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Where do I even start with this story?

It’s one that I’m pretty sure Kyle will be telling around campfires until the day he dies.

Kyle told me the night before that he bought us tickets at the last minute & had to reschedule meetings to make it work.

With John Cougar Mellencamp, Yelling at my boyfriend in the middle of the concert.

Or how I knew as soon as I saw the tickets that they were real, even though everyone else was still questioning them.

I guess i should go back to the beginning.

Here it is, Tuesday night in September, Western NY—the most beautiful weather you can imagine at our hometown venue—an amphitheater that holds about 20k, attached to an amusement park that is otherwise surrounded by cornfields.

It’s me, Kyle, his sister Jordin & his stepdad Jeff.

Now we’ve all been here dozens and dozens of times for concerts over the years but Outlaw Music Festival is something none of us will ever forget.

One thing about Kyles family - they are tshirt people. Like they must buy a tshirt at a concert. Non negotiable. So here we find ourselves chatting with the guy at the T-shirt counter when he asks us where we were sitting for the night.

We told him that we had lawn seats (that we only paid 14 dollars each for by the way) and he asked if we wanted some better ones. We obviously agreed, and then he just handed us the tickets.

We walked away, looked down, and read out loud, "Row one, section 100, seats 5, 6, 7, and 8."

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Everyone was a little dumbfounded and didn’t dare believe that this was happening, but as we started walking into the venue, they kept pointing us further and further up.

The next thing we knew, they were showing us our seats in the front row—the four middle front row seats for the concert—and giving us special wristbands.

So there we were on a Tuesday night, seeing John Cougar Mellencamp, Bob Dylan, and Willie Nelson from the front row of our hometown venue.

Kyle could not contain himself. Knowing we had friends back on the lawn, he ran off to grab a drink and find them once he knew the seats were real.

A few minutes later, he was sitting next to me in the front row, excitedly telling me about how he had just run into our friends and recounted the entire crazy story to all of them.

Then, all of a sudden, John Cougar Mellencamp stopped the song he was singing, looked down directly at the front row section, and said, "Hey, you in the red hat." We all looked around, but no one saw anyone with a red hat.

Then he said, "You with the red beard? " Suddenly, we realized he was talking about Kyle.

And in that moment - the same man who had the nerve to sing “Suckin’ on Chili Dogs” (like that is remotely okay) told my boyfriend, “I’m trying to sing, and you are louder than the PA system (which also like how?) If you’ve got something to say, come up here and say it, and if not, then shut the fuck up.

It was by far one of the most surreal moments of my entire life.

Kyle quickly did his best to make amends, and by the end of the set, they had made “friends,” and he even tossed him a guitar pick.

It was a wild night, especially considering we had only planned it less than 12 hours before.

It just goes to show that sometimes you just say "fuck it," and things work out for you even when you don't know they are.

When you least expect it, you'll catch a big break—you'll get lucky, even if you've been there and done the same thing 20 times before.

But if you never say yes to the Tuesday Night concert, you won't get the free tickets.

If you never let yourself find some flexibility and lean into the fact that you run your own business and can make your hours, then you never get to enjoy it. You never get the surprise moments.

Keep Reading For Newsletter Highlights

• ☁️ 8 tips for finding more freedom & flexibility as a creative entrepreneur
• 🗺️ 3 things that made four weeks off possible
• 🍳 How more freedom helped me get my brand off the back burner

BEHIND THE BRAND quick tips for finding more freedom & flexibility

01. Keep one to two days a week with 0 meetings

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02. Find out your chronotype and schedule work tasks during your most productive time slots

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03. (this one’s for the girls) Use your to-do list for the month + AI and have it organize tasks based on the phases of your cycle

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04. project plan in advance and give yourself flexible timelines

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05. use drag and drop planning tools (like Sunsama or Notion) that allow you to move tasks around inside your week

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06. estimate how long the tasks on your to-do list are going to take you + track how long they do so you can create more reasonable to-do lists

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07. decide how much time you want to take off each year + block it out on your calendar in the beginning of the year

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And if all of that still isn’t enough to have the room in your schedule to take advantage of flexibility and freedom - here's the permission you might need.

When in doubt - cross it out

I really struggle with biting off a little more than I can chew—burnout, and I have a long (and not-so-distant history).

Going into Q4, I feel so many of us wanting to crank things up a notch. Our social calendars are finally opening up after a busy summer, and you're ready to bring your ideas to life.

If you are anything like me - you are balancing clients + your projects.

I quietly announced a few weeks back that I was creating a monthly content subscription, and I’ve only been talking about it here in my newsletter.

But, with a now full client roster for the rest of 2024 (yay!), in the middle of a rebrand of my own, and planning a launch for later this year, + creating my regular content - the tasks for the subscription and my rebrand offer kept getting pushed out.

I couldn’t help but look at my to-do list at the end of last week and think, "This is too much."

And so I permitted myself to take something off the list.

I still love the idea of the strategy subscription, but not at the expense of burning out, pushing back my rebrand, or my clients' experience.

I’m still figuring out when this offer will be ready to launch, and you’ll be the first to know when it is.

In the meantime, just know that part of having freedom and flexibility as an entrepreneur is having the freedom to change your mind.

FROM THE ARCHIVE 3 things that made four weeks off possible How I took off four straight weeks as a solopreneur. READ MORE

FROM THE GRAM how more freedom helped me get my brand off the back burner 5 simple habits that helped. READ MORE

FREE TEMPLATE quarterly reflection prompts Seven questions for your morning pages to help you reflect on Q3. ​ CHECK IT OUT

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