Lean into change: 5 ways to reset in 2026
Are you ready to embrace the new quarter-century? Whether 2026 is your year to reinvent, recalibrate, or simply get your business back on track, here are five strategies successful solopreneurs are putting to work right now.
Because in an era that refuses to stand still, what got you to this point will not get you where you want to be next.
1. Build a lead pipeline machine
After 18 years running an agency, I realised something: the underlying mechanism of making money never changed.
A lead becomes a quote.
A quote becomes a job.
And jobs (eventually) become money in the bank.
What does change is the volatility. A dream client could land overnight… or take years. A tiny job could become hundreds of thousands in recurring work. And when we were busy? We barely did any marketing because the pipeline felt constant – until it suddenly wasn’t.
If you do nothing else next year, take control of your pipeline.
Set a realistic revenue target – let’s say it’s $20k/month. Then aim for around four months’ worth of potential work in your pipeline (that’s $80k in leads, including retainers). Not all will convert. They’re not meant to.
Track everything in whatever you use (Notion, Trello, a spreadsheet). Label leads as hot, warm, or cool. Give each a value and a follow-up date.
A full pipeline isn’t about pressure. It’s about peace of mind.
2. Create a ‘lead simmering’ ritual
Once you have a system, you need a rhythm. Here’s a brilliant LinkedIn hack via Lizzie Davey:
Go to your favourite (or dream) client’s profile.
Click the People Also Viewed sidebar.
Follow those people – the algorithm is telling you they’re similar.
Add them to your pipeline as ‘ice cold’.
Warm them gently through comments, shares, or genuinely helpful interactions.
Block out 30 minutes a week for lead simmering. Not selling – simmering. Slow warming builds trust far more reliably than cold pitching ever will.
3. Double down on your niche
If you’ve spent years building credibility in a particular industry or craft, this is your moment. Your depth is your superpower – and your differentiator in the noisy, AI-inflated market.
If that work still lights you up, it’s time for you to shine as the go-to choice.
Pitch to industry publications.
Join panels.
Host a webinar or lunch club workshop.
Run a workshop for an ideal client mastermind group.
Submit your work for an award.
Pitch the podcasts your clients actually listen to.
It’s not about visibility for vanity’s sake. It’s about trust. Because trust leads to referrals, which lead to opportunities.
If your niche is being disrupted by AI, adapt before your clients do. Sarah Spence has done this beautifully – after an astonishing response to her free AI search playbook, she shifted from SEO content into GEO and AI visibility audits.
Your expertise doesn’t vanish with tech shifts. It evolves.
4. Go all in on AI (the right way)
The people who win in the age of AI won’t be the ones pumping out more mediocre content faster. And they won’t be the ones trying to outsource their entire brain to a bot.
The winners will be the ones who use AI to augment their brilliance and fill their capability gaps – not erase the very things that make them human.
Your lived experience. Your perspective. Your empathy. Your ability to solve real human problems with nuance and originality.
Let it help you generate new revenue streams with minimal extra effort. Could you package your knowledge into high-value consulting, training, or micro-SaaS subscriptions? Or, if you’ve built your own GPTs or custom workflows, could you turn that into a client coaching program?
Be transparent and intentional with your use of AI. It should help you solve more complex, high stakes problems and make your work better – not just easier or faster.
5. Pivot with intention
For some of us (myself included) 2026 will bring a more dramatic shift.
It’s OK to say: I don’t want to do this anymore. You’re allowed to quit a business, just as you’d quit a job that no longer serves you.
But before you walk out the door, preserve the value you’ve built. Build the runway to your next chapter, even if you can’t yet see the destination.
Ask yourself:
How else could I use my skills in ways that feel lighter, more aligned, more profitable?
What are the external signals telling me about what’s next?
What wave is rising in my industry – and do I want to ride it?
Over 15 years ago, I saw the explosion in demand for online content and built an agency on that wave. Now the tide has gone out – and it’s absolutely exposing the bandwagon-jumpers.
So where’s the next surf break for you?
Start simple
Change is inevitable in 2026. But it doesn’t have to be enormous or overwhelming. Think of your strategy as a simple, memorable mantra you can repeat throughout the year, until it becomes second nature.
In 2025, I focused on three words: courage, awareness, meaning.
Publishing my first book was a deeply personal act of courage. It also meant a crap-ton of awareness-building publicity – podcasts, op-eds, guest speaking and awards. Above all, I wanted to focus on work that had meaning for me.
A mantra doesn’t need to be lofty. Evernote’s was “Fix the fundamentals. Ship visible product progress. Win in the workplace.”
“At first it felt almost too simple… like we needed something bigger. But what looked simple on paper became powerful in practice,” said CEO Chris O’Neill in a recent LinkedIn post.
If you could only focus on three things next year – and nothing else – what would they be?
Write them on a Post-it above your desk. Take one small step every day.
That’s how big shifts happen. It could change the course of your business. And your life.
