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It’s true: things are very different now to what they were in 2020. In fact, the bubble of free money floating around at that time make any strategies that worked then irrelevant now.

2024 hit differently. With so much negative political and economic news and events happening, it required an immense amount of self-trust and courage, to make optimistic decisions, and to pitch, launch, and sell.

Despite a bumpy start, I decide that I was overdue a promotion and pay rise in 2024, so I increased my take-home pay by 10% per month at the start of 2024, and gave myself a few bonuses along the way.

In this article, I’m going to share the behind-the-scenes of my 16th year in business, in the hope that you’ll find it useful and valuable. Grab yourself some cake and settle in.

In this article, I cover:

What I sold in 2024

As always, I used the Momentum Effect to plan promotions and launches around travel.

I ran three workshops back-to-back in late January, which I dubbed ‘the Summer Series’, made up of the three major components of running a business: you and your brand; your ideal clients; and your offerings ecosystem. This was around a trip in early January to Crooked Corner and Port Stephens, both in New South Wales, Australia.

In February, I opened the doors to my flagship Hustle and Heart program, preceded by my popular Life’s a Pitch!® party. In March, I travelled with my partner to Hong Kong for work, leaving the kids behind.

Since late 2023, I promoted my brand new Audacious Mastermind, and we kicked off with our first group call in March. I was still running my Leverage Mastermind, which started in September 2023, when I was travelling in Italy with my family, and finished up in June 2024. It was sad to say goodbye to owners that I’d been working with intensely over nine months, to create, launch and sell-out their flagship group programs.

March 27, I ran my Guest Speaking Masterclass, which was a topic I was hugely excited by, having done this strategy for the entire lifespan of my business – borrowing other people’s audiences in order to grow your own – while getting paid in the process.

What surprised me about this masterclass was how many people purchased the masterclass with no intention of turning up live – I concluded that, if the topic is strong enough, the need to turn up live was less important for people. Guest Speaking teaches people how to get paid to increase their email list, generate leads, and land new paying clients, while improving their presentation skills.

In fact, that’s what all my lower priced offerings have done this past year – bringing people successfully from low-priced to premium priced in one fell swoop – someone from my $212 Offerings Ecosystem masterclass in January turning into a new one-to-one business coaching client, and people from my Guest Speaking masterclass in March also becoming new one-to-one coaching clients.

In May, I took a big family trip to Canberra to celebrate my brother-in-law’s 40th birthday. How gorgeous is Canberra in Autumn??

In June, I ran another Hustle & Heart program launch, preceded by my new free program, Amplify, which I ran through Telegram. The first cohort ran February until July; the second cohort ran June until December. After a big June of launches, content events, and work, I took off in July for a yoga retreat by myself, followed by the Blue Mountains with my family.

In August, I sold a brand new Visibility Accelerator, called Ignite (as my client Sonia pointed out, it appears I’ve developed a preference for single word offering names!). Ignite is specifically for thought leaders, experts, consultants and coaches who want to say something worth listening to. Ignite ran for six weeks, and I loved every minute of it, so much so that I immediately started promoted the second cohort, which kicked off in October.

The first time you run anything is always the best and worse time, so I’m always eager to run something a second time, as quickly as possible, to iterate on what I’ve learnt in the first run.

After a big August of promotions and launches, my family and I went to Spain and the UK for three weeks (we left the kids in the UK with my in-laws to escape to Spain to celebrate 21 years of togetherness), returning in mid October.

In November, I ran Business Reset, which was great fun, getting together to spend a full day with business owners, online, from all over Australia.

In November, I also ran Catalyst, a new, face-to-face program in Sydney, for owners, consultants, coaches, who want to turn their expertise into assets to leverage, and diversify their income streams. Again, because it was the first time – and we sold out – I set another date almost immediately, which is in February 2025, with a third of spots already gone.

I also ran a series of short promotions for my new Audacious mastermind and, by the end of the year, nine out of our ten spots were claimed.

In December, I went to Margaret River with my partner just before Christmas, to celebrate a friend’s 50th.

Highlights of 2024

Without a doubt, 2024 was the year of experiments. I launched three new programs: Audacious Mastermind, Ignite Visibility Accelerator, and Catalyst, as well as my new, free Amplify program, which I ran twice, through Telegram the first time, and the second, through WhatsApp.

I did a lot more content events, including running our popular Life’s a Pitch! party twice (in February, leading into the Hustle & Heart program and in August, leading into the Audacious Mastermind). I also did two free webinars, one without slides, which I’d never done before.

I’m proud of my marvellous Audacious Mastermind, which is more than I could have hoped for, full of interesting, intelligent, creative, ambitious owners who are going after what they want. We had multiple face-to-face meetups through the year, as I travelled to places where members lived, and two flew to far north Queensland to attend a yoga retreat of another Audacious member.

Our Audacious group gives me life, and I’m busy plotting how to make it even better in 2025.

Other highlights of 2024 include facilitating two days of vision, mission, values, purpose for the executive team of Pace Farms, Australia’s largest egg producer. Four out of six on the exec team were new, including the CEO. The topic was great, but it’s always the people who make or break something, and this small group was exceptional.

In September, I spoke at the Content Byte Summit at Sydney’s Maritime Museum, on the topic of ‘Creating a Marketing Plan that you’ll actually stick to’, where I introduced my Minimum Viable Marketing Plan™. I was also in conversation, the day prior, with the keynote Austin Church, on the topic of money and pricing – always hot-button topics for the self-employed.

Despite 2024 being far from ‘easy’, I earned more this calendar year than any of the 16 years prior. Interestingly, between the first six months of 2024 and the last, my revenue increased 58% and my profit 84% (see why, below). While the market appeared to contract and grow conservative, I did the opposite: investing in Meta ads, SEO, and email marketing, particularly in the second half of the year. When everybody contracts together, everybody loses.

Disappointments in 2024

In 2024, I worked harder than ever on promoting, marketing, and selling. People appeared to need more direct sales, offers, and promotions than prior years. There was a general malaise and inertia which, as a person who works hard at being upbeat, I sometimes found draining when I wasn’t strict enough with my energetic boundaries.

Not all experiments are successful of course, and one disappointment for 2024 was that an awesome business retreat that I was planning with my friend and colleague Belinda Weaver didn’t go ahead. We made the mistake that I repeatedly tell my clients not to make – spending far too long on the behind-the-scenes details while postponing the marketing and promotion. Especially for an overseas event, and for higher priced offerings, people need as much of a runway as possible. \

Unfortunately, by the time we were actively marketing it, it was too late in the game, and, after several sales conversations with prospective clients, we decided to pull the pin.

This meant that I was preoccupied in the first half of the year, and I needed to rally in the second half of the year, as I’d invested time, money and effort that wasn’t going to see a return.

My best-performing marketing in 2024

In 2024, I doubled down on content events, which include webinars, challenges, and other free offerings, delivered live. The live delivery elements makes these different to lead magnet (of which I am the Queen) and the appeal is precisely this – by enabling people to have a real life, real time experience of your expertise and approach, people can then decide whether or not you’re their flavour of ice-cream.

Particularly in the second half of the year, when I doubled down on content events and promotions, this worked a treat for people to call themselves into my Ignite program, Audacious mastermind, and the Hustle & Heart program.

In 2024, I increased my average mass email send, sending 71 mass emails over 2024 (up from 54 mass emails in 2023). I sent many many more emails to smaller, targeted segments of my list.

My top-performing email subject lines for 2024:

Forget funnels, think ecosystems
Becoming a mind-reader
The problem is you
New offerings; creative supernova
{OPEN} We’re open! ⚡️
Client magnet
Just ask 👀
Get paid to grow your leads
From crises – to starting my business in a week
I’m opting out of the recession

In addition to content events and email marketing, Google continues to bring me a steady stream of qualified leads (I teach digital marketing and walk my talk, so I rank well for relevant searches).

My podcast has been a joy to create, but it’s still a lot of work, despite having a process bedded down, plus outsourcing some aspects of it, including audio editing. The Vulnerability of your Visibility was my best performing podcast episode this year.

In 2024, social media algorithms kept us jumping through hoops. The B-Roll style Instagram Reels that were easy to chuck together and performed so well in 2023, reduced in impact. Instead, I’ve put most of my effort on Instagram into direct-to-camera stories (which I teach inside of Ignite) and carousel posts, though Reels are still performing, if you’ve nailed your topic. This was my best performing Instagram post this year.

LinkedIn is the other major social channel that continues to perform, though I find it far less appealing and fun than Instagram. This was my best performing LinkedIn post this year.

What I’m doing differently in 2025

I really enjoy digital marketing, business development and sales, which is a good thing, since that’s what I do! However, I do put more effort in than justifies the results I’m sometimes getting back.

So, in 2025, I want to hone in on what’s working, and drop marketing activities that aren’t performing. I’m going to continue to do the marketing activities that I really love, but I’m going to do less, and do it better.

By freeing up more of my time, I can focus on writing more about topics I’m passionate about that aren’t strictly business, such as intersectional feminism, why humans need each other (and how to make friends and be a good friend as an adult), the importance of joy, and how humans make meaning (and derive meaning).

Several years ago, I used to write for media on any topic my heart desired. Nowadays, I rarely have writing published that isn’t business related. In 2025, I’d like to do far more writing in news media.

Future trends I’m paying attention to

Same as last year, the advent of generative AI means that our point-of-difference is more important than ever. Which means saying something worth listening to – turning up the volume on your opinions, story, unique approach (this is why I created Ignite Visibility Accelerator. And also because I’m afraid for the increase in self-censorship that I witness among owners and leaders).

In 2024, I launched my first face-to-face program, Catalyst, since 2019. I taught face-to-face business courses in Sydney, across Australia, and internationally, between 2012 and 2019, so it was a welcome return. Nothing beats warm bodies in a room.

And despite the rise of flakiness, I know people crave face-to-face events, so watch out for more face-to-face gatherings in 2025 (subscribe to our Hustle & Heart calendar so you don’t miss these).

What I’m looking forward to in 2025

I’ve wasted a lot of time in my business stopping myself from doing things I want to do, out of fear that I’ll confuse my audience, dilute my message, or waste my energy. But the fact remains that I’m creative and I love novelty. I don’t find it hard to have multiple free and paid programs on offer or run multiple groups concurrently; I find it invigorating. I reuse, reduce, and recycle as much as possible, leveraging myself through assets, smart systems, and support.

I don’t want to change anything drastically – I’m looking forward to doing more of the same. A solid, sustainable, growing business is supposed to be a bit boring, especially for types like myself who crave novelty.

At the risk of sounding sappy, I love my business and cannot believe that I’m doing what I’m doing. Helping owners and leaders to get what they want is, in my opinion, the best job in the world.

My personal focus in 2025

As always, I have a lot of travel planned for 2025. And being an Australian, those long-haul flights are a killer, so my family and I tend to stay away for several weeks.

In 2025, I hope to strengthen my systems and support of my small and savvy virtual team, to impact my clients and business as little as possible while I’m travelling.

Making my business travel-proof also means making my business malaise-proof, disaster-proof and life-proof. Because it’s easy to sell and grow when you’re feeling on top of things. It’s far harder when life hits you in the guts, which it always does, and the more I can create systems and structures that weather this, the stronger my business is.

My focus for 2025 is also continuing the shift of my ideal client group – I want to work with owners and leaders who are unapologetically ambitious and energetic. And while some days we’re just not feeling it, I’m don’t want to spend my limited, precious time with owners who have modest goals and are stuck in self-censorship and overthinking.

I’m 17 years in business this year, and I have no time to waste. Life is short. And oh so exciting.

Isn’t it past due that you gave yourself a Pay Rise?

(Pic of me speaking at the Content Byte Summit by Jade Warne of Small Business Growth Club.)

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