Vicky Shilling

I used to think the harder I pushed, the further I’d get.

Getting on for 10 years of self-employment taught me otherwise.

Because you can push really hard in the wrong direction.

You can be incredibly busy avoiding the thing that actually matters.

You can grind through self-doubt without ever understanding what it’s trying to tell you.

Hard work isn’t the problem (we’re REALLY good at that - honed for years!)
Working from fear is.

The shift that changed everything for me wasn’t working more.

It was understanding what was getting in the way of the work I already knew how to do.

Swipe through for the full list ➡️

Save this for the next time you catch yourself pushing harder instead of asking why it feels so hard. Which one resonates most?

I didn’t plan to find my coaching philosophy in a poolside book. But here we are.

‘s The Antidote put words to three things I’ve believed for years but struggled to articulate.

Why manifesting makes me uneasy.

Why I’ve never been comfortable with before and after transformation stories.

And why sitting in uncertainty might actually be the most useful skill you can build as a solopreneur.

Swipe through for all three ➡️➡️

The slide about making €17k and then shutting the whole business down is the one that will probably land hardest 😬

Save this if it resonates 📌

And if you’ve read The Antidote, come and tell me what hit you most - I loved 4000 Weeks, I think this one is older and was a gift from my mother that’s been sat on the shelf for years 🫣😆

Has it ever occurred to you that the version of you that backs herself is already in there?

She’s not waiting for more experience, more proof, or more time.

She’s waiting for you to stop talking yourself out of her.

This post is for the solopreneurs who are brilliant at what they do and know it somewhere deep down, but still manage to convince themselves otherwise on a Tuesday afternoon when nothing is going right.

If that’s you, save this. Come back to it when the doubt gets loud.

And if you’re ready to actually do something about it, link in bio 😉 I’d love to help hold up the mirror and show you what you’re really capable of.

FOUR OUTFIT FRIDAY 👗👚 Here’s a few things I’ve been wearing over the last couple of weeks. I wasn’t feeling outfit 2 at all… can’t work out what it is exactly… advice welcome 🤗 Which is your favourite?! 🤩

I never meant to be a business coach. But here we are.

The short version: music industry for a decade, blog about healthy eating, an Irish man, a move to Dublin 🇮🇪, and a slow realisation that the thing stopping most business owners wasn’t strategy. It was self-trust.

That’s the longer story above. Swipe through if you want the full version.

And if the last slide sounds like you, stick around 🤗

Most solopreneurs don’t need more strategy.

They need a space where they can tell the truth about what’s actually going on.

Not the polished version. The real one.

“I know what I should be doing… and I still can’t make myself do it.”

“I’m proud of what I’ve built… and I’m exhausted by it.”

“I want to back myself… and I don’t trust my own judgment right now.”

These contradictions don’t mean something is wrong with you.

They mean you’re human, running a business largely inside your own head, with very few places to put the messy middle of it.

And when there’s nowhere to put it, it turns inward. As self-doubt. As procrastination. As quietly convincing yourself you’re not cut out for this.

This is the work I do. Helping you name what’s actually going on underneath, understand where it comes from, and take small, real steps to move through it.

I’ve done this work on myself. I keep doing it. And I’m building a space where you can do it alongside me.

More on that soon.

Save this if it landed. And drop a comment if any of those contradictions felt uncomfortably familiar ⬇️

Oh hiiii there Friday! Something funny for you 🤭

If any of these felt uncomfortably familiar, you’re in the right place, friend 🥰

The problem isn’t that your brain does this.

Every brain does this.

It’s trying to protect you from the risk of getting it wrong, being judged, wasting your time, or watching someone else do the thing you were too scared to try.

The problem is when you don’t realise it’s happening. When you think the spiral is just you being realistic, or sensible, or not ready yet.

It’s not.

It’s your Safety Guardian running the show.

And the good news is, once you can see it doing it, you can actually do something about it.

Save this for the next time your brain tries to convince you that rereading a three week old email is a productive use of your Thursday.

Which one hit hardest? Drop the number below. 👇