2020 was a rather interesting year, to say the least!
The whole world was turned upside in a matter of months which caused us to pivot our small businesses, trim the fat off our budgets, and most importantly exposed people for who and what they are. For us here at Haute People (me) I had BIG plans like any other year and this would have been my breakout year! I will be taking you on a journey through 2020 just to showcase things that happened.
2020 a Year in Review: The Bad and Good
January – February
In the early part of the year (January) I usually start planning my trip to New York for Fashion Week where I’m invited by Fashion Mingle to cover events as a Blogger. This February however, since I had big plans I decided to sit things out to give me more time to plan and prepare in hopes of waiting for the September shows. I had it all planned out. I contacted a PR Agent to give me some Press while I’m there in local independent newspapers, podcasts, web shows, a photoshoot and I even budgeted for an ad on a Jumbotron in the middle of Times Square. It was a good thing I decided to sit that out as maybe I would have been patient “X” who brought that “strain” to Jamaica.
Here’s what you need to know about NYFW as an International Blogger
I also launched The Haute People Internship Program where I found two talented and dedicated Interns who were ready and willing to learn all about this crazy/fun side of Blogging. This was quickly diminished after we covered our first and last event of the year as a team due to COVID-19.
March
In March, I decided to finally tear my old blog down and re-launch a new one that was hosted here on WordPress. I’ve been blogging for 7 years but some things like building a site from the ground up is extremely difficult. I announced a launch date and got everybody hyped and the Blog was not ready! I then pivoted and decided patience would be the name of this game and included an Email Marketing series that brought us our first 10,000 pageviews! Email Marketing is not dead!
I was also able to do a few sponsored posts with a few local brands here in Jamaica and got one of those featured in The Jamaica Observer. This was amazing as I rode that wave and used this as a backlink which allowed my site to be found by Google which meant more views!
I also received my first cheque from Media.Net the Ad Agency that serves ads on this site which was amazing! Most new Blogs can take quite some time to generate ad revenue and I’m glad we were able to accomplish this. You can read all about that here:
The Rest of the Year
Let’s be honest, the rest of the months were jumbled all together, as while so many things happened, so little things happened! For starters, the country was under curfew and some parishes like St Catherine were on a two weeks lockdown which meant no one in and no one out except for essential workers.
This had a major impact on the Entertainment Industry as no events were being held which means we had no events to cover! From here, we did a few blog posts here and there and brought back “Behind the Seams” but not consistently.
Getting to the end of the year felt like a huge relief for most of us, as we felt like “we made it”. In retrospect, 2020 was not the worst year of my life as through it all I was never got sick at all which is weird and I still had a job and income and I was at peace. I had no idea where that peace came from but it’s something I felt on the inside and a feeling that said, “Even though the world is upside down, you are going to be ok“.
So what’s for 2021? I have no idea! All I know is I have the strong urge to keep going, plan, and be prepared!
Let me know in the comments section how 2020 was for you!
#2020 a Year in Review: The Bad and Good
#2020 a Year in Review: The Bad and Good
#2020 a Year in Review: The Bad and Good
#2020 a Year in Review: The Bad and Good
