I'm going to tell you something that might sound irresponsible: when your business feels heavy, the solution isn't more strategy or discipline, it's fun. I challenge the idea that you need to push harder as we head into December, and instead make the case for letting yourself actually enjoy what you're building again.

I share my own experience of optimising all the joy out of my business while trying to be strategic and professional, and how I'm reclaiming it through an unconventional December project: a 25-day Instagram advent calendar that prioritises enjoyment over optimal marketing strategy. I take you through the realisation that I'd been so focused on being strategic that I'd made my business heavy, and how giving myself permission to have fun again transformed everything.

You'll hear:

• Why fun isn't frivolous but actually strategic. It's how you bring yourself back into your business
• The pattern established founders fall into: starting creative and excited, then learning "the rules" and squeezing out all the personality
• How giving myself permission to be less professional and more myself led to the Quietly Disruptive movement
• Why you're stuck because you stopped having fun, not in spite of it
• A challenge to break one rule and do something just because it sounds fun

This episode is a reminder that when you're having fun, you show up as yourself rather than as a professional performance, and that authenticity is what makes you magnetic to the right clients. Sometimes the best way forward isn't more strategy. It's more you.

Join in the advent calendar over on Instagram: @beckybenfieldhumberstone

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