the pride of Africa's women entrepreneurs
by Marilize Jacobs
For years, I was known as a “full-time mom.” It was my most important role. But when I stepped back into the “corporate world”, I didn't hide that chapter; I leveraged it. That journey, which I detailed on various platforms, wasn't just my story - it was my strategy. It proved that personal branding isn't a luxury; it's the core of modern business credibility. It transformed my identity into my most valuable professional equity.
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by Marilize Jacobs
If you’d told me fresh after varsity that my greatest professional qualifications in my mid-30s would be earned not in an office, but on the floor of a paediatric therapist’s room and in divorce court, I’d have cried. In 2017, I was deep in the “triathlon of overwhelm”: navigating my son’s autism diagnosis, a marriage ending, and a body screaming with adrenal fatigue. I was a shell, crying over spilt milk because the spilt milk felt like the final, cruel joke.
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by Marilize Jacobs
According to a 2024 PwC study, 73% of executives mistakenly use Public Relations (PR) and Reputation Management interchangeably. A confusion that costs companies an average of $2.4M per crisis in lost revenue and recovery. The difference? Hard data tells the story: PR succeeds when visibility climbs (e.g. media mentions rise by 40%). Reputation management succeeds when risk drops (e.g. negative search results fall by 65%).
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by Marilize Jacobs
Colour therapy in branding is the strategic use of colours to evoke emotions, influence perceptions, and shape consumer behavior through your marketing and brand identity. It is rooted in colour psychology, which studies how different colour hues (shades) affect human emotions, decisions and associations.
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by Marilize Jacobs
Imagine stepping into an office that instantly calms your nerves, or presenting your brand in a way that speaks volumes without saying a word. This is the subtle, yet powerful impact of color psychology or chroma-preneurship, a concept not widely recognised in traditional vocabulary, representing the ingenious application of colour psychology to entrepreneurial endeavours.
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by Marilize Jacobs
This question is usually answered by referring to IQ, test scores and grades. Yet, in business (and life) I believe street smarts – i.e., social and emotional intelligence as well as resilience (also referred to as SQ, EQ and AQ)– are just as important (if not more) than book smarts.
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by Marilize Jacobs
Do you constantly feel exhausted? Do you struggle with sleep? Do you feel that you are not coping at work? Do you generally feel unwell; perhaps even battling high blood pressure, frequent headaches and stomach issues such as cramps and diarrhoea? You might just suffer from burnout, a condition now officially recognised by The World Health Organisation (WHO).
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by Marilize Jacobs
I want to tell you two things: I like you! I know how you feel! Those are words we ALL need to hear more often. I often wondered if there was a “science” to being more likable and develop rapport with people, thereby making them feel that you like and understand them and ensure the feeling is mutual. That is exactly where the Emotional Quotient (EQ), also known as Emotional Intelligence (EI), plays a crucial role.
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by Marilize Jacobs
Resilience is an intelligence that can help founders overcome hardship.
Exhaustion has overtaken me, and I’ve grown weary of the incessant buzz surrounding artificial intelligence, or AI, and the health risks of air fryers. Don’t get me wrong, AI is remarkable. But I long for conversation that delves into the less chartered human territory: How people think and behave.
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by Marilize Jacobs
Being a single mom of twins is a full-time job. So is running my own business. This is what I do for a living and for the last couple of years I have been on a quest to feel truly at peace with my daily actions. I wanted to derive happiness from the fact that I was my own boss and had the freedom to live my life accordingly. In a nutshell: I wanted to be happy at work. Really happy.
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