My biggest mistake in 2025.
An honest letter on content creation and online business.
2025 was wild. And during a few moments, I could feel that something wasn’t quite right. I was still moving forward, growing, evolving (even when it was painful), but something felt off.
I’ve been creating content pretty consistently for 3 years. Trying new formats, new ideas, new ways of explaining things. And don’t get me wrong: content creators have my full admiration, especially if you’re not creating in your mother tongue (hi!). Articulating your thoughts in another language, in a way that’s digestible for social media, with zero time to waste… Wild. But let’s face it: you have to be ready to be okay with frustration.
Of course, no one is forcing me to do this. It is a game. And it’s wired for quick dopamine. Three seconds to make it or break it. If you take too long (even if you’re good)… next.
But I also realised something else: that’s a belief we buy into.
My biggest mistake in 2025 was sometimes believing I needed to step into the dopamine casino to reach people. But we don’t have to. It’s not the easiest route, but it’s the most honest one for my creative self.
I will keep learning how to speak about my themes to a burned-out audience. People want people, so I’m bringing more of my perspective and creative experience. I’m just not getting my deeper insights on Instagram (which was my error many times). That’s why I have a Substack.
The “Amazon Prime mindset” of getting everything instantly isn’t helping us wire our brains for courage, growth, or creativity. On top of that, many people use social media to numb themselves. It’s probably the most expensive drug you can get addicted to: free to use, extremely dangerous for your mind and body.
Before this, people numbed themselves in other ways. Food. Work. Entertainment. Overdoing anything to avoid looking inward. This isn’t new. The tools just got more sophisticated (and normalized, like alcohol). I recently shared my experience of being one year sober on Instagram, if you want to read it later. But keep going here first.
If you’re human, you’re creative. I don’t believe otherwise. No matter what you do, you come up with ideas: whether they’re surreal or mathematically precise. Creativity is bringing something into existence that wasn’t there before.
As I mentioned in my previous newsletter, creative power doesn’t disappear. If you don’t use it to build, it will turn against you. Overthinking. Comparison. Self-doubt. Paralysis.
That’s what started happening to me. Not just professionally, personally, 2025 was challenging in many ways. But to be honest, it also made me see things in myself and in my life that I’ll alchemise into power, like I’ve done again and again over the years. Transforming pain into beauty. As cliché as it sounds. It doesn’t matter. It feels right.
That’s one of the most significant responsibilities of being a creator: turning your experiences into something that helps you get unstuck… and maybe help others do the same, or at least inspire them to try.
For those who don’t know me well: besides running my own business in Brand Strategy and Creative Direction, mentoring people, and creating content, I also teach at a university for part of the year. That’s where I can feel the impact of my work in real time. Different from online. Someone might watch a reel and feel something, but I’ll never know unless they like or comment. In the classroom, I can feel it. I can see how 15 years of building industry skills (soft and hard) help guide young, deeply inspired creative people who are also hopeful and scared about the future.
We can’t see the future, but we can create it. By doing what we want to build today. By being who we are today. Not “when I finish my thesis.” Not “when I get a job.” Enough. Today is the day to be yourself.
And to “be yourself”, I can only give one piece of advice: go back to your why. Not the Golden Circle from Simon Sinek (which is a phenomenal tool for brands), but your personal why. Why do you want to create things? What about it makes you feel alive? What emotions come from it?
So… I asked myself that. And the answer is always the same: creativity is how I understand myself and make life better. Everything else is a consequence. The medium doesn’t matter: photography, illustration, strategy, curation, music. It’s how I connect with myself and move into my next phase. I’ve reinvented myself many times in this industry (including starting from “zero” when I moved abroad), and the common thread has always been human behaviour and expression.
ENDLESS-ID has been around for almost two years. I’ve tested a lot with a tiny team (basically me and one assistant). Even with all this trial and error, I felt it wasn’t fully going where it needed to go.
This isn’t a “get in and get rich” kind of thing. There’s plenty of that out there. Or the fear-based narratives: “Do this or AI will replace you.” No offense, but I want you, as a creator, to think. While everyone is automating their brains and ideas, people are going numb by over-relying on tools like ChatGPT. And we know what happens when a society goes numb. Well… we don’t need to go there today.
The thing is:
I don’t want you to lose your power.
Your creative power.
That’s why I built ENDLESS-ID. A place to fall, reset, change direction, and build yourself. Again and again.
So I’m making it better. After two years of data, experience, and an incredible audience, I’m refining our positioning, revamping our visuals, and creating educational structures meant to set you free: from your own limitations and from external fears, too.
The message didn’t change.
It just deserved a better structure.
I’ll keep going.
And I’ll keep helping people become who they are ready to become themselves.
Thanks for being part of this chapter.
Thank you for reading until the end. I deeply appreciate it.
Wishing you happy days ahead,
See you in 2026,
Yoli
