I’ve been doing the 

Beth Kempton #meetthewriter notes challenge, I’m on day 5 of 15, so I’m hopeful that I’ll get through to day 15 and I’m really enjoying the chance to think about me and my writing.

Because if I’m honest, this substack, the one that is just me, has been neglected over the last year.

In note 4 of Beth’s challenge, I talk about the seasons in our lives and how they sometimes run concurrently and sometimes consecutively of each other.

I started this substack a bit before I started 

Countrywoman’s Guide (CWG) substack, originally with 

Holly Thomson, but I took on full responsibility for CWG early last year, and it kind of became the place where I write articles. Then I started a podcast on there as well. I love doing it, but alongside running my businesses and having a life, something had to give, and the give was this substack for the time being.

But then things started changing in the latter half of last year. My Mum, who had been living with us through her 6 long dementia years sadly passed away. I got some help in on CWG and I freed up some time elsewhere.

Thoughts of this substack started drifting back into my head, but I kept reasoning to myself, ‘what purpose would it serve?’

Through doing my CWG interviews, I gradually realised that something I knew to be true was more endemic than I’d ever suspected it might be.

So many fellow female entrepreneurs (and men too, to be fair) feel that having a career and a life are mutually exclusive. It has to be either/or, not and…

When someone said to me in the preamble chat to a podcast recording that I’d inspired them to believe they could have both, I just felt deep down that I should be doing more to share that side of my life. The side where I’m a Mum first and foremost, but alongside that I’m a successful entrepreneur, who through trial and error gradually found the path to my two loves (mostly) peacefully co-existing.

So now I share people’s stories on CWG to help others to see that success is generally hard fought, with lots of little (and sometimes big) failures along the way, and that making time for ourselves is also important. In fact I truly believe that it is at the root of running a successful business – inspiration is found in the spaces we create, not at the coalface of busy.

But coming back to myself on this substack kept rolling around in my head towards the end of last year, however I kept telling myself it wasn’t time…Yet…

I’d committed to running a couple of business retreats for some fellow entrepreneurs that I admire, at Dimpsey, the hospitality retreat away from the world that I’ve been running with my husband at our home in Somerset for the last 10 years.

It’s always been a long-held dream of mine to share knowledge with others in this setting and finally I got on and did it.

I ran one Retreat in February and another in April, as kind of beta tests, and the feedback I got from them was more than I could have ever dreamed of.

“I can’t believe how much I got out of this. I arrived with questions and left with clarity, confidence, and a practical methodology I can use straight away. This retreat was invaluable.” Victoria Beddoes

I shared how my busy life is rooted in honouring my values, having a clear vision and focusing on delivering it, but always centring my life around my family first.

Together we worked, laughed and sometimes cried our way through to them seeing which of my tools would work for them and adapting them to become their own. At the same time, Dimpsey worked her magic, as they all stayed in their own shepherd huts and experienced the soul peace that comes from some time on your own.

They remembered who they were, and by the end of our time together, a new person had emerged who knew how to put themselves first in order to access greater success in life and business.

But still that didn’t quite bring me back to here…

But then, in March I did 

Laura Pashby writer’s retreat run by Tanya of 

with EASE and the writer in me for this substack gently crept out of the shadows, thanks to Laura’s gentle prompts, the support of the other ladies on the retreat and Tanya’s nurturing hospitality.

I knew I had to share more about my experience of being a woman in business and how I juggle different things.

(Spoiler alert, there is work/life balance, but it doesn’t live in the 9-5 AND you can have it all, just not all at once…)

Thoughts of getting back to this substack circled more vigorously, but then the imposter crept in – who am I to have a voice?

Then the fatal whirring wheel of ‘but where do I start after all this time?’

The final bit of the jigsaw dropped in when I spotted Beth’s #meetthewriter challenge this weekend, I’ve followed Beth for a long time and I really value her thoughts.

I started doing the daily challenge, I was behind as I saw it after it started but I didn’t let that put me off.

Then I came over to here and dusted off my About page…

I finally had the answer…

I always tell people ‘Doing it is better than perfect’ (lifted from Zuckerberg), so…

I start here.

I start now.

And we’ll see where it goes together.