#20 Podcasts, Grants and Year in Reflection
Weeknotes — Monday 1 December – Sunday 7 December 2025
Summary of the week
December arrived and with it a week that mixed creative conversations, admin that needed doing and a proper moment of reflection. Podcast prep, grant applications and a Skool year-in-review session.
Dot and Dash
Podcast prep this week, followed by recording with Nicki. I always find podcast conversations more useful than I expect them to be. Saying things out loud is different to writing them down and something about being asked good questions helps you work out what you actually think. You can listen to the podcast below and she did an ace visual for the cover too, amazing and talented Nikki Hamilton.
Illustration call with client Jane. The illustration work continues alongside everything else, and I am glad it does. It helps me think about metaphors, and communicating visuals in a way that is practical. Plus understanding how and what they will use it for.
Had a wonderful AI catch-up with Craig, whom I met from the AI design sprint (TM) course I did, and we both joined the bootcamp AI for non-techies session. Wonderful conversations that are shaping how we think about the next phase of the work in this area.
IAF Volunteer work
IAF volunteer meeting and EME meeting. The international side of this work is something I find genuinely energising. Seeing how different people work in facilitation and their approaches. Have my diary blocked out for the online gathering IAF International Volunteer Day.
App Development
Reached out on LinkedIn to everyone interested in the Skool community. Building out the community is something I want to keep doing; it's fueling the drive for building the app, and the amazing entrepreneurs, creatives, solopreneurs, and contractors who need a space to connect.
Applied for grants this week. Nothing glamorous, but potentially significant. It takes a lot of time building these out from scratch, so I'm glad I did a bulk of the initial work with the Ingenuity programme. I have to balance out what is worth applying for versus the time it takes to do it. Had a catch-up with Carl from Trove on the app mentoring and accountability.
Skool
Year in reflection Thrive session on Skool. I love this kind of structured looking-back. The community showed up for it, and the conversations were rich. I'll be running them annually.
I've been doing the year compass for around 3 years now, which is a wonderful resource. Link here
Still working on building this out with everyone!
Cooper Project
The Cooper project this week was a talk on equity and share schemes and what they are and how to think about it for your scaling business. Interesting territory to think about as Dot and Dash scales and the App development.
Creativity
Rare moment both myself and Lee went out rather than doing lots of app work at the weekend, we headed out to a new place for a drink. I looked outside and saw a perfect image I wanted to capture. I loved taking black and white photos, and this had to be captured. Obsessed with lines, architecture, and textures this had such a rich mix.
I wonder... what you notice about your year when you look back at it with a community rather than through your own lens and viewpoints. What things haven't you noticed that others have?
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