For many people, January is the moment for change. I'd argue September is the true one. Drawing on John O'Donohue's writing on thresholds and real stories from a coach, a designer, and a recruiter, this piece is an invitation to use the next twelve weeks well and a free printable worksheet to help you do it.
Celebrating the first year in a new business, with unease
A year ago, I started a new chapter: coaching and Her Circle, a community for women in business in West Cork. Getting ready to celebrate that, I felt something I didn't expect: unease. Here's what I've learned this year about celebrating honestly, without pretending I've arrived anywhere, and why doing it together might just be an act of rebellion.
Drop your tool and save your life
There's a story about wildland firefighters who are told, in the moment of greatest danger, to drop their tools and run - and who, again and again, choose to hold on instead. It costs them their lives. I've been asking my clients a version of the same question ever since: what are you holding onto that, if you dropped it, would let you move with more ease? My own answer came from three generations of women in my family who never once took a relaxing holiday.
Money Beliefs - the story we didn't choose
This Tuesday's Lighthouse Labs, our guest Jole Berlage-Buccellati opened with a provocation: most of what blocks us around money doesn't live in the mind. It lives in the body. In patterns carried from ancestors who survived things we have no memory of. This is what came up for me - and what I'm still sitting with.
Tending the Garden: A Community Developer's Approach to Marketing
We have been taught that the answer to slow growth is more - more platforms, more posts, more visibility. But what if that belief belongs to a system that no longer fits? I have been mapping human ecosystems for over a decade, and the question that changes everything is not how to reach more people. It is whether you actually know who your people are - and whether you are tending that relationship.
Are You Talking to the Right Elephant?
Tony had everything - solid science, a great product, real expertise. But every room he walked into, the doors quietly closed. I recognised the pattern immediately. He was flooding the Rider and the Elephant never woke up. This piece is about the model that changed everything for him - and the three questions that will change how you communicate too.
An Honest Beginning - Lighthouse Talks
This morning I was listening to a podcast about a woman who left Hollywood, moved to Fiji, and ended up rethinking how investment works from the ground up. Hearing her made me hopeful - in a specific way. That's what a voice from outside your world can do. It changes the altitude from which you see your own situation. That's the seed of the Lighthouse Talks - and the first one is this Tuesday, 28 April, free and online.
The Mask That Slides Off at Night
I reached out to someone last week, in the middle of everything that’s been happening in Ireland. I asked: “Can I support you? What do you need?” They were surprised. And grateful.
We’re all getting very good at being grand. At wearing the mask for work, for the children, for the sake of keeping things together. But at night, it slides off — and there’s nobody there to hold us.
This post is for anyone who’s lying awake, not quite knowing how to be. The real face has been there all along.








