I write for women business owners who are successful, capable, and quietly exhausted by how much they carry and still somehow wonder if it's enough. I'm Amanda. I'm not your hype girl. I'm the friend who gets it. Subscribe for honest, weekly notes on what it actually feels like to do a lot and still give yourself permission to pause.
I've been on my back patio...
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Hey Reader, I stopped. Not everything. I kept showing up for my clients (my fav!) but the podcast, the emails, the posting, the planning, the constant hum of what's next, I let it all go quiet. It started when someone I trust looked at me and said: "It seems like you keep trying to break down a brick wall, and your strategy is just to get a bigger hammer." He paused. Then said: "What if there's a door open on the other side of the room?" Ugh...I didn't want to hear it. But I couldn't unhear it either because I knew it was true. So I did something that felt equal parts terrifying and necessary. I put a date on the calendar (March 2 - April 6), stepped away from everything except the work I love most, and gave myself permission to just... stop. The end date came and went. And I didn't want to come back in full swing. Not because anything was wrong but because something was finally right. I've been taking longer walks. Sitting on my back patio in the sunshine. Knitting things for the people I love and for myself. (I finally finished a tank top I can actually wear. Picture proof below. 🎉) Working about 10-20 hours a week, bringing in the same revenue, and feeling — genuinely — lighter. The most surprising part? Nothing broke. The clients are thriving. The business is fine. The only thing that changed was me. I'm not coming back the same way I left. I'm choosing less instead of more and a quieter kind of showing up. I don't know exactly what that looks like yet but I know how it feels. Easy. Simple. Real. I've also been quietly thinking about something. Something small, a little old-fashioned, and I think exactly what you need too. More on that very soon. For now: hi. I missed you. And I'm so glad you're still here. P.S. If any of this resonates — the hammer, the door, the terrifying pause, the knitting — I'd love to know. Just hit reply. My proud knitting moment captured 😍 |
You're doing a lot...and it still doesn't feel like enough.
I write for women business owners who are successful, capable, and quietly exhausted by how much they carry and still somehow wonder if it's enough. I'm Amanda. I'm not your hype girl. I'm the friend who gets it. Subscribe for honest, weekly notes on what it actually feels like to do a lot and still give yourself permission to pause.
Hey Reader, I asked on Instagram recently how people were feeling about Q4. The answer: too much to do, not enough time. I get it. That feeling is real. We've piled a lot onto our plates and filled every open space. Going, going, going, and at the end of the day it still doesn't feel like enough got done, even though you were busy all day. Sure, we've overcommitted. But there's something a little deeper going on too, something I end up getting to with almost every client eventually. We all...
Hey Reader, Here's a little joke I often make: you can always tell who's an entrepreneur by how many URLs they own 🤣 Not because we ever use them all. Because we can't stop having ideas. A course we might build one day. A product we might make. A weird little side thing we're pretty sure could work. If you've got a domain sitting somewhere collecting dust for a "someday" idea, you already know exactly what I mean. Here's the thing about being a high-achieving woman with a lot of ideas: the...
Hey Reader, Happy September 1st. However you're spending today, there's a good chance some part of you is already feeling the pull to get moving on something. Here's the real-life math: you've got about 12 weeks of real "getting things done" runway before Thanksgiving flips the switch and attention turns toward family, holidays, and slowing down. After that, it's a different season entirely. So instead of a September to-do list, I'd offer one question: If you only let yourself make real...