My Best Year Ever - The One That Made Me Say, “Never Again”
This is the second short essay in my Growth by Subtraction series. If you missed the first one, read it here.
In 2023, I had my best year ever, revenue wise. Q4 was especially good. I asked, “What would a miracle look like?” I set that target, and I surpassed it.
Yet, by early 2024, I had already reached two conclusions:
- I never wanted to repeat 2023.
- I needed to be brave enough to simplify my business.
“Success” often doesn’t feel the way we expect. Despite how grateful I was for the revenue and what it made possible for my family, my business sat in my mind like a cannonball, hard to aim and heavy to carry.
Being both a fractional CMO and a business coach and delivering a variety of services required constant context switching.
I had somehow accumulated a dozen offers for different kinds of clients and customers. One hour, I served a CEO as a fractional CMO, and the next hour, I coached other freelancers and consultants—but with never enough time for the costume changes.
To that cognitive load, I added sponsorships, workshops, digital products, and a book manuscript, Free Money.
I have cared about writing since middle school, so publishing a book was a lifelong dream. I promised myself that I would prioritize the launch. How long had it been since I had given my full attention to anything? I couldn’t help but wonder what might happen if I did.
But I didn’t.
I didn’t clear my calendar. Other commitments kept pushing the key book launch activities to the periphery. Book sales reflected my distractedness.
Did I really have a lifestyle business if I worked too much and didn’t invest time in what was most important to me? Or did I have a self-created job?
About this time, I found a thread written by a Canadian marketer named Katelyn Bourgoin. The last word in the first tweet jumped off the screen. ”Subtraction.”
As I kept reading, time slowed, and I felt like Katelyn was narrating the past several years of my life:
“Addition rarely solved the root problems in the business—it just created new ones.”
The truth sank in. Again. In 2019 I couldn’t read Greg McKeown’s book Essentialism fast enough. I thought, “Yes, less but better!” That tells you just how long overcommitment has been a problem for me.
It took having a record year with growth by addition and the exhausting complexity that came with it for me to realize that I was winning the wrong game. I couldn't see how to repeat the financial success without being chronically overcommitted and feeling perpetually behind.
Overcommitment and complexity were the root problems. They produced the cannonball. Even if my overwhelmed mind weren’t craving release from the weight, pressure, and anxiety, I knew at a practical level that complexity does not scale.
If I wanted more time to write and make beautiful things without seeing a huge drop in revenue, I would have to redesign my business. I needed to prune, subtract, simplify. I needed the courage to cut.
But I had no clue where to start.
Hey, if you read this this fall, you may be willing to help me. I would like to talk to two founders of creative agencies in the $500K to $2 million range. I’d like to have a virtual coffee with them—am happy to send a coffee gift card, in fact!—and I want to ask them three questions about their top challenges before I switch over and do some free coaching. If that sounds like anyone you know, I’d appreciate an introduction. Much appreciated!
