Hi, I'm Lydia! I help solopreneurs build tiny but mighty businesses they can run in 25 hours a week or less. Every month, I share real advice on simplifying your business, reclaiming your time, and creating more freedom without sacrificing income.
July Recap: The Most Important Relationships in Your Life
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My monthly newsletter sent at the end of every month, to stay connected and inspire reflection for creating meaningful work and a purpose-driven business. July was a month of really good people. After spending a month in Europe last month and meeting new lifelong friends in the Alps, the joy continues in hanging with more awesome humans this month too. A week after being back in Ubud, I met with Amelia, who came over from Brighton. We'd never met in person before and she was introduced to me through the Happy Startup School folks I met in the Alps. Within about 20 minutes it felt like catching up with an old friend. We had the same values, same way of seeing the world, and she happens to run a great business as a Boarding School Therapist (what a niche!). Almost every week, since I've been back, I've been reconnecting with old friends and making new connections. My weeks feel so fulfilling when I get to have these types of deep convos with great humans. It always leaves me feeling so lit up. One of my favourite things has been having weekly chats with my friend Constance, who's an amazing Strategic Therapist and Peak Performance Coach (she also came with me to the Alps retreat!), and we've committed to speaking almost every week since we got home. We've had these great little morning coffee chats over the phone. Sometimes it's just two old friends yapping about our lives, and other times it's been such great help to be each others' brainstorm buds on our businesses. Friendships take a special commitment to continue creating new memories together. And I'm so thankful for our almost 20-year friendship, and that we got to create new adventures this summer in Geneva and the Alps (we're currently plotting our next wild adventure together!). All of it reminded me of something that I think tends to get overlooked: We should date our friends. I know this sounds weird, but hear me out 😆. I don't mean date, date. I mean that we've been taught to put so much effort in our romantic and partnered relationships. We make a ton of effort for dates, weddings, and life with romantic partners. And somehow our friends, who are the people who've been in every chapter of our lives, may only get whatever energy is left over. But friendships are some of the most important relationships we will ever have in our lives. Our best of friends deserve special 'dates', love, and attention. And I for one would love to normalize reserving intimacy for these special people in our lives and celebrating these bonds (do they do 'wedding' ceremonies for friends who commit to each others' lives? I'm down for this 💍 😄). Esther Perel says the quality of your life depends on the quality of your relationships, and I believe that more every year. The other thing that felt really good this month was nesting back home in Bali. And reuniting with Scruffy! It's been so nice to get back into my routines, tending to the home I've built here. I used to think I had to pick between the adventurous version of me and the homebody version, and it turns out I need both. A base that's predictable and mine, and then these temporary homes around the world every year where I get to live differently for a while with people I love. Both are necessary. It's why "where's home?" is always an interesting question for me to answer. I'll leave you with the cutest photos of my Scruffy when she was reunited with me upon my return to Bali. 🐶 💗 I hope you had a beautiful month, -Lydia Why I don't use social media to get clients, and what I actually do instead. After 10+ years running a coaching business, social media has never been my primary marketing channel. → Learn the 3 ways to market without socials Getting clients works a lot like dating. Not the games part, the getting-to-know-each-other part. This is how I attract the right people without ever feeling pushy about it. → Strengthen the relationship with your clients 💫 You Can't Reinvent Anything When You're Grappling With Who You Used to Be You might've read this one earlier in the month, and it's now on the blog if you want to come back to it or share it. It's about grieving the version of you who built the business you're now outgrowing. → Letting go to reinvent your future self If you've been reading my newsletters, you know I've been in my own season of outgrowing. And, it's most of what I help people with now, in all its versions. Some of you have outgrown the work itself. The thing you've been known for just doesn't light you up like it used to. Some of you have outgrown the way you've been doing it. The business still makes money but it's costing too much of you now. And some of you have built what I call a Frankenstein business. Offers stacked on offers over the years, and somewhere in there your best work got buried. Whichever version you're in, it starts with getting honest about what's still yours and what you've outgrown. That's what my free clarity call is for. If you've been running your business for a few years and something has stopped feeling right, I invite you to book one. We'll get honest together about what's working and what you've outgrown, and I'll help you diagnose how you can start making your business feel simpler and more like who you are today. → Help me make my business feel better 💡 Ideas Sparker
I love having you in our community and value hearing from YOU. What was the biggest insight you got from this newsletter? Hit REPLY and tell me! Thank you for reading :) PS: Love the content I create for you? Been a long time reader? Now you can show your support for my work by buying me a coffee!☕ Lydia Lee, Tiny Business Coach |
Screw The Cubicle
Hi, I'm Lydia! I help solopreneurs build tiny but mighty businesses they can run in 25 hours a week or less. Every month, I share real advice on simplifying your business, reclaiming your time, and creating more freedom without sacrificing income.
My monthly newsletter sent at the end of every month, to stay connected and inspire reflection for creating meaningful work and a purpose-driven business. Hi Reader, I'm writing to you from Pemuteran, up on Bali's northwest coast, where I've been the last few days for a friend's birthday. Getting here took a few hours of driving through parts of the island I don't visit often, and even after living in Bali for as long as I have, there are still these pockets of it that feel completely...
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My monthly newsletter sent at the end of every month, to stay connected and inspire reflection for creating meaningful work and a purpose-driven business. Early morning reflection on my sunrise hike with the perfect view of Mont Blanc. Hi Reader, I just got back from almost four weeks in Europe and it's honestly felt like six trips in one. Every city had a different rhythm, a different version of me, and every single place had someone I love waiting when I got there. After landing in Paris...