Ah, the yearly recap post! I personally love reading recap posts on other blogs because I find it fun and inspiring to reflect with bloggers on the years gone by, where they went, what they achieved, and what they wanted to accomplish but didn’t. This is definitely one of my favourite traditions here on ThatGoanGirl!
My 2019 began on such a fun note! I rang in the year in Goa with my big, fat Goan family – because everyone (well almost) was down in Goa from around the world, all at once! I escaped to South Goa the day after New Year’s for what I thought was a family staycation, but turned out to be a surprise birthday vacay for me! Pretty soon, everyone left Goa and I returned to Mumbai where I stayed and worked at my Digital Marketing Agency for a few months with nothing eventful happening.
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It was during the end of 2018, that my partner, Sandeep and I were approached by an agency in Goa, asking us to merge with them – and so business-wise, we took it slow until we figured out what we wanted to do. A few quick trips from Mumbai to Goa had me sampling a dozen new restaurants like Peep Kitchen and Mahe Goa, and that’s about all I did for the first slow quarter of the year. In fact, the most exciting activity I undertook in 3 months was a cycle tour in Divar!
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By mid-March, I announced that my company, Digitally Scrambled, was indeed merging with an agency in Goa in my post – The Business Side of Things. But before coming to Goa to begin a new chapter, putting travel on the back-burner for God knows how long and moving back in with my parents (how I dreaded giving up my independence!), I found a way to squeeze in my first trip to Rajasthan! I spent 10 days travelling around Pushkar and Jodhpur, staying at the magnificent Jog Niwas and doing non-touristy things. In case you haven’t been, you’ll find my Guide to Pushkar and Guide to Jodhpur helpful.
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In April, my partner and I shut down Digitally Scrambled that were running for 3 years, and moved base to take our positions as Partners in a new company. It didn’t take us long to realize what a huge mistake that was and that the rosy picture portrayed to us was nothing but! Run by a couple of 20-year-olds who haven’t worked in a corporate set-up for a day in their lives (let alone a digital marketing agency), and a team of freshers straight out of college who didn’t even know what digital marketing was, the shiny image that was portrayed turned out to be a web of mismanagement, lies and loopholes, slowly revealing to us the reason that this Agency, its Parent Company and Sister Concerns had so many ‘partners’ who joined and left.
It took us no more than 2 months to realize that this was going nowhere as our vision for our company (that of going above and beyond to delight clients with exceptional work and results) and theirs (to onboard anyone who pays and let their incompetent staff figure out how to make it work) did not match, so we bid them a hearty farewell at the end of May. A detailed post on my experience there will be one to look forward to in 2020. If you’re a young entrepreneur, I’m sure you’ll learn a lot from my journey, as I did, so keep an eye out for it!
Somewhere in the midst of trying to untangle their messes, the opportunity to travel knocked once more and I made a 2-day trip to Hyderabad, ticking off the state of Telangana from my list of places to set foot in. On this, my work outing at the Novotel Hyderabad Airport during the holy month of Ramadan, I finally mixed my love of food and travel this year with a Ramadan Food Walk, even visiting the kitchens of the legendary Haleem producer, Pista House! But 2 days isn’t enough for a trip – any trip – for someone like me who loves slow travel. So I am definitely looking forward to visiting Hyderabad again.
In June, my agency, Digitally Scrambled was up and running again. You know what they say – out of misfortune comes something good! My partner and I had no intention of ever running Digitally Scrambled in Goa, but after 2 months of (trying to) run the show as partners, and being privy to plenty of information from what was supposed to be Goa’s Best Digital Marketing Agency, we saw what shoddy, half-a$$ed work reputed clients were paying good money for – and we knew that with the competitive prices, excellent customer service and of course, the results that we were known for in Mumbai and Delhi, Goa was a market waiting to be tapped.
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In the same month, I headed back to Mumbai to recuperate from one of the most harrowing corporate experiences… if this agency can be considered a corporate, that is. And to do so, I made an epic road trip from Kolkata to Sikkim to the beautiful mountain town of Pelling. From exploring the things to do in Pelling to living in luxury at Elgin Mt Pandim, it was undoubtedly one of the year’s most beautiful experiences. On my way back to Kolkata, I chanced upon another off-beat gem called Ravangla and spent a couple of days there too! And before heading back to Goa, I squeezed in as much as I could see in a new city – and wrote about my 24 hours in Kolkata.
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From then on, I focussed on work; on building Digitally Scrambled up again, since we had literally wasted a good six months of the year and had the added headache of registering the company all over again. I’ve started from scratch many times over the years, and Sandeep and I are no strangers to hard work. The two of us worked round the clock, as we did in the initial days, we collected enough money and hired a team – our first employees. I put a stop on travel and even the blog suffered as we dedicated day and night to building up again – because now, we had salaries to pay. We were forced to grow up, business-wise. It was as if we’d been thrown into the deep end of the pool and were made to swim – which we did, rather than digging our graves in the agency we were to be Partners at. One of this year’s biggest lessons was just that – Don’t be afraid to walk away from toxicity, or to change your direction, even if you’ve given up everything to get to where you are.
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Success is sweet, but the secret is sweat – and all of you who follow me on Instagram have seen glimpses of me spending every waking hour on my laptop. How it paid off! In six months – June to December – we’ve not only done much better than we ever had in Mumbai but better, in every sphere, than the agency we merged with and separated from…an agency running for years with triple the resources and manpower that we have! How incredible is that!
So while I couldn’t travel as much as I’d have liked to this year, I did explore Goa a lot more. I had a fabulous, luxurious staycation at The Grand Hyatt Goa, I chilled out at Sonesta Inns, I watched sunsets and swam at Novotel Dona Sylvia and I let my hair down (which was much needed by the end of the crazy year) at Cinnamon Agonda and Agonda Cottages.
Oh, did I mention I met not one or two, but FOUR of my idols in the food industry this year, too? Yep! The legendary Chef Gaggan Anand, Chef Manish Mehrotra, Chef Asma Khan and Chef Vineet Bhatia, on various occasions through the year as part of my food-related endeavours. Instances like these remind me of how fortunate I am to be able to do what I love.
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In my recap of 2018, I mentioned that I wanted to slow down and enjoy what I’d built so far. But turns out, I wasn’t done building yet. 2019 has been one hell of a roller coaster ride – from scaling my company up to hitting the breaks on it, getting the high of being a partner at an agency and having the guts to walk away from it when I had nothing to go back to, and then building my company up from scratch again – with all the twists and turns that I’ll share with you soon. I think that ‘a roller coaster ride’ is an apt way to describe the last 365 days.
If someone had to ask me where I saw myself five years down the line, back in 2015, I’d have never in my wildest dreams thought that I’d have such experiences to share, that I’d have my own company, that I’d work out of home in Goa…! And I like it that way – not knowing what the future holds is exhilarating!
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Will 2020 be smooth sailing? You’ll have to stay tuned to find out with me! Thanks for sticking by me on this crazy adventure! Lots of love and best wishes for the New Year and the New Decade. Let’s do this! *fist pump*
Gr8 read wishing you continued success.
Author
Thank you for taking the time out to read, Angelo, and for the good wishes!
Awesome !! Enjoyed reading it.. 🙂
Author
Thanks Bhakti! <3