Bodacious Tenacity Podcast
“How can you think outside the box when you’re in the box?”
Abigail Washington discusses how she persisted through the fear of becoming a teenage mother and has continued to push herself outside of her comfort zone.
Live on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts
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Welcome to the companion newsletter to the Bodacious Tenacity podcast, where you’ll find premium podcast content, along with stories of ordinary people who were afraid to do something — but did it anyway.
Jaimie’s South African Adventure
What language is that?
The driver’s name was Sipho, which I later learned means “gift” in Xhosa, one of 11 official languages in South Africa at the time. Sipho greeted me with a big smile, took my carry-on bag and led me outside.
The morning sun was already high in the sky and burned my eyes. I was carrying a long black wool coat, which had protected me from London’s harsh February temperatures. But I was in the southern hemisphere now and it was peak summer. The coat looked as ridiculous and out of place as I felt.
“Let’s go get your bags,” Sipho said as he led me to a sleek silver Mercedes. “Do you have the papers?” I handed him a stack of crumpled yellow sheets that I had been carrying since I sent my luggage ahead a week earlier. He took them with one hand and with the other opened the rear car door. I had never been met by a driver before but I assumed he wanted me to sit in the back seat, so I pushed the coat in and slid in next to it.
Sipho took the driver’s seat — on the right side of the car — and pulled out on to the left side of the road. Fifteen minutes later we arrived at the cargo section of the airport. It was teeming with men and women shouting, pointing and hauling large crates, boxes and suitcases.
As soon as the car stopped, I opened my door. Sipho came around and held it open for me anyway. “Bring your passport,” he said with another smile. As he led me through the crowd, he spoke to various people, and it seemed to me that he wasn’t always speaking the same language. He’d effortlessly switch depending on who he was speaking to.
“Are you speaking different languages, Sipho?”
He laughed a little. “Yea, Zulu and Xhosa,” he said.
I had heard of Zulu but not Xhosa. “Are you Zulu?”
“No, Xhosa,” Sipho said.
Fun Fact:
Nelson Mandela and Trevor Noah are Xhosa!
“Oh, so you speak both languages? That’s really cool.”
Sipho stopped. “I speak Xhosa, Zulu, English and a little Afrikaans,” he said, ticking them off on his fingers.
I felt like such a stupid American, speaking only English. “So how do you know which language to speak when you meet someone?”
“You just know,” Sipho said as we arrived at the warehouse.
“But how?
“You just do,” he said laughing.
I clearly had a lot to learn about South Africa.
In our next issue:
On the podcast, how Miguel Olave persisted through fear and negotiated more than $1 million in deals for his first client (Romeoshow from TikTok) in less than a month.
New Street Stories
Jaimie’s South African Adventure continues
Street Stories
“If I don’t speak up now, I’ll lose my opportunity.”
Gareth’s teachers told him he wasn’t smart enough to attend university. He overcame his fear to apply — and got more than a degree.
Live on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts
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Special thanks to Kim Ledgerwood, Hannah Verdant, Laine Seaton and my kids for their support and hard work in making Bodacious Tenacity a reality.
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