If you’ve ever taken a break from your business and come back feeling equal parts refreshed, chaotic, inspired, and overwhelmed… this episode is going to feel like a hug. After four months away from the mic, I’m back—and today I’m catching you up on everything that’s been happening behind the scenes: the wins, the wobbles, the breakdowns, and the breakthroughs.
From finally nailing a summer that actually felt like a break, to navigating leadership challenges, hiring a team, losing an entire Threads account (yes, really), and completely rethinking how I want to support clients in 2026… this is a very real look at what growth actually feels like. This episode is an honest conversation about seasons, discomfort, and the mindset shifts required when your business is evolving faster than you expected.
You’ll hear why I’m letting discomfort lead me into the new year, the huge lessons that came through eclipse season (because it did NOT hold back), and what I’ve been quietly building inside Dreamium, Parade, and the Mastermind. Think of this as us settling in with a cuppa for the most honest business debrief you’ve heard in a while.
If you’ve been feeling stretched, challenged, or like you’re “in between versions” right now, this episode will remind you that you’re not behind, you’re in transition, and transitions are where the magic happens.
"If you want to grow, you’ve got to get uncomfortable. That’s a big thing I’ve learned in the last few months."
Hello lovelies, I'm back. I'm so glad I'm back and you're back and we're back. Sold Out offers the return. So this first episode, this returning episode is just going to be a good old chit chat, a good old catch up because I've been away from a podcast for like four months now and I feel like I just need to bring you up to speed with what's been happening. So kind of gonna do a little bit of a life business catch up and then I'm gonna talk to you about some things that are coming up.
and yeah, what's feeling exciting for me right now. So yeah, let's just settle in and have a good old catch up.
So I originally did not plan to take four months off from the podcast, but back in July, I was like, I'll take the summer off. I'll have a break and I'll come back in September. And that was always going to be the plan, but didn't quite work out like that because September was, it was just one of those months where everything kind of was challenging. And so I'll come onto a bit of that in a moment, but I definitely think that in reflection, on reflection, I definitely think that on reflection,
it was a good thing to have such an extended break from podcasting because I've come back with so much more energy and excitement for it. So back in July, I took a break from the podcast and I kind of threw myself into my summer break. And I thought I would just share with you how kind of that went because I'd been talking about it a little bit. And also it's something that I really struggled with previously.
I really had found summer holidays challenging because it's six weeks here in the UK. We get six weeks where we have to like find childcare, also run a business, also find time to do everything else. And so I've always, I've always found that really challenging. So I previous in previous years. So in previous years, I've always found it really challenging to try and get the mix right between how often I am looking after my child versus work and to get the balance right, but also how to take a decent amount of time off, you know, the quality time that we all seek with our children, with our families and our friends without losing revenue, without losing out on business. So that was always something I'd struggled with in the past.
And so I've had several summers where I've got it completely wrong and I've ended up working through August and feeling very stressed out and having to do those days where you're sort of working up the kitchen table with the laptop with the child in the background and they've been watching TV all day and you feel really guilty and you want to go out and do something like take them to the park but you're just trying to finish the next email and you feel terrible. And I vowed to myself having been through that for so many years that that would not happen this year. I would not allow it. It was, I was done. Enough.
And so I designed this much to my husband's horror as I stuck it on the fridge. I designed this colour coded Canva calendar of the summer holiday plan and it was everything planned out. Child care, holidays, days we were having out, like everything. And I cannot explain how helpful this was. I might do a workshop on it next year. If that's something you're interested in DM me and I'll put you on a little wait list somewhere. But I honestly think that this was a game changer because
not only did I do this big plan, but also planned to get my sales in for August so I wasn't having to stress about money in August so I could take the time off without thinking I've got to work, I've got to get more sales in. That was so key. So that's a whole thing. That's a whole other episode, but I really wanted to share that that was, yeah, that was something that worked and I really enjoyed my summer as a result of it. I was able to take a good three weeks off in August.
and I didn't come back to work feeling stressed. I came back to work feeling so relaxed to the point where I was like, what is work? Why do we work? Like so philosophical, philosophical even about it because I just become so tapped out in a really good way. And also really luckily I could also have someone cover me for the duration of my time away and that's something I put in place as well.
Like I say, it's a whole other podcast episode, but it really, really helped to actually succeed with summer. know, like my big win of the year actually, I think is succeeding at summer because it's always been such challenge. Anyway, came back in September, all really ready to go, was going to get a podcast back online. And I've been doing some ops consultancy work with someone called Faith Morris. I'm going to tag her in the show notes because she's fantastic. She's...
remote ops partner on social media. And she's just someone who can really help you get your head around like what you're doing with your operations, your team, your systems. And I went through her ops diagnostic and it really helped me to see where I need to take things if I want to grow my business. And sometimes I think we are so busy just like going through the motions as we are, we sometimes forget that there are options, right? We can actually bring other people in. We can look at team structure slightly differently. We can...
divvy up the workflow differently. And so since hiring Faith and working with her in the summer, I went on to hire a couple of team members, which has been incredibly exciting, but it also took a lot of time and energy. And throughout the whole of September and October, I was in hiring mode. I was working very deeply in the back end of my business rather than necessarily like having a lot of capacity to do lots of marketing. So,
I definitely felt like I completely checked out of LinkedIn. So sorry, LinkedIn. And obviously I wasn't doing the podcast and the kind of systems and the hiring, the team stuff took over and the podcast took a bit of a backseat. And then of course, I just also felt like I wasn't really writing as many emails as I wanted either.
So all in all, was rather, yeah, it was rather a strange time because I'm normally like, Mrs. Marketing, you I love to create and I wasn't. So that was strange. But another reason why I didn't maybe get where I wanted to go with my marketing in September was I also had a couple of challenges come in. Just a few things that were going on in the background. You know, we're business owners, right? We're going to have problems. We're going to have challenges and you're always going to be
tested in your business, but eclipse season, which was September, it really tested me. I went through some interesting leadership challenges in September. And one thing that I will say is that I really reflected on the fact that I, even though I was tested, I am really proud of myself for just really making tough decisions and sticking to them. Because as business owners,
we have to make tough decisions. Tough decisions are decisions you don't want to actually have to make because they're hard, because they can be quite emotional, because they can be quite, like you can be quite torn. Like you might want to do something but then not want to do it because X, Y, Z, like there's consequences. And so it might not feel very comfortable in the moment. You might not want to have the conversation. You might not want to do the thing. You might not want to go through with it, but you have to do it. And you know, deep down, you've got to do this thing.
So September really tested me on that and I had several instances of that coming up. So that was character building, was character building time. Also character building was the fact that, I think I remember this date so clearly because I've written to them so many times, but on the 25th of September, I lost access to the 1500 followers and beautiful community that I'd built on threads.
It just said, your account has been disabled because you're violating our community guidelines. I have absolutely no idea to this day why they've disabled my account. I've been in touch with Meta. I got Meta verified because I wasn't before and they have been royally unhelpful. It has been just such a waste of time. And it's just really frustrating. know, my initial reaction was like, really? wow. That's really like, it just...
It was like one of those things where you're like, really, universe? Because I'd been through already at this point, the whole of September had just been challenge after challenge after challenge. And it just really in reflection, you know, I've still I've literally just sent them an email today where they basically been so unhelpful because I'm still trying to get it back and they're still just going through there. If your account has been disabled, you will not be able to get it back. We're sorry, this isn't the decision you wanted. And I'm like,
That's not the question I'm asking. I'm asking you to investigate why it was disabled instead of just telling me I can't get it back because that's not very helpful. I still don't know. And I actually at this point, you know, it was in September, it's now December. I just think, okay, all right, let's move on. I am not going to hang on to being a victim to Metta. Metta is just a platform and I have lots of other ways I can connect with my community.
It's very frustrating, of course. I've had to start a new account. So if you don't follow me on threads, I'm its.seals on threads. And yeah, it's just, it really teaches you that, you you can't rely on one channel. Of course, you know, the obvious stuff, like you can't rely on one channel, can't rely on social media, can't rely on channels you don't own. But most importantly, you have got to remember to build a community outside of social media.
And this sounds so like people talk about this all the time, especially when like Instagram goes down, all the email marketers are like, hello, it's time for me to have my moment to talk to you about email marketing. But genuinely, as someone who's lost their threads account and has lost a big part of their community through that cancellation or that disabling of my account for no reason, by the way, and they still haven't told me why. It's apparently it's now because it was fake. And I was like, that's not true. I am just like, okay.
All right, well, let's just do more podcasting. Let's do more emailing. Let's look at ways that we can create community without relying on a channel to facilitate it, a channel that isn't safe. So my big takeaway from meta is like, it's not safe for me to be on meta. Like I'll be on meta because that's where my audience lives and hangs out.
but it's not my safety zone. It can never ever be a safety zone for me because I cannot 100 % guarantee that that is somewhere that I am going to have access to forever. And that is my big takeaway. So yes, so that was September, September fun. Came out of eclipse season, actually feeling quite powerful in the end. I was like, actually, you know, if I can deal with all of this, then I can do anything.
But some good stuff happened as well. I did some public speaking. I went to an event in Manchester and did some speaking at an event for operations professionals, which was super fun with Sneha from the School of Operations. And that was just really lovely to get out in the big wide world. Did lots of co-working over the last couple of months as well. I've discovered this lovely co-working space near me, which I'm a bit funny about working from cafes. I'll do it occasionally if I need to write, but I can't go and sit in a cafe like.
every week or every like once a week I just can't do it. I find most of the time I get quite annoyed at the people. Anyway I found this there's always a dog barking or somebody just having a really loud conversation and headphones do help but I digress. But I have found the most beautiful place near me which has a hot desking facility and they've got a lovely cafe it's dog friendly it's not busy like whenever I go I'm the only person in there.
and I've started roping in my local friends to come along as well. And it's just been so lovely and I've really enjoyed those days. yeah, just like mentioning, but co-working and going to co-work with friends is so, so good for your soul and so good for your wellbeing. At least it is for me because I go crazy at home, just sitting here all by myself all day long, just being the dog. So yes.
That is kind of what I've been up to. Obviously there's been lots of other stuff going on. So I've been, you know, running Dreamium now. Dreamium is, if you don't know, my signature program and it just runs all year round. We have breaks, obviously we have little holidays and things, but it's very much an always on experience and we have four different cohorts coming in a year. And yeah, I'm just loving, I love this program to like the depths of it. It's just my favorite thing. and it is continuing to evolve. So exciting. Obviously now having a co-coach, I've had a co-coach join me in there, so I've got someone else to help me run it, which is amazing. And we're doing a lot of client experience and making sure everybody's having a good time and making sure everybody is checked in with. And you know, just almost like breaking the rules of like group program.
group program, you know, the idea of what that is about. I kind of don't see it as a group program. I see it as so much more than that. So that's been really exciting. And then of course, Parade, which is my sales sprint, ran that again in July and in October. And it's just such a lovely, lovely community in there. So continuing to do that, we're sprinting again in January, which is very exciting. And then I have a Mastermind, which is starting in January.
I previously had like a sales program, which was kind of like an alumni offer from Dreamium. But I've been thinking quite deeply about how I want people to almost continue working with me. And it's not always come into my mastermind. It's not that sort of ascension model. I don't want an ascension model. I want a model that works for my clients. So some of my clients don't need to ascend into a mastermind. Some of them just want to do something else. And that's what I'm working on in the background.
But the mastermind is really valuable for those clients who do want to get further support and continue working with me. So I'm doing a six month mastermind from January and I might just throw in a retreat in the middle of it, which I'm also very, very excited about because it's just something that's on my list. You know, it's one of the goals I have. And I tried to do it earlier this year and it just didn't, it wasn't something I had the capacity to do and I had to pull the plug before I'd finished.
selling it, I just was like, can't fit this in, like what was I thinking? I was trying to launch Dreamium and do other things and just no. And so yeah, I've still got that on the list, but maybe it will happen in 2026. So yes, I'm really, really good. I'm really, really good, that doesn't make sense. So yes, feeling really good about the future, about next steps, things I'm getting excited about.
I'm really excited to see how the space evolves in 2026. I think everything is shifting again. And I've just run a Black Friday offer, which was interesting. I've never done that before and I'm going to do a separate episode on that. So I think it might be the next episode after this, but yes, that will be a little bit of a breakdown of how that went and my findings and my insights from it.
But ultimately, I'm really excited to be playing and learning new things about my business, my audience, and ultimately discovering more about how the space is going to shift into the new year, into 2026, because I do think buying behaviour is changing again. I do think there are shifts happening and there are things we can expect to see more of and see less of in terms of what people are offering and how people are buying. And let's also remember that the service provider space is a microcosm, like it's a small bubble.
Like there are lots of other industries, there lots of other spaces online. And I think sometimes we can get a bit stuck in thinking that things are very black and white. So if you see anyone saying, well, know, group programs are no more or like, nobody wants a course anymore or everyone's sick of, I don't know, podcasts. These statements and opinions are usually not necessarily a universal truth. They are a collection of people in a microcosm saying something.
And so I think going into 2026, we need to be more open-minded than ever. And I'm really excited for that. I'm thinking, what can I do differently that no one else is doing? What can I do that's gonna open up some more creativity within me, but also with my clients? How can I be more supportive? How can I build in more value? How can I build in more excitement, but without anything false? Like my big...
I'm still deciding on my word of the year for 2026, but I feel like this real pull towards just doing like good shit, like good, like this doesn't make sense. Just doing really good, well-rounded, like earthy shit. That doesn't even make any sense. But just something that is not from a place of like, I am trying to trick you. I don't want to trick anybody. I don't want anyone.
ever to feel like I am that shallow or like I'm creating something that's designed to make you want to like rush your decision. Do know what I mean? Like I don't want people to feel rushed when they are deciding to work with me. I would love everyone in my space is to be just really fucking excited to sign up and work with me in one of the ways that you can and for that to just feel really good and then there to be none of that kind of obligational. This this is just an actual waffle at this point. You can just cut this entire bit out and I'm just going to say something else now.
So yeah, I'm really excited to see how the space evolves. I think that for me personally into 2026, I have to continue to be really disciplined about what I offer and what I don't offer. And that's something I've really struggled with this year because I just wanna do everything. But really sticking with growing and scaling the offers that I have and looking at how I can optimize them with my team, know, the backend, the systems, the automations, the workflow.
And then thinking about some other ways I can support people without adding more on my plate to the point where I'm, you know, I'm doing too much. So it's about balancing those things. But yeah, I'm really excited for 2026. I'd love to hear what your plans are. What are you, what are you excited for into the new year? Because it's a weird, it's such a weird one. like, how, how is it nearly the new year? Like, how do we get here? Hang on a minute. It's only August or September, isn't it?
But yeah, I'd love you to come into my DMs. Let me know if you've listened to this episode and let me know what you're like, what you're excited for for 2026. Like what's kind of like the big thing that you are working on or working towards because I just love hearing from you. And obviously I haven't heard from you for so long. So yeah, come into my DMs, even if it's just to say, hello, I've listened to the episode and yeah, it's good to be back. So.
I'd love to hear from you. Yes, I've said that like three times now, but I really, really would. If you haven't already connected with me on Instagram, I'm at seals.lokley, by the way. You can catch all of those links in the show notes. And yes, I will be back next week for a proper deep dive, a little specific episode, the ones that you super love. But this has been a really fun business catch up and yeah.
Big, big lessons, big interesting shifts, lots going on, lots of change, lots of discomfort, right? I am deeply uncomfortable at the moment, like a lot of the time, and I'm having to get comfortable being uncomfortable. So that is my vibe going into 2026. How can I get even more uncomfortable and be comfortable with being very, very uncomfortable?
Because that's what it takes to make changes in your business. That's what it takes to shift. That's what it takes to grow. And you're not gonna grow if you are cozy and steady. If you do want to grow, obviously you might not want to. That's on you. Like you do you babe. But yeah, if you wanna grow, you've gotta get uncomfortable. That's a big thing I have learned in the last few months. I'll catch you next week, lovely.