The Year I Found Myself Again | Season #2, Issue 7

December 12, 2025|Gill Townsend

Welcome back to No Filter Fridays - caffeine-fuelled and chaos-approved.

I’m sharing the warts-and-all reality of rebuildingThe Mama Assembly™ from scratch - because too many of us try to figure it all out alone.

Each week I pull back the curtain on what I’m trying, testing, and learning as I go - the stuff that might just save another small business owner a few headaches (or a few hours lost to Canva).

If you’re at the start or somewhere in the middle of your own build, this is for you.

(If you missed how it all began, catch up in Season 2, Issue 1: The Epiphany to Pivot.)

Season #2 | Issue 7: The Year I Found Myself Again

This year started like any other.

School runs.
Work.
Life.
The usual juggle.

And quietly, behind the scenes, I was already building The Mama Assembly into something new.

But underneath all of that, something was shifting.

Not mysterious.
Not abstract.
I knew exactly what it was:

Redundancy was brewing. And in June, it arrived.

And strangely… so did I.

Before I go on, let me be clear:

I did enjoy my role over the years.
I had a brilliant team.
We did meaningful work together, and I wish them nothing but continued success.
My feelings weren’t about the people. They were about a season ending — a chapter I could feel closing long before the paperwork arrived.

And because I could feel it, my project-manager brain switched on early.

I started quietly pivoting The Mama Assembly back in January.
Not out of fear, but preparation.

We analyse risk for a living.
We see patterns before they crack.
We don’t get caught off guard — we build contingency plans in our sleep.

So I built mine.

I laid the groundwork. I stabilised the foundation. I prepared so that if the moment came, I wouldn’t fall — I would transition.

And when the call finally happened?

There was no dramatic collapse.
No panic.
No “what do I do now?” moment.

My husband sits opposite me in our study, and he heard the whole call — I didn’t even have my earbuds in. As soon as I cheerfully welcomed HR to the call and joked, “These calls are normally fun!”, he stood up, looked right at me and mouthed, “Is this it?”

I quietly nodded.
Tried to hide the grin.
And felt the weight of waiting finally lift.

I actually skipped out of that HR meeting.

Closed the call, opened my personal laptop, and threw myself straight into The Mama Assembly while my husband grabbed his keys and went to buy a bottle of champagne.

He even asked, “Are you at least going to take the rest of the afternoon off?”

And I responded, “There’s no time. I can go full throttle — I've got lots to do.”

It didn’t feel like loss.
It felt like alignment.
Like the universe slid the door open and said, “Go. Build the thing.”

It was the cleanest break I never knew I needed.
And that’s when everything shifted — not into fear, but into possibility.

This wasn’t just a career ending. It was a return.

I didn’t realise how much of myself I’d slowly handed away until the moment I finally got it back.

This was the year I found myself again — the version who takes up space, follows sparks, tries new things, and reinvents herself for the sheer joy of it.

This year, I:

built a community of midlife legends reinventing themselves
expanded my network with people who now feel like lifers
built products, experiments, ideas — and fell back in love with the creative process
shared more chaos than I thought anyone needed
became a TikTok creator… then a TikTok creator with an agent
launched a YouTube channel
rediscovered my energy, humour, voice and joy
became lighter, calmer, bolder, freer
and actually started enjoying myself again

As I wrap Season 2, here are four things I’m taking into 2026:

1. When you feel something coming, trust yourself.
Your body knows before the meeting invite arrives.

2. The bang isn’t the end, it’s the beginning.
The moment everything falls apart can be the moment you fall back into place.

3. Midlife reinvention is for everyone.
Anyone waking up to the fact they’ve disappeared into roles they never meant to stay stuck inside.

4. Allow more. Force less.
I just bought The Let Them Theory for Christmas (from Santa, obviously).

That’s my 2026 energy:

Let people be who they are.
Let situations unfold.
Let yourself enjoy things again.
Let life be easier.
Let the next version of you arrive naturally.

If you’re heading into a Christmas break or shutdown, here’s your prompt:

You already know if something is shifting in your world.
You already feel the rumble long before anything is officially said.
Don’t ignore it.

If you feel something coming, prepare now.

Start the business.
Scale the side hustle.
Launch the idea.
Learn the skill.
Create the plan that lets you pivot without panic.

Set yourself up so that when your moment arrives, you can turn one laptop off, put it in a box, and power up the next.

This isn’t fear.
This is sovereignty.
This is owning your next chapter.

No one is coming to save you — but you are more than capable of saving yourself.

I’ll be roaming the beautiful North Island of New Zealand with my family — reading my book, breathing deeply, gathering stories.
Telling my hubby where to park, soaking in hot springs and catching up with friends I haven’t seen since we tore up Dublin in the early 2000s.

And when I get back?

Season 3 of No Filter Fridays begins.

There’s a brand-new chapter waiting for me — quietly signed, deeply exciting, and unfolding behind the scenes. I can’t wait to share more when the time is right.

Plus… I’m teaming up with a dear friend to bring something special to life in the new year. We’ve been dreaming it up for months, and 2026 is when it finally arrives — honest, lively and a little unhinged in the best possible way.

Big change.
Big energy.
New work.
New stories.
New adventures.
Same unfiltered honesty.

Thank you for being here — for reading, sharing, commenting, cheering and quietly nodding along.

Building this in public has been one of the greatest gifts of my year.

Season 3 launches when I’m back from New Zealand.
See you then.

Gill x

Fuelled by caffeine, curiosity, and occasionally vodka.

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If You’re Curious What I Actually Did This Week…

(Warts, wins and midlife magic below 👇)

🧩 This week I:

prepped, designed and finalised the Season 2 Finale across Substack, LinkedIn and the blog
updated brand imagery, templates and overlays ready for 2026
cleaned and aligned my social bios (again — because it never ends)
filmed and posted fresh TikToks while managing the end-of-school-year chaos
grew TikTok by 11 followers and YouTube by 3 (small but mighty energy)
juggled holiday prep, packing lists and last-minute Christmas admin
refined my Substack structure and set up my new 2026 flow
ended the year with 25,300 TikTok views and 18,600 YouTube views
kept building The Mama Assembly ecosystem with alt-text, images, workflows and invisible creator labour
planned the big announcements coming for January
survived school events, family planning, a mountain of laundry and one too many errands
made progress — even on the small days, the busy days, the “life is a circus” days

Honestly?
I’m thriving. And I’m moving.

Because once you start showing up — even imperfectly, even mid-chaos — you realise you’re not the only one plotting something big.

📊 WOW (Week on Week) Summary

A little peek behind the curtain at what shifted this week across my channels.

LinkedIn is quietly growing, TikTok is doing TikTok things, Pinterest is asleep, and YouTube decided to wake up and choose violence with a 999% spike.

+4 followers (slow and steady, midlife-creators unite)
+2,278 post impressions (apparently my chaos resonates 😂)
+2 company page followers
+5 No Filter Fridays subscribers (hi, friends 🧡)
+13 newsletter views
–5 company visitors (probably my fault — I’ve been talking more than linking and I've moved most of my content to my personal page)