Building Eighth Era: Starting Again at 44

At 44, I’m starting again. It’s not exactly where I thought I’d be, if I’m honest.

A year ago, I was starting a completely different business and building something I really believed in. We built a team, grew an Instagram audience to 25,000, had posts regularly going viral and created some work I was incredibly proud of. From the outside, it probably looked pretty good.

Until it all fell apart.

There are parts of that story I’m not ready to share publicly, and honestly, the internet isn’t the place for airing dirty laundry. But what happened next has changed the way I think about business, success and, probably most importantly, trusting myself. So, to explain Eighth Era, I need to go back a little further.

I started my first business because I wanted a different life

I started working for myself in 2021, when my son was 18 months old. I’d gone back to my corporate marketing career after having him, but I knew I needed something different.

I wanted flexibility, but ultimately, what I really wanted was freedom. I wanted to be more present as a mum and to build a career around my life, rather than constantly trying to squeeze my life around a career. I also wanted my son to grow up seeing his mum go after her dreams, even when it was scary.

So I did. And the funny thing is, I actually built the thing I’d wanted.

I found brilliant clients, built a reputation, hired brilliant women, made decent money and created more flexibility for my family. I built a business I was incredibly proud of, by myself and with zero outside investment. I’d already proved that I could do it.

But somewhere along the way, I think I stopped believing that was enough.

Somewhere along the way, I stopped trusting myself

I started to think I needed someone else to build the next version with me. Someone who could do the things I thought I couldn’t and, maybe if I’m really honest with myself, someone who could validate that I was actually capable of doing this.

Turns out, I didn’t.

Unfortunately, that’s a lesson I learned the hard way. I’m not going to go into the details here. There are other people involved, and some things simply don’t belong on a public blog. But I will share the lesson I’ve taken from it: trust your gut. Trust your instincts. Trust yourself.

Don’t second-guess yourself simply because someone else seems more convincing. You probably know more than you think you know. I wish I’d remembered that.

There was a point when I thought I might be done

This summer, there was a point when I genuinely wondered whether I was done. Maybe I should go and get a proper job. Maybe I should just stop trying so hard.

And honestly? There was something very appealing about the idea of a salary landing in my bank account every month and somebody else worrying about where the next client was coming from. I even found myself scrolling through LinkedIn looking at jobs.

But I couldn’t shake the feeling that I wasn’t finished. Not even close. Because despite everything, I still bloody love what I do.

I love getting inside someone’s business and understanding their vision for what they’re trying to build. I love figuring out the brand, the message and the marketing that makes sure the right people know just how good they are. And I love taking all the stuff swirling around in someone’s head and turning it into something that makes sense.

I wasn’t ready to give that up.

So, at 44, I’m starting again

And yes, there’s a part of me that finds that embarrassing. Another business? Another launch? Honestly, I’ve given myself the ick at points. 😂

But I keep reminding myself of something:

I’m not starting from nothing. I’m starting from experience.

I’m starting with 20+ years in marketing, brilliant and loyal clients, an incredible little team, relationships I’ve built over years and people who’ve referred me, recommended me and trusted me with their businesses. I’m also starting with a frankly ridiculous number of lessons from the things that didn’t work.

Maybe that’s the difference between starting again in your twenties and starting again in your forties. You’re not actually starting again. You’re taking everything you’ve learned with you.

I know what I want this time

The last few months have forced me to think quite hard about what success actually looks like to me, and I’m much clearer now.

I want to do brilliant work with good, nice, value-aligned people. I want clients we genuinely like working with and who genuinely value what we do. I want to build something profitable and ambitious without pretending money is the only measure of whether it’s working. I want to work with brilliant women and help create opportunities for them too.

I want better boundaries and to be able to walk away from things that don’t feel right. And yes, I still want to do school drop-off and pick-up every day, because unfortunately the corporate world still isn’t particularly well designed for that.

I don’t want to build the biggest business I possibly can. I want to build a really good business that gives me a life I actually want to live.

Why Eighth Era?

Over the years, I’ve been through quite a few versions of myself: Corporate Claire, new-mum Claire, freelance Claire, business-owner Claire, moved-across-the-world-to-Canada Claire. And now this one.

It’s all an evolution. I think we’re allowed to change, to outgrow things, to make decisions we wouldn’t make again, to decide something isn’t working and to get clearer about what we want.

We’re allowed to have eras.

I’m 44 now. Four plus four equals eight, I’m an August baby, and eight has always been a number I’ve loved. And yes, as a Swiftie whose favourite album happens to be Folklore, I am obviously very aware of the eighth-era connection. 😂

It just felt right. Eighth Era is about what comes next.

Welcome to Eighth Era

I’m not relaunching pretending I’ve got everything figured out. I haven’t. I’m still rebuilding and I’m still figuring some of it out as I go. And I actually want to share that part, not just the lovely retrospective version where everything has worked and I can package it neatly into five lessons for Instagram.

I want to share the building, the mistakes and the wins. What works and what doesn’t. The marketing, the boundaries and the things I wish I’d known earlier.

Because building an Instagram account to 25,000 followers very quickly and then losing it even quicker taught me quite a lot about marketing too. And after 20+ years doing this, I’ve got quite a few opinions about where marketing is going next.

So that’s what you’ll find here.

I’m taking the good stuff with me and leaving quite a lot of shit behind. And this time, I’m trusting myself.

Welcome to my next era. Welcome to Eighth Era.

Claire x

Come for the marketing. Stay for the tea.

If you’d like the more personal behind-the-scenes, the things I’m learning as I build Eighth Era, genuinely useful marketing advice and the occasional thing I’m definitely not putting on the internet for everyone to read, join me on email.