Hi people.

Its taken me a while but I’m finally here now, aboard the ‘’Avo bullet-train'’, ready to take charge and be put to action.

I’m Vincent Xethu, a Tadpole at Avocado Vision that has the opportunity to make a difference in this unique company. It’s not everyday that you find places like this and I would like to thank Jules and Elaine as well as the Avo team for their support.

I’m no ‘’Super man'’ yet, but watch the SPACE.

Hmmmmm, Where to start?! Well you know what they say about the stars aligning and things just working out the way they are supposed to and that is how I met Jules. We just happened to be at the same supplier meeting of a mutual client and immediately hit it off. We also had a little help from a friend, Christine Ayiotis. Thanks a bunch Christine, I owe you big time! Hanli was also at that meeting. I walked away with an amazing impression, and thought; “These are definitely chics that I would like to spend more time with!”. As I began to meet more and more Avos I became more and more convinced that this is the place where I am meant to be.

I arrived in South Africa from Toronto, Canada about three years ago. I was full of k@#*k’ (can I say that on-line?) and was extremely excited about the adventure that lay before me. Well adventure was an understatement!. It has been an amazing mix of highs and lows and personal tests. I must admit, there were many times when I wondered, “What the heck am I still doing here??!*?!”. All that being said, it has been an incredible journey and, as with many things, its takes a little time and being in the right space to fully appreciate the experience. I am happy to say that I have found that right space, and I will be sticking around a little while longer.

Now on to this “Sales thing”, which is what I do at Avo. I get an absolute kick out of meeting people and getting to know what makes them and their organizations tick (or not tick?). Over the past 12 years I have been involved in pretty much every aspect of training and development, developing, delivering, selling the stuff and managing the people who sell the stuff. I think the coolest thing about doing what we do is how much we all learn off of each other each and everyday. Sometimes I feel like saying; “Ok, enough already, there is no more space at the inn!”

Well, I think that’s enough from me. As you can probably tell I am sooooooo happy to be here and looking forward to being a part of the magic that Avo weaves.

I am an experienced business person with a strong information technology background and have extensive general and executive management experience in service related business.

I have strong inter-personal, communication, leadership and entrepreneurial skills and have successfully established, managed and directed several service related businesses which have provided services to many of South Africa’s leading suppliers in this industry.

I sometimes consult to Avocado Vision. I provide a range of training programs which include presentation skills, communications skills, self confidence raising, executive grooming, coaching and interpersonal skills. I also spend time constructing and delivering motivational and inspirational talks. And then in my spare time, I run our company, Ngikwazi Field Marketing…

And the Design was within Everything, and the Design provided the Client with orgasmic Experiences. So, I read Tom Peters on Design this past week (I took it slow for maximum absorbtion) and I felt understood for the first time in a decade. AT LAST someone had articulated something that I have been doing for 30 years - and always when someone asks me what I do, I end up talking for hours. Now I’ll just hand out Tom Peters pocket version of Design.

I so get off on Branding. I always take a brand and question its relevance to middle-class South Africans, and to homeless South Africans, and when both provide satisfactory relevance index, I begin to get excited. Across the globe companies and individuals are beginning to understand that a brand is not a public representation of a company, but that it sprouts from the geist of the company - its people, its systems, its service methods and everything else it does.

Design manifests the geist by taking that whiff from just behind the nasal bridge and transforming it into product, system, packaging, management - everything that makes a business entity Be. This is what I do, to a greater or lesser degree for a variety of clients. And for Avo, I jealously guard the design elements I can grasp ownership of so that I can manifest beautifully the magnificent soul of this gestalt.

Uncky G - A term of endearment (so I am told) that I have earned while working at UBS Investment Bank London for the past 8 years. Allegedly the nickname was given to me because of the way I was always on hand to help the new staff find their way. My manner sometimes referred to as a father figure or uncle. I guess uncle Glenn was not too catchy and my dad is Mr Collie. So Glenn Collie was transformed into Uncky G.

I have now returned, along with my beautiful wife and children (1 girl and 1 boy), back to the sunny shores of Africa. Here, as a little Avo pip, I look forward to flourishing into a wonderful avo tree which offers more than just shade and fruit.

I like to be the snap, crackle and pop in the training cereal.

I am passionate and intense.

I think that walking long distances, getting to the top of snow covered mountains, sleeping in deserts and travelling to colourful third world countries is about as much fun as a woman can have on this crazy planet of ours.

I train and facilitate.
I write new material and create new Avo products.
I love being a bridge.

My Cultural Exchange programme is all about creating opportunities for teams to meet extraordinary people, hear their stories and to ask them questions. Some of my highlights include a sculpture workshop with Noria Mabasa at the Apartheid Museum, listening to Lionel Davis at Constitution Hill sharing his Robben Island experience and Shanthee Manjoo reading from her memoirs.

I love running my Ama-zing-zing race where we get to sing with a choir in Hillbrow and challenge our ‘Afro-phobia’ by racing around the Rockey Street market.

My mother once introduced me to a rather deaf elderly gentleman: “Meet my daughter, Hanli Buber.” To which the gentleman replied: “Honey Bluebelle! What a charming name!” My mother did not correct him, and neither did I. I have been using the name as a pseudonym ever since.

Who is Hanli Buber? At the moment I am a sniffing, coughing, wheezing, shivering Zanzibarian recoveree. I spent a deliriously glorious ten days on the island-of-spice and it was very, very, very nice! But now I am waiting to hear whether I contracted Malaria, which is endemic (and epidemic!) to Zanzibar.

At Avo, I am jacqueline-of-all trades and master of some. I am the key account manager (I love that title! It sounds so grown-up; like a real job!) for SAB and Standard Bank. I rustle up new business, I develop new training products, I project manage and I train Avo courses.

I love networking, discovering the hidden webs of people who know other people. My best is when I meet people who have problems I know the solutions to. I get a lot of satisfaction from linking people together in new, satisfying and creative ways. A job I would probably love to do would be managing an exclusive dating agency. (An issue close to my heart at the moment, but more on my dating life when I know you a little better…)

When I lived in a small town called Donnybrook in the Southern Drakensburg, I used to throw notorious parties, to which I would invite anyone and everyone I liked; hippies, rich landowners, farmers, politicians, artists, rasta’s…anyone. I would feed them lots of cheap wine and watch new groups of people develop almost organically.

By the end of the party, new friendships and partnerships and insights were formed. And I, as the catalyst, would watch from the sidelines, like a satisfied deity. I still do that at Avo. In the business world it’s all about Networking; about being a ‘Connector’, like Malcolm Gladwell refers to in “The Tipping Point” It’s something I want to get better at this year.

My Strengths (Gallup, Marcus Buckingham) are Communicator (hence long blogs and long emails!), Individualisation, Input, Maximiser and Woo.

Apart from Connecting, I also develop funky Avo products like Pirates, Popcorn and the Corporate Fable and the Ama-Zing-Zing Race, I am a trainer and I facilitate meetings using a process called Participlan (which I love because it is so interactive and engaging) (Secret about me: Meetings freak me out. I can’t sit still, or shut up or listen. I hate all the talking, talking, talking and the knowing that work is piling up while the most verbose attendees verbally compete for floor-time, or slap each other on the back, or insult each other politely or just chew the fat. Meetings suck!) (Except Participlanned ones!)

I love working for Avo because of the flexibility and the alternative avant-garde way we structure “work”. It doesn’t feel like work. I get to be creative and productive and innovative and self-directed and sociable and trustworthy, all in a day’s “work”. Avo is like the seven-day-weekend workplace (Ricardo Semler, eat our Avo’s!) I love telling my friends who work for big corporates what it’s like working for Avo. They usually shake their heads in disbelief, groan and sigh and then beg me to get them a job with us!

I met with my friend Mark Kahn yesterday and we spoke about ‘core values’…interesting dilemma if your core values are in conflict with what your work expects of you. And your values are not what you think they are, either! I want to talk to him about it some more, then I’ll blog a thought-summary.

(I have a feeling I am going to be banned from Blogging, ‘cos I don’t know when to stop, as usual. Maybe I should just get my own site?) Ok, enough already.

Yup, that’s me! Give me a problem to ponder and I am in Heaven. Any kind of problem-Sudoku, logic puzzles, cryptic crosswords, financial strategy, logistically tangles, how to find a place, how to turn a house into an office.you name it.

As a result my role in Avo varies almost from day to day. I do have key focus areas but these have also changed from time to time. I have done project management, course material writing and editing, delegate evaluations, book keeping, office management, trelli-door installations and coffee and popcorn making.

At the moment one of my focuses is chasing the money. This has its own challenges and problem solving issues. Some of my other strengths almost all have to do with Thinking. I love information, any information -and I hoard tidbits of info like I hoard my over 50 running metres of books!!!! I love learning for the sake of learning. I hate knowing I don’t know something. So I investigate and find out. This can range from bookkeeping to piano, from geology to art. I have studied and continue to study (but I find exams too stressful especially as the exam result is meaningles to me).

At Avo, because I am tossed problems to solve, my focus is constantly changed by Jules and Elaine and my days are NEVER the same, I thrive. Add to that, that my time is flexible in order to accomodate my children’s VERY hectic after school timetable Avo couldn’t be a more perfect place for me to work. The support and love that the people of avo give me is extraordinary. I am jealous at times that so many of the avos get to spend their working day with their soulmate, but Richard’s (my husband) design of the conference centre acts as a very visible tangible reminder of my soulmate.

I suppose if my wife is the BCIC, I must be the TCOLAPS - Token Coloured Oke Looking After People Stuff , in other words HR!!!(its always got to be a competition!!)

So, who am I ?

At work….a pretty hardworking oke, with a passion for growing people and pips alike.

Stuff I do…People stuff (HR processes), account management, sales, facilitation and consulting

My strengths… Focus, Strategy, Collecting Useful (at least I think so!) info from various sources around the Web (Google is Ubercool!!!) and the world at large…after all, you’ll never know when you might need it, and then something they call Significance…this basically means I really dig hanging out and sharing mind space with other clever folk in the world. So there’s me in a nutshell!

Why Avo? Your strengths are capitalised upon, your vulnerabilities nurtured in a safe, caring environment and people ain’t scared to laugh at themselves when they’ve really cocked up!

What else to tell….well, I adore my babies, Luca (2) and Jordan (4) and my spare time is made up of a collection of gym, running, training and spinning with my two Uber sexy gymbabes (Tracy & Jeanette). If I have more time on my plate, I do enjoy socialising with friends nad listening to really cool jazz and blues (I’m coloured after all!)

What am I really passionate about in life? Family, wellness, health and engaging at a strategic level with diverse groups of people in order to help them find solutions to issues around work, career and productivity in an ever changing global society.

So, to sum it up….. please engage me in thinking stuff you think might be interesting and let’s chat soon!

Who am I and what makes me Me!!

I am probably one of the more serious (and older) types in the company, the quiet analytical person sitting studiously in front of my computer and forgetting to talk to anybody when I’m on a roll. I’m quite structured in my thinking, precise in my way and probably a little dogmatic.

But, don’t be completely deceived: I also have a fun, mischievous and theatrical streak in me, my ‘Spider Man’ alter ego which certainly comes out when facilitating, coaching or speaking at conferences.

I have always believed that I’m not a good communicator, always found it difficult to connect with people and am always a little apprehensive about starting a conversation - every time I’m speaking to someone it’s like, what do I say? And what can I talk about? So I have a vested interest in training and consulting in these skills and I really enjoy helping others learn how to do this stuff.

I’ve struggled with the confidence to connect with people, start conversations, make cold calls or to start selling. I’ve grappled with my confidence when talking to 300 people from a stage and so I understand how it feels to other people who battle with these things. For only a very few does it come naturally, for others like me the skills are learnt, I know the pain and I know the steps you need to take and it’s for these reasons that I can really make a difference and get fulfillment out of what I do.