What 2025 Taught Me About Building a Business That Actually Aligns With Your Values (And What's Next for 2026)
If someone had told me at the start of 2025 that I'd end the year working (almost) alone, when my team structure shifted, I would have panicked. We're conditioned to believe that growth means expansion - bigger teams, fuller calendars, climbing revenue targets.
But 2025 taught me something different. Sometimes growth means subtraction. Sometimes it means getting clearer about what you actually want, not what you think you're supposed to want.
The Year I Stopped Scaling (And Started Deepening)
Early in the year, my team structure shifted. What could have felt like a setback turned into one of the most clarifying periods of my business journey. Working solo again (with occasional freelance support) forced me to ask: What do I actually want this business to be?
The answer surprised me: I wanted to work more deeply with fewer clients. I wanted to be integral to their teams, not just another vendor in their rotation. I wanted to understand their businesses so thoroughly that I could anticipate needs before they articulated them.
And here's what nobody tells you about that approach - it's actually more profitable. When you work deeply with fewer clients, you create value that justifies premium pricing. You become irreplaceable because you understand their business at a level that a cheaper alternative, spreading themselves across dozens of accounts, simply can't match.
What Actually Generated Leads (And What Didn't)
I'll be honest about what worked and what didn't in 2025.
What worked:
SEO and consistent blog content drove nearly half of our inquiries
Strategic partnerships and referrals outperformed every other lead source
Showing up on social media with intentional, quality content - even if not constantly - generated meaningful connections
Quality over quantity in everything: fewer blog posts with more depth, fewer clients with better work
What didn't work (or what I didn't prioritize):
Cold outreach - I did none in 2025, compared to consistent LinkedIn outreach in 2024
Being everywhere at once on social media
If there’s anything to learn from this is that you don't need to do everything. You need to do a few things well and consistently. When you're deep in client work, creating excellent results, that focus sometimes means your own marketing takes a backseat. And that's okay - the work speaks for itself.
The Client Relationships That Made It All Worthwhile
This was the year I stopped worrying about retainer cancellations and started trusting the relationships we'd built. Some of our clients have been with us for over three years. They call us integral to their businesses. They fund content trips so we can understand their brand at a deeper level (like the transformative week I spent on Norfolk Island with KOOSHOO).
That's not the result of clever marketing tactics. It's the result of genuinely caring about their success, being responsive, iterating constantly, and showing up with fresh ideas even when it's not required.
The Clarity That Came From Going Deep
Working so closely with my clients throughout 2025 - creating content from scratch with them, being fully immersed in their businesses - led to a realisation that's now shaping everything going forward.
Green Socials started as a social media agency focused purely on environmental brands. But as I worked more deeply with each client, I noticed a pattern: the brands I felt most aligned with weren't just about sustainability, they were about reconnection.
Reconnection to ourselves, our communities, and nature. To what actually matters in a culture that constantly demands more.
Yoga studios helping people reconnect with their bodies. Retreat centers creating space for people to step off the treadmill. Sustainable brands that reconnect us with the origins of our products and the impact of our choices.
By November, I'd completed a rebrand that reflects this broader positioning - encompassing wellness alongside sustainability. The website isn't live yet, and the full rollout is still in the works, but this shift feels like finally being able to breathe fully.
I could only have arrived at this clarity by working almost one-on-one with my clients. The deep work revealed the pattern. The pattern revealed the truth about what we're actually here to do.
The Personal Journey That Shaped Everything
2025 was the year I:
Attended a yoga retreat in Bali that had a great positive impact on my mental health (and directly led to two client connections)
Became a digital nomad for five months, traveling to 11 countries and realising a dream
Completed that Norfolk Island content trip that transformed how I think about values-driven work
Each of these experiences shaped how I show up in my business. The retreat taught me the value of intentional space. Travel taught me discipline. Norfolk Island taught me the power of place and story.
Your business doesn't exist separately from your life. The more aligned your life is, the more aligned your business becomes.
What We're Building in 2026
I'm approaching 2026 with more clarity than I've ever had. The focus is on thoughtful growth - building a small team to handle execution while I focus on strategy and maintaining consistent content rhythms that are actually sustainable. It's about scaling in a way that preserves quality, maintains profitability, and stays true to the vision of working deeply with purpose-driven brands, helping people reconnect.
What This Means for You
If you're reading this and you run a service business, here's what I hope you take away:
You don't have to scale the way everyone says you should. More isn't always better. Depth can be more valuable than breadth, for you and for your clients.
Your business can evolve. If your positioning no longer fits, change it. If you've outgrown your brand, invest in the rebrand. If your services need to expand to match your vision, do it.
Quality compounds. Fewer clients, deeper work. Fewer blog posts, better content. Fewer platforms, more consistency. Quality creates compounding returns that quantity never will.
Document before you scale. If you're solo and want to grow, start documenting now. Your systems, your judgment calls, your client communication patterns. Make yourself replaceable in execution so you can focus on strategy.
The best leads come from clarity. Get crystal clear about who you serve and what you stand for. Then talk about it consistently. The right people will find you.
Your life and business aren't separate. Attend that retreat. Take that trip. Invest in your wellbeing. It all feeds into how you show up in your work.
The Honest Part
Not everything was perfect in 2025. I wasn't consistent with my own social media. I let some strategic relationships lapse.
But I learned more in 2025 than perhaps any previous year. I gained clarity about what I'm building and why. I deepened relationships with clients in a way that feels genuinely sustainable. I expanded our positioning to match my actual values, not just what seemed marketable.
And I'm heading into 2026 with something I didn't have before: a clear vision of what success actually looks like for me. MY definition of success.
It looks like working deeply with purpose-driven brands that help people reconnect - to themselves, their communities, and the planet. It looks like profitability that comes from value, not volume. It looks like a small, thoughtful team that allows me to do my best work. And it looks like a life I don't need to escape from through work, and work I don't need to escape from through life.
If that resonates with you - whether you're a fellow business owner finding your own definition of success, or a purpose-driven brand looking for social media support that goes deeper than surface-level posting - I'd love to connect.
Here's to 2026, and to building businesses that actually align with the lives we want to live.
What did 2025 teach you about your business? What are you building toward in 2026? I'd genuinely love to hear - drop me a message on Instagram or LinkedIn.
