On my To - Read List : Online Business Books

Starting an online business has never been easier, and people wanting a side hustle, a part-time business is on the rise. I've been in network marketing for years, and I've finally found my home (I'll share my story soon). With everything at our fingertips; the tools, strategies, and duplicable systems, setting up and earning an income from your own online business is super simple. Network Marketing is an incredible business model, that has changed so many of my friends' lives.

However, contrary to many peoples opinions, an online business isn't a 'get rich quick scheme' and like I always tell my team, 'A six-figure income won't just fall into your bank account after a few weeks while you're sat sipping cocktails on a beach, scrolling Facebook like those cute sponsored posts tell you, hun! ;)'

It takes a little work.

A little learning and development.

I'm always learning, always aiming to level up. I work on my mindset / personal development every day, every single day. I listen to podcasts, audios, and plug into as much free training and value as I can find.

And I read. 

I read most nights in the bath. Relaxing amongst the bubbles with a good book, feeding my mind is one of my favourite times of the day. And just lately, I read in the sunshine when I have some free time, too.

The more I read and learn... the more my confidence grows, my skillset grows... and therefore my business grows!

Here are 6 books currently on my to-read list:

I Dare You - The Ultimate Guide to Building Your Network Marketing Business using Social Media

by Frazer Brookes

Frazer Brookes - the man, the legend. I have followed Frazer for the past 3 years, listen to his podcasts every week, plus his free live trainings and have invested in his incredible training courses. I have learned SO much from this man and am so grateful for his teachings. Frazer's mission is to raise the professionalism of network marketing done on social media, to unite the industry and make it sexy again. 

I have literally just finished this book so I can most definitely recommend it. It has been fantastic and led to so many lightbulb moments in the bath lately, haha! I cannot wait to start the second one.

If you're in network marketing, you HAVE to have this book. It's a no brainer. 

I Double Dare You - The Ultimate Guide to Creating Duplication in your Network Marketing Business

by Frazer Brookes

While Frazer's first book helps you to build your online business using social media, the follow up is all about duplicating that process, recruiting, building a team and working towards that residual income. 

It is my aim to build a community of like-minded, empowered females (and males too, I have men in my team too! :) ), with the same goal - to earn an income online and help others to do the same. 

I'm looking forward to seeing what Frazer's second book has to offer. 

Happy by Fearne Cotton

While this isn't business related at all, the key to a successful business is mindset, so working on my personal development is really important. 

'...give thanks to the gang you're in. Whether this be blood family or a tribe you've chosen to be part of, give thanks to the ones that make you laugh, the ones that challenge you the most, and to the power that your combined love can offer.'

Fearne is determined to help break the taboo around mental health with this book, opening up about her own battles alongside expert advice from Mind and practical exercises to join in with. I'm looking forward to starting this, I'm big on personal development and love the look of the 'reflection rainbow'.

Go Pro - 7 Steps to Becoming a Network Marketing Professional  by Eric Worre

Eric Worre is a Network Marketing god! I've watched tons of his trainings and my team and I were lucky enough to have him on our recent team call. He's incredible and I'm really excited to get started on this book. 

He teaches you tips and tools on how to find prospects, invite them to your opportunity, follow up, grow your team etc. and show up as a professional network marketer.

The Slight Edge - Secret to a Successful Life by Jeff Olson

I've been recommended and gifted this book by my Auntie, who says it's a must read! This book promises to teach how to achieve success in all aspects of life - in health, finances, relationships and family life by showing you how to tap into the power of daily discipline, identify habits that serve you and getting rid of those that don't, form positive relationships with positive people and recognising the choices that will make the difference between failure and success. 

It sounds great and I can't wait to read it! 

You are a Badass at Making Money - Master the Mindset of Wealth by Jen Sincero

This book was a gift from a lovely friend and is the follow up to the #1 New York Times bestseller 'You Are a Badass' which I absolutely LOVED and recommended to all my friends. 

'A life-changing guide to making the kind of money you've only ever dreamed of.'

Learn to uncover what's holding you back from making money, give your doubts, fears, and excuses the heave-ho, relate to money in a new way, and tap into your natural ability to grow rich. Sounds good right? I don't know about you but I think I definitely need to work on my relationship with money!

Do you have any favourite business based books?

5 Places I Want to Travel to After Lockdown

I don't know about you but I've been spending a lot of time looking at images of all the places I cannot travel to right now. I mean, granted, working in travel means I'm constantly looking at all the beautiful places around the world, it's my job (lucky me!!) but I'm finding myself looking at calm, relaxing images of Santorini sunsets, the crystal blue infinity pool of a villa in the Maldives, the beautiful mountains of Switzerland, a bubbling hot tub nestled in the Devon Cliffs, a deserted white sand beach in Bali... you name it, if it's pretty and quiet, I've probably daydreamed about it. 

I think it's a form of therapy, and I sense a theme, that right now I'm desperate to be relaxing, de-stressing, listening to only the sounds of crashing waves rather than my kids whinging or screaming, which is what I spend at least 80% of my day listening to, currently. 
Tell me you relate?
But seriously, whilst we know that right now unless we're out there working on the front line or other essential work (for which we are all hugely grateful for, you're doing an incredible job - THANK YOU!) it's SO important for us to just STAY HOME, yet we're all dreaming of getting away, somewhere, anywhere further than our front gates right now aren't we? Many of us have had and will continue to have, holidays cancelled and rescheduled, and we're all looking forward to the day we can get travelling again. 

So, to help me get by, I've been thinking, of 
5 Places I Want to Travel to After Lockdown...


1. ISLE OF WIGHT

This beautiful island in the South of England is very special to me. It was almost my second home growing up. Some of my earliest, most favourite memories as a child were spent here. We have a family holiday booked here in the Summer. Who knows if we'll still get to go, but until then, I'm making lists of all my favourite places to visit with my children, when we do. 

2. BARCELONA

I've been spending some of my downtime doing some hotel brand training and have recently become a Luxury Brand specialist for Marriott hotels. I fell in love with a particular hotel in Barcelona and have been dreaming of a girls' weekend here ever since. I've never been before, but the idea of having both the city and the beach at arms reach really appeals to me.

3. MAJORCA

My youngest son has yet to go overseas. He's yet to feel the excitement of being in the skies, the feeling when you step off the plane into a hot country. He has yet to catch the travel bug that his big brother and I have. But now he has reached an age where I think he'd enjoy it, (...and I'd cope with him on a plane! haha) I'm desperate to take him away, even just somewhere like Spain or Majorca. Obviously, it won't be for a while yet, but I've already been looking at deals in my agent portal for next year!! As an Independent Travel Agent, I'm fortunate to have access to fantastic deals and personal discounts, which I'm definitely going to be making use of as soon as we possibly can! 

4. LONDON

CREDIT: Accor Novotel Canary Wharf - London

I adore London. It's an incredible city and full of amazing memories for me. I get the same overwhelming excited feeling arriving in London as I did many years ago. An evening away with the girls, in a lovely hotel with a rooftop bar, sipping cocktails and catching up would be perfect right about now. I cannot wait to do this! Get ready, girls! 

5. BUTLINS

I think my kids would disown me if I hadn't put this one in! My boys have been enjoying trips to Butlins since they were both babies. They both absolutely love it. (And Mummy is partial to an Adult's Music Weekend here too! ;) ) It's just jam-packed full of family fun and entertainment and there is so much for them to do and enjoy. We were last here at Christmas and had the BEST time! My youngest genuinely believes the Skyline Gang are his best mates and we cannot wait to go back and visit when we can. 

Which one to do first? 
But what about you? Are you dreaming of travel as much as me? Are you making bucket lists? 


Where do you want to travel to after lockdown?

Our 2020 Memories

*contains GIFTED activity

𝑴𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑴𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒀𝑶𝑼 𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒚 𝑭𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝑫𝒐

Our family setup isn't the most 'normal' of setups, there are 10 years between my boys who are currently 5 and almost 16. My eldest is with his Dad 50% of the time, so our time together as a whole family can be limited. Plus, it can be difficult to find things that both of them will enjoy, as they're at such different ages.

This year, we decided the make the most of our time together by planning some 'Memory Making' days, fun activities for us to do together, no matter how big or small and to make sure we're doing something fun together every month.

To make it a little more fun, we made a Memory Jar.

How We Created Our Memory Jar

We took a glass jar with a lid (ours is from IKEA) and filled it with pieces of paper with activities written on each one. Taylor really enjoyed writing all the exciting activities onto pieces of paper and popping them into our special jar.

Every month, we choose an activity from the jar to do, together, as a family. 

I'll be updating this blog post every month with what we get up to throughout the year...

January 

This month the activity picked out of the jar was CRAZY GOLF! 

So one weekday evening we headed out to Treetops Adventure Golf* in Leicester, home of two fantastic 9-hole mini-golf courses and enjoyed their Tropical Trail course.

The boys were putting me to shame with their hole-in-ones and we had a great time making our way around the course, enjoying the amazing rainforest setting, surrounded by chattering toucans, caves and cascading rivers.

I pulled things back at the end though, by getting a hole-in-one on the BONUS 19th hole, WINNING A FREE GAME! Whoop whoop!!

We finished off our evening with the most amazing pizzas, Treetop Sunrise mocktails all round and Nutella and dough sticks - which were SO good!! 

We had a fantastic time. Crazy golf is a great, fun activity for all the family and both boys were happy (except Taylor who was fuming he didn't win the bonus hole, despite the lovely Tom, who was looking after us for the evening, letting him a few extra goes... he's a bit of a sore loser and was grumpy all the way home! It's so hard being 5! *Mum eye roll* haha)

But we will definitely be back - I've got a free round of golf to play after all!! :) 

February 

This month, the activity picked out of the jar was MAKING A CAKE! 

Now, I'm no baker, so I'll admit it was a cake mix, haha, but we still had to add the butter, eggs, and water, so we ALMOST made it from scratch!! ;) The boys enjoyed mixing all the ingredients together and decorating the cake, but of course, the best bit was eating it! ;)

March

So this month the Memory Jar decided that we'd enjoy a FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT!

One Friday evening, we prepared some snacks, snuggled under the blanket and watched The Queen's Corgi. Such a simple activity but so lovely for all of us to be together and enjoy a family film together.

Are you making lots of memories this year? 

*A huge thank you to Treetops Adventure Golf for the complimentary visit

Creating Vision Boards for 2020

It's a brand new year... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
It's the time for goal setting and making plans. I'm big on setting myself goals, I'm a strong believer that goal setting is hugely important; to stay focused, to keep growing. It gives your brain direction. I run 2 businesses, and a blog, and I'm a single Mum of 2 kids, so I have to be organised, there's no other option. I'm a big list maker. My daily to-do list is basically a list of goals I need to tick off each day, and I have weekly lists, sometimes monthly lists. My business and personal life would be a hot mess if I didn't organise myself in this way!!
Vision Boards, Goal Boards or Dream Boards, whatever you want to label them, are basically a collage of words and / or images that represent what you want out of life, the goals you want to achieve.

There is no right or wrong way to create a vision board, it's totally your choice.
You may wish to think about small, SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely goals) or you may wish to go all out and reach for the stars with some crazy 'Sky's the Limit' kinda goals, with your absolute dream house, living your millionaire lifestyle. These are YOUR dreams, what's stopping you from reaching them?  Now, the idea isn't to hit all these goals by the end of the year. You don't fail if your dreams don't come true. The idea is to give you a reason every single morning when you wake up and look at that board full of all your hopes, dreams and goals to get your ass up, make some plans and take action towards getting to where you want to be, living the life you want to live!  How you create it is totally down to you too. 
Some people choose to create one digitally and have it as their laptop wallpaper, or you may prefer to use a pinboard, a foam board, a poster board, a cute wire display grid or even just a large piece of paper. Likewise, what you use is your choice too; magazine cut-outs, Sharpies, glitter, washi tape, stickers, photos, etc. Some people like to get super creative while others like a more simple look, whatever works for you! If you're not sure how you'd like it to look, head over to Pinterest for some inspiration.  

I used a foam board and armed with my printer, some scissors, glue and some gold stars I was ready to go! I felt it was easiest for me to just print images out as I wanted them. I thought about using magazines, but they're not something I regularly buy and I wasn't going to go spend £4-5 on a magazine in the hope that I'd find some images that I resonated with or enough letters to create the word I was thinking of. (plus it reminds me of a creepy ransom note! ha!) It's important to think about what your goals are in advance, so you know what you're looking for. What do you want to do this year? What would you like to achieve? Where do you want to go? What does the life you want to be living look like? Think about your family life, your career goals, your health and fitness, finances, your home, making memories and having fun, your relationships, education maybe, spirituality, personal development, self-care, emotional wellbeing... there is so much to think about, so decide what is important to you.  Get designing!
Once you know, get designing your board; write words, stick pictures, get your goals and dreams for 2020 stuck in place. You don't necessarily need to be specific at this point, you don't need to explain what each image means, nobody else needs to understand what anything stands for, or why, this is YOUR vision board, YOUR goals, as long as YOU know the goal and dream behind it all, that's fine. However, if you'll be using the vision board to manifest, you're going to need to get a little more specific. (I'll explain more about that later...) Google images was my best friend whilst creating my board, I simply searched for an image or word that linked to my goal, printed them out and stuck them down, alongside some of my own personal photos which I grabbed from my social media. I also used some positive affirmations and quotes I found on Pinterest that really spoke to me and I felt were words I needed to read, and most importantly, say, on a regular. It didn't take me long at all, but I was pretty specific and knew what I wanted. My vision board is very much designed like a collage and I threw a few gold stars on to make it look pretty. I'm very happy with it and I cannot wait to give it pride of place in the new desk area I'm planning for myself. 

Manifest those Dreams
Once finished, you want to display your board somewhere you're going to see it and look at it every day. Now, I'm all for a bit of woo-woo and a big believer in the Universe having your back and always listening, and I LOVE the way the Law of Attraction works.  When you look at the things on your vision board, close your eyes and imagine that goal / dream is real and that you're living that life. This is where being specific about your goals comes in. If you have a picture of a car on your board, does this mean you want a new car, you want to go on more road trips, take some driving lessons or book your test? When you're manifesting your goals, you need to be specific about what you want. You want to lose weight? How much weight? What would you look like? You want more money? How much money? Enough to pay the bills? Enough to clear your debts? Enough to be able to go on numerous holidays this year? Make sure you're specific when you're putting it out there into the Universe! I also think it a fantastic idea to get the kids involved.
I was chatting to my boys about what I was planning to do while we were out for lunch, and my 5 year old wanted to do one too! I think it's a great idea as it encourages them at an early age to dream, there's nothing wrong with young kids having goals and dreams. Not only does it teach them responsibility, it allows them to aim high and builds self-confidence. With Taylor, I asked him what did he want to do or achieve in 2020, then we printed pictures off and he got to work writing his sentences and decorating his board. It was super cute when he woke up the following morning saying, 'Mummy, I just looked at my Vision Board as soon as I woke up.' I hope that having this board reminds him of his goals this year and he feels joy and pride when he fulfills them, and I hope he continues to set himself goals throughout his life. 

What are YOUR Goals and Dreams for 2020? Have you made a Vision Board this year?