The best changes start with five minutes of honest reflection.
Hi y’all,
December hits different when you’re running an event business, doesn’t it?
You’re simultaneously wrapping up this year’s events, planning for next year’s busy season, and trying to figure out what the heck actually worked in 2025.
If you’re sitting down with your coffee (or wine) to reflect over the last year and assess what’s working, I want to share the framework that I return to again and again.
It’s the same framework that we as a company use for every single one of our retros at Goodshuffle. We’ve tested a lot of different approaches, and this one continues to be consistent and really easy to use:
🟢 CONTINUE: What’s working? Start here. What don’t you need to change? I think this is really important, especially when so much is evolving in our industry. We have to hold ourselves accountable to — and give ourselves a pat on the back for — the things that are working really well.
Call out the wins. The processes that are humming. The relationships that are thriving. Don’t skip this step.
🛑 STOP: What isn’t working? What’s not getting you clarity? What’s draining energy without delivering results? What has to stop?
This is where you get honest about the stuff that’s just not serving you anymore — whether that’s a time-wasting process, a difficult client relationship, or a tool that’s more trouble than it’s worth.
🚀 START: What should you begin? Here’s the key: by removing things from your process, now you can start doing other activities.
It’s that continue, stop, and start sequence that keeps changes manageable. If you’re constantly doing more, more, more, and starting, starting, starting, but not stopping or stripping anything away from your process, it’s all gonna feel overwhelming and your workload is going to get out of control.
But if you get clear on what you want to continue, figure out what you can strip away, and then introduce new workflows? That’s gonna really set you up for success.
So take five minutes. Grab a piece of paper. And write down your continue, stop, and start.
Your future self will thank you.
See you next Monday,
Mallory Mullen
Goodshuffle
