The Art of the Suit

In this episode of the Art of the Suit, the focus is on your Personal Brand.

But you won’t be listening to me talk about this passion of mine.  What makes this episode so engaging is that you will be listening to a range of voices – all of them are students from the University of Johannesburg who are in the final months of their Honours in B. Com Marketing and participated in the inaugural year of an innovative Practical Marketing programme.  The curriculum included a range of soft skill development that would have practical application for them in the workplace. 

This recording was made at the live event celebrating their participation in my programme.  A milestone I am particularly proud of and grateful for.

You will have the opportunity to experience a few of the students’ Personal Brand pitches, but whether you are a person contemplating your own Personal Brand, and how you can reinvent yourself, or a prospective employer concerned about whether or not your recruitment methodology is best suited to the current generation and environment, there is an enormous amount of authentic insight from these brilliant minds that you will benefit from.

Some of the key questions addressed were:

- The most enlightening discoveries experienced about their personal brand

- The message they have for their generation about how they should shift the way they think about themselves? 

- What is it about the environment we live in that contributes most to their sense of anxiety about achieving their goals out in the marketplace?

- The generation gap and the attitude towards work and job commitment.  Is this well-founded?

- Their message to prospective employers about how they can help graduates entering the workplace?

My appreciation goes to TimesLive for providing us with the use of their very glamorous viewing cinema for the event.  It made the grand finale staging all that more enjoyable.

And of course to Dr. Nicole Cunningham and UJ for this unique and forward-thinking opportunity.

Prospective employers can reach the students via Dr. Nicole Cunningham, Senior Lecturer and Deputy HoD for Undergraduate Programmes Teaching & Learning at [email protected]

And if you are interested in your Personal Brand journey contact me at [email protected] 

In this episode of The Art of the Suit in which I am going to be unpacking how you can improve a skill that you, most likely, take for granted – the art of listening. 

 As a coach, listening is one of the core skill competencies that we are trained to develop and required to constantly refine.  The ability to listen may seem to be a no-brainer but it is just the opposite.  

 We all have biases, many of which are unconscious. Add to this your personal experiences of life, and preconceived ideas and you will soon realise that what you hear and how you typically respond is highly influenced by your own perceptions and may be far removed from what was actually said.  

Not sure? Well, How often has it happened that you feel completely misunderstood? How often have you been told “You aren’t listening to me” or “That’s not what I meant, not what I asked, not what I said”? 

 The impact of poor listening skills takes its toll on personal relationships, in the workplace, and in media.  In fact in every aspect of our lives.  

 This was the subject matter of a session that I had with one of my own coaches, Mark Kahn, around Corrective Listening.  As an aside, yes, coaches have coaches.  In fact, this is an equally important expectation of professional coaches. Anyway, back to the discussion about Corrective Listening.

 I avoid labeling people, particularly those as talented as Mark, but to help frame who you will be listening to: he holds a Master's degree in Clinical Psychology, has a BCom degree, and is an executive coach and management consultant. Mark works with a diverse range of therapies – far too many to try and do them justice in this intro. 

 One of his great passions is helping people develop self-esteem – a topic that led him to write a book called Love Yourself for no reason.  He is a treasure trove of knowledge and insight and why I find my sessions with him to be equally supportive, challenging, enlightening, and motivating.   If you are interested in making contact with Mark you can WhatsApp him on +27824549564.

 So listen in and learn to pick up a few tips on how to improve this skill. 

#leadership, #coaching, #selfdevelopment, #listeningskills, #empathy, #holdingspace, #safespace, #collaboration, #skills, #dogood, #bemore, #relationships, #parenting, #collaboration, #podcast

This episode focuses on making money.  Regardless of whether your business is big or small, established or a start-up, you can't get away from this crucial success measure. But more than simply making money the central theme is all about the P word - PROFIT!

We've all heard the horror stories of how a promising business, regardless of massive turnover, was taken out at the knees because of a lack of synergy between cash flow, pipeline and profit. 

In my book, The Art of the Suit, I advocate that if you don't yet have a love for numbers then you had better adopt a nurture a passion for this aspect of business discipline pretty swiftly if you wish to survive and thrive. 

In this episode I am very fortunate to have a highly successful, experienced and insightful author, speaker, consultant and entrepreneur, Bob Hayward, joining us to provide very succinct and valuable insights to the Profit Secret.  He is the founder of Be More Effective and the author of The Profit Secret.

He covers a lot of ground but a few key takeouts are:

1. Profit is the forgotten part of the sales that makes all the difference. To the customer and to the business
2. Selling is NEVER about the price
3. Too often we are chasing the wrong prospects
4. The sale is made in the pain of the present and not the benefits of the futur
5. Trust building Skills, People Skills, Questioning Skills and Listening Skills are far more important than selling skills or product knowledge
6. You have to build Credibility, Relevance and Importance at all stages.
7. You already know everyone you need to know to build your business as large and profitable as you wish

I highly recommend that you visit https://www.bemoreeffective.com/ and subscribe for their newsletter and invitations to their webinars.  

Enjoy the insights shared in this episode. 

The world of entrepreneurship is both exciting and daunting. The title itself infers breaking new ground. Either relating to the nature of the product or service you are offering or because it is a new territory that you are entering.  Who better to gain insights and guidance from than the Managing Director of I AM AN ENTREPRENEUR, Keitumetse Lekaba, The Business Doctor!

In this power-packed episode, we cover a broad range of subjects:
- The formula for success
- Understanding your customer
- Modelling and upscaling
- Why funding is not a business model
- The importance of introducing financial, compliance and governance disciplines from day one
- Where to get help
We even cover a few tips for corporates that are venturing into enterprise development or funding initiatives themselves.  All in less than 45 minutes!

You can find out more about I AM AN ENTREPRENEUR at http://iamanentrepreneur.co.za/
There you will find a wealth of information on their YouTube channel and about their upcoming summits.  

If you know of someone who will benefit please like and pass this podcast on,

Do good. Be great.
Dawn

In this episode of The Art of the Suit I share the conversation I had with Pierre Naquet the founder of IWS-Europe (Institute of Workplace Dynamics).  He is a very experienced Business & Executive coach, a psychologist and master trainer.  We have mutually accredited one another on coaching instruments and often  share insights and trend discussions around the world of work and coaching.

Whether you are a coach or a person interested in any of the instruments that coaches make use of to increase the efficacy of the coaching process I think you will find something of interest or use in this podcast.  

If you are a coach interested in being accredited on Mind Dynamix, reach out to me at [email protected]

This is a podcast within a podcast. I was invited by Eusebius McKaiser to take part in a podcast on this subject on his platform, In the Ring with Eusebius McKaiser.   We are good friends, colleagues and mutual coaches. The motivation behind this episode was that we BOTH constantly have people sharing the pain the pain they experience as a result of a toxic workplace - very often as the result of having a boss from hell.

We unpack this issue along with a few recommendations of how to survive this type of environment.

Eusebius had such a great response to this episode that he kindly agreed to me repackaging it for my platform.

Hope this helps you if you are in this position. Or will encourage you, if you are such a boss, to change NOW! 

One of my indulgences over the past Labour Day long weekend was to catch up with podcasts and videocasts that I've been tagging.  Coincidently they all seem to focus on aspects of the Gig Economy, the shift in leadership style and demands, and new foundations of the new way of work that is fast becoming not so new.

This all reminded me of an interview I did recently with Masego Motsogi, MD of Grid Worldwide, a leading brand agency.  This was following an article she wrote for MarkLives on what we are likely to see happening in and around the creative industry.

The future of brands has always been reliant on tapping into the right creative talent, whether literal or in the form of innovative leadership thinking.  Masego's article highlights so many aspects of how to harvest and harvest talent as well as provides insight into many of the shifts that are taking place.

In this episode, I question Masego on her thinking and the backstory to several aspects of the article on www.marklives.com 

If you are anywhere on the spectrum from looking for a new gig to ensuring the continued success of a brand, you will definitely come away with useful insights. 

In this episode of The Art of the Suit I am introducing something new.  If you find it beneficial then I will drop in more episodes. It’s called the Debbi & Dawn Download. Let me share how this came about.  

As I constantly promote, I believe that success is fueled by remaining open-minded, constantly learning, and collaborating. These are only three of the very many supporting pillars of success – but for me, the most essential. 

 These were some of the aspects of successful mentorship that I discussed with Eusebius McKaiser in our last podcast. I benefit enormously from my friendship and collaboration with Eusebius. He certainly challenges my thinking and there is a mutual open-mindedness and learning that we enjoy. 

 Another of my very closest friends is an incredibly knowledgeable woman and I have gained so much from being able to tap into her area of specialization.  Debbi Nathan is so much more than a health and wellness expert.  She is primarily a nutritionist specializing in Nutrigenomics, sport & health, and eating psychology. 

She is a founding partner of Your Gene Team and the author of Cooking for your Genes of which I am the proud owner of a personalized copy.  We have been friends for decades and even though Debbi now lives in London, it doesn’t stop us from exchanging ideas and experiences at least every week. Thank you whatsapp!   

Of course, most of our conversations are simply the girls catching up and offering mutual support – but inevitably we get around to discussing our passions.  For me, it is the power of the mind and the potential of the personal brand and for Debbi how knowledge of your gene profile can be used as a nutritional and dietary brief for addressing health, wellness, and longevity.  She looks a decade less than her years so she’s a prime example of the benefits. 

 I’ve often jokingly suggested that we should record our catch-ups for my podcast, but some of the material hasn’t been for public consumption!  But the idea keeps on creeping up on me so I’ve decided to try it out.  As I said these episodes will be identified as  The Debbi & Dawn Downloads.  Our choice of the subject matter will be focused on what we believe would be of interest and benefit to our listeners with a focus on your wellbeing. 

If you would like to find out more about Debbi’s credentials, visit her website or find her on Insta as Debbi Nathan or Your Gene Team.

 Welcome to episode 1 of The Debbi & Dawn Download.  In this episode, we are going to talk about how to maintain a balance between exercise and diet so that you can sustain both over the long term. 

I had a wonderful, engaging conversation with Eusebius McKaizer in his TimesLIVE podcast and with their kind permission, I am sharing it on my Art of the Suit podcast platform. 

As Eusebius so eloquently framed the episode, titled The Mentoring Toolkit, he outlined the aim of this episode to answer three key questions: "what is required of you to be an effective mentee? What are the traits of an ideal mentor? And, relating these roles to one another, how does one set up a relationship dynamic that is optimal for both the mentee and the mentor?".

The podcast is practical by nature and unpacks a whole lot of truths - many of which dispel the perception of this being an easy meal ticket to success but will guide you on how to make the most of the opportunity. 

As always please provide feedback on your experience, insights, and advice. 

As a business and executive coach I have observed that so many people who are reaching out to me are doing so because they have a sense of urgency about starting their own business or making a massive career shift. 

 There has always been this desire but the pandemic has accelerated an unprecedented rate of change.

 Very exciting stuff indeed.  But sadly I see people rushing off to design the logo, develop the app or build the website without having done enough foundation work.  And as with any rush build the cracks in the walls appear very early on. 

 So I put together a little brochure titled The 10 Step Quick Start guide to starting your own business.  There’s a bit of humour to ease the pain but in all sincerity, these are 10 essential steps you need to follow to take the first step up the ladder.

 If you would like to see the brochure, I have posted it on my website blog but In this episode of The Art of the Suit, I share an audio version of the Quick Start Guide to starting a new business.