Last year around this time, I wrote a vision for what I wanted Basis to be like in 2023.

I just revisited it now in these last few days of 2023, and am sitting here teary-eyed.

I'm proud to say we achieved 90% of the items laid out in the vision, but even moreso that I didn't waver from it: I knew myself and my desires so deeply that nothing was able to steer me down I path that I didn't proactively choose. For a Type A People Pleaser, this is huge.

Some of the highlights from that document included:

• It’s January 9, 2024. It’s about 8:45 am, and I just got home from taking the kids to school by bike. I power up my computer and take a look at the new projects that await me. I took ample time off in December, so starting today, I’ll be kicking off a few new projects that were booked before my time out.
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• Since Q2 2023, Basis has intentionally shrunk slightly in revenue, and I've found a number that allows Basis to be gloriously small and nimble, with a healthy balance for work and life and the amount I want to manage others.
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• Most of the creative coming out of Basis will be designed by me. Being heavily involved with the creative coming out of Basis is a core value for me and makes the work fun.
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• We’re most proud of the way we’ve learned to work with tiny businesses (website budgets < $2,000) in a new way this year. We’ve completely revamped our offering to be very asynchronous and to feel more like you joined a helpful resource library with an in-person jumpstart. We provide value by hand-holding through the scariest parts of Shopify: the initial setup, choosing a theme, and making sure you're not totally screwing up shipping/payment/taxes.
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• For branding: we've shifted deliverables for all clients. For smaller clients, we are staying focused on visual deliverables with packages that include way more examples of how to use and interpret the brand on the web, social, print, etc. For larger clients, we are offering more brand strategy (unique value proposition, competitive positioning, tone/voice, etc) to complement simplified visual branding deliverables. ​
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• This week, I’m playing tennis on Monday morning, and my calendar has a two-hour block for that. I also block my calendar from meetings on most other weekday mornings, which is when I feel most creative. ​
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• I won’t check my email or Slack after hours tonight, but a client will likely send a late note. They know I won’t read it until tomorrow, and that’s perfectly fine. We’ve all found peace and calm in the midst of a busy year.

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These are just a few snippets, but reading this one year later has been encouraging, motivating and healing.

I hope you find some time during this holiday season to reflect on your year, too. Regardless of how the year looks to anyone on the outside, I bet you'll find that 2023 made you more resilient, more empathetic and more capable.

Thank you for being here with me this year. It's brought me so much joy having a place to swirl together my thoughts about work and life. Your replies, texts and in-person mentions of this newsletter always make me smile.