Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:06 — 33.2MB)

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

Talking reflection, goals and a 2020 recap. It’s tradition for me to recap my year. I’ve always done it, since owning a business, but recently I started sharing that recap with all of you via the podcast.

So here we are, rounding out one of the weirdest years in history. This year was a lot of things to a lot of people. That’s why I say “weird.” Because weird quite literally means “not normal,” and that is the truth.

I mention that because your year was different than my year. And different than any other listener’s year. So my hope to simply share my recap of 2020, some questions I’ve asked and resources I used to reflect on this past year.

Hands down, my fav way to recap my year is via Hilary Rushford’s Year Reflection. It’s pretty in depth, but so so so important for me to do.

We straight up forget what happened. Even in the pandemic, even with it being an election year here in the US, we forget about the small wins, and processes we went through. We lose sight of the year, truly.

My personal favorite part of reflection is that it forces you to focus intrinsically. To look at yourself – what you did, how you felt, relationships you have, what you’re responsible for in your own life. I LOVE THIS. We can’t blame. We can only look at what happened and what we did or didn’t do.

So, here we go.

It’s very important to keep in mind that I recognize how blessed I am to continue working through this year, to have stability, and the ability to pivot if needed. That is not at all lost on me. I share episodes like these to let you behind the scenes of Annie Miller Concepts in hopes that you gain something in a reflection/planning of your own. That my experience somehow helps you.

Okay – 

My reflection is always a mix of real life and business because they coexist.

They affect one another. And it’s silly to pretend that they don’t.

I am sure we all had goals at the beginning of 2020. Maybe those goals happened, maybe they were postponed.

My personal goals were to travel the world for another year [January to June, and then September into Jan 2021] and to have our next phase planned in that time. What was the goal for AFTER we travel.

You can imagine how that went with the ‘rona. We flew home from Japan in April, travels were suspended for year. They weren’t indefinitely but we figured we’d be home through 2020 for sure.

Our personal plan was to stay with my mom for that gap [from June to Sept] then figure out life after returning in 2021. Well, we’re now living with my mom until our house is built. We quickly decided upon returning that we’d move forward with our “post travel” plan, look for land, and build.

That was part of the 2020 goal we did know. After traveling, we wanted to have land and build. So like I said, we simply decided to start exploring that option…like, three weeks after we got home. We found a house plan we loved, and after looking at three separate 5 acre lots, we put an offer in on one and secured it. Yes, the Millers own a patch of grass as of September 2020. The same month we were meant to be galavanting around Northern Europe for a 5 month road trip, we tied ourselves to some dirt here in Washington. And our house plans are complete.

We chose a different adventure. And so far, so good.

That is how the personal goals went. We shifted.

As for the business –

This year I had a goal for BBA, a certain number.

We came VERY CLOSE to hitting that number. And shoot, during a GLOBAL pandemic, I’ll take it. I am honestly so so pleased with the way Built By Annie has prospered.

Which we need to discuss because I definitely had to shift in 2020.

Another business goal was to not create anything new.

I’d spend the latter half of 2017 all the way through the end of 2019 literally creating my entire offer suite. In 2019 I vowed that 2020 would be my year of NOT CREATING. Of just launching stuff, and working on my approach/backend and scaling.

Well, listen, I didn’t plan for a pandemic when I made that goal.

TANGENT TIME >> This is what I love about the year reflection that Hilary does. In your reflection you list what happened (like actual events) month by month, AND THEN, how you felt during those months.

I am honestly pleased with how I handled my BBA and 1:1 clients in March. We adjusted, communicated and got all clients six weeks of bodyweight or dumbbell workouts ASAP, and I had a sale on my Body Weight for Weight Lifters. I dropped it to the lowest price ever, just to make it super accessible.

By April 20th I knew I had to create Built By Annie At Home. 36 more months of programming that would be inline with the current programming. A true AT HOME VERSION of each Built by Annie tier. It was A LOT, like a-freaking-LOT, but it was needed. And it paid off. I think over 50% of the enrollments in our May launch were for the At Home version. BLESS.

It was an addition that went against me not creating anything new, but it was a necessary pivot. And, it’s one that adds value and adaptability to the program for as long as it exists.

Other necessary things that took place were

• Adding 1:1 biz mentorship to my offer suite
• Making FitsPRO Foundations completely Evergreen with the help of an expert
• Complete rebrand of Annie Miller Concepts 
• Created apparel for Educated Gains and Annie Miller Concepts

Let me tell you guys…the end of April, May, June and July were CRAZY months behind the scenes at Annie Miller Concepts.

So, all that to say, I definitely ended up creating new products or services. It was needed. And I though it was A LOT of work, it was worth it. Mind you, I could only do those things because we were home and had the extra time. Time that would have been spent traveling. So it made sense in the end.

Those were my two main goals on the business side. Other small things. But I had way too many goals in 2019 and made it a point to keep it to two big ones in 2020. I will do the same for 2021 and will likely talk about that in the next episode.

If those things “went well,” I think it’s worth looking at what didn’t go well, or lessons from the year.

Lessons (these aren’t bad necessarily, just learned from 2020):

• Pivoting is needed. We have to be willing to innovate
• Don’t hesitate. Your gut knows. 2020 on the personal and the business side of things reeeaaalllyyy pushed me to trust my intuition and my gut  
• Oversimplifying complex topics is dangerous – this is true on many levels, and in regards to many topics. I know I personally saw and experienced this in more than one way this year.
• Words matter. A LOT. This is something I have always said, been aware of, and taken seriously. I hope it’s known that I don’t just throw words out into the internet without consideration. But even with that, we learn, we screw up, and when you have a large platform, or even just an engaged platform, there are repercussions for that.

If you haven’t reflected on the year, I highly suggest you do.

Go through month by month, look at what happened in your life – even if it was NOTHING, write it out + how you felt.

And for the love of all things holy buy Hilary Rushford’s planner if you can. I don’t even know if you can find her reflection somewhere else. Shoot, just freaking do a google and find some questions to ask yourself about 2020.

I really think it’s worth it. You had wins, guarantee. Let’s give you credit for those. And do better in 2021.

Review of the week comes from gkylieb and says,

“Listen, I seriously cannot get enough of this podcast. I listen in the car. I listen (secretly) at work. I’m blasting it in the gym. I’m cooking with it. Showering with it. Safe to say, I’m obsessed. While not a fitness professional, there is truly something to learn from every episode. Great listen for the person who wants to learn, and Annie is a wonderful host! Genuine, honest and concise, she knows her stuff and isn’t afraid to tell it like it is.”

Remember you need to check the show notes (here) to see if you were review-er of the week, and then keep an eye out to see if you were listener of the month as well. That will be in the show notes and Annie’s Weekly Wrap. You can subscribe to Annie’s Weekly Wrap here!

 If you find value here, on The FitsPRO Podcast, then pretty please head over to iTunes, subscribe, rate and review the show. It means the world to me when you spread my message to more humans.

Want more podcasts? Click here to skim the archives.

P.S. Save this value packed episode for later over on Pinterest!