The Best Investments I Made In 2023
Have you ever heard someone say that in sales there are tortoises and there’s hares?
Tortoises are your slow buyers and hares are your quick buyers.
The difference between the two is that some people need to know a lot of details, facts, and information before making a decision, whereas the other group of people really don’t need all of that.
Instead, they just need to know the basics and they’re good to go.
Throughout my life, I’ve always been more of a tortoise. A super slow buyer.
But when I started my business, I noticed that this slowly started to shift. I slowly became willing to invest in more things that felt aligned with what I was needing in life or in business.
In fact in Q1 of 2023 alone, I invested about $3,000 in the form of courses, resources and tools (not including platforms that I use daily like FloDesk and HoneyBook) and for me, that’s a lot!
The really cool part is that I actually used all but one of those investments.
Because let’s be real – how many times do we buy things with the best intentions just for them to sit in our inbox unopened?
GUILTY.
But this year, I’ve been really intentional about my investments and made sure that each one was directly aligned with a goal or vision I had for my business.
(This also makes me really happy to say out loud, because intentionality is one of my TOP business values.)
When I reflect on why I believe this shift happened, it has everything to do with the fact that as a business owner, you simply have to wear a lot of hats. And it’s impossible to know how to do EVERYTHING really well.
Which is why outsourcing, delegating, or at the very least investing to LEARN how to do something is pretty much a non-negotiable.
(Unless you want to burn yourself out – and personally, a season of burnout is something I never want to catch myself in ever again.)
So, with that said, I thought now would be a good time to share the BEST investments that I made in 2023 and talk about how each of them benefited my life and business specifically.
And by the way, these are in no particular order!
7 Best Business Investments I Made In 2023
Jenn Boughey's 2.0 Foundations
In 2022, I experienced a lot of change and while I do consider myself to be someone that is in tune with her mindset and has a fairly positive outlook even in challenging situations, I was in search of some real tools to help me overcome some things that I just couldn’t seem to work through on my own.
I’ve known and followed Jenn Boughey for years and she’s always been my go-to for mindset and thought work, but I wanted to work with her on a deeper level.
As luck would have it, she was opening enrollment for her 2.0 Foundations course at the beginning of the year, which really focuses on defining WHO you want your 2.0 self to be and then actually doing the work to become that.
The course came with weekly coaching and that’s really where the magic happened. I learned so much about myself, the limiting beliefs I was holding onto and ultimately defined who I wanted to be and started doing the actual work it takes to get there.
Before signing up for this, I had chosen “foundation” to be my word of the year for 2023 and when this course popped up, it just felt like everything was aligning!
Brand Mini Photoshoot
After being in business for almost a whole year, I FINALLY got professional photos taken.
And I might be the first person to tell you that NO, you don’t have to do things like this right away.
When I first launched Natty Writes in September of 2022 and created my website and Instagram account, it was tempting for me to think that I needed to get brand photos immediately.
I felt pressured to have all the things that other business owners have…
Like a beautiful website, an abundance of brand images and a very clearly defined brand identity.
And while I absolutely believe that those things are super important, I also know that if I would’ve waited until I had them, then I might not have experienced the results that I did so quickly.
I probably wouldn't have landed a full 1:1 client load within the first 3 months. I probably wouldn’t have been able to raise my prices within the first 6 months. And I definitely wouldn’t have launched my first freebie.
Instead of waiting until I had all of the pretty things to make things “perfect,” I just started with what I had - which were 3 things (they aren’t what you think).
I started knowing that I could refine and make things better as I go.
If you struggle with wanting things to be perfect or planned out before you start, just remember that NO ONE wins (including yourself) when you wait.
Your clients, your kids, your spouse or YOU benefit when you don’t take some sort of action.
Wanna start working out? Don’t wait for the cute Amazon set. Start with your old sorority t-shirt and Nike shorts. Refine later. The Amazon set doesn’t determine your results.
Wanna start meal prepping so you eat out less? Don’t wait until you find the perfect containers. Start with your old tupperware. Refine later.
Wanna start creating consistent content for your socials? Don’t wait until you have that viral ring light. Stand in front of a window and press record. Refine later.
The world will always be there to tell you that you need XYZ to start something. Don’t let them fool you!
As cliche as it might sound, take the messy action. Chances are no one will even notice that you don’t have the perfect thing you’re convinced you need.
(P.S. I didn’t even do a full photo shoot and am still using the same 20 photos that I received that day. And guess what? My business isn’t burning down. Yours won’t either. 😉)
Site Series by Sara at BTL Copy
One of the HUGE projects on my 2023 list was launching a new and improved website.
The one you’re on right now is what I like to call my 2.0 website because 1.0 was rough. We’re talking about a one page, barely any copy, one photo type of site.
But hey – she got the job done for a while!
In 2023, however, I knew I would be ready to spend a good chunk of time on creating a real brand that had a real website.
And my first step in getting there was writing the copy. I 10000% could not have taken that on without the expertise I learned from Sara at BTL Copy in her Site Series course.
That course is ROBUST and truly teaches you everything you need to know (and then some) for how to DIY your website copy.
The thing I love most is the way the course was structured – I would learn and then I would write.
It made the project feel WAY less overwhelming and I was able to write all of my website copy so much faster.
Brand Strategy and Brand Identity with Nicole Burdick
Along those same lines, a huge priority for me in 2023 was really identifying my brand and honestly for me, that meant understanding what branding even is.
Because no, it’s not just your logo and pretty colors.
Until I started learning from Nicole, I truthfully didn’t understand the power of brand strategy and brand identity, but she makes it SO simple to learn.
(Here’s a great blog post of hers in case you’re like me and don’t get it.)
Even though I learned a LOT (and still do) from Nicole’s content, I knew I really just wanted to outsource this piece of things.
I had the vision in my head for what I wanted my brand to be, but I just knew I couldn’t bring it to life.
BUT SHE DID! And it was even better than I imagined.
Marketing Analytics with Rebecca Caldwell of Three Groves
I’ll be honest… I’m just NOT a data girlie. Anything related to math and numbers makes me feel like this:
BUT the odds of me someday proclaiming, “I love data!!!” is getting more likely all because of the best data queen I know – Rebecca Caldwell.
Since launching my new website in September of this year (2023), I knew that I wanted to get better at tracking the metrics that really matter.
The only problem? I honestly didn’t know what those were.
And that might sound weird coming from a blog writer because if I’m writing blogs shouldn’t I be paying attention to my SEO?
Technicallyyyyy yes, but the reason why I never have paid that close attention to it is because I don’t *just* write blogs for SEO purposes.
I write blogs with an audience first approach, meaning keywords and Google data aren’t the ONLY things that will inform my content topics.
My people do.
With that said, however, I know it’s silly NOT to pay attention to what’s working, so I invested in Rebecca’s Analytics Groundwork Set Up and I am SO excited to finally have a dashboard that makes reviewing my analytics easy (and cute might I add) to look at.
Seriously, just look at this custom branded dashboard!!!
Hiring a Social Media Manager
Remember how I said in the beginning that when you own a business, you wear LOTS of hats? Well sometimes, the hats get super heavy and you simply have to take one off. 🧢
Earlier this year, that’s how I felt and I had been feeling the pull for quite some time to outsource my social media.
I personally prefer to spend the majority of my time on the channels that I own – which for me is blog and email content – which meant that if I had to choose something to hand off to someone else, it would be Instagram.
And luckily I found the PERFECT person that I trusted to handle just that.
The cool part is that the content is still from me (and that’s on strategically designing your social content around your blog posts) – but the creation and aesthetic piece that really isn’t my zone of genius gets to be someone else that does it 10000x better than I ever could.
ILYSM KATE! 💖
Pinterest Marketing with Sarah Burk
And lastly (but definitely not least), my most recent purchase of the year was a Pinterest Audit and Strategy with Sarah Burk!
I’ve had “start marketing on Pinterest” for wayyyy too long, but honestly I’m glad I waited until NOW to do it for two reasons:
I have a HUGE content bank to work from for Pinterest content
When I published my new website, I changed the URL, which means that if I would’ve started marketing on Pinterest sooner, I would’ve had to deal with a lotttt of broken links and that’s simply a headache that I can’t handle
This investment, like many of the others, came at the PERFECT time and I was absolutely blown away when Sarah sent me my 30 page (!!!) custom audit and strategy.
I already loved learning from her, but getting this personalized for me was exactly what I needed to finally make the right moves on the platform.
This audit and strategy guide is SO in depth and covers all kinds of things, from a personal keyword bank (it was worth the investment just for this), how to make my current Pinterest profile and pins even better, an entire funnel audit, and more.
Truly speechless at the value I received and can’t wait to implement everything in 2024!
Overall, 2023 was a really good year – aligned, intentional, and on fire.
And I really do believe I have these investments to thank for playing a part in that!
I’m curious – did you make any investments this year that changed your business trajectory? I’d love to hear about them!
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