Chantelle Botha

00:34

Welcome to another edition of Expedition Business, where we talk to inspiring South African entrepreneurs about the highs and lows of their business journey and how on earth they manage to keep the flame of business adventure burning. Of course, facing your day with a smile is sometimes the toughest thing you have to do. My name is Christél Rosslee-Venter, your host and the one privileged enough to be talking to Chantelle.

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But before I introduce Chantelle to you, I would like to remind you to please subscribe, like, comment and share this podcast with as many of your friends and family as possible. Without your help, we cannot continue to share the amazing stories of our South African entrepreneurs. But back to why we are here today.

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Chantelle Botha, also known as the catalyst, is a powerhouse of transformation and unapologetic authenticity. Having overcome addiction twice, and rebuilt her life with purpose, she now empowers others to reclaim their true identity. She is the author of Phoenix Rising and creator of Reclaim the Flame, a journey designed to

02:02

with full power and purpose. Chantelle’s mission is to ignite flames of transformation worldwide. Chantelle, welcome to Expedition Business!

02:17

Chantelle: Thank you Christél, I’m so excited to be here. And already we’ve gotten into some juicy nuggets before we started recording, so let the show go on. 

Christél: And it doesn’t look like you are scared to share the juicy nuggets. 

Chantelle: Not at all, not at all. You know what, the juicy nuggets is what’s made me into who I am. And we can call them, quote, juicy nuggets. But let’s be honest, they are messes.

02:47

I have made plenty, plenty of messes. I think you and I were talking about one of my previous bios that you found online, and I make reference to the fact that I have got a PhD, wait for it, in the school of hard knocks. 

Christél: Okay, so how does that work? 

Chantelle: So I’m going to come back to the fact that I’m a twice recovered drug addict. Chantelle doesn’t learn. Chantelle has to bump her head.

03:17

hard and then sometimes do it again before the lessons start sinking in. But again I come back to this is what’s made me into the person I am and this is also the seat of my creativity. This is also what makes me into a good coach. It’s what makes me a good leader because I’ve walked the road. I faced pretty much anything you can imagine, got through it, came out the other side as a better person, a little battered and bruised at times.

03:46

But I’ve done it. And you now have a lot of stories to share and help other people and other entrepreneurs. 

Christél: Absolutely, absolutely. Okay. Chantelle, just quickly tell us how everything started because you used to be in corporate before you decided to go on your own. 

Chantelle: Yes. So I owe everything to the,

04:13

proverbial midlife crisis. And when clients come to me and they say, I think I’m having a midlife crisis, I’m like, yes, this is great news, I’ve got you. So I had recovered from my second addiction in about my mid 30s. And then towards around the time I turned 40, I started thinking, ah, you know, is this all my life is about? Where am I going? My son was about to finish school. I was about to become a footloose and fancy free.

04:43

glorified empty nest. And I started asking the questions, what do I want for my life? What do I want the rest of my life to be like? You know, I’ve got the first half passed, but now what’s the second half look like? And this process took me some years, but effectively what I did and what I arrived at is I had spent about 10 years in corporate sales and about 10 years in recruitment. I was really good at sales, but I hated it.

05:12

really good at recruitment, but I hated it. So what I did is I put the best parts of both of those roles together and I positioned myself as a career coach, teaching people how to sell themselves in the job market, which I knew so much about. And that’s how I launched my business. I started off as a career coach, created an international reputation in very, very short span of time.

05:37

And the business really went well for the first sort of three years. We’ll talk more about that later. But throughout this journey, you know, through, leading people on career coaching, the golden thread that always came through was I always said to people, but who are you? And how do we package that and take that to the world? How do we market that who are you-ness? Couple that with my personal journey. I’ve studied personal development for over 10 years. I’ve hugely committed to my own personal growth.

06:06

And with that, who am I? So it made logical sense for me to qualify as a life coach, then as a performance coach, then I started speaking. So everything kind of built from there. And now I consider myself an authority on identity. I love speaking about identity. I love showing people how identity impacts how we show up in the world. And ultimately how we show up determines the response we get.

06:34

So if you don’t like the response you’re getting, fix how you see yourself. It’s that simple. So that was kind of a long answer. 

Christél: Sounds so simple. 

Chantelle: It does, doesn’t it?

06:48

Christél: Chantelle, just quickly, so in total, how long have you been working on your own? 

Chantelle: I started 2019, so it’s nearly six years now. 

Christél: Okay. And any regrets? 

Chantelle: You know, if we had had this conversation in 2023, I would have said to you, oh, yes, but we got through that. Right now, as I said right now, no regrets whatsoever.

07:12

You know, business is not a walk in the park. It’s not sunshine and roses. And I think entrepreneurs need to recognize that. It’s easy to start a business, but to stay through the tough times is hard. And 2023 was the year that I nearly lost it. My business was scaling rapidly and it just fell apart in 2023. So I’ve got over that hump, grown some more through it, but now I’m in an absolutely strong place. Really, really good place. No regrets.

07:42

Christél: So 2023 is not that long ago. How did you get through it? 

Chantelle: So to answer that question, I must give you a little bit of context in terms of what happened. I told you the business was really scaling. I’d grown my reputation. It was doing incredibly well. And around the end of 2022, I had an investor come on board and I thought this was great, but you know what I didn’t realize?

08:08

All of a sudden Chantelle had to share decision making power and all sorts of ideas. And it wasn’t my thing anymore. And in that process, I lost my sense of purpose. Things fell apart early 2023 with the investor and with it, my confidence. So my confidence was at an all time low. I thought, you know, what am I doing? I had made stupid decisions, you know, in the business.

08:35

The investor was just one part of it, but I made a bunch of really stupid decisions. And 2023, I was in the job market. I was suicidal. I lost the plot completely. I just thought, you know what? This is not working. Business wasn’t happening, but it was all due to how I saw myself. And that’s why I have to preface that story with that shake in my confidence. I had lost that belief in myself, you know?

09:05

And that’s what caused the damage of 2023. And it wasn’t until I fixed how I saw myself towards the end of 2023 and probably after about mid-24, so it’s very recent, that things started flowing again.

09:24

Christél: I think people often think that once your business is going and it’s starting to boom that it’s just uphill from there. 

Chantelle: And I laugh because that’s exactly what I thought. I was smiling before 2023 hit. I thought you know what I have made it. I can’t believe it’s been this easy. It just flows. It’s happening.

09:51

But of course, as a baby business, right? The knocks have to come. But I think the lesson in that is mentorship is a big thing. With the investor, I did get some sort of mentorship, but I didn’t have enough other mentorship, different perspectives. So mentorship is a big thing. But again, Christél, you’re gonna hear, I keep coming back to this foundation of how we see ourselves.

10:18

I lost my own routine. I lost my own identity in that process. And that damaged how I saw myself. And it wasn’t until I started building up that foundation of purpose, of identity within myself, that I was able to turn things around. And you know what, going forward, there are going to be other dips, because I’ve started acknowledging that business is actually a rollercoaster ride. As you achieve one goal, you’re going to…

10:46

perhaps hit another dip, then achieve another goal. And as long as that graph is kind of always heading up, you’re okay. But there’s always going to be different challenges.

10:58

Christél: Speaking of challenges, and we spoke about this before we started recording, you used to be a mum, full-time mum. Well, not full-time, but you were a single mum, and all of a sudden you’re on your own. Does that have any impact on what you do and how you do it? 

Chantelle: Absolutely. You know, I think given the work that I do with women today, I see it more and more and more. We,

11:26

and I’m almost going to use a confrontational word here. We prostitute ourselves for our children. And we think it’s a good thing. How many women haven’t I spoken to who have said, I will die for my kids. And my retort is, well, dying is easy, honey. Can you live for your kids? So yes, being a single mom had a huge impact. If I look in sort of Kyle’s early life, I became known as a clock watcher when I was in corporate.

11:56

Why? Because I always screamed in at the last minute because the school didn’t open on time and then there’s the traffic. And I always left right on the dot of half past 4 so that the aftercare didn’t find me. Right? So this resulted in me actually putting Kyle in boarding school. So Kyle boarded weekly. I would drop him off on a Monday morning, fetch him on a Friday afternoon. So being a single mom

12:23

created a lot of different decisions in our lives that perhaps wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t a single mom. You know, and it’s not that I regret boarding school. Boarding school was the best thing for Kyle, but it was the best thing for Kyle. It’s not necessarily the best thing for every single child of a single mom, and we’ve got to remember that.

12:46

But I think people often forget everything that a single mom has to go through and the balls that she has to juggle. 

Christél: Absolutely. At least she doesn’t have to sit up with her husband that’s not doing his job. 

Chantelle: This is true. And you know, I must tell you, Kyle’s father died when Kyle was really, really young. Kyle’s father, or Kyle was, I think three when Kyle’s father passed away. And-

13:15

A lot of people say to me, I’m so sorry when they hear that. And I say to him, no, you know what? Yes, it was hard raising him alone, but you know what I never had? I never had the custody battles. I never had that scenario of my son going to dad for the weekend and coming back and saying, but dad said I can, right? You know, but it was hard, make no mistake. Without the support system of my family, my mom was very involved. My brother was very involved.

13:43

and I had that support system, I was fortunate to have that. Without that, I don’t know how I would have done it. And even so I messed it up because I became a drug addict at 30 again. Again. Sure, how did that work? So that was again, I talk a lot about losing purpose, losing identity.

14:07

I was an addict the first time just before I fell pregnant with Kyle. And that was, you know, that heyday of coming out of school, experimenting, trying everything. And I almost see my first addiction as the fun addiction, because that’s what it was. It was party lifestyle. It was all sorts of lights, camera actions sort of scenario. And it wasn’t too much of a damaging addiction. It was just a fun addiction. I know that sounds really weird.

14:32

But then of course, when I fell pregnant with Kyle, came clean, sorted myself out, started building my career. And for the next 10 years, I was climbing the corporate ladder. Towards the end of my 20s, I had this increasing sense of, I’m about to turn 30, what have I done with my life? Where am I going? Is this it? So that was that quarter life crisis. You know, you start asking the big questions again. And…

15:02

To be honest with you, Christél, I just didn’t feel like I had a sense of purpose. I told you I didn’t enjoy sales, I didn’t enjoy recruitment. I did my job because it paid a salary to provide a roof over our heads, but I didn’t love what I was doing, you know? And of course, being an adrenaline junkie, 30th birthday came and someone presented me with a disco biscuit, and before I knew it, I was a full-blown crystal meth addict.

15:30

Christél: Oh wow. And how do you get over that? 

Chantelle; So I got over that the hard way. I did it myself. My turning point was, Kyle was 13 at the time and he found my drugs in my cupboard. And he came to me and he said to me, mom, what’s going on here? What is this? Now the shame, the humiliation of having your 13 year old have the drug talk with you as the parent, I think it was probably the worst moment of my life.

16:01

but it was enough to shock me into acknowledging I’ve got to come right, I’ve got to fix this, this is not happening. Of course, being a single mom, not having savings, not having support, I didn’t have the luxury of going to a rehab or anything like that. I attended one NA meeting and I decided that I really didn’t like this whole groupie concept and I’m gonna do it on my own. And I did, it was really hard.

16:29

I damaged a lot of relationships, obviously in the addiction, but also in the come and clean process, because I was a monster. I was an absolute ogre. You know, I chewed everyone’s head off. I, oh no, it was just nasty. The bottom line is I did it.

16:47

Christél: Wow, wow. And your advice to anyone going through the same thing, what would that be? 

Chantelle: The same thing being a loss of purpose, lack of fulfillment. 

Christél: Loss of purpose, but also an addiction.

17:05

That’s a tough question to answer, Christél, because I’ve always said from an addiction point of view, and I’ve known addicts and I’ve worked with addicts, I’ve walked with addicts because of what I’ve come out of. And I firmly believe that every addict needs to reach their own rock bottom. I believe that no addict will turn their life around until their rock bottom has been reached. Now, the first time I was an addict, my rock bottom was falling pregnant.

17:35

The second time was my teenage son having to talk with me. Friends of mine, an arrest was their rock bottom. So it’s different for everyone. But I believe as if we look at the society and families that are dealing with addiction, so often we try to have these interventions. And in these interventions, we inadvertently enable the addict. And I really believe in the tough love approach.

18:04

I know it’s harsh, but I believe if someone is an addict and I’ve walked the road myself, I had so many friends come up to me and say, Shantel, you’re messing up. What are you doing? What’s going on? And you know my response? Flip the bird. That was really my response. So no addict is going to listen until they internalize that message. And we’ve got to stop enabling addicts.

18:29

So yeah. 

Christél: But if one look at the definition of an addict and someone that needs assistance seriously in whatever shape or size, I suppose it comes in many formats. It’s not just with narcotics or alcohol or whatever. There is a lot of forms where people really need help.

18:58

Chantelle: Absolutely. But the key is, and addiction is huge, and I’m so glad you raised that point, because it’s not just substances. I am still an addict today. Sometimes Netflix gets its claws into me. You know? And these are society, what’s socially acceptable addictions, whether it’s online shopping, whether it’s Netflix, whether it’s coffee, these are addictions.

19:26

And you’ve got to ask yourself, is an addiction, so first of all, you’ve got to figure out or define an addiction. And I don’t quite have the definition clear, but it’s something that you feel like it calms you down. It’s something that becomes, if you don’t do it, you feel like you need to do it, right? So we might say, well, Netflix calms me down. But then an evening goes by where you don’t watch Netflix and you feel there’s something missing. That’s warning signs.

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And then the last thing is, is it damaging your life? Are you doing this habit, this behavior at the expense of other healthier things? So if I’m turning down friendships and conversations, constructive conversations with people in favor of Netflix, then it’s an addiction. But now to come to the heart of your question in terms of how we help the addict, first we define the addiction, but now…

20:21

From a help perspective, so many of us looking from the outside in want to help, but we’ve got to acknowledge we cannot help. The help request has to come from the addict. If the addict doesn’t ask for help, the addict is not ready for help. I’ve got a friend who’s fortunate. I don’t know if fortunate is the right word, but the parents keep putting this person in rehab.

20:51

again, and again, and again. So where is this help coming from? The help is coming from the parents are saying, I’m going to help you. The addict is going, lekker, no problem. I’ll go I’ll go dry out for a little while, but the addict hasn’t made the decision to stop the behavior until we ourselves take full responsibility for our lives. And this is addiction as well as personal growth, business, all the rest of it.

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We’ve got to get to the point where we say, you know what, so far and no further, I want to change this. And that’s when we can get involved from our whole perspective.

21:29

Christél: But I think it’s very difficult to get there.

Chantelle: It is. And to not want to get involved too much. It is. And this is where the tough love concept is so hard. And I’ll give you a sort of counterpoint. You know, my mom and dad didn’t see eye to eye in terms of my first addiction. I think they were kind of going through a divorce or just before their divorce when I was the first time I was an addict. And

21:58

Dad was very much standoffish and mom accused dad of rejecting me. And mom was very much in favor of supporting me and loving me and all the rest of it. But now how this played out is if I look back on it now, mom enabled me because she used to bring me groceries. So of course, grocery money could go to drugs, right? Dad maybe didn’t,

22:27

interpret it correctly, but his whole stance was, I don’t approve of your lifestyle. That’s it. That’s it. You know. So yes, there was some rejection in there and there was some stuff that I had to deal with about that in later years. But in later years, I looked back and I said, you know, dad actually empowered me to make my own decisions. Because he said to me, girl, you’ve made your own bed. You’ve got the flat.

22:57

You don’t have money, you’re messing up your job. Your choice, don’t come to me for help. Whereas mom used to secretly bring me groceries. Mom was enabling. And this is not a judgment, it’s something we’ve discussed as a family. But it’s very interesting how what was perceived as rejection behavior from dad was actually empowering behavior from dad. But hard, very, very hard to do when it’s someone you love. I can imagine.

23:28

Christél: Chantelle, to what extent does all of these experiences motivate what you are doing today?

23:38

Chantelle: If I can do that. I can do anything, right? Christél, I think the big picture is, and I’ve said it before, I’ve walked the road ahead of the clients that I need. Not many or not all of my clients are addicts. Some of them are single moms, whatever it might be. But if we look at that fundamental thing that drove my behavior, it was a loss of purpose.

24:07

It was a loss of identity. It was asking the big questions, whether it was quarter life crisis or midlife crisis, whatever it was. And for me, that is that fundamental thing. That is the thing that motivates me. Purpose is the thing that drives me. And you and I were even speaking about it before we started the show. And I said to you, whenever I do a podcast or something, I always ask myself, what is my purpose? Every day that starts, I ask myself, what is my purpose? What is my objective here today?

24:37

And for what it’s worth, when I talk about purpose, when I teach purpose, I teach it in terms of three P words. So there’s a bit of process, right? First P word is play, pleasure, process. So we’ve got to return to play. And for what it’s worth, I always have play things on my desk. Okay. We’ve got to return to play. We’ve got to play with our careers, play with our relationships, play with…

25:05

play, look at children, right, in a playground. As they play, they figure out what they like, they figure out what they don’t like. That is the power of play. They also start understanding who they are. So as we play, we start learning what brings us pleasure in our careers, in our lives. And if we follow the pleasure, if we do the things that excite us, right, then what happens is the next word comes into play.

25:32

we get involved and we fall in love with the process. And you know what that’s called? That’s called flow state. 

Christél: Okay. 

Chantelle: So if you want to create, if you want to live a purpose driven life, if you want to just do things that matter, right? Play, follow the pleasure, get lost in the process, enter that flow state. And that’s where I’ve been for the last year. And…

25:58

It’s amazing to see how my business has turned around in only a year, just shy of a year through that attitude. 

Christél: And I suppose you’ve never considered going back to corporate. 

Chantelle: No. You know what? It took me a long time to realize I am not, I’m not fit for corporate, you know, I just don’t fit the mold. And I think this is also why I didn’t,

26:26

experience that sense of purpose and that sense of pleasure in corporate. I was always the square peg in the round hole. You know, I can’t tell you how many times I got sent home because your dress code is too eccentric, Chantelle, or your toenails are not painted, or you know, goodness sake. I also dye my hair purple or pink or whatever as the mood strikes, you know, I’m eccentric, I push boundaries, I ask questions. It’s part of my personality.

26:56

I was born to be an entrepreneur, I don’t fit corporate. I’ve made my peace with that. 

Christél: Okay, that is so good to know. So you sort of answered the question, but just to take it all together, what makes you feel on top of the world? 

Chantelle: Play, pleasure. So I need to take it a step further. What I’ve learned in the last sort of year and a bit is that I’ve really dove into this embodiment concept.

27:26

And last year I realized that as dedicated as I have been in terms of this pursuit for personal development, personal growth, understanding the mind, the thinking and how we start changing structures, what’s happened for the last 10 years is I’ve been this disembodied head on top of a body. Everything’s happened sort of from the neck up and I haven’t involved my body.

27:51

As a result of that, interestingly enough, in the last couple of years, I was classified as obese. I was, yeah, I had high blood pressure. Um, health was just not working for me because you know what? I was neglecting my body so much. So I started learning about embodiment and I started incorporating this holistic way of living. You see, we are three parts, body, mind and soul or spirit, whatever you want to call it.

28:21

And when we incorporate our body with our thinking, we can actually change belief systems. There’s so much that can happen. We can access our intuition. When we start involving our body, and I’m not making much sense, but hang on, let me give you an example. Let me make it tangible. So what I started doing is I started following the play and the pleasure process, and I returned to dancing. I love dancing.

28:50

I’ve loved dancing for years. So I didn’t get to a point and think, you know what, Chantelle, your health needs addressing. I just started dancing. I started following the pleasure. Out of that, I found a couple of other modalities that I enjoy and so I mixed it up a little bit. So I’d dance, I’d play poi, I’ve started running again, which is something I did like 10 years ago, or long, not long time ago. But I don’t look at any of these things as exercise,

29:17

actually look at them as pleasure, but also as meditation. So when I’m busy spinning my poi, for instance, that’s when I get my best ideas in terms of how to coach a difficult client or how to write a talk that I’m preparing for. So you see how this embodiment practice has been, it’s been an exercise, but it’s also been an intuitive thing where I’ve got more in touch with my intuition, more in touch with my creativity.

29:42

The result of course is I no longer have a high blood pressure reading and I’m no longer obese.

29:50

Christél: That is fantastic. I was just trying to figure out how you must look like if you’re obese. I just can’t imagine. 

Chantelle: Round face. Round face. 

Christél: Okay. Chantelle, just quickly, you talk about spinning your poi. Yes. What is that? So poi, you’ve got fire poi and you’ve got practice poi, right? So I’ve got a set of practice poi that are like socks with a tennis ball on the end,

30:19

and you spin them. But now imagine if those tennis balls were fire. Now I don’t have a set of fire. I used to do fire dancing when I was dragging, but I’ve returned back to that. I’m waiting for my first set of fire point now. So I’m gonna start with that. So you spin these balls of fire on the end of strings and you make all sorts of loops and it’s just beautiful, but it’s meditative. That’s what I love about it.

30:49

It’s more meditation. 

Christél: Do you get exercise? 

Chantelle: Of course it’s exercise. Of course it’s exercise because I dance when I’m doing it. Okay, okay. Absolutely, absolutely. 

Christél: Interesting and then you mentioned that you do running. 

Chantelle: Yes. Road running, mountain running. So my knees are not so hot as they used to be. I used to do trail running.

31:13

And I love the trail running and the whole off-road concept. But you know what? With my knees, I’m just being careful at this point in time. So I do the road running. But I do do a lot of hiking. Love getting out into nature, across the mountains, here behind me, into wine lands, and all sorts of beautiful things. 

Christél: I am so jealous. 

Chantelle: I know, right? 

Christél: I’m so jealous. I think I need to move down to the Cape. 

Chantelle: Absolutely.

31:43

Christél: Yeah, I think when it comes to highs and lows, you’ve mentioned that a couple of lows, but on a daily basis, do you still find that you go through the ups and downs? Or is it just going up all the way from breakfast to dinner? 

Chantelle: No, no, no, no. And you know, I really believe in being authentic about

32:10

the fact that we all experience challenges. And I’m so glad that you asked that question because so many of my audience and my clients always say to me, but Chantelle, you’re always upbeat, you’re always positive. Do you ever have a bad day? And I say, yeah, all the time, all the time, right? Just two days ago, I had another minor wobble. The difference is, Christél, I’ve learned how to recognize I’m having a wobble.

32:38

I’ve learned how to stop it in its tracks. And I’ve learned how to respond to my world as opposed to react to my world. And that’s why you will always see me positive, upbeat. You might see me emotional or a little bit less upbeat than I am, but yeah, the ups and downs are still there, but I’ve just learned how to handle them. And I’ve also learned not to identify with them. Shit’s gonna happen. Doesn’t mean anything about me.

33:07

It just means this is life, right? What we’re gonna do next. 

Christél: And that you’re normal. 

Chantelle: Exactly. It happens to everyone. 100%. Because I think that is a big problem. We tend to think that it is not normal to have our dance and that everyone else that is highly prestigious don’t get the dance. 

Christél: Absolutely. 

Chantelle: And I think it comes back to this identification with it.

33:35

If I look at 2023, when I told you I was suicidal, I identified with the downs. I internalized every rejection. It became a story. It became a narrative in my head. This is not working. That means you’re a mess. This is not working. That means you’re a failure. So you see, here’s the thing. Very often people will say, I am frustrated.

34:03

No, you’re not frustrated, you are feeling frustrated. That’s when we don’t identify with the emotion. And I’m very careful about the words that I use lately. I’m experiencing an obstacle, but I’m not blocked because that’s not part of my identity.

34:20

Christél: And I suppose this is part of what you teach your students and what you talk about in your speeches. 

Chantelle: That’s it. Absolutely. 

Christél: What we’ve mentioned, you’ve mentioned dancing and running. What other fun and exciting ways do you use to regroup and refocus and rejuvenate your soul? 

Chantelle: Four by four. 

Christél: Okay. Where are we to do that? 

Chantelle: Where?

34:50

In Cape Town. On the mountains here behind me. Do you want to still come down? So there’s a couple of amazing 4×4 tracks around the area. There’s one super one in Stellenbosch. There’s another one out sort of towards Hermanus. And there’s one literally right behind my house that I can sometimes go to. So I love the 4×4-ing. I love the beach. I love getting out into

35:20

And again, I find that from a productivity perspective, very often that perspective is all we need. And that also helps you just navigate, you know, those ups and downs. 

Christél: And those ups and downs keep on coming. 

Chantelle: Oh yeah. 

Christél: So you have to keep on navigating. 

Chantelle: Absolutely. Yeah. But you know what’s beautiful about it? It’s fun, right? 

Christél: Yeah. Just quickly, I met you at the Professional Speakers Association.

35:50

What would be your biggest reason for being part of speaker organizations such as PSA? 

Chantelle: So I’ve always said, from a career coaching perspective, right? I’ve always advised my clients to get involved in their local or industry association because every single one of us wants to grow. And your industry association is going to provide education and networking.

36:19

I don’t care what association it is, whether it’s engineers, whether it’s speakers, every association provides education and networking. And that’s the stuff that we need to grow. So now bringing it back to me personally, I have probably been speaking for about 10 years, sort of informally as part of my career here and there. And it’s just something I do. And two, just over two years ago, nearly three years ago, I decided I wanna formalize my speaking career.

36:48

And that’s why I joined the speaking association. You see, I was taking my own medicine. I was learning and I was networking. And let me tell you, Christél has been the best decision I made. I’m part of the local association PSA SA, but I’m also part of the international one, VSAI, Virtual Speakers Association International. And the connections that I have made and just being able to…

37:13

have someone at the other end of the line to say, you know what, I would love to pick your brains about something, how do I tackle this? So that networking and that continuous education has been a game changer for me.

37:26

Christél: Chantelle, just quickly, if you could be 20 years old again, what would you do differently?

37:36

Chantelle: So firstly, I don’t believe in regret. I really believe it’s a futile emotion. I’m here, I’ve done what I’ve done. How am I going to make good on it, right? So if I was 20 years old, you know, I wouldn’t warn myself of what was coming. But what I would say is I would say, just be patient. Big, big, big roller coasters ahead, but just be patient, it’ll all work out.

38:06

Christél: Different? 

Chantelle: No. Not. I think if I have to, if I have to, if you force me to acknowledge a regret, it’s the relationships that I’ve burned. And I’ve burned a lot of relationships. 

Christél: Okay. 

Chantelle: But yeah, you know what, again, it’s part of the learning. Is it any wonder that one of my keynotes is called relationship unlocks opportunity?

38:35

Christél: That sounds like you can write a book about that. 

Chantelle: There you go. 

Christél: So if you have to choose your number one recommendation for entrepreneurs, what would that be?

38:55

The journey starts within, it has to start within. As an entrepreneur, if you don’t take care of you, if you don’t support yourself, your identity, your sense of purpose, your personal development, and then your corporate development, you’re going to fall flat. Every single one of the clients who come to me, come to me because they’ve neglected themselves.

39:24

It’s not rocket science, but a friend of mine, Ian Hutton, also in the speaking industry, he always says, and I always attribute this quote to him, your number one job today is you.

39:38

That’s it. That’s it. We’ve got to prioritize it. So many people say, you know, I don’t have time to meditate or to do whatever your routine is, right? I don’t have time. And I always say, well, those are the times when you actually need to meditate longer.

39:55

We’ve got to fight for it. And don’t you also think that people tend to, you were talking about your coaching clients, people tend to think you have to be really done in the dumps before you get yourself a coach. There is definitely a perception about, with regards to that. And interestingly, what I’ve noticed is that the South African market tends to veer on that side of the perception.

40:23

the international market tends to veer on the other side, where a coach is someone who can take good and make it brilliant, right? And that’s the international sort of perception. I’m generalizing vastly here, but the South African perception, unfortunately, we will catch up, is still that, well, if you need a coach, you clearly got problems, sister. And while I’m on that subject, I’d like to just differentiate between coaching and therapy.

40:54

Coaches help you look forward. Therapists help you make sense of what was behind. Now in my coaching, we do talk about the stuff that was behind, but we’re not here to unpack it. We’re here to look at it and say, okay, that happened. Now how do we move forward? So we’re always, a coach is always looking forward. A coach is about where you’re going, whereas a therapist is about where you’ve been.

41:18

And people don’t really realize that. So a very, very good point that you brought up there. 

Christél: And I was also while you were talking, I’ve, for instance, at what? Where am I now? 54 years of age.

Chantelle: Are you going to start counting? 

Christél: Yes, I have to start counting. Got myself a coach for my running. And a lot of people think I’m crazy, but.

41:45

I just find it so much easier if it’s somebody helping me to get where I want to be. 

Chantelle: And you know what? South Africa is such a sporting economy or such a sporting nation. Think about it through the lens of sporting. The coach stands on the sideline, your running coach is watching you. You’re not watching you. You’re so busy doing that you’re not watching. And your coach will watch from the sideline and say, you know what, Christé, I’ve noticed that you turn your toes a little bit inwards.

42:14

What would happen if you turn them outwards and you’re like, oh, I do that? It’s the same with coaching. We’ve got the benefit of perspective because we’re looking from the outside in and there’s so much value in that. So well done. And people definitely don’t understand the value of a business coach. 

Christél: I agree. That I see on a constant basis. 

Chantelle:I agree. 

Christél: People would

42:39

get me in as a marketing consultant, but they would think twice to get me in as a business coach. It’s so much easier to focus on how to fix marketing than to how to look at the person. 

Chantelle: Oh, you are so right. Because of that’s, my clients come to me because there’s something happening in their world. Oh, I was retrenched. Oh, I’m about to go through a divorce. Or, oh, you know, whatever, right? It’s so easy to look at all the external stuff.

43:08

but it’s so hard to say, you know what? I think I need to fix myself. And that’s the key every single time. And it’s the same with business coaching. As entrepreneurs, until we are committed to fixing ourselves, we won’t step into our full potential. It has to be a priority. 

Christél: Absolutely, absolutely. Well, that’s one of the messages that we do at Expedition Business,

43:37

it’s okay to get help. It doesn’t mean you’re done and out, you’re just planning to be so much better. 

Christél: Yes. And want to get somewhere, as opposed to just staying where you are. 

Chantelle: Absolutely. So. Absolutely. 

Christél: Chantelle, just quickly, what would be your number one book that you can recommend for our entrepreneurs? 

Chantelle: Ah, you know. Oh, I read so many books.

44:09

I can’t ask which one, which one, which one. For some reason, and this is a totally lighthearted book, but for some reason, my heart is just being pulled in that direction. Green Lights by Matthew McConaughey. Have you read it? 

Christél: No, I haven’t. Why should I read it? 

Chantelle: Fabulous, so I’m going to tell you. So he speaks about, you know, in his sexy Texan drawl, right?

44:34

And all my books I listen to on Audible. That’s why I’m talking about how he speaks because you can actually hear it. It’s amazing. Do yourself a favor. But he talks about life in the concept of red lights and green lights. So like a robot concept in the South African concept. And he says, you know what? Oh, this happened, green light, baby, let’s go. This happened, red light, not a problem. So what we’ve been talking about, red light, okay, so we stop here.

45:03

taking the sights, taking the sounds, green lights coming. But he also talks about celebrating those green lights. And this is such a big principle in my coaching. We’ve got to learn to celebrate the small ones, the daily ones to create this physiology of success. And so often we gloss over the little things. Ooh, I got a meeting with the client, or ooh, I sent the email I’ve been dreading to send. Celebrate those things. Green light, baby, go.

45:31

You know, life is made up of green lights. So it’s a lighthearted read. But what I like is it speaks to the soul, absolutely speaks to the soul. It’s not written from entrepreneurial language and business strategy and all the rest. But you get that soul piece right, everything else follows.

Christél: Absolutely, absolutely. So you’ve mentioned that you are surrounded by all these amazing mountains.

46:01

If you look at the metaphorical mountains that you still want to climb within the next three to five years, what would that be? 

Chantelle: I’ve just signed with a publisher for my book. So that’s coming out. Yeah, that happened yesterday. 

Christél: So congratulations. Nervous, excited. What is the title? 

Chantelle: Thank you. So that’s coming out and I really want to leverage that in the next couple of months.

46:29

but that’s sort of a small mountain as it were. Something that really came home to me yesterday is I’ve always, since I joined the association, I have wanted the CSP speaking designation, which stands for certified speaking professional. Now it’s quite a thing to get the CSP. You know, you’ve got to prove income, you’ve got to have…

46:52

the majority of your income from your speaking business, not from your coaching business. And I’m kind of at an equilibrium at this point in time. So it’s quite a process. It’s an administrative process. And I keep thinking five-year plan, Chantal, five-year plan. And just yesterday, the president of VSAI sent me a nudge and said, let’s get your CSP ready for next year. And I thought,

47:22

But you know what I did? I went and looked at it and yeah, it means I’m gonna have to pull some finger for the next couple of months, but I can do it. And again, you see, I’ve just challenged a belief system. I keep saying that’s a five-year plan, but I think it could be a one-year plan. So that’s my big mountain right now. Taking this five-year plan and turning it into a one-year plan and making it work.

47:49

Christél: And it sounds like if you put your heart and mind to it, you can achieve anything. 

Chantelle: Absolutely. Absolutely. It’s just a question of when. 

Christél: Well, six months from now. How’s that for a challenge? 

Chantelle: Taken, taken. Let’s do it. 

Christél: Chantelle, do you have any specific quotes that’s very close to your heart?

48:20

So I think back to the last words that my dad spoke to me. And when I was coming clean from my second addiction, I told you how it burned through relationships. And my dad was the only person in my family and in my friendship circle that was actually standing by me and supporting me through this process. And I phoned him up one day and I said to him, dad, why me? I said, everything is just falling apart, I can’t. And I was having this massive pity party with him.

48:50

And Christél, he said to me, Chantelle, stop asking why and start asking what next. And it kind of hit me here between the eyes. And I thought, okay, that I can do. But it became even more profound a few days later. Those were the last words he ever spoke to me. He died from a heart attack a few days later.

49:12

And yeah, you know, I honestly think those words were divinely guided because those were the words that got me onto my personal development journey. Those were the words that got me onto the, Chantelle, you’ve got more potential than this. There’s more to this, you know. What next? What next? What next? And what next is such a simple statement because it’s not about that big CSP designation that I’m pursuing. It’s about what is the next email that I sent today?

49:42

What is the next conversation that I have? What next? What do I do next? And it’s about that, it’s just that principle of momentum just moving forward. And I think that has taught me to move from victim mode, why me, to victor mode. What next? 

Christél: Wow. From victim to victor.

50:06

Absolutely beautiful. Oh my goodness. Chantelle, thank you so much for your time. We really, really appreciate it. And yeah, I am just so grateful that I’ve asked you to join us today. Chantelle: Oh, Christél, for me too. It’s been amazing. 

Christél: Final word of wisdom to our entrepreneurs. Starting a business is easy.

50:35

Chantelle: Staying the course is the thing that takes grit. And the only way you’re gonna stay the course is if you have a solid foundation, knowing exactly who you are, knowing where you’re going, and calling on that sense of purpose to get you through every single day. But if I can, you can. And if countless others before me have, so can you. It will be hard, but it’s worth it.