43: Behind the Scenes: What I Learned in 2020 + Plans for 2021

43: Behind the Scenes: What I Learned in 2020 + Plans for 2021

Welcome back to Making Good, the podcast for small businesses who want to make a big impact.

I’m your host, Lauren Tilden, and this is episode 43.

Today I am going to give you a bit of a behind the scenes tour of my business -- a quick review of 2020 and how I’m approaching 2021.

This is NOT the episode I had planned for today. That episode will still be coming, but as I sat down to put together my thoughts for this episode, I realized that I wanted to start this year by opening up a little more than I have in most episodes.

One of the things that has always been a priority for me in business and in this podcast is to be real. 

Yes, I want to be helpful to you by sharing what I know, and bringing on guests and experts to share what THEY know, but I think there’s another way to be helpful…

... which is just to pull back the curtain on my business and life so you can see what’s there. What my 2020 looked like. What worked, what didn’t work, what I struggled with, what I learned. 

And so, I want to do more of that this year. 

And today, I invite you into my business and my life, and I’ll show you around. 

I’m going to start by giving you a quick overview of what 2020 looked like for me personally and in business. Then, I’ll talk about what I learned in hopes that you can take that with you as well as we head into 2021. Finally, we’ll wrap up with some quick thoughts about what’s next for me in business and for this podcast.

So. 2020.

Beyond the tragedy and devastation that this year brought to the world with COVID19, which - I don’t need to tell you were heartbreaking and unprecedented. 

And, as you probably all know, this year was tough on small businesses too.

When I think about 2020, the first word that comes to mind is exhausting. 

For anyone who is new here, I run two businesses. The first is a plant inspired stationery brand — we sell greeting cards and stickers and prints based on my watercolor designs. The second is a retail store in Seattle that my mom started and that I now own. 

The year started strong for both, but when March hit and COVID started to require businesses to close... both businesses were hit hard. 

The retail shop had to close fully for a couple months — and at the time that we closed, we didn’t even have online shopping set up. So we went from our normal monthly revenue to 0, overnight.  And most Good Sheila revenue comes from retail stores like Station 7 — most of which had to cut back dramatically on ordering. 

Station 7 has employees and generates more revenue than Good Sheila, so when things started getting intense, I had to prioritize that. 

I kept Good Sheila running, obviously, but I really had to put it on the back burner. I fulfilled orders that came in, and I managed to release one new collection of designs; but for the most part I wasn’t able to focus on Good Sheila.

And for Station 7, focus we did.

We scrambled and were somehow able to launch online shopping within about 10 days of closing our doors in March. We learned how to package and ship orders. We learned how to do curbside pickup. And we made just about every mistake you can make along the way... from website typos, to selling things that were actually out of stock. But we kept going. 

Eventually we were able to re-open our doors, but with important safety measures that affected how we could do business. 

We hung in there throughout the summer, and then in the fall started gearing up for the holidays.

The holidays are a critical time for Station 7. Typically we do something like 30% of our annual sales in December alone. 

So we put a ton of energy into those. We brought in new lines. I expanded our lineup of Black owned businesses. We launched a new website. Because we have a very limited in store capacity still, We started offering private shopping appointments. 

Ultimately, we had a good holiday season. Not as good as last year. But good enough. 

In early summer, when George FLoyd was killed and followed by the global conversation around racial injustice, we made some decisions around what part we could take in it, including expanding our lineup of Black makers at Station 7, making intentional spending easier through our website, and for Good Sheila, selecting the Loveland Foundation (an organization focused on showing up for communities of color in unique and powerful ways, with a particular focus on Black women and girls).

Personally, we have also had a lot going on. In October my partner Kate and I moved out of our house in West Seattle so that we can remodel it.

So, we had to pack up our whole house — every single room — and store most of it and bring the rest with us to our temporary digs.  I brought all Good Sheila inventory with us here. 

We have been living in Tacoma in the meantime, because we decided to take the opportunity to explore a new city since Kate is still working from home. And so that’s where we are now, hoping to get back to West Seattle within a few months.

There were a couple of other big personal life things, including one more pretty big personal life update which I will share in a couple weeks. 

Here’s something else I haven’t really shared here… my mental health was not so awesome for the last couple of months in December. 

In early December, I hit a point of complete overwhelm with everything I had on my plate (things I had put there myself). This level of stress was not only uncomfortable to experience, but it also took a toll on my mental health.

As I’ve said before on this podcast, I have OCD, and for me the biggest way that it comes up is around the idea of cleanliness and contamination -- which means a LOT of using my brain space to think about these ideas of cleanliness and contamination, and a lot of time and energy spent washing my hands. And side note: hi, right now washing your hands is super, super important. But this is way beyond what is healthy or helpful.  To the point where my hands get so dry that at times they bleed.

If you don’t have OCD it can be hard to explain sometimes how absolutely consuming obsessive compulsive disorder can be to someone who experiences it. But it can really take over your life.

Let me also say here, that I am doing totally fine. Right now my OCD is pretty well-managed! I am super functional, and I actually take medication that helps lessen the anxiety around it as well. But when things get stressful for me in my life, that takes a toll on my mental health, and that’s why it’s so important for me to pay attention to what I’m piling on my plate.

In early December, I realized that I needed to take a time out, and I actually ended up going to a hotel (contact-free) to just completely re-set and sleep and try to get myself back together. And it helped, a lot.

And then, of course! We haven’t even talked about launching this podcast.

This might sound like an exaggeration, but hosting this podcast has been life-changing for me.

Running a podcast has been the biggest adventure in personal growth ever. Any self-doubt, any mindset issues, and negative self-talk I’ve ever had has come up in the last few months… as tends to happen when you push yourself to do bigger and bigger things.

But there have been so many MORE positive outcomes of starting this podcast. I’ve heard from so many of you who have learned something or gotten something valuable out of listening. I have even connected with many of you in the Facebook group, “Good Business Community”. 

I have gotten so much clarity around what I know, what I care about, and the direction I want to take my life and my business.

It has been such a gift.

So. That’s a big freeform description of most of the last year of my business and a bit from my life, too.

Let’s make it more concrete and hopefully give you some takeaways that will be helpful to you as we look to the new year.

So what have I learned:

• Small businesses are INCREDIBLE, and we can make big things happen FAST.
  The way that small businesses have adapted to the realities of COVID19 blows my mind. This has been such a hard year for so many small businesses - particularly any businesses with an in-person component like weddings, retail, restaurants.
  And yet. The innovation that we’ve seen happen pretty much overnight in response to the closures and regulations have been amazing.
  I’ve even been amazed by how fast we were able to make changes at Station 7. Within about 10 days, we went from having NO online shopping, to having almost our entire inventory shoppable from our website. We launched curbside pickup. We launched private shopping. And we did all of this INCREDIBLY fast.
  This has been such a learning process for me personally to see that BIG THINGS can happen in business relatively quickly.
  This is something I hope to take forward, even though I so hope that things won’t be how they are for too much longer. I hope to remember that I can do big things! I can do them quickly! And they don’t need to be done perfectly right away.

• Delegating is more than just transferring your work
  One thing I’ve been forced to do this year is delegate. Between two businesses and a podcast, there’s just no way that I would have been able to hold on to everything.
  And so, I’ve fully let go of control of several things - in fact more and more each month. I don’t manage Station 7’s shipping anymore. I don’t manage customer communications for the most part, in the last month I’ve even delegated operations for Good Sheila.
  And yes, this takes work of f my plate. And that is amazing. But even more than that, it has freed up SO MUCH SPACE in my mind.
  Yes, I don’t need to actually DO these tasks that I’ve delegated. But I also don’t need to worry about them. So my mental space has more time to be creative. To think about the things that ARE still on my plate, like increasing sales and continuing to explore how I can make nan impact. And that is such a gift.

• Having a full plate is good for productivity. But there’s a limit. Having an overflowing plate is not a kind thing to do to yourself.
  I’ve realized that I actually like to have a lot of work on my plate -- as long as that work is exciting to me. I like to feel like things are happening, and that there are important things for me to work on. I spend my time better and I’m more efficient.
  But sometime this year, I realized that there is a limit to this. I piled my plate so full that I was completely and totally overwhelmed. That didn’t feel good and it affected my mental health. And it was completely my doing. I care about the people who work for me, and I wouldn’t want them to feel that way about their work. So why do I do it to myself?
  I don’t, and it has been a great experience for me to see more clearly where that line is, between excitedly busy and overdoing it.

• There are always creative solutions.
  This year, when things got hectic, I felt like I was going to need to give something up. That i wouldn’t be able to run Staiton 7, Good Sheila and Making Good all at the same time. I agonized over this for a lot of this year, because I really love all 3 and have no idea where I’d start when it comes to letting one go.
  But. Toward the end of the year, I realized that maybe I needed to think creatively about how I could continue running all three businesses and have enough time and energy to do justice to each of them.
  And I realized: I could. But I would need to give up the OPERATIONS of Station 7 and Good Sheila. The fulfilling and shipping orders. Scheduling staff at the store. Placing vendor orders. Keeping supplies stocked. Answering questions from customers and staff during our open hours.
  So. I’m super proud that Mary, who has worked with me for about a year, agreed to step up to the role of Operations Manager, and oversee all the “running smoothly” aspects of both Station 7 and Good Sheila.
  This frees me up to do what I love the most.. And what will help us ultimately grow these businesses: CREATE. Whether that’s marketing campaigns, podcast episodes, Instagram posts, emails, or painting new Good Sheila products, or who knows what else in the future. It has been an ENORMOUS weight off my shoulders to have this opportunity to focus on what excites me most.
  But this way of splitting up operations across a couple of businesses is not the obvious solution to having 3 businesses/big projects and not having time to do all of them. And so I am glad that I kept looking for another way.

• To level up, you will have to feel uncomfortable.
  This year I finally realized that if I never feel uncomfortable with what I’m doing, I’m probably not pushing myself enough. That if I always feel READY for everything I do, I probably have waited too long.
  Launching this podcast has shown me more clearly than anything else that just because something makes you really nervous, doesn’t mean it’s not a VERY good idea.
  I’m so glad that I was willing to start this podcast, despite the discomfort and self-doubt, because it has illustrated so clearly that if we are always listening to the doubt or the voice in our heads that wants to protect us from taking any risks… we are probably holding ourselves back.

• Focusing on what you care about, what your why is -- is the best way to motivate yourself.
  This is what I love SO much about the work we’re doing on this podcast. We are exploring how we can both do something we care about AND run a business we love. How we can make an impact THROUGH.
  When things get stressful and tough, there is nothing more motivating than being able to go back and remind yourself of your values and say. THIS is why I’m doing this. THIS is why I show up every day. THIS is why I put in the work. Because I have a vision of the world I want to live in, and I know that everything I do is in service of that goal.

So, to sum those up into actionable tips:

1. Big changes can happen FAST when you commit.

2. Delegating frees up your time AND mental space

3. Having a full plate is a good thing… to a point

4. Look for creative solutions

5. Be willing to be uncomfortable

6. To motivate yourself, focus on what you care about -- what change you’re working toward

Okay! And before I wrap this episode up, let’s talk about some of my thoughts on 2021.

First of all, I have set a word for the year to be a theme for the action I take this year. And that word is BOLD.

That means, go for it. Do the dang thing. Step up. Be willing to put yourself out there.

I have not, however set any resolutions or annual goals. Instead, I’m focusing on setting goals by quarter.

Over break I read The 12 Week Year byBrian P. Moran and Michael Lennington and I’ve been super motivated to try this method of planning out.

So I have a couple of business goals for my first 12 week year -- which is quarter 1 of 2021.

My first is a revenue goal for Station 7 in the first 3 months. This will be a challenge and require some new projects and initiatives.

My second is a number of new wholesale accounts for Good Sheila.

Using the 12 Week Year methodology, I’ve broken these down into specific actions I need to take each week, and I have it all organized in NOTION. Which is what I’m using for project management currently. It’s kind of a mix between something like Trello or Asana and Evernote and I LOVE IT. (Hey, DM me on Instagram @laurentilden if you’d be interested in an episode on Notion?)

So those are my two concrete goals for the next few months.

But what else is on my horizon?

Continuing to give back. I will continue 5% for Good through Good Sheila, as I have been doing since 2018.

I also haven’t mentioned this before, but I’m super excited to be applying this 5% for Good to Station 7. Station 7 will be donating 5% of profits as of Q4 2020 (just waiting on final numbers here).

How do I calculate this? 

For Station 7, I will be calculating this as NET profit. Meaning, revenue minus the cost of inventory and expenses. 5% of that number. So that is AFTER I’ve taken out payroll, but before I’ve paid myself.

More painting. My most recent Good Sheila collection is the most ME collection I’ve ever done. It’s watercolor painting of flowers, and then the message on the card is what that flower represents.  For example, the zinnia flower represents “thinking of you”, so the card with that flower painted on it also says “ Thinking of You” in text on the front. The money tree plant represents prosperity, so there’s a card with the money tree on it, and the message is “Good Luck”.

For Station 7, more focus on ecommerce. We want to increase our sales -- because a) we’re a business, but also because b) the more sales we have, the more we can support the small businesses that we buy from. 

COVID19 has changed the way that a brick-and-mortar store experiences foot traffic. We have less people in the store now, and who knows when things will return to our pre-COVID foot traffic. So, how do we increase sales without the same amount of people in the store or more? One way that we are going to be focusing on is to increase our focus on online sales.

Well, I want to put more and more of my time and energy into Making Good and helping people build strong small businesses, market them effectively, and make a positive impact with them. 

I will be launching a digital COURSE later this year about building your values into your business, and I’m super excited about that.

I also spent some time looking at the podcast analytics over this past year, and one thing I learned is that you all love the marketing episodes! So I’ve been exploring other ways to help you with your marketing aside from the podcast episodes, whether that’s a mini-course, templates, copywriting tutorials, or something else, I’m still playing with what exactly this looks like… but stay tuned!

So that’s a bit of a wrap up of 2020 and some thoughts for the future. I hope you enjoyed this deeper look at the ins and outs of my business and life, and how I’m approaching the year to come

So. A couple of next steps for you if things in this episode resonated.

1. Download your GOOD BUSINESS WORKBOOK. This is a 17-page free PDF that will help you get clear on what you care about and how your business is going to do something about it.
   You can get it at makinggoodpodcast.com/goodbusiness.

2. Join a community of small business people who are on a mission to make a difference. This Facebook group was created specifically for people who want to make change in the world, and build a strong small business to do it.
   To be redirected to the Facebook group, go to makinggoodpodcast.com/community (or just search Good Business Community in Facebook).

 If you’ve enjoyed listening to this podcast, can I ask you a huge favor? Will you leave a review of this podcast? It helps other people browsing through the podcasts app know that this podcast is worth listening to.

ALSO! Two of my Instagram accounts have been combined. I combined my Making Good account with my personal account. So, from now on for all things Making Good, connect with me at @laurentilden on Instagram -- would love to hear from you.

You can find links to the resources I mentioned at makinggoodpodcast.com/43.

Thank you for being here, and for focusing on making a difference with your small business!

Talk to you next time.