The most valuable asset in marketing is not data, budget or reach, but the willingness to actually see people.

In Episode 143 of Listen To Your Footsteps, Kojo Baffoe sits down with Kgaugelo Maphai - seasoned marketer, entrepreneur and founder of Matrix Communications Group - for a conversation that moves from a nomadic South African childhood to the boardrooms shaping how the continent talks to itself.

Kgaugelo shares how growing up between Atteridgeville, Makapanstad, Diepkloof, Cape Town and a formative year in the United States taught him that "South Africa is nine economies, not one country". We trace his path through Sacred Heart College and Rondebosch Boys, into the SABC's African language stations, East Coast Radio, e.tv, Peermont, a partnership at Brandswell and his tenure as Managing Director of The MediaShop Johannesburg, where he grew the agency to 70% Black and won Financial Mail AdFocus Network Agency of the Year twice.

You will hear how he read Steve Biko as history rather than politics, why he believes the thinkers we lost - Biko, Hani, Sobukwe - would have re-engineered a different country, and how that same instinct to re-engineer showed up when he built one of South Africa's first influencer businesses in 2009, in the middle of a global meltdown.

Kgaugelo unpacks the philosophy behind Matrix Group: an Afrocentric, integrated marketing and communications collective built during COVID that works with owner-run agencies, C-suite decision-makers and foresight strategists, and refuses the traditional above-the-line hierarchy. As he puts it, "we can start anywhere and go any direction".

We also go personal - parenting daughters into their own creative careers, life measured in quadrants after turning 50, why he is a self-described loner, and the 70/20/10 model he uses to portion his time between the business, the projects and the pure risk.

This is a masterclass in marketing psychology, cultural intelligence and long-view leadership from one of the sharpest thinkers in South African communications.

In this conversation:

• Why South Africa is nine economies, not one market

• Sacred Heart, Rondebosch Boys and being seen inside two worlds

• Steve Biko, Chris Hani and the thinkers who could have shifted the trajectory

• Building South Africa's first influencer business in 2009

• Leaving corporate during global catastrophes — twice

• Inside Matrix Group SA and the "start anywhere" model

• Cultural appreciation programmes and immersions as leadership tools

• Parenting adult children, quadrants of life and the 70/20/10 rule

Guest: Kgaugelo Maphai - Founder and CEO, Matrix Group. Former MD, The MediaShop Johannesburg. Director, Social Cohesion Foundation of South Africa.

Listen, subscribe and share wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review if this conversation moved something in you.

#ListenToYourFootsteps #KojoBaffoe #KgaugeloMaphai #MatrixGroup #AfricanMarketing #MarketingPsychology #InfluencerMarketing #SouthAfricanPodcast #BusinessPodcast #AfricanEntrepreneurs #BrandStrategy #Leadership #CulturalIntelligence #Empathy #Storytelling

In this selection from Listen To Your Footsteps, Alistair Mokoena reflects on the influences that shaped him: growing up between entrepreneurship and academia, learning to see skills beyond formal job titles, and using tangible examples to turn ambition into action.

He speaks candidly about leaving corporate, discovering the limits of being positioned as a freelance “resource,” and recognising the need to build an end-to-end offering with a clear point of view. Alistair also shares why he chose to leave Google earlier than planned, how he thinks about “retirement” as a season of purpose and impact, and why integration—not an impossible 50/50 work-life balance—is the more useful goal.

This is a thoughtful conversation about self-awareness, planning, family, financial freedom, meaningful work and making the most of the life you have now.

In this memorable-moments episode, Alistair discusses:

• The entrepreneurial and academic influences of his parents

• Why he studied BCom Law and built a career across business, marketing, teaching and leadership

• Moving from strategy consulting to creating an end-to-end business proposition

• The importance of making your ambitions tangible through prototypes, examples and clear plans

• Why your CV should include the skills you have developed outside formal roles

• Reframing work-life balance as purposeful life integration

• Leaving Google to teach, speak, write and advise at a deeper level of impact

• Why health, relationships, time and experiences matter as much as money

Listen now for a practical and generous conversation about designing a career around your values, recognising the full range of your capabilities, and choosing a life that fits you—rather than allowing a title or company to define you.

Follow Listen To Your Footsteps on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you listen, and share this episode with someone navigating a career transition, building a business, or rethinking what success means. And check out the full episode.

She arrived at Rhodes University in 1994 unable to properly speak English, and left having discovered she was Black. Jacqueline Rainers-Setai grew up in the Northern Areas of Gqeberha, in a community that was never told it lived in a township.

She has spent two decades deciding what South Africa watches — part of the pioneering drama Soul City, commissioning for SABC 2 as the Content Hub was formed with a mandate to change an entire industry, and becoming the first Black woman to launch a 24-hour digital channel when she put a team together within Moja Love in four months.

She is candid about the cost. The shame she carried for decades. Voting ANC while her mother voted National Party. Walking into film school at 46 and sitting with nineteen-year-olds. Two years living in Durban, away from her husband and children, for a job she loves.

And she makes an argument that deserves wider hearing: South Africa lost its film culture because government funded the making of films and never funded the watching of them.

She is now writing a memoir called Becoming Black.

In this episode: The township they were never told they lived in. Learning English in six months. Inside SABC commissioning, and the power it handed people. Launching a channel from nothing. Film school at 46. Marriage across culture, and why love was not enough.

Guest: Jacqueline Rainers-Setai) — Manager of Productions, KwaZulu-Natal Tourism and Film Authority; AFCI Board Member 2026; former Head of Moja Love and SABC 2 Commissioning Editor.

Follow the show, leave a review, and send this to one person still carrying something they have not yet set down.

#ListenToYourFootsteps #KojoBaffoe #JacquelineRainersSetai #BecomingBlack #SouthAfricanFilm #MojaLove #SABC #KZNFilm #ColouredIdentity #Gqeberha #AfricanStorytelling #WomenInFilm #AfricanPodcast #IdentityAndBelonging

Sizakele Marutlulle reflects on learning to be a student again, allowing curiosity to lead, and why a meaningful personal brand begins not with followers, filters or packaging—but with the content of your character. As she puts it: if we were meant to focus only on doing, we would have been called human doings.

Watch this LTYF Moment for a thoughtful reminder to follow what interests you, embrace the unfamiliar, and spend more time becoming who you are.

Watch/listen to the full episode of Listen To Your Footsteps with Sizakele Marutlulle

What does it mean to make a photograph that holds more than a moment?

In this episode of Listen to Your Footsteps, Kojo Baffoe sits down with Soweto-born documentary and commercial photographer, photographic artist and printmaker Andile Bhala. Their conversation moves through memory, music, football, bicycles, fatherhood, creative process and the responsibility of documenting the places and people that shape us.

Andile reflects on growing up in a lively four-room home in Orlando West, Soweto, where stories, music and a constant flow of people taught him how to observe. He shares how a football dream gave way to photography; how cycling became a vehicle for community, discovery and visual storytelling; and why the best camera is often simply the one in your hand.

They also explore Andile’s belief that “paper remembers more”, the delicate line between commercial work and documentary truth, and his ongoing project on names, identity and generational legacy. Most powerfully, this is a conversation about seeing Johannesburg honestly: its beauty, its decay, its noise, its contradictions and the hope it must continue to offer those who arrive looking for a future.

If you care about South African photography, Soweto stories, visual culture, Johannesburg, African creativity, documentary practice and the art of paying attention, this episode is for you.

Listen, follow and share this episode with someone who believes that a photograph can preserve what a city might otherwise forget.

#ListenToYourFootsteps #AndileBhala #SowetoPhotography #DocumentaryPhotography #SouthAfricanArt #Johannesburg #JoziStories #AfricanCreatives #VisualStorytelling #Printmaking #PhotographyPodcast #AfricanCulture

We're looking back on some of our favorite moments from past episodes. The ones that made us pause, reflect, and feel something. In this highlight reel, Zoë Modiga opens up about humanising her father, the beautiful memory of stealing her grandfather's pens, the childhood dentist visit that almost became a career, trusting intuition as a creative compass, why she'll always be an "album artist," and what really brings her joy.

A reflective, heartfelt episode on family, creativity, and staying true to yourself.

#ListenToYourFootsteps #ZoeModiga #PodcastHighlights #MemorableMoments #Storytelling #Intuition #CreativeProcess #AlbumArtist #Fatherhood #SouthAfricanMusic #PodcastClips #ReflectionMoments

Simmi Areff wants one thing on the record first: he is a comedian. The podcast pioneer, the group head of audio and video, the man who produces Trevor Noah's podcast, all of it comes after the microphone.

In episode 140, Kojo Baffoe speaks to the comedian and podcaster who built South African podcasting before most people could define the word. From Ike's Bookshop in Durban and a father deeply entrenched in the ANC, through three degrees and a decade of radio programme managers who refused to put him on air, to the corridor in Montreal that changed everything.

We get into what actually makes someone a storyteller, why great audio forgives bad video, and why 80 listeners once generated 500 million rand. Then it goes quieter: losing his father in September, hearing him in the wind, and the safety net that lets him say no to anyone, a roof over his head and a hot plate of food. He is certain his moment has not arrived yet. He thinks it will arrive in London.

Follow the show, leave a review and share this with one person who needs it.

#ListenToYourFootsteps #KojoBaffoe #SimmiAreff #SouthAfricanPodcast #PodcastingInAfrica #AfricanStorytelling #StandUpComedySA #CreativeCareers #GriefAndHealing #PodcastIndustry

In this Memorable Moments clip from Listen To Your Footsteps, RJ Benjamin shares how Trevor Noah once came to him for vocal coaching long before global fame — a connection that later led to RJ collaborating with comedian Kagiso Lediga on a Netflix comedy-musical. He also reveals the deeply personal truth behind one of his most loved songs, originally written about his father before industry pressure reshaped its story. From childhood bath-time sing-alongs to discovering his daughter's perfect pitch, RJ reflects on talent, legacy, and staying open to unexpected creative paths.

🎧 Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.

What does it take to turn curiosity into culture, and culture into a lasting legacy?

In Episode 139 of Listen to Your Footsteps, Kojo Baffoe sits down with Osmic Menoe - South African hip-hop pioneer, cultural organiser and creative entrepreneur - for a candid conversation about growing up in deep Soweto and building a life through hip-hop.

Osmic reflects on childhood astronomy, long school journeys that began before dawn, and the power of finding a purpose when the world around you offers too many destructive distractions. He traces his path through graffiti, b-boying, beatboxing, rap, design, mixtapes, early creative enterprise and the grassroots cyphers that helped give Johannesburg’s young hip-hop community a voice.

This is a conversation about South African hip-hop history, street culture, youth identity, creative discipline, entrepreneurship and what it truly means to build cultural architecture from the ground up.

If you are an artist, entrepreneur, culture-maker or anyone trying to create a meaningful path beyond the spaces you were given, this episode is for you.

Subscribe to Listen to Your Footsteps, share this episode with someone building their own platform, and join the conversation in the comments.

#OsmicMenoe #SouthAfricanHipHop #Soweto #Johannesburg #HipHopCulture #StreetCulture #CreativeEntrepreneurship #AfricanCulture #ListenToYourFootsteps

Memorable moments from the conversation with Taryn Gill. From leaving a conventional career to creating a business rooted in African beauty, instinct and community, Taryn shares what it really feels like to step into the unknown. It is terrifying, thrilling—and sometimes both at once.

Her reminder is simple: courage is not the absence of fear. It is doing the work despite it. And when doubt arrives, carry the evidence of everything remarkable you have already done.

Listen to the full episode of Listen to Your Footsteps for the complete conversation with Taryn Gill.