2025 marks SIX years in business for The Strategy Studio, which honestly blows my mind. I’ve said many times before that I never set out to run my own business. Somewhere deep down I think I thought after a few years of exploring my curiosities in the world of creative entrepreneurship that I’d ultimately go back to my journalism roots. But it’s been 13 years since I last stepped foot in a newsroom and I’ve now been an entrepreneur longer than I was a journalist. 😲Say WHAT?! That’s crazy to me. 

When I was a journalist and newspaper editor, much of my success was measured by numbers: 

• Number of front page bylines I received
• Number of local stories that got syndicated nationally
• Number of awards I won
• Number of newspapers sold

The same could be said for my years in the online course world: 

• Number of courses created
• Number of webinar registrants
• Number of ad conversions
• Number of courses sold

By default, I carried that same mentality of using numbers as a marker of success into my own business. I paid attention to:

• Number of Instagram followers
• Number of email subscribers
• Number of clients booked
• Number of dollars earned

And for the first few years in business that was undoubtedly fulfilling and motivating. It proved to me that I was on the right track, there was demand for my expertise, and that I should keep going! 

But after hitting the end of 2023 feeling truly burned out, I decided 2024 was the year I was going to measure my success very differently. My “metrics” looked more like this:

• Not working at night
• Taking half of every school holidays off
• Pursuing a creative hobby
• Ticking items off my 40 in 40 List
• Only working with “hell yes” fit clients
• Having one “me day” each month
• Finishing work in time to run or workout before kids pickup

None of this is to say I ignored my numbers from a financial standpoint! I still tracked them and reported them within my Accountability Circle every month. But success for me was about whether those more traditional metrics of revenue, profit and clients enabled me to do more of the above. 

And at the end of 2024, I can hand on my heart say I’d never felt more successful.

As I sat on the beach having my first call of 2025 with my wonderful personal coach and therapist, Alli Garison, I shared with her how utterly luxurious it felt to be on a work call for an hour while away camping and watching my kids run around on the beach with our extended family. 

I’m so glad I redefined what success looks like for me and our family. If you’re looking at your intentions and goals for the year ahead, consider this your reminder to focus on more than the numbers. You get to decide what success and happiness looks like.