That’s it… 2026 has begun and I can’t quite believe a whole other year has gone already…
The full moon is keeping me wide awake tonight… so here I am, writing at 3 am and reflecting on a ton of “stuff”.
What a year 2025 was… oh my goodness!
NOTHING like I thought it would be – but interesting for sure.
It was “the year of letting go” for me.
I let go of what no longer serves me, accepted what I can’t change, and made decisions that scared the living daylights out of me.
I felt the fear and did it anyway many times throughout the year. Wasn’t always easy, for sure. But it’s taken me to places I didn’t even imagine existed.
In the last few weeks of the year, I finally decided to take the BIG plunge I’ve been wanting to take for so long… and pivot to focus exclusively on growing my passion business, Easy and Gluten Free.
I’m no longer selling my own courses and no longer doing my own coaching (aside from a very, very small group of special people – you know who you are, if you happen to be reading this post ;-)).
Now don’t get me wrong, I still love coaching… and do plenty of it inside Dean’s company, Internet Profits.
But the business I want to grow for myself is in a different niche, with a different audience.
It’s time to apply everything I learned in the make money online niche to the food niche.
It’s a strange mix of relief, grief, excitement and panic.
Not easy to let go of something you’ve built for years… but if I want change, I need to change.
“Why?” you might be thinking.
The answer to this is multi-faceted.
But I think the easiest way to explain it is that this is what I wanted to do all along…
My very first idea for an online business, way back in 2009, was to put my recipes on a website.
I let imposter syndrome stop me.
Then in 2015, I did create a site and started. But again, fears and perfectionism got in the way and I let it all stop me.
In 2016, my world was turned upside down when my Dad came back into my life… and by 2018 I knew I HAD to build this business of mine.
So I went for it, with every intention of growing Easy and Gluten Free.
Somehow I got distracted by the make money online crowd. I’m not accusing anyone – I take full responsibility for letting myself get sucked into the MMO niche.
I’m not complaining either! I learned a ton and made good money. Zero regrets there.
But there are “things” in that niche I really find tough. There are so many lies, it’s exhausting – especially when you’re being ethical! People’s mindset gets to me too at times: too many chase the money, the dream of making big bucks fast… too many waste years chasing instead of building. It makes me sad and I’m ready for a change.
There were quite a few wake-up calls for me throughout 2025:
My mum took a turn for the worst and we had to put her in a home. I went into that in this post, so I won’t dwell on it… but it hit me hard – and once again, made me realise how short life is.
In the autumn, I had a health scare of my own. Turns out it was nothing at all… but there were tests, and then more tests… and the long wait for the results… The relief when I got the all clear made me cry! I’m SO grateful for my good health. And again, it was as if life was whispering to me “don’t waste time Sophie, don’t waste time…”.
About half-way through the year, I heard Carrie Green, a UK online marketer, talk about burnout… and she asked the question: “Are your actions aligned with your vision?”
That was another turning point for me. It made me take a long, hard look at my life and my business… and I realised that the answer was NO! My actions were leading me to spend more and more time on Zoom calls, when my vision is to have more and more time away from the computer.
And finally, Dean launched his Internet Profits Academy a few months ago. Working with him and my colleague Glenn in the coaching team is so wonderful, that I suddenly realised it made NO sense for me to build my own coaching in parallel, when I can coach people inside the community!
Anyway… that’s how all this came together and made me go for Easy and Gluten Free – at last.
As I said above, it’s a weird mix of excitement and grief.
It truly isn’t easy to let go of something you’ve spent years building – even if it is to do something you really, really want to do.
I deleted thousands of people from my email list…
I closed down my Facebook group of 2600 people…
I’m not quite sure what will happen to my YouTube channel I worked so hard to grow…
It’s SO scary in so many ways!
But it’s also super, super exciting! So let’s focus on this, right?
As I write this, I have 508 subscribers on my Easy and Gluten Free channel.
I will put all my focus on growing it and monetising it.
Not sure if I’ll record the journey here or on YouTube or not at all. I shouldn’t really – because any time I spend doing something else than growing Easy and Gluten Free is keeping me from growing it as fast as possible…
But I also know that recording the journey is something that helps me keep going. Writing is important to me – as is talking to a screen lol. So we’ll see!
I’ll end this post with a few lines I sent in an email to my list, before closing most of it down:
“As scary as this decision is to me, it’s the right one, I’m sure.
And I want to encourage you to look at your own life and business…
Do the hard thing, and be honest with yourself.
What do you want 2026 to look like?
Are you happy with how things are? Or do you want it to change?
What’s your vision for the next 12 months?
I once heard someone say: “Do your actions align with your vision?”.
That question was a lightbulb moment for me.
Made me realise that no, they weren’t…
What we do today shapes what our tomorrow looks like.
I think of this every time I make a decision now…
I hope this helps in some way.”
Here’s to your success in 2026!
Do the things that matter to you… and spend time with those who you love – because NOTHING else really counts, when all’s said and done.
Sophie
