I often hear women say they don’t have enough money, but what is enough? No matter what we seem to earn our outgoings always seem to outstrip our income. Is it time to redefine what wealth means to us?

It is often a misconception that terms like ‘wealth’ and ‘prosperity’ means how much  money you have in the bank, or how much your investments are worth. However, I want to talk about wealth in the broadest sense. I consider wealth not only to be about money, but partly about mindset and creating the lifestyle you desire. Once you do this you can be the wealthiest woman in the world!

Wealth is subjective and therefore can be seen by different people to mean different things. To some, having a mixture of investments such as stocks and bonds, real estate, a boat, kids in private schools, business interests and other assets are seen as wealth. For others it might be having a beach house on one of the world’s most beautiful beaches, a laptop and writing stories all day.

It’s time for women to redefine their own idea of what being wealthy means to them and strive to achieve that, not someone else’s idea of wealth.

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My journey to wealth was unconventional in the sense that I defined what being wealthy would mean to me and not necessarily by other people’s standards. Would I be considered wealthy by other people? Probably not. Am I on the Forbes rich list? Definitely not, but by my own standards, yes I am very wealthy indeed.
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I started out life as the youngest of 8 children, born to immigrant parents. We lived in what is affectionately known as a two up two down (a small terraced house in the North of England). Pressure of family life and living in such cramped conditions soon gave way to domestic violence. I learnt from an early age that women should not speak up if they were unhappy with something or argue back, otherwise there would be consequences…. I managed to get through school with average grades and was the youngest and first in my family to get a degree. I moved to London and got myself a decent job with the Local Authority. Things were working out quite well, except with personal relationships. This was of little surprise given my early introduction to relationships were that of fear and violence. I became a single mum at the age of 33. This came as a shock to me as I thought I would be married before having children and financially secure. It’s what my peers and I had expected. I can’t help wondering if we were fed a lie, but that subject is for another blog post.

I embraced motherhood and was working full time. Child care fees and living costs however were spiralling out of control and I found myself increasingly in debt and things started to get out of hand. One day I received a letter explaining that I was being repossessed. It just so happened at that time I was introduced to a life coach by a friend who explained to me that I could change my story and re-programme my mind. I didn’t have to be living my life based on limiting programmes, but find a life that suited me. One of purpose, joy and with financial security. Well, it all sounded like ‘mumbo jumbo’ to me, but I followed what she’d told me to do and ‘hey presto!’ My life significantly turned around. After discovering a new found confidence I started to go on a few courses. This led me to buying my first property and realising that I could create some financial security for myself and my lovely, kind, loving, beautiful, sacred, darling daughter. Through purchasing a few properties and renting them out I was able to work part time and supplement my income. I found I was less stressed, got to spend more time with my daughter and have time to go on a few personal development courses, which eventually led me to becoming a life coach and finding my soul mate.
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My coaching business supports women in the realm of confidence to see how much amazing potential they have. I also do courses on finding the right career path for them and also boosting financial empowerment. I feel that these 3 areas are fundamental to growth and personal development and are the focus of my business. Confidence, career and financial empowerment. I wanted to work specifically with women as I kept coming across so many who were doing amazing things or had fantastic ideas but through lack of confidence, support or direction never realised their dreams or realised how amazing they were. It could be through up bringing, culture, religion, media or peer pressure, but we never seem to be able to look at ourselves and say “I’m great”, “I’m amazing”. This is frowned upon but it’s okay to be self-depreciating, leaving most (particularly women) feeling not worthy or not quite good enough. I want women who attend my workshops and courses to feel great about themselves and then go on to achieve great things, including improving their financial prospects.
  
With regards finances its time to admit that many of us have quite a strange relationship with money, we are not comfortable talking about money and when we do it’s in a negative way too many times I hear women say ‘I just want to be comfortable’ or ‘I don’t want to be rich’, which is fine, but if we do want more money flow in our life we have to be careful what we say, as our words can be blocking our money flow and our attitude towards money could be sending money in the opposite direction. Remember, money is just energy and energy flows where the attention goes. So if you spend all your time worrying about bills, this will just attract more bills. If you spend your time and energy thinking about how you can help others with your abundance and wealth, this will attract abundance and wealth. This is called the Law of Attraction and it never fails as it is law.
It’s important to always be thinking positively about money and how you can have an impact once you have money flowing into your life. If you want to make a difference to your community, the environment or to the world, you are in a much better position to do so if you have some financial security.

​According to a report in 2016 by time.com, women now control $39.6 trillion, or about 30% of the world’s wealth and by 2020 they estimate women will control $72.1 trillion globally. Female entrepreneurs and female wealth is now on the increase, there has never been a better time to be a female on the path to wealth creation, defined by their own terms and ideas of what wealth means to them.
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A wealthy world to me means a world where more business is done in collaboration as opposed to competition. We are looking at conserving, not destroying the environment and we look at how we can give back to support poorer communities instead of taking advantage of them. I know it can be done …. who’s with me?
Here is a list of my top 3 priorities for my business and reflect my highest values.

• Being of service to others /giving back to the community
• Having a balance of fun leisure /work and spiritual pursuits.
• Empowering women ​

Roz Thornton is the founder and Director of Amazing Women Global
Roz was brought up in a disempowered household with domestic violence. As an adult she worked for 20 years in Local Government supporting some of Britain’s poorest communities. After spending six years as a broke single mum with no work/life balance, Roz turned her life around taking inspiration from strong female coaches and role models.

​Roz is now a life coach, trainer, speaker and property investor and uses her experience to inspire and empower women around the subjects of: confidence, careers and money. Roz is the founder of the Amazing Women Awards, has recently appeared on ITV’s the Chopping Block and is the current winner of the Business Woman of the year 2016 at the Regional Entrepreneurs Empowerment Business Awards.

Roz is London based and will often speak at: corporate organisations, women’s charities & networks, schools, universities, non-profits & professional associations.

• Instagram/amazingwomenglobal             
  
• Linkedin/Roz Thornton
  
• Facebook.com/amazingwomenglobal       
  
• www.amazingwomenglobal.com

​When I was a child, I was always drawing, telling stories that my grandmother wrote on post-its until I learned how to write. I loved taking pictures and a lot of other artistic activities. When I had to decide what I was going to do later, I understood very fast that becoming an artist was not in the picture. People, the grown ups told me it was not a project and I will become poor and unemployed. My dad was all about business school, I was interested in political sciences as well, so I chose to follow this path, it was more acceptable for my family. I knew it was the only way my dad would help me financially during my studies.

I moved to Lyon for my studies, It was interesting, I liked it, but I missed something and I didn't know what. I stayed in Australia for a year after that, and I did my applications for my master degree, and I tried to enroll for a degree in Paris in art history and culture but I was not accepted. So I enroled for a master degree in European studies and International Relations in Strasbourg. And again I liked it, but I never pictured myself working in that field.

When my studies were over, I was totally lost. I stayed "unemployed" for more than a year. Well, I was not unemployed all the time, I worked at the Christmas market, gave french lessons to a German and a Spanish friend, I distributed condoms and flyers in the streets.  I moved to Paris with my boyfriend and it was even worse. I took a job as a hostess in a company and I had undergone harassment for how i looked and my weight. It was too much for me.

A few months earlier I won the opportunity to have an exhibition of one of my photos in Paris. And something clicked at this time. During my working hours, I was very bored, so I watched all I could about photography and how to become a photographer. I bought a reflex camera and started to take portraits and wedding photos for my friends, then I become an entrepreneur on my own, made a website with my pictures and it began...

To be honest only two people and myself believed I could do it. My opinion about myself was at its lowest because I was depressed but, I don't why but I was sure it was the right life project for me.

Today when I say It saved my life, maybe I would have found the strength somewhere anyway (I hope so), but becoming an entrepreneur, a photographer has freed me and I will never go back.

About Margaux

Margaux is a Paris-based photographer.  She was born and raised in Montepellier. She completed her undergraduate degree in Lyon in Political Science and later studied in Strasbourg, where she obtained a Masters degree in International Relations and European Studies. Margaux has worked in many roles from assistant to language teacher to sales and even a distributor of condoms. Her love and passion is photography. She is also committed to the rights of women and many social issues. Learn more about Margaux here. 

The photos above are the exclusive property of Margaux Pastor Photography and are protected under the United Kingdom Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1998. Copyright is secured automatically when the work is created. Any unauthorised used of the photos above is a criminal offence.