For the past 12 years, I’ve shared my theme for the year in a blog post. It’s a tradition that started as a way to reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and what I want to focus on moving forward.
In 2025, my theme was Connection. The idea was to go deeper in my business relationships, with friends and family, in the things that light me up.
It didn’t happen.
Not in some dramatic, everything-fell-apart way. The truth is simpler and a little embarrassing. The goals I was actually working toward were in direct conflict with the lofty word I’d chosen. I said I wanted connection while building a year that structurally made it impossible.
I’ve had years where I didn’t fully live up to my theme. That’s normal. But this was the first time in over a decade where the word I chose felt irrelevant by March.
So instead of forcing a tidy narrative about connection, I’m going to be honest about what actually happened and why that’s shaping what comes next.
A Look Back at 2025
Some highlights from 2025.
- I crossed 100 episodes of The Remote Work Tribe podcast, ran in-person marketing roundtables in multiple cities, and kept refining the internal tools I built and use to deliver client work.
- Revenue stayed consistent. The work stayed good.
But Connection as a theme? It didn’t stick. Not because the year was bad, it wasn’t. I just chose a word that required flexibility I hadn’t built into how I operate yet.
That’s it. That’s the lesson.
Which brings me to my word for 2026: Systems
Not the sexiest word, but after spending a giant chunk of 2025 of adding without infrastructure to support it, it’s the one that fits.
What Systems Means for Me This Year
I’ve always had systems for the things that matter most like client onboarding, how I run calls, and how I deliver work. That infrastructure is a big part of why I’ve been able to do this for seven years.
But there’s room to go deeper. This year, I want to extend that same thinking to the areas I’ve been winging or white-knuckling.
- In my business – Tightening how I ingest client notes, company data, and call recordings before a project kicks off. Documenting strategy and positioning recommendations so they’re more useful long after we stop working together. Writing and handing off assets so nothing gets lost in translation. I also want to keep building out a productized offer I’ve been developing that lets me help more founders, ops and marketing leaders without starting from scratch every time.
- In my health – I got an Oura Ring back in 2024 and it’s been useful for noticing patterns I used to ignore. This year I want to build on that with some boring but important defaults: consistent sleep, drinking enough water and a simple walk/hike routine a few days a week. Nothing flashy. Just sustainable.
- In travel – Travel has always been one of the reasons I built this business. This year I want a rhythm to it instead of cramming trips in when I can. A mix of shorter trips and longer international ones, plus a couple of in-person work trips to do some of my favorite client work face-to-face.
The thread across all of this is the same. Take what’s been working and make it more structured.
As I step into 2026, systems will be the focus. Not because I want to optimize everything or turn my business into a machine. But because after seven years of building, I want what I’ve built to work a little harder so I can keep doing this for another seven.
