My understanding of business is that it involves getting passionate and excited, working your bottom off and connecting with people you believe in. In walks Agata Passoni, founder of The Safari Sisters and all round legend.
A friend for many years and an avid supporter of Mulberry Mongoose, serendipity meant Agata connected with me about her vision of using her extensive marketing skills and work ethic to support meaningful brands. At the time I was panicking about Covid affecting our business and the last thing I felt like doing was investing in anything... but Agata is someone I trust and if we are honest we can’t handle a global pandemic by putting our heads in the sand. The way to manage it is to run at it screaming and shouting and throwing our everything at it. This realisation led me to hiring Agata to help raise our marketing game. And what a joyous decision that was!
Firstly, the girl works like no other human I know. Secondly, she is ten times smarter than me and she works out the complicated technical stuff I hate. On top of that, bonus of bonus, I got to connect with a new soul, and had her help me grow Mulberry Mongoose as well as myself. Working with people means getting to know people which means getting better at being a human.
Over these last months Agata has taken Mulberry Mongoose on a new journey, opened our eyes to more and helped us get to a new level. Working with her has deepened our friendship, helped me see myself in a new way and has enabled me to support a great person on her exciting new journey.
Please reach out to her if you want the kind of marketing help and personal journey we just went on. I can’t recommend her enough!
Small ethical brands are held back as they don’t have the time and resources to share their incredible stories. Agata is that unique human that wants to level the playing field and we need those people to raise ourselves to where we need to be. If WE don’t push our ethical values as far as we can then who will?!
This is the story of The Safari Sisters as told by Agata:
"In an inspired moment, The Safari Sisters was born in 2017 on the banks of the Luangwa River at sunset. It was initially an outlet of distraction from our busy camp lives to share our joys with the world. As the years have passed, it's grown and changed. There are many aspects of The Safari Sisters that are still a work in progress. As time passed, a genuine engagement grew inspired by women living and working in Africa. This, paired with the fact that I firmly believe that every person should do the most good they can do in the world, pushed me in wanting The Safari Sisters to be more.
Let's lay down the fundamentals - The Safari Sisters platform shares female voices promoting wildlife conservation, environment protection, community enrichment and female empowerment. I firmly believe that there is no community enrichment without female empowerment, and without community enrichment, there is no chance at sustainable environment protection and wildlife conservation. This is The Safari Sisters diamond of principles.
As time has passed, I've connected with people organically that believe in The Safari Sisters and have helped it grow and evolve. There's so much happening right now - behind closed doors - that I'm always amazed at how paths seem to magically form when you're on the right track. We're still developing our online platform, working with a female-focused business accelerator to take the company to the next step. But as this is gestating, I've found my personal niche that runs alongside The Safari Sisters platform.
I've been developing an online marketing consultancy aimed at ethical female lead SMEs in Africa that need assistance in their online presence. The coaching and online tools make them work smarter (not harder), helping them develop more streamlined sales techniques and prepare them to apply for grants to support crucial projects within their business. There's so much creativity to be tapped. Once you take away the world's typical constraints on a defined workplace, it's incredible to see how individuals can flourish and grow their businesses.
I reached out to Kate with this idea, and she's let me test out the consultancy with Mulberry Mongoose. It's been a fantastic learning curve. Working with the Mulberry Mongoose team has really fertilised my passion for female-run businesses. My time working with Mulberry Mongoose is soon coming to an end. I'm so grateful to their team for letting me see the magic of Mulberry Mongoose on the inside. Kate's passion and entrepreneurial skills will always be an inspiration to me. I can't wait to formulate this consultancy program into bite-sized, easily digestible pieces for the future business that I'll be working with".
Visit them at www.thesafarisisters.com