2025 was the year that ...

2025 was the year that I finally starting applying my strategic eye to my own brand and marketing!

Very much ongoing work, but this year I have done a deep dive into figuring out specifically who my target audience is, what their needs are and my differentiated position.

Plus how to start telling that story through my personal brand (a phrase that’s always made me uncomfy).

2025 was the year that quickly showed me flames, but taught me how to search for water in unexpected places.

It continues to teach me how to stretch myself and embrace a cat like quality of landing on ones feet in the under belly of the “upside down world”.

Did I mention I am allergic to cats?

2025 was the year that small, indie agencies broke through. It was a steady build for years as the global behemoths stumbled, but now we’re in a new era where micro/nano shops, in particular, are finally getting their time in the sun.

Smart brands are choosing niche, expert partners who move quickly and take risks creatively because they aren’t beholden to any holding company or shareholder. The agency model is changing - small is the new big - and everyone, creative people and clients alike, will be better off for it.

2025 was the year that creative agencies realised they need to sort out their own stall first (just like the proverbial oxygen mask).

For too long, agencies have essentially traded as commodities – they got complacent. Now big shifts in both the production and consumption of content have instigated an upheaval, and this year it came to a head.

Suddenly agencies are asking themselves the big questions they more often ask their clients: what’s our proposition? What’s our model? What makes it compelling? Agencies are learning they too need a brand, and not just a nice-to-have surface layer but a philosophy and promise than runs through the entire fabric of what they do and how.

2025 was the year I returned to freelance brand strategy after 15 years as Planning Director at Sedley Place.

Having freelanced before I’ve discovered quite a ​different world. It’s now full of practitioners of every complexion - some media, sector or discipline specific, others more generalist.

I’ve also found it a more dynamic world with brand strategy responding to new technologies, trends, market behaviours, etc.

What I particularly appreciate about the current strategic community is the amount of expertise and experience sharing that goes on.

Whether its books, podcasts, webinars, panels, courses, conferences or community advice giving (such a feature of Outside Perspective) the levels of sharing are sigificant and inspiring.

2025 was the year that I finally trusted myself. It only took 30+ years, but this was the year I stopped second-guessing my instincts and actually backed them. I built a business doing the work I care about most, and fell even more in love with it.

It was the year I realised the internet can be full of genuinely kind people, who gass you up and want to see you succeed, and that the connections we make online can be just as real, meaningful and expansive as the ones we make offline.

2025 was truly about just doing the thing; launching a website, starting a business, writing a substack, reaching out to people, thinking about my practice and surrounding myself with people who are genuinely fucking great!

It’s also been a year of very broken sleep, burnout, one huge “financial snafu” (shout out to my ex-accountant) and working more seven day weeks than I have ever done in my life - but it’s also been the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done so here’s to more of the same in 2026!

2025 was the year that the noise became unbearable, but we could also hear the quiet murmur of change.

Amongst the unbearable noise of misinformation, the rising power of irresistible, unavoidable truths.

Amongst the rising sounds of the machines, a gentle rededication to what makes us irreplaceably human.

Amongst the banality of bombastic mega-egos, new communities creating quieter new spaces for us to live.

It’s only a murmur, and it’s easily drowned out. But let’s hope that this murmur is the start of a new story, in 2026 and beyond.

2025 was the year that saw thousands of people lose their jobs, and find themselves in self-employment, not by choice, but by circumstance.

For some, it might have been the nudge they needed to create something. For others, it feels like a terrifying situation outside of the control. For me, and I’ve been there, it was the year I chose to fully commit to supporting fellow freelancers.

Whether through projects like this, the Independency Community Coalition, Leapers, the Mental Health at Work Leadership Council, joining the Advertising Association Mental Health working group, or simply writing about my own experiences.

Who knows what 2026 will bring, but I’m determined to make it better, for more than just myself.

2025 was the year that AI stopped feeling like the enemy and became an invaluable strategy friend. Learning to use for hypothesis validation, thought-starters, data gathering, brand examples … Even as a novice, it’s frankly opened up work I’d have never been able to take on before.

2025 was the year that taught me delusion is a power and a skill, especially if it’s connected to hope and action, rather than disillusionment.

It’s a huge opportunity for brands to re-imagine the world their audiences step into and create something that keeps them wanting to come back.

2025 was the year that made human stories more important than ever.

In a year when social media became ‘not social’ and humans retreated to closed communities to avoid slop, we’ve found the thing that still cuts through is meaning and connection – whether that be IRL or simply activating people’s intuition with a little well-intentioned friction.

While some brands chased little giggles by trend-following, those that soared have created an active connection, developing deeper, longer-lasting impact. That’s real comms, and I still believe in it.

2025 was a rollercoaster.

I took the leap and went all out with my consultancy work, working with clients on renewable energy and sustainability projects.

Some projects landed, agreements were made, but payments were a struggle. As a newcomer, I’m figuring things out as I go.

To make it work, I’m focusing on two key areas:

• Building a steady pipeline of projects
• Getting my working model sorted so I can deliver my best work

Lessons learned, mistakes made, and growth happening - that’s 2026’s fuel.

2025 was the year that I finally decided to take a chance on myself.

I stopped wanting to do things, and actually did them. I quit my full-time job. Went freelance. Travelled more. Exercised more. Dedicated more time to growing my wonderful community, Common Ground Run Club.

And importantly, I dreamt bigger. This is the year my patience with major sports brands expired.

So, going into 2026, I am doubling down on my mission to find a company who is looking to meaningfully build the type of sport / wellness brand active women deserve, and scale the hell out of them.

2025 was the year that… we realised bigger isn’t always better.

Holding companies may have grabbed headlines, but the real story was the indie uprising. Quality Meat’s Joe Burns predicted 2025 would be big for small. And he was right.

People poured out of agency and consulting behemoths. Not always voluntarily, but now able to reclaim the energy that efficiency had sucked dry. Building their own thing, finding like-minded networks, joining sparkling shops with new models and new mindsets.

And most importantly, doing highly valued, no-bullshit strategy — tackling the terrifyingly big questions of our time in sharper ways, from inside smaller walls.