It’s the end of December and it’s seems to have been a month of two halves.

The first half was pretty busy with work, with a few projects coming to a close and plenty of loose ends to tie up. I’ve also been finalising terms on a new engagement for January onwards plus a couple of interesting consulting project enquiries came in too.

Earlier this month I also completed the sale of my fractional course business which was an exciting step forward. I enjoyed writing and launching the course over the summer and early autumn.

Early course sales and feedback were positive, but I quickly realised that I didn’t have the right skills to market the course as much as it needed, nor did I have the time (and maybe desire) to learn those skills.

In the spirit of being more careful what I spend my work time on, I’m pleased to be working a partner who has the experience of marketing courses. I’ll still be involved with the business to help grow the student base, but I’m pleased not to be leading on marketing, sales or back office operations any more.

Earlier this month I also spoke at The Caldecott Foundation’s Christmas business networking dinner.

This was something a bit off my normal patch and I happily admit I was pretty nervous writing my talk, as my brief was to talk about business networking, trusteeship and the foundation’s work.

I’ve done hundreds of business presentations but this felt different as it was an after-dinner speech, but it went well and I enjoyed the experience – and most importantly the evening was a success with thousands raised for the foundation’s work.

The third week of the month was a sudden change of gear as emails and Slack slowed down.

I even had a few hours to spend on my own admin, automations and getting organised for 2026. It was good to have a bit of a transitional few days before stopping work for seeing family, Christmas and then the long drive to the Alps for a week in the snow.

Looking ahead to 2026, I’m pretty busy in January with fractional work and a short new systems consulting project. I’m also excited to be launching two new founder-focussed propositions in Q1 – one building on my previous fractional experience, the other focussed on building effective leadership teams to reduce founder dependency.

But for now I’m making the most of the last few days of my break before kicking back into intense work mode on Monday next week.

Music this month…

Stumbled across this extended set from Franky Wah at Hackney Church from earlier this year. Truly epic and great background for a few hours work.

Podcasts this month…

Discovered Aoife O’Brien’s Happier at Work podcast earlier this month and have been enjoying working through older shows. I like Aoife’s mix of real workplace experience and academic evidence for the practices she explores in the podcast.

Reading this month…

“Very Bad People: Fight Against Global Corruption” by Patrick Alley was a fascinating read. I’d not heard of Global Witness before, so Patrick’s book was an introduction to criminal practices in a range of places and sectors.

Cycling this month…

82.3 miles this month, mostly commuting and Zwift although I did manage one real world ride on a sunny clear day which was great.

Running this month

18.5 miles this month. A combination of work, a possible stress fracture and short days kept me off running more than I would have liked.