Why I Started Atisa Consulting: A Chapter Rooted in Pause, Purpose, and Possibility

In 2024, after over a decade immersed in the world of luxury tourism, I stepped away.

For thirteen years, I had grown with Ker & Downey Botswana, starting in sales and marketing and eventually stepping into the role of Managing Director. It was a role that shaped me, challenged me, and gave me a profound understanding of how meaningful, sustainable, and beautifully complex our industry can be. But by the end of my time there, I knew I was ready for something different. I just didn’t yet know what.

So, I took a break. A full eight months.

Not a break filled with productivity disguised as rest, but a genuine pause. I travelled to be with the people I love. I gave time to causes close to my heart, like Bana Ba Letsatsi. And I spent long stretches alone with my thoughts, asking myself the hardest question of all: What do I really want to do next?

The answer didn’t arrive all at once. But slowly, a pattern emerged.

Over and over again, I found myself drawn to conversations with other business leaders in the industry, friends, new contacts. Many were grappling with similar challenges: structuring teams, aligning strategy, navigating trade relationships, building sales pipelines, and figuring out how to grow without losing what made them special. I realised I didn’t just enjoy those conversations, I had something valuable to offer. My strength had always been in seeing both the big picture and the people behind it. And I wanted to use that.

That’s when Atisa Consulting was born.

Atisa is the culmination of everything I’ve learned, and everything I still want to explore. It’s where strategy meets purpose. I created it to offer thoughtful, tailored business consulting to tourism brands across Africa, especially those ready to refine their direction, elevate their operations, and tell their story with clarity. But it’s also more personal than that.

Atisa exists because I gave myself permission to stop. To reflect. To choose not just what I wanted to do, but how I wanted to do it.

And the how matters to me. I work differently now, more collaboratively, more intentionally, and with more joy. I choose projects that align with my values and clients who are ready to build something real and lasting. I stay curious. I listen. I build deep, long-term relationships. And I bring not just my experience, but my whole self.

That eight-month pause wasn’t a gap in my career. It was the most important part of the story. It’s where I found the space to build something new.

And I haven’t looked back.