by Lori Milner 

“A brand for a product is like a reputation for a person” – Jeff Bezos

Why do brands spend what they do on advertising and marketing? Of course it’s the obvious essentials like profit and growth, creating social impact but really it comes down to creating loyal fans. It’s the same with your personal brand.

Your brand is not something you say about yourself, it’s what others say about you. When you think of the word fan, you picture screaming admirers at a music concert. Not at all. I am a fan of certain authors because their work really resonates with me. When they launch a new book on pre-order, I will download it without knowing the details because I know I am going to receive value. That’s a fan.

Your fans are people who are prepared to recommend you for new opportunities and roles, also known as sponsors. Think about the mafia movies like the Godfather where the line ‘he’s one of us’ means he vouches for you. He has put his reputation on the line and the mutual expectation is that you will deliver.

This kind of a trust is a gift and has to be earned over time through your daily actions. Perhaps you have never really thought about your brand up to now or you have changed roles from marketing to sales and don’t want to be associated with your prior position. Here are some things to consider when it comes to your personal ‘brand’ campaign and creating a genuine following of loyal fans:

Your brand attributes must be on every product

“Your brand is a gateway to your true work. You know you are here to do something – to create something or help others in some way. The question is, how can you set up your life and work so that you can do it? The answer lies in your brand. When you create a compelling brand you attract people who want the promise of your brand – which you deliver” – Dave Buck

When you buy a pair of Nike shoes, there are certain elements you expect from every pair irrespective of the model. The logo, comfort, style, quality, etc. For Starbucks, you expect convenient locations, friendly service, a quality product and consistent packaging. These aren’t nice to haves; these form the basics of what you assume will be part of your experience. You aren’t blown away because your packaging is protective and locks in the freshness, flavour, aroma, and unique notes that make each coffee blend distinct. This is what you expect in exchange for your money.

What are the non-negotiables on your brand’s products and deliverables?

Imagine every channel you deliver your unique service has a giant ‘brand you’ stamp on it. Every time you hand in a proposal, make a phone call, present in a meeting, send an email or deliver your service – you are attaching your attributes to it. You are making a declaration of who you are and what others can expect of you.

Every time I deliver a presentation, my attributes are solid content, passion, preparation, professionalism, an enjoyable visual presentation and I don’t use notes.

When you need to send an email or submit a document, don’t see it as just another email. Have you been thoughtful about content, spelling, relevance, tone and time of day you are sending it? It’s a representation of the quality they can expect from you; so what message are you sending out there?

Consistency is key

“People like consistency. Whether it’s a store or a restaurant, they want to come in and see what you are famous for.” – Millard Drexler

Think about your favourite coffee, food or restaurant brand. It delivers the same product every time which is why it is your ‘old faithful’ that you keep coming back to. It delivers the same experience without fail. A Starbucks will always taste like Starbucks, if it started to differ in service and experience, you would start to question where you spend your money. A lack of consistency will break your trust with the brand, it will disappoint you and eventually you will look for an alternative.

It’s the same with you. It’s not enough to know your brand attributes, it’s about consistent delivery. You can’t show up with no preparation every second meeting or write sloppy emails on some days because you were rushing to get it out. If you start to let people down, you will definitely not be considered when a big promotion or opportunity presents itself because the image you have created is someone who is unreliable and inconsistent.

This isn’t just about service delivery or emails but consider an element like being punctual. If you start to show up even 10 minutes late for every online meeting, you will start to be associated with words like undependable, erratic or you have an inability to plan. It goes further than just the status meeting; people will question if they can trust you with their clients and the bigger projects if you can’t be bothered to put your commitment into the smaller things.

What problem do you solve?

“When you look at people who are successful, you will find that they aren’t the people who are motivated but have consistency in their motivation.” – Arsene Wenger

Warby Parker provides affordable stylish sunglasses, Netflix is entertainment on demand and great variety. What problem do you solve? This may seem hard to differentiate if you’re in a team of like-minded professionals where it feels hard to distinguish your unique skills. We often under estimate that something special we bring to others. Think about what is your exceptional super power?

Ask your team what would be missing if you weren’t in the office that day or on the daily catch up online. The kind of traits that come up in my workshops include ‘a sounding board, a diffuser of tension, humour, keep the team focused, a great organiser, the calm in the chaos, the maternal role where everyone can download safely’.

Ask yourself ‘am I bringing my full self to my professional journey’? Why or why not? Pay attention to what you can start to bring forth that you may have been minimizing.

Don’t think you need one version for personal life and one version of yourself for work life. Be authentic and make sure you are demonstrating and owning your individuality.

Apart from your personal super power that is core to your brand, you also need to consider the bigger problem you solve. Why you do what you do – how do you contribute?

Are you spending the majority of your day doing other people’s urgent work or attending to mindless email? Or…

Are you spending the majority of your day doing what you are world class at?

That is how you energise yourself from the inside out, when you are spending your time on the areas where you are successful and you can bring your unique ‘brand you’ stamp to. Don’t get lost in the busyness of everyone else’s failure to plan or your inability to say no to useless tasks for fear of conflict.

Structure your day so you can demonstrate the problem you solve and let your brand shine.

What’s your brand promise?

“Your personal brand is a promise to your clients… a promise of quality, consistency, competency, and reliability” – Jason Hartman

Your brand is the promise you make. Another way to think about it is what do people expect from you when they engage with you? Brands that keep their promises are consistent and trustworthy. It is the essence of what you want to stand for and your brand is the means to communicate how you want to show up in the world.

Companies that have successfully positioned their brand own a specific word and promise in a consumer’s mind. “Honda is ‘reliability,’ Mercedes is ‘luxury,’ Volvo is ‘safety,’ BMW is ‘performance’ and Tesla is ‘innovative.’ Nike’s brand promise is “to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”

Starbuck’s brand promise is “to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time.” All these brands demonstrate this promise through delivering a consistent experience across multiple touch points.

What words do you want to own? In other words, when people think about you, what do you want them to associate with you? Do you want people to see you as reliable, creative, trustworthy, consistent, ambitious?

Now ask yourself – what are you doing to demonstrate this every day? It’s not enough to know how you want to position yourself, it is the daily actions that communicate your promise. What does reliable mean practically? Are you getting back to people on time? Do you respond to messages timeously? Do you procrastinate and put people under pressure due to a lack of planning?

The product is always going to be the hero. When you go to a restaurant, you may be tempted because of the beautiful and elaborate décor. The bottom line is the food needs to taste good for you to come back and recommend it to others.

Don’t get caught up in the wrong stuff like a fancy business card, website or title – are you delivering on your promise? Are you showing up?

Are you taking the responsibility of CEO?

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently” – Warren Buffett

In an interview on MasterClass, Howard Shultz, CEO of Starbucks said, “Under pressure to deliver profitability brands can be put at risk and this is a huge mistake. In doing so long term value is typically destroyed”.

By CEO I don’t mean Chief Executive Offer but rather Chief Energy Officer. As Howard Shultz points out, making harsh decisions without considering the long term view will sabotage a brand in the long run. Typically, these are reactive decisions like cost cutting which are hard to recover from when the dust settles.

It’s the same with you. When you first went into lockdown, you were in panic and react mode. Your logged longer and more intense hours just to cope with the new challenges. You sacrificed sleep for work and lived on coffee just to get you through the day. What you don’t want to do is potentially destroy the long term value of your brand by this continued behaviour.

Mental and physical fatigue will result in you dropping the ball and making careless mistakes due to exhaustion. You may justify the behaviour saying it’s the only way to cope with the current circumstances but you need to take into the account the potential long term damage of your brand.

As in the world of product brands, you are only as good as your last experience. It works both ways. If you continually let people down, send sloppy work and put others into panic mode because of your inability to plan, you will potentially sabotage everything you have worked so hard to build up to this point. Even if your intention is to show your team and leaders that you can work 16 hour days, it is not going to have the intended results you are hoping for.

Most importantly, this is not just about managing other people’s perceptions and being best in class at work. This is about the longer term consequences for you personally. You need to take the role of Chief Energy Officer seriously, it isn’t a luxury to take time off to meditate, sleep, exercise and just be still. This is central to how you show up; you can’t possibly be at your best when overwhelm, stress and exhaustion are taking over and affecting your ability to perform.

If you can communicate openly to your team that you need to take a break between certain hours or not respond to weekend emails because its taking away downtime and family time, they will respect you more.

By making space for your recovery time, you are demonstrating self-leadership and the ability to manage your time in a constructive way and deliver quality outputs. This is how you build real trust.

Take a step back and assess what needs to change before you do irreparable damage not only to your reputation but to yourself.

Create emotional bonds

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

A powerful brand does more than tick the box of providing a product or service. Brands that create emotional bonds are the ones we are willing to wait in lines for hours when a new product is launched, it is a book we will pre-order months in advance because we know the value it will provide.

Let’s make this personal. When I say ‘Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, FC Barcelona or Tottenham Hotspur’ what comes to mind? When your team falls, you have the worst day. When they win, you are on top of the world. You are screaming at the TV when someone fumbles and their pain is your pain. This is the power of brands and the emotional bonds they form with us.

What can you do to create connection with others? Your tools are active listening and giving someone your complete focus and attention. Have you had the experience of sharing something with someone and they were looking up in between checking their mails and messages? How did it make you feel? Quite understandably annoyed and resentful.

Do not under estimate the power of giving someone the opportunity to be listened to. When we are not heard, we feel invisible. To truly listen means having the intention to understand what the person is saying, not waiting for your turn to speak and interject with your own experience or one up the other person.

Often all someone wants is the opportunity to express what’s on their mind. If they don’t ask you for a solution, don’t offer one. Not everybody wants you to fix their problem, just the opportunity to vent, share and be seen.

Emotion is how you will be remembered and this is the key to establishing yourself as a powerful personal brand.

What are your brand values?

“Marketing is about values. It’s a complicated and noisy world, and we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. So we have to be clear about what we want them to know about us.”
– Steve Jobs

Apple’s core values are about sleek design, simplicity and innovation. Amazon’s core values include customer obsession, ownership, think big, bias for action, earn trust of others and deliver results.

These aren’t just words they put on posters around the offices, they live them daily. A value without action is an empty promise. Execution is everything to bring the values alive. This is manifested in every brand touch point, channel and the overall customer experience.

Our value system is manifested in our habit patterns.

What do you value on a personal level? If you value spirituality, you probably have a ritual of prayer or attending a religious service. If you value vitality, you will have a regular exercise practice.

It’s not enough to value being a lifelong learner, where have you dedicated time daily to read or do an online course? You may value mindfulness but when did you last sit down to meditate or take a break? How you schedule your day is how you spend your life.

If you wrote down you want to be associated with being trustworthy, reliable and dynamic – what are you doing to demonstrate it? Have you scheduled time in your calendar to translate these values into action?

When you live the values, you begin to live your authentic self and that is the basis for a powerful personal brand. In the words of Seth Godin:

“We call a brand or a person authentic when they’re consistent, when they act the same way whether or not someone is looking. Someone is authentic when their actions are in alignment with what they promise.

Showing up as a pro.

Keeping promises.

Even when you don’t feel like it.

Especially when you don’t.”

Make your mess your message

“Authenticity is consistent emotional labour” – Seth Godin

You may have the same qualifications or career path as other people but it is your bespoke life experience that makes you an authentic brand. Vulnerability is something you need to consider adding to your branding repertoire . Vulnerability is about being courageous and folding back the curtain to reveal the real you, not the face you think you need to wear to work.

When you own your setbacks and challenges, they lose all power they hold over you. When you can call the white elephant in the room, people stop focusing on it. You have diffused all the tension. For example, I am 39 years old but look a lot younger. I know most women think it’s a blessing but it has been a challenge and I have had to work a lot harder to prove myself. When I start a talk, I always make a joke of it and make a point to say what others are thinking. Now it’s dealt with and out the way.

Some instances it’s not so trivial such as being dyslexic. This is something a lot of adults struggle with and of course it can affect your confidence with written communication. Instead of creating internal struggles for yourself and trying to over compensate, make your mess your message and share it. Be completely transparent and let your team know that you prefer voice messages rather than text. Can they call you as opposed to lengthy emails. Once you can be yourself and be open about where you’re at, people can support you. I am sure they will share their stories of people they know and express similar experiences.

During this time, many companies have started mental health committees to help people deal with the mental strain Covid has brought. They have been championed by internal employees who have volunteered to share their own stories of depression, burnout and anxiety. Some people have histories of addiction and have come forward to share their experiences to create a safe space for others to share and make the conversation safe.

Covid has humanised our working world, we see people with their kids, pets and home life. We can’t pretend they don’t exist and can’t always avoid a tantrum happening in the middle of an important presentation. We accept it and don’t judge others; we smile with an empathy and compassion.

You need to adopt the same view for your personal brand. Have self-compassion and reframe how you see your setbacks and find the gift in the experience. How have you grown as a result? What messages can you share that can empower others? Make your mess your message.

Own your Mistakes

“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.” – Oscar Wilde

If you want to be an influential brand and build trust – own your mistakes. When something happens, don’t hide behind email or text messages. Pick up the phone and let your customers or team know you are sincerely sorry. Set up a face to face meeting so your non-verbal’s can speak louder than your words.

Even if you don’t have a solution, people want to know that they matter. Tell them you will follow up on the hour until you do have a solution. You can’t control everything and often you’re relying on other people or external factors to perform your role. It’s how you respond and take accountability that will enable you to come out as a trustworthy brand.

Have you ever had a bad dining experience and the manager came out to apologise directly? They then threw in a complimentary dessert on top of comping the entire bill. You leave that restaurant as a fan because of how they managed the situation. This is probably a story you have shared with friends and sung their praises for how they managed their errors. Don’t be scared of mistakes. Own them and you will forever be a credible brand and even convert them to fans as a result.

Conclusion

“A great brand is a story that’s never completely told”- Scott Bedbury

Building a personal brand doesn’t come with an end date. It’s not like we can ever reach a certain standard or milestone and then we can stop working on it.

The core of building a personal brand begins with self-awareness and intention. If you aren’t sure where to start, think about 5 words you want to be known for. Then make a list of how to translate those attributes into specific actions.

Be mindful that every touch point is an opportunity to showcase who you really are and how you can provide value.

If you are feeling like you haven’t done a great job up to now, the good news is that you can always behave your way into the person you want to become. When is the best time to begin? Today.

Here’s to owning your brand,

Warm wishes
Lori

African Farming went in search of great tips and tactics from some of our leading farmers to get you thinking or hopefully make or save you a bit of money.

Harvesting mistletoe is one of the most cost-effective drought survival techniques available to stock farmers, writes seasoned Karoo farmer Roelof Bezuidenhout.

Karoo farms with lots of sweet thorn trees (Acacia karroo) are much more drought-resistant than those that don’t have this plant. The reason is that these trees, besides giving shelter, also supply feed all year round – either in the form of leaves, flowers or pods, depending on the season.

They also host the parasitic mistletoe, commonly known as voëlent, which is totally underrated and under-utilised as an emergency drought feed.

The mistletoe grows in clusters that become almost as heavy as lucerne bales and are equally nourishing. Plucked out of the branches by means of long hooks, they make a nutritious and palatable green feed that soon gets the rumens of sheep and goats working well.

Unfortunately, details about the true nutritional value of mistletoe are not available yet. Researchers from the University of KwaZuluNatal’s School of Biological and Conservation Sciences have however established that mistletoes have higher nitrogen concentrations than their legume host trees.

They found that mistletoe need less water than their hosts, and by maintaining this lower water need they passively accumulate a higher nutrient concentration than their hosts. The study also found that without birds feeding on the fruit, and so spreading its seed, germination would not be possible for mistletoes.

It takes a village to raise a child, the saying goes. The same is true for farming, as this young crop farmer discovered. Today, he has a team of experts behind him, including his trusted Pannar crop consultant.

Seitshiro Mozzart Marumoloe (37) credits his late grandfather, Hendrik Segatle, who farmed maize and sunflower at Springbokpan, as his first farming mentor. Seitshiro produces white maize, small white canning beans and sunflower on his farm near Sannieshof in North West. He rotates the yellow maize hybrid PAN 5R-582R with the small white canning dry bean PAN 123 and the sunflower hybrid PAN 7100.

“Last year I bought my Toyota Land Cruiser with the profits I made with the PAN 123 canning beans,” he says. This bean cultivar is a small white canning bean that entered the market in 2010. It was bred to significantly improve yield and is the main canning bean currently available.

PAN 5R-582R is a yellow maize hybrid in the medium-early growth class that is well adapted to all production regions and a very stable producer. PAN 7100 is a conventional medium late sunflower hybrid. It’s a three-way cross with good stability that is suitable for all sunflower production regions and has good yield potential and excellent oil content.

GROWTH CURVE

With a diploma in business management from the Taletso TVET College in Lichtenburg behind his name, Seitshiro initially worked as a financial consultant at NWK. “Visiting farmers who applied for funding exposed me to the business side of running a farm. I also started helping my grandpa on his 10ha of communal land. There I planted the sunflower hybrid PAN 7100, averaging 1.8t/ha – a record yield for me.

I used the income from that harvest to buy a planter and sprayer. The following year I rented another 20ha to plant sunflower and 10ha for beans. I was told you make good money with beans.” In November 2013 Seitshiro was granted a 30-year lease for the farm Wit Klipdrift near Sannieshof by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform.

“I was smart with my applications and through that process, I received funding from Omnia’s farmer development programme,” he says. “During the first year McCain Foods entered a profit-sharing partnership with me.

With their help, I was able to plant potatoes in 2014. Then I bought 10 cattle, 20 sheep, 20 goats and four pigs. I put a lot of time and effort into planning and making the most of all the processes I needed to complete to receive help.” It was all worth the effort, and 2014 turned out to be one of his best years.

Working full time while farming became a challenge, and when Seitshiro resigned from NWK, his relationship with Hendrik Mokoto, a Pannar consultant he had known since 2013, became invaluable. “Meeting Hendrik was the beginning of my journey with Pannar. If I have a problem with seed or the soil, or any other agronomic challenge, Hendrik would help.”

“Seitshiro is a customer who knows what he wants, and he wants his seed on time! His drive to succeed is strong, and he wants to get things done,” adds Hendrik.

Seitshiro says he started out with a small account at Pannar. “They always helped with payment arrangements and advice. If government funding is late, Pannar will allow me to plant on time and pay later. It’s a relationship that adds a lot of value to my operation. Today I only plant Pannar seed.”

Pannar’s Extravaganza farming days are a highlight for him. He is also impressed with the service of Pannar’s agronomists.

HELPING HANDS

Pannar’s service excellence sets the tone for other input suppliers that ensure Seitshiro’s success. “When I needed agricultural chemicals, Inteligro, under Natie Visser, helped me with credit in the same way Pannar did,” he says.

He’s also thankful for help from Rossouw Filling Station in Lichtenburg. “They understood my challenges and provided diesel on credit after Grain SA approached them.” Seitshiro believes these suppliers placed their faith in him because his records are always in order and up to date. That way everyone is assured that he’d be able to pay in future.

“Through these relationships, I realised how important records are,” he says. Schoeman Boerdery in Delmas, Mpumalanga, buys Seitshiro’s small white canning beans on contract. “They also assist me to make sure my business runs smoothly, and Oom Kallie Schoeman himself has been a great help,” says Seitshiro.

“His advice to me was: ‘First get your relationships right and the profit will follow.’ That is part of the long-term process of farming.” Seitshiro was also advised early on that incurring debt to cover production costs was fine, but bakkies and implements should be bought cash.

A BRIGHT FUTURE

Seitshiro says he started farming to leave a legacy. “I do it for my children, Botlhale (10), Botshelo (6) and Bokao (2), as well as for my wife, Nthabiseng. I want to create opportunities for them. One day hopefully I’ll be able to transfer ownership to my children. I involve them in the farming, and they’re all interested. That’s very important to me.

ENQUIRIES: Call Hendrik Mokoto on 082 767 7333; e-mail hendrik.mokoto@pannar.co.za or visit www.pannar.com

Lioness Weekender spoke to the inspirational Eva Muraya to learn more about her journey to becoming a market leader and brand innovator.

So, how did Eva get here? In her own words, she says that the journey has not been easy over the last 20 years but she has kept going through both ‘mountain and valley’ experiences. That said, she is often referred to as a “serial entrepreneur” by her peers. She is celebrating 20 years in business.

Eva’s knack for business dates back to 2001 when she set up a merchandising production company, Taurus Afrika Ltd, which later merged with another company, Color Creations. She led the new entity for nine years growing both its top and bottom line and building a solid regional footprint into South Sudan, DRC and Uganda. At its pinnacle, the company had a staff compliment of 130 permanent staff. This company was the first advertising firm in Sub-saharan Africa to secure the coveted ISO 9001 quality standard certification. In 2007, Eva led the company’s transition into full automation increasing its production capacity by more than 240% per an 8 hour shift, which led to the company’s recognition under the Legatum sponsored Pioneers of Africa’s Legatum Awards hosted in Kigali, Rwanda.

In 2010, she started Brand Strategy Design (BSD) Ltd out of which arose Avid Public Relations Ltd, Whiteboard Advertising Limited and Brandquad Africa, a knowledge sharing, training and talent development consultancy which has offered diverse business and brand advisory and communications support to private companies, public agencies, governments, inter-governmental and non-government organizations. 

Her business has been a proving ground for novices and young professionals who soon bud into experts in marketing, brand communication and the creative world. Over the years, many of them have successfully transitioned into larger firms and corporations, whilst others have opted for self-employment, motivated by the entrepreneurial learnings gained. BSD Group has significantly contributed to the development of the skill set and competencies of the industry in Kenya. It has remained a celebrated business as a brand advisory and communication agency which delivers strategic thinking and direction for corporate, product and cause-led brands, effectively positioning them through well-articulated and clear business messaging. The main tools of engagement have been using Public Relations and Reputation Management, Creative and design thinking tools including Executive training and coaching.  

The creation of BSD Group opened a whole new chapter for Eva. The business initially kicked off with one member of staff with whom they formulated strategy and responded to client briefs around her dining table at her home. Soon after, the business grew to employ 5 more and before too long, about 48 people were the full compliment. 

In the ups and downs of business in Africa, challenges abound in the form of regulatory issues, prejudicial considerations, political uncertainty, economic disruptions, and most recently, Covid-19. To insulate the business from these shocks, she has had to reorganize the business, rethink its model and reimagine new territories and client propositions amongst emerging opportunities. 

Beyond entrepreneurship, Eva has had a deep passion around growing women led enterprises and creating opportunities for women in business. Growing in the shadow of a strong mother and grandmother, and herself raising two adult daughters, Eva has a succinct understanding of the odds that are faced by most women in Africa. She has been an articulate advocate of growing Kenya’s GDP by increasing the economic participation of women at all levels. She has promoted disruptive thinking in creating a more enabling environment for women entrepreneurs and constantly challenged large corporations to diversify and open up their supply chains to women. This insight led BSD Group at 10, to focus on becoming a specialist on women markets by determining on a regular basis, the underlying motivations that drive their consumer choices amongst all available brands.

In 2018, nearly ten years after the formation of BSD, Eva conceived an idea that would redefine its ten year milestone of building brands. She strongly believed that this was how the business would move forward into its next ten-year future in a differentiated and credible manner. She was looking for a unique aspect for which BSD would be known for and succinctly differentiated in the market. For years, BSD has built brands for clients in banking and financial markets, manufacturing and automotive industry, public agencies and inter-governmental organizations, not-for-profit endeavours, and governments among others. The company created new brands, retired some, rebranded many more, whilst in some instances opening up to new markets. 

Both through her business and external platforms, Eva has led the gender and inclusivity initiative from the front. This culminated in March this year in the launch of the “Top 100 Most Loved Brands by Women in Kenya”, the first ever study of its kind about women consumers in Kenya; capturing their anxieties, fears, needs, wants, aspirations, persuasions and desires, whilst also sharing insights about the brands they most love. Through a partnership between BSD and Ipsos, the 3rd largest market research company, the study has elicited the interest of corporates, investors, media and policy makers in government, alike.

When asked about entrepreneurship as a woman, Eva speaks with a deep reflection in her eyes… “I learnt very early in the journey that the playing field in business was not equal and especially so for women”, she says. 

“Access to basic things like financial instruments, market linkages, technical skills, legal platforms, opportunities to do business and even to pitch your business were tough to crack.” said Eva.

Introspectively she decided the next ten years would be dedicated to providing advocacy through the work BSD was doing. The strategy is creating more benefit and opportunities for women, irrespective of their lot. To get more companies, brands, investors, and policy makers to make women core to boardroom decisions around the creation of products, services and causes, so that these decisions bring into consideration a key focus on women’s aspirations, needs, desires and preferences across Africa. 

The “Top 100 Most Loved Brands by Women study, launched as a curtain raiser to this year’s International Women’s Day in March 2021, captures the essence of who the Kenyan woman consumer is. It provides succinct insight and data for the inclusion of women consumers in their boardroom considerations. 

According to Eva, the business has started a very exciting and differentiated journey which aims to provide data and analytics, which is today’s biggest business and economic currency for business and brand owners, investors, policy makers and consumers.

In the relationships she has built over the years, Eva has had a front row seat in entrepreneurship engaging with dynamic and creative, forward thinking men and women in the business. She says her team is a cocktail of strategic thinkers, creative art directors, journalists, writers and content generators, public policy specialists, economic advocates and digital innovators. There is a large number of young people and a few older chaps to keep the ship steady, she laughs. “Our employees have an amazing entrepreneurship energy which they apply in the solutions we offer to brands whether government, NGOs, corporates or intergovernmental agencies. This has often differentiated us from many of our competitors” she proudly says.

Eva is energized by the people she works with and says she is indebted to them for all the success the business has enjoyed and credentials it has built over the years.  “We embrace a culture of togetherness… more like family and encourage personal growth and development. We will continue to encourage them as this has been the culture. The past and current teams have also won us industry awards and I am proud of them for their dedication and commitment to our mission and brand values,” she says.

The entrepreneurship bug bit her in 2001 although she comes from a family who were mostly employed all their lives. Her grandfather, the late Richard Njoroge Kabaa, worked for the British High Commission as a messenger and then Norfolk Hotel and the East African Railways as waiting staff. An ardent soccer player then, he represented the British Army as a member of the first eleven team that played in India in the early 20s. A progressive man, her grandfather ensured that he educated both his sons and daughters without any consideration of gender. “The socialization of my family for three generations has been to work for an organization because that was the exposure from our early years,” says Eva. 

After working for twelve years in a corporate organization, Eva got married to an entrepreneur husband, Mike Muraya and quickly caught the bug. Her late husband encouraged her and supported her to step out of her corporate comfort zone by mentoring her in entrepreneurship and taught her a lot of life lessons. She shadowed him in business learning both from observation and engagement and animatedly contributing then to his business brand differentiation and sustenance.

“One can be trained and can learn about entrepreneurship, but you must have some inherent drive and a bit of a “crazy zeal” in you. Character, passion and some degree of clarity of what you can see at the end of the dream. I have also always maintained a morbid fear of naysayers; they really can kill your dreams. Keep far away from them! You also don’t always need money to start. You just do…and then money will follow your dream. That said though, it isn’t easy doing business in Africa” she avers. 

Lessons learnt in her 20 year entrepreneurship journey? 

One needs to have a number of attributes that are very useful in the journey. You must hold strong to them and solidly stay guided by them through the seasons that your journey takes you.

Courage 

In her own words, Eva says the environment in many African countries does not always set one up to win, especially as a woman entrepreneur. This includes things like access to credit, access to justice and fairness, access to local, regional and global markets and good talent, access to technical skills… and the skill and ability to balance both family and business. These constraints can be a big draw back. There are prejudices today that discourage many women from being in business, and some societies will see men as the business people and women as more suited only to micro and small enterprises. With all these probable distractors, women need to shore up more courage every morning to face different challenges in business that will inevitably present themselves. 

Commitment 

Eva urges women to be committed to the passion or craft they identify and to invest their time, energy and resources to these enterprises. They must remain committed to their customers; their aspirations and strategies, committed to their employees, committed to their suppliers and business partners, but at the same time be frugal and apply the right sensibilities to grow their businesses.

Capability 

Other than commitment, one has to build the capacity to run an enterprise.  Learn management skills, finance, human resource management, operations and others that will make the business run.  Eva is an alumnus of the Columbia Business School’s Entrepreneurship Excellence Centre and Harvard Business School SEPA Program. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Journalism and Marketing from the United States International University (USIU) in Nairobi, a Diploma in Advanced Business Management from the IESE (University of Navarra) and Strathmore Business Schools. She is also a graduate of the global Stanford SEED Entrepreneurship Program. 

On integrity, she advises women not to get caught in vices that plague most of Africa including corruption, greed and dishonesty. Our generation, she argues, can begin a revolution of new thinking and approaches on how to start and build differentiated businesses across the continent that address real societal issues by providing progressive solutions. She cautions that businesses will often fail – for many reasons – and challenges will be part of life, but what matters most is rising from the failure. “We have been through many challenges and made some hard decisions, especially the last two years, but we can start again and pick up and move forward” she encourages. One can always start over, no matter what.

On humanity, entrepreneurs are in it to make money but that is not all she says. There is a need and place for compassion and in the way one drives their enterprise. By wearing a lens of compassion, one can always identify something that your enterprise can innovate around and can run sustainably. “For example at BSD we have chosen to be a change agent by amplifying the gaps that exist within women markets. We have and will continue to use data intelligently to champion widening of the space for women so that we can shrink the inequities that currently exist,” she says. 

What has she done that gives her satisfaction? 

Seeing the young people who have joined BSD Group and started their careers and have found larger more challenging roles later in life and are doing extremely well. She takes pride in having watched some of the younger ones gain confidence, start earning a living and even meet their life partners whilst at BSD. “I have enjoyed being part of dowry paying parties, receiving new born babies into the BSD Group fold…and watching livelihoods transform because of both the values and opportunities that have been created within our business. 

Eva’s advice to women looking to start up today is that, the space is much wider and there are many more opportunities than when she started off. Today, there is a lot to learn and do online. She says she has stood on the shoulders of great women who blazed the trail and became her role models and mentors. She points to Mary Okello, first ever African woman bank Manager in Kenya and former proprietor of the Makini Schools; Esther Wahome of Esther Wahome Bureau, an innovative business model in the 80s and 90s that provided most of the private sector with qualified and well trained secretarial support through a pipeline of talent; Hon. Beth Mugo of Gems International, an exporter of precious stones and high quality crafts; Nalina Rupani of Adelphi, Zora Baraka of Mohazo Art Gallery, Evelyn Mungai of Evelyn School of Design, and Dr. Eddah Gachukia of Riara Schools, among others. “These women have been prolific entrepreneurs and their trailblazing characteristics have been such motivation for me over many years.”

“The women starting today should know and have confidence that others started and have done it despite a myriad of challenges” she advises. 

Eva tells fellow women to listen to their conscience, employ their passion and apply sensibility. “Do not be reckless. There are many resources online and a lot you can learn. Don’t be distracted. Be courageous. Do not be afraid of failure,” she poses. 

Eva’s mentors have not only been women. Dr Manu Chandaria, a renowned industrialist, philanthropist and founder of the MRM Group that is spread across Africa from Kenya, has walked the entrepreneurship journey with her. “He has always told me to go with the fire in my belly and never give up,” she remembers with nostalgia. “The recent launch of the Top 100 Most Loved Brands by Women in Kenya has been a real passion developed over time but definitely a clear expression and indication of ‘fire in my belly!’”

Eva cautions women to look keenly at the risks in their desired ventures, surround themselves with a good team, think about resources needed, find a good coach and mentor. They must also learn to be frugal. This will get you there. Start small and grow. That is the way life goes,” she advises. “There is a huge misconception that in entrepreneurship you make lots of  money in just a short while. The truth is that it will often take a lot longer than is understood. Entrepreneurship is one area in which the Harvest Principal best applies. You will often only reap what you sow: planting hard and innovative thinking, nurturing, sprinkling of diligent care and processes, nurturing business relationships internally with team and externally with partners…sprinkling more management skill and evaluation…growing the opportunities that emerge…then hopefully harvesting the returns on the investments of resources made…even though this may take as long as 3 – 5 years to achieve. “When asked at our 10th birthday celebrations what it has taken to grow BSD from the start-up on my dining table, 11 years ago, my reflective response was, ‘it takes GRIT to deliver the value we have secured today.”

“Find good talent always look for people smarter than and more capable than you. Create a platform where good talent and competence can thrive; energetic people who share a common vision and mission with you; knowledgeable teams. You must then lead objectively from a place of care, inclusion and diversity and you will definitely win,” Eva says with great conviction. 

What about failure? 

“Should you fall, rise up and try again. My rallying call has always been, fall seven times, rise eight. Do not be afraid of what the future holds. The future often responds to hard and smart work that has been guided by a clear focus. God’s word promises to bless the work of our hands so we must also keep that ace card close,” says Eva. 

To all women planning to start and grow businesses in Africa, Eva advises them to take advantage of the diversity and inclusion in the various levels of enterprise – whether in agriculture, technology, infrastructure, retail, media, education, hospitality, healthcare and the like, they must find their niche and plug. 

“Women are the catalyst for economic transformation in Africa at a family level and also in corporate and government spheres. We are the change agents this continent needs, in order to grow our respective national indices so as to move our nations into middle income levels.” she says.

Eva calls upon governments and leaders to ensure the right policies are in place, technical skills are disseminated and that the relevant information and cultural practices are made available to create a more enabling environment and level playing field for posterity.

Eva says the goal of BSD is to leverage brands across markets in Africa. Transpose the company’s skill, knowledge competence and experience to other markets across the region. 

“We are negotiating with suitable partners to build that footprint in Africa. We have excellent solutions to offer and that gives us a lot of confidence that our growth trajectory is safe.”

Looking at what the future holds, Eva advises women to build their businesses in a way that they can be scaled. 

“I would like many more women to be uncomfortable about running micro and small businesses and seek new skills to drive scale; we need quantum leap growth so that we can create jobs for our young men and women across Africa. We must create training platforms so that we increase our competitive set as a continent; our enterprises can provide this. We need to build much larger enterprises. Do not just stop at the micro level because when you scale you are generating more jobs and creating opportunities for others to participate in the growth of the value chain, including suppliers, employees, business partners and the like.” says Eva. “If what I have done in business through the years of my life can motivate just one more woman to start up and grow, then I have done my lot in life. I have seen what being in business can do to grow a family, contribute to society and ultimately the exchequer. Let’s get women to start and grow more businesses.”

Eva has always been a champion of seeing one among her generation raise the first woman led business to list at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).  This would be a crowning moment for Eva, seeing investors invited to be part of a listed entity, giving good returns and which is also owned and led by a woman. Asked if that is one of her dreams she says “And why not? If we can convince investors to bet on our proficiency and expertise, our audacious and radical business thinking that is beneficial to our clients and ensure that they get superior returns from BSD Group, now wouldn’t that be awesome?”.

Eva Muraya Biography

Eva Muraya is the Founder and CEO of BSD Group, a regional award-winning brand strategy and communications company. It comprises four companies: Brand Strategy & Design Limited, Avid Public Relations Ltd, Whiteboard Advertising Limited and Brandquad Africa Limited, a knowledge sharing and talent development consultancy. 

Eva, a serial entrepreneur, also co-founded Color Creations Ltd, the first advertising and branding business to gain the global quality management systems standards ISO 9001:2001 Certification, in Sub-Saharan Africa, in 2007. Eva has more than 20 years industry experience in brand communications, having managed the brand development, refresh and launch programs for local, regional, and global companies. Her expertise is in Brand Repositioning & Alignment, Brand Sustainability, Capital Markets Communications, Crisis Communications, Internal Brand Engagement, Customer Centricity, Media Relations Strategy, Stakeholder Management, Corporate and Product PR and Entrepreneurship. She has been recognized both nationally and internationally for her business innovation and leadership. 

In March, 2021, BSD Group, in partnership with Ipsos Ltd, the world’s 3rd largest market research company, launched the inaugural Top 100 Most Loved Brands by Women in Kenya study (www.top100brands.africa) in an effort to present the Kenyan woman consumer’s needs, wants, aspirations, desires, fears and aspirations and articulate the fiery force that she is in driving household consumer buying decisions and the need for Kenyan boardrooms to prioritise her in every product, service and cause-driven decision. This study, which will be expanded further into the region, has continued to receive validation from government agencies, media, policy makers, development partners, the private sector including investors and brand owners. 

She serves as a Director, Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) managing both Gender and SMEs and is a co-founder and former Chairperson of the Kenya Association of Women Business Owners (KAWBO). Her achievements at the helm of KAWBO include securing strategic partnerships with Vital Voices Global Partnership and ExxonMobil Foundation, the Kenya Hub for the Africa Businesswomen’s Network (ABWN) and championing advocacy for supplier diversity in Government agencies, the private and development sectors as critical inroads to market linkages for women entrepreneurs. 

Eva is the past Chairperson of the Zawadi Africa Education Fund, an organization that provides mentorship, leadership development, and scholarship opportunities to academically gifted girls from disadvantaged backgrounds in select African countries to pursue higher education in the United States, Canada and leading African universities.

An Aspen Fellow, her business leadership has earned her a variety of awards and prestigious appointments, including the Eve Woman Entrepreneur of the Year 2007, Marketing Society of Kenya (MSK) Warrior award 2007, Goldman Sachs Fortune Global Leaders Award, 2008, and The International Alliance for Women (TIAW) World of Difference 100 Award. She has also participated in many Vital Voices Global Partnership programs, including the 2006 Vital Voices/U.S. State Department/Fortune Global Mentoring Program, Levelling the Playing Field, and was a Vital Voices/Gates Leadership and Advocacy Fund grantee for her project to engage businesswomen in economic policy advocacy. In 2013, Eva was nominated in the WIE (Women, Inspiration and Enterprise Network) Power List as one of the 60 most Prominent and Influential Women in Africa and is one of CEO Magazine’s Most Influential Women in Business and Government. She was also a mentee in the inaugural Vital Voices Global Partnership ‘Invest in Your Idea’ Johnson & Johnson sponsored program to promote public sector policy formulation in supplier diversity amongst 50 corporates in Kenya. 

An alumnus of the Columbia Business School’s Entrepreneurship Excellence Centre and Harvard Business School SEPA Program, Eva holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Journalism and Marketing from the United States International University (USIU) in Nairobi, a Diploma in Advanced Business Management from the IESE (University of Navarra) and Strathmore Business Schools. She is also a graduate of the global Stanford SEED Entrepreneurship Program. Eva is a mother to two adult daughters, Stephanie and Zawadi.

Learn more: www.bsd.co.ke