The week that was 20190608

PROUDEST | MOST GRATEFUL MOMENT

I am incredibly grateful to Solly Moeng for including me in the second Brand Summit South Africa and being part of the panel discussion on “International Nation Building”. I had an opportunity to share some of the insights gained from the African Public Relations Association (APRA) research that we conducted earlier this year and presented in Kigali.

Hats off to Solly for this initiative. The different speakers that formed part of the summit, the topics and the different views and conversations were incredible.

As much as we need to urge accountability from our leaders, it is also every single person’s responsibility to make the changes. Yes, it is leadership that plays a massive role in the reputation of an organization and country (as we saw in the research), it is also the behavior, actions and conversations that we as individuals have that contribute to how others act toward us, and how we are viewed as a country (and ultimately continent). If we continue to focus on the negative, we’ll get more negative things to focus on. The more we focus on being grateful and focus on positive things around us, the more we’ll have to celebrate.  

I appreciate that many South Africans are disillusioned and ready to leave the continent’s shores. But what is that going to help?

Even though we still have a lot of work to do, we do have an incredible country that I am proud to call home!

Margaret Meads wise words sums it up brilliantly: “Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed that’s all who ever have.”

Solly also introduced me to Yanina Dubeykovskaya, Past President of the World Communication Forum. I was thrilled to meet her at the launch of her Women Influence Forum in Cape Town earlier this week. It was like no other session I’ve attended. The speakers were so down to earth sharing their different journeys and talking from the heart, there was singing, dancing and a prayer, not a dry eye in the room.  I am truly grateful to have been a part of it.

Biggest lesson THIS WEEK

It was an incredibly tough week. We had no choice but to make the very difficult decision of having to say good bye to Tammy.  I am so grateful for Mark’s love and support. I am also very grateful to Emma from Hout Bay Vet for sparing us the walk to the vet, and for coming to our house. My big lesson is not to wait so long to make the tough call, something I feel horrendously guilty about. 

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

WHAT MADE ME GIGGLE

I’m currently in Pretoria and decided to be on Gautrain and Uber power during my stay (it’s so convenient to be in Sandton within an hour with loads of time to read on the train). Yesterday morning, when I received the notification that my driver was at the gate and stepped outside to greet him, all I saw was a guy standing next to his bicycle! The Uber driver had parked next door so was out of view; when I shared with him that I thought he was the guy on the bicycle we laughed all the way to the station! Great way to start the day!

A reminder

Saw this on my way to the Spar on Monday morning: