August has been a wonderfully different time.
Officially I’d given myself the month off work, although in reality I’ve been gradually doing more over the past couple of weeks as September approaches.
The highlights of the past few weeks have been travelling. The start of the month saw us continuing our motorhome trip in southern France, culminating in meeting friends for a few days at a wonderful lakeside campsite near the Gorges du Verdon in Provence.
I loved our time on the road, from quiet nights with just the two of us spent parked up in picturesque vineyards, spending some time on the road with our younger son to our activity-filled time at the lake.
I managed to do plenty of running and cycling, exploring new places most days. A standout highlight was a 70 mile ride in 40 degree heat around the Gorges du Verdon. It was probably one of the best days I’ve spent on a bike – the views were spectacular and the riding tough.
Then mid-month we sprinted back to reality in the UK for our youngest’s A-level results. We were super proud that he got three B’s and got the place he wanted to study Sports Technology at Loughborough University next September.
A day later I was up in London picking up our eldest from his hostel in London where he’d lived for six weeks while doing a summer internship. We whizzed back to Kent and then off to Gatwick the next morning for our flight to Dubrovnik.
We drove down into Montenegro and had a lovely quiet week to ourselves, enjoying the sun, pool and sea. We never made it as far as Dubrovnik and Montenegro in our big 2019 European road trip, so it was nice to see some of the places that we’d researched but just didn’t have time to get to then.
We got back to the UK a few days ago and my mind has started to look forward again. I’ve committed (somewhat foolishly) to running the New Forest marathon in mid-September thanks to my son’s girlfriend planting that idea, and I’ve also entered a 55 mile ultra run in Snowdonia in November. It’s good for my motivation to exercise to have things to aim for.
And I’ve also been thinking more about some big adventures I want to do next year – as turning 50 feels like a milestone that I want to mark with some memorable trips that I’ve not got around to organising so far.
On Wednesday we were back up in London for a Coldplay concert. We’ve seen them live before and the show was as spectacular and polished as ever.
Workwise, my focus has mainly been on my product business Going Fractional and the launch of our first course on 15 September.
I’ve done a lot of reading over the summer about successful product businesses. That’s given me a lot to put into practice over the coming months to test out whether Going Fractional is a viable strand of my work for 2026.
Early indications are positive with encouraging pre-sales of the course and more than 220 people signed up for a webinar next week from my initial marketing push.
I’ve also started work with two new coaching clients, which is a part of my work I continue to enjoy and develop my skills in.
And I’m picking up two interesting COO consultancy projects that I began before the holidays again. It’ll be good to be back collaborating with fellow Extra Brains on these from next week.
Music this month…
Been a pretty varied month given we’ve been travelling so my son’s playlists have dominated my music consumption.
Podcasts this month…
Been listening to a lot of Acquired episodes on my longer runs. The long-form format keeps my attention well and I find a lot of the stories thought provoking for the work I do.
Reading this month…
I’ve read a lot so it’s hard to pick out a single highlight, but Why We Remember by Dr Charan Ranganath is an interesting read that I’m still reflecting on.
Cycling this month…
161.5 miles. Including an ascent of Mt Ventoux and the superb Gorges du Verdon.
Running this month…
48.3 miles. And a lot of vertical ascent on the Montenegro runs.
