a whole new skill set: how to work for yourself and freelance. The details are more tedious and time consuming than you imagined, but the change in perspective and freedom to do as you please is incredible.
You networked and met with roughly 15 people per week since May 1… that’s give or take 500 meetings with great folks, and a whole lot of learning how to talk about what you know and how to offer it to other people. From these meetings you curated a wonderful community of smart and kind peers.
Good for you for starting a newsletter and sticking with it for 35 weeks and counting. Perseverance has been a key quality this year. You started a podcast with a new friend just for the hell of it- and now you have a full season done with a plan for another (and another). Who knew you liked creating content?! You always thought that was someone else’s job, but it turns out you like it and are good at it. You should be proud of yourself.
You’re making money; considering how much you fretted over this, you have to celebrate! This is great news. Don’t sweep it under the rug. And remember, as everyone has told you, consulting is feast and famine, so don’t be surprised when there are some periods of less business in 2024- that’s okay.
You’re following paths and opening doors into new opportunities that never occurred to you and continue to surprise you- you are following your instinct. Good. Keep doing that.
You are learning to notice when you spiral and to slow down - and maybe NOT call a friend to torture with your worries.
Keep practicing celebrating your wins. Don’t just move on to the next milestone and challenge and worry. Stop and be happy and congratulate yourself.
It’s okay that you don’t know exactly what the future looks like. Just keep going one day at a time and follow your gut. There will be more shitty days and more fun days - that’s just life. So when you get anxious, put your head down and do what you’re good at, what you enjoy - and how amazing that you get to do something you like, that you care about. That’s a rare privilege it seems.
You learned to believe something new this year - that your career doesn’t have to be linear. More money, better title, more money, better title isn’t a perfect recipe for a good life. It’s hard to pull apart money, title and happiness in our culture, but you’re learning that they aren’t actually intertwined which is exciting and opens all kinds of doors and curiosities. Keep carving a path for yourself. Everything is possible.
Thanks for hanging out with me this year, and I look forward to lots of new, inspiring adventures in 2024.
Cynthia
