This weekend, I had the privilege of engaging in some of the things I’m most passionate about: collaboration, mentoring, and investing in people.
Years ago, when I attempted to homeschool my son, I discovered something important about myself: I am not a teacher. Teaching and training genuinely terrify me. Yet, they run in my blood. My father, a former training superintendent at PetroSA, not only trained countless individuals but also developed accredited training manuals. Before retiring, he earned a BTech degree in Human Resources Development. Today, he co-owns and operates the Conscious Mind Study Hub. At one point, he asked me to assist with tasks like HTML tutoring. I flat-out refused. The mere thought of standing in front of a group was petrifying.
Despite this fear, I’ve come to realize that mentoring comes naturally to me. Over the past several months, I’ve been guiding and encouraging someone through WhatsApp video calls to help her start her own business. This process has even involved a degree of teaching and training - despite my belief that I’m a hopeless teacher! However, the sheer volume of information she had to consume and process was overwhelming.
On Thursday morning last week, she informed me that she and her fiancé were flying in from Johannesburg that very afternoon so that we could work together in person for three days. At first, I was shocked. Then, I was beyond excited. I quickly put together a three-day training plan and scheduled a coffee collaboration meeting with a client for Saturday.
Mentoring her in person taught me a lot about myself. I get anxious when I have to talk extensively, and I tend to stutter. This happens during video calls too, but for some reason, it’s worse in person. On the other hand, I have the patience of Job and deeply value the personal connection that gets lost over devices. Working in person also made setups and demonstrations much easier.
While remote mentoring can overcome many obstacles with the right software, I’ve resisted investing in these tools. Mentoring is something I do as an act of love rather than as a lucrative endeavor, so the costs don’t feel justifiable. Ironically, I also dislike cameras and microphones! This experience forced me to confront my aversion to in-person teaching and training and opened an internal dialogue about it.
This experience has been the highlight of my 2025 so far. In retrospect, three days felt far too short. There was so much more I wished to share with her, but that will have to wait for future video calls. By the end of the weekend, we had successfully worked through the training plan I had hastily prepared. As an added bonus, my client finally found the perfect candidate for a freelance role he’d been struggling to fill for a long time.
Spending time mentoring and developing someone is something I will never regret. There’s a unique joy in helping someone uncover their potential and equipping them to pursue their dreams.
I am eager to see where this journey leads - for both of us.