The worst SMART goals ever

Hello!

I hope 2025 has started well for you.

It’s been such a long time since I last sat down to write a newsletter (May last year in fact 🙈 that I think I’ve forgotten how!

Last year felt like it was the year of beginning again for me. It was my first full year back at work after maternity leave and the first year back to solely focusing on my own business after making the decision to call it quits on a business I co-founded in 2021. It also felt like I was beginning again as a new version of myself - one that was now a mother and a business owner. It’s safe to say last year was spent navigating this new identity, rekindling old relationships, starting brilliant new ones and muddling through on very little sleep!

2024 felt like a heads-down kind of year. My focus was pretty much solely on rebuilding client relationships and “doing the work” that pays the bills. I ended the year feeling a bit disheartened by this as I’d neglected this newsletter, posting on LinkedIn and Instagram, going to networking events and meeting new people, and just generally being visible and letting people know what I was up to. There are personal projects I’ve started and never finished, a course I am writing that never got launched and goals I had that haven’t been reached, which all left me feeling a little disappointed in how 2024 had gone. But then a newsletter by a fellow freelancer Beth Gladstone landed in my inbox at exactly the right time. Beth shared her experience with these periods in business, calling it her ‘career silent years’ - “years where I’m still working, but not shouting about it. Where I’m deep in work but not thinking deeply about where my work might take me.” And safe to say I resonated with this on a deep level.

My business has always been about the people I’ve met along the way - clients, collaborators and fellow freelance friends and I’m excited to spend more time this year meeting people, being visible and sharing more about my experience being a business owner and parent.

2025 has also probably the first year in the last (almost) 8 years of business I haven’t set any goals or ambitions for work (or personal life) and honestly, it feels pretty liberating. Now, I know this is not what the productivity gurus or business coaches would advise, there’s nothing SMART about it. But this year, it just feels right.

Each year I pick 3 words to guide my year, and sometimes I even get them engraved on a bracelet to wear that reminds me of them each time I look at it. Last year my 3 words were: Abundance, Focus and Joy. Now, I’m not sure if this is some kind of symbolic irony but I lost the bracelet about 7 months into the year. 2024 definitely had moments of all of those things, but it also had its more testing moments. This year, I was really struggling to come up with my three words. They usually come pretty organically but this year nothing felt right. I found instead I kept coming back to just one word which I’ve chosen as my guiding word for this year: Love.

Doing things I love with, and for the people I love.

This is what is going to guide my 2025.

Personally, this means spending as much quality time as possible with my son, family and friends. Work-wise it means continuing to work with great people doing inspiring things and launching projects I’ve poured a lot of love and time into but that haven’t quite made it into the real world yet. Last year I was lucky enough to work with some amazing people and businesses and I can’t wait for more of that in 2025. It also means hosting more in-person workshops and supporting small business owners through my new 1:1 design support service Designer in Your Pocket, and my cohort-based course for freelancers and founders (more on this in my next newsletter).

2024 in 60 seconds

A highlight of some of my favourite projects from 2024 (and a sneak peek at the end of a project that is still in the works and launching this year) 🎉

Last year I was lucky enough to work with:

💻 2 B2B tech companies

👏 A social enterprise that helps victims of trauma through sport and movement

🧘‍♀️ 2 wellbeing brands

🏢 A prop-tech VC fund

🇫🇷 A French château offering luxury holidays

✨& a number of brilliant service-providers offering their expertise in different fields

Things to look forward to in 2025

I am hosting my second workshop in collaboration with Seed Sisterhood at The Yard Norwich in on February 19th. This workshop will help small business owners and service providers to learn how to think for their brand.

Finally, I’ve spent some time over the past couple of months refreshing my website (always the hardest job as a business owner!). In 2025 I will be supporting founders, brand strategists and teams in creating new brands and reimagining existing ones through thoughtful brand identity design. If this sounds like you then feel free to get in touch and we can chat about how I may be able to help!

For anyone who has stuck around since May last year and made it to the end of this email, thank you and I hope to be back in your inbox again before May 2026!

All the best,

Maddy

👋 Hi, I’m Maddy

A creative designer living and working in Norwich. I’ve been working in the industry for almost 8 years and I’m passionate about helping businesses to connect to their brands’ spirit so we can show the world who they are through thoughtful and courageous branding. I work with founders, brand strategists and team leaders to create new brands and reimagine existing ones.

You can find out more about what I do here.

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