My Word of the Year for 2026 is No

In this New Year’s episode, Kendra Corman gets candid about why she’s heading into 2026 tired, excited… and fiercely committed to one word: no. After a 2025 defined by “forge” (building, growing, expanding), a family crisis and an overload of opportunities forced her to re-evaluate sustainability, boundaries, and what it really takes to preserve creative focus.

Kendra shares the behind-the-scenes story of her year—what went right, what went sideways, and why the systems and people you build now are what save you later.

What 2025 Taught Kendra About Growth and Overload

Kendra went into 2025 with momentum, capacity, and big goals—and hit them hard.

• A strong first quarter with focused, energized work time
• A goal of 25 speaking gigs that turned into 35+ events
• Movement on major business projects, including a second edition of her book
• A huge personal “yes”: becoming a full-time assistant professor at Rochester Christian University

The Moment Everything Changed

A serious fall and ICU stay for Kendra’s mom pulled her into months of caretaking and travel.

What stood out most wasn’t just the disruption—it was the proof that what she’d built actually held up:

• Her assistant (Carol) triaged inboxes, managed tasks, and kept clients supported
• Systems like Asana and strong relationships prevented a total business collapse
• The experience reinforced how vital support structures are—even for solopreneurs

Kendra realized: capacity isn’t just about time. It’s about what you’ve built to hold you when life happens.

When “Forge” Turned into “Fracture”

Even with major wins, Kendra stretched too far.

• Weeks with multiple speaking events, including one with four in a single week
• Drift from a 4–5 day workweek back to 7 days
• Feeling like she was working constantly but not moving forward
• Book revisions stalled, and recovery time evaporated

The truth she landed on: success without boundaries becomes burnout in disguise.

Why “No” Is Her Word of the Year (Again)

Kendra revisits a tool that once helped her escape burnout in 2022: saying no first.

So in 2026, “no” is back as the guardrail.

Her challenge to listeners:

• Block vacations now
• Protect pre- and post-travel buffers
• Put the important stuff on the calendar before it gets crowded out

Key Takeaways

• Systems and support are what keep your business stable when life interrupts.
• Saying yes is exciting—but on

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Transcript

Word Of The Year: Forge To No

April Crisis And Systems That Worked

Wins: 35 Talks And A Dream Job

When Success Becomes Unsustainable

Reclaiming Boundaries For 2026

The Jar Of Rocks Lesson

Put Big Rocks On Your Calendar Now

Choice, Capacity, And The Word No

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Hi, I'm Kendrick Corman. If you're a coach, consultant, or marketer, you know marketing is far from a perfect science. And that's why this show is called Imperfect Marketing. Join me and my guests as we explore how to grow your business with marketing tips and, of course, lessons learned along the way. Hello and happy New Year. I'm super excited. I am recording this, of course, before New Year's. So this is not like live today here. And I gotta be totally honest with you. I'm tired. I sat looking at the notes for this episode for about an hour. And I was trying to figure out what do I want to talk about? It's New Year's. I should be excited and energetic. And I just feel tired. And so that's gonna be a bit of the whole point of what I'm gonna be sharing with you today. I am so excited about so many different opportunities that are happening in 2026 this year. And there is so much to share, but I am exhausted. I don't, you can see the bags. I don't know. I feel like they never go away. But anyway, they're there. 2025 for me didn't go as planned. I think it was better and worse in a lot of different ways. And so if you've been following me for a while, you know that I do a year, a word of the year. And my word of the year for 2025 was forge. And my word of the year for 2026 is a repeat, and that is the word no. But before I tell you why I am saying no, I want to tell you about the year that made me realize that I needed to have this word as a focus again. 2025, like I said, was forge. I was building new stuff for me and my business, and I was so excited, and there were so many opportunities, and I had some huge speaking gigs, and I was getting ready to work on a second edition of my book, which is still not out yet. Everything was going. I was working four to five days a week. Basically, the first quarter of the year was amazing. I had capacity, I had focused time, I had momentum. Just it was all going amazingly. And then April came. I didn't realize, I don't think I fully realized how luxurious it was for me to have the focus time that I had. I know that I felt really good and excited and energized and like that I was doing some of the best work that I've ever done. I had space and time to think and create. And that is probably one of the best things that could have happened. And then April came. All right. So my mom had a fall. She ended up in ICU. I ended up down in Florida where she was vacationing for two weeks, hanging out in the hospital for 12 to 13 hours a day. This was not a week-for-week setback, right? It was amplified because I had amazing clients who were working with me and some that held assignments back. I had uh my assistant was just doing amazing things because I was sitting in the hospital. I was exhausted. I pulled up my email. I was dreading how many hundreds were going to be in there one of the days in between my mom's tests and meetings with the doctor and adjusting her bed up a little bit and down a little bit and getting her food, getting her to the bathroom, all those fun things, right? And at the top of my inbox, the first email was from Carol, my assistant. It was already handled. She prioritized things. She moved him to Asana, let me know, which is my task management system, let me know what was being addressed and needed addressing. She was forwarding things to the right people. She was taking initiative and thinking through things. Um, was it 100% the way I would have done it? Probably not. Um, but it was at least 80% there, which was amazing and saved me a ton of time. And I really felt relief and sort of amazed that I had built something that could hold together even when I wasn't in a position to hold it. And I had forged that and I'd forged that through relationships and in conjunction with Carol, who is amazing. So happy new year, Carol. The things that felt urgent before suddenly weren't urgent anymore. And the systems and people that I put in place or that you put in place are really what are going to get you through. And I think all of us business owners, even us solopreneurs, need to make sure we have this because you never know what's going to happen. But I spent April through pretty much almost August just keeping up and getting caught up. The book revision, like I said, still not done. Um, and I had to make peace with that. And I did, and I'm okay with that. But here's the thing about 2025, right? I'm talking about losing like six months of the year, right? April, May, June, July, August. Yeah, five months. Five months of the year, pretty much. And at least it felt like I lost all of that time. And it wasn't a loss. It definitely wasn't even close to being a loss. So I want to talk a little bit about what became of my 2025, right? My word of the year was forged. I was getting ready to forge new things, and I did. I did forge new things. I had counted back 35 plus speaking gigs in 2025. Holy smokes, because the goal was 25. I wanted two a month, really, and like a bonus. And I ended up with 35. I blew that goal out of the water, which is insanity. And I spoke on topics mostly AI, but some email marketing, some podcasting. It was just unbelievable. My husband joined the company late this year as the chief operating officer, which has given us some flexibility. And I said yes to a dream. I've always, always, always wanted to teach. I've always wanted to be a professor. I've been adjunct faculty for it feels like decades. I think it has been decades because I started as adjunct faculty in 2002 at a university. And now I am teaching full-time at Rochester Christian University. I've got one semester down in a couple of weeks, semester two starts as the full as a full-time marketing and management um department. And it's so exciting. It wasn't something I was actively chasing because it wasn't something I thought I could do. And in July, the opportunity presented itself, and I realized I could say yes to this. The only reason, though, that this was possible was because of everything that I've been building in my life and in my business since 2014. Even more recently, I think since COVID, because I got a lot more disciplined and a lot more structure put into place in my business, which was awesome. But this created the space for me to make the choice and say yes to this amazing opportunity. And I love being an assistant professor. It is so cool. We are building, which will be done in a couple of weeks, our new digital marketing lab at the university. You will actually see the results of that in this podcast if you watch it or listen to it, because I'm gonna have better equipment, right? Um, than my home's my little office system here. And that should be coming out in about March because I do record in advance. So I'm hoping that all my January recordings will be able to be in the new podcast studio. But 2025 really taught me something, right? I forged a lot and forge again was my word. Um, but I also stretched myself way too thin. Way too thin. This was insane, right? Um, 35 speaking gigs, taking on this full-time position, teaching management and marketing at Rochester Christian University. Just so many things falling behind after my mom fell. There was one week I had four speaking events. Four speaking events. That's not sustainable, right? There were a couple of weeks where I looked at my husband and I'm like, I'm exhausted, and what the heck did we get done? And I felt like it's a bit the answer was nothing. And often it did feel that way. I got back to working seven days a week from down when I was down to the four to five. Now, yes, taking on a full-time job in addition to what I was doing, I would expect to work some more days and more hours, but what I was doing was not sustainable and it can't be sustainable. And so I need to be reminded for 2026 to say no first and then think about it later. It's not my first time using the word no. I I did it, I think 21, 22. I think it might have been 2022 when I was at my breaking point. I had added in a bunch of meetings during COVID with clients and was delivering a lot more value because we needed to be able to pivot and change and do all the things, but I didn't change my pricing. And so 2022, so you know, I think I was I wasn't really paying myself, at least not much. And it I was miserable. I was working seven days a week and making like$2 an hour. It was crazy. I was drowning in meetings left over from COVID. I was totally and completely burnt out. So what I did was in 2022 is I embraced the word no. I set up non-negotiables on my calendar, no status, no recurring meetings on Mondays and Fridays, no recurring meetings between 10 um before 10 a.m. Um, really tried to build in thinking time and all the great things there in my calendar. And I did it. And it created the opportunities that I was able to take up here in 2025. But what else happened just wasn't sustainable. And so when it became less of my focus, I really just stopped saying no as often. And I started to slide back and say yes. With all the new things that I'm excited about, teaching, speaking, this new digital marketing lab, I realized I really do need to reclaim this word because it needs to be a focus, a focus for me and my calendar. Um, so a couple of my no's for 2026, and I'm I'm reading some of these notes because I want to make sure that I get them right. Only one night event per week. So if I accept one early on, that is it. I have to say no to other opportunities. Only one morning event per week. There was one week, I think we had one night event, but I had four morning events that started between 7 and 8 a.m. It's like, no, no, no. This is true. It works either side of the calendar. No more than one speaking event a week. That one I might find that I do too, because there are some busy times of the year. Um, and then I do want to section off my calendar. So consulting clients on certain days, schoolwork on others, because I need that consistent focus time that I don't wasn't necessarily getting with a little bit of school here, and then a little bit of H to H consulting here, and then a little bit of coaching over here. So I'm going to have to change up my calendar a little bit for during the week. It might have to adjust after. I mean, it's not going to be able to be set in stone because I don't know how it's going to work, but I'm starting with some hard lines, I'm starting with non-negotiables, and then I'll adopt, adapt from there rather than just starting loosey goosey and seeing what comes of it and potentially regretting it and filling up my calendar with a bunch of nonsense again. Have you heard the story of the jar with the rocks? So there was a professor and he filled a jar with rocks, big rocks, and said, Is this full? And the students said, Yes, it is. Then he added some gravel and they said, Is this full? And I said, Yes. Then he added some sand. And he's like, Is it full now? And they're like, Yes. And then he added it water. Each piece of gravel, sand and water filled in the cracks around those large rocks, right? It all found its place when those rocks were put in first. Now, when he did the sand and then the gravel and then the rocks, it didn't all fit, right? But it all fit when he put the big rocks in first because the gravel, the sand, and the water were able to flow in between the holes where the rocks left. I want you to think about your big rocks as your non-negotiables. Is it no meetings before 10 or meetings only between 10 and 4 with an hour break for lunch or no meetings around your uh yoga class or morning workout or whatever that happens to be? I want you to think about your health, your family, your most important goals. What are those things that you want to achieve this year? The gravel and sand, those are meetings, those are emails. That's the quick favors that fill up your calendar if you let them. Let me pick your brain, right? Let me ask you something. Do you have a second? All of those are gonna fill up your jar if you let them. But if you've already blocked for the important stuff, you're gonna be in a much better spot. So here's what I want you to do today. Yes, today is January 1st. I get it, but if you wait, you're gonna forget. So I want you to go and block that vacation week that you're planning on taking. If it moves, it moves, but block it now. Block the day before you leave. Keep that week that you get back really light. So I actually block that week I get back so that that way I've got time to do things. I can add stuff in, don't get me wrong. I'll leave my status meetings and stuff like that. But it'll remind me if somebody calls for a speaking gig in in March and they want to book it for November, I'll have my vacation blocked and I'll know what time I have and what I don't. So I want you to put those big rocks in that jar right now, before you forget, before your calendar fills up, because January's probably half full by now, right? And if it's not, with all the stuff that people have been pushing to January for the holidays, then it's gonna be getting full this week. So make sure you do that. I want you to do that before the sand fills up the jar. That stuff that you just isn't as important isn't gonna get you where you need to go, isn't gonna help you forge that new thing, right? Things that are not gonna allow you to say no, so that you have the opportunities to say yes when it matters. Saying yes this year will back in 2025. I need to get used to that, was amazing, right? Being able to have the choice to make that choice was such a revelation. It did show me that I forged something amazing with my company that I started back in 2014. And I'm excited to keep that up. 2025 was messy, beautiful, exhausting, and full of unexpected growth. 2026 is about protecting my capacity so that I can say yes to other things and make those choices when they come, not have them made for me because there's no capacity. So my word of the year is no. What's yours? I do want to encourage you to choose your own word. So let me know what you what your word is. Put a post-it on your monitor like I do for mine. I thought words of the years were woo-woo-ey back when I started this. I wanted hard goals, hard numbers. But having one word in front of me every day, one word that I focus on, has really helped me every year that I've had one. And it does keep me focused. Thank you so much for starting 2026 off with me. I am so excited to have you as a listener. If you have questions about the digital marketing lab, feel free to reach out. I'd love to chat more and give you a tour when it opens in a couple of weeks. And if you got something out of this episode, which I hope that you did, it was a bit of a personal story for me, a bit of a reflection. It would really help me out if you would rate and subscribe wherever you're listening and watching. Thank you so much for tuning in. Have a great rest of your holiday. And I'm looking forward to an amazing 2026.