616: (Solo) 5 Honest Business Lessons I’m Taking Into 2026

0:01Hey founder fam, I want to talk to you about something super exciting. We're officially partnered with OmniSend, the email marketing and SMS platform built specifically for e-commerce founders. We've been recommending OmniSend to founder students for a while now because it just works. Whether you're launching your first store or you're scaling to seven figures, it really helps you automate your marketing and get real results. Did you know on average, OmniSend customers make$68 for every$1 they spend, which is an insanely good return on investment. And because you're part of the founder community, you get 50 % off your first three months with the code founder50.

0:39Just head to omnisend.com forward slash founder without the E to get started. All right, now let's jump back into the show. Hey guys, Nathan here. Welcome back to another solo episode. Let's be honest, 2025 has been one of the most eye-opening years in business for me. You know, whether you're building your first product or you're scaling, I think it's important to share real lessons, not just a highlight reel. So today, I just want to really talk to you about like the five biggest lessons that I've learned this year and kind of my reflections. I love that Homozy does his end of year reflections.

1:15I'm trying to kind of take a bit off that. So some of these are strategic, some are personal, but all of them have moved the needle for me in a massive way. So let's jump in. Hear the stories, learn the proven methods, and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship. Welcome to the Founder Podcast with Nathan Chan.

1:37The first one that's hit me hard more than ever is a founder. If you don't have repeat customers, you don't have a business, you have a promotion. And if you don't build a repeat business, you're just renting growth. And I was reminded of this by the conversation I had with John Paul, our good friend JP. JP, he's the founder of Paul Mitchell Systems and Patron Tequila. And he said something to me so powerful. He said, the real money is in the second sale, right? And I want you to imagine when you're building your business, imagine if your business on the first day of every month, you didn't even need one new customer to be profitable.

2:15That's what he's built with both of his company, right? It's all about the repeat business. And you can have the best marketing funnel in the world. But if you're not building something people come back for, it's a leaky bucket. So now every product, every campaign, even the content we build is run through one lens. Does this help build a long-term customer relationship or is it a spike? And that's what I'm thinking about. That's how I'm looking at our business model. That's how I'm looking at our products. That's how I'm looking at everything we're doing. Well, next one, AI and automation isn't a trend.

2:50It's a superpower. So if you are not integrating AI into your business right now, whether it's content workflows, automated customer experience, analyzing data, using automation to do repetitive tasks, you are falling behind. Like I used to think AI was one of these things where you just, you know, wait until, you know, you hear everybody's doing this one thing, then you jump on. But this year I saw firsthand what it can do, especially if you're on the cutting edge. We implemented custom GPTs for internal coaching, SOP creation, product validation on the sales side, on the data analytics side, you name it.

3:28And it's compounding time that's just insanely saved. And it's actually helping our students. It has been wild. We launched an AI software that finds trending products. I didn't even realize just how easy it is to build software now. It is crazy. So my reflection here is we're going to double down even more in 2026. We're going to start really building a dedicated arm in the business, resources that are fully focused on implementing automation, stretching all the tools that we pay for. Like we pay HubSpot like multiple six figures a year, like crazy numbers, guys. And that tool is so powerful.

4:03They have so much automation and so many powerful AI things that we can do. And they're like, we need to double down. We're doubling down more than ever as a competitive advantage. And don't always look to hiring a resource like a person when you can actually look at Where can you automate? Where can you use AI to replace that? It's so powerful. Another one, which is a bit more personal, and that's if you're stuck, what is it that you're avoiding? You know, every time I felt stuck in 2025, whether it's growth, hiring, direction, I found I was avoiding something. And usually that thing wasn't just a task.

4:34It was fear, fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of a tough conversation. There was something deeper. And it's just a reminder, like when you go a layer deeper and actually confront that fear, you get unstuck fast. Like I've been doing work with a couple of coaches, one a high performance coach, and he's really teaching me around like the bottleneck in most businesses isn't strategy. It's the founder avoiding what needs to be faced. And oftentimes when you unblock that thing and find out what the internal fear is around it and even just shining a spotlight on it and then coming up with a game plan and roadmap to move forward, it is so incredibly powerful.

5:11So there's a brilliant framework out of Harvard called Immunity to Change. And it's this idea that we say we want to grow, but deep down we have competing commitments or unconscious fears that block us. So maybe you say you want to grow your business. Maybe you say you want to start your business or, you know, hire a team or raise money. But if you're being honest, you're avoiding something like conflict, visibility, or even the pressure that comes with success. And this model has really helped me realize you can't just do more to grow. You can't just work harder. you have to unblock yourself.

5:42You have to figure out what that fear is that's really driving your inaction. And when I applied this lens this year, it shifted everything for me. How I move, how I think about my day, the sticking points, what am I avoiding and why, what should I do next? And I found clarity every single time. So the next time you're stuck, don't ask, what should I do? Ask, what am I avoiding and why? Another one I want to talk about, done a lot of deals this year at founder and been thinking a lot about negotiation. And there were some negotiations that almost didn't go our way this year. And I'm not going to go into details of who or what, because they might be listening to this podcast.

6:21But it reminded me this, when you walk into a deal, if you're prepared to walk away, you have the negotiation from power, not panic. And this doesn't just apply to deals. It applies to hiring, partnerships, even what opportunities you say yes and no to. So I'm taking this energy into 2026, detachment with discipline, be clear on what you want, but never be desperate to get it. People can sense that energy and the person that's prepared to walk away is always the one getting the best deal. Another one I want to talk about, it doesn't happen overnight. It happens with pressure and patience. So this is a reminder, this one I've struggled with for years and it's a new lesson.

6:59Nothing that worked for us in 2025 or any hearing in business that matter, worked immediately from launching courses, rebuilding email flows, testing new offers, everything, iterating, testing, waiting. The real lesson is the juice worth the squeeze. So sometimes the breakthrough isn't the idea. It's your willingness to stay in it long enough to let the idea work, right? And what happens is you start this new thing and you get super excited about it. And then you have this relentless optimism and then you actually get into it. and then it's harder than you think. And then you go, okay, this doesn't work.

7:35And then you move to the next thing. And that's a constant cycle and trap that I've got myself into. So now I've got a different approach. I've got a really strong patience. I've got a really strong data-backed decision-making. I talked about this in another episode. And I just know now, and I plan accordingly, that I plan for the worst and hope for the best. And no, things take double the time I think it will take. So as you look forward into 2026, I want you guys to reflect, what are you building that lasts? what fear is holding you back and what systems are compounding your effort and what are you willing to walk away from so i hope this helped you as always guys if you have any questions a topic you'd like me to cover in 2026 just dm me instagram.com forward slash nathan chan my handle is at nathan chan let's keep building together i'll see you in the new year can't wait to make 2026 my best year yet all right i'll speak to you soon