In last year’s annual letter, we declared 2025 the year we were "entering the Pros”, challenging ourselves to be boldly better. With a book set to release in February and most of our revenue goal already under contract, we began 2025 with great anticipation. We were confident in our team and our business, and eager to see how, if at all, our book would change things. We took our theme of Major League ALPs very seriously. But like any team trying to earn its place in the big leagues, we knew it wouldn't happen overnight.

2025 At a Glance

Overall, we are proud of how it went. The business remained steady, conducting 34 in-person and 47 virtual leadership development engagements (slightly more than in 2024, with more in-person engagements). In the process, we got better – Our workshops and keynotes are sharper. Our processes for supporting clients are tighter and more deliberate. And most importantly, our relationships (team, clients, partners) continue to grow stronger.

Additionally, we took a big step forward in speaking more boldly with the hard-earned wisdom we’ve been given, creating more onramps for people to join us on the trail – We published our first book, “Perseverance > Endurance,” and supported promotion appearing on 22 podcasts like Cleared Hot with Andy Stumpf, Mentors 4 Military, The Mountainside, The Leadership Podcast, and many others. We also improved our content quality and delivery, and increased sharing.

This remains a two-year commitment to the quality of our effort, our work, and our relationships. The standard is simple: be useful, tell the truth, help people get real results. Year two is now underway, and the work continues. Work that we cannot do without our incredible families.

Family Updates

The Youngs had a banner year:

Kelly finished her fourth semester of Nurse Practitioner School, was awarded her White Coat in the summer, and began clinicals in the Fall. She is in her fifth semester and is doing a pediatric clinical rotation.
Jaden successfully completed a combat rotation to Syria with the 10th Mountain Division and reenlisted/ reclass’ed to an Information Technology specialist. He is currently in Advanced Individual Training for his new MOS and loving it!
Elliot graduated from the University of Colorado (in 3 years), scored and soared at a Marketing Internship, and completed her first semester of her MBA at the University of Northern Colorado.
Brandon remains retired from school and has learned how to cook a mean salmon.

The Smiths had what I’d describe as the most “family year” that our family has ever had. We pulled closer as a unit, celebrated our wins, lifted each other up during hard times, and have grown our love for each other (and our friends) in the process. Work is good. Home feels like home. And we all feel very fortunate to have this life!

The Holzhalbs had a great 2025, celebrating several family milestones and wins. We welcomed the arrival of a new cousin/niece in our family, and two family weddings, and all the festivities surrounding them, including our 6-year-old Rory serving as a flower girl in both ceremonies. We took family trips to Cocoa Beach, FL; Missouri wine country; Buffalo/Niagara Falls, NY; Gulf Shores, MS; and several hunting/fishing trips, as well as weekend trips for jiu-jitsu tournaments. Our two oldest, Andrew and Lucy, are doing well in college and working toward their future, and Rory is thriving in elementary school. Life is good!

Revenue

We started 2025 with a clear line of sight to our revenue target. Then life happened…as it does. We don’t need to tell you how bumpy the economic and business environments were last year. And like many of you, we were affected. Roughly 20% of the work we had lined up fell away over the course of the year. We get it. No hard feelings. It's symbolic of a tumultuous year for many people and organizations, and relationships matter more than the dollars.

Still, we needed to get scrappy. We adapted, made room for some new work, and we closed the year on target. Perhaps more importantly, we're well-positioned heading into 2026. The steady march remains steady progress.

The Book
Perseverance > Endurance launched in 2025. It's done well. Better than we expected, and we've had a blast with it.

We put real effort into promoting it, and the kindness people have shown us has been remarkable. The book is resonating. We're into our first reprint, which means people are reading it, sharing it, buying copies for their teams. Additionally, Perseverance > Endurance was named a finalist for the 2026 Audie Awards in Business/Personal Development by the Audio Publishers Association. We’re still letting this settle in, but the signal it’s revealing to us is quality and resonance. The message is landing with leaders, spreading far outside of our network, and is seen as a high-caliber contribution to the discussion on leadership. This is the whole game for us.

To everyone who hosted us on their podcast, on a conference stage, at a bookstore, or in their living room - Thank you!

If you haven't grabbed a copy yet, please do! If you want copies for your team, we can help you with bulk orders. And if you want us to come talk about it with your organization, let's make that happen.

Sharing More Consistently

From the beginning, we have been committed to providing value beyond our clients. To help us do that, we were more consistent with our blog, newsletter, social media, and podcast last year. We released 17 episodes of the Applied Leadership Podcast and achieved 34% YOY growth in listeners. We also launched 29 blogs (5 fewer than last year, but hey…did we mention we published a book!?). In 2026, we're doubling down, with more consistency, more focus, and higher quality.

We'd love to know what you're interested in and how we can help. What questions are you wrestling with? What would be useful? Let us know and we’ll do our best to take it on!

Trends

It feels like we say this every year, bu the most common word we heard in 2025 was “uncertainty”; it's hard for us to unsee its impact across the marketplace. From uncertainty, a natural cascade of challenges emerged. Many of our partners navigated cost constraints and layoffs while maintaining high expectations for productivity and growth. Some of our clients navigated the complexities of mergers, acquisitions, and reorganizations. And everybody dug deep, caring for their people, their customers, and their mission along the way. We are inspired by their resolve and honored to be on the trail with them.

Our most delivered modules in 2025 were Empowerment & Accountability, Trust, Difficult Conversations, Decoding Disruptive Behaviors, and Common Operating Picture.

Our most delivered keynote was Perseverance > Endurance.

Things We’re Thinking About in 2026:

The Capacity Question. This is something we've been working on for a few years without quite cracking it. We've had talented people join us on the podium. We've experimented with different approaches. But we haven't nailed down a sustainable way to add more capacity to the team—not in a way that maintains the quality and impact we care about. We'll keep working on this in 2026. You'll see more of Sarah on the podium, and we'll continue building relationships with people who can add real firepower to what we do.
The Business Model Question. If we're being honest, the capacity question is probably a business model question. The question leads to more questions: Can we serve more people, at a higher level, with our current model? Have we reached the limit of how much great work we can do with our current approach? We have a very personal approach to our business. And unless we figure out teleportation or time-travel (which would probably be much more lucrative than leadership development), there are only so many gigs we can do in a year.
We Are a Business to Business, Business. We tested a direct-to-consumer approach in 2025 with our Frontline Leadership Development program, a self-paced, twelve-module program with a supporting workbook. In the process, we invested in performance marketing to cast a wide net. As we explored the waters of direct-to-consumer sales, something became very clear to us – we are neither best suited for, nor best positioned to deliver leadership development direct-to-consumers. And we’re good with that. Especially because…
We Shine Brightest When It’s Darkest. We spent over half the year in rooms working through tough stuff with leaders who really care about their businesses and their people. We do not take lightly the trust they place in us. Throughout the year, we advised, fostered cohesion, developed a common leadership language, and helped leaders in their time of need. We served our purpose in the world with leaders navigating growth, change, and adversity. There are others in the world better suited to offer personal development products directly to individuals. There are very few better suited than us to guide teams through adversity. We’ll continue on this path with these people.

The Way Ahead

We’ll continue to play big in the Major Leagues in 2026 and beyond. We’ll continue to share the message of Perseverance, continue to sell more books, continue to share wisdom on big stages and in boardrooms, and continue to serve the very best clients on the planet. Oh, also, we’re working on our second book, so there’s that too!

We’ll See You On The Trail!

Team ALPs