B (3:12)

It's like some of the, a lot of the pieces of the puzzle have finally clicked together for some of the members and I think it did take the AI part of it for them to, you know, take that step, which is pretty cool.

C (3:25)

It is really cool.

A (3:26)

Super cool. It's really cool. It's niceberg. Jonathan, what has been your takeaway for this year?

D (3:34)

Take away or highlight?

A (3:35)

Highlight, Highlight, highlight. Same thing. Right.

D (3:39)

So I think the shift that we're making as a community in the inner circle towards more done with you rather than teaching and coaching because the reality is like nobody wants to sit down and watch 10 hours videos of us or listen to us talking crap and telling them what they should do. They want help with actually getting it done and making it happen. So the biggest highlight was seeing how AI has enabled that to happen, how it's progressed so rapidly this year, how it's going to keep progressing quicker than ever before and how moving that mentality to. And shifting that mentality to. Right, let's help you actually implement because no one wants coaching or training. They want implementation and they want results. So for me, I think that has been a huge shift for us and I'm excited about that as well. What about you Alan? What's been your biggest highlight for 2025?

A (4:40)

I think this team's strategic shift in our realization that people don't want to drill, they want a hole in the wall. They want the end outcome as quick, as fast as they possibly can and what they need to get there is so important and what we've been able to do as a team to be able to build done with you 24. 7 availability coaching for our members to guide them to understand who they want to serve and why they want to serve them, to understand who their ideal client avatars are and what they secretly want and to be able to understand how to create marketing based on that foundation that is going to connect with a potential client avatar is just revolutionary not just for our industry, but across all industries. You know, having the as a collective team putting the resources and effort and time to build and make happen what we're doing and getting such great feedback already from our members on it is just so gratifying that we can now actually help people at scale. So like there's whatever it is, 5,000 members in PPA. Imagine being able to help them one on one to deliver on their dreams without which wouldn't be possible if that was relying on one on one conversations where each of us so it doesn't replace the one on one conversation. There'll always be space for that and be always space for one on one coaching. But being able to deliver the knowledge that this collective team have and the expertise this collective team have at scale 24 7. Even when we're sleeping, we're helping people. That's just unbelievable.

D (6:46)

I think another highlight has been for maybe six weeks of this year I spent helping out in production at 3xm and foiling treasure boxes and Quantum cards. And I noticed a lot of the orders that were coming through and the products I was foiling were from Inner Circle members. So I took the data because obviously Ron and you own 3XM so we've access to that data difference maker. And I looked at who are Inner Circle members and I looked at three XM client spends. And what was really fascinating was that Inner Circle members spend on average three and a half times more than people who are not in the Inner Circle. Which means they're busier with more clients, they're selling more products, probably have bigger sales, probably getting more success financially enough front. So it was really interesting to see as well that you know what's being taught, what they're being taught to implement and execute is working. Because if they weren't then you wouldn't see those results as a lab and as a vendor in terms of seeing Inner Circle members outperform people who are not members of the Inner circle. So that was an interesting highlight too.

B (7:55)

I think they're the real numbers too. Jono. When you, you know, when you, you look at, when you look, look at it. When I was working with labs, knowing what people say and then looking at the numbers they're spending at the lab and correlating that they're the real numbers and it's, it's, I think it's an important Lucky that we've got that, I think, because it just validates what we're doing. It's great.

A (8:20)

So, Janine, what was the biggest highlight for you outside of your business? You know, just individually as a. As a mom and partner and all of that, what was the biggest highlight for you?

C (8:33)

You know, this was the year that Aaron got off to college. So it was an interesting for any mom or parent who has had to watch their child graduate in high school and feel that immense sense of pride that, you know, they've achieved this accomplishment, but then that immense feeling of, oh, my God, now they're going to be gone. And so it was. It was such an interesting duality of being so happy and excited that she graduated and got into the college of her choice, which was my alumni. So that made me extra happy, my alumni school. And so it was. But it was. It was hard. It was hard hugging her goodbye. It was hard moving her into her dorm. It was hard letting go, having the first summer where she wasn't on family vacation, you know, and. And moving to the Sunday evening phone call FaceTime for five minutes. And that's how I got my update from her. You know, it's. It's been a. It's been a happy transition because that's what's supposed to be, right? She's supposed to move into this next stage of her life and also saying goodbye to her childhood, you know, and. But what I found most interesting is that it's given me a whole new understanding of my clients, and I've always found that very intriguing as I've moved through life with my children. It allows me to understand parents at that child's age more. So it's been a very. I've shifted completely since last year how we market our high school seniors. And really, you know, because it always was about the mom, like the child. And now I'm totally marketing to the mom. And, you know, and it's been the. And all my language has shifted. The conversations we've had have shifted. And. And so it's interesting so that my personal. Like that that was the big change for 2025 was Aaron going off to college. And it really has shifted how I look at things in the studio, too. For our high school senior clients and even, honestly, all of this work that we've been doing in the Difference Maker revolution, obviously I've been doing it alongside everybody, too, just a little bit ahead, right as we're preparing everything and getting it all done. And it's been a huge shift for me, right so it's just interesting when you start looking at the whys and you start looking more at the deeper meaning. It changes how you have conversations in your own personal life and gives you a deeper understanding of some of the things that you do and helps you slow down as well with your own family. So I've really tried to embrace Erin in college as opposed to mourning her gone, her being gone. And as she likes to remind me all the time, I'm not dead, mom, I'm just two hours north. So she's not gone. And I, I know I have to fix saying that she's just relocated, but it, it. So that, that's been my big highlight and it's been a happy transition. I'm really happy for her and she's thriving. She just finished her freshman semester, she got straight A's, which in a, you know, freshman semester in engineering school, it's quite remarkable. She works hard, she's having fun, she has good friends. I mean, everything a mom could want for her child right now. And I'm not saying it's gonna be a non bumpy road. I mean, four years of engineering school, it's definitely gonna be bumpy. But right now I feel like she's got a really good foundation and she's, she's done everything she needs to do to start correctly. And, and so I'm just, I'm extremely happy and I'm looking forward to the next four weeks that she's going to be home and embrace all of it and look for my sticky floors and my happy moments and shared memories and still let her be with her friends too and not consume all of her time when she's here, except for, you know, the next three days when we take her to New York. But anyway, so yeah, so that's been my highlight, my personal highlight is with her stuff.

A (11:58)

What's been yours, Jona? Too many to choose from.

D (12:02)

Yeah, it's been a weird, weird year. Lots of ups, lots and lots of downs. But I think the two highlights have to be the weddings. For me, two of my sisters got married this year. One in May in Ireland and one in September in Spain. So I think both those occasions were huge highlights. And then just being able to play tennis again pain free and be able to actually compete again has been a big highlight. I didn't do anything special to make that happen. It was just time and patience is a long road of three years to recover. But yeah, those would be the main things for me, I would say. How about you, Steve?

B (12:36)

Well, it's Been a big year of change and transition for me. Like, coming to Ireland definitely was a highlight. I loved the opportunity to come to Ireland and work amongst you guys rather than just online. It was very exciting to do that and be part of the weddings. But at the same time, that pull to come home, that whole yin and yang thing, you know, my. It felt like the moment I left my parents. Health started declining rapidly after as soon as I left. I love the difference maker philosophy of family first. And I don't think I'd be able to come home and work from Australia without that family first philosophy. And it's huge. And so, you know, just being able to come home and as hard as it is to watch, you know, your parents decline, I'm so grateful that I'm here to be part of, you know, part of their lives and be here for them. So it's great that we have the technology now to do this and still be part of the difference maker while I'm here with my parents. But there's been so many highlights this year just from coming up to Ireland and being able to come home and really watching Rob thrive too. When we, when we got home, I didn't realize how much he really did miss seeing his grandchildren and being here. So it's been a great year. It's been a great year for me and Ronan. Come on, lay it on us already.

A (13:59)

He's already stole part of my thunder, right. With the, with Aaron and Freya's wedding.

B (14:04)

It's not possible. Ronan, you're the father.

C (14:07)

Where's that father? Yes, there's different father versus brother.

A (14:11)

But yeah, the other thing is, you know, Jonathan's. What's. What am I trying to say? I'm trying to say Jonathan's willingness just to dig in and help out the business whenever it's needed, as well as being open minded to all the new innovations and what we're doing on the whole AI front, you know, he's opened his mind to that. He's learned so much about it and he's working closely with Alan to make it happen. That's been ginormous. And then of course, Mehren, the baby of the family, graduated to university with top of the class with her Dean's list.

B (14:46)

20. How old? 20. How old. How old is this baby?

A (14:50)

This baby is 23. So she's the baby will always be the baby when she's 63, but we probably won't be around to see that. But yeah, she'll always be the baby. So that, so that's Been a big highlight. So I think the biggest highlight is really how lucky I am to be surrounded with all the people I'm surrounded with, including you guys. So, you know, it's, yeah, that, that has to be the highlight of 2025 and seeing our members, just so many of them excel and you know, deliver on their journey to their dreams, you know, and we're big, we're big in difference maker revolution about enjoying the journey. It's not about the destination and seeing our members go on their journey to their defined level of success. And we've everybody in between from people who define their success as having a seven figure studio doing that this year and people who, you know, haven't their job and just love being a difference maker photographer and want to make some money on the side. And there's no one of those better than the other. It's what they want and our job is to. Whatever they want to achieve is to open their mind first of all to what's possible, then let them make their mind as to what they want and then help them whatever way we can to get there. So, you know, that's been a, that's been a, a big thing for 2025, you know, and on that journey there's always challenges, but there's always successes too. And it's, it's like the stock market, right? There's no, there's, there's ups and downs, but it's going time and you have to learn to deal with those, those downs as well as celebrate those ups, knowing that you're on the right path. Great year in 2025 when you weigh up both sides of the ledger and see all the pluses and some of the challenges and the pluses outweigh the challenges. So that's always a good year, right?

D (16:54)

Always.

A (16:56)

You've got a few. Absolutely. So Janine, what are you most excited about in 2026? Right, because it's going to be a year of, if you believe what, you know, some of the extras that we follow and we've talked about AI and we've talked, you know, there's many things that are happening out there. But, you know, what are you most excited about for 2026?

C (17:23)

Well, you just said it, so I'm really excited to see where AI is going to go. I think it's an amazing, it's creatively energizing. I think, you know, when you can embrace change and you can look at how you can use it for, for good in your business, in your life. And so I'm Very excited about the changes that AI will bring for us to be able to get our message out to potential clients, to bring them into our world, to turn them into clients and make a difference in their life. I've always enjoyed writing. I've always enjoyed some of the things that we now get to do again, I think because of the way AI looks at things. Right. So I feel like some of the more long form content that I used to really enjoy doing that I got away from, I can get back into doing again. And really I love the new ways of being able to connect with clients. I love some of the new technology that's coming forward to make our studios and businesses more productive and to be able to bring a better product in the end because you can deliver it when they want it, how they want it, and really make your clients happy and make a difference in their life that way. So I'm excited. I enjoy embracing the change that's coming our way. And I don't even think we really know the half of what's coming. And so it's a matter of being excited to keep your eyes and ears and brain open to the changes and to be able to shift as, you know, I feel like we're kind of like surfing and. Yeah. Catch the waves when they come and, you know, you gotta adjust and I don't know, I'm not a surfer, so that is probably a really bad analogy. But you know, it's being able to adjust for what's coming and keeping your mind open. I'm just excited about it. I feel like it's. Sometimes you kind of go through and you get in a rut and you, you keep doing the same thing year in and year out and when something kind of prods you to make some changes, it's exciting.

A (19:03)

So, Janine, those changes you talk about, like, how many of those changes are because you love change and you love adapting and, you know, building your business to be able to deliver for your clients more. But how, how much of that is out of necessity do you think?

C (19:20)

Well, I think. Well, one, I do enjoy. I enjoy technology, I enjoy change. It's part of my, I think my, my core character. But a lot of it's out of necessity. I don't intend on retiring in the next two to three years, you know, and so to me it's pretty obvious that if you don't adapt to the future of where it's going, you don't stay on or ahead of the curve, then you will not have a photography business or any like Whatever business you're in, if you're listening to this podcast and you're not, don't own a photography studio, but own a different business, I truly believe you don't figure out how to adapt AI into your business. Those that do will replace you. And so I do believe it's necessity if you plan on not retiring or being put out of business in the next two to three years. So I think it's a mixture of both. I was happy to jump on the change train early because I'm not risk averse, but I also feel it's a.

B (20:14)

Necessity at the same time, you, when you love something, you're excited about something, it becomes a necessity, doesn't it, because you're passionate about something. So then that increases your need to, you know, make something happen.

C (20:27)

And I enjoy having that energy rub off. With our members, it's been really exciting to watch them get excited about creating content and learning more about themselves and their clients and their whys and adapting and making all these changes right along with us. So it's fun when the energy that we have for something can transcend to.

B (20:50)

Others and create real results, Create real results that goes beyond the people that we are interacting with. It's creating a difference to their clients.

C (21:03)

And we've already seen that, like Stu said, like, we've had members already reporting back that their clients are repeating their words back to them before they've even said them out loud to them. So, you know, it's coming through in the work that they're doing because our clients are repeating their whys and their transformations back to them without being prompted to do so. So that's amazing.

B (21:23)

And it's happening so much more now because we've embraced AI. I think it's been, you know, a huge shift. So it's really exciting to see that we not just affecting the people that we're serving, but, you know, we're able to affect and help people affect the clients that they're serving because they understand them better. And it changes the conversations, it changes the understanding and changes the perception of what you're hearing a lot of the time from your clients, which makes a huge difference.

A (21:48)

Really exciting. Really exciting. Jona, what are you excited about most for 2026?

D (21:54)

That's an interesting question. I don't think 99.9% of the world know where, what AI can currently do and what it's going to be capable of doing. So I'm very excited for some new opportunities that are going to pop up and the power that AI is going to hand us to enhance and elevate and improve everything we do. Probably most excited about 2026 being a year of new opportunities stuff.

A (22:25)

What about you, Steve?

D (22:26)

What about you?

B (22:29)

There's so much I think I'm excited about not knowing what we don't know yet. I think that really excites us because, you know, the conversations we were having eight months ago, nine months ago, 10 months ago are very different to the conversations that we're having right now because of a, and because of, you know, it feels like in the last couple of few months we've found the gas pedal and just hit it hard and we've achieved so much that has manifested so much results for so many people and we don't even know what's coming yet. And so I think I'm excited that there's still so much we don't know that we can discover that we can utilize. So yeah, it's exciting to think about the fact that 2026, it's almost going to be a whole new world again for us and what we're able to do. We've been able to achieve so much in such a short time. Another few months is just going to be incredible what we can bring to our members and how much we can work together with them on to produce real results. It's amazing. The industry is going to go through a boom. For those people that are ready to embrace this and be part of the journey, I feel. How about you, Ronu?

A (23:55)

Yeah, no, I agree, Steve. And the key thing, Steve, is what you just said. You know, for those who are open minded enough to realize that things are changing, they're changing forever. And you can either choose to get on this rocket ship because it's not a boat, because it's moving so fast, it's a rocket ship. And you can either decide to get on that rocket ship. And the beauty about it is, is it's going to allow you to really make a difference to your clients because it's going to help you to attract your ideal clients to you. It's going to help you that when your clients are using AIs like ChatGPT and they're, they're asking them something that that ChatGPT or any of those AIs can recommend you as the solution to the person's problem without even realizing that you're a solution, you know, without the consumer even thinking that you could possibly be a solution and then to be that will just in itself have amplify the difference you can make and will Give our industry right the lifeline it needs. And you know, and every photographer, I believe in their heart wants their work to make a difference to people, but they just don't know how to do that. And at Difference Maker Revolution, work with, with the power of AI behind us are making that possible today. And 2026, you've seen nothing yet, folks, because what's coming not just in the world of AI, what's coming in the world of Difference Maker revolution for our members is something that the industry has not seen since the invention of Photoshop and this is bigger than the invention of Photoshop. So that's why I'm excited for 2026.

B (25:47)

It feels like we've been gearing up.

A (25:49)

For this for years, decades.

B (25:52)

And we've finally been finally being given. Yeah, decades. Yeah, you're right, decades. And that we've finally been given the tools to be able to deliver.

C (26:00)

I feel like we're in our own little version of Star Trek Ronan. We're boldly going where no one's gone.

D (26:05)

Before and making us at war and.

A (26:08)

Making photographers who want to go the difference maker road relevant, more relevant than they have ever been. It's exciting because as Steve said, you know, we've been years, decades at this, just banging our drums, helping people to see what this is truly about and the power that's within their hands. And now with AI, it'll just, as I said, it's fuel on a rocket ship. It's just fuel on a rocket ship. And you have to make the choice whether you want to be on this rocket ship or not. And it's your choice. But if you make the right decision, you're going to click the link below and come and join us at the Difference Maker Revolution inner circle, where you can be on board with this rocket ship going where our industry has never gone before.

B (26:59)

So exciting.

A (27:01)

2026, you see my smile?

C (27:02)

I'm very excited for 2026.

D (27:06)

Happy New Year.

A (27:07)

Happy New Year, everybody.

B (27:09)

Yeah. Happy New Year to everyone.

C (27:12)

That is Jonathan's excited voice, by the way. For those who don't know.