Goodbye 2022, Hello 2023!
Every year at this time, I pause to reflect on all the work we accomplished as a team, the growth we’ve made as a business, the events we curated and most importantly the lessons we’ve learned. As we prepare for what is shaping up to be an exciting 2023, I’m reflecting on these key lessons learned in 2022.
The Power of Being Completely Offline
Planning for parental leave forced me to make tough choices about time, to radically prioritize, and to be extremely transparent with clients about the time I could dedicate in the months and weeks leading up to the arrival of my son. As an entrepreneur, I was nervous about taking this approach with valued clients and to my surprise and amazement, clients really appreciated the transparency and specificity. As a result, I’m bringing some of what I learned planning for parental leave into the day-to-day work at EOD moving forward. One step we’re taking this year is implementing an extended Winter Restoration break starting next week.
Mutual Vulnerability Matters
When I start working with any client, I’m curious about their motivations, vision, hopes, reservations - and how all of those things intersect with upcoming events. In 2022, the vast majority of my clients were social sector clients with missions interwoven with my personal values and what drives me - which has only deepened my interest in knowing everything I possibly can about each client to curate events aligned to their values. I realize it’s a lot to ask of clients to share so deeply right off the bat, and I’ve realized that part of building that trust is proactively sharing more about myself. One way I’ve done that in 2022 is sharing more about how my identities inform my work during AANHPI Heritage Month and LatinX Heritage Month.
Delegate Work that Steals Your Joy
Does some aspect of your work drain your energy, even if you are technically capable of doing it? For me, that’s social media - hands down! While I can dedicate two hours to writing and designing a few social media posts, I’d rather spend that time designing and planning events. I’ve realized this year that the return on investment is so worth it to contract with an expert who can use those same two hours to create a month of content. Sidenote: If planning events steals your joy, check out this reflection on delegating to an event planner.