Eight months is a long time to be quiet.
If you’ve been around a while, you know I don’t disappear without good reason. And I didn’t this time either.
So, let’s talk…
Where I’ve Been
After 2 months of driving across the province and viewing real estate in 5 different counties, hubby and I packed up two lifetimes of stuff and moved across Nova Scotia in October, 2025.
We’ve gone from 2,400 square feet with three outbuildings to a 759-square-foot jewellery box.
A place for everything, and everything in its place.
That didn’t happen overnight…
And I didn’t just downsize my home. I downsized my thinking. My tolerance for anything that wastes space, time, or energy. That also didn’t happen overnight. 😉
The noise is gone. The ocean out the picture window. My daughter is close.
It’s our last stop.
Then I Got to Work. In Person.
I know… Plot twist.
I hadn’t worked on-site in 25 years. 🫣 Email and video have been my world for so long that I noticed something: I’d lost my edge in real-time.
You know those emails you write and then tell yourself — wait 24 hours before you send that? Real life doesn’t have a 24-hour buffer.
I needed to prove to myself that I still had it.
So I committed to two days a week at a local business. In person. On-site — streamlining systems.
What I Found at the Fish Plant
Pubnico is a small fishing community. Beautiful, hardworking, and — I say this with deep respect — easily 15 years behind the times.
Four businesses under one roof. A multi-million dollar operation.
And not a single digital file. 😰
No filing system. No productivity software. No workflow. Just paper, backlog, and burnout.
This is exactly what I help solopreneurs avoid.
I couldn’t tackle the real problems until I managed the urgent ones first.
When you don’t have systems, the urgent always beats the important. Every. Single. Day.
I asked three times for a Google Workspace subscription = $30/month.
Three times.
The answer? “This is the way we’ve always done it.”
Sound familiar? I wrote about exactly this in The Courage to Unlearn →
I got them current and moved on to my next challenge.
Then Came the Law Firm
You’d think a law firm would be different.
Not so much.
No digital files on day one.
But this time, there was a silver lining: LEAP software. A legal practice management system I fell completely in love with on the spot. It works with Microsoft, not my comfort zone — but AI helped with that.
I set up their systems from scratch. Integrated LEAP with Outlook and Word. Updated their files. Audited their contracts.
And in the first week? I saved them $2,400 in Evergreen contracts and hundreds of hours, annually.
I still had it. 💪
What I Learned
Complexity doesn’t equal capability.
Clutter doesn’t equal productivity.
More stuff — more steps, more paper, more tools — rarely means more results.
The businesses that struggle most aren’t the ones that don’t have resources. They’re the ones holding onto systems that stopped working for them – years ago.
But mostly — I still had it! 😂
One More Thing. This One’s Big.
I also made a big change in my toolkit.
I’ve cancelled my ChatGPT subscription.
That’s a big deal for me as a power user. It was my entry into generative AI. I’ve written dozens of tutorials — and was known for it.
But values matter. And some decisions — both mine and theirs — made it clear it was time to move on.
Because you have to stand for something. Or you’ll fall for anything.
That story deserves its own post. And it’s coming…
So. What’s Next for Us?
Each Sunday morning, I’ll be back in your inbox with one practical thing to make your week a little lighter.
Real tools, real stories, and real talk — from a solopreneur who’s been in the trenches and lived to tell about it.
If you’ve been hanging on through the silence — thanks for saving my spot.
Grab your tea. ☕
I can’t wait to talk to you soon.
Nancy
P.S. Ready to stop doing it the way you’ve always done it?
👉 The Quick Win: Business Automation Breakthrough Session → ($197) — one focused session, real results.
👉 The Transformation: Automation Genius: Admin Edition → four weeks, 1:1, and we build it together.
👉 The Conversation: Not sure where to start? Book a free Discovery Call → and let’s figure it out together.
