2020: The year that didn’t go as planned
Hello, hello and welcome to the FINAL episode in 2020 of the Simplify Your Sales podcast. HOLY COW. This is the first year I’ve hosted a podcast, and I can’t believe we’re already approaching the end of it– like, how did that happen?! In the words of Doctor Who, time has been a little wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey this year for sure so that might be part of it.
Anyways, I wanted to use this episode to host a *little* different of a show–kind of a “year in reflection” type of episode where I share some of the behind-the-scenes details of what happened this year that you may not have seen on the surface– business AND personal. I want to share some highlights, some “lowlights” (can I use that for a term besides hair coloring?) and then also what you can expect from Morgan Nield moving forward and into 2021, which, #letsbehonest, can’t come soon enough.
For everyone running a business, let’s be real: It’s been a ROUGH year. NOTHING has gone as expected and I feel like every single week there for a while brought new challenges and unchartered territory– things we’ve never had to face in businesses or life.
And while my year didn’t go ANYTHING like I had planned (more on that later on), I still feel like I experienced a lot of successes along the way, quite a few “room-for-improvement” moments, and most importantly, I learned more about myself and the type of business model *I* want to run moving forward into the future– one that fits the lifestyle I WANT to have– and not just a business for the sake of being “in business.” It’s taken me A LONG time to reach this point– remember– I started my first online business in 2011– but the older I get, the more I realize that you have to enjoy the journey, too– not just constantly be reaching for the destination. Again, more on that later.
So without further ado, let’s break down the year and see everything that happened. Before we dive in, I just want to encourage you to do this as well. Because as I was sitting down to start planning out the framework for this episode, I didn’t feel like a lot had happened this year business-wise. I didn’t feel like I had made ANY progress or experienced any growth or, frankly, done much of anything.
But reflecting back and getting it down on paper shows me that even though it isn’t how I would have planned for my year to go, I’ve still accomplished A LOT. And the same is with you– take 5 minutes and just write down what has happened over the past 12 months and I truly believe you’ll be genuinely surprised at how much you’ve accomplished along the way and how far you’ve come.
Alright, diving into the highlights first because let’s kick things off on a good note, haha!
Highlights of 2020
STARTED THIS PODCAST!
This has been on my business bucket list for a loooooong time– longer than I care to admit— and the fact that I got it up and nearly 40 episodes in (what?!) feels surreal to me. This is the first time in a LONG time that I’ve been able to create consistent content– on a weekly basis– and it feels amazing. I LOVE creating content, but I always find it takes up more time than I care to admit, so if I don’t have something holding me accountable– like my wonderful VA Renee asking if I’ve finished the podcast episodes yet– it doesn’t get done. So having this podcast and knowing people were tuning in WEEKLY kept me majorly accountable and creatively fulfilled.
What I learned: It takes A LOT of work to produce a podcast– and I have help– I have someone editing my podcasts and uploading my show notes! So yeah, just the writing + recording of the episodes takes more work than I initially imagined!
That being said, it’s also more doable than I thought it would be. I honestly thought I would get a few episodes into things and hate that I was tethered down to this whole “podcasting” thing, but I wanted to give it a try because it had been on my backburner to-do list for AGES and I could speculate all I wanted, but until I put myself out there, I would never know for sure. And so I did it, and now I’m SO glad I did. I get A LOT of people who find me through the podcast and faithfully listen every single week– and I’m SO thankful for that opportunity.
ANOTHER HIGHLIGHT OF 2020?
I LAUNCHED A COUPLE NEW PRODUCTS:
So I’ve always been a BIG fan of “niching in” and spending my time and energy on ONE product– or one type of product– and refining over time. If you’re starting any type of business, that’s what I recommend. Niche, refine, and THEN expand. Hence why I recommend to ALL Etsy sellers to have a flagship product line– you don’t need to figure out a more complicated marketing system in the beginning selling multiple product lines– just pick one and master that. Give yourself permission to make it easy and uncomplicated!
And with my Mastermind Your Marketing program, that’s what I did for 2 ½ years– I created, streamlined the selling of it, revised it not once, not twice, but 4 times (!!!) to make it the best it could be.
SIMPLIFY YOUR SEO
But I’ll be honest and say I finally got a little bored last year not creating anything new, and my course was doing well on its own, so I kicked things off in January 2020 (you know, BEFORE the world went insane) with my Etsy SEO course– Simplify Your SEO– and lemme tell ya– this is a program that I am SO DANG PROUD OF because it takes you from start to finish with an implemented SEO strategy in just 14 days. I set out to make SEO not only logical, but DOABLE– and the feedback I’ve received from that course is EXACTLY that– that they feel like there’s an actual strategy behind how they choose + use keywords in their shop for Etsy AND for Google.
NEXT UP? MY $47 QUICK-WIN PROGRAM, PROFIT PROMOS:
This is my most recent thing- I know that my Mastermind Your Marketing program is higher-priced– and they’re that way for a reason– there’s a level of support provided and the content as well is top-notch and incredibly robust. I don’t want just ANYONE enrolling in the program– I want students who have that bit of skin in the game and are ready to go all-in to make it work and are serious about investing + growing their businesses. Those are the ones that enroll, and those are the ones that have success.
Anyways, I created Profit Promos to help with the “but I need money NOW” thing– because while MYM is amazing and incredible and #allgoodthings for long-term growth and solid biz strategy– and we absolutely have students see increased sales in just a couple of weeks– it’s NOT an overnight success program. It’s not SUPPOSED to be an overnight success program
And Profit Promos is. Well, it’s as close to overnight success as you can get in just 5 days, which is all that it takes to implement the entire quick-win program that teaches you how to run strategic sales promotions that are strategically designed to be as effective as possible. There’s this strategy in there on Day 1 that I introduce– The Trifecta Technique– and it is hands-down the “secret sauce” reason why my sales consistently have made $4,000+ in revenue– both in my Etsy shop AND MorganNield.com.
And so yeah, I created Profit Promos this year, and that was a fun sort of “passion project” because I KNEW how to inject revenue into my business quickly– I’ve spent the past year having to quickly pivot and adjust so it is a skill that I’ve refined over the past few months with the world in chaos– and I knew that there were sellers out there that NEEDED to learn how to do it, too, so they could inject cash into their business whenever they needed it. And so I created a program that shares my exact method for consistent sales promotions.
REV UP YOUR REVENUE PAID WORKSHOP.
And then backtracking a little, but on a completely different topic than what I normally teach– I hosted a paid workshop on how to turn your passion into a passive income stream.
Like I mentioned earlier about adjusting and pivoting and trying new strategies this year because I had to adapt when my plans fell to pieces, that’s EXACTLY what this workshop was. I charged $97 for a live 1 ½ workshop and it was actually really, really fun!
I decided to run with this on a whim because I was nervous about diving into teaching more about digital products and less about physical products, which has always been my jam since selling baby headbands years ago. Like, that’s what I’m known for teaching and that’s what I’ve always taught and what I feel comfortable talking about.
So this was a bit out of my comfort zone because even though I’ve earned well over $1 million in revenue in less than 4 years selling digital products, I’ve never TAUGHT anyone how I do it. People always ask why I stopped selling on Etsy. And I feel like I’m sitting on this “secret” because selling digital education products have been a complete game-changer for me, and for my life. They’ve allowed me to spend MORE time with my family, LESS time at the post office, and completely ENJOY the holiday season because that’s actually the slowest time of the year, ironically enough. It’s a switch I don’t regret AT ALL.
And so I taught a workshop on this to gauge interest for a new program 100% focused on creating digital product passive income that’ll be debuting in early 2021. And it truly exceeded my expectations– it brought me a cool $5K in just a week of promotion and it was FUN to teach. And my workshop attendees left with clarity on a digital education product idea that they could create to sell over and over again for $47 – $97 while still being immersed in their creative passions and skills.
To be honest, this is one of my FAVORITE things I’ve done this year because I’ve never tried anything like it, always creating these more immersive programs like Mastermind Your Marketing and Simplify Your SEO– but branching out a bit and trying something different like a 2 hour workshop was good for me, and it also allowed me to get some paid market research in as well– I learned A LOT about what my students were looking for and how I could create the perfect solution for them, which I will be sharing more about in early 2021 🙂
The low-lights of 2020.
Okay, so that was the fun stuff…now oh boy, let’s talk about the year that did NOT go as planned, haha. Because that’s exactly what 2020 has been for me and for many others. I had GRAND plans– releasing a new high-touch program being one of them– and due to just the fact that THIS YEAR HAS BEEN CRAZY, some of them fizzled out and just didn’t happen.
LAUNCHING DURING COVID.
First, let’s talk about the importance of a well-timed sales promotion, haha. I opened the doors for enrollment into Mastermind Your Marketing in March 2020– something I had planned out meticulously on my calendar for MONTHS– and then the entire world shut down.
Against my gut feeling, a business mentor of mine encouraged me to keep with my original dates and go for it– to be a leader in my industry when there was so much uncertainty all around me. So people could turn to ME to lead them. And inside I was FREAKED OUT because I was madly trying to find baby wipes for my 1 year old son in near-empty grocery stores, and suddenly having my daughter home all day everyday as the schools dealt with what they hoped would be a “soft closure.”
But I opened the doors to my program because it was what I was “supposed to do,” and it’s something I still very much regret– not because of the students– which I absolutely LOVE– but because I went against my intuition and did something I wasn’t fully committed to.
Not only was this my smallest launch enrollment in recent years, but I wasn’t emotionally “there” for anyone during the launch– I was too wrapped up in worrying about everything else that was going on to stay focused solely on my business. I didn’t do as great a job promoting enrollment, engaging with my audience, and sharing my best content during my live streams. Honestly? It showed. I mean, you can look back on Facebook and see those livestreams– I don’t feel like I’m “all there.”
I think we’re expected to leave “emotions” out of business, but I gotta be honest– I’m not the type of person that can do that. If I’m worried or anxious about something– which we all kind of were in March 2020– I can’t just check it at the door and come into my business with an “all’s well” carefree attitude. Some people can. I CAN’T.
And so that was a lowlight for me– not following my intuition and trusting myself and my business decisions and what was best for ME and MY FAMILY– and instead letting someone else decide what I should do, even though it didn’t feel right. So yeah, that was a low-light of the year.
ANOTHER LOWLIGHT? LAUNCHING + CANCELING A HIGH-TOUCH PROGRAM
It has been a dream of mine for a while to create + launch a high-touch program for Etsy sellers who are ready to move BEYOND selling physical products or digital art prints on Etsy and ready to create $97+ passive income products that teach people the skills that they have.
Like I said, I created a paid workshop (I think it was in May) to test this idea out and the interest is DEFINITELY there, so I thought I would launch this product and go forward with the idea.
And I did– I marketed it and I sold quite a few spots– and then I got a health diagnosis from my doctor for some serious stomach pains I had been having that caused me to put everything on hold and focus on ME for a while. I won’t go into details, other than having hyperemesis gravidarum while I was pregnant with my son basically trashed my body. Add that to a dose of high-anxiety from a pandemic, and I was a walking recipe for disaster.
And while I wanted to launch this high-touch program so badly, I knew the minute I sold those first few spots that it wasn’t the right time. I always tout the importance of health– physically but ESPECIALLY emotionally and mentally, and I knew that I would be going against everything I stood for to be creating + launching this high-touch program that would involve a lot of personalized attention for my students– and wouldn’t leave me any time to focus on myself and getting better. And while that’s a completely fine scenario in normal circumstances, it just wasn’t the right time for ME with what I was going through (or the fact that my 7 year old was suddenly home #alldayeveryday asking “what are we doing next?” while I was trying to respond to emails). And so I refunded the students that enrolled — something I’ve never had to do before– and put the project on hold at that point. I cried about that decision for a few weeks, actually, because I’ve never not followed through with something I put out there and I felt like a failure. And it was hard. But sometimes life plays out in a way that we can’t always move forward with our “plans” and that’s okay.
Instead, I’ve used the past few months to take it easy, run with some passion projects instead that are MUCH less high-touch– and been able to be the best version of myself I can be for my husband and kiddos, which has always been a priority for me, but even more so these past few months. And I’m feeling a lot better, so that’s definitely a sign that I made the right choice, even though it was hard and DEFINITELY a learning experience.
I share these two “bad experiences” to let you know that failure and frustration and having to pull a complete 180 on things occasionally is a normal part of business— even when you’ve been selling online for nearly a decade! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again– the “secret” to success is you just keep trying. You don’t have to be smarter or more clever or dedicate more hours than the next person– you just have to keep showing up and trying.
So what’s on the horizon for 2021?
I’m pivoting 🙂
I had a podcast episodes a few months back where I talked about how I would slowly be pivoting my business to focus less on physical product sellers and Etsy shops (because, frankly, I’m TIRED to trying to keep up with Etsy’s games when I know there’s a better + easier way to build an online business), and more on sellers who want to create passive income driven businesses that free up their time + energy so that they can pour more into the things they actually love (and less into trips to the post office).
And if you’re up for it, I’d love to have you stick around. I’ll be out with brand new podcast episodes in January on EXACTLY these topics and how you can start growing your business BEYOND Etsy and build your own passive income focused business that still allows you to do what you love– whether it’s sewing, baking, knitting, painting, whatever it is– and turning it into a passive income product that your audience will fall in love with you for– and your bank account, too!
And I’ll *also* be introducing a brand-new high-touch program– the one I had to put on hold– that will give you EVERYTHING you need to create a passive income business that suits your unique personality, your strengths, your revenue goals, and — most importantly– your lifestyle. If this sounds like where you want your business to grow + evolve to in 2021, Here is your link to grab your free Passive Income Planning workbook and join the VIP sign-up page for you to join to learn more when it’s go-time. It’s going to be my highest-support program yet and I can’t wait to have you join us!
And just like that, that’s a wrap for 2020 (which still blows my mind!). I’ll see you next year, same time, same place, here on the Simplify Your Sales podcast where I’ll be teaching you how to build a business that supports your lifestyle– and NOT the other way around.