December 16, 2022

My 22 Favorite Books of 2022

December 16, 2022/ Emily Hessney Lynch

Like 2021 and 2020 before it, 2022 contained plenty of struggles and joys, all coexisting in this strange life. In May I celebrated three years of running my own business! I also received my New York State woman-owned business certification in November.

I also dove into the world of TikTok and blogged about it often, which included one of my most popular blog posts of 2022, where I shared what I learned by posting on TikTok 3 times per day for 3 months. Additionally, I wrote about non-marketing topics like how my ADHD affects me as a business owner and the joys of visiting all 31 libraries in Monroe County.

Libraries have been essential to my reading journey in 2022–they’ve often led me to pick up books I might not have encountered otherwise. Last year, I read over 120 books and shared 35 favorites on the blog. In 2020, I read 86 books and shared my top 25. This year, I’ve narrowed it down even more! I’ve read 155 books this year and I’m sharing 22 of my absolute favorites.

December 05, 2022

Learnings from My Most Popular TikToks of 2022

December 05, 2022/ Emily Hessney Lynch

I started off 2022 with an experiment: I set a goal to post on TikTok 3 times a day for 3 months and see what happened. It was challenging, fascinating, and fun! Afterwards, I kept posting twice a day on TikTok. That consistency has helped me continue to grow. I’ve gone from 1,500 followers in mid-April to 3,400 at the time of writing this post. It’s not monumental growth, but it’s steady! Today on the blog, I want to share reflections on some of my most popular TikToks (any that received 10k views or more) and what I’ve learned along the way.

November 28, 2022

8 Blog Posts You Loved in 2022

November 28, 2022/ Emily Hessney Lynch

I always enjoy writing this blog and have found it especially fun to dig into TikTok in 2022. I’ve written about video types to make for TikTok, getting comfortable on camera, reviewing your TikTok analytics, recording voice overs, and more. Since I’ve written so extensively on many topics this year, I thought a countdown of popular posts might be helpful. It’s always fascinating (and useful!) to dive into Google Analytics and see which posts are getting the most traction with readers. Without further ado, here are eight blog posts readers loved in 2022.

September 26, 2022

Reflections on Instagram: Its Evolution & Mine

September 26, 2022/ Emily Hessney Lynch

There’s no denying that Instagram has been through quite an evolution. All apps need to adapt to keep up with what consumers want, but as a social media professional, I fear that Instagram is losing sight of itself in its efforts to keep up with competitors. Today on the blog, I’m sharing reflections on the changes we’ve seen with Instagram so far and how I’m shifting my approach to the platform.

May 03, 2021

Celebrating 2 Years of Serve Me the Sky Digital

May 03, 2021/ Emily Hessney Lynch

Picking a business anniversary is a funny thing. There are many dates I could have chosen: June 2017, when I signed my first freelance client. July 2018, when I got my DBA. But the day I chose to celebrate is May 6th, because that’s when it felt most real. That was the first day I sat down to work for myself full-time after walking away from my stable day job.

When I celebrated this milestone last May, we were two months into a global pandemic that no one would have guessed we’d still be living through a year later. Running a business during a global pandemic is hard! It seemed that with many organizations, when times got tough, marketing was an easy thing to slash from the budget. To get me through a slow time, I picked up some part-time work as a contact tracer, which was fascinating and engaging. Business has been ramping back up, and I’m so excited about that!

In addition to running a business during a global pandemic, I also had to navigate doing so while helping care for my mother as she declined due to stage 4 cancer, then grieving and taking bereavement time while self-employed. This year was a lot to handle. I’m proud that my business is still standing here strong today, after a super difficult year.

May 12, 2020

Celebrating One Year of Serve Me the Sky Digital

May 12, 2020/ Emily Hessney Lynch

It’s been just over one year since I went full-time with my business. On May 6, 2019, I sat down at my grandma’s old desk in the guest room, booted up my new MacBook Air, opened up the Gmail business account I’d just created, and wondered, “What the heck do I do now?”

The good news is, I figured it out, slowly but surely. Day by day. One of the many tricky things about working for yourself is that there’s no go-to person you can ask for all the answers. I’m lucky to have awesome self-employed friends who were always down to brainstorm, a super supportive husband, and a great community of people cheering me on.

When I quit my day job, I had just 2 clients on retainer. That was it, and I was terrified. The stats look a little different now: I worked with 44 clients in my first year of business. There was a lot of variety to my work: 12 writing projects, 10 nonprofits, 9 one-on-one consultations, 6 paid speaking engagements, 2 higher education institutions, 2 small businesses, 1 startup, 1 political candidate, and 1 multinational corporation that I can’t talk about (yet) because of an NDA.

I’m really proud of everything I’ve accomplished with my business in this first year. So today, I’m taking an opportunity to look back and reflect.