I've been invited to talk about 'finding your magic' at this years Women's Leadership Conference run by the Student Village this August.

It is being held in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg and my story about one matchstick will be shared with students who are our future leaders!

I am so excited to be able to pass on the spark that Kyle MacDonald ignited in me when I heard his story, and that I see so often light up in others as I share what I am doing with one matchstick.

So you know how I roll- anything to do with one matchstick is traded for.

In order to get to the conference I need to barter something for my flights there. The Student Village has offered to sponsor my flights back from Cape Town and Durban, so now I just need to organise my flights to get there.

So: I will trade some of my time and energy in exchange for the flights to Durban and to Cape Town- I need a one way flight to Durbs, and another one to the Mother City, so we can barter for both flights or just one.

Some of the things I can offer that you might like to consider bartering with me for are:

• Personal Life Coaching
• Training in the cognitive behavioural sciences of NLP and Neuro-Semantics (great tools on how to run your brain and figure out people)
• House Sitting
• Designated Driver for your next night on the town, ala the No Money Man
• Helping you set up your social media or website or blog
• Baby sitting
• A talk at your company or team about my learnings and experience as the 'matchstick girl

As you can see it's quite a varied list- so feel free to get in touch and ask more about my offers, or make another suggestion. Everything is negotiable!

I really want to go and share some magic with our youth at this conference! So who can help me do just that?

Call me on 083 730 2979 or send a tweet to @telana or email me!

54 years ago today over 20 000 women of all ages and races walked together to the Union Buildings in Pretoria. They went to deliver this petition, which has the closing remarks of:

"We shall not rest until we have won for our children their fundamental rights of freedom, justice, and security."

If I had been born then I would have been walking with those 20 000 women. It was a day many brave women risked being arrested in order to show their frustration with not being able to move freely, and how the pass laws affected their lives and those of their families. The belief in freedom, justice and security must have been so prevalent, and the courage would have been heard in the anthem they sang:

wathint' abafazi,
wathint' imbokodo,
uza kufa!

[When] you strike the women,
you strike a rock,
you will be crushed!

When I look around me today I am inspired by many women who also believe in freedom and love, and are singing their songs to the beat of their own drums, and I am able to stand up today and show them my support. The three who are in my life right now are:

Sonja Kruse
Sonja is 9 months into a year long journey that is weaving the stories of over one hundred families from over ninety towns with over thirteen cultures within one country- South Africa. She is telling the story of love in our country, through finding Ubuntu in every step she takes. You cannot help but be touched when you hear the stories she has to tell.

Jolandi Rust
Jolandi is the first woman to circumnavigate South Africa on her own on a bicycle. It took her 100 days and she finished in January this year. Her next plan is to be the first woman to circumnavigate Africa on a bicycle. She wasn’t to share that big dreams are possible and that we shouldn’t wait to start living them.

Leila Chirayath Janah
I'm going to get to meet one of the Most Innovative Women in Technology who's also an adventurette at the very exciting Tech4Africa conference this week. She is Leila, and is the CEO of Samasource, a social business that connects over 800 women, youth, and refugees living in poverty to digital work. Her application "Give Work" is all about innovative crowdsourcing technology that has been downloaded by over 20 000 volunteers in 75 countries. She believes that the future is about humans and computers working together to get stuff done, and that farmers in Africa could earn more tending virtual farms on a social network. I am looking forward to hearing her story and getting to know her at Tech4Africa.

Happy Women's Day!

Fridays seem to be one matchstick days - I somehow end up making a big trade or move on a Friday. Today is one of those Fridays.

I have finally worked out, and have a plan for, how I am going to make the beer offer that I wrote about a while back work. And the few people I have mentioned my plan to smile and say "awesome!"

So here's the plan:

I've accepted my friend Charl's offer of sponsoring two Castle Lager beers per Springleap T-shirt that I trade from this moment on.

What that means is if you trade with me for one of my 246 Springleap T-shirts that I have left to finish my tenth trade, then you will get two Castle Lager Beers for free!

How will you get the Castles? Well, that's been the tricky bit. So what will be happening is that sometime in the next four to six weeks, there will be a BIG get-together, on a weekend, at a soon to be confirmed venue, where you can come along and enjoy your two beers. (And if friends trade with me from Cape town, I will organise a get-together there too to give you your beers.)

And that get-together is going to have an extra twist to it as well! But until I have set it all up, that extra twist is a secret!

So- now is the time to trade with me for one of my T-shirts.

How to trade with me:

The easiest way is to trade some of your cash- R183 to be precise- and trade it by purchasing any of the Springleap T-shirts, and using the coupon code onematchstick so that we can track it (detailed instructions here). Contact me too to let me know so I can get you on the 'Castle Lager VIP List'.

OR – If you don't want a T-shirt, but still want soem Castle's, then you can trade some cash for one of the many Three-Way Trade offers I have on the go. You can get:

• Rock Climbing lesson with instructor Grant - R366
• A copy of Rembrandt's self portrait- oil painting – R366
• Baobab balls for decoration –for just R366 (valued at R800!)
• Hypnosis session to stop smoking – save 25% for only R549
• A one hour Hypnosis session for weight loss, breaking habits, overcoming phobias, improving performance in personal and business life – save 45% for only R183
• A diamond - 0.297 Carat with certificate valued at R1200, for only R915.00
• The writing services of a Reporter and Freelance Writer, Abed for R183
• Artwork - Dancing Girl OR Hula limited edition prints by artist Tuesday Houston valued at R900 each for only R366 each, or both for only R549
• One Payroll Workshop in audio and workbook format valued at R399.99, for only R183.00
• A years website hosting plus the development of a wordpress website if you need it, for just R1281.00 – that's R106.75 per month for 12 months for a website!
• 4 Private Pilates Classes with David in Fourways, Johannesburg valued at R720 – for only R549

To summarise then:

Trade with me for one of my Springleap, designer, limited edition T-shirts for R183, including delivery to your door by courier, and you will get to help me finish my tenth trade, be a part of the one matchstick story, AND get two Castle Lagers for free at a funky event coming up soon!

Call me - 07837302979
Skype me - telanas
Tweet me - @telana
Or email me

Just get in touch and let's trade! Yayy!

PS- the fine print:
To take part in this offer you must be over the legal drinking age, and remember- drink responsibly! ;)