When you commit... be ready for the curve balls! #roadblock
OK, carrying on from where I left off.
In December 2019 I made the commitment to the huge mission. It was officially out there, well between 4 of us anyway. The next step was, what to do?! As already mentioned, I had established 3 beautiful, successful brands in earlier years/ months, however this was different. This was about finding people who wanted to follow the journey of a “female underdog” with absolutely no experience of something like this. We all knew video had been a fabulous medium for business to date, so exploring what that was going to look like came next.
Talk about exciting, scary, happy, embarrassed.. all rolled in to one big bundle of emotion. So many reasons to talk myself out of it in those last weeks of 2019.
A couple of weeks later, Christmas landed and for the first time in many years I decided to stay in the UK for Christmas Day with Family. I have always been a wanderer and not particularly attached to Christmas, so have always planned trips for as long as I can remember back. It was always a good time to be away when working in Corporate. Last year however I decided to fly to Thailand on Boxing Day, so I could spend some time with my beautiful family.
For those who do not know me, Thailand is a very special place in my World. It has been what I call my spiritual home for many years now. I had visited 3 times with friends, before my trip in 2013 that totally transformed my life. Since 2013 I go back each year at least once, to connect in with the energy, train Muay Thai and be where my soul recognises as a safe space for growth.
On the flight to Thailand all I could think about was these million lives. Who would they be? Where did they live? How would I find them? I met a couple of absolutely incredible souls on the flight over and it cemented people really did want to hear the message. People were interested, it was time to get over myself and do what I do best… action! I immersed the whole trip in creative video content that could be produced when the time was right. I listened intently to everyone I spoke to, to hear what they truly were looking for. In what ways could I look to help them now or in the future? What really was the truth behind so many people “running away” as some see it?
I returned to the UK in early January to kick start the New Year strong. I essentially had 3 years to hit this target I had set myself. I was heading to Florida for a seminar later in the Month, so focusing on how we were going to grow the following was at the forefront of thoughts. Our year’s planning had been completed the year before. 2020 was going to be a full on year of seminars, retreats and lots of travel to expand the mission to be even more Global than it already was. Starting with Florida!
During the 5 day seminar in Florida, the one thing I took away was “be ready to pivot”. Yes, I know.. after 5 days immersed in business knowledge gathering, that was the one thing that truly stuck in my mind. (Thankfully – in hindsight!)
I flew home to the UK, created some huge momentum around numbers with Donna, all of a sudden the stuff I had found extremely unsexy before, became my passion. There was a new level of focus on how we would be getting in front of more people than ever before.
A couple of weeks later I was heading to my second country of the year, Dubai. I was due over to start sharing Self Love Club and the “From Head to Heart Mission” in that beautiful part of the World. I had also been asked to speak at a beautiful event about health and healing, so combined the two. I love going to Dubai for short trips each year. It pushes me to think differently and genuinely, expansion is such a huge value this lifetime.
Whilst I was in Dubai, COVID-19 really started hitting the headlines. I had heard about it whilst in Asia over Christmas, then again from a Chinese lady at the Seminar in January, however it had not really featured in my thought process. I thought it would be another SARS or similar. That was until I was on my way home. I was told I would be scanned at Dubai airport to see if I was sick, had a temperature or had the virus. This was new. In all the years I had travelled, there was not once I’d ever experienced this potential experience to board a plane. FYI - I was not tested at the airport, however people everywhere were starting to panic.
It was from then on the stuff really started hitting the fan. The words I had heard in January, “be ready to pivot” continually surfaced. As fear rose across the World, trips started to be cancelled, speaking gigs were called off and general panic set in for many businesses across the World, the realities of being careful what you wish for kicked in. I had always spoken about growth, adjusting the sails and here I was, having to eat exactly what I had been requesting, as we stepped in to lockdown.
Donna and I travelled to Glasgow to run the first of our Self Love Club Hangs events on 11th March, just 5 days before a number of restrictions were placed on the UK. Upon returning, I mentioned to Donna that we would need to rethink the rest of the tour, so we did. From 13th March 2020, Self Love Club Hangs went online. Initially I feared we would not achieve the results we could achieve In person, however that very quickly was shown to be untrue.
Official lockdown kicked in on the 23rd March in the UK and the 26th March saw our first ever sessions for the Children be taken online. Self Love Club for Kids was official! It was always on my radar to create these beautiful spaces for Children, however when the reality hit of how many would be at home, no contact with other children outside of their family, it became a real time issue that needed to be resolved, so on speaking with the team, we agreed the flow of how they would run and we got started.
All of what we do is essentially for the Children. To make the World a much brighter, safer space for them to live in. 
