Letting Go To Grow: Things We Are Saying Goodbye To In 2025

As we head into a new year, it’s time to let go of what’s no longer serving us and make room for growth.

In this episode of Not Nice, Clever, we’re breaking down the outdated mindsets, habits, and trends that are holding you back—like perfectionism, hustle culture, and the comparison trap—and showing you how to shift toward more empowering approaches.

We’ll share practical tips for embracing progress over perfection, setting boundaries, and letting go of fear-based decisions. Plus, we’re calling out stale trends (goodbye, overly curated Instagram feeds!) and highlighting the power of authenticity and intentionality in your personal and professional life. 

Tune in and start shedding what’s been holding you back, so you can make 2025 your best year yet!

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• Not Nice Clever
• Candice Carcioppolo
• Kat Torre

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Letting Go
• 0:59 Releasing Perfectionism and Hustle Culture
• 2:25 Saying No and Authenticity
• 4:48 The Myth of Multitasking
• 6:44 Fear-Based Decision Making
• 8:11 Trends and Authentic Branding
• 9:35 Embracing Change for the New Year

Transcript

Hi, I'm Kat, marketer turned brand storyteller. And I'm Candice, educator turned entrepreneur. And you're listening to Not Nice, Clever. As CEOs and leaders, it's your job to always have the answers. But sometimes you need a little help. Leverage, if you will. We get it. This is the place for you. So wherever you're listening, 530 AM Club at the gym, on your way to your next meeting or putting out today's fire, let's get into it.

In today's mini episode of Not Nice Clever, we are taking a page out of our guest episodes and hitting y'all with a rapid fire of shit we are letting go of before 2025 hits. So we've got several things that Candace and I are kicking to the curb at the end of 2024. As we speak in this episode, it's going to be rapid fire. Let's get into it. You guys know how much we love to share with you. So Candace, what's the first thing we are letting the fuck go?

a go of an outdated mindset of perfectionism, believing that perfectionism is even a real thing. It's absolutely not progress over perfection. And we are going to celebrate progress instead of worrying about being perfect because perfect is an illusion. And even though we are delusional in our goals, are not chasing something that doesn't actually even exist. Yes. Okay.

Another thing that we are leaving behind in 2024 is another outdated mindset of hustle culture. Look, we've heard it. We've said it. I've lived it. know Candace has to hustle, hustle, hustle, respect the hustle, tip your hat to the hustle. Great. No, not anymore. We're all about working smarter, not harder, about slowing down, about savoring, about appreciating because of the fuck is the point.

of hustling if you can't even enjoy the fruits of your labor. Totally agreed. I think that I'm only doing the things in my life and business that are serving my vision for myself. And if hustling is depleting my energy, making me feel bad, then I'm going to cut that out of my life and decide what it is, what are the actions that are actually leading me to the life that I actually want. So no more.

grinding, hustling, white knuckling through things. No, thank you. Next one. What do got, Kev? Letting go of saying yes to everything. Look, I totally get it. I feel like we've even shared this. When shit hits the fan in business or when you are presented with a different opportunity, say yes and figure it out later. Totally get that mindset in certain situations. But saying yes just for the sake of

feeling busy, of needing to feel wanted, of fearing that you're going to miss out on future business if you don't say yes to something. If you want to people please somebody to death and to try to make them think that you're this awesome person that has it all together and you can do it all, it's a lie. We're letting go of that. Say yes to the things that will serve you so that you can serve others. You have this annoying, eye rolling moment every single time you hop on a plane.

And the flight attendant tells you to put your oxygen mask over yourself first before assisting others because you can't help anybody if you are passed the fuck out regardless of what's going on with the plane. Yep. So that's my feel on that. I love it. Okay. We're also letting go of faking it until you make it. And I probably have said this before, but as I'm growing and evolving as an entrepreneur, I'm thinking about it differently as far as what does that mean? It's not about.

faking it, it's just about showing up where you are as you are and knowing that that's enough. Yeah. And that being transparent about not having it all figured out actually has people trusting you more and asking you more questions. You're like, I just told you I'm not qualified. Like, are you sure you really want to ask me? They're like, yeah, you're farther along than I am. You have the guts to do what I want to do. So can you help me just take the next best step? You don't have to be

a master at it. Yeah. I always tell my clients that you are most well positioned to help the person who is once where you were and you only have to be one step ahead of someone to help them. So keep that in mind. Yeah. You don't need to fake it till you make it just own where you are. Be proud of it. Keep showing up.

Next thing that we are leaving behind in 2024. am a perpetrator of this former perpetrator no longer. The habit of the old habits, the archived shelved habit of multitasking. Because how many studies have to prove that it is actually impossible for our brains to multitask before I get it through my thick head and stop trying to think that like, it does not apply to me. Yeah.

It does. It's not productive. You're losing time. You're leaking energy. You're splintering your focus. Do not multitask. What you're doing is switch tasking and that's costing you time and energy. The new version of multitasking is getting help. Yes. Admitting you need help. Admitting you need help. to receiving it. Yes. Both of those things. Being open to receiving it. That is also so important.

yeah, this is where we bring in outsourcing. This is where we let someone else shine in what brings them joy, what they're great at. So yeah, ask for help, get help. It's okay. You deserve it. And you will accomplish far, far more than you would ever have accomplished by yourself, regardless of how great you are. I'm freaking out when I have a baby and I need you to be like,

Remember how you said it's okay to get help? Yeah. I'm just going to actually text you the episode because I feel like if I try to say that to you in the moment, you'd like, you don't understand Kat. Yeah, exactly. Subtle. Be like, this might be helpful for you. The next one is letting go of fear based decision making. Feeling like you are forced into choosing something because you're scared of the alternative. We're just not doing

We're not doing that anymore. We're making decisions based on where we're And where would it be in our life? Yeah, with optimism and energy and love because yeah, intention. You know, if making decisions based out of fear actually helped you in the long term, maybe we would consider it as a strategy, but it doesn't. It leads to burnout. leads to you repeating mistakes. It leads to resentment, more fear. Nobody wants that. And so, you know,

just reorienting why you're making a decision and asking yourself if you're making it out of fear of losing something, of pissing somebody off, of being seen as whatever, X, Y, Z, gut check yourself and figure out a way that you can make it through a different lens and not that one. And fear-based decision-making often comes from a mindset of scarcity. So check yourself if you are in that mindset of scarcity right now.

And if you can shift from scarcity to abundance, what would that decision look like? What would that path be? next. Trends to leave behind. Oof. So when it comes to marketing and branding, there's some things that are maybe overly curated. Maybe you are trying to hop on trends that you already know don't feel like

you or your brand, but you see maybe other people being successful at it. So you try to emulate. We're not doing that anymore. We're not taking on trends that don't feel like us. And there's a fine line because sometimes you do need to push yourself out of your comfort zone and we're okay with that. But if you know in your gut that this just isn't right,

I trust that instinct. you are choosing to follow a trend in the hopes that you'll go viral, don't do it. That's usually my litmus test. Like when, when a client comes and they, you know, or I see something on Tik TOK or Instagram and it'd like, that's funny. That's cute. And then I'll think like, should I try to do my own version of that? And I'll be like, what's the point of doing it? How does it serve me? How does it serve the person I want to help and reach? And if it doesn't,

Don't do it, just admire the content, drop a like, leave a comment, because it does take time to create that content. Yeah. And then move on. You don't need to copy and paste everything. You do not need to copy and paste everything. Love that. And the last one we have for you is to embrace the new. The new year is such a great time to look ahead, look back at the things that you want to leave behind like we are today.

but look ahead with hope and optimism and allow yourself to evolve and grow. And so it is very normal for you to step into a new era in a new year. And that's okay. And we encourage that. And we are excited for what 2025 is going to bring to all of the clever crew.

And if you have not yet done so, please do leave us a five star review and share this episode with a friend who can leave some shit behind in 2024 and make room for something great in the year ahead.

Thanks for joining us on Not Nice, Clever. Remember to follow Not Nice, Clever wherever you listen to audio. And if you haven't already, drop that five star review. Share your takeaways. Tell us your story. We love to hear it. Signing off, you're not so nice, but so clever besties that mean business. See you soon.