When I first decided that I wanted to do a retreat in 2022, I knew that I wanted to merge my passions of travel, PR, coaching, building community and empowering women together but I was confused about the logistics
i.e. the how
Fast forward to now and, in July, I completed my first international retreat in Tulum, Mexico
Where I'm still receiving amazing feedback
And getting ready to host my second one in Mykonos, Greece next year
From October 2nd-6th, to be exact
What led to this success was…
In the last few weeks, I've experienced two full circle moments that reminded me of this quote by Napoleon Hill: “No mind is complete by itself. It needs contact and association with other minds to grow and expand"
In other words, we become powerful beyond measure when we pursue our visions alongside others (through the power of a mastermind). This was illustrated through:
On October 5th I attended the Next Level Speakers Conference
This was all thanks to one of my close friends who got me a ticket as a birthday gift
One of my all-time favourite motivational speakers, Eric Thomas (ET), was a keynote speaker
I’ve followed him for years and had seen him twice in London before this (I wasn't kidding about him being one of my faves lol). But seriously, every time I see Eric Thomas it’s incredible, and the copious notes I took are testament to that
Here’s what I learned 👇🏾
In September, I found myself asking myself a series of questions
I know you’re thinking “Such as?”
Well…
Like: "What is it that makes me the most happy, and how can I incorporate that into my life on more of a daily basis?"
But that was very much at the beginning of the month
I think that anybody who knows me well, knows that I love traveling
Yes, it's because I get to experience different cultures and spend time with the people that I love and eat delicious food and all of that sort of jazz
But I also realise that part of what I love about holidays and traveling, is also the person that I am when I'm on holiday
I know what I'm going to wear on each day, and I'm hyped to wear those things. I know what I'm going to do, I know who I'm going to see
So, not only am I more relaxed, but actually, I am more organised
With this in mind…
In line with that, one of the things that I started to ask myself every day in September (after this realisation) was:
When I first started to gain traction with PR it was as a blogger in the first quarter of 2017. However, by that December, I was ready to quit writing all together
Here's why 👇🏾
"If someone who I've considered a sister for 10 years could so misconstrue and under rate my writing," I remember thinking, "What hope is there that strangers will get me?"
And so, like I said, I seriously considered calling it quits with The Far Above Rubies Collection and all the business ideas that I hoped would come out of it
Fast forward to now and I am an award winning blogger, international speaker and freelance writer who has not only been able to monetise my gift but get featured on platforms such as Thrive Global, The TEDx blog, HuffPost, Bustle, Mic, Addicted2Success, Black Ballad and more. I also just got rave reviews for Media Magic (the luxury retreat that I held in Tulum, Mexico in July teaching business women how to get PR for themselves)
What led to this success was...
Recently, I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with my godson, Max
He just turned 2
We sang nursery rhymes (like the wheels on the bus), watched Baby Shark and played with the baby proof version of a marble run that I got him for his birthday
We had great fun lol
What's also great about Max is that, so long as he was occupied, he would leave me and his mum (my good sis, Isata) to chat
Which was great because we had so much to catch up on
The only time he'd interrupt us was to let us know that he needed help with something
Like fixing a toy, getting something open or what not
Which got me thinking, we need to be more like Max and not suffer in silence
Here's why
In the last week of August, I had the awesome pleasure of going to Panama with The Christian Travel Club
It was such an amazing experience with a great group of people in an amazing country
Whilst there, I had the opportunity to attend a small mastermind breakfast with Anthony O’neal
In case you’re unfamiliar with him, he’s a former Dave Ramsey personality and host of The Table. He’s also the guy with the mic in the video above.
During the mastermind I witnessed something which was a great reminder of why networking is so important and how, if heeded, could lead to PR opportunities for you too…
