Heart and Hustle: What it takes to make it to the top

Heart and Hustle: What it takes to make it to the top
Patricia Bright

”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 use who you are to smash it onlineYOUR BUSINESS: how to run your side hustle like a total bossYOUR BELIEFS: ditch the thinking that’s holding you backFrom the early lessons she learned growing up in South London, to the moment she gave up the 9 to 5 to do what she loved, Patricia Bright’s story will revolutionise how you think about work, life, and what it means to succeed.Packed with her trademark attitude, style and sense of fun, Heart & Hustle is an inspirational guide to taking control of your own future.

Copyright (#ulink_bfcdc9d4-72d4-54c9-87d7-b41abb4e063a)

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

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.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Ebook Edition © January 2019 ISBN: 9780008263096

Dedicated to my daughter, Grace

CONTENTS

Cover (#uea7d90d2-37f7-510f-93b3-a79239b9a453)

Title Page (#u7d17c3a6-8ec3-5f5d-8079-f3c4734749c2)

Copyright (#ulink_6accfe99-27d2-5c39-b9d6-3cfca1782b5c)

Dedication (#u3d54ddca-14b8-5192-9191-1a36282700ec)

INTRODUCTION (#ulink_397cd1c9-ea88-5285-9cf7-7a03c37bd131)

1 NATURAL-BORN HUSTLER (#ulink_e66e9099-a849-548a-bd68-bfa55d60277e)

2 YES, I WORK FOR MYSELF ON THE INTERNET! (#ulink_47f49776-4a80-5d06-bb8b-1c04d0c58a9d)

3 THE IMPORTANCE OF BUILDING A FOLLOWING ON SOCIAL MEDIA (#ulink_6001a06b-665d-531f-8b8d-0ab706822dfd)

4 THE SCIENCE BIT – PRACTICAL ADVICE FOR BUILDING UP A SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILE (#litres_trial_promo)

5 TAKING YOUR AUDIENCE TO THE NEXT LEVEL OF GROWTH (#litres_trial_promo)

6 ONLINE VS REAL LIFE (#litres_trial_promo)

7 CREATE YOUR WEALTH (#litres_trial_promo)

8 A CAREER VS GOING IT ALONE (#litres_trial_promo)

9 HOW TO RUN YOUR EMPIRE (#litres_trial_promo)

10 A WOMAN’S WORLD (#litres_trial_promo)

11 DISCOVERING WHO YOU ARE (AND WHAT YOU VALUE) (#litres_trial_promo)

12 STAYING THE COURSE IN STYLE (#litres_trial_promo)

13 THE POWER OF A PEP TALK (#litres_trial_promo)

14 STREAMLINE THE STRESS AWAY (#litres_trial_promo)

15 FEELING GOOD FROM THE OUTSIDE IN (#litres_trial_promo)

TIME TO SAY GOODBYE (#litres_trial_promo)

MY READING LIST (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Introduction (#ulink_d13e6c31-408a-5d3c-9e4e-7116d051afe4) | Killing it? (#ulink_d13e6c31-408a-5d3c-9e4e-7116d051afe4)

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. Then, one day, she met my dad, who was also over from Nigeria, as an international student working for his university degree in the UK. It was a Clapham Junction love story – well, that’s what they told me. Their eyes met across the shopping centre there, at a time when there weren’t many people who looked like them in that part of south London. When they got talking, they realised they were from the same area of Nigeria, and spoke the same dialect … I suppose it was meant to be!

Not long after that, my mum became pregnant (with me), then, eighteen months later, my younger sister decided to join the party. My dad graduated with his printing technology degree and began working at a boutique publishing firm. Mum got whatever work she could, while raising two small children. But they made it work, and I have happy memories of those early days.