Jo’s Journal – March 2020

What do you do when you meet one of your heroes? You gift her a Mantra necklace, of course!  

Meeting Marie Forleo at The Sunday Times Life Lessons Festival gave me the chance to do just that. We pre-engraved one of our Dreamcatcher myMantra necklaces with Marie’s mantra for life – ‘Everything is figureoutable’ – and I had it with me in case I had chance to meet her at the event.

Being first in the queue for her book signing enabled me to have a quick chat, gift her the necklace, and let her know that I had signed up to her digital learning platform, B-School.

The Life Lessons Festival was a great event, with inspirational and thought-provoking talks from genuinely interesting and exciting speakers. We were thrilled to meet so many of you there – many of you already familiar with Mantra from seeing us in Psychologies and In the Moment magazines.

If you haven’t yet seen us at an event – then do check out our events page to see where we’ll be next. With ‘Live Well’ in Manchester later in the year, as well as London; and Fearne Cotton running a ‘Happy Place Festival’ in Warwick and Knutsford as well as Chiswick, we’re bringing Mantra to more areas than ever this year!

Consumer events have come into their own at this moment in time. I really believe that we are still all seeking connection and communication in person, rather than just digitally, and events are such a brilliant way of meeting your tribe while doing something you love.

I chatted to so many fascinating people at ‘Life Lessons’, and definitely made some new friends. We had in common an interest in hearing new, different and thought-provoking ideas, and chatting about them to like-minded people. The event cut across age range and gender, and brought people of all ages together, who have a curious mind.

If you don’t typically go to events like this, then I would urge you to reconsider. It may be you are still thinking of shopping events like ‘Clothes Show Live’ from many moons ago, with crowds of people packed into a gloomy venue – but the new generation of events are highly curated, often in beautiful spaces, and with interesting talks and up-and-coming brands on display.

Our next event with Mantra is ‘Live Well London’, another inspiring event with great content and interesting speakers. We are launching our latest collaboration with Dr Gemma Newman at this event, as she is on the wellness panel on Sunday 1st March.

My husband’s birthday fell when I was working in London all weekend at the Life Lessons event, so he travelled down to London so we could meet for dinner. We had a pre-dinner drink at the beautiful Donovan Bar at Brown’s Hotel – a true oasis of tranquillity and glamour – before going on for a lovely dinner. There is something wonderful about being able to combine work and pleasure in the same weekend. For many of you who run your own businesses or have busy jobs, you’ll know what I mean: there often is no such thing as a work-life balance, it is a work-life blend. I, for one, prefer it like that, as it makes life all the more interesting for it.

We’ve been filming more customer stories this month too, including with the lovely Alex, whom I have known for several years. Alex runs her own financial services business, as well as being a busy mum to two teenage girls, so she certainly lives the work-life blend. It was touching to hear that it was her girls who chose the mantra, ‘Do more of what makes you happy’, to be engraved on their mum’s myMantra necklace - to encourage her to remember to do more things for herself, not just for her business.

Do get in touch if you’d like to feature in a video later in the year.

This month, I have also been listening to some truly inspiring books on Audible, including Susan Jeffers’ ‘Embracing Uncertainty’, which I think is brilliant. I read her classic, ‘Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway’, back when I was a student in the ‘80’s, and love her thinking, her approach and her ideas. Now, listening to this later book, I warm to her even more, and was very sad to know that she passed away in 2012, which I hadn’t realised. It makes me value her inspirational and life-affirming advice even more.

Audible is a great resource for inspiration, education and motivation. I always have two or three books on the go, and car journeys become so much more enjoyable with a book playing as you drive. One of my friends gave me an excellent tip recently: those of you that know me, know that I talk very fast, and I read very fast. So I sometimes find Audible just too darn slow for me! I had never realised that you can listen at 1.25 or 1.5 speeds, which is what I do now. It suits me so much better, as well as meaning I get through books at a faster rate!

The new month starts with two events in quick succession – ‘Live Well London’ in Old Billingsgate, London, followed by ‘The Mindful Living Show’ in Islington. If you can’t make it to either of those to see us, then ‘Balance’ is fast-approaching in April, and then the series of Fearne Cotton’s ‘Happy Place’ Festivals take us through the Summer. We’d love to see you in person at one of our pop-ups.

In the meantime – Spring is on its way!

Jo xxx