This episode is your invitation to breathe, reflect, and rest. As we wrap up the year, I'm keeping it short and heartfelt. I wanted to pause and thank you for being a part of this community, even if all you’ve done is listen. That matters so much. In this solo episode, I’m sharing what I’m celebrating from 2025, what didn’t go as planned, and how I’m redefining what success looks like for me moving into 2026.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:
SUBSCRIBE ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST PLAYER
Apple Podcast Player | Spotify
Review the Transcript
[00:00:00] Hey there. I'm Bree Pair content creator, coach, and your host of the Thrive Podcast, and I'm here to help you build a brand you're proud of with clear strategy and real support. Let's dive in.
[00:00:19] Happy holidays, friends. Merry Christmas. If you celebrate whatever it is you celebrate. I hope you are going into the end of this year, taking a minute to just pause and celebrate and look ahead at. All that is to come. I really just wanted to take a second with this episode. I know you don't have a lot of time, so I will keep this super short and sweet, but just wanted to thank you for being a part of the community this year, even just by listening to this podcast.
[00:00:52] You are supporting us if you do nothing else with Thrive. If you are not a part of our Facebook community or our email list, or Bold fluence or anything else. Just by listening, you are a part of this community and I appreciate you so, so much. This year. I just wanted to celebrate a couple of things that we've accomplished together and the very.
[00:01:17] Big one for me was relaunching Bold Fluence on a brand new platform. We relaunched it onto Circle because we wanted to make it even easier for you guys to be a part of a community and have support and strategy to grow. It was a big task moving everything over there and adding so many trainings to it and the support system with it.
[00:01:39] So that is just something I'm so proud of and thankful to my team for helping us do this. My small and mighty team over here is killing it and it's me in, in case you guys are wondering like, what does that look like for Thrive? It's, it's me, pat patting myself on the back here. Um, I have an assistant that helps me out.
[00:02:04] Ashley Love you. And Haley is our podcast manager and strategist and I would not be able to do any of this without the two of them. So thanks guys. I love you. We also, one big thing is we published 74 podcast episodes this year. I, I could not believe it was that many. I was shocked when I went and dug around and found that number, but 74 episodes this year.
[00:02:33] So I want you guys to like, make sure that you do this for yourself. Like look at some of those highs that you had this year. Yes, there are highs. Yes, there's lows, but. In general, we all made so much content this year, and that is something to be proud of. With myself. This year looked really different than the previous two years.
[00:02:54] It was a lower income year for myself, and I will fully tell you guys that and be very transparent. What I learned with this is that income doesn't equal worth or success. I've had the previous two years be higher income and I didn't feel any more successful those years than I do now. So like when I was running some numbers and looking at what this year looked like.
[00:03:24] It didn't make me feel like I wasn't as successful this year. I mean, we released 74 podcast episodes. We've made huge. Trainings and helped so many people inside of our programs. That is what success is for me. What I am kind of shifting into for 2026 is really leaning into my intuition rather than external expectations and things that I put on myself based on what my peers are doing.
[00:03:58] So. I am really just kind of leaning into what do I want to be doing, not what I should be doing. So there's gonna be a few things that are going to be different at Thrive. You guys aren't going to really super notice, but it's going to be something that is going to just really be a good change for me in my personal life.
[00:04:19] And so if you've been thinking. That you're tired of doing a certain thing because it's what you think you should be doing based on what other people are doing. I really wanna encourage you to just, you know, experiment with new approaches and to really lean into your intuition with this. The other part of it that I am fighting my brain on ongoing and something that I am having to almost unlearn, um, is.
[00:04:50] My brain telling me that in order for me to make more money, I need to hustle more. I have been doing journaling on this. I read the book, get Rich Lucky Bitch that I talked about on this podcast before. Really encourage you guys to read that book. I know the title I. It throws me, the title throws me. I really wanna have the author on this podcast.
[00:05:12] Maybe we'll maybe able to make that happen in 2026 because. What she talked about in that book really had a big impact on me in terms of this, in terms of addressing my mindset of that, well, if I wanna make more money, I have to hustle more. But really with changing my mindset on that and with challenging it, I've tried some different things in the last six months that have really proved that.
[00:05:35] To be false. And so the new truth I'm embracing is working smarter, working less, and making more. That's not just my dream, that is my full plan for 2026, because if not, I will just keep adding random things and my to-do list will run me over, and that's not how I wanna live my life in 2026. So we're changing.
[00:06:00] We're changing that. So encouragement for you as we go into the new year is that if you're in a similar season, just know that you're not alone. If you didn't make as much money this year as you wanted to, you're not alone. Lower revenue doesn't mean you're failing. It means that you're evolving. It means that things that life is.
[00:06:20] Ing, but just give yourself permission to trust that intuition and to lean into it, try new things, reject any of this hustle culture narrative, and really rest during this season. There's not that many days left in 2026, and I really want you to go into it feeling rested. So if working smarter and working less and making more money sounds like something you want to then stick around because I'm gonna be leaning into that.
[00:06:47] For our content for 2026, we're gonna build businesses that we actually love, not businesses that exhaust us. And I love, love, love this business, but I want to lean more into my intuition and into things that fill my cup and light me up. So happy holidays, friends. Please take time to rest, celebrate and dream about what's next.
[00:07:12] I'll see you in the new year, and I can't wait to show you what we're building together.
[00:07:22] If this episode helped you, help us grow, leave a review, share it with a friend, and tag us on social media. We can't wait to cheer you on.
Celebrating Progress, Even When It Looks Different
This year, I hit publish on 74 podcast episodes. That’s almost an episode and a half every week. When I looked back and counted, I actually couldn’t believe it. I was shocked. It’s easy to get caught up in what didn’t happen or what could’ve gone better, but this was a huge reminder that showing up consistently is something worth celebrating.
We also relaunched Boldfluence on a brand new platform, because I wanted to create a more seamless, supportive space for creators to connect, learn, and grow. The transition was a heavy lift (shoutout to my team), but it was the right move. I’m so proud of how far we’ve come.
These milestones reminded me that success isn’t always flashy or loud. Sometimes it looks like quiet, consistent commitment. Sometimes it’s a late-night edit, a community message, or a podcast episode that you almost didn’t record, but did anyway.
This Was My Lowest Income Year and My Most Aligned
Here’s the vulnerable part: 2025 was a lower-income year for me compared to the previous two. Oddly enough? I didn’t feel less successful.
I’ve learned (and I mean really learned) that income does not equal worth. More importantly, income doesn’t always equal success either.
In years past, higher revenue felt good, sure, but it also came with pressure, burnout, and a constant internal battle of doing what I “should” be doing instead of what felt right.
This year, I finally gave myself permission to shift by pausing and asking, what do I actually want?
Unlearning Hustle Culture and What I’m Embracing Instead
I’ll be real with you, letting go of hustle as a badge of honor hasn’t been easy. My brain still tries to convince me that making more money means I need to work harder, longer, faster. But I’m calling BS on that.
One of the biggest mindset tools that helped me shift was reading Get Rich, Lucky Bitch by Denise Duffield-Thomas. The title might be a little jarring, but the content? Game-changing. That book helped me identify the unspoken rules I had been living by and rewrite them.
Over the last six months, I’ve been actively experimenting with working smarter instead of harder. I started asking: What if more rest = more results? What if less hustle = more alignment?
Turns out, it’s not just possible, it’s sustainable. And it’s how I’m planning to move forward.
The Vision for 2026: Less Pressure, More Peace
Looking ahead, I’m not interested in building a business that demands my entire life to succeed.
In 2026, I’m building a business that energizes me, not exhausts me. That means fewer “shoulds” and more intuitive strategy. That means saying yes only to what aligns. That means working smarter, working less, and still making more—not as a hope, but as a plan.
You probably won’t notice drastic changes from the outside, but internally, the shift will be everything.
If you're in a season where you feel tired, burned out, or like you're doing too much of what doesn’t light you up, I want you to know you're not alone. Slowing down doesn’t mean you’re giving up. It means you’re making space for what matters.
A New Definition of Success
Success in 2026 looks like:
- Creating from a place of clarity, not chaos
- Serving my audience without sacrificing myself
- Leaning into rest, intuition, and ease
- Believing that alignment creates abundance
If that resonates with you, then stick around. We’re building something different here: something honest, spacious, and sustainable.
Your business should support your life, not the other way around.
Find It Quickly
- 00:19 - Holiday Greetings and Community Appreciation
- 01:10 - Celebrating Achievements of the Year
- 02:50 - Personal Reflections and Lessons Learned
- 03:40 - Looking Ahead to 2026
- 06:02 - Encouragement for the New Year
Mentioned in this Episode
