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In this episode, Arthi is joined by Susi Astengo, Founder of CoachMatching. Susi gives us insight into her personal life and how key life changes necessitated her pivoting her career towards starting her own business. Sixteen years later, through navigating being a single mum (to a son she loves dearly and is so proud of), undergoing a major health situation, to new country dynamics to operate a business in, Susi has built a highly-respected (and been accoladed for) Coaching and Leadership development practice and coaching platform.

Susi shares that throughout all the challenges her superpower has been to be able to reinvent the business through continuous improvement and keeping abreast of emerging trends, while maintaining high standards in coaching practice.

Susi shares key lessons about how she manages the balance of being in the business and working on the business.

Her 3 tips for all entrepreneurs: to know your target market, stay connected, & don't be afraid to fail.

Some wise words from Susi:

• “just put one foot in front of the other, just do the next step”
• “if you start to worry about all the things that can go wrong, you probably wouldn't ever do anything”
• “we learn most from when we fail, not from when we're successful. So to know and to also to be prepared to see it as a cycle, and a bit like a roller coaster ride, there are going to be lots of highs, and then there'll be some lows, and actually, this too shall pass.”

Listen to the full episode for so much more insights and ideas offered by my wonderful guest!

About Susi Astengo:

Over 30 years’ experience with UK, South African & Multinational Companies from many sectors including Banking & Finance, FMCG, Telco’s, Production & Manufacturing, Retail, Education, Pharmaceutical, Oil & Gas and Fintech. Susi is a seasoned professional, with a proven ability to create simplicity from complexity & quickly understand key issues & work with her clients to identify the most appropriate & effective solutions. Susi is an effective communicator in both small or large groups and is able to modify the message to best suit the audience's needs. She is an energetic speaker, is adaptable, can react well in the moment and is able to blend humour & serious messages for maximum impact. Susi has chosen to focus on Coaching and Mentoring as a means for transformation at both an individual, team and organisational level and her vision is to democratize coaching. In 2024 she was “highly commended woman in Tech” at the Africa Tech Awards. In 2016 she won the Business woman of the Year award in the established entrepreneur category.

She is also a cancer survivor and the proud single mother of a 20 year old son, currently studying at Stellenbosch University.

Connect with Susi here:

• Website
• Linkedin

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Share too, your own insights from your journey based on themes from the episode - what has worked or hasn't for you. We can all learn from each other.

Connect with host Arthi here:

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- Forbes Councils
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Welcome to SEASON 4!! It's great to be back and yes, we have returned this season in style with a fabulous guest to kick off!
In this first episode, Arthi is joined by Dr. Elizabeth Crosse to discuss enhancing our ability to work with expertise.

Elizabeth shares her passion about lifelong learning & explains how she navigated through several learning and personal challenges, and that some of her greatest learnings came from her own personal storm as she likes to refer to it. Dr Crosse details that she found this personal storm to be a major wake up call and decided to look inwards at how she was being more than what she was doing. It was this realisation that got her thinking that working with professionals is not only about what we know but rather who we are

Elizabeth explains the differences between professional (Horizontal growth) and personal growth (Vertical growth) and shares how her wish is to be a provocateur to have listeners consider different perspectives of growth. Elizabeth refers to horizontal growth as ”adding apps to our phone” where as vertical growth is more like “upgrading our system.”

Elizabeth shares the ability to work with expertise is all about how we're managing relationships while being able to bring our humanity. Thereafter the skills and knowledge is what enables us to have the type of connections and relationships to work with expertise.

Some wise words from Elizabeth Crosse:

“if I've learned something, I can then do something differently”

”we don't have to agree with each other to be able to move forward”

Listen to the full episode for so much more insights and ideas offered by this wonderful guest.

About Elizabeth:
Elizabeth is a Master Certified Coach (MCC) who works as a coach, mentor & supervisor. Her practice focuses on continuous professional & personal development needed to enhance the quality of our work. Her approach has evolved from over 30 years of involvement with the coaching profession & being a research practitioner deeply interested in how coaches develop expertise.

Elizabeth has navigated dyslexia & dyspraxia to transition from an early career in education to becoming a senior HR professional specialising in people development before setting up her coaching-consultancy business. She became a fellow of the CIPD, a Master Credentialed Coach with the ICF (MCC) & completed a Diploma in Coaching Supervision. She achieved three Master’s degrees (Education, Counselling Psychology and Coaching & Mentoring) & a Doctorate in Coaching and Mentoring. Her journey brought an appreciation of the integrity, intellectual rigour & compassion needed to underpin any learning relationship to grow as a person and develop as a professional. Her research on continuous professional development brought a recognition of the need for a holistic approach. This is reflected in her own approach to development, which, in addition to engaging with supervision, research writing & acquiring new knowledge, also focuses on well-being.

Connect with Elizabeth here:

• Website
• Linkedin

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Share too, your own insights from your journey based on themes from the episode - what has worked or hasn't for you. We can all learn from each other.

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In episode 13 of Season 3, Arthi is joined by fellow Tasha Ten member David McMurtry with a heart warming discussion about partnerships & marriage. David's greatest accomplishment in life is his marriage to his beautiful wife Allison.

He shares how he and his wife met, started dating shortly thereafter, married, and have been living happily since then. David believes his wife is the foundation for which all of their goals are possible & is a true partner in making a difference in their community.

David has always had a passion & desire to work with children and highlights that since 80% to 90% of the hardwiring of the brain is completed by the age of 3, the earlier we can teach children about the world and how to interact skillfully therein, the better chance of success they have.

David shares how coming to South Africa and teaching underprivileged children was a life-altering experience that enabled him to find his purpose, fueled too by his partnership and shared mission with Allison.

Some wise words from David:

• “education is one of the great levelers we have on earth across all countries, ethnicities, race. With education, you have power, you can make choices”
• “accept the person for who they are and don't expect them to change”
• “what makes happy kids is happy parents"

Listen to the full episode for so much more insights and ideas offered by this wonderful guest.

About David McMurtry:

David McMurtry’s mission is to elevate the Early Childhood Education (ECE) industry & improve access to quality ECE for all children through advocacy and legislation, in service of stronger communities and societies. In 2017, he and his wife opened a Goddard preschool, serving over 200 children (ages six weeks to six years old). They grew the organisation into one of the top 5% most successful Goddard schools in the country based on enrollment and revenue. In 2023, David and his wife were awarded out of over 650 Goddard schools the Humanitarian of the Year Award for their dedication to serving their community.

While he is proud of the success of his family business, what is far more important to David is the opportunity it has given him to positively impact the lives of students and their families. David discovered that to change the world through education, you have to start with the youngest learners.

David is also a public speaker, coach, motivator, having trained tens of thousands across the country with the intention of empowering the adults that inspire our youth.

Connect with David Mcmurtry in the following ways:

• LinkedIn
• Website
• Twitter

Do rate, write a review and share with others.

Share too, your own insights from your journey based on themes from the episode - what has worked or hasn't for you.

Connect with host Arthi here:
★LinkedIn
★Website
★Twitter
★YouTube
★Facebook
★IG
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