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This year has not rewarded bigger plans. If anything, it’s rewarded fewer, braver moves.
So today I’m sharing what I learnt this year when all my plans went out the window.
GET FOUNDER FIT THIS WEEK:
Wait, is this lunch free?
Last week decided it was a great idea to start a big contract at the end of the year.
Their audience is around 200,000 people. Building a community for a company like that is a privilege and while it is hard it was an opportunity I just couldn’t pass up.
Most of this year I was inside my own business. And now I’ve had to switch gears to only give it one day a week. That’s a trade. Less time to do the scrappy entrepreneur thing I love. More time gaining experience on how to ship at a bigger scale.
I didn’t expect to feel ready. But, then I noticed I was — all because of the preparations I’d been doing all year while collaborating with members in our community!
Venessa Darroll, taught me to simplify my tech stack and dependencies. Because of that, I could scale down to one day a week without shutting the doors.
The systems held; work kept moving!
Then Simone Snedorf helped me build discipline into the day. Start, triage, focus, finish. Simple. The good routines and habits travelled with me into this contract.
And then there was the pricing honesty check. 😅
Jomiro Eming’s calculator made me face the numbers. I set a real “minimum project rate” and kept it. That decision made the last few “biggest projects of my life” possible, one after another.
And then there’s the agents. Notion shipped agents and it changed my work. I’ve built:
Rob for user research.
Janet keeps delivery honest.
April helps with PR and relationship management.
Chad writes all the communications.
I speak to them every day. They do work I couldn’t have done alone. I know AI has baggage. I’m still grateful.
All of that added up to something I didn’t plan: enough preparation to say yes to the biggest thing yet, without burning everything else down.
This week you can get all of these tools FOR FREE and show support to these real humans making a difference in their communities through their businesses!
They’re together in the Next Steps bundle:
Venessa’s way of designing a lean stack in her “How to Tech Simply” course,
Simone’s Email Triage Workflow,
Jomiro’s Freelancer Rates Calculator, and
my Introduction to Notion AI & Agents.
Find them in the “System, Operations + Workflows” section near the bottom
There are 100+ free resources available in Allison Hardy’s Next Step Bundle, and it’s only available for free until the end of Friday 12th December.
COMMUNITY BUSINESSES IRL:
Oodles of bundles!
🤩 100+ resources from operators I actually rate. My Intro to Notion is in there, alongside tools for AI, systems, email, pricing, and more. Deadline’s tight. I’m signing up for what I need now and saving the rest for later. → Grab the Step Up bundle
🤖 Get AI to write like you: There’s a second bundle running too. Kinsey’s Brand Blueprint is inside it. That offer is worth $200 and I’d buy it again. It’s free in this bundle for a short window. You’re crazy if you’re not in. → Access Lizzy’s Christmas Party bundle
📱 Test app is built for non‑tech founders working with freelancers or agencies. Describe the flow, define success, note the worry. It generates a plain‑English test plan. Clearer reviews. Cleaner releases. → Test it out yourself!
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