Hello and welcome to 2025, from me and this corner of the internet! Thanks for being here.

After a much-needed break and focus on my personal well being, I'm back at my desk with fresh energy and clarity. Looking back at 2024 - what a beautifully messy year it was. I navigated personal stuff, grief, launched a second brand, explored multiple offerings, and returned to Substack after two years away. If 2024 was a Spotify playlist, I was definitely on shuffle.

But, you know what, I learnt a tonne, my coaching clients smashed it, and now I am back with a renewed sense of calm and focus. It feels good.

Please allow me to re-introduce myself in case it all got a bit lost in the noise...

I’ve spent over a decade working with entrepreneurs, and through my coaching practice, The Ask, I offer business and personal coaching tailored to founders and entrepreneurial professionals. My approach blends transformational coaching with strategic guidance, helping you develop the entrepreneurial and leadership skills, confidence, and foundation for growth. If you’re ready to put your unique stamp on your business, build authority, and take bold action, schedule a free consultation here.—I’d love to hear from you.

So, you're feeling excited but a little anxious about what 2025 might have in store, this one is for you…

How to turn those notepad musings and scribbles into tangible results in 2025

Did this holiday season gift you with a few extra pounds around the waistline (expected) and also new notepads of plans, ideas and dreams for what you might create next? Good.

As a founder, your entire job is to turn these scrabbles of ideas into tangible products or services. You get to do this however you like, which is both a blessing and a curse. I know from my own experiences and conversations with clients just how much slippage can occur in that gap between idea and reality.

Projects take longer than expected. Then, imposter syndrome and comparisonitis creep in. You fall into the trap of overthinking it thanks to your internal board of inner critics and directors who pipe up with their scare tactics and fears around time, money and all the rest of it.

Slippage? We don't want it. Let's put those pesky challenges to one side and streamline your vision into reality with these three essential steps.

1/ Get lucid with your imagination

Let's just call it out: as entrepreneurs, it's an absolute privilege to be able to build what we want.

Sure, what you build might not work every single time, but if you have the means, the energy, and the willingness to build something of your own this year, that's a pretty incredible place to be in. So starting from a place of gratitude for the reality you have found yourself in, it's time to tap into the future you seek.

If you're like most startup founders, one of your biggest strengths is this part. So play and have fun with this part of the journey, and know that it's not a 'one and done' exercise but a process you repeat, to keep stepping into a potential future that does not yet exist.

When you enter that state of intentionally looking ahead through your mind’s eye, there is a spiritual act at play: what might be possible for me next?

I really want you to spend time with this step... really feel into what it is that you are seeking in this next phase and when integrated with somatic or breath work and using your bodily sensations, the experience is made that much more powerful. Give yourself an ample timeframe to dream ahead (1-3 years ish) so that your belief system allows you to see more possibilities than it does restrictions. For this to be effective, your key ingredients are a positive mental attitude, time, space and a calm environment. As a bonus, you can do this alongside others who share big dreams and goals too. I have a few spots left at my live Vision coaching session this Monday if you want to invest in doing this properly and co-create with others, plus get a taste of founder coaching.

This past December, I got to spend some time in Madeira at a retreat for startup founders. One day we were guided towards our success with exercises and reflections, whilst looking out over the Atlantic Ocean. While this setup is a little tricky to emulate again from the smog of London city, what was happening in my mind was just as powerful as my surroundings. I left the session overwhelmed by the ambition of my startup dreams, leaving with as many questions as answers about how to best lead my company. But I know just how many benefits will come from doing this deep reflection and strengthening my personal awareness about what I really want out of both life and my business.

2/ Release expectations of perfection

As founder, you are in charge of figuring out the concrete plan to be executed on. This plan moves wishful thinking and dreaming into a tangible strategy with KPIs and project timelines.

However skilled you are at forward planning, allow me to deliver a reality check: this will not all pan out exactly like you imagined in your visualisation. But anyway, life would not be exciting if we could will things exactly into existence right… where would the fun be to take out all of the moments of trial and tribulation?!

Most of the coaching relationships I've had have been with bootstrapped founders, who, unlike venture backed CEOs, are the only ones truly invested in their business plans becoming a reality. With no one else's money at stake, the company is theirs to do with as they please. This is of course an easier ride than pressure breathing down your neck 24/7, but it also comes with its own unique challenges such as:

• Second guessing your plan and starting from scratch, time and time again, and realising it’s now June, not January (been there!)

• Plans being way bigger and more ambitious than your resources allow for (I can't tell you the number of times through founder coaching I've heard about all manner of wonderful plans that haven't accounted for the reality of how much work can get done without a hoard of minions in your team to tackle it!)

• Time management, productivity and focus issues that slow down your output (turns out you weren't the superhuman leader with the peak performance you'd hoped)

Those solo or small business owner challenges aside, there is also the reality that your ideas have not yet had the pleasure of experiencing the marketplace reality. Just because you want something to exist doesn't mean your customers do too. Gah.

Universal challenges like these keep me in business as a founder coach, as coaching sessions will be working through advice for at least one or all of the above.

But before you shut this tab and start applying for jobs in despair, let me reframe why this lack of perfection gets to be your disguised blessing: because to quote Ryan Holiday, the obstacle IS the way.

Not many people ultimately overcome these challenges and see their plans through. So, if you are the one who can, I can promise you that you'll succeed in the end. Company building is the biggest personal development journey you'll ever go on, and you will learn so much about your self in the process of overcoming these challenges. Your personality and working style has such a big influence on the way that you actually stick to a plan (or not) as I discussed with Jessica Lackey in this video, exploring the differences in our coaching styles and what we've observed in our clients too.

In fact, I would argue that the reality of how your startup unfolds is much more interesting when your dreams provides you a sense of general direction and inspiration rather than a yardstick by which to chastise yourself for not measuring up against.

If you loosen the reins and let the world play its own card dealings for you, things may unfold better than you could have ever imagined. Give serendipity permission to scope creep.

3/ Commit, don't quit (advice from a seasoned startup founder coach)

This might sound obvious. You might hear me saying 'just do it, yeah!?' in hustle-bro tones.

But I have to keep saying this part because I’ve seen too many quit in my years of founder coaching before the results had time to reveal themselves. Running out of time, money, or conviction is par for the course in entrepreneurship, and I know that it takes a great deal of self-leadership to stay the course.

If staying on track feels like challenging territory for you, and this post-holiday season after relatives asking you 'what is it that you DO exactly?' has got you all up in your triggers... here are my commit, don't quit coaching guidelines...

1/ Create space to reflect on the regular, take stock, track the data, and course correct if needed. But move in millimeters, not miles. You had that vision for a reason, so ask yourself how you can inch closer to it with a different tactic or attitude. Don't tear the script up and start from scratch. You'll likely end up rewriting something all too familiar.

2/ Follow your energy, passion and excitement. Within them, you'll find the clues to your unique blueprint for success. It's about doing business your way, not the way (there is no one right way).

3/ Process your emotions properly. I promise this can give you a competitive edge. This year I'm investing in more personal coaching than before, exploring the role of IFS, somatics, mindset and self-development in a bigger way than ever and am excited to see what fruit this practice might bear personally and professionally. If you know what's bothering you internally, and address it in yourself, your business results will improve drastically.

4/ Get accountability, a startup founder coach, a mentor, a team member, a therapist... as many as you can afford (can you afford not to?). They'll keep you focused. Being a solo founder does not mean you have to do this on your own; that would be really ill-advised.

A lot of this will be obvious, and yes, I've said it before.

But creating success is so rarely about finding the latest trend or hack. It's about reminding yourself of the essentials, and reorienting yourself back on track. Being your own boss is so rewarding, but it's so damn hard to follow your own orders and lead yourself effectively.

If you got this far, I hope this has inspired you. I hope that this newsletter and perhaps one of my workshops or coaching programmes might support you to feel that bit more prepared, create a dedicated space for your growth, and gain the confidence you seek to lead your startup or company in the direction of your dreams this year.

Do join us on Monday for a live vision and planning workshop to take the thinking out of this process and meet the lovely community of founders I’ve got to know doing this work over the years: grab your ticket here.

And/ or if you'd ever to hop on a call and just say hello, I've opened up some calendar slots for troubleshooting on a business questions readers of this newsletter might have for me, or just to generally say hello. I'd love to talk to more of you this year (there are nearly five thousand of you here, so, many exciting conversations yet to be had!). Book in a 15 min chit chat here.

Until next time,

Ellen from The Ask.