Debbie Bryan Coach - founder of the Bryan Academy

Last breakfast in the Dominican Republic before we get picked up at lunchtime. ☀️

Am I ready to go home?

Not entirely. 😂

But I am looking forward to a proper cup of tea, with milk in it, please and I could absolutely murder some Marmite on toast.

The emails are starting to stack up. The diary is filling. There are things I could already be “just quickly” sorting out.

But no.

I’m holding the boundary until I’m home.

Because that was part of this holiday too.

Not just getting a tan, but actually switching off.

And it worked.

We’re tanned, relaxed, refreshed and I’ve had space to think about what I want life and business to look like next.

Back to work on Wednesday.

Big plans. Fresh energy. A few changes.

And then… go, go, go. ❤️

But first: one last breakfast in the sunshine.

We aren’t here for a long time. We’re here for a good time.

And I think this holiday has reminded me of something I’m very good at forgetting when I’m at home and running at 100 miles an hour.

Life is not supposed to be one long list of things to get through before we’re finally allowed to enjoy it.

I’ve eaten three meals a day. I’ve sat still. I’ve read books. I’ve laughed. I’ve had wine because I fancied one, not because I needed to take the edge off the day. I’ve spent less time online, less time comparing myself to everyone else and a lot less time worrying about what I should be doing next.

And do you know what? I feel better. Lighter. Calmer. Even my clothes fit better, which makes absolutely no sense after an all-inclusive holiday 😂

I can’t live on a Caribbean beach forever, much as I’d happily give it a go, but I can take some of this version of life home with me.

More swimming. More people. More proper breaks. More travel. Less unnecessary stress. Less sitting in my own head. And a business that gives me a life rather than becoming my whole life.

At 59, I think I’m finally getting the message.

We aren’t here for a long time.

So I’m going to make damn sure we’re here for a good time.

Well, that’s today’s work done. 😂

One proposal sent from somewhere underneath this palm tree, and I am now officially returning to my very demanding holiday schedule of swimming, reading, eating things I didn’t cook and occasionally wondering what time the bar opens.

I’ve spent years being absolutely dreadful at holidays.

Taking the laptop.
Checking emails.
Just doing “one quick thing.”
Coming home needing another holiday to recover from the holiday.

This time I really have ground to a very delicious halt.

And funnily enough, the sky hasn’t fallen in.

I had one brilliant conversation yesterday because I genuinely wanted to have it, sent the follow-up today, and that’s enough.

Maybe this is the bit I’m finally learning:

My goal was never to build a business that needed more and more of me.

It was to build one that gave me more of this.

Right then.

There’s a cold beer somewhere with my name on it. 🌴🍺

September has arrived, and back home the UK is doing that familiar reset — back to school, packed lunches, traffic, inboxes filling up again and that sudden feeling that summer is officially over.

Meanwhile, I appear to have ground to a delicious halt.

Yesterday involved naps on the beach, reading, room service for dinner and very little ambition beyond deciding whether I wanted another coffee.

And it feels glorious.

I’m normally terrible at stopping completely. Even on holiday there’s often a little part of my brain still running through work, ideas, people, things I should probably be doing.

This time, not so much.

I’ve got one call today that I genuinely wanted to take, and then I’m going straight back to doing very little.

The final quarter will come soon enough.

And perhaps that’s the reminder I needed before it does: you don’t always need to push harder to work out what comes next.

Sometimes you need enough space to actually see it.

For now though…

Ground to a delicious halt.

I can highly recommend it. 🌴📚

This was the sunrise from the Caribbean this morning.

It is now absolutely belting down with rain 😂 but I’m still here, book in hand, four days without my laptop, thinking about something my clients have said to me in different ways over the years.

Sometimes the most valuable thing I bring to a business isn’t another strategy, another course or another clever idea.

It’s simply being able to see what the person inside the business can’t.

talked about the clarity and structure that came from working together — suddenly being able to see how the pieces of her business fitted together and what actually needed to happen next.

Elisabeth 🪩 Female Founder | 📍The Cotswolds as joked that I can be slightly terrifying 😂 because I have a habit of seeing through the noise, the confidence, the explanations and the stories we sometimes tell ourselves, and getting to what is really going on underneath.

Heathet told me I had exceeded her expectations, describing the insight, questions and listening that helped her recognise what she already had, make decisions with more confidence and stop looking outside herself for all the answers.

Different people different businesses.

Same theme.

You can’t read the label when you’re inside the jar.

And established business owners are usually very firmly inside the jar.

You know your business better than anybody.

You know the clients, the history, the products, the problems, the ideas that worked, the things that failed and all the reasons something supposedly can’t be done.

Which is exactly why sometimes you can’t see the obvious opportunity sitting right in front of you.

The offer you’ve outgrown.

The expertise you’re barely monetising.

The audience you’re overlooking.

The thing taking enormous amounts of your time for very little return.

Or the opportunity that could completely change the shape of the business.

That’s the work I love.

Standing outside the jar.

Asking the questions nobody inside it is asking.

Seeing the patterns.

Spotting the money and opportunity you’re too close to see.

And then helping you decide what is actually worth doing next.

Maybe after all these years, that’s the simplest explanation

As I get ready to go on holiday, I keep thinking about all the holidays when I never really left the office at all, because although I might have been sitting somewhere beautiful, my laptop was never far away, my phone was always in my hand, and my head was still completely wrapped up in the business.

And when things felt quiet, or I started worrying about what might be happening while I wasn’t there, I would do the worst possible thing and open LinkedIn or Instagram, where apparently everyone else had just had their biggest month ever, filled their latest programme, signed another enormous client or cracked the secret to running a wildly successful business while barely lifting a finger.

It doesn’t take long before you’ve gone from checking one notification to silently questioning every decision you’ve ever made and wondering what the hell everyone else knows that you don’t.

I know that feeling, and I know how convincing it can be, especially when you’re tired, too close to everything and trying to work out what you should be doing next.

But you’re not missing a secret manual, and you don’t need to copy somebody else’s business, offer, routine or latest answer in the hope that it will suddenly make everything fall into place.

You probably don’t need their answer.

You need yours.

And sometimes it takes somebody experienced, standing outside all the noise and emotion, to look at what you’ve built and tell you what they can see that you can’t.

So, if you’re looking at everyone else and wondering what the hell you’re doing wrong, don’t spend another month trying to find your answer in somebody else’s posts.

Book a free 15-minute call with me now for when I’m back from holiday.

You don’t need to prepare anything, explain it perfectly or even know what question to ask; just tell me what’s happening, and I’ll tell you what I see.

Fifteen minutes. No cost. One honest outside view that could help you see the answer that has been sitting in front of you all along.

Book your free call here: https://lnkd.in/ehrjkns2

Fun question…

If £5,000 was already hiding inside your business, where would you look first?

👀 Past clients who could buy again?
🔥 People who nearly bought?
😵‍💫 Or the offer you’ve made so complicated nobody knows what to buy?

That’s exactly what I look for during a Money Gap Conversation.

It’s free, it’s 20 minutes, and we’ll explore whether there’s an opportunity you’re simply too close to see.

Book yours through the link in comments