Hello hello!! Hope you’re all having a lovely week!
Well, it’s officially LAUNCH WEEK for The Personal Brand Method!! And I know I’ve been talking your ears off about this one recently, so I won’t give you the entire sales pitch again, but I did want to say how excited I am to finally get this out into the world.
There’s SO much generic advice about personal branding out there, and I really didn’t want to add another course telling you to post three times a day and use trending sounds. Everything in this course comes from my own experiences, including the mistakes, the things that didn’t work and the systems my team and I still use every single week.
I’ve spent over 10 years figuring this stuff out, and putting it all into 29 classes has been quite the undertaking. The printed scripts alone came to over 50,000 words, which is essentially an entire book. Apparently I don’t know how to do anything by halves.
Anyway, Thursday is the big day!! The first 1,000 customers will get £100 off, so if you’ve been waiting for it, or you want to commit next year, make sure you’re on the early access list, because once you’ve got access, you’ve got it forever. And thank you SO much for all the lovely messages about it already. It genuinely means a lot.
In slightly less professional news, I’ve also managed to have an actual meltdown over making a cake. A CAKE. Apparently I can spend months putting together a 50,000-word course, but ask me to bake something and suddenly all emotional regulation goes out the window. Motherhood really is keeping me humble.
And this week on the Future Self Series, we’re joined by the wonderful Natalie O’Neill to talk all things skincare!
I’ve spoken pretty openly about my struggles with acne over the years, and pregnancy sent my skin straight back into a hormonal spiral. Which then sent me into a slightly ridiculous habit of inspecting every new spot, line and wrinkle in the mirror. As if I didn’t have enough things to think about.
So I wanted to understand what we can actually do now to look after our skin in the long run, without feeling like we need to buy every new product or book a Botox appointment because TikTok has convinced us our faces are falling apart.
Anyway, lots happening this week!! Hope you enjoy x
The thing I particularly loved about Natalie’s approach to skincare is that she’s not interested in selling you a 15-step routine or convincing you that you need to spend hundreds of pounds to have good skin. In fact, one of the biggest takeaways from this week’s episode was that the skincare industry moves a lot faster than the science does. We’re constantly being told about the next miracle ingredient, when some of the most effective things we can do for our skin have been around for decades.
And then Natalie said something that I think will surprise quite a few people:
“There are so many people who would stop wanting Botox if they just hydrated their skin enough.”
Which I thought was fascinating, because how many of us are considering expensive treatments without actually knowing whether we’re getting the basics right first? And to be clear, this isn’t me telling anyone what they should or shouldn’t do with their face (I personally love a bit of Botox every now and then). But I do think there’s something to be said for understanding what actually works before spending a small fortune on something you might not even need.
Natalie has very kindly shared her ride-or-die skincare products for this week’s homework. These are the products she genuinely rates, rather than whatever happens to be trending this week, to help you build a routine that actually works for you. I’ve also dug deep to find the best discount prices for each product so you don’t have to!
Also, if you haven’t watched the full episode yet, I’ve dropped it below.
I could have written this question myself because I am also so guilty of doing exactly the same thing. I’ll have a million things I could be doing, things I genuinely enjoy doing, and somehow I’ll still find myself lying on the sofa scrolling through TikTok for an hour. So you’re definitely not alone in this.
And I think the really frustrating thing is that sometimes you know exactly what would make you feel better, but actually getting yourself to do it feels like an enormous amount of effort. Which is why I think the answer isn’t necessarily finding a whole new hobby, but making the things you already enjoy as easy as humanly possible.
For example, if you love painting, could you keep a little sketchbook and some pens next to the sofa? Or have a puzzle book, a Kindle or a paint-by-numbers kit within arm’s reach? Basically, something you can pick up without having to convince yourself to get up and do a whole activity.
Something I’ve been trying to remind myself is that not every spare moment needs to be productive, but I do want to be more intentional about how I spend it. There’s a massive difference between choosing to spend an evening watching a film because you genuinely want to, and accidentally losing three hours to scrolling and wondering where your evening went. We’re in this together!
Next week, we’re changing things up a little! We’re joined by psychologist Dr Lalitaa, who’s helping us understand how to build a support system that can genuinely change our lives. And we’ve given her some of your dilemmas to unpack, so expect lots of practical advice on navigating the things we all struggle with but don’t always know how to talk about!
I hope you have a wonderful week & I’ll see you very soon,
