ABOUT THE FOUNDER
My name is Thato, a gifted and consummate talent developer. My fundamental purpose is to help people take ownership of themselves and experience true freedom by fully expressing themselves through their career choice. I am a graduate and leadership coach based in South Africa for corporate companies voted as Top Employers over consecutive years and leading companies in people development across India, Africa and the Middle East. My career in coaching started in 2010 as a student at Lucca Leadership South Africa in Cape Town, then became a junior coach in 2012. I started practising formally in 2016 when I graduated with a Bcom Marketing Qualification and Neurolinguistics Programming (NLP) Certificate with the American Board of NLP, following that I received a diploma in Teaching. My work has been described as 'daring, liberating, professional, insightful, eye opening.' My 10 year+ career as a strategist across multiple industries and disciplines gives me unique insights into leading effectively in different environments and cultures.​​ Here is WHAT PEOPLE HAVE TO SAY about their experience with with me. 

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THE ZERO YEARS WORK EXPERIENCE MANAGER
Whilst a friend of mine and I were pushing a teen girls empowerment program in 2011, ‘Revolution Eve: The Rise of Girl Power’, I was fortunate enough to meet a woman who was the owner of a boutique marketing firm, Blue Rain Marketing and I started to work there as an intern. My first Boss, Ashika Kalyan, put the entire strategy into my lap, with zero years work experience and demanded me to make it happen. The work and role escalated so quickly, I can barely remember being an intern. Within 9 months I doubled my salary, and was managing a multi-national strategy, where we were essentially working to convince corporate companies to co-create with up and coming artists to elevate each others brands. With much resistance, tears, migraines, having spreadsheets and calendars appear in my dreams, GRAVE MISTAKES - we succeeded in birthing next level brand communication in the IMEA region, influencer marketing.

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THE MAVERICK

In 2012, we successfully positioned influencer marketing as a premium platform of opportunity to up & coming artists because it did give space for people to build careers with their rockstar talents, authentically, doing what they love, and this is what I appreciated about it. Influencing is now a full blown career path.

During this time I was exposed to up and coming artists who were looking to breakthrough the entertainment industry through beautiful comprehensive talents in the performing arts and entertainment industry, and select celebrities who were looking to bag endorsement deals, which were far in few and between at the time, reserved for those who had over 500 000 followers on Facebook, when having 10 000 followers on Instagram was HUGE! I was exposed to multifaceted people, with big dreams, not a drop of self-doubt and this was awe inspiring. One thing about the entertainment industry, it is fun and that is a fact! The experience of being to a live concert, seeing your favourite super star on the stage, breathing in the same air as them. You just need to watch any clip of a Michael Jackson concert to know what I am talking about. You see hands out stretched in the air as to worship him, and seem to be wanting a piece of Michael Jackson. What they actually want is what he has, authenticity and courage to be. The boldness, the audacity to put on a body suit like thong over his ultra shiny black plastic pants and be dead serious about it was loaded, stunning, energising and beyond compelling.

With The Beautiful Practise, I draw on the origins and my total experience of influencer marketing in the IMEA region, and how we can grow the brand of companies (and South Africa) through the youth, and help people be authentic. This is what the focus of AUTHENTIC@WORK is all about.

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THE ARTISTIC ERATIC ENTREPRENEUR

After I was retrenched from the agency, I used the opportunity to go out and explore the world of marketing further.  I kickstarted this chapter in my life by doing a course at The Branson School of Entrepreneurship. This chapter went on for 10 years, starting with high risk appetite behaviours because I had the life stage and circumstance to do so, this included taking on a lot of non-paying work because gaining work experience was the clearest goal of my 20's. My entrepreneurial spirit and unique desire to start things from scratch and develop them enabled me to create opportunities and provide creative, strategic and operational support across various industries such as FMCG, health, banking, tech, law, mining, education, beauty, pageantry and entertainment.

This also does mean I have started many things that "I didn’t finish", or have re-started because I wasn’t satisfied. That’s the Van Gogh in me, every thing, every person a work of art! If I'm not happy I start again, only with more experience as my primary assets to build from.

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Clients I’ve worked with include Clinton Health Access Initiative, B-Wise, The National Department of Health, 3 Luxury Hotel Suites, BTS Strategies, Vodacom Africa Corporate, Sivuka Youth, Hollard Insurance, Group M, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Dominion Capital, Adcock Ingram, XP Squared, Bidvest Bank, African Sales, Quintessentially South Africa, TopShop South Africa, Tumelo Coal Mine, African Leadership Academy, Miss Teenager South Africa, Motsoeneng Bill Attorneys, Momentum Metropolitan, the personal brands of executive heads in South Africa and of course the commercial care, over 86 influencers across India, Africa and the Middle East.

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THE TEACHER IN SHANGHAI FROM SOUTH AFRICA

Along these attempts to grow the agency, I decided that I wanted my 20's to end off on a high note, growing my business was tough and I couldn’t find a job. I decided that I would be better internationally, fundamentally to me it seemed that South Africa didn’t have capacity for my talents. I got certified as a Foreign Language instructor, teaching English in Shanghai, China with the strategy to enter the global marketing industry because of course this was the place - MADE IN CHINA, a whole new level of marketing. What I now appreciate is the drive of the nation to upskill their youth with English, basically imparting a lifeskill to dominate the market place, and being part of that was difficult but energising. It's exactly what I want to do with self-esteem education through THE GRADUATE PLAYBOOK. 

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Whilst I had packed up my whole life in South Africa, there was one thing I didn’t give up, coaching graduates and helping them integrate into the workplace, launch their careers. With the 10 hour time difference, initially unbeknown to my graduates and the company, I was coaching my cohort from Shanghai. Just as I was settling into a new life in the Far East, literally worst case scenario, a global pandemic shook the world. Moving through the discomfort of the situation, I started to look for flights out of China. I decided in January 2020 to catch the last flight out to South Africa with an airline that had crashed minutes after take-off, killing everyone on board in 2019; back to the country I wasn’t sure about any more! Talk about stepping into the ultimate zone of the unknown. South Africa was going to fight a global pandemic for the first time, of an unknown virus, and contend further with the unemployment crisis. It was literally a worst case scenario. Disruption and discomfort is here to stay! I coach people through this in THE GRADUATE PLAYBOOK and AUTHENTIC@WORK.

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THE PARTNER

My family and friends made it possible for me to start my life in SA again. Coaching gave me a reason to continue my life in South Africa. Trying to find my way, I decided to get back into agency life again. I decided to get into a partnership with 2 friends, and we were appointed as the lead agency to educate the youth on COVID-19 for the Clinton Health Access Initiative and the National Department of Health . I was the Head of Strategy. The campaign concluded and so did the partnership because we had incompatible priorities. This experience left me defeated for a while, lost friendships, lost clients, lost money, a chip off my credibility, most importantly I lost my confidence to make decisions, BUT there was always that one decision that kept me going purposefully - coaching. I am now on a mission to partner with other organisations that share the same priorities as The Beautiful Practise in the interest of the mass delivery of Self-Esteem Education. 

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THE HUMANITARIAN
I am currently on the board of Beyond The Cycle, an NPC focused on education and youth development. I had a unique opportunity to become a One Young World Ambassador when I won The National Face of Clearasil competition hosted by Reckitt Benckiser and Euro RSCG, amassing 9745 votes from the country, and went on to represent South Africa during the 2011 and 2012 summits held in Switzerland and United States, championing the cause of self-esteem education as a delegate. I continue to represent the organisation through youth social impact projects. My  community service at township schools gives me an extended area to give underrepresented communities access to self-esteem education . My experience in volunteering for   compulsive eating disorder recovery programs broadens my understanding of mental and physical health. Involvement in educational and health initiatives is a priority and is open to collaboration with organisations that share a passion for nurturing leaders.​ BORN-TO-QUEEN is the NEW leadership program created to support young girls with their self-esteem through pageantry. 

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THE STUDENT

I am a certified Neuro-Linguistics programming coach with the American Board of Neuro-Linguistics programming since 2015. I am a Certified  Level 5 Teacher with the TEFL Academy, a diploma recognised by the USA Department of Education. I obtained my BCom Marketing qualification, with Business Management major, whilst studying at Varsity College on UNISA curriculum. During this time I was a spokes person for the university along side the reigning Miss SA Teen of 2011. During my high school career, I was a celebrated and awarded scholar of performing arts and public speaking on provincial level, participating in 4 musicals, directing my first play at 17, producing my first pageant at the age of 17, a roaring success sold-out show, with 700+ audience and 39 finalists. I concluded my chapter at Hatfield Christian School as a Student Leader. I really thrive in creative industries and environments. This birthed the program BORN TO QUEEN, geared for teenage girls and young women in pageantry, putting the beauty in social responsibility. 

 

THE DESIGNER

One of the things I enjoy in life is colour, detail, textures, objects, materials, movement, sound, images and sequence to put it all together to mean something. This is why I created the LOVE+TIME Creative Studio, dedicated to nurturing that side of me, and using it as a platform to inspire others through creativity and creative event design. Design and life have one thing in common - it is about being intentional and carefully deciding what you want on your life to look like. What doesn't cease to amaze me after the completion of an event or project designed by me is the actualisation of something that was a a plan or a drawing on a computer. Design is about making it happen and creative problem solving, life is a lot like what TIME+LOVE CREATIVE STUDIO is all about. 

THE WHOLESOME ONE
I live in Johannesburg, South Africa; take pleasure in swimming, and cooking. I enjoy spending time with family and friends during my downtime. I am an arts and culture enthusiast. With a historically complex and now evolving relationship with my body and food it is one of my most significant pathways to wisdom, understanding myself, and fostering deeper connection with God. Conquering private battles is a cornerstone of confidence and this is what builds self-esteem. 

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In THE BEAUTIFUL PRACTISE, I integrate the best of me and my experiences; and use it to Develop Authentic People, healthy organisations, active citizens in the nation, alive participants of life. 

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The point of this all is to demonstrate how intricately we are all made, and how paramount it is to express all the sides of you in order to live a full life, and make decisions according to who you are, and the talents you have been given. If this remains consistent, the world is your stage. 

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"Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself". - Coco Chanel. What is being yourself? Taking moment by moment decisions that allow you to be at your best and correspond with the kind of  life that you want to lead. 

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MY MOTTO

“What’s the point of being alive if you don’t do something remarkable?”