🎉 2024 Wrapped: My Wins, Fails & Bold Predictions for 2025
Goodbye 2024 – Here’s What Worked (and What Didn’t 👀)
Can you believe 2024 is already packing its bags? I swear I just blinked, and suddenly December rolled in with festive lights, last-minute ideas, and yet another excuse to eat cake.
Before we dive headfirst into 2025, I wanted to hit pause and take a quick look back at this wild ride of a year – the wins, the stumbles, and the lessons that shaped not just my business but the way I think about business (hence, a lot of emojis).
It was all about freeing up time, not just about making more money, but creating freedom, autonomy while our service businesses go on. We want to make them run on autopilot rather than us always having to fight fire.
If you’ve been part of this journey – whether you opened an email, bought my mini course, or simply lurked silently – thank you. Seriously. You’ve been a huge part of why 2024 turned out the way it did.
So let’s get into it:
🌟 2024 Highlights (The Good Stuff)
Here are a few standout moments that made this year unforgettable:
Launched Productized Kit – I was nervous about this one, but the response blew me away. Turns out, Productized Kit was exactly what you needed (and now I’m kicking myself for not launching it sooner).
2 Canva Templates Sold – If pink and purple palettes were a vibe, you all were riding that wave hard this year! I didn’t promote this enough but Etsy did the work for me, woohoo! 🙌
Substack Growth – We grew by 20800% from June to Dec. That’s 3 to 627 subscribers in 6 months. I’m just using math in a literal way, hence the crazy number. Less about that, I’m most glad to have you here. If you’re new, hi! You’ve made this space feel like home.
Biggest Client Win: Helped a Singapore marathon company go from brandless to giving them a brand voice and visual in just 2 weeks with a productized service. Watching their journey unfold was one of my biggest joys this year.
🚧 What Didn’t Quite Go as Planned (Let’s Call It…Character Building)
I’d love to say everything went according to plan – but hey, what’s a year without a few flops?
The Launch That Flopped: I tried launching a pickleball shop in a sports and fitness website back in February, and let’s just say the silence was deafening. 😅 The lesson? Don’t build in isolation. Listen to what your audience actually wants – not what you think they need. I love sports and was trend-spotting. Pickleball is hot this year. I may come back to it again, who knows?
Time Blocking? What’s That? Some weeks, I felt like I had it all together… and others? Absolute chaos. But if there’s one thing I’m carrying into 2025, it’s building systems for everything that actually save me time – client acquisition, client requests, deliverables, recruitment, kids, parents, pets, cooking, cleaning and nature, you name it! (so I can spend more of it on what matters).
🙌 How YOU Made This Year Better
Honestly, this year wouldn’t have been the same without this community. From your feedback to the emails you replied to (yes, I read every single one), you helped shape my business in ways I didn’t expect.
A special shoutout to Angelina Tadros, who’s always giving me words of encouragement. You inspire me every day!
Not forgetting my friends who are recommending this publication at least once:
| | | | | | | |Thank you and appreciate your support.
If you’ve had a win – big or small – I’d love to hear about it. Just hit reply and share it with me. Let’s celebrate the heck out of it!
👀 What’s Coming in 2025 (It’s Gonna Be Good)
I’m SO excited about what’s coming next. Here’s a sneak peek:
Productized Playbooks – Some of you don’t need everything, some of you are getting started, some learning to scale. These are chopped-up, bite-sized guides, some may be big gulps, simply affordable and tasty. There’s nothing like this out there, but I want to make sure there’s something for you.
Canva Templates – You asked, I’m delivering. Expect new designs tailored for small businesses to create media kits, ebooks, workbooks, fresh color palettes to make your brand shine.
Digital Product Playbooks – I’ve been creating tons of digital products, some of them free, some with a price. I’m still documenting all the processes. Once done I will share the journey with you, from nothing to making and selling them.
The Course You’ve Been Asking For – This is already here 5-day free email course packed with everything I’ve learned about scope creep. Still a work in progress and getting it more polished as we go!
More Automation, Less Burnout – I’m doubling down on helping you build systems that let your business run without you constantly at the wheel.
2025 is all about scaling smarter – and I’m bringing you along for the ride to freedom.
📬 What About You?
I’d love to hear from you – what’s one thing you’re proud of from 2024? Hit reply and let me know. No win is too small!
And hey, if there’s something you want to see more of next year (templates, courses, fun stories about my chaotic business adventures), I’m all ears.
Here’s to an amazing 2025 ahead – thank you for being part of this ride. I couldn’t do it without you.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
Marilyn
Very Good Productized Guides
P.S. Enjoy the holiday season – and don’t forget to rest. Big things are coming. 🎉
Thanks for the mention Marilyn.
And congrats on the 20800% growth!
Thanks for the mention Marylin.
Congratulations on your growth🎉