Ella joined Tropic for the products and a little extra income. What she found instead was freedom, confidence, and a business big enough to give her Mondays back.
Not in the suspicious, motivational-poster way people sometimes claim to love Mondays – the sort that involves punishingly early alarms and a level of enthusiasm that feels slightly unrealistic before coffee. No. Ella loves Mondays for a far simpler reason: they now belong to her.
After the school run, she gives herself three hours. A run. The gym. Sometimes a swim. Occasionally, the sauna. Time that sits between motherhood and work – a small but fiercely protected pocket of the day that exists purely for her.
“Like most people, I used to hate Mondays,” she says. “But I don’t get the ‘Sunday scaries’ anymore.”
It sounds like a small detail. In reality, it’s anything but.
Because while Ella has achieved success worthy of a standing ovation – she leads a nationwide team, sits among the highest earners in the UK, and has helped thousands of women begin businesses of their own – it’s not the whole story. The more interesting part is what that success makes possible. A business that grows without swallowing the rest of her life.
When Success Stopped Working
Before Tropic, Ella had an incredibly impressive career. Senior leadership. A job title that would sing on LinkedIn. From the outside, it ticked every box. But the reality was, it did anything but. “I reached a point where I just couldn’t do it anymore,” she says. “I was burnt out. So I took a risk and left.”
Walking away from that version of success rarely comes with an orderly plan. Confidence wobbles. Finances start to matter in new ways. And the future – once laid out neatly in promotions and salary bands – suddenly looks far less certain. “I wasn’t really in a particularly confident place,” Ella remembers. “I wasn’t unhappy, but I wasn’t fulfilled either.” What followed was not a tidy reinvention, but something much more real: active reconstruction.
She began offering beauty therapy from home. Picked up art and design work. Experimented with different projects. And soon found herself running five businesses at once. But what felt messy at the beginning was slowly building, piece by piece, into a life that felt more like her own.
Tropic arrived almost incidentally. A couple of her clients had asked for facials, and Ella needed products she trusted – formulas she knew would actually deliver results. Joining as an Ambassador was simply a solid solution to a practical problem. “I loved the products,” she says. “But I didn’t see it as a career at all. I thought it would just be a nice little side income.”
At that point, all Ella really knew was that she wanted to build something on her own terms – something flexible, purposeful, and a long way from the version of success that had previously run her into the ground. Tropic was simply stitched into the patchwork of her other ventures in a way that happens when you’re rebuilding your life and aren’t quite sure yet which thread will hold. She had no idea it was about to become the centre of it.
The Business She Almost Quit
For the first few months, Tropic lived quite comfortably in the background of Ella’s life. The facials were enjoyable, the products worked beautifully, and clients were happy.
But six months into the business, she had more or less decided that Tropic would take a back seat to her other businesses. Those were gaining traction, and Ella assumed one of them would naturally become the main event. “I thought I’d give Tropic one last go before I stopped,” she says
The plan was simple: give it a final push, see what happened, and if nothing else came of it, politely move on. Then she went to one of our annual Glammies events.
At that year’s event, a new trip was announced. Finland.
It wasn’t the destination itself that changed things. What shifted was the sense of possibility attached to it. For the first time, the scale of what Tropic could become felt tangible rather than theoretical.
“I’m naturally goal-oriented,” Ella explains, “the sort of person who responds instinctively when there’s something to aim for. I remember thinking… maybe I could do this.”
What followed was a burst of momentum that surprised even her. Within a few weeks, she had expanded her sales and her team. Shortly after that, she had secured the trip itself. Ella calls it her first ‘wow’ month “I remember thinking, hang on… this could actually be something serious. I achieved my first leadership promotion, earned my first Tropic trip abroad, and watched my first team members grow with Tropic too – it was really emotional.” And somewhere during that flurry of activity, she noticed something equally inspiring: her Tropic business was rapidly overtaking anything else she had been building.
The moment that confirmed it came at the next Glammies event. The previous year, she had attended with just her mum. This time she arrived surrounded by her team – women she had introduced to the business, and people whose lives were beginning to transform alongside hers.
“I remember being recognised for growth and leadership,” she says. “And thinking, I can’t believe that just last year it was me and my mum.” That was the moment the scale of what she had built became undeniable.
Building Big Without Burning Out
Spend more than ten minutes talking to Ella and one thing becomes clear: her success is deliberate.
Her previous career taught her a lesson she has no intention of relearning – that success can look extremely impressive on paper while quietly draining the person living it. So when her Tropic business began to grow quickly, she made a conscious decision. This time, things would be different.
A few years ago she introduced the routine that now defines her week. Monday mornings are protected. Three hours dedicated entirely to herself before the workday begins. “I realised that if I didn’t prioritise myself, everything would collapse,” she says.
It’s a concept many women struggle with at first – the idea of taking time for themselves without feeling guilty about it. “They feel like they’re doing something wrong,” Ella says. As a busy mum, she understands this well. For years, she operated exactly that way: pushing harder, proving more, running faster simply to keep up with expectations that never seemed to slow down. Now she sees things differently. “You can’t fill from an empty cup.”
It’s not just a wellness slogan. For her, it’s a business strategy. Because the success she’s built isn’t meant to create another life she needs to escape from. As she puts it, she didn’t work this hard just to become what she calls “a busy fool.”
A Seat At The Table
Today, Ella’s business had grown into something far larger than the modest side income she originally imagined.
Her team has expanded across the country. Her earnings have climbed into the very top at Tropic. And the side hustle that had begun as a practical solution for her facial clients has become the most successful and fulfilling venture she’s ever built.
There wasn’t one single cinematic moment where everything changed. It was more the slow dawning realisation that the numbers, the growth, the people joining her team – all of it had reached a scale that simply couldn’t be dismissed as a lucky run. Looking back, Ella remembers how it felt, “Wow! I’m really doing this.” For someone who had once walked away from a demanding corporate career feeling exhausted and unsure of what came next, this recognition carried a particular kind of satisfaction.
But the moment that still makes her stop in her tracks is when she was invited to join Tropic’s advisory board – a group of leading Ambassadors, selected for their unparalleled success, who help shape the direction of the company itself. It’s not an honorary title. It’s influence.
“My proudest achievement by far is building my team and being asked to join Tropic’s advisory board. Tropic doesn’t have a board of directors – instead, we help lead change and define the future of the business. That responsibility is huge and shows we didn’t come here to fit a mould. We came to reshape it.”
That responsibility represents something she hadn’t necessarily expected when she first signed up to sell a few skincare products. Because, for Ella, building something better than the environment she’d left behind – and the legacy that creates – is everything. “I want others to look back and say, because of Tropic, I believed in myself again. You’re allowed to dream, grow, and earn on your own terms. You don’t need to be perfect or confident. You just need to start.”
Helping Others First
The irony of Ella’s success is that it arrived when she stopped focusing on success itself. Instead, she focused on people. On making sure the women who joined her team felt supported. On helping someone host their first Tropic event without panic. On celebrating the small wins that often go unnoticed when you’re growing something from scratch. Over time, that approach created a culture that people wanted to be part of. “I want people to learn to believe in themselves before anyone else does.” That belief has become the backbone of how she leads today.
Ella talks about creating an environment where others feel safe to grow – somewhere the pitfalls and the peaks are equal in importance, and simply part of the process of figuring things out. She also believes leadership means going first. “I would never ask my team to do something I’m not willing to do myself.” It sounds simple. But anyone who has worked in a traditional hierarchy knows how rare that actually is.
The truth is that many of the people joining Ella’s team arrive carrying the same doubts she once had. They’ve spent years working hard for companies that promised opportunity and delivered exhaustion instead. They’ve been told to aim higher while simultaneously being given fewer choices about how their lives actually run. Ella recognises that feeling immediately. She’s lived it. “Some of my most special moments are the messages from women saying, ‘You’ve changed my life.’ Those stay with you forever.”
Which is why the advice she gives new Ambassadors is rarely complicated. “Be consistent, even when it feels quiet, and no one’s clapping. And never compare your Chapter One to someone else’s Chapter 10.” And the line that underpins the entire model: “Focus on helping people first. Everything else follows.”
What Ella Built
Despite her significant success, if you ask Ella what achievement really means, she’ll likely mention something much smaller. Mondays. The school run. The time carved out for herself.
It’s a powerful symbol that the life she once felt trapped inside is now entirely hers to shape. Not escaping work altogether, but creating a version of it that finally works with your life instead of against it. “I can live the life I want. I’ve found myself again. Now I can provide for my whole family, while still enjoying my time and freedom. It’s given me a sense of purpose.” But the reality that sits with her the most? “I don’t have to choose between being a mum and building something big – I get to have both.”
Ella started, like every Tropic Ambassador, with products she genuinely loved and people to share them with. What followed was larger than she expected. A life that felt bigger, richer, and more like her own – not something to endure, but something to enjoy.
If Ella’s story has unlocked in you a sense that life really is yours for the taking, it’s worth seeing where that instinct could lead.
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Ella’s ‘Tropic Glow’
Ella’s glow isn’t the result of an elaborate beauty routine or an uninterrupted sleep (she’s a mum – let’s keep this realistic). It’s the kind that tends to appear when you finally crack the code to a life that feels like yours again. Though skincare always helps.
Years of giving facials means Ella has a very low tolerance for products that don’t deliver. Her routine is refreshingly straightforward: hardworking formulas that slot easily into real life rather than demanding a bathroom shelf the size of a small department store.
These are the Tropic staples she swears by – the perfect prep for workouts, school runs, and carving out that all-important me-time on busy days.
Source: tropicskincare.com