Unexpected Interlude 🚧 (Part 1)

I’m taking a different approach to my end-of-year reflection message this year.

But stay with me, because it’s a good one (or three, to be precise)

December was vastly different to how I thought the year would end.

Landing me in hospital followed by weeks (and likely months) of slow recovery.

I thought I was done with “Tornado 24” 🌪 —the whirlwind of brutal personal chaos that this year brought.

A sh!tshow of personal crises that the last year stirred up all around me - and IN me.

Marking it as my toughest year on record.

And with my history that says a lot.

There’s always light and shade to every season, and amidst the chaos there were definitely some wonderful highlights too.

* Celebrating turning 50 🎉

* Publishing my book Marketing Me: Take Charge of Your Personal Brand & Make Your Mark on the World 📕

          

* Speaking, Training and Mentoring for the best clients imaginable, locally and globally. 🎀

* Co-Founding and launching new AI SaaS business (and bootcamps) Virtually Myself® 💜

* And stepping into the most easeful, fun and enjoyable version of my business to date. 🌈

But the personal side?

Easily the hardest year of my life.

Three ambulance trips.🚑  Four hospital stays. 🏥

Some big personal curveballs smacked me in the head.

Forcing me to confront fears, mental health struggles and trauma I had buried for years.

And parenting five kids while through it all.

I needed more support than ever. More grace.

A ton of medical and especially mental health support.

The lightest workload possible.

And a ton of creativity and flexibility around the way I meander through this landscape of business, family, relationships, health and life.

I don’t share the deeply personal stories often.

When you are the brand, you don’t “owe” anyone anything.

You are not obligated to share parts of your life you’d rather keep to yourself.

And you can still be authentic, relatable and interesting.

The priority is to protect the person behind the brand—because you are the foundation of it all.

So there’s a lot i choose keep private.

But when I do share things like this, and open the vault, it’s because someone else might need to hear it.

For five years I’ve been relatively consistent with my community emails and blogs. Can’t think of a time where I missed more than two weeks.

But this last month it was a very deliberate decision not to write.

Not because I didn’t have useful content to share.

I have tons of “ready to go” blogs and emails I’ve personally written that I could send at any given time that contain useful insights.

It wasn’t because I didn’t have any fresh perspectives - on the contrary, my brain has been sharp and observing and processing so much and I have an extraordinary amount banking up to release into the world.

Oddly enough (or perhaps logically enough) it just didn’t feel congruent.

It didn’t feel right to be sending motivational emails as I was lying in a hospital bed barely able to breathe.

It didn’t appeal to me to be injecting what little energy I had into emails when I was struggling to muster up the energy to get out of bed.

And above all, it absolutely didn’t feel right to me to send emails that were devoid of the energy and intention that come with what I share via this precious platform.

If there’s one thing I know and teach when it comes to connecting with people, is that beyond the “content” of your “good content”, the energy you infuse into what you share is what makes the difference.

It’s not one or the other, it’s both/and.

I could have sent something to keep the consistency going.

But in this day and age it’s not “good content” that connects to people’s hearts.

That stands out, that makes a difference.

It's the energy that's infused into, and transmitted via the content.

So I made a very considered decision not to write.

It's been almost 6 weeks. Ordinarily unthinkable for me, and the first time ever in five years of running Marketing Me® that I've done that. 

But equally, wisdom to apply timeless principles to specific situations is also important.

I felt like most people’s December was a LOT.

And more importantly, I’d rather wait until “I” was truly ready to engage with my content, and my wider community, energetically.

There’s a very big shift happening around us right now.

You’ve probably seen and heard a lot more people talking about the necessity of a personal brand if you want your message to stand out.

In an AI-fuelled marketing landscape, the message and practice of authentic connection is more important than ever.

It’s what I’ve been teaching, modelling and encouraging for the last 5 years now.

I released a book dedicated to this very thing last year.

Building a powerful personal brand and through that, making your mark in the world - authentically, and easefully.

I have very bold and exciting plans for 2025.

Plans that are already underway, actually.   

I took a planned solo retreat in November (this was a necessity after the crazy year that was) which was a beautiful restorative rest, combined with a brilliant business staycation where I mapped and started building for 2025.

Feeling recharged, refuelled and ready to put some very fresh, new, different and extremely useful and practical things out in to the world (more on that soon!).

There were just a few final things on the home front to get through and then the runway would be clear.

A big part of that was seeing my oldest son graduate from high school.

He’s had an extraordinarily challenging journey of his own and I was so proud to see him finish school In fact it was up there with one of my proudest parenting moments to date.

He’d finished schooling, finished his final exams, and on the literal day he graduated from school life, 2nd December 2024, I was excited and optimistic, thinking i’m home and hosed for the year…..

......suddenly my world got turned upside down. ⚡️⛈🌪🚨🦠🛑

I’ll share more about the details what happened, and the harrowing encounter that unfolded, as part of a 3-part series.

Feels like the right time to write and share not just the story of what happened, but what’s happening now,

And what’s happening soon.

So on that note, back to bedrest (as yes, this is being typed from the very comfy and relaxing bed-setup that is my life right now)

And I'll continue the story in “Part 2" shortly.

Enjoy a restful day and I'll see you again soon.

💛

How I can help you elevate your personal brand authentically in 2025:

📘 Get a copy of my book (free sample available)
🎤 Book me to speak at your company conference or event
📝 Browse latest Blogs & podcasts
🫏 Attend the Virtually Myself 1-day AI Bootcamp for authors & experts.
💙 Mentoring & Strategic Advisory in the Marketing Me® Accelerator