2024 (Mid) Year in Review: A transparent breakdown of my business
A look at the year so far
I love taking time to reflect deeply in yearly cycles, such as around my birthday or at the end of the year. But lately I’ve been feeling the itch to pause a little sooner and take a look at the year so far.
Hence, this (mid) year in review. We’re over halfway through 2024 — here’s a look at how mine has been so far (Spoiler: FULL. Fuller than I really absorbed before this reflection).
There’s no one right way to build an independent career, and with so many choices we have to make every day, usually solo, I think it can be helpful to have a look into someone else’s business. Everything I’ve learned about working for myself has come from honest conversations with other independents. Would love to hear if you’re working through similar challenges so we can give each other some support!
P.S. If you’re curious - here was my 2023 review, and I’ll be using a similar format!
➡️ Overall:
I chose “Leap” as my word for 2024, and it’s certainly been accurate! We made the move from São Paulo to Paraty in April, and all year I’ve been working on opening my own pousada (or b&b here in Brazil), alongside continuing my current brand strategy freelance services.
This has looked like finalizing my business plan, raising investment, creating the company, and sourcing properties. I hope to share news on the latter soon, but safe to say there have been a lot of emotional highs and lows! So much mindset work.
In the meantime, freelancing became more stable this year after a tough 2023. My goal of collaborating with others took a step forward with my new venture with Libby Connolly, The Office of Beloved Brands.
In terms of major growth or goal planning, I’ve purposely set aside my brand strategy work and put it more in maintenance mode, but as I look back, I’ve noticed growth was inevitable in that area as well! But in terms of learning and moving things forward, I’ve been more focused on the pousada this year.
I’m very curious how my day to day and balance of both will change once I open the property.
🗓 Significant events:
January 2024: Panicked over my income. Full on hustle mode to try to find more clients.
February 2024: Secured another retainer client, a big goal of mine, just days before heading to India for the first time for my friend Kirtika’s wedding. Saw amazing sights while spending a lot of energy trying to make sure all onboarding went well while on the road and halfway around the world.
March 2024: Started raising friends and family investment for the pousada. Visited Paraty to see properties for the first time, and found a house to rent in Paraty (not an easy feat in an Airbnb-heavy market!).
April 2024: Moved across states from São Paulo to Paraty. Launched The Office of Beloved Brands with Libby. (Read more about why here). We brought on our first official client together. I formed my U.S. LLC for the pousada.
May 2024: Hit more freelancing income for 2024 than I made in all of 2023.
July 2024: Formed pousada company in Brazil. Closed friends and family investment round. Visited 14 pousada properties.
📊 By the numbers:
12 clients
1 budget sent that wasn’t accepted
Project types:
6 projects
2 retainers
1 hourly
1 workshop
7 industries, including:
Service Provider/Solopreneur
Travel
Community
Future of Work
CPG
Nonprofit
Music
* Interestingly, 33% of clients qualify as a combo of Future of Work/Community and 33% as Service Provider/Solopreneur.
Project by service:
3 Brand Strategy
3 Brand Refresh
2 Brand Marketing Consulting (e.g. Go-to-market)
2 Content Strategy and Creation (e.g. Newsletters, Social Media)
2 Copywriting
1 Naming
* Some projects fell into a few of these buckets.
8 days fully OoO (1.6 weeks). Most were public holidays. This is a big challenge for me this year - I know vacation won’t be as possible this year in this high growth period of my career, but unfortunately I found myself working a lot while traveling in India, through public holidays, or on weekends.
+95.9% income increase from all of 2023
😬 Biggest challenge:
Mindset. I’ve been stepping into becoming an entrepreneur this year, in a way I never thought that much about before. Working for yourself as a freelancer or independent, you’re already a business owner, but it’s so much easier to just get started and there’s a lot less you need to think about with business plans, startup costs, fundraising, legal setup, and so on.
The biggest battle is believing in yourself and knowing you can figure it out. I believe 90% of entrepreneurship and starting a company comes down to the strength of your mindset. It’s constant problem solving, and you need to get comfortable with that. This has been my biggest challenge, and is ongoing! I have some book recs below that have changed my entire outlook and helped so much.
I also think for anyone who wants to start a business, ask yourself, does the money work? Carlos really pushed me on this level and I’m so grateful for it — if anyone wants to start a business and has no idea where to start, message me and I’m happy to share my business plan template with you. This the biggest piece that helped me move it from dream → reality (well, hopefully a reality soon).
On a more day to day level, it’s been trying to plan how my freelance business sits alongside starting the pousada, since that date is a moving target. I’ve been grateful for having a few retainer clients that have made that planning a lot easier through their constancy.
❤️ Favorites:
Listening - Favorite fun music:
All of Chappell Roan but if I had to pick just one it’d be “Good Luck Babe”
Listening - Favorite motivational music:
“Strange Magic” by Electric Light Orchestra. You’re probably like, “what?” But to me it captures the alchemy of making a business out of nothing and all the things that have to fall into place.
Side note - I made mini playlists called “Path to Paraty” and “Path to Pousada” with 4-5 related songs that I play over and over. Highly recommend doing something like this when you’re going after big big goals!
Listening - Favorite podcast:
Bingeing How I Built This has also been huge for my motivation.
I discovered Strong Sense of Place via OGC and it’s my new favorite reading + globetrotting treat!
Reading - Largest impact on my career:
Embracing Uncertainty by Susan Jeffers
Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers
I wish Susan could know from beyond the grave how much she’s changed my life! These books were just what I needed at the time that I needed them, and I still need them. I highly recommend them if you’re going towards big goals, worrying a lot more than you’d like, and want to approach life with a whole lot more positivity and curiosity.
Ninth Street Women by Mary Gabriel: Great deep dive showing how creativity comes from collaboration.
Reading - Favorites for pleasure:
Happy All the Time by Laurie Colwin
Babel by R.F. Kuang
Sandwich by Catherine Newman
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Visiting - Favorite place:
Tea plantations in Munnar in India:
Kerala backwaters:
Favorite photo:
It’s a tie between this photo of Penny being a hippopotamus during a Paraty sunset:
and this one of us girls watching Kirtika get married:
Favorite purchase:
This giant red straw beach bag that I believe is from the 80s, found at my favorite São Paulo thrift store Minha Avó Tinha Brechó.
Favorite project:
Working with Libby on The Office of Beloved Brand’s first official project, Chief’s brand refresh. As a strong extrovert, I love collaborating with someone else! Libby is so talented and I loved seeing her bring the visuals to life.
I’ve realized I just really really really don’t like working alone. But I love being independent, so balancing that in a sustainable way is an ongoing process.
Watching: Favorite movies
Challengers
Dune Part II
The Holdovers
Saltburn
Watching: Favorite TV
Slow Horses S3
The Bachelor - Joey’s season
Deadloch
Feeling: Favorite experiences
Getting to spend so much time with friends who live all over the world, all while celebrating Kirtika’s wedding in Hyderabad
Bonus to the feeling of nailing our group dances at the wedding — this non-dancer practiced every day for weeks
The continual feeling of working towards a huge goal and slowly day by day getting more confident I can figure it out
New experiences:
Running a positioning workshop
Biggest learning: I thought events and webinars were only put on by experts. Hold up… what if I am an expert? Thanks to Lex Roman for bringing me on to do this for Growthtrackers. I continually am reminded that sometimes all it takes is one person to tell us we can do something for us to realize we can.
Moving to a small town
Biggest learning: Being closer to nature really can make a big difference in your day to day life. Also, to be patient with yourself as you get to know people and try to make social connections.
Traveling to India - my first time in Asia!
Biggest learning: The world is huge. Take the day off after two back to back 12 hour flights to sleep.
Learning a group choreographed dance for Kirtika’s wedding
Biggest learning: Doing choreography is actually very very fun?? This was SUCH a challenge for me to learn but it was a BLAST to perform and now it’s still carrying over into my new favorite workout, dance workouts. Didn’t think this would be such a formative experience of my 2024 but here I am mentioning it several times in this newsletter.
Literally everything to do with the pousada
Biggest learning: I am capable. We are all capable! Also, I knew nothing about business plans, fundraising, forming companies, finding properties, and negotiating in Portuguese. That’s not true anymore! Although I’m still pretty lost a lot of the time 😂 But now I know that’s ok.
💡 Biggest light bulb moments:
You need to say no to something to say yes to something new. I made the decision to wrap my side project Good Trip and my Slack community Social Health Champions earlier this year when I came to terms with the fact they weren’t serving my goals anymore. It’s freeing but oddly hard to let go of something! What do you need to let go of?
Try your best to release expectations and embrace wonder. (Thanks, Susan Jeffers)
Life is so much more enjoyable when you look at it through a curiosity mindset. (Again, thank you Susan Jeffers).
Break down something big by starting with one small step or asking one small question. This will give you more info. It’s so simple but I would always beat myself up by asking, “Why don’t I know how to do this?” Well, because I’ve never done it. Just start.
These are the main questions I’m asking myself when considering projects. A “yes” to at least one is necessary to take it on: Will the effort be worth the paycheck? Will the paycheck be worth the effort? Is this my superpower? Is this a client I find really interesting, or will learn from, or will push me in the direction of other clients I want to work with? Will I learn something or add something to my portfolio that I’m interested in?
No one is just going to hand you what you want. You are the only one who can make it happen (with the assistance of your support network, too :) )
💪 What’s next in 2024?
Hopefully, opening the pousada! Everyone cross your fingers for me — I welcome all positive thoughts :)
Even just talking about it this much has me irrationally thinking I’m jinxing it — see what I said about the importance of mindset work??
Questions I’m thinking about:
I wonder what will happen with the pousada?
I wonder what my freelancing capacity will look like and how it’ll change? What will I be most interested in working on? Will my projects change?
I wonder what brand work clients will be investing in? This has changed so much from 2023 to 2024, and I’m glad to see more investing in brand again this year.
I wonder what my 2024 Year in Review in full will be like, compared to this one?
This is very long, so I’ll skip Brand Bits & Bobs for now, but…
I want to share thoughts on personal branding soon - as a sequel of sorts to my thoughts on founder-led branding. If you have any hesitancies, hot takes or questions about personal branding, shoot me a reply back. I’m so curious and it’ll help me gather my thoughts for what’s most interesting to talk about.
Let’s chat!
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I love this so much. As someone on a parallel journey (working remotely, growing a freelance business, buying an income-generating property abroad) this kind of honesty is so nice to hear. The challenges, the wins, the NUMBERS, the Chapelle Roan of it all. Can't wait for the EOY review!!