How do you feel when you see all of those like year in review posts showing up, the ones that are like full of impressive numbers, massive launches, and mind blowing milestones? If they leave you feeling a little bit like, uncomfy, then you are not alone. Here's the thing, as artists and makers, our growth is Looks different and the real magic often happens in moments that don't fit neatly into a spreadsheet.
So in today's episode i'm sharing a kind of different approach to year end reflection some other things you can look at That will actually feel good and capture the true evolution of your creative business. We are going to explore how to
We're going to explore how to celebrate progress that matters, uncover insights that will shape your future, and even make this reflection process feel fun and exciting. So if you're ready for that, let's dive in.
Why Traditional Reviews Don't Work for Creatives
Okay, so you could like Google or look on Instagram or TikTok for a million and one ways to review your business and review your year, and especially if you look at [00:01:00] like kind of corporate ways of doing things or more Service based ways of doing things or that sort of thing. Some of these ways of reviewing your work and reviewing your business doesn't always work for creatives because it feels too structured and rigid.
It focuses on things that aren't important to creatives and it can feel upsetting if it's only focused on numbers and those numbers didn't really go well or as you had hoped this year, but there are still so many things to learn and celebrate from your year. No matter how your numbers have gone.
A New Approach to Year-End Reflection
So I want to show you a different way that we can review your year that doesn't feel too structured and rigid, that focuses on things that are actually important to you. And we'll help your creative business. And that won't hopefully feel as upsetting if your numbers didn't go as you wanted them to this year.
So that's what we're going to do today. And it is really important to [00:02:00] reflect on the numbers. And other parts of your business, because numbers are super important. They provide a lot of information and context about where your business is at, where it's going, what's worked, what hasn't worked, et cetera.
But it is not the full picture about you, your brand, your creative business, your work. So there are more things that we might want to review.
The Three Spheres of Creative Review
So I want to talk to you about the three spheres of creative review. These are three things that you can focus on when it comes to reflecting on your year as a creative.
Number one, we have creative growth. That's the kind of evolution of you, your work and your style. Then we have brand development. That's how your brand has evolved and grown and changed throughout the year. And then we have community building. That's the connections, the impacts you've had, your audience, all of the stuff about your community.
So we're going to talk about how to review each of those things and some questions that you can ask for all of [00:03:00] them.
Creative Growth: Questions to Ask
Okay, let's talk about creative growth and some questions you can ask and things you can look at to figure out how your creativity and your work is going. All of the things that you create have grown this year. So number one, we have, how did my work evolve this year? So actually in the style, the creation, the processes around how you create your work, how has that evolved this year?
Number two is what work did I enjoy making the most and least and why? Number three is which pieces resonated the most and least with my audience and why? So if you created. Products or designs or services or anything, what resonated the most and what resonated the least. And then how has my confidence grown this year as a creative business owner, as an artist, as a service provider, whatever it is that you do.
How has your confidence grown? Have you become more [00:04:00] confident in working with clients? Have you become more confident showing up online? What is it that has grown or changed about your confidence? Okay, those are just a few things you can look at for creative growth.
Brand Development: Questions to Ask
Now let's talk about brand development.
So again, just a general question. How has my brand evolved this year? So have you rebranded? Have you found more clarity? Has your audience, have you reached more of an audience? How has it evolved this year? Then we can ask, what did I do that felt most and least aligned with my brand this year? So maybe you Did some collaborations that didn't align super well or you might have posted some stuff that really did feel aligned.
What is it that felt the most like you and not like you this year? Then we have what are the most and least effective ways that I built my brand this year? So did you try some marketing tactics [00:05:00] or some Things about your messaging or did you branch outside of social media? What happened? What was effective and what wasn't?
It's good. You'll notice I'm asking you what was and wasn't, what's the most and least because it's good to see both sides of things and you're going to get lessons out of both. Then we have what way of building my brand did I love the most and least. So you might have done something that was really effective, but you hated it, or you might've done something that was not as effective, but you really loved it.
So those are some things that you might figure out like, Oh, maybe it was really effective. I hate it. I could outsource that or something wasn't as effective, but I loved it. So how can I make it more effective next year? Okay. Those are some brand development, brand building questions.
Community Building: Questions to Ask
Now let's talk about community building.
So this is all about your community, your collaborations, your connections, your friendships, audience, all of these things. [00:06:00] So when it comes to your creative business, what key connections, collaborations, or friendships did I make this year? So maybe you went to a networking event and you made some connections.
Maybe you did some brand collaborations or collaborations with another artist. Maybe you just made some really good, Creative friends this year that really helped you and build your community. Then we have what feedback did I get about how my work impacted people? This could be like testimonials or reviews of your products or just DMs or comments of people saying things about your work.
And we want to look at things like this made me feel a certain way, or this changed how I do something, or this actually resulted in something different for me and my business. So think about what feedback you got about how your work impacted people this year. Then we have, how has my audience grown?
So did you actually increase your social media reach or your email list or [00:07:00] your customers or anything like that? How has it grown? Where did it grow most? Any insights you have about your audience growth. And then we have, how has my relationship with my audience changed? Have I started sharing more personal things?
Have I found more engagement with my audience? What has happened between you and your audience this year?
General Reflection Questions
Okay, now just some general questions. About the year that you can reflect on that don't necessarily fit into either of those spheres But are still really good questions to ask. Number one we have what key things can I celebrate from this year?
What wins did I have or like big moments that I have? And the trick that I use here is to look back on things like your social media, your camera roll, your calendar your meeting bookings, your website and see what has happened and what those key things were You Then you can ask, what experiments paid off this year?
[00:08:00] What didn't? Again, if you tried something new, like I did a live event for the first time. That was an experiment I've never done before in that context. Did it pay off? Did it not? What did I learn from that? Etc. Then, where did I surprise myself this year? Were there things that I didn't know I could do, or that I did better than I thought I could, or that were just, yeah, new things to try that I had never done?
Or, yeah, just where did you surprise yourself this year? Then we want to know what filled my cup, either energy or creative wise, and what drained it. So if there were things this year that you loved doing and they made you feel so much more creative and they really gave you more energy, We want to know that.
And then what are the things that drained the energy? What things were you slogging through that really were a struggle that were really hard to get done. And that drained that energy, either creativity or energy wise. So [00:09:00] those are things that you could either delegate or stop doing or all of that sort of thing.
And then the last question, the last one in this category is what do I want to stop doing? Keep doing, do more of, and do less of. So based on all of the things that you've just reviewed, what are the things that you want to stop doing completely? What are the things you want to keep doing? What are the things you want to do more of specifically?
So not just the same as what I'm doing, but I want to do more of that. And what are the things that I don't want to stop, but I just want to do less of this thing, or I want to do or not even that, I don't want to do You would consider stopping, but just that you want less of like less working late or less, all of that kind of thing are things that you might not be able to stop, or you might not want to stop, but you could do less of.
Okay. Now you've answered all of those questions or a bunch of them. You've done a bunch of review with all of those things.
Turning Reflections into Action Plans
[00:10:00] Now it's time to use what we've just learned to make some plans. So I want you to first take a look at what you have written and write down any lessons that you learned from each sphere or each category.
So say you wrote a bunch about your community, what lessons did you learn from those things that you wrote down? Same with all the other categories. What insights are you getting from all of the things that you wrote? Next, what are some opportunities for growth or evolution or change that you can put into action next year?
So maybe there. You realize that
maybe as we talked about, you had some things that were really effective ways to build your brand this year, that's an opportunity for growth to continue doing that or improve that or make it more effective. For example, or if your brand didn't feel super aligned, that's an opportunity for evolution or for growth.
Next we have what actions [00:11:00] can you take from those lessons next year? So anything you've just written down from the lessons from each categories, the opportunities for growth, for evolution, et cetera, what actual tangible actions can you take From all of those. So maybe it's okay, want to make a marketing plan based on the things that were really effective this year.
I want to hire someone to help me with this thing, or I want to put in boundaries that will help me with this thing. So what are actual tangible actions you can take from your lessons and put into action in 2025? that you can take from those lessons and put into action next year. And last but not least, I am a word of the year person.
I love having a word of the year to focus me, ground me, give me something to direct what I am trying to work on and achieve in a year. And so what word of [00:12:00] the year Could you have that's inspired by the lessons you've learned and what you want to focus on next year? So I did this process.
I went through and reviewed all of the things and wrote down all of the lessons that I had from this year. And a word really stuck out to me from all of those things. It was like, okay, based on all of these things, Everything I've put down and all the things that didn't go well and what did go well and what I want to focus on next year, this is a word that kind of encapsulates all that or gives me something to focus on based around all of that, that then I can use next year to direct everything.
So if you like that idea and you like the word of the year, then what is that word that could be inspired by all of these lessons?
Conclusion and Resources
Okay, I've just given you a bunch of questions, a bunch of prompts to review your year that focuses on not just numbers, those are important, definitely do those if you want and if you find those helpful I [00:13:00] find it really helpful to do those numbers, but I've given you three different areas as well that you can also review and reflect on that are not tied to those numbers.
So whether you had a quote unquote successful year, or you're in the positives or the negatives, like there are so many things to learn and that will give you things to continue working on next year. It's not just okay, numbers are down, or I didn't achieve this, or I didn't achieve this, whatever. It doesn't matter.
You can always learn something, move forward, get excited about the possibilities for next year, and I hope that this helps you method or these ways of reviewing your year will help you with that. And even if you did kick ass and succeed this year, it is more motivation. You will pull out things like, oh my god, I did that, I remember, or I can't believe I achieved that, or this was actually a really successful strategy and I nailed that.
And so it will give you more [00:14:00] things to. continue and to work on next year to just evolve and continue with that growth. So if you have liked this process, then I want you to head to the link in the description in the show notes because I have a workbook for you set up in Notion that will help you go through all of this reflection process and you can put it all in there and it'll be super easy.
We'll give you the prompts. So Some spaces for like planning and tracking and all of those things. And so if you want a template to go through, that will make it super easy to review your brand and review your business for this year, then head to bit. ly forward slash creative year and review all one word.
This will be linked in the show notes and you can grab your free. Notion workbook to review your creative year. And if you want, don't want to do this alone, then please come and join us in the Brand Your Passion Collective. This is the [00:15:00] community, the membership for artists and member,
this is the community for artists and makers who want to build a creatively fulfilling, financially stable, community building, Creative business and we do it all together in the community. So we will be reflecting on a bunch of things throughout the year together. We're going to be planning our year together, and we're going to be working on our brands and our businesses together.
And we are already doing that. There is some incredible stuff going on in the community. So if you want to join us again, head to the link in the show notes, but you can also just go to brandyourpassion.co and you can join us there. Okay. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I, as always, I hope it was super helpful and as always keep creating and I will talk to you in the next one. Bye!