How I’m ending the year strong

Why this year will be different (I promise!)

Author

David Broderick
November 26, 2025

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I’m just about ready to be gorging myself on mince pies while watching Elf right now…

But somehow there’s an entire month left to work till Christmas?

So I dunno about you, but I’m gonna need some help ending the year strong.

Luckily, I’ve learned a thing or two about how to finish off the year with a bang instead of a whimper in my five years of freelancing.

So here are five things I’ll be doing in December to set me up for success in 2026 💪

Let’s dive right in…

(Pssst… read all the way to the end of this one for a special invite to join me and Tyler for a virtual Year-End Planning Session 👀 ).

📬 Reaching out to every client I’ve worked with this year

In her newsletter last Friday, Lizzie Davey mentioned one way she’s ending the year strong: 

I'm checking in with everyone I’ve worked with in 2025 with a simple, “Hey, how’s Q1 shaping up? Want to get anything locked in before Christmas?” kind of message.

The secret to a calm January is a steady February and March, and the secret to a steady February and March is not waiting until January 3rd to remember all your clients are still defrosting from the break (ask me how I know).

The last time I followed Lizzie’s advice about reconnecting with old clients it landed me two new gigs.

So, I’ll deffo be following her lead on this one before the end of the year, too 👀

🤔 Thinking of ways to upsell my current clients

Upselling your existing clients is a lot easier than finding and pitching totally new folks. 

Or so I’ve heard…

I’ve only actually ever attempted upselling one client in the five years I’ve been freelancing.

And that went really well… until it didn’t 🙃

My contact – the Head of Marketing – was actually down for the content refresh project I’d pitched.

Then that Head of Marketing left for another job. And the start-up I was writing for hit pause on its content programme and never picked it back up 🫠

That was like three years ago?

So I think I’m due another go at upselling. 

I mainly do long-form content for B2B SaaS start-ups. So natural upselling opportunities are probably going to be:

  • Repurposing my articles into LinkedIn content

  • Ghostwriting LinkedIn content for the brand LinkedIn page or founder 

  • Writing a newsletter

  • Refreshing old articles that aren’t performing anymore

  • Pitching content formats they’re sleeping on (BOFU pieces, original research reports, case studies, etc.)

🙋 Asking for client testimonials

Is it just me, or does asking clients for a LinkedIn recommendation always feel awkward AF?

Even when you know your work has delivered great results and they love working with you 🙃

Luckily, “Hey, it’s been great working with you this year. Would you mind leaving me a testimonial?” feels slightly less awkward than just emailing a client out the blue saying “Hey, would you mind leaving me a testimonial?”.

Which makes next month as good a time as any to get after those all-important testimonials.

In case you missed these the first time I shared them, here’s a client testimonial ask template I’ve had luck with in the past you can edit:

Since we're wrapping things up with [brand], would you mind leaving me a LinkedIn recommendation? 

To make that as easy as possible for you, I just had a look at [brands]'s Ahrefs stats for the last two years and pulled together this testimonial based on the results we've driven with this content strategy:

[Insert testimonial you’ve written here]

Obviously no pressure if you'd rather put that in your own words – or not leave me a recommendation at all, of course!

Here's my profile if you did want to add that on there: [Your LinkedIn URL]

⏭️ Pushing everything I can get away with into next year

It would be amazing to have one December as a freelancer that wasn’t a mad rush to get everything tied up before I break for Christmas. 

So this year I’ll be giving Austin L Church’s December Zero a go.

It’s Austin’s four-step process for making sure everything urgent gets done before the end of the year – while pushing everything that can wait back to January. 

Here’s what Austin says:

The purpose of December Zero is to take inventory of open projects and commitments and plan a two-week sprint for the first half of the month so that you can go into the second half feeling freed up, focused, and fulfilled.

The exercise takes an hour (or less) and moves through three distinct phases: 1) gather, 2) decide, and 3) plan. Your goal is to create a two-week sprint comprised of well-defined tasks. A task I define as a piece of work you can finish in one sitting, about sixty to ninety minutes.

Sound like something you’re gonna need in your life next month?

Check out Austin’s step-by-step December Zero plan to follow along yourself.

🤑 Keep marketing myself

I don’t know about you, but the first thing that happens when I get busy is I stop marketing myself entirely.

But as Tyler explains in his Sales for Sane People course:

Starting conversations and staying visible is the key to maintaining a steady stream of leads and clients. Because that’s how real people make real hiring decisions all the time.

They have a need. They know someone. So they hire them.

Your goal is to be that “someone” by connecting and staying top of mind with potential clients.

So this year I’m determined not to fall off the radar for an entire month during December.

I’m going to follow the daily biz dev process Tyler lays out in Sales for Sane People so that when January rolls around I’m not left wondering “oh my god am i ever going to get another client?!?!”

💪 Why this year is gonna be different (I promise!)

Okay, saying I’m gonna end the year strong by doing all this stuff is great and all…

But that’s what I do every December.

Then guess what I actually get done? 

The bare minimum of client deliverables – and absolutely nothing else 🫠

But this year is gonna be different, and here’s why…

Tyler and I are hosting two end-of-the-year Focus Sessions:

  • A 90-minute Year-End Planning session on December 3, where we’re all gonna be figuring out our year-end priorities and making a plan for tackling them

  • A 90-minute Year-End Doing session on December 10, where we’re all gonna be getting sh*t done and executing the plan we’ve created!

These sessions are exclusive for MOFU Mastery members.

But I’ve got a bit of news to share with you…

For the rest of the week, you can get 10 days of MOFU Mastery for just $10 🥳

That means you can join us for our Year-End Planning session on December 3 for just $10…

Plus, your MOFU Mastery membership will also give you full access to our entire catalog of resources, trainings, and templates including:

  • Six-Figure Strategist

  • Break/through Bylines

  • The 360° Content Refresh Workflow

  • Advanced Keyword Research

  • The 5-Minute Proposal System

  • Agency & Freelancer Positioning 

Wanna join me in ending the year strong?

👉 Get 10 days of MOFU Mastery for just $10 (no coupon code needed!)

Don’t miss out – this offer ends on Sunday!

TOFU Community Manager