If you love behind the scenes content when it comes to online business and coaching then stay tuned because I’m going to be sharing a full rundown of behind the scenes of my online coaching business in 2022, how much money I made, my lessons learned as well as my intentions for 2023.

I’ve been writing annual review posts for over 10 years ( 2011 / 2012 / 2013 / 2014 / 2015 / 2016 / 2017 (not sure where this post has gone!) / 2018 / 2019 / 2020 / 2021 ) I always love to look back at what happened and share some of my plans for the coming year.

I find the whole process of creating these posts quite cathartic and I hope I share something that is also helpful or useful to you too.

Let’s jump in!

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January – March

Check out the detailed BTS post I did for January – March here

January – March was a really good season for me this year. I did a launch for Wholehearted Business, did a paid live training of How to Create a Multi Platform Content Show, built out a new funnel for Pinterest Magic which was converting really well and business wise most things were ticking over and going really well.

My total income for this period was $23,626 / £17,984

I also started the year off really intentionally around my health and made some big progress there after struggling with low energy and anxiety. Mainly this looked like improvements to my diet and much more movement. I absolutely love the Peloton app! I also started running short distances again too.

April – June

Check out the detailed BTS post I did for April – June here

This was the part of the year where I started to take my foot off the pedal quite a bit. After wanting it done for sooo long, we were finally able to start work on converting our garage into an office as well as renovating our utility room. In fact the whole project ended up being a complete redecoration of the downstairs of our home.

Interior design is something I truly love so I wanted to invest some time into it all and after getting quite overwhelmed in May, I made some business decisions to help me realign with my values of spaciousness and slowness. I had gone into 2022 hoping to run a summit but I put that on the back burner and made some other tweaks to make things simpler for me going forward.

The main things I did business wise in this season was running a new live programme called Connecting Content which included my main content marketing related courses and come live calls. I really enjoyed delivering the programme! I also made a big change to Instagram with my Evergreen Grid which has taken a lot of pressure off for me in terms of creating content for IG.

My total income for this period was $13,830 / £11,390

Looking back, this was the time when the building work was in full swing, and it really did impact my productivity and focus in quite a significant way. I also found it harder to keep on top of my wellbeing habits and I was getting sick a lot, but I’m quite proud that I was able to surrender a lot of my bigger intentions and instead meet myself where I was at. Something I wrote in my BTS post was ‘…but overall my business does an incredible job of meeting my creative and financial needs while allowing me the space to deal with life’s and families ups and downs. I think that’s pretty cool!’

July – September

Check out the detailed BTS post I did for July – September here

This season really solidified the fact that this was probably going to be one of the years where I’ve worked the least amount of hours in my business! I didn’t do a whole lot in July or August as one of my big intentions has always been to work 1 or 2 days max when the kids are off.

September was also just a weird month, I’m not sure what it was but it kind of felt a bit sticky to me and things didn’t quite feel in flow.

My total income for this period was $14,447 / £12,013

The biggest thing that happened in this season was having my 40th birthday which was pretty epic! I really had the perfect birthday week and I felt so good in myself, it was just fantastic.

In September I also got a new car which was fun, and our building and decorating work was progressing well.

It’s worth reminding myself at this point that I was probably spending a good few hours most weeks painting and decorating – I painted our kitchen cabinets, the walls and all the trims, it was a massive project and that definitely ate into the time I’d usually be spending on the business – but it was a really important project and now my house is lush – more on that in a sec!

October – December

I haven’t done a BTS post for this season so consider this it!

Things really picked up in October, I welcomed several new people into Wholehearted Business and I opened up some slots for a 1:1 / done for you programme I sometimes offer in the last part of the year called Get it Done which sold out.

In November I decided to experiment with a Black Friday offer for Blog School and Rock Your Brand and Website (which I retired from sale after BF). In 2021 this didn’t work so well for me but I seemingly forgot all about that and did one anyway and I’m glad I did as I got a few sales in and was pretty happy with the results! It felt light and fun so I’m glad I gave it a try.

December was really rather quiet sales wise especially as I wrapped things up from the 12th onwards (another big business intention is to not work very much in December).

However, I participated in Lizzy’s Christmas Party (a massive bundle) and that has been a resounding success – I’ve grown my list by over 500 subscribers and people still have until mid January to sign up.

My total income for this period was $13,107 / £10,898

This quarter I pretty much finished all the redecorating at home, but it was a big push to get it all done for Christmas!

Something I did struggle a lot with towards the end of the year was sickness – I was ill a couple of times and my daughter was poorly too. I’ve realised that the kids being sick is hugely triggering for me, perhaps due to the experiences we had with Finley and his heart when he was a baby. I found this latest round of illnesses and issues very hard to deal with, I think being on top of all the usual December ‘stresses’.

Things have mostly settled down now, but I’m feeling quite burned out because of it all to be honest! However, this break between Christmas and New Year and doing very little other than writing this post is helping me relax a lot and take care of myself.

2022 lessons and reflections

2022 did not go how I thought it was going to go at the start of it all! We didn’t know that the building work was definitely going to happen, and that really changed the shape of the year altogether because so many other things ended up on the back burner due to that. However, it’s been 100% worth it, I really love our home. I’m so impacted by my environment and having a beautiful and functional space to live and work in is truly transformational.

I’ve said a few times on the Wholehearted Business Show that I’ve probably worked the least amount of hours in the business than ever before. My business isn’t making massive amounts of money yet (although what a massive amount of money is depends on your perspective), but it serves me and my family in so many ways – having the freedom to live life the way I want to live it and be able to go with the flow is so valuable.

Even with taking my foot very consciously off the pedal, my business made $65,010 / £52,285 in 2022, I’m honestly so happy with this given how much flow I gave things this year!

As the year has gone on though, I have struggled more with my wellbeing, I think because the renovations on top of everything else were so intense, even if they were enjoyable and creative. I also sometimes forget that Freya is still very little, and that I’m actually still in that intense part of motherhood when they’re young and they’re your whole world.

Being a mother, running a business, managing a renovation, being the secretary of two PTA’s and everything else of course – it’s a lot to hold sometimes and moving forward I need to figure out what needs to be held and what can be let go of or maybe put down for a while so that my wellbeing doesn’t suffer in the process.

Overall, 2022 has been a year of growth in a different way than I’d expected. Transforming my home and getting the office built was a huge thing I’d been manifesting for years and was just a massive win!

2023 Intentions

I am so looking forward to 2023! However, I feel like this one needs a gentle start, as I was saying I’m feeling a little tender leaving 2022 so I don’t want to push too hard too soon.

I went through the process I shared in my 2023 Planning Workshop and the intentions that came out of that are quite specific. Usually I don’t go quite so specific but the energy I was feeling into was very practical so I went with it!

Reach £70K in income – I don’t usually get this specific when it comes to income numbers, but this feels good to me right now – I actually started with £60K as the figure, so £60K is the target with £70K as my stretch goal. This number feels doable and motivating all at once!

Strengthen up my recurring income streams – I’ve talked about recurring income before and how in some ways it’s kind of a fallacy – you can have the mechanism – i.e. a membership etc, but if you don’t have the marketing to back it up it won’t work. Really this is more about my marketing than creating any particular income stream – something I learned in 2022 is that my lead gen needs to be doubled down on if I want to hit some of my bigger income goals. My off social media content marketing strategy is really effective but I want to hit some bigger numbers and need to try some new things.

Continue to have time freedom in my business – as I said above, in 2022 I worked the fewest hours I probably ever have in the business when everything’s taken into account. I’d like to continue to embed this further and make sure that kids holidays have maximum flexibility and that my business continues to feel spacious.

Consistent wellbeing practices – this year I’d love to nail a consistent and sustainable set of wellbeing and self care practices so that I feel more calm, focused and energised. I started 2022 off so well, but then when the renovations really kicked in and time got squeezed things gradually fell apart. I know that this is the stuff that tends to fall off my list when things get busy (in fact just identifying the things that fall off my list has been really interesting!) so I have a few new ideas around managing it all as well as things I need to simply let go of to create more space.

Pay down debt – I mentioned this last year and due to the building work I have definitely not paid down my debt! I’ll be focusing on this a lot this year. There’s no regrets as having access to credit has allowed us to get the house the way we want it and it was worth extending the project to almost all of the ground floor, but yeah, this needs paying off this year!

Sort the conservatory out – we have a fairly basic conservatory on the back of our property that that former owners installed at some point. It’s not the most attractive space, and while the renovations have been happening it’s been a bit of a dumping ground. However, I’ve really missed it as an exercise space and as a space that connects the inside with the garden. Our big plan is to get a roof on it and a small wood burner to heat it, but I don’t think that will be on the cards for 2023 so I simply want to get the room organised and nicely styled so it’s a usable space again.

Family Holiday – we haven’t been abroad in a long, long time so this year I want to plan something for 2024 so we can save for a bigger holiday and get all of our passports sorted. I’d also love a staycation, maybe a visit to Scotland or to stay with our family in Brighton.

More time in nature – spending more time in nature makes everything better! Specifically I want to join a local wild swimming group and make more use of our National Trust passes and just get out on more adventures solo and as a family.

Get some specific support for specific issues – something that I gained more clarity on in 2022 was the things that block me or hold me back around my mindset, experiences of trauma I’ve had etc. I feel quite clear on what those are and accessing some support to help me around those things is on my list this year

If I was able to look back on 2023 and feel that I’ve made some progress towards those things, while also having the majority of my days feeling spacious and joy filled then I’d call that a big success!

My Word of the Year

My word for this year is Intentional.

I know that when I do things intentionally, in whatever area of life or business that might be, things get better. When I look at the areas of my business or life that have felt a bit hard it’s usually because I’ve been living by default, so having that reminder to be more intentional in everything I do is going to be super helpful for me.

I hope you’ve found this review helpful! Have you chosen a word for the year? If so let me know in the comments!

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