“For me, success is not a public thing. It’s a private thing. It’s when you have fewer and fewer regrets.” 😌~Toni Morrison

Earlier this year, in January, I set a few goals I wanted to achieve on a post-it note:

I was staring at it yesterday and reflecting on how I feel about each and thought it would be helpful(?) to share my progress and thinking with you.

When I created this goal, I was at a little over 800 subscribers. So 1500 seemed like a good plan. However, I have realized that I cannot directly control the number of subscribers I get. Instead, I can focus on my outputs: creating quality content week after week and continue to spread the word about #jesspicks.

Getting to 1,000 subscribers was such a journey for me, and it did allow me to attract more sponsorships. Aside from that, I have decided that it is more critical for me to continue growing slowly and focus on getting quality subscribers versus chasing a number. In case you are curious, as of writing this issue, the subscriber count is 1,162. If I get to 1,500, it’ll be great, and I can potentially increase my sponsorship rates which will help other goals, but I love not focusing on growth for growth’s sake.

Surprisingly I just checked my Goodreads, and I have achieved this goal! 🎉 Reading has become such an essential part of my self-care. It makes me feel centered, and sometimes it’s just perfect for escaping the physical world for a bit because of #allthethings. Just ordered two more to read soon.

Looking at my numbers, I may not be making a consistent $500/month, but I’m making $425/month on average. And that feels good. I’m hoping to increase that over the coming months, but I am happy with where this is going.

This did not happen. 😬 I think because I spent most of the summer teaching high schoolers about leadership skills. However, I am happy I was able to do two of these this year. It’s an essential topic, though, so shooting for facilitating 2-3 per year feels good.

Technically the class is over, but I did not participate as much as I would have liked. I have lifetime access to the materials, though, so my strategy here will be to see what principles of Playing Big I can include as part of my overall coaching/mentoring work with clients.

I was able to run a Side Hustle workshop with the National Urban League this summer which makes for a fantastic 1-hour course if I say so myself. And I am continuing to update the tips and lessons learned from running a curated newsletter. I am looking forward to continuing to build on these over the next year.

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All in all, not a bad status report. And based on my plans for the next two months, I feel pretty good about my success this year.

What goals did you set at the beginning of the year? How are you doing with those? How can you honor those as you close out 2021?

Hit reply and let me know if you have any questions about my updates above! Happy to answer anything.

On to the picks!

P.S. I am looking forward to this planning workshop in December. Ruth had me at “simple and spacious.” It might be of interest to you too.

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