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Can we discuss the truth that 2020 is
ALMOST
OVER?!
The tip of the 12 months—any 12 months—is all the time my favourite time.
Not simply due to Christmas, however the twinkling lights and apple cider undoubtedly assist.
However as a result of we’re about to get a contemporary begin. A clean slate. A complete new 12 months.
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​Heath and I are obsessive about targets (in case that wasn’t evident already) and these previous few weeks in December are an opportunity to mirror. Relaxation. Determine what’s subsequent.
I’ve been occupied with all the pieces that occurred in 2020. The nice, the dangerous, the loopy troublesome, the primary two months of the 12 months, which felt like a distinct WORLD than the remainder of 2020.
One factor Heath and I all the time do on the weblog is to share our 12 months in assessment on the earlier 12 months and our targets for the subsequent. (I’m saving the targets for after Christmas.) Let’s begin with the great things.
OR you’ll be able to take heed to this weblog submit in podcast kind:
2020: The Good
Journey
Okay, to start with, we spent over a month in Florida final January, and guys, why did we not do that yearly as RVers? It was all the pieces I wanted in life.
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Heath and I switched up our journey schedule this 12 months to suit higher with an lively child. This meant staying in locations for 2-6 weeks at a time and slowly exploring an space.
We LOVED touring this manner, particularly when it meant so many choices for having fun with fall throughout Colorado. I see extra leisurely lengthy stays sooner or later.
Enterprise
The tenting business SOARED this 12 months. Heath and his workforce grew Campground Reserving 244%. (I’m about to show 30 and I nonetheless can by no means determine how individuals calculate percentages over 100, however I do know that’s actually good.)
And my guide, printed over three years in the past now, outperformed final 12 months’s gross sales. This may very well be as a result of so many extra individuals purchased RVs this 12 months, however I additionally suppose it’s as a result of I took the time to replace the guide’s content material.
(We’ve got an outstanding visitor submit from writer Lindsey Nubern on tips on how to know if it is best to replace your guide. If you happen to’ve acquired a guide that wants a lift in content material or gross sales, I like to recommend it!)
Heath & I additionally started working with our mates Kara & Nate to plan and emcee their documentary premiere again in January—a lifetime in the past! Somebody informed Heath this 12 months that being an entrepreneur is an excuse to work with mates. We so agree and love any time we will say sure to initiatives with mates. Extra of that in 2021, please 🧡
A superb portion of our enterprise vitality this 12 months went towards studying about shopping for and working a campground.
We’ve toured properties, met with contractors, talked to realtors, buyers, mentors, mates—aaaand we haven’t pulled the set off on a property but. We’ve been shut—a number of occasions!—however issues maintain falling by. So I assume this factor that occurred in 2020 but additionally a irritating and troublesome factor.
We’ve got some irons within the fireplace that we’re presently pursuing, however property homeowners don’t need us making something public till the ink is dry, so we’re going to be fairly tight-lipped on any property particulars.
However the precise coolest enterprise factor of the 12 months was most likely being on the duvet of Rootless Journal.
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This can be a complete self-importance factor, however since I used to be a child, I all the time wished to be on the duvet of {a magazine}. I believed it will be because the world’s first prima ballerina/pop singer however a journal difficulty dedicated to being an RV entrepreneur is fairly superior too 🙂
Household
And lastly, just about all the pieces about Ellie. This 12 months she discovered to crawl. Stroll. Speak. Bounce. Sing. Dance. The opposite day she walked over to our creation calendar, pulled out a Hershey’s kiss, unwrapped it, threw the wrapper within the trash, and yelled “extra!” earlier than she even ate the chocolate. She’s a genius, and clearly her mom’s daughter.
However as a lot as I really like her, maybe the most important win of 2020 was discovering childcare for Ellie this fall from a stay-at-home mother on the town. There’s solely a lot work I can do throughout nap occasions and now Ellie has a BFF.
Full-time RVing this 12 months, being a full-time stay-at-home mother and operating a enterprise, AND making an attempt to purchase a campground…it was quite a bit. And I wasn’t doing something nicely. Now I’ve 20 hours every week that I might be productive on the enterprise, and it feels so GOOD.
2020: The Unhealthy
Compared to so many others, nothing horrible occurred to us in 2020. However we did have some actually exhausting moments and fell wanting targets, as a result of that’s life.
The largest second was canceling our convention in March, although we already had 100+ attendees on-site for the occasion. What a loopy time.
We talked on the podcast about how we made the fast pivot to a digital occasion, dealt with partial refunds, shipped out t-shirts to attendees, and blazed onward (episode 201).
We haven’t closed on a campground but, like I already talked about, which seems like a serious fail for 2020 since that was our #1 objective this 12 months. However targets shift and we realized again in July that we would have liked to discover a home first and a campground second. So we will probably be full steam forward on a campground in Q1, AND we’ll lastly launch the Campground Startup podcast on February 1st (one other undertaking we have been going to begin in 2020!).
I feel one of many worst components of 2020 for me was feeling like I couldn’t do something the way in which I wished to. And never in an “I wish to take Ellie to the pool and train her to swim, oh wait all of the swimming pools are closed perpetually” form of method.
I began engaged on my subsequent guide this summer time, like actually working. I wrote a number of chapters. Felt actually good about it. Phrases have been flowing. Publish its have been in every single place. Tales and reminiscences flooded again to me.
It’s the guide I wished to jot down again in 2014 after we first began RVing, sharing tales from our travels and what life on the highway was like.
However then we have been caravanning with mates. Ellie switched from two naps to at least one. Heath began working extra hours to boost cash for Campground Reserving. Household was driving up from Texas to go to us. I used to be behind on a course we have been launching that wanted consideration. I didn’t have any little one care choices, solely late nights and early mornings.
I didn’t really feel like I had any management over my time.
So I’ve a couple of chapters of a guide written that I haven’t checked out in far too lengthy, although I deliberate on publishing it this month.
This was an enormous emotional battle for me and an enormous theme for us for 2020. I couldn’t be a mother, a traveler, an entrepreneur, and a author suddenly. I wanted assist and I wanted to chop again. (That is one thing Heath has felt too as he’s now operating a 9-person distant enterprise with staff everywhere in the world.)
Which is why childcare felt like such an enormous win for me. And why it was the fitting time for a sticks and bricks.
And so once more I study the lesson, I can do all the pieces, however I can’t do all the pieces on the similar time.
So ending my subsequent guide goes on the checklist for 2021 together with our podcast and our campground. It’s going to be a busy 12 months, I can already inform!
2020: Main Classes Realized
Along with studying for the millionth time that I can’t do all the pieces suddenly, Heath and I discovered a couple of different large classes this 12 months.
Life is simply too quick to not do belongings you wish to do, even if you happen to do them badly.
In November, I partnered with my pal Barb of RV Foodie Kitchen to host a nightly cooking present. It was a dream come true.
Besides I actually tousled cooking ALL my recipes. And I might’ve executed one million little issues otherwise.
However it was actually enjoyable.
I did it, although it was scary. Further work after I didn’t have additional time. I used to be under no circumstances geared up or expert sufficient to do it. Ellie ate uncooked batter whereas I used to be distracted speaking to the digital camera. I had one million excuses to not attempt (I’m transferring right into a home proper now, now we have mates visiting, I’m not an actual prepare dinner, the checklist goes on).
However I nonetheless did it. This can be a lesson I attempt to lean into a bit of extra every year: do the belongings you wish to do, even if you happen to’re not prepared. I remorse by no means making an attempt greater than I remorse making errors as I am going.
Give your self grace.
I feel 2020 taught us all tips on how to give ourselves grace.
Learn how to let go of our fastidiously constructed plans. Learn how to pivot. Learn how to float. Learn how to not maintain ourselves to metrics or numbers.
However as a substitute, concentrate on progress.
I didn’t do yoga 365 occasions, however I did 150 occasions (due to Yoga with Adriene). And that’s waaaay higher than final 12 months.
Progress > excellent, as they are saying.
You do you.
There was a time after I would reply to emails all the time encouraging individuals to additionally attempt full-time RVing. We beloved it a lot OF COURSE these complete strangers on the web can have the identical magical expertise.
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However over the previous couple of years, I’ve modified my strategy. As a result of full-time journey isn’t for everybody. Beginning a enterprise isn’t for everybody.
And that’s one thing we’ve shifted on our web site this 12 months. Like extra sources for distant work and being a digital nomad basically, as a substitute of solely sources for beginning a enterprise. You do what’s best for you (and I’ll submit the sources, interviews, and visitor blogs from allllll the touring consultants).
That is one thing I wish to do extra of in 2021—extra visitor blogs and interviews with people who find themselves smarter than me.
We’re ADULTS.
Heath turned 30 yesterday. I flip 30 in two weeks. (Ellie won’t ever flip 30 as she agreed to remain tiny and lovable perpetually.)
And we’re embarking on an entire new decade of life.
Our 20s have been superb. We met and acquired married. Traveled greater than we ever thought we may. Had a child. Purchased a home. Began a bunch of companies. Paid off all our pupil debt.
I count on 30 to be chock stuffed with much more adventures.
Extra on setting targets and planning for 2021 subsequent week 🙂
Till then, wishing you secure travels, good well being, however an unhealthy quantity of Christmas cookies. Tis the season!