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128. The creative’s guide to year-end reflection (that actually feels good)

Episode 128 • 18th December 2024 • Brand Your Passion • Maker & Moxie

How do you feel when you see all of those like year in review posts showing up, the ones that are like full of impressive numbers, massive launches, and mind blowing milestones? If they leave you feeling a little bit like, uncomfy, then you are not alone. Here's the thing, as artists and makers, our growth is Looks different and the real magic often happens in moments that don't fit neatly into a spreadsheet.

So in today's episode i'm sharing a kind of different approach to year end reflection some other things you can look at That will actually feel good and capture the true evolution of your creative business. We are going to explore how to

We're going to explore how to celebrate progress that matters, uncover insights that will shape your future, and even make this reflection process feel fun and exciting. So if you're ready for that, let's dive in.

Why Traditional Reviews Don't Work for Creatives

nd especially if you look at [: 00:01:00

It focuses on things that aren't important to creatives and it can feel upsetting if it's only focused on numbers and those numbers didn't really go well or as you had hoped this year, but there are still so many things to learn and celebrate from your year. No matter how your numbers have gone.

A New Approach to Year-End Reflection

So I want to show you a different way that we can review your year that doesn't feel too structured and rigid, that focuses on things that are actually important to you. And we'll help your creative business. And that won't hopefully feel as upsetting if your numbers didn't go as you wanted them to this year.

nd it is really important to [: 00:02:00

But it is not the full picture about you, your brand, your creative business, your work. So there are more things that we might want to review.

The Three Spheres of Creative Review

So I want to talk to you about the three spheres of creative review. These are three things that you can focus on when it comes to reflecting on your year as a creative.

Number one, we have creative growth. That's the kind of evolution of you, your work and your style. Then we have brand development. That's how your brand has evolved and grown and changed throughout the year. And then we have community building. That's the connections, the impacts you've had, your audience, all of the stuff about your community.

that you can ask for all of [: 00:03:00

Creative Growth: Questions to Ask

Okay, let's talk about creative growth and some questions you can ask and things you can look at to figure out how your creativity and your work is going. All of the things that you create have grown this year. So number one, we have, how did my work evolve this year? So actually in the style, the creation, the processes around how you create your work, how has that evolved this year?

Number two is what work did I enjoy making the most and least and why? Number three is which pieces resonated the most and least with my audience and why? So if you created. Products or designs or services or anything, what resonated the most and what resonated the least. And then how has my confidence grown this year as a creative business owner, as an artist, as a service provider, whatever it is that you do.

grown? Have you become more [: 00:04:00

Brand Development: Questions to Ask

Now let's talk about brand development.

So again, just a general question. How has my brand evolved this year? So have you rebranded? Have you found more clarity? Has your audience, have you reached more of an audience? How has it evolved this year? Then we can ask, what did I do that felt most and least aligned with my brand this year? So maybe you Did some collaborations that didn't align super well or you might have posted some stuff that really did feel aligned.

u try some marketing tactics [: 00:05:00

It's good. You'll notice I'm asking you what was and wasn't, what's the most and least because it's good to see both sides of things and you're going to get lessons out of both. Then we have what way of building my brand did I love the most and least. So you might have done something that was really effective, but you hated it, or you might've done something that was not as effective, but you really loved it.

So those are some things that you might figure out like, Oh, maybe it was really effective. I hate it. I could outsource that or something wasn't as effective, but I loved it. So how can I make it more effective next year? Okay. Those are some brand development, brand building questions.

Community Building: Questions to Ask

Now let's talk about community building.

dience, all of these things. [: 00:06:00

Maybe you did some brand collaborations or collaborations with another artist. Maybe you just made some really good, Creative friends this year that really helped you and build your community. Then we have what feedback did I get about how my work impacted people? This could be like testimonials or reviews of your products or just DMs or comments of people saying things about your work.

And we want to look at things like this made me feel a certain way, or this changed how I do something, or this actually resulted in something different for me and my business. So think about what feedback you got about how your work impacted people this year. Then we have, how has my audience grown?

reach or your email list or [: 00:07:00

Have I found more engagement with my audience? What has happened between you and your audience this year?

General Reflection Questions

Okay, now just some general questions. About the year that you can reflect on that don't necessarily fit into either of those spheres But are still really good questions to ask. Number one we have what key things can I celebrate from this year?

What wins did I have or like big moments that I have? And the trick that I use here is to look back on things like your social media, your camera roll, your calendar your meeting bookings, your website and see what has happened and what those key things were You Then you can ask, what experiments paid off this year?

[: 00:08:00

Or, yeah, just where did you surprise yourself this year? Then we want to know what filled my cup, either energy or creative wise, and what drained it. So if there were things this year that you loved doing and they made you feel so much more creative and they really gave you more energy, We want to know that.

reativity or energy wise. So [: 00:09:00

And then the last question, the last one in this category is what do I want to stop doing? Keep doing, do more of, and do less of. So based on all of the things that you've just reviewed, what are the things that you want to stop doing completely? What are the things you want to keep doing? What are the things you want to do more of specifically?

So not just the same as what I'm doing, but I want to do more of that. And what are the things that I don't want to stop, but I just want to do less of this thing, or I want to do or not even that, I don't want to do You would consider stopping, but just that you want less of like less working late or less, all of that kind of thing are things that you might not be able to stop, or you might not want to stop, but you could do less of.

Okay. Now you've answered all of those questions or a bunch of them. You've done a bunch of review with all of those things.

Turning Reflections into Action Plans

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So say you wrote a bunch about your community, what lessons did you learn from those things that you wrote down? Same with all the other categories. What insights are you getting from all of the things that you wrote? Next, what are some opportunities for growth or evolution or change that you can put into action next year?

So maybe there. You realize that

maybe as we talked about, you had some things that were really effective ways to build your brand this year, that's an opportunity for growth to continue doing that or improve that or make it more effective. For example, or if your brand didn't feel super aligned, that's an opportunity for evolution or for growth.

Next we have what actions [: 00:11:00

I want to hire someone to help me with this thing, or I want to put in boundaries that will help me with this thing. So what are actual tangible actions you can take from your lessons and put into action in 2025? that you can take from those lessons and put into action next year. And last but not least, I am a word of the year person.

a year. And so what word of [: 00:12:00

I went through and reviewed all of the things and wrote down all of the lessons that I had from this year. And a word really stuck out to me from all of those things. It was like, okay, based on all of these things, Everything I've put down and all the things that didn't go well and what did go well and what I want to focus on next year, this is a word that kind of encapsulates all that or gives me something to focus on based around all of that, that then I can use next year to direct everything.

So if you like that idea and you like the word of the year, then what is that word that could be inspired by all of these lessons?

Conclusion and Resources

if you find those helpful I [: 00:13:00

So whether you had a quote unquote successful year, or you're in the positives or the negatives, like there are so many things to learn and that will give you things to continue working on next year. It's not just okay, numbers are down, or I didn't achieve this, or I didn't achieve this, whatever. It doesn't matter.

You can always learn something, move forward, get excited about the possibilities for next year, and I hope that this helps you method or these ways of reviewing your year will help you with that. And even if you did kick ass and succeed this year, it is more motivation. You will pull out things like, oh my god, I did that, I remember, or I can't believe I achieved that, or this was actually a really successful strategy and I nailed that.

And so it will give you more [: 00:14:00

We'll give you the prompts. So Some spaces for like planning and tracking and all of those things. And so if you want a template to go through, that will make it super easy to review your brand and review your business for this year, then head to bit. ly forward slash creative year and review all one word.

sion Collective. This is the [: 00:15:00

this is the community for artists and makers who want to build a creatively fulfilling, financially stable, community building, Creative business and we do it all together in the community. So we will be reflecting on a bunch of things throughout the year together. We're going to be planning our year together, and we're going to be working on our brands and our businesses together.

And we are already doing that. There is some incredible stuff going on in the community. So if you want to join us again, head to the link in the show notes, but you can also just go to brandyourpassion.co and you can join us there. Okay. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I, as always, I hope it was super helpful and as always keep creating and I will talk to you in the next one. Bye!

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