Estimated read time: 5 mins

Coming at ya from the dog days

Or maybe the edge of them.

That strange late-summer place where everything feels a little melted, the schedule has lost its spine, for some reason you have a horrendous upper respiratory apocalypse going down and your business can somehow be both too quiet and too loud at the exact same time.

I’ve written 39 pages of notes to myself in the past month.

Not journal entries, morning pages, or an elegant little creative practice with a linen notebook and my favorite pen.

More like: one woman, several documents, a mildly haunted nervous system, and the recurring suspicion that if she does not write the truth down immediately, she will forget it again by lunch.

Because this is something I am learning about myself.

I forget.

Not in the cute “where are my keys?” way (though I do that a lot…) 

In the expensive business way.

What you’ll learn in this article:

🍵💲Business amnesia is expensive and busyness disguises forgetting as responsibility

🍵💲September feels more like the real new year than January

🍵💲A question I’m bringing into this next season that you might be too

The Tea: business amnesia and the second new year

I forget what I already know.

I forget what I’m building toward.

I forget which problems are real and which ones are just wearing a convincing costume.

I forget what actually moves the business because busyness is very good at disguising itself as responsibility.

And then, when the noise chills out, I have to reorient.

Again.

Like 50 First Dates, but instead of Drew Barrymore waking up to a sweet video tape, it’s me waking up to a Google Drive full of strategic documents named FINAL final for real this time, trying to piece together what Past Chanti thought we were doing here. 

The dog days of summer have a special talent for this.

(Side note: did you know the dog days of summer officially run from July 3 to August 11? The name actually comes from Sirius, the Dog Star rising in the summer sky ✨) 

Everything gets a little soft around the edges. The schedule melts. Children require things. Clients require things. The inbox develops sentience. The world is hot and weird and apocalypse level smokey and somehow everyone is both out of office and urgently needing something.

And if you’re a business owner, it’s very easy to enter a season like that with a clear intention and exit it with seventeen tabs open in your soul.

You meant to focus on the offer.

But then the funnel needed fixing.

You meant to build the audience.

But then the content plan got wrangly

You meant to write the emails.

But then AI changed everything, again, allegedly, according to a man on the internet with a microphone and one facial expression.

You meant to make the next clean move.

But the amnesia had you in its special brand of vice grip… 

Researching.

Rewriting.

Renaming.

Reconsidering.

Rebuilding the business in your head while doing the dishes.

Hypothetically.

Obviously I know nothing about this.

Anyways, I’m tired of forgetting. Hence the extensive NOTES TO SELF. And with September right around the corner, reality comes creeping back in slowly and then all at once. 

A month that, for me, has always felt more like the new year than January.

January wants a vision board, stashes of green juice, a gym membership, and a complete personality transplant before the Ferrero Rochers have even left the building.

September is different.

September has pencils ✏️✏️✏️ 

September says, kindly but firmly: Okay babe, what are we actually doing?

And I think that question matters more this year.

Because a lot of us are not simply choosing between marketing tactics.

We are trying to make sense of businesses that were built for a slightly different internet.

An internet where organic reach felt more generous, looksmaxxing wasn’t a thing, and information was enough to build an expert business on. 

Now?

Generic information is everywhere.

AI can help us make more stuff, faster, which is both useful and horrifying depending on what we point it at.

The thing I keep coming back to in my 39 pages of mildly unhinged but ultimately useful notes is this:

Most business problems get worse when we forget what kind of problem we are solving and the time it takes to solve it. 

A positioning problem will not be fixed by posting harder.

An offer problem will not be fixed by adding a webinar.

A visibility problem will not be fixed by rewriting your About page for the ninth time and calling it “alignment.”

A business model problem will not be fixed by making a cuter lead magnet.

An audience problem will not be fixed by learning one more AI tool unless the tool is pointed at a real system.

And a “what the hell do I do next?” problem will definitely not be fixed by opening another blank Google Doc titled New Business Direction.

The danger of a season of forgetting is not that you do nothing.

It’s usually the opposite.

You do many things.

Small things. Useful-looking things. Plausible things.

You answer messages, tweak pages, listen to podcasts, save posts, make lists, rename concepts, tell yourself you are “getting clarity.”

And sometimes you are.

But sometimes you’re just staying close enough to the work to feel responsible, while avoiding the decision that would actually create movement.

That distinction is rude…But helpful.

So this is the question I am bringing into September:

What is the next move that actually moves the business?

Not the move that gives me a little dopamine because it lets me become a new woman with a new color palette.

The move that moves the business. Maybe that looks like… 

💸 Selling the offer you keep overthinking.

📣 Choosing a visibility system that does not depend on the algorithm waking up generous.

🧾 Making the sales page clear enough that a stranger understands why they should care.

🧲 Turning attention into email subscribers, leads, buyers, relationships, or proof — not just another post that gets polite little applause and dies in 36 hours.

🧹 Pruning the 14 things you are “almost ready” to launch before they form a small government.

🤖 Or admitting you have been learning AI, content strategy, nervous system regulation, launch planning, and pricing psychology because each one feels easier than asking:

What do I actually need to sell, to whom, and why now?

A charmingly brutal question.

And because I know I’m not the only one standing at the edge of September with a business full of tabs, I’m opening a few spots for a spicy 1:1 convo on exactly this. 

Aptly titled, Your Next Move Intensives. 

They are the antidote to the amnesia if you don’t feel like 39 pages of notes is your flavor of progress. 

Bring me the mess.

I’ll help you find the actual constraint, sort the useful ideas from the expensive distractions, and leave you with the clearest money-making next move I can see from where you are.

I’ll send the details next week.

For now, I want to ask you the same question I am asking myself:

What are you unwilling to let yourself forget the focus is? 

Hit reply and tell me.

The move you suspect matters but have not wanted to look directly in the eye.

I’m reading.

And apparently, I’m taking notes 📝

Sip on this…  

🧋 Only 2.2% is crazy y’all. Between me and my hubs we’ve got like 7.

🧋Crazy article on how quickly solopreneur businesses are multiplying much faster than employer ones. The percentage of solopreneurs generating more than $1M, $5M, or $10M in annual revenue roughly doubled between 2023 and 2025.

🧋CLAPPING FOR YOU 👏👏👏 

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