I think one of my greatest blessings in life are the lessons I learn from my son. Liam is an ADD (our definition is Absolutely Damn Daring!) child and with that comes a lot of management from both of us. But we have a great relationship and share our thoughts with each other often. One of things Liam wanted to learn was how to manage his anger. He wanted it to just go away but we dicussed the ying and yang of life. That in all of us there is light and dark. The dark never goes away, but we have to learn how to manage the dark in our lives. It is not easy to be Liam sometimes. So we decided one way he can vent his anger was to write poems, they started off pretty angry and negative. But that was cool, they were his poems and it gave him a safe place to vent his feelings. BUT an amazing thing has happened we have discovered that Liam has a talent for writing poetry. He even got a merit award at school for his poetry. Writing poetry has become a joy for Liam and he has found ways to find the light side in the dark side. He gave permission to write this and would love to share two of his poems with you. he would really appreciate your comments and a star rating! He also thinks it is good idea to try write about the things that worry you, whether you are an adult or a child. Please can you give him a star rating.

This journey we walk together, my liam and I is the most fulfilling journey of my life… I think his advice will help us all through tough times, thank you Liam for sharing with us!

A Leaf:

A leaf falls in a pattern of life

In spring it is happy and grows

A leaf grows old like us

A leaf does not pollute

It will turn into soil

And will appear again like us! 

 by Liam

A Stallion:

A running stallion is like a bullet

in the wind

The mane is like the waves in the ocean

When I ride

I feel like I am a stallion

 by Liam

I have been sharing my story about the monster, that I have decided to take on, in bits and pieces..not thinking that the lessons that I am learning could be of value to others, so here I go.

It’s been nearly two months since joining the Avo Sales Team (Lions and lioness..no kidding!). It’s been quite a change. Working in a sales support position before, I guess gave me a little bit of insight into the lives of these hunters, but it is only when you are amungst the pack in hunting season (by the way, it’s always hunting season!) do you realise the intensity of it, you can’t help but gain a great respect for what they do.

I am definitely in a challenged space, it’s not easy but the results and rewards at the end of the day are great.  The catch however (and this catches many people) is that it takes time before you start to reap those rewards. I equate it to a gym routine. You hire a personal trainer in the hopes of shedding tons of kilos, fast, but instead he tells you with patience and consistency, you are going to lose cms, strengthen and tone. Now this takes longer, but the longevity of it, is for keeps!

I stepped in this space with the hopes of taking a bit of time to learn the ropes and in no time thought I’d will be selling tons…lol…didn’t happen and according to our new, very talented sales manager, Becky, (Becks write your own blog about your advances - this is my blog) a sales cycle can take up to a year…if you’re good! In the meantime she has introduced me to principles of the sales world that guarentee sucess namley: consistency, discipline and commitment.

I can’t tell you how grateful I am to be in a position to learn and practise these qualities so early in my career. Sales, like public speaking, is avoided by many, it’s almost like one is born with the talent and if honed in the correct way, with the right people around you, the sky is limit. In Andre’s words I would describe myself as a Retriever, reaching out into Tomato space, in the hopes of never settling as a top dog!

I can’t help but feel that this monster I have taken on, seperates the boys from the men and the thrivers and the survivors (as Jules would say).  The greatest part of it, is that the power is in your hands! It is without a doubt that the disciplines and lessons learnt in the sales industry will take me from strength to strenth, but comprehending the importance of and the critical role that a sales person plays for a company, makes me even prouder.  In the words of Andrew Carnegie: ” You can take away my money and my factories. As long as you leave me my salespeople, I will be back where I was within two years time”.

Mr T is about to leave us.  We’re so very proud of him!  He has been building his own business for the past 6 months, and even whilst having a baby, and trying to keep the Avo bookkeeping rocking, he has built it to the point where it will need his full attention.

So its time for us to fill his seat at the finance computer!

Please activate your networks: we are seeking a bookkeeper with experience in all bookkeeping functions across a small business.  Experience is absolutely essential.  We use the Pastel Evolution accounting package to run our business, and they’d need to be proficient in that.  We are looking for potential black (or versions thereof) candidates only.

Any potential candidates are welcome to send their CV and motivation to amber.olaleye@gmail.com. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

We also happened to be taken out by a horrible virus while our ADSL was down.  We have spent the last few days defending our system from all attacks, and should be running happily this morning. We do have a couple of residual software failure glitches, but ThinFuse, our tech suppliers, have been working madly to get all that functional again!

Guess who has been having problems with our dear friend Telkom again??? Yep, that’s right, us!

Unfortunately our Telkom ADSL lines have been down since Thursday, this means that we can’t receive or send e-mails or faxes and we have no internet access.  Please bear with us for just a few more days until we get this sorted out. 

In the meantime (thankfully) our office telephone lines work on a separate interchange so we can still take all of your calls, they are important to us.

If you have any questions or need anything what-so-ever, please call us on 011-614-0206

It ’s not easy to survive in the South African 2008 working environment without the correct tools for keeping people ‘on the boat’.

Jules rocks the work place yet again with her new article that teaches you not just to survive but to thrive.

Right click on the picture to download the PDF version.

Jules’ blog resonated loudly with me and I have been wondering how to respond? With this is mind and yesterday being a significant day for me personally, a finalisation of a 23 year era in my life, I decided I would tell my story. I joined Avo in April this year in the midst of a huge life transition. I have watched over time as new Avo’s have blogged their stories … why did I never do it? you won’t find a blog about who Sandi is on the website…. I was so turned inside-out at the time, I am not sure I could commit to paper who this person is.

My working career started in a tiny bookshop in Bree Street, Cape Town as Manager and then I went onto the sales team for the wholesale division of the company. I was hooked on books, I love ideas and stories and sharing them with others, I spent my days telling the stories about stories convincing buyers to put them on the bookshelves. My career went from strength to strength I moved up in the ranks through many of the prestigious publishing companies in South Africa. Learning and developing. I was fortunate enough to spend time at the Book Fares in London and Germany meeting delicious (and not so delicious!) people who have a love for the printed word. One of my passions is children’s books. The stories are so simple yet the truths are great, the artwork is key to wrapping the story up for our little ones imaginations (and we all have a little one inside us!). My passion took me to the point where I started my own book distribution company and even published some books on the way. But alas I lost my passion; got frustrated, made some bad decisions and connections, and eventually looking into my own soul, decided I needed to close the doors.

The lesson for me is that I have so many amazing strengths, and when I needed to focus on areas of business that are not my strength, they were frustrating and tapped into all my fears and anxieties. Unfortunately I did not manage to connect with other people who could support me with the strengths I lacked in order to make a long term success. There were great successes and milestones on the way, we (a little company of 3) forged some huge million rand deals, took books to places they were not previously sold, changed perceptions and created joy!

One of my personal learnings is that if you are not mindful about who you are and what you are doing, it opens up your fears and vulnerabilities. When we operate from that space we tend to make inaccurate decisions. We create our lives from a space of fear and not love. I made those decisions in my company. I made connections with people because I was anxious and operating out of fear. I lost my self love and created relationships in business that eventually were very damaging. So the day I looked at my soul and saw the darkness, I decided it was time to walk away because I had given my power away.

Being at Avo has challenged me to once again acknowledge who I am and what my worth is. My identity was wrapped up in the book trade for 23 years. Like a rope that has weathered many storms and has become strong but tightly bound together, you think if you unwind it will break. It took time for me to oil that rope, to rest and heal. When I was able to start unwinding my identity that was so tightly wound in the book trade I was able to start discovering my own value again.

The decision I made was to be more aware or conscious in my life. Choosing to find the authenticity in a situation or moment. I think when we know our truth and operate from that place of truth we create love and success in our lives. Being in the moment allows us to connect with our truth, we can then make more powerful decisions. So being mindful has helped me take little steps of truth along my healing journey. I feel like I am unwinding from an identity shaped by a life style of needing to find my value through an industry and others; to one of seeking my own value and truth, being more aware or mindful and creating my life out of my own truth. My passion is returning, my energy is vibrating again and I am embracing my life once again…..

So this is my story and my journey which I embrace and celebrate!