How I’m Rebuilding My Business for 2026

Andréa Jones [00:00:00]:
Hello. Welcome to the podcast. Today's episode is going to be a little bit different because I am in a little bit of a reset moment, a little rebuild. And if you're feeling like 2026 is the same for you, then I'm hoping that me just sharing, being honest, being transparent, will inspire you in some way. I'm going to share what I tried to change in my business in 2025, what didn't work and what's staying and what I plan to do for 2026. So without further ado, let's get into it. But first, a word from our sponsor. Riverside is the all in one podcast recording and editing tool that I use for this right here show.

Andréa Jones [00:00:41]:
I use it to edit not only the audio and the video, it is like Chef's Kiss, magical. Making the entire process so, so easy. Plus, I love their magic AI clips. Their little AI robot in the background pulls out the most impactful moments of the episodes without me having to comb through and do it myself. Resizes them for social media. So those vertical videos you see on TikTok and Reels, those all come from Magic AI inside of Riverside. It's literally one click. It spits out 10 clips.

Andréa Jones [00:01:13]:
I pick the best one and away I go. Saves me so much time. If you want to get on the Riverside train, check it out today, the links in the show notes and make sure to use my code DREA D R E A at checkout to get 15% off your membership. All right, so 2026. 2026. This is going to be my rebuilding year. Growth, yes, but it's really about rebuilding the very foundation of my business with my priorities in mind. So if you are new here.

Andréa Jones [00:01:43]:
Hi. Hello. My name is Andrea Jones. I am the host of the Mindful Marketing podcast, formerly the savvy social podcast. I've been podcasting since 2018. This show has run one awards which I'm very proud of. I had an agency that I ran 11 years, 10 years and I sold in 2024 and I have two kids, they're three and one. And honestly having the kids is what made me initially change a lot with my business.

Andréa Jones [00:02:13]:
I didn't think I would be like that mom where my entire life revolves around my kids. Hahaha. That's so funny. Andrea, do you know yourself at all? I love a hyper fixation moment and now that's my kids. So it's family first for me and with that becomes a different kind of requirement of my time and my flexibility and even my mental creative energy has just Shifted. My energy comes in waves. Whereas before pre having kids, you know, I could stay up working until three in the morning if I caught an inspiration, and then just, like, sleep in the next day if I didn't have any meetings. You can't do that when you have kids.

Andréa Jones [00:02:53]:
And so I've had to learn to, like, work with the flow of things. I also partnered with Uncommon Marketing Agency. So if you're new here, yes, I did own an agency and I sold it, and now I work with another agency now called Uncommon, and I actually spend, like, a good 20 to 30 hours a week working at Uncommon. And so while that's very much something that I love working with, that means my capacity for work at the. What I'm calling, like, the online drea side of things is shifted. It's. I wouldn't say reduced specifically, but it has changed in the way that I show up there. Whereas when I had my own private clients, it was a little bit different than when I'm working at an agency.

Andréa Jones [00:03:37]:
So all of that means my business has to match my life. My marketing has to match my life. Not, like, what I think it is, but what it actually is. And I'm still learning that, like, I don't want you to think, like, oh, this episode means she's figured out. No, no, no, no. I'm still figuring it out. And I'm just taking you along the journey with me. So my theme of the year, my word of the year, is rooted.

Andréa Jones [00:04:01]:
I talked about this a few episodes ago, but I want to kind of recap what rooted means to me, because when I started to make changes in my business, I went back to this word to ask myself if I'm making this change based on this. Because up until, basically, up until Christmas break, y', all, I was throwing the proverbial spaghetti at the wall. Okay? Um, I was trying a lot of things. I was trying to figure it out. But what I realized is I had a little bit of that desperate energy, that frantic energy. And this is why I chose Rooted for my word of the Year. Because what I was doing essentially was taking a plant. Well, let me tell you this.

Andréa Jones [00:04:38]:
When you plant something for the first time, and y', all, those of you who are horticulturalists will be like, duh, Andrea. But, like, I don't have a green thumb. I have whatever the opposite of that is. Lack them. That feels racist. Anyways. I do not have that skill set. So this is all new information for me.

Andréa Jones [00:04:53]:
You take the seed, you put it in the dirt, whatever it is, gross roots first. Then the thing pops out of the soil and there's a bud. And for a lot of plants, you can't touch it in that stage. When you do, you disrupt the whole process, and you're probably not going to get a plant out of that. It's a very delicate stage. Okay. So what I was trying to do is, you know, I sold my agency as re. I renamed my business in 2023.

Andréa Jones [00:05:21]:
I renamed a podcast in 2023, and then in 2024 and 2025, I tried to move it into something else. And what I was doing was repotting a plant that had no roots. I hadn't let it have the time to really build the roots first before replanting it. And I kept changing my mind, changing my mind, flipping back and forth on everything. I think that's where that desperate energy comes in. And so this is why my Guiding Light 6 is rooted. To me, that means fewer resets. Okay.

Andréa Jones [00:05:50]:
I am rebuilding something that's going to take time, and I need to allow it that time to be rebuilt. That also means simpler systems. I love my new tagline of simpler, smarter marketing for busy people. And I'll talk in a little bit how I personally wasn't living that in some aspects of my business and how I've switched back to that. For me, right now, I need a consistent delivery system. It's why I started a membership. It's why I want to continue a membership. I know I made a big stink about closing the lab.

Andréa Jones [00:06:19]:
I'll talk about that in a sec. But I tried other things that just don't work for me. And I need that community element. I need to feel like I'm a part of a larger ecosystem and not just a singular thing. So I want to teach this mindful marketing strategy in a way that kind of respects all of that, But I also want to live that in my own business, like, live the mindfulness ethos in everything that I'm doing. And when I felt like I was being forced to make a change because things weren't working, it just felt heavy. And I honestly think a lot of that came from financial scarcity, where we're in a time in our lives where we're. We're.

Andréa Jones [00:06:58]:
How we have that sort of energy. It becomes very challenging to market what you're trying to sell. And that's where I was last year, which is why part of the reason why I partnered with Uncommon. And so that has alleviated itself for me. Okay. It's not saying it's easy. I barely can Say this, too, because some of this, I feel like I'm saying it, but then my brain goes, well, not really, because it's still very complicated, right? Like, life is a complicated thing. It's really hard to point to one moment and be like, aha, that's the moment.

Andréa Jones [00:07:27]:
But what I did in October was I announced to you all here on the podcast. In September, I talked to my community that I will be closing down the lab. And I did a huge campaign around it. And that was move at the time. Okay? That was the right move at the time. I needed to make that decision. Right now, though, the lab is still closed. Okay.

Andréa Jones [00:07:45]:
If you go to, like, online dre.comlab it says, sorry, we're not accepting new members right now. That is still the case. However, what I realized is that in this process of closing it down, first of all, I didn't want to do it. I really like memberships. I created a new membership thing that was basically an echo of what the lab used to be. And every time I was working with the amazing Becky Mollenkamp, who is my coach, my business coach, my thought partner, and all of this, she is amazing, by the way. Every time I would talk to her about these things, I kept coming back to this concept of, like, I'm already doing this in some way, and I wish I could just keep continue doing that. And so we worked together on how to do that, right? So for me, the Mindful Marketing Lab, even though the name I feel like is kind of soft, I like the softness.

Andréa Jones [00:08:35]:
I like it now. I felt the external pressure of, like, oh, what will people think? And I got some feedback that people don't understand what it is. And so I kind of shied away from that and ultimately closed it down because I got external inputs. And really, when I start centering on what I actually want to put out there in the world, it is the Mindful Marketing Lab as it is. So what I've decided is that it's not disappearing and it's not going to be closed. The pause, though, gave me that clarity, so I don't regret that. But I'm going to be reopening it coming up later this year. I don't know when yet.

Andréa Jones [00:09:14]:
I'm not going to make any announcements. I'm going to have to move on my own timeline here because, again, family first. My hyper fixation is my children. And so I will be reopening it at some point. And I think that the big thing for me in this whole thing is positioning it differently to me I tried to position the lab as here's everything you ever need to know about marketing, ever. And that's not really what I'm doing here. What I'm teaching is how can you create a marketing strategy that works with your real life tm? Okay, so like how can you use marketing strategies, techniques, frameworks, knowledge to build something that is sustainable for you as a business owner and can grow with you as your business grows? Right, so it's no longer here's everything you need to possibly know about marketing, but like, here's something that can change the way that you're doing marketing. Here's a tool, here's a tip, here's something that you haven't thought about, here's my accountability.

Andréa Jones [00:10:15]:
So you actually do it right. Let's create it together, let's get feedback. That's what the lab is. And I'm really excited about that structure and I'm excited to continue doing that. A big part of this rebrand as well, or this repositioning as well, like me closing a lab, introducing your marketing shortcut, which was supposed to be what's Next was actually based on tech. And so I have to address the tech elephant in the room because honestly, tech is what started me down this whole kerfuffle to begin with. Okay, so if you don't know, I'm on Circle. Circle is a community platform that has courses and community space, like a forum.

Andréa Jones [00:10:55]:
You can host live streams and live events. It is a very nice, well rounded tool. But I had a negative customer service experience and it's very expensive. I tried to. When Kit Convertkit raised their price, I left Kit and I went to Circle first because I was already using them and they said they had email marketing now, but y', all, the amount of contacts that I have, like my list is just around 20,000 emails. It was costing an astronomical amount to kind of set up all their automations and workflows. And it felt like every time I turned a corner, the price was going up and up and up and up. And by the end it was like something like $800 US or $700 US and I still had to use Zapier to like connect things.

Andréa Jones [00:11:39]:
And I was like, why am I paying this much? I like, this is eating into my profits, right? And it was frustrating experience for one of the tools that I used to run my membership to be that much. So I started researching alternatives. That's when I landed on Flodesk for my email marketing, which I am so glad I looked around because I should have Been on Flow Desk years ago. It's so easy, it's so clean. They don't charge you based on contacts, which I love. Or I guess now they do, but they didn't before. And it looks pretty. It looks pretty.

Andréa Jones [00:12:09]:
I like it. I love Flow desk and they're very friendly to their, their community. I love it. Okay, so I'm glad I made that switch. But then I was trying to reduce the cost of Circle and I'm already paying for another tool called Teachery because I purchased a program years ago from Jason and Caroline Zook, their way coaching program, which I also love, highly recommend. I also love Teachery, highly recommend that. But the cost of moving everything for context. I've ran the savvy social school now the mindful marketing lab, since 2018 as well.

Andréa Jones [00:12:43]:
So there are what, six, seven years of videos, templates, content. Like there are hundreds of thousands of assets that I had to use. I spent six months, I got through about 30% of it and was like, this is actually a waste of my time. Like it is prohibiting me from creating new content because I'm focused on moving everything over. Okay. And I ran into some personal issues with the fact that there was no community space in teacher and I said, you know, we don't need a community. In fact, when I pulled my people and I asked them questions, when I researched and analyzed where people were chatting, there wasn't a lot of conversation anyway. So I thought, I don't need a community.

Andréa Jones [00:13:20]:
Hahaha, Andrea, you need a community. Like for me personally, I was creating stuff and then I went, how do I share this with people? I email it out and then I'd be like, that didn't feel good for me. And so I started to create another community space. I was researching all sorts of other community spaces, school discord, Facebook groups. I was going through it all, y'. All. And then I realized, come on girl, you already have it in circle, right? So I see all that to say we did. We did a 360 degree move and we're at the place where we started.

Andréa Jones [00:13:58]:
I'm still on Circle. I've accepted the fact that one customer service issue and email marketing and automations don't work for me, but everything else in Circle has worked for me just great. I love the live streaming. I love that I can live stream and then record and like the recordings automatically posted with everything. I love the community space. Even though it's not as chatty as it used to be, I don't have as many members as I used to but as soon as I post something in there, I get responses. And me being me, I kind of need that, like, parasocial feedback loop. Okay, I need it.

Andréa Jones [00:14:31]:
It also has way less friction for people in Circle because of their search functionality, which is the reason why I went to Circle in the first place. You can search for something like Instagram 9Grid, and it will not only pull up that product that I have, but anytime anyone else mentions it. So, for example, if someone creates their Instagram 9 grid and then posts it in circle, you can then go see what other people have said. And I love that. I love that. So I don't have to worry about moving everything over and links being broken and all the admin that goes in moving. I've decided we're staying here. I've reduced the cost as much as I can in Circle.

Andréa Jones [00:15:06]:
Now the rest of it, I'm just going to have to eat the cost and use some zaps to get people from here to there. Okay. I've done it before. I could do it again. So that's where I'm at. One big, giant circle. Back at the beginning. And I wanted to share this moment with you because I think that it's something that I would like to hear as a business owner.

Andréa Jones [00:15:24]:
So many people praise themselves and talk about all the good stuff, but y', all, these past six months were really hard for me personally. Yes, I'm going through something as well, but that also echoed into my business and me making decisions that now that I'm here, I'm like, oh, I see why I was doing that. So let's talk about my content plan for 2026 and what you can expect from me this year. This is the section where I hope you go, oh, okay, I see how it all is working together. So I still doing the podcast. I love the podcast. I was originally going to rebrand it to different name and I've already rebranded it once. And this was me reflecting on my word, rooted and going, what is going to be the rooted choice here? What is the thing that's going to get me the roots, my current roots deeper? And that is keeping the podcast as it is.

Andréa Jones [00:16:13]:
It has name recognition. Even if someone searched for Savvy Social podcast, this still comes up because I still have that in the name. And technically the podcast won an award as Savvy Social Podcast. So I kind of want to keep that. And it's the Mindful Marketing podcast now, which still gives me the flexibility I need. And yes, it's soft. I'm soft. Thank you Both audio and video podcasts.

Andréa Jones [00:16:35]:
I'll still be pushing it out to YouTube. And then my goal is to do a monthly YouTube video. But we shall see. That is optional for me. And this is how I teach marketing, which I'll talk more about how you can learn at the end of this episode. My podcast is my highest, most consistent asset. People come to me and they go, I heard your podcast. I love your podcast.

Andréa Jones [00:16:56]:
I listen to your podcast. Podcast. The audio and video format allows me to still publish to YouTube without creating another thing. Okay. And it gives me assets that I can post to social media to talk about the podcast. It's evergreen, it's easy to use. I'm using Riverside, which y' all know I love. We use Canva to create the graphics.

Andréa Jones [00:17:14]:
I can have my assistant help me. It's easy, rooted. Okay. What I won't be doing is posting to social media every day. What I won't be doing is creating these high production videos. What I won't be doing is like having freaking slides and things pop up on the screen. I don't need all that. Y' all don't need all that.

Andréa Jones [00:17:28]:
Nor do you want it. And so this is another rooted option for me. The podcast is my main vehicle for marketing. So that's my. Hopefully my takeaway for you is like, pick one thing that's your ride or die. That's your main marketing vehicle. And then everything else is optional. And then you can have a hierarchy.

Andréa Jones [00:17:48]:
I also will still continue doing some of my live events for the year inside of the lab. I reposition things a little bit so we have brand new events happening every single month. We have co working still, which is. We had one today actually at the time of recording this, we did our new year co working session. It was lovely. So we worked together on a focused task just quietly in the same virtual space. I'll be doing Ask Andrea anythings, which are like an office hours Q and A style session. And then we'll have get it done labs where we implement what we're working on.

Andréa Jones [00:18:20]:
So our next one coming up, we're going to be wrapping up our 2026 marketing plans. Okay. Which if you want to learn more, click the link in the show notes or go to onlinedrea.com playbook and you can kind of buy into this three hour marketing class where we're gonna build our marketing plan together. I don't usually do this. Usually these classes are only for people in the lab. But since the lab is closed, you can just join and buy this one class. And you will get access to all of that material, plus the Get It Done lab. Okay.

Andréa Jones [00:18:55]:
All right. I will also still be doing the things y' all love. Originally, I said I'm not going to do it anymore, but I like it, so I'm going to do it. Our annual LinkedIn challenge, I will do. I'm not doing it in January this year just because I need a little bit more space. But keep an eye out for when that is probably going to be February. I will still do my Instagram Bootcamp later in the year. I will still run challenges that are inside of the membership, so once that open, you can join in for those challenges.

Andréa Jones [00:19:24]:
Some past ones that y' all loved were the Hundred Follower Challenge. We did our Video Confidence challenge. We've done TikTok challenge clubhouse challenge. Should. Should we do a Threads challenge? Maybe. So we'll do that inside of the community. And then I have a bundle that I have a little niggle of an idea that I actually purchased a domain name for last year that if. Later this year, if I have time, if I have time, I'll do it.

Andréa Jones [00:19:47]:
If not, if not. And I think my big goals for the year are really focusing in on this word rooted. Right? So it's not about audience size this year for me. It's not about making the most profit. It's not about even though, yeah, we all want to make money. Right. It's not about doing that at the expense of myself and my mental health. Like I mentioned, I'm going through something personal right now that is very, very, very draining.

Andréa Jones [00:20:13]:
And it's something that I need to be aware of as I'm going into this year and doing what I'm. What I need to do. Which is why, you know, partnering with Uncommon Marketing Agency makes sense to me because I get to do what I do best. Literally, y', all, I gotta tell you this story. Literally the first project that I worked on with them, I walk into this meeting, right? And, like, this is just an example of how we discount ourselves. I walk into this meeting, I'm looking at this project, and it's a bunch of people looking at this project one way. And I walk in and I see a different way. And I go, oh, it's just this.

Andréa Jones [00:20:45]:
And they all stare at me like, what? I'm like, it's this. And, like, it was like a light bulb moment went off. We created an entire campaign off of me, just not even a full audit. I just looked at it and said, oh, it's this. Now there's, you know, so much. I can't. I can't say everything, but there's like, so much that happened from that one moment that just validated me and, like, my strategic brain and, like, how I look at things. So what I'm trying to say is I want to stay rooted in that and go the easiest path forward.

Andréa Jones [00:21:17]:
I am textbook person who likes to do the most. I know that about myself. I like to do the most. And sometimes the most is great. Right now, the most is not what I can do. I can do the least. Oh, I don't even like saying it. I don't like saying it.

Andréa Jones [00:21:28]:
But I'm going to try to do the most that I can. Okay? And this year, that means rebuilding the goal isn't growth at any cost. The goal is growth without sacrificing myself. That means, yes, I can explore new tools, but I'm not going to replace something unless it's easy to replace at this moment in my life. In fact, it's better for me to keep paying for the tool I'm currently using and spend that time marketing to offset the cost than to try to replace the tool. That means I may not have a bunch of custom, brand new, shiny new workshops for everything. Knowing me, I still probably will do it. But I have dozens and dozens of workshops that I can freshen up for 2026 and use those.

Andréa Jones [00:22:13]:
I have so much content inside of the lab, creating pathways to that content makes way more sense than creating tons and tons of new content, right? So this year, to me, is rooted, not rushed. And if I can invite you to do one thing after listening to this podcast, I want you to think about your focus. And if the year is too much, pick January. Pick Q1. What's one thing that can, like, guide the way for you this year? That could be your central focus and that could be the thing that you measure your decisions against. Because as soon as I pick the word rooted, a lot of things became clear to me on how I wanted to move forward and what boundaries I want to protect. Okay? So if you liked this episode, make sure you sign up below for my weekly newsletter that I send out every week. It's called the Nudge.

Andréa Jones [00:23:01]:
You'll want to be on that to get the latest and greatest things that I have happening in my world. Also, if you want to do my three hour workshop, it. I'll put the link to that below. It is paid. Okay? It's not free. It's a paid workshop because it's only for my members. But I like y' all so you can join in too, if you want to join into that workshop. You could go to onlinejoy.com playground to join us live for that happening on January 20th.

Andréa Jones [00:23:25]:
And you'll also get access to access to the January 30th co working session. But ultimately, I'll leave you with this thought is that you get to decide what this looks like for you. You get to decide what success looks like for you. And sometimes it's easier than you think. All right, my friends, I will see you next week in a brand new podcast episode. That's all for now by.