My first week at Buchanan Group – Yeye Yearns with Buchanan

DAY OF RECONCILIATION

What the Day of Reconciliation means to Yeye:

“What the Day of Reconciliation means to me; I might be a born-free however, I do comprehend a tad bit of the complexities that our beloved Republic of South Africa had to endure during Apartheid and during these times whereby Covid-19 is continuously an aggravating factor. The Day of Reconciliation serves as a reminder to those who have been dehumanized, those that are combating Gender Based Violence, inequality and other social ills that humanity is faced with to always depict compassion and tolerance to one another. Not merely for 16 days or even on the official day that this public holiday is commemorated however, every instance one gets to do so. The rewarding part of it all is that it costs absolutely nothing to be kind and to always remember that absolutely no one has ever become poor by depicting generosity.”
Sincerely Panduleni💕

No5 “Buchanan is an international organisation that, over the past 3 decades, has delivered hundreds of millions of dollars in incremental sales for the world’s leading Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Pharma brands. Buchanan has achieved this via Brand Power on television and Home Tester Club in the digital space -both consumer facing branded platforms which are trusted by everyday consumers to help you buy better.” -extracted from Buchanan.

Nearly a year has passed since Yeye has been active on this platform -suffers from secondhand embarrassment- Firstly, I would like to apologise to Yearners for my absence. I am a final year exiting student and the year has been increasingly challenging to the point that I found myself drowning and I just could not keep up with nursing Yearn with Yeye -specifically, blogging. I am nearly entirely done with wrapping up my academic year and I should be releasing a post soon of the experience that felt like licking ice cream off an ice cream cone -that is how seemingly fast time has passed.

A day after my 22nd birthday, I commenced with my internship that spans for three months at the Buchanan Group. I am 1/3 Sales interns who await to immerse myself fully in the experience of Yearning right beside Buchanan Group Africa’s CEO; Steve Cragg. We are going to be exposed to other fields as well such as Marketing and Advertising, in order for each one of us to get an overall full-rounded experience.

I arrived a little before 9 on my first day and I greeted everyone warmly that I came across in the building and I finally got to physically meet the 2/3 interns. It was long anticipated for me to finally meet these ladies that will embark on this journey with me and I know it may be early days, however, it has certainly been such a pleasure engaging with these females. I killed time by catching up with the ladies by hearing what they have been up to for roughly the past month -I commenced late with the internship due to getting my ducks in a row with my academic year. November is a crucial time for any academic year hence I had to make sure that I do not multitask and merely focus on my academics which are my main priority. In no time, my boss arrives and asks me to meet him downstairs and so he introduces me to:

FIBONACCI-THE GOLDEN SPIRAL OF LIFE

Yes I know at this point you are probably wondering what on earth is Fibonacci? Trust me, my brain was farting at this point too. However, as I was listening attentively to Steve I came to know about this interesting sequence for the very first time. Perhaps it is how Steve uniquely explained it to me that I found it pretty fascinating. Steve illustrated the Fibonacci sequence utilising my date of birth and also elaborated on the significance of the golden spiral applicable to everyday life. From how one gets attached to ones parents in the early years of ones life to how at early adolescent years one needs to ‘work hard at it like a crack addict trying to get out of rehab’ in order to fill the gap of reaching ones peak at 34. Then, the spiral goes downhill. You are ailing. It all falls down like dominoes as you age and passed your peak. I am only 22 and I have at least a decade before I reach my peak. I need to unleash the young gun in me every single day of my life and do so by being fearless, having my heart wide open and head held above water continously and being graceful as a female should be however, also channel my inner feistiness in order to compete effectively in a male-dominated universe.

How am i going to achieve this: via a vision board

Steve gave me a task to create my own vision board and also create an illustration whereby I illustrate what could be the stumbling blocks or challenges that are holding me back from achieving those things. Here is a glimpse (see above image)

“Your ambitions belong to you, you need not explain them to anyone.”

On the other hand, with the illustration that involved sharing the challenges that possibly hold me back from achieving these objectives, I found myself feeling extremely vulnerable and in-tune with my emotions when I had to create the challenges board. Matter of fact, let us not delve any deeper into that just yet. In due time, I will share the challenges and vision board in detail with you.

my intuition never lies

I also finally got to meet Nix whom is a life coach and she will be having regular weekly sessions with myself and the girls. My oh my, our very first encounter was truly memorable and liberating. We were dealing with intuition however, we got carried away and just translated the entire session into a heart-to-heart. It was just a room of extraordinary women sharing what they are constantly having to overcome in order to still look in the mirror and say “I am beautiful.” I look forward to just tapping into my femininity and warrior spirit with Nix. Here is to an adventure of a lifetime and 3 months!

NUMEROUS PRESENTATIONS: THE THREE POWERS, ROLE OF MARKETING MANAGER & AIDINC

Welp! As you can see on the above image we had a little over 10 minutes to prepare for the allocated topics respectively and then we had to present in front of Steve. We were rewarded with delicious choc chip muffins, yum! My key takeout from the presentation sessions were how it is of paramount importance to listen and observe what the other person/speaker was stating/sharing. Information that could expand the human mind gets shared by individuals and it is vital that one shows interest in picking up at least a thing or two from what another individual has uttered. Moreover, as much as Steve gave us our flowers whilst we can still smell them, he also simultaneously critically analysed us. After all, it is a safe space to do so.

JARGON – many a times, individuals use terminology that they do not even fully comprehend. It is almost like one throws around jargon during presentations to impress the client which is completely uncool.