🥂 My End of Year Wrap Up for 2024

As the year draws to a close, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the journey we’ve all been on, both in our personal lives and professional careers.

In this episode, I delved into my year, my struggles, and most importantly, the lessons I’ve learned along the way. Here’s a closer look at what I shared in this special wrap-up episode and some insights that might inspire your own fearless journey.

I chatted about:

1. Consistency is Key—Even When Podcasting

Starting a podcast was a giant leap out of my comfort zone. Although it’s been a learning curve, I committed to releasing two episodes a month and stuck with it.

If you're thinking about starting your own podcast or another content creation venture, remember: it's all about consistency. You don’t need to have everything figured out from the get-go, but showing up regularly is half the battle. If I can do it, you certainly can too!

2. The Power of In-Person Events

After a long hiatus due to COVID, I finally resumed hosting in-person workshops. Initially, I was apprehensive, but the experience was incredibly rewarding. There's something truly magical about being in a room full of passionate business owners, sharing ideas and learning together.

So, if you have the opportunity to host or attend events, do it. It’s a fantastic way to network, share your expertise, and grow as a person and professional.

3. Outsourcing—A Lifesaver

This year, I invested in a robot vacuum that also mops. It may sound trivial, but this little gadget significantly eased my domestic load, allowing me more time to focus on my business and self-care.

Outsourcing tasks, whether it’s through technology or hiring help, can free up valuable time and mental space. So, don’t hesitate to delegate what you can. Your time is precious!

4. Consistency in Content Creation

Despite advocating for consistent branding, I realised that my content creation had been sporadic. Like many creatives, I got caught up in the doing, leaving little time to share my work. Moving forward, I plan to showcase more of my projects consistently.

Take this as a nudge to be more visible—share your work regularly and celebrate your achievements. Your audience wants to see what you’re up to!

5. Embracing Change and Personal Touches in Branding

I’m excited to incorporate more of what I love into my branding. Inspired by my lifelong fascination with optical art and artist Bridget Riley, I’ll be adding black and white geometric patterns to my brand visuals in 2025.

Your brand should be a reflection of you. Don’t shy away from making it uniquely yours by adding elements that bring you joy and resonate with your story.

I hope these reflections resonate with you. Remember, our branding journey is ever-evolving, and there's always space for growth and change.

Let’s make 2025 a year of bold moves, fearless decisions, and remarkable growth. I’d love to hear from you. What are your goals for the new year? How do you plan to evolve your brand?

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season and a fearless 2025!

x Morgan

Connect with me:

• Follow The Fearless Designer on Instagram
  @the.fearless.designer
  
  
• Head to The Fearless Designer Website for more info
  www.thefearlessdesigner.com.au

Transcript

Hello. Hello. Welcome back to the Fearless Designer podcast. I am your host, Morgan MacDonald. I am the Fearless Designer and today I'm going to be a little bit fearless. I'm going to talk to you about my year wrapped up, how it looked for me, but I'm also going to go through some of the lessons that I've learned this year because, yeah, there's been a few. And I also feel like I try and put so much education and positivity into the world. I really like to ground myself with, you know, the realness of what's going on.

Hello and welcome to the Fearless Designer podcast. I'm your host, Morgan MacDonald, aka the fearless designer, and I'm here to help you embrace your fears, level up your visual brand, and take your business to fearless new heights. For two decades, I've worked with business owners just like you, designing brands that are bold, consistent and authentic. I've lived a profesh corporate life as a graphic designer and I've also spent the last 13 years running my own brand and graphic design business. So whether you're running a six or seven figure business, craving a brand refresh, or just ready to add a little more wow to your visuals, I got you. Each week we'll dive into fearless brand strategies, design tips that you actually can use, live brand audits, and interviews with fellow business owners who have dared to do things differently. So if you're ready to stop playing small, take control of your brand and lead with confidence, you're in the right place. Let's go.

So one thing I've really struggled with this year is doing this podcast. It's taken me a while to get used to it. I enjoy the process. I'm not really sure what I'm doing, but one thing I was sure of, that I've committed to releasing two podcast episodes a month. And that's something that I've been doing consistently. So I'm giving myself a little pat on the back there because I wanted to pull out so many times. So this is your reminder if you are wanting to start your own podcast. It's super simple to do and you can do it as long as you've got something to say, a message, thought, leadership, or to just something fun and educational that you want to get across.

You can do it too. If I can do it, you can do it. Another one of my learnings this year is that I really missed in person events. Since COVID I'd kind of been a little bit scared to attend networking, business events and even run my own events. So it's taken me a while but I locked in a date and I ran my very first workshop since COVID Now I really loved running these workshops pre Covid. They were so, so uplifting and inspiring and being in a room with other business people and being able to chat about their brands and how it's working and their audience and even if they hadn't done any of that work, we start from scratch and go through your why your business values, how that messaging connects who you are in the business you're creating with your product and service offering. Loved it and there was always so much vibe and positivity in the room. So I don't know why it took me that long to get back on the horse, but it did.

But I am so glad that I did. It has been so good so so that I've actually booked in five more in person events in the new year in 2025. So if you get a chance to attend networking events, meet with business owners, have the ability to share your learnings or your specialties with your audience in a way that is an event or a talk or a masterclass, do it. It is so rewarding and you grow as a person. Even though I am incredibly fearful in those moments, that's the stuff that gives me the adrenaline rush that I love and I always walk away like the gym, I away feeling really, really good afterwards. Now I'm going to get really honest with you. I haven't been as consistent as I've wanted to be this year in terms of content creation. I, like many other creatives, get stuck in the doing that sharing the doing comes a little bit later.

And that's one thing that I'm taking into 2025 with a new mindset. It's around consistently showing up, consistently putting beautiful examples of the work that I'm doing out there, and consistently putting my brand out there to be seen. Because I do. I feel really good and I get very good feedback, but it doesn't feel as well oiled as it should be. So I know I bang on about consistency and consistently showing your branding colors and fonts on this podcast, but I also need to take a little bit of my own medicine and understand that I need to be doing that more as well. Now this is a random one. This is a bit of a mixed bag actually. This whole podcast.

One thing I did this year for myself is I bought, I purchased a brand new robot vacuum that does mopping. At the same time I was feeling the load, the domestic load of having to do most of the cleaning and looking after my kids getting really overwhelming. And I thought to myself, what can I do to help alleviate some of this stress? And I spent a lot of time researching and thinking about it. But I bought a robot vacuum. So this is my tip that whatever you can do to make your life easier, as long as you're comfortable with it, go for it. Whether it is ordering a box of meals to arrive once a week so that you've got three or four weeks, three or four days worth of meals sorted, whether it's hiring a cleaner, you need to be able to give yourself time and space to be able to create the business that you want and to find the time to enjoy it. So that's my little piece of advice. Please outsource whatever you can to give yourself time and space.

And finally, I want to leave you with these thoughts. As much as I've been in the design and branding industry for so long, I know a lot about different businesses and messaging and audiences and design and how to create design. When it comes to my own branding, it is still a game of trial and error. What I mean by that is I am quite open to adapting and evolving my business brand at any moment. So for example, I have a set of really strong brand colors that I love, but I'm also open to tweaking those in 2025. So one thing that I have been talking about is from childhood I was obsessed with opt art. So that was black and white. It was actually hand painted.

Originally my favourite artist was Bridget Riley. Well, it is Bridget Riley. She's still alive and she hand painted those amazing geometric black and white paintings that actually kind of vibrate your eyes so you start to see colours and shapes move when you look at them for too long. I want to incorporate more of that, more of that black and white geometric patterns into my branding. So if you follow me in 2025 and this year, start to watch how I incorporate that little bit by little bit and build it to be a really consistent part of my branding. So I want to give you the opportunity to have a look at what you've got and what are some things that you can tie in that really mean something to you, that really give your audience an insight into who you are as the business owner or something that makes you feel joy when you look at your own branding. That's just my last little tidbit. This has been a hodgepodge.

I have learned a lot of things this year and just to recap some of the things that I need to on for next year are consistency, having more fun putting myself out there. And that could pretty much be a list for all of us, couldn't it? So let me know what you're up to for the new year. Let me know how you want your brand to grow and change this year. And always hit me up in the DMs because I'm always happy to share and chat about how to grow your branding and how to develop a visual brand that you love. So thank you so much. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and I can't wait to see what you're up to in 2025. And that's it for today's episode of the Fearless Designer podcast. I hope you're feeling really inspired, fired up and ready to go make some bold moves with your brand.

If you love today's episode, don't forget to hit the subscribe button so that you never miss a dose of fearless branding goodness. And if you're feeling extra generous, drop us a review. It just helps more fearless legends like you find this podcast. If you've got any ideas or questions for future Epsilon, please slide into my DMs or send me an email. I would love to hear from you. And until next time, keep being bold. Keep being fearless and remember, your brand is your superpower. So go out there and dare to be different.

Bye.