When I reflect on 2025, in a lot of ways it feels like my first ~real~ year back to business after having my son in 2024. Even though I worked and maintained my business in 2024 (and still accomplished a lot) this year was just different, in the best way.

Thanks to consistent childcare, I was able to not only maintain long-term clients, but also think, dream, and create more again. I took on more projects and got back to building a business that I truly love so much.

And the best part is that I never once felt like putting my son in daycare took away from spending quality time with him.

Being Where My Feet Are

On the personal front, I was able to get back into somewhat of a routine… and then adapt to a new one every few months because #toddlers 😂

But looking back, I notice a few common themes in my personal life. This was the year I finally stopped trying to multitask and truly started being where my feet are.

When I’m at home with my son, I’m at home – playing, laughing, momming. When I’m at work, I’m all in on work. And I’m really proud of that.

Doing What Felt Right (Not What I Was “Supposed” to Do)

Professionally, the biggest theme of 2025 was this: I finally started making decisions that felt right to me.

As business owners, we’re fed so much information about the “right” way to do things – how to launch, how to market, how to sell, how to grow an audience. No matter the topic, there always seems to be a right and a wrong way.

This year, I quieted the noise (shout out to mute and unfollow buttons 🫣) and started doing what felt right for MY business.

For a longggg time, I tried to fit myself into a specific online business bubble. I consumed content from people I thought were doing things “the correct way,” and I told myself: “Well… if I just do it like that too, then I’ll be successful.”

And for the longest time, “success” to me (in terms of business), meant more money and a larger audience.

But in 2025, I realized that REAL success for ME (because we all have different definitions of that) is a business that I actually enjoy showing up for.

Success looks like doing work I genuinely want to do. It looks like being excited to drop my son off at daycare because it means I get to write content for clients and yap about blogging for businesses.

If I’m being so for real, for the first time since launching my business, there were a few months in 2025 that I questioned if I was even meant for this anymore. I started entertaining the idea of something else.

But deep down, I knew I did enjoy what I do – I had just lost the joy somewhere along the way and I needed to find it again.

Sooo, how’d I do it? By letting go of the “rules” the online business world tells us are real.

I stopped boxing myself into strategies that didn’t feel aligned. I stopped doing things just because other people were doing them.

And for once, I did what felt right and fun (because hello!!!! business should be fun).

What That Looked Like in Practice

Here are a few examples of what this shift looked like in action for me in 2025:

Changing My Newsletter Format

For years, I sent Notes From Natty every Friday morning using the same structure, but somewhere along the way I started feeling reallyyyy bored writing it – and that was a huge red flag for me. 🚩

But I felt like I couldn’t change it because it followed the “proven” formula:

Tell a story → connect it to a business lesson → add a CTA → done.

And while that method does work (and worked well for me for almost three years), in 2025 I knew it was time for something different.

So I decided to stop sending my newsletter weekly and completely changed the format because I knew if I wasn’t excited to write it, I knew my audience wouldn’t be excited to read it – and I didn’t want to add inbox noise just for the sake of consistency.

I told my list what to expect going forward with the gist of that being there would be no set schedule, potentially fewer emails, but definitely more intentional ones!

Since making that change, I’ve felt so much less pressure when it comes to my email marketing and when I do send an email now, it feels so much more intentional and truly valuable for my subscribers.

An unexpected bonus that came out of this change is that I naturally started theming my newsletter content by month. I love tying content to seasons and holidays and assigning a monthly theme has made everything feel easier on my brain, so you can expect more of this in 2026!

Hosting a Blog Workshop With No Upsell

For the longest time, I avoided hosting blog-related workshops outside my membership because those things were “supposed” to be exclusive, but this year, that shifted.

I felt genuinely excited to host a workshop that anyone could attend and I’m so glad I did!

What started as a single workshop idea turned into a full month of themed content called “Anti-Boring August,” where I shared tips on how to make blogs actually enjoyable to write and read.

The workshop was the grand finale and it was the only offer.

I feel like a lot of times in the online business world, you attend some type of workshop or masterclass and you know that you’re going to be sold something else at the end. But that’s not what I wanted. The workshop WAS the thing and it was so well received!

Simplifying The Writer’s Room (and Lowering the Price)

When I first launched The Writer’s Room, it looked like a typical membership with a resource portal, bi-monthly trainings, and quarterly guest experts.

But what I began to realize in 2025 is that my members didn’t necessarily need to learn more. They were already doing plenty of that outside of the membership.

Instead, I noticed that what my members valued the most was the action piece. The heart of The Writer’s Room has always been Co-Writing Wednesdays where we all show up weekly to write content for our respective businesses

So I decided to simplify everything by removing the portal and truly stripping the membership down to what mattered most. AND… I lowered the price. 🤯

Again, I feel like this decision was the complete opposite of what you typically see in the online business world.

But to me, this decision was necessary to make the mission of my membership crystal clear – show up to create content for your business weekly. Simple as that!

Creating a Blog Audit on the Fly

Remember that workshop I mentioned? After hosting that, I had an attendee reach out asking if I offered any type of blog audit service. She explained that she had an existing blog on her website, but she wasn’t sure if the content was valuable, formatted well, or needed to be changed altogether.

Even though I technically don’t have a blog audit service, I decided to create one for her. And I actually LOVED it! Most importantly, she found it super helpful for her business.

This is an example of something I decided to do because it felt aligned with what I already do. I didn’t do this simply because someone asked me to… I did it because it felt like something I was equipped to do AND it was something I was truly interested in trying out.

What I didn’t expect, however, is for the way this decision would open my eyes to the idea of creating different micro-offers in 2026 and adding them to my product suite… so stay tuned for that. 👀

Sending a Cold DM That (Wasn’t Weird) and Actually Worked

For a few months I had been following this girl on Instagram who was always talking about writing blogs on her stories. Beyond that though, I felt really connected to her and could tell we had similar values.

One day I had the thought of DM’ing her to let her know that if she ever needed to outsource her clients' blogs that I’m here.

I sat on this thought for a while because cold pitching isn’t really my thing and you always hear people talk so negatively about it, but one random morning while I was getting ready for the day, I decided to just send the cold DM… even though I had never talked to her before in my life.

To be honest, I didn’t expect it to become anything and I didn’t even know if she’d respond. But to my surprise, she wasn’t interested in outsourcing her clients’ blogs (she had those taken care of!), but she was interested in potentially outsourcing HERS.

We scheduled a call, got to know each other a bit more, talked about different ways that we could work together, and she’s been a retainer client of mine since July!

This is proof that not all cold pitching has to be weird or slimy and you truly never know what will come of it when it’s TRULY aligned.

Carrying This Energy Into 2026

The theme with all of these examples is that I made each decision intentionally because it truly felt RIGHT.

I wasn’t following an online business playbook (in fact, I was going against a lot of the “rules” that I once was taught). I wasn’t trying to be someone I’m not. I wasn’t trying to fit into a certain bubble.

I was simply doing what felt right and good to me. And I’m truly so so proud of each of these!

My hope is to carry this same attitude and posture into 2026. I want to continue making intentional decisions that truly feel right and good for me and for the people I want to serve.

Because at the end of the day, that’s the ONLY way I’m going to sustain this business. And that’s the ultimate goal.

So let this be your reminder that just because you learned to do something one way doesn’t mean you have to KEEP doing it that way – even if it’s the way that soooo many people in your industry are doing it.

And also, let this be your permission to make decisions that are different from the norm.

I’ve found that when I actually do what feels like ME, everyone is better off.

Profound I know — do with that what you will. 🫶🏼

2025: The Year I Finally Started Doing Things That Felt Right For Me