My word for 2026 is lead (and my exact goals)

My word for 2025 was calm. I got it for about eight months. Then I went back to work in September and had the most stressed stretch of my 15 years at AppSumo. The closest the company has been to going out of business. The most brand devaluation we’ve ever had. The most pissed partners, customers, and team, across the board.

Calm was a good word. It was also, I can see now, a permission slip to not lead.

The sabbatical ran from when my first daughter was born in July of 2024 until this September. A total luxury. No responsibility except being with my family. My 2025 list was short on purpose. Sell AppSumo (came off the table fast). One podcast or email a month (did it). Drink less than 182 days (failed, and I’m bringing drinking back). Spanish, date nights, family trips, done. If you only have one or two things to do in a year, you can shock yourself.

Meanwhile AppSumo had a lot of headwinds, and most of them were self-imposed. I never like blaming the economy. The market just tells you the truth, and it’s your job to listen or get ahead of it. We made good decisions too slowly. We were timid. We didn’t fire some people who should have been fired. I was on sabbatical for most of it.

The epic stuff wasn’t epic

Spain was the trip I couldn’t wait for. I met my wife there. The plan was to live there half the year. It turned into a rough four months: my wife got pregnant, the help was inconsistent (she lied and said she used to work for Ronaldo), and Barcelona didn’t have much for a baby. Then the Tour de France in an RV. A rave at one of the campsites, someone hit the RV the last night, no AC, a baby who does not want to be in a seat.

I didn’t want to come back to Austin. I wanted to avoid work and avoid my problems. And being home has been the epic part. My wife, our routines, our friends, my kitchen, my sauna. Two pinball machines I’m not allowed to play because it wakes my daughter.

Two days ago I biked through a cemetery on purpose. One guy had his face on his tombstone, which is awesome, I want my face on a tombstone. There are no final outcomes. You don’t go to Muhammad or Buddha at the end and get graded. Your god is probably your wife or your husband, and they decide if you had a good life. That’s where you’ll be, so you might as well decide where you’re going while you’re here.

Falling down at work

My daughter falls a lot. She cries, gets up, does it again, and eventually gets it. I used that every week this fall.

Our business is lifetime deals, and in a world of AI costs that’s hard. So we tried bundles: one year deals sold as a package. The first one crushed, $100,000 and 2,500 sales in five hours. Sean’s idea, and we all thought, okay, we’re geniuses, we’re going to get rich again. The second bundle was a huge flop. The third bundle was a huge flop. Black Friday was going to be the final one, and we sold seven or eight thousand. It wouldn’t have done that well without the failures on two and three. It’s hard to know when to quit. Putting a time block on it helps.

I didn’t have space to plan this year the normal way, so while walking my daughter I dictated to ChatGPT: you’ve heard me all year, what should I work on? It came back with bangers. Energy management over time management. Fewer goals, finish your cycles. Say no faster. AppSumo runs 30 consecutive days without me. Cut the refund rate in half. One hobby with no output, no monetization, no audience. It said my unfair advantage is taste, distribution, and empathy for founders. Spicy.

My word for 2026 is lead

I’ve picked a word every year for 10 or 15 years. On a bike ride this one came fast. Lead.

It’s the Million Dollar Weekend idea: you ever wanted something and didn’t say it? Complained about something and did nothing? My buddy Dan Andrews from the Tropical MBA podcast talks about leading in your family, and it got me. Am I complaining silently about my wife? Or do I notice she’s going to want something and help direct it? A lot of passivity and a lot of resentment come from a lack of leadership. Leading doesn’t mean dictating or not listening. It means helping go in a direction you think is good and bringing the people you want along with you.

My exact goals, three max per category, because past that you don’t do any of them well.

AppSumo: a specific net revenue target (revenue is down, no joke), and make TidyCal a million dollar a month business in GMV for customers. Coaches, consultants, and therapists already use it to get paid and run their businesses, so we’re building it into a business operating system. If you’re paying $500 a month in software and want to be making $5,000 a month, that’s who it’s for.

Work: one thoughtful post a week, probably on Twitter, and one podcast a month.

Personal: 100 hours of Spanish learning, not classes, I don’t have the brain left after family and work. One bottle of water a day, because one good trigger drags a lot of other good decisions behind it. Cook one new thing a month. I just made kimchi and pho broth.

Family: a Mexico babymoon. Finish work at 5 and no phone until 7. My wife says get off the screens. 12 date nights, even a lunch counts.

Handing over the outcomes

The lead word has a work version too. If the company has a net revenue goal, how does it show up in each leader’s pay? I worked on it with Ayman, our former CEO and an advisor. Business development managers get comped on deals that perform and penalized when a deal closes down, so they’re the detectives figuring out which founders will deliver what they promise.

These past few months I’ve been micromanaging everything, and I’ve liked it. Now that targets, budget, and revenue are clear, the job is to hand the outcomes to people and see who delivers. Then coach them up, or find the people who can.

More people quit this year than ever, and the team is around 45. We’re aiming for at least 10% net operating income and taking strong bets on TidyCal and on non-lifetime deal types, with a launch in January. That’s the plan. The numbers, as they come in, go to the 114,000 people on my newsletter, no schedule, only when there’s something worth sending.

Calm got me a good year and a company in trouble. This year I lead, at home first, and the first test is tonight at 5 p.m. when the phone goes away until 7.

From episode 383 of my podcast, Noah Kagan Presents. Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.