The Countrywoman’s Guide to Work, Life & You…

Some of you will know me as Emma from Countrywoman’s Guide, but in my day job, I’m MD of Hiho Silver, I run Dimpsey Somerset (shepherd huts on our farm), I do the business development and marketing for Blackdown Shepherd Huts (who build beautiful shepherd huts) and I also mentor another growing hospitality business.
As a family, we also have a farm business that our eldest son and his girlfriend are starting, so for him I am currently website designer and marketeer. We have a second son who has just graduated and lots of dogs, cats and various farm animals.
I know it sounds a lot, but in the middle of all of this, I also manage to find some time for myself.
But it hasn’t always been like this, I worked up until eight days after our first son was due (he arrived two days later - what was I thinking of?), I was back at work for my first Board meeting ten days after having a Caesarean (utterly stupid of me) and eventually jumped out of my corporate manufacturing job a year after my second son was born, because my long hours meant I wasn’t seeing my boys.
Then I started my own business and the hours started creeping up again, but you can’t just stop when you’re establishing your business.
So I knew that something had to give, and managing time better was my way of achieving it. But how could I actually do that?
I see so many women struggling with this and always feeling like they’re falling short and in the wrong place at the wrong time, running here and there and pleasing nobody, least of all themselves.
A lot of the time, these ladies don’t lack capability, but with every single minute of their day filled, they don’t think they have the capacity to change anything.
They keep adding things to their lists of things they are responsible for and to make things worse, the voices in their head admonish them and tell them that they’re not doing well enough.
So they keep on, keeping on and the situation gets worse and feels even more overwhelming.
The continuation of that story is often burnout and having hit that wall early in my career, I know that is not a good place to be.
So I developed a way of working that lets me live my life alongside running my businesses and have some time for me.
This is why we always introduce our podcast as helping you to live life well and do business better, because my life mantra is that both are possible - they’re not mutually exclusive statements.
At times, the life bit takes priority over the business and at other times it’s the other way round, but work/life integration works.
But you have to be disciplined enough to take the time to change the way you work.
I’m sharing the behind the scenes of how to move towards working like this with our paid members, and in today’s podcast I share some of those tips with you too.
We start with making sure that you are spending time where it matters and adding value when you spend your time on something.
Again, having the time to delegate even small jobs, seems like an impossibility sometimes, so in our group, we talk about how you can make that work, sharing tips and ideas.
Then, over the next few months, we’re going to get clear on your values as a decision making tool, the importance of knowing where you’re going and how to focus on getting there, as well as actually harvesting the money your business ideas.
If this sounds like it would be helpful to you too, then please do join us by hitting the subscribe button below and upgrading to our paid membership.
If it’s not for you at the moment, then take a listen to this podcast as I’m sure you’ll find it helpful in some way or another.
As always, thank you for reading and thank you for listening.

Join our growing Community of people who value building a business that fits your life, rather than a life that fits in round your business.



Get full access to A Countrywoman’s Guide to Work and Life at countrywomansguide.substack.com/subscribe

As we find ourselves midway through September and settling into the rhythms of the month, we wanted to take a moment to look ahead at the last quarter of the year and share with you three suggestions for how you can make the last few months of 2026 brilliant ones.
This stage of the year can often feel just as daunting as the beginning. You find yourself looking back at the things you haven’t ticked off your list yet, wondering where the year has gone, mourning summer’s long evenings and warmer days, while also starting to dread the inevitable wind, rain and shorter days heading your way. It can be very easy to look at September as the point where the year starts running out.
But what if you looked at it differently?
This episode explores ways of enjoying the last quarter of the year and taking the load off as we approach the busy time of Christmas.
Why not join our growing Community of people who value building a business that fits your life, rather than a life that fits in round your business.

Photography credits: Jake Eastham, Kate Cullen, Rachel Collins, Matt Sweeting


Get full access to A Countrywoman’s Guide to Work and Life at countrywomansguide.substack.com/subscribe

Here at CWG, we’ve had a busy old few weeks. With visits to the Game Fair and Defender Burghley Horse Trials and the launch of our Countrywoman paid membership, it doesn’t feel like our feet have touched the ground really.
The Game Fair is one of our favourite events and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Clear Scribbles, Charlotte Hurst and I went up on the day for Friday and it totally lived up to its reputation as a proper country day out. We’ve got a post coming up covering it in more detail very soon and have secured podcast dates to share some great brands we discovered.
Burghley Horse Trials is one of the premier events of the Equestrian Eventing calendar, with its elite 5* eventing competition and an extensive shopping village. Charlotte and I went up to Stamford for a few days to see all the action. It’s always a treat to be there with our Hiho Silver stand, and getting to see all the horses and competitors up close when Hiho judges at the Fairfax & Favor Best dressed at the First trot-up.
On August 5th, we launched our Countrywoman paid membership. It’s something we’ve talked about for some time, and hitting 50 podcasts recently really spurred us on.
Our intent for the meeting was to invite you to pull up a chair at our virtual kitchen table, (it’s very much come as you are), and start creating a Community of like-minded business women, Women juggling a lot, getting it wrong sometimes, getting it right sometimes and often feeling that they’re never quite in the right place - guilt trips about being at work and missing out on family life, then going home and having a guilt trip about not being at work!
We’re going to be meeting up once a month for an hour online and are hatching plans to meet up in real life at Countrywoman events.
It’s all about creating a group of women who look out for, support and cheer for each other. Women who want to run a business that fits their life, that they can be ambitious about, but then still have the time to enjoy their lives and their families.
For the record, it doesn’t matter how experienced you are, it’s always daunting starting something new. Over the years I’ve learnt to go into groups I’m facilitating with a topic and knowledge that I want to share, but then to be brave enough to let the room take over, and the ladies who joined the Community didn’t let me down.
I was there to go through my ADD Time Method, it’s a system that helps you free up some time in your busy days, and then look at how we can use that time usefully to add value or joy into our days.
But once we were all on the same page for the possibilities of creating more time for ourselves, the conversation in the room opened up so much wisdom and gradually, through their own supportive comments and ideas, the ladies in the room helped each other come to realise that often they were the blocks to their own liberation.
We talked about why “nobody will do it as well as me” keeps so many of us doing things we shouldn’t still be doing.
About the difference between something being done our way and being done perfectly well by somebody else.
About how doing something quicker because we came up with a better system often leads us to think we should charge less for it, rather than realising we can add more value for our client if we’re not spending hours doing tasks that don’t really add value.
Above everything else, the power of the women in the room meant that we all left that call feeling a little bit less lonely and a lot more supported.
It was a really uplifting and insightful session, I cover all this and more in the podcast so please do take a listen when you have a moment.
Join our growing Community of women who value building a business that fits your life, rather than a life that fits in round your business.

If you’re interested in more information about our Countrywoman Membership, take a look at our post explaining all about here.


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We asked the CWG team a question this week.
What are the best words of encouragement you’ve ever been given?
Why? Because today is National Encouragement Day. A bit cliché, we know, but it also feels like a rather good excuse to stop for a moment and think about something we believe in all year round.
Encouragement can come in all sorts of forms. It might be someone giving you the confidence to just go for it, a nudge when you’ve found yourself stuck, or simply a reminder that you’re actually doing a pretty good job (even when you’re struggling to believe it yourself). We’ve all experienced the difference a few well-chosen words of encouragement can make.
The funny thing about encouragement is that we often don’t realise just how much the words we hear can stay with us. A sentence said in passing can become something you come back to years later, right at the moment you need it most, or at a time when someone else needs to hear them to.
So, in honour of this day and the reminder it’s given us of the power of encouragement, we asked the women behind CWG to share the words that have stayed with them.
Emma
“Boldness has a genius and magic to it, whatever you can do or dream, you can do. Begin it now.”
Emma’s quote comes from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and, although the wording may be slightly paraphrased, it’s one she has carried with her since she was around 19.
There’s something very Emma about that idea of simply beginning. Not waiting until everything is perfectly lined up or you feel completely ready, but having the boldness to take the first step and see where it leads.
If you listen to our podcasts, it’s a belief of Emma’s that you’ll notice popping up quite regularly. It’s clearly a sentiment that has stayed with her for a very long time.
Rachel
“If I dismiss the ordinary while waiting for the special, the extreme or the extraordinary to happen, I may just miss my life.”
Rachel is not particularly drawn to the endless stream of national days that seem to fill the calendar, although she’ll happily get behind the more unusual ones!
Her feeling is that encouragement and celebration are at their best when they happen naturally, not because the calendar tells us we should do it. A kind word on an ordinary Tuesday can mean every bit as much as one attached to a particular day.
That feels rather relevant here.
National Encouragement Day might give us a reason to talk about encouragement today, but there’s really no reason it needs to stop there. There is plenty to be said for noticing the ordinary moments too, and remembering that they matter.
Rachel’s words are a lovely reminder of that. A reminder of not being so busy waiting for the big moments that we miss the good things happening in the everyday ones.
Jess
“Anyone can promise you the stars, but only you can reach them.”
Jess admits this one is a little cheesy.
But it’s also one she has never forgotten.
A PE teacher at school said it to her, and over the years it has become a reminder that other people can encourage you, believe in you and tell you that you can do something until they’re blue in the face, but ultimately, you’re the one who has to get up and do it.
It’s a very useful and important distinction don’t you think?
Encouragement can give you the nudge, the confidence or the belief, but nobody else can take the steps for you.
Charlotte
“If it was easy, everyone would do it.”
Charlotte’s is probably the simplest of the four and perhaps not quite as profound as some of the others!
It’s something her parents have said to her throughout her life, at times of trivial teenage tantrums over homework, to university, jobs and plenty of other moments when things have felt difficult. It’s even a phrase she’s reminded herself of when out riding the horses.
What Charlotte likes about it is that it doesn’t try to tell you that something isn’t hard. Quite the opposite. Instead, it acknowledges that sometimes things are hard but that doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong, and it certainly doesn’t mean you should give up. You're just doing something that requires a little extra effort and brain power.
A quote of few words, but a reminder that there’s nothing particularly unusual about finding things difficult. You just have to keep having a go.
Encouragement - it’s not reserved for just one day
Our team’s quotes are all very different, but there’s a common thread running through them.
Encouragement is about giving someone the confidence to begin, reminding them to acknowledge what’s already in front of them, and sometimes it’s a gentle nudge that says you’re the one who has to do this.
These reminders are a big part of what we’re creating here at Countrywoman’s Guide.
We want CWG to be a community that encourages one another. A place to ask a question, share an idea, have a wobble, celebrate something that’s gone brilliantly, or simply hear from someone who has been there before.
You don’t need to be a paid member to be part of that. Our wider community is here every day, and we hope that encouragement is something we all give and receive naturally along the way.
For our members though, they’re part of our inner circle if you will. A circle that gives you a little more. You become part of a group that you can turn to when you need a second opinion, a bit of advice, a cheer from the sidelines or just someone who understands what you’re juggling. A group we could benefit from.
So yes, we’ll happily make the most of National Encouragement Day.
We’re just not planning to stop when the day is over.
Perhaps that’s the nicest thing we can take from it… you never really know when a few words might be exactly what someone else needs to hear.
Over on our Instagram today we’re inviting our community to share their favourite words of encouragement, we’d love you to be a part of it too.

Join our growing Community of people who value building a business that fits your life, rather than a life that fits in round your business..



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What happens when an agriculture graduate decides she doesn’t want to be a farmer, dreams up a fabric business, gets turned down for funding… and ends up becoming a full-time artist instead?
Well, you get Tilly Lock Art.
This week on the Countrywoman’s Guide podcast, Emma sits down with Tilly Lock to talk about the rather unexpected route that took her from studying agriculture and working in interior design to building a creative business of her own.
Tilly had always loved art and design, but it wasn’t initially the plan. After university, she started working for an interior designer and began developing an idea for a fabric business, combining UK-made fabrics with sourced and repurposed antiques.
The problem? Getting fabric made in the UK required a much bigger initial investment than the funding available to her.
So, while trying to bridge that gap, Tilly started selling a few art prints she had originally made for friends. One thing led to another, her Instagram took off, and the art prints gradually became the business.
Just a year and a half later, she has gone from selling prints at £20 village fairs to exhibiting at Badminton and preparing for some of the biggest Christmas shows in the country.
But, as we talk about in the episode, that growth hasn’t exactly been a straight line.
Tilly talks honestly about the reality of building a business while working part-time, training for a marathon and trying to keep everything moving. We talk about burnout, learning to say no, knowing when to invest in the next stage of growth and the slightly daunting realisation that your business has outgrown your parents’ living room.
We also get into one of the less talked-about challenges for creative businesses: copying. Tilly shares what it feels like to see your work reproduced by someone else, the difficulty of protecting creative work and why, ultimately, she has had to learn to stay in her own lane and keep creating.
There’s plenty of practical wisdom in the conversation too, from the value of having a mentor to learning how to do things yourself before handing them over to someone else.
And perhaps one of the biggest takeaways is that you don’t need to have the whole thing figured out before you begin. Tilly certainly didn’t. She followed an opportunity, tested an idea, learned as she went and built something that now looks very different from where she thought she was heading.
It’s an honest conversation about building something of your own, learning as you go and having the confidence to keep moving forward when the path changes underneath you.
Listen to the full episode with Tilly Lock here. 💚
Join our growing Community of people who value building a business that fits your life, rather than a life that fits in round your business.



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