No. 1: Leading with the service, not the transformation

Focus on the transformation; make the client the hero of the story while you serve as the sherpa. Examine your pitch, proposals, and processes. Ensure the client transformation is at the forefront, with relevant case studies featuring proof of concept through storytelling and SOPs as the necessary guardrails.

No. 2: Emailing proposals instead of virtual or in-person presenting

Challenge for 2024: Switch from emailing proposals to in-person or virtual presentations. Face-to-face facilitates real-time questions and answers, observing what resonates and, ultimately, solidifies your competitive advantage.

No. 3: Launching new projects without considering our portfolio

Before beginning a new project, archive the current landscape. Whether capturing the ‘before’ of a site ahead of a new build, relevant Google Analytics ahead of Search Engine optimizations, or data of existing Marcom campaigns, chronicling allows for proof of concept as well as strengthening your portfolio.

No. 4: Failing to record every single meeting

Incorporate the practice of recording every internal and external meeting into your SOPs. Recording meetings powered by AI transcripts and note-taking facilitates visibility for participants who may not have joined. But most importantly, the audio, visual, or transcribed record powers the objective accountability of each party surrounding next steps and goals.

No. 5: Waiting too long to fire

Develop a Roles & Responsibilities document outlining KPIs and timelines that new employees must sign. The agreed-upon document provides an objective benchmark of the success or failure of their performance at the outset of employment. If you lean toward empathy in your leadership, this document serves as your guide to inform your firing and their guide to inform why.

No. 6: Behaving as one who is beholden

Put yourself in the driver’s seat of your business, especially when client-facing. The moment you begin saying “No” to new business is the moment you have taken control of your own. Develop a list of qualifiers that deem a client worthy of your time and services, and ‘interview’ each as they interview you. The partnership is bound to fail apart from true alignment.

No. 7: Possessing the bravery to know what is broken and the humility to be changed by it for the purpose of Freedom.

First, we must know. Knowing the truth can be the most equally daring and devastating of all this life offers. Awakening to that which is broken forces discomfort and never-ending questions about the past, present, and future. Yet, knowing marks the very beginning of the quest for Freedom.

Second, we must “break free” in order to live as free. There is a reason why the term “break” or “jailbreak” is associated with freedom itself. Break free from old habits or patterns or behaviors or mindsets. This reckoning with brokenness is the catalyst to Freedom.

Third, we must allow ourselves to transform. Knowing of truth that reckons with brokenness brings us to our knees in humility. In my experience on a personal level, the ashes itself. Yet from the ashes rise the beauty and strength and transformation to which the greats liken the phoenix.

Transformation is the very road to Freedom. And this road never ends!

This is the best part — we constantly remove who are not, ever becoming.

And on this road to Freedom, while ever-winding with adventures of its own, we learn that living as though free is a state of being.

A state of being we can assume on the road itself.

I encourage you to consider professional and personal mistakes from 2023 and allow the light of truth to inform areas for growth and even discomfort in the year ahead.

Cheers to 2024 and ALL it has to offer each of us ✨