At some point this year, a few of us in the Founder Hivemind made a pact: No more circling the same decisions for weeks. No more "maybe next quarter".
Just. F*cking. Do it.
Not in the toxic "grind harder" sense.
More like: if something is scary but aligned, we do it anyway. Heart racing, voice shaking, hands sweaty, and we figure it out collaboratively.
Today’s newsletter shares what that looked like for me in 2025.
What did you just f*cking do in 2025?
THE BUSINESS OF COMMUNITY
It’s Not Bragging If It’s Cheerleading
My big scary thing this year was simple on paper and horrifying in my nervous system: I wanted to become a speaker.
Not "one talk and disappear" speaker; The kind who can be dropped into a room, Zoom, summit, or podcast and deliver on a moment’s notice.
And so, from April onwards, I averaged speaking at more than four events a month.
Some weeks it felt like my calendar was just:
Me speaking at the inaugural Festival of Eventing
Talk prep
Talk delivery
Post‑talk recovery
Repeat
That meant:
Writing 1–2 new talks a month
Pulling more than a few all‑nighters to get slides, stories, and examples to a place I was proud of
Realising (the hard way) that "future me will be fine" is a lie if current me keeps saying yes to everything
It was not "easeful". It was not tidy. But it did something important: it rewired my default.
Now I know I can walk into a speaking gig without spiraling. Even better: now other people know that I can do it too.
I’ve gone from "I’d love to speak one day" to:
"Yes, I speak. Here’s the topics I have prepared. Here’s the format. When do you need it?"
Free PR is my new favourite hobby
Somewhere between talks and client work, I discovered my new favourite rabbit hole: Getting PR for free. (Because obviously I needed another hobby.)
This year I ended up in: 2 bundles, 2 summits and, most recently, an actual magazine:
Featured in the Boss Moves Magazine (December Edition) by She Rises Studios
But no one handed that to me.
It came from pitching, saying yes before I felt ready, and treating other people’s platforms with respect.
What surprised me most:
A good, relevant free offer travels much further than a "please share my thing" post.
Bundles and summits introduced me to people who would never have found Candid through social alone.
Most doors opened after I’d already done the scary thing once somewhere smaller.
Capacity, one big client, and the "bigger fish" season
On paper, "Just Fucking Do It" sounds like saying yes to everything. But in real life, this year taught me the opposite.
Saying yes to every talk, every collab, every opportunity worked… until it didn’t.
The cost was:
Sleep (hi, 2am slide decks)
Focus (harder to build deep systems when my brain is always on the next event)
That constant feeling of being slightly over my own capacity line
The biggest shift for 2026 is this:
I’ve locked in one solo‑capacity client for the next three months (and possibly longer).
That means: being in their world properly, doing meaningful work with a bigger "fish", instead of trying to juggle five half‑baked things at once.
It also means I need to be more intentional about what I say yes to on top of that.
"Just Fucking Do It" got me out of the waiting room.
Now the question for next year is: what do I not do, so the right work has room?
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COMMUNITY BUSINESSES IRL:
Fresh Needs and Leads
🧪 QA testing + dev pipeline glow-up: If an app is going into 2026 held together by vibes and late-night commits… Pearl has availability to help. QA testing for founders building apps AND she works with devs/dev houses to tighten the build pipeline. → Reach out to connect
📈 Paid ads that don’t set money on fire: Chantelle taught me most of what I know about paid performance. This holiday, she’s freelancing!! So if you have a product-focused business and want Meta/Google ads, tracking, optimisation, strategy → DM on LinkedIn
🎙️ Two podcast PR wins (and they’re good): Lorien landed two podcast spots for her new wellness brand (with the same playbook as me!). Theme: recovery that works with the body, not numbing it. Have a → short listen or → long listen.
🤖 Automation for data migration: Venessa was featured for a practical piece on automation that makes data migration less “weeks of chaos” and more “repeatable, testable, reversible”. If your 2026 includes moving tools, cleaning lists, or untangling spreadsheets from hell → This is the read.
