🎙️ Episode 29: Welcome To 2026!

In this episode, we’re pausing at the edge of the year and inviting you to do the same.

We talk about what’s ready to be left behind as we move into 2026 – things like the Comparison Monster, old pressure, and habits that quietly drain our energy – and what’s genuinely worth taking forward instead.

There’s a lot of reflection in this one, and some gentle coaching too, as we encourage you to think about the choices, boundaries and ways of being that will help you feel calmer, happier and more grounded in the year ahead.

No big resolutions. No forced positivity. Just a thoughtful reset, and an invitation to shape a better 2026 on purpose.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

You're listening to Awesomely Off Topic, the podcast where we talk books, brand business, and everything else we're not supposed to say out loud. We're Taz and Asha, ex journos, now coaches, creators and chaos navigators. Let's go! Ooh, the pines are gonna be starting to fall off the trees now. It's New Year's Eve Eve. New Year's Eve Eve. The Eve of New Year's Eve, and here we are with Awesomely Off Topic. And we thought. Did we think? We did think for a few moments, we we thought.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

We might focus in on today on what we're leaving in 2025 and what we really would suggest you might want to leave in 2025 and a few things you could take into 2026.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Sounds like a lovely plan. Fire awaiters. I'll let you lead this yet again. I will let you lead, my love. Okay, I might I might just poke you and give you a few prompts. Okay, that's fine. I like a bit of paper.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

So the things that we're leaving in 2025, and we think you should leave behind in 2015, 2025 as well, and while we're really not sorry about it. What about the pressure to perform online?

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Ugh. Just even that statement makes me go a bit shivery. I mean, I I'm nervous enough as it is about revealing stuff online and doing that anyway and putting myself front and centre. So to hear that statement, oh that pressure, the word pressure, under pressure.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

And that's what quick kills your creativity, isn't it? Because we do, if we have businesses, we do need to show up online. Yeah, of course. But things like that kind of forced fun in air quotes LinkedIn carousel culture. I used to be doing those all the time because I knew it would tick the algorithmic box. So what made you stop? I just got bored. I got bored of doing them, I got sick of doing them, I got sick of all my posts looking the same with oh look, here's another carousel. But are they still pertinent?

SPEAKER_02 1:50

Are they still useful?

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Yeah, they will still work, absolutely. But don't feel that you've got to create a carousel for every LinkedIn post. And, you know, the idea that you've got to post daily or you're you're gonna vanish into some mythical algorithmic void. I mean, if we look at a lot of the social channels, it does help to show up more. But I know that recently, with some of the algorithmic changes on LinkedIn, we've got some people saying it's worse to show up every day. But what if we just I'm going against some of my own previous statements now, but what if we stop worrying so much about the algorithm and just make sure that we're showing up with relevance and with regularity? I mean it's better to post once a week than to, you know, post 17 times in a week and then disappear for four months. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

But just show up, create your own rhythm and make it count. I like that, create your own rhythm because it depends on your situation, doesn't it? With you're a solopreneur on your own within your business or whether you've got a small team, you know, the reality of it is, yeah, we can, of course, we can schedule stuff and get things done in advance, but sometimes we will be doing things in in quite a knee-jerk way occasionally. So, you know, you've got to be real about it, I guess. If you if you think, yeah, I'm gonna show up every day on LinkedIn five days a week, six days, even seven days a week, and a lot of people, you know, content is great, or weekends on LinkedIn sometimes, it really is. But reality is what can you manage on a regular basis? So it's better, as you said then, probably to go, right? Okay, I can do two or three times a week, yeah, but I'm gonna do that now. But keep that keep showing up in that way rather than just doing seven days a week for like two months and then suddenly just disappear.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Yeah. So find find a rhythm and stick to it. Um the other thing that's been really piddling me off this past year.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

You know, I've banged on about the power of the superpower of vulnerability for such a long time now. But now I see all these vulnerability posts popping up all over the place, and it's almost like they're following some kind of vulnerability template. They don't feel real. It's Janet and John style almost as if somebody has created a pro forma. And if you're gonna do vulnerability, don't try and do it to be performative, don't be performative with it. Yeah, just keep it real.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

Is that could that be, dare I mention the AI element? Yeah, is that because people are feeding everything into AI now and get an and a version of them is coming out through AI, but it's not necessarily their the way that they would phrase it, it's not their language, it's not their pattern of speech, it's not their their style of writing. Maybe they don't even know their style of writing. Yeah, their style of writing is AI-led. Um, and I'm not dissing AI because I use it as well, and it's a great thing, but I wonder if there's an element of that that's fed into that, and not recognising because one of the things, if you're using AI, you've then got to train it, as Taz always talks about. Not only that, you've got to edit it. And you've got to keep retraining it, and re-editing it, and that's again where probably our backgrounds help us a lot because we are able to spot that and then work with what it's given us and then work from the.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

I think that might be one of the points. I think that's a really good point. I think people are getting really lazy with AI when it comes to creating copy. In fact, if I see one more sponsored post popping up online from somebody who is teaching you how to use AI properly, and that post, the very post teaching you to use it properly, is so obviously AI. Oh my goodness. It's just it's brain rotting.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

So let's let's let's stop doing that.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Let's stop doing that. So that's one of the things, and what else have you got on your list then?

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Come on, tell me what business owners trying to copy kind of Canva aesthetics instead of finding their own voice. What do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_02 5:39

Because I must admit, I've not really bought anything, I know you do. So you've got a slight bias negative bias around this, haven't you? Whereas I've I've not used it. Yeah. But having been trained as a designer to some extent myself.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Yeah, yeah, in newspapers, magazines.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

So very different medium, but still relevant in many ways. Yeah. It kind of looks a bit too kind of one size fits all.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

It's a bit like, you know, when you go into when you go and look around in a new housing development and you go into the show home. Yeah. And it looks all pretty pretty, but there's kind of no personality and it's just it looks like a show home. Right, okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

So it's got no unique quirks or that but with design. That's the same with our writing, which comes back to what we said in the last point. So that uniqueness in that style of writing, that style of design, that style of that idea.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

So if you walk into somebody's home, you might go, that was s come out of there going, oh, that was suddenly like a show home, didn't it? But also you don't breathe in the wrong direction, you don't put a cup down anywhere.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

You can't live in it. And in the same way that people used to obsess over their Instagram grids, which for me just took the the the human element away from it, people are now trying to make sure that everything looks like it's straight from the front page of Canva, following templates, following all the all the aesthetics that Canva suggests, and it's looking like Stepford social media. But again, though, aren't we gonna lose?

SPEAKER_02 7:04

My worry with all of that is we're gonna lose our uniqueness, our unique creativity, because I believe we've all got it in different forms, whatever that means for you and the way that you work and your ideas. If we all go to that, it's a bit like going down a high street where we've got the same chain shops all the way through, and all the independence are no longer there, and the independence are where you find the amazing idea of the independence products people. Why do people love the shambles in York? Yeah, because you know you're going to get something a little bit different instead of the same trident. And the lanes in Brighton. Exactly that, and it's that uniqueness. And I think that's the danger with this, isn't it? So you're saying, so what's the answer then?

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Instead of doing that, what do you do? Stop trying to flounder and just knee-jerk into a design that somebody else has come up with, which means you'll look like everybody else, and spend some real time looking at your brand values and what you represent. But isn't that part of it though?

SPEAKER_02 7:55

Because let's face it, you know, time. Time is money, etc. You know, we're all time poor as we perceive it. So if we're in our own business, we're trying to sort out our accounts, we're trying to sort out marketing, our content, all the rest of it, and do everything else and uh front facing stuff with our customers, all of that stuff, and then we've still got to do this. How on earth are we going to find the time to do it?

SPEAKER_01 8:16

At what cost? Okay. At what cost? And we all believe we're time poor. Nine times out of ten, I believe that is a myth that we convince ourselves of. If somebody suddenly offered you, I don't know, your two front row tickets to your dream concert, and they've organised babysitting for you, and they've organised transport and everything's sorted out, how many people are gonna say now we don't have time? No, they're gonna do it. So it's about changing priorities, isn't it? When did you last binge don't tell me that you've got no time to work on your brand if in the next breath you're telling me that you've just binge watched the latest Netflix drama. And I'm not advocating for working 24-7, but I don't think time pour is actually the excuse. What it is is uh is you're missing you're missing out on courage.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

And you also try to find a hidden or a ta a hidden skill that you didn't know you had with it as well. You think, Crams, I've come up with that. Nobody would have thought about it in that way. I've come up with a unique a unique spin on something that people haven't seen before. That's how incredible products and services are made, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 9:20

If you need to work with somebody to develop your brand, fine, do that. Think about that.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

I want to come back to Ben and Jerry's I always hark on about this, but amazing story. If you've read the book about their stories, incredible. Yeah, and it was all because they were working with other people that were producing ice cream, but it was basically the guy that was one of the founders of Ben and Jerry, I can't remember if it was Ben or Jerry, but um couldn't the sense of taste, had no sense of taste, but was big on textures, big on textures, so that's why you've got Ben and Jerry's, that's why I love it so much because it's got so much different texture in it. But he experimented with things, even though he'd come from quite a um an experienced background of trying all these different ice creams and working with and selling other ice creams, but he wanted to create his own version of that, which he did, and look where that took him. And you would never and if he hadn't done that, if he hadn't taken the time to invest in that and come up with his own version of something, he probably would have had a very different life and a very different business life. So and we wouldn't be crunching on little chocolate teddy bears, no, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Yeah, what else? Things to that I'd love us all to be leaving in 2025. What about these ridiculous productivity expectations we all seem to be burdening ourselves with? That that kind of panics, January planning frenzy that people pretend is strategy. It's just another day, isn't it? It's just a turn of the calendar. We talked about this, we've talked about it in a few episodes, you know, that every year we'll sit down and do a content plan and I stick to it for roughly three or four days.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

I thought you can say weeks, but you're right, reality is three or four days. And that might not be everybody, you might be somebody who religiously sticks to that, and good on you, if you do, fantastic. I applaud you. Yeah, but it doesn't need to just be self-pressure on it. If that's not you, let's have a word with ourselves here. If it is you, fantastic. That's the way you like to work, wonderful. But if you don't and you're trying to fit a square peg in a round hole in terms of the way you work, then please start.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

You're just doing it because everybody else is doing it.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Yeah, and you think that's what you're doing. You're going with the crowd, do what's right for you. So find a way that works for you that is still gonna help you create incredible content through the year, yeah, but doesn't doesn't put the pressure on you. Because when you're under pressure, under pressure, there we go again. Um love that track. Um, but when you're under pressure, it's not necessarily gonna bring out the best of you.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

And again, it's not necessarily just about content, it's the things that you're gonna do mapped out every day until the end of the year and into 2027. Who knows where the world is gonna take you? By all means, if you have a few key points in the year where you want to be doing something, fine, mark them in. But stop putting yourself under pressure to come up with this perfect step for business plan in the first week of the new year. In the same way, let's also try and get rid under the productivity BS. Can we also get rid of that myth that success equals being hyper hyper-organised 24-7, even for neurodivergent brains? Yeah, it isn't. It isn't. I I the oh I'm allergic to organisation. If it works for you, fine, but stop putting yourself under pressure and let's stop burning out trying to hit all these arbitrary metrics that nobody remembers in March anyway. Yeah, by the end of January, I want to have this many new followers, I want to have this many sales, I want to have this, I want to have that. I want to be smashing it on Instagram, I want to have 20,000 new TikTok followers.

SPEAKER_02 12:41

And for some sake, we might be what floats your boat and what gives you that energy, and you feel amazing, and you love the challenge. That's not us would just make me fight or fly it. I would flee quickly, and I can't work like that. And I've realised as I get older, life is too short to put yourself under pressure if you don't have to.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

So please don't do it if it's not you. So, whatever it is for you would come under that heading of productivity expectations. I really encourage you to leave it in 2025. And the other thing I'd love to see you all leaving in this year, and it's certainly something I aim to leave every year, and it gets a little bit better every time the comparison monster. Oh, I gave that up.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

Actually, I can honestly say last year I think I'm 90% there on giving it up. Yeah, and there was one particular thing that actually I thank the stars for that one because it was meant to be, and I still do it occasionally and I catch myself because we're all human and we can get stuck in that same train of thought quite easily. But I think, yeah, it's so much a waste of energy, it's an energy drain. Yeah. Being that comparison is the thief of joy. Yeah, put your put your on, so put your blinkers on so you're not seeing all that stuff over there. Just focus on your stuff and what you love and what you're great at.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

So, what might come under, what are some of the points that might come under this comparison monster we want to leave behind?

SPEAKER_02 13:58

Oh, crock it. I don't know. If you've got say you're a solopreneur and you're comparing yourself to a brand that's got like 40 members of staff, all these different offices, all that you know, that's all studio. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. So, what would that be for you know, the equivalent of me comparing myself to Hey House, I don't know, for say for instance, as a publishing house. That's not me. But what I can do is I can come up with bespoke great ideas for people and work with people in the one-to-one and and in smaller groups, but I'm not Hey House. I've got no plans to want to become the next Hey House at all. I totally respect and respect them and what they've achieved, but that would not be me. So why would I compare myself to that when it my whole kind of plans for the next five years are very are very different and I've got a much different vision for my business? So don't do that, and and don't, you know, go and tell us people.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

What about looking at somebody else's very obviously really carefully curated feed on social and assuming that they're kind of miles ahead of you?

SPEAKER_02 14:58

Oh, don't do that. Because nobody knows what's really going on behind the the stuff that's put out on social. And it it's you know, we can spin anything, can't we? Now you know, you can spin even what you look like with digital photography now and you know and AI photograp you know imagery. We can all do that. So please don't do that, because again, it's a waste of your energy. As I get older, I'm realising I really want to conserve my energy for the things that light me up, not for things that drain me. And that's not to say like I've got it sus because I haven't, and I still do do that. But when I do, at least I've got the I think a bit of the now some know-how now to have a word with myself and say, hang on a minute, just stop. What's this doing for you right now? Nothing at all. What about you can answer this one?

SPEAKER_01 15:39

What about if somebody's comparing, I don't know, their writing, their progress, their way of being in the world, they're comparing it with somebody with someone else who isn't, for instance, neurodo neurodivergent, exhausted, or human or burned out.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

It's a very different thing. As I'm coming to terms with the fact that I'm almost certainly on that spectrum, um, I'm realising now that I said to you, I've said in earlier podcasts about this that there are certain things in the way I work now. I've changed my business around quite a bit, even in this last year, last six or seven months actually, because I've realised the way I've been going, I've been in burnout for quite a long time. Yeah. And I think to compare with people that are not experiencing life in that way, is again, is absolutely knocking yourself for no reason. You do the best that you can in the way that's right for you. Yeah. And when you don't, you feel it, and you feel that you have that you have to deal with the consequences of that, which very often is complete burnout, feeling like shit, and not wanting to do anything and feeling like you're the worst thing on the planet, and not worthy of any any you know, anything at all. So for me, the important thing is to just check in with you and what's the best way you can work, you know, just because everybody else is up at seems to be five, up at 4.30, then up for a jog, and then that's great. If that works for you, fantastic, my goodness me, and I've got somewhere in here there is this version of me, this dream version of me that is up at 4.30, is jogging around my village before I come in and cook us all a lovely breakfast, healthy breakfast or something, and then we go, you know, and then we have a quick get together with a lovely cappuccino or something, and then we sit down and we do our work. Yeah, and that's and I've got all that, but I know that's not me. You know, half the time I get up, I've got one eye still closed when I walk down the stairs, trip over the cat, probably, you know, fumble for the kettle to fill it up and put the water in and boil it for a cup of tea, try and find the tea bags because I've moved the tea caddy or whatever, that's gone somewhere else, and it's not gonna be. Yeah, exactly. That and that's my reality. So I'm working with what my my reality is. Of course I can change it, but equally to put myself under this pressure to behave in this way because that's the way that proper business people, proper humans conduct their lives, is it's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

It's soul draining. So don't do it. The most important for those of you listening who do identify with being neurodivergent, the biggest, most important piece of advice I ever give to my clients who are on that spectrum somewhere is please stop trying to behave as a neurotypical person. You can't do it, just as they can't get the you know, the the magical bursts of inspiration creativity we sometimes get. We can't behave like them. Don't try and do those things like eating the frog first thing.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Yeah.

unknown 18:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

Yeah. Right, so other things to leave in 2025. Okay, then what else you got on there? People pleasing in business. What do you mean by that? Saying yes to opportunities that drain you, opportunities in inverted commas. Yeah. Uh undercharging because it feels easier than stating your worth. Yeah. Uh pretending you don't mind scope creep when actually you do. Pretending you what? Scope creep. So maybe you've scoped something out with someone, you've come up with this plan, you've come up with a proposal, you've agreed to this, and then you get a lot of can you just? Can you just? Oh, okay. Can you just? Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:05

So it's about boundaries again. Yeah. And people sort of edge over that boundary just a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Because you can feel such a dick, can't you? So this will only take you another ten minutes. Do you mind? But then there's another ten minutes and another ten minutes and another ten minutes, and before you know it, you know, you're maybe employed to or contracted to work three days a week and you're working four and into the evenings, and you don't say anything because you said yes.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

Yeah, and I've I've had actually that's been me, hasn't it, fairly recently with some of that? I'd actually stood my ground and went, no, that's not happening after a conversation with you because I was in danger of going over that and allowing.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

That's not what you're paying for, that's not your job.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

No, and that that's exactly it. So please, if you've got luckily I've got a Taz on board to help me with that in those moments, but if you haven't got your somebody to help you with that, just have a word with yourself and think about you know, how is where's my boundary in this? And uh, is it strong? Is it still strong and firm, or is somebody just Just kind of pushing it a little bit and it's uncomfortable. If it's uncomfortable, there's a reason it's feeling uncomfortable. You need to really look at yourself and what you're you're how far you're going to bend if you talk.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

One of the things that really helps me with this, and it it might sound really bonkers, but it's to take it completely out of context and into a different scenario and see how that would play out. So let's say you've built a proposal or a plan with someone that you're contracted to do some work for. Okay. And the keep saying, Can you just, can you just, can you just? Yeah. What if, instead of that being a service, you're building a car from scratch? Okay. So you've built yourself this new car, you've ordered it, and you've gone for, you know, you you've really wanted this car, but you're already pushing the boundaries, so you've gone for all the basic stuff. Yeah. So if you then say, actually, do you mind? Could you could you just switch those those fabric seats for leather ones? Would the garage say, Yeah, of course, that's no problem, or would they charge you extra for it?

SPEAKER_02 20:51

No, they said that's fine, we can do that for you, but that would be this amount.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

And if you said, could you just add some heating in the seats?

SPEAKER_02 20:57

Again. Yeah, we're happy to do that for you, madam, but um this would be this amount. Do you want it? Yeah. This, you know, this level we have several options for you. You can either pay this for this or this for this.

unknown 21:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

Well, that gear stick, and I know it's that's your traditional one, but could you just put me a purple gear stick yeah, head, gear knob head on?

SPEAKER_00 21:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

Or can you just could you just add a panoramic roof?

SPEAKER_02 21:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

All of these things, even if it was a tiny little thing, even if it was this the smallest change to the trim, would they charge you if you're building a car from scratch? Yes, they would. So you'd expect them to, that's just business. So why is it different if it's service-based?

SPEAKER_02 21:36

Mm-hmm. Good point.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

And for me, that really helps to take it completely out of context but come up with something that's comparable. That's what we can all relate to.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

Thank you for that. Hope that helps you as well. Yeah. So what else? Let's start rattling through these because we're on the bunny one minutes. Um, other things I listed down that I really wanted to leave in 2025. The belief that you need to be ready before doing the things. Oh, well, we've got to bring that one in because of this. How many brilliant ideas have died in notebooks this year because you're not ready? Oh.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

Well, we said this. This came out of a conversation, didn't it? Because A, because of the start of this podcast this year, finally.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

And also because when we were doing one of our decluttering, we found lots of notebooks, because that's another um, isn't it, another thing that we do. We collect stage from quite a lot. Yeah. And we found all these ideas in notebooks, some of which we'd actioned, but I would say probably what would you think? Percentage terms, probably we'd action probably what, 30, 40%? Yeah. And we've still got all these other ideas in there. We never acted on. It's the museum of brilliant ideas. Yeah. And it just sits in the notebook. Yeah. So, you know, because we think, oh, we're not ready for that, it's not the time, we you know, we need to do this, we haven't got the money for it, we haven't got the time for it, we haven't got the you know.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Well, this podcast was a prime example. We sat on today.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

We sat on this for years, didn't we, before doing it? Yeah. So what stops you from starting that, making those first steps, you know, as it taking it from that notebook out into the world and actually creating something.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

We need to really swallow a truth pill and have a word with yourself, because so often when we're saying we're not ready, it's actually just procrastination wearing a business suit. It's not really. Yeah. They're just procrastinating. And you know, if you heard the if if you went through one of our episodes a while back, you'll know what I think about procrastination. Procrastination. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:20

But you think about even the big brands, you know, the Richard Bransons of this world, they've all done that where things have flopped. They've tried things and they've worked, and that's okay. That's part of it. It's almost like it's just you, it's your it's just it's just part of the journey for you. It's part of this.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

Part of that is also the the kind of creating a mess massive launch around something. You don't need to, you can just stick a post out on your preferred social channel where you get the most engagement and say, I've got this coming up, what do you think? And if there's no uptake, park it and do it another time.

SPEAKER_00 23:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

You don't need to create a massive launch first. First, see if that idea has merit and if people are actually interested. Anyway, the other things to leave in 2025. Overcomplicated branding. What do you mean by that? Obsessing over your fonts and your colours instead of just creating clarity.

SPEAKER_02 24:08

And getting 25,000 different views on it.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Yeah, yep. Three different brands that all look very, very similar, but then asking 75 people to have an opinion.

SPEAKER_02 24:18

If you've ever sat in any kind of marketing, branding meeting with lots of creatives in one room, anybody if you're a creative yourself listening to this, you'll know that feeling. You know about design, it's subjective. You have ten designers in there, they've all got a different idea, and that's fabulous, it's wonderful. But sooner or later you've got to say, right, this is it, this is what we're going with. Otherwise, you could still be there. And I think, particularly when you work for yourself, you can be your own worst enemy with that. If you start asking for feedback and asking, what do you think? Should I have this, this, or this? And you get everybody likes a different design option, and so you're left thinking, Well, I don't know what to do now because they all think differently. So, what do I do? Actually, tune in. What do you think? You know, if you've done your research, you've got a rough idea of you know what you're doing in terms of who you're aiming it at, and you fit and it feels right. I know it's gonna sound really wussy, but if it feels right, it's a gut feeling, go with the gut feeling. But also if it doesn't work, you can do it a different way.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

Yeah, I think there's there's also people are losing sight of of something that they're trying to look perfect instead of interesting.

SPEAKER_02 25:24

Ooh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

And interesting is gonna score you far more points with people than this kind of faux perfection that again looks like everybody else and just another canva template. Yeah, I like that. That's cool. Go for interesting. Yeah. Um and stop, please, please, please, think stop thinking that you need to have a full rebrand to be taken seriously. What a load of bollocks. Just get the fuck on with it, people. Say it as it is, yes. Um stop carrying shame about changing your mind.

SPEAKER_02 25:57

Ooh, give me an example of that then. What do you mean? So when does that happen? Have you ever had you must have had a moment like that.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

Um, I think when we change our mind, if we just arbitrarily change our mind with no thought behind it, and we just flip from A to B to C to D all over the place, yeah, that can look a bit pants.

SPEAKER_02 26:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

But very often changing our mind comes with additional information.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

So um at the risk of bringing this into politics for a moment, the first time I ever voted, I voted for the party I had been conditioned to vote for by my parents. Ah, yes, of course, yes. And as I grew up on, you know, started looking into things and developing and owning my own opinions, I started to think I voted for who. You know, and I might change my vote again this year based on new information. Yeah. So that's to take it completely out of context again. Yeah, I get you though. Yeah. Um there are people, there are there are loads of people during Covid, for instance, who were really, really pro-COVID vaccination and then read up more on it and went, well, I'm not having that again. That's not to say right or wrong either way. No. But they changed their mind. Yeah. Uh maybe you've always wanted to work with this one particular client and then you learn more about them and decide actually I don't want to do that anymore. Or you have this great idea for, I don't know, using AI for something, and then you look into it more and go, that doesn't sound like me, I'm not going to do that anymore. Changing your mind is is perfectly okay so long as you're not doing it willy nilly-nilly. It's a pivot, not for everyone who's now thinking about that friends episode with the sofa on the stairs. I do not apologise. Pivot! Pivots are not failures. Ending something, deciding you don't want to do something anymore is not always flaking out. And changing direction can sometimes be a sign that you are paying attention. Yeah. So stop carrying shame about changing your mind about things.

SPEAKER_02 27:51

Imagine that if we all took off the coat of shame, how much weight would be lifted from our shoulders in our businesses.

SPEAKER_01 27:57

That's a really powerful place to do it.

SPEAKER_02 28:01

But yeah, that's a really good one for going into 2026 with, isn't it? Thank you. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 28:07

So things that we encourage people to take into 2026, I know we will be, just to flip it. The good, the gritty, and the unexpectedly unexpectedly powerful. Small, sustainable habits, micro actions. I'm a massive fan of microactions. Micro actions, that's what I'm saying. I'm getting into micro actions more and more and more. So, you know, sometimes if I'm if I'm at the end of a coaching call with a group or with an individual, rather than saying, What's that big step you're gonna take us? What's one tiny micro action that you feel you could actually commit to that might just nudge things up 5%, 10% micro action?

SPEAKER_02 28:46

I'll tell you one thing I've done actually, which is a micro action, and it has had some it's borne fruit for me already. It sounds really obvious. I bet there's loads of you out here who've been doing this for ages, but very often I've always replied to people if I've had somebody that's um interested possibly in working with me, and I've just kind of either sent them an email back, you know, very traditional route, um, but haven't really done the sending a voice note and then following up on the voice note and just having a chat and carrying the chat through that way. Sounds really, really simple, but that has uh pay dividends for me this year just to have those conversations and keep the conversation going because one of the things is I'll let things go, and my good old you know, brain, my neurodiverse brain divergent brain will be forgetting about it. But if I do that and I have a voice note and I can go back to them using the power of my voice, I've found that's really helped me, so I now try and do that a bit more, and it has really helped. So that's just that's a micro action, right?

SPEAKER_01 29:40

But it's a micro action. A micro action could be just sending that one email you've been putting off. Yeah, it could be messaging somebody on LinkedIn that you've been connected to for ages and are genuinely interested in but haven't spoken to. Not a sales message, just a hey, we've been connected for yonks. How are things?

SPEAKER_00 29:55

Yeah, I like that.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

A micro action. It could be washing one mug instead of looking at the huge pile you've collated in your sink. It could be just doing one load in the dishwasher. It could be just writing that one social media post. But one thing, rather than trying to set something so big that you procrastinate and procrastinate, procrastinate, put it off, put it off, put it off, feel worse and worse and worse, and then don't do it. Micro actions for the win.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

Something really small that will nudge that dial forward, and you know you'll be able to do because it doesn't feel too overwhelming.

SPEAKER_02 30:25

Yeah, it's like that.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

10 minute writing burst, that could be um how that's always good to do.

SPEAKER_02 30:31

I know I was journaling the other night and I'd stopped journaling. I've turned my what was my travel um journal, which I took to Greece with us this year. Um I picked it up because it's a nice size journal, so I thought, right, I'll sit down. I did that on Saturday morning, just had a 10-minute writing burst. Yeah, so much stuff came out, it's fabulous.

SPEAKER_01 30:48

10 minute writing burst. And another one, I I don't like the word pitch, but I couldn't think about how how else to say it. So once a week, just pitch in air quotes to somebody you want to work with, whether it's an introduction, whether it's just saying, Look, I'd love I'd I would really, really love to work with you. How do we make it happen? Start that conversation just one thing every week to get on the radar of somebody that you want to work with. One thing a week, just one.

SPEAKER_02 31:15

Cool, I like that.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

So it's it's all about kind of tiny, tiny, tiny um MD or CEO habits instead of these huge monster goals.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

Yeah, I like that.

SPEAKER_01 31:25

You know, someone if that goal isn't big enough and hairy enough and scary enough, then it's not the right goal. No, let's leave that in 2025. There are too many people who still have that big, scary, hairy goal. They've not moved towards it because it's big, scary, and hairy. Whereas if you come up with just micro actions, tiny little habits, you'll actually start to nudge the needle. Brilliant. Like it. Okay. What else? Things I've written down that we want to take into 2026. Yeah. The joy first approach to branding. Joy first? Joy first. Choosing creativity before conformity. Being interesting rather than aiming for perfection. This comes back to what we were saying earlier, doesn't it? Letting your brand feel like you, not the kind of 2025 Instagram trend of whatever month it was.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

Oh crumbs, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

Creating comments are basics, isn't it? That feels like a conversation and not like the homework that you're putting off.

SPEAKER_02 32:21

Yeah, okay. I love that because all the best comment, all the best for me, anyway, the content that makes me stop scrolling and look at it is that conversational approach. Yeah. It's that sitting there, you feel like you could have a conversation with this person, this, this, this brand, this person, this organisation over a cup of tea and a slice of cake, and you could sit for a while and you know, chew the fat, as they used to say, didn't they? But that you could you could do that's what that's what appeals to me. And I don't know whether that's an age thing. I don't think it is, it's just a human-to-human thing.

SPEAKER_01 32:54

I I hear so many people even now going, Oh, I hate doing social media, or I hate social media, or I hate everything about social media. And I think, what is it about just a portal to talk to people that makes you hate it? It's gotta be that that you've got this idea that you've got to be be performative in some way, and you've got to do it in a certain way. Just be you.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

I think that's the other word though, it's all about what you look like, isn't it? Where you are when you film, you're lighting, you say the whole thing's gotta be perfect. Yeah. And we can all strive for perfection, but actually sometimes we can hide behind that striving for perfection for your favourite word again. Yeah. Procrastination. So yeah, I like that. Okay. So what you're saying, really, then, is I think what one of the other points I know you were talking about has been do it and do it. If it's messy, let it do it anyway.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

That's the I think that's the next point on my list. Yeah, do you doing it messy but doing it anyway? Yeah. Okay. Half-formed ideas that still get you moving. Go for it.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

Recording an episode of a podcast, even if the room is in a state, so what? We've got a very nice room today, actually, haven't we?

SPEAKER_02 34:03

Well, we we always have a nice room, but here is a different one.

SPEAKER_01 34:05

That's a nice little micro action. So we went to book this room the other day, it's our usual place that we come and do a load of our work and podcasts and writing and all sorts. And the rooms were all booked, unless we wanted to book the big conference room. And frankly, you don't want to spend that much, just the two of us. So I could have gone, oh, I can't get a room. Instead, I phoned them up and said, Look, we need this. Have you got anything? And they've because we're regulars, they've put us into a room upstairs that they don't normally hire out. It's fine.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

Yeah, which is amazing. So big shout out to the Aventors team for that. Thank you so much. Yeah. Um, but yeah, brilliant. So but you see, so yeah, but we've talked about doing it messy. Again, coming back to these podcasts. We've done it messy, we've been in garden centres, we've been in the car, we've done things at home. Well, that's a bit more glamorous, but yeah. But it's not because we just did it with our phones and no cake. No, and we haven't even used that one yet.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

Yeah, we have. So, okay. So, what what about Ash under in that vein?

SPEAKER_00 34:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:59

What about publishing the book that doesn't feel finished enough?

SPEAKER_02 35:02

Goodness mate, I've got quite a lot of authors now, and we all want to strive for perfection, but it's letting that go, letting that baby go, let it go, and at some point we have to stop. We are gonna find possibly the occasional typo. We might want to have thought that we would have written it in a slightly different way, but at some point you have to press the button and publish. And I think that's publish and be damned. Yeah, there's something to be said for that because it it's you've got to let it go. That's so important. So don't feel that it's not enough. It is enough because you are in this space right now, and this is the you that is creating this book. It's gonna be amazing, it's gonna help other people, people are gonna read it, and if you looked at it in a year, two years, five years' time, you might look at it and go, Well, I would have written that differently. That's because you're a different person now. So don't beat yourself up about it, don't do the what ifs to put yourself off from publishing, just publish it. Publish it, publish it, publish it, and enjoy the process. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:56

GTF on with it. Yeah, exactly. So you might be noticing now, dear listeners, if you're paying attention, that a lot of the things I'm encouraging as well to take into 2026 are the flip side of the things I want us to leave in 2025. For instance, next on my list is boundaries with softness.

SPEAKER_02 36:13

Boundaries with softness.

SPEAKER_01 36:14

So we talked about boundaries earlier, didn't we? Yeah. So protecting your energy without apologising.

SPEAKER_02 36:19

Well, that's kind of what I was talking about earlier, wasn't it? Absolutely. So for instance, we've had a few things this year where we've said no to stuff. Yeah. Mainly because we're absolutely shattered.

SPEAKER_01 36:29

Yeah, here's where the softness can come in, though. If you don't believe you can say no yet, then say not right now. Yeah. Without guilt.

SPEAKER_02 36:36

That's nice.

SPEAKER_01 36:37

I'm really sorry at the moment I don't have capacity for that. Not right now.

SPEAKER_02 36:41

Yeah. And you can get some lovely responses too. I think that's as well. Sometimes we do our fellow humans a disservice thinking they're gonna throw their toys out of the pram, but actually people do want to care and are understanding, particularly if you're feeling a bit frazzled, and it's just you haven't got the spoons for it, then you know, don't feel bad about that. What if you're honest about that? Yeah. Just say, I'm I'm having a I've had a tough month this month, I'm feeling really shattered. I would love to come to your event, but I'm really sorry, I'm just gonna have to give myself some valuable me time.

SPEAKER_01 37:10

Rain check.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:11

Um, prioritising your sanity, sensory needs, and actual humans over algorithm. Algorithms, easy for you to say. Yeah. Which again, you'll notice that's the flip side of what I was saying earlier about the algorithms. Yeah. Prioritising your sanity, your own needs.

SPEAKER_02 37:26

Yeah. And we've said that, we've talked about that because our phones will be going up off for a lot of the Christmas break. Um, because well, I'm as nearly as guilty as you now with that. I'll sit there and you know, I need a break. I've been looking at screens, I do a lot of proofreading for businesses, um, and if I've been looking at a screen for six, seven hours a day, eight hours, I need the last thing I need is another screen.

unknown 37:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:49

But we all do it. I've been working all day, I need a break, I don't know. I'm going to look at my screen, my screen on the smaller computer and play Monopoly Go.

SPEAKER_02 37:56

Yeah, exactly. But we all do it. So please give yourself a proper break.

SPEAKER_01 38:00

Yeah. And we used to, when we were in marketing, we were big into the whole idea that, you know, if you go and show up while everybody else is on their Christmas break, you'll get spotted and they'll get left behind. Now we're going the opposite. Swish off properly at a time when you can. We're taking just shove a month off over Christmas and New Year.

SPEAKER_00 38:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:18

Because it's the the only time we can properly, properly down tools. Yeah. I'm going to make the most of it. Because think about it, even when you go first f the first week back after January, you're not accomplishing much anything anyway. You're trying to catch up with stuff. So you're not going to lose anything. Um, community and collaboration, something else to bring into 2026.

SPEAKER_00 38:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

Um, working with people who get your brain is really important.

SPEAKER_02 38:42

Yeah, that's that's crucial, isn't it? Instead of rushing into something because the C-word is mentioned, is that going to be a good fit for you both? You know, for both organisations, both brands with that, instead of just going, oh yeah. Because sometimes I know sometimes I've done that where it's safer to go for a collaboration, even if it's not necessarily always the per the best fit.

SPEAKER_01 39:03

Yeah, you've been burned a lot about that. Collaboration for collaboration's sake.

SPEAKER_02 39:06

So please, you know, it's got a bit of, yeah, but make have a check-in with yourself about that and why you're doing it.

SPEAKER_01 39:12

Also, conversations instead of competition. If there's somebody else doing exactly the same as you, instead of thinking, well, competitor, bitch, what if you actually have a conversation with them? And you create a united front? You don't even need to collaborate on work deals together, but why can't you be business buddies with somebody who does the same thing? Share ideas instead of seeing it as someone that you've got to try and beat all the time.

SPEAKER_02 39:34

Yeah, that's a yeah, that's a real thing.

SPEAKER_01 39:36

There's nobody else like you. Stop believing in this bullshit competition mindset. And remember that for those of you who have something like like a podcast, for instance, you can always bring other voices in to that as well if you want to. You know, you can collaborate there. It's the place where real voices can be heard. So if there's somebody you're interested in, it's also a great opportunity to get somebody talking to you. Invite them onto your podcast, for instance. Or do something on YouTube like when I did the Taz Talks series.

SPEAKER_02 40:05

Yeah, that would be good, well.

SPEAKER_01 40:07

I might do some more of those. Video. Use it. Community. Something else to take into 2026? Creative rebellion.

SPEAKER_02 40:18

Ooh, what do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_01 40:19

Well, let me throw at you the first thing I wrote down, Ash, and see how you feel about it. Alright then. Okay, she hasn't you haven't told me any of this, so I'm just gonna sit and I'll let it soak in. Osmosis style. Writing that thing you're not supposed to write.

SPEAKER_02 40:33

Yeah. Oh. That's that moment happens frequently for my clients. And you'll get that moment when they're telling you something, and you can see there's a hesitation in their voice about even sharing it with me because it's it's deeply personal and going back into stuff that is maybe quite chat still quite challenging for them. But having the courage to actually create some content around that, yeah, holding that feeling that you could help others as a result of doing that without hurting anybody. Obviously, that's a caveat to include there, but to make sure to ensure that you can be really open yourself up and support others in doing that too, I think is really powerful.

SPEAKER_01 41:20

So it might not even need to be something big and vulner and vulnerable as well. It could be writing that post. We thought I can't write that on LinkedIn, that's a Facebook post. Says who?

SPEAKER_02 41:28

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I've heard that as well. Yeah, is this the right is this the right channel for it? Is it the right platform?

SPEAKER_01 41:34

Does it have human beings on it? Yeah. Yeah. What about this one then, Ash? Try and formats that break your own rules.

SPEAKER_02 41:42

Oh, well, trying formats, trying systems, AI, because when it first came in, I was oh god, you were the ante. And I still can be. Yeah. You know, there's no replacement for a human human storyteller ever, ever, ever, ever. It doesn't matter how sophisticated it gets. Totally. Absolutely not. But you can learn to work with it alongside it, and it can be really useful for certain aspects of that. Certainly research and and yeah. So that's where I go immediately. That's probably what not what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 42:13

Where I went with that was trying different things. So for instance, uh Because that's not a format. Well it is, but it's anything just trying things that break your own rules. So you know, we were both trained as journalists, as writers, you never mix tenses.

unknown 42:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:25

But when you're writing, can you can it ever bring something to it to mix the tenses if you're writing something?

SPEAKER_00 42:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:32

Not in a haphazard way. No, not uh kind of in the same sentence. But in a way to kind of push people further away and get and change their perspective or to bring them in. You versus I versus we as well. So your pronouns are person, yeah. They speak about something then and then something in the now.

SPEAKER_00 42:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:50

So all of those rules, what happens if we break them? Why can we play with those? So, you know, I never or you know, there's there's people I see on LinkedIn who only ever, ever, ever write about sales, for instance, and money. But you never know who they are, they never share anything about themselves. We don't know anything about their values, about their personality. And I don't want to work with somebody who who is the thing that they sell. I want to know who they are. Yeah. So um what if you let 2026 be the year that you experiment publicly?

SPEAKER_02 43:26

How brave would that be? How cool would that be though? Imagine that's some of the feedback you get from that. Brilliant. I'll be doing that. I think I'd do that anyway. Let's know you get on.

SPEAKER_01 43:40

We're nearly coming to a close now, dear listeners, because we're at nearly 45 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 43:44

We are, goodness me.

SPEAKER_01 43:45

What about celebrating the weird wins? Those tiny little victories that nobody normally sees. Um the email you finally answered. Okay. That you've been putting off?

SPEAKER_00 43:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:58

That day that you didn't abandon your desk in mid-spiral and just go and caffeinate yourself and hide under a TV? What about um the idea that you didn't talk yourself out of? Um the jeans you wore, even though you felt not perfect in them.

SPEAKER_02 44:18

I've got a good one then. So the weird winds for me was this year, not that long ago. I was at a speaking gig. It was a big it's the biggest speaking gig I've ever had, actually, because I don't do a lot of public speaking. You should do more your blood shape. I should, but anyway, I don't do a huge amount. But I was at this thing with what, 150 people in the audience.

SPEAKER_00 44:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:36

And I'd bought some new boots, and these boots were giving me jokes already. Was it 200? Anyway, I had to go up on the stage and walk about on the stage for like I had a 20-minute talk, I think. Ace 20-minute talk, and I thought, crumbs these are really killing me. So I carried on, I went up, had this big walk-on music, and I walk on and thought I can't do this for 20 minutes. So in the end, I went, Would anybody mind if I took my boots off? Because I've got really cool socks on, obviously. Um, and I said, No, go on, take your take your shoes off, take your boots off. I said, They're new boots are killing my really need to, you know. I can't walk in them very well, and they all they all supported me, but I had a lot of support for that. Yeah, and you've got a line. She won me some, and I was remembered there's some pictures taken by the official photographers of me taking my boots off. But it kind of built that relatability with the crowd, it's predominantly a female audience, um, some younger, some older than me. It was that was a real mix of people, it's a lovely mix, lovely vibe anyway, in the room. And then I did that, and I got people coming up to me afterwards talking about that, obviously talking about content, which is what I was there to talk about, but also we're talking about oh yeah, there's nothing like when you've got a pair of a new pair of shoes or boots on and they're blooming hurting. I'm well done for taking them off. And I was like, yeah. So that was my little win.

SPEAKER_01 45:48

And actually, I've had some great conversations since that have led to business ideas and all sorts. So celebrating those tiny, tiny weird wins that you wouldn't normally do. Yeah, it was a weird win, but it was great. Celebrate your weird wins, keep yourself start a weird winds book. A weird winds book. Yeah, that time where you you you really don't have the spoons for something, but you know, you know, it's a ten minute job and you do it anyway. Yeah. Or conversely, the time when you don't have the spoons for it, and instead of pushing through, you decide to give yourself a break.

SPEAKER_02 46:16

Yeah, that's cool. I love that. Celebrate the weird winds. Nice one.

SPEAKER_01 46:20

So there's the the there's there's loads. So the the other thing I would I I want us to just play with a little bit just to wrap up. Okay. What if we create a 2026 like a carry-on kit? Not as in carry-on movies. No, not as in something else. No, like when you go onto a plane, you can take carry-on hand luggage. Okay, alright. So, what if everybody chooses to take into 2026 one business habit, one creative mindset, one boundary, and one really silly ritual to take into the new year. So, what could yours be, Ash? One business habit that you want to take in to the new year.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

I want to carry on the thing that I said, more voice notes, conversations with people, because I I'm not always hot on following things through. Yeah. And I think that could be all the way through by doing more of that. So that would be a really simple one that's worked once this year, once or twice. Yeah. But now I need to carry that on into 2026. So Ash is right holding me accountable right now, guys. 2026 biz habit. Okay, she's still more voice notes. There you go. She's still doing it, she's writing away. You've got very neat handwriting, unlike mine. I haven't, it's terrible. Okay, so one creative mindset. My creative mindset is to write for me more often. I do so much of Do you want to put a little um uh something more specific than more often? Uh weekly. Because I don't do that. What happens is, and also prioritising it in the day, because I know when my hotspots are for writing when I'm most at my most creative, and generally what happens is I'm spooned out by the time I get to my bits, and then I haven't got. So you like your own social posts? Not yeah, social posts, but not just social posts, my own creative writing, just to get me, you know, getting nearer this finally writing this book I've been talking about for eons. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 48:09

So yeah, it's both one boundary that you're gonna put into your carry-on to 2026 kit.

SPEAKER_02 48:16

About not giving in to people wanting a deal and then vastly undercharging, because that's something else I do. That's a confidence thing, that's what I've done for a long time. I'm getting better with it, and I was better with it the other week, but it was only because you were there to kind of give me a little problem and say, actually, uh do you really need to drop that price to that? And I didn't, and it was absolutely fine, it was accepted the original price. You could have gone in as more, right? Yeah, and I could have done actually. Um yeah, so yeah. And one silly ritual you're gonna take into 2026. What am I gonna do as a silly ritual? I don't know, I do lots of silly rituals. Um one you're gonna carry into 2026. Every time I get a new client, yeah, I'm gonna go whizzing around the garden with the dogs and do a good in, like I've just won the World Cup for uh the lionesses. That's what I'm gonna do. So I apologise to the neighbours now because I plan for there to be lots of moments like that. So if you live near me, I do apologize, but I don't apologize because that would be a really successful year for me. So that's what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_01 49:18

What about you? Oh, what about me? Cry King. I thought I was gonna get away with it because we're nearly on an hour.

SPEAKER_00 49:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:22

Uh right, so um one business habit uh for 2026. Uh write more long form content. More like blogs and articles. Yeah, yeah, you've stopped doing that so much, haven't you?

SPEAKER_02 49:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:39

I'm gonna aim for just one a month. Okay. And if I do more than that, that's great.

SPEAKER_02 49:43

Yeah, cool.

SPEAKER_01 49:44

Okay, uh creative mindset. Yeah. So what's that gonna be? I want to come up with another series. Do you remember when I used to do the I have learned posts? Oh, yeah. Something just one thing that I take from each day. Okay. Daily daily lessons. Daily lessons. Nice one. Whether I'll share them or not, but just create one one lesson, something I've learned every day. Okay, one boundary. Boundary. So what's the boundary?

SPEAKER_02 50:15

I can hear the cogs whirring.

SPEAKER_01 50:18

I need to get tougher with people not showing up for appointments in terms of actually charging them rather than trying to roll it over. Because sometimes it gets to the point where I just can't get people in.

SPEAKER_00 50:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:28

When I have to cancel it. And I'm pretty good if somebody's got a postponed for a good reason. Yeah, yeah. But just not letting people take the piss with my time. Yeah, good for you. So protecting my time more.

SPEAKER_02 50:38

Okay. And finally, one silly ritual to take into the new year. Start every weekend with a silly dance. There's going to be a lot of good in and silly dances in our house. There always are a little bit actually, we've stopped doing that so much. So we need to do that sort of Grey's Anatomy stylie, don't we? Yeah, dance it out.

SPEAKER_01 51:03

Okay, so there you have it. So let us know if any of that resonates, what you're preparing to and willing to drop and leave in 2025. And what is it that you're going to take into 2026? And what is it that's going to be in that little kit that you're taking into 2026 with you? So one business habit, one creative mindset, one boundary, one silly ritual. So whatever you're up to tomorrow night, yeah. Have a beautiful, beautiful time. If, like us, you're going to be staying at home and doing everything you can to avoid George Holland.

SPEAKER_02 51:35

Yeah, and Big Ben.

SPEAKER_01 51:36

And Big Ben.

SPEAKER_02 51:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:38

Just it's just the turn of a calendar. There's nothing more than that. It's a turn of a calendar on a structure of dates that somebody made up. So, you know, don't worry about having to set New Year's resolutions. If you want to do something, you can do it at any part of the year. Do it if it helps. But whatever you're doing, whether you're partying, whether you're staying home, just prioritise yourself a bit more.

SPEAKER_02 52:00

And here's to a happy, healthy, prosperous, and fantastically awesome 2026. But in the meantime, we will see you next Tuesday. You've been listening to Awesome New Off Topic. Follow or subscribe to make sure you don't miss the next one. We're Adrick Milwater and Taz Thornton, and we'll be back soon.