An End of Year Recap, My 2025 Goals, and 2 Unconventional New Years Resolutions I Think Every Business Owner Should Have

Is anyone else still in disbelief that it’s 2025? This episode is for all my nosy listeners who love a peek behind the scenes—hearing about other people’s goals, reflections on the past year, and plans for the new one. If that’s your kind of tea, you’re in the right place!

Last week, I posted a story on Instagram about how I create quarterly Looms for my team, and it got a lot of interest. So today, I’ll dive into that process, share my reflections on last year, and talk about what’s on my mind for 2025—which, by the way, still feels surreal to say!

I’m also sharing two unconventional New Year’s resolutions that I believe should be on every business owner’s list. There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get into it!

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I’m so excited about today’s episode! I know I’ve already said that, but I really mean it. Goal setting is so much fun. Honestly, it’s one of my favorite things to do as a business owner—forecasting and thinking about what I want to achieve. I’m an Enneagram Three to my core, so I have a lot to share with you today.

This topic could probably be a whole series of episodes, but first, I want to give credit where it’s due. Some of the concepts I’ll be discussing today are inspired by Elizabeth Macy’s podcast, The Breakthrough Brand Podcast. Specifically, episode 298, where she talks about setting words for your business, and episode 299, where she discusses hosting a team vision meeting. Both of those episodes have had a big impact on me.

Although those episodes aired last year, they’re still so relevant. I’ve learned a lot from her—her podcast was one of the first I ever listened to. While I won’t be rehashing her content, I want to acknowledge her influence on some of the concepts I’ll touch on today. I’ll mainly share my own “words of the year,” what I cover in meetings, and things like that.

If you’re interested in diving deeper, I highly recommend checking out those episodes—I’ll link them in the show notes.

Before we get into the heart of today’s episode, there’s something else I want to share. I’m going to talk about two New Year’s resolutions that I believe every business owner should consider. I’ll save those for the end because they tie into the main topic, but I’ll also add timestamps in the show notes in case you’d rather skip ahead. That way, if you’re not interested in hearing about my personal goals, you can jump straight to the actionable tips. Sound good? Great!

What I Did To Set 2025 Goals

I think setting theme words for the year is a pretty common practice, and I did this last year too. It worked so well that I’m doing it again this year. As I was reflecting, I realized how helpful it is to look back and establish clear themes for focus and growth.

By the way, something that’s been incredibly valuable for me is creating Loom videos for my team. In these videos, I go over important aspects of the business, like the core vision of the brand. For example, my overarching goal is to help women make more money in a sustainable way through blogging, Pinterest, and other search-driven marketing platforms.

I also cover things like what I’m noticing in the market and what trends or challenges we should be aware of. This year, I even included a mini SWOT analysis, which was so insightful. Even though some of this doesn’t directly impact my team’s day-to-day work, I believe it’s important to empower them with knowledge. The more they understand the business and buy into its goals, the stronger the team—and ultimately, the business—will be.

I feel the same way when working with clients. Even if they’re not asking for my input on every decision, just being kept in the loop makes such a difference. It’s so helpful when everyone is on the same page and aligned with the bigger picture.

As I was preparing all of this, I also spent time reflecting on my 2024 year in review. I’m really excited to share my themes for the year with you!

My Word of the Year for 2024 (+ 3 Themes of The Year)

My word of the year for 2024 was action. I had so many ideas and projects that I’d been thinking about for a long time, but I felt like I wasn’t moving the needle for various reasons. So I decided that 2024 was going to be the year of taking action—and I did! I’m giving myself a huge checkmark because I took a ton of action. I did scary things like hiring before I felt ready, trying new marketing strategies, and even starting this podcast. Looking back, I feel like I earned the world’s biggest checkmark for following through on my word of the year: action.

I also set three themes for the year: monthly recurring revenue, reach, and redistribute. Let me break each of these down:

Monthly Recurring Revenue

My goal was to increase my revenue while delivering the best experience and results for my customers to encourage retention and growth. This was a major focus throughout the year, and I stayed committed to it. The quick Loom updates I do each quarter helped keep me accountable and reminded me of this goal.

Reach

I wanted to expand my reach by being more consistent with my marketing and adding new channels like podcasting and YouTube. While I did launch the podcast, I didn’t get around to starting YouTube or running ads. However, these decisions were intentional. For instance, I had everything ready to launch an ad campaign, but I realized it wasn’t the right move at the time. Sometimes we set goals, but it’s important to recognize when something isn’t worth pursuing just because it’s on the list.Even though I didn’t accomplish everything under “reach,” I made significant progress. I was consistent with the podcast for the entire year, and I reached more people than ever before, which still feels like a win!

Redistribute

This theme was about outsourcing and growing my team. I focused on delegating more tasks to free up my time. I expanded my team significantly, hiring a virtual assistant, an account manager, and a marketing assistant, among others. I also worked with specialists like my branding photographer, who I did quarterly shoots with, and my podcast editor (hi there!). One of my biggest accomplishments this year was making Kaylee, who’s been my go-to person for over two and a half years, a full-time employee. This happened in October, and it felt amazing. Kaylee has been instrumental in building this business, and I’m so grateful for her. That achievement stands out as one of my biggest wins of the year.

When I reviewed 2024 with my team, I noticed we didn’t check off every goal on the list. However, many of those goals were things we intentionally chose to set aside. This was a year of tremendous growth, and while there’s always room to improve, I’m incredibly proud of what we accomplished.

Before Setting 2025 Goals

So we’re starting the year with way better systems and processes in place. I did a major overhaul on my systems in Q4, which took a ton of time. We had completely outgrown the way I was managing all the client tasks and things like that. I had to burn it all down—it was like when you have a house and you keep adding rooms, and then suddenly it’s just a mess, and you have to tear it down and rebuild. That was basically the backend of my business.

It still feels a little clunky in places, which I’ll talk about, but I think that’s just part of the process. And I’m also starting the year with a bigger team than I had last year.

Last year, I walked into 2024 with just Kaylee and Jessica. This year, I’m walking into it with Kaylee, Jessica, Sarah, Claire, and Courtney. Saying that out loud feels wild—it’s a huge team for me! Obviously, Kaylee is the only full-time employee, but I’m so grateful for all of them. I can’t believe I have such an amazing team who’s as invested in my vision as I am. Everyone is just incredible. I could talk about how much I love my team forever, but I’ll move on.

I’m also walking into the year with an absolute dream roster of clients. I keep saying this, but I genuinely love the people I work with. I love what they’re doing, and I love that I get to support them in doing it. It’s just so cool to me.

So anyway, that’s all mostly good. But I did say I’d share what didn’t go well, so here it is: I worked all the time.

It was definitely a year of action, and I felt it. Coming off 2022 and 2023—years that weren’t slow, but were definitely more focused on being a new mom—2024 was a huge shift.

This past year, I worked so much. Most workdays, I’d work all day, then “mom” from 5 PM to 8 or 9 PM when my son went to bed, and then I’d work a couple more hours. I did that a lot. I even worked many weekends, though not all day, every day. While it’s not “cool” to say—because it’s cooler to admit you have a cozy lifestyle business, work six hours a day, and have the perfect morning routine—that wasn’t my reality.

2024 was a huge push year, and that’s why I don’t want 2025 to be another push year.

My Word of the Year for 2025 Goals is ROUTINES

Do I want to grow as a business? Of course, everyone I feel like wants to grow, do I want that to be my sole focus? No. So moving into 2025 goals and focuses first, my word of the year is going to be routines. I have noticed, I’ve gotten into some routines that I don’t necessarily love, and then some things I’ve just never been good at.

I don’t know if I want to admit them. Things like working out, I’ve never really gotten into, I’ve never really been a good cook. I’m buying frozen dinners and stuff way too much, and that is a priority for me, especially with a kid. You’re just like, oh my gosh, I don’t want my bad habits to be what you think is normal.

So as a mom on a personal level, that’s something that’s really important to me. I also just talked about how literally after I would put my toddler to bed, I would work for two hours and sometimes that was necessary and sometimes it was a habit.

Do you know what I mean? So I’m just going to be really aware of my habits and routines. Honestly, over the weekend, I was pouring myself a coffee, opening my laptop, and I’m just like, this was a habit. This wasn’t like I needed to work right now. This is just, so anyway, maybe my word could be habits, but it’s going to be routines.

I’m probably not going to be a morning routine kind of person just because if somebody does that with toddlers, please tell me how that is even possible. But I would like a better bedtime routine. I would like to not work in the evenings as much. I said on a personal level, I would like to maybe do yoga or eat better, and all of those things are really important to me and have been areas that I have been lacking in.

So that’s my focus for 2025 as a personal word of the year.

3 Themes for 2025 Goals

Now, for the business, I have three words for 2025, and they all start with “D” this time: Delegate, Discoverable, and Deep Relationships.

Delegate

This one is a carryover from last year’s focus, and while I made a lot of progress in learning to outsource, ask for help, and assign tasks, I still have a long way to go. If I’m being honest, I still have my hands in everything. I can’t fully let go—I’m constantly double- and triple-checking things. I even waste time silently checking on tasks I’ve delegated because I don’t want to be a nightmare for my team, but I still feel the need to make sure everything’s perfect.

Sometimes, though, my systems weren’t set up well enough to give my team what they needed, so I felt like I had to drop everything to fix it. That led to a lot of task-switching throughout the day. It’s gotten better with the systems I’ve implemented, but it’s still a learning curve. This year, I want to fully embrace getting help, accepting it, and trusting my team. My goal is to delegate without micromanaging or being so disorganized that I create extra work for myself.

Discoverable

This is essentially a refinement of last year’s word, Reach. Last year, I wanted to be everywhere, but this year, I want to focus on long-term marketing strategies that align with what I’ve been preaching about for years.

I’ll continue recording weekly podcast episodes (as long as you’ll have me!). And, as a quick reminder, if you haven’t left a review yet, I’d really appreciate it—it makes such a difference. With every podcast episode, I also create a full blog post—not just show notes with a few links, but a complete blog post with all the key takeaways. It’s great for SEO, and it’s a resource if you’d rather read than listen.

This year, I’m also starting on YouTube, which I’m both excited and nervous about. But I remind myself that I was nervous about starting this podcast, and it’s gone really well, so I’m channeling that same energy. I also want to blog more independently from the podcast because search is currently my second-highest source of leads.

Instead of trying to be everywhere—like jumping on TikTok or prioritizing Instagram—I’m doubling down on what’s working. While I’d like to be more consistent on Instagram, it won’t be my main focus. My priority is playing the long game, which is why Discoverable is my word.

Deep Relationships

Search is my second-highest source of leads, but referrals are my highest—and as a service provider, that’s a dream come true. I work with amazing clients who refer me to their friends, and it’s the best setup. So this year, I want to focus on building deep relationships—not just with my clients, but also with my team.

As my team grows, I don’t want to lose the intimacy and mutual support we’ve built. It’s so important to me that everyone on the team really buys into the mission and feels valued. I also want to strengthen relationships in my broader community. For example, on Instagram, I’m less concerned about posting four times a week and more focused on engaging with people—responding to DMs (which I’ve been terrible at) and really pouring into the community.

I want to nurture the relationships I’ve been so fortunate to build over the past year.

So, was that a good behind-the-scenes look? I feel like I shared a lot! Even though none of it is groundbreaking, I think everyone approaches goal-setting differently. For me, it’s about starting with these three themes, and then the specific goals or tactics can evolve as needed.

As always, I want to give credit where it’s due—Elizabeth McCravy’s Breakthrough Brand Podcast episode 298 dives into this approach of focusing on outcomes rather than rigid methods. I’ll link to that in the show notes.

Setting 2025 Goals With a Small Team

I had a few questions about what I share in my Loom videos, so I’ll touch on this quickly. I always share a recap of the words of the year, how we did, and so on. I also include a bit of a SWOT analysis—which sounds a little formal, but it’s helpful. It covers:

• Strengths: What’s working well in the company?
• Weaknesses: What areas need improvement?
• Opportunities: What new possibilities or trends can we take advantage of?
• Threats: What challenges or risks should we be aware of?

I also shared the before, during, and after client experience. How do I want clients to feel at every stage of working with us? How do I want things to go for them?

Last year, I did some empathy mapping as part of a course I took, and I shared that with my team. It’s all about deeply understanding our clients. The questions include:

• What do our clients see, think, and feel?
• What do they say and do?
• What do they hear?
• What pains them, and what gains are they striving for?

This process helps us remember who our ideal client—who they are, what they’re hoping for, and what success looks like for them. People don’t hire us just to write a blog post or manage Pinterest. They hire us because they want someone to truly understand their business, amplify their efforts, and make their content searchable. They want to build a sustainable business where people can find, binge, and buy into their mission, products, services, or courses.

Clients often have bigger goals, like becoming thought leaders in their industry or creating a lifestyle that lets them stay at home with their kids while working just a few hours a week. They’re also bombarded with advice like, “Courses are dead,” or “Memberships are the best recurring revenue model,” or “You need to be everywhere on social media.” It’s our job to cut through the noise and figure out how we can truly support them.

And when I say support, I don’t mean just cheerleading. I mean coming to them with proactive ideas, like:

• “Hey, I had an idea to make your course funnel better.”
• “Why don’t we add emails to this blog post to drive more engagement?”

It’s not about upselling—it’s about adding value. For example, if I blogged about a wedding, how can I make sure we’re showcasing the unique details in a way that resonates with their audience? It’s about putting ourselves in their shoes and really thinking through how we can help them achieve their goals.

I also share client updates in these videos—anything relevant about our clients, new clients joining, or shifts in responsibilities within the team. Thankfully, I haven’t had any clients leave recently, but I update my team on who’s helping with what.

Lastly, I share our quarterly focus. For Q1, it’s three main things:

• Starting a small rebrand—this is still in the early stages, but it’s something I’m excited about.
• Hiring someone immediately—fun fact, I already did!
• Getting on YouTube—this has been a big goal for me.

The only other things I include in my Loom videos are quick updates. I usually have two or three bullet points about things that are going well, things I want to work on, and things I majorly want to improve. Right now, the biggest area for improvement is the systems we burned down and rebuilt. They’re close—they just need a little more fine-tuning.

I also share the calendar for the quarter. For example, if someone on the team is going on vacation or if I have anything big coming up, I let everyone know. Fun fact: in January, Keana—who is my ride-or-die over at Love at First Travel and basically runs the business—will be going on maternity leave. She handles all the weddings and everything else.

While I’ll be stepping in to assist her, it won’t be in a huge way. However, I’ll need to leave some extra white space in my schedule in case she needs more from me. These are the kinds of things I feel it’s helpful to make the team aware of. Do they absolutely need to know? Not really. But if something comes up and I need more support during those weeks, it’s nice that they’re already in the loop.

I think this kind of communication is something everyone should consider doing, even if you just have a virtual assistant. Whether it’s a Loom video or a quick meeting, it’s helpful to keep everyone informed. And if you do a meeting, it’s nice to see people’s reactions and get their input, whereas with a Loom, you’re just talking to yourself and hoping everyone agrees!

Anyway, that’s how I approached my Q1 update. I covered everything about the business in about 25 minutes. Normally, for quarters two and three, the updates are closer to 10 minutes—unless something big is happening.

Why I’m Rebranding This Year

I’m also going through a bit of a rebranding process, which will be fun. Here’s a little behind-the-scenes insight since this is a behind-the-scenes episode: I’ve been thinking about changing the name of my business from The Care Report to something that feels more agency-like and less personal-brand-ish.

But after a year of considering it—literally talking to Ellie about it for a year (bless her!)—I’ve decided not to.

There are a few reasons for this. The biggest one is that I simply cannot come up with a name I like. But there are other reasons too, and I want to share them in case you’re also thinking about changing your business name.

First, changing your name can hurt your SEO and brand awareness. Right now, I feel like my business is building momentum, which I love. Changing the name wouldn’t stop people from referring me, but it would hurt my SEO because a new name usually means a new URL—and Google doesn’t trust new URLs right away. That takes time.

Any client I’ve worked with who has gone through a rebrand and changed their domain has seen an impact on their SEO. And if the website isn’t done properly, it can lead to broken links, bad code, and all kinds of technical issues. I could go on a rant about this, but you get the idea.

At the start of this episode, I talked about making decisions quickly. Well, this was not one of those decisions. I really took my time because it felt like such a big one. Every quarter, I’d revisit it, saying, “I’m still thinking of a name.” But now, I feel really good about deciding not to change it.

2 Unconventional New Years Resolutions I Think Every Business Owner Should Have in 2025 Goals

Okay, so the last thing I want to cover is two unconventional New Year’s resolutions that I think every business owner should adopt—and they’re both things I’m absolutely working on this year.

1. Aggressively Over-Communicate

I feel like we’ve become such under-communicators, and a big part of that might stem from all the talk about boundaries. We’re told to set boundaries, like, “I won’t respond for three business days,” or whatever works for us—and that’s fine. You absolutely should set boundaries.

But I also think there’s so much power in over-communicating. I know we resist it because we don’t want to feel tied down to rigid schedules or overly detailed updates, but I want to focus on letting people know when I’ll be working on something, when they can expect it, and what my plans and strategies are.

For example, I’ve realized that my clients trust me so much (which I’m incredibly grateful for), but sometimes I tweak or update a strategy without telling them. It’s never anything wild—just small adjustments that I do behind the scenes to improve their results.

For instance, I had a wedding client who shifted her focus to B2B in the wedding industry. I updated her old wedding-related blog posts to include calls-to-action for vendors she wanted to attract. It wasn’t a major change, but it was something I should have shared with her (so she knows that I’m on top of everything!).

When clients hire me, they’re getting a true business partner. But I don’t always communicate all the little things I’m doing behind the scenes, and I know that needs to change. Plus, when I get stressed, I tend to go into “head-down” mode where I’m just doing the work and under-communicating. That’s something I want to improve this year.

So, my first resolution is to err on the side of over-communicating. If you’re someone who under-communicates (like I’ve been), try this—it can make a huge difference.

2. Document Everything

This includes everything from systems and processes to client extras. One reason this has been on my mind is because I’ve had clients point out that I forgot to bill them for something, which is always embarrassing. It’s also inefficient when I can’t find things or when I have to redo work I’ve already done.

For example, I’ve created Loom videos to show one team member how to do something, but when I need to train someone else, I can’t find the original Loom, so I have to record it again. While I have a lot of tasks organized in ClickUp, I still spend too much time double- and triple-checking that things are assigned, getting done, or have all the resources they need. That eats up so much time.

So, my second resolution is to document more. That includes:

• Creating email templates for recurring needs.
• Developing solid SOPs (standard operating procedures) for my team.
• Building better systems so I always know what’s happening with my clients and their projects.

This applies to all businesses—whether you’re a service provider, a digital product seller, or something else entirely. For example, if you sell digital products, how can you document which customers are purchasing multiple items, their experience, or their course completion rates?

I also want to track more than just the basics like revenue, profit, or Instagram followers. It’s not just about numbers, though—documentation is about creating consistency and efficiency so everything gets done the way we want, every time.

So, those are my two resolutions: aggressively over-communicate and document everything. They’ll help us reuse what we’ve already created, save time, and stay sane this year.

Hitting My 2025 Goals

2024 was such an incredible year, but I’m really excited to see what 2025 has in store. Honestly, the new year hit me a bit slower this time. Usually, I’m thinking about goals in November, but this year, I only started reflecting on them two weeks ago. I even had to remind myself to record my Loom for the team!

By the way, if you don’t already do quarterly Loom updates, I highly recommend it. They hold you accountable to yourself while keeping your team in the loop.

One of the reasons goal setting has come so easily to me this year is that I’m not focusing on a bunch of new things. Instead, I’m doubling down on what’s already working.

For example, I’m not launching a new product. You won’t see a course or anything like that from me this year. I’m sticking to what I love and what I’m good at: offering blogging and Pinterest services, mostly for service-based businesses and small business owners. I also take on some copywriting projects, like web copy and email welcome funnels, but these are usually for existing clients.

When it comes to website copy, I typically work with clients who’ve hired a website designer or are DIYing their website and need someone to write the content. These are the same services I’ve been offering for the past four or five years, and I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel. Instead, I’m focusing on refining them and building better routines—there’s that word again!

You’ll probably hear me talk about routines a lot this year—hopefully not too much, but it’s such a central focus for me.

If you enjoyed this kind of episode, let me know! I realize this one was mostly about me, but I hope you took something valuable from it. I always enjoy hearing what’s going on behind the scenes with other people, and I want to encourage you to think about goal-setting more in terms of themes rather than giving yourself a super long to-do list. Happy New Year!

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