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Fiona Hogg, Wodonga (2026)

14/09/2026

I’m not looking for the quickest yes.

I’m looking for the moment someone knows for herself:

“I need to explore this.”

Because that’s how it happened for me.

When I started this business eight months ago, I didn’t have all the answers.

I didn’t have a spreadsheet comparing opportunities.

I didn’t spend months analysing every possible outcome.

I looked at what was in front of me, and something about it connected with where I was in my life.

I was 50.

I had spent years building a career.

But I had started asking bigger questions about the next ten years.

Did I want more options?

Did I want to build something of my own?

Was I willing to be a beginner again and find out what else I was capable of?

And when this business came into my world, I didn’t know exactly where it would lead.

I just knew I wanted to try.

There’s a difference.

I wasn’t certain of the outcome.

I was certain that I didn’t want to walk away without finding out.

That was my yes.

And eight months later, I think it’s one of the reasons I feel so strongly about how I want to build this.

I don’t want to talk someone into a decision she hasn’t reached for herself.

Ask me questions.

Ask difficult ones.

Understand the products.

Understand the business.

Understand what it costs, how it works and what building it actually asks of you.

Take your time.

Watch what I’m doing.

Decide it isn’t for you.

I’m genuinely okay with that.

Because I would rather hear an honest no than manufacture a yes.

But if, somewhere in that process, you find yourself thinking:

“I keep coming back to this.”

“Something about this makes sense to me.”

“I don’t know exactly where it could lead, but I know I want to find out.”

Then I understand that feeling.

Because that was me.

I didn’t start because somebody promised me what my life would look like.

I started because something in me was ready to explore another possibility.

And that decision belonged to me.

That’s the kind of yes I want from someone I work with.

Not a pressured yes.

Not an impulsive yes because somebody created urgency.

Not a yes borrowed from somebody else’s certainty.

A considered, personal:

“I don’t know exactly where this will lead, but this feels right enough for me to take the next step.”

Because I can give you information.

I can answer questions.

I can show you what I’m building and tell you what my experience has actually looked like.

But I can’t give you the feeling I had when I started.

That part has to come from you.

I’m not looking for the quickest yes.

I’m looking for the one you don’t need me to convince you to give.

13/09/2026

I wasn’t looking for another boss.

And I definitely wasn’t looking for another job.

I already had a career.

Responsibilities.

A family, a home, plans and a life that was already pretty full.

What I wanted was something different.

Something that was mine to build.

After more than 15 years in leadership, I was used to putting my energy into teams, projects, problems and outcomes.

But somewhere around 50, I started wondering:

What would it feel like to put some of that same energy into building something of my own?

Not instead of everything I had already built.

Alongside it.

That distinction mattered to me.

I wasn’t looking to blow up my life and start again.

I wanted to find out what else I was capable of.

And eight months into building this business, that might be one of the things I have enjoyed most.

Being a beginner again.

Learning how to communicate online.

Learning new technology.

Learning about business.

Learning how to create content that actually sounds like me.

Learning how to keep going when nobody is standing over me with a deadline.

Some of it has been uncomfortable.

When you have spent years becoming experienced at what you do, something is humbling about voluntarily putting yourself back in a position where you don’t know what you’re doing yet.

But I needed that.

Because it has reminded me of something:

There’s a difference between being established and being finished.

At 50, I’m established.

I have built experience.

Skills.

Responsibilities.

A life.

But I’m definitely not finished.

There are still things I want to learn.

Parts of myself I want to develop.

Things I want to find out whether I’m capable of building.

I don’t know exactly what this business will become.

I’m eight months in, and I’m not going to manufacture an ending to a story I’m still living.

Right now, I’m interested in what I’m learning.

What I’m discovering about myself.

And what might be possible if I keep showing up and getting better at something that was once completely new to me.

Maybe that’s what I was looking for all along.

Not another job.

Not a completely different life.

Another part of myself to develop.

And maybe that’s one of the gifts of reaching this stage of life.

Realising you can be proud of everything you have already built…

without deciding you’re done building.

12/09/2026

I have spent too many years building my professional reputation to become casual about what I put my name beside now.

That became important when I started this business.

Because I quickly realised I couldn’t comfortably talk about products I wasn’t prepared to use myself.

Maybe that’s the last 15 years in leadership talking.

I’m used to being accountable for what I say.

For the decisions I make.

For knowing when I have the answer, and being willing to say when I don’t.

So personal use mattered to me.

Not because my experience proves what someone else’s experience will be.

It doesn’t.

And not because using something myself means everyone else should want it.

I need to be comfortable with what I’m putting my name beside.

My K8 sits in our home and gets used every day.

I drink the water.

I use the different water settings around the house.

And over time, some of the other products I have chosen have become part of our normal routine too.

That means when I talk about them, I can speak from experience.

How I use something.

Where it fits into my life.

Why I chose it.

What my own experience has been.

And when there’s something I don’t know?

I’m comfortable saying:

“I don’t know. Let me find out.”

I would much rather say that than reach for an answer simply because I think I’m supposed to have one.

At this stage of my life, that matters.

I have been working since I was 13 and leading people for more than 15 years.

My reputation matters to me.

So does being able to have a conversation about what I’m building without feeling as though I need to become someone else to sell it.

No borrowed script.

No pretending my experience guarantees someone else’s.

No pressure to make something sound more impressive than it is.

Just being able to say:

This is what I use.

This is how it fits into my life.

And this is what I can genuinely tell you about it.

Personal use doesn’t make something right for everyone.

But for me, it means I can speak from my own experience rather than somebody else’s script.

And after all these years of being careful about what I put my name beside, I don’t think I could build any other way.

Do you find it easier to trust someone when they’re comfortable telling you what they don’t know as well as what they do?

11/09/2026

Middle management may have trained you for more than your next promotion.

For a long time, I thought most of my professional skills only really counted inside the workplace.

Leading a team.

Managing competing priorities.

Having difficult conversations.

Solving problems.

Keeping things moving when plans changed.

Useful career skills, absolutely.

But business skills?

I thought those belonged to other people.

People who had studied business.

People who understood marketing.

People who seemed naturally comfortable putting themselves online.

Then I started building something of my own and realised:

I had been developing skills I could use here for years. I just hadn’t thought of them that way.

I have spent more than 15 years in leadership roles.

That means more than having a title on a CV.

It means learning how to communicate when the conversation isn’t easy.

How to listen before responding.

How to make decisions without always having perfect information.

How to manage competing priorities.

How to adapt when the plan you made at 8 a.m. is no longer relevant by lunchtime.

How to work with very different personalities.

How to take responsibility when something isn’t working.

And perhaps most importantly, how to keep learning.

I didn’t leave those skills behind when I decided to build something of my own.

They came with me.

Of course, there are things I’ve had to learn from scratch.

Eight months ago, plenty of what I’m doing now was completely unfamiliar.

New platforms.

New tools.

Learning how to communicate online.

Learning how to build something alongside an already full life.

I’m still developing those skills.

But there’s a big difference between being new at something and having nothing to bring to it.

I understand that now.

Because when I look at the skills I have relied on most while building this, many of them weren’t developed online.

They were developed over years of working.

Leading.

Listening.

Making decisions.

Getting things wrong.

Adjusting.

And trying again.

So I have stopped telling myself I’m starting from scratch.

I’m not starting from scratch.

I’m starting from experience.

And I wonder how many women in their 40s and 50s are overlooking the same thing.

We can become so used to what we know that we stop recognising it as valuable.

Maybe the question isn’t:

“Do I know how to build a business?”

Maybe it’s:

“What do I already know that I haven’t learned to value outside my job yet?”

10/09/2026

I nearly made the mistake of building something for more freedom…

And giving it every spare hour I had.

In the early months of building this business, I thought more effort was always the answer.

There was always another post I could write.

Something else I could learn.

Someone I could follow up with.

Something I could improve.

And because I was building alongside a full-time career, most of that happened in the hours that were left.

Evenings.

Weekends.

The spaces in between.

For a while, I told myself:

This is what building something takes.

And yes, it takes work.

I’m not afraid of that.

I have been working since I was 13.

But eventually I realised I was creating a contradiction.

I was building because I wanted more choice over my time… while giving away more and more of the time I had now.

That wasn’t the goal.

So I changed how I was doing it.

Not less commitment.

Better boundaries.

The business gets real time.

It gets focused effort.

There are things I need to learn and things that need to get done.

But it doesn’t automatically get every available hour.

Because my life is happening now too.

I still walk.

In June, I walked 203 km for breast cancer research.

The fundraiser finished.

The walking didn’t.

Rob and I still make plans.

We explore places.

We have the “what if we went here instead?” conversations.

And sometimes I close the laptop knowing perfectly well there is more I could do.

Because there will always be more I could do.

That doesn’t mean it all needs to be done today.

I think that’s one of the bigger lessons I’m learning at this stage of my life.

I don’t need to prove my commitment by being constantly busy.

I can work hard at something and still protect the parts of my life that matter to me.

I can build for the future without putting the present on hold.

And I can want more choice without sacrificing everything else to create it.

Because that was never the goal.

I’m not building something so that one day I might have a life with more choice.

I’m trying to build more choice while still living the life I have now.

The business has a place in my life.

It doesn’t get to become my whole life.

And I think I’m finally learning the difference.

09/09/2026

R U OK? Day is an important reminder to check in with the people around you, start meaningful conversations, and foster support within your workplace and community.

Here are a few ways to engage with R U OK? Day today:

🔸️Ask "Are you OK?": Pick a comfortable, quiet moment to check in with a colleague, friend, or team member.

🔸️Listen with an open mind: Give them your full attention without judgment or rushing to offer immediate solutions.

🔸️Encourage action: If someone is struggling, guide them toward helpful resources such as support services, trusted professionals, or internal support systems.

🔸️Check back in: Follow up after a few days to show ongoing care and support.

If you or someone you know needs immediate professional support:

Lifeline: 13 11 14
Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636
Mensline Australia: 1300 78 99 78
Kids Helpline: 1800 55 1800
13 Yarn: 13 92 76
QLife: 1800 184 527
Su***de Call Back Services: 1300 659 467

09/09/2026

At this stage of life, I’m not interested in building just anything.

If anything, I think I have become harder to impress.

I have been working since I was 13.

And after more than 15 years in leadership roles, I have had plenty of time to learn about people, responsibility, pressure, standards, and what good leadership looks like.

So if I’m going to give something my time alongside the career and life I have already built, it needs to make sense to me.

I’ll be honest.

I didn’t start this business with a beautifully thought-out checklist.

I went with my gut.

But eight months in, I’m much clearer about why I have stayed.

One of my biggest tests is simple:

Am I comfortable putting my name beside what I’m building?

Because if I feel awkward explaining what I do to my friends, a colleague or someone whose opinion I respect, I need to pay attention to that.

I also want what I talk about publicly to reflect what actually happens privately.

My K8 doesn’t exist in my “business life” and disappear when I stop posting.

It’s sitting in our home.

I use it every day.

It’s become part of our everyday routine.

That matters to me.

Then there’s the learning.

After years in leadership, I’m used to being the person who knows what she’s doing.

Starting something new has put me firmly back in beginner territory.

New tools.

New skills.

New ways of communicating.

New ways of thinking about business.

Some of it has stretched me more than I expected.

And surprisingly, I have realised I actually like that.

I like having something new to learn.

But perhaps my biggest test is this:

I don’t want to build a business that requires me to sacrifice the life I’m supposedly building it for.

My career is still here.

My family is still here.

The walks, the weekends away and the ordinary Tuesday nights still matter.

I’m learning to build this around a real-life schedule rather than assuming unlimited hours.

I’m not saying I’ve found the only way.

And I’m definitely not saying everyone should want what I want.

Eight months in, I’m much clearer about what earns my time.

Something I can comfortably put my name beside.

Something that keeps me learning.

Something I can approach professionally.

And something that still leaves room for the rest of my life.

I have been working since I was 13.

At 50, I’m not afraid of work.

I’m much more particular about what I’m willing to work for.

08/09/2026

What if the goal isn’t simply to keep working until retirement finally gives you your time back?

I have been thinking about that a lot lately.

Because most of us grew up with a model of working life.

Work hard.

Build your career.

Keep going.

And eventually, after forty-odd years, you reach retirement and your time becomes more your own.

I understand that model.

For most of my working life, I never really questioned it.

But somewhere around 50, I started questioning one part of it:

Why does all the choice have to live on the other side of retirement?

I’m not talking about quitting work tomorrow.

I don’t actually want to stop doing meaningful things.

I still enjoy contributing.

I still want to challenge myself.

What I’m questioning is the idea that I should wait until the end of my working life before I start thinking seriously about having more choice in how I live it.

Because what I want from the next ten years isn’t necessarily “retirement.”

It’s more agency.

More say over what gets my time.

More ability to make decisions based on what matters to me at this stage of life.

And more than one option if what I want from work changes as I get older.

That’s what has shifted for me.

I don’t want the next decade to simply be something I get through on the way to retirement.

I want to be deliberate about how I use it.

That’s part of the reason I started building something alongside my career.

And I want to be careful with that word:

Building.

Because building isn’t the same as arriving.

I’m eight months in.

I’m still working my 9–5.

Still leading teams.

Still learning.

Still figuring out what this could become.

I don’t know exactly where it will lead, and there are no guarantees.

But I don’t need to know the ending yet to know that asking different questions has changed something for me.

I’m no longer asking:

“How many more years until I can stop?”

I’m asking:

“How do I want to live and work over the next ten years?”

And:

“What can I start doing now to give myself more possibilities along the way?”

Maybe that’s a more useful conversation to have at 50.

Not how quickly we can escape work.

Not how soon we can retire.

But how deliberately we want to live the years between here and there.

Because I don’t want to save every idea I have about freedom, choice and how I spend my time for “someday.”

Do you?

07/09/2026

Online doesn’t mean effortless.

That’s one part of building an online business I think is worth talking about more.

My first six months were pretty quiet.

Not because I wasn’t trying.

I was showing up.

Posting.

Learning.

Putting time into this alongside my 9–5.

But I hadn’t worked out how to communicate clearly yet.

I was trying to talk to everyone.

My messaging changed constantly.

Some days I sounded like me.

Other days I sounded like I had borrowed someone else’s internet personality.

Unsurprisingly, not much connected.

And that taught me something I probably needed to learn.

Putting a business online doesn’t remove the work.

It just changes the kind of work you need to learn.

I have had to learn new platforms and tools.

I have had to learn how to communicate with people instead of simply posting at them.

I had to become more consistent even when there wasn’t much external feedback telling me I was getting somewhere.

And I have had to get comfortable being a beginner again.

That last one has probably been the hardest.

Because at work, after more than 15 years in my career, I’m used to knowing what I’m doing.

I can lead a team.

I can navigate difficult conversations.

I can solve problems when things don’t go to plan.

Then I step into this part of my life, and there are still plenty of moments when I think:

I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing here.

And strangely, I’m learning to be okay with that.

Because being inexperienced at something doesn’t mean you’re incapable of learning it.

Eight months in, I’m still learning.

Still refining my message.

Still having conversations.

Still following up.

Still building.

And I’m comfortable saying that publicly.

Because I don’t want to make building something online look easier, faster or more certain than it actually is.

People will have different experiences.

Different circumstances.

Different skills.

Different amounts of time they can give it.

And different outcomes.

I can’t tell someone else where their business will lead.

I can only show them what building mine actually looks like.

And right now, mine looks like becoming a little better at things I was once completely new at.

Then getting up the next day and doing some more.

Eight months in, I haven’t finished the story.

I’m still in the part where I’m learning how to build it.

And I think that part of the story is worth telling too.

Fiona Hogg

14/09/2026

13/09/2026

12/09/2026

11/09/2026

10/09/2026

09/09/2026

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