• 5 min read

🔥Why do more in '24?

Before we begin, I have some announcements about my private marketing community!

Ya girl has been making changes in Brand Insiders over the past couple weeks and I am so excited to bring you more trends, live events, discounts, and networking in 2025 ✌️

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Let’s get more out of 2025, together ✌️

NOW let's get to it:

This whole year, I experimented with a mantra that sounds counterintuitive at first glance: “Why Do More in ’24?”

It was my way of starting to challenge my own perfectionism and people-pleasing tendencies. So many times I found myself in some anxious spiral of my own doing, creating more and more value for people who didn't ask for it. I burned myself out, dropped the rope, and decided to question everything I did.

(and before you come at me, no: WDM24 is not about doing the bare minimum, it's specifically for over-functioning, TypeA perfectionists who do the absolute most even when it's not necessary. So calm down.)

In short, WDM24 was a year-long warm-up to relaxing my grip on my overfunctioning.

This is exactly what I did:

  • Questioned every time I felt the urge to create a task item
  • Asked myself: "who cares?" before doing something I don't want to (if the answer was no one, I didn't do it)
  • Let things be imperfect (including the punctuation in this email)
  • Put my needs first (I didn't say "no" more because all-or-nothing thinking is what got me here, but I did a great job at holding boundaries.)
  • Scaled my agency's capabilities and team WAY back to the basics
  • Got super selective about the clients we kept and took on
  • Trusted, trusted trusted: letting go of control is what this experiment is all about right? So I had to accept that it's not all up to me and just let some things happen. Deep breath.

Here's what happened next:

I learned the anxiety call was coming from inside the house
I discovered that roughly 80% of my stress came creating imaginary "shoulds" that I didn't really want but felt like they were the next step. I literally made up “must-do” lists that no one else cared about, and I didn't actually want. But why, tho?

I murdered my invisible critics
I make up people in my head who are watching my every move waiting for a "gotcha!" moment. I just stopped paying attention to them and they now dedRIP. When I'm not performing, and doing what I want for ME, my mental space freed up and life feels more balanced.

Doing less things really well made me happier
I scaled back my agency’s capabilities. The strategy behind it? I kept the services that I enjoy and ditched the rest. That's it. No client surveys, no product market fit. If it doesn't bring me joy, I don't wannit. I'm the boss, after all so why not?

I achieved boss level at sitting in discomfort
Why is the gray area of life so uncomfortableeeeee? I learned to stop taking ownership of closing every gap and just sitting in the unknown. Trust, remember? Life will happen whether I'm doing things or not. By resisting the impulse to “fix” every situation the moment it felt off, I learned to float through some uncertainty.

Grace became a practice that benefitted everyone
I learned to extend grace not just to myself when I fell short of some made up ideal, but to others (I'm real hard on all of us). When I hold myself to my own insane standards, y'all got to meet it too I'm sorry to say. So I'm just not doing that anymore. My best is more than enough. So is yours.

I enjoyed reality more than the "shoulds"
I’ve always had a list in my head of what I “should” be doing—certain types of projects, certain paths I assumed I had to take. Letting go of that opened the door to doing more of what I genuinely enjoy. Why am I killing myself for growth, because I saw it on a Malcom Gladwell meme? Hard pass.

My nervous system thanked me
The physiological effect has been real. The CNS needed some love too and I'm sleeping like a gawderm champion. Turns out that doing less isn’t just good for mental well-being—it’s also good for the body.

So as “Why Do More in ’24?” wraps up, I’m looking ahead. I’ve done the groundwork to enter the new year with a healthier mindset about my worth and my work. Now I need a fresh guiding principle that builds on this progress. Something that says, “You’ve established your baseline. You’ve proven you can do less and be okay. Now what?”

That’s where I’d love your input. What mantra should guide 2025? How do I keep this momentum going, stay true to myself, and create even more space for meaningful work and genuine well-being?

(One follower suggested "effortless momentum" and I am loving this vibe.)

Hit reply and share your thoughts. After all, this journey has taught me that community feedback is often more enlightening than anything I come up with in my own head. Let’s keep growing, evolving, and—dare I say—doing less, but better.

What to know this week

  • OpenAI launched Sora, an AI tool for video creation. It's designed to take text, image, and video inputs and generate a new video as an output.
  • Luigi Mangione has become a household name, many touting him as a "hometown hero" for his ki murder of United Healthcare's CEO Brian Thompson, demonstrating the power of the press in spinning media angles to influencer social discourse. What are your thoughts??
  • 2025 is the year of Creator Economy. WIll you be jumping on board? ( if you want to launch a personal brand).
  • Speaking of personal brands, look at @#2 on this list. If your goal has been to work less day job and do more brand deals and content, my LinkedIn Playbook is here. (should I do another cohort??)
  • Instagram just launched Trial Reels which I'm thrilled about, because there's been no way to A/B test content. This allows creators to publish videos to non-followers to gauge response before allowing followers access.
  • The placebo effect should play a role in your brand strategy. In other words, how do you WANT people to feel when using your product? Telling them will increase chances of it being what the experience. See more about the research in the comments.

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