Patricia Bright - Heart and Hustle: Use your passion. Build your brand. Achieve your dreams.

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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 authors 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

Ive never been someone who sits back and takes it all in. Im not going to lie the truth is that I often feel Im 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 Ill 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 Im in the moment, I dont give much thought to the immensity of whats happening. Im on autopilot. It might look like Im holding it all together, but Im often scared, nervous and feel like Im winging it as I go.

Thats the reality of my life, just as its other peoples reality too. Of course Im excited every time something great happens, but in the same moment, Im filled with fear because its almost too good. Still, Im learning to appreciate every experience and achievement, and I dont take it for granted. As much as I talk about being scared, I dont let the fear stop me. Its part of the hustle and, ultimately, it drives me forward.

Thats 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 Ive gathered along the way. In this book, Im 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 thats holding you back.

But before all of that, I want to reveal more about myself, to show you what Im all about and the principles I live my life by. Ive 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. Im 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, thats what they told me. Their eyes met across the shopping centre there, at a time when there werent 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.

Then, when I was six years old, my dad was deported.

It came as a total shock. One night there was a frantic knocking at the door and a team of policemen came through the house to find my dad, before taking him away like a thief in the night. I can still clearly picture my mum sitting on the stairs pleading to deaf ears, while my sister and I sobbed. We didnt know that it would take another six years, a court case, and much sweat and tears until our father would be back with us.

Now Im older, I understand what happened. My dad was essentially an illegal immigrant: he had outstayed his student visa and was working, but he hadnt applied for permanent residency. It was a mistake that caused a lot of pain, but that ultimately made us all a lot more resilient, as Ill explain.

Learning to hustle

Now, with Dad gone, we were on our own. When I think back on it, my mum could have let what had happened break her, but she didnt. Shes about five foot, with a huge smile and doll-like eyes, completely butter wouldnt melt. But, let me tell you, shes a force to be reckoned with: the most amazing example of hustle and heart.

Back then, Mum worked as a cleaner. From offices to trains, she put in the shifts, getting up in the early hours for 5 a.m. starts on some days, and trudging home after 10 p.m. finishes on others. And, while we were at primary school, my sister and I learned to put in the shifts, too. I suspect this might be considered very illegal nowadays. However, when you dont have an option, sometimes you just do what you have to. Because Dad had been deported, my sister and I had to go everywhere with our mum, as she really wanted to avoid leaving us home alone.

So, at four o clock in the morning, with sleep in our eyes and our school uniforms already on, the two of us would often go with Mum to clean offices in London. My sister and I would vacuum, wash the dishes and wipe down the surfaces we werent very big, but we were strong. We would put in the work then, after we had locked up the offices, Mum would take us to school. This, of course, was a secret, and somehow (maybe it was Mums stern looks) we knew that that part of our lives wasnt meant to be known. Wed already had an experience with the authorities and, deep down, I think we were scared that they might take our mum away like they had our dad. So we kept quiet about this part of our lives, playing at school just like all the other children.

Over the following years, I watched my mum elevate herself. She had a secondary school education and not much else, but while she still worked as a cleaner, she also began training as a nurse. She would read and study when she could and, in between her shifts and training, rustle up meals for my sister and me. Somehow Mum knew how to make a meal using basic ingredients like corned beef and packet noodles taste gourmet. Though we never had a lot in terms of material things, we never felt we lacked. There was so much love that we always felt comfortable.