The Art of the Suit

Send us Fan Mail It feels really good to be back with a new season of The Art of the Suit.    My motivation to get restarted was meeting a fellow executive coach, Maureen Kyne, who is based in Melbourne, Australia.  Maureen is a remarkable businesswoman and entrepreneur in her own right and has earned her stripes coming up through the ranks in the workplace.   In her role as an executive coach, sh...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 al...

Send us Fan Mail 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 t...

Send us Fan Mail 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 p...

Send us Fan Mail 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 an...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 Mase...

Send us Fan Mail 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 supporti...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 t...

Send us Fan Mail Regardless of whether you are a CEO, team leader, freelancer, solopreneur, startup or standup comedian, we all have a common need: to motivate ourselves on a daily basis.  This has become even more relevant in light of "The Great Resignation" which has seen millions of people leaving the security and predictability of the corporate world. With the hope of a better balanc...

Send us Fan Mail I personally avoid making them but New Year's resolutions seem to have stood the test of time and are still a fav amongst many.  Love them or hate them, there is some benefit to making them. In this episode, the first in 2022, I share my thoughts on this subject but, more importantly, a few suggestions - actually 5 of them, on how you can approach the intention more construct...

Send us Fan Mail Are you  in a space where you need to reinvent yourself or repackage your offering? Then this week’s podcast is just what you need. Whether it’s because you are about to finally launch your new business, change jobs or going for a push up the ladder – then Andile Khumalo is the man you want to listen to.  Andile Khumalo is a seasoned entrepreneur and Chartered Accountant (SA) with...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode , I continue my goal of introducing you to a diverse and interesting range of people who, I believe, have a Powerful Personal Brand.  The aim is for you to be able to understand what it takes to build up a Personal Brand as a motivation for you to do the same for yourself. Odette van der Haar is a businesswoman, advertising and marketing expert, and TV personality...

Send us Fan Mail Following on from the introduction to the meaning and use of a Personal Brand, in episode 11, I accept that while most people can grasp the concept of brand building for conventional brands, they will find it difficult to interpret this ability when it comes to building your personal brand. To help remove the mystery, and encourage you to develop your own, I will be interviewing a...

Send us Fan Mail  Our new world order has prompted millions of people to re-evaluate their lives – ranging from where they live to the work that they do. In some cases, it is a voluntary response, the result of having had the time to experience a different way of living and to stop and reflect on these crucial aspects of our lives. In other instances, the change has been forced, usually due to a l...

Send us Fan Mail I believe that everyone has at least one book inside their heads.   It may be a story of life experience, a story of overcoming challenges or a story about the lessons you have learnt about achieving a goal or fulfillment. Every person’s story is unique because no two lives are exactly the same. And there are people waiting to read your particular story. The primary challenge is t...

Send us Fan Mail The power of storytelling has become recognised as a foundation skill for all leaders from those heading up teams, CEO’s, politicians to the most popular academics who have students flocking to their lectures. Storytelling transforms what might otherwise be mundane facts into an engagement with the hearts and minds of the listeners. This creates stronger memory and increases motiv...

Send us Fan Mail In celebration of Mothers' Day this podcast pays tribute to mothers of today who  are forging a new landscape. I know the personal stories of so many of these women because they are my friends, colleagues and clients. The challenges they face, while knocking down barriers of convention, are unprecedented. I believe that these women will be recognized as a new generation of tr...

Send us Fan Mail Are you trying to move your side hustle to being your main show, preparing to move up from manager to the C-suite or have just recently started up your own business? Passion, a vision for the future and the intention of making a good deal of money most likely sits at the heart of your plan. But what about your love for the numbers side of the business? In the words of Bill Gates, ...

Send us Fan Mail Songs have been written about it. It has triggered wars – of both turf and continental proportions. It is the subject matter of rap, as modern day poetry, and forms part of the lexicon of lawyers, politicians, journalists and activists. We are talking about respect. You will find the value of respect being addressed in hundreds of books in a multitude of categories: leadership, ma...

Send us Fan Mail When it comes to the participation of women in the workplace it appears to me that, despite a lot of talk, the evidence still points to the meaningful participation of women as being more of a fairy tale than a success story.  This is not merely my opinion or influenced by my personal journey, in fact I have been fortunate enough, in my career, to have shattered through the glass...

Send us Fan Mail How many people do you hear complaining about how “toxic” their workplace is? The use of the word “toxic” should flag this as extremely serious and yet we tend to shrug our shoulders and push on.   In some organisations it is ubiquitous and is woven into the very culture of the organization. In other instances the cause is focussed on a particular individual, usually someone in po...

Send us Fan Mail Are you presently in a situation where you are looking for help with finding new business leads, are looking for funding for your exciting new venture, are trying to expand your network and need introductions to influential people – in fact anything where you need to ask someone else to give you a hand  - then this episode is essential listening to help you prepare for the BIG ASK...