We turned 23 years old this month.

It certainly snuck up on us! And initially it felt like the year blew by without achieving much of what we had dreamed we would. But reflecting on this 23rd year of Sponge has been quite an experience for me.

This year has been a massive mix of milestones and real challenges. Someone wise once told me:

There is time for sowing and a time for reaping what you have sown.

This year has definitely felt like more sewing than reaping, which meant a lot of hard work, patience, and overcoming obstacles.

But despite the bumps, the progress has been truly rewarding.

Here are some of the highlights from our 23rd year:

• Our foundational program evolved: We’ve run and refined our ElectroMagnetic Brand Mastery program with multiple cohorts this year and developed support products like the Bootcamp, Audience Mastery and StoryClub, making the journey now even more effective and accessible.
• And we developed a bunch of free resources to help people get started on their Good for the World Brand journeys, from our Profit with Purpose calculator to our Free Challenges!
• Speaking of Good for the world brands: We’re honoured to have helped 27 clients of all shapes and sizes over the year. The services varied from new names, brand design and rebrands, brand strategies, websites, content strategy, and training and facilitating. The goal we wanted for everyone is alignment with their culture and impact, with awesome storytelling.
• We’ve facilitated 13 client Values Transformation Workshops, helping teams around the country realign and re energize their cultures. There is something powerful about witnessing a team come together.
• And with huge thanks to our awesome clients, we’ve been able to support 4 impact-driven organisations through our Double the Goodness Grant. We helped them increase their impact through strategy and brand design work. With another grant applicant received last week, we may just hit our annual target of funding 20K of in kind creative and strategic services.
• Continuing on our Impact initiatives, GoodNorth has hosted monthly online networking events, cohosted and hosted three in-person gatherings, and two Reignite Impact Leader retreats in partnership with ImpactBoom. All these events are designed to foster deeper connections and collaboration among purpose-driven people.
• We also strategised and kicked off a new social media experiment. We have successfully posted daily across multiple channels for 3 months now and slowly building momentum. We have learned a lot, refined our processes and put a lot of theories to the test.
• And on a personal note, I got married and welcomed a new baby into the world.

Not all a bed of roses

But while in hindsight the year was full, it wasn’t all a bed of roses. This year tested our resilience, with many obstacles that pushed us to re-strategize and refocus.

Yet, through all of it, we stayed committed to our purpose: to help all brands be good for the world.

Setting bold goals for this new year

At our team meeting this week, we celebrated the highlights for each of us during this year. There was a lot of pride in the team work, working with such awesome clients and achieving many of the internal milestones.

For the year ahead we have a big focus on community, on sharing our product offerings with more purpose ready and purpose driven business owners to help them become good for the world.

As we move into our 24th year, we’re stronger, more aligned, and ready to reap the rewards of the seeds sown this year. Thank you for being a part of this journey.

Luke & Team Sponge