Hey Reader

I've just finished working with my fourth Brand & Bloom founder.

We wrapped up this week, and she is super happy with it.

Here's why. We built her a system.

She already knew how she wanted to work. One main topic a month, split into four sub-topics, one a week. She had it in a Word doc. So that became the spine of the whole thing. In her words: "upload the Word doc I had of it and boom, done."

Then her brand voice, written down. She read it back and said this: "I'm completely fascinated by this analysis of my voice & writing. Wow, just wow!"

Her market research, running every week.

Templates in her colours with her words already in them.

And the skill that takes this month's topic and turns each week's sub-topic into a carousel, a reel and a post, in her voice, without the blank page.

The moment it clicked was the dry run. She watched it work on her own topic, start to finish, and said, "Okay. Now I really get it."

Then the line I haven't stopped thinking about: "who else do I know that could really use this?"

The part she's happiest about? She can run it without me.

And it's landed at just the right time, because September is systems season.

Everyone's back at their desk. The sandals are away. The planner is out. This is the month people actually build the thing they said they'd build in June. (Me included!)

So here are the three small systems I'd build first 👇

---

3 small systems to build before October

1. Tell LinkedIn who you help, in plain words

LinkedIn published its playbook this week on how to show up in AI-powered search. The short version: the profiles that get pulled into AI answers are the ones that say, clearly, who they help and with what. Your headline is doing the work now, for people and for the machines reading on their behalf. "Founder | Strategist | Coach" tells nobody anything. A few weeks after her build, my founder told me: "I feel like I'm standing out more for sure on LinkedIn." Same expertise. Clearer words.

→ Try this: open your profile and rewrite the headline as "I help [who] with [what]" in words you'd actually say out loud. Ten minutes. Then do the first line of your About section the same way.

2. Say the problem out loud on Instagram

Hashtags are quietly retiring. Instagram now reads the first line of your caption, the text on your screen, the words you say in the video, and your alt text. That's where it decides who to show your post to. Three to five hashtags is plenty. The keywords have to be in the post itself.

→ Try this: for your next three posts, put the problem and the person in the first line, say them out loud if it's a video, and fill in the alt text before you hit share. It's the same post. It just gets found. And tag me @thelouisebartlett so I can cheer you on.

3. Write down the one thing that only lives in your head

Every founder I've built with this year had a weekly process she'd never written down. How she picks a topic. How she makes the graphic. Where the caption comes from. The moment we wrote it down, it became a system, and once it was a system, I could build a skill around it. Practical beats inspirational this month. A list of what you actually do is the most useful post you can make.

→ Try this: write "10 things I do every week to run my business" as a plain list. Post it as a carousel. It's content for your people and a manual for you, in one go. I've done mine this week.

A headline, a caption habit, and a list. Small, a bit boring, and all three will still be working in November.

---

2 things i'm loving

✦ Canva's free AI Essentials certification

Canva World Tour started on Monday, and with it a free AI Essentials course and certificate. Fifteen questions, an afternoon, and a badge you can put on LinkedIn. If you've been quietly worried that the tools have moved on without you, this is a gentle way back in. Search "AI Essentials" in Canva's Design School.

✦ Thirty minutes on the mat, three times a week

Still on Glo, still a student, still the thing that holds the rest of the week up. That's it. That's the recommendation. Wellness is better with friends. Get 2 months free

---

1 carousel list