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We are in 2026, Woohoo!, Happy New Year! Glad you made it. 

The newness of the new year always brings reflection and prediction across almost every aspect of life, and business and marketing are no exception. 

And while many people are trying to predict what 2026 will bring, I want to reflect on what happened in 2025. 

You see, I believe there’s a lot to be learned from mistakes. Yours, mine, and everyone else’s. I don’t think you can really grow in your endeavours if you don’t take the time to reflect. 

So, if you’ll allow me to be vulnerable this one time,  I’ll be pouring out some of the marketing and business mistakes (some more costly than others) I made last year, in hopes that you can either learn from them and not repeat them, or take solace in the fact that if you also made these mistakes last year, you aren’t alone. 

What’s that TikTok trend? “We listen, and we don’t judge?” 

Yeah. Do that as you read through this, and I hope you take something positive from it. 

Now, let the vulnerability begin! 

5 Marketing and Business Mistakes I Made in 2025

1. Consuming before Creating 

Starting off strong, I consumed a lot more than I created last year. 

It was quite bad, to be honest. I relied way too much on the content I consumed to inspire me to create, to the point that I lost my voice and personality. 

See, when you take in too much content, it changes you. You might not even notice it at first, but eventually you’ll start to see that everything you do is dependent on what you’ve already seen. 

You start to blend in with everyone instead of standing out, and as a content creator or business owner, that’s not good. 

So this year, I’m working on cutting down my screen time and avoiding scrolling for inspiration. 

I’m going to create first before I consume, even if what I create isn’t good, I’m still going to create it. 

I’m going to start fresh, from a blank screen or a piece of paper, and just write or create whatever I need to. Only after I’ve done that and have a clear idea of what I want to create will I look outside for assistance in refining the piece of content I’ve already created. 

If you’re a creator, I urge you to do this too. We underestimate just how much outside content affects us internally. 

2. Looking at too Many People’s Content

This one expands on my first point. What I’ve learned about myself is that I get overwhelmed easily when presented with too much information, and that leads me to quit or drop everything. 

Which, in turn, leads me to never finish what I start. 

As a marketer, I do a lot of research. I do this to understand the state of the world, what’s trending, what’s no longer working, what competitors are doing, and what other content creators are doing, and I know you do this too. 

While this is important, it needs to be done in moderation, and last year I had none whatsoever. 

I followed all the accounts on all the social media platforms, I listened to all the “marketing gurus,” and took their advice way more seriously than I should have (because, honestly, a lot of content out there is rubbish). I ended up feeling overwhelmed and completely over my entire industry. 

What I should have done, and what I encourage you to do, is pick 3 or, at most, 5 creators/experts/sources that you truly trust. Use them for research and knowledge, and ignore the rest. 

Everyone’s a content creator these days (not saying that’s a bad thing). It just means everyone has something to say (yes, including me… I mean, I have a whole blog). But it’s impossible and unrealistic to listen to everyone. 

Doing this in 2025 was one of the reasons I didn’t accomplish what I hoped. I got overwhelmed, discouraged, and I just stopped. 

So if you’re like me and you get overwhelmed easily, be very picky about the information you take in and who you take it from. 

3. Focusing on too Many Things at a Time

In 2025, I really tried to be a one-woman marketing wrecking machine.

I tried to master social media marketing, content writing, video editing, and even graphic design. It’s no wonder I ended up exhausted and burned out before summer came around. 

These days, there’s this pressure to be good at everything all at once.  

You see people online accomplishing incredible things, which makes you feel awful about yourself. Then you try to do everything at once so you can be successful, too. And let me tell you, that is absolute crap. It’s also another reason you should consume less.

The most successful people didn’t wake up one day and decide to master everything. They started years ago with one small thing and, over time, grew and learned more.

That is how you grow. 

So this year, instead of trying to be good at all things marketing, I am rededicating myself to my one true marketing love… content writing.  

Content writing is what made me fall in love with marketing in the first place; it’s the reason I started this blog, but somewhere along the way in 2025, I forgot my love for it. 

It got buried under the constant need to know and learn everything, but NO MORE! 

In 2026, I am stripping it all back, starting from scratch and focusing on content marketing. 

And you can bet that whatever I learn will be shared here with you, so maybe stick around and subscribe to this blog. 

4. Running Away from Writing Because it Felt Overwhelming. 

Still on the ways I neglected writing last year.

Somehow, I convinced myself that writing was overwhelming and started avoiding it altogether. I think it came from this need to sound and write a certain way or to make everything perfect from the very first draft.

I would read articles, books, and blog posts from other writers and tell myself that because I wasn’t as good as they were, I shouldn’t even bother.

This was a HUGE disservice to myself. 

No one wakes up and becomes the next William Shakespeare. Not even William Shakespeare. Writing is a skill, and like any skill, it requires practice to improve.

I forgot that last year. This year, I’m keeping it front of mind.

Another thing that helped me work through my writing insecurities was the book Everybody Writes by Ann Handley.

Its an INCREDIBLE book that taught me so much. I first heard about it from ‘TheSideBlogger’, who raves about it. 

I encourage anyone even remotely interested in writing to read it. Seriously, read it. (This is not sponsored by the way) 

In the book, Ann Hadley talks about ‘the ugly first draft.’ 

It’s basically about how your first draft of anything is going to be horrible, it’s going to suck, and you should let it. 

She talks about how when writing that first draft, don’t bug yourself down with grammar or sounding good, just write. Write everything as it comes to you. It doesn’t have to make sense or be logical.

The time for editing will come later, but for that first draft, just write. 

This mindset really helped me overcome my fear of writing. Now, when I sit down to write, I don’t need it to be perfect. I’m just getting my thoughts out.

You should try it. 

Write without fear or doubt.  No one else is going to read your ugly first draft, so write like the wind. 

5. Running away from Social Media Because I Didn’t Have a Plan for Reels 

Okay, I’m about to get really honest here… I don’t want to be a content creator, gasp!  

Before you say anything, I know. I work in marketing. It’s my entire career. So why don’t I want to be a content creator or show my face in videos? 

Because that’s not why I became a marketer.

As I mentioned earlier, writing is what made me fall in love with the industry, not social media content creation. Trust me, I wish I loved it. It would definitely make my life a lot easier, but I just don’t. 

And that should be fine. Not everyone in marketing, and not every business owner, wants to be a content creator.

I have a love-hate relationship with Instagram, and if you’ve read my past posts about Instagram, you already know this.

Instagram is an incredible tool for growth, reach, traffic, and money. My issue isn’t with the platform itself (even though it annoys me sometimes). My issue is with one thing in particular: reels.

I never found a reels strategy I liked and felt would work for me, so I gave up on Instagram altogether. 

I shouldn’t have done that. 

Yes, reels are important, and some would say necessary, for growth on Instagram. But they’re not the be-all and end-all. Because I didn’t want to show up on camera, I threw away my entire Instagram strategy.

I should have been smarter. I should have leaned into my strengths, like carousels, and taken the time to find creative ways to show up on reels that worked for me.

Yes, there are best practices, but there is no one way to show up on reels. And also I should have taken baby steps insteading or running away completely. 

I should have started my strategy with carousels, stories, and single posts, then worked my way up to reels. 

This is what I recommend to anyone struggling with the same thing. Don’t abandon Instagram if you know it could help your business.

Instead, take baby steps and get creative about how you can show up in ways that work for you and your audience. 

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And there you have it. I made a lot of mistakes last year. Mistakes I don’t intend to repeat.

This post is my way of staying accountable and reminding you that if 2025 wasn’t your best year, that’s okay. We get another chance this year to do better.

And you can bet your ass I’m taking that chance. You should too.