For the past 11 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 2024, my theme was sustainability. At the start of the year, I had grand plans to work smarter and create systems that wouldn’t burn me out. It felt ambitious yet doable. But now, as I look back, one uncomfortable truth keeps circling back.
It stems from this quote that I heard from Andrew Wilkinson, “The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”
It’s a quote I’ve heard before, but this time, it hit differently. Because when I asked myself the hard questions I use to reflect each year, the patterns became impossible to ignore:
- What went well in 2024?
- What accomplishments made me the proudest?
- Where did I stumble? What mistakes or failures taught me the hardest lessons?
- What do I want to stop doing?
- What goals did I not achieve this year, and why?
- Where am I encountering resistance, and how do I push through?
- Did I truly embrace the theme I set for myself?
Some answers came easily. Others, not so much. I didn’t fully live up to my sustainability theme in every area, but I made progress. And that’s the point of setting a theme/word for the year.
Progress not perfection.
A Look Back at 2024
This year, I leaned into sustainability not just as a theme, but as a guiding principle. One of the reasons I started my business over six years ago was to design a career that gave me the freedom to work with incredible clients while staying curious about the world around me.
In 2024, I reconnected with that flexibility in a way I hadn’t since my early remote employee days back in 2016. I traveled more for both fun and business, including a marketing conference in Vermont, a small retreat with fellow founders in Costa Rica, and a birthday hiking trip in Hawaii. Each experience gave me fresh perspectives, kept me energized, and often tied directly to my work.
At the same time, I focused on building a sustainable business that balances delivering high-quality, impactful work with creating space for long-term growth.
Some highlights included:
- Seeing my content moat framework deliver long-term results for multiple clients and launching right-sized offers to help earlier-stage companies get started faster.
- Writing over 30 case studies and customer success stories while leveling up my storytelling and interviewing skills.
- Helping founders refine their messaging for rebrands, product launches, and LinkedIn strategies. Watching them go from “kind of clear” to confident was a major highlight.
- Exploring one-off consulting with a few early-stage founders and marketers transitioning to solopreneurship, which has been incredibly rewarding.
- I finally redesigned this website. 🎉
- On the metrics side, I grew my LinkedIn audience to 5.3k followers and my email list to 2.6k subscribers, up by over 1k. But what I’m most excited about is not follower growth, but the fact that I feel like I’m reaching more of the right people.
The seed for 2025’s theme
Toward the end of the year, I found myself in Costa Rica at a founder retreat. We spent three days sharing ideas, swapping stories, and pushing each other to think bigger about our businesses and our lives.
But what stuck with me wasn’t just the ideas we shared. It was the feeling of being fully present. No inbox distractions, no endless to-do lists. Just genuine conversations and deep connection.
That retreat planted the seed for my word/theeme in 2025: Connection.
This year, I want to connect deeper in all the areas that matter most to me:
- In my business – Leaning into collaborations and building deeper relationships that fuel growth.
- With family and friends – Nurturing the people who’ve been with me through the highs and lows.
- To what lights me up – Prioritizing travel and exploration which makes life feel full of possibility.
- To my health – Ensuring my physical and mental well-being don’t get sidelined in the process.
- To my finances – Being intentional about creating a future where I’m doing work I love—or at least like—70% of the time while building long-term security so I don’t end up dying on the Amazon warehouse floor at 80. lol.
The pattern across all of these goals is being intentional, showing up fully, and making the time and space for the things that matter most.
2025 goals in motion
Of course, a theme is nothing without action to back it up. Goals without a plan are just wishes, so for 2025, I’m keeping my goals intentional and grounded in a solid plan.
Here are a few I’m especially excited about:
- Double down on my core channels – Email and LinkedIn are my core channels, so I’m aiming to be more consistent and intentional about being of service on there.
- Prioritize fitness and health – I got an Oura Ring last year (After debating it for an embarrassingly long amount of time) and it made me more intentional about noticing connections I used to ignore. Fitness has been on the backburner for too long, so my goal is to find an activity I can learn to love and commit to doing it at least twice a week for three months. The thought behind this is once I’m 3 months in, it will be more likely to stick longterm if I like doing the thing.
- Go on one founder retreat. This is something that I’ve done every year since 2022 and has been one of my better investments as it gives me space to work “on” the business instead of “in” it.
All of these goals (and a few more that are more personal) are backed by detailed plans with tasks and milestones to give me the best chance of achieving them.
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As I step into 2025, connection will be my compass. Here’s to a year of going deeper, showing up fully, and creating meaningful progress.
