2021 has been a strange year for most of us. We are somehow back to normal but still have the fear of COVID. We want to go out more but we need to take a mask or use hand sanitiser frequently. COVID has changed the ways people work and live.
I posted an Instagram post at the end of November and felt anxious that I have so many things that I haven’t finished in 2021. A few comments reminded me that I should be proud of what I’ve achieved this year. Inspired by Spotify Wrap Up, I decided to write a 2021 Wrap Up for myself. I am not here to boast about how brilliant I am but to mark some key achievements and reflections on this year.
Here is the content for this post:
- Career – Marketing
- Self Development – Courses and crazy mindmap
- Language – Pass my French DELF B2
- My Channel – from 0 to 0.9
- Partnership – University of Lincoln; Prospects.ac.uk
- Dance – Performance
- Travel – 9 places
- Career
2021 marks my first year in Harford Control. Graduating from the University of Lincoln, I equipped myself with marketing, event, strategy and business knowledge. However, there is a gap between theory and business reality. There are so many strategies and theories, but what I have learned this year is to put them into practice and to choose which one is suitable for my organisation. As Richard Rumelt mentioned, a good strategy is to make it focus rather than do everything that you want at the same time. Besides, some skills, such as Google Ads or Paid social, need me to learn through experience and testing to see which keywords are effective or which audience segment shows higher engagement. I appreciate the opportunity and support from Harford throughout the year.
I not only develop my marketing hard skills such as strategy making, Google Ads, paid social, graphic design (Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro), ICP, branding, market research, SEO, email campaign, agency management, but also put marketing within the business strategy to learn how to drive growth for the business through marketing.
With the help of Harford’s team, I have accomplished a few projects. Here is part of the highlights of my work:
- Work with internal and external stakeholders to clarify messaging and redesign the website. With organic content and Google ads campaign, the YOY website performance increases 120%!
- Create content calendar and write posts for business LinkedIn account, combining paid social ads campaign – followers increase 90% throughout the year.
- Create marketing strategy for UK and India; set up multiple campaigns; build up gantt chart and action plan weekly, monthly and yearly.
(Don’t want to make it sound like a CV, so I will stop here. If you are interested, please connect to my LinkedIn account)
2. Self-development
As a life-long learner, I am grateful for different online resources such as Coursera, LinkedIn learning, Google Digital Garage and HubSpot. During my year in Harford, I have done 13 courses in my spare time with a variety of marketing, branding, lean six sigma, data, leadership and finance.
As a big fan of mind maps, I review each course that I have done and summarise them into a mind map and share with my network on LinkedIn. By making these maps, I can not only make others benefit from the knowledge but also strengthen my own impressions of the key points.
Here is some mindmap that I have done throughout the year:
More crazy mindmaps, please head to Wiki-Crazy mindmaps page.
Here are the courses that I have done this year:
Marketing&Branding:
- Google Ads Display Certification – Google
- Google Ads Search Certification – Google
- Advanced Branding – LinkedIn
- Social Media Marketing Certified – HubSpot
- Customer Experience: Journey Mapping
- Writing Emails People Want to Read
- Storytelling for Business Video
Lean Six Sigma:
Data:
Leadership:
Finance:
3. Language
J’ai reussi à l’examen de DELF B2 en français! — I finally passed my French DELF B2 exam!
I can say this is one of my biggest achievements of mine this year. Having learnt french for 4-5 years, I always want to get my French skill certified. However, with the pressures of a master degree, dissertation and job hunting, I had to stop studying French for a while in 2020. I set a goal for myself at the beginning of 2021 — no matter what happens this year, I have to get the DELF B2 qualification.
With 2 months and a half of strategic preparation, I finally passed the exam!! I am a certified fluent French speaker now. Bravo!!
4. Channel: Red (Chinese Pinterest), YouTube, WeChat Video Channel; Bilibili – Partnership and Friends
I run a few channels in my spare time including Red (Chinese Pinterest), YouTube, WeChat Video Channel and Bilibili. My mission is to share helpful and unique content with my target audience, which can benefit them in terms of studying or finding a job in the UK, working in marketing in the UK or living in the UK as an expat.
This year, I focus on creating Chinese content and running my Chinese channel. My Red account has gained great success throughout the year. I started from 0 at the beginning of 2021. By the end of this year, I have gained 710 followers and 1539 likes&favs! All the posts are created by myself with my own experience and reflection, including videos and articles. In particular, making a video is so time-consuming, from brainstorming topics, writing scripts, storyboard, finding resources (background music&video), shooting, editing, making bilingual subtitles, to distributing and promoting. However, I have a sense of achievement after the final video was published. Many people commented and said my content is really helpful for them. Nothing could be worth more than this!
I have also uploaded my video on YouTube and Bilibili, please feel free to have a look!
More surprisingly, some companies read through my posts and invited me to be their brand ambassador. For example, I built up a partnership with CareerTu (an e-learning platform specialised in digital skills) and helped them promote their online marketing courses. I also made some amazing friends since I started my channels and had some great conversations with them.
5. Partnership (University of Lincoln; Prospects.ac.uk )
Although I graduated in 2020, I still have a close relationship with the university. I feel honored to be invited by Lincoln International Business School to talk about my master study, ways to develop opportunities and employability. I become the alumni that I dreamt of, sharing experiences with the new students in the first week of their degree. It’s good to be back in the classroom in person since lockdown. It reminds me how far I have come to this point. I appreciate all the opportunities that the university has provided to me.
A few other things that I have done for the university:
- Did a presentation in the International Master Class to introduce MSc Events Management Program – March
- Made a video for the International Office as peer tutor in the Best 100 students program. – March
- Provided a testimonial for the university website and student guide about studying in the University – May
- Provided a testimonial for English Language Center(ELC) about how the center improves my academic English – November
- Did a presentation to introduce dissertation writing to students in Guizhou – December
What’s more, prospects.ac.uk reshared my case study in September. I realise that the content that I created can be timeless and it can make an influence on students each year. Read the full article here:
6. Dance
My passion for dance has never declined. I went to London regularly to take dance classes and online dance courses this year. I have also joined a dance group, Beatbots, to dance street dance and joined lyrical dance classes in Nottingham.
Having danced Hip-hop, Jazz Funk and Waacking for a few years, I rediscovered my love for lyrical dance. The body movements, line, travel, and different techniques fascinate me in lyrical. Thanks Sue’s for all her amazing choreographies each week.
Besides, I performed on stage for the first time in 1 year and a half. Although I am experienced in performing and dancing on stage, it has been such a long time. I did feel really nervous when I got on the stage in December! In the meantime, I enjoy the lights, claps and adrenaline on the stage. I hope that we can be back to normal soon because I bloody love performing on stage.
Here is our performance, have a look:
7. Travel
I didn’t manage to travel abroad this year due to COVID. However, I feel lucky that I have the opportunity to explore the UK. I have travelled to 9 places this year including:
- Liverpool – (Safari, Cavern Club, museum)- May
- Bristol (cider tasting) – July
- Newquay (I found my new hobby – surfing) – July
- Stratford-Upon-Avon (Shakespear; such a beautiful town) – July
- Forest Match (The atmosphere is amazing) – August
- Witby (I had the best oyster and mussels there) – August
- Thorpe Park (Birthday trip. Need some excitement to start my new year) – October
- London (Winter Wonderland, Buckingham Palace, Covent Garden) – December
- Nottingham (my dance base and there are so many delicious food!) – Twice a week
It is better to travel ten thousand miles than to read ten thousand books.
While I like reading books, traveling to different places makes me have a deeper impression. Talking to new people, putting myself in an unfamiliar environment, doing something different, are all unique experiences and nobody can take them away from me.
Hopefully, 2022 can be back to normal so I can have the chance to travel to more places.
Maybe I didn’t make another TEDxTalk like 2019 or didn’t write another dissertation with a distinction like 2020, but I am sure that my career and my life are going upwards. No matter it’s my work in marketing, french exam, crazy mindmaps, my channels, partnerships or dance, I put 200% effort every time to make sure that I wouldn’t be regretful that I was not all in. Time flies so fast and I am excited to see what comes next. Thank you 2021. 2022 will be better!
