I have never been much of a runner, in fact walking is much more my style and I do lots of it each day. But I have been thinking a lot lately about how getting through tough times in business is a lot like running a marathon. You start off strong, full of confidence, focused on the goals ahead, and all goes well - and then, as any marathon runner will confess, you hit that inevitable wall when your mind, body and spirit tell you that giving up is preferable to the immense pain you are experiencing. Every fibre of your being tells you to quit. Have you ever felt like that on this crazy entrepreneurial journey you are on? If so, then I have some words of inspiration for you that I came across today during my research. It is a lesson to us all on the need to tough it out and keep going, no matter what life throws at us. The quote goes, “If you quit now, you’ll end up right back where you first began. And when you first began, you were desperate to be where you are right now. Keep going!”

Perhaps this year, more than any other, has been a reminder of just how important it is to recognize the role that mindfulness can play in our stressful lives. I personally have really embraced mindfulness as a visualization, meditation and introspection tool over the past few months. And I can share with you that it has helped me to become laser focused on what is important in life and in business. If you look at the definition of mindfulness - to maintain a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings and surrounding environment, through a gentle, nurturing lens - it seems obvious that to practice it allows us to reduce our stress and anxiety levels. It can help you to immerse yourself in the moment, to help you navigate the stresses and strains of life better, and to guide you to better decision-making and leadership skills. Ultimately, by practicing mindfulness, we become fully present and focused on what we need to do right now, not dwelling on the past, or trying to imagine the future. Instead taking practical steps to making the important things happen in the present. Why not try practicing mindfulness as part of your daily work and business life?

I count myself one of the fortunate people on earth - why? Because each day I get to do the thing I love and am passionate about in my life as a social entrepreneur. I have a vision for what I want to achieve and the difference I want to make in the lives of other women entrepreneurs on the African continent, and my passion drives that vision. I meet thousands of women entrepreneurs each year who are just like me - women who are passionate about their businesses and the products and services they create. Whether that passion takes the form of baking the most delicious artisanal bread, publishing educational books for children, manufacturing engineering components for big industrial projects, or creating brand marketing campaigns for startups - passion can drive your vision and make it a reality. Don’t forget that passion can also drive profit, so you now have two good reasons for making passion the foundation of your business.

I have been thinking a lot in recent weeks about what is going to drive global economic recovery on the ground, country by country, at a time when we most need it. I am convinced that it will be entrepreneurs who will lead this recovery. More specifically, I think that women-owned businesses will be perfectly positioned to support local economic recovery overall. Why? Because traditionally, women-owned businesses have seen large concentrations in business and industry sectors that are at the heart of any local economies and which are most likely to rebound faster than others. Community health care and social assistance businesses, such as child day care and home healthcare services will also be in huge demand. And as people start to return to work and some semblance of normal life returns, there will be a pent up demand for other specialist personal services that we once took for granted, such as beauty, nail and hair salons. Eventually, these industries will rebound because the demand is there from customers, and women entrepreneurs will rise to the challenge of getting those local economies kickstarted once more.

Negative self talk - we have all been guilty of this at some point or other in our lives. It can creep into our heads in those stressful situations when we are trying to find solutions to difficult challenges. To give you an example, I was having a conversation with a woman entrepreneur who runs a growing business in a really tough, male-dominated industry. She admitted that her journey to building her business and earning respect from her male counterparts as an entrepreneur in that industry has been a struggle. She has often found herself questioning her confidence, her abilities, and has experienced negative self-talk around whether she can ever scale her business to genuinely become a competitive force in that sector. And then she said something that was really interesting - she realized that her negative self-talk would become her reality if she allowed it to become the dominant voice in her head. She acknowledged it would stop her from reaching her full potential, in life and in business. So the lesson learned here is that we have to acknowledge there may be times when we doubt and question ourselves and our abilities as entrepreneurs, but we need to turn the volume right down on the negative self-talk and replace it with positive affirmations. We’ve got this!

Over the last two decades, I have spent many happy hours standing next to sports fields watching my daughters playing sport, enthusiastically cheering them and their teams on in their hockey matches. I have seen just how powerful a motivator having cheerleaders in your life can be. Cheerleaders make you believe you can get over the finish line no matter how hard the race is, score that winning goal in the face of massive competition, achieve that ambition to win in life and in business. As women entrepreneurs we need such cheerleaders in our life too. We need people who believe in us and our vision for our businesses. We need people who will be there to give us confidence when things are tough with a kind word or a much-needed piece of advice. We need people who we can turn to for a new business introduction or to open doors for us to new opportunities so that we can grow. So to quote a cheer I have heard many times myself at the side of a sports pitch “Teamwork makes the dream work”, so go out there and find your own cheerleading squad to support you on your journey.

Whenever I feel that the daily stresses and strains of managing a busy life and a growing business are just becoming overwhelming, I find the best way of reclaiming my balance is to reconnect with nature. I am fortunate to live near a public park in the middle of the city, which means I am just a short walk away from a beautiful green open space. Finding the time each day to get close to nature, to hear the birds singing, to watch flowers come into bloom, to sit by the water and watch the world go by, is a powerful tool for reflecting on life and business. It is very easy to allow our lives to lose focus on what is important when we are just too busy to stop and take notice of what is happening around us. Nature has a powerful way of reminding us about what it means to just be alive, to give us perspective, to make us feel a profound sense of awe and wonder. Over the past few months as the seasons have changed, I have watched the miracle of new life through the lives of the beautiful swans on the lake. Young ones have been born, I have seen them take their first tentative swims in the water, now beginning to shed their ugly grey feathers and emerge as beautiful white swans - it has been magical to watch. I know what a difference reconnecting with nature makes to my life and my sense of balance each day, so I can wholeheartedly recommend it to my fellow women entrepreneurs to make time to stop and appreciate the natural world around us.

I have always understood the power of words to inspire and motivate others, it’s why I personally write each day. But this year, for the first time, I really learned to appreciate how writing a daily journal can be a truly cathartic experience. Every morning, at 5am, I get up, make a cup of tea, open the windows to let the morning air in, and write in my journal for an hour. It is a precious moment in time, when the world is quiet, when I can give my innermost thoughts room to make themselves heard, and when I can reflect on my life. Writing my thoughts and affirmations down on paper allows me to gain much needed perspective, to find calm in chaos, to make sense of life when there is so much that just seems senseless. Robin Sharma, the legendary author and leadership expert who wrote the inspirational book “The 5AM Club”, a guide to finding serenity in this age of overwhelming complexity, says about the power of journalling, “Writing in a journal offers a place where you can hold a deliberate, thoughtful conversation with yourself.” I couldn’t agree more!

Music has immense power. It can lift our spirits when we are down; it can transport us to a particular place or point in time; it can evoke important memories; and it can move us emotionally and spiritually. I have always listed to music whilst working, I find it inspirational and it helps my motivation and productivity levels hugely. During the recent lockdown, music played an even more important role in my life. I was inspired to seek out and listen to lots of new artists who were creating music for these challenging times. Before I realized it, I was creating a new playlist of music for myself that was to become the soundtrack of my lockdown life - and it has become very special to me. From this point onwards, whenever I listen to a piece of music from this soundtrack, I will be reminded of this pivotal time in my life and in the world. So, what have I been listening to you might ask, and what stands out as my favourite piece of music during this time? It’s a song called ‘Patience’ by the incredibly talented songwriter and musician Areni Agbabian - listen to the song here. What is the soundtrack of your lockdown life? I would love to hear. Share with me at melanie@lionessesofafrica.com

I have a good friend, a fellow woman entrepreneur, who often gives one piece of advice to other emerging women business builders - she says, “Your network is your net worth.” And she believes in that advice, creating very powerful networks of her own that help both her business and brand, and her personal development as a woman. I sometimes think we take our networks for granted as entrepreneurs, and yet according to HubSpot, 95% of people say face-to-face meetings are essential to building long-term business relationships. Now admittedly, the way we network may be changing as a result of COVID19, but it doesn’t mean we can’t continue to build our network, just in different ways. Face-to-face meetings now take place virtually; we attend virtual conferences and seminars and collect digital business cards; we have informal coffee meet-ups online instead of in local cafes. It is still all networking, and it is more important now, and critical to our business and personal growth, than it has ever been. So if you haven’t already done so, come and join the 1 million+ strong Lionesses of Africa community, your personal woman entrepreneur network in Africa.

I often turn to the powerful words of Nelson Mandela when I think about resilience, both in life and in business. His personal experience and his insights are just as relevant today as they were decades ago. Following a number of really tough conversations this past week with women entrepreneurs who are really battling to keep going in these difficult times, we were speaking about what constitutes success to them. Their idea of success has changed quite a lot over the past year. It reminded me of a wonderful, inspirational quote by Nelson Mandela who said, “Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” How incredibly relevant are those words today, when many women entrepreneurs are facing the very real prospect of not being able to keep going during the current economic climate. But that does not mean they cannot achieve success - it simply means not just now!

I suppose it is human nature to revert back to old shopping habits now that lockdowns are lifting and all the high street retail and grocery chains are open again, once more offering delivery slots to consumers. But I still remember all too well those weeks during lockdown when all the big retailers closed their online delivery slots to all but essential workers and the elderly consumers. Their online retail platforms were simply overwhelmed and their usually efficient ordering and delivery systems couldn’t cope with the demand. During that time, I made a personal decision to support the small, independent entrepreneurs who needed the business and who were able to keep delivering during this difficult time. They were all inspirational, and really efficient, no matter how many challenges they faced. Deliveries arrived on schedule, communication was innovative and engaging, and it was a really wonderful retail experience. So going forward, I will still be buying from and supporting my local small businesses and will not be reverting to my old shopping habits on the high street. Let’s continue to stay loyal to all those small businesses who really need us right now.

How many times have you had to make a really big decision in your business, one that affects your own future, your employees’ future, and the future of the business? Perhaps you are at that point right now, and there is a big decision looming in your life? As entrepreneurs we have all been there - and it’s hard. Such big decisions can be really tough to make alone, and getting great external specialist advice to help you with your decision-making is always good to have. But before you make your ultimate decision, here are some important questions you need to ask yourself in order to understand every possible outcome. What is motivating this decision? Is this decision about what you should do, or what you really want to do? Will this decision bring you closer to realizing your vision? Is this decision going to have a positive long-term impact on the business, or is it just an immediate fix? How will you feel about this decision in 5 years time? By really questioning yourself, and thinking about all the possible outcomes in a given situation, it can open up other potential options you haven’t yet considered.

Experiencing the pains and pleasures of online shopping during lockdown has taught me quite a few valuable lessons about customer experience. So I was fascinated to read a new research report from Amazon this week about ‘Connected Commerce’ trends. One particular statistic caught my attention relating to online customer experience. The reason being was that I was having two very different online retail customer experiences at the time - one great, one really disappointing. It seems I am not alone in my online retail frustrations. The research highlighted that 71% of online retail customers will switch from a seller if they don’t offer a good customer experience. Also, 59% of customers will always share a bad experience with a product, service or brand with friends and family, influencing them to change sellers too. It is therefore surprising to see that some businesses and brands who retail online are just not understanding that the customer experience is everything! As entrepreneurs, when we take the decision to sell our fabulous products online, we also need to ensure that we pay just as much attention to the way we treat our customers, giving them an experience to remember for all the right reasons.

I was reading an interesting article this week about how our notions of being adventurous have changed significantly during these recent months of lockdown. Not so long ago, being adventurous could have been launching ground-breaking new products, or travelling to new and distant places, or trying out new sports or activities that push our comfort zones to the limit. Now, being adventurous takes on a whole new meaning, as we get used to living and working in a very different, often restricted world. Speaking about experiencing the spirit of adventure in different ways, the inspirational English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author, Stephen Hawking, saw adventure as a combination of curiosity and bravery. When Hawking was diagnosed at age 13 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative motor neuron disease that quickly robs people of the ability to voluntarily move their muscles, he was given 2 years to live. In fact, he survived for 55 years with his incurable condition, going on to achieve the status of being the most recognizable scientist of our age. He died at the age of 76, having built a remarkable scientific legacy, despite enduring the ultimate lockdown of having being trapped in a body he could not move. So, if you are looking for inspiration as to how to get through the challenges that lockdown has brought to our lives, listen to the words of Stephen Hawking this morning as he says: “Be brave, be curious, be determined, overcome the odds. It can be done.”

I experienced an incredible performance this week that, for me, captured once again the wide-ranging impact that this pandemic has made to people’s lives over the past few months. It also shows the extraordinary power of the human spirit to keep going in the midst of adversity. I thought I would share it with you this morning. I am a big fan of contemporary dance and ballet, and love to watch it performed live whenever I can. I had been looking forward to seeing an ambitious re-staging of Pina Bausch’s The Rite of Spring this year. It was a dance performance scheduled to tour the world with a specially assembled company of 38 dancers from 14 African countries for the first time in its history. Days before the world premiere in Senegal, Coronavirus lockdowns forced the company to close down and the tour to be cancelled. The dancers seized the moment by moving their last rehearsal to the beach and capturing it on film for the world to experience virtually. The resulting performance, ‘Dancing at Dusk’, was truly magical, although tragic for the dancers and their company not to be able to take it on tour as planned. But here is where the power of the human spirit is so inspirational. Everyone involved in the project is still committed to bringing it to stages around the world when theatres reopen, when lockdowns lift. But for now, ‘Dancing at Dusk’ is a record of a particular moment in time, just before the world stopped, but the dance continued. Watch the trailer of this beautiful, spirit-lifting performance.