97: 5 Business Lessons I Wish I'd Known Sooner (From My 300% Growth Year)
As 2025 comes to a close, I pause to reflect on what this year truly taught me about business, visibility, and growth. Instead of another strategy-heavy episode, I share five unexpected lessons that reshaped how I think about success, consistency, and confidence as a business owner and leader.
These lessons did not come from viral moments or overnight wins. They came from staying in the game, planting seeds, and learning how trust, safety, and clarity compound over time. My hope is that this episode helps you feel steadier, more grounded, and clearer about what deserves your energy moving into 2026 and beyond.
This episode is an invitation to put the yardstick behind you and recognize how far you have already come.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
[00:00] Why this episode is a reflection, not a strategy lesson
[02:32] Putting the yardstick behind you and measuring real growth
[04:55] Lesson one: Why trust outperformed virality in my business
[09:14] How Instagram stories became my strongest conversion tool
[11:36] Lesson two: The work I resisted most expanded my future
[15:42] How the podcast created growth I could not predict
[17:31] Lesson three: Why safety matters more than hustle
[21:49] Lesson four: How visibility grows when you stop performing
[26:02] Lesson five: Why consistency is about staying the course
[29:18] Final encouragement for anyone feeling behind or tired
Key Takeaways:
Trust builds businesses faster than chasing attention.
Long-term consistency creates compounding visibility.
Resistance often signals meaningful growth ahead.
Safety supports sustainable success better than hustle.
Authenticity outperforms perfection in visibility.
Growth happens beneath the surface before it becomes visible.
A Truth You Need to Hear:
“Consistency is not about intensity. It is about staying the course.” — Elizabeth Marberry
S3 Ep97 Transcript: 5 Business Lessons I Wish I'd Known Sooner (From My 300% Growth Year)
00:00
Today I'm breaking down five unexpected lessons I've learned about business and visibility in 2025. Lessons that changed how I think about growth, consistency and success. My hope is that by the end of today's episode, you'll feel clearer, steadier and more confident about what deserves your energy moving forward into 2026 and beyond. I hope you're excited. Let's do it.
00:27
Welcome to Strut It, a podcast about creating bold visibility on social media with zero apologies. I'm Elizabeth Marberry, your host and Instagram marketing coach. I help small business owners get seen on Instagram and monetize their offers so they can make more money doing their sole lead work. If you're tired of spinning your wheels on Instagram and you're seeking simple, proven Instagram marketing strategies that actually work, you're in the right place.
00:56
Let's dive in.
01:06
Welcome back to the show. Thank you for joining me for what is our final episode in 2025, if you're listening to this when it comes out live. And as this year comes to a close, I wanted to do something a little different. You know, if you've been listening to the podcast that I'm all about teaching tactical, actionable Instagram marketing strategies that actually work. But instead of another strategy heavy episode,
01:35
I want to reflect because this year changed me. And in taking that pause to reflect on the past 12 months, a lot has shifted in how I experience my work, my visibility, and myself as a business owner and leader. So today I'm sharing five unexpected lessons this year taught me about business growth and visibility.
02:02
And these aren't things that I had perfectly mapped out last January. They're lessons that only became clear because I stayed in the game long enough to see them come to fruition. And before we dive into the five lessons, I just want to encourage you to take a pause, take a deep breath. Whether you're listening to this in 2025 or 2026, it doesn't really matter. It's always a good time to
02:32
take a pause and as one of my business besties lovingly says, put the yardstick behind you. And what that means is that oftentimes as high achievers, ambitious entrepreneurs and small business owners, we have big bold visions for our lives and we wanna grow, we wanna get better every day and that is a good thing. That is a life worth living. And it is so imperative.
03:00
that we take a pause, we put that yardstick behind us, and we look back at where we came from and how much we have grown in the last 12 months. And so if you haven't done that, may this episode be your reminder to put the yardstick behind you and for a moment, just let go of any story that you're not far enough, you're not successful enough, you're not smart enough, whatever it is that you have in the back of your mind saying, oh, I should be further by now.
03:30
or I should have more followers by now, or I should have more clients by now, or whatever it is. Let's pause because I guarantee you, if you can just put that yardstick behind you and you can measure how far you have come and what has shifted for you in the last 12 months, you will be so proud of yourself. And when you can start to do this practice consistently and really live from this place of putting the yardstick behind you, you know what happens? You're so much happier.
03:58
Because when we're only measuring our success by our to-do list and hitting this big goal that we have in our lives, what keeps happening is the horizon line, what we want, that big vision, that big goal, what happens? It keeps getting pushed back, right? You say to me, I want 10,000 followers. You get to 10,000. Okay, that's not good enough for me anymore. I want 50,000 followers. Okay, you got there. I want 100,000 followers.
04:25
We do this, right? And it's a good thing. It's a good thing, because we have big goals and big capacities and visions. And when you measure your success by that metric, you will be unhappy. Because my friend, the horizon line keeps moving back. You will never reach the horizon line. So you have a choice right now. Can you put that yardstick behind you and take a pause
04:55
and celebrate and have gratitude for all of your wins, all of the shifts, no matter how small that you've made in the direction of the life and the business that you want to build. I'm rooting for you. Okay, so let's transition into the five lessons. So lesson one, virality mattered way less than trust. So one of the biggest surprises this year is that I didn't grow.
05:23
my business because I had tons and tons of viral videos. I didn't gain thousands and thousands of followers overnight, which has happened to me in the past. Yet this was a true 10x year for my business. And what I mean by that is right before I recorded, I ran my P &Ls, my profit and loss statements for my personal brand, which is this, my Instagram marketing coaching speaking business.
05:52
And I am celebrating that this year my revenue grew by just under 300 % from 2024. But what really surprised me was this, my profit grew by over 700 % this year. And this information tells me something really important. This growth didn't come from chasing attention or focusing at
06:21
of my energy on creating content from a place of I need to go viral and get thousands of followers to grow my business. It came from trust, clarity, and building a business model that actually supports my life while also giving my clients the absolute best results. I didn't grow this business massively this year because I worked more hours. Did I work my tail off? I did. But I grew because
06:50
everything started working together. And what I mean by that is my Instagram content, this podcast, we've had exponential growth with the podcast this year, my Instagram stories where I started really showing up more and in a different way this year, and my relationships that I've built over time. And I'm sharing these stats with you, not to brag or just to impress you.
07:19
But to remind you that the quiet relational growth and all of these little small steps and shifts that I have been taking over time really has compounded for me in my business. This is not an overnight success story. This is a result of so many seeds that I have planted over time.
07:47
And that growth, that massive financial growth for me, it didn't come because I just happened to have the best Instagram reach, right? It came from trust. I stayed really consistent on Instagram, even when my content wasn't performing well, right? Even when it wasn't popping off or going viral, where I was getting a ton of new followers. I stayed consistent and I kept showing up.
08:16
trusting that the right people, those high value followers, those potential dreamboat clients or dreamboat podcast listeners like yourself would find me. And a lot of my feed content this year was attraction based, Short seven to 15 second videos, trends, humor, personality. And I wanted to do more direct to camera talking head videos. I think those are a really important part of the strategy moving forward.
08:44
They were, I did a really good job with that for a time period, but because my business was expanding so much, I had to say to myself, what can I do and what can I put out that is quick and easy and fun for me and supports me in staying consistent for my audience and nurturing that relationship with them. So I did what was easiest in a line for me. But where I really feel that I grew my Instagram prowess was in my Instagram story strategy this year.
09:14
I finally really dialed that in and I stopped just resharing feed posts. Like I used to kind of just share my reels to my feed and maybe add a sticker, but I wasn't really showing up in my story in a real way because I had never found a story strategy that really worked for me. I was never a person who was like, oh, I want to share a picture of my breakfast. You I don't share a lot about my kids. There's a lot of parts of my life that I just keep private, right?
09:41
And I wasn't sure how I wanted to show up in my stories, but I really dialed that in and I stopped just resharing my feed posts and started bringing people behind the scenes of my day, my work, my thought process, just fun facts, random parts of my day or who I am. And of course, sharing about client wins and all the things I was doing with my clients and giving people a really clear path of how they can work with me. And I practiced teaching in my stories. I practiced showing up as a mentor.
10:11
and I practiced selling in my stories. And it really drove a lot of leads and conversions for me. At the same time, I stayed incredibly consistent with this podcast. Thank God for my podcast manager, Lena. She's incredible. She helps me so much behind the scenes so I can stay consistent and show up at my highest level for you, my beloved listener. When you're listening to this, this is episode 97 of season three, meaning that I have posted a podcast
10:41
every week for the last 97 weeks. I am incredibly proud of that consistency and pouring a lot of value into the show and really practicing that zero gatekeeping, because I want you to have the information you need to go and run with all these tips and all these strategies so you can grow your business on Instagram and grow your visibility. And what I've been reminded of is this.
11:06
There is more than one way to grow your Instagram following, right? Your Instagram content is just one way of growing your following. So many people find me through my podcast and then come to Instagram already warmed up. Like they already know me, right? They follow, they watch my stories, they join my email list, they apply to work with me. And this funnel, it didn't grow overnight.
11:36
It wasn't quick. It's a result of me being consistent and me delivering really high quality content week after week after week, right? And I stuck with it and that's why I've had such great success. And if I can do it, you can too. Lesson two is the thing I resisted most was the thing expanding my future.
12:04
So for years, people and colleagues and friends have told me, Elizabeth, you need to write a book. And for years, I said, I see it. I just don't know what it's about. Or am I an author? Am I a writer? I've never really thought about myself in that light. Very similar to how my speaking career started.
12:28
I had a clear vision of myself on stage before it ever happened. I saw myself standing on the stage wearing a bright red dress. I was standing and speaking in front of hundreds of people. And I had this clear vision long before I knew what I would actually be talking about. I remember this so specifically. I could see myself, but I had no idea what I was talking about.
12:52
Fast forward a few years from that clear vision and I'm standing on stage at the Las Vegas Convention Center wearing a bright pink dress, teaching Instagram marketing to a room that seats a thousand people. Dream totally manifested in a way that I could not have even imagined years ago. This year, I finally stopped avoiding and overthinking my book.
13:17
And I did the thing that I always preach on this podcast. I hired a book coach and I committed to the process. And I'm only about 20 % of the way through my manuscript and I won't sugarcoat it. It has not been easy for me and it still feels vulnerable. It still feels like every chapter stretches me and I have to get myself to do it. I have to get myself to sit down and write.
13:47
But I've done hard things enough to recognize this pattern. And that is that there's always some resistance that shows up for me right before the breakthrough. And that's exactly what happened with this podcast. I almost shut it down after two seasons. The first two seasons of doing this podcast, I was doing everything myself. I was planning the episodes, recording them, editing them, marketing it, just every piece of it.
14:16
I didn't really have any clear system or strategy behind it. I did narrow my focus each season, which was helpful, but still it was depleting and I definitely questioned, okay, is this worth my time? Like, am I getting my return on investment from the effort I'm putting into this podcast? And instead of shutting it down or quitting, I hired a podcast strategist and coach
14:45
and essentially totally rebuilt the structure of my podcast. And I built systems and processes on the backend. I got really clear on my niche and my focus and the strategy of how this podcast connects to my business. And I really committed to the long game. And I already told you, I hired a phenomenal podcast manager, Lena, so I could outsource some of the work that just took me a really long time and kind of drained me. And I showed up even when it was slow, even when I didn't have that many listeners.
15:16
And now this podcast is going through an expansion that just blows my mind. I have a really, really big goal of monthly downloads and I don't want to say it out loud, but it's a really big, I'm 25 % of the way there. mean, that's pretty far. And this podcast is landing me so many incredible opportunities, like speaking opportunities I could have never predicted, including
15:42
that I'm gonna be speaking at Social Media Marketing World in 2026 in Anaheim, California, which by the way, please come and meet me in real life, come to my talk. I would love to connect with you. We'll drop the link to the conference in the show notes here so you can check it out. And not only speaking opportunities, but of course, clients. As I mentioned at the beginning of this podcast, I've had my biggest revenue year yet in my coaching business and that...
16:11
boost in revenue and really those dreamboat clients finding me is directly related to this podcast. A lot of those clients first found me through my podcast and went through my funnel and everything. So it's just incredible that the work that you often resist, the work that feels sticky or hard or not intuitive in the beginning, that work that you have to keep
16:38
pushing through and getting the support to get you through it is the work that takes you to that next level. And it's funny, I see that in my Hot Reels group, in my coaching program, my 12 month Instagram coaching program, where I always tell new business owners or creators that come into that group, I always say, the first 90 days are the hardest, right? Because you are learning all these new skills.
17:03
I'm challenging you in ways that you're not used to, and maybe I'm challenging you to tell more stories or show your face on camera or test out a new content type. And anytime we are learning a new skill or we're stepping out of our comfort zone, it is so uncomfortable and you really have to push past that. But there is so much gold and fruit on the other side of that resistance if you can get the support and if you can stick with it and be consistent.
17:31
Lesson three is I thought success required a high amount of energy and it actually requires a felt sense of safety. So let me explain. For a long time, I believed that success meant constant high energy. And what that meant for me was working nights, working weekends.
17:57
always chasing the next client, really being that person who would over deliver and overwork and like I just could not turn my brain off from my business. And I remember when I signed my first coaching clients years ago, I was so excited, but that celebration was immediately followed by fear, right? Like fear around money, fear around, oh no, now I have to find another client and how am gonna do that? And what if I can't find another one?
18:27
I mean, just layers of feeling discomfort and feeling like it wasn't safe to receive. This year, 2025 felt totally different. So after a lot of inner work around money, worth, safety, nervous system, really getting to know how my body works, something shifted. And my business no longer runs from that place of urgency or scarcity.
18:57
I have built and designed my business and a schedule to support me. And an example of that is I coach my clients Monday through Thursday, and I protect my time for rest, walks, my weekly yoga class I go to, and creative space. And because of that, I can show up more fully for my clients and for my family, for my two young kids, for my husband, not less. So I've really instituted boundaries.
19:26
in my business and that's why I have the time freedom, the money freedom, the location freedom, but I also have a set of my business in a way where I have spaciousness and my clients get phenomenal results. And I've really learned how to design my programs in a way where that happens, where my clients get supported on the deepest level. They get epic results.
19:52
And I still am not trading time for money and just feeling like I'm constantly chasing my tail. So now when a new client joins Hot Reels or I sign up a new private client, for example, I actually feel yes, of course I celebrate. I get so excited. If you follow my Instagram stories, you know that I get very excited and I feel a sense of calmness. I feel rooted in myself. I feel grounded.
20:22
And I feel safe receiving the money. I feel safe receiving the opportunity and the responsibility of showing up for my clients. And I trust myself. And my income this year didn't grow because I just hustled harder than I did the year before. It grew because my nervous system had finally caught up to the life I have been slowly building over the last five years.
20:51
all those seeds I've been planting. And so maybe this lesson is a moment for you to think about what have you connected in your mind to success? Have you told yourself that it requires 80 hour work weeks? Have you told yourself that success looks this certain way or has to be the certain way? And I wanna challenge you to remind yourself, especially if you're a small business owner or entrepreneur, this is your business, you get to design
21:21
the business you want. And if you work for a company, you get to create the life that you want. I am such a firm believer in that. It just takes those small shifts and it all begins with clarity, right? So you have to understand your blinders before you can get the support that you need. Lesson four is visibility compounds when you stop performing.
21:49
So earlier in my business, visibility, showing up on Instagram Story or posting a reel or posting on Facebook, it definitely felt like performing in the sense that I was trying so hard to say the right thing. I was trying so hard to sound impressive or sound like I knew what I was talking about, that I was coming from that energy of like trying to prove myself.
22:18
or I was trying to be really polished, right? Like my perfectionist, people pleasing tendencies were coming in. And I just wanna pause and say, that is totally normal. Anytime you started showing up on Instagram stories for the first time and I'm encouraging you to just speak to the camera, you're gonna feel all those things, okay? Welcome to the crowd. We all go through that. But this year, I stopped performing and I started sharing from a place of clarity and alignment for myself.
22:48
And I talked about what I was learning in real time with my audience, especially in my Instagram stories. As I mentioned earlier, I feel like I've really fallen more in love with the platform that is Instagram stories because people who watch your Instagram story are your warm to hot audience, meaning that Instagram stories are not how you're going to grow your following, but it's definitely where you can nurture.
23:13
and deepen your relationship with your current followers and audience and where you can drive those conversions, right? Help you meet whatever goals you have for your business. And in my Instagram stories, I just stopped stressing so much about it. I let my message evolve over time. You I stopped trying to impress and really focused on being more clear with my words. I started focusing on, okay, what is the viewer?
23:42
gonna get from this story because it's not about me. As much as I'm sharing maybe something from my personal life or from my work life, some behind the scenes or some drama in my life, you know, it's really not about me. It's always about, okay, if someone's watching my story, they're giving me their precious time and energy. What do I want them to feel? What do want them to take away from the story? Kind of like this podcast, I put so much thought and energy into what I'm gonna share with you here because you are precious.
24:12
because your time and your attention is so precious and I am honored to capture that attention. I am honored to share space and time with you, my beloved listener. And I bring that energetic into my content. So I always think about how is this going to serve the people who are watching it? When you come from that energetic, that's when visibility starts
24:41
compounding. People don't connect to perfection. They don't connect to fake. They can sniff that out, okay? They connect to honesty and conviction and vulnerability and lived experience. And the more that I trusted my voice and the more that I just said the thing that was on my mind without overthinking it or being like, wait, what's my strategy again?
25:08
the more people trusted me. And so when I did say, hey, I just opened up the wait list for Hot Reels, more people were responding to my stories, right? And that's what's so interesting about this is that we fear that vulnerability because we feel like it's gonna make us look weak when in fact the best leaders are vulnerable. The best leaders show their imperfections. The best leaders bring us on the journey so we are invested in it. m
25:37
with them, so we're a part of it. And I feel that I've really had fun with that this year. And I've enjoyed letting go of feeling like I had to perform or do a certain thing or fit into a box to be visible. And rather, my visibility grew when I stopped trying to be someone else and I started just really being my unapologetic self.
26:02
The fifth and final lesson is consistency isn't about intensity. It's about staying the course. This year reminded me that consistency isn't about doing more, right? How often do we hear like, okay, I finally have to be consistent on Instagram or I finally have to be consistent with this thing. And in our minds, we immediately have an objection, right? Which is, well, I don't have time or I don't know what to.
26:30
do or I don't know what to post. And what I want to invite in is that consistency is an energy actually. It's a way of being. It's a way of operating. It's a way of showing up. It's about continuing when things feel quiet. Continuing when you're not sure it's working. When you have no evidence that it's working. You're still posting the real. You're still showing up in your story. No one's responding to you. You keep going.
26:59
continuing when the growth is happening beneath the surface, right? Remember those seeds I said, I planted so many seeds and I stayed the course. And that doesn't mean that there weren't days where I wanted to burn my business to the ground and just go. And I had these fantasies of like, I'm just gonna go be a neighbor driver or a bartender, know, like, please just give me a simpler life. This is so hard. Not that those lives are simple, but you know, it's just this fantasy in your brain.
27:28
of like, I'm gonna burn this all down. And I would always come back into myself, into my purpose, into my why, and I just kept showing up. I was relentless. I was relentless in the pursuit of my vision and my dreams for my business. And nearly 100 podcasts, episodes later in season three, years of showing up consistently.
27:52
on Instagram now and online, years of investing thousands of dollars in my own coaches and mentors to help me work through this stuff, and years of refining my offers and my voice. It's all coming together. And that's where when you hear me say, oh my gosh, my revenue's up, my profits up, and then people who are watching me from the outside are like, oh my gosh, that happened for you so quickly. Remember, overnight success is not a thing. It's just not a thing.
28:21
Every successful person you see has started and stopped, moved forward, stepped back. They've had success, they've had failures, but the difference is they keep going. The strategy is you keep going. And that is what I mean when I say, darling, be consistent. A consistent energy, it's a consistent belief in your vision. It's the persistence that's required to be successful.
28:49
I am not any more special than you are. I have just been relentless in showing up and doing the thing and figuring out where I was getting stuck and where I needed support. And as long as you know you're right next step, you're on the path brick by brick. To close out this episode, if you're still with me, if you're listening to this at the end of the year and you're feeling behind or you're not enough or tired,
29:18
tired or unclear or uncertain. Hear this. You don't need to become louder. You don't need to hustle harder. You don't need to be everywhere all at once on every platform. You don't have to have it all figured out. You don't have to know your entire book before you write chapter one. What you need is a sense of clarity. What is your next right step?
29:48
You need consistency, you need a consistent energy and a determination that you are not going to give up. And you need a business that feels safe enough to grow, right? Where you can receive at your highest level and serve at your highest level. And I know you can do it. If you're still listening, I know you can do it. I know that your visions are for you and I believe in you and I'm rooting for you.
30:16
And I'm really proud of what this year taught me. And I'm carrying these lessons forward with a lot of intention and gratitude. Gratitude for you, my beloved listener. Thank you for being here. Thank you for coming on this journey for me. I have so much goodness in store for you in 2026. But before we go there, remember, don't forget to put that yardstick behind you and really celebrate how far you've come.
30:44
If you love today's episode, do me a favor and share it with a business colleague or friend who needs this message. And sometimes I get DMs from you and you say, Elizabeth, I just found your podcast. I've been binging it. I'm obsessed. And I cannot tell you what that does for me and my heart, for my team. I share those messages with my team. So please don't hesitate to reach out. Give me some love on Instagram. Make sure you're following me over there at Elizabeth Marberry.
31:11
M-A-R-B-E-R-R-Y. Send me a takeaway. Tell me what you love about this podcast. And if you haven't already, please take 30 seconds to rate and review the show. It really helps us in the podcast algorithm to reach more brilliant people like yourself. I am sending you so much love as 2025 comes to an end and I cannot wait to strut it with you next week. Thank you for listening to Strut It.
31:39
If you're ready to start leveraging Instagram to grow your business, then you're gonna wanna grab my free Monetize Your IG Guide, where you'll learn seven simple and proven ways to finally make money on Instagram. You can grab your guide at elizabethmarberry.com slash freebies. That's elizabethmarberry.com slash freebies to get my Monetize Your IG Guide.
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If you got some incredible value from today's episode, be sure to leave a review and subscribe on your favorite podcast platforms. And I cannot wait to start it with you again next week.
