A Day Trip To The Coast (In Lockdown)

/
Quickshot.JPG

Last June I was sat out in the garden with a huge grin on my face having just ticked off a massive work milestone, I was getting ready to fly to Canada for my best mates wedding. Things felt like they were going in the right direction.

June 2020 feels very different.

As we move into this limbo state of being half in and half out of lockdown, where some things feel completely normal and others feel so far from that.

I know we are all craving a weekend escape, a trip somewhere that isn’t just the four walls we’ve been hibernating in lockdown. Hopefully that will be sometime soon.

In the meantime I highly recommend taking a day trip somewhere, a few weeks ago Dev and I took advantage of the sunshine and took a day trip to the coast. It’s funny how things we took for granted before have becoming a luxury, it felt like a real treat to get in the car and drive to Devon for the day.

We picked a spot called Hope Cove, and packed up the car the night before, preparing food for breakfast lunch and dinner with a cool bag of cold drinks and car snacks, in case there was nothing open on the way. 

We parked up at Hope Cove House, away from the busier beaches (tip: avoid the beaches that have a car park right in front of them as they are always the busiest). The hotel was serving All press coffees, and we had a chat with the owner who used to live in London running 5* restaurants before moving to the coast. We sat by the sea eating our packed breakfast and coffee, with big grins on our face it felt like we were on holiday.

The rest of the day was spent walking along the coastal path, dropping down to different beaches for a swim in the (cold!) sea and time to sunbathe, read a book and have a picnic. We didn’t quite make it in time to sample the Beach Hut but I have heard great things so will head there next time for their prawns. We finished the day with a cold beer and some calamari from the local pub, as the sun went down we caught the last of the rays before heading back to Bristol. 

It was a much needed breath of sea air, food and time away from being available online 24/7 as we seem to be at the moment.

Hope Cove, Kinsbridge

Places To Eat/Drink

  • Hope Cove House- Serving All press coffee, soft and alcoholic drinks, and on Saturday’s do a takeaway BBQ and it runs a wine shop.

  • Beach House- Like a mini version of the hidden hut, with seafood and all takeaway food to eat on the beach

  • The Cove- Not the best food but they serve cold beers and pints, they serve a great non alcoholic beer called ‘The Big Drop’

  • The Post office- For local ice cream

  • The Oyster Shack

  • The School House Devon

  • Nkuku- Beautiful lifestyle shop and café

  • The Almond Thief

Places To Stay

Food For The Day

  • Flask of tea

  • Overnight oats, with blueberries, strawberries and Rock My Bowl’s granola to serve

  • Salads for the day with salt and vinegar crisps and cold ginger beer for the beach

  • Homemade roasted chicken lockdown sourdough sandwiches

  • Chocolate brownies

  • Calamari and cold beers from The Cove

Six Things I Wish I Had Known When I Started Working For Myself

/
img0111.jpg

Six Things I Wish I Had Known When I Started Working For Myself

I remember when I first had the idea... I was sat at my kitchen table (as classically that’s where all the good ideas start) and working out how I was going to actually start teaching yoga to people

That was almost 6 years ago, NEVER did I imagine the scale the Yoga Brunch Club could grow to.

I often get asked what advice I have for anyone starting out on a new business idea or venture.  If I’m honest I still feel like I’m figuring it all out most days.

I've jotted down a few answers below:

WORKING FOR YOURSELF IS HARD (otherwise everyone would do it)

It’s great being your own boss. BUT it can get lonely, you can lack motivation and it is easy to loose your focus. Build up a support network of fellow freelancers, find a mentor, connect with business owners that you can spark ideas off with.
 

FIND YOUR WHY

Teaching yoga and making yoga more accessible and less intimidating, is ‘the why’ behind my business, yoga and teaching grounds me and will always takes me back to the roots of why I first started my business.
 

YOU CAN’T DO EVERYTHING

Even though you will try, I am slowly starting to learn to ask for help, to share the work load and am loving having more people involved with the business. This is the only way YOU, and it can grow.
 

WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS

It’s easy to get distracted with big shiny things along the way and end up working on projects that you think you SHOULD be doing rather than taking the time to figure where you and what you want to spend your time on.
 

DO NOT FEEL GUILTY

If you are not at your desk for 8 hours a day. Make time to do the stuff you couldn’t do when your time was more restricted.

Get outside, move your body, sitting at a desk all day is not going to make you more productive.
 

ON TOUGH DAYS

Or when I feel like I’ve got it all wrong I look through photos, videos, and feedback from all the wonderful attendees who have love the Yoga Brunch Club as much as I do, this gives me the drive to keep going.

 

6 Lessons I Learnt From Making the Yoga Brunch Club’s Virtual

/
photo0137.jpg

6 Lessons I Learnt From Making the Yoga Brunch Club’s Virtual


The past two months of Covid-19 has been hugely challenging for so many of us, and an impossible one to navigate if you are in the live events business.

However I have recently ticked off some of the Yoga Brunch Club’s biggest milestones and achievements to date:
·      Run x3 Live Virtual Yoga Brunch Club’s reaching over 90+ people per session
·      Run a Virtual Day Retreat
·      Had brunch delivered to over 140+ people’s homes
·      Run events simultaneously in two different cities
·      Sustained and created a multi-sensory experience for people at home through organising food deliveries
·      Created a connection and community through live classes and interactive sessions

I wanted to share some key takeaways I’ve learnt from taking the Yoga Brunch Clubs Virtual, as I think there’s some useful lessons we could probably all benefit from right now:

6 Lessons I have Learnt from making the Yoga Brunch Club’s Virtual

COLLABORATE AND BE NICE TO PEOPLE

Kindness goes a long way at the moment, and seeing the way people have come together and supported businesses and individuals online has been really humbling. The Virtual Events I have run would not of been possible with out the key individuals and chefs I have been lucky to build strong relationships and collaborate with.

TESTING GROUND

Use this time as a testing ground, get creative don’t be afraid to ask for feedback. We are all in this together and you are creating a completely new experience so use this as a time to test out ideas.

Don’t worry if some of them fail, that’s how you are going to learn what to do better next time.

DON’T JUST BROADCAST

This is a two-way experience, platforms such as zoom allow you to interact, chat and speak to have a two way conversation.

Use these facilities, engage with people, encourage your audience to send a message, to wave, to ask questions.

This is only going to enhance and add to the experience for everyone attending, and that shared experience is what people will remember.

ELEVATE THE EXPERIENCE

People will be practicing at home, so you have no control of their environment but you can offer suggestions to add to the experience. Suggest props or alternative ‘yogi’ props they can use for the class

Declutter the space you are teaching from, make sure you have tested out the technology, the volume and where you are going to be teaching from, and that it is all working beforehand so things are slick and streamlined.

THINK ABOUT THE DETAIL

What detail could you add to the online event that will be memorable, how do you properly differentiate yourself ? Can you send something in the post, can you provide a post event toolkit that arrives in their inbox after the class?

BUILDING A COMMUNITY

The biggest take away and feedback that I have had from all the events I have run is this desire and need that we all have to connect and be part of a shared experience. Ask attendees to document the day, take photos, to share that experience on social media.

Make it memorable and create those shared memories.

If you would like to join one of the next Virtual Yoga Brunch Clubs, you can find details for the next one running on Sunday 31st May here.

Read a review by Bristol 24/7 of the last month’s Virtual Yoga Brunch Club here.

Images from some of the recent Virtual Yoga Brunch Club’s.

Huge thanks to the wonderful chefs I have had the pleasure of working with so far on the Virtual events: Bombay Brrrrunch, Emmeline, Kemp Kitchen, Fed 303, Rock My Bowl