What I'm thinking
latest post
Leading with indifference: how to be less emotionally reactive
From the conference room to the kitchen, we sometimes find ourselves getting caught up in the same self-sabotaging emotional responses: impatience, jealousy, frustration, anger, victimhood, or any number of other automatic reactions. You get triggered, and boom, the same stubborn impulse kicks in....
Browse the blog
Or search for something…
Impatience and your personal leadership brand
It’s helpful for leaders to be impatient. Impatient leaders take more initiative. They get the job done faster. They’re passionate and innovative problem-solvers. They make quick...
Keeping your personal brand relevant
When Tom Peters introduced the idea of personal branding, he said that regardless of your age and position, unless you understand the importance of personal branding you’re going...
7 Ps of Personal Leadership Progress
Just because we’re in the middle of a pandemic, doesn’t mean you don’t want to progress your career. How do you avoid the out-of-sight-out-of-mind culture that a flexible...
How to fly through your first day, first week and first month at a new job
Whether it’s your first day or your fifteenth, acclimatising to a new workspace can be intimidating. Here are some pointers to help you put your best foot forward and settle in...
Saying yes to change
"Faith is the light that illuminates your pathway. Without faith, the future looks very frightening. That's why it's essential for you to take whatever steps are necessary to...
Staying grounded
This post is as much for me as it is for you. As the craziness surrounds us, here’s what I’m doing to stay centered. Maybe something resonates for you. Staying off social media –...
An introvert’s guide to getting through the festive season
Raise your hand if you secretly dread the razzle-dazzle time of year: with the people, the noise, the excess, the commercialisation, the demands, the waste, the trying to please,...
Vertical or Horizontal
Today, will you self-assuredly introduce yourself to the most powerful person in the room, or will you avoid eye contact, feeling self-conscious and less than? Will you cold call...
Body clever ways to build Personal Presence
Did you know you can build personal presence just by tuning into your body? Use posture to focus your thoughts. Put your feel flat on the ground, lengthen your spine and notice...
Leading with indifference: how to be less emotionally reactive
From the conference room to the kitchen, we sometimes find ourselves getting caught up in the same self-sabotaging emotional responses: impatience, jealousy, frustration, anger,...
Impatience and your personal leadership brand
It’s helpful for leaders to be impatient. Impatient leaders take more initiative. They get the job done faster. They’re passionate and innovative problem-solvers. They make quick...
Keeping your personal brand relevant
When Tom Peters introduced the idea of personal branding, he said that regardless of your age and position, unless you understand the importance of personal branding you’re going...
7 Ps of Personal Leadership Progress
Just because we’re in the middle of a pandemic, doesn’t mean you don’t want to progress your career. How do you avoid the out-of-sight-out-of-mind culture that a flexible...
How to fly through your first day, first week and first month at a new job
Whether it’s your first day or your fifteenth, acclimatising to a new workspace can be intimidating. Here are some pointers to help you put your best foot forward and settle in...
Saying yes to change
"Faith is the light that illuminates your pathway. Without faith, the future looks very frightening. That's why it's essential for you to take whatever steps are necessary to...
Staying grounded
This post is as much for me as it is for you. As the craziness surrounds us, here’s what I’m doing to stay centered. Maybe something resonates for you. Staying off social media –...
An introvert’s guide to getting through the festive season
Raise your hand if you secretly dread the razzle-dazzle time of year: with the people, the noise, the excess, the commercialisation, the demands, the waste, the trying to please,...
Vertical or Horizontal
Today, will you self-assuredly introduce yourself to the most powerful person in the room, or will you avoid eye contact, feeling self-conscious and less than? Will you cold call...
Leading with indifference: how to be less emotionally reactive
From the conference room to the kitchen, we sometimes find ourselves getting caught up in the same self-sabotaging emotional responses: impatience, jealousy, frustration, anger,...
Keeping your personal brand relevant
When Tom Peters introduced the idea of personal branding, he said that regardless of your age and position, unless you understand the importance of personal branding you’re going...
An introvert’s guide to getting through the festive season
Raise your hand if you secretly dread the razzle-dazzle time of year: with the people, the noise, the excess, the commercialisation, the demands, the waste, the trying to please,...
Vertical or Horizontal
Today, will you self-assuredly introduce yourself to the most powerful person in the room, or will you avoid eye contact, feeling self-conscious and less than? Will you cold call...
Body clever ways to build Personal Presence
Did you know you can build personal presence just by tuning into your body? Use posture to focus your thoughts. Put your feel flat on the ground, lengthen your spine and notice...
The Bad Side of Good
My brother was the rebel. From failing school, to smoking dope in his bedroom ("They're Camel mom, that's why they smell funny") to having a secret weekend flat in Hillbrow (at...
Here’s to cheering you on!
Think of this as your permission slip. If you’ve been waffling, faffing or generally procrastinating, now’s the time to hop off the fence. If your truth has been on pause for too...
Don’t be kak. Be lekker.
So last night - as I was sad-movie-sobbing into my smoked strawberry salad, watching as the tears plopped into the arugula and wondering (as if in the mind of a different person)...
On being your own good self (in under 100 words)
It’s much easier to be like everyone else. Deep down we believe Other people’s lives are better than ours (so we copy them) We are inadequate (compared to who we thought we’d...
Impatience and your personal leadership brand
It’s helpful for leaders to be impatient. Impatient leaders take more initiative. They get the job done faster. They’re passionate and innovative problem-solvers. They make quick...
Keeping your personal brand relevant
When Tom Peters introduced the idea of personal branding, he said that regardless of your age and position, unless you understand the importance of personal branding you’re going...
How to fly through your first day, first week and first month at a new job
Whether it’s your first day or your fifteenth, acclimatising to a new workspace can be intimidating. Here are some pointers to help you put your best foot forward and settle in...
Body clever ways to build Personal Presence
Did you know you can build personal presence just by tuning into your body? Use posture to focus your thoughts. Put your feel flat on the ground, lengthen your spine and notice...
Three key questions for new clients
When interviewing a prospective client, or working with a new one, there are three key questions which make or break the outcome of your work together. Getting into your client’s...
Avoid these meeting pitfalls
Want to make a quick, positive impact? Go to a meeting. It’s an easy platform to give value and one of the most effective ways to boost your personal brand. Meetings give you the...
10 Communication Tweaks to Help You Sound More Assertive
It’s time to banish tentative verb phrases like “I think”, “I feel” or “I just thought” so that you sound more confident and assertive at work. Here are 10 common workplace...
Why your weaknesses are hard to spot
As part of my Brandheart personal branding process, I take each client through a 360 reputation survey. The client supplies me with names of people who know him or her well, and...
Your Cherries Are In The Wrong Place
Have you ever stood in a fuggy dojo with your hand in a vice grip while your knuckles are being examined by a sweaty Sensei? No? Me neither. It was a fellow karateka who pointed...
Saying yes to change
"Faith is the light that illuminates your pathway. Without faith, the future looks very frightening. That's why it's essential for you to take whatever steps are necessary to...
Staying grounded
This post is as much for me as it is for you. As the craziness surrounds us, here’s what I’m doing to stay centered. Maybe something resonates for you. Staying off social media –...
Strong back. Soft front. Wild heart.
I have two teenage boys at home – one my own, and one whose mother has courageously sent him halfway across the world to live with a stranger. A third teenager (mine) is homesick...
State of bondage
It’s increasingly my belief that our purpose in life consists of only two things: To see who we are, To have the courage to be it. Everything else is bondage.
How to win at pool
About 60 million years ago, when I was 29, I was rocking it with one hand in the pocket of my brand new Diesel jeans, the other dexterously holding an...
An idea whose time has come
On your life’s journey You discover things that are Obvious yet profound. Take for example: “How you live every day is How you live your life.” It brings...
Be soft like water
My foray into the underbelly of kimura shukokai karate holds surprising contrasts. The latest instruction hurled at me from across the tatami was to be ‘soft like water’. For...
Living under a coat of bright, shiny nail-polish
Yesterday, a client and I spent 20 minutes discussing nail polish. I’ll let that sink in for a minute. Bright and shiny on the outside, but gosh, what’s all that formaldehyde...
Missing from your daily habits
1. Offer to help 2. Look behind you and fix what’s not right 3. Eat something nutritious 4. Breathe 5. Find the gaps between your thoughts 6. Say...