My mid-year 2026 business reset (where the hell have I been?)
No, I haven’t retired to Thailand just yet.
In fact, I haven’t been anywhere. I simply haven’t wanted to take on new clients, and I certainly haven’t wanted to do any marketing. This year, I needed a complete 2026 business reset because running my online operations had started to feel like a relentless hamster wheel.
I have spent decades working online every single day in the web space. We are talking Monday to Friday, early morning until late at night, and often right through the weekends.
Lately, I found myself wanting to do something, anything, away from being at my desk online and indoors. It has become a loop of: new client, onboarding, execute, offboarding, find a new client, repeat. Marketing, posting, pitching, round and round.
Digital work is pretty much all I have ever known, apart from working in my and my family’s hospitality businesses.
I have been using AI for years, but now that everyone is on the bandwagon using AI to diagnose everything, I have been finding things frustrating, as self-diagnosis isn’t always the correct diagnosis. I grew tired of reading the AI responses in Facebook groups where everyone is sounding like an ‘expert’ in everything. I was finding the online space boring and monotonous.
With so much AI marketing slop flooding the internet, I was feeling over it, so I decided to step off for a bit, take a deliberate break, and begin my own transition.
I haven’t posted on socials at all this year. I have written a couple of blog posts, quietly rebranded, and spent months perfecting a new service, but I simply wasn’t feeling the drive to shout about it.
Instead, I chose to focus on other parts of my life, spending time with family and exploring alternative revenue streams in areas I enjoy, rather than keeping all my focus on tech.
But with the start of the new Australian financial year, it feels like the logical moment to step back into the light. It is the perfect time for a clean marketing and 2026 business reset.
If you are wondering why I’ve been so quiet, it is simply because I haven’t been actively taking on new client work.
Here is exactly what has been keeping me occupied in 2026:
First, I started learning how to garden late last year. Having a physical, outdoor activity made me realise how much I actually want to spend less time indoors. Best of all, I am learning a skill that isn’t technical. Plants grow at a slow, natural pace, which is a beautiful contrast to a technology industry that changes every five minutes.
Second, I have been volunteering with Living Connected, a brilliant organisation where I help over-50s navigate their digital devices. I think it’s funny that I am over 50 and could technically be a client myself, haha!
I turned my home into an operational system, and it was a mountain of work!
For the past few years, I have thought about listing my home as an Airbnb and flying back to Thailand.
With all the changes to the digital space and AI taking over so many jobs, I thought, why not try Airbnb and move in with family for a bit?
It sounds so simple, but it wasn’t for me, as I am a person who needs to research and know all the things before I can move forward.
To change my home to a short-term rental, I needed to research the legal, insurance, and tax implications, and so much more. It is not just about taking pretty photos and buying nice linen. There are so many logistics.
I watched all the YouTube channels, listened to the podcasts, and treated the project the same way I treat every business I work on.
First, I created the brand. Then, I mapped out the workflow. Finally, I configured the technology, including setting up an AI agent to handle the heavy lifting.
I took the images, wrote the marketing material, worked out pricing, handled the logistics, and figured out how to manage my schedule whilst also self-managing the property. After two months, I am finally getting into the swing of things, but it took so much more time than I ever imagined it would.
I styled the space, organised detailed inventory lists, coordinated real-world logistics, and engineered guest communication pipelines so everything runs automatically on autopilot. It forced me to look at my own physical home through the analytical lens of a systems architect.
It is exhausting, hands-on work, but also rewarding. I have always enjoyed hospitality, so I love providing guests with a memorable experience. It brings me joy when I receive their feedback. I am someone who needs to excel at things, and so far, it seems I am. It’s a logical structure, just the same as all the work I do.
There are analytics, data, and an algorithm, all things that I have worked with for a very long time.
I have worked with high-end accommodation providers in the past, so I was able to bring that experience to my own accommodation.
I started developing a custom short-term rental platform
Naturally, as a tech specialist, I couldn’t just list my property on a third-party application and leave it at that.
So, I did what any developer would do. I built myself a website (shoalhavenshortstay.com.au) and added a digital welcome book with maps and all kinds of things on it for my guests.
As I was researching and setting up my own property, I noticed it wasn’t as simple as I thought to set up all the things, find all the services and products I needed, and I also didn’t particularly like the 15% service fee going to an overseas company.
Whilst I am good at tech, there was so much that wasn’t clear and that I found confusing. Luckily, I had an awesome lady from QBE who helped me with my insurance and answered all my questions on accepting direct bookings.
So, I started architecting a custom platform called Shoalhaven Short Stay.
Whilst I used AI to assist me and validate my architectural ideas, let me assure you: this is not some slapdash, vibe-built AI slop. It is a highly robust, dynamic WordPress platform built using the Voxel engine.
I am currently deep in the development phase, using my own home as the ultimate test database. It isn’t live to the public just yet, but we are not far off.
I survived a 6-month retainer with a very challenging client
When I wasn’t working on my own set-ups, the majority of my bandwidth was taken up by a single, highly challenging client. I was acting as the Fractional Tech Partner for a lovely person who, unfortunately, didn’t understand tech or professional boundaries.
I set up their digital infrastructure with an automated booking system, Google Intelligent Workspace set-up, SEO, website, and EDMs, clearing out years of accumulated technical debt and mess.
When I finished up with the client in April, I was mentally drained and needed a break. So for the past two months, I only handled my existing clients’ care plans and edits, and that’s about it.
I needed a recovery block to step away from troubleshooting other people’s problems and focus on myself.
It was the absolute best decision I could have made. Now my work brain is recharged and ready to work with new clients again.
I went back to school with Google
I am not a person who can just sit around, so having no new client work gave me more time to study.
I have been working my way through Google courses as well as testing and playing with AI tools for fun. Whilst I know Claude is in fashion, I am a Google person, so I have been deep-diving into:
I do the daily Google learning so my clients don’t have to!
I am now fully equipped to turn your Google Workspace into a highly intelligent, automated engine that saves you hours of manual work every week.
I rebranded and shifted my entire technical focus
Alongside all of this, I completed a full rebrand, including a new website build and design, and migrated my domain to lara.net.au, as well as my social media and SEO.
For a long time, I have been working with clients’ tech debt. Troubleshooting, Technical SEO, CRO, UX, migrations, audits, integrations, workflows, and systems are things I have done for clients for a long time, and things I study for my own businesses.
I have always helped clients with these things, and then I saw someone on Threads mention what they did, and the rest is history (I wrote about it on my blog: https://lara.net.au/job-title/).
It gave me time to think about the work I love to do and how I could offer a more complete service to help clients navigate the technical side of their business.
But lately, I have felt a strong pull to use my skillset in a slightly different way.
I still love WordPress, but I love systems more. I love data, I love statistics, and I love the highly structured, logical parts of technology. That is where I want my focus to be.
My true strength lies in unravelling, debugging, and fixing other people’s messy technical problems. If your setup is broken, I am here to find the leak and repair the logic. As part of my 2026 business reset, I want to partner with clients who value long-term stability over temporary band-aids.
Put your tech on easy mode for the new financial year
Now that we have entered the new financial year, businesses everywhere are reviewing their spreadsheets to identify where they are wasting money and time.
If your digital systems are currently held together with sticky tape, or you are tired of paying interest on accumulated technical debt, let’s get it sorted.
I am back on the keys and accepting new clients for Fractional Tech Partnerships, Technical Training and Mentoring and WordPress Intensives for the second half of 2026.
Let’s clear the digital noise.
Ready to untangle your tech? Book a Clarity Call, and let’s see if we are a logical fit.
