Creating PEACE by Piece is the book by Kathi Hyde, who, in our recent 6-part series, If they can, so can you, has been sharing the stories of ordinary business owners who have not only survived – but THRIVED – throughout this uncertain period mixed with COVID, cash flow issues, markets drying up, talent shortages, supply chain issues, economies under strain…to mention only a choice few.
These business owners have, despite being in industries that were some of the hardest hit by the pandemic, ‘pulled through’ bigger, better and stronger. Not because they are more talented, more funded or more fortunate. No. They ‘made it’ because they were brave, honest and dedicated enough to, together with business coach Kathi Hyde (formerly Kathi Clarke), uncover what the deep-seated problems in their businesses (and themselves!) were, and then took the necessary steps to remediate their situation and overcome the challenges. It has been an informative, inspiring and enabling journey.
Now, in this article, we meet Kathi Hyde herself, the woman behind many an entrepreneurial success story with a fierce reputation as a “truth-teller”.
Kathi is an international business growth expert, providing industrial psychology and business know-how to businesses large and small. She’s built an extremely profitable, lucrative business and an investment portfolio that can fund her life – all from a business run out of her home between 9:30am and 3:30pm. She works with clients in various parts of the world, has won many coaching awards and continues to be a consistently high performer in the industry.
But it wasn’t always like that!
The opening lines of her Kathi’s eagerly anticipated upcoming book PEACE by Piece – a Practical Guide to Stepping Up or Starting Over in Business and in Life offers a frank admission:
“I stood there numbly in my mum’s garage, like a shell-shocked solider unable to get to grips with what was happening to me. This was not the script I’d chosen for my life. My little daughter was saying something, but I couldn’t respond. I was struggling to simply breathe. I’d just carried the last box from the removal van and dropped it with the rest of my worldly belongings in my mum’s garage. For weeks I’d just been getting stuff done, packing, organising the move and then, standing there looking at those boxes, and all I could do was ask myself how in God’s name had I got here? This was not how it was supposed to be. This was not how it was meant to work out! And yet there I was … forty-six years old, moving back into my mum’s house with my six-year-old daughter. My marriage was over. I had no job and no money. I felt like a total failure. Surely, I should have had my s**t together by now! But life doesn’t always go according to plan, does it?”
Kathi arrived in South Africa 15 years ago, on the back foot after an unexpected divorce and as an unemployable, newly single mum who needed to find a way to make money that didn’t involve getting a 9-5 job, and that gave her the flexibility she needed to single parent her six-year-old daughter and fund a life. Her journey was not quick or linear – very far from it – and there were twists and turns and umpteen setbacks since she started her own business as a business coach back in 2009 right in the middle of the global banking fail. She became her own first client, found her purpose and practiced what she preaches.
Kathi and her clients have proven that you can start over or step up, even in hard times, to build a business that achieves the results you deserve, brings out the best in your people, thrives regardless of the economic challenges or markets, and allows you to live your life well.
Using vignettes of her own story as a backdrop, Kathi shares proven step-by-step strategies to help existing and new business owners achieve the same results – no matter where they are in their life or business journey.
This book considers both the business owner and the business. Part One prepares readers mentally and emotionally to overcome their setbacks and take on the mantle of being a business owner. It also helps them work out the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ of starting or growing their business. Part Two provides the practical business skills and know-how to build a profitable, resilient and rewarding business that delivers.
Based on sound business principles and practices, and packed with wisdom, anecdotes, strategies, practical examples, motivation, and the insight and experience gained from Kathi’s more than 30-year involvement with business across a range of industries in developed and developing countries, PEACE by Piece is a coach-come-business-school in a book.
Readers who are considering self-employment, who need to ‘restart’ their business to be more effective and profitable, or those who’ve had a seismic and unwelcome personal/life setback and finds themselves on the back foot, stand to benefit from the book that will help them create peace from the pieces.
“Bottom Line,” says Kathi, “everyone’s life (and business!) is a sh*t show from time-to-time. There is no insulator from the challenging cards that we get dealt and have to live with. These periods of turmoil are unavoidable, and they happen to everyone regardless of gender, ethnicity, background, wealth, position, education or geography. No one is immune. If we’re lucky, the wheels will fall off only a couple of times in our lifetime. For most of us, we will experience significant upheaval and heartache more than once – possibly several times. That upheaval may be caused by the end of a marriage, an unexpected redundancy, money problems, runaway business growth, inheriting a windfall, health problems or something else. It’s life. It happens. The only thing that matters is what we do about it.”
