TWO years. As of October 16th, I’ve run my own communications consultancy for two years. It’s a tremendous joy to take my skills and use it for a positive impact in the world.

In a couple of years, I’ve had a chance to support campaigns, events, people, and uplift issues that are incredibly important. I’ve worked across the country and over Zoom screens to see important information spread across the US and beyond.

This past year, I had a chance to not only support big-picture strategy and execution, but I’ve also supported social media content management for brands that matter to me. And that means I’ve put my heart and soul into those issues and did not spend as much time uplifting my own work! It really is an interesting juggle.

Many of my clients are supported through a collaboration of freelance communicators as part of a group called the DigiGeeks Collective. We deliver agency-level work but customizing it at a level agencies cannot promise. It’s a thrill for us to work with so many great organizations.

As I head into my THIRD year of consulting, I hope to take a few moments to pause and share my learnings. I focused more on the brands I support, and I know I should also focus on reporting out, so you know what I’m doing. But before I make that a regular part of my work process, I wanted to share the top THREE discoveries I’ve made as a consultant so far:

1. Communication skills do not come naturally to everyone, and that’s okay!

2. You have to spend money to get money. As an executive director of a small nonprofit, I know this challenge very well. Figuring out how much to spend to make sure you get the most return is really tricky. I’m honored to work with some incredible nonprofits as we navigate this juggle.

3. Internal communication is just as important as external. Without internal communication, you will miss opportunities to amplify good work externally. Without external communication, your internal team may not get all the accolades nor funding they need to keep doing that awesome work.

I’m thankful to my family, clients, friends (many who were/are clients who have turned into friends) and DigiGeeks partners who have helped me succeed through another year of doing work that makes me incredibly proud.