The Final Episode: My 2022 Wrap + What's Next

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Another year of wins and lessons learned, and my goodness, was it a year of BIG THINGS! From launching a new company, new programs AND our first event, we have a LOT to talk about.

Join me in this week’s episode for a candid, unscripted and very cheeky recap from my year. Tune in to the full episode and listen to my special announcement at the end. 🙂

Episode Highlights:

The launch model that surprised the heck out of me in 2022 (and became my favorite!)
What really motivated me to say YES to a partnership and new company
My top 5 lessons learned after a CRAP ton of doing
Good at a lot of things? What to watch out for so it doesn’t screw your plans
How I dealt with self-doubt when making decisions
Why I’m ENDING the Heather Sager Show, and what’s next 🙂

Episode Show Notes

2023 is just around the corner! It’s that time of the year again…

A time to set new goals, a time to craft next year’s business plan but most importantly a time to reflect and pause.

Here at The Speaker Co, we’re all about celebrating all that happened in 2022 and all that’s yet to come with gratitude and optimism.

This week’s episode is a very special one—it is a candid, unscripted conversation around my thoughts as I close out the year with some encouragement for you and also give you a sneak peek at what’s to come for this show and The Speaker Co in 2023.

In this 2022 round up, I recap my top wins from this year and my biggest takeaways hoping you can get some insights and wisdom you can apply in your business as you wind out your year.

Tune in to the full episode and listen to my special announcement at the end. 🙂

Celebrating Wins

In our non-stop world, it’s all too easy to place immediate focus on our next task or goal and forget to pause and reflect on what we have accomplished.

We live in a culture where I feel like we always focus on the negative. It’s so easy to go straight to the negative because that’s where we can build connections with people knowing that everyone is just living life in their own version of just surviving. (Full disclaimer, I find myself doing this too and it drives me bonkers!)

But I want to disrupt that–I really want people to focus more on the wins and the celebrations. I know in my life personally, when I’m feeling overwhelmed, it’s typically because I’m looking at all the things that aren’t working. We know we are a real badass but there are so many things happening around us that we forget to breathe and slow down. (Feeling a little uninspired lately in your business? Checkout Episode #156 and learn How to Make Showing Up for Your Brand More Fun)

So I want to encourage you to start sharing your wins. Be the leader who starts asking other people what’s working well for them and what they should celebrate right now.

Here are some questions to reflect on to help you focus more and celebrate your wins:

What’s working well for you?
What’s going well in your life / business?
What’s something great that happened this week?
What was something great that you caused happening this week?

Here’s my wins and what worked in business in 2022:

🏆I launched a new business, The Speaker Co.

I went from a ‘me’ to a ‘we’ and started a business partnership with Emily Hall. We started The Speaker Co, combining our businesses to give our clients access to not only the podcast, programs, and coaching that I’ve built up over the years but also the content consulting, design agency, and digital resources that make Emily’s business go-round. (Listen to Episode #161 to learn the full story of our business merging.)

🏆The paid launch model I did last March for my old program Speak up to Level Up.

I tried a new launch model for my previous group coaching program (Speak Up to Level Up) in the Fall of 2021—a free 3-part workshop series which worked very well and had great conversion but quite frankly it’s way more work.

Headed to 2022, I decided to try something new and instead of following other people’s advice or “launch models,” I just did what I wanted to do. I decided to take the workshop series that I had done for free and did a paid workshop model instead where people paid $37. There was an option for a $97 VIP upgrade where you can be live on Zoom with me after the workshops for me to coach you and do hot seats.

That workshop series converted around 44% which is a very profitable launch. It was wonderful and I felt elated as it unlocked something that was really, really exciting for me.

🏆Getting full ass on an affiliate launch.

2022 was the first year that I went full ass on an affiliate launch and this was huge for me. I had been an affiliate for other people’s programs in the past, but I hadn’t fully, fully committed.

This year I made the decision to go all in on an affiliate launch which was me promoting James Wedmore’s Business by Design last Spring. (Curious and would like to know more about James Wedmore? Check out Episode 151 and learn the real behind-the-scenes stories of James building an 8 figure online business.)

🏆We hosted our first live event.

This one is my little pet baby child, my favorite. Emily and I both used to do a ton of events each in our own past lives so events was a huge thing, but hosting our own, oh my goodness, it was so wonderful. (Listen to Episode #179 to learn my 10 Pro Tips on Attending Events and Conferences )

The energy, the feeling in that room to be in person with the people who are building their own businesses, there was just nothing like it and we’re so excited to do more of that moving forward.

It was not our most profitable, nor was it profitable but it was a future investment. It was a future investment in us, in our brand and what we want to create and we are so proud of that.

🏆Showing up consistently in the podcast.

I launched the show on Labor Day of 2019. When I launched the show, I made the commitment that if I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do a full ass and will show up every single week. It’s exciting to record episodes for you so I hope that you have felt that too and you carry that forward in your content and get to find ways to fall in love again with what you’re doing.

I think a lot of times content can feel very stale and we can get into routine that it can no longer feel fun. But it’s up to you–nobody is gonna make your work fun for you. You have to figure out how to make your work fun for yourself.

And here’s my biggest takeaways in 2022:

🔥1. It’s better to go full ass on a few things that light you up, than half ass on everything

Hone in on those things that you’re uniquely gifted at and the things that light you up and go full as with them. When we run a business, we try to show up and be awesome at all things. But the reality is, we aren’t actually being exceptional in the things that we’re really, really gifted at. We’re diluting it by trying to do so many things and let’s just be honest, no one can be exceptional all the time.

🔥2. It’s ok to pivot, it’s ok to change your mind and it’s ok to do things over again.

If you’ve been doubting making a decision because you’re fearful of what your people think–the reality is most people don’t freaking care.

Just tell them what the change is and why there’s a need for this. Let them know why this is going to ultimately be great for them and share whether you’re excited about it too.

If you do that and you have a good relationship with people–you’re consistent in showing up for them, showing your genuine care, providing value through your content, even if they don’t love or agree with a change, they’re gonna respect you for it.

The moment you start actually doing the things that you wanted to do and the things that would be in better alignment for you and your business, that’s when things really will start clicking. Start listening to your intuition, trusting your judgment and validating it with data so you can an be a little more brave in your decision making

🔥3. All the good stuff is on the other side of very difficult conversations.

This was a personal / business lesson that I learned this year. I think a lot of times we get used to doing things the way we’re doing them and we just go through the motions but a lot of times for us to break through that next level, we need to have difficult conversations.

This came out a lot now having a business partner. Emily and I have figured out a really effective and productive way to communicate. We don’t always get along, we don’t always see eye to eye on things but we have learned how to have head on really difficult, potentially awkward situations very effectively. Our willingness to go into difficult conversations has been the best return on the discomfort this year and we just have loved it.

🔥4. Make your big investments based on your future goals, not your past problems.

We made a lot of investments in 2022 but our investments while big have really been an alignment in the future that we’re creating whether that was photography and videography for the event because we want to have an event side of our company, whether that was investing in beautiful branding, or websites, or other variety of things that we invested in this year.

In the past, while many of my investments were exciting in the future, a lot of times my investments were based off of past problems or what I saw as gaps. For example, I bought a lot of courses around where this area of my business is not working. I need to pay someone to teach me how to do this. And if I’m being real honest with myself, I don’t need to build my company like other people have built theirs.

So moving forward, we’ve agreed all of our investments are going to be aligned with our future us, not just to fix the pain points or the band aids of other things. We need to make sure that we’re solving those problems. If they’re important, we solve them but our big investments are going to be anchored towards our future or projected towards it, not our past.

🔥5. What a gift and a privilege it is to hold space as a leader.

This wasn’t even a lesson, actually, it was like an awakening. What an honor and a privilege it is to hold this space on the microphone every single week and share with you not just tips and strategies for speaking but encouragement to show up and bring your brilliance to whoever it is that you serve and to your families. That is such a gift and such an honor and I don’t take that for granted and this year, it was really incredible.

Let’s wrap it up – what’s next in 2023?

This officially is the last episode of The Heather Sager Show. As I think about the future of what we’re creating in The Speaker Co and the impact I want to make on the world, my name is part of it for a short season.

I (Heather Sager) am not going anywhere, don’t worry 🙂 BUT I’m ready for this show to transcend beyond just my name–it’s still my show (spoiler alert, there’s gonna be a name change coming here!).

When I think about impact and reach and wanting to help more people share their message, I have a duty to get my message and my voice in front of more people. I need to reach more entrepreneurs to help them equip themselves with the tools and the inspiration to be able to share their message forward and so it’s my responsibility to get my message in front of more people so I want to rebrand the show.

We start realizing that our person is the kind of person who isn’t afraid to hustle, but they want to know what they’re hustling for matters. They want to be able to hustle at the right moments that are going to allow them to intentionally take rest, to spend time to their family or in their hobbies or to take a nap or to go on vacation but also they want to work their tails off when they want to work because they like to work and to hustle.

Hint of Hustle–that’s the name of the new podcast that is launching this coming January 19th.

It is all about this idea that we’re gonna work hard but we’re going to do it in seasons. There are seasons of hustle and when you’re aligned in doing something that matters to you, you love it and then you rest. You know how to rest well and you don’t feel guilty for it.

That’s the kind of culture that we’re building in and the kind of conversation I want to start bringing in the podcast, sharing more stories of that and giving more permission to women to take rest when they need to take rest and not feel guilty about it–that’s what Hint of Hustle is all about.

We have all new branding and all new stuff that’s happening. I’m gonna have a series of interviews with people showing you different examples and proving this concept of a hint of hustle to build businesses that feel aligned for them.

We’re also going to bring you great content around how to leverage speaking as a way to create more freedom in your life, more flexibility, more rest. But we’re also going to show you that when you hustle and you have a good message behind it, how your results can be amplified and I’m so freaking excited.

Let me say goodbye to you and a goodbye to this chapter of The Heather Sager Show. It has been an absolute honor doing this show with you under this brand and moving forward. I’m excited to see you in January of 2023 as the host of Hint of Hustle. I am just so grateful for you and the happiest holiday sent from my heart to yours. ❤️❤️❤️