Reflect, Reset, Design: Your 2026 Planning Framework

We're in that strange, liminal week between Christmas and New Year. The turkey's been eaten, the presents have been opened, and there's this quiet space before the new year kicks off. It's a natural time for reflection as well as for looking ahead.   I know many of you are ambitious and have big goals you want to achieve. But that kind of impact requires reach. Reach requires visibility. Visibility requires consistency. Consistency requires support. And sadly, so many entrepreneurs don't ask for help or support.   If your business can't stay in business because you're exhausted, bottlenecked, or drowning in tasks... How much impact can you actually make?   Not a lot, is the answer…   And that is why I wanted to do this episode today – before we head into a fresh new year! Because most year-end reflection exercises completely miss this. They focus only on results – what worked, what didn't, revenue up or down, targets hit or missed. But that's only half the picture.   The other half – the half that determines whether you'll still be doing this in five years or whether you'll burn out and walk away – is how you actually felt about it all. Whether you're building something sustainable. Whether you enjoyed the year or just survived it.   So today, I'm sharing a really simple but powerful framework – so simple you can do it on the back of a paper napkin whilst lounging by the pool, but powerful enough that it might just change how you think about the year ahead.     Links mentioned in this episode: If you'd like help to achieve your goals, I invite you to have a chat to find out how we can make that happen together HERE By booking a Free Growth Strategy   Other Ways To Enjoy This Episode: Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Youtube  

It's Christmas week. The orders have shipped – or at least, most of them have. The mad rush is behind you. And hopefully, you're either on a beach somewhere or at least within striking distance of a cold drink and a good book. So today's episode is a little different. This isn't a tactical deep-dive. I'm not going to give you a framework or a checklist or an action plan. Instead, I just want to pause with you for a moment and reflect on what a year it's been. Because honestly? 2025 has been one of the strangest, most challenging, most thrilling and most transformative years I can remember in this industry. It's felt long and hard – and yet somehow it's also flown by. Does anyone else feel that weird time paradox, or is it just me? I've spent more time this year learning and experimenting than I have in a long time. The advances in AI, the changes to how customers find and interact with brands online, the shifts in what's working and what's not – it's been relentless. And I know you've felt it too. So let's take a breath together and look back at what actually happened this year. What changed, what we learned, and where we're heading. Consider this a quiet moment before we close out the year.   Links mentioned in this episode: If you'd like help to achieve your goals, I invite you to have a chat to find out how we can make that happen together HERE By booking a Free Growth Strategy https://productpreneurmarketing.com/lets-talk   Other Ways To Enjoy This Episode: Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Youtube  

Right now, you've got about a week to prepare for what could genuinely be one of the most profitable – and least stressful – marketing periods of your entire year.   Now, I know what you might be thinking. "Cath, I'm exhausted. I've just pushed through the Christmas rush. The last thing I want to think about is more marketing." And honestly? I get it. By mid-December, most of us are running on fumes and dreaming of a week at the beach with our phones on silent.   But here's what I want you to consider: what if you could capture significant revenue during the week after Christmas with almost zero real-time effort? What if the work you do this week – before you switch off – sets up a system that runs beautifully while you're relaxing with a book and a cold drink?   That's the Q5 opportunity. It's not about working through your holidays. It's about being strategic enough to have your marketing work for you while you rest.   So today, I'm going to walk you through exactly what Q5 is, why the economics are so favourable, how customer psychology shifts during this period, and most importantly – the practical steps to set yourself up this week so you can capitalise without sacrificing your summer break.     Links mentioned in this episode: If you'd like help to achieve your goals, I invite you to have a chat to find out how we can make that happen together HERE By booking a Free Growth Strategy https://productpreneurmarketing.com/lets-talk     Other Ways To Enjoy This Episode: Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Youtube  

We're in the first week of December now. Which means you've got roughly 14 days of meaningful marketing time before most of your customers mentally check out for the holidays — and before your shipping cut-off dates make the whole thing a bit irrelevant anyway. Now, I know what you might be feeling right now. It's that familiar end-of-year cocktail of exhaustion, overwhelm, and a nagging sense that you should be doing more. Your inbox is full of articles telling you about the 47 things you absolutely must do before Christmas. Your competitors seem to have their act together with perfectly coordinated campaigns. And you're sitting there thinking, "Is it too late? Have I missed the boat?" Here's what I want you to hear: No, you haven't missed the boat. But you also don't have time to build a new boat from scratch. The next two weeks are about strategic triage — knowing exactly where to put your energy for maximum impact, and giving yourself full permission to let go of everything else. Because here's the uncomfortable truth that most marketing advice won't tell you: trying to do everything in the next 14 days is actually worse than doing three things really well. Scattered effort produces scattered results. Focused effort? That's where the magic happens. So today, I'm going to walk you through exactly what to prioritise right now — and crucially, what to consciously deprioritise so you can finish the year strong without completely burning yourself out. Quick note – if you want a visual version of what I'm covering today, I've put together a 14-Day Priority Planner that maps out exactly what to focus on each day between now and your shipping cut-off. You can grab that at productpreneurmarketing.com/14dayplan. It's completely free, and it'll help you implement what we're talking about today without having to take a million notes.   Links mentioned in this episode: If you'd like help to achieve your goals, I invite you to have a chat to find out how we can make that happen together HERE By booking a Free Growth Strategy Download free 14-Day Christmas Plan Here   Other Ways To Enjoy This Episode: Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Youtube

I know exactly where you're at right now. We're in the thick of Black Friday promos – or as I like to call it, the 'beautiful chaos' portion of the retail calendar. Your ads are running, your inbox is overflowing, your inventory is moving, and you're probably surviving on caffeine and pure adrenaline.   I also know that this period isn't just physically exhausting – it's emotionally exhausting too. There's this rollercoaster that happens during BFCM. You swing between moments of 'oh my goodness, the sales are coming in!' to 'why did that ad suddenly stop performing?' to 'I haven't eaten lunch and it's 4pm.'   So to help you through, I'm going to share 2 really easy and practical things you can do right now to maintain your energy levels and focus throughout this crazy busy time and through to the end of the year.   AND I'm sharing 5 marketing tips you can start thinking about now to help prevent your sales from dropping off a cliff after Black Friday ends – something that so often happens after a sale event.    Think of this episode as me being your cheer squad, your pit crew and your Mum all-in-one!      Links mentioned in this episode: If you'd like help to achieve your goals, I invite you to have a chat to find out how we can make that happen together HERE By booking a Free Growth Strategy https://productpreneurmarketing.com/lets-talk   Other Ways To Enjoy This Episode: Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Youtube  

If you run the kind of premium brand that either does not participate in Black Friday, or does so differently to the mass-market brands running huge discount promos and turning Black Friday into Black Month…. Then I bet your November started slower than you expected… Maybe not disastrously slow, but quieter than you'd like… Meanwhile, your inbox is absolutely exploding with promotional emails. 50% off. 60% off. "Our biggest sale ever!"... You might be starting to think that maybe you should have gone harder. Maybe you should have started your promotions earlier. Maybe you should have offered bigger discounts.  If this is you, I need you to know something: that FOMO you're feeling? It's lying to you. Yes, your sales might seem quieter than the discount circus happening around you. Yes, it feels uncomfortable watching all that activity whilst your own metrics look comparatively... modest. Yes, you might be wondering if you should just cave and offer 40% off everything. But the numbers tell a very different story. In this episode, I'm going to explain why your quieter November might actually be the smartest strategic move you could make. And importantly, I'm also going to give you some practical tips on HOW to get your marketing messaging to cut through all that noise and connect with the right customers, so that you convert profitable sales that lead to more lucrative customer lifetime values.   Links mentioned in this episode: If you'd like help to achieve your goals, I invite you to have a chat to find out how we can make that happen together HERE By booking a Free Growth Strategy https://productpreneurmarketing.com/lets-talk     Other Ways To Enjoy This Episode: Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Youtube  

If the only time you email your list is when you're running a sale, what do you think happens? Your customers start waiting for the sales. They see your regular-priced products and think, "Nah, I'll wait. They'll have a sale in a couple of weeks." And then you're stuck in this cycle where you have to keep discounting to generate revenue, which destroys your profit margins and devalues your brand. But here's the part that most brands don't actually sit down and calculate: the math of discounting is absolutely brutal, especially when you factor in the high ad costs we're dealing with right now. Let's say you discount your products by just 10% – which seems pretty modest, right? – you need to sell 25% more volume just to make the same net profit. Now, let's add in the reality of paid advertising to drive traffic and win new customers. So now you're discounting by 10%, which means you need 25% more volume. But to get that volume, you're paying on average $50 ad spend per purchase (even more during peak promotional periods). Do the math. The amount of extra sales you need to generate just to maintain your profit margin increases drastically. You could need to sell 40%, 50%, even 60% more just to end up in the same place profit-wise. And for what? So you can say you had a good Black Friday? So you can compete with every other brand throwing discounts around? It's exhausting. And frankly, it's not a sustainable way to run a business. But here's where the strategy we've been talking about – using your email database smartly, building customer loyalty, focusing on repeat purchases – completely changes this equation. In this episode, we discuss the practical steps you can take to lift your return on ad spend by 300-400%.   Links mentioned in this episode: If you'd like help to achieve your goals, I invite you to have a chat to find out how we can make that happen together HERE By booking a Free Growth Strategy https://productpreneurmarketing.com/lets-talk   Other Ways To Enjoy This Episode: Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Youtube  

So we're in early November now, and I have a question for you: how are those ad costs treating you right now? Yeah, I thought so. Look, I'm not going to sugarcoat this – if you've been running ads in the last few weeks, you've probably noticed your costs have gone absolutely mental. And it's only going to get worse as we head deeper into Black Friday and Christmas territory. So today, we need to talk about something that most ecommerce brands are getting completely wrong. And it's costing them – literally – thousands of dollars every single month. I'm talking about email marketing. But not the "spray and pray" kind where you send a newsletter once a month and hope for the best. I'm talking about strategic, automated, revenue-generating email marketing that works while you're sleeping, walking the dog, or binge-watching your favourite Netflix series. By the end of this episode, you're going to understand exactly why your current approach is leaving money on the table, and more importantly, what to do about it before we hit 2026.   Links mentioned in this episode: If you'd like help to achieve your goals, I invite you to have a chat to find out how we can make that happen together HERE By booking a Free Growth Strategy https://productpreneurmarketing.com/lets-talk   Other Ways To Enjoy This Episode: Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Youtube  

Today we're diving into a story that perfectly illustrates what it takes to scale a premium brand in today's competitive eCommerce landscape.   If you've been paying attention to the wellness and café scene lately, you've probably noticed matcha is having a serious moment. It's everywhere – from your local café's menu to your Instagram feed. And whilst that wave of popularity creates incredible opportunity, it also brings unique challenges.   Today's guest, Erin Lindwall, is the founder of Matcha Yu Tea – a premium Australian matcha brand that's doing something remarkable. Despite facing a global matcha shortage, increased competition, and all the complexities of sourcing an authentic product steeped in Japanese tradition, Erin has nearly doubled her online sales and built a thriving wholesale division.   But here's what makes this story particularly interesting: Erin isn't trying to be the cheapest matcha on the market. She's not competing for supermarket shelf space. Instead, she's built a brand around authenticity, quality, and a deep connection to Japanese culture – sourced directly from family tea farms in Japan, packaged in compostable materials, and sold to customers who value the story and experience as much as the product itself.   This is a masterclass in understanding your customer's buying psychology and marketing accordingly. Because when you're selling a premium product, you can't market like a mass-market brand. You need different strategies, different messaging, and a completely different approach to growth.   In today's episode, we're going to explore how Erin built those supplier relationships in Japan, how she's navigated the global matcha shortage whilst scaling, what digital marketing strategies have actually moved the needle for her business, and how she's positioned Matcha Yu to stand out in an increasingly crowded market.     Links mentioned in this episode: If you'd like help to achieve your goals, I invite you to have a chat to find out how we can make that happen together HERE By booking a Free Growth Strategy https://productpreneurmarketing.com/lets-talk Matcha Yu Tea Matcha Yu Tea Instagram   Other Ways To Enjoy This Episode: Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Youtube    

Meta is having a moment. And not the good kind…  If you've been running Meta ads and feeling like something fundamental has shifted – like you're suddenly playing a completely different game – you're not imagining it. Meta has essentially staged an algorithm coup, and a lot of brands are scrambling. So what's happening? And what should you do about it? Most brands are going to struggle with this. Most will either burn out trying to keep up or quit Meta altogether. If you can figure out how to respond to these changes in a way that allows your brand to work with the algorithm without sacrificing what makes you unique, you'll have an advantage. The ones who solve this will win market share from the ones who can't. And this episode will help you forward with clarity and purpose (while everyone else is confused and paralysed!)   Subscribe & Review In iTunes Are you subscribed to my podcast? If you're not, I want to encourage you to do that today. I don't want you to miss an episode. I'm adding a bunch of bonus episodes to the mix and if you're not subscribed there's a good chance you'll miss out on those. Click here to subscribe in iTunes! Now if you're feeling extra loving, I would be really grateful if you left me a review over on iTunes, too. Those reviews help other people find my podcast and they're also fun for me to go in and read. Just click here to review, select "Ratings and Reviews" and "Write a Review" and let me know what your favourite part of the podcast is. Thank you!   Other Ways To Enjoy This Episode: Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Youtube