After the challenges of Quarter 1 (Q1), Quarter 2 (Q2) felt a lot more lucrative. Let’s dive in and take a closer look to see where I’m at with my 2025 goals, and the challenges I’ve faced.

2025 Goals

Let’s start with a look at my business goals for this year:

• Post on LinkedIn weekly – to improve my brand visibility on the platform.
• Create monthly speaking reels – to practice what I preach to my clients!
• Embed learning – after 4 years of discovering new stuff, it’s time to put my knowledge into practice.
• Complete a social media course I’ve had my eye on for a while.
• Engage weekly in the Being Freelance Community.
• Maintain financial stability and growth.

I’ll come back to these later on so we can see how I’m getting on.

Before I talk more about my goals, here’s a roundup of what’s been going on at The Mindful Gingernut HQ in Q2

Professional Development

Professional development doesn’t always have to be in the shape of signing up to a course. Nor does it have to come in the form of doing loads of reading on a topic. Sometimes, it’s about meeting people and learning from them. Ok, yes, I mean networking. But we all know that word sends a good chunk of people running for the hills. And for me, a lot of my learning and professional development in Q2 has come from networking and in-person events. Here’s a summary of what this looked like over the last 3 months:

Cowork Crew Northampton

In April, a visit to see family in Northampton, just so happened to coincide with Cowork Crew Northampton’s meetup. Run by the fabulous Penni and Jo Pickering, they are single-handedly making Northampton cool! Not only that, they also run Cowork Crew in Cambridge, London and Reading! It’s an opportunity to meet other people who are running a biz. There’s chance for a natter, and time to do some work. Oh, and there’s cake. The most yummiest of cake!

Perhaps one of my goals for 2026 should be a challenge to find the yummiest cake at coworking events!

Lewes Chamber of Commerce

This was certainly the most ‘traditional’ kind of networking event I’ve EVER been too. I’m not a member of the Lewes Chamber of Commerce, but they ran a free event for local businesses in May. As far as networking events go to, this wasn’t really my cuppa. Saying that, I discovered I’m the only Social Media Manager in Lewes, something I definitely need to take advantage of. And I picked up business from the event. So although it wasn’t my preferred type of networking, it proved to be fruitful!

Creator Day

Oh where to begin with this brilliant event! I loved it so much, I’ve already signed up for next year! I hung out with my Being Freelance Friends (BFFs) in sunny Poole, and came away full of love, inspiration and…a cold! Well, it can’t all be smooth sailing right!?! Another couple of highlights were getting to do some co-working in person with my BFF’s AND not only getting to see BFF Mel Barfield speak on stage, I also got to see Mel and Ben McKinney record a live episode of their Indie Business Club podcast! So much fun. If this has whet your appetite for Creator Day 2026 – here’s a little something I created post-event.

➡️️ Creator Day Reel

Technically, attending this event also helped me with one of my goals – to engage weekly with the Being Freelance Community! I reckon I might even give myself some bonus points for engaging with them in-person 😁

Lewes CREW

Way back at the end of 2024, my pal and fellow BFF, Steph, came up with the idea of starting a network in Lewes for Creative & Wellbeing Businesses. Then life got busy for Steph, so I grabbed hold of the reins and started organising monthly catch-ups for the group. Whilst there are only a small number of us at the moment, we are starting to grow. We meet monthly at the Pelham Arms for an hour to see whether there’s anything we can do to help support each other/have a natter. And recently, as part of the Lewes CREW, I’ve started a monthly in-person co-working session at The Depot. If you’re a wellbeing creative in Sussex and you’re interested in coming along, click here to discover more about us.

Co-working – In person and online

As well as co-working with Lewes CREW and co-working with the Being Freelance Community, I also met up with my friend and fellow freelancer, Sarah Browning, during Q2. We’ve got into a nice flow of meeting at Brewdog in Waterloo to do a bit of work and then head out for lunch for a walk and a natter, followed by a bit more work if time permits. It’s really lovely and I very much look forward to our get togethers.

Away from networking, here are a couple of other professional development activities I attended or was part of in Q2:

• Shoot Your Shot Selfie Masterclass with Katie Needle
• How to Hype Yourself with Lucy Werner and Freelancer Magazine

Client Work – this is where the financial goals come in

After a wobbly Q1, things picked up in Q2, queue a huge sigh of relief! I sent 3 proposals to potential new clients for my social media management services. 1 came back as a not right now, 1 hired me for a month-long project, and the other 1 ghosted me!

It’s been a Q of meeting up with my long-term clients in person which has been fun. I knew many of my clients long before I started working for myself, so it’s always nice to catch-up on life stuff as well as work. One of my long-terms clients took a break from my services earlier this year. They weren’t sure whether they would be a running their event this year. Thankfully, thet’ve confirmed the event IS going ahead. And I’m back on board doing their Social Media Management, which is great news as it’s a project I really love working on.

I also ran 3 power hour’s for different clients this Q. My power hours are perfect if you’re in need of fresh content ideas, looking to tweak your strategy, or get those nagging social media questions answered. If you’re interested, click here to drop me a message ➡️ Get in touch

Q2 also saw me get back behind my camera. I covered the finals for SFL London, and I was invited to take photos of Beth Stallwood and Sarah Langslow at The Institute of Leadership Conference at The Hilton Hotel, Wembley.

New projects have started and others have come to an end. Although my favourite work is with my retainer clients, I also love taking on shorter-term projects, as it gives me the chance to dive into stuff I might not ordinarily get the chance to do.

Life Stuff

I found myself playing football again! It feels great, not only from a physical and mental health perspective, but from a social point of view too.

I popped back to Kingston in April to catch up with one of the doggies I used to look after when I lived there. Stella (a Romanian rescue dog) hadn’t forgotten me thank goodness and her human was pleased to see me too.

Easter weekend was a busy one, catching up with friends and visiting the home of Winnie The Pooh. I then headed home to see the family for a week.

Long-distance hiking isn’t flavour of the month at the moment*, but I did get out with Treks with Tim to hike the Seven Sisters. It was long, but enjoyable and lovely to catch up with old friends.

I caught up with some friends from my working in football days for the early May bank holiday. We had a fun day out at Bodiam Castle.

Knights in shining armour also battled their way through Lewes in May to celebrate the anniversary of The Battle of Lewes. You’ve gotta love the charm of this town and it’s many excuses for a parade or two.

There was also another trip back home in May to celebrate mum’s birthday.

And to finish the Q, I headed to Lanzarote for a week of R&R. Although I didn’t do as much adventuring as I would’ve liked, I relaxed and came back raring to go ready for Q3! I can’t quite believe we’re now over half way through the year!

Progress on my goals

Before I wrap things up, let’s have a quick look to see where I’m at with my goals:

• Post on LinkedIn weekly – this is happening, mostly. Let’s go with, I’m posting regularly. And I’m pleased with my progress. I’ve had a couple of enquiries on LinkedIn which is more than in previous years, but I still haven’t secured any new work through the channel.
• Create monthly speaking reels – I fell off the bandwagon a little bit with these in Q2, but I did manage to create more reels, even if they weren’t ones were I was talking to camera. My favourite one was just me pratting around , but for a chuckle you can check that out here ➡️ One for a chuckle.
• Embed learning – I’m continuing to make sure I finish learning one thing before I move onto the next. Going back and reviewing my notes from the last few years is long, but we’re getting there! I think more sunk in than I thought.
• Complete a social media course – No more learning for me until I’m up to speed with everything in my inbox. And need to look at course options as the one I was originally eyeing up definitely isn’t for me.
• Engage weekly in the Being Freelance Community – a definite improvement here. I’m engaging more with others even if I don’t always talk about my own work or ask questions. And I’m a regular co-worker of course ☺️
• Maintain financial stability and growth. Another plea to The Universe, please send more paying clients my way. Thank-you in advance 🙏🏻

Q2: That’s a wrap!

As always, I really hope this gives you a warts and all look at what goes on behind the scenes at The Mindful Gingernut. It’s certainly not all glamour!

How was Q2 for you and your business? Are your goals in motion or do you need some help getting started? If you have a goal associated with social media, and need some help, give me a shout!

*I don’t know about you, but when I go for a hike, I want to enjoy it. 20km takes the edge off the enjoyment for me. I’m definitely more of a 10-15km kinda girl.