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First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2019
Copyright © Patricia Bright 2019
Patricia Bright asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Ebook Edition © January 2019 ISBN: 9780008263096
Dedicated to my daughter, Grace
CONTENTS
2 YES, I WORK FOR MYSELF ON THE INTERNET!
3 THE IMPORTANCE OF BUILDING A FOLLOWING ON SOCIAL MEDIA
4 THE SCIENCE BIT – PRACTICAL ADVICE FOR BUILDING UP A SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILE
5 TAKING YOUR AUDIENCE TO THE NEXT LEVEL OF GROWTH
11 DISCOVERING WHO YOU ARE (AND WHAT YOU VALUE)
12 STAYING THE COURSE IN STYLE
15 FEELING GOOD FROM THE OUTSIDE IN
I’ve never been someone who sits back and takes it all in. I’m not going to lie – the truth is that I often feel I’m an imposter, wondering how I got here and struggling with the idea that I might actually be any good at anything!
Take a recent fortnight: I was shot for the cover of Glamour magazine, nominated for a Shorty Award (think: the Oscars of social media), announced a lipstick collaboration with MAC Cosmetics and reached 2 million subscribers on my YouTube channel (which, as I’ll explain, I started as a hobby to kill my boredom at uni). The week before that, I was sitting with a private equity firm discussing negotiations for a future project and organising a trip to Disneyland for my two year old. That was a busy one! But, when I’m in the moment, I don’t give much thought to the immensity of what’s happening. I’m on autopilot. It might look like I’m holding it all together, but I’m often scared, nervous and feel like I’m winging it as I go.
That’s the reality of my life, just as it’s other people’s reality too. Of course I’m excited every time something great happens, but in the same moment, I’m filled with fear because it’s almost too good. Still, I’m learning to appreciate every experience and achievement, and I don’t take it for granted. As much as I talk about being scared, I don’t let the fear stop me. It’s part of the hustle and, ultimately, it drives me forward.
That’s just one of the reasons why I wanted to write this book: to pull back the curtain on my experiences as a business owner and digital-content creator sharing my heart with my followers (not to mention a husband and a baby), and pass on some of the insights I’ve gathered along the way. In this book, I’m going to show you how to hustle like I do, using your head and heart. All it takes is three steps:
> Your Brand: how you can leverage who you are to kill it online and boost your work and personal life, whether you have 20 Twitter followers or 20,000.
> Your Business: how to run your side hustle like a total boss, know when to go it alone and turn your side-hustle into your full-time game.
> Your Beliefs: how to adopt certain ideas about yourself and the world that will serve you well, and ditch the thinking that’s holding you back.
But before all of that, I want to reveal more about myself, to show you what I’m all about and the principles I live my life by. I’ve never shared the full story of why being able to look after those close to me, achieving what I set my mind to and ‘securing the bag’ has always been – and still is – so very important to me. So here goes …
My story: the upbringing that shaped me
I grew up in Battersea, London. I’m a south London girl for life, with African heart! My mum was a jack-of-all-trades, who loved makeup and fashion. Before she ever clapped eyes on my dad, she used to travel back and forth between London and Nigeria, where she had a salon/boutique, buying beauty and hair products to sell back home.