Pierre du Plessis

Pierre unravels the secrets behind human behaviour for business strategy. He cares deeply about two things, building people and helping them do work that shakes our world.

As the founder of Be Brave, he has more than two decades of experience developing people,  building businesses and products that matter and has helped multi-billion rand businesses design winning strategies.

As a thinking partner and speaker Pierre’s insights empower businesses to understand, map, and harness complex human behaviours, to make tough decisions and create unique strategies and game-changing products.

He’s a sought-after speaker on human dynamics, strategy, and navigating chaos, has spoken on four TEDx stages and has engaged with leading organisations around the globe such as HATCH, Tencent, BP, Alan Gray, FNB, Yum!, and many others.

He has written four books and received the Desmond Tutu Gerrit Brand Prize for literature in 2018.

Pierre believes he is the love child of Gertrude Stein and Jason Bourne and lives in Cape Town with his wife, two kids, and his iPhone.

Talks

Learning to trust your instincts and listen to your gut isn’t easy. Letting go of what you love—killing your darlings—is even harder, but it’s essential to sharpen your focus in both life and business. And then you still have to give birth to new ideas, and birth is messy. That is what it takes to turn your gut instinct into gold.
In this talk, Pierre will delve into a powerful framework—Clarify, Cut, and Create—that will help you refine your strategy and build an impactful and meaningful life and business.

In “Teams to Tribes,” we delve into the dynamics of human connection, belonging and collaboration. Recognizing humans’ innate tendency to organize into tribes, we explore the importance of fostering healthy teams in today’s age of loneliness.

Amidst the backdrop of the 21st century, labeled “The Lonely Century,” this keynote sheds light on the detrimental effects of loneliness on both individual lives and organizational cultures. By emphasizing intentionality in building great teams, this presentation equips leaders with strategies to cultivate strong, resilient teams that build things that matter.

Discover the hidden treasures that lie within the shadows of uncertainty, chaos, and mystery. This thought-provoking and motivational keynote challenges our overreliance on data and explores how true innovation and creativity emerge from the depths of uncertainty. Drawing inspiration from Japanese aesthetics (and the quirky wisdom of Oscar Wilde) to the work on liminal spaces by Victor Turner, this talk celebrates the sacred mess of the unknown as the birthplace of innovation.


KEY TAKEAWAYS:
• Embracing Uncertainty: Learn to view uncertainty not as a hindrance, but as a fertile ground for cultivating innovative ideas and solutions.
• Nurturing Chaos: Understand the power of chaos as a catalyst for breaking free from routine and embracing new perspectives that lead to groundbreaking innovations.

Dig into the dynamics of human behaviour and financial narratives in “Money is ‘Just’ a Story.” In this talk or masterclass, Pierre delves into the profound interplay between the stories we tell ourselves and the decisions we make, shedding light on how the hidden stories shape our perceptions of wealth and influence our financial decisions. By unravelling the complexities of these narratives, teams gain invaluable insights into the intricate web of human behaviour, empowering them to cultivate deeper strategic connections with clients and grow their businesses.

Embark on a journey through the enchanting realm of storytelling, where narratives hold the key to unlocking untapped potential in your organisation’s growth and leadership. Stories are a map our brains know and so they captivate and imbue meaning into our lives. Stories are emotive, and emotions are the key drivers in decision-making. With a significant portion of marketing budgets going to waste, it’s time to revolutionize your messaging strategy.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:
• Harnessing the Power of Storytelling: Understand how storytelling taps into our innate cognitive processes and empowers you to convey complex ideas in a relatable, engaging manner.
• Strategic Storytelling: Uncover the strategy that turns storytelling into a powerful and effective marketing strategy.
• The StoryMap: Master the five essential components of the StoryMap framework, equipping your team with the tools to amplify sales, enhance customer engagement, and drive business growth.

Unveil the transformative journey of leadership through four near-universal stages: the child, the hero, the monarch, and the elder. Each stage brings unique invitations and pivotal crises that leaders must confront to evolve. In this keynote, Pierre delves into the hero and monarch stages, exploring how the audacious hero overcomes ultimate challenges and evolves into a worthy monarch. Drawing from ancient myths, legends, and archetypes, this captivating session offers profound leadership insights to guide personal growth.


KEY TAKEAWAYS:
• Understand the four fundamental stages of leadership and how they correspond to significant phases in personal and professional growth.
• Learn from the hero’s journey and its pivotal turning point, revealing how challenges lead to growth and the eventual transition into the role of a monarch.
• A dashboard that highlights your current leadership stage and outlines actionable steps to progress to the next level.

Pierre has spoken about Chaos and complexity as long as he has been a professional keynote speaker. Now more so than ever this talk is not only relevant but uncover the true way in which chaos affects us. These effects can either be positive or negative, it all depends on how we choose to respond. It has never been more important to understand the dynamics of a change and chaos. Key Takeaways • Pierre will uncover a concept called ‘Liminal Space’. A liminal space is the time between what was and the next. When we have left the old but have not yet arrived at the new. • What we choose to do in Liminal spaces is vital in creating positive change, these spaces are in fact the only times when true change is possible. • In this session we work through practical responses and actions you and your team can do and take to help you navigate liminal space and not only survive in it but thrive.

The ancient Greeks trained in the nude in the gymnasium and also competed in the buff in the Olympic Games. They literally had skin in the game. The ancient Greek word for gymnasium, gumnasia, means to train naked. However, the ancient Greek gyms were not just for physical training but also had dedicated spaces for intellectual exercise, for philosophy, teaching, and conversation.

To train naked is to show up just as you are. No pretenses, no masks, no BS. We train to compete, we practice in order to nail a presentation. We should also be training to become better human beings, craft meaningful lives, do work that matters, and thrive in chaos.


Key takeaways

• Understand the need to structure and build practical habits in life and work
• Be motivated to show up and try, just as you are.
• Practical frameworks and examples of how to structure your time and life and build life-changing habits.

Seems like everywhere you go everything is AI-powered, as if AI is the salvation of every business everywhere. Since when does innovation equal digital disruption and only mean ‘let’s add AI’?
“The more high-tech the world becomes the more high-touch we need to be” Len Sweet
Technology, and AI, are great stimulators of innovation but in an increasing chat bot filled world, we will need human interaction more than ever. There is a paradox here that needs not to be resolved but embraced.
What is the human touch? What will it look like for a business to be built on tactile, human experiences? What does it mean to be human in a ChatGPT world?
There are gifts that simple high-touch practices like walking, handwritten notes, and handmade can bring. Not only giving us back our humanity but giving us new ways to innovate and old pathways to explore, practices from the past that will catapult us into the future.


KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Embrace the paradox: The gift of a mature human is the ability to hold seemingly conflicting truths in their minds simultaneously. Holding the reality of AI, whilst embracing and adding the human touch.
  • Practical Practice: Learn to walk again, get lost, and appreciate the random gifts of being human.
  • Understand Terroir: Learn to love ‘place’, the importance of context, and experience.

In a world that is often dark and chaotic, where challenges loom large and uncertainty surrounds us, hope emerges as the ever-remaining force that keeps us moving forward.
Emily Dickinson called hope “a thing with feathers,” but hope is also the relentless rat that fights against all odds and keeps on muscling forward, pushing us to forge ahead even when the odds seem stacked against us.
In this talk, I will guide you to (re)ignite hope within yourself and your teams. Through honest stories and actionable insights, you’ll be equipped to brave the storm and chart a course toward a transformed future (and self).


Key Takeaways

  • The Nature of Hope: Hope isn’t just a fleeting emotion; it’s a powerful force that propels. We’ll delve into the essence of hope and understand why it’s a fundamental aspect of human existence.
  • Embrace Uncertainty: The times of greatest uncertainty often hold the most potential for growth and transformation. By acknowledging the gifts hidden within the darkness, we discuss how embracing uncertainty can lead to great opportunities.
  • Build a Hope Mindset: Shifting from a mindset of paranoia – characterized by anxiety and insecurity – to metanoia, a mindset of expansion and growth, is essential for harnessing the true potential of hope.
  • Embody Hope: Building hope isn’t a passive endeavor; it requires deliberate cultivation. Action trumps everything. From acknowledging fears to setting audacious goals, these actionable steps will empower individuals to infuse hope into their lives.

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