http://www.freedomwithlouise.com/bio

Louise M Cairns, Branxton (2026)

03/09/2026

If you want a life with more room for the things you love - not one designed entirely around work - we probably have something in common.

I've worked for most of my adult life.

I've built a career, led teams, learnt new skills and worked with some wonderful people along the way.

And I still work.

But work isn't the only thing I care about.

My horses and dogs.

Exercising and staying fit.

Being outdoors.

Travel.

Birds, native plants and the natural environment.

Learning and personal development.

Having time for the people and experiences that matter to me.

For years, though, most of those things had to fit around work.

Want to travel?

Check how much annual leave I have.

Want more time for my horses, family or interests?

Work fewer hours - and usually earn less money.

Want to earn more?

That traditionally means giving more of my time to work.

Eventually I started questioning that trade-off.

Not because I hated my job.

I simply wasn't sure I wanted work to keep having first claim on my time for the rest of my working life.

I'd owned a traditional business before, so I knew that simply working for yourself wasn't necessarily the answer either.

What I wanted was a different way of working.

So I started exploring online business.

Today I'm building my business alongside my job and learning more about digital marketing, business and personal development.

And the more I've explored this path, the clearer I've become about the kind of life I want to build - and the kind of people I want around me.

People who are curious enough to question the way we've always done things.

People who take responsibility for their lives.

Who are willing to learn and invest in themselves.

Who care about their health, animals, nature and the world around them.

Who want to experience life rather than spend most of it waiting for the next weekend or block of annual leave.

That's what you'll find on this page.

There'll be posts about work, business, mindset and the things I'm learning.

But there'll also be horses.

Dogs.

Running.

Travel.

Nature.

Probably the occasional bird. 😄

Because for me, those things aren't separate from what I'm building.

They're the reason I'm building it.

I want a life with more room for what I love.

If you do too, stick around. I think we'll have plenty to talk about. 🌿

13/08/2026

One of the things I appreciate most about this business has very little to do with the business itself.

Earlier this week we had some incredible training from a leader in our community.

Yes, it was about Facebook ads.

But that wasn't my biggest takeaway.

What really stood out to me was this...

Here's someone who's spent the last eight years testing, refining and improving a system that works.

She could easily keep that knowledge to herself.

Instead, she's chosen to invest her time in teaching the rest of us.

That says a lot about the kind of community I'm part of.

When someone discovers a better way of doing something, they don't keep it to themselves.

They teach it.

They answer questions.

They share what they've learnt.

They help others avoid the mistakes they've already made.

Every one of us has access to that training, those systems and that support.

Nobody expects us to figure it all out on our own.

It reminded me of something...

The way we build something is just as important as what we're building.

For me, having access to people who are generous with their knowledge isn't just a bonus.

It's one of the reasons I've stayed.

12/08/2026

When did being busy become something to be proud of?

“How are you?”

“Busy.”

It almost feels like the expected answer these days.

Busy at work.

Busy at home.

Busy trying to fit everything else around work.

And for a long time, I wore busy almost like a badge of honour.

A full calendar meant I was productive.

Being needed meant I was valuable.

Getting everything done meant I was coping.

So when life got too full, I didn't question why I had so much to fit in.

I just tried to become better at fitting it all in.

Better organised.

More efficient.

Better at managing my time.

And that's the part I started questioning.

Because being really good at managing an overloaded life didn't make it any less overloaded.

At some point I realised the goal wasn't to become more efficient at squeezing everything in.

The goal was to create a life that didn't require quite so much squeezing in the first place.

I'm still busy.

I'm certainly not sitting around with nothing to do. 😂

And I don't want a completely different life.

There is so much about my life that I love.

My home. My horses. Travelling. Time with the people I care about.

I just want more room for those things.

So these days, I'm becoming much more intentional about what I'm actually busy building.

Because I don't want to spend the next 10 years getting better at fitting the life I love into whatever time is left over.

11/08/2026

Do you have a vision for your life?

Not just a wish.

Not just a list of goals.

A genuine vision for the life you want to create.

Years ago, I used to run vision board workshops.

People would spend time thinking about what they wanted their future to look like and then create a visual reminder of it.

What struck me wasn't the vision boards themselves.

It was what happened before anyone picked up a pair of scissors or opened Pinterest.

They had to pause.

Slow down.

And ask themselves some really important questions.

What do I actually want?

Not what everyone else expects of me.

Not what I think I should want.

What do I want?

How do I want my days to feel?

Who do I want to spend more time with?

What experiences do I want to have?

What would I truly be doing if money and time were taken care of?

Getting clear on your vision isn't just about making a beautiful board to hang on the wall.

It's about creating a compass.

When you know where you're heading, your decisions become easier.

You notice opportunities that align with your vision.

You become more intentional with your time.

And it's much easier to say "no" to the things that take you further away from the life you're trying to build.

Your vision has probably changed over time.

Mine certainly has.

But I still believe there's incredible power in taking the time to ask yourself where you're heading - and whether the life you're living today is taking you closer to that vision. Or further away.

So I'd love to know...

If you could describe the life you're intentionally creating over the next 10 years... what would it look like?

11/08/2026

Four weeks of annual leave isn't freedom.

It might be a great employment benefit.

But I don't think it's freedom.

For most of my working life, four weeks of annual leave a year was just... normal.

You worked for 48 weeks so you could have four weeks off.

And even those four weeks weren't necessarily completely yours.

You had to apply for them.

Work around other people's leave.

Make sure everything was covered before you went.

Get everything done before you left.

And often come back to a mountain of work afterwards.

I accepted that for years because that's simply how employment works.

But somewhere along the way, I started questioning it.

Four weeks out of 52.

And if you want more?

You wait until next year.

Or ask for leave without pay.

I'm not saying everyone should quit their job.

I still have mine.

But I AM saying that I've stopped confusing annual leave with freedom.

To me, freedom looks more like having greater control over my own time.

Being able to decide I want to take a Monday off without mentally calculating how much annual leave I have left.

Being able to travel for longer than a few weeks without wondering whether my employer will approve it.

Being able to spend more time doing the things I love while I'm still young and healthy enough to enjoy them.

That's one of the reasons I'm actively creating another option for myself.

Because I've spent more than 30 years working within a system where someone else ultimately decides how much of my time belongs to me.

And I don't want that to be the next 10 or 20 years of my life.

10/08/2026

It's funny how bad mobile reception can sometimes be exactly what you need. 🤔😅

I've just had a fabulous weekend away with my horse, catching up with friends and doing something I love.

And the mobile reception was... ordinary.

Which meant I wasn't constantly looking at my phone.

I wasn't checking social media.

I wasn't thinking about what I should be posting or doing in my business.

I actually switched off.

And it made me realise there's a difference between "not working" and actually being "unavailable".

We can finish work for the day and still check our emails.

Take a day off and still answer a message.

Go away for the weekend and still have one eye on what's happening back home.

Sometimes we're physically somewhere else, but mentally we're still "on".

This weekend reminded me how good it feels to be completely present in the life that's happening right in front of you.

Good friends. Horses. Fresh air. Conversations. Laughing.

And very ordinary phone reception. 😂

Maybe we all need a little more of that.

When was the last time you genuinely switched off - not just from work, but from everything competing for your attention?

31/07/2026

Have you ever felt like all those years of experience suddenly counted for... very little?

After taking a voluntary redundancy from a 20-year career, I eventually returned to the workforce.

I expected to take a step backwards.

I accepted the lower salary.

What I wasn't prepared for was this...

Being micromanaged.

Having my decisions second-guessed.

Feeling like two decades of knowledge and experience no longer mattered.

That experience made me realise something.

It's not enough to have experience.

You also need to be in an environment where it's recognised, respected... and gives you more choices, not fewer.

If you've ever found yourself wondering,

"Surely all these years of experience should count for more than this..." and you're open to exploring a different way of thinking about income, experience and what's possible,

Message me today.

27/07/2026

Have you ever felt like all those years of experience suddenly counted for... very little?

After 20 years in my career, I took a voluntary redundancy.

I was burnt out.

I'd reached the point where I simply couldn't see myself doing another 20 years in the same environment.

So I started a personal training business.

I absolutely loved helping people, but loving something and making a sustainable income from it aren't always the same thing.

Eventually, I made the decision to return to a 9-to-5 role.

I went back at a lower level than I'd been before.

That didn't bother me.

I'd been out of the workforce for a couple of years, so I expected to take a step back.

I accepted the lower salary without hesitation.

After all, it was still more than I was earning in my business.

What I wasn't prepared for was everything else.

Being micromanaged.

Having decisions second-guessed.

Feeling like the experience I'd spent two decades building had somehow disappeared the day I accepted a different position.

It wasn't about ego.

It wasn't about wanting a fancy title.

It was about wondering why years of knowledge, judgement and lived experience seemed to matter so little.

Looking back, that experience taught me something important.

Experience is incredibly valuable...

But only if you're in an environment where it's recognised and where it gives you more choices, not fewer.

If you've ever caught yourself thinking,

"Surely all these years of experience should count for more than this..."

Maybe the real question isn't whether you're still capable.

Maybe it's whether you're in an environment that truly values what you bring.

19/07/2026

One of the biggest assumptions I had before I started this business was that if I ever owned another business, I'd have to build it from scratch.

I'd already owned a personal training business.

I knew what it was like to wear every hat.

Marketing.
Admin.
Accounting.
Finding clients.
Delivering the service.

So when someone showed me this business, my first thought wasn't...

"Can I do this?"

It was...

"But what do I actually have to do?"

I genuinely thought I'd be expected to know everything before I started.

Instead, what I found was systems.

Training.
Mentoring.
Automation.

A community of people who'd already walked the path before me.

Looking back, I realised I'd been comparing this business to the only version of business ownership I'd ever known.

They weren't the same thing.

Sometimes the biggest barrier isn't the opportunity itself.

It's the assumptions we bring with us before we've even taken the time to understand it.

Curiosity changed the direction of my life.

Not because I said "yes" straight away.

But because I was willing to ask questions before making up my mind.

If you've ever dismissed something because you assumed you already knew what it involved, perhaps it's worth asking a few questions first.

After all... that was exactly where I started.

If you're curious about what I actually do (because I certainly was!), send me a message and I'll send you a link to my free business training.

18/07/2026

Sometimes the biggest thing keeping us stuck isn't what we don't know.

It's what we believe to be true.

And one of the hardest things to admit is this:

We become attached to our beliefs.

Not because we've proved they're true.

But because we've repeated them so many times they feel true.

"I don't have the time."

That was one of my biggest limiting beliefs.

And to be fair, I had plenty of evidence to support it.

I was working full-time.

Looking after an acreage.

Training for endurance events.

Trying to fit everything else into what was left.

It wasn't an excuse.

It felt like a fact.

But here's the uncomfortable question...

Had I actually proved I didn't have time?

Or had I simply collected evidence to support what I'd already decided was true?

The more I thought about it, the more I realised I hadn't really tested that belief.

I hadn't asked whether there might be another way.

As a scientist, one of the things I learned early is that good science isn't about proving you're right.

It's about being willing to question your assumptions.

Because the moment we become more committed to being right than to discovering the truth...

We stop learning.

We stop growing.

And we stay exactly where we are.

Looking back, I didn't suddenly find more hours in the day.

I started asking better questions about the hours I already had.

And that changed far more than I expected.

So here's my question for you today:

What's one belief you've been treating as a fact... that you might never have stopped to question?

Louise M Cairns

03/09/2026

13/08/2026

12/08/2026

11/08/2026

11/08/2026

10/08/2026

31/07/2026

27/07/2026

19/07/2026

18/07/2026

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