I recently had to sell myself to the Professional Speakers Association (PSASA) in the hope of becoming an associate member of this prestigious organisation. When last did you have to put in an all-out effort to impress? As someone who is supposed to be a marketing guru, the pressure becomes insurmountable. You can’t just pull out any elevator pitch. After all, you are the one who gives training in ideating elevator pitches.
So far the five-word pitch is: “I am your Add-Ventures Girl!!” For more meat to this pitch, I could possibly add the following: “I help entrepreneurs add venture to their life. And yes, I am also the podcast host of Expedition Business, Brand Builder, Copywriter, and all things creative for your business story to be acted upon. And this is something that I have loved doing for the last 30-odd years. Did I mention that for extra browny points, I can brand your team into the best clothes & gifts, with banners & flags to finish off the extravaganza!”
But let’s be honest. What am I an expert in? To tell you the honest truth, I do believe that I am an expert in surviving sh*tty days. What do I base this statement on? I would love to go into detail ad infinitum but trust me, you do not have enough time to read all about it. Not yet anyhow.
That is why I host Expedition Business, the podcast about the highs and lows of our inspiring South African Entrepreneurs. While continuing with my PSASA application, I had time to have a critical look at this byline that we use in all our marketing efforts for Expedition Business. I even use it in the intro of every episode that we produce. What does it mean? Let’s lean back on our old friend Total Honesty. The truth is that I LOVE to hear all about your sh*tty day as an entrepreneur in South Africa. Not that I take joy in you having a sh*t day, but it provides me with an insane amount of inspiration to listen to all the fun and exciting ways that you use to regroup, refocus & rejuvenate your soul! And I do believe I have a couple of friends in this department of finding inspiration.
My favourite part of each episode is where I make the statement that “You look so accomplished, a radiant bundle of joy; I assume you never have a bad day.” And that is where we get all the interesting replies from a myriad of entrepreneurs. Young & old. Existing and past entrepreneurs. Even Herman Mashaba spoke about his ‘sh*tty days’. So did Corné Krige, Japie Mulder, Lolo Ndlovu, and even all the women that I have interviewed thus far. Yes, women too. I even had one highly accomplished entrepreneur who told us how she would crawl underneath her bed, just to get away from it all. Unfortunately, we were asked to pull that episode.
In my opinion, the first step to surviving your sh*tty days as a South African entrepreneur, or probably anywhere in the world for that matter, is to acknowledge that you are having a sh*tty day and that’s perfectly OK. Everyone else around us has them. They just don’t walk around telling everyone about it. Phew. Can you imagine being around people who constantly tell you about their shitty days?
In my opinion, it is probably just as bad as being around people pretending that everything is ‘fantastic’. Never better. Eish!! I think we possibly need a debate on which one is worse.
Ryno Griesel, world-renowned trail runner and adventurer (who also happens to be a fine entrepreneur), aptly declared: ‘It’s not fun because it is fun. It is fun because we decide it is fun.”
How should you survive a shitty day as a South African entrepreneur? Take my advice as an expert in sh*tty days: Acknowledge that it is a reality. Listen to Expedition Business and if all else fails, lift your eyes up to the mountains and then go for a trail run!
