According to Yvonne Johnston, “If you are not passionate about it don’t do it. Maximise your potential. Do everything with integrity and love. Strive for excellence.”

Yvonne has been blessed with a fascinating life....full of struggles, triumphs, small victories, sharp pains, hurts, disappointments, celebrations and joy. She has dined with Presidents, Kings and Queens...and Oprah.

She has been an out of work actress, a waitress, a recruitment consultant, a wife (for a short unhappy time), a fashion designer, a mother, a media director, an advertising agency executive, a marketing director, a speaker and a Chief executive. She has been out of work, and now, she is an independent Communications and Marketing consultant.

On her 50th birthday, Yvonne was fired by the Minister in the Presidency as CEO of the International Marketing Council for being “politically inconvenient”. With a new three year contract, seven years of experience and a profound love for what she did, Yvonne was suddenly left bereft. Her very identity was wrapped up in that job, promoting South Africa. And yet, there was this strange sense in her heart that this was all meant to be.

Her life story has helped her come to terms with the fact that she is a multi-faceted woman. She has learned to accept the great within her, and the awful, shameful stuff that is so hard to admit.

Along the way, she has learned about the texture of life, and that it is, as we all know, the challenging times that make you strong. “They have to be embraced for without them we have no depth, and little purpose,” says Yvonne.