The Gift of Mentorship

Mentorship, for those of you who have not been blessed enough to have a mentor of your own, or who have yet to discover the true meaning of the word, is described by Wikipedia as:

a personal developmental relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. However, true mentoring is more than just answering occasional questions or providing ad hoc help. It is about an ongoing relationship of learning, dialogue, and challenge. The person in receipt of mentorship may be referred to as a protégé (male), a protégée (female), an apprentice or, in recent years, a mentee.

"Mentoring" is a process that always involves communication and is relationship based, but its precise definition is elusive.

This all sounds GREAT! I had always heard the term. Understood what it meant, in essence. And yet I never sought a mentor out for myself. I don't think I ever truly understood the worth in the process.

This is, until I had an experience earlier this year that brought me into contact with some amazing business women. One of them took the most incredible interest in me as a person, and as a business woman. I have been in regular contact with her and have made so many changes both to myself and my business, and also my mindset and environment. It has, singlehandedly, changed my life. 

You may still be doubtful, and wondering 'how'?

Well, once you stop and ponder it, its quite simple. This is a successful business person, one who may have started their own organisation, or run one of behalf of others. This, by definition, is somebody older than you, and age automatically indicates more extensive life experience.

This is somebody who can see you for who and what you are, with no previous bias or knowledge, as you may perhaps have when dealing with a mom, dad, aunt, uncle, or any other older, successful family member. They can therefore point out your shortcomings, identify your strengths, assist you in a game plan to shed your weaknesses, and all in all transform you from a mere caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly!

Make no mistake, change is hard. Its uncomfortable and challenging. But I have found this to be one of the biggest relationships in my life. So much so that I call my Magical Mentor my boyfriend :)

Additionally though, although so many people could be mentors in our beautiful country, many are not. Perhaps it is their skill level when it comes to transferring their knowledge. But, I have decided, in the wake of my Mentoring Manifestation, that VCA needs to get involved with training more people to be able to give the gift that keeps on giving, and I am therefore developing a Mentorship Programme - watch this space!

Be kind to one another.

And to my 'boyfriend', you have changed my world, you have changed our country, and the amount of lives you have and continue to touch is staggering. Thank you for seeing the beauty and the potential inside me, and may you be blessed beyond measure. You are incredible. Viva my boyfriend VIVA!

The Its My Biz Dream

Have you ever heard of a show called ‘Its My Biz’ on eTV? Well, I am about to educate you in a very real and meaningful way!

It is a small-business reality makeover series where, every week, a new small business owner opens up his or her business to the scrutiny of the It’s My Biz panel of experts.

This season they jazzed things up a bit and they arranged for the most amazing group of Thought Leaders to spearhead conversations between the Business Owners and themselves.

I entered this competition as Nedbank are our business bankers and my business partner thought it would be an amazing opportunity. Never in a million years did we think we would be chosen to participate.

About two weeks after submitting our application documents to the organising company, we were called in for an interview, where we needed to do an eight minute presentation to a panel of judges and then a one minute to camera after a question and answer session. The excitement was palpable and we got straight onto the arduous task of a new wardrobe!

Monday morning came and we marched right in, heads held high, the first company to audition. Cameras exploded, lights caught fire – we were magnetic! We were so proud of ourselves for an amazing audition and we thought nothing more.

Two weeks later, we had a call to say that out of over 1500 applications, WE WERE SUCCESSFUL! I was incredulous that the judges had such faith in me and in our capabilities and couldn’t wait to get started. A crew of 15 arrived the next Monday at our small office in Benoni, including a makeup artist, a caterer, amazing cameramen, and a staff compliment of saints. They spent the entire day searching for my good side and I was only too willing as a participant. Eventually at around four that afternoon, it was a wrap. Exhausted and exhilarated we headed home.

Then the next Wednesday was my day in studio. Wow. My thought leaders were Amy Kleinhans-Curd, Jenna Clifford and Donna McCallum. I had a very definite Fairy Godmother watching over me that day! The insight, the nuggets of wisdom and the once in a lifetime opportunity was overwhelming and something I will never forget, as well as invaluable in lieu of transformation of our business! Since then I have been fortunate enough to be mentored by the Fabulous Ms Clifford, chatted to the Beautiful Ms Kleinhans-Curd, and am studying under the Magical Ms McCallum.

Our episode aired on 8 August 2013 at 17h30 and it was amazing. Not just because it was my thirty minutes of fame, but because it was the culmination of a long journey, something to be so proud of, and a piece of art. Also because it marked the start of a brand new journey for VCA, and for Hayley. 

This is living proof of the manifestation on wonderful things to come. Good things don’t come to those who wait, they come to those who pursue them and never ever stop! Never ever let anybody tell you that you can't. You can, and you will.

Be kind to one another.

Goldman-Sachs GIBS 10000 Women Experience

How many of you have heard about this phenomenal intervention? If you haven't, let me shed some light on it for you.

10,000 Women is a five-year program to provide business and management education to underserved female entrepreneurs around the world. The initiative was founded on research conducted by the World Bank, Goldman Sachs, and others, which found that expanding education and developing the entrepreneurial talent and managerial pool in emerging economies – especially among women – is one of the most important means to reducing inequality and ensuring more shared economic growth. One of the seminal research reports that inspired 10,000 Women was Womenomics, a study written by Kathy Matsui, a managing director and chief strategist in Goldman Sachs in Tokyo. Her report examined the potential impact of expanding workforce opportunities for women in Japan. “The ideas behind 10,000 Women, in many ways, began in Japan,” said Masanori Mochida, President of Goldman Sachs Japan Co., Ltd. “Realizing that the connection between women and economic growth was extraordinarily powerful, we came up with 10,000 Women – a confluence of our knowledge of markets, our desire to spur growth and our tradition of service.”

The program has been running for the last 5 years, this is the final year, and in South Africa, the concluding cohort, 7, is well under way.

I first heard about the program on 702, and saw various articles about it in the media. This year, my curiosity finally got the better of me, and i researched it. In typical Hayley style, the day I enquired was the last day ever in South Africa, for applications. I managed to submit everything with a second to spare, and then I sat back, and waited. Anxiously. Nervously. The more I contemplated the program, the more I HAD to be on it! Along the way I met some amazing ladies who had been on previous cohorts, one being the beautiful and phenomenal Eugenie Drakes, who made my hunger for this journey even greater!

Eventually, after what seemed like decades, I got the email I had been waiting for. My application had been successful! I had been hand selected, by a committee in London, to participate! I was so thankful and so very proud!

The day of orientation arrived. So nervous. Palms sweating, pulse racing, head held high and concentrating on my breathing, I walked through the doors of GIBS. Here, my journey would begin. I had arrived. Somehow I just knew that my quest for knowledge, and thirst for growth, would be realised ten fold!

On my first morning I was fortunate enough to make some awesome friends. Angela Blakeway, who is the owner and Managing Director of Event Marche, Bridget Van Oerle, owner and Managing Director of Buz Publicity, and Peta-Lee Woolf, owner and Managing Director of Peta-Lee.

These ladies all were so well spoken, so well dressed, and I thought wow.......... how can I even hope to keep up in the company of all of this muchness?!

The orientation was fantastic. Turns out, while we had to do our 30 second elevator pitch, that we were all equally awed and enamored by each other! The fantastic, successful, brilliant women we were, was being subdued by our alter egos, telling us that we just were not up to scratch.

Well, after a month on this program, late nights, ridiculously early mornings, being hot, being cold, being on fire and being plain inspired, I can say with ENORMOUS confidence that I am honoured for being chosen\. That I will make both VCA, and GIBS, innately proud of what I will accomplish over the next few months as I continue learning, and in the years and decades to come as I implement my learning, employ more people, upskill our community and help to grow South Africa!

So THANK YOU for believing in me, GIBS and Goldman-Sachs, enough to show me how much I should be believing in me! 

Be kind to one another.

Hayley