I’m finally finding time to sit down and write again. My goal in 2024 was to sit down and write weekly to keep myself accountable to my writing practice and balance out the highs and lows of Anact. It’s the best remedy I have found to orient myself and get grounded.
Alas, our International Women’s Day activation during SXSW last month took up most of my time. I’m happy to report that we had a fantastic event! You can check it out here.
My personal highlights were the following:
- Seeing a good friend of mine walk in with her daughter in her stroller and feel safe and comfortable enough in the space that we built to bring her child
- The feedback from one attendee that it felt like she was discovering in real time new ideas and thoughts she had never heard before
- That our panels were refreshing and hard hitting and unique amongst the SX line-up
- Our private farm dinner at Boggy Creek the night before where we used local produce to create the menu (still dreaming of the carrot soup) to thank our speakers and partners
- How much people loved that we had a non-alcoholic bar, many thanks to Health-Ade Kombucha, Kin Euphoric, and Rambler’s Sparkling Water
- Watching our amazing team execute and soar before, during, and after the activation
- Having our event go viral several weeks before the activation
- Experiencing the growth of being able to pull off an event of that size after doing 50+ community events over the years for Anact
Takeaway: do the thing that gives you the most energy even if no one else gets it because that will be the thing that keeps you authentic and true and helps you find the people and moments that resonate with you more than trying to do what everyone expects. Next up.. an Act Up activation in the Fall to prep for the election and do a breakdown of where candidates and companies rank on sustainability.
Anact activations are cool but are only possible by having the numbers makes sense for the business. We have a company to run, y’all! I am beyond grateful for our amazing angel investors who have really stepped up to fill several key gaps to provide strategic guidance and insights. Managing, understanding, and using cash flow projections, P&L’s, balance sheets, and data insights to drive the pulse of the business is giving me a level of confidence as a founder that I have never had before. I’m not going to lie… looking back at things that didn’t work is not very fun but alas it’s how we get better and tweak things to find what is working.
Here’s what I am excited about for Q2:
- Building out Anact’s social media and communications strategy so we can build out our community online
- Growing on several key sales channels (more to come in the Summer/Fall on this!)
- Continuing to build out the right team (you don’t see one basketball player in the NBA championship game if you know what I mean)
- Local earth month events that we are a part of in Austin - follow us @anactglobal to learn more!
- Doing more writing and starting a draft of my first book on how I built Anact from the ground up to inspire women (and anyone else with a vision) to pursue their dreams and build out their vision
- Visiting my family in Ireland this summer
- Seeing more humanitarians step into business roles and lead with their heart while also having a strong desire to win (most people don’t know that I started my career in the human rights sector and ended up in the private sector and the apparel industry by chance but have found it’s where one can have the most impact)
- Launching an Anact upcycled product line that you will not want to miss and we can promise you will be your summer staple!
Something I am not excited for… the influx of people coming into town for the eclipse on Monday. Word on the street is that we technically are not supposed to be looking at it… we should be inside meditating as it occurs so that is what I will be doing!
But all in all, not a bad start to 2024. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year has in store for Anact.