What I'm leaving behind in 2024
Saying goodbye to design, old freebies, and short-term coaching đ
Happy New Year! And, happy Monday. â
Iâm back at my desk after two glorious weeks away from my business, inbox, and social media. And wow â did it ever feel good to have an unplugged brain break. We visited Twin Falls, Idaho and White Rock, BC, to see our families and friends.
Here are a few highlights:
My Christmas Eve baby turned one! I now have a toddler. Cue the sappy mom tears. We had a chill first birthday party with balloons, cupcakes, and many gifts for the little fella.
I soaked up the PNW weather and went for lots of runs around my parentsâ and inlaws' neighbourhoods. Itâs amazing how 3 degrees Celcius feels balmy when you live in the Arctic.
A New Yearâs Day ocean plunge that has me googling âat-home cold plunges.â (It felt SO good afterward!)
Discovering the best show Iâve ever watched on Netflix. It has been worth it to power through the nightmares that accompanied the first few episodes (and to endure my husbandâs newly adopted German accent).
Hugging and catching up with all of my favourite humans. Itâs hard to live far away from your loved ones and Iâm so thankful to have a business that allows me to travel frequently to spend time with them.
Letâs Get Nosy!
Itâs the time of year for reflections, and Iâm jumping on the trend. But first, an anecdote:
My husband and I love our 5:00 pm walks. Living way up north, itâs already full-blown nighttime, so we get a peek inside our neighboursâ homesâwindow shades not yet drawn, lights on. Dinner prep, homework, the latest reality TV binges⌠my nosy side loves seeing moments of their lives.
Just like it loves when other creative entrepreneurs lift the veil on the inner workings of their businesses.
So, hereâs a peek behind the curtain at whatâs changing in my worldâŚ
What Iâm Leaving Behind in 2024
1. My Design Business
Since 2019, Iâve launched many brands and websites. Design services were a core pillar of my Offer Ecosystem until this year. But after returning from mat leave, I knew something had to change.
After a lot of exploration, visioning, and getting honest about how I can best serve my clients and community, Iâve stopped offering design services and am focusing solely on coaching.
2. Doing Everything Alone
RELATED to #1!
If youâve been following along on Instagram and are thinking, âwait, but arenât you still talking about websites from time to time?â
The answer is yes, youâre correct. I am still occasionally building websites under a new umbrella with my business bestie, Isobel Griffin.
âPartnershipâ was one of my words of the year in 2024, and I am incredibly grateful to have found it in this collaboration. Weâre launching In Tandem Studios in early 2025! (You can check out the coming soon page and send us an inquiry about launching your new site. đ)
The truth is, I still love design. I get weirdly giddy about finding new fonts and nerd out over css customizations. Itâs a creative outlet, and Iâm not ready to release it fully. So, my approach to design projects has been re-imagined with In Tandem Studios.
Get ready for:
Better results (because bad copy kills good design)
Streamlined timelines (think 3-7 days, not 3-7 weeks...or months)
Two heads that are better than one!
3. Prioritizing Short-Form Content
Instagram has been good to me for the past 4+ years, and it will continue to have an important place in my ecosystem and sales flow. However, Iâve hopped on the long-form content train, and thereâs no going back.
Your positive feedback on The Heart Behind It has been amazing. Plus, Iâm genuinely excited to write my newsletter every week, which isnât always the case for shorter-form grid posts, where I sometimes feel capped by character counts and the rapid-paced scroll culture.
Instead of prioritizing 3-5 IG posts per week and only writing the occasional newsletter, Iâm committed to:
A weekly newsletter
1-2 IG posts per week (only when it feels good)
Even more long-form content with the Lead With Heart Podcast!
4. Old Freebies
Iâm retiring some of my old free resources (feel free to grab them before theyâre gone for good):
Magnetize Your Dream Clients - a workbook to help you attract the right people
Five-Figure Stories Frameworks â an in-depth IG stories playbook
Create a Killer Freebie â a mini-workshop for email list growth
These oldies but goodies will be retired simply because they no longer feel exciting to promote or exactly align with the offers Iâm selling. Stay tuned for new resources coming in 2025!
5. Strict Working Hours
Fridays (or Mondays â depending on childcare) are no longer workdays because I donât want them to be. âNuff said.
6. A Million Different Systems
In my quest for organization and streamlining my precious work hours, I somehow ended up with accounts and partially-set-up-workflows inside of:
Asana
Dubsado
ClickUp
AirTable
Notion
(Plus, probably more? And - of course, Google Drive everything)
Less is more! So, Iâm saying goodbye to everything except Notion, my new (and true) love for all things organization and content creation.
7. Short-Term Coaching Containers
In the past, Iâve offered three-month containers to clients who would like to dip their toes into working together. And while I will ânever say neverâ, Iâm confident that six-month containers will be the standard moving forward. Hereâs why:
They allow more time to build rapport and create a comfortable working relationship where clients can be vulnerable.
They create space for reflection, building an intentional plan, tweaking as needed, and then implementing.
What clients think they need isnât always what they actually need. And what they actually need often takes longer than anticipated.
For instance, I recently worked with a client who knew she wanted more time freedom and to ditch her hourly work. She thought this meant launching a course or digital product. (Because thatâs what we hear, right? Passive income = time freedom).
But, after digging deeper, we discovered that she didnât actually want to focus on selling courses. She loves her clients and wants to pour energy into her 1:1 work. Instead, she realized she wanted to rebuild her Offer Ecosystem to work with fewer clients, serve a more specific niche, and reduce her working hours during certain times of the year.
If we had jumped into building and selling a passive product at the beginning of her coaching container, she would not have understood how she wanted to rebuild her business.
Slowing down and allowing for more spaciousness = aligned action steps and better results. This client ended up tripling her monthly income and is now the go-to person in her niche!
Looking Ahead In January
Many things are coming your way this year. Keep these on your radar this month:
1. The Expansion Collective đŚ
My group program kicks off the third week of January! There is still time to join.
TEC is the creative business growth roadmap youâve been waiting for: the one with personalized support and feel-good frameworks for sales, content, messaging, and offer design. This program is for you if youâre ready for the strategies and support to deepen your impact, increase your income, and build a business that fully supports the life you want to live.
Join this email list so I can send you more details about TEC to help you determine if it fits your goals. You can also send me a DM on Instagram!
2. The Lead With Heart Podcast âĽď¸
Itâs live! There will be fun launch celebrations, but I wanted to give you a sneak preview. You can listen here!
Click subscribe to get the latest episodes delivered to your podcast player.
Cheers,
Samara
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