2025 Year In Review

December 31, 2025

The year I stopped trying to control everything and my business tripled

Fun fact, this cover photo is the same place as 2024’s cover photo. It’s taken at a hut we hike up to in the Austrian Alps every year.

Alright now let’s get into the 2025 breakdown:

What Went Well

First I wanted to pull my intentions I wrote in December 2024 for 2025 (pulled directly from last year’s review).

This was the first year where I didn’t map out any ambitious business growth targets. I was more interested in life outside of work. I wanted to focus on learning Portuguese, more time for art and creativity, and Masculine/Feminine work (leaning more into Yin energy, nurturing my feminine – think less hustle/go-go-go and more being present and in the flow).

So how’d it actually go?

Made it to A2 in Portuguese

I am so proud for consistency working on my Portuguese throughout the year. I am also proud that when life got busy during my new program launch, I took things off of my plate (such as Portuguese lessons) instead of pushing myself into burnout by trying to do it all. I would like to make it to B1 next year (roughly conversational level!)

LOTS of adventure and play

I definitely lived a very “life first” year. I spent many Fridays doing light work at the beach and swimming the rest of it. I got a car which led to frequent adventures beyond weekends like random Tuesday nights when my boyfriend and I would drop work to head to our favorite nature preserve boardwalk. I took spontaneous invites up more often, like last minute retreats in new countries, day festivals and pottery classes.

And then there’s the business stuff (which honestly felt way less stressful when I wasn’t forcing it).

Tripled business profit
Ironically, the year I didn’t make business growth my goal, it happened. This was after three years of shooting for growth but either staying the same or decreasing compared to the prior year. Is this like the “not looking for a relationship and then it finds you” thing? haha. But I’m enormously grateful.

Here’s what actually moved the needle:

I started the year with an aha moment: most of my clients had watched a free workshop (or three) before signing up. Turned out, giving people a real taste of the work was the best sales strategy. So I tripled down, going from three workshops per year to nine. Combined with more visibility through ads and partnerships, my program enrollments and revenue grew significantly.

The wild part? While I worked with twice as many students, my client satisfaction actually went up after launching Messy Action (my largest cohort to date). I’ve always said I’d rather stay small than scale in a way that compromises my clients’ result. So seeing satisfaction go up while working with more people was the biggest win.

I also made some key hires that changed everything: someone to take my sales calls, someone to run my ads, and a new VA to handle customer inquiries. Basically offloading all the tasks that drained my energy the most. Never burned out. Pretty consistent energy throughout. I always say the best form of time management is energy management, and by preserving my energy I was able to work more effectively.

Lastly, I worked with a fantastic business coach this year (unlike last year’s rough experience). I attribute a lot of my business success to having the right people in my corner, my team and coach included.

Launched Messy Action

In my goal to bring more creativity, art and intuition into my day-to-day it bled into my programs! The summer hit and Messy Action poured out of me faster than any program I’ve ever created.

I developed it because I realized two things:

The more misaligned your life is, the more you will struggle with procrastination. I wanted to teach my students not only the emotional management tools needed to break the habit, but also the tools that would help them build a life they were genuinely excited to wake up to.
In my life I’ve seen two periods where I made a massive leap in a short amount of time. Like starting a business from the ground up in 60 days, when the month prior I had no idea what I should do, hated my job, and was procrastinating it. I wanted to teach the same tools that helped me arrive at massive clarity, clear resistance that was causing me to procrastinate my goals, and become a whole new version of myself in a short period of time.

The client results in Messy Action blew my mind. So much so that I decided to discontinue my other program and focus solely on Messy Action because I saw it as the best entry point to this work.

I was also happy that while I had seasons of serious deep work and launching, I never compromised daily movement (having learned from earlier burnout years). I even started working with a strength training coach!

Challenges and Learnings

What didn’t go well:

I took big gaps in showing up on IG/TikTok. Honestly, if my business didn’t rely on having a personal brand I’d delete both platforms, but at the same time I do love building a community online where I can share day-to-day lessons. Throughout the year I took big breaks from posting, in large part because I didn’t have a social media manager for about 7 months and I don’t like how easy it is to get distracted on them. My content also doesn’t get the same reach it used to, which makes posting feel like a waste of time, even though I know it’s important. I found other visibility channels this year that I poured time into building, and while I am glad those are up and running, ideally I wouldn’t have dropped my consistency with my socials.

I also had large periods in the year where I didn’t have admin support due to my team being out or in transition and I saw just how much it compromised my ability to move the needle forward in my business. In the new year I want to mainly focus on overseeing my team, creating content, and running workshops for prospects and clients (instead of spending too much time on things that could be systemized or outsourced).

The work in progress part

I’ve honestly sat here for 10 minutes trying to think of anything else that didn’t go well, but 2025 was genuinely fantastic. If there’s anything worth mentioning, it’s this: I can feel myself shifting into a different version of me.

More confident. More grounded. More clear on what I actually teach and why it matters.

Sometimes that clarity hits so hard I want to burn my online brand down and rebuild my entire business from scratch. That’s part of why I launched Messy Action, even though I had a perfectly function procrastination program that took 6 months to build. Other times I catch myself retreating to what’s safe and proven, even when I know I’ve outgrown parts of it.

The biggest example? My spirituality is a huge part of my life and work, but I’ve been hesitant to bring it fully into my personal brand. I’m into the woo stuff: Human Design, chakra work, talking to my spirit guides, annual astrology readings, all of it. I posted a picture from my astrologer’s office once and got flooded with DM requests for his contact info… alongside a message telling me it’s “the devil’s work” lol.

And honestly? It’s the anticipation of those messages that keeps me playing it safe sometimes.

But here’s what I know: spirituality is one of the biggest accelerators for my students when they’re open to it. Identity work and emotional regulation are inherently spiritual, whether you believe in something greater or not. Intuition has become a massive pillar in my teachings because it’s quite literally a life cheat code. You can spend years running in circles doing what “makes logical sense,” or you can follow the scary nudges that lead you somewhere way better. And the way you hear those nudges even more? Training your intuition, which is why it’s a new component I teach my students in Messy Action.

I’m in my Saturn return (an identity shift that hits around age 29, IYKYK), and this year had me rethinking how I show up online. I tend to share my tips, keep my personal stances close to the chest, and never say anything too disagreeable because I don’t have the energy for people who are committed to misunderstanding anyone with a different opinion. But more and more I want to share the magic that’s helped me find more meaning in life, even if I can’t break it into a scientific method.

So this is the work in progress: learning to step into my full voice without needing everyone to agree with me. It’s a balance of honoring what’s gotten me here while making space for what wants to come through next.

What I am putting my energy toward in 2026

Nurturing my feminine even more
By “feminine” I don’t mean “girly” stuff. I mean letting my body and intuition lead instead of my analytical brain. Going deeper into presence, slowness, spaciousness.

I started this work with a mentor and I’m ready to keep releasing wherever I’m still holding tension. Spaciousness, slowness and presence are things I’ve come to prioritize more over the years. I’m eons away from my once hyper vigilant overthinking mind that always strove for achieving and tied worth to output. But there’s a new level of ease and being in my body I’m coming into.

Reaching Portuguese B Level

I’m on winter break from it but come the end of next year I want to make it through the next level!

Going all in on organic social media

Which includes higher quality videos, more output and consistency, reengaging my creativity on the platform, strengthening my personal brand and just having fun with it. I hired a social media manager and video editor and want to build better systems so I can keep up with it without being consumed by it. After 2025’s success, it’s clear to me this is the biggest business lever to pull in the new year.

My word for 2026: JOY

I am a Manifesting Generator (if you’re into Human Design) and MGs thrive off prioritizing joy. I’ve been asking the question “what would make today more pleasurable/exciting?” Lots of times that’s meant doing something my old self would have deemed impractical. Like driving an hour to go to a coworking space in nature for the day, or taking a bath in the middle a Wednesday afternoon, or crossing town to go to my favorite coffee shop when there’s another down my street.

And while I used to think “You’re allowed to do that? It can’t always be fun. I have to be practical and do what makes sense” I think that’s just old programming. It not only blocked my quality of life, but ironically led me to being less productive (not that that’s even the sole goal).

But prioritizing my joy/pleasure/needs, I grow more in love with my life, avoid burnout, and connect deeper with myself and emotions because I listen to what my body is asking. I take myself less seriously and life is more fun, light and playful. You create your reality and make your own rules (within society limits haha) and I think a lot of joy can be nurtured in these tiny day-to-day permission slips.

Last Notes

Before I wrap with my favorite things from the year, I want to acknowledge something: I know not everyone had a year like this. The world has been heavy. A lot of people are hurting, stressed, or just trying to survive right now.

I don’t share my wins to make anyone feel behind or less-than. I share them because I believe in being honest about what’s working in my life, and my lessons to get there in hopes some find something useful in my experience. I don’t think we help each other by hiding our wins any more than we help by pretending struggles don’t exist. Both matter and if you’ve read this far – thank you for being here 🙂

Favorite song

Gypsy by Fleetwood Mac

Favorite purchase

My car – she’s electric, a space grey gal named Venus! This was a decision I was torn with since I live in a city, but again, intuition decisions trump purely logical ones. I went on so many more adventures thanks to her.

Favorite trip

Austria for the Summer. I do this every year but this year hit different! My writing and painting thrived on a whole new level with all the time spent in the quiet with the mountains.

Favorite book

Outrageous Openness by Tosha Silver. More and more I go through the world with more trust and less control or worrying about outcomes. I have a deep body sense that whatever happens I can handle and things will work out in my favor. This easy and simple read supported that.

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron was a tie-breaker. A classic for creatives.

A handful of digital shots from my disposable this year:

If you want to check out other years:

2024 Year in Review

2023 Year in Review

2022 Year in Review

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Hey there, I’m Grace!

I help people overcome procrastination, people-pleasing, burnout, and perfectionism so they can get out of their own way, build lasting happiness, and have the confidence to say, “I’m proud of my life.”

My goal is to hand you everything I’ve learned about emotional and time management and package it into an actionable system.

A system that will help you better understand yourself so you can become more efficient at work, manage your time and build habits that carry you toward your goals instead of waiting for motivation to come.