EPISODE 45 OF WHAT WOULD THEY DO? THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE PODCAST FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS
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As 2025 winds down, I’m pulling back the curtain on what this rollercoaster of a year really looked like behind the scenes in my business.
From record-breaking months to dips that tested my resilience, this transparent wrap-up is part celebration, part reflection, and part forecast. I’ll walk you through the hard numbers, the honest lessons, and how all of it is shaping my focus for 2026 (spoiler alert: community is front and centre).
What we cover:
What made 2025 a wild ride in client work, offers, and energy
A breakdown of my stats: clients, members, podcasts, summits & bundles
Why repeat clients and retention strategies remain my North Star
Highlights from launching 45 podcast episodes without missing a week
A sneak peek at what’s changing in 2026 (and what’s staying the same)
My 2026 word of the year… and the personal invitation I’m sending your way
Soundbites:
“Everyone has something to celebrate, whether that is making a big shift in your business, whether that is, finally launching a service, launching a program that you’ve been sitting on, launching a podcast that you’ve been talking about for two years in my case. So take a moment to reflect and appreciate all the effort you’ve put in and ⁓ reset for the new year.”
“I would describe 2025 as the year of the roller coaster. I’m 99.7 % sure the same applies to you and your business. We’re talking record months with, you know, highest and lowest numbers. We’re also talking about amazing opportunities that have come up along the way, amazing new connections that I’ve made, but also huge doubts when it comes to the future of my business.”
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Episode Transcript:
Nadine Nethery (00:00)
Hello, hello and welcome back to the podcast. As this episode drops, if you’re listening live, there are only two days left of 2025. So before we dive into today’s episode, I wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for tuning into the podcast. Whether you’re brand new around here or you’ve been around since the official podcast launch in March earlier this year, I appreciate you.
So if you have been in my universe for a while, you would know that my parents are currently over from Germany with us in Sydney to celebrate Christmas and the new year. And they have been here now for a month. So it’s come to the halfway mark of this day. And yeah, it’s been really amazing, which means I have been taking things a little quieter and I’m going to continue doing so until the end of January when my kids are
going to go back to school because the school year here in Australia starts at the beginning of February. So that’s why there is a bit of a break from regular programming and the episodes at the moment are more reflective to help you not only debrief 2025, but also set yourself up for 2026 and what’s ahead of you.
So as 2025 comes to an end, I always like to recap. I’ve been doing so publicly to my email list for the past few years. And now that I have a podcast, I can also share my year in a nutshell with you in an episode. So I would describe 2025 as the year of the roller coaster.
I’m 99.7 % sure the same applies to you and your business. So we’re talking record months with, you know, highest and lowest numbers. We’re also talking amazing opportunities that have come up along the way, amazing new connections that I’ve made, but also huge doubts when it comes to the future of my business. So to be totally transparent here, I struggled to get consistency in my one-on-one client workload where previously
I had things lined up for months in advance. It was pretty unpredictable. ⁓ It pretty much was like the roller coaster, fully booked and then getting a bit desperate and really needing some clients. But the good thing is a lot of those projects were repeat customers, which again shows me that
my clients love my work and the strategies that I’m implementing in my business when it comes to customer retention and repeat purchases absolutely do work. One thing I have realized as part of that process ⁓ is that my business definitely has to evolve in 2026. I 100 % love my membership Retention lab, which I officially launched in May this year.
And I am going to keep expanding on the community aspect ⁓ and the connections and the general sense of belonging in the membership next year. I’m also a hundred percent certain that my one-on-one services will look very different next year. And that’s something that I’m currently working on behind the scenes. As I said, ⁓ I’m taking a bit of a break from client work.
and taking time to reflect and plan for 2026. So I’m both excited and nervous about that evolution that’s ahead. And yeah, in a way that’s the beauty of online business, right? Like we can write our own story and we are the makers of our own destiny. So stay with me as I work through this, but one thing is sure the membership is going to be front and center of my business next year. I love working
with people in this capacity, particularly my incubator members who I get to talk with, most of them on a daily basis via Voxer and I get to cheer them on. I get to learn and grow along the way as well. And it’s just so rewarding. So now let’s look at the hard numbers that made up 2025. So I’ve worked with 15 one-on-one copy / strategy clients. Over 65 amazing humans joined my membership.
across both tiers. Seven guest podcast appearances, I guested or spoke at 15 summits. I also contributed to eight digital bundles, which I have to say in 2026, I’m going to be a lot more discerning about because what I found people coming from bundles, which I sort of knew already anyway, but it’s just reconfirmed in 2025 that a lot of bundle
audiences literally come to you for that freebie. They download a whole bunch of stuff and then either they don’t engage with you and are cleaned off my email list via my automation down the track or they hit unsubscribe as soon as they get your freebies. So the quality of those new subscribers is somewhat questionable. What I’m going to do is really ⁓ lean on bundles that were
different in 2025. A lot of them came from one community that I was part of, which I’m going to touch on in a second. So I’m going to really keep leaning on that community because it’s proven to be somewhat different to the haphazard bundles and summits that I, to an extent, was a part of in 2025.
Also, the count is now around 5,000 students that own at least one of my digital products. So that’s my courses and self-paced tool kits. And this is officially the 45th podcast episode that has dropped since March, since I launched this podcast. So I have to say, I’m very proud of myself. I haven’t missed a week. I’m still loving it. And the connections that I’ve made and the people that I’ve spoken to as part of this process.
has been amazing. A lot of the guests that came on the show I’ve already known, but a lot were also new to my world and have opened up further collaborations down the track. So having a podcast definitely pays off when it comes to long-term connections and mutually beneficial relationships. But there also were call-out milestones, achievements beyond the numbers.
So in December 2024, I joined the Mixer Mind, which is Linda Sidhu’s community and it’s a 12 months container. I hate the word, but 12 months container. There were about 150, mostly women in this container and it’s a mix of a community, collaboration, catalyst and mastermind. So every quarter you get paired with a pod
of ⁓ like-minded online business owners and you get to catch up on an monthly basis. So this community hands down has been one of the smartest investments I made last year. And I’ve just rejoined for the whole of 2026. I can’t wait to keep making those connections. A lot of the people did rejoin, but there’s also a lot of new people on board. So new collaborations, new opportunities. And what I found is that the connections and the
collaborations that came from within that community were super high quality. I also in October celebrated the one year anniversary of my relationship with my first ever and still only retainer client, Josh in Spain, call out to you.
It’s been a real joy to work with him over the last year. And the beauty is that I get to apply my strategic brain when it comes to copy and customer experience to someone else’s business. But I still get to reap the rewards in a way because I see the results and I see the evolution that is happening on a larger scale inside Josh’s business. So loving that and can’t wait for 2026.
And I also traveled to the Huddle for the fourth year in a row. So the Huddle is or was an awesome business event for women based in Orange in regional New South Wales, Australia. And it was just the most ⁓ gorgeous, heartwarming, inspirational event that I had ever been to in my business career. And bonus is that I got to go with my business bestie, Renee from Porter Leather.
We just took the whole weekend off, you know, did a car trip together and it was just so much fun. So it’s a shame this event is no longer there. Shout out to any of my Aussies. I am looking for a new event to add to my destination list for 2026. So if you have suggestions, please drop me a DM.
I also published the first ever State of the Customer report. You might have downloaded it already. If not, there’s a link in the show notes and that involved surveying online business owners from two perspectives. So picking their brains when it came to their firsthand experience as an online consumer and then their perspective when it came to running an online business and then stacking those two up against each other. The findings were super interesting and
That’s why it’s coming back in 2026. Middle of the year, I’m going to reach out to everyone. I’m going to open up invitations to take the survey so I can then compare how that has evolved from 2025 to 2026. I’ve also just wrapped up the first ever customer experience escape room challenge inside Retention Lab. It was so much fun. And if you are gutted,
that you missed the opportunity to join. Stay tuned for an official debrief / case study of this concept coming to retention lab in the coming months. I’m going to share the thought process behind it, the strategies, the results, the learnings, the automations, the tech tools.
to make it super easy for you to potentially add it to your business as well as a fun opportunity to not only grow your list, make sales, but also engage existing members in your membership if you have one. So why am I sharing all these things? ⁓ Not to get yourself to compare yourself to me because I appreciate everyone’s business looks different, everyone’s lifestyle looks different. I’m for example, a mum of three, so my work capacity
looks very different to an early 20s single person who can just pull an all nighter to finish things, right? Like we are all operating in different circumstances in a different environment as well. So this is simply designed to get you to reflect on your 2025 and celebrate what you’ve achieved because among all the mayhem, among the craziness and the unpredictability of 2025, I feel like
Everyone has something to celebrate, whether that is making a big shift in your business, whether that is, you know, finally launching a service, launching a program that you’ve been sitting on, launching a podcast that you’ve been talking about for two years in my case. So take a moment to reflect and, appreciate all the effort you’ve put in and ⁓ reset for the new year. So thank you.
so much for being in my orbit, no matter what shape or form that has taken this year. I’m most definitely totally in wind down territory for the rest of the year, but also till sort of middle of January when things are starting to ramp up. So.
My word for 2026, as corny as it is, I do like a good word and focus area for my years. So I’m going to lean in on community in the new year. And I’m excited to ⁓ play with the idea of community, the different shapes and forms it can take in my business. And I’m going to dive deeper into what
community means for me in 2026 and possibly you as well in next week’s podcast episode. So make sure you tune in again. And speaking of connections and community, I am super keen to wrap up the year by actually connecting with you, my listeners. So if you’ve been in my orbit for a while, if this episode has resonated with you, I would love you to reach out via Insta DM, via email.
and share one thing with me that has made you really proud this year that you would love to celebrate in your business. There’s absolutely no sales pitch at the other end. I would just love to connect with you, my listener, and wrap up the year, in a way that sets the scene for next year. Community, growing my community of listeners, of like-minded people, and ⁓ you never know what comes from a quick hello and an email.
DM to someone. So thank you so much for tuning in today. Thank you so much for your trust and your companionship this year and I will speak to you next year.
