[00:00:18] EMMA: As we wrap up the year, I wanna take you through a gentle but honest reflection of what life and business has brought me. The good, the challenging, the messy, and the magic, because. Life and business rarely move in straight lines. Oh my goodness. How I wish they did.
[00:00:35] How I wish it was all linear, but it's all loop to loop. Right? Which makes you feel like you're going loop to crazy. Yeah. they all kind of weave together. They influence each other and they shape who we become and how we behave. And so today what I really wanted to do was share my own reflection with you in the hope that you can reflect on your year as well. We're going to take a step by step approach to this because these things intersect because they weave. I wanna first talk to you about life, the beautiful moments, the tough ones, and everything in between. And then I wanna talk about business, the wins, the challenges, and the things that stretched me. And after that, I will share the biggest learnings. I had throughout this year in business and in our community. And then finally, 'cause I'm me. I love a good practical reflection. So a little ritual that you can close out your own year with, with a bit of clarity and intention. it is almost the end of the year. There was this thing that happened when I used to work in HR in corporates where everyone started going a bit feral as of about October. It's like they're stretching. They're, they're working to the end of the year and they haven't given themselves a break throughout the year. So I reckon we're probably dealing with a bit of feral behavior. So if you are feeling a little bit feral, like a feral cat, take me on a little walk with you or grab a piece of paper, grab a cup of tea, and just. Pay attention what to what is actually going on for you right now? [00:02:00] Life and business are so always intertwined, so it only feels right to look at them side by side.
[00:02:06] Right? I'll give you the good first. I'll give you life first. The good right, the good in life. I look at the good in my personal life this year, there is so much to be grateful for. had a wonderful family holiday to New York and Canada.
[00:02:25] 3 whole weeks
[00:02:28] and it was one of those trips that stays in your bones.
[00:02:32] it just meshes in. It's the memories that you've created, the memories you've carved out, and just the time off together. The interesting thing for me that happened with this trip, I have always. Ever since I was little, suffered with travel sickness and uh, last year I gave myself a travel ban, would not travel for one whole year. I was focused on my health and just getting that back on track and I decided not to travel. I was feeling a bit nervous about these big trip because I obviously New York and Canada a few hours away. and really what happened that was really interesting to me is sickness, travel sickness, gone. Literally 47 years. travel sickness and gone. I don't know what happened. Maybe I've matured, which makes me laugh. it's just psychosomatic, who knows? But not one ounce of travel sickness. And we did a lot of Ks both flying and driving. So actually the trip was wonderful, but it was even more wonderful with the fact I didn't actually need to worry about carrying sick bags in the car, making sure I took my quells. All the things that as you, if you suffer with travel sickness, you know all too well. We are about, we are about, we're like an inch off moving into our dream house. We have been waiting four years for this house. It's part of a 51 build community. It's all electric. No gas, [00:04:00] eco-friendly, and we have been chomping at the bit to move in this week. It's happening now. You might sit there and go, what a terrible time of year to move house. I totally agree, but I'm I'm so excited about it. I'm so excited. Our, our dream house, which is awesome. My health, for the most part, has been good. If you have listened to any of the other ex uh, episodes, you would know that we've had a little, few little blips on that, um, radar. I got back into running. I taught myself couch to 5K, got back into running, which I really love. I've kept up my 20,000 steps a day. I've kept up my naps every day. and inspired by one of my clients, Trudy, I joined a local park run. Which is awesome. If you haven't done a park run before you so do one.
[00:04:45] The community is great and I'm about to start volunteering there, which is awesome. Another amazing thing that happened, one of my bonus daughters got engaged. Yay. And that brought us a lot of joy and now we plan for a wedding. And I think most importantly really was
[00:05:01] I kept my health front and centre
[00:05:03] even in the moments when it wasn't great. So they were like the good bits, the personal bits, the life bits. Of course there were some really hard bits in our year this year. life delivered some heartbreaking moments for me personally. lost our 16-year-old dog Spency, and he was my shadow day in day out, 16 years. He had been with me for so long. He'd been with me before. Husbands before, kids before bonus, kids before all the things. And his loss hurt really deep the day. Before hosting a 75 woman event that was being video grafted, I ended up in emergency, uh, with stitches to my chin. was fun and also fun for the makeup artist the next day to try and cover that all up. I also received a cancer diagnosis, which led to two surgeries. Navigating that while being a mom, trying to be a good wife and a business owner at times just felt [00:06:00] enormous. good was beautiful, but the hard heavy and both shaped me, both really shaped me this year. So that's life. it into a little box for the moment.
[00:06:10] Now I wanna talk about business. I wanna talk about the good, the business reflections that were good thriving women. 2025 was magic, it was light, it was energized, it was aligned. The women are beautiful. That was amazing for me. We did some new things, which really worked well. We took out some stuff that wasn't working well.
[00:06:31] We got them focused on the right things, not just taking in more content, but actually getting stuff done and moving into action. Our 2026. Thriving and launch was so solid. I left nothing on the table for that launch, and if you have heard the behind the scenes episode, you'll know that there's a whole story there. But I'm very, very proud of the fact that we were able to do that launch in such a solid way. We leveled up our systems and we shifted from active campaign to automate digital, which is a type of go high level. Uh, it was a really tough project. We've got a lot of pieces that could potentially break. I think also what helped in this moment is that I was away for three weeks, so Serena had the place to herself and was able to do that without my involvement, which was amazing. It was a big piece of work, and I wish we'd done it sooner, but absolutely the right decision. I wanna say this one straddles both the huge win in being able to travel overseas for three weeks and the business holding strong without me. Incredible every business owner's dream, and I have to put that down to the beautiful community of thriving women that I had. We planned it a long time in advance so everyone knew that it was coming and the community just sorted themselves out. There were people that showed up for others throughout this time while I wasn't online, and it really gave me confidence that when you've got the right people in [00:08:00] the right community, that. Anything can happen. You even as a business owner, can have a break. Every business owner dreams of that moment, I reckon, and Brianna will be very happy to hear this. Finally, this podcast feels like me. Yay. It's uh, natural. It's honest. We're having fun. loving it. And if you listen to the episodes a few ago where I was like, oh, this is really hard.
[00:08:28] We've pushed through the discomfort and the hard, and we've worked out a strategy and a system that really helps me have fun in this. So thank you, Brianna. Of course, there was challenges in business as well. Lots of challenges. The biggest challenge, unfortunately, I hate to admit this. And if Serena's listening, she was gonna have a laugh. Now I'm the problem. It's me. in the words of Taylor Swift, I move really quickly. My brain is just like, and sometimes the team. Get left behind. I don't mean for it to happen. I'm aware of it and I'm working on it, but I'm just like, I want things done now. And uh, that is the beauty about being a nimble team and an entrepreneur, but also realizing other people don't work in that way. So, you know, love letters are Serena for putting up with me. the thriving and Launch, we overstretched, we overstretched me in that. It was only me who could show up because it's my baby, it's my launch. I will preface this with at the same time, we have been able to trademark thriving women in the us, in Canada, in the uk, in Australia and in New Zealand. So big things to come, but that was also happening in the background, right? But the thriving women, 2026 launch was just too long, 12 weeks too long, too much energy to hold. We'll do that differently. The systems upgrade from ActiveCampaign to go high level or automate digital. Shout out to Paul. He doesn't even listen to this podcast, but shout out to Paul. He's [00:10:00] amazing. put a lot of pressure on Serena, which I fully acknowledge because changing systems when you only have one, automation is hard to do.
[00:10:09] Changing systems when you have 54,000 automations also quite hard to do. It's a lot. It's a lot. I added a couple of extra projects to our quarterly list. Classic Emma move. don't mean to, I'm just like, we could do this and we could do this, and the community needs this right now, and I need to do that anyway. These challenges have shaped the year as much as the wins did. and I've got kind of four lessons that are the biggest lessons from all of that. Number one, to belly is still the best. Or as one of my thriving women likes to call it nipple to nipple, I hosted lunches and dinners all around Australia.
[00:10:52] Nothing replaces being in the room with your people. And because of that, we've added two go-getter days to Brisbane next year. So in 2025, Brizzy, we are coming for you. Sorry. In 2026 we're coming for you. So good. But belly to belly is still the best. We ran an experiment in thriving women. This year. We did small group coaching.
[00:11:15] Now anyone that knows me knows I love one-on-one coaching, I felt like there was just a little bit of something, something missing from a practical perspective. So master classes are amazing. Learning new things are amazing, but putting things into action and having that accountability, wow, nothing, nothing better than that. So we. Put an experiment in for small group coaching, and it landed beautifully with the group. It created that extra layer of depth, extra layer of connection and accountability. So now we've popped it into thriving women in 2026. So everyone gets small coaching experience. The other lesson is that systems matter than speed. [00:12:00] Took me a while. The upgrades were a little bit painful, but totally essential. And I wouldn't have been ready for that three years ago. And I was probably ready for it a year ago. And we just couldn't sort out which one, how it was gonna work, all the things. then when we upgraded the systems, I'm like, ah, this is amazing.
[00:12:19] We can do new things. And the final reflection that I had was A strong business can hold you in a tough season. We had a big, a few things, a few tough seasons. It did not collapse while I was navigating health challenges. We haven't even talked about the fact I fainted on a zoom with a hundred women, you know, while I ch, while I grief, while I navigated travel and surgeries. that's about structure. That's not about luck. That's about having the right structure around you, the right support and the right community. And now there's something I would love you to do. I'd love you to sit down, blank, piece of paper in front of you and start with life. Write down what was good, what was hard, what surprised you, and what do you want to carry forward, and what can you let go of? 'cause man, I'm letting go of a whole stack of stuff as well. And then I want you to look at your business and ask yourself, what worked, what didn't work? Where did you grow? Where did you overreach? And what needs to change next year? Then I want you to pick three things that you can celebrate. What were the quiet wins?
[00:13:37] What were the emotional shifts?
[00:13:39] What were the mindset shifts?
[00:13:41] What were the things that no one else saw,
[00:13:44] the internal work that you had to do? Once you've got all that, I would love you to think about 3 things that you can let go of is there a habit you need to ditch? Is there an expectation you need to let slide? there some clients you need [00:14:00] to fire? Dare I say it? Are some offers or some outdated stories that just have to go? And then finally, just one thing.
[00:14:09] Just choose one thing to do differently next year, just one and that one thing. create the biggest ripple effect in your business and in your life as you reflect on your year. I wanna ask one more thing. I wanna ask that you do it with softness. This isn't a harsh task to make you go, I should have done this. I could have done that. La la, la, la, la this year has brought me beauty, it's brought me heartbreak, it's brought me progress. It's brought me pressure, joy, and challenge it, and I'm proud of all of it. And I hope that you feel the same about yours. If you are sitting there thinking, I can't have the same kind of year I had this year, I wanna do things differently next year, please reach out. We might be able to work with you one-on-one. You might be able to step into one of our programs. You might be able to come to a beautiful go-getter day and just feel the sense of community. That's it for today. That's my reflection. For a fabulous year of life and business, go well,
