Proposal: Founding Sponsorship for a New Leadership Podcast

A podcast concept bringing together innovation, inclusion, and transformation across African organisations. "Leading for a New Age" podcast hosted by Wendy Mahoney in partnership with Kearney.

Partner Packages

What Kearney Gains

This initiative transcends traditional sponsorship. It's a strategic thought leadership and insight programme designed to firmly establish Kearney as a leading voice in African business, generating valuable content and unparalleled executive intelligence.

Core Outcomes

  • Senior-level brand authority in leadership, transformation, and inclusion across Africa.
  • Cultivate high-trust engagement with decision-makers through deep, long-form discussions.
  • Achieve consistent, influential visibility within conversations that shape strategic direction.
  • Generate unique insights directly applicable across Kearney's marketing, business development, and internal communications.

Tangible Assets Delivered (Per Episode)

  • Long-form video and audio podcast episode.
  • Full transcript and professionally edited thought leadership article.
  • 3–6 short-form social media video clips for high-impact sharing.
  • Custom quote cards and social cut-downs optimized for owned channels.
  • Concise executive summary and key takeaways.

Season-Level Assets

  • A comprehensive, curated library of leadership content, fully owned by Kearney.
  • A post-season executive insights summary, synthesising key findings and trends.
  • Versatile content suitable for integration into presentations, proposals, and internal communications.

Each episode purposefully contributes to a lightweight qualitative research layer by posing consistent leadership questions. This results in aggregated leadership insights from senior African business leaders, fostering an anonymised insight narrative Kearney can reference publicly or internally. This content reinforces Kearney’s intellectual leadership, going beyond mere visibility.

Every episode compounds value. Content, insight, and credibility build over time.

The Risk of Not Owning the Conversation

In a rapidly evolving African business landscape, absence from key discourse is not neutrality – it's a strategic concession.

The Real Risk: Ceding Influence

  • When Kearney is not consistently present, others define the narrative around African leadership and transformation.
  • Critical discourse proceeds without Kearney’s expert point of view, diminishing our role as thought leaders.
  • Kearney risks being perceived primarily as a service provider, rather than a proactive shaper of strategic thinking.

The Hidden Cost of Inaction

  • Loss of compounding visibility and trust that only consistent, owned platforms can cultivate over time.
  • Fewer organic, senior-level touchpoints outside formal pitch environments, limiting relationship depth.
  • A missed opportunity to build a reusable, dynamic body of intellectual capital that reinforces our expertise.
  • Continued reliance on costly, one-off campaigns instead of an owned, cumulative asset that grows in value.

The Opportunity Gap

  • Every month without an owned leadership platform delays the establishment of long-term authority.
  • Competitors and adjacent voices gain disproportionate mindshare, filling the vacuum Kearney leaves open.
  • Valuable insight that could be captured, packaged, and reused for business development is continuously lost.

Not owning the conversation does not preserve neutrality. It cedes influence.

The Podcast Concept

What Leading Change Delivers

A candid, practical leadership podcast exploring how African organisations actually change, from boardroom strategy to everyday behaviour. Each episode features conversations with executives, board members, and change-makers on themes including inclusive leadership, gender mainstreaming, culture and psychological safety, and innovation in African contexts.

The focus is on real stories and actionable tools, not theory. Guests share what they did, how they engaged people, and what they would do differently next time. This authentic approach creates genuine value for senior managers and change agents across the continent.

Episode Themes

  • Inclusive leadership and gender mainstreaming
  • Culture, behaviour and psychological safety
  • Innovation and transformation in African contexts
  • Real stories from executives and board members

Meet Your Host: Wendy Mahoney

Innovation Behavioural Specialist

Wendy Mahoney is Managing Director of Newmella Holdings, an Innovation Consultancy focused on Executive Recruitment, Development and Coaching. She drives Business Engage in KwaZulu-Natal, focusing on inclusion and gender mainstreaming in the private sector.

Her impressive credentials include serving on the KZN National Business Initiative council, holding a Masters in Brand Innovation (cum laude), and completing a PhD in Brand Innovation. As a Master Practitioner and Trainer of NLP, she brings deep expertise in behaviour change.

Board Leadership

Non-executive director of youth mentorship academy, TEDx Durban and Vega KZN advisory boards, ExCo South African Chamber of Commerce UK.

Speaking Experience

Seasoned conference speaker with TED X experience and strong corporate background

Media Presence

Featured in CNBC, Forbes Africa, European Times, and leading African business publications

Case Study: TIM Podcast - Becoming Who You Are: Wendy Mahoney

01:07:28

YouTube

Becoming Who You Are: Wendy Mahoney

Welcome to Episode 31 of The Incredible Machines Podcast! In this thought-provoking conversation, Jon Oliff and Luke Holden sit down with Wendy Mahoney, is a founder of Newmella & Associates, speaker, leader, and an advocate for human flourishing and speaks about life’s ultimate lesson: “You are enough.”     She shares her personal and professional journey, highlighting themes of self-worth, burnout, and resilience. Wendy recounts her early career in media, her struggles with burnout, and her pa

00:35

Persistance Pays Off

00:53

The Power of Enough

00:40

When Burnout Breaks You

00:49

Struggles into Strengths

Proof of Concept. Early Signals

This podcast concept has already been tested in market through a pilot episode featuring Wendy Mahoney.

  • 30,000+ views generated on the pilot episode.
  • 150,000+ Social Media Views and Impressions.
  • Strong qualitative feedback from senior leaders and practitioners engaging with the content.

Clear resonance with themes of leadership, inclusion, and behavioural change in African organisations.

These results demonstrate early demand for Wendy's voice and this format, reducing execution risk for a founding partner and validating the podcast as a credible leadership platform from launch

Audience Response

These results indicate how a Kearney-backed series, amplified through Kearney’s networks and client ecosystem, can accelerate reach, relevance, and executive engagement from the first episode.

Why Kearney Africa: The Perfect Strategic Partner

Kearney Africa has supported African clients since the late 1990s from its Johannesburg base, combining local expertise with global capabilities. The firm is recognised for operations, performance and transformation work, as well as organisation and change consulting.

1

Late 1990s

Established African presence in Johannesburg

2

2020s

Expanded DEI programmes and partnerships

3

2024

Gender Mainstreaming Champion award winner

Award-Winning Commitment

In 2024, Kearney Africa was honoured at the Gender Mainstreaming Awards, winning both the Investing in Young Women award and the Southern Africa Gender Mainstreaming Champion award for its work on women's empowerment and inclusive leadership.

Strategic Partnerships

These awards reflect concrete DEI initiatives and partnerships with organisations such as the 30% Club, Voices of Change, Women in Tech, and others, demonstrating a clear belief that diverse perspectives are crucial for innovation.

Strategic Alignment. Why This Partnership Makes Sense

Kearney's growth relies on deep, meaningful relationships with CEOs and senior executives. This podcast is meticulously designed to engage this exact audience, both as featured guests and as primary listeners, fostering connections that drive tangible business outcomes.

1

Executive Engagement & Influence

Independent research consistently highlights the commercial power of podcasts among top-tier leadership:

  • Heavy Users: 74% of business executives listen to work-related podcasts weekly, with 83% of senior executives regularly consuming 5+ hours.
  • Decision-Makers: 53% of weekly B2B podcast listeners directly influence purchasing decisions, leveraging content to inform strategic choices.
  • Action-Oriented: 88% of listeners take action after hearing podcast messages, with branded podcasts delivering up to an 89% increase in brand awareness.
2

Strategic Value for Kearney

A CEO-centric podcast, with Kearney as a founding partner, translates into direct commercial advantages:

  • Brand Platform: Positions Kearney in front of the key decision-makers who sign off on advisory and transformation work.
  • Trust Engine: Weaves Kearney's insights into high-value, peer-to-peer conversations, building credibility beyond traditional advertising.
  • Pipeline Asset: Creates clear content journeys and calls-to-action that convert executive interest into qualified conversations.

From listeners to leads – how the podcast supports Kearney’s pipeline

This podcast is not just about brand awareness; it's meticulously structured to generate qualified business conversations and tangible leads for Kearney. Every element is designed to drive executive engagement and strategic pipeline growth.

CEO Guests: Building Strategic Relationships

Each episode will host a CEO or C-suite executive from Kearney’s key client sectors. This offers a unique, value-driven opportunity for Kearney partners to engage with priority accounts, fostering new connections and strengthening existing ones through insightful post-episode discussions, exclusive roundtables, or bespoke briefings.

Targeted Listeners: Engaging Executive Decision-Makers

The podcast’s content, episode titles, and distribution strategy are precisely tailored for CEOs and senior executives. Leveraging platforms like LinkedIn, industry communities, and Kearney’s extensive network, the show delivers insights on critical topics such as strategy, culture, inclusion, and innovation, ensuring highly relevant and actionable content.

Actionable CTAs: Converting Interest into Engagement

Every episode will include strategic, value-driven calls-to-action. These could direct listeners to your dedicated landing pages offering resources like Kearney's latest reports or opportunities to register for exclusive roundtables and webinars.

Measuring Impact

Unique tracking links and UTM parameters on all CTAs can be supplied and will provide granular data on visits, conversions (downloads, registrations), and contact requests, ensuring transparent reporting on the podcast’s direct contribution to the pipeline.

Perfect Alignment: Why This Partnership Works

Content Alignment

The show's core themes, inclusion, behaviour change, innovation and leadership, sit directly in Kearney's sweet spot of organisational transformation and change consulting.

Audience Match

Senior managers, board members and change agents in African corporates, the same ecosystem Kearney serves and recruits from across the continent.

Shared Values

Both Wendy and Kearney actively champion gender mainstreaming, inclusive cultures and sustainable transformation through platforms like Business Engage.

Channel Expertise

Kearney already runs a portfolio of management podcasts globally, signalling belief in podcasting as a serious thought leadership channel.

Pilot Season Format & Content Plan

1

From Policy to Practice

Making Gender Mainstreaming Real in African Corporates

2

Behavioural Innovation

How Leaders Shift Mindsets at Scale

3

Young Women at the Centre

Investing in the Next Generation of Leaders

4

Boards, Strategy and Culture

What Really Changes First?

5

Inclusive Leadership

Leading Through Crisis and Transformation

Season Length

10 episodes (pilot)

40–60 minutes each

Release Schedule

Fortnightly release

Flexible clustering around key campaigns

Format

Conversations with senior leaders

Occasional Kearney guest experts

TIM Africa: Your Production Partner

TIM Africa delivers a comprehensive "podcast-as-a-service" model, handling everything from strategy to distribution. Their award-winning work on The Incredible Machines demonstrates their ability to turn leadership shows into content engines with significant organic reach.

Strategy & Design

Positioning, audience, episode structure and content pillars

Production

Professional video and audio in Durban studio or remote recording

Post-Production

Editing, sound mix, branding, music and graphics

Distribution

Multi-format content across all major platforms

TIM Africa transforms each episode into a complete content engine: full video for YouTube, audio for Spotify and Apple, short clips for social media, quote graphics, blog summaries, and newsletter snippets, with optional performance marketing support.

Partner Packages at Piloting Pricing

Founding Partner Package


  • Branding & Naming Rights:
  • Cobranded Series Title
  • Logo Lockup on Design
  • Cover/Thumbnail Images
  • Reels/Shorts covers
  • Carousel Images
  • Podcast Website
  • 3 × branded episode segments (Pre-roll, mid-roll & post-roll)
  • Category exclusivity during campaign
  • Dashboard Analytics for deeper reporting and recap

R48 800.00 per episode

Strategic Partner Package


  • 1 × Pre-roll + 1 × Mid-roll per episode (Read by Host)
  • Show notes feature + logo on website
  • Social channels mention
  • Dashboard Analytics for deeper reporting and recap

R39 600.00 per episode


Associate Partner Package


  • 1 × Mid-roll advert (Read by Host)
  • Inclusion in show notes
  • Brand links in Episode Description
  • Simple tracking (unique code/URL)

R28 400.00 per episode

*Pilot Pricing to be reviewed after agreed episodes.

**Performance Marketing is not included but can be added on.

Addons

  • Paid Promotion and Advertising Management
  • Per Episode Executive Insight Reports and Playbooks
  • Landing pages, Newsletters and Website Articles
  • Social Media Management or Support
  • more to be discussed.

Founding Partner Package: What Kearney Receives

Branding & Integration

  • Example Series title: "Leading Change – with Wendy Mahoney, in partnership with Kearney"
  • Category exclusivity in management consulting
  • Kearney logo on all show assets and thumbnails
  • Host-read acknowledgements in every episode
  • Strategic Ad-roll segments aligned to episode themes

Thought Leadership

  • 2–3 episodes featuring Kearney leaders as primary guests
  • Topics linked to DEI, gender mainstreaming, and transformation
  • Integration of Kearney research and frameworks
  • Access and ownership of edited video and audio clips and graphics

Content Rights

Bank of edited assets for Kearney's own channels, events, newsletters and DEI programmes

Measurement

Episode-level metrics, social engagement, click-throughs, and end-of-season report with recommendations

What Kearney Gains: Strategic Outcomes

Distinctive African Voice

A leadership platform aligned with Kearney's DEI and transformation agenda, positioning the firm at the forefront of inclusive business conversations across the continent.

Beyond Awards

Takes Gender Mainstreaming and inclusion work beyond awards and reports into ongoing conversation and community building with key stakeholders.

Strategic Association

Direct connection with a respected innovation and behaviour change specialist immersed in Business Engage and corporate inclusion work.

Content Engine

A new platform producing thought leadership, employer brand and client relationship assets in one strategic investment.

Next Steps: Let's Begin the Conversation

01

Alignment Meeting

30–45 minute discussion between Wendy, Kearney Africa (marketing/DEI/leadership & change) and TIM Africa to confirm strategic fit, objectives, audience definition and priority topics.

02

Concept Refinement

TIM Africa drafts detailed season outline, production schedule and budget options. Agree on pilot season shape (6 vs 8 episodes, timing, level of Kearney guest participation).

03

Pilot Production Launch

Once approved, pre-production, recording and launch of first episodes commence according to agreed timeline. Begin building Africa's premier leadership conversation.

Ready to lead the conversation on inclusion and innovation in Africa? This partnership positions Kearney as the founding partner of a distinctive new African voice in leadership thought leadership.