There are certain episodes I always love to listen to as a consumer. The behind-the-scenes ones.
The honest updates.
The “this is what actually happened” conversations.
Not the polished case studies.
Not the step-by-step how-tos.
But the real reflections that show you the human behind the business.
That’s exactly what this episode, and this post, is.
Because if you’re coming to the end of a year feeling tired, reflective, proud, disappointed, grateful, stretched, or all of the above, you’re not alone.
This year wasn’t linear.
It wasn’t neat.
And yet, it was deeply informative.
So I want to take you behind the scenes of what worked, what didn’t, what surprised me, and what I’m carrying forward into 2026. This is especially for you if you’re building a business alongside a full life, family responsibilities, and real-world pressure.
A Year I Knew Would Be Hard (and Still Underestimated)
At the end of last year, someone asked a simple question online:
“What’s your goal for the new year?”
My response was honest.
I knew this year would be hard.
We were about to undertake a major renovation. Not a cosmetic update, but a full-scale extension, while living in the house, parenting two young children, and running our own businesses. No builder. No shortcuts. Real, hands-on, owner-builder life.
I’d also just closed my life coaching business and rebuilt from scratch the year before. Last year was a rebuild year. This year was meant to be a hold steady year.
My words for the year were simple:
Simple. Seamless. Space.
I wasn’t trying to scale aggressively.
I wasn’t chasing complexity.
I wanted ease, clarity, and breathing room.
What I didn’t fully anticipate was just how fragmented my attention would become.
What Renovation Life Really Does to Capacity
Renovating while living in a house with kids is a completely different game.
Power being shut off mid-workday.
Trades knocking on the door every hour.
Decisions that must be made immediately.
Constant noise.
Constant logistics.
Deep focus, the kind of focus required for strategy, content, and leadership, became harder to access.
At the same time, my husband was carrying a huge physical load, working full days in construction and then coming home to continue the renovation. Naturally, I absorbed more of the domestic load.
Cooking every night.
Managing kids’ schedules.
Manually watering the garden in 40-degree Perth heat because the reticulation had been cut off.
Netball training, and netball management.
Little athletics. If you know, you know.
This wasn’t a season where I could just “push harder.”
And that matters.
Why I Chose Not to Push
Coming into the year, I made a conscious decision not to rejoin a mastermind.
Not because I don’t believe in support, but because I knew I didn’t have the bandwidth to be pushed.
Ironically, this decision became one of the biggest lessons of the year.
Because while revenue was strong, my best financial year to date with high profit margins, I increasingly felt like the bottleneck.
And I don’t believe in building businesses where the founder is the bottleneck.
What Worked (Even When It Wasn’t Perfect)
Let’s talk honestly about what did work.
Monthly Recurring Revenue Is Still the MVP
The Peace + Profit Mastermind continued to be one of the most stabilising forces in my business.
There is something deeply grounding about recurring revenue, especially in seasons where life feels unpredictable.
Almost everyone re-signed.
Clients got results.
The container felt aligned.
If you want to feel safe in business, recurring revenue changes the nervous system.
Flash Sales and Market Testing Still Matter
Black Friday experiments, flash offers, and short-term testing continue to be incredibly valuable. Not as a growth strategy forever, but as market intelligence.
That’s how Instagram Batched Bootcamp was born. While later iterations didn’t convert the same way, the data mattered.
Experimentation isn’t failure.
It’s information.
What Didn’t Work (and Why That’s Important)
Paid challenges.
Low-ticket funnels.
Repeated front-end experiments.
Here’s the honest truth:
Low-ticket offers are the most complex system in an online business.
They require:
- Volume
- Iteration
- Constant optimisation
- Time
When I ran the numbers mid-year, the maths simply didn’t work for where I wanted to take the business next.
That realisation mattered.
Not everything that works in theory works in practice. This is especially true in seasons of limited capacity.
The Launch That Tested Everything
The first Scalable Signature Society launch was a lot.
Ads issues.
A Meta account glitch that burned budget rapidly.
Skipped list-building, which broke my own rules.
Then, the biggest interruption of all.
My mum suffered a major haemorrhagic stroke mid-launch.
Everything that could be dropped, was dropped.
I focused on:
- Emails
- The sales page
- Supporting clients
- Being with my family
No Instagram presence.
No live hype.
No “showing up anyway” narrative.
And still, the launch worked.
Not at six figures.
But at five figures, in impossible circumstances.
That matters.
Because sustainability isn’t about perfect launches.
It’s about businesses that keep working when life happens.
The July Break That Changed Everything
In July, I took the entire month off.
We extended mastermind contracts.
Clients loved it.
Everyone benefited.
And in that space, I had a real reckoning.
I love Sweet Six businesses. Two hundred to five hundred thousand dollars, lean teams, part-time hours.
But I also wanted to explore what a more scalable offer could look like, without sacrificing peace.
That’s when Scalable Signature Society truly clicked.
Not as an “extra” offer.
But as a breadwinning bedrock.
A scalable, direct-to-cart, group-based offer that could:
- Support more people
- Reduce pressure on the mastermind
- Create momentum and leverage
The Real Theme of the Year: Support
Here’s the biggest shift.
What I needed this year wasn’t to slow down more.
It was to be better supported.
Supported by:
- Team
- Systems
- Containers
- Structure
- Leadership-level guidance
So yes, I re-joined my mastermind for 2026.
Not because I want someone to do the work for me.
But because I refuse to limp through another intense season unsupported.
And if you’re reading this thinking, “That sounds familiar,” hear this.
Support is not weakness.
It’s strategy.
What I’m Doubling Down On Going Into 2026
No reinvention.
No shiny objects.
No complexity for complexity’s sake.
Instead:
- One scalable signature offer
- Clear launch cadence
- Depth over breadth
- Group momentum
- Lean team support
- Systems that hold when life doesn’t cooperate
Simple.
Seamless.
Spacious.
Still.