Tazim’s Q Factor to Qure Your Mind

By Diana Ashley

Posted on May 31, 2017

17 min read

695

Paradigm Shifter, Trainer, Writer, Speaker and Poet. Qreator of the ‘Q Factor’—‘Qure your mind’—’The Invisible CirQle’—‘Open Qorner’ and more, Tazim has a mission to bring about change in society. Her compassion extends from the individual to groups of people, businesses and Kenya. She strongly believes that progressive change is an integral and essential path in life. Her determination and commitment are to be the change through her work, and as she puts it “one person at a time”. Being deeply patriotic, she gives of her time to numerous groups, charitable organizations and institutions walking towards and creating ‘responsible’ change. Tazim Elkington is a motivational speaker whose passion lies in challenging you and me to think outside the proverbial box with the intention of achieving better outcomes in our everyday life situations. Having been in the corporate sector for over two decades combined with her personal journey in understanding diverse aspects of life, Tazim was indeed inspired to start her journey in business.

Tazim was born in Nairobi 56 years ago to Indian parents and growing up was not easy. She was a rebel who could not be tamed. As a child, she had often heard the phrase ‘girls don’t do this’, or ‘girls don’t do that’, and behaving in a certain way as expected by society had been a tad too difficult for her. She never did the “normal” things as expected by society. When she was three years old, her parents split up. Her mum left her with her father, who was then in the mining industry. He traveled frequently around East Africa, from Rwanda to Uganda, Tanzania and Congo, and it was not possible for her to travel around with him; so she grew up with relatives and people in Nairobi, Mbale and Kampala. She was an only child of her mother (as her father later remarried and had four other children). It was then that she learnt to explore life and fend for herself from a very young age. Most if not all of the things, she learned through direct experience.

Tazim began helping people shift paradigms by applying lessons she had learnt from her own life. Having a very strong and almost psychic instinctual understanding of the human spirit, she begun working with organizations to support them in finding their balance and vision. Her focus on creating healthy work spaces brought about new methodologies for creating authentic leadership in corporations. Her management training sessions are like no other. She helps companies create new culture for the wellbeing of all concerned from bosses to the tea lady. She also works with individuals in order to help them understand their power and accept the gifts of life, and works with communities to help them realize their common ground and build a fulfilled and sustainable future for all concerned. She creates customized presentations, concepts and suggestions to suit specific needs. She typically uses a combination of many philosophies in her work resulting in her own unique healing and progressive techniques that can be applied to any situation.

As a motivational speaker, Tazim tends to be very direct and blunt because she doesn’t believe beating around the bush will get you anywhere in achieving progressive change. She deals with issues first hand without fear. Give her any topic and there she goes… her incredible people skills get her audience instantly engaged and interactive.

Black Butterfly and Hypnotherapy Queen

When Tazim, went through a major personal life change in 1996, as a result of her divorce, she took the proverbial minute to reflect, rethink and possibly reenergize her life, as things that were once important seemed to have lost their glitter. She begun to put her thoughts together during this time and in that year she published her book in poetry. After working in the international fields, nine years later she came back home. With her creativity at its peak, and a firm resolve to do what she loved doing, she transformed into the Indian Black Butterfly and paradigm shifter. She calls herself the Indian Black Butterfly because she is Indian, she feels black because she was born in Kenya and she loves the butterfly as it is the greatest symbol of freedom and transformation.

The Indian Black butterfly has gained its recognition in Kenya as a result of Tazim’s passion and a dedication to her work, coupled with good marketing strategies which include email blasts, print and TV advertising, attending networking events and having flyers and posters distributed in various malls. This has created a huge network for her business as she quickly discovered that many were open to the new concepts, and work which is life changing, be it on a personal basis , for groups, corporates change management and culture creation. Soon she became a household name, and word of mouth quickly took form as part of her marketing strategy. For work space, Tazim begun with her house as her office, and has maintained that to date. As it is, her staff is just one, her.

Another service she offers is hypnotherapy. This is an entirely confidential session where she uses various techniques depending on individual challenges. Her unconventional methods require people to really ‘see’ as well as ‘hear’ themselves, to supersede beliefs, perceptions, habits and attitudes that create disharmony. Her effective methodology is dependent on self-reliance and one’s capacity to respond.

As a certified hypnotherapist, she works as a catalyst to contribute to her clients becoming more of who they are so they attain self-understanding for an improved and healthier quality of life. The deep, meaningful process towards self-integration works in the now to shift mindsets that do not serve the present. Hypnosis takes us to the subconscious mind where we need to Qure and surpass the unwanted grip of the past.

In order to help erode old mind patterns and create healthy new ones, some homework is required between sessions to ensure shifts are applied. To start she sends you a brief questionnaire to fill, and that helps her gauge where you are at and provides her with some insights on how best to act as a catalyst to overcome the challenges you are experiencing. The sessions are usually two hours and the number of sessions will depend on how committed one is to the path to self-healing. At least 10-15 sessions are the minimal requirement. One or two sessions a week would give best results. Her focus is to free a person and the sooner the better. After she has addressed the main core issue/s, it is recommended to carry on with maintenance sessions once every 2-3 weeks for a few months as things settle. Truly this is a sure lifelong investment.

As for challenges in the business, her take is a simple one. “Challenges are a part of life and business. The best way to overcome is to find solutions rather than stay in the issues. Every problem has a solution or two within it. Being clear on what is acceptable and what is not clears a way forward.” As a result, when things are difficult, she maintains a clear perspective, for she knows that this too shall pass, as nothing is forever. She is a firm believer that everything passes. The good, the bad and the ugly

The journey of entrepreneurship can be daunting at times, especially at the onset, or the first three years of your life; however Tazim loves the journey. Meeting people of diverse backgrounds to creating new methodologies to seeing amazing outcomes of the work she does, always gives her immense joy. The biggest lesson she’s learned is that she is able to become who she would like to be each day. Because learning is a part of life, she learns every day. Saying no to what does not work and yes to what does is an essential part of creating boundaries so as to not get sucked into other people’s expectations. She also does not do BUSY as that shows a lack of planning and organizing, and when it comes to the five year question, Tazim can’t help but shake her head. For she has no idea. As a mantra, she lives from one day to the next, and so my guess is, in five years, she will be living one day to the next!

As the interview concludes, I can’t help but ask whether entrepreneurship has changed her, and Tazim’s response is a resounding yes. She is now independent and she answers to herself. In other words, freedom! AND if she could go back in time, is there anything she would do differently? “Definitely not” she answer. Her life and values have changed since she got into business. When it comes to work life balance, Tazim mentions it’s extremely important to maintain balance. She meditates twice a day, exercises three times a week, eats healthy and is very selective of the company she keeps.

And finally, to entrepreneurs out there, she has this to offer, “Being busy does not achieve results. Working hard also does not. Working smart, creating a niche and being highly efficient and competent will bear good results. Look after your employees through learning and development. Ultimately your profit margins are affected by employees’ delivery and performance – not the other way around. In the 21st Century, it’s about people from employees, customers to service providers,” and I couldn’t agree more!