A Year In Review
What a year!
How is it already almost the end of 2021?
It seems like just yesterday it was January and I was sitting in a coffee shop, thinking about the year ahead and all that it would have in store: Transitioning a company. A marriage. Starting a new book. It was all that and then some.
Here we are, 12 months later. What has happened for you in these last 12 months? Have you taken the time to stop and really reflect on it?
I used to be really bad at this. I would just skip right ahead to the next year without pausing and thinking about all that I had experienced. Even worse, if I wasn’t creating the space to do this myself, it also meant that I wasn’t creating the space for our team to reflect on all that we had experienced together before entering a new year.
I’ve since realized the value of intentional reflection and have made a real effort to be better about this personally and also in our company. We actually incorporate reflection into our quarterly team meetings so that we have several chances throughout the year to pause and look back before we look ahead.
Our last team meeting of the year, which is happening on December 20th, is the biggest reflection of all. Instead of looking only at the last quarter, we look at our wins, challenges, and lessons learned for the entire year, both at work and outside of it. And so, as I prepare for our last team meeting of 2021 and write the last blog post of the year, I thought it would only be fitting to use this time to share my reflection with you because . . . what a year!
Here we go:
Wins:
I had my dream wedding in Mexico surrounded by 70 of our loved ones
I held myself accountable to recharge time—took 70+ personal days in 2021
The team had some big life moments: Monique welcomed new baby Atlas into the world, Rachel got married, Amanda and Monique both bought new houses, Cheyenne graduated from college, Amanda’s son Oliver turned 1!
We transitioned our company away from cleaning and toward our passion
Cheyenne decided to stay with our company after graduating
Rachel celebrated a DECADE with our company (and I flew to her house to surprise her on her anniversary!), Monique celebrated 9 years, Amanda celebrated 6, and Cheyenne celebrated 4
This is the first time our entire team can take a three-week, unplugged break during the holidays (we could never do that when operating Student Maid), and we incorporated Break Weeks company-wide, which now holds us accountable to taking a minimum of six weeks off work per year
I’ve learned to delegate in one area where I was determined it could never work . . . my emails!
Started the second book and so far it’s been FUN!
Celebrated our one-year anniversary of hosting coaching groups and hosted 108 coaching sessions this year
Launched our Human Leadership Program and graduated 425 participants
Launched The R&R Retreat and hosted more than 100 participants
More than doubled the business—we are the strongest financially we’ve ever been
Despite the pandemic, we got to gather some of our team in person twice
Kept up with our Wednesday LIVE show and introduced a new format of bringing guests on to interview
Taught 125 leadership sessions
Published 43 blog posts
Kept up my coaching with my own coach
Had first in-person events since the pandemic
Received Student Made sponsorships that allowed us to engage students from all over the world in our leadership programs
Challenges:
Remembering to take care of myself, eat well, and sleep well during the company's transition
Had to cancel our in-person team retreat for the second time in a row because of COVID
Learning how to navigate going out and socializing again while also having time at home
We couldn't take all of our students with us in our new direction, and that was hard
Saying goodbye to Student Maid cleaning clients who had supported us from the beginning
The transition magnified limiting mindsets, like “I have to work hard” and “I don’t belong”
Communicating during change
We hired someone and it didn’t work out
At times, I struggled with writers’ block and felt uninspired to write, especially when going through the ups and downs of the transition
We adjusted to new roles and had to create new processes in the transition
We hosted our first-ever student-only leadership program and expected to have hundreds of students . . . only three showed, and we kept leading the sessions as promised despite low attendance
Learning to find my own identity outside of Student Maid
Saying goodbye to Chapter 1 of a 14-year journey and closing down an office filled with more than a decade of memories
Finding intentional time to connect as a team and not make it about work
Learning to do in-person work again after being so used to virtual and determining the balance of in-person to virtual events
Remembering to make our teachings inclusive and attainable . . . sometimes we talk about where we are now and forget to paint the vision of where we used to be and how we got here
Finding the motivation to read . . . I read the fewest books this year than I ever have
Navigating the duality of emotions during the transition—both happy and sad
Learning to find my own pace instead of comparing myself to others
Giving tough feedback to those I care about
Feeling overwhelmed at times and learning how to break down big projects into smaller, simpler steps
Lessons Learned:
Building trust with one another and with our community is everything
You don’t always have to have things figured out . . . it’s okay to take it one step at a time
Hire slow
Challenge the idea of growth . . . success means what feels good to us, and that's what matters most
Keep it simple
Do it scared
Invite people in and ask for help
Underpromise and overdeliver instead of the other way around
I am not my company . . . my company is a part of me
A beautiful life is an authentic life
Doing nothing is a choice and can be even more painful than getting uncomfortable and taking a risk
Prioritize self-care and mental health over everything
Courage can’t exist without fear
When in doubt, follow your values and they will show you the answer
Ask the hard questions
Be present with those you love . . . nothing matters more
Pause for 24 hours before making a decision
It doesn’t have to be perfect . . . make it bad and then you can make it better together
At any time, we can choose to reset
When your heart is telling you something, listen
Endings are necessary if you want your life to continue to evolve and bloom
And there we have it. 2021, I will never forget you and the impact you had on me and on us. You taught me to take chances, to dream bigger, to live, to love, and to be present. Thank you for the wins, the challenges, and the lessons. Each one has made me better. You were a hard year and you were a beautiful one.
And to you, dear reader, thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for doing 2021 with me. Thanks for sticking with us and for believing in us, especially this year. I just love having you here. It means so much.
I’ll see you back here on January 18th. I know, that’s a long time away, and I’ll miss you big! Our team is off from December 21st through January 10th, and I’ll need a week to get organized before I’m back. I’m looking forward to a few weeks of unplugged time with myself and with my family, and these writing muscles of mine could definitely use a break, too! We’ve got a book to write next year, so we need all the rest we can get.
Until then, I hope you, too, can create the space for reflection. I hope you can take time over these next few weeks to unplug and carve out some time for you. It’s so important.
And now it’s time for that super-special thing I can only write on this blog once every 365 days . . .
SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!
I can’t wait to see what 2022 has in store for us.
Biggest hug of the year,
Kristen
PS: I hope you’ll join us for our LIVE on Wednesday, 12/15, at 11 a.m. ET! It’s our last LIVE of 2021! You can register for free here: https://bit.ly/3kWe2kT After that, we will be taking a break from our weekly show to rethink how we’d like to do it in 2022. Be on the lookout for an announcement when that time comes!
PPS: Looking for a way to invest in yourself in 2022?! We’d love to invite you to join our monthly coaching group. You can find all the deets here! Join us, join us!
