2021 was my year from hell.
You know the saying ‘when it rains, it pours?’
Well, that pretty much sums up the last 12 months for me…
In January 2021, a routine trip to the Dentist left me unable to walk properly for 9 months…
I sat in the dentist’s chair with my legs hanging down for about 25 minutes – I was fine during my checkup, but by the time I sat up, I felt a twinge in my back…
When I got up the next morning, my back was well and truly gone.
The pain was level 10 and I couldn’t stand for more than 2 minutes without collapsing in agony…
If you don’t already know, I’m a former kickboxer with a high tolerance to pain. But this was unlike anything I had ever experienced before.
Dark days and nights passed in a blur of tears and ultra-strong painkillers…
A private MRI scan revealed some alarming news:
Two ruptured discs which had both slipped out of place, stage 3 disc degeneration (stage 4 is permanent and irreversible), sciatica and spinal stenosis.
My doctor told me that I needed ‘urgent surgery because you’re at risk of paralysis’.
I decided NOT to go down the surgery route and found myself a fantastic chiropractor who, over the course of 5 months, was able to get me back to normal.
It wasn’t until September (a full 9 month after my back injury) that I finally was able to walk without being hunched over or crying…
But life wasn’t done with me yet as 3 more bombshells were dropped on me in quick succession…
In August 2021, I developed psoriasis quite suddenly… small patches all over my body…
Then 8 weeks later, I woke up with pain in my middle finger on my left hand and within 7 days, my finger had bent over and felt as if it was broken…
Worse, my joints KILLED and it would take me half an hour just to get out of bed in the morning due to the stiffness.
I couldn’t open jars, brush my teeth or even wash my face due to the severe inflammation in my elbow…
It took several weeks before it was confirmed I had very aggressive psoriatic arthritis – a serious auto-immune disorder brought on by stress.
And if that wasn’t a shock to deal with, I was also diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in September too.
Talk about piling on the stress!
But, life wasn’t done with me yet – because aside from living with pain on a daily basis, the real icing on the cake was this:
My 18-year-old son suddenly decided to pack in his well-paying sales job and go live with his dad for the next 4 months so he can learn how to do sales from him.
I was crushed.
As my sister put it, I’ve had a really rotten year…
And despite all of this, I STILL managed to get my book Mind-Hack™Marketing published AND hit the #1 spot in not one, but 4 separate categories on Amazon!
2021 has been one hell of a year with more downs than ups…
So here we are now in 2022…
A year has passed and another is to come… one of the things I like to do every year is evaluate my year and review the lessons I learned as well as personally reflect on what could have been better.
If you’ve never done it before, it’s a great exercise to do because it helps you re-calibrate where needed according to your goals.
I thought I’d share my top 10 big marketing and personal lessons from the previous year as well as some of the best resources you’ll LOVE as much as I do!
1. Cultivate Resilience + Manage Your Stress
Entrepreneurship isn’t for the faint of heart. Just as I could not have foreseen the health disasters that derailed much of 2021 for me, there’s a very good chance that at some point you’re going to be hit with adversities you might never have even anticipated.
What matters isn’t how adversity impacts you, it’s how you choose to respond that makes the difference. I worried excessively about everything and in the end, it MADE me sick. My doctor confirmed that my arthritis was brought on by severe stress and anxiety from my back injury – and got so out of control that my body started to attack itself.
Your stress response will either make you or break you. If you struggle with worry and stress as I have done, then a GREAT book that quite honestly EVERYONE should read is How to Stop Worrying And Start Living by Dale Carnegie. A truly outstanding book that will help you build resilience and manage your stress productively.
2. Content Rules
If the content you’ve been putting out there in the past has been a bit fluffy, then going into 2022, you’re going to have to seriously up your content game. It’s NOT about quantity, but rather about the quality of the information you’re putting out there. I’ve lost count on the number of times I’ve put good content out and someone has come back to me wanting a consultation.
Plan your content carefully using tools such as Gingkoapp.com which will help you write with better flow. I’ve used this tool to plan out courses and content. Genius!
3. Cashflow Is King & Budget Is Queen
There are two kinds of revenue in your business – short term and pipeline revenue. Most business owners focus on short term revenue because that’s what pays the bills right now. The problem however, is that if you haven’t figured out how to stabilise pipeline revenue, your business is going to find itself in a LOT of trouble down the road.
One of the disciplines of being a good business owner is the ability to track your money – specifically your cashflow. How on EARTH can you possibly know if a financial disaster is waiting to hit you if you’re not in the regular habit of tracking your cashflow? I try to do mine weekly, but at the very least, twice a month and always forecast out for a minimum of 8 weeks to account for pipeline revenue.
As for your budget – do you even have one? If you don’t have a quarterly budget, how do you know what you can spend and how can you re-adjust and re-calibrate where you are right now?
I use Google Sheets to do my Cashflow and track my budget.
4. Read More
Bill Gates reads on average a book a week. I LOVE reading too, and have a stack of books waiting for me to get through this coming year. Reading expands your mind and sharpens your skills as well as upgrades your thinking.
The books I HIGHLY recommend EVERY business owner read this year includes:
- $100m Offers: How To Make Offers So Good, You Feel Stupid Saying No by Alex Hormozi – A GENIUS read on how to sell high-ticket by making your offer ridiculously irresistible. This one may become my personal favourite yet!
- Detox, Declutter, Dominate: How To Excel By Elimination by Perry Marshall and Robert Skrob – A phenomenal read on the 80/20 of what it takes to grow an incredible business. By focusing on what actually matters, you’ll 4x your business in record time.
- The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel – Money management is 80% behaviour and only 20% head knowledge. If you want to become wealthy, you need to master your behaviour with money – and this book shows you how. A MUST READ.
5. Test Everything
This one shouldn’t be a surprise, but you’d be surprised at how many businesses forget to do this. Test the living daylights out of EVERYTHING you do. If you run a campaign that’s not working, it doesn’t mean it’s never going to work. It just means you haven’t figured out how to do it just yet!
The same is true for your website and landing pages. There are always things that can be better and should be improved. Tools such as Hotjar.com and FullStory.com will help you track your user journeys and create better landing pages, websites and more.
If you want to discover more about testing, then make sure you watch my free masterclass The 15 Conversion Levers You Can Pull Inside Your Business To Take You To Your First Or Next 7 Figures.
6. Productivity Hacking IS A Thing
When I read 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management by Kevin Kruse, I was blown away. This TOTALLY changed the game for me and gave me a huge productivity boost which I believe enabled me to double my income the same year I put this into practice.
Every person I’ve ever recommended this to also recommends it to others. If you don’t read anything else this year, read THIS.
On a more personal level, I live and die by my Google Calendar (and the best part of this is it’s FREE!) and plan my week ahead. If it isn’t scheduled, it’s not happening!
Workflowy.com is for you if you LOVE to do lists. I’m a list-acholic, and nothing gives me as much satisfaction as completing tasks on a list. And Workflowy is not only free, but let’s you strike off your to-do’s like a boss.
Project management tools are SUPER useful for more complex projects. I use MeisterTask.com to manage my projects and it’s FREE! Clients love it and so will you. It can help you organize your teams and keep you productive. In love.
Lastly, if you want to simplify lead capture and client acquisition, then consider using an all-in-one platform such as Kartra to help you. It replaces the need to Frankenstein several different software tools together and therefore allows you to run leaner and more efficiently. It’s the perfect tool for experts!
7. Get A Coach
Seriously. There’s a reason elite athletes are at the top of their game and high-level consultants dominate the business world. You don’t know everything which is why finding someone who can get you to that next level is crucial to your growth and your success. I’ve had a business coach for the last 6 years and it’s NO CO-INCIDENCE that my income is now 5x what it used to be.
8. What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There
You made it into 2022… how’s the ride been? While EVERY business has its ups and downs, the difference between businesses that thrive and those that struggle boils down to resilience, careful strategic planning and execution and up-leveling your thinking.
Learn more and become a better version of yourself. Get on courses and programs that teach you to be a better version of yourself. That’s where the money is. And remember, if your clients or customers know more than you, you’re going to have a hard time convincing them to buy from you.
9. Hack Your Sleep & Wellbeing
This is a big one. Productivity comes from being well-rested and taking care of yourself. This means getting your stress levels under control. I’m a sucker for pushing myself – HARD. That’s not always a good thing – trust me!
I’ve been actively trying to get my stress levels down and use the brilliant Calm app to do it. Headspace is also excellent. They include 10 minute daily meditations that can lower your stress levels and keep you grounded. That and walking. I try and walk 2 miles a day in the park because getting out in nature has a naturally calming effect on the body.
The last decade I’ve been surviving on 5-6 hours of broken sleep a night and it’s catching up with me. So, I’m on a mission to hack my health because I’m planning on world domination lol. 2022 is about getting in at least 7-8 hours of good quality sleep starting this January.
One of the BEST interviews I’ve ever listened to on sleep and why it’s so important is this one HERE with Shawn Stevenson and Tom Bilyeu. Thank me later.
10. Plan For A Successful 2022
A couple of years ago, I learned a principle that forever changed my life when it came to crushing my business goals…
I call it the 90/90/1 principle, which has allowed me to do some awesome things such as quit a contracting job back in 2018 while TRIPLING my income in the 12 months that followed.
Even better, despite the serious challenges I struggled with in 2021, I FINALLY finished writing my book Mind-Hack™Marketing and also launched a hyper-profitable Bootcamp in less than a week!
If you want to plan for a successful 2022, you need to be strategic about it. In December last year, I delivered a masterclass called ‘Your Most Successful Year In Business’ which is designed to give you complete clarity on the business activities you need to focus on to grow.
Specifically, it’s going to give you a step-by-step BESPOKE roadmap of HOW to strategically smash your business goals based on WHERE your business is right now.
If you didn’t get a chance to watch it, I promise it will be the best couple of hours you’ve ever spent ON your business this year. Check it out HERE.
Anyway, I hope this post has inspired you to reflect on your own year in business and I’d LOVE to know what YOUR big lessons or takeaways are from the last 12 months – let me know in the comments below!
Until Next Time,
Arfa Saira Iqbal
PS – If you want to 10x your business in 2022, then watch out for an announcement soon because something awesome is coming your way!
