Week 6 • August 21, 2026
Hi, friends.
Since last week, I’ve been testing Instagram ads with a very unclear direction.
The only thing I know for sure is that the ads work.
They do send people to my website, where my story, Good Girls Cry, Bad Girls Mourn, is sitting there waiting to be explored.
But somehow, it still hasn’t been discovered—or enjoyed—by anyone yet.
Not gonna pretend it didn’t hurt.
My mind knows there is a lot of trial, testing, and error involved in this process.
But my emotions didn’t quite catch up.
So I went into a black hole of self-doubt.
I started doubting my story.
I’ve been in this black hole before. There were times when it felt as if I would never find my way out.
But I did.
I got through it.
And now I’m ready to put it through another test.
One thing I’ve noticed is that the black-hole period is getting shorter.
It used to take me three or four months to recover from a disappointment like this.
Then weeks.
Now, it took only a few days.
Somehow, I’m beginning to understand that walking the journey of a solopreneur isn’t only about the product you’re building. It’s also about building the muscle to recover from each hope and disappointment. And I am definitely a different person from three days ago.
I’m ready to change, adapt, and give this story another chance to thrive.
So, let’s take a look at what I’m going to do—and what I’ll continue testing this week.
A new experiment
I’m adopting a new approach to my ads.
Instead of focusing on making them super fast-paced and highly engaging, I want to show the story more directly.
My guess is that when people are stimulated by a fast-paced ad and then suddenly arrive at something much slower, there might be a mismatch.
A friend of mine who is an expert in Meta ads—and has sold many products online with great success—told me something a long time ago:
If your ad is too good or too entertaining, you can end up spending a lot of money on people who aren’t actually interested in your product. They watched because the ad entertained them.
That idea actually contradicts quite a lot of what I believe.
But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense.
Perhaps a simpler ad will attract fewer people—but the people who stop might actually care about the story.
Secondly, I’m going to explore more ways to showcase the story itself and keep testing.
I learned the hard way that I spent too long developing this story without testing it with the world.
That makes it harder to let go.
But at the same time, I know those long years of isolating myself with my work were necessary for me.
I needed to let the idea take root inside me.
And before I even know whether it will work out or not, this story has already taken such deep root that giving up feels almost impossible.
So, yeah.
That’s my journey this week, guys.
And what about my shoulder?
Oh, how my painful shoulder is going…
Yeah, it’s still with me.
But I’m getting better at accepting it, and somehow it seems to protest a little less when I stop fighting it.
And have I told you?
I got a cat.
Well…
Not our cat yet.
She just came walking into our garden.
A pure white cat.
I had never seen a white cat since moving to Cyprus nine months ago, so seeing her was quite a surprise.
She was extremely fearful.
The moment she saw me, she ran to the other end of the garden.
But we stayed there, at a distance, just witnessing each other.
I sang her a little song.
Just to comfort her.=
Something along the lines of:
You are safe.
You are loved.
You don’t have to be all alone.
And somehow, she softened.
She came a little closer.
She ate.
She relaxed.
She even let me touch her.
She has been here for four nights now—eating, resting, and slowly becoming more comfortable, although she is still very careful.
And somehow…
she feels like a little mirror of my own journey.
Scared.
A little alone.
But still hold on to hope
That is for now, this week! See you next time
Love
Lalita Janette