I was heading back from a client meeting and had my radio on KLove, our local Christian music station. A song came on that I’ve “heard” before but I had not really listened to the lyrics until today.
“Truth Be Told” by Matthew West talks about the lies we tell to others – not always being open and honest. He goes on to say that the only way to fix it is to be honest.
As I listened to the lyrics while driving back it got me thinking about the past year for myself personally and here at Dogwood. Even more so to the personas that we build on social media of our perfect lives without showing all the things, the secrets we keep behind closed doors.
There were a lot of ups and downs that we all experienced during 2020, some more than others. I thought I would share some of mine in the hopes that it inspires others.
Faith
On a personal level, I don’t think my faith has been challenged as much as it was in 2020. I professed Christ when I was 7. Every Sunday I was at church and most Wednesdays too. In 2020, this was taken from us.
I’m a huge proponent of technology but after a few weeks of watching church services online, I longed to be back in church. Don’t get me wrong, I’m super grateful for the ability to watch online as even now we have returned to it again as of this writing.
For several weeks though we did nothing. Truth be told, if it weren’t for how important I felt it was to set an example to my kids, it would have been even harder to return when we did.
Conviction, the Holy Spirit, and my mom all-in-one got us to start attending drive-in services on Saturday nights. We’d get an Icee and pray for a cool breeze while we sang in the car and listened to the weekly message in the summer heat.
From Saturday nights to every other row, 6 feet apart on Sunday mornings, we were able to transition back in September with a renewed sense of thankfulness for the ability to attend in person.
I’m sure others may have similar stories of how their faith was challenged in 2020. Prayerfully I hope you have been able to attend worship services virtually or in person, and more importantly stay connected to your local body.
Dogwood
I freaked out in March when businesses started shutting down. We were 15 months old. Because we are new, we have invested everything we’ve made into equipment and people.
Thankfully only one client left that month. Everyone else we work with stuck it out. Some even increased their investment in marketing themselves and saw rewards too.
We challenged ourselves to work harder, even when we were stuck at home. We doubled down on telling our story and connecting with others and it worked. We ended 2020 with a 42% growth in sales compared to our first year.
We applied for and received paycheck protection program funds. This provided security and what we also saw as an opportunity to help our community and create more jobs.
We hired a new web designer to increase capacity in how many sites we could build at a time and another digital media specialist to handle our increase in social media and content clients. We also hired two new digital marketing specialists to go out and find new business and later an admin specialist.
Did we make mistakes this year? Absolutely.
Did we learn from them? You bet.
Any regrets? Not one.
Truth be told, every person that came across our path, every client we work with, they all have a reason and purpose. For all of them we are thankful.
And You?
What are you going through right now? 2020 wasn’t easy for anyone but being honest is the only way to fix it. We have to talk and share with each other. Maybe it’s not here on a blog post or on social media – but talk. Don’t hold it in. Let your truth be told.
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