You might have seen (well, back in January!) lots of people doing this – you might have even done it yourself – picking a word to represent what your goals are for the year. I don’t do this every year, but my peer mastermind group members were doing it and I decided I would too.
So what’s my word for 2019? CONSOLIDATION!
Yep, while other people are choosing inspiring words like empower or transformation or confidence, this year I went with the almost boring-sounded consolidation, but there’s good reason for it, and now that we’re nearly halfway through the year and I’m checking in on it, I’m glad I picked it.
What consolidation means for me and my business
If you know much about my business story, you’ll know I basically started my business by accident back in 2010 when I began teaching courses at UWA Extension and students from my courses approached me for one-to-one help. My son was only a baby then, and over the years as he grew and the time I had available to work grew with him, my business grew too.
Over the years, I added to my UWA workshops with one-to-one consulting, public speaking, mastermind groups and more. At the same time, my travel blog was still expanding and I added The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, which last year began to generate an income too. For many of these years I oscillated between focusing on my social media and blogging business on the one hand, and my travel side on the other, before accepting that focus wasn’t for me: I’m a multipotentialite and I actually thrive having lots of things on the go.
Then I became a single parent with a big mortgage and there was a lot of stress to be able to pay this mortgage. I threw myself into whatever work presented itself! This worked for a time but I began to feel disjointed and somewhat stretched.
Enter: CONSOLIDATION! I realised that 2019 was just the right time to slow down a little and take a look at all of the different revenue streams I’d built up over the years and instead of trying to add more, try to consolidate all the hard work I’d done so far and find ways to improve the things I already do, rather than adding to them.
Makes sense, right?
Checking in on “consolidation” midway through 2019
It turns out: yes, this makes a lot of sense to me! It has been a wonderful first half of the year, both in terms of having lots of interesting work and clients, and in terms of income.
Having this idea of consolidation at the front of my mind has been instrumental in both focusing on the kinds of work I want to do, and in improving some of my systems and processes so that I can do this work more efficiently and effectively.
Before I take on new work I’m checking if it fits within consolidation or not; of course I’ll accept exceptions (it looks like I might have some tertiary courses to teach next semester, which is not exactly consolidation of existing work, but is certainly consolidation of ideas I’ve had over the years and connections I’ve made), but just having this word in mind has been instrumental.
Is it time for you to consolidate?
I think every business has various stages where it might be time to expand and explore, or it might be time to consolidate.
What time is it for you and your work?
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