The Design Business Show 124: Celebrations + Changes I’ll be Making in My Business in 2021

Well hello friends! It’s been a minute since I’ve published a solo episode, and I wanted to pop in here to give you a couple behind-the-scenes updates today.

It’s December 21, 2020, and this is a time of year where a lot of people take time off, reset, declutter, share gratitude and get ready for the new year.

2020 has been a year unlike any other we’ve experienced during this lifetime, but I’m grateful for so many things.

My oldest son graduated and has been promoted twice already, soon to be 3 times at his job.

My younger son just turned 14, is doing pretty well with virtual learning, and started working out to get in shape for football next year.

My little sister was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer at this time last year, and she’s expected to make a full recovery.

My dad hit a big set back in September with some chronic illnesses he has, and is doing 100x better.

We did some projects around our house that we never had time to do because we were always gone with our kids in sports – what seemed like 24 / 7. We got new hardwood floors in our bedrooms, built a new retaining wall around our pool (we had to for structural reasons) and I’m forever finding things to deep clean and declutter. My family would like me to go to work at an office so I stop giving them tasks. 🙂

I wanted to share a couple wins in my business, and things I’ll be doing differently in 2021 and beyond.

I shared this exercise last year on episode 66 and I wanted to publicly share what I found when I did this exercise yesterday.

The exercise is really easy. Here’s what you do:

Write down all your wins.
Acknowledge what didn’t work.
Declare what you’re saying goodbye to.
And announce to the world what your new normal is.

I got the new normal idea from one of my mentors, Erika Lyremark, last year. Before COVID.

Here’s a couple things from my list of wins:

My visibility has tripled this year, which resulted in so many great things!

Like new followers on Instagram, new people on my email list, more podcast downloads, consistent invitations for me to be interviewed on other podcasts, guest training opportunities, project collaborations and more.

I even got the opportunity to license Conversion Design School™. In 2021 I’m looking forward to even more opportunities for me to expand my reach, and plan to be super strategic about my visibility. I’ll be re-viving my YouTube channel, being more strategic with this podcast, and I already have my launches planned for Q1. I know from experience that Launching as a digital marketing tool you can use to help you expand your imprint, visibility, audience, customer list, and bottom line.

If you want to collaborate on a design project, interview me on your podcast, or want me to do a guest training for your audience, send an email to me at design @ melissaburkheimer.com.

I’ve finally created a product suite that converts.

After years of only designing sales pages and managing launches, I’ve created 4 new offers that can help me build momentum on a much larger level, and help me do something that should’ve crossed my mind years ago: build wealth. These programs are my new DIY offers that are there, and will be updated + marketed later in 2021. Not many people know about them because I didn’t do any major launches or marketing for these programs in 2020.

I had 2 launches planned for Conversion Design School™ in June and September of this year, but shelved those plans.

The newest offer I’m working on that I’m super excited about it – because it’s the Done-With-You offer that’s been missing from my product suite.

It’s called Launch Celebrity, and it’s a 6-month group mentorship program designed to help service providers, creatives, and consultants produce a blockbuster launch. It’s so new that I don’t even have a sales page for it yet. Applications are open, so if you want details, send me a DM on Instagram!

I hired someone to help me write my show notes for the podcast!

This was a huge relief for me. There’s a lot of talk in the online space about outsourcing + hiring, but not a lot of context for what to do. I spent the first year or so doing them by myself, and it took me what felt like forever. I was distracted, frustrated, and knew I needed to get it off my plate. When I first started the podcast, I’d take notes during the interview to help me get started, but then I didn’t feel like I was being present, so I started doing it after the fact!

Here’s a couple things from my list of what didn’t work.

I planned to rely on launches for most of my income this year, said no to 1:1 projects and then didn’t launch.

So, I’m setting up 2021 to look much different, so I’m not solely reliant on launches for my business revenue. I still had income from teaching college classes, payment plans from previous launches, and design projects, so I was still able to keep my business running.

I could’ve launched on a smaller scale if I had a team in place to handle things when I had to stop working.

I plan to hire a part-time project manager early next year to help me manage my launches (I do most everything myself now besides sales page copy and website development). I’ll spend the first half of the year creating updated assets for all the offers, and then I can spend the second half of the year tweaking and testing to increase sales.

What I’m Saying Goodbye to:

1. Working all the time. Quarantine had me at the laptop waaaay too much, especially the first half of this year.

2. Doing almost everything myself. Hello, new launch manager! I can’t wait to meet you! I’m a much better delegator than doer, so I’m excited to see how this turns out!

3. All this extra weight I’ve been carrying for the past 5 years. Emotionally and physically. I want to be in the best shape + health of my life, so big changes are coming.

My new normal: I want to help 100 service providers become Launch Celebrities. I make money in my business every day. My content creates change in the design industry. More and more creatives believe success is possible by watching my content. And they make it happen. I have small, but mighty team that supports me. My podcast creates opportunities for my business, my listeners, my guests, and more. It’s easy for people to buy from me!

I also wanted to share a few quick updates happening behind-the-scenes for the podcast:

1. We’re updating our messaging, graphics, and mission within the next few months.
2. We’re going to make it easy for you to request interviews from experts you look up to, and submit questions that get answered on the show.
3. I’m working on creating transcripts for every episode to make it more accessible. We have about 30 done, and 90ish left.
4. I’m going to get fancy and create a press kit, and create more sophisticated pitches to send to guests.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to be in your ears every week.

I’m so thankful that you listen – and for the creatives who come on here and share their stories.

And if you wanna be brave, send me a DM on Instagram and tell me what you learned from this exercise or even just what your new normal is.

I’ll be hosting some free, live masterclasses and fun experiences in January all about sales pages and launching. If you want to be the first to know when those happen, make sure you’re on my email list. You can hop over to https://melissaburkheimer.com and scroll to the bottom of the page to get on it. My mentor doesn’t let me send boring emails, so it’s always valuable stories!