I spent 15 years in luxury fashion product development, managing operations, supply chains, and systems. Then I spent 3 years running my own business. Now I'm at a crossroads many of us hit in our 40s: the traditional career path no longer fits, and the alternative isn't obvious yet. So I'm giving myself 2026 to figure it out—strategically, not desperately.

Twelve weeks ago, I committed to publishing every Saturday for 12 weeks. This is the longest stretch of marketing consistency I've ever maintained. Here's one lesson from each week, building to the shift that changed everything about how I approach building my creative business.

Everyone's writing their 2026 goals. I'm writing my "absolutely not" list. After 10 weeks of testing AI workflows and building in public, I learned more from what didn't work than what did. Here's what I'm strategically quitting—and what I'm doing instead.

Ten weeks of posting every Saturday. Not willpower, not discipline—I built a system. Test Monday, write Wednesday, draw Thursday, use AI for distribution Friday, publish Saturday. The rhythm that finally made consistency possible.

Most of us set revenue targets based on feelings, not math. When I used Claude to reverse-engineer my £5,000 goal into actual sales, the numbers were brutal. Here is the 5-minute validation framework that stopped me from wasting months building for the wrong timeline.

I had data-driven goals for 2026. Then Claude asked one question: "What needs to be true for this March launch to work?" The answer exposed that I was about to repeat the exact pattern that cost me £210 and 200 hours in 2023.