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My Mid-Year Review Practice Part 2

Part 2 - Mid Year Review

2020 is the year in which I'm focusing on Exponential Value and Visibility.  A huge part of being able to achieve this is reflecting on how far I have come and celebrating my progress. You can follow my journey to experience my vision here. 

If you want to skip to a section:

  1. Document Check
  2. Q2 Check
  3. Midyear Review
  4. Next Steps

Document Check

I try to take the time to document my progress in many different ways, so I start off by reviewing things I have already recorded. If you have been following me on social media, you might have seen some of these documents.

Before moving forward, I check:

  • Yearly Vision: statements that will guide my beliefs, feelings, and thoughts. Based on my yearly outcomes which I have never shared and are below
  • Yearly Theme: a summarized version of my vision
  • Yearly Outcomes: statements that define what will happen if I am guided by my vision and theme (below)
  • Monthly Reflections: a series of questions I ask myself around my progress and lessons learned
  • Q2 Review: I actually had the time to do this a few months ago so I can see where I felt I was then too
  • My actual numbers

Though numbers are significant, I focus more on my beliefs, thoughts, and how I want to feel while getting things done. It is not an exact science, but I have found that my numbers usually increase this way, but I am not too focused on hitting it.

The yearly outcomes I decided I wanted to experience were:

  • Abundant with opportunities, I am saying no to clients and speaking opportunities
  • My calendar is full of networking opportunities and business development sessions
  • My calendar is full of clients who have paid in full and are always recommending me to others
  • The companies I am working with are moving forward more aligned and connected
  • I am working on how best to reduce the number of clients I am working with.
  • I am trimming down my programs/ services to focus even more
  • I have found an amazing group of individuals I can share and learn from – mastermind
  • I invest in my events, and they are unforgettable. Everyone wants to join them and be there.  

So far, I would say that I have done a pretty good job. If I wanted to be more specific, I could have selected numbers at this point.  What I have done instead, is create processes and make decisions that are setting me up to experience these outcomes.

Q2 Check

After my Q2 review, I decided how to change my behavior, especially around visibility.  Earlier this year,  I was testing out all different social media platforms and concluded that my main platform was LinkedIn, so I needed to spend more time there.  I asked myself:

  • What did I want to share?
  • How often did I want to share?
  • How did I want to engage with other people and their content?
  • What has worked content-wise?
  • How can I leverage other platforms effectively but not spend as much time on them?
  • What is the key action I want my connections to make when they engage with my content?

I also outlined all the different responsibilities I have (I am a project-based entrepreneur) and how I ideally want to spend my week and built a new routine

Midyear Review

Moving forward with my Midyear review.  I started by looking at my initial tasks and KPIs based on my yearly vision.  You can see the overall questions I asked myself here

I will not be sharing all my numbers, but the main ones that I would like to highlight are the ones related to my vision of “Ruthless with my priorities and not settling:”

I selected my priorities as:

  • Paying clients
  • Effective processes
  • Establishing a Strong expert brand
  • Being consistent with my approach/ outreach
  • Providing services
  • Consistent income

I decided I would track:

  • Number of people reached (I used to track this religiously, now I just make sure I have 1 – 2 business development meetings a week because a lot of my time is taken up with my B2B work)
  • Number of people pitched to (This I keep track of through the proposals I send for B2B clients and number of people who complete my B2C Interest Form)
  • Number of paying clients
  • Amount Collected
  • Number of monthly newsletters sent
  • Number of online/ offline events 

I have not been very good at tracking I will admit but what I am comfortable to share:

  • I have increased my newsletter subscribers by 45% and have a very high open rate of 46.8%. I converted my newsletter from a monthly newsletter to a weekly one last quarter. So far, I am pleased to report that I have not missed a newsletter!
  • The overall number of contacts, a combination of B2B and B2C leads, I have in my backend is 835.
  • I never took note of my initial LinkedIn number, but I currently have 3,326 connections. In terms of LinkedIn, I need to find another metric I can access for free that shows the number of engagements I get. I am not interested in followers but people that engage in my content.
  • I do not spend a lot of time on Instagram, but my followers have increased by about 25%.
  • As I mentioned earlier, I have focused more on B2B projects than B2C clients, so I am not happy with my overall number of clients, but compared to last year, I have made 188.3% more so far.
  • Last month my average spend per customer was $2,375.09. My hope is that when I start to focus more on B2C that it might go down to about $1,500, but the number of clients will increase. 

Now to the things that make me super excited:

  • One of my favorite things to do is run a workshop for the initiative called #IamRemarkable. I have reached over 129 participants and conducted 14 workshops so far this year.
  • I have had the opportunity to host paid (and unpaid) sessions for 20+ companies and initiatives around Africa and the world. I recently secured an opportunity to work with women coders in Spain.
  • I was selected to be a first-round judge for Jack Ma’s Africa's Business Heroes Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative (ANPI). 
  • Finally, in terms of showcasing my value, I have stepped up my testimonial and feedback approach and now have over 51 approved longer testimonials on my website and sent out over 20 this weekend. Feedback and referrals are essential to building my practice, and outside of me talking about my work, they are the only way potential clients can get an idea of my value.

Many of the behaviors and approaches I had to take to achieve these results were uncomfortable for me.  I work through the uncomfortableness by reminding myself of my commitment to Exponential Value and Visibility this year.  I know these are the types of behaviors I need to continue if I want to get results and build a sustainable global business.

Next Steps

I love the start/ stop/ continue approach to thinking about next steps and behaviors:

Start

  • Focusing on my B2C work
  • Sharing my services and ways people can invest in me on social media consistently
  • Sharing my feedback and testimonials on social media

Stop

  • Giving away my time for free, other than 15 minutes sessions (which I am already doing)
  • Letting other people’s (non-paying) opinion on how I should run my business interfere with my work
  • Being afraid to niche down even further

 Continue

  • Spending most of my social media time on LinkedIn
  • Sending out my (now weekly) newsletter
  • Making the most of the Mastermind I joined (just like my clients I continue to invest in myself)
  • Getting testimonials and feedback
  • Saying no to off-brand opportunities


If you are looking to accelerate your visibility and demonstrate your value in a way that resonates with you to achieve your vision, get in touch.

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