The Create Your Day Podcast

116. Top Five Mistakes I Made in 2025

• Jenn Cody | Productivity & Systems for Entrepreneurs

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Ready for a candid debrief from the trenches? Jenn opens up about five mistakes that cost time, money, and peace of mind - and the practical tools she’s now using to steer with more clarity and less chaos. If you’ve ever said yes to shiny opportunities, hopped from strategy to strategy after a few weeks, waited too long to hire, tried to outwork burnout, or moved the goalpost so fast you forgot to celebrate, this conversation will feel like a mirror and a map.

We dig into a simple three-question filter to evaluate opportunities - aligned with where you’re going, resentment check, ego vs mission - so you can protect focus and say no without guilt. From there, we unpack why strategies don’t fail in three weeks; they fail when we abandon them in three weeks. You’ll hear how sticking with a single platform and process creates compounding results, what inputs to measure when the outputs lag, and how to resist trial churn and comparison traps that drain momentum.

The episode also tackles delegation and rest with hard-won honesty. Hiring before you’re desperate safeguards decision quality and opens room for deeper client work, better content, and scalable systems. Rest becomes a non-negotiable because creativity, patience, and judgment all depend on it. Finally, we talk about celebration as a strategic practice. Marking small wins teaches your brain that progress counts, keeps motivation steady, and turns growth into a repeatable habit rather than a sprint to nowhere.

If these themes resonate, share the episode with a friend who needs to hear they’re not alone in the messy middle. And if you’re ready to make changes but don’t know where to start, subscribe, leave a review to help others find the show, and join the weekly email at solutionsforscale.com so we can figure it out together.

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SPEAKER_00:

Hey there everyone. Welcome back to the Create Your Day podcast. I'm your host, Jen Cody, and so the past few weeks we have been talking a lot about the end of the year and what does that mean to, you know, give your all, make sure you're really achieving the things that you are trying to achieve in 2025, setting 2026 up to be your greatest year, all of those things. So today we're going to switch it up a little bit, and it is going to be a little uncomfortable for me, a little bit scary, but I trust you guys. So let's talk a little bit about mistakes. And we all make them. I want to share with you today what I see as the biggest mistakes that I've made in my business in 2025. What I can promise you is that this is not going to be one of those episodes where I'm like sharing things that seemed like a bad idea but actually turned out to be amazing. No, these are things that actually cost me things like money, cost me time, cost me, you know, embarrassment, whatever. But they were things that I did that really did not work out the way that I wanted them to. And I think it's important to share that because I do work with people like yourself every single day. And you, me, all of us, we're afraid of making mistakes, right? We're afraid of doing things. And when we get stuck in that fear, it puts us in a place where we don't make any moves at all. And if we do make moves, then we go into these shame spirals about it. So I want you to know that me, the person who's here teaching you about systems and strategy, I'm still learning too every single day. So let's talk about my mistakes, what they taught me, and what can you get from get from it? You know, like what can you learn from my mistakes? The first mistake I made this year was saying yes to the wrong opportunities. So I said yes to things I should have said no to. I knew it in my gut. I think that's what I am most upset about at this point. Like, why don't we listen to our gut all the time? I knew these things were not the right fits. I knew that I should be saying no, and I said yes. So why do we do this? Well, I think honestly, we do it because they look good. They look like good opportunities, they look like maybe they're impressive. And honestly, sometimes they look like things, oh, this would look good on Instagram. These look like things I want to be sharing in my emails, in my social media. Look at these things I'm getting to participate in. So that sometimes can be why we say yes to these things. But what actually happens, and what really happened to me, is that I stretched myself way too thin. And it took me away from doing work that actually matters, work with my clients, work on my core program, work on the content that I know really generates value and helps people. I became really busy chasing, like, look at what I am working on. And it wound up that I was really neglecting, look how much success I can create if I focus on the right things. So, what's the lesson in this mistake saying yes to things you should say no to? I think at the end of the day, what stands out to me as the lesson is that not every open door is your door. This can sting a little bit because we want to open every door. We want to see what's behind it, we want to be a part of what's behind it. But learning that saying no to things that are not right for you is really smart, right? It's not playing small, it's playing smart. So learning that really is going to help you have more bandwidth for the things that are going to move the needle in your business. So, what I decided to do when I learned this lesson about not jumping through every open door, um, is that maybe it's good for me to put my opportunities through a filter. So I'm gonna share the filter with you. It's three questions. Write them down. You can use it when things come your way to see, is this a good idea for me to do or should I skip this? So the first question is is this aligned with where I'm going and not just where I am? This is a really important one because we look at things in the now, we look at things in the present where we are, and we really need to be looking at the future, right? Who are we trying to become? Is this opportunity aligned with where you're going and not just where you are right now? Okay. Question number two: are you going to resent this in a month? If the answer is yes, why wait the month? Just do it now and get rid of it. Take it off your plate. The last one is the most uncomfortable question. And that is, is this feeding your ego or is it feeding your mission? I have definitely learned that I made decisions in the past that were feeding my ego, and they were not feeding the path I was trying to be on, the path I was trying to forge for myself, for my family, for my business. And when we do things because they feel good for our ego, it usually is a short-term thing, right? It's a quick hit, it's not something that's going to have lasting value. So it's uncomfortable, that last question, but it's also really valuable and really clarifying. So those are the three three questions I would um suggest you looking at. Okay. Mistake number two, not trusting my own process, which seems almost silly for me to say, right? Because it's kind of what I do. I create processes, I teach them, I develop frameworks, I teach them, and I teach my clients not to jump from strategy to strategy. And one of the things that I did this year was actually what I teach my clients not to do. So why did I do it? I think looking back, I'm trying to be super clear on my hindsight, right? Hindsight is 2020. I want to be honest with you. I think looking back, I, you know, we talk about shiny object syndrome, and it does, it did happen to me this year. I saw people doing things, and I was like, hmm, maybe I should try that. If it's working for them, maybe it would work for me. That's something that I've been able to kind of say, okay, I'm not going to do this anymore. Great. One of the other things, though, is that I have seen platforms. Like I'll be scrolling Instagram and come across an ad for a platform, and I want to see what it's about. I sign up for these trials, and I'm like, oh, let me just see if this platform is better than my platform. I already know that it's not better than my platform. My platform, my platform, by the way, is high level. Um, I don't have an affiliate link or anything, but if you're looking for a platform, I highly suggest it. Go high level. Um, I know it works. I host my clients' platforms on there. It's one of the services I offer. So why am I continuing to look at more platforms trying to see if they work? Gotta stop doing it. Okay. So here's the thing. I know my process works, right? My clear process, I already know it works. I've seen it work client after client, but somehow when we're in our own business, I second guess my process, I second guess my platform. It's hard to get perspective and the grass looking greener is a real thing. It always has been, it always will be. So, how do we learn from that? So I think the lesson that this mistake taught me is something that you guys have all heard me say, and that is that your strategy does not fail because you waited three weeks and didn't see results. It fails because you abandoned it after three weeks and did when you didn't see results. You know, we look at that three-week period that we try something, and if we don't see results right away, we're like, up, failed. Not gonna happen. But the only failure is if you choose at that point to not keep going. That's really the failure. And why do why is that such a sticking point for us? And I think as I thought through this, I realized that we don't think consistency is sexy. We just don't. We think it's sexy to like jump from thing to thing. And consistency is really what separates successful people and successful businesses from unsuccessful people and businesses. So if you have also been hopping, whether it's platform hopping, strategy hopping, idea hopping, whatever, because you're impatient, you're scared, I want this to be your sign to stop, pick a lane, and stay in it longer than feels comfortable, right? Because we want the compound effect to do its thing. And in order for that to happen, we need to get comfortable being uncomfortable in this lane. Okay. Moving on. Mistake number three. This one, I can promise you, will never ever happen again. This was not only in 2025. I think this mistake kind of built up over the past eight years of me building this business, and that is that I waited too long to ask for help. I waited way too long for help. And honestly, I know better than this. I teach people this, but there I was trying to do everything myself, telling myself that I would hire people when things calm down. And we all know that that doesn't happen. When you're growing a business, when you are the CEO of your life, things do not calm down. There is not going to be this magical moment when everything slows to a pause and things feel manageable. It doesn't happen. You're not suddenly going to have the time to train someone. That moment just simply does not exist. So this year, I did bring in help, thank goodness, because the help wound up being so amazing that it helped me put together a marketing team for my clients, a branding team for my clients, an accounting team for my clients. By me surrounding myself with all of these amazing professionals, I was able to curate a team that not only serves me, but serves my clients. The thing is that by the time I finally brought in this help, I was already behind. I was exhausted and I was making mistakes in other areas because I was not giving myself the bandwidth to think clearly. So, what's the lesson here? The lesson clearly is higher before you're desperate. Before you feel like you're drowning, it's time to delegate. So it does take time up front to work with someone to train them on who you are, how you want things done, um, what your mission is, what it means to be aligned with your mission. And yeah, that costs money. But the cost of not doing that is really a lot of missed opportunities. It's a cost of your work being subpar. And honestly, burnout, right? The burnout is so much higher when you're spinning your wheels all the time instead of calling in some troops to help you. So if you are one of those people that's sitting here, especially at this time of year, thinking, I just need to get through this busy season and then I'll get help. Please learn from my mistake because the busy season is going to become your new normal unless you build support into your business now. Okay, mistake number four. The next one ties into something we speak about on a lot of my episodes about burnout, and that is undervaluing rest. I totally undervalued rest until recently. So, this mistake I've already kind of rectified. I spoke to you about this when I implemented the miracle morning. But before that, I really treated rest like it was something I needed to earn. I needed to hit some sort of milestone, whether it be a milestone in my business, like, oh, I need to complete this project, write this content, whatever it is, or something silly like I need to fold the laundry, empty the dishwasher, and scrub the bathroom before I can rest. The rest became this reward instead of something that was actually required for me to push through. So what did I do? I pushed through really tired. I powered through on weekends. I continued to tell myself that I was being disciplined when actually I was just being stubborn. And the result there, when you are not rested, your creativity is going to tank your patience with yourself, with your family, with those you love, gets really, really thin. And then you make decisions that you would never have made if you had just taken a day off. Have you ever thought about that? Like if you approached what you're approaching today from a rested place, you would do everything differently than you are doing it if you're exhausted. So you're spending time fixing mistakes that you could have spent resting in the first place. So I don't know, just a weird cycle to be in. So what I want you to take away from this is this sentence. Rest is not the opposite of productivity. Right? Rest is not the opposite of productivity. It is the foundation of productivity. Your brain needs downtime to process, your brain needs to connect ideas to restore itself. When you skip the rest, you're working dumber. You're not working harder. So we don't want to do that. So make rest your non-negotiable. Schedule it. Protect it. And not because you have time for it, because you don't have time for it. But protect it and um schedule it because you know that you can't afford not to make time for it. Okay. Mistake number five. This one is the last mistake I'm gonna share today. And this year, until the past few months, I did realize that I was not celebrating enough. And that might sound really minor compared to the other stuff that I've shared today, but I actually think this one matters a lot because I hit goals this year that the past me would have been doing freaking backflips over. But by the time I got to those goals, I had already moved the goalpost. Right. I I knew that I wanted to get to this point. And as soon as I got there, I had already moved the goalpost way down the field. So I was so focused on what was coming next that I didn't give myself time to acknowledge what I had actually accomplished. And when you do that consistently, when you let yourself, you know, um not allow yourself to feel proud when you don't pause to appreciate how far you've actually come, it does something to your brain. It creates this constant sense of not being enough. No matter what you achieve, there's always more to do, more to fix, more to improve. And I'm not saying that you need to just sit back and stop growing. It's more about saying, like, the journey to that growth really does matter. That progress matters. And if you can't enjoy any of it along the way, what are you building toward? Like, think about it that way. What effort can you make now to pause, to acknowledge, to celebrate not just the big things, but the small milestones, right? The small wins, small breakthroughs. Maybe it's just an email that landed really well, or a day that everything felt super in flow. Like those map moments really do count and bring you closer to the bigger picture. So why am I telling you all this? And it's because I think we need to have these honest conversations about what the bigger picture really looks like. We our days are filled with social media, and those social media, it's just full of everyone's highlight reel, everyone's success, everyone hitting their goals, everyone living their best life, or the opposite, right? You have the people who are doing great, and then the people who are really struggling, who also are sharing on there. What about people who are just in the middle, right? It's great for the people who are showing what they're showing, but I don't want you to ever feel like you're the only one in this like messy middle place. You're the only one making mistakes. You're the only one who doesn't have it all figured out because you most certainly are not. None of us have it all figured out. That's number one. We're all just doing our best with what we have. We're doing the best as we go. Um, we're learning as we go, and hopefully we're getting a little bit better every single year. The point of sharing these mistakes, I want you to understand, is that your mistakes don't disqualify you from what you're building. They inform you, they shape you, they give you more wisdom that you would never be able to get any other way. So instead of looking back on your year and thinking about um beating yourself up for what went wrong, asking yourself what it taught you. Asking yourself, what will I do differently now that I've made this mistake? How has making these mistakes made you better equipped for what's next? The same way I shared with each mistake, like what's the lesson to be learned there? And what did I do to combat that mistake so that it doesn't keep happening? Okay, that's what I have for you today. A little peek behind the curtain at my very less than perfect year. If any of this resonated, I hope that it actually made you feel less alone in your own struggles. If it resonated with you, I would love to hear about it. Send me a DM, send me an email, leave a review for the podcast. It is the greatest way for us to reach a new audience. Not to mention, maybe there's someone out there that needs to hear that their mistakes are also part of the process. So if you're listening to this right now, I would love it if you would share it with someone that you think can benefit from it. Leave a review, leave a rating for the podcast, whatever you can do to help us reach a larger audience. And if you're looking around thinking, I know I need to make some changes, but I don't know where to start, that's exactly what I help with. So head to my website, solutionsforscale.com, sign up for the weekly email, and we can figure it out together. Until next time, I hope you have a wonderful week. Take care of yourself, take care of each other, and go out there and create your day in the best way possible. Have a great one. I'll talk to you next time.