Every year, I’ve read these “end of year recap” posts that other bloggers do and I’ve always wanted to do one myself. I’ve always enjoyed them and found it interesting to get a “behind the scenes” look into somewhere else’s business.

Well, what better year to start with than the dumpster fire that was 2020? So here are some of my biggest highs and lows of the year, as well as what I’m excited about in 2021.

My 2020 highs

As crazy as 2020 was, it wasn’t all bad -- a lot of really amazing things happened this year. Here are some of my biggest wins during 2020.

I successfully launched my first freelance writing course

Toward the end of 2019, I decided I wanted to launch a course for new freelance writers. I worked with a website designer to redesign my website and started writing blog posts for my new blog.

At first, my plan was to blog for several months, start building my email list, and then create a course in March or April. Then suddenly, I changed my mind and decided to spend January creating the course.

This turn of events was very fortunate because I’m pretty sure there’s no way I could have focused on the course in March or April!

Anytime you create something and put it out into the world, you never know how people will respond. And I can honestly say that I had no idea whether anyone would like or resonate with my course.

I knew I had done my very best on it and shared all the information that had helped me succeed as a freelance writer. But who knows if it’ll resonate with anyone else?

So I was (pleasantly) surprised when the feedback I got from my course students was overwhelmingly positive. My students who did the work and completed Zero to $1K as a Freelance Writer all had something good to say about it and they all felt like it helped them.

I created a lot of really great free content for freelancers

I know that not everyone is able to buy my course, which is why I’m really proud of the amazing free content I’ve created this year.

To date, I’ve created the following content:

55 blog posts
50 weekly emails
My Freelance Writer’s Starter Guide
My free Upwork webinar
Countless social media posts and videos

And the content I’ve created is not just motivational fluff -- it contains tons of really actionable strategies and tools for freelancers.

I’ve gotten so many emails from people who have created amazing results in their freelancing business just using the free content I provide.

I was published in Business Insider

During the summer, I pitched an editor at Business Insider a story about my freelancing journey. The article was about how I went from working at Starbucks in 2016 to earning over $100K as a freelance writer.

Much to my surprise, that editor responded pretty quickly and accepted my pitch! I had to work with Business Insider to verify my income claims and of course, write and edit the article.

But the effort was worth it once the article was published:

I'm a stay-at-home mom who went from making $8 an hour at Starbucks to over $100,000 a year as a freelancer. Here are 5 steps I took to build my client base and income from scratch.

I’ve wanted to write for Business Insider for years, so I’m really proud of that byline. And best of all, now that I’ve built a relationship with that editor I can continue to pitch new story ideas in 2021.

I had my best year in business

I’m happy to say that in spite of the many challenges I encountered (which we’ll go over in a minute!) I had my best year in business to date.

As I’m writing this, the year is still not quite over so I’m not sure exactly where my income will fall. But I’ve exceeded six figures as a freelancer and I’m guessing my income will be up by about 15%.

We adopted a puppy!

I can’t end this section without mentioning the adorable puppy we adopted in October.

My youngest child has been wanting a dog for a long time, and in September, my husband and I decided we were ready to make it happen.

I was kind of hoping to find a puppy, but knew that might be tough since we planned to adopt a dog from a shelter.

Puppies tend to go quick since everyone wants one!

Well, I was looking at different dogs online and just happened to stumble across the most adorable Beagle puppy mix.

I contacted the shelter about putting a hold on him, and it turns out, they had just gotten him the day before and I was the first one to contact them!

We met him that day and it was love at first sight. We named him Lucky and adopting him was pretty much the best decision ever.

My 2020 lows

A lot of good things happened this year but let’s face it, 2020 was pretty much a sh*t show overall. Here are some of the things that didn’t go so well.

I struggled with focus in a major way

I started 2020 full of enthusiasm and clarity and like I said, it’s really fortunate that I created my course in January.

I woke up every morning at 5 AM to outline the slides, record the videos, and put the course together.

I published the course to my Teachable school in February.

Aaaaand then March hit and all that amazing focus went out the window. I wish I could say that I’m exaggerating but I’m not.

I’ve tried to figure out what exactly it was that caused me to fall so far off balance. Was it the uncertainty of COVID? Was it my kids doing virtual school and my entire family being home full-time?

Was it the stress of pretty much everything being cancelled within a one-week period? Honestly, it’s probably a combination of all of that. But from March to September, I struggled with focus and just really did not feel like myself at all.

I struggled with marketing and sales

One thing I didn’t anticipate was how challenging it would be to market and sell my course. I honestly thought that creating the course would be the hardest part of the entire process. In retrospect, I have to laugh at how naive I was.

One of the things this experience taught me is how incredibly bad I am at self-promotion. It makes me super uncomfortable and I honestly feel incredibly awkward talking about how much money I make online.

I’ve also been pretty open about the fact that I did not use social media to grow my freelancing business. Up until this year, the fact that I don’t do much on social media hasn’t really mattered.

But it does matter when you’re trying to market and sell a product. And I really struggled to find and stick with a consistent social media marketing strategy.

I honestly tried a bit of everything -- I started a Facebook group, I tried Instagram, I created a few YouTube videos, I ran Facebook ads….you get the idea. Because my efforts were so scattered and varied, I never got the impact I really wanted.

My travel plans went out the window

Anyone else have big travel plans that got cancelled this year due to COVID? Yeah, me too.

My husband and I had planned to take our kids to Europe for the first time. Obviously, that trip is indefinitely postponed.

I had also purchased tickets to several conferences that I didn’t get to attend. This caused me to miss out on a lot of the great networking opportunities that helped me build my business in 2019.

What I’m Looking Forward to in 2021

To be quite honest, I’m not sad that 2020 is almost one for the books.

And here are a few things I’m looking forward to in the New Year:

Pitching more well-known publications: Like I said, getting published in Business Insider was a huge accomplishment for me.

I’m looking forward to pitching and writing for more big-name publications this year.

For years, one of my goals has been to be a Forbes contributor. I’m thinking 2021 could be my year!

Attending more virtual events: One of the lessons I’m taking from 2020 is that I really need to prioritize more virtual events and networking opportunities.

Yes, it’s more fun to attend in-person events but whether I like it or not, those opportunities probably won’t be happening for a while.

But I think there’s a real opportunity to be found with virtual events.

Creating more resources for freelancers: And finally, I’m looking forward to creating more resources for freelancers like you through my blog and weekly emails. I’m also planning to create more templates and digital products that will benefit freelance writers.

How was 2020 for you?

All right, that’s a wrap! Hopefully, you enjoyed this look into some of my business wins and pitfalls during the year.

Honestly, I know 2020 was incredibly tough and my “lows” pale in comparison to what a lot of people experienced. So all that being said, I’m incredibly grateful my year went as well as it did.

So how was 2020 for you? Did you start your freelancing business this year and if so, how did it go?

And is there anything you’re excited about in the New Year? Leave me a comment and let me know!

2020 Reflections and Lessons Learned