St Swithin's Day 2025 - A Blog of Reflection

Last year I was feeling an enormous amount of pressure that I hadn't set a word for the year, a New Year's Resolution or reviewed Q1 or Q2. But there was a niggling feeling that it didn't matter. 

So I wrote a blog. 

Shared my hopes, dreams, plans lost, goals hit, goals missed. 

And somehow, it was a big hit. 

Lots of people agreed that you aren't behind if you haven't reviewed your year on a set date and that actually it's okay to make your own rules. In life and in business, I suppose. 

And so here's my review of the last 12 months. 

Written early in the morning on St Swithin's Day, just like last year. 

Everything has changed. 

I'm not writing that for dramatic effect, but it really feels like so much has changed in the last 12 months that if I could see this life now, I wouldn't believe it was mine. 

I did it!

I lived the dream life of living and working in the mountains, but before I get into that l should probably rewind and recap from July last year. 

The summer passed without note. And that was the problem. I was beginning to realise that I wasn't really intentionally running the business. I was coming out of the post-baby haze and about to move into working more regular hours in the business again. By the time September came, I was well and truly stuck in a rut. 

Luckily I had a business retreat to look forward to. It was an expedition in itself leaving two small children for 4.5 days but with a lot of meticulous planning (and lots of children's hair do practice) I went on a trip which I guess changed everything. 

I realised on that trip that I wasn't running the business with intention or with structure that I needed. It was doing well but I'd lost my focus and I realised that for the last 6 months I'd sort of been throwing spaghetti at the wall. I went round in circles a bit but used my spare time on the retreat to work out a plan and left feeling excited. 

But just a few weeks later, everything felt off.

I was working more than ever. Delegating but then still very much in every single aspect of the business. I was having far too many meetings and still doing everything myself so I made a really tough decision, I let go of my team. 

It was awful. 

Mentally it is up there with it being one of the hardest moments. 

If you've ever experienced a really tough breakup where you don't actually want to breakup with that person but you know you have to. It's like that only with multiple people at the same time. That was definitely one of the toughest weeks, if not the toughest week, for the business so far. 

The space bought silence. 

Silence was what I needed to build. 

I continued with the plan I'd mapped out for a few months but then realised the business world really doesn't run in the same way that it did in 2020/2021.

I knew I needed to change things again.

So I got to work, like properly got to work. 

I re-wrote my strategy in a way that suited me and my life. 

And before I knew it I was back in business. Recording breaking revenue month after breaking month. 

Of course there have been lots of downs as well as the ups but I've learnt better to anticipate the wave now. 

Before I share my big takeaway, that may actually be helpful for you in running your business, let me share some of the previous St Swithin's Day snapshots. This year may be my favourite addition.

15th July 2022 - How is this my life and not a dream. I feel so lucky but so incredibly worried that this is too good to be true and that something will happen and I'll lose everything. I want to enjoy the moment but there's a feeling that in accepting this is my reality it will somehow ruin it and the bubble will burst. 

15th July 2023 - I've learnt the hard way that just because you do something once it doesn't mean that it will be like that again. Baby two has arrived and she's so unwell. I've been stretched in ways that I never thought were emotionally possible. Life seems to be passing by in a blur like I'm just a passenger. Everyone else seems to be achieving great things and I'm very much stuck trying to survive each day as it comes.

15th July 2024 - Life is chaotic and calm, wonderful and challenging. It's full of the desire to create the most incredible huge things within the businesses, and also to simply just be. I crave quietness and simplicity but then I also feel like I'm just getting started and that there are some really great things around the corner. I feel like just as I work out one part of life there are new challenges around the corner.

15th July 2025 - I did it. I took my family to the Alps and lived and worked in the mountains. I cannot remember how many years I've held onto this dream and it's finally come true. In order to make that happen I had to make some big changes. Life is unrecognisable to the way it once was. 

Looking at this moment each year as a snapshot really shows that we have no idea what's around the corner. I'm still feeling incredibly fortunate for every chapter, even the tough ones.

How did the business do in the last 12 months?

I gave out cupcakes on my birthday! I feel like that moment will take some beating. For the past few years we've run campaigns where people search for images of cupcakes around our website to celebrate the birthday sale. The cupcakes have discount codes connected to them. Sooo many people shared to their stories and I decided mid-campaign to send some of those people real life cupcakes. 

We are consistently reaching more people and in turn having a much bigger impact. I'm getting lots of speaking opportunities, including providing training for eBay and Lloyds Bank, which I am so proud to have been asked to deliver. 

Growth has come in the form of a 20% revenue increase. Profit is also up massively, but I feel like it's pretty unfair to give that much credit given that I let go of the team, so of course operating costs are lower. 

The biggest takeaway

Chase down your dream now. Not when you hit a specific milestone but take steps towards your dream life now. Back in October when I changing everything I realised that I had been talking about living and working in the Alps since forever. The only thing stopping me was .... me. How had I not spotted that? It sounds so obvious but there was literally nothing stopping me from booking the chalets and turning the dream into a plan.

So I did.

I booked the chalet and the rest, well the rest is the most amazing adventure and a lifetime of memories. 

Can you do something similar? 

Could you take a step today to making that big dream closer to being a reality?

If you've made it this far, thank you for reading this. It's a post full of nostalgia and also with the greatest excitement for what's to come next. If you've enjoyed this blog post then please leave a comment, I'd love to know what you think. Or come and tell me, send me a DM over on Instagram. 

Have a wonderful St. Swithin's Day. I've got my fingers crossed for a day full of sunshine.

Lucy x