💫 The August Follow-Up
Affirmations, reading recs, and how I'm following through this August
Happy August, my friends!!!
Welcome to The Follow-Up—my way of honoring the past month & looking forward to the month ahead. In it, you’ll find monthly affirmations, media recs, short book reviews, & some other fun surprises.
🔮 Looking Ahead
Hear me out: August is still summer. Idk when we collectively decided it was a fall month, but as someone who lives in a climate with four steady(-ish) seasons, I need us to please reconsider.
As I’m writing this, the air conditioning is blasting, the windows are CLOSED, and the weather is in the eighties with 60% humidity. We literally had a heatwave last week with temps of 100 degrees and higher!
So no, I won’t be caught dead in a cable knit sweater and leggings, sipping a warm PSL in the coming weeks. Absolutely not!
No hate against fall either. It’s my second favorite season (spring is top tier, you can fight me on this). I LOVE going to apple orchards, sipping on a warm bevvie, going trick-or-treating with my niece and nephew, and curling up with the windows open while watching a horror movie.
BUT WE AREN’T THERE YET.
One of the biggest themes in my writing? We need to SLOW TF DOWN. Let summer be summer. Let fall be fall. Enjoy things NOW, instead of rushing toward some mythical future where you’ll finally be able to sit down with a book in the peace and quiet.
(Spoiler alert: you can do that any day but you’re busy doom-scrolling instead).
This August, I BEG you to enjoy the rest of your summer. Fall will be here soon enough and you’ll be wishing you had one last barbecue with your family, one last beach day, one last swim at the pool, basking in the full, beautiful sun.
That’s what I’ll be doing at least. 🌞
Affirmations for August:
✨ I’m allowed to take my time.
✨ My worth is not measured by my productivity.
✨ I’m allowed to feel joy, even when things are uncertain.
✨ I don’t need to do everything at once.
✨ I attract opportunities that align with who I truly am.
✨ I release the need to prove myself to anyone.
✨ I can hold both gratitude and desire. I can be content and still want more.
✨ I trust the divine timing of my life.
✨ I am becoming the version of myself I used to dream about.
🐌 How I’m following through
Honestly, July has been a whirlwind of a month! I’m so excited for all of the things coming in August, and I’m so proud of all the hard work and dedication to my writing and creative endeavors I put in during July!
This was definitely a month of putting in the reps, but it’s paying off in some huge ways! I recently broke 100 subscribers on Substack, which is truly unfathomable to me. Each time I try to picture you all in a room, my hands get all sweaty. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.
I’ve been using my Freewrite Traveler to push through my own over-thinking and get my first draft of Project Ivy written. It’s been so helpful, and I’m a little embarrassed by how little I’ve used it up to this point. Almost every word of Project Ivy started as a VERY messy first draft on my Traveler. Definitely a worthwhile purchase! (not sponsored)
I launched my first official design offer for all my Substack queens (in my head, this term is genderless, but please feel free to replace with your desired title). This was a LOT of work, and I want to thank
for pushing me to get it done fast. Overthinking is so easy when it comes to creating a sales page, but with a tight deadline, I was able to get a first draft finished in a couple days, and I’m pretty happy with the result, not gonna lie!👀 Are you a Substack writer who wants to spend more time writing and less time marketing?
This month, I’m offering a limited number of Substack branding packages at a special beta rate—designed to help your publication look as thoughtful and cohesive as your writing feels.
The launch happened alongside Halima announcing the rebrand we collaborated on for her lovely Substack publication
. Make sure to check it out!ALSO, something that was NOT on my 2025 vision board? I’m going to be hosting a few co-working club sessions for my faves MJ Mayes & Anna Seirian of Internet People this coming month!
Literally no words for how excited and grateful I am for this! I’ve been a huge fan of their podcast since the very beginning, and over the past few months, we’ve been friendly on Substack & Instagram. So weird thinking back to last year when I simply considered myself a fan of them lol.
I’ll be hosting the following dates/times:
Mon 8/18 @ 1pm - 3pm
Tues 8/19 @ 11am - 1pm
Thurs 8/21 @ 11am - 1pm
If you want to come work with us, you can use the promo FOCUS for 3 free sessions 😏
Here are a few ways I followed through and built my brand in July:
✍️ Creative Work & Consistency
Started taking my thumbnails seriously on Substack
Posted 6 new articles to Substack (8,482 words total?! hello???)
Started a Thursday night writing club called The Nest (I already feel a re-brand coming bc I’m not loving how it fits with my general aesthetic, but fuck it we ball)
Shared my first two excerpts for Project Ivy on Instagram!
Hit 15k on my draft for Project Ivy (my goal is 40k next month because I’m fueled by my own delusions)
💼 Professional Growth
Continued applying to jobs and networking
Had a very exciting interview (more details to come 🤞🏼)
Launched my official Substack Branding Kit offer
Collaborated on 2 Substack refreshes that launched this month: & 💖💫
🌿 Personal Follow-Through
Spent a week with my in-laws in California—it’s always so nice to see family, and I’m so grateful we’ve been able to see them more this year!
Spent more time out of the house and at my public library
Continued being intentional about screen time & maintaining a clean & tidy home 🏡
What are your goals for August, and how are you planning to follow through? Drop them in the comments if you’re craving a little extra accountability. You got this. Remember, slow and steady.
BINGO Check-In:
✅ went on a road trip (a short-ish one, but I feel like 4 hours in a car counts!)
✅ went on a weekend trip to Sausalito with my wife and in-laws
I updated one of my more material goals since the piece of furniture I had my eye on at the beginning of the year simply doesn’t make sense at the house we moved to. Instead, I’m really hoping to go to NYC this fall to see one of my favorite creators, Dylan Mulvaney in her new one-woman show.
I’ll need to bust my ass to save up for this and finish paying off my credit cards (we’re getting so close 😭), but it’s super important to me, so if I need to take up dog-walking, food delivery, and nannying it’ll be worth it. 💖
If you don’t know about the BINGO project, check out my article: Channeling radical acceptance in the new year, where I go into detail on the project and how I set it up. ⭐️
📖 Book Nook
2025 Reading Goal Update: 15/24
In July, I read…
It Had to Be You by Georgia Clark — Fun fact, this book was a huge inspiration for Project Ivy! It’s actually what initially got my wheels spinning about a wedding ensemble romance. Unfortunately, I really loved the first few chapters of this book, but by the end, it fell very flat. My general issue was the author tried to follow too many people (5 love stories, 10 POVs) in a single book. It’s an admirable goal, but it caused the book to feel a bit shallow. I didn’t get to spend enough time with any of the characters for them to have the level of depth I usually prefer. It DID give me a ton of ideas for Project Ivy, though, and for that I’m endlessly grateful!
Rating: ⭐⭐💫 (2.5)
Would I recommend it? Unfortunately, no 🥲
If you’d like more regular updates on my reading journey, you can add me on Fable!
🌟 Hyper-fixations
Dianna Lopez creates these INCREDIBLE soundscape videos on YouTube, and I have them on in the background all the time. So good for nervous system regulation, especially while doing focused work or meditations.
Lila Rose has the coolest device that translates plants’ bioelectrical activity into sound. I feel like a magical fairy watching her videos, and now I know what roses sound like!!
Conan Gray’s new song Vodka Cranberry has been on repeat. I’d like to take a moment to apologize to my wife who’s likely hear me listen to it over a hundred times this month 🥲
My favorite podcast Internet People is back after a well-deserved break, and I’m so happy! I’ve missed hearing my faves
& yap💖
💾 Save these for later
💖 how to stop waiting for your life to begin by
💖Life has been an amalgamation of I’ll do it later’s: goals that become a series of procrastinated daydreams that never seem to come to an end, wishful thinking that never blossoms into action, and plans that falter before they truly begin.
A really thoughtful reflection on all of the lofty goals we have. If we want to achieve that dream life, we need to slow down and stop comparing ourselves to strangers online.
💖 Why do you want what you want? by
💖Ugh this one was SO GOOD. Lexi discusses the obsession with vision boards, trends, and the dissonance between who Instagram makes us thing we should be vs. who we actually want to be. It’s a really thoughtful take on deep values work through the lens of Pinterest and manifestation.
💖 10 things I’d tell you about Substack if I wasn’t afraid to hurt your feelings by
💖There are so many good pull quotes for this article, I don’t even know where to start. If you’ve felt stuck with your Substack, stagnant growth, or are just curious about Anna’s takes on being a woman online, this is such a good place to start. Anna insists, “You’ve got to be someone who believes in what they have to say, says it with their whole chest, and isn’t scared to publish it on the Internet.” I wholeheartedly agree.
💖 Learning to Be A Beginner: An 8-Week Experiment in Overcoming Perfectionism by
💖Whewww, is it difficult to be a beginner at something, when all your life, your sense of worth has come from being the best.
Danielle has been exploring the concept of imperfect beginnings through her new 8-week experiment on overcoming perfectionism. As a fellow perfectionist, I really relate to this project and love to follow along as Danielle tries new things!
💖 what’s in a name? by
💖Every author knows the struggle of naming your characters! If you’ve ever scrolled on babynames.com, I have a feeling you’ll really enjoy this reflective take on the importance of names and tips on intentionally naming your characters.
💖 What they don’t tell you about writing a book by
💖Writing a book is HARD, okay??? Halima dissects her experience of writing her first novel with grace and humor in this sweet essay.
If you made it this far, enjoy this playlist I made, perfect for road trips and a day at the beach 🌊🌞
That’s all for now! Thank you so much for reading. Can’t wait to yap again on Thursday 💙
Feel like you’re missing something? Catch up on last month’s content! 👇🏻
You did an INCREDIBLE job with the Substack rebrands! And YES to enjoying summer and letting season finish their time.
Letting ourselves slow down >>>> I love this piece!! Thank you for sharing with us all your goals, progress, and follow through ☺️ you’re so inspirational I love it here!! Here’s to enjoying summer 🥂