Step Into Vision

Role play what is it? We’ve all done it when we were kids. I wanted to be an astronaut and go into space and Vanessa wanted to be Wonder Woman and save the world. Out of our giant imaginations came creativity, storytelling and best of all, role-playing. Team building is essential and one surefire way to fire up your team’s creative thinking is role play. There are many ways to deliver this but the most common is to have two teams each with an objective to achieve, going head to head to work through a challenging scenario. Help individuals to perform better The real benefit of role play is for…

It was pretty easy for us to come up with this title as we just returned from a two day break. We didn’t go anywhere, we didn’t even travel but we took some time out from our busy schedule, despite having some important deadlines. We have often heard that leaders, especially business leaders should purposely schedule in recharge time on a frequent basis, in their packed diaries. What leaders do with that time is entirely up to them but it should be experiences or activities that take them out of their normal environment of living and thinking. The benefits are huge and Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix agrees “It is…

Do you practice the art of contentment? There’s no better reward for finding time for the things that make you feel grateful. I am really fascinated at the moment with learning how my child chooses to play and watching his behaviour without interrupting. I feel really happy that I can choose to make time for my family and fit my career around my work. The balance is lots of joy and contentment. Over the years it’s been a work in progress. It’s having to make a conscious choice of looking for things that I have, rather than what I don’t have. Here are a few ways that I find effective…

Communication really is key however if the sender and receiver are not on the same page, then assumptions creep in and the message can get lost. This is how misunderstanding turns up. As a small business, it really pays to keep clear communications flowing between your team. The positive benefits include an increase in trust, loyalty, productivity and relationships. More importantly, is to utilise those attributes to have conversations that really matter. These are the conversations that start with why and end with how. Why Why is a great starting point because it makes everyone think about the reason for, say, getting together to discuss a new product. The focus…

Meetings, meetings, meetings. Some people love having them whilst others loathe them. Friend or foe we all end up in them and will never avoid them so what perhaps we should just make them more interesting. I recently heard the story of a university lecturer who was leading a class on quantum mechanics. Half through the class he sensed the energy was flat and the student’s responsiveness became minimal. He himself then realised that his energy to teach was affected also. Suddenly the door opened and a naked young man ran into the classroom, around the desks and then ran out of the class. The mood of the class immediately…

Subscription models are ideal for both products and services. We started out by wanting to create a steady income and chose this business model as a way forward. Using an online magazine as a lead magnet to attract visitors to our web pages, we created a funnel to offer a subscription package. In this article, we share five lessons from our experience. Fast forward we now consult in digital marketing and offer advice to business start-ups. Lesson 1 We were active on social media, at least 20 times each day. We reaped a reward of engaged followers which was our aim. We were not fixed on numbers authentically just on…

This weekend we were invited to see Lego Movie 2 at the cinema. The kids were thrilled to visit the movies (again) for the 3rd time in one week so it easily made their day. For us, it was simply a good family time. Either way, I tend to put my all into everything I do, as a wife — mum and business person, so I made sure the moment was special for all of us. If we pay enough attention to life around us, we will see endless lessons for us to learn from. Visiting the movies was no different and I immediately picked up on the thread of the storyline…

Today was a look back for us. As we carried out our termly clear down and tidy up the kid’s toys, we came across some papers which jogged our memories on one of our proudest business ventures. The business model was tight and we were pretty much first to the market amongst much larger legacy competitors. The engagement from our audience was incredible, so much so we had publishing companies approaching us to review new authors books for the sector. It was an amazing time but all that status and recognition didn’t turn up overnight. The business idea was birthed around the same time we had our first son. It…

Many moons ago I was super focused on the trajectory of my career. It’s the main reason why I embarked on professional training for my area of work. I was clearly trying to keep up with the Joneses. Status meant a lot to me and my career was my pride and joy. I treasured it, I would even go as far to say I worshipped it, in my own twisted way. It’s the kind of revelation you get when you look back over your life and think ‘oh boy’. I Never knew it then but I sure recognise it now. Fast forward a few years and life had hit me…

I got up this morning and immediately grabbed my phone. My normal routine is to get up, get ready and spend my time in prayer. I would love to work towards journalling if my four-year-old son would be kind enough to sleep through the night. One of our principles in life and business is to maximise our time. Believe you me we are on a journey and so having a smartphone is sometimes kind of smart because of the instant access. On the contrary, it’s a bit of a time zapper. We get stuck into all sorts of reading and research and some of this is not important. There is…