I’ve mentioned it many times, but spring is the season for plans, visioning, and dreaming — for life and for business.
And while I’m not completely finished dreaming and planning all areas of my life for the next year, I do have enough of a vision for Growing Up Herbal in 2021 that I feel good about moving forward with my plans and sharing my direction with you today.
In October of this year, I will have been blogging for 10 years. You can read my very first post on GUH right here! I wrote this post even before I wrote my first “welcome” post!
Ten years of sharing my herbal journey and my life online. I’m not sure if that’s a big deal to most people, but for me, it feels like a big milestone. I’m not sure what the stats are for bloggers who stick it out this long. Does being consistent for 10 years mean I’m in this for the long-haul? I’m not sure.
Anyway, during my 10 years of blogging, my business vision and purpose have both made many shifts.
For example, I started blogging as a way to market my Etsy shop where I sold handmade herbal skincare products for children. When I closed my shop down, I transitioned the blog to more of an herbal education site where I taught natural-minded moms how to care for their kiddos with herbs. Eventually, the door opened for me to work with some big herbal companies (read my stories here: part 1 + part 2), and my blog took a backseat during this period. In early 2020, I stepped out of my employee role and put my entrepreneur hat back on, transitioning Growing Up Herbal yet again to more of a lifestyle blog where I shared what herbalism looks like in my life as well as other things that make up my seasonal lifestyle.
So here I am, looking at 2021 and where I want to take my little blog this year.
Below I plan to briefly unpack my vision for GUH over the next 12 months.
First off, Growing Up Herbal will remain a lifestyle blog where I share how I live a natural, seasonal lifestyle. I plan to write for the blog, sharing details of my life, tips and travels, recipes and resources, inspirations and goals, as often as I feel compelled to write.
While I’ll still be sharing bits and pieces about herbs from time to time on the blog, the majority of my herb-focused teaching and mentoring will shift over to my Seasonal Herbalism Community on Patreon. I want to have a place that is dedicated to that topic and where I can really help guide others who want to learn from me in this area. This is something I’ve had in the works for years, and 2021 is the year to make it happen. I can’t wait to see how this community grows over the coming year!
Much of my blog content will filter over to Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube (or rather YouTube will filter over to the blog!), so those will be the places I’ll be spending time on social media. This means there’s a very good chance I’ll be stepping away from Facebook as I see very little reach and engagement with those who follow me there, and I’m not sure it’s worth continuing to invest my time in that space.
Another change you’ll see coming this year is a new website design. My last big redesign was back in 2018 with a smaller one in early 2020. The new redesign will simplify my site quite a bit, get a lot of background techy things in good working order, and also serve to bring my vision of seasonal living to life a bit more.
I will continue to create courses and products that align with my lifestyle and help others to live a more natural, seasonal lifestyle. I LOVE creating really helpful, detailed things for y’all. Not only does it push me to grow, but I love hearing your testimonies/stories of how it’s helped you to grow as well.
Lastly, I plan to create quite a bit more free goodies this year such as printables, downloads, community challenges, resource guides, etc. all designed to help you better live the lifestyle you’re striving for. I also want to pull more of a community element back to the blog, something I feel that’s been lost in the blogging world as of late.
Okay, so those are my plans this year. I can’t wait to see how things unfold.
As I’ve said before, I don’t like to plan too far ahead. One year is a good amount of time as far as plans go. Life is ever-changing, and it never fails that when I plan too far in advance, I end up changing my mind and then feeling guilty about all the time I spend planning things that no longer apply.
Love and light,
Meagan
PS. Thanks so very much to those of you reading this. It means so much that you are here, reading my words, supporting me in any way you can, connecting with me via comments and emails, and being genuinely kind and helpful online friends.