Nozibele (Nozie) Sogoni whose first name means ‘be kind’ is a motivational speaker, SETA accredited mentor and coach as well as a trainer.

Nozi launched her women owned level 1 BBEE company Nozibele Solutions in 2013. Her goal is to offer solutions to entrepreneurs in the South African marketplace. She says, “My passion really lies in entrepreneurship, which has the power to change the economic landscape of the country.”

Nozie motivates entrepreneurs to develop their internal muscles while focusing on self-development to be “the best you that you can be in any endeavour that you do”. Through attending her three-month self-mastery course, entrepreneurs are encouraged to find their gifts and set goals for themselves, and their businesses aligned to their passions. “I always want people to recognise the inner muscles; they have more than what they have externally. If you know who you are internally, the power that you have will motivate you to get going and succeed,” Nozie explains.

An internal muscle of excellence

Her professional journey has, she says, been ‘long and tough’ and has been prompted by her own desire to excel and to produce quality work. This journey started in primary school where she felt compelled to be one of the top five students in her class. Nozie reflected that she grew up having a mom who pushed her to achieve by comparing her to her two sisters. “Having this motivation pushed me to be hard working and to develop an internal muscle of excellence but I had to overcome the obstacle of not finding myself significant enough in both my appearance and abilities.”

Nozie’s first job was as a stock replenisher at Woolworths, Pavilion where her desire to achieve soon saw her knowing where to find each item of clothing on the shop floor. She then worked as a receptionist at the Tower Group. She realised that it was the little things that she did each day that made a difference to contributing to the company’s annual profit of over one and a half million rand, which was the highest since the branch started.

Her next job was at Conlog where she started as a receptionist. While Nozie could have remained as such, she chose to grow and after ten years left the company in charge of business and customer relations for the whole of South Africa. Her promotion within the company was a consequence of her developing herself in local and international tenders and pricing. Her success in negotiating tenders and contracts, which was above and beyond her job description, saw her travelling with the company’s directors throughout the country.

“I enjoyed interacting with customers so I decided to demote myself to do internal sales so that I could pursue my dream of being a sales consultant for the company,” explained Nozie. Five months later she was appointed sales manager for KwaZulu-Natal and by the end of the year had done R15 million worth of business.

As a reward for increasing sales, Nozie was sent to Paris to participate in a women’s empowerment programme. This enabled her to see her career beyond an eight to five job as well as to see time in 24-hour slots. “Time is precious, and we have to push for passion,” she explained.

Look at what we have

“I had to convince myself that I was limitless and that I had the tenacity to continue to achieve my vision, which motivated me to open my own business. The approach that I bring to entrepreneurs is that it is important to not look at what we need but what we have.”

One of the things that helped Nozie to arm herself was to give her services out for free. She has been volunteering at the Durban University of Technology, where she is a business advisor in the entrepreneurship department. She arms the second- and third-year students with the insights that she has, which she says has allowed her product to be stronger.

Nozie’s goals for her business are to grow the products and services that she has and move into the corporate sector where she can work with HR departments and present her course, “The best you that you can be”. This is especially relevant in this period of Covid as many people are struggling to get themselves going. As the core pillar of Nozie’s business is excellence it is unsurprising that she has recently been awarded the Ulibo Champion Award of Excellence 2021 within KwaZulu-Natal.

A muscle called resilience

However, as a woman in business, Nozie agrees that there are many challenges to face. “It is very difficult when married to take care of one’s husband and extended family. As women, we clutter ourselves with a long to do list. Nozie believes that it is important to find time for yourself each morning to read a book, meditate or pray so that you are refuelled. She says that the more value that you can add to yourself – the more value you can add to other people.

“My appeal to women is that you should just know that you are significant; you are worthy. Your work and all that you do, despite having the challenges at home and family behind you is enough – don’t second guess yourselves.”

“In conclusion, especially if you have gone through a tough time, find the muscles inside of you. I am here today because of a muscle called resilience – you can rise above the ashes and be the best you that you can be – again.”