This week we sat down and chatted to Lucy, Founder of Acorn & Pip.

As this incredible team embarks on their first crowdfunder Lucy Estherby is a brand strategist, founder and mother of three, working at the intersection of business, community and wellbeing. She’s the owner of Acorn & Pip, a multi-site family concept store and children’s shoe shop designed to offer more than just retail—it’s a space for connection, creativity and conscious living.

Alongside running her stores, Lucy also leads Coaching with Lucy, a consultancy supporting small business owners to build thoughtful, sustainable brands. Her approach is rooted in real-life experience, nervous system awareness, and the belief that business can feel good as well as do good. She’s especially passionate about helping women find clarity and confidence in their work, without sacrificing their wellbeing.

Hello Lucy, Talk us through your day so far.

I always take a long route to work, today was my shop day. These go by in such a flash, in between catching up with stock management, general shop admin, team catch-ups, emails and web work - the day goes by so quickly and I hardly move from my computer so I try to get 5k steps in at the start of the day. I am working with a personal trainer right now so a highlight of my day was lunch, it was delicious! Then the shop got really busy in the afternoon so I was on the shop floor. After work I am to and from kids classes all evening, for like 3 hours, but when the evenings are lighter and warmer, I’m leaning into the joy of walking to pick them up, eating outside or evening waiting on the bench for my eldest to finish her club, I’ve began to realise that these really are the times to slow down. Intentional is my word for this year, and I’m finding it be more relevant in the smaller moments and not just the bigger moves of life. 

What chapter of life do you find yourself in at the moment?

This chapter feels like a shift in tempo. I’ve spent the last decade in deep building mode, growing businesses, raising three children, holding a lot. It’s been full of doing, of pushing forward with that kind of driven, masculine energy that’s served me well… but I’ve just turned 40, and something’s changing.

There’s a new awareness that while I still want to grow and stretch and create, I also want to breathe slower. To enjoy what I’ve built, not just race past it on to the next thing. I’m learning that it’s possible to hold both: the hunger to keep moving forward and the steadiness that comes from knowing I don’t have to prove anything. This season is asking me to be more intentional with my energy, and to let it feel good.

What’s something you’ve learned recently that’s shifted how you think about rest, connection or self-care?

That real rest isn’t the absence of doing, it’s the presence of regulation. I’ve spent years operating in a high-functioning state of stress, without realising how normal it had become to override the signals of my body. What I’ve learned is that you can’t intellectualise your way into rest. You can’t schedule it or supplement your way to it if your nervous system doesn’t feel safe.

Somatic work has helped me see how deeply held stress patterns show up, not just in my mind, but in my gut, in my psoas, in my breath. The more I understand how stress is stored, the more I realise that rest starts in the retraining, the unlearning of urgency, the noticing of pace, the small practices that bring me back into relationship with my body. Sometimes that looks like walking before the day begins, sometimes it’s eating properly instead of pushing through. It’s not ‘self-care’ in the way it’s sold to us. It’s a quiet kind of discipline. One I wish I’d learnt earlier, but u wonder if you only ever really learn this from experience.

What’s lighting you up right now — and what are you learning to let go of?

Movement is really lighting me up, walking first thing in the morning, strength training, getting outside while the weather holds. There’s something about this season, the longer days, the shift into summer, I’m a Summer girl through and through. I’m love reading too.

I’m also energised by the work I’m doing inside The Shopkeepers Club, supporting women who are building something of their own. That lights me up more than anything right now.

As for what I’m letting go of… the need to hold everything. The unspoken sense that it’s all on me. I’m slowly learning that being responsible doesn’t mean being indispensable. There’s strength in stepping back, in trusting others, and in giving myself permission not to be across every detail all the time!

If you could design the perfect day for rest and renewal, what would it look like?

It would start with a slow morning, no rush, no alarm. My kids aren’t especially early risers, but they do wake up full of energy, so having a bit of quiet before the day gets going feels like a luxury. I’d make a matcha, do a few stretches, and sit outside with a book in the sun, even just for ten minutes.

I love a day with no fixed plans, wandering into town, pottering around my favourite shops, picking up fresh flowers or something nice for lunch. Just moving slowly, following what I feel like doing. That’s always when I feel most myself. A good meal I didn’t have to cook, maybe something sweet after, and an early night. Nothing dramatic, just a day that feels soft and spacious.

What does connection, friendship and solidarity mean for you at this life stage? How do you make space for this?

My female friendships are honestly some of my proudest achievements. We don’t see each other as often as we’d like, life and distance get in the way, but we’re always in touch. Little check-ins, voice notes, sending something that made us laugh.

At this point in life, connection feels more instinctive. I was just saying to a friend the other day how quickly you know who your people are, who to invest your time and energy in, and who you just don’t need to chase. That kind of clarity feels like a gift.

For me, friendship means being fully seen without needing to explain yourself. It’s knowing someone will understand the chaos without you having to dress it up. 

How do you juggle self-care and ambition? Do you think the two can co-exist?

I think for a long time, I didn’t even see them as connected. Ambition lived in one box, and care, for myself, my body, my nervous system, was something I’d get to “once things calmed down.” But things never did. I built a business, raising three kids, kept pushing forward… and slowly realised that I was carrying too much, and feeling too little.

Now, I see self-care not as a break from ambition, but a container for it. I don’t want to build things at the cost of my body or my presence. What’s the point if I’m exhausted, numb, or constantly dysregulated? I still have big ideas, I still want to grow, but I want to feel good while I do it. I want it to feel rooted. That’s become my new measure of success.

So yes, they can co-exist. But not in the way we’re often told. It’s not about balance, it’s about integration. Making sure how I’m working matches the life I actually want.

Describe a time and place where you felt totally relaxed and content

It was my 40th, we were out in Manchester, just me and a group of my closest girlfriends. We had the whole weekend together, with lunches, dinners, the kind where no one looks at the menu because the talking never stops, then cocktails and dancing all night. Somewhere between setting the world to rights and dancing to songs we’d forgotten we knew all the words to, I remember thinking: this is exactly where I’m meant to be.

No pressure, no expectations, just being with people who’ve seen every version of me over the past 20 years. That kind of ease is rare. And when you find it, you hold onto it.

Thankyou so much to Lucy, inspiring, reflective and wise words. I really enjoyed this one. Check out Acorn & Pip online and if you can support their crowd funder, anchoring Acorn & Pip deeper into their vibrant community.