I wrote to you all at the beginning of August about my plans to take the month off.
Spoiler alert: it didn’t quite work out that way.
As this was my third summer in France, I felt very confident in knowing my rhythm for navigating the eight-week summer holiday.
I had planned to get as much done in possible in July when I had my youngest in creche and my eldest two in in centre aéré (the equivalent of local council supported childcare).
My fails
🏝️ I planned on using my family co-working holiday as the opportunity to sell-out my creative writing retreat. I put a lot of pressure on myself to be online and answer queries and chase interested guests.
📣 You would think given that I work in promotion I would remember how much time it takes but I vastly under estimated the time I needed to share about the September retreat. (You can read more about how I launched it here).
Lucy Werner
💌 There is always a natural newsletter churn. Not focusing on growth over summer made the return to September dashboard stats a bit daunting.
👻 I’m building a new website on Ghost. I was hoping to have it finished mid-August and live by first week of September but it also took longer than expected.
🤖 Lucy AI. CoachVox delivered me some great AI prompt bases which I can use as a template to start but I can’t execute the recommended next steps with the nurture sequence until the website is finished.
🥸 Other paid content work for my expertise landed on my desk and they were both two good opportunities that were not were turning down.
What I will do differently next time:
📆 Do not launch something over the summer holiday period.
🙈 Have a longer waitlist. Takes the pressure of selling in a small window and means if I do get any cancellations, I’m not having a stress breakout as I can have a waitlist in place.
💌 Prepare more in July for next September. Rather than knowing I need to find relaunch energy straight after four weeks of childcare 3-kids under 8 and then hosting my own first retreat.
✏️ Pre-written articles. Have some more in surplus because sometimes circumstances change or people have not signed off.
♻️ I had historically taken all the social media apps (I include Substack as one of those) and email off my phone. Over time, they had slowly one-by-one crept back on which meant I ended up doing the digital addiction refresh dance cycle of app refreshing. I want to go back to taking the apps off and just checking on my laptop when I have proper space and time to interact.
What I am doing next:
📏My biggest takeaway is I need to have a waitlist for everything. I should have had one in place for:1 working with me one-to-one and 2. cancellation/waitlist reserve for September ‘26 retreat and next June (creating one for September 26 instead)
😮💨 Breath about the website, I’m the only person who cares it’s late.
🗃️ I’m looking for a work experience placement in January 2026. I’ve already had an Instagram DM with one creator entrepreneur based in NYC who I’m interested in shadowing.
👣 Walk my talk by continuing some big pitching moves. I’m going to set up my own list of stretch goal opportunities.
🏝️ After I finish drafting this newsletter, I’m going to practice what I preach and take a few hours off to enjoy some silence and space at my own retreat.
Lucy x
P.S. Keep on hyping and send me any tips on how you manage taking time off as a self-employed person!
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