Something that really inspired you over the past year

 

This is hands down the people around me.

 

My staff, my family, my boyfriend. Even me! Just seeing how we adapt. I think much of it is a South African gene. We just get on with things. A pandemic? Its okay we have bills to pay. Looting? Lets pray for those in the area and rally around to get them food and provisions. No electricity? We have power banks and people up the road have a generator – oh and do you not know how to braai?

 

We just carry on going. We lift each other up and even drag each other when we need to. We cook meals for those who need it, collect food for the animals affected, donate to the charities most in need. Give up our professional time to assist businesses in need. Never really even thinking about how diminished our own cups have become.

 

And so as the slow down period of the year approaches, I urge you all to take a breath. To look at yourself and acknowledge how far you have come and what you have achieved. We are all so busy pushing for the next milestone and the next achievement that we forget to celebrate the every day ones. The small things we accomplish every day. just making it through this year, even this day, has taken some serious manoeuvring. I am proud of you. And you should be too. Happy holidays.

An obstacle overcome this year

 

When 23h59, 31 December 2020 rolled around, we all got to heave a huge sigh of relief as we bid a not-so-fond farewell to the year our lives changed forever.

 

Its over! We celebrated. Without family or friends, because, you know, COVID. Its all going to be so different next year! We laughed and felt overjoyed. Before 10, and sober. Because, you know, COVID.

 

And then…. 2021 came a knocking. With wave after wave. Loss after loss. Small businesses shut shop. Big businesses closed their doors. Mothers, fathers, frie4nds, sisters, brothers, took their last breath and had to be buried. Remotely. With no time or space for grieving. No comforting those they left behind. Because, you know, COVID.

 

Families were torn apart with borders being shut with no notice or warning. Some still having not been able to see their missing people nearly two years later. Nurses and doctors have sacrificed their mental health, their relationships, and often their lives in the scramble to help those infected.

 

I would say for me, the obstacle I overcame, WAS this year. it tried to knock us all down, but we have overcome and survived 100% of the days it has thrown at us. I am so grateful for all who have kept me company this year, and reminded me to keep getting up.

 

Now can we all sneak quietly into 2022 and not make any sudden movements please! Be blessed

How your passion became your business

  

I would say for me it was the other way around. When I was young, I wanted to be a lawyer. I have wanted to know WHY for most things in my life and was called argumentative. Turns out I actually just have a yearning for knowledge.

 

Unfortunately in high school I found it far more important to be popular than be a lawyer, or even get into university… oops. And so I studied a quick 6 month travel and tourism course and hey presto, my 5 year tourism career began.

 

I adored working with people. The clients loved me and my co-workers and I all got on like a house on fire. It was amazing. But I became a very young mom unexpectedly and I could no longer work the long hours required of me with the commute to Sandton daily. And so I left, for a temp assignment.

 

It was at my fathers company, and my mom worked for him. That was it. He had some temp staff in and out but they were the business. It has been around for 5 years when I joined. I understood none of what it did, and  had no clue about the clients. It wasn’t travel, that was for sure. It was boring, and very grown up. So many rules. Added to that, my parents and I had never got along. So it was NOT my dream job and sure was not conducive to a happy work experience for me. But it had been agreed that it was only for 6 months, and so I had this time to find another job, and get the hell out of dodge!

 

So six months came. I had only just started learning what the company did, and we had just won a really nice tender. We needed to recruit, we needed to train and we needed to get the work done. And so began a rollercoaster 20 year journey.

 

I fell in love with what I did. I fell in love with being able to grow people. Invest in them and watch them flourish. Or, tough as it was, I watched people who just weren’t the right fit, get bitter, get angry, and just not be able to leave us quickly enough. Tough lesson. Very very personal for me. But passion is messy. Its fiery. Its tears, and laughter, and fighting, and making up. VCA is my passion. It has consumed me and become my passion. My dad left the business 18 years ago and my mom nearly 4. I have paid money, bled, fought, and sacrificed for this company. And in return its fed me, clothed me, seen two children through school, and its still standing.

 

I am very proud of my journey, and when I actually stop and think about it, I am very proud of me. my passion is my business, and my business is passion.

Are you a glass half full or half empty kinda girl? Or is it sometimes half full and sometimes half empty?

 

I would love to say I am a glass half full kind of girl. I have read books, listened to podcasts, watched ted talks. I have practiced positivity, attracted the hell out of the universe. I have affirmed, I have afformed. And yet… if I am totally honest, every now and again the whole sky does fall. The stars and the moon even come crashing down.

 

The glass cracks the contents pour out and the end of the world presents itself. In that moment, there is no escape. There is no reprieve. There is no silver lining. All you can feel is your frustration. All you can see is your disappointment. And all you can taste is pain. And this is NORMAL. We are meant to feel our emotions. Every single one. for if we do not feel fear how will we know security? Or contentment? If we do not feel loss how will we know that we are feeling blessed and abundant?

 

We are meant to experience them all yet must be very careful not to dwell in the dark spaces. Get knocked over. Lie on your back. Feel the hurt and let the tears come. But then, see the stars above you, and know that only you can do this journey. Only you can reach for them. swing over onto your knees… and slowly get back up.

 

So lose the glass. Lose the measurements. Get in touch with your feelings. Know them. Welcome them. And when necessary, move through them

 

And be kind to one another

What's it like having a small business and having employees to look after?

 

When I was asked by Andile Masuku, of Its My Biz, this question, very wet behind the ears, the answer I gave was that its like running a household. Being the mom. Making sure that everybody has what they need to be successful, happy and thriving.

 

And I would say, 8 years on and a wealth of experience behind the belt, that this still stands true for me. Maybe it is because we are an SMME. Maybe its because we are a company of women. Maybe its because I am one of the office oldies. But whatever the reason, my role within VCA is the Mom. I motivate. I punish. I chastise. I reward. I advise, I comfort, I plan.

 

I have been a single mommy for 19 years, and possibly that’s why I identify so strongly with this role. Possibly that is the reason I give so selflessly and expect nothing in return. Because it comes so naturally. But I have worked at VCA for 20 years, and she has caused me immense pride, huge pain, and great loss. And yet such wonderful growth and joy. The faces in the chairs have changed throughout the years, the face looking back from the mirror has too, but my passion and my fire still burns bright!

 

Viva VCA viva!

100 things you love or 100 tools you swear by

 

This was the topic assigned to me for this week. And although it’s a wonderful topic I have decided to go a different path.

 

I have decided to write about what I am grateful for

 

And maybe not a hundred although I am pretty sure there are well over 100 I could easily rattle off, I will write 10 today.

 

1)      I am grateful for family. They are not perfect. They may not be blood. But the people that keep me going everyday, that have my back and keep me grounded and accountable and safe. I am grateful for them.

2)      I am grateful for being a mom. Having 2 beautiful children that I raised alone and sacrificed so much for, taught me humility. Taught me how to sacrifice. Taught me how to put somebody before myself. Taught me about unconditional love

3)      I am grateful for love. For finding somebody that loves me as much as I love them. That provides for me, has my back, sees my ugly but chooses to see my light. That hears my fears and helps me laugh at them until they are just tiny balloons on the ground to stomp on. That protects me. That allows me to dream. My star.

4)      I am grateful for my friends. The people that will give me tips on how best to bury a body just in case…. those that cheer me on and push me when I just cant take another step. Those who listen to my ugly cry about the same tired topic on repeat and don’t block my number. The panties. The bros. The loves of my life. Those who see me through success, failure, love, heartache, loss, gain, and who just never turn their backs or their faces.

5)      I am grateful for VCA. Grateful that the blood and tears I have poured into her walls has sustained me for twenty years. She has enabled me to offer employment, educate, train, build up, provide for, close on a hundred people over the years. Some people have been the first in their family to do tertiary studies, buy a home, get a driver’s licence, own a car! What a privilege that when they leave they always find work because of the grounding given here.

6)      I am grateful for animals, and for my pets. For never remembering a grumpy mood, or a cross word. For always wanting to please and forever being grateful for any and all attention thrown their way. For never letting me ever pee in peace because they cannot bear to even have 5 minutes away from me. What greater love could there ever be.

7)      For my senses. For being able to stare at the faces I love, hear music, and laughter, smell a familiar scent that takes me to a memory. For being able to taste my tears of frustration, or pure bliss, and to feel the arms of my star being wrapped tightly around me

8)      I am grateful for my health. For being able to be able.

9)      I am grateful for my fire. For my passion. For arguing for the underdog, for finally finding my own voice and being able to defend myself. Against intentional and unintentional hurt. For never giving up, and if I do, not for long. For seeing the big picture.

10)   And lastly, I am grateful for apologies. For being able to say sorry when I have hurt somebody, and when I have done wrong. Been malicious, been nasty, been deliberately cruel. I am grateful that the sun hasn’t set on me and I can still tell those around me just how much I love them.

 

Tis the season. Be kind to one another.

Why did you start blogging?

 

Eight years ago, I was selected as a contestant on a local business television show. I was allocated three amazing women business leaders as my mentors at this time, and one of these ladies mentioned to me that if I was going to call myself a guru, or a thought leader, or a leader of any sort, I needed to establish myself as one. To take action. To stand up at be counted.

 

And so, I started to blog. I blogged about thoughts, I blogged about life events, life experiences. And in the course of this, I learned about me. I learned what makes me happy. What makes me passionate. I learned what makes me angry and what inspires me. To be better. To do better. To achieve more. To help more.

 

When I initially started it was so much about the other people who were reading it. What their thoughts were – about my writing, about my story, about my experiences. Are they judging me? Are they laughing at me? Does anybody even care?

 

And I came to realise, even if nobody acknowledges what you have written, somebody out there has resonation with your words.  Somebody has been touched by your words. When I was 27, my husband left me, and I was 7 months pregnant. It felt like the world had ended, and that I was a leper nobody else would ever want to be near ever again. That I was shunned. That I had failed. Only to find out, in later years, that so many people have been in the same boat as I was in. And if I had heard that, at that time, it would have made the world of difference for my confidence and for my esteem. To know that it wasn’t only me. To know that it had nothing to do with me actually, but with my ex husband.

 

And so, every two weeks, I write. I blog about topics chosen for me, and topics I have chosen for myself. I pour my heart out. If anybody reads it, has actually got nothing to do with me. For now, I write. I express. I confess. And I know that somebody, somewhere in the universe, who needs to hear it more than ever, will hear it.

 

And I continue to try to be kinder to those around me, and to myself. This is why I blog.