We made it.
The shipping cutoffs have passed. The last-minute gift cards are sent. The BFCM war rooms are finally dark.
For the last 90 days, you’ve been living in the trenches, optimizing ROAS, fighting supply chain fires, and running on nothing but caffeine and Q4 adrenaline.
But starting tomorrow, the industry goes quiet.
We are entering the "Dead Zone" (now through Jan 5th). And most operators are about to make a critical mistake.
They will use this quiet time to "catch up" on admin debt. They will twitch nervously, checking Slack for ghosts. They will try to hit Inbox Zero.
I am challenging you to do the opposite.
Do not use this week to clear the weeds. Use it to climb the mountain and look at the horizon.
Here is how to leverage the strategic silence of the next 10 days to win in 2026.
1. The Hard Reset (The "You" Phase)
In DTC, the founders and operators are the battery. If the battery is corroded, the machine doesn't run, I don't care how good your creative strategy is.
You cannot innovate for 2026 if your brain is still stuck in the execution loops of 2025. You need to force a switch from "Executive Function" (doing) to "Default Mode" (dreaming).
Turn off notifications. The world will not end if you ignore an email for 10 days.
Change your input. Stop reading Twitter threads about attribution. Read a biography. Watch a film. Go for a walk without a podcast.
Sleep. It sounds basic, but it is the highest-ROI activity you can do this week.
2. The 30,000-Foot Audit
Once you have decompressed (give it 2–3 days), spend a few hours thinking about the business without looking at a spreadsheet.
When we are in the weeds, we ask: "How do we do this faster/cheaper?" During the Dead Zone, you must ask: "Why are we doing this at all?"
Ask yourself these three questions for 2026:
The One Thing: If we could only accomplish one major strategic shift next year, what would move the needle 10x?
The "Kill" List: What did we do in 2025 that drained our energy/margin but provided zero return? Kill it.
The Narrative: Forget the metrics. What story do we want our brand to be telling by December 2026?
3. Permission to Wait
There is a weird pressure to "hit the ground running" on January 2nd.
Ignore it.
January 2nd is a Friday. It is a fake work day.
Use the buffer between New Year's and Monday, Jan 5th, to organize your physical space. Clean your desk. Archive your 2025 files.
Treat January 5th as Opening Ceremony. When you log on that Monday, you shouldn't be stumbling in, exhausted from "catching up" over the break. You should be entering the arena fresh, clear-eyed, and dangerous.
2025 was about resilience. Let 2026 be about intention.
Enjoy the silence. You earned it.
See you in the new year.
Merry Christmas,
Graham