99: Choosing My 2024 Word of the Year

Crystal Vilkaitis: Happy new year. It’s 2024. Oh, my gosh. I am so excited for this year for many reasons. One, my lucky number is 24 and I’m also getting married this year, which is crazy. I’m so excited. And I also just feel like 2024 is going to be incredible year. For my business over at crystal media and for this show. And I’m just really excited and ready and just have never felt more confident and clear on where I’m going. And that feels really good.

So welcome to Crystal Uncorked. I am thrilled that you are here. And in this episode, we’re going to keep it nice and short because If you’re like me, it’s like the new year, you’re trying to get back in the swing of things. And it feels like a lot is going on. And so I want to just talk about a ritual that I do every single year, which maybe you do it too, which is the word of the year.

Now, the word of the year is something that so many people do. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. You pick a word and you commit to that throughout the year, that’s your theme. And you’re going to try to put more of a spotlight and an effort on that word to enhance your life and create change and build upon something that you’re trying to achieve.

And so my word in 2023 was content. And man, I feel like I created a lot of content. I have mixed feelings about it a little bit because I feel like I did really good in a few ways with content and then not great in other ways. But this is what I love about the word of the year is because it allows you to create that reflection.

And ideally you’re thinking about the word that you chose all throughout the year. Because sometimes, this has happened to me before, I’ve picked a word and then I forgot what my word was come March. And I’m like, Oh, I didn’t even, then all of a sudden it’s December. And you’re like, Oh, what’s the word of the year going to be for next year?

I’m like, Oh, I forgot what my word was this year. I totally dropped the ball on that. So for this year, I was very intentional. I was very much thinking about content a lot. And the areas where I feel really good about that is I launched another podcast rooted in retail. I launched that in March of last year.

We have done so well with that show. It’s already in the top 5 percent on Listen Notes and we’ve just had phenomenal guests and I’m so excited for what we’re planning. We’re leveraging that show even more and starting January 9th, I’m going to be doing after the show where it’s live streaming and I’ll sometimes bring on that week’s guest and we’ll just further talk about the episode because if you’re like me, I’ve listened to podcasts before and it’s like, Oh, I have questions or I want to hear more about that.

Or how did you do that? And you can maybe DM the person or, try to message them, but. If you’re like live on the call with them and you can ask those questions and create that conversation, I think that’s a really special offering that you can do with a host. And so I’m really excited to launch that and, by focusing on that word content and doing the show rooted that creates these new ideas, like after the show, because how can we go further with content and connection with our community?

I also spoke on 18 in person stages in 2023, which is the most I’ve ever done. Second best was 11. So almost doubled it. And that’s a lot of content. Like all my presentations, they have some sort of customization depending on the audiences I’m speaking to. And so there was a lot of slides, a lot of content that I was producing there.

We also produced our own conference evolve and that had that slide deck on Google slides had over 500 slides, like for two days of content, 500 slides that didn’t include any of the breakout speakers and other keynotes. There was a lot of content happening there.

But the thing is, is, you know, I feel like a big part of what’s made me be successful in business is content. It is teaching, it is showing up, it is giving things for free and showing that I am a trusted source. And if I can teach you something and you can learn something, and ideally you can walk away and implement it quick and see results, then you’ll trust me. And you’ll want to say, you will say, what else, how else can I work with you? What else do you have? And that’s why I think a lot of our retailers over at crystal media haven’t left us for over a decade, like some of our retailers have been members for over a decade, which is so cool. And a big part of that’s the content. So I had just such a big focus.

Now the area where I felt like I dropped the ball a little bit with my word was I wasn’t as active and present on social media as I wanted to be.

I feel like I elevated a little bit, but not to the level I wanted to be. And the reason I wanted to be there was I know that the more visible you are and showing up, the more you’re going to grow your audience, the more you’re going to get that connection. With people, the more that you are just putting out that content and seeing what resonates with people, that you’ll learn from that.

You can then put out better content that people really resonate with. Then people start tagging their friends and sharing it with people. And then they just want to get further into your world. And so I feel like I did an okay job with that. I really could have done a better job with more behind the scenes content of travel and of doing my shows and partner meetings, like we just were on the road so much last year, and I barely documented that outside of my good morning, wherever I am posts that I do on my personal Instagram. So, you know, I really want to, it’s not like now I go into 2024 and content doesn’t exist, and now I move on to something else. I want to take what I learned. I still want it to be a big focus.

We’re going to go. All in even more on content, but I can learn from what I did in 2023 and see what worked and see where I fell short and put bigger emphasis on that and make sure that I’m holding myself accountable to it. And so that accountability can come into using my Asana, having weekly tasks, daily tasks to ensure that I’m getting those things done.

So I don’t forget about it and, wake up one day and be like, Oh. I still haven’t done that. We really have to create change and ways to hold ourself accountable to get stuff done.

So my word for 2024, I was really going between two words. The first was love because I’m getting married and also when we do business, when we do anything through the lens of love, we just show up differently.

Like you don’t get as disappointed if you didn’t hit the results you wanted because you went through with loving your customers and the people in the process to where it was enjoyable and you know you helped. And often when you show up for your business and your customers and your clients that way You’ll probably hit the number the hit the goal You’ll probably do even more than you wanted but that’s not what it’s about what it’s about is that love and that connection.

And so I really loved that idea of that being my word for the year. And there’s been previous years where I’ve picked two words and I, so I thought about maybe I should do two. ’cause I was really having a hard time not doing the word love. ’cause I just I love that. Especially viewing it from.

From business and operating that way. But the reason I didn’t pick it, the reason it was the runner up is because the other word I have just been saying so much, like it really is coming up a lot and I need the reminder to make my brain think that way. I don’t necessarily need that reminder of love to like love on our retailers and on the team and our partners, because I feel like I, I operate that way.

Like, 1 of my favorite books is the go giver. It’s all about giving just serve. And I feel like. We do that. Am I perfect at it? No. Could I do it better? I’m sure. But I just didn’t feel like I needed as much of a reminder for that as I did for my other word, which is leverage. In business, we can work so hard.

At trying to grow and trying to be visible and trying to build that we can just work so hard. And I’m sure you’ve seen, heard that saying work smarter, not harder and smarter can come into that word leverage. How can I leverage what I’ve already built? I’ve had this business for over 11 years. We have a solid foundation.

We have incredible customer case studies and success stories and how we’ve helped people. How can I leverage that versus try to recreate the wheel all the time? We have incredible partnerships. How can we leverage that? Like, how can we really go deeper instead of trying to find more and more of the same, that horizontal approach of just finding a lot more, how can we go vertical and go deeper?

With what we’ve already built because we have such a strong foundation. And so that is my 2024 word of the year, which is leverage. And it’s something that I need to do this. I’m filming this in 2023. I am, I will have a whiteboard or post it, note of that constant reminders because I have to train my brain to keep thinking about that leverage.

But even an email came in from a partner this week and she was. I could tell thinking about how do we leverage this? And I’m like, Ooh, I didn’t even think that way. I need that reminder. This has to be my word. So that is my word of the year. Now, if you like stuff like this, like the word of the year, really getting yourself set up for success, especially in the beginning of the year.

Like I love this time of year. It’s new, it’s fresh. You feel like you get to hit the restart button and just, go in strong. And so something I am doing that I’m so excited about is called the three day transformation challenge and it’s happening January 15th, 16th and 17th. This is three days live with me for an hour for three days at 8 30 mountain, 8 30 AM mountain.

And what we’re going to be mountain time. What we’re doing. Is I’m going to be sharing because I have massively transformed over the past year, even in less than a year. I have just transformed. Like I said, I’ve never felt more clear and confident with where my business is going. What I want personally, how I show up for myself for my business.

I’m in a really good place, but I had to work really hard to get here. And so I’m pulling back the curtain and sharing how I did it. And so in day one, we’re going to be focusing on clarity and vision day two is about action and momentum and day three is about growth and visibility. And so I’m going to share my hacks, the tools I’ve used to help me on day one to get really clear to vision cast word of the year is one of those things, but I do several things that day two with action and momentum.

I’m going to talk about what we can learn by getting into action and give you some. Give you some exercises to help you jump into action and help you get really clear where you need to create action to then give you momentum. And then that 3rd day with growth and visibility, we’re going to talk about digital marketing.

We’re going to talk about. Being seen and getting yourself out there and and some hacks to do that too. That will save you a lot of time and ways to have your content seen by more. So if you want to join me on this three day transformation challenge, go to crystalmediaco.com/transform and register.

So you could get your zoom link this, you could be on camera with me. You could also watch on Facebook and we’re just going to do this together. And I’m really excited for this challenge. I haven’t done this type of content, like in this full on version yet. So I think it’s going to be really special and a really great way to start the year.

I’d love to see you there. Register for that. And then let me know what is your word of the year. Go to Instagram, DM me. I’m Crystal DM me or leave a comment. Tell me what your word is. I’m dying to know. Let’s hold each other accountable and I will see you on the next CU where I’m going to talk about my, some of this transformation.

And it’s a very special episode next week because it’s my 100th. episode of Crystal Uncorked. Like what? A hundred episodes. So join me then I will see you on the next. See you. Bye.