Wrapping 2021
Happy New Year from the founder’s desk.
One Friday evening in late January, I wrapped up a one-on-one with a ColorWord team member, logged off Google Meet, and downed the last of my whiskey Manhattan as I jotted down her goals for the coming month.
Then I took a quick pregnancy test, just to be safe, so I could relax and enjoy the weekend with my husband and 8-month-old son.
In less than 30 seconds, all my expectations and priorities for 2021 (not to mention my weekend plans) were snatched away.
Being a combination of small business owner, perfectionist, planner, and brand new mom (twice) in a global pandemic leaves me with plenty to muse about at the turn of a brand new year, but I've settled on the four most undeniable characteristics of my 2021 experience—ones that I hope will guide us courageously into 2022.
W O R K
The only way to prepare for the amount of work that babies require, or for how they shift your entire identity and ability to function as an adult human being, is by having one. Add that fresh perspective to working full time without any childcare support (#thatquarantinelife) and being freshly pregnant for the second time in 8 months, and it was enough to send this mama into an overwhelming depression.
All of this was heavy on my mind when I trekked over sidewalks covered in snow that people had given up shoveling after the first foot. It was one of those double-glove, double-pants, only-your-eyes-are-visible kind of Midwest February days and I was hunting for an idea to re-energize the ColorWord team and take our business model to the next level. Feeling the pressure of a late-September due date, I was hungry for the hustle—a way to increase revenue, expand our client base, and scale custom content with our small-but-mighty team.
A few weeks later, we gathered virtually for our annual creative retreat. I told them I was going to be taking (yet another) maternity leave during Q4, and we spent the next day and a half pouring our collective energy and brainpower into developing ColorWord 2.0.
R E S I L I E N C E
They say a certain percentage of your time should be spent working FOR your business and a certain amount ON your business. Last spring the ColorWord Crew tipped the scale and began to put more time and energy into our company than ever before. We experimented with cold emails and produced sample work; we constructed a series of pitch decks in record-time succession; developed a new subscription service and partnerships with local artists; we outlined plans for monthly blogs, an email newsletter, a new website, refined list of services, and updated rates. By March we had a year's worth of work cut out for us.
And that’s when our Creative Director (one-third of our full-time team) resigned.
I'm humbled to say that in that moment, our incredible Communications Director, Amy Huckaba, believed in the company enough for both of us.
All that momentum came to a halt. We paused (I panicked), and we regrouped and engaged in another round of conversations about the company’s future.
How were we going to survive another maternity leave? Should we replace her with one person? A team of freelancers? Did we have time to hire and train before September? Would we even be able to hire in a market where employers were competing at a level we couldn't afford? Should we dissolve the corporation and become freelancers ourselves?
We put our heads down, made a bunch of calls, and spent the month of April handling client work and building our freelance network.
Amy made the most significant call the day after we learned we were about to lose our graphic designer, to an old college classmate whom she had always respected.
A G I L I TY
A company our size is constantly adapting, and this spring we flexed harder and faster than ever.
Our team had smoothly moved to remote work in 2020, and now that our only staff in Elgin was going to be home with another newborn in a few months, we decided to not renew our office lease.
What we saved on rent allowed us to make an offer to Amy's colleague from Murray State University, a talented graphic designer in Nashville, Tennessee. On May 1, Emily Kinney became ColorWord's new, full-time Creative Director.
That same month we made the formal switch to a 4-day work week, re-committing to our value of employee health. By June, Emily was fully on-boarded, we had caught up and refocused on ColorWord 2.0, and launched a new website.
Perhaps equally as important, the spring had delivered the Covid vaccine and with it, an impossibly perfect childcare option for my then one-year-old. He would have a few months to settle into a new place and routine before his baby sister arrived.
P E R S P E C T I V E
Quarter 3 was also my third trimester. Some of our Q1 groundwork was starting to boomerang. It was hot, I was uncomfortable and dreading the impending sleepless nights and leaving my team shorthanded. I tend to have 15 contingency plans for the worst-case scenario, and hormones weren't aiding my ability to manage fears of an even greater loss of self, time, health, capacity, and ColorWord's success.
My therapist encouraged me to prioritize something that reconnected with the identity I had lost, so, fully vaccinated and masked, I attended a local leadership conference in August.
One of the speakers, author Michelle Poler, offered a nugget that helped nudge me through my fog of despair and cautiously into a ray of hope.
"What if, instead of focusing on the worst-case scenario in our lives and work, we asked ourselves: what's the best that could happen?"
What if we landed one of the new clients we had been courting?
What if all our clients were supportive of my taking another leave so soon?
What if Amy and Emily had enough time to find a groove and manage just fine without me?
What if the new baby slept through the night?
It's incredible what a simple shift in perspective can do for your psyche, your attitude, your relationships, your work.
On September 23, Alma Mercy was born with a healthy set of lungs and a full head of hair.
I took a 12-week maternity leave with far more support from family and friends than was available in 2020. Our clients were overwhelmingly supportive, and Amy and Emily took superb care of all of them—with even greater success than the year before.
And get this: Alma started sleeping through the night by Thanksgiving, and we landed one of those new clients the week before Christmas.
Now it’s January again and I'm back at my desk, hormones a little more balanced, perspective a little brighter, energy high, and ready to hustle. Our team is fully staffed and about to start a new year refreshed after our holiday break.
My hope is that we enter this New Year ready to work and rest with intention, steadily resilient through whatever surprises 2022 may have for us. I hope that this will be the year of ColorWord 2.0, that we grow, and that we never lose our agility as we do. And most of all, my greatest wish for this next year is that we invest in a perspective that doesn't get bogged down in fear or worst-case scenarios or contingency plans, but that we allow ourselves the possibility of the best.
And that, my friends, is a wrap for me.
Many thanks to all of our clients, colleagues, and vendors for your incredible support of this female-owned small business in 2021. We are grateful for each of you and wish you hope and joy in the coming months.
Tonight I’m able to raise a carefree January whiskey to say:
Cheers to you, and to a bright and balanced 2022.
Amanda J. Garcia
Founder & Principal Executive
ColorWord Creative
