In my opinion are influencer courses a scam?

Over the past year, I have trialed several influencer courses so I could learn what they are all really about. You always see people promoting their course and telling you why theirs is better than others. Now in some cases, I found this was correct but in others not so much. 

I previously had around 5k followers before I decided to restart and refresh my social media. Most of my old followers were basically ghosts anyway and I averaged 300-400 likes a post, maybe a comment or two and a save but that was it. My engagement was low. 

I have had my new Instagram for a year My followers have hit 1.8k, and my engagement averages are the best I’ve ever seen them. I have also been privileged to meet some wonderful girls who will always hype me up and have turned into genuine friends, they are also on the same influencer courses as myself. I do believe a lot of this was because of the two courses I have linked at the end of my post! 

Over the last year on these different courses; I have found that the smaller businesses that run the courses are worth it more than the larger ones. This is because I felt it was more of a personal experience, and the support was greater in helping you reach your goals no matter how small they may be. You’re provided with help with;

- Hashtags, why they are so important and I have also been provided extensive lists of the various hashtags to use. I’ve never seen such brilliant results before regarding hashtags. 

- How to take a photo- which sounds daft but it genuinely is helpful, anyone can point and shoot a camera but to do it correctly is another thing. 

- I was also given the best editing apps, now I have such a big folder on my phone with the best apps I’ve used by far. 

- I have had 1-1 FaceTime calls about my goals and things I need to work on which are included in the course.

- Lists of PR emails. This is why a lot of people join courses and it is really helpful if you want freebies sure but I made it my goal to build my account first and then maybe I’ll do collaborations! But the lists are huge and something I found is most of them are very similar to each other, one course had a few more than the other, however; they all had some brilliant contacts on. 

- You are taught about ‘niches’, and how to present your profile which is also super important to attract people to your page to help you grow.

There is a lot more involved but these are some of the biggest points. I do strongly believe that the smaller courses are there to genuinely help you and help you get on the step to growing, I message my coaches for advice even though I have already had my course (technically), they’re still willing to help me and that’s something I feel is really important. 

Unfortunately, I have purchased a more well-known course and they have around 20k + people on board. I felt I was okay, I mean more followers to a course does not mean that they won’t help you, however for this particular course I just felt like I was a number and a source of income if that makes sense. So it was okay to start with they answered a few questions but in all honestly, they just haven’t provided the best of support and the course itself was not as good as I had imagined. They had a few larger business contacts for collaborations, yes, but I do believe this was not much use to me as my engagement would definitely need to be much higher, as well as my follower count to partner with these brands. I have messaged asking questions more recently but have not had a reply. This customer service really wasn’t meeting the expectations I had. If you are genuinely interested in knowing the course please do not hesitate to message me and I will get back to you. However, name dropping in this situation is not really my kind of thing. 

What about how the course is presented? This is an important topic I feel I need to bring up. One course has a website that you need a password to get to the course information which is a really good and professional idea! My other smaller course I joined is a simple easy to use PDF document which is updated anytime there is some new information which I like a lot too as it’s easy to access quickly on my phone files. The bigger one is a website too however it is pretty simplistic in comparison. 

Overall in conclusion I do strongly feel that influencer courses are worth it, but I will always suggest the smaller ones personally as they have the most potential and, they provide you with so much more support. I have never felt like I was just more money to them or just an income, I felt like they genuinely want me to succeed! You don’t need to buy loads and loads of courses at all, but if you want to genuinely learn I recommend 1 or 2 courses and a ton of research on YouTube as well; as there is loads of free content on there to help you increase your knowledge of social media and how to present yourself and grow. 

I will link the two courses I have below; And no they are not related to one another but just have the same last name! These two women have been so helpful and given me so much information I really recommend checking them out. 

https://www.instagram.com/l.k_influencers/ Ran by Loz knight  - Anyone who uses my name when purchasing the last course will receive £5 off the course price! 

https://www.instagram.com/dreamcatcherscoaching/ Ran by Jade knight - please do not hesitate to use my name as a referral I would really appreciate it and would love to help these girls share their knowledge with so many more people. 

I hope this had been helpful for anyone who had previously wondered about these types of social media courses. Lots of love- Ali x

Introducing Cystic Fibrosis

Cystic Fibrosis is a genetic lung disease, there are many different mutations of the cf gene and mine is the most common; Delta F508.

CF affects more than just the lungs. It also affects; 

- the pancreas/ digestive system as a whole 

- joints 

- liver

- nasal airways

- Your nail beds

- sweat

and also fertility in some people. 

You cannot just catch CF you are born with it. The reason some people aren't diagnosed till later in life is because they've been lucky enough to not show any symptoms or they may have only shown mild symptoms. Everyone with CF is different our bodies won't react the same. 

One question that most people want to know but are too shy to ask is what the life expectancy is. Once again it is different for everyone dependant on the severity of their condition. In the UK it used to be 20's but now its hard to say. The cf trust say that half of the people born with cystic fibrosis in 2017 will live to at least 47 which is incredible. Thankfully new treatments are being given to us patients now so out quality of life should be so much better than before and hopefully life expectancy will be on the rise too.

I remember going through so many trials for research with my siblings in Great Ormond Street Hospital, participating in drug trials and talking to so many student doctors over my life that I have lost count. I do look back and think perhaps I may have helped with research for these new drugs and also helped student doctors go on to be experts in the field of Cystic Fibrosis and respiratory diseases, and to be honest I hope I have because at least i can say I've helped this generation. 

Update on my gastrostomy button |

Since relaunching my blog people have seen my post about something called a gastrostomy button and have messaged me being super intrigued and wanting to know more about what it is, what I’d does and why I had it removed. So for those reasons I am reliving my experience and aim to talk about it all as I remember. Please bear with me as this is a long one but it’s really worth the read as it is super educational for those who don’t understand these types of intense treatments x

I was four years old when my button was put it, my mum told me everything about the moment the decision was made to have me have a button out in. And then 2003 I woke up from the operation crying because I couldn’t understand what was in my tummy and why. This was my button, which I’ll show a picture below of what one is.

Why did I need a “button?”

I had a button because I struggled putting weight on due to my cystic fibrosis, it was either this option or possible death. So my mum and my dad chose the best option obviously. I had this for about 12 years to help gain weight. That’s right all through primary school, all through secondary and partway through college. To be honest it’s the only reason I maintained and half decent weight and it has helped me on the long run. 

What does a button do? 

So I used this to have overnight feeds of milkshakes that had a super dose of calories and nutrients all of which my body could not absorb properly from food. This was ran through a pump overnight for 12 hours. As I got older making up my overnight milkshakes got super tedious, I felt sick in the mornings, (as anyone would when you have a constant flow of milkshake going into your stomach for 12 hours!).  

Did people know you had a button?

Short answer is yes. But only those I was close too. I vividly remember in high school in the changing rooms of PE I would get changed facing the wall or even find an excuse to not do PE just so people didn’t see my tube when I was getting changed. I felt embarrassed even though I shouldn’t have. 

What was dating like when you had a tube in your tummy? 

It was hard. It was hard to find someone I trusted or felt comfortable enough to tell about my button let alone see my button. I found someone who didn’t judge me for it and then realised along the relationship at the time that actually it’s not that big of a deal, it is something I needed to keep me alive, why should I ever be ashamed of it?

Why did you have it taken out? 

As I got older as I said I started not wanting to have my feeds as much, so eventually when I was at a stable weight and my doctors were happy I stopped my overnight milkshakes and proved I could keep the weight on without the need for my button. I made sure I went Six months Without using it before making my finally decision to remove it. This is because it is very hard to re-access the site to have another button out in. I also wanted to make sure that by not using my button and if I had it removed that I wouldn’t fall back to being underweight and unwell again. It was like the extra safety net I needed At the time so I could make sure I didn’t get poorly in 6 months.

A lot of nurses and doctors recommend I kept it anyway as a just incase but after 12 years I decided no. I wanted to be able to keep healthy on my own and I could which was proven after the six months, something I’m very proud of. Unfortunately over time I have not many photos of my button because I was so upset over it a lot. 

Mentally what was it like?

Wow, now that was a rollercoaster of emotions. It really hit hard in highschool in my last years, I had people bully me for all sorts of reasons. Now imagine if they found out I had a weird ass tube in my tummy? Scary right. I would get upset over it at least once a week, i would worry what people would think of me and I would feel really fu^king upset over it to be honest. Over th years I learnt to not give a flying fudge and I bossed it. Whilst I didn’t tell people I also just didn’t care too much about it and often it didn’t cross my mind the cons of it and the physical look of it. 

Now that all changed when I had it removed it was me going from tears of upset and sadness to tears of joy. Not because it was removed but because I had done it. I had gotten to the point in my life where I felt healthy without it. 

Do you remember a time where something went wrong? Or what was your biggest memory of your button?

I was very young when I woke up to my bed soaking in milkshake I thought maybe my connector had disconnected but my button had burts and came out in my sleep! I remember vividly and even remember the pain it caused me when I got take to a&e where they had to put a tube into my stomach to stretch my skin open again to keep the hole open because it had started to close up. The pain was nothing like I can describe.

Speaking of pain did it ever cause you pain? 

Every 6 months it had to be changed. This hurt a lot, it was like my insides were being scratched and pulled. So my muscles had closed around the tube obviously to keep it in my tummy and then I had to relax those muscles for the tube to be taken out and pulled out. Putting it in was easy tho! A whole load of “Goo” jelly type stuff and it slipped right in. But out? Ouch that was a pain.

I also suffered from infections around the site a lot such as thrush and heat rash as it’s always an acidi site, it’s a rubber thing against my skin 24/7 and this could sometimes really flare up and be unbearable and sore. Like a burning sensation sometimes. 

Has there been any Implications since it was removed? 

Yes - a big fat yes.Your stomach muscles are supposed to fight back and your body should heal after an object it’s removed from a hole that’s been created in your body. It was like a constant open wound. They told me give it a month and it should have healed over. A month of dressings and cleaning it still didn’t heal. 

4 years later it still isn’t healed. Over these four years imagine this. Every time you eat or drink acid would leak out of the wound because it is an open hole straight to your stomach. You’ve eaten or drank something so acidic that it’s leaked a orange liquid onto your white top while in public. It’s embarrassing, upsetting and expensive to keep buying white tops! After a while I avoided white all together, I hated eating because it meant it would leak, if I was in a restaurant and felt it start to leak I would quickly grab a napkin and hold it on the site to prevent the leak. I couldn’t dress it with pads because this would cause infections such as thrush or just heat rash. It was painful, smelly and upsetting. Only in the last year this has stopped I’d say but I still have a hole!! 

What have the doctors done to help?

Forst they upped my dosage of omeprazole which is an anti-reflux tablet I take and they thought the level of acidity was causing the hole to not close so by lowering the acidity it would however this didn’t work so next came the endoscopy to clip the “wound” from inside in an attempt to heal it but that hasn’t worked either. Unfortunately the hospital have not been helpful as these are the only two options they have tried and it’s been 4 years and I still have a hole so...

I hope you found this blog post informative and also interesting, apologies as it is so long, however; I really felt I didn’t hold back on information and I fully explained all my feelings which is something I was very hesitant to do. If you made it all the way here and read it all I just want to say thank you. This was a massive part of my life and still is so it means the world you’ve taken the time to learn about it. 

Alison x

Expectations vs the reality of a beach bbq

A beach bbq, amazing idea hey! You’d like to think that it’ll be warm with beautiful views. That the bbq will light the first time and within half an hour you’ll all be tucking into those chicken chorizo kebabs and cheeseburgers with bacon; oh and the veggie burgers for our veggies! 

You’ll spend hours there and because the weather is so nice you can sunbath in your shorts and vest and go paddle in the sea. Well, that’s the expectation. Unfortunately, reality is far from it...

Let’s talk about it

We traveled for about an hour to the beach and paid £3 parking, to spend 20 minutes there for good reasons! 

The first sign that this was all going wrong was that we aimed to leave at 2pm, but left at 2:45pm, blame me and Kyle for that one oops. Then we made it to Tesco by the beach that we were headed to with barely ten minutes to spare until it closed, at that point, we should have given up. 

As we were all expecting the sunny weather we dressed accordingly, this being in shorts, tee’ s, and dresses. But It was actually freezing and the wind was awful. Myself, Connie, and  Phoebe wrapped towels around us because it was so cold! Also, Our one and only form of a windbreaker which was our umbrella broke so we ended up with a lot of sand being blown at us.

A rookie error was that the boys didn’t build the bbq until we got to the beach, where they half built it...

Sam and Kyle tried lighting the bbq so many times I lost count. While Ben was spectating (I assume he just knew that shit would hit the fan) and Connor started ticking into a half-frozen chocolate Gato. Yes, that really was desperate times call for desperate measures moment we were all famished.                               

It was at that moment we knew we had to give up and go home, a bbq at the beach just didn’t seem possible at this point. How could it get worse? Oh, wait it did! When packing the bbq away Sam dropped it into a bottle of fizz, which then decided to explode all over us and my handbag, and when we thought we had managed to put it down and stop it suddenly we had even more fizz pouring out of the bottle...

Now, remember all this happened within about 20 minutes so as you can imagine it was chaos! However, we did end up with a super cute photo which is below:

                                                   

By that point we left the beach and went to Connie’s we continued our bbq there and let me tell you, it was much better. We had chairs, a bbq that could actually light and those chicken, chorizo skewers were a hit

Moral of the story is;

• double-check the weather before you leave
• Bring a disposable bbq or at least build it before you leave 
• Bring more towels 
• Actually have firelighters with you 
• Invest in a proper windbreaker for days like this
• And finally, be ready to pack up and go home after 20 minutes...

Whilst inconvenient these are the memories that will stay for a lifetime. It was funny, chaotic, and fun all wrapped in one.

Tips to being productive in a workplace environment that work!

Getting up early you can become a morning person! 

Did you know there is a theory that speaks about two types of people? A type A and a type B person. I recently learned of this when I was resitting my Organisational Behaviour work and basically speaking a type-A person thrives on long hours, high workload, and tight deadlines. A type B person is the opposite by taking time out to enjoy leisure and more easy-going, (Friedman and Rosenman, 1974). Which type of personality do you think you fall under? Type b or a type B?

Keep a diary, no note on your phone either, physically write down those important dates as they will drill into your head even better than jotting it down on your phone. Then be that person who always brings it around with you.

Put your damn phone down! With so much going on in life and the world, your phone is the busiest place to be. One minute you could be looking at beautiful images of flowers the next you’ll be looking at how to tutorials of Facebook. Your phone is a huge distraction, no work will get done if you’re scrolling through it so put it in your bag!

Create a playlist in Spotify of easy listening songs that you can put through headphones while you work and put your phone to the side. You don’t need to pick it up again if you know your playlist is great the whole way through of course if you are permitted the use of your headphones!

This one may seem strange but create a list of what you want to achieve and what it means to you to achieve it. Then give yourself some steps you need to take to get there. It’ll give you more motivation to carry on and work hard. 

 

Snacks aka your brain food. I always snack while I work I don’t know why but it actually helps.

Cut out energy drinks. They may seem a good idea but they cause a serious crash in energy after a while and that’s the last thing you want when you are working your socks off. Stick to the coffee breaks!

The collaboration scams you should know about

Let's keep this simple. I am going to explain what those comment or dm's saying,

"Hey, hun! we love your style, DM us to collab" mean. 

I'll tell you now 9/10 times this is not a collaboration and this will be a scam. 

So companies will use new bloggers or influencers to their advantage by spamming their comments or Dm's with these types of messages. Of course, you want to say hell yes! Free goodies sent to you in return for a photo they can use on their page, this sounds too good to be true. In short, it usually is. 

If a company is saying to you they'll send you the product for free but you cover the shipping cost they are not treating you as a partner to work with they are using words carefully to treat you as a customer. they will up a shipping fee of about £15 or more and then send you the product. 

I fell for this when I first started Instagram and thankfully the product got sent to me but often they don't! I took the photo and posted it as they asked (without charging them) and they never even reposted me. So not only was I money short for a tee I also didn't get the exposure they promised me or any free items after that (which was another thing they told me would happen).

I have learned now that I will rarely upload images that promote a brand that takes my time and skills for free. Why should I spend hours taking the product photo and editing it to then post it for free when I received a 'free' item that I still had to pay a huge shipping fee for? I have my personal exceptions on this such as small brands that I build a connection with overtime and can truly see the hard work they put into production of the products and items of clothing but then they would usually ask me to cover shipping of £3.  However, remember this most of the time is a big no from me and these companies are trying to scam you.

I will attach a conversation from below of what these usually look like and if you get one I suggest you politely decline x