Sarah Klongerbo and friends at the top of Camelback Mountain

April 2021: Highs, Lows, and Tip / Trick / Tool of the Month

April 2021 Highlights for Sarah Klongerbo

This monthly update is comin’ atcha a little late, as my husband and I spent the last weekend in April shopping in Kansas City, and I’ve spent the past week or two catching up on work. Tough, I know.

(Psssst: New here? I write a monthly recap of my journey to becoming a service-based business owner. Along with my [very honest] highs and lows, I share a helpful tip, trick, and tool of the month. Interested? Sign up to get first access every month!)

Overall, April was a lovely month — possibly more for Sarah Klongerbo the person than Sarah Klongerbo the business.

But where’s the line, anyway?

April Highs

I launched my first freebie!

I’m choosing to put this in the “highs” category, but as you’ll see in a second, it also belongs in the “lows.” 😅

Let’s start with the positive: I successfully created, published, and promoted my first freebie: a 10-step Website Launch Checklist.

I just wrote a thorough blog post about this whole “freebie” process, so check that out for the full DL.

In general, though, despite some initially lackluster stats, I do feel pleased that I at least got this task (which has been looming in my Asana list for months) accomplished.

As I continue to learn, done is often better than perfect.

Free Website Launch Checklist for Creatives

I also created a content survey.

In the name of creating freebies + other content that people truly want, I published a short survey that you (yes, you!) can take right now.

Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Honestly, no pressure to fill it out, but it is just three quick questions, and it really would help me prioritize my marketing efforts (so I can better serve you in the future!).

You don’t even have to enter your email, so your answers can be totally anonymous if you want.

Here, I’ll even embed it on this page right here, so you really have no excuse not to fill it out. 😜

I’m partnering with two ideal clients.

Okay, ladies, you know who you are. 😘

I won’t go on about these particular clients — they’re probably blushing already — but I just have to say how jazzed I am about the prospect of working with these two ambitious, creative women.

Apparently, your “dream client” really is out there… and she isn’t unattainable in your first year of business.

I tracked my time for four weeks straight.

Guys! I’m so proud of myself.

After months of complaining to y’all that I’m struggling to manage my time since going off on my own, I finally took matters into my hands (literally) by printing + filling out these free Time Tracking Worksheets.

Excluding a few travel days at the beginning + end of the month, I wrote down absolutely everything I did for every single half-hour increment throughout the month of April.

😱

I have yet to actually calculate these totals, so who knows how effectively I was actually spending my time… but I already know that the act of tracking itself helped me both block my time better + be more efficient with those allotted time blocks.

Baby steps.

I got to squeeze in some travel.

If you know me, you probably know I love to explore.

I won’t complain about the lack of travel during the pandemic, as I know Troy + I were already more fortunate than most, but we have traveled less over the last year than usual.

So when the opportunities arose to (safely) fly to Arizona for a few nights with friends at the beginning of April, then drive to Kansas City for a few nights at the end, we carpe’d diem.

Sarah Klongerbo and friends in Arizona

April Lows

The launch of my first freebie was… fine.

It’s not that I was expecting droves of downloads or anything.

Honestly, I mostly created my Website Launch Checklist for potential future clients. I knew it wasn’t necessarily going to connect deeply with my current network.

But, I still would have thought I’d get more than zero downloads after my first share on LinkedIn. 🤣

Now, I didn’t have much of a promotion strategy going into this… but it’s amazing how you really do need to try a few different things (+ times) before you start seeing success. Sure enough, once I began sharing the freebie in a few relevant Facebook groups, I started to see some actual downloads.

Again, check out my blog post detailing why + how I made this freebie (+ what I might do differently next time around)!

I’m physically incapable of sticking to my blog posting schedule.

Remember last month, when I said I was going to give myself grace for not blogging weekly + decided to post biweekly instead?

…Yeah, I posted once in April. 😫

To be fair, I did create some other marketing content (AKA that freebie + survey I mentioned) — but still. C’mon, Sarah!

I never set goals for April.

I still love my PowerSheets Goal Planner, but I completely neglected it in April.

I hit a point, a week or two into the month, where I hadn’t made time to set new monthly (not to mention quarterly) goals… and I finally decided to just let it go. I’m a little disappointed in myself, but at least I did get into that time tracking habit, which helped me feel more on top of things.

Oh, and a week into this new month… I still haven’t set goals for May. 🤦‍♀️ I do plan to, though!

Tip / Trick / Tool of the Month 💡

Tip: A “not yet” isn’t always a “no.”

Over the past few weeks + months, I’ve felt some uncertainty around the proposition I was given to go full-time (32 hours a week minimum) at the marketing agency where I currently work part-time as a copywriter.

The team is fantastic, the work is rewarding, and the additional benefits are tempting.

But, as I’ve shared with you, I barely have enough time to devote to my current clients as is. And if I’m honest, that work is what I quit my previous job to pursue, isn’t it?

So eventually, I told my new agency bosses that, while I’m flattered they want me to go full-time, I’m not ready to make that commitment.

They responded that they’d take what hours they can get + to let them know if anything changes in the future.

I’m not saying that offer will be on the table forever, but at least I have peace that I’m making the right move for me + my family right now.

Maybe I’ll change my mind. Maybe I won’t.

Friend, if you have recently given — or received — a “no,” know that it might actually mean a “not yet.”

Or maybe it is a “no,” and that’s exactly what you need to be able to say “yes” to something better.

Trick: Skin-Tone Emojis on Slack

Here’s a random one for ya.

If you use Slack for business, unless your workplace is incredibly boring, you probably use emojis in your messages. You can easily change the skin tone of your emojis by either:

  • Clicking once on the emoji inside the text box to cycle through each skin tone for that one emoji.
  • Clicking the smiley-face icon at the bottom-right of the text box, then clicking the “Skin Tone” button at the bottom, to select your default skin tone for all emojis.
How to Change Default Skin Tone for Emojis on Slack

Tool: Typeform

Love the look + feel of that content survey I asked you to fill out?

I created it with Typeform, the tool that makes answering questions fun.

Along with surveys, you can make + share applications, quizzes, polls, and more, all using simple, beautiful templates.

Under the free plan, you can create up to three Typeforms (with limited options) — which is perfect for solopreneurs like me in the beginning stages of our businesses!


That’s it for April, folks.

Again, thanks for coming along this business-building journey with me. And thanks in advance for filling out my survey. 😘

I really do want to make content that’s helpful for you, whatever that looks like.

Got a specific idea? Let me know. (Seriously — I want to hear it!)

Until next month!

Favorite Photos from March 2021

Sarah Klongerbo and friends in Arizona
The wives hanging by the pool at our VRBO in Arizona.
Sarah and Troy Klongerbo in Arizona
Pool time in April. 🙌🏼
Sarah and Troy Klongerbo in Arizona
We clean up okay.
Sarah Klongerbo and friends at the top of Camelback Mountain
Hiking Echo Trail on Camelback Mountain — most of us made it up!
Sarah Klongerbo on Camelback Mountain
Pretty proud + excited for my new hiking hobby.
Sarah and Troy Klongerbo in Arizona
Gelato as a reward for (at least one of us) climbing Camelback!
Sarah and Troy Klongerbo
Troy and me at my family’s Easter dinner… not sure what happened to my other leg here.
All my nieces (+ my one nephew) (+ my parents’ dog Gracie) at Schock family Easter.
Troy Klongerbo and Dog
Lunchtime walk to Falls Park in Sioux Falls.
Sarah and Troy Klongerbo downtown Sioux Falls
Benefits of working directly next door to your husband!
Pali Klongerbo and Moose Schock, Puppies at Devotions
Dog-sitting my new nephew Moose… Pali was just slightly jealous.
Moose Schock Puppy at Work
Moose hard at work in my office.
Sarah Klongerbo Chevy Impala
Saying goodbye to my old Chevy Impala…
Sarah and Troy Klongerbo and their cars
And Troy saying goodbye to his old Dodge Nitro…
Sarah and Troy Klongerbo with Acura MDX
…So that we could purchase this preowned Acura MDX!
Sarah Klongerbo with Acura MDX
Absolutely LOVING it!

April 2021: Highs, Lows, and Tip / Trick / Tool of the Month

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