Double Down: The Year 2013 in Review

With another year gone (surprisingly quickly, I might add) it's once again time to look back and extract the most valuable lessons from the past 12 months. As every year, things went differently than expected. At times it was challenging, at times thrilling and at times frustrating - but certainly never boring. In today's post, I want to extract the most important and most valuable lessons from everything that happened in 2013. Did my big gamble from the year before pay off? Did I end up losing all my money again? Am I getting any closer to achieving my overly ambitious goals? Read on to find out... [thrive_borderless type='custom_code'] [/thrive_borderless] [thrive_toggle color='white' title='View Video Summary'] In 2013, my gamble from the year before paid off. I managed to build a sustainable business that generates sales and makes happy customers on a regular basis, without having to rely on bargain-bin pricing or the continuous launching of new products. With proof that this concept works, I doubled down and invested almost every penny I earned back into the business, expanding our team and taking on bigger and more ambitious projects. Take-away: the evergreen marketing idea is paying off. Also: invest in what you know (your own business, assuming it is already profitable) before worrying about diversification. More importantly, I doubled down on my philosophy of the Grind by focusing first and foremost on developing skills. While all the numbers for my business in 2013 look good, the biggest win lies in the skills and experience myself and my team members gained. We challenged ourselves with difficult tasks that tested and developed our skills and we are now far more capable than we were 12 months ago. Take-away: focusing on developing skills (in yourself and people who work for you) and growing those skills through practical application (learning-by-doing) is the fastest way I know to move a business forward. I also realized something about plans and goals: it's not unusual to change direction and abandon parts of a plan. In fact, I believe this is a sign of good planning, rather than bad planning. Well laid out plans and clear goals take you in a direction and give you clarity. Sometimes this clarity lets you recognize that a change of direction is the best thing for your business. Take-away: make plans, but don't worry when you are almost inevitably led in different directions than you originally set out for.[/thrive_toggle]

Most Important Posts of 2013

• Get Your Product to Market - this post contains everything you need to know about one of the most important principles for building a business and steering it towards success (without wasting too much time).
• Breakthrough Productivity - content that many viewers agree I should have charged for. If you've ever wanted to get more done in less time and if you want to know how to become exceptionally good at what you do, don't miss this.
• Lifestyle Business with Dan Andrews - my favorite podcast episode so far. Entertaining and full of eye-opening insights from our brilliant guest for this episode.
• How to Create a High Conversion Sales Video - the most brutally detailed post about how I construct sales message, using my highest converting video as an example. Not an easy piece to digest, but if you do the marketing in your business and you're serious about your craft, you'll get a lot out of this.

I hope you enjoyed this post! I'm looking forward to sharing another year of this entrepreneurial journey with you.