April News
- 3 hours ago
- 7 min read
"EVERYONE HAS A STORY"
Easter was a great opportunity to take pause and reflect on the first quarter of 2026.
It’s fair to say that an awful lot has happened in the first few months of the year:
On the 12th January I celebrated 1 year of being married. I continue to pinch myself about how lucky I am!
On the 14th January I lost my beautiful Dad. That's left a hole in my life that I'm still coming to terms with.
In February I started with 3 new interior design projects with MR. MITCHELL. Yay!
Mid-February I launched my 2026 Group Coaching Program. What a beautiful bunch of women I have gathered for 2026...
20th - 23rd February I hosted a 3-day Design Retreat in Sydney and Bowral for the members of my 2025 Group Coaching Program. See the above photograph of our group with the beautiful Sarah-Jane Pyke at the Sydney studio of Arent & Pyke.
In March we opened the Waitlist for the return of our much-loved Byron Design Retreat.
Also, a major war has broken out in the Middle East causing much unrest and uncertainty around the world. Just when we got to feel a sense of stability returning, a major global political dispute reminds us how volatile it is to be alive right now.
Throw into the crazy mix is the proliferation of AI and the growing pressure to “adopt or die”, and it’s hard not to feel overwhelmed and anxious about the future.
But, I remind myself, LIFE IS GOOD.
Part of making sense of the chaos in the world, and ensuring it doesn't overwhelm me, or render me feeling powerless, is to consider how I've moved through similar periods of unrest. It helps remind me of my resilience, and of the collective resilience of our Australian community and the wider human race.
It also helps me to focus on the good things I have in my life, to celebrate the wins, and to be grateful for the beautiful people I have around me, including my husband, family, friends, and my special TDC community.
Being the Year of the Horse, I've galloped into lots of creation and progress. It's been wild, I've achieved so much already and there's lots of good things coming. It feels exciting, but sometimes it's a bit exhausting!
Hence stopping to pause, reflect and re-align where necessary. I want to make sure all this positive momentum is controlled, and I'm not being reactive, dragged along by the force of the horse.
For me, the thing that keeps me centred is having a clear focus for the year, one that’s truly aligned with my values and the related overarching missions that sit within my businesses.
That's always about the stuff that's bigger than the work I do. It's about the people in my life.
Ultimately, it's about LOVE and CONNECTION. (Eeeew, so cheesy, I know!)
As I’ve been making plans for our 2027 Byron Design Retreat over the past couple of months, I keep coming back to a handful of lessons that feel especially relevant right now. Lessons that help make sense of the chaos, bring me back to my focus, and gently encourage me to keep-on-keeping-on.
LESSON #1: VALUES ARE MY COMPASS
My personal values are: kindness, connection, generosity, curiosity, adventure.
I like to think that many of these values were passed on to me by my beautiful Dad. The photo above shows him in London, where he was posted on a surgical secondment in the 1970's. He was dedicated to his patients and his country (serving in Vietnam on the frontline as a surgeon), had an adventurous spirit, and was incredibly kind and generous.
When I'm feeling judgement, anger or resentment about the state of the world, I know that I'm not coming from a place of kindness. When I'm feeling fearful about the changes that AI will bring to our world, curiosity leads to me towards investigation and learning.
Sometimes the person who needs the most of my kindness is me. I’m constantly reminding myself not to compare myself to others or judge myself too harshly. I've discovered the massive benefits of being kind to myself, especially when I’m not winning.
LESSON #2: EVERYONE HAS A STORY
The first time I heard this phrase was at our 2022 Byron Retreat, when designer and retreat member Linda Habak shared it openly with the group after a few days of getting to know one another. That phrase has always stayed with me, and it's come to mind many times since.
In February my 2025 Group Coaching Program members came together for our 3 Day Design Retreat in Sydney and Bowral. It’s always such a privilege to spend extended face-to-face time with people we’ve really only known online, to learn about their past, the challenges they've overcome, and the things that bring them immense joy.
Most recently, I was reminded of it when my new 2026 Group Coaching Program members all shared a 3 minute video taking about their stories. It blows my mind how much you can learn about someone in just 3 minutes.
Learning about one another's story is also the "secret sauce" of our Design Retreats.
When we step away from the noise of the everyday, remove ourselves from work, and slow down, we get the chance to hear one another’s stories. The wins, the losses, the triumphs and the defeats. And when we listen carefully, we learn that everyone has faced some kind of hardship. It’s the commonality that ties all of us crazy human beings together.
LESSON #3: RELAX. IT'S MORE FUN THAT WAY.
Since starting TDC (almost 9 years ago), with the many programs, trips and events I offer, I've learned not to stress about things I can't control. My attachment to outcomes almost always ends in some form of suffering. And it always mine.
Our 2022 Byron Design Retreat was a masterclass for me in learning to let go.
Suffice to say, the retreat was a massive success, with many rave reviews from the delegates submitted at the end. But my experience during the actual event was far from enjoyable. It felt like anything that could go wrong went wrong.
After rescheduling the event 3 times over 2 years of Covid, the event finally went ahead in May 2022. The first hiccup was that I was hospitalised with my own (first ever) bout of Covid for 5 days the week before the event!
During the actual event, Byron experienced unprecedented rain and storms, making access to the accommodation and program events complicated and messy.
The healthy "wellbeing" menu I spent 12 months designing with a local nutritionist (think lots of kale and beans) gave everyone uncomfortable levels of gas, and the local caterer almost poisoned our Celiac guests with wheat noodles, then proceeded to have a nervous breakdown. On top of that, I had the crazy idea to restrict wine to the delegates (to just 2 nights out of 6) and the ladies were not happy, to say the least (don't worry, I'll never make that mistake again!).
Once the retreat commenced, all of the above were essentially out of my control, but my attachment to how everything should happen, and how my plans would be received, caused me a great amount of distress and discomfort.
And the crazy thing is, I needn't have worried, because the individual members' experiences were incredible!
Fast forward 18 months to our 2023 Queenstown Retreat, and my approach was transformed, along with my level of enjoyment. "You seem so much more relaxed" was the comment I received from the delegates. And, you know? I actually was.
Did everything go perfectly? No.
Had I done my best? Absolutely.
Did I have a fabulous time? YOU BET!
LESSON #4: FOCUS ON THE WINS
As small business owners, we’re always scrambling over the top of our achievements to set our sights on the next big goal, and I'm no different.
Our brains are naturally wired towards a negative bias, making it far easier to focus on the things that DON'T go well, instead of the things that DO go well. At the 2022 Byron Retreat, so many things were successful.
We had incredible guest speakers (including Dylan and Nicolette Farrell from Dylan Farrell Design and global wellness influencer Gary Gorrow from Soma), had a beautiful Welcome to Country from a local Arakwal member, we visited beautiful private homes, and were treated to private poetry readings everyday by world renowned poet Joel McKerrow. And we laughed, and cried and cemented lifelong friendships.
I was just so focused on the things that were going wrong, I was missing all the things that were going right.
In fact, this newsletter is a celebration of everything TDC has achieved over the past 9 years. And I couldn't be more proud.
LESSON #5: HUMAN CONNECTION IS EVERYTHING!
Research shows that despite all of the digital connection that the 21st Century has provided us, people are more lonely than ever.
In fact, loneliness is now one of the leading causes of mental health conditions in our country. According to a 2025 report by Beyond Blue*, 1 in 3 Australians feel lonely, with 1 in 6 Australians experiencing severe loneliness. Loneliness that causes depression and severe anxiety.
Most of the designers and architects I coach are solo practitioners, and many share with me that one of the biggest challenges they face is isolation.
With advances in AI meaning that we're needing fewer and fewer humans to get our work done, our current trajectory isn't moving us towards more connection, its doing the complete opposite.
Ever since starting The Design Coach in 2017, I've been committed to getting designers together to share and connect.
Every Group Coaching Program involves face-to-face social gatherings and Design Retreats.
Our Masterclass Series (stay tuned for the relaunch in 2026) brings designers and architects together in person to learn from icons in the industry.
And most importantly, our Trips and Retreats bring people together in a way that just can't be replicated digitally:
Hence my ongoing commitment to delivering world-class programs, trips and retreats to ensure our members have access to the most important resource of all: good times with good people.
If you're interested in connecting with a beautiful community of likeminded professionals, you can find out more about our Group Coaching Program, our 2026 Europe Trip (only 2 tickets left) and our soon-to-be released 2027 Byron Design Retreat via the links below.
Until then, be kind and look after each other.
Cheers,
Andrew
*Article Reference: ABC