Boom 🗞️ Slow News Day #70

Hey,

By and large, I’ve had a quiet year with work — mostly intentionally.

Nomading has taken up a lot of my time and energy, but I’ve also wanted to have more time to myself. No real purpose, no specific goal to work on, just taking it easy for a while. I’ve written it enough times in these emails, I must have finally taken my own advice.

In the last week, though, I’ve ended up with six prospects in my inbox at various stages of interest and readiness. My income could potentially treble in December if it all comes off. (It’s a mix of projects and retained work, so by January/February, it’d come down a bit.)

And… I’m kind of loving it?

At the start of the year I powered through with a bunch of motivation to launch CEO Ghostwriter, then it — and I — sat dormant for several months. I let everything chill out a bit, I kept Snail Studio ticking along without seeking to grow or gain new clients. Just a happy, steady little business with a few happy, steady clients. Since August, CEO Ghostwriter picked up and I’ve gained clients, prospects, and some dead-ends from it. And now Snail Studio leads are coming in, too.

Seasons, innit. I always imagined that my personal, internal winter would be a time for slowing things down, but maybe it’s my time to nestle in deeper into my business and wait for the summer to return. Then, I bask — squamate, lizardlike — on the hot stones of a strong six months of graft.

I’ve spent a lot of this year with my energy directed elsewhere: grief, uncertainty, stress, mental health wobbles. Maybe this rejuvenation of my business is just a happy distraction, but it feels a bit deeper than that. It feels strong and generative, energetic and encouraging.

Let’s see where it goes.

Slow down guide

Need a little help moving slower?

Ease your way out of Friday afternoon with this newsletter, a nice cup of something, and a little background music. Steal my setup if you aren't sure where to start.

After I press send, I’ll be reminiscing about the cup of Yallah Coffee's La Limonada that I brewed earlier. Sailed over from Mexico, roasted right here in Falmouth (in fact, about three minutes away from our current home, on a farm yard up the bumpiest track known to humanity). It’s a lush coffee with an important backstory. Treat yourself to a bag, if you can.

Once I’m done with my starry-eyed backwards gazing, I’ll put Fenne Lily’s Dial Tone on for the nth time since I first heard it yesterday. Her music is lovely, her latest album is magisterial, and the bonus tracks she’s released are touching. There was one line in this song that stopped me dead in my tracks yesterday. The whole song is special, but that line reached out of my headphones and squeezed my heart like a newborn gripping its parent’s finger. Tender but strong, the promise of so much ahead.

I want to see you wake up / I want to see you get well

Take it easy,