“Don’t fake it ‘til you make it. Market yourself at a place of authentic confidence.” Was the sound advice from Yael Geffen, CEO Sotheby’s International Realty, South Africa who was the Guest Speaker at the virtually held Entrepreneurs Workshop that takes place every week on ZOOM and Facebook Live and is hosted by award winning business women Margaret Hirsch (Executive Director, Hirsch’s) and Marlene Powell (Business Coach).
Yael, who was the 2020 winner of Standard Bank's prestigious Top Woman in Property Award and is also a sought-after keynote speaker, explained that according to statistics, 86 pc of consumers say authenticity is a key factor when deciding what brands to support. “They need to be able to trust the brand if they are going to interact with it in any way. Yes, self promotion is great, but it needs to come from a place of authentic confidence. You need to be the person people want to root for to succeed, not the one they take delight in watching fail. You need to get yourself a “No BS” friend and do a no BS audit to make sure that you’re on the right path to authenticity!” she said.
In line with Yael’s thinking, Marlene said that it was important to be totally authentic to oneself. “Focus on yourself and your own authenticity. Most people will pick up straight away if you are not authentic and this will affect relationships.”
Margaret rounded the morning off by letting attendees know that the workshops have been put together to help keep the small business community resilient and strong “We are here to help you stay strong. Stay resilient, don’t pour from an empty cup and try not to attend every argument you get invited to!”
Join Margaret and Marlene this Friday – August 20 between 11 and 12 with Guest Speaker and Digital Transformation Strategist, Farai Mutiwanyuka, Founder of the Sprouting Tree Group. Farai will be giving advice on using simple business automation tools for business productivity. Follow this link: http://bit.ly/2MbtT28 to log on.