the pride of Africa's women entrepreneurs
Erica Paiva
The empowered woman of today receives this question almost every day in an ironic way. As if she could not choose and had to blindly consent that there is no possibility of pursuing a career to the detriment of the family, only to the man is given that possibility of being able to venture into his academic or professional career and leaving the care of the family in the woman's responsibility. But is that right?
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by Lori Milner
Imposter syndrome is not based on logic. The most successful people still experience the feeling that everyone will find out that they know nothing, that their success is based on luck, and that they don’t deserve to be there. It’s a debilitating pattern and one that can keep you playing small if you buy into your own story.
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by Safiyyah Boolay-Jappie
Determining what our purpose is in life can be one of the hardest questions that we as humans are compelled to answer. It is the guiding light we seek to help us create value that is meaningful to us far beyond the remuneration, adoration and adulation we may enjoy from our worldly pursuits. Our purpose is also where we are challenged the most.
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by Lizl Naude
Recently in the span of 48 hours, I received complaints from two individual customers about product breakages. Because I am so pedantic about delivering a quality product, I was initially completely stunned. It felt like a barrage coming my way. I remember a heat rush going to my head, as I tried to make sense of it all. I took a deep breath and took a 5 minute walk before I replied.
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Kunjina Tesfaye, founder, Kunjina (Ethiopia)
Lioness Launch
Kunjina, a unique Ethiopian ready-to-wear clothing brand that mainly caters to women within the age range of 25-40 and founded by Kunjina Tesfaye, is launching its new concept collection this month. The collection named UDET, a Geez word meaning cycle, is Inspired by Kunjina's personal experience. The collection revolves around topics like fear, productivity guilt and growth. It shows the process of self-doubt, transformation and self-actualization using the metamorphosis cycle of a butterfly as a metaphor.
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Julie Solomon
Book Review
In Julie Solomon’s new book, Get What You Want: How to Go from Unseen to Unstoppable, this empowering guide is for women who are tired of being told "just be yourself” in life and in business. Julie is the host of the chart-topping The Influencer Podcast and in her new book, she teaches you how to shake off outdated ideas of what is possible. She encourages you to use your newfound confidence to make anything you want happen, and start getting seen and known for getting things done.
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by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department
Last weekend we asked you to reach for your inner Steve or Elon a.k.a. ‘war leaders’ (ok, we did say ‘not too much Steve or Elon’ - as these are 100% ’power, drive and complete belief’ that would completely exhaust many of us mere mortals on the best of our days), to keep ourselves and our decision making focused and processes nimble for what looks like difficult times ahead. As troubles rush towards Africa in the form of inflation; lack of staple foods, cooking oils and fertilizers (see here); ongoing droughts in East Africa; western Central Banks raising interest rates and cutting off at the kneecaps the fix of cheap money that has kept the globe hooked (and a rush to higher yielding investments - such as in Africa), it could create recessions, civil unrests, and so on.
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Umutoni Thuku-Benzinge, founder and creative director, Umutoni (Kenya)
Startup Story
Umutoni Thuku-Benzinge is the founder and creative director of Umutoni, a luxury jewelry brand where every piece is handmade with love by the best artisans from the heart of Kenya. She is on a mission to empower the disenfranchised through her ethically driven jewellery. With a degree in Economics and background in the IT industry, Umutoni is utilizing skills developed in her professional background to share the narrative that jewellery can be an agent for social change. Having spoken at Cambridge University, being featured in Forbes and BBC, she's keen to share the brand story and continue to make an impact as she continues to amalgamate her worlds together.
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Sasha Knott, CEO, Job Crystal (South Africa)
Startup Story
Sasha Knott, the CEO of Job Crystal in South Africa, started her career in IT and moved quickly in her career finding her passion for entrepreneurship and combining this with technology that works for the customer and often disrupts industries. Sasha’s current plan is to make job seekers lives easier while helping SMEs find talent fast and effortlessly! With Job Crystal’s new system called Crystal which combines RecTech, AI, machine learning and UX functionality that makes it easy to find the needle in the haystack for SMEs looking for talent. The vision is to make a dent in unemployment.
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Jane Maigua
Lioness Weekender Cover Story
Exotic EPZ, a Kenyan macadamia nuts processing and export company supporting smallholder farmers
Jane Maigua is the CEO of Exotic EPZ, a macadamia nuts processing and export company based in Nairobi Kenya. The company was restarted in 2017 under Jane's leadership and has grown its supply of high quality nuts from Netherlands to a growing customer base in USA, Spain, Germany, Italy and China. Jane has two business partners, Charity Ndegwa and Loise Maina, and together they have established the only solely woman-owned processing and export company in the macadamia value chain in East Africa. Exotic EPZ employs over 100 workers giving them a decent employment, and it sources its raw nuts from over 5000 small holder farmers. Of the company’s workers, 85% are women and 75% are youth. Exotic EPZ’s commitment to environmental sustenance has been demonstrated in its use of solar power to run its processing factory and recycling of shells as boiler fuel, in addition to use of energy efficient processing systems. Currently the company is launching a campaign for planting of macadamia trees as a source of income as well as for carbon sequestration.
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Obizo (Ruth) Chiamaka, founder, GlambyRuthie (Nigeria)
Startup Story
Obizo (Ruth) Chiamaka is the founder of GlambyRuthie in Nigeria, a brand focused on providing the best makeup services for women across the nation and the training of aspiring makeup artists. She is also studying accountancy at Nnamdi Azikiwe University and currently pursuing her ICAN qualification. Ruth founded GlambyRuthie in 2020 and is focused on growing her brand, getting involved in fashion shows, and looking for collaborations in the beauty industry.
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Sibongile Mthimunye, founder, BWGL Group (South Africa)
Startup Story
Sibongile Mthimunye is the founder of BWGL Group in South Africa, a specialist business providing cleaning services to companies, businesses and households. Sibongile’s business is also a distributor of natural and environmentally-friendly cleaning products. The business was founded in 2020 and is growing and continuing to employ women from local communities. Sibongile is harnessing her 23 years of experience working in both the non-profit and corporate sectors for the benefit of her own business.
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Theddy Ladislaus
Lioness Weekender Cover Story
Untold Global Limited, a pan-African group with interests in Healthcare, Agriculture, ICT and Strategic Communication.
Ms. Theddy Ladislaus is the Founder and Managing partner of Untold Global Ltd, a pan-African group of companies with interests in Healthcare, Agriculture, ICT and Strategic Communication. She is synonymous for having devised high impact business & governance strategies aimed at solving socio-economic issues in a number of markets and communities. She is a leader with a long track record which goes back to her teenage years where she served as the youngest member of the parliament in 2014 under the 4th President of the United Republic of Tanzania. Her passion for policy and governance have earned her a place on the global stage where she have participated in the formation and development of governance strategies in the youth sector.
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by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department
“People want to know that the person leading their [company] is tough enough to bring them through, but they also want to see that the leader gets it, understands how anxious, confused and worried about the future they are.”
…from the great book ‘Women and Leadership: Real Lives, Real Lessons’ by former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Head of the WTO, and exactly captures what we as leaders need to show in the coming months (possibly year) as events across the globe, inflation, possible Stagflation as we discussed (here) and especially the war in Ukraine and supply chain disruptions, continue to impact our countries and communities.
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Rachel Pedersen
Book review
If you have ever wondered how to move the needle quickly to build your business, then Rachel Pedersen, author of Unfiltered, has just the advice and experience you are looking for. In 2013, Rachel was a single mum, freshly off of food stamps and struggling to get her life on track. Three years later, she was leaving her 9-to-5 job to launch a consulting business with her husband. Today, she is the founder and CEO of two multimillion-dollar companies and an expert in every aspect of social media, helping businesses with massive, needle-moving growth.
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by Kathy Mann
I’m crazy about MasterChef Australia for a number of reasons. I am, of course, really interested in people who are changing their careers and who have the courage to switch paths, sometimes quite late in life. It’s so interesting to see how the contestants often comment on how they have grown as a person so much more than they anticipated. They entered the competition to gain skills and a head-start in becoming a chef. Not only do they all (not only the winner) pick up new skills in their chosen profession, but they push themselves to grow. In doing so, they discover a profound flow experience in the creation of food. It is a creative exercise and requires imagination, skill and knowledge. What an amazing journey they are taken on and it’s no wonder there are tears as each contestant is eliminated from the competition.
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by Paula Quinsee
We live in a world where we glorify professional stress, extensive work hours, extreme dedication. We live in a world where saying ''no'' to extra work is seen as a weakness. As a result you end up over-worked, exhausted, traumatized... which you then simply call ''the price of being successful’'. As my colleague Bogdan Manta says, ''Balance is not something you find; balance is something you create.''
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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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by Nontobeko Mbuyane
Most of us will experience hard choices, stressful events and difficult situations that will impact us in one way or another for the rest of our lives. Hard times happen and they teach us lessons, make us stronger, and give us a deeper sense of self. After all, would sitting in the sun mean as much if you hadn’t experienced the storm first? Elizabeth Taylor once said: “You just do it. You force yourself to get up. You force yourself to put one foot before the other, and darn it, you refuse to let it get to you. You fight. You cry. You curse. Then you go about the business of living. That’s how I’ve done it. There’s no other way.”
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Francie Hinrichsen, MBA
Book review
Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business, written by Francie Hinrichsen, MBA, is your go-to guide to launch, plan, and grow your business so you can create a future you feel giddy to wake up to. This book will sashay you along each step to begin your own dream business and help you fashion your new lifestyle of freedom like a breath of fresh air.
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