2020 in review: the blessings of good health and working from home

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why a 2020 in review? - gaining new perspectives

Sometimes, when things go differently than we had planned, we may feel like we haven’t made our goals, like we didn’t accomplish anything. That we failed somehow. We tend to remember the ‘bad things’ more than the good. It’s just a thing our brain does, it is wired to improve and look for solutions. And we tend to forget the successes and wins.  

Doing a year in review can help you reconnect to the positive things that happened, and it will shift your perspective a lot. What I have learned from loss and big changes in my personal life over the past 10 years, is that looking back reconnects me with what has happened, it helps me process things, and in hindsight I will have more clarity and can view things differently.

2020 was definitely ‘the year that we didn’t expect’ and it brought us many challenges, pivots, changes of plans for sure. And thus, we tend to remember the difficulties and forget the silver lining. I would like to remember the silver lining! That is why I decided to write a year in review. For you, and for myself too. 

Doing a review serves multiple goals for me:

-       Evaluating what I have accomplished

-       Determining what I want to change, improve or do differently next year

-       But above all, it brings me awe and gratitude for what life has in store and how much can happen in a year. 

 

2020 was my second year as an entrepreneur. First, I will take you back in time a little bit to describe how my business came to life. And then, I will review 2020 month by month.  

I hope you’ll enjoy the read! 

 

What happened before… my story

In 2016 I lost my job as a Medical Doctor and Operational Manager. I did nothing wrong. I didn’t fail. I didn’t mess up at all. I was a very professional employee of utmost integrity, loyalty, and commitment. And still, all of this didn’t protect me from losing my job.

I had worked very hard for almost 20 years, helping patients and supporting colleagues as a Medical Doctor, turning around a life science business by improving the business processes as an Operational Manager. I worked a double job in part-time hours, was available 24/7 for the company. Even when I got divorced unexpectedly in 2014, and was a single mother of two young girls aged 3 and 5, I had to keep working to pay my very high mortgage to be able to pay for our home. 

It turned out to be too much. My body couldn’t cope and when I had to go through emergency surgery on a Friday night in September 2016, only three weeks after I remarried the most supportive husband I could ever imagine, I didn’t recover. I crashed into severe burnout and couldn’t even dress myself or find my way in the supermarket for a while. I thought my life was over.

Recovery took me 2 years. 

I lost my Medical Doctor registration because I didn’t make enough clinical hours.

I lost my entire income and I had to start a new career.


In January 2019, I registered a business called Elemental Life, which offered vitality & burnout coaching and monthly Moon Reports describing the astrological and spiritual energies of the New and the Full Moon which I had been writing consistently for almost 2 years during my recovery. When I started my online coaching business, I had just completed a Holistic Vitality Coaching Certification and qualified as a yoga teacher and therapist too. I really wanted to help people who were in the darkness of burnout. I organised a summit titled ‘Reclaim & Master Your Energy’ which was a huge success with over 2000 participants and I loved the topic a lot.

 
Reclaim & Master your energy summit Willemijn Maas
 

Through the summit, a free 10 day meditation course called ‘WinterLight’ and several webinars, I grew my email list to 2500+ subscribers. But it wasn’t bringing in a lot of clients. I had offered courses, group and private coaching, which led to two coaching clients in 6 months. It wasn’t enough to sustain me. The business side of it what I had created just didn’t work.

I quickly realized that those deep in burnout are so frozen that they can’t invest or don’t dare to. There was a clear need with my potential clients, and a very strong desire, but their means were usually very limited and because I had gone through it myself, I knew how constricted low energy levels feel, and how scary it can be to lose your income, not knowing how to pay the next bill. It just prevented them from investing in themselves (and from what I’ve learned, burnout is a symptom of not investing in yourself to begin with).

However, I needed to pay the bills too! I was determined to not burn out myself again and this new business was not fuelling me energetically or financially. I wanted to move away from this topic and create a positive future!

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD - becoming an ONLINE BUSINESS SUPPORT PROFESSIONAL

In June 2019, I decided to stop with the Elemental Life vitality coaching business. I went back to the drawing board and evaluated what I loved most about my online coaching experience. It was the strategy, the tech, the back end, creating smart solutions and learning new systems! I had met a lot of online entrepreneurs who were always complaining about the tech pieces… I knew a lot about online business, creating systems and setting up tech! And I had been an Operational Manager & Project Manager before in a multimillion euro Life Sciences company… EUREKA! 

I knew my magic – online business support!

When I decided to offer Online Business Management services halfway through 2019, it all started snowballing very fast. Apparently, there was a huge need for advanced tech and strategic support. After talking to two business friends, I received a couple of referrals who turned into long term retainer clients without blinking an eye. I didn’t even have a website or a social media presence for my new business idea. Which proves once again that these things are not necessary to be successful.

 

An unexpected miracle

At the end of 2019, I found myself working with three amazing clients on retainer basis, providing me with a steady income, and I was getting referrals regularly. However, I had to put new clients on a wait list because my health was not great, and during the winter months, I was in a lot of pain. Early 2019, I was ‘diagnosed’ with an ‘undefined chronic pain disorder’, so I figured it was a flare. Just prior to Christmas, I was in so much bone pain that driving became impossible and I need to rely on my husband again for my transport. I was able to serve my clients as an online entrepreneur, but exhaustion set in again and all my energy was put into my business at that point.  

So, 2019 ended pretty crappy for me. I remember sitting in the doctor’s office crying in the weeks before Christmas, because I couldn’t do the things that are considered normal. Driving my kids to school. Taking them to horse riding lessons. Carrying groceries. Typing! Even walking and sitting for too long became very painful. 

My vitamin D levels were assessed, and it turned out they were very low. I received high dose supplements, but I thought it wasn’t going to change anything. I knew we had a trip coming up to San Diego in January, and it was going to be a 14-hour flight from Amsterdam. I thought I wasn’t going to make it. 

And then a miracle happened. After just 3 weeks of high dosage vitamin D, my pain subsided overnight. The exhaustion lifted. It was literally like a cloud of fog was cleared from my brain. I was able to function again!

A couple of weeks later, all my chronic health symptoms completely disappeared! (I’m very happy that at the end of 2020, a year later, the diagnosis was taken of my medical records entirely, because all my symptoms turned out to be related to vitamin D deficiency, not an ‘undefined chronic pain disorder’.)

At the beginning of 2020, I was doing so much better, and I dared to take on a new client, and traveling to San Diego became possible for me too. 

I decided that my word for 2020 was going to be ROBUST. Because I wanted my health and my business to be robust, so that I wouldn’t have to worry about it so much. Little did I know of how much of that word was going to be needed in 2020…

 

January: International experiences

I went to San Diego with my husband at the end of January, to the Rotary International Assembly. Why would I go to the Rotary International Assembly? I’m not a member, but my husband has been a member for over 35 years. He is elected district governor 2020-2021, so I was invited to come with him for the partner training program. To be honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to it, because I was expecting loads of boring speeches and workshops. However, it actually turned out to be a very nice week! We stayed at the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel which had such an amazing view over the San Diego bay.

 
View over the San Diego bay from the top floor of the Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel

View over the San Diego bay from the top floor of the Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel

 

The Rotary Foundation positively surprised me, not only with an amazing well-organized week, but also the structure, the commitment, and the causes Rotary is supporting, are very important and aligned with my values of (gender and race) equality, diversity, environmental protection, accessible healthcare, sanitation, and clear water around the globe, leadership and connection. I attended round table meetings with other governor partners from all over the world, and I deliberately chose topics close to my heart, like women empowerment & leadership, diversity, equity, and entrepreneurship.

I was able to meet so many dedicated People of Action, all volunteers, from all over the world. At breakfast I would chat with a cardiologist from Peru, at lunch I would listen to a speech from a woman from Brazil who was able to study psychology due to Rotary support and exchange programs, and at diner we would be dancing dressed up in our national Dutch attire, between Rotarians from Mexico and Nepal! We had an amazing time there and feeling such a deep connection between people of so many diverse backgrounds was very healing. 

 
Palm trees in front of the hotel, basking in the January sun

Palm trees in front of the hotel, basking in the January sun

 

And of course, the weather was awesome and catching an extra bit of sun in January was wholesome too!!

Flying back, I remember we were extra careful with hygiene because there were rumors about a virus in Wuhan and it was near the Chinese New Year, and we knew that a lot of Chinese would be visiting family and thus would be traveling to the US. Nobody seem to care about it but as a former medical doctor with knowledge about epidemics and as a person with a frail health, I was extra cautious. 

 

February: New skills

With my health recovering, I took up a hobby that I had wanted to learn for ages! Pottery. The lessons were very good, but I wasn’t… Pottery turns out to be very difficult!! With gentle and patient guidance from the teacher, I managed to create some cups and bowls anyway and I’m pretty happy with the result. I was going to take lessons for a while, I thought, to get better at it and I wanted to learn how to do plates and vases too.

 
My first attempt at throwing bowls - the gorgeous glaze is very forgiving!

My first attempt at throwing bowls - the gorgeous glaze is very forgiving!

 

Another skill I put to use was launch management! In January, I started the official OBM certification program with Sarah Noked and I learned so many new skills. I discovered how much I love to manage launches and other projects. I could apply everything I learned immediately to my new client’s B-school affiliate launch and it was a huge success!

Halfway February, my daughter became sick. A cold or the flu perhaps. But her symptoms were strange, nothing I had ever seen in my medical career. She was so tired she fell asleep at the table, and at school too. Shortness of breath without a real clinical picture of bronchitis or pneumonia. And one night, her heart was racing when she tried to fall asleep. I thought it might be anxiety. It was really strange, and she wasn’t herself at all… In the back of my mind I was worried, because I knew we met a couple from Wuhan in San Diego, and in the meantime, it became clear that the virus from Wuhan had spread to Italy already. Could this be…? 

 

March: always have a plan

Although nobody seemed to take this strange new virus seriously, and people went on skiing trips to Italy and Austria and had been celebrating carnival, I was really worried. I told my husband that we needed to stock up on pantry items, food, toilet paper, etc. He thought I was nuts, but I felt like it was just a matter of time before the virus would surface in The Netherlands too, because airport Schiphol is one of the main portals to Europe.

And then, on March 13, everything closed, and we know what happened right? But at least, we had enough toilet paper, pasta and cans to last a very long time.

I guess it’s in my nature to always be one step ahead of things. In the same way, I told my children that maybe school would close (as it was happening in Italy). So they weren’t so shocked when the first lockdown happened. I wasn’t either. It was just inevitable.

And so I became a homeschooling mom. And the pottery lessons were cancelled, just as almost every other activity. The girls missed the horses most and were very sad about not being able to ride and take care of the horses for weeks. But we got to spend a lot of extra time together, enjoying homeschooling, and we made extra trips to the garden to prepare it for Spring.

 
The garden in March - Nature never stops, not even in lockdown

The garden in March - Nature never stops, not even in lockdown

 

April: homeschooling, saying goodbye to clients

The first lockdown was a challenge for a lot of businesses. What struck me most was that a lot of business owners just froze. It wasn’t so much that their business was directly affected, but the fear of an economic crash and clients not investing anymore (without any proof of that) had them in chains. They started telling themselves and believing that their clients and customers would sit on their money and that nobody wanted to invest in anything again. That didn’t turn out to be true at all, and I think it is the most dangerous thought an entrepreneur can have. “People won’t invest anymore, and especially not in my product XYZ.” It stifles your creativity and ability to pivot where needed. Although I could see the possibilities clearly, this was the reason I had to say goodbye to two clients. But as homeschooling intensified, it was a welcome break from busy.

My daughters attend Waldorf school, and although I’m very tech savvy, digital education and use of computers is not a regular practice in Waldorf schools. It was quite a change from the diverse curriculum with dance, music, outside play, history, art classes, to just math and grammar at home with only one lesson a week through a laptop screen. But we managed, and they liked being schooled at home (mostly). We took regular breaks to go outside and they had a lot of time to play in the garden with the chickens. The weather was exceptionally nice in April!

 

May: online business manager certification & planting seeds

The last week of April was a tough one, as I went to the official certification week of the International Association of Online Business Managers. We were given up to two big assignments daily, from creating a launch plan, to auditing business metrics, doing research about a new software tool, or describing how to handle a difficult conversation with a staff member. I loved all the projects so much and it was a great way of validating my skills and what I bring to the table as an Online Business Manager with corporate experience as an Operational Manager, trained Auditor, and also everything I knew from my career as Medical Doctor in Psychiatry and Donor Medicine. Hard conversations don’t scare me. It felt like everything I have to offer came together. 

After two weeks of impatient waiting, I finally received notice that I passed the certification week!  


 
 
The official graduation notification

The official graduation notification

My OBM badge!

My OBM badge!

 

May is traditionally the month of planting my vegetable garden. I own a plot about 5 minutes away (by bicycle, because: The Netherlands), and between April to September you can find me in the garden a lot. In May, most seedlings that I have started on the window sills can go out into the garden. This year, I planted ten heirloom tomato varieties. I had started so many tomatoes that I had more than enough to give away to the entire street! So, in the neighbourhood Whatsapp group, people showed interest and I would put a little cardboard box with tomato seedlings in front of their door. Due to lockdown and social distancing people were at home and I made a bunch of new friends in our own street who would send me pictures of their tomatoes-in-progress over the summer. Very cool.

 
Tomato seedlings ready to be put on a neighbour’s doorstep

Tomato seedlings ready to be put on a neighbour’s doorstep

 

June: even more new connections

June was supposed to be the month of business connections! I was so looking forward to making new connections in Iceland during the Selfmade Summit by Sigrun. But due to COVID, it was of course cancelled. 

Instead, I decided to become a SOMBA mentor. In SOMBA (Sigrun’s Online MBA – highly recommended!), new and existing entrepreneurs learn how to start, build and grow a successful online business by creating scalable courses. The process is validated many times, and I’m amazed by the results people get each round! From zero to 6 figures in a year!

SOMBA mentor Sigrun Online Business MBA

As an Online Business Manager, and having gone through the process of creating a SOMBA Kickstart course myself in 2019, I mostly help out with the tech and strategy questions, and getting to know so many great women in the program, is a great opportunity to make new business connections as well.

SO, missing out on live connections, didn’t stop me from making new connections online! I spoke to amazing OBM colleagues, had some coffee chats (highly recommended for networking purposes), and new clients found me, which was of course great too!

Of course, I was still homeschooling. I am very aware that this year has been very tough on parents and moms in particular because they took on the largest part of educating their children. I consider myself ‘lucky’ that I am a part-time co-parent, and that I was able to get work done for my clients Monday through Wednesday and homeschool my children on Thursdays and Fridays, and that I have a very supportive husband who does a more than fair share in the home. 

To entertain the children (and ourselves ☺️), we decided to get two baby chicks. My daughters were in love with Puck and Kuifje and played with them all day. They were in a cage in the living room and watching them settle at bedtime and falling asleep was the cutest thing. And each morning they greeted us with happy chirps! They truly lit up the lonely times. 

 
Kuifje on the right, Puck on the left. Puck later turned out to be an unexpected rooster (oops) so we had to swap him for a hen, named Swiffer.

Kuifje on the right, Puck on the left. Puck later turned out to be an unexpected rooster (oops) so we had to swap him for a hen, named Swiffer.

 

July: my biggest wish comes true

With the world opening up slowly again, we could finally start with a project that I had been dreaming into life since we moved into our cozy red brick house four years ago. Renovating our back yard. 

In just two days, our gardener Wibo and his son Chris from Astrum Groen, trashed and removed the entire existing garden. There was nothing left but a big crater!!

Before…

Before…

The big crater…

The big crater…

After! My dream garden came to life!

After! My dream garden came to life!

And then, less than three weeks later, my dream garden came to life. A new chicken coop, a pergola, new lawn, gorgeous new terraces! I planted everything up myself, as an avid gardener I’m confident with plants. My vegetable garden, five minutes away, is my biggest pride. While my back yard was taking shape, I cycled to my veggie plot daily to water the plants in my edible paradise.

 

August: our favorite holiday destination 

 
Switzerland Flims Naraus mountains
 

Although we prepared for a summer at home, we had already booked an apartment in Graubünden, Switzerland, to spend our summer holiday. And we decided to go by car, minimising exposure to other people during travel, and our apartment made it possible to avoid restaurants and bars too.

We visit Switzerland every other year and we just love the country. The mountains are so majestic and nature there is so calming and healing. It was a much needed break during a crazy year. I could really feel that stress had taken its toll on my health and that is not what I want to have happen ever again. I renewed my vows, about working with aligned clients, and not taking on projects that were stressing me out. And I felt that I was moving closer to my purpose, that this is something I want to help other entrepreneurs with too. I decided to lean into this a bit more to see what would emerge. 

Upon returning, the first tomatoes started to ripen. I harvested a total of 35 kilos of tomatoes which were turned into tomato salad, soup, pasta sauce, dried tomatoes and so. much. more!

 
Only a small portion of the enormous tomato harvest

Only a small portion of the enormous tomato harvest

 

September: crazy busy month & investing in myself

September is always a very VERY busy month for clients, as most of them go into program launches after the summer. So, this month was taken up by launch planning, project management, hiring team members for my clients. Luckily, here in The Netherlands, school had reopened and I could focus on my business.

Being so busy with client work, I really felt that I needed my own office space in our home. Until then, my husband and I had shared a study, and he was mostly away for work. But now, due to renewed measures, his work activities were all online too! I was craving for my own quiet space. In one weekend, we rearranged our study, master bedroom, and turned the clothing room into a new office for me!! I’m still so happy with it, I have my own cabinet with crystals and tarot decks, and I have turned a second-hand tea table into a little altar with candles and flowers to make it a serene space where I can concentrate and reconnect to myself. 

Another thing I did to invest in myself was hiring a photographer, a graphic designer and a social media manager to help me with my branding. Although I had been an OBM for over a year, I never had any professional photos taken. I didn’t even have a logo! I started with nothing, and although I built my own website, it was really time for gorgeous branding.

 
Willemijn Maas OBM photo Eline Schuurmans
 
Willemijn Maas OBM office online business
 
branding mood board
 

I hired Eline Schuurmans to take pictures in my new office. She could only take them by standing on the balcony outside because it’s super tiny.

Preeti Pooja from Your Socially helped me with my content strategy and created amazingly helpful Canva templates for me.

And G Sabini-Roberts created a logo and beautiful branding together with me in one day during her Rapid Brand Mastermind. I’m still amazed at what we were able to create in one day and how versatile the design elements are. I am very grateful to all of them and it made me feel validated in a new way as a business owner.

Oh, and I went for a haircut, the first in months!

 

October: best month ever and support is key

With COVID cases rising again from the end of September,  it has become increasingly clear that while brick-and-morter businesses are suffering, the online business space was doing very well in 2020. Online businesses grow exponentially by surfing the wave of working from home, online connection, more time to spend on courses, the need for spiritual and personal development to navigate difficult times, and so much more! Opportunities are everywhere.

My clients were doing well, and especially in the niche I’m in (online coaches and course creators), there is a lot of work to do. Entrepreneurs clearly need support in managing their business and I have my hands full. October has been the busiest month for me since I started my business and it would also turn out to be the best month of 2020 in terms of revenue. 

I supported my clients with three launches, hiring new amazing VAs for them, managing projects, organising their virtual office on Google Drive, creating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for them, and I’m helping them choosing and implementing new software, like Dubsado, ClickUp, Teachable, GrooveFunnels, Kajabi, and Funnel Gorgeous Funnels, and auditing email service providers like ConvertKit.

I was working a lot and learning a range of new systems and I was feeling the need to restructure my business. I don’t want to only trade hours for money as an OBM, I want to scale my own business too, with courses, coaching and masterclasses. The only thing that is lacking is time to create content.

When my clients grow their business, they need an OBM and a coach for support. As my business was growing, I also needed to start asking for support. I invested in a 6-month coaching program called Booked and Balanced with a coach who started as a fellow OBM, Tasha Booth, and now owns The Launch Guild, an agency for launch support, and hosts a podcast for online entrepreneurs – titled How She Did That. Tasha and the Booked and Balanced participants encouraged me to make a couple of powerful choices about my niche, my ideal client, and the way I want to structure my business so that I can serve my clients in the best way possible and in a sustainable way.

As I raised my rates in September already, I decided to implement a new structure for my OBM packages, overtime packages, and strategic support for 2021.

 

November: a light house and new horizons

After two crazy busy months, we went on a much needed break to the island of Schiermonnikoog, in the Northern part of The Netherlands. It is a tiny island with 1000 inhabitants, one grocery store, and a lighthouse, and it was all we need. Wind through our hair, cycling around the island, only meeting a couple of sheep. Due to stricter COVID measures all restaurants and bars were closed again, and we were lucky to have our own apartment, with a small kitchen where we cooked our meals. It felt like we own a small private island!

 
400 year old lighthouse on the tiny island of Schiermonnikoog, The Netherlands

400 year old lighthouse on the tiny island of Schiermonnikoog, The Netherlands

 

It’s always good to take a real break and come back refreshed. 

Business-wise, I was increasingly feeling a strong pull to finally start creating my own offerings. I know I have a lot to offer when it comes to sustainable business growth in the online space. Apart from the strategy and tech, I have built my business from the ground while experiencing health and energy issues and I want to teach other entrepreneurs how they can build and grow their online business without burning out.

There is a lot of ‘pushing’ advice when it comes to building a business, and I know from personal experience it is not necessary and often counterproductive, when we push ourselves in ways that deplete us. I want to coach people and help them build a business that suits their personal situation and energy levels from the start.

In 2019, a year ago, when I participated in the SOMBA Kickstart program, I created a 4-week course around this topic called Spacious Sustainable Success, which I want to turn into a coaching program in 2021.  

To build my audience and learn more about recurring semi-passive revenue, I decided to join One To Many with Lisa Johnson, which runs until March 2021. I love to invest time and money into continuous education, and building connections, and because a retainer client contract comes to an end early December, I suddenly have plenty of time for it.

The One To Many program offers a funnel tech setup bonus (great if you want to save time), and for me it was the final nudge I needed to start my own Facebook group “Here To Last - Build Your Online Business Without Burning Out”. The support in One To Many is amazing, and for me it is a chance to make new connections in the UK and Europe as well.

To be able to start with a clean slate for 2021, I decided to finally clean up my email list and delete all cold subscribers from my previous business Elemental Life. It’s a scary thing to delete subscribers, because I still receive messages every now and then about how awesome my Moon Reports were (although I haven’t been creating them for almost 2 years!) but I know most of them are not aligned with my current business. I tried re-engaging them to my new list multiple times but it was not successful. To make sure my list is healthy and up to date I ended up deleting almost 1500 subscribers (80%). Yikes! Sometimes it’s just better to start over.


 
Here To Last Facebook group Willemijn Maas OBM

In case you want to join my Facebook community Here to Last, click below!

 

On a personal level we experienced a big loss. Rox, my eldest daughter’s favourite chicken, dies unexpectedly in her arms. The loss of a much loved animal can cut really deep, and the way we lost her leaves us shaken for days.

December: reflection, rest & the first egg!

Having a bit more time, I was finally able to create a content plan for my own Facebook Group called Here To Last – Build Your Online Business Without Burning Out. Although I know that burnout and exhaustion is something that a lot of entrepreneurs are dealing with, I didn’t expect the group to take off so quickly! There is clearly a need to talk about these subjects in a safe space. As I’m working on content for the group for 2021, the group is growing steadily and new connections between like-minded entrepreneurs are made.

It wasn't unexpected, but when the new complete lockdown was announced early December, the country is still a bit in shock. This time, the lockdown comes with even more closures, including restrictions for Christmas. Whereas in Spring the shops stayed open, they are now also forced to close. Schools are closed again too. We are prepared for a cozy at home celebration.

Among my international Facebook friends, I see more and more messages of people getting sick and family members dying, especially in the US. It is all very sad to witness. It underscores the need for support and community even more and again, I am happy to be able to work from home as an online entrepreneur. It makes it so much easier to avoid risks and make sure the virus doesn’t spread through our activities and movements.

For me, December is traditionally a month of reflection and turning inward as the holidays are approaching. Not only for myself, but also for my clients. We spent extra time to do a year in review in the monthly planning calls, so that strategic choices would be made for the new year. Using this time of year to slow down, look back and reflect on what worked and what didn’t work, helps to make better decisions, evolve offerings and grow the business further.

 
Delft’s Blue Christmas wreath

Delft’s Blue Christmas wreath

 

This year, I intentionally took off the week of the Winter Solstice and Christmas. It’s my husband and me only this year (my daughters are at their dad’s), and it’s both of our birthdays, but of course we couldn't have any guests over.  We decided to postpone both of our birthdays to the day after Christmas (which is called second Christmas Day here in The Netherlands), when the girls are here again, to celebrate together. It turned out to be a lovely, cozy day with lots of love, self made presents, and laughter.

And, on the Winter Solstice, we found the first egg!

 
Sweet Kuifje, very proud of her first egg ;-)

Sweet Kuifje, very proud of her first egg ;-)

 

For me this is what 2020 was all about. Coming back to center, evaluating what really matters to us, investing in ourselves and the people that love and support us, and expressing gratitude for what we do have. 

I am very grateful that…

  • I was already working from home when the pandemic started

  • my business model is robust and could take the hit from losing a couple of retainer clients and homeschooling my children

  • my revenue allowed me to invest in my health, my business, travel when possible and that we were able to make my long desired new back yard a reality

  • we are all still healthy.

2020 has proven to be ROBUST.

 

2020 in numbers 

  • 6 long term retainer clients served

  • 70k revenue in my second year in business (more than my Medical Doctor salary!)

  • 1335 hours worked (billable and non-billable)

  • 500k+ in revenue brought in for my clients

  • 58 newsletters sent

  • 2 international trips

  • 1 national trip

  • 1 OBM certification

  • 35 kilo tomatoes

  • 2 new chickens (we started with 3 in January, sadly lost 2 in February and November, got 2 new ones in June, and swapped a rooster for a hen - this is advanced chicken math)

  • 0 positive COVID tests

 

My Plans for 2021 

I’m looking forward to 2021, knowing it will still be very different, the new normal will not go away. And although it is not easy to plan when things are uncertain and can shift quickly, I still have a couple of things I would like to do.  

  • In March, I will start with the Launch Manager Certification Program by Tasha Booth so I can support my clients even better with the latest launch strategies 

  • I am going to offer several masterclasses about sustainable business growth - about funnels, launching, planning, project management and more! Sign up for my newsletter to receive updates!

  • I will launch my coaching program supporting online entrepreneurs to create sustainable foundations for growth, sign up to stay in the loop!

  • Attending the Selfmade Summit in Reykjavik Iceland in June!

  • I really REALLY want to join Sigrun’s high end coaching program Momentum in 2021 (listen to her podcast here)

  • Double my revenue! My goal is to hit 150k in 2021.

  • Renovating the front yard as well!

  • Hiring support - a cleaner once COVID is gone, and a social media VA

I can’t wait for 2021 to start! It will be an interesting ride in many unexpected ways, just like 2020 was.

My word for 2021

My word for 2021 will be MOMENTUM. I feel it is time to gain momentum in my business, build upon the sustainable foundations that I have built. And because I would like to join Sigrun’s program Momentum in 2020 to grow my own business beyond 6-figures. Let’s see in how many other ways my word will show up this year!

Tip: In case you would like to find your word for 2021, I highly recommend signing up for Susannah Conway’s free 5 day email course Find Your Word.


I’d love to hear from you what stood out for you in my 2020 review, please comment below to share your thoughts! When you have written a year in review post as well, feel free to leave the link in the comments too!