Hey family! This episode is going to be different because I’m doing it solo. It’s time for the annual review for 2019. I love doing this part because I’m such a nerd in reflection and planning, and this is the time of the year where things slow down and I can get really intentional about what I want to do and also express gratitude. So listen up as I share with you what went well, what didn’t go well, lessons learned, and what I’m focused on for 2020. Enjoy! Episode Quotes "Marketing isn’t a bad word. Marketing is just communicating your value to your audience." "Transformation is not about information; it comes through action" "Doing everything on your own is not the way to grow." "Growth requires investment (money, time, relationships)." "Focus on what you love to do, focus on what you're good at, and collaborate more." Listen to Learn 02:09 - My wins for 2019 12:28 - What didn't go well in 2019 20:51 - Things I learned this year 32:21 - Shoutouts to these amazing people 36:34 - My focus areas for 2020 41:00 - One more thing... Subscribe to My YouTube Channel! I’m launching my very first YouTube channel in a few weeks and I’d love to see you there. → Click here to subscribe so you don’t miss any videos! ←
Hey family! This episode is going to be different because I’m doing it solo. It’s time for the annual review for 2019. I love doing this part because I’m such a nerd in reflection and planning, and this is the time of the year where things slow down and I can get really intentional about what I want to do and also express gratitude. So listen up as I share with you what went well, what didn’t go well, lessons learned, and what I’m focused on for 2020. Enjoy!
Episode Quotes
"Marketing isn’t a bad word. Marketing is just communicating your value to your audience."
"Transformation is not about information; it comes through action"
"Doing everything on your own is not the way to grow."
"Growth requires investment (money, time, relationships)."
"Focus on what you love to do, focus on what you're good at, and collaborate more."
Listen to Learn
02:09 - My wins for 2019
12:28 - What didn't go well in 2019
20:51 - Things I learned this year
32:21 - Shoutouts to these amazing people
36:34 - My focus areas for 2020
41:00 - One more thing...
Subscribe to My YouTube Channel!
I’m launching my very first YouTube channel in a few weeks and I’d love to see you there.
→ Click here to subscribe so you don’t miss any videos! ←
Janelle Allen: So I say all of that to say the beginning of this year, I hired a virtual assistant and continued to get things off my plate. I mentioned letting go of my control issues. This was part of it, continued to say, you know what? I don't need to do every single thing and my business has been healthier.
Welcome to level up your course where we pull back the curtain on what it takes to create learning that transforms lives. You will hear stories from business owners like you who share their success and their struggles. This is not where you come to hear passive income myths, friend. This is where you learn the truth about building a profitable learning platform. I am your host, Janelle Allen and this is today's episode.
Hey family. So if you are listening and you've never checked out, one of -- this is different. I mean I've done one of these before, but it is time. It is -- as of this recording. It is December 19th it's about nine o'clock at night cause I do my best work at night and it's time for the annual review. I love doing these. I don't know if the enthusiasm is coming out, but I am such a nerd for reflection and planning and I just love this time of year where things slow down and we can get really intentional about what we want to do and also express gratitude. Gratitude is so important.
So what we're going to cover in this episode, I'm going to share my year with you and talk about what went well, what did not go well and what I learned. And then I'll also kind of share what I'm focused on for 2020. So I haven't officially set out goals for 2020 but I do have some focus areas which is something that I didn't do for this year just because 2018 was a beast and I was just spent on planning but got some good things for 2020 so let's jump right in.
If you need to grab a glass of water, whatever you need to do some popcorn cause we're going in. What went well in 2019? I am so happy to say that this year there was more that what well than didn't go well. And you know, 2018 was hard. If you haven't checked out my annual review from 2018 I'll be sure to link to it in the show notes. And this year was tough but it wasn't bad, which is a good thing.
My number one win, the thing that I'm looking at on my list right now is I stopped doing work that I did not like doing. And so for me, you know, many of you know that I am an instructional designer and I've always done online course consultance and I enjoy it. However it is draining and I didn't realize that it was draining me until two things happened.
I started doing a different type of work for clients and more marketing related work and I noticed that I felt different when I did those two different types of work. I felt one way with the marketing work and one way with the course development work and then I hired a business coach and he basically called me out with, "You know, I don't think you're feeling good about this work, I think it's draining you," and gave me permission to acknowledge that and stop doing it. And I honestly don't think I would have taken that step had it not been for having him, having you Alex, if you're listening. Thank you. Thank you so much. I know I've already thanked you, but that was a huge win for me because I was just drained. Those projects sometimes, course development projects can often last for six months. And it was, I realized that I'm at my best, I love working with clients, but I'm at my best with projects that are three months or less and have a really tight scope.
So I started getting very intentional about the work that I wanted to do and I stopped doing work that I didn't want to do. And connected to that is because I started working smarter, I was able to work less. So this is an ongoing goal for me. But you know, I love working, I'm a workaholic a little bit, but I really needed to scale back. Not only because it's just not good to sit in front of the computer for, you know, 10 12 hours a day. It's just not healthy. So I wanted to take charge of my health in that way, but also it wasn't healthy for my relationship to work as much as I was. It wasn't healthy for my emotional health. It just wasn't working for me. And so this year I was able to shave about 15 hours a week off of what I worked last year, which was fantastic.
I'll talk about this a little bit later, but -- well, we can talk about it now. So one of the things that I started doing this year, which is also something that went very well, I'm so, so happy. This is actually the best thing that happened to me this year. I started therapy. So at the end of 2018 I reached out to a therapist. I'd never been to therapy before, heard people talk about it. I had a great chat with Justin Jackson -- we talked about it on the podcast episode by the way. And I, it's like, Hmm, I'm going through a lot of crap right now and I probably need to talk to somebody about it. My first session was December, one session in December, but officially kicked off in January of this year and I don't even have the words like it has been so amazing, has helped me recognize certain patterns. It's helped me to communicate my needs. It's helped me to, I didn't think it was going to help me with work, but it did help me with work. So that is the best thing that I did this year. I really prioritized my self care and frankly started being intentional about what was important to me, what my boundaries were and that carried over into work life and it has created a healthier, more enjoyable work life. So that's a huge win.
All right. Outside of that, what else went well? I got paid to write and geek out on marketing. So if any of you have been following me for awhile, you know, every now and then I would share, you know, I kind of geek out on email marketing and I'm also a writer. A lot of people assume that I describe myself as an instructional designer, but people who know me really well know that I write, I used to write poetry, short stories. I was an MC for a while. I write, I love writing. It's the thing that I love to do and I also really love strategy. And I think the strategy thing began to come out when I started exploring and setting up marketing systems. And it was amazing too, you know, at the same time, clients started asking for help with their marketing. And so it just was this, I used to have, just a sidebar, I used to have a manager who would always say confluence is like his million dollar word. And he would just use it every chance that he got. But it is just popped up. But I had this confluence of everything just came together nicely and I was able to start to make this pivot to offering marketing strategy services. So that has been amazing because it really, not only did it allow me to pivot slightly and explore something, but it also was very soothing at a deeper level in being able to write and get paid to write. That's the only way I can say it. So I'll talk more about that later. But that was a huge one this year.
And to wrap things up, two smaller things. And then one bigger thing, small thing personally, just a couple personal things. I mentioned that I started therapy this year. Part of the benefit of therapy was me learning to let go of my control issues and it's an ongoing thing. Okay, no judgment, please. Thank you. But I mentioned that I love planning and a lot of things blew up last year in 2018 and I had to just kind of come to terms with, you can't plan everything, you know, and just because you do doesn't mean it's going to go that way. Because -- especially if you're planning affects someone else's life. And I had to learn that lesson and it just, it was a hard, hard, excruciating lesson to learn.
But ultimately I started to let go of those control issues. And more importantly, this is the great thing about therapy, just recognizing eye patterns and where that came from and all that good stuff, but also being able to let go of things that no longer serve me so that I can move on into the next thing, which I still am working on. But that lesson has just shown itself, not just personally but in work as well.
Also a personal thing. One of the things I shared last year was I have a chronic hip condition and I've always just kinda been in pain. I can no longer run without being in pain. And my doctor actually says don't run, but I still do sometimes, don't tell her. And last year I finally got it diagnosed after years of going to doctors and me saying, I think I have this thing. And them saying no. Why do you think that? No, if you had that -- very condescending. But finally found a great doctor, got it diagnosed, and I've been mostly pain-free this year and this is the first year that I can ever say that probably for the past 10 years I've had chronic pain. So that is pretty huge and I'm very, very grateful to be in that place.
Last big win for this review. I'm sure there's many other things I'm forgetting, but I have to say this because it just changed everything for me. So I think it was January or February, it was sometime in Q1, maybe it was February. I discovered the book Profit First and it completely just blew my mind. Just it changed everything with how I was approaching my business on a financial level and made me really take the helm. I thought I was doing pretty well with my numbers, but it made me take the helm and really look at how profitable my business is and what actions I need to do when I'm doing things that are adversely affecting the profitability and what my expenses and it's such a, it's a system that works.
And funny enough, I had used a system similar or my personal finances and I just never thought to apply it to my business finances. But discovering Profit First was a game changer for me. If you're not familiar with profit first, go get the book, go to your local bookstore or to your library. As you can see, I'm not a fan of Amazon, but go to your local book store to your library, wherever, and get the book is the book that every business owner needs to own. Even if you don't adopt it, simply reading it, reading half of the book changed everything for me and I think it will for you as well.
So those are, those are my wins for 2019. All in all, I'm super grateful for this year and how much I have learned, which we'll talk about a little bit later.
So let's talk about what did not go well this year. It's a few things. Five things on my list that I'm looking at right now. The number one thing, I have to say this because it is top of mind. I did not launch my YouTube channel. I didn't, I just, every month I said, this is the month I have the videos outlined. I have scripts. I just didn't do it. I bought a camera and a webcam and I just, I just, I didn't, I didn't do it.
I have no excuse. The only reason I did not launch my YouTube channel, it's two reasons actually, but really one, my therapist would say, there's really one. So, you know, I kept saying, I don't have time. I don't have time. And what's so funny about that is people close to me know that I'm, I'm the person who always says, I don't have time as an excuse. It's just not a priority for you right now. And when my therapist asked me why I didn't do the thing, I was like, yeah, I don't have time. She was like, well, that's usually not the real reaso. You ever have your own medicine thrown back at you and you're just like, what? What are you doing right now? I'm paying you to treat me this way. So, but anyway, long story short, I did not launch my YouTube channels simply because of fear and perfectionism.
I'm not ashamed to say it. The thought of being on camera is very nerve wracking for me. I love podcasting, but there's a little bit of, you know, it's a little bit of protection. It's, I can get on the mic all day, but being on camera, ah, that's a whole different thing. That's a whole different animal. So I didn't do that. And my wonderful virtual assistant has been putting up with me postponing and postponing and postponing. Victoria, I'm going to do it, I promise you. All right. So that we're not talking about YouTube anywhere. I didn't do the thing, but I will do the thing.
The second thing that did not go well, again, all on me, I let my Facebook group fizzle out a bit like the last three months of this year and that really just came down to, it has been busy. It's not that I haven't had time, but I just have kind of deprioritized hosting and Facebook and I believe that's because I'm not a huge fan of Facebook, so I don't spend a ton of time on Facebook and it's always something that felt like work.
So I'm honestly still figuring out the best way to provide value because you know, when it was going, it was great, I was enjoying it. But at the end of the day, once the client work got really busy, am I going to post in Facebook or am I going to work with clients? And I made a certain choice. So that's something that I struggle with. You know, I'm really curious to learn more about community building because it's important to me. I want to build community around online courses and of course marketing to help you to help you know, everyone who's interested in connecting with people. But I just, I don't want it to feel like work. And right now it does feel like work. So that's something that I'm struggling with and I'm not proud cause I feel like I've let people in the group down. That's how it feels for me and that doesn't feel good. I pride myself on showing up so that doesn't feel good. So that's number two.
Number three. The third thing that did not go well is probably for about seven months out of the year, if not eight months out of at, okay we'll say seven, I dealt with mild depression and that's just, there's no other way to say it, you know, it's just, I didn't even realize it again until my therapist kind of called it out and some people around me. So yeah, not much to say. Fortunately it was mild and the things that I did, so if you are struggling with this, the things that helped me was I was self aware enough to know, okay, something is a little off and I would make myself go outside and be around people, which for mild depression or what I was going through, it helped a ton. The secondary thing, the primary thing that helped me was working out, just exercise, you know, releases all of those good chemicals in your body.
And I would always feel so much better after working out and my method for getting out of the house when I didn't want to be out of the house, and I still do this to this day, if I don't want to go work out or whatever is, I will just get up and I literally will just start moving until I'm out of the door. I won't let myself stop. So I will get up, I'll put on my workout clothes, and then I just keep going. I don't allow myself to think about it. I just, you know, keep going, do this, do that, do this. And I put myself on autopilot until I'm out the door. And once I'm out the door, okay, I'm dressed, got to do it, let's go. So exercise and forcing myself to go to a coffee shop or just go out and be around people is what helped with that because it just kind of was something that I had to get through and I did, I feel like I finally got clear of it, you know, within the past three months.
All right, moving on. The fourth thing that did not go well this year, it was a good problem to have, but I ended up getting very busy with client work. And so as a result of that, I did not launch a couple of products on time. A couple of products that I said I was going to launch, that I had announced were coming, did not launch. I was going to revamp my list building course and kind of change the product around and I simply just didn't have time to get to it. And I know I said having time. So I had to de prioritize a lot of things because I got really busy with client work. So that happened.
The last thing I will say in this category is, you know, this is a business systems thing. I'm so happy that client work has been ongoing and I've had a steady pipeline that's been wonderful and I've been able to work with some amazing clients this year. I'll shout them out a little bit later, but I still am on the sales hamster wheel. So what do I mean by that? I mean I like selling and I never thought I would say that, but I figured out how to sell in a way that feels natural to me. But I'm still at the point where if I don't sell, if I don't close deals, I don't have the level of revenue that I need to have. So I'm still on that sales hamster wheel. And one of my goals going forward is to automate and have recurring revenue coming in so that I can start to get off of that wheel a bit more. So it's a work in progress, you know, I've been able to have some, you know, I've been able to have some product sales coming in, but I want to get it to a point where it's a predictable pipeline and I really can step away or step back.
I will never stop doing client work because I love doing client work, but I do want to step back from it. So that is my list of what did not go well in 2019. Not too bad.
It's been a good year. It's been a lot of learning this year. Really unlearning. Yeah. If I had to say, if I had to give a word, it would be unlearning. That is what happened this year. You know, patterns, assumptions, things that I, you know, we'll talk about this in a minute, but just me being funny, you know, just weird about certain things. Like for example, running ads, I was always super resistant to doing that and I'm like, why? Why do I have all of these preconceived notions? So it was a lot of unlearning this year. So let's talk about that unlearning and just kind of reframe it into what I learned this year.
A few things. First thing is marketing matters. You know, I've always had, you know, I have a marketing strategy, but this year it was something about this year where -- I know what it was this year I realized that the clients and students who struggled the most did so because they either weren't clear on who they served or they were very resistant to marketing. And at some point a light bulb went off for me. And I realized a lot of people think about marketing in a very negative way and, could be wrong, but I believe that that happens because we either have a false notion of what marketing is. Marketing is just sharing value with people. At the end of the day, that's what it is. How you market is different, but that's not what marketing is. So you can choose to be kind of pushy marketer if that's your personality or you can choose to market in a very human, genuine way. So I started to observe that a lot of people were avoiding the marketing aspect, avoiding building an email list, avoiding starting a website, avoiding a lot of things that are essential. So marketing matters. That's a big one and I haven't quite figured out how to support my audience, you, in overcoming that, or, really not overcoming it, but putting things into action.
And that's really what it comes down to, you know, is taking action, which kind of takes me to the next thing that I learned this year is you can't force someone to take action. This was a hard one because we think that if we just teach people a method that they'll get it. But transformation is not about information. Transformation comes through action. And a lot of times we have habits, we have, you know, poor work habits or we have mindset stuff. It's usually mindset nine out of 10 times that preclude us from taking action. And so we don't take action, we don't see the results. So yeah, that was a big thing. It doesn't matter if your process works. What you really have to optimize for when you're teaching is habits and mindset. That's where the transformation occurs. Ultimately that's what's going to help people to take action. And I discovered that through teaching my group program. Group programs are hard work, you know, that's something that I have written down here. They are hard work. This year was a little more challenging from a teaching standpoint, but it was good. I was able to see, okay, here's some, here's some objections. So one of the changes that I made this year, when I first launched my group program last year, I was very specific on who would be a good fit. And the good old email list was one of the prerequisites. You had to have an email list and then people would email me and say, you know, is that really a thing? So I decided I was going to be a little more flexible. Now here's the thing, to successfully launch an online course, you do not have to have an email list, but you do have to have a way to reach your target audience. And the method that I use and teach is email is the easiest way to do that. If you don't have an email list, can you still launch an online course? Of course you can. You just have to be prepared to do one of two things: A) use a marketplace like Udemy and launch your course there and just know that you're going to give up a percentage of your sales and you to me will do the marketing work. So if you're really resistant to but you want to create a course, that is what I would say. If you're really resistant to marketing, then go the you to me route and use a marketplace. B) having an ad spend. So all of these people online who are, you know, pushing the six figure online courses, they're using ads. So I don't teach a method that focuses on ads and I don't teach people how to create a course on Udemy. And what is super important is having an email list because you're going to need people to sell to. And you know, I realized that I need to put that prerequisite back into the program. My most successful students had an email list and not a list of family and friends. Those people are not going to buy from you. They had taken action, you know, they had an email list. So going forward, I'm putting that prerequisite back into front and center on the sales page. And that was a hard lesson to learn because I wanted to help more people, but at the end of the day it was challenging when people hit the roadblock of not having anyone to market to.
So again, teaching is hard work and these are things that you learn. These are things that you discover. But the last thing I'll say is it's okay. It's okay to experiment with your course. It's okay to, you know, you're going to learn lessons. Stop worrying about being perfect and just do it. You learn through action.
All right, let's move on from that. Speaking of online courses, they are not going anywhere. So if you are there listening and you know, I just scared the heck out of you because you know, you're just getting started. It's -- you've got time online courses aren't going anywhere. The bar has raised. People are more discerning about what they buy. Thank goodness we've gotten away from that phase we were in in the beginning where everyone had a course and you know, the quality wasn't that great and nobody really said anything about it.
So now we're in a place where we're all, we've all been burned, right? We've all been burned by a course that didn't necessarily connect or just was bad and so the market has leveled up. It's become more sophisticated and customers are becoming more discerning. So I think that's a great thing. I think that it's going to force us as instructors to level up. Bottom line, if you haven't created a course yet, it's okay. Online courses are not going anywhere. It's really the ball is in your court. You know, put yourself out there, share your expertise, connect with your people. What also is not going anywhere is video. Video is the present. YouTube, you know I said that my number one thing on my, what did not go well was I did not launch my YouTube channel and what's so funny is that probably the past four clients I've worked with have all had YouTube channels and so I'm like, okay universe, I hear you. Can you please speak a little softer? So YouTube is the present and if you're thinking about launching a YouTube channel, do it, do it. And then email me and say, Janelle, I launched my channel. What's up with your channel? And I'll be like, Oh gosh, stop it. But YouTube is the present and you know what? I think the future is community going forward. What we're going to see, I believe that we are all craving more connection. I've said this before, but community is going to continue to be the X factor that really sets people apart. It's going to be the thing that makes people come back, and so it's something that I plan to focus on and just figure out how to do it in a way that doesn't make me feel like I have to be online all the time. So I know that there's a way to do it, but community, community, community is the future.
Two more things that I learned before we wrap up. Two more things. These are important. Are you paying attention? All right, these are important. Doing everything on your own is not the move. It is not the way to grow. It's not even a good idea. It took me a long time to recognize this. In fact, I mentioned 2017 I burned out and I shut things down for like three months and set up systems and hired my wonderful podcast editor because I simply was done. I just could not, I just couldn't. I was filled with can't.
So I'd say all of that to say the beginning of this year, I hired a virtual assistant and continued to get things off my plate. I mentioned letting go of my control issues. This was part of it, continued to say, you know what? I don't need to do every single thing and my business has been healthier and felt better as a result of it. So if you are out there and if you're still thinking in the mode, DIY mode, please put it on your list of things to do to start to outsourcing work. You will be so, so grateful. In fact, one thing that I have learned this year is that my most successful clients, they don't do everything. They understand that they need to focus on what some people call their zone of genius and they delegate the rest. So you may not be at a point where you can delegate everything, but you know, I wish that I had hired a virtual assistant years ago. It's been that impactful. So trust me on that, doing everything on your own, trying to DIY every single thing is not a good idea. Focus on what you love to do. Focus on what you're good at and then outsource the rest. Hire help, work with people, collaborate, all of that good stuff.
Last thing, and this is related, growth requires investment. And I don't just mean money, so investment can be time skipping Netflix and working on your business, skipping Netflix in hay reading that's working on your business. Reading business books or investment can be, it can be money, it can be buying courses that are going to help you achieve your goals. Investment is also investing in relationships, so connecting and collaborating with people who are, you know, you're going to help each other grow, you're going to support each other. That is the growth mindset and this year I connected with a lot of amazing people that I just know I'm going to continue to work with in the future.
So those are my lessons learned for this year. So we have done what went well, what didn't go well, lessons learned. Before we wrap up, I want to shout out a few amazing people I learned from this year. Alex Hillman, who was my business coach for this year. Thank you, Alex, for helping me to have the courage to pivot. Joel, John, and Taylor over at egghead. Oh my gosh. You guys have been such a joy to work with and it is just so endearing to know that it is possible to build a team of good humans who care about their customers deeply and who are invested in creating the best experience possible. So shout out to you guys. Claire Pelletreau. Claire and I did a an interview swap. She interviewed me for her podcast. I interviewed her for my podcast and as a result of that conversation, it made me think differently about Facebook ads. Facebook ads and I have never been friends. I just convinced myself that I sucked at them. They were stupid, all of the things, right? All of the negative talk and all of that changed after speaking with Claire. And then I bought her Facebook ads course, and the first ad I ran got more results than any ad I've ever run. So shout out to you, Claire. Thank you for making Facebook ads make sense. Finally after years, literally after four years of me feeling dumb about Facebook ads. So I highly recommend if you are listening and you want to learn about Facebook ads, check out Claire's course.
Marie Poulin, who basically has been blowing everyone's mind about a tool called Notion that, you know, I was struggling with feeling like I had documents all over the place and Joel from egghead had mentioned Notion and they were using it. And so I signed up and I thought, okay, this is cool, but I thought I was using it right until I saw Marie's webinar and I realized, holy moly, holy moly, I am doing this all wrong. I'm not even using Notion to like, I'm not even using a 10th of what it's capable of. So Marie, shout out to you for breaking Notion all the way down for me and introducing me to Jonathan who has been a godsend and setting up my system and Notion so that everything is connected and organized and I have a relational database and I don't have to go into 15 tools to find things.
So last but not least, I want to say a big thank you to my virtual assistant Victoria who I mentioned I hired earlier in the year and it was the best money ever spent. I have had more time, not just to focus on projects but also to think about big picture stuff. You know I bought a whiteboard for the first time this year, and like a big one. That's what I mean I had a small one but I bought a big one and I've been able to just focus on where I want to take things, mapping out the vision. I never had time to do that in depth before. It was always like okay I got a day here and -- Victoria, working with you has just completely given me time back. So thank you. Thank you, thank you. And as a result of working with Victoria, I've also learned how to get out of my head cause I'm used to doing every, you know I was used to doing everything myself so I didn't really know how to communicate things to a team member. So Victoria kind of helped me in that way as well.
So thank you all of you. Thank you. You. Thank you for listening to the show for rocking with me. You know, whether you're a longtime listener or a new listener, thank you so much for being here. I don't take it lightly. I truly, truly appreciate you and I hope that you stick around, there's great things coming and that you continue to be part of the family.
So the last thing I want to say is, looking ahead to 2020 you know, if you want to learn more about what is happening in 2020 be sure to check out the written version of the annual review. But at a high level, I'll give you a little peek. There's about five things I want to say.
Number one, I'll be pivoting in the way that I've shared before and helping education businesses improve their marketing results. And so what that means is whether you're a solo business owner or you have an eight figure business, if your business is education, I'm going to want to work to help you improve your results through strategy and copywriting and automation. So I'm going to be making that pivot in 2020. Is it scary? Yes, but I'm doing it. Number two more collaborations. I want to collaborate more as something that I've always shied away from and I want to put myself out there and collaborate more and build those relationships.
So number three, launching my damn YouTube channel. That is happening. I'm going to do it in the first quarter of 2020 so hold me to that. If you're listening and it's March and my YouTube channel is not live, I give you permission to reach out and just say, Hey, you said you were going to do this thing, so hold me accountable, but YouTube channel will be launching. Number four, my goal is to continue to put systems in place with the goal of doubling my revenue next year. And what that really means is digging deeper into automation. I already have some automations set up, going deeper with it and also using ads for the first time. So, like I mentioned, I always had negative thoughts around ads. And I'm going to give it a try because I don't want to be someone who just has a negative thought and doesn't try, you know, like I just don't want to be that person. I want to give it a try. And then if I hate it, then that's one thing. But I don't want to feel bad about it. And then I haven't even done it. So I'm gonna try ads and really focus on building a system that's gonna create predictable revenue and double my revenue for this year. Number five, this is a big one. I'm not just focused on next year, but I now have a focus, a 10 year focus. And what I mean by that is it's not me planning out the next 10 years. That would be ludicrous. But I've been thinking a lot about where do I want to be in 10 years, you know, like what work do I want to be doing? And for me that is that it's, it's connected to five things. So I have something that I call, um, avoid at all costs. I think, I forget who I learned this from, but basically there are five spokes of my 10 year focus. So if I'm going to say no to any work that does not align with these things, writing, marketing, that includes strategy and systems, teaching, community building, and then on a personal note, real estate investment community building is personal as well. I want to be better about being involved in my community. So that is what's happening for 2020 on a personal note, I'm going to be moving this year. I have no idea when plan is to move to Detroit and I may be location independent for a while, which is a little bit scary because I'm kind of a home person. I like to have a steady place. So that's a personal one. So that's your bonus.
That is what's happened in folks. So that is my annual review or 2019 and what I'm focused on, or 2020 so hopefully this was, I don't know, enjoyable, insightful. Give you a little peek into my brain and heart and thoughts and all of that good stuff. I hope that you had an amazing year and I hope that you have an amazing year going forward and with that I will see you next time.
Okay. There's one more thing. There's just one more thing and it's the big one. Are you ready? Are you sitting down? Okay, I'm just going to say it. I'm just going to say it. This is the last podcast episode for a while. I know, I know, and I probably shouldn't even say anything, but remember that YouTube channel that I mentioned? Well, I'm taking a break to focus on launching and running my YouTube channel. I want to just put all my energy into that and get really good at it. And here's the thing, would you do me a solid? Would you do me a favor and subscribe to the YouTube channel? I would love to continue the conversation over there. See, this doesn't have to end. In fact, it's only going to get better and stronger through video. So I will throw the link to my YouTube channel in the show notes, and if you could just click on that and subscribe to the channel, you'll get notifications of new videos from me and we can just build our family up on YouTube. So make meet over on YouTube. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you for being here and supporting the podcast for all of these years. Again, I don't take it lightly and I will see you on YouTube.
All right, my friends, that is my time. Remember before, and you can level up your course. You must first level up your mind. As always, thank you for hanging out with me for another great episode. I do not take it for granted. I am Janelle Allen and this has been Level Up Your Course. Peace!