Seven Things That Shaped My Life and Business in 2025

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI.

Allea Grummert (00:12):
Be there. Welcome to Happy Subscribers, a podcast that explores how bloggers and content creators can create more purposeful relationships with your audience through email marketing. I’m Allie ert, email marketing strategist, copywriter, email platform expert and founder of the Dump for You email marketing agency duet. I started as a personal finance blogger in 2016 and have since helped hundreds of bloggers and creators like you maximize your email marketing for more impact, more traffic, and a better connection with your subscribers. Be prepared for some advanced email talk as well as tactical tips to help get your valuable content into the hands of your audience faster and easier. I’m excited you’re here, so let’s do it. We can create a deeper, more meaningful connection with the community you love and serve through email.

(00:59)
Hello and welcome to a year in review for 2025. How exciting. Now, when one thinks of a year in review, it could kind of be a lot of things and what it’s not going to be is something super boring. It’s going to be great, and I’ll tell you why, because it’s a mix of personal and professional and I just know that Allie, the person also runs duet and Duet also allows Allie the person to have a life. And so I’m hoping that this is going to be an encouragement for you across the board with all the different things. And so I couldn’t really just do one that was just business. There were so many really great personal things that happened for me this year. Also some not great personal things, but breakups aside, we’re going to talk about the good things. The first one is that it is more than okay to rest.

(01:58)
So at the beginning of 2025, actually the end of 2024, I was like, this is actually my seventh year in business and being a Christian, just knowing that I hear about seven often, but the seventh year was the Sabbath year for the crops for the livestock back in ancient Jewish tradition to be able to really rest. And I was like, not that I’m livestock, but I’m a living human being and creature who needs rest. And I was just really feeling compelled to not keep pushing for more going into 2025. And so I let myself say, what if I didn’t actually add on more this year? What if I just did what I was currently doing, which at the time was sending an email, going to a few conferences and running the podcast and then managing my team. I also saw I had a team member who was going to be out on maternity leave and there were things that needed to be refined in my process.

(03:02)
And so I was like, if that’s all that I do, and I’m not really pushing myself to do more than that, I’m not running any launches. I’m not really running any campaigns. I’m just sending my weekly email, just doing my podcast, just running a small agency with my team and being available for them and hiring an interim project manager. That is plenty but often, and I know it’s not just me. We think, but I need more. I need more. I need to do another exciting thing. But what I did is I gave myself permission to say, no, not in this season. And here’s the takeaway from that is that plenty good can happen without adding more. I was able to refine processes that we already have in place for how my team does our email strategy playbook, our audit for our clients, and it is incredible.

(03:57)
It literally saves me three hours per playbook. So it’s something that I would not have had time or really even thought to consider needed to be streamlined had I not given myself the margin in this season. Number two, I was able to keep writing and creating. Now there’s the writing of my weekly emails, of course, which I think just does so much for keeping me centered on what message, what is happening in the news of email marketing or in the news of my business or what I need as a business. I need to run a promotion or a limited time offer or something like that, what needs to happen there. But it also allows me to say what’s happening in the blogging space? What can I comment on? What content can I create that’s timely? And that’s just really good for me because I am not a full-time creator where all I do is send an email.

(04:55)
An email is one hour of my week, whereas everything else I’m doing supports the business as well. But I kind of have to get out of my usual running an agency thing and answering questions and going to conferences in order to think through how do I want to present value to the people on my email list. The other part of this that’s personal is that I still have an old Tumblr account. You heard that right? Tumblr as in 2010, and I created one in college. But when I went through a breakup this summer, a couple of things happened. I was able to do some of my own freestyle writing, and it’s kind of a mix of poetry and just a stream of consciousness, and that was so good for me. And I mentioned that because it wasn’t just the new writing that benefited me, it was writing’s from the last breakup, let me tell you, dating.

(05:49)
But I was able to go to writings from the last breakup in 24 and minister to my own broken heart the summer of 2025, and it was through my own writing. So I’m really proud of myself that I’ve kept writing in that way, even outside of a journal, just in a way that feels like I’ve actually put a cap on how I’m feeling about something in this particular moment. So I share that as an encouragement for you. So whatever is itching at you, because do it for me. I’m like, I have to write this or else it’s just stuck in my brain or it’s stuck in my gut or it’s stuck in my heart and I need to get it out on paper. I’m using air quotes on Tumblr and I share with a handful of friends. My heart is known, and then it kind of helps me work through that chapter.

(06:36)
So whatever is you itching at you to create or to do, whether it’s creating a space or a time and a place for friends to get together, or if it’s you creating artwork or sketching or I don’t know what that might be for you, whatever kind of creative work outside of your actual work, it can benefit you and it allows you to show something for what’s going on in your life in that season. Okay, number three. One of my favorite top things that I did this year was getting bonus time with people that I love. Now I’m single, I have a cat, I am childless. If you’re wondering if it’s all those things. It’s true just me and Tilly. But what’s so cool about that is that with the conferences that I traveled to, I get to add on a day or two before or after, and a few of my favorite ones this year is that I had a conference in Tucson for travel.

(07:40)
I went and spoke there about email marketing, and I was able to add on a day and a half to hang out with and stay with my aunt and uncle on my mom’s side of the family and my cousin Julie. And when I tell you I’m in my thirties, I’m trying not to cry all of my life. I wanted to go visit them, all of it. And Julie’s kind of lived all over. She lived in Qatar, she’s so fricking cool, lived to California. But my aunt and uncle have usually always lived in New Mexico in a small town close to the border, and it’s just kind of hard to get to. And then when you’re in your twenties and you’re paying off student loans and starting a business, it’s kind of hard to do that. And here I was like, there’s a conference in Tucson after my aunt and uncle just moved there, sign me the frick up.

(08:24)
And so when I am talking to this, it is filling my bucket as a person, and I’m so grateful that my business allowed me to do that, my business, my expertise, getting to pitch, speaking at this conference, getting to go, but it’s a business expense that pays for my flight there, and it’s not coming out of my personal account that’s just so freaking cool. Same thing can be said for adding on a day to a trip to Atlanta. And I got to see one of my cousins, he’s three years older than me, and they just a baby. They had their second kiddo, and I was like, if I come down early, can I babysit for you? And they were like, please do not tease us. And I was like, I’m absolutely serious. I would love to babysit for you and you guys go on a date night and they got to do that.

(09:08)
And I got to hold a baby for hours. And so it’s absolute highlight for me of 2025 among other times, getting to go back to Nebraska and visit my family and friends. I got to add on a date when I was in Boise and see friends there who used to live in Lincoln. I got to go to Boston a day early for MV Con and just actually a day and a half early, I get motion sick and I sometimes just get ill before I show up at a conference. TMI, sorry about it. I just get a woozy tummy. And so I went in early, I was able to stabilize myself, and then I spent half of the next day just walking around. I got to walk around, busted, go to the fine art museum, 10 out of 10 wonderful time. And you should know, I just love this.

(09:55)
I’m kind of in this, what if I did era? What if I did just go a day early to Boston? I’ve never been there and I always have wanted to go. I love history. I’m just walking around the streets of Boston and I see a little pastry shop with a croissant in the window, and within two minutes, I’m now holding a croissant and shoving it up to my face while walking through the cold Boston weather. And it was awesome. So permission to do without what you will, but there’s so much value in the people that we have in our lives and the experiences we allow ourselves to have. Okay, that was three. Number four, I stretched myself this year, and if you’ve been following along with me for any period of time, maybe you know this, maybe you don’t. I provide project-based services. I started my business out of burnout and depression, and the idea of having retainer clients stressed me, the freak out because I was like, I just need to know that I’ve done a good job and can send the final bill.

(10:51)
That’s where I was at in that season of life, and I already juggle so much. So the idea of I didn’t want to miss a deadline, and so I was like, this I can do. It’s not sending somebody’s weekly email. Well, fast forward and I have locked in, figured out how to run my project-based systems, and I have a team in place, an incredible team, which I’ve talked about on the podcast before. Go back and find that episode. But now, as of this last summer, summer 2025, I was like, I think I’m ready to set up a retainer type offer, something where we do provide ongoing support for clients after they do a project with us. I know it only took seven years for me to get something like that in place, but I share this because I was so hesitant for so long, and I’m glad that I waited in the sense of my stuff is really in order when it comes to the duet debut and how we run our audits and my team and everything’s perfect, and I’m in a good place to create a new offer and a new way to serve my clients.

(11:54)
And so this stretching of myself, the emotional uncomfortability of it all has really benefited. And I’ve had three clients sign up for this already, and we’re slowly adding in more kind of a wait list, going of like, okay, when we feel like we have the capacity to add on another, we will, we will, we will. But I want to grow well. But what’s cool about it are some of the wins from this service, what’s called done and delivered. And what happens is that every quarter we create one new lead magnet, like the actual emails that get sent in a three day email series or the actual PDF F that gets created for a checklist or an ebook, and the forms two forms to be able to promote it on your social media, connect it to grow embedded on your website, you said it as a popup, whatever you want those two forms to be.

(12:45)
Then we write six or 12 emails for them over the quarter based on how much they want us to write for them. And so it’s been really, really cool because it’s not only taken a weight off of some folks who are like, I don’t want to write all of my own emails every week. Allie, can you and your team do it? We’ve been able to do that. Then we have clients who keep sending their emails, and what we’re doing is we’re doubling down on how much traffic’s going back to their website because we’re sending out additional emails that they don’t have to write for themselves. And now I did pull up a few stats of the benefits and changes that we’ve seen on behalf of a couple of our clients who are done and delivered clients. Now I have a project manager. She gathered all these stats from me and shares them with me, and we celebrate and we cheer and we tell our clients what we found.

(13:35)
And so I pulled up a couple of those. One client, the first three emails that we sent for her had an average of a 10% click rate, which is double the click rate of the eight emails prior to working with us, double a 10% average click rate. I love it. Love to hear it. And then we created and shared with her list as part of one of those emails, a brand new lead magnet. So she created it in order to be a lead magnet, to share on social, to shares, a popup, et cetera. But we were able to send that to her existing audience as a way to truly nurture them. Oftentimes we forget we’re creating all this stuff externally, but we forget to share it with the people who are on our list and want to hear from us right now. And that email had an 11% click rate, so people were engaged and wanted to click through and get her resource that we had created.

(14:28)
I share that with you as just one example from one of our done and delivered clients. Another one is a client who is seeing a higher increase in click rate. While that number actually looks different than the first client I shared, they’re both increases from where they’re at. So this is just an aside as a marketer and as somebody who doesn’t want you to be too hard on yourself, compare to your data, okay? We are not out here to compare notes with how everybody else is doing, how they respond to your content, the type of content you create, the kind of relationships you’ve created with them, all impact your open and click rates and how long people stay on your list. But our goal is to continue to nurture them really, really well. Okay, so the second client also, I wanted to share, since we’re writing more campaign and seasonal emails for her, we were able to also add in some affiliate links for Amazon for related products around the fall season.

(15:24)
And so it was really cool to see that she received almost 500 clicks through to her Amazon links because we decided to include it in an email. So hope that’s encouraging for you that as you stretch out of your comfort zone, you’re going to see a ripple effect of how it benefits you and can benefit others. Okay, the next one, number five, I was able to continue to explore and grow. Now, this is where it gets personal. I’m back in therapy. What’s up? I love it. So really do love my therapist and were able to meet online. And what this has done for me is allowed me to have the time and space to just consider why I react the way I do, why things break my heart, maybe break it a little too intense, some disappointing news or something like that, really trying to figure out how do I level out my emotional state?

(16:23)
One of the cool things with my therapist is that she said, Allie, these things that kind of weigh you down, that you’re not even necessarily aware of the tension or anxiety you feel before going into a meeting or going to a conference or having these conversations. She’s like, once you kind of heal the parts of you that make those things anxious and tense and feel heavy, once those are healed, you’re going to have more energy in your day. You’re actually just not going to be so emotionally burdened by things because you will have healed parts of younger you. And I can say that that’s true. I mean, they’re not all healed. That’s not what I’m saying. But I’m saying I have more spoons at the end of every day, and I don’t feel myself being absolutely emotionally or mentally smashed like a pancake or smashed burger, whatever.

(17:12)
What are things that get smashed? You know what I mean? And so for me, that’s what’s been really, really good. And so when it comes to you thinking about how do you want to explore and grow, it could mean listening to different podcasts from different industries. It could be going to a new conference or going to a conference at all. It could mean gathering with a few people that you know who are going to be there and get lunch beforehand. Little things that, honestly, in my case, they take a lot of energy to organize a gathering, and I feel a lot of weight in that, and I want to do a good job. Honestly, I tried putting together a gathering before a media V conference in November, and it was too much. And I was like, not everyone can come. It seems like everybody’s got stuff going on.

(17:58)
Let’s just cancel it. But I tried scouts honor, I tried. And so I want you to consider this even outside of work as well. What does it mean for new friendships and new connections to ask that person, Hey, do you want to get coffee? Do you want to go for a walk? I know that that’s really common for women folk to do that and gather in that way and kind of nurture relationships. But even if you’re a gentleman listening, hope people do that as well. The world is kind of lonely, and especially when we work online, we need those outside connections. Okay, number six, experiment. So I got some new brand photos done. You will see them quite soon, if not by the time this airs. But let me tell you about why this is important. Now, I’m not somebody who gets photos taken all the time.

(18:47)
I know there are services where you can get your photos taken every quarter, and that’s too much for me. I don’t have that many outfits that I’d want to have recorded my Im posterity. Is that the word in perpetuity? You know what I mean? But here’s why this matters. So the current photos on my website and on social media and used in my presentations, or even on the podcast cover art, those were all taken March of 2023, and I was miserable. I was miserable the day that they were being taken. I was in a tough relationship that needed to end and did end within a few weeks of those photos being taken. But every time I look back at those as beautiful as some of them are, and they still felt good, I just also kind of had this icky feeling of remember that season in my life where I’m a really uncomfortable, although those photos are everywhere.

(19:41)
And so for me, I wanted new photos to really capture the new season of where I’m at. What’s crazy about moving to Nashville and meeting people here. And I’d show them my website and they look at the photos and they’re like, it doesn’t even look like you. And well, to me, it looks like me because I see myself every day. To them I didn’t. And for them to tell me that, I was like, I wonder why that is. And in the time I’ve been in Nashville, I’ve kind of freed up a little. I smile more. I’m a little bit more like, woo-hoo, wear an orange denim jumpsuit. Orange is red. That’s wild. That’s fun. It was the only one at Target. I got it. I love it. And so those are in the photos. And so it’s fun now that I just got these photos back literally days ago, and it’s so fun to see myself look more free.

(20:32)
And I’ve had friends tell me, you just look like you, Allie, in the best way. And two friends even said, and I quote, Nashville suits you. And that is very fun to hear, and I’m just grateful to be in Nashville and now have these photos to reflect where I am in the season of my life. So some of the photos were even taken in my very own apartment, and then some taken outside of my favorite cocktail bar in downtown Nashville. And so yeah, I was able to take time to put a stamp on where I’m at in the season of my life. And it was my photographer, Rebecca, who’s taken all of my brand photos back in 2023, back in 2018. It was her saying like, Allie, do you not see how cool you are? And I was like, no, I am a cat mom and I stay in on Friday nights given the chance I have to recoup.

(21:23)
But for her to say, but in her eyes, she’s like, you’re so, you are single. You’re in your thirties. You’re from a town of a hundred people in Nebraska. You’re doing all of this on your own. I know that I’m not, I have a team and a coach and all that, but it’s just really cool to have someone hype you up. And now I have a physical representation of that that will spur me on to tell more of my story and where I’m at when I show up online. So I want to share that with you because what does that mean for your messaging going into the new year in 2026? What does this mean for how you show up in your space? So a lot of people come to me because their email marketing, their welcome sequence either doesn’t exist or is outdated. And what I know is that on the end of working with our team, our clients are like, dang, I am cool.

(22:14)
I do have so much value to provide to the world, and now I have a packaged up way to show that and introduce myself to clients with every new subscriber or every subscriber who can joins my list, maybe not a client, but a visitor, somebody who wants to come back to the website again and again. Then it’s way more fun, like how I’ll probably post a social media more that now that I have these images and these pictures that I love. Same with growing your email list. When you have your brand really clear in how you present yourself and the experience you’re providing you for your subscribers, it’s that much more fun to go grow your list because you actually know what they’re going to receive from you. And you’ve like, you’ve said it, you’ve defined it, you’ve said, this is what I do, this is who I serve, this is how I want to help you, and you feel so stinking and resourceful that you can’t hold it in.

(23:05)
Last one. Number seven, surround yourself with people you can trust and who support you. For me, that’s my team. I am so supported. I love my team. I have my business coach. I have a few best friends who work online, a couple that I’ve never been met in person, but we FaceTime each other. And so it’s kind of like we’ve met in person, but I have those few best friends who cheer me on and can help me work through things. And then I have my offline friends, and while they don’t understand everything that I do, they cheer me on so much. I want to share this little story. So when I was in Boston, the Media V conference, as soon as I got back, my best friend was here. But while I’m at the conference, one of the guests, one of the attendees came up to me and she looks me in the eye.

(23:53)
She goes, do your friends know how much of a badass you are? You are just up there doing a presentation. You’re running this agency, and she’s just hyping me up, and I’ve never met this woman. So sorry, I can’t remember your name. If it’s you DM me on Instagram, I’ll give you a high five and we can chat. But I looked at her and I was like, I mean, I hope so. I don’t think I’m that huge of a deal. I’m just in Boston speaking at a conference. This is what I do. But then I get back to Nashville and I tell my best friend about it, this exact quote, and she goes, yeah, we do. She works in a small town in central Nebraska. I have other friends who are preschool teachers and piano teachers, and they’re all like, yeah, Allie, we do know how big of a deal you are.

(24:35)
And I was like, what? I’m just the woman behind my computer all the time. But this is the point. We need to surround ourselves with people who get you, cheer you on. It can be a really isolated place to be when you’re behind your computer or creating recipes in your kitchen or working on SEO for weeks on end, and the things that you struggle with or want to celebrate. You need a space of people that can cheer you on. So that’s an encouragement to you and something that I have definitely benefited from this year, this year, and every year, I am so grateful for the people in my life. I’ve always said, I’m like, Lord, you can take whatever, but don’t take my people and don’t take my church. Those things are so important to me, and that’s me telling you what my friend’s reactions is, proof of that, of how much I’m so dearly loved, and I hope that you have the same, or you find those people, it might look like joining a group or a mastermind or getting a business coach, going to conferences, getting a few phone numbers while you’re there and saying, Hey, can we stay in touch after this event?

(25:39)
I know that we live in an online space, but we can take things offline. You can end up FaceTiming those folks if you really want to. Highly recommend it. They can become best friends. So if you’re looking for community as well, I will cheer you on gladly. And one way for me to get to know you is if you join my email list, you get all sorts of resources from me, handcrafted things for years. I’ve got my Tuesday email is all of my best content that I’ve sent out over the years. Thursday are my new emails that go out with more relevant, timely content. So you get both. And on top of all that, when you reply back to an email, it comes into my inbox where I get to know you. So I don’t want it to be something where you just receive, receive, receive. But when it feels right, also reply back and get to know me. To do that, you can join the newsletter or get some free resources from me at duet.co/happy, DUE tt.co/happy. And when you get those emails from me, just know that I am the friendly voice on the other end who wants to encourage you, cheer you on, and support you with getting your message out to your subscribers in a way that feels good, benefits them, and also benefits your business both now and in the long term.

(27:00)
Thanks so much for listening to happy subscribers in our conversation about email marketing today. I hope you feel inspired to take action even if it’s a small change, so you can more confidently share your valuable message with your community through email. Special thanks goes to my team who makes it possible to produce and share these episodes with you. Seriously. Thank you guys. If you want to share more email marketing tips, strategies, and success stories to help you develop deeper, more meaningful relationships with your email subscribers, be sure to subscribe to happy subscribers so you don’t miss an episode. If you have a few seconds, I invite you to share this episode link with a friend or post it on social media so your peers and community can benefit from it as well. And if you have a few minutes, I’d appreciate if you’d leave a written review of the podcast, since that helps more people hear about it, and I believe we need more creators sending more valuable emails to their audience with more confidence. If you want to reach out to me directly, the best way to do that is to join my email list through one of my top freebies listed in the show notes. You’ll get regular emails from me that are packed with value, and if you hit reply to any of those emails, it’ll land in my inbox and I can’t wait to chat with you there. Until next time, let’s do it.