Dear Raintree family,

We have embraced something a little scary and we’re ready to talk about it!

In a powerful coaching session we had recently, we explored the importance of Courage with our client.
Courage is a subject with many stereotypes associated to it. The question we worked through was “am I courageous”? What we explored is what courage looks like and how it shows up.

Courage has many faces. There is one most widely recognised and admired, but the two faces I want to share with you are the extrinsic and intrinsic faces of courage.

External courage is action oriented, loud, bold and dominant. It physically and actively moves us to take action despite our fears. Many would say it is a more traditionally masculine energy. It achieves impact and change through getting ourselves to follow what we have told/ instructed ourselves. This face of courage is the archetypal warrior.

Internal courage is a much more subtle face of courage. It is the courage of influence and suggestion. It has a core of steel that is quiet and suggestive and gently guides us to take action through a deep knowing and intuition. Many would say it is the more traditionally feminine energy. It achieves impact and change through action that is scary but is our way forward and quietly makes internal adjustments that achieve change. This face of courage is the archetypal second in command (influencing and supporting behind the scenes).
Both require strength and determination, and both are essential.
What our client discovered is the importance of being authentically courageous. Although we can step into either form of courage, the one that is not authentic is exhausting. The external world will observe the playing out of courage as bullying or manipulative when it is inauthentic. When we operate from our authentic courage, people observe the courage as constructive and impactful.

Recognizing your own courage can support you in chaotic times. It will help you to lean into courage when you are faced with fear.

For us at Raintree, it has taken courage to move into the social media space and using everything it has to offer to share our knowledge and thus further our mission to ignite future leaders to build a sustainable, abundant African economy.
Why did this take courage? Because the space is new to us, in a professional sense, and we were unsure of how to navigate it. That is, until we started coaching a new young hybrid advertising and publishing agency from Cape Town. This inspired team not only shares our vision of using their talents to create a stronger South Africa, but they also understand the need to be coached, and thus our mission.
So, we decided to take a leaf out of our own book and bring in someone in the know, by having them give us a little guidance on the various social media platforms at our disposal, and how we can use them to empower others.

We now proudly ask you to follow us on social media, as we have taken the fear in hand and are stepping forth bravely to share our vision across the digital platforms at our disposal.

We look forward to seeing you online!

Kind Regards,
The Raintree Team