

Jean Tresfon is passionate about the ocean and its creatures. He has spent 30 years of his life sharing what he sees with the public through his underwater and aerial photographs around the southern tip of Africa.


Jean Tresfon is passionate about the ocean and its creatures. He has spent 30 years of his life sharing what he sees with the public through his underwater and aerial photographs around the southern tip of Africa.
She was a member of the first team of South Africans who placed the new SA democratic flag at the top of Mt. Everest.
The media described Deshun as the first black woman in the world and the youngest South African to set foot on the slopes of Mount Everest.
She grew up in South Africa during the apartheid era in a small township outside of Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape. Her grandmother's recollections of the exploits of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay who were the first to officially summit Mt. Everest in 1953, stimulated her dreams of becoming an adventurer.
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Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary |
She has always been naturally sporty enjoying open water swimming, cycling, running, and she played provincial volleyball in high school and college where she studied to be a teacher.
But mountaineering became her first love. After her participation in the 1996 expedition, Deshun participated in climbing expeditions to five of the seven summits on five continents: Mt. Mckinley in North America, Mt. Elbrus in Europe, Aconcagua in South America, Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa and she attempted to summit Everest in 2003.
She has successfully guided teams up Mt. Kenya, Mt. Kilimanjaro and smaller South African peaks. She has also summited Mt. Meru (Tanzania), Mt. Blanc (France) and Mt. Kalapathar (Nepal).
She was to be part of an all women South African expedition which planned to climb Everest in 2020 but unfortunately Covid-19 put a halt to their plans.
Deshun Deysel is CEO of GoPeak International which consults to and coaches clients mainly in the small to medium business space. She is also a motivational speaker.
In her business Deshun uses metaphors from her 25 years of climbing experience to help clients understand how to climb to the top.
Deshun lives in Johannesburg with her husband Charles and their two children, Edward and Judith. At the age of 50 she is still highly driven. She plans on growing her business, writing books and climbing more mountains.
Listen to her podcast "Life Lessons from a Mountaineer" where she talks candidly about her life and career. Click here: The Story Teller
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Photo courtesy of Tony van Marken |
"Content and experiences like that (A Mile in My Shoes) represents the perfect intersection between the brand purpose and what is really relevant to people.
This is what happens when a brand could represent the society and also be a catalyst of a broader conversation that is more people-oriented and less product-oriented, because great stories and experiences are bigger than products and therefore humanise brands."
I have talked a lot in past posts about why you need to consider story telling as key to your marketing programme and why personalised emotive stories create stronger connections with your clients.
If you think that your business cannot tell personal stories here is a case study of an organisation which has found an innovative way of marketing the services it offers.
The Health Foundation is an independent charity committed to bringing about better health and health care for people in the UK.
On their website they have an award winning series of videos which demonstrate the initiatives they are introducing into health care. The series perfectly illustrates how one can integrate story telling into your brand to promote what you do. It is no coincidence that the series is called The Power of the People and this is what they say about the videos.
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Cosmopolitan Convair 540 |
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Alert - the most northern settlement in the world |
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Buckingham Palace |
Wouter chose to take early retirement at the age of 50. “In the air force 55 years is the normal age to retire because of the stressful life one leads and one is not considered very useful after that.” He moved to South Africa in 1987 to begin a new phase in his life which is just as colourful and interesting as his life in the RAF.