Unveiling the Successes and African Tourism Entrepreneurs

I believe many of us find ourselves within the hospitality industry unexpectedly as the industry has various entry level avenues for people entering the workforce.

We may start in a junior position and then suddenly it’s 25 years later and you can’t imagine your life without the industry. That’s exactly what happened to me! and today I want to share my story and what has driven my entrepreneurial spirit.

My entry to the industry wasn’t one of clarity, I left home at a young age and needed to find full time employment at the age of 16. I previously had a ‘Sunday’’ job working as a waitress so it was an obvious choice to continue this path while I figured out my life plans and I found employment in a local restaurant.

During this time I found comfort in the types of people who work within the industry, finding them to be warm, kind, funny and compassionate. I was also fortunate enough to have a boss who valued growth both for his business but also for his employees and he sent me on various courses, including an NQF qualification in hospitality management.

During this job, I realized that this industry was going to be my career. It felt so aligned to who I was and matched the person I was becoming as I navigated the transition into adulthood.

Fast forward a few years and I realized that I could combine my skills and knowledge within the industry with my passion for wildlife and nature and I became a lodge manager in Greater Kruger National park. I totally thrive in this environment and having elephants in my garden will never be boring.

My strengths have always been within managing and training others, while maintaining excellent service levels. Overtime I especially enjoyed my back of house duties around HR.

I consider myself to be very compassionate and gravitate towards helping others and around 8 years ago I was finding myself helping people within the industry find employment. I was doing this through helping them with their CVs, or sharing job posts I saw that I felt may be matched to their skills and interests.

In addition to this being a lodge manager myself meant I had lots of friends who were managers and I had noticed they would reach out to me often to ask if I perhaps knew of anyone who may be interested in vacancies that popped up at their lodge. This is when I had a typical ‘’lightbulb moment’’ and realized that what I was doing to match job seekers and employers had a name and it was recruitment, and I loved it! That feeling of helping both parties was like nothing else I had experienced before, and my company Wild Dreams was born. It wasn’t long before I could hire my first team member and one of my proudest achievements is that I have built a team of amazing, and values-aligned recruiters who are just as passionate about helping people in this way as I am.

As I consider myself a visionary entrepreneur, I quickly grew Wild Dreams into much more than just a recruitment company and we currently offer staff training, employee coaching and consulting. My role moved into a CEO role, but I missed the personal connection of helping people and I became a certified career coach.

I now offer various coaching services from once off ‘’express’’ calls where my clients can ask a specific question, to longer packages and group programs specializing in holistic career clarity coaching, helping people find values aligned careers and of course, with my 25 years of hospitality and tourism industry experience I also specialize in helping others within the industry.

This year I decided I wanted to do more to help the unemployed and we have partnered with various non profit organizations offering ‘’work-ready’’ workshops. It lights me up each time I see someone benefit from our help whether this is through employment, a coaching session or a workshop and the vision for our impact has only just begun.

Find out more about who we are and what we do here: www.wilddreams.co.za