1. Can you please tell us more about your business?
WE DO CHANGE is an avid catalyst for change working alongside organisations, teams and individuals to combat change fatigue and incrementally impact positive change to improve work lives for the better.
The company was founded by a team of highly certified and recognised experts who bring together a powerful combination of skills, and decades of experience in system design for value flow, organisational agility and process facilitation, coaching and training, as well as strategy and communications.
2. When, how and why did you start your business?
We founded our business in September 2021. It took some courage and having to finesse each of our individual financial needs for startup investment. We had experienced some hard times in the coaching and training industry during and post covid. It had a massive impact on the economic landscape we were used to and required us to find ways to deliver the majority, and in some cases all of our work, remotely.
This required redesigning how we work and it is with this shift that we were inspired to support organisations not only with our collective experience and deep background in agile coaching, but also to navigate the change that covid had and would continue to have on their businesses. We were and are determined to show up and act as partners for organisations to support and enable them to navigate their own change in an incremental and deliberate manner, while successfully managing the effects it may have on their human systems and proactively combat possible change fatigue.
3. What is your role in the business?
I am a coach, trainer, and co-founder.
4. Where did you study and what did you study?
I attended Boland College, in Worcester, South Africa, where I studied IT, yet not long after concluding my studies I started working with people in the customer service industry. From there I continued to focus my education and growth path in the direction of working more explicitly in support and enablement of others.
5. How did you finance your business?
With real difficulty! We each had to work with what we had personally available to us. We started ourselves on the lowest salaries possible, only that which was needed to sustain each of us personally, and we did so in an equal fashion. We had to work really hard and trust that we would land a few clients that would enable us to succeed. We did have a client as we started up and this really enabled us to get our footing and generate a financial runway to help us survive for the first couple of months. For a while it was touch and go, over the course of the first year at least; although we continued to keep our heads down and put the work in to give ourselves the best shot at continued success.
6. Describe your average workday, if such a thing exists.
When you’re an owner you tend to get involved in every aspect of the business. You have to learn a lot, and with that comes the realisation of your strengths and weaknesses. Co-founding a business with others has been massively helpful because we each have different strengths and weaknesses; this enables us to rely on and support each other.
My average day starts with a team call, where we connect and sync on what’s ahead of us that day, and how we can support each other. From there it would either entail client work, or managing the business, which comprises all sorts of activities from admin, finance, operations, marketing, business development, etc. Until recently we’ve done everything in-house, only of late have we started investing in external marketing support.
7. How do you balance your home life and your work life?
As a business owner this has certainly been a revealing factor of business ownership life. Starting up, the scale is definitely weighted more on the side of work, and I believe rightly so as it takes nurturing, time, and energy to start a business. With time however that scale does start to balance out, and if not naturally, then it’s something to work towards. Each of us have important rituals or activities that we do and spend time on, either for ourselves or with our families. For me to create better balance, it came down to reflecting on what might be slipping and making a concerted effort towards regaining those moments, and switching off from work to truly experience it; to be in the moment and recharge. In the end, that recharge is energy that you’re able to put back into your business.
8. What drives you and inspires you?
What drives me is my ambition and need for independence and stability, to be accomplished in my endeavors, to have a roof over my head, food on the table, and be in a position to support my loved ones as best I can. What inspires me is seeing and knowing the positive impact my work has on people. Being able to help others, even in the smallest of ways, has always brought me great joy. And there is nothing more nourishing and empowering than our joy.
9. Where and when do you have your best ideas?
In collaboration with others, in silence, and even while I’m sleeping. I am a thinker, and as a result my brain doesn’t always succeed in switching off at night, especially when I’m knee-deep in problem solving.
10. Where and how do you market/advertise your business for sales leads?
We have a website, www.wedochange.io, and we have established all of the social media platforms (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram). We are also investing in Google advertising and more recently we’ve signed on the services of a PR and brand specialist company. Also, as co-founders we each have our own networks that we tap into, nurture, and grow through our involvement in sponsoring, speaking, and attending a variety of conferences, events, and initiatives.
11. What is next for your business?
We recently spent time and effort building more service offerings, which we have just launched and now need to develop and promote them. This particular category is a new one for us, and has us very excited – to deliver self-paced training alongside new partnerships. We have more partnerships which we are presently cultivating, and there’s definitely a lot to look forward to.
12. What advice would you give to female entrepreneurs hoping to start their own business?
Keep dreaming and pursuing your dreams. A lot is possible from a place of perseverance. Don’t shy away from your challenges; it’s moving through them and not around them that you’ll grow from strength to strength until it’s your moment to put everything into making your dreams become your reality.
Mariet Visser – Media Biography
Mariet Visser, coach, trainer, and the co-founder of We Do Change is on a mission to empower others to transform and enrich their work and lives.
Her passion is to support organisations to create a better connection between their reason for being and the people they employ to help achieve their aspirations. By emphasising people, relationships, engagement and collaboration, she empowers others to transform their world of work for the better by being in work life harmony.
Using her competent skillset, Mariet helps all types of people realise their personal goals and achieve greater success as a wider team. In addition to being a creative thinker and adept problem solver, Mariet is known for her exceptional listening ability, a skill that she says is too rare in today’s world. This not only allows her to come up with previously undiscovered ways to solve problems, but also means she can successfully navigate difficult situations with ease and professionalism.
Growing up in the Western Cape, Mariet matriculated from Graafwater High School before going on to study an IT diploma at Boland College in Worcester. After her time at Henley Business School, Mariet embarked on her Agile journey, which began more than a decade ago, and has literally shaped the course of her life.
She has since grown tremendously, having completed the Organisational Relationship Systems Coaching (ORSC) Advanced program. She is also a Certified Team Coach® holding further certifications in CSM®, CSPO®, CSP®, Certified LeSS Practitioner®, Kanban Management Professional®, and ICP-ATF. She is an approved ICAgile Authorised Instructor, able to deliver ICP-ATF training.
Her qualifications have led her to work with a wide range of teams and organisations from a variety of fields, including software development, operations, marketing, human resources, and leadership. Mariet has personally lent her expertise to a wealth of well-known brands, including the likes of Momentum, Nedbank, Prudential, Siemens, Sumup, Coca-Cola and Blue Label.
As a past Scrum User Group of South Africa committee member and now having co-founded her own company, Mariet is determined to give back to even more people, uplifting as many lives as possible. Unlike others in the field, We Do Change acts as a self-sustaining change partner to their clients, encouraging them to take the lead in their own change journey instead of being fully dependent on Mariet and her team.
Her ambition for We Do Change is to become the first point of call for individuals and companies around the world who seek support in their change and growth journey. Over the next few years, Mariet and her team will be working hard to become a catalyst in how organisations collaborate in the future, putting their collective resources together to improve and empower others to transform their world of work, for the better.
When she is not fuelling change and positivity, Mariet is a keen gamer and enjoys nothing more than kicking back and playing a game on her PC or Xbox as well as the traditional board-game too. A lover of solitude, Mariet often escapes to enjoy some much-needed alone time, recharging off-grid in the middle of nowhere. At other times, she revels in company of a close group of friends and family, around a nice warm crackling fire, with a lekker dop en chop.
