The One Habit That Can Free You From Overwhelm and Anxiety

March 26, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lori Milner

Life has not been the same since March 2020. We are in ‘the new normal,’ which seems to change its rules every few weeks depending on the latest statistics or new variant of Covid emerging into our lives. As you feel like you are getting the hang of remote work, your lounge suddenly becomes a school. Although you know what to expect, you are still walking on eggshells, wondering when things will change again. Impermanence and change are part of life; it’s what keeps it exciting. However, you like the surprises that you know about. How can you create certainty for yourself and minimize those anxious, ruminating thoughts about how you are meant to get it all done in a constantly fluctuating world?

Taking the steps to a more focused you!

March 26, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Carla Wasserfall

You are the CEO of YOU before any role in family, business or sport. As the CEO of you, you give yourself daily instructions to go in a direction, what you will focus on, and what you give your energy to.

Hustle Culture…is hard!

March 26, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Zodidi Gaseb

How many cups of coffee does it take you to run your business daily? On average, an entrepreneur who drinks coffee doesn’t even have time to count the cups of coffee they’ve drunk per day. Why am I bringing up a delicious, caffeine filled drink and what does that have to do with entrepreneurship? Exhaustion has become an integral part of running a business and we have come to accept that in order to make it in life and be successful, you have to hustle…hard!

The Importance of Developing a Timeline For Your Business

March 12, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lizl Naude

Do you keep a timeline of the history of your business? Have you ever thought of doing it? What is a timeline you ask? According to the Oxford dictionary, a timeline is…

Radical Selfcare as the Gateway to Overall Wellbeing

March 12, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Emily Kandanga

I love that we now live in a world where prioritising your physical, mental & emotional well-being is being celebrated and encouraged because for far too long people who so boldly chose their happiness over others, were labelled as selfish.

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:

Staying In Line

March 12, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Brigette Mashile

Apparently the first step to a solution is to realize you have a problem; then recognize the problem and finally make a plan to change it. Some of these issues take us a long time to realize, or to accept. I realize my issues fast, but I need to see the pattern it is creating before I do anything about it. It is that stubborn scientist part of me that needs proof first! Definitely a time waster, but this is how I have been. And that too needs to change.

3 Incredibly Useful Scarcity Strategies for Creatives

March 4, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Robyn Keet

Let me save you some time by sharing what I’ve learned about keeping your customers dialled in. It’s called Scarcity aka FOMO (fear of missing out) You might have seen this strategy been used before by service-based businesses. It’s a great strategy that Creatives can use to boost sales during the year or reduce stock before including a new range in your offering.

It’s Not Just War

March 4, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Aleshia van der Ploeg

The recent invasion of the Ukraine got me thinking about the affect war has on all our contracts as well as our insurance. Unfortunately war is never good news.

Own your headspace, own your days

March 4, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lori Milner

“Your day is determined by a thought you had this morning” – Dandapani

What is your default thought when you wake up? Oh, another day to get through! First you may hit snooze a few times and then ask yourself the same question. This matters because it is the theme song you are planting into your mind which will dictate your entire day.

I Apologize

March 3, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Safiyyah Boolay-Jappie

They say that confession is good for the soul. If only it weren’t so darned embarrassing! I’m constantly evangelizing and advocating rituals and routines that set us up for alignment with our best intentions for ourselves. And yet, here I am, slowly emerging from an almost week long bender of crisps and TV. Don’t ask me what I watched. I vaguely recall the Romanoffs, but I was indiscriminately captivated and captured by crap. As the new week rolled in, I yearned to come back to myself and to my mission, but the inner chatter of regret and guilt was thick, and it throttled my efforts to return to self and to sanity. I had to find a way to move forward, but I was stuck. Thankfully a friend dropped a gem that was like smelling salts to my fogged-up brain. She had counselled that “you can’t change what you have done; only what you are going to do”. Indeed. Thank you, Friend.

5 Steps to Create Your Personal Brand

February 26, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Naike Moshi

My personal branding journey started 6 months ago; I did not understand what it meant to have a personal brand. I have been busy promoting my business brands for the last 8 years and have been behind the scenes for a while. People are aware of my brands - CVPeople Tanzania and WIMA (Women in Management Africa) but did not know the person running behind the brands. I was under the radar and have remained hidden for a while. After the Covid-19 outbreak, I was disrupted and had to change tactics, focusing on improving my personal brand. Another major wake up call came when I was nominated for the best female CEO, but guess what, I was the one with lowest votes meaning my personal brand was not working well. For the past 6 months, I have made my mission to work on my personal brand and the journey has been amazing. I will share my personal experience and knowledge so that you can improve your own brand.

Being Human at Work – How to Deal With Emotions in the Workplace

February 26, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Anja van Beek

Conscious Living, Leadership, Wellbeing

Emotions and the workplace don’t always mix well, but they can if you learn how to deal with them. “It is not the fittest that survive but the ones that can best adapt to their environment,” writes Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species. Over the last few months, we have heard many insights and tips on being more agile and adaptive at work. But what about emotion in the workplace? How do we navigate emotions when we feel overwhelmed by the changes and expectations in the hybrid world of work? Think about emotional agility, consider how emotional agile you are and consider ways to increase this.

Don’t Mix Business and Pleasure

February 26, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Sylvia Walker

Whether you’re starting a new business, or on your way to success, managing the money aspect can be tough. In the early stages, you are the business and lines are easily blurred between your personal and business finances. You may find yourself paying for business expenses from your personal bank account, or maybe buy some groceries or other personal items, and charging it to the business.

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.

Beginning of a New Cycle

February 19, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Catia Mondlane

A new year indicates the beginning of a new cycle and certainly the renewal of hopes and positive expectations. On the one hand, it’s an opportunity to take advantage of the natural inclination most of us feel, to start the new year with new goals and aspirations both professionally and personally. On the other hand, one can consider how the business is doing so that one can implement some changes in terms of purpose and steps to take.

Keep Pushing

February 19, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Claudia Folgore-McLellan

It quite aptly feels like January and February are one long, drawn out month and I’m sure most of us are suffering latent fatigue from having had to push that much harder in the past year. As solopreneurs and freelancers, the demands on us are just that much greater, it’s literally a permanent no work, no pay situation. The ‘holidays’ also often feel like an extension of the year that casually morphs into a new one with the only change being the date. With Covid fatigue we’ve all felt the exhaustion from being hyper virus vigilant. The easy option is to simply give up (even just a bit to have a rest) – the better option, though, is to KEEP PUSHING!

Why Do We Buy So Much?

February 19, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Marjon Meyer

The psychology of spending money…Do you sometimes fill a virtual or a real trolley of goods to deal with a hole in your soul? Making purchasing decisions can help reinforce a sense of personal control over our environment. It can also ease feelings of sadness. A study from the Journal of Consumer Psychology found that retail therapy not only makes people happier immediately, but it can also fight lingering sadness. The problem is, we spend money we don’t have on things we don’t need …(often to impress people we don’t like).

The Graceful Fall!

February 19, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Nontobeko Mbuyane

I have been told on several occasions, “you always land gracefully on your feet,” even from people that are close to me. If gracefully landing is defined by falling forward, becoming flexible in the face of turmoil in my life, being pushed backward and then standing in the uncomfortable truth of the reality of it all before landing one toe at a time, then that’s fine, you can in fact say, I land “gracefully”. Have I cared what people thought at times? Well, absolutely not at all - I am continuously working on how not to give energy to thoughts that do not add value to my life. If it’s thoughts that are not positive or meant to push me further in life, sadly I do not give even the slightest energy to those? My constant interactions with the great women and men of this world through their books are my drive. You are a product of your thoughts and what literature you read. So, if you are continuously going to be infiltrating your mind with negative thoughts, I honestly implore you to start positively affirming your life today. Begin each day with great prospects of how it will turn out, align yourself with positivity, surely the universe shall hear and your life shall be minus the constant negatives you always think of, or rather express.

The Customer Experience Game

February 12, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Mandisa Makubalo

“The greater the adoption the wider the experience divide.”

Today’s temperature is a scorching hot 35 degrees, the kind of weather that is unbearable for most households, especially those in the townships due to the quality of the housing structures. Most people are sitting outside their houses, children are playing in the streets, throwing water at each other, and some residents have made their way to the beautiful beaches of Cape Town in an attempt to escape this rather unbearable heat.

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