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Six important pieces of learning and educating yourself as an entrepreneur

May 17, 2025 Melanie Hawken

by Helena Naitsuwe Amadhila

Lifelong learning is the New Paradigm of Education (NPE). This paradigm breaks the paradigms of an outdated educational system. The journey of learning never genuinely ends for committed, and impactful entrepreneurs. Engaging in ongoing education helps entrepreneurs stay unlimited and relevant in a rapidly changing and growing business terrain. Entrepreneurs are required to understand market trends, technological advancements, and paradigm shifts in consumer behaviour. By educating yourself as an entrepreneur, you can pivot your strategies effectively and protect your business from potential challenges and economic loss.

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In Guest Blog Tags Helena Naitsuwe Amadhila, Self-development
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Becoming Dangerous Enough: The Art of Leadership and Accountability

January 8, 2025 Melanie Hawken

by Gemiene Mueni

“Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.” — Amy Poehler"

Surrounding yourself with the right people is key to growth, but ensuring accountability is where real progress happens. It also requires accountability and an intimate understanding of the tasks at hand. Vusi Thembkwayo, a renowned entrepreneur and thought leader, offers a pragmatic perspective: “To be dangerous enough means knowing each and every single thing about your business to know when someone is bullshitting you.

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In Guest Blog Tags Gemiene Mueni, Self-development, Leadership
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Leading from Within: A Journey of Self-Discovery and Empowerment

September 22, 2024 Melanie Hawken

by Gemiene Mueni

Passion is like a spark; it lights a fire that spreads. It's pure energy, the kind that comes straight from the heart. Leading a team for the first time can be a wild ride with no safety net—just you, your instincts, and a bit of excitement mixed with a dash of "What did I just sign up for?" My journey in leadership has often felt overwhelming, like stepping into a role far too big for me. It became clear that I needed to engage in some deep personal work to navigate these challenges.

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In Guest Blog Tags Gemiene Mueni, Self-development
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Nazlee Mayhew, an entrepreneur coaching business and money mindset in  Zimbabwe

January 14, 2024 Melanie Hawken

Nazlee Mayhew, founder and director, Global Mindset Solutions (Zimbabwe)

Startup Story

Nazlee Mayhew is the founder and director of Global Mindset Solutions in Zimbabwe. She is a seasonal Business and Money Mindset Coach, a Social Entrepreneur, NLP Master Practitioner, and an emerging author. Global Mindset Solutions' vision is to empower, educate and equip women to enhance their leadership and business skills and help strengthen the communities they serve. This will enable them to reach their full potential faster, help boost economic growth and create financial freedom.

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In Startup Story Tags Zimbabwe, Business Services, Self-development
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We are not robots!

December 30, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Edna Reis

Have you ever stopped to think about how work relationships end up having a huge impact on the way we experience the workday, the way we look at work, the way we motivate ourselves with work and the way we leave work back to home, or from home to work?

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In Guest Blog Tags Edna Reis, Self-development
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How Real is the Loneliness in Your Team?

March 19, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Paula Quinsee

We all know remote working has had a large impact on our mental health with loneliness being cited as the most common emotion being experienced by entrepreneurs, leaders and employees. This can cause us to withdraw and be less committed, creative, collaborative and attentive, and both the quality and quantity of our work can deteriorate. Loneliness has also been identified as a factor in workplace burnout. We often associate loneliness with being on our own or alone. 

Read more
In Guest Blog Tags Paula Quinsee, Self-development
Comment

Building Relationships In The Workplace

March 8, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Paula Quinsee

Why would I want to establish healthy relationships in the workplace when I have my own friends and family? Corporate relationships are very similar to our personal relationships. We don’t realise it but there is very little difference between work and personal relationships – the basic principles are the same.

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In Guest Blog Tags Paula Quinsee, Self-development
Comment

3 Ways To Have A Courageous Conversation

March 5, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Paula Quinsee

There are times when we need have to have a serious conversation with someone, whether it is our partner, a friend or a work colleague. It’s one of those conversations where we need to be open and honest, not only with ourselves but also with the person in front of us. It could be about an incident, something they have said or done (or not done), non-performance or non-delivery. Many of us are uncomfortable when it comes to situations like this. I like to call these discussions courageous conversations.

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In Guest Blog Tags Paula Quinsee, Self-development
Comment

How Present Am I?

March 5, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Ashika Pillay

As women entrepreneurs and business owners, we are busy. Our minds are busy with tasks that range from ensuring home admin, that the grocery list is taken care of, the invoices that need to be sent, scheduling clients and meetings while also taking care of our minds and bodies. We are busy. With this level of complexity, it is easy to become caught up in endless cycles of doing - and the doing mind. A mind that is racing faster than our bodies or those around us can keep up with.

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In Guest Blog Tags Ashika Pillay, Self-development
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Aligning Work With Your Strengths

February 26, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Kathy Mann

I burnt out in a spectacular fashion a few years ago. It broke my life dramatically and the experience took me by surprise. It acted as a catalyst to evaluate why I got so sick and what was wrong with my life. Of course, burnout is usually multifaceted and doesn’t have one simple source. I believe that one of the contributing factors was that my work was not aligned to my strengths.

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In Guest Blog Tags Kathy Mann, Self-development
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3 Steps you can take to live by design, not default

October 15, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lori Milner

Think about a personal goal you would like to achieve – it could be getting fitter, eating healthier, reading, starting a course or a new hobby. The typical pattern is you begin on a Monday, you manage to keep it up for about two weeks and then fall back into old ways. You probably have attributed this pattern to a lack of willpower. The good news is that the solution to keep the promises you make to yourself has nothing to do with motivation.

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In Guest Blog Tags Lori Milner, Self-development
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It takes courage to be yourself

October 15, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Kathy Mann

I’ve been thinking about how we become so conditioned by other people’s expectations of who we are and who we ought to be. I attended university in Cape Town and I had to wait a year because my father didn’t want me to leave home. I wonder what the cost of that year of earnings equates to, compounded over my career? Anyway, in my wisdom, it was worth the wait and I found a good career path, nice and respectable. I’m learning now that I have other talents that could be used to make a more fulfilling career path for me in future.

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In Guest Blog Tags Kathy Mann, Self-development
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Be Fascinated With Yourself

June 18, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Safiyyah Boolay-Jappie

Sometimes you just have a good day. Today was such a day!

On the brink of burnout and with a catastrophic loss of confidence after some challenging life events, my client reached out for some support. She wanted more confidence and to be more effective, more efficient, and more organised. According to her, she couldn't organise a drinks-party in a brewery. She lamented that she had been such a go-getter, but now was such a disappointment ... to herself, her family and her boss.

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In Guest Blog Tags Safiyyah Boolay-Jappie, Self-development
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Are you Co-dependent?

May 22, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Kathy Mann

In my corporate life I spent a lot of time mentoring graduates and I can tell you that it was the best part of my experience. Better than the projects that saved the bank millions. I felt appreciated and I knew that I was making a difference. The relationships were mutually beneficial even though the graduates thought that only they were getting something out of it. They were enthusiastic, grateful and eager to learn. I found working with them enormously rewarding.

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In Guest Blog Tags Kathy Mann, Self-development
Comment

Focus on Strengths, Partner for Weaknesses

March 12, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Kathy Mann

I was recently reminded of an exercise I did in around 2009 when I was struggling to adjust to having a child and a career. It’s called Gallup’s Strengths Finder. I bought the book, did the online test and digested the findings eagerly. According to the test, your main strengths don’t really change over time. So revisiting them now was quite meaningful. These were my top five:

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In Guest Blog Tags Kathy Mann, Self-development
Comment

How Much of Your Surroundings Do You Absorb?

February 26, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Edna Reis

The emotions you feel - are they truly yours, or do they come from the environment that surrounds you? We tend to become so absorbed by our day to day lives that we don’t realize how much our surroundings influence our emotions.

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In Guest Blog Tags Edna Reis, Self-development
Comment

Are you a People Pleaser?

January 30, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Paula Quinsee

Do you find it difficult to say no to others? Do you find yourself agreeing to things that you don’t want to do or functions you don’t want to attend? Are you constantly worried about what others might think of you and that you don’t want to disappoint or let others down? You might very well be a people pleaser. The important thing here is to know the underlying causes of what has contributed to this type of behaviour.

Read more
In Guest Blog Tags Paula Quinsee, Self-development
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You can never change with a Resolutions List. Here’s what actually works 

January 8, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lori Milner

“A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.” - Tony Robbins

2021 required a new set of tools for working and a new way of being. In order to thrive in 2022, you need to follow the same theme. Do not approach your new year’s goals with the same thinking as last year - you know it well, ‘This year I am going to get healthier, start running, write that book or do that course”. Inevitably after about two weeks, your motivation wanes and you drag up the same list the next New Year’s Eve. How about ditching the resolution list and replacing it with a ‘drop list’?

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In Guest Blog Tags Lori Milner, Goals, Self-development
Comment

What’s New? 

January 8, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Brigette Mashile

It’s a new year (grin emoji), and I honestly cannot tell if I feel it or not. I just feel like last week was December and today it is January. What I know for sure is that I am exhausted and need a new way. Those are the two things I am sure of. I need to rest more, no matter what is happening; and secondly because the world has changed and is changing every day, I too need to change. This is not a list of ‘what I wish for in 2022’, 2021 taught us to relax on the wishing and just hope we live to see the 31st of December.

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In Guest Blog Tags Brigette Mashile, Self-development, Goals
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You Cannot Do Your Life Wrong

December 22, 2021 Melanie Hawken

by Safiyyah Boolay-Jappie

I give thanks to all the teachers that came to me in the form of my mistakes.

Say after me: 'You cannot do your life wrong!'

This is a truly tough one. For ALL of us! Especially if you've become addicted to self-deprecation and self-persecution. One of the biggest inhibitors of self-love and personal power is shame. The online dictionary defines shame as "a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behaviour". No doubt, Shame is a powerful emotion that can cause us to feel defective, unacceptable, even damaged beyond repair.

Read more
In Guest Blog Tags Safiyyah Boolay-Jappie, Self-development
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CELEBRATING 10 YEARS


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LIONESS WEEKENDER COVER STORIES

LIONESS WEEKENDER COVER STORY
Zanele Njapha, a transformational business leadership coach
Zanele Njapha, a transformational business leadership coach
Mekdes Mesfin, a proudly Ethiopian fashion designer and manufacturer
Mekdes Mesfin, a proudly Ethiopian fashion designer and manufacturer
Emilia Chisango, a multi-faceted business empire builder
Emilia Chisango, a multi-faceted business empire builder
Morongwe Mokone, a passionate champion of artisanal homeware
Morongwe Mokone, a passionate champion of artisanal homeware
Tshego Molefi, a pioneer transforming the waste management industry
Tshego Molefi, a pioneer transforming the waste management industry

IMAGE OF THE DAY. CELEBRATING WOMAN MADE IN AFRICA.

Image of the Day / Adèle Dejak

Big bold accessories…We are big fans of luxury jewellery and accessories made with love and passion on the African continent, and Adèle Dejak in Kenya is the epitome of handmade luxury. The brand c
Image of the Day / ReelFruit
 
Healthy snack treats…We love showcasing Africa’s women agribusiness builders, and ReelFruit, founded by Affiong Williams, is inspirational - it’s the largest fruit processing, packaging and distributi
Image of the Day / Dokmai Rwanda

Made in Rwanda Handbag…A passion for handcrafted accessories, combined with a sense of pride for ‘Made in Rwanda’ products, inspired Dokmai Rwanda founder, Bernadette Umunyana, to create a company
Image of the Day / Eki Silk

Silk Serenity…Nothing is quite as luxurious as silk, that’s why we love the ‘Africa on Silk’ collections from Eki, founded by Hazel Eki Osunde. Her latest Deep Dive Collection is inspired by the p
Image of the Day / The Nanjala Company

Pot plants delivered… Give gifts that will last, such as these stunning plants in individual pots from The Nanjala Company in Kenya, founded by Teresa Nanjala Lubano. This online store creates customized
Image of the Day / Sari for Change

Sustainable Sari Glamour - If you want to wear a robe that makes you feel and look glamorous, then Rayana Edwards, founder of Harem in South Africa, has a range of fabulous robes all made from sari fabrics. She has
Image of the Day / MonChoco

Pure chocolate heaven…If you are a chocolate lover, then you need to experience raw chocolate at its finest, and Dana Mroueh, founder of MonChoco an artisan chocolatier in Côte d’Ivoire, has just what y
Image of the Day / Mulandi Brindes

Say it with flowers…If you want to make someone feel special, then there is no better way than with the gift of fresh flowers, and Mulandi Brindes in Mozambique, founded by Vanessa Guilherme Nhabete, creates
Image of the Day / Mariée Eventos

The Wedding Planner…Every big celebration day needs great organization, and that’s where Iris Lezi Munguambe, founder of Mariée Eventos in Mozambique, is your go-to person. She launched he
Image of the Day / Dounia Home

Statement lighting… from Dounia Home, the home of innovative, handcrafted and ethically made Moroccan lighting and home decor founded by Dounia Tamri-Loeper. Her company designs, produces and brings to market hi
Image of the Day / Adèle Dejak

Big bold accessories…We are big fans of luxury jewellery and accessories made with love and passion on the African continent, and Adèle Dejak in Kenya is the epitome of handmade luxury. The brand c Image of the Day / ReelFruit
 
Healthy snack treats…We love showcasing Africa’s women agribusiness builders, and ReelFruit, founded by Affiong Williams, is inspirational - it’s the largest fruit processing, packaging and distributi Image of the Day / Dokmai Rwanda

Made in Rwanda Handbag…A passion for handcrafted accessories, combined with a sense of pride for ‘Made in Rwanda’ products, inspired Dokmai Rwanda founder, Bernadette Umunyana, to create a company Image of the Day / Eki Silk

Silk Serenity…Nothing is quite as luxurious as silk, that’s why we love the ‘Africa on Silk’ collections from Eki, founded by Hazel Eki Osunde. Her latest Deep Dive Collection is inspired by the p Image of the Day / The Nanjala Company

Pot plants delivered… Give gifts that will last, such as these stunning plants in individual pots from The Nanjala Company in Kenya, founded by Teresa Nanjala Lubano. This online store creates customized Image of the Day / Sari for Change

Sustainable Sari Glamour - If you want to wear a robe that makes you feel and look glamorous, then Rayana Edwards, founder of Harem in South Africa, has a range of fabulous robes all made from sari fabrics. She has Image of the Day / MonChoco

Pure chocolate heaven…If you are a chocolate lover, then you need to experience raw chocolate at its finest, and Dana Mroueh, founder of MonChoco an artisan chocolatier in Côte d’Ivoire, has just what y Image of the Day / Mulandi Brindes

Say it with flowers…If you want to make someone feel special, then there is no better way than with the gift of fresh flowers, and Mulandi Brindes in Mozambique, founded by Vanessa Guilherme Nhabete, creates Image of the Day / Mariée Eventos

The Wedding Planner…Every big celebration day needs great organization, and that’s where Iris Lezi Munguambe, founder of Mariée Eventos in Mozambique, is your go-to person. She launched he Image of the Day / Dounia Home

Statement lighting… from Dounia Home, the home of innovative, handcrafted and ethically made Moroccan lighting and home decor founded by Dounia Tamri-Loeper. Her company designs, produces and brings to market hi

STARTUP STORIES. MEET THE WOMEN WHO’VE LAUNCHED.

Featured
Suné Theisinger and Dr Juanri Jonck, two dynamic players in the aesthetic industry in South Africa
Suné Theisinger and Dr Juanri Jonck, two dynamic players in the aesthetic industry in South Africa
Tania Kabeya, a passionate chef and entrepreneur building a uniquely African culinary brand
Tania Kabeya, a passionate chef and entrepreneur building a uniquely African culinary brand
Aasiyah Adams, a visionary South African tech founder helping individuals and organisations to thrive in the digital economy
Aasiyah Adams, a visionary South African tech founder helping individuals and organisations to thrive in the digital economy
Komeshni Patrick, a tech legal consultancy founder empowering forward-thinking tech businesses to grow
Komeshni Patrick, a tech legal consultancy founder empowering forward-thinking tech businesses to grow
Lebo Biko, a South African champion of women-led innovation in Africa’s agri-food value chain
Lebo Biko, a South African champion of women-led innovation in Africa’s agri-food value chain

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Babette’s Bread by Babette Kourelos
Babette’s Bread by Babette Kourelos
SOS – A Navigation Guide for Women at Work by Lidewij Wiersma, Chantal Korteweg, Tessel van Willigen and Marijn Wiersma
SOS – A Navigation Guide for Women at Work by Lidewij Wiersma, Chantal Korteweg, Tessel van Willigen and Marijn Wiersma
Unstoppable Entrepreneurs: 7 Paths for Unleashing Successful Startups and Creating Value through Innovation by Lori Rosenkopf
Unstoppable Entrepreneurs: 7 Paths for Unleashing Successful Startups and Creating Value through Innovation by Lori Rosenkopf
Afro-Optimism Unleashed by Adeolu Adewumi-Zer
Afro-Optimism Unleashed by Adeolu Adewumi-Zer
No More 24/7: Entrepreneurs, Take Your Life Back by Catherine Cowart Roe
No More 24/7: Entrepreneurs, Take Your Life Back by Catherine Cowart Roe

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