Celebrate the wins
I’ve always been a big advocate for celebrating wins, even the small ones.
And even though I didn’t achieve all my (overly ambitious) goals in 2025, I still had a huge amount of growth and achievements to celebrate.
One thing I’ve never been great at, but 100% working on, is shouting about my achievements. Owning the fact that I’m good at what I do, and celebrating my success. It’s super uncomfortable but I’m getting better at it.
And if it’s something you find uncomfortable too - celebrate just one milestone. Remember - if you aren’t talking about your success, others won’t either.
So here’s my self-indulgent post to capture and celebrate it all.
Community and Connection
Knowledge was one of my words for 2025, and it was a theme throughout the year. And what became a bigger part of the year, was community and connection.
In January I created a training course for Exit Five on AI Search. Which I still have people reaching out saying how helpful it is.
I shared insights about my career and experience for an upcoming book.
I invested in myself - financially - I went to GMC’s Brand Conference and I joined The Awake Collective
I became the Sydney Ambassador for Exit Five and held the first 2 networking groups for B2B Marketers (more to come).
And there were a lot more knowledge sharing/gaining experiences throughout the year
Mindset, especially in the second half of 2025, was a big thing. One of the reasons I qualified as a coach years ago, was to help people achieve their goals - and it’s true that coaches also need coaching. Doing the Know Yourself, Grow Yourself bootcamp through the Awake Collective was a game changer for me (not being paid to say this). It gave me the space to pause, reflect and then plan.
Debbie Gainsford Marketing
From a stats perspective for Debbie Gainsford Marketing, YOY I saw:
201% increase in traffic to debbiegainsford.com
150% increase in clicks from search to debbiegainsford.com
537% increase in search impressions for content on debbiegainsford.com
On LinkedIn, I saw a 9% increase in impressions YOY for my content. Which I’m pretty happy with, considering all the “challenges” the change in algorithm has presented…especially for women.
All pretty healthy numbers, even though I wasn’t as consistent as I’d planned to be.
Darley Street Candles
For Darley Street Candles, I changed things up a little this year.
I didn’t do as many markets, in fact, I only did 4 all year. Three of those in the last quarter.
I was very selective in which markets I attended, and it paid off.
I also increased my prices (not a single complaint) and introduced a new product range
Which resulted in my Q4 sales being up by 22% YOY. And that was a great way to round out the year.
And I got my new, all time favourite quote for the candles “You need to smell these, these candles are next level.” That moment resulted in a couple of immediate sales and new customers.
I only did one of the same Christmas Markets in 2025 from the previous year. So I set myself a goal - if I doubled my sales YOY at that market, then I’d buy tickets to Alex Lloyd. I almost tripled my sales at that market, so the tickets were bought!
Here’s to celebrating more wins in 2026 (and more live music).
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