What Happened in May 😍 🙌 ✨

Hi ,

Thanks so much for clicking on this email. 💖

Gosh - May. Wow - it was definitely a month!

How are you feeling about how May went for you?

For me, it was a month of ‘new’. Getting uncomfortable, growing, leaning into challenges and doing lots of new things. 🤩✨

The beautiful thing about new things is that it gives us novelty. It makes things fun. It mixes up our routines and the status quo.

New doesn’t always have to be bold and scary. It can just be fun. Whichever path you take, I highly encourage you to add some new things into your month.

So let’s unpack all the new things that happened in May for me. 👇

The first one was a surprise...

My beautiful social media manager - Bel, who has been with me since I first started The Speechie Life, let me know she is going on indefinite maternity leave.🤰🍼

Cue shock, tears and a sense of dread and fear.😱

Bel and I have been working together for almost 3 years. We have our systems and routines. She knows me and what I like, and replacing that is bloody hard.

So despite the trepidation, I started the search. I met some lovely people. Had some great chats. Worked out what I like and don’t like and I am so excited to have found Darby who is taking over.📲

The next new thing for May was trying lots of new restaurants for our cheap and cheerful Wednesday night dinners. It’s easy to work through the existing list of places we love to eat at but this month, we focused on new discoveries. 🍲🧑‍🍳

Not everything has hit the mark, but it’s been lovely to feel that sense of excitement of perusing a new menu, the wondering what it’s going to taste like, unpacking what we loved or didn’t love, working out which restaurants get added to our ‘we need to go back asap’ list.

It’s so interesting how something so small can create so many conversations, reflections and excitement. ✨

The biggest ‘new’ thing I have saved for last. The SPA conference. It’s just happened this week so it’s all still fresh and new. I haven’t been to a conference in years. Possibly over a decade. 😳

For this one, I was asked to be part of the AI debate panel. I was flattered, excited and then nervous. I had never debated before. I haven’t ever spoken at a conference, much less in front of such a large audience. I didn’t know any of my team members.

I said ‘yes’ anyway as I love tech, and am hugely interested in AI and thought, ‘you know what? I will figure it out' & I did. I met Helen and Tim who are an absolute delight and although we didn’t win, wow - what an experience! 🥰

I was also asked to be on the panel for a live podcast episode. Podcast - yep, I’ve done a few. But LIVE - oof! My first thought was no. So was my second but then I re-regulated and thought ‘you know what? I will figure it out'.

Having 2 new things made the conference feel SO MUCH bigger. I was definitely exhausted but it was also a LOT of fun. It made me braver. I spoke to so many more people (especially new people) that I normally would have been too introverted to speak to. I definitely had to work on my nervous system regulation. 🧘🏼‍♀️😮‍💨

I had to focus on being and feeling prepared. I had to plan ahead and put boundaries around my time and ensure that my evenings were clear to decompress and just be.

I am truly grateful that it was the month of ‘new’ things. It helped shake things up, explore opportunities, get me out of my comfort zone and show me what I can now do. 🤩 💫

So I highly encourage you to say ‘yes’ to a month or even a few weeks or days of ‘new’. Whether it is trying new things that are in your comfort zone, out of your comfort zone, or a mix.

At best, it will allow you to grow your skills, your confidence, you may meet new friends, open up new doors and at worst, it will shake things up in a good way. 🙌