2021: A Year in Review and Looking Forward

Well, if you’re reading this, you might have wondered where I have been the past year.

I’m excited to check in and share what I have been up to, how the businesses performed and my goals for 2022.

I’ve been sharing my annual blog reviews since 2015. It’s a great way for me to review the year and share some of the highlights.

Previous Annual Reviews

If you are a new blogger and in the early stages of figuring out how a blog can be monetized, I recommend checking out my very first blog income report.

I made around $60 and it was amazing. While this might not seem like much, it gave me the confidence to keep moving forward on this new online business path.

If you have not started your blog yet, my beginner blog post will review tons of ideas and get your started!

That was the year everything happened. I started blogging while at my demanding full time job and in ten months, was able to walk away from my 9-5 job to focus on my own business.

It was a wild year! I went from a fresh faced, newbie blogger who was figuring out everything as I went.

I ended the year self-employed, opened a new door of opportunity and phrased the term Pinterest virtual assistant and never looked back.

In my first full year of running my own business, I made more than I did at my day job.

In fact, my income grew each year at such a fast rate it was really unbelievable.

You can read my 2020 annual review and get a sense of how completely different my life is compared to when I got started.

Diva Dog Bakery

Based on my own experience of running a dog bakery and seeing a void in the baking and dog niche, I knew my course had the potential to help a lot of people.

I launched the Diva Dog Bakery course in November 2021 and the response was much higher than I anticipated.

It’s been an absolute game changer for my business.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the course doubles in revenue this year.

We run a very small daily budget for Facebook ads and rely on great word of mouth.

Our community is one of my daily check-ins and bright spots as it’s full of incredible, creative people who love dogs.

I’ve watched our students learn how to bake my recipes, add their own flair and bring in steady income.

Our community shares photos, recipe ideas and cheers each other on.

I share tons of videos and reviews and it’s so different than any other group I have ever been in.

The Diva Dog Bakery course is unique because half our students choose to run their business in person and not all online.

There’s a sense of accomplishment by getting into the kitchen and the actual baking process.

Packaging and creating a brand is super fun and hands on! It’s also so rewarding for students to see their dog (or their customer’s dog) eat dog treats they baked themselves.

Now that Diva Dog Bakery has turned one years old, it reminds me of the early stages of Pinterest VA.

For the most part, it’s a simple, one-page website that doubles as sales page.

Pinterest VA was a one-page website for years, but I’m hoping we can get the blog side of Diva Dog Bakery running soon.

If you’ve been a long time reader, you know how much I love my dogs and the pet community.

Being able to lean into a new creative project that gives me all the good feels is really exciting.

Pinterest VA

Oh, where do I begin with Pinterest VA!

This was a huge year for this part of my business. There was so much going on behind the scenes and with the front end of things that our audience and students see.

We got a much needed brand makeover that really represents who we are as a business.

It was so exciting to say goodbye to the old website and finally have the vision in my head come to life on the website.

We celebrated our five-year anniversary with our new website and it’s the best representation of this brand.

There’s a free learning center full of great new content as well as information about our signature program Become A Pinterest VA Today!, as well as Pinterest Manager Academy for those looking to elevate their Pinterest virtual assistant business.

The program itself got an update, which was exhausting.

The downside to having a program based on a media platform is challenging because of the amount of time and resources needed to stay relevant.

My general rule for the team is we only update when something is set in stone and avoid any temporary changes or experiments.

Pinterest rolled out a lot of updates in 2021 and the way we use Pinterest has totally changed.

We spent a ton of time not only making updates, but sharing how to use the platform in a new way.

Also, this is a public service announcement. Please stop complaining that Pinterest isn’t the same as it used to be, it’s time to accept change or you will get left behind. This goes for every platform in general, not just Pinterest!

The amount of new people joining Pinterest today have a completely different view of the platform compared to those who got on the platform years ago.

It’s really interesting and refreshing to see how people are using the platform, and still very much an online business destination for businesses not yet on the platform.

We spent so much time making updates to help existing and future students, we did not have as many open enrollment periods or private enrollment periods in 2021 as we normally would.

This did create a ding in revenue, but I am not that concerned about it.

Without a doubt, Become A Pinterest VA Today! is the best program out there to learn how to become a Pinterest virtual assistant.

Based on feedback, I think students are shocked when they take our program and then take a different course because of the quality we present with our material, customer service and community support.

I take a lot of pride in making sure students are successful, and they have the best and most thorough information at their fingertips.

This year we plan to have a few more live workshops as our audience really likes being able to talk to me and ask questions.

We keep it real, welcoming and it’s fun getting to interact with everyone online.

Believe In A Budget

Believe In A Budget continued to bring traffic and make money, but it was at the bottom of the priority list last year.

I’ve really relied on SEO and writing high quality blog posts over the years has paid off.

Because of the attention from Diva Dog Bakery and Pinterest VA, I let this blog do its thing.

I’ve really missed this blog and the old days of writing blog posts as most of my attention is with students of my courses and programs.

The good news is I’m excited to bring back regular content.

We are also featuring guest posts on a few different topics, which you can submit here.

There are so many great people doing amazing side hustles, saving money and budgeting and I want to feature their stories to this audience.

I’ll also personally be sharing more posts! There have been a number of travel trips, home updates and more, all with different sizes of budgets.

Goals for 2022

The best place to find me this past year was through me email list.

While Believe In A Budget wasn’t full of new content this past year, I shared a lot of updates in emails!

My business goal this year is to work less than I ever have before.

I’m a big believer of politely saying no to things I am not interested in doing or that can cause unnecessary stress!

I’ve transitioned to work less but with more intention.

My focus is only working on projects that make me happy, bring out my creativity and helps others in a way that bring me joy.

I definitely scaled back my work life in 2021 during certain seasons of life, but plan to make this a permanent change moving forward.

I’ll be perfectly honest; hustling for years was necessary for me to get where I am today.

There is no way I could be in this amazing stage of my business or life without putting in the work those first few years.

Everyone has a different view on hustling and goals, but I had to go through it all in order to grow my business to what it is today.

There was a lot of multi-tasking, long days and sacrificing in order to achieve what I wanted.

My businesses are so important to me and have really given me a sense of purpose, but I don’t want work to be my whole life.

Being able to cut back and have my very small, but mighty team do more is one of the best decisions I have made.

This year there are plans to pick up where 2021 left off, with more travel on the horizon.

There’s a few upcoming road trips planned in 2022 and an international trip as well.

I’m ready to spend more time exploring, going to more national parks and seeing parts of the world I haven’t been to yet!

Now I’m fortunate to be in a truly, mentally and comfortable place. Here’s to a healthy and happy 2022!