2025 Annual Review

Read time: 9 minutes

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My friend Jeremy asked me after my 2024 annual review “If you were to be writing this reflection in a year from now, what do you hope to be saying when you look back over this next year?”

I said I wanted a season of simplicity and consistency and listed 5 tangible things: 

• I want to brag about how many weekends I hung out in Austin with no plans (ask my girlfriend, we did this ALOT)

• I want to show up to the gym on days I was sore & didn’t want to (ran a sub 1:30 half marathon and trained for a full)

• I want to have interesting conversations with people each week (did this most weeks with clients, friends, and random people)

• I want to post on LinkedIn and build a sales engine to scale my business (didn’t do the LinkedIn thing, but did double my business)

• I want to take cool trips but prioritize doing them with people I love over my own solo bucket list adventures (golf at Bandon Dunes, Europe with my gf, fishing in Oregon, Cabo & Deep Creek with my family) 

I’m proud to say I nailed all of them.

Now there were a ton of other things I wanted to do last year that didn’t get done like:

• didn’t write as many newsletters as I wanted

• didn’t make progress on my memoir

• didn’t play much golf

• didn’t improve my storytelling skills

But I didn’t make those things a priority. This was a powerful reminder of how important it is to make sure I pick the right things to focus on. 

So before I get into my focus for 2026, I wanted to do a full audit of 2025 so I knew what to prioritize. 

I use Sahil Bloom’s Annual Review Process and answer these 7 questions: 

• What did I change my mind on this year?

• What created energy this year?

• What drained energy this year?

• What were the Boat Anchors in my life?

• What did I not do because of fear?

• What were my greatest hits and worst misses?

• What did I learn this year?

Today, I’m sharing some of my biggest learnings from 2025 but if anyone wants to chat about my answers to any of the other questions let me know. Always love comparing notes on this stuff. 

What did I learn this year?

1. I don't enjoy the chaos of being an integrator

I started the year juggling two different businesses: ghostwriter and operations consultant.

My entire professional career I've seen myself as an operator. I was good at it so I figured I should keep doing it and took on a few clients to help them get organized and execute on their vision.

But just because I'm good at it doesn't mean I need to do it. 

I realized that I didn't enjoy the juggling multiple priorities, the constant firedrills, the dealing with multiple departments and multiple people. I didn't enjoy the chaos. And that's ok.

I finished up my operations projects and focused solely on writing. Ironically right around that time is when my business doubled with writing work.

2. It's ok to want to grow but also be happy with what I have

Two quotes helped me realize this:

• Dan Martell: If you're not growing, you're dying

• James Clear: An acorn growing into an oak tree is perfect at each stage of the growth.

I've been battling this tension of hitting my goals and having "enough" vs wanting to continue to go for more. 

There was a big stretch this year where I resisted growing. I hit a revenue target for my business then I hit pause. My revenue remained flat throughout the rest of the year. I stopped doing outreach, I never hired anyone until late in the year. I was scared that continuing to grow would be chasing more complexity and more headaches that I didn't want. 

But at the same time I didn't feel comfortable where I was.

After months of discussion and reflection, I realized that I wasn't just chasing the next milestone just to chase it. There are tangible things that I want to get by growing to the next level like securing a financial foundation for myself and my future family, the enjoyment of challenging myself to take on new things, and the ability to make a greater impact with my work. 

Plus if I just stay where I'm at then I'm going to fizzle out and I will lose clients to competitors and advances in the industry if im not constantly leveling up my skills.

Growth is a good thing, as long as it’s intentional growth.

3. Improved my mindset on sales

I still have a longgg way to go improving my sales skills.

But I learned that when I'm confident in what I'm selling and genuinely believe it can help people, the selling get a lot easier. 

I got over the hurdle of thinking I'm a sleazy car salesman and that I'm annoying people.

The more I saw the results I got for my clients and the more confident I got in my ability to deliver, the easier sales conversations became.

I need to put this into action more in 2026 and improve my sales skills, but it all starts with the right mindset.

4. Sometimes being in a funk is productive

My funks throughout the year actually forced me to question why and learn from it.

I wrote about this in In a Rut.

I've learned what works for me when I'm in a funk. I write, I run, or do some activity I enjoy like yoga or hit golf balls.

The key is getting out of my head and into my body.

5. Treat my clients like an owner

One of my clients told me how he appreciates how I treat his business like it's my business.

I'm thinking ahead, I'm asking questions, I'm providing input as if I was in his shoes. I take pride in my deliverables and maintaining a high quality bar. Sometimes that means additional calls or messages making sure we get something right. Sometimes that means doing some extra work outside of the scope.

For the right clients this is totally worth it and I enjoy it.

People stick around because of my quality. I need to keep that up as I grow or I'm going to lose people.

6. Be around the hoop

One of my new clients this year came from an unexpected referral.

This guy who referred me was someone I had a good conversation at a networking event in February. I followed his newsletter, then a few months later we had an email exchange where I sent him some of my work. A month later, I attended one of his events where he was presenting. It was a small group and I was an active participant.

A few weeks later I randomly got a message from him saying he has a client who would be perfect for me.

That client eventually became my highest paying client and has set the standard for my business moving forward.

I didn't ask for this, but I was top of mind for him because he knew me as a founder-led ghostwriter. He saw from my work and meeting me that I knew what I was doing. And it unlocked a whole new level for my business.

I need to do more of this in 2026. Just being in the room with people in the mix and building things. And I just need to keep showing up, providing value, asking questions, and being me.

7. All it takes is one comment to make an impact on someone

I have a friend who I cowork with in Austin. 

She is 5 steps ahead of me with her consulting business so I've learned a ton from her over the past year and a half. But we also just catch up on life talking about many of the topics I discuss in this newsletter on balancing career vs personal life, pursuing hobbies, friends, relationships, all of it.

During one of these conversations, she was talking about wanting to build community here in Austin and how she didn't love the yoga classes she was teaching. So I made a casual comment that why can't she just do her own? She pushed back about finding space, and how would she monetize it, and what makes her different, etc. 

I just said start small, see if you like it and then go from there.

I didn't think much of the conversation because we had dozens of similar ones. A few months later I got an invite from her for an impromptu yoga session she was leading outside Barton Springs.

I showed up on that Saturday morning and there were 20+ people there who she was leading yoga for. And at the beginning she called me out for being the reason that it all happened.

I had totally forgotten about my off hand comment. But it made me realize you never know who you can impact and what it can lead to.

I love being around people who take action.

8. My mom’s 60th birthday book.

My sister made a scrapbook for my mom's 60th birthday. What started as just asking some close friends and family to write a quick note with a favorite memory of my mom quickly turned into a massive project when she was flooded with long messages and poems about my mom's impact on their lives with dozens of photos spanning decades.

It also became much more than just close friends and family when people from my mom's school, our synagogue where she volunteers frequently, and even her F45 instructor found out about the book and all wanted to chip in.

When we gave the book to my mom, we read notes for 2+ hours from 70+ people whose lives my mom impacted. Not from big grandiose acts but from small consistent acts of kindness, from showing up as her genuine self, from staying in touch with people she loves, and from organizing groups of friends to get together year after year.

It was truly inspiring to see the impact she made on so many people.

It made me want to be better at this in my life. Because that's what this life is all about. Giving to others and having a community of people to enjoy life with.

Next Time

While I hit on those priorities I mentioned above, I had several misses this year. One of them being writing more consistently.

My intention for this newsletter is to publish every other week. So lookout for my next edition where I’ll share my 2026 priorities based on what I took away from my 2025 reflection.

Thank you for reading! As always please reply and let me know what resonated, what didn’t, or what you question. I love chatting about this stuff!

Cheers,

Andrew