For me, as a teenager dreaming of a future where I could start my days at 10am, travel and decide when and where I wanted to work – I thought being an entrepreneur would make me a millionaire in my 20s, and I’d be free to do whatever, wherever, whenever. What I didn’t know then is that I’d be signing up for late nights, long hours, self-doubt, and perceived failure…and not a millionaire by my 25th birthday. While I may have neglected what the fine print on “the life lessons” side of entrepreneurship read – I did gain freedom, which is exactly what I wanted as a child. I wanted the freedom of time and place, the freedom to decide and do, the freedom to be and create and most of all the freedom to live out my purpose -whatever I would discover it to be.
In many ways in 2025 we find ourselves globally on the threshing floor, battling for our freedom and liberties, separating leaders and ally’s, and wrestling with who we are as humanity in this moment. Many have had to reconsider what some of the global changes mean for their growing startup and some have already had to make hard pivots in response to the political and economic landscape. As challenging as this season may be, I do want to encourage you that we will make it through, because that is what we do, the question is to interrogate our how.
How we show up is a reflection of what is happening internally. In this issue we celebrate Freedom Day in South Africa and the beauty of womanhood with our theme “Freedom to be: BeautiFully You”. Liz Letsoalo shares her journey as founder of Masodi Beauty in our cover story and on our Behind-the-Business YouTube Feature – reminding us that beauty is indeed political and we are free to determine how we choose to look. Ayanda Tetyana takes us within as we reflect on rest as a form of resistance and influencing dialogues on what it means to be a woman in our new womanhood column. Wendy Chalmers-Mill invites us outward by transcending leadership through emotional intelligence to cultivate resilience.
My beauty-full invitations to you this month are to;
Reflect on You: I invite you to pause where you are and reflect on what freedom would mean for you in this moment and what that would look like, then take one action, no matter how small to make that happen or move you closer to.
Join Community: I also invite you to explore freedom with our community, join the Founders Retreat waitlist and our Golf & Book Club meet-up, or sign up for our membership community.
Share Money Questions: I also invite you to get free in your finances by sharing your burning finance questions for our upcoming “agony aunt” style money feature.
And most importantly, I invite you to dare to and step into the Freedom of being BeautiFully you.
