🥳 Hello, from the trenches

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for good times

🪩 Volume 117 | December 31, 2025

Oooooooo I get to hit your inbox one last time before 2026!!!!!! Cool!!

I wanted this final read of the year to be fun, but also honest.

This time of year does something weird to our brains.

We either:

So instead of pretending it was all good or all hard, I’m doing both.

For context (and transparency): I run a marketing agency for disruptive brands—which means I live in the same chaos you do.

Testing things. Tweaking things. Making bets. Owning misses.

Celebrating wins a little too quietly.

This newsletter exists because I’m not watching from the sidelines, no sir-ee, I’m in the trenches with you.

The only difference is I get a front-row seat to a lot of brands doing this at the same time.

So below are the wins I’m actually letting myself count this year (and the hard times that got us there).

Okay. Deep breath.
Here we go.

This week's read time: 2ish mins

For you skimmers: a whoppin' 30s (hit the bold headers and bullet points)

✅ WINS I’M LETTING MYSELF COUNT

Not once this year did I wonder if I’d have to pull from savings or a line of credit to make payroll. Not once.
Hired two new team members.
Broke $500K+ in revenue (and a 67% increase YoY).
Treated my team to a retreat because… they’re the reason this thing works.
Gave my team raises (!!!)
Added new benefits.
92% of clients served fit our disruptor niche (aka: we’re getting sharper, not just busier).
Decreased my kids’ time in daycare while somehow increasing my impact in the business (I'm incredibly proud of this one)
Pursued and succeeded in two other ventures outside the agency like the COMPLETELY sane person that I am.
Raised our prices to protect our margins (bc new team member which also…. [see first bullet under hard moments below])

😵‍💫 HARD MOMENTS THAT ALSO HAPPENED

Had to turn away a handful of incredible businesses who now fell outside our “right fit” client (but not to worry! we referred them on to incredible partners!)
Yesterday, I had to ask a team member to work during PTO because a vendor issue blew timelines. (I hate it here.)
Misalignment with a handful of clients… but only after big projects were already in motion. Love that for me.
Took a call with an upset client and got invited to go tit-for-tat on a contract she willingly signed. (My eye twitched, my heart rate skyrocketed to the stressed zone [iykyk] and I think I blacked out for half the call.)
Turned down incredible candidates for roles we were hiring for (my least favorite part of hiring).
Ate profit margins on some projects to make things right… sometimes for the client, sometimes because we dropped the ball.

So yeah.

Big year.

Also a year where my nervous system learned new tricks.

If you’re reading this and your brain is trying to tell you “you didn’t do enough this year,” I want you to do one thing:

Name 3 wins.

Tiny counts.

“Didn’t quit” = counts.

“Made payroll” = counts.

“Finally raised your prices” = counts.

Reply and tell me one. I’ll hype you up like it’s my job. Because… it kind of is. :)

AND I LIKE READING WINS!!!!!