The Ultimate Year in Review: Your Step-by-Step Guide | 320

In this episode, I’m guiding you through one of my favorite year-end traditions: a deep and meaningful year in review. Whether 2025 was a tough one (like it was for me!) or full of highs, taking the time to pause and reflect can bring clarity, closure, and intention for the year ahead.

I walk you through a four-part framework that helps you examine the growth, feelings, impact, and future vision of your business—and life. This isn’t just another task on your to-do list. It’s a gift to yourself and your business.

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Welcome back to Making Good, the podcast here to help you do better marketing so you can make a bigger impact. I'm your host, Lauren Tilden, and this is episode 320. This episode comes out at the end of December, and it's time for something that is a bit of a tradition here on Making Good our Year in review. Now, this year has been a lot for a lot of people, myself included. 2025 has actually been a really hard year for me. I've shared about that a little bit here. I've had funks, mental health lows, some big personal life stuff happening, and the whole nine yards. It has been a lot, but as I've started reflecting on my own year, it has actually given me a lot to think about in a good way. Some of the things I can learn from this year and some of the things that are actually highs that I can be proud of, even if I had a hard time seeing them through the fog. When things are tough. It can be tempting at the end of the year to just close the book and look for the clean slate That is the year to come, in this case, 2026, but not so fast. There is so much value in taking a moment to slow down and really. Reflect on the year that we're finishing up, how it went, how it felt, what went well, and everything else. And I also wanna say this, I am personally not going to be doing this full process yet. I still know that I need some time to chill out at the end of the year. So if you're like me and this year in review process is something that you do in a couple weeks or even later in January, that is totally fine. There is no rule that says it has to happen today or by December 31st. There will always be things you can learn from the year that we've just passed for the year ahead, but I do think it's important to go through this process, one like this, a process designed to help you take stock of the year that we've just had so that you can make. Smart decisions about what's to come. So I just say that to give you permission. If you're not ready to do this now, that's okay. Still have a listen to the episode to get a sense for the process, and then when you are ready, come back and go through this process yourself. Now I have kind of a fun way of approaching that year in review. This isn't just another task on your to-do list. This is a gift to yourself and your business. A chance to really celebrate your wins, acknowledge the challenges, and understand the impact you've made this year. So that is what this episode is all about. Consider this your step-by-step guide to doing a year in review for your business and life. So first, backing up a little bit, what is a year in review? Well, it's exactly what it sounds like. It is your chance to pause, really look at how the year went, the wins, the hard parts, and most importantly, what you learned along the way. You can think of it like pressing pause on a movie to really understand what's happening before you move on to the next scene. Now if you have tuned in for my year in review process in past years, this is exactly the same. In fact, I've used a lot of the same content to create this year in review. So chances are if you are a loyal listener of the podcast, this is gonna be familiar to you, but there's no reason to reinvent the wheel on something that just works. So step one here is to set the scene for yourself. Set yourself up to be truly present during this work. If you're ready to do your year interview now. Find a quiet spot where you won't be interrupted, or if you're doing it later, go to your calendar now and save 60 to 90 minutes for this process. Put it in your calendar now add the link to this episode, making good podcast.com/ 3 2 0 so that you can come back and get walked through the process. When it is time to do your year review, grab your favorite pen. A notebook. Maybe light a candle. Pour yourself something to drink. Get comfy. This is not about rushing through another business task. It's about giving yourself the gift of reflection and intention. The goal here isn't just to list everything that happened in 2025, but to understand how your year felt, what impact you made, and what do you wanna carry forward or leave behind as you move into the new year. There's not a right or wrong way to do this. This is your reflection, your business, your journey. So use what I have to share here. Take what you like. If there's something you don't wanna do, there's no rules, make it your own way. Step one here is to make your timeline. So this helps us refresh our memory on everything that actually happened in the year. So we're gonna take a few minutes to jot down the major moments of 2025. Here's how I like to do it, to jog my memory. First, I open up my Google calendar and I just quickly flip through each month to see the major things that happen. And then second, scroll through your phone photos or even your social media posts and see what stands out. You might have other tools that you have that will help you look through your memory. Maybe you have a journal or maybe you have other ways of marking time, but these are the two that work for me my photos, app on my phone, and my Google calendar. Now I want you to list both business and personal events here. Maybe you launched a new product, maybe you hit a revenue milestone. Maybe you gained an amazing new client or customer. Also think about personal moments. Maybe you moved, celebrated a milestone birthday, dealt with a health challenge, or learned a new skill. Our businesses don't exist in a vacuum, and these personal moments often impact how we show up in our work, and I know that for me, that's gonna be a huge part of my timeline. Now, don't overthink this part. Just make a quick bullet point list of the major things that happened in 2025. Again, include both the highlights and the harder moments. So for example, here's a glimpse of what my 2025 looks like. I got back from a month in Spain and Portugal. I launched two new projects. I got my wisdom teeth out. Then I got Norovirus. I hosted my second summit. I got started with paid ads. I traveled to San Francisco and Palm Springs many, many times to visit family. I traveled to Boise for a work conference. I went through a bit of a funk slash mental health role that lasted actually a lot of the year. I did a launch for Making Good Happen and went to Uruguay for most of December among a few other things that I'm not mentioning here. So if you're following along in real time, pause the podcast and go actually make your brief timeline of the year. Great. Okay. This is gonna be so helpful as we start digging into the reflection questions. And a quick note here that there are a bunch of questions. Pick and choose if you want, or you can overachieve and answer all of them. But rather than transcribe them from this episode, as you're listening, you can see the full list of questions on the show notesPage@makinggoodpodcast.com slash 3 2 0. So there are several questions we'll go through and I've divided them into four different sections. First, we're gonna talk about growth and learning. The wins challenges and what we learned, then we will look at feelings and experience something that is so easy to skip over in favor of the more quantitative measures like numbers. But the truth is how our businesses and life feel is so, so important. So we're gonna look at what brought you joy, what drained you and when you felt most aligned with your work. Third, we will look at impact and purpose because your business makes a difference. Let's get clear on what that is. We will reflect on who you helped and what changed because your business exists. And finally, we'll turn toward looking forward using everything we've learned about what you want more and less of in the coming year, as I think you can probably see this framework helps us go beyond just listing highs and lows. It helps us understand the full story of your year. So let's dive into each section. Starting with growth and learning. So this is where we get honest about what worked, what didn't, and what it all taught us first, what went really well this year. These might be big wins, like revenue goals or launching new products. But don't overlook the smaller victories too. Like maybe you finally got comfortable showing up on video or establish a morning routine that helps you be more productive. Sometimes our biggest successes aren't the big ones that show up on paper. They're these smaller things that can be easier to overlook. Next question, what didn't go as planned? Let's look at what didn't work out. This isn't about beating yourself up. It's about learning. Maybe a launch didn't hit its targets or a new offering didn't resonate with your audience. Maybe you plan to post on social media three times a week, but you struggled to keep up. These moments aren't failures. They're feedback, and we'll use it to learn from the year that we just had. Next question. Where did you show up Consistently? This is a really important piece. Consistency. Where did you show up reliably again and again? Maybe you sent your newsletter out every week without fail, or you maintain strong relationships with your existing customers. Consistency often creates more impact than occasional bursts of perfect execution. Where did you struggle with consistency? Be honest with yourself here. Did your marketing fall off when you got busy? Did you let bookkeeping slide until tax time? Understanding these patterns helps us make better plans for next year. Finally, what did you learn about yourself as a business owner? What did all of this teach you about yourself? Maybe you learn that you need more support in certain areas, or that you work best with clear systems in place, or that your best ideas come when you give yourself time and space to think. So, to round up these growth and learning questions, they are. What went really well this year? What didn't go as planned? Where did you show up consistently? Where did you struggle to maintain consistency? And what did you learn about yourself as a business owner? If you're doing these exercises live, this would be a good time to pause and take some time to write out your answers. Really digging into each question, the more honest you can be with yourself, the more valuable this exercise becomes. Okay, let's move on to feelings and experiences. In many ways, this is the heart of your business, how it felt. As entrepreneurs, we often focus on the numbers and the goals and the metrics, but the way that our businesses feel day to day shapes everything from our creativity to our decision making. So question one is big. How did this year feel overall? Take a deep breath and think about it. Was it energizing, exhausting a roller coaster? Maybe it started one way and ended another. There is no right way here. Just tune into your gut response when you think about 2025 in your business, and if like me, this varied over time, like maybe you felt differently in the beginning, then by the end, feel free to divide it up that way too. What moments brought you the most joy? Let's look for the good part. Let's look for the highlights. Think about the times that made you think, this is why I do what I do. Maybe it was a message from a customer about how your product changed their life. Or that day when everything flowed perfectly in your studio or when you hit publish on something that felt really truly authentic to you. Write down as many of these moments as you can remember. Next question is, when did you feel the most in flow and the most aligned with your work? Think about those times when you lost track of time because you were so engaged in what you were doing. What were you working on? What conditions helped you create that state? Understanding this can help you create more of those moments next year. Next. What situations or tasks left you feeling drained? This is a big one and be very specific here. Was it certain types of client interactions? Was it administrative tasks? Maybe some aspect of marketing. Don't judge these feelings, just notice them. They are clues to what needs to change. Finally, what parts of your business and life energize you the most? Let's identify what energized you, which tasks or projects lit you up? What kind of work made you excited to get started in the morning? These aren't always the same as your joy moments. Sometimes were energized by a challenging project or learning something new. So to sum up these questions, how did this year feel overall? What moments brought you the most joy? When did you feel most in flow, the most aligned with your work? What situations or tasks left you feeling drained, and which parts of your business energized you? Again, this would be a great time to pause, take some time with these questions. Now we're moving into what I consider the most meaningful parts of our reflection, impact and purpose. As small business owners, we sometimes forget how much of a difference our work makes in the world. So this is your chance to really stop slow down. And see and celebrate that impact. The first question is, what impact did your business have this year? A big question. I know, and this goes beyond the numbers, although the numbers matter. Think about all of the different ways your business touched people's lives. Maybe you helped other business owners feel more confident in their marketing. I hope I did that. Maybe you created products that brought joy to people's homes. Maybe you solved problems that were causing your customer stress or frustration. Maybe you donated a dollar amount or your time, maybe you planted trees like we do and making good happen. There's no right way to answer this question, but what impact did your business have this year? Next question, who did your business help? Who is better off because of your work? Get specific picture, actual customers and clients. What changed for them because of your work? Maybe a bride felt beautiful wearing your jewelry on her wedding day. Maybe a mom found more time with her kids because of the service that you offer. Maybe a fellow entrepreneur finally started hitting their sales goals. Using your advice. Write down these real stories and transformations. What ripple effects did your business create in your community? So let's zoom out and look at these ripple effects that happen. Did you hire local team members, partner with other small businesses, support local causes? Maybe your success inspired other entrepreneurs to keep going. Sometimes the big impact isn't direct. It's the ripple that our work creates. What changed in the world? However, small because your business exists. This might feel like a big question, but even small changes matter. Maybe you help normalize sustainable practices in your industry. Maybe you showed others that it's possible to run a business while staying true to your values. Maybe you created representation for others like you in your field. And one more question. What are you the most proud of from this year? It could be business related, it could be life, it could be anything. So here's a quick summary of the questions from this section. What impact did your business have this year? Who did you help? How are they better off because of your work? What ripple effects did your business create in your community? What changed in the world because your business exists? And what are you the most proud of from this year? So if you're going through live, it's time to pause, to work through some of these questions and answers, to really celebrate the power of your small business. Okay, so now we have arrived at the last section of this process. Looking forward, this is where we start to take everything we've learned and observed about 2025. And allow it to gently guide us into an even better and more aligned 2026. This isn't about making resolutions or even setting goals just yet. We will save that for our annual planning episode, which is coming very soon. Instead, this is about using everything we've learned from our reflection to envision how we want our next chapter to feel and what impact we wanna make. So first ask yourself, what do you want more of in 2026? SO let's start here. Based on everything you've learned in this exercise so far about yourself and your business, what do you want to amplify? Maybe it's more deep work time where you feel and flow. Maybe it's more meaningful customer interactions, maybe it's more collaboration with other business owners. Think about both the tangible and intangible things you want more of. And now flip that around. What do you want less of? Be honest here. Maybe you want less time on social media, less energy spent on clients who aren't the right fit or less pressure to do things the way everyone else does. Maybe you want less overwhelm, less scattered energy, or less compromise on your values. Naming what you want less of is just as important as knowing what you want more of. Now, what impact do you wanna make next year? Let's think about impact. What difference do you want your business to make in 2026? This could be about scaling the impact you're already making, or it could be about creating change in new ways. How many people do you wanna help? What problems do you want to solve? What message do you wanna spread? Your answer here could take any form, but dream big. Your business is a real vehicle for creating the change you want to see in the world. And finally, how do you want your business to feel next year? nOt just to your customers, but to you as the owner and the operator of your business. Do you want it to feel spacious, energizing, sustainable, aligned, get specific about the feeling you want to create in your business? This will become your North star as you make decisions in the coming year. So let's review the questions from this section. What do you want more of next year? What do you want less of? What impact do you want to make? How do you want your business to feel? Pause here and really let yourself answer these questions intuitively. Don't worry about the how. Right now that is not today's episode. Just focus on the what and the why. Remember, you get to choose how your business grows and evolves, and you get to decide what success looks like. Use what you've learned from this year's reflection to create a vision that really excites you. So as we wrap up our year interview, I wanna say something, doing this kind of deep reflection isn't easy. It takes courage to look honestly at the year, the highs, the lows, everything in between. It's actually a lot easier just to race into the year ahead and leave all of this in the past, and it can be tempting to do that. So if you took the time to do this exercise with me today, or if you are planning to give yourself a pat on the back, you just did something really important for your business and for yourself. Reflection isn't just about looking back. It's about using what we've learned to move forward with intention and clarity. Keep these insights close as we head into the new year and as you start putting together a plan for 2026. And speaking of planning, make sure you're subscribed to the podcast because very, very soon on the podcast, like tomorrow, I'll be taking you through a step-by-step guide to planning your year. It is very good. If you did this exercise, I would love to hear your insights. Share them with me over on Instagram at Lauren Tilden. You can find the show notes from this episode, which includes a full list of these questions@makinggoodpodcast.com slash 3 2 0. And one last thing, if you are ready to take your marketing to the next level in 2026. Making good happen is where it's at. This is my private membership. I know you'll love it. This is your chance to join an incredible group of small business owners who are committed to marketing with intention and making a real impact. Head to Making Good happen.co. The link is also in the show notes. Thank you for being here and for focusing on making a difference with your small business. Here's to celebrating how far you've come and getting excited to where you're headed next. I'll talk to you next time.