Dear Future Me: what I need you to know

The other day on Threads, I ran across this post by @lpinthecity with a tiny screenshot that said: “Dear Future Me - 2026.

I was so intrigued by this concept that I rescheduled the blog post I had already written in order to write a letter to my future self as my first post of the year.

Not only is the start of the new year a little clumsy for most of us anyway, and routines a little rusty to get back into, but I figured it would be SUCH a cool thing to revisit come December 31st that I ain’t even mad about bumping my entire Q1 blog schedule back a week.

I invite you to do the same for yourself, and your business.

(and if you DO do it - I definitely need you to share! Backlink me or put a link in the comments so we can keep this circle going!!)

Dear December 2026 Stella,

You’re going to start this year with such mixed emotions.

You are ON FIRE with your steady stream of community signups after this past week of finally (and actively!) using Threads, you’re continuing to compound your social capital at the local level thanks to all the Chamber of Commerce events you’re attending + volunteering for, and you finally feel like you’ve got solid footing in what you do, who you serve, along with the value you can (and will!) provide.

You’ve also just had someone reach back out to work with you - REAL, SYSTEMS-RELATED WORK - after you did a quick favor for them on Canva before Christmas (remember that logo you put circular text around?). With any luck, this could turn into an ongoing thing that you help them with - and even better? A loyal referral source for other local small businesses who need the wide skillset you bring to the table.

But a heavy fog of uncertainty still lingers in the back of your head, despite you telling yourself to “trust the process” and “have faith things will work out in the end.”

So many questions swirl around in your head:

• Will I be enough - or will I continue to feel like I’m scrambling to prove myself to others?
• Will I make enough to cover my basic operating expenses? Will I make enough to invest further in my business growth? Or will I have to play it small yet steady all year long - saving the “high risk, high reward” tactics for another year?
• Can I actually handle running a whole damn business all by myself? Sure, I’ve held roles in a number of different departments, seen the same inefficiencies, and made drastic improvements everywhere I went - no matter how new or well-established, tiny or massively global the company was. But given how burnt out I still am from a decade of continuous drinking from the industrial firehose - along with pivoting so many times within that timeframe - am I able to absorb the new knowledge I need to keep my chin up fully? Or am I still too oversaturated?

During those dark days, I want to remind you of a few things:

• You saved your company OVER HALF A MILLION DOLLARS in all of 8 months during your FIRST job after your divorce, while you were still emotionally and financially struggling to adjust to your “new normal.” You know how to make shit happen - even when you’re hurting dearly inside.
• That task you were originally given? Those 1600 open line items you had to diagnose and close in only 4 months when you had never even heard of the system you were supposed to use and it was like trying to drink from 3 different firehoses at the same time? You knocked that shit out in TWO MONTHS. THAT is why they hired you on full-time before you had even been there a year (which was almost unheard of at the time). Don’t ever doubt your ability to look impossibility in the face and say, “hold my margarita.”
• At your next company, you not only maintained 20-30% of the company revenue, but brought a MILLION DOLLAR PROJECT in from a client that had barely given any prior work. Was it good leadership? Good training? A super supportive Sales Manager who taught you the ropes in this, your first industrial sales job? Nope. You got none of those things (if anything - you got tons of hurdles thrown in your path “all in good fun” and nicknames made about you behind your back. And yet…). You simply showed up as the educational, responsive, and thorough human being you are (who treated your clients as if you were in their shoes). Despite the lack of training, your naturally shy self threw yourself out there all day every day, never knowing what you’d come across, stretching yourself to learn new technical and communication skills nonstop. You helped your company break a new revenue record, and during your 2nd full year, that annual revenue was still in the Top 3. Imagine what would have happened if COVID hadn’t taken place?
• You are the UPSELL QUEEN. You seized so many opportunities to upsell and cross-sell (that’s why educating your client is so important!) that you increased sales for your department by FORTY PERCENT after you become their new Sales Manager. 
• You have broken GLOBAL SALES RECORDS within a mere two months of starting at a company. And then the next year? You broke your own damn record again. And again the year after that. You re-engaged and reinvigorated clients who had sworn they didn’t need help, then THANKED YOU after dropping tens (hundreds) of thousands of dollars on the preventative maintenance that they didn’t know they needed - but could now no longer live without. And? You were responsible for bringing in roughly 60-70% of the revenue for your entire office each year. YOU did that. Without fail. Every single year you were there. You always hit your target. You planted those seeds and meticulously watered them. And this dedication and consistency to your goals allowed people to keep their jobs.

I know these last two years have been absolute crap. You took a risk that wasn’t worth the ROI in the end, swung onto another branch that was unstable too, then leapt in a completely different direction in the hopes that you could finally prove yourself “worthy” of your salary.

But I’m here to tell you: your worth is FAR MORE than what it said on your last paycheck.

I understand that you are uncertain, and still figuring things out, so imma give you some grace this year.

I bet you’re probably going to underprice yourself constantly because you think you’re “still new” or “it’s been so long since you were a business owner that surely you cannot charge $XX an hour for coaching again, right?”

At the start, sure, keep your pricing reasonable until you get all your ducks in a row. Until you’ve worked out all the new (technological - ugh!) bugs. Until you find solid footing and realize that you are soaring above the clouds each day with how many people you are helping and at the rapid rate they are improving in their businesses, and with their own revenue.

But once you start feeling the pinch of “this is getting to be a little much for me…,” I am telling you that it’s ok to start charging (a little) more.

And that it’s ok to continue to pivot, exfoliate, and relaunch until you feel comfortable enough to market your goods without hesitation.

Because if there’s one thing you’ve learned from picking yourself back up off the ground after being shattered into a million tiny pieces, it’s this:

You not only CAN succeed at whatever the hell life throws at you.

YOU ALREADY HAVE.

I cannot wait to hear the recap of what new data points 2026 will add to your ongoing list of achievements.

I love you so much, and I know this is scary as shit, but I’m damn proud, and I will always - ALWAYS - be here for you when you need a pep talk.

Every.single. step of the way.

Big hugs (and lots of chocolate - I have a feeling you’re gonna need it),

- January Stella