Taking Time to Celebrate

During the Christmas break, we took a trip to McAllister Park in San Antonio. With three kiddos, we have found that the minivan lends itself as a good place for conversation with fewer interruptions (Thank you, DVD player and seat belts).

During the car drive, we listened to an old episode of Christy Wright’s Business Boutique. In the talk, she outlined the yearly review that they do at Ramsey Solutions. It morphed into a great conversation about our second year of self-employment as we walked the trails and the kids decided next time we hit McAllister, we should all bring our bikes.

First, celebrate your wins.

This is the fun part. This is where you talk about what went right, what turned out better than you’d expected, and what was received well. Sometimes, in the rush of everyday life Marcus and I miss this part! If we are always looking ahead, planning, and striving for what’s next, we miss the opportunity to celebrate what went right.

So as 2020 begins, take a moment to look back. What worked well in 2019? What are you most proud of?

Second, list out the things that went wrong in the past year. (With the reminder that if nothing went wrong the whole entire year, maybe you’re not taking risks or growing!)

Third ask yourself, “What is missing?” and fourth, “What is confusing that you may need to clarify?” Did your customers keep coming back with the same question? Are you communicating effectively?

One area of confusion we discovered (because we took the time to reflect!) was when answering the phone, Marcus had been saying, “Hello, this is Marcus.” The only problem with that? Sometimes, the people on the other end were not sure if they’d actually reached Marken Media Co. and even some others had been given his personal number for the Devine Chamber of Commerce.

Rather than letting people endure a split second of confusion, Marcus decided he could make the simple change when answering his cell to “Marken Media Co., this is Marcus” thereby solving most of the confusion.

Plans for 2020

We also took the time to review our Top 9 Instagram posts. They were all things CREATE • COLLABORATE • CELEBRATE. So fun!

1. Collaborating with the Devine Chamber of Commerce for the slogan "Think Local."
2. Getting our family pics taken by JL Vail Photography
3. Taking baby Emi to explore the Doe-Re-Mi Lavender Farm and falling in LOVE.
4. Marcus Buckner is just my type. 😍
5. A flashback to our wedding day in Devine (almost 10 years ago!)
6. The "after" shot of the #devinecolorwall. The story here.
7. Celebrating our ribbon cutting with a giant bow
8. Checking out our IG friend turned real-life friend Nicole Cody's space in Castroville
9. Finishing it out with a baby bump pic with the whole gang