Pushing Forward
It totally blows my mind that it’s mid-November. Every year, I always go into reflection mode and look back at the year to see how I’ve grown. Every year, I always say the same thing: that I grew more this year than any year before. This was my first year on my own, in fact this month I celebrated one year since leaving my job with Delta, which also throws me a bit. To think that I fought and provided for myself this year, earned my own money, found my own opportunities, is crazy but amazing.
This entire year was an absolute whirlwind of accomplishments, disappointments, growth, some steps backward, and many steps forward. I experimented this year in a lot of areas to see where I could grow and what my business could become. The social media part of my business has existed for years, but this year it was time to transform it into something physical so I could connect with the community and have more to offer. Now that I look back on the year, next year I am making a lot of changes that I wouldn’t even know were necessary had it not been for all my testing of the waters this year in so many areas.
This year I managed to appear on TV news again, as well as publish another cookbook, and recently have an article in AJC, which was a business milestone for me. All of those accomplishments had one thing in common: they focused on my recipes and content, which is what started this whole journey years ago. Next year, I plan to focus solely on content, dessert mixes, and continue cake orders since I’ve seen so much improvement in my skill and a huge increase in interest in that area from myself and my clients. The experimenting with farmers markets and wholesale baked goods was fun but I honestly felt they weren’t for me. Next year I want to invest more time and effort into my content so I can grow on Instagram again, since this year is was a constant decline in followers.
Instagram has been very discouraging for me because a lot of my following exists from the days before the baking content, and those people have no interest in what I actually enjoy, they just saw me as an object, and now that object is no longer there, so they’re leaving. I can’t expect to change a page like mine and keep everyone around. There is going to be a major shift in followers, and I’ll probably lose about 10,000 more over the course of the next several months as I push forward and invest more in the areas I want to grow in. I plan to get fully back into full-length YouTube videos and grow there, I plan to make my Instagram content really stand out and grow there, I plan and find social media help so I can maximize my usage of all the apps and really grow an audience, and I plan to push that audience towards my mixes and market those so I can generate enough interest in them to get them on store shelves. I finally, after all these years, have a plan and an idea of a direction to move in. It took a lot to get here, and I’ve accomplished so much, but it’s really time to be serious and make this happen, because it will not simply happen for me.
This year was amazing, and next year, it will be even better. It’s going to be tough, but I already know that. I said those same words to myself a year ago when I left my job to do all this. I refuse to sit here any longer and wish for things to happen. I’m going to make them happen if it takes everything I have. I’ve fought so hard already; I have plenty more in me.
