Hello! Hope you’re having a good start to your week.
Well, last week was an interesting one, because I managed to get mastitis. Firstly, thank you SO much for all your lovely messages; I’m absolutely fine now! But can someone please explain to me why nobody warned me that your own BOOBS can essentially poison you to the point that you’re hallucinating about seeing the world through your baby’s eyes? I knew breastfeeding came with its challenges, but I didn’t realise a full out-of-body experience was on the menu.
Anyways, in much more exciting news, we announced TALA’s pop-up at Bicester Village last week. Growing into physical retail is such a fun part of this scale up phase, and I always feel so extra proud of the team in these moments. We’ve been doubling down on finding ways to be extra creative with our announcements, and one of our amazing graphic designers painted a beautiful watercolour of the store for the announcement; I am so obsessed.
And somehow we’re already on episode EIGHT of the Future Self Series?! This week we’re joined by the wonderful Bola Sol, who actually came in to film with us on her first day back to work from her own maternity leave. Which I, of course, appreciated at the time, but definitely appreciate 100 times more now. We’re talking all things money, financial freedom and why women need to feel a lot more comfortable having these conversations. Because building your dream life is all very well, but being able to afford it is quite an important part of the equation.
Anyway, lots to get into!!
One of the easiest things to do when it comes to money is simply to avoid thinking about it, but burying our heads in the sand isn’t doing our future selves any favours.
The thing I particularly loved about Bola’s no BS advice was her reminder that just because everyone else is doing something with their money doesn’t mean you should be doing it too. In fact, she learnt that lesson the hard way after losing money investing in GameStop back in 2020.
“Do not do what everyone’s doing. Don’t follow the hype. Make sure you do your research, and know where you’re getting advice from.”
So whether you’re starting from scratch, feeling a bit behind, or just wondering where on earth your money goes every month, Bola has very kindly put together her Money Reset Framework for this week’s homework to help you actually do something about it. It takes you through four practical steps, from building your emergency fund and understanding investing to negotiating your salary, before helping you work out where you are financially, where you want to be and what needs to change to get there.
Also, if you haven’t watched the full episode yet, I’ve dropped it below.
Ahh congratulations on your little one too!! I also relate to this soo much.
I think the biggest thing I’m learning is that routines have to work for the season of life you’re in. Especially as a new mum, some evenings you’re just surviving, and that’s absolutely fine. Someone gave me the advice before I entered the newborn phase that ‘everything will pass’, whether that’s a good habit (sleeping through the night), or a trickier one (endless cluster feeding), and I’ve found it really helpful to remember that whenever I’ve ever got stressed about my routine changing.
My main advice, which is really hard to do when you run a business, is to set yourself a proper work cut-off because, as someone who also struggles with this, I can promise you there will always be more to do.
Also, please don’t put pressure on yourself to have a perfectly structured evening with a newborn; it’s certainly not happening around these parts.
And next week, we’re joined by skincare expert Natalie O’Neill, who is here to help us make sense of the absolute MINEFIELD that is the beauty industry. I’ve spoken quite openly about my own struggles with acne and how pregnancy has sent my skin into another hormonal spiral, so this is one I’ve been super excited about.
One question I get asked ALL the time is how to actually build a personal brand. Where do you start? What do you post? And how on earth are you supposed to find the time to do it consistently when you’ve already got a million other things going on?
If you listened to my Future Self episode with Grace Andrews, you might remember me hinting at something I’d been working on behind the scenes. And seeing how much you’ve all been loving the course style structure of this series, I thought it would be fun to do a proper deep dive into personal branding!
So I’ve put together a FREE seven-day email course, sharing the systems I use to build my own personal brand alongside running four businesses. Every day, you’ll get a short lesson straight to your inbox, covering everything from figuring out what you want to be known for to planning your content, finding ideas, writing hooks and actually staying consistent. There are some very handy free downloads in there too.
Essentially, seven days of me sharing the things I wish I’d known when I started, without you having to spend hours figuring it all out yourself. If that sounds up your street, pop your details in below, and I’ll see you in your inbox!
I hope you have a wonderful week & I’ll see you very soon,
