Tlou: I live on www.chicafrican.com; obsessing about it, thinking of ways to make it better and grow it. I do this from my home office in Bryanston, Johannesburg on a daily basis. OK, I lie... I do that on an hourly basis!
Tlou: I am a storyteller, and I use the power of marketing and communication to do that. I am particularly obsessed with telling Africa's story of creativity and telling the other side of the story of Africa. One that is authentic, beautiful, compelling, loud, sophisticated, colourful and chic.
Tlou: I have spent the past 20 years building my career in marketing and communication. After varsity, I started as a flight attendant for SAA and the travel bug then hit. My career has been spent working largely in the public service with some time also spent at PR agencies. I have lived and worked in Europe (Frankfurt and London) for just over five years running the marketing and communication efforts of SA Tourism in those countries before becoming the Global GM for Communications at SA Tourism on my return to SA in 2007. Most recently, I was Chief marketing Officer for Brand South Africa and decided to leave that and focus on my dream of building www.chicafrican.com.
Tlou: Reading, eating my way through the world, writing and occasionally making visits to the gym!
Tlou: Its ability to often tell stories that change people's way of seeing the world, and ultimately, that inspire people to be better citizens - what I call active citizens.
Tlou: The defeating notion that PR is 'events' and that anyone can do it. I hate that.
Tlou: Wake up, go to gym, have breakfast, work on www.chicafrican.com, take a nap here and there to focus my brain, answer unending emails, spend time with my boyfriend and let myself be loved.
Tlou: Brains, Insights, listening, content creation, relationship building, kick-ass strategies and delivering excellent work over and over again, unapologetically.
Tlou: Brands that listen to what their consumers want, that can turn insights into impactful solutions. No one person is getting it right all the time, but there are those that do get it right.
Tlou: Building www.chicafrican.com, getting it on everyone's radar, increasing the numbers of visitors to the online platform, delivering compelling and authentic content on the platform and obsessing about getting an investor to help me scale the business to the empire I believe it is destined to be.
Tlou: 'Interactive', 'integrated', 'social media', to name a few. My ultimate catch phrase is 'double-clicking'!
Tlou: When I am in the company of other people. I derive great pleasure from listening, challenging and feeding off of other people's creative and smart energy.
Tlou: I have a photographic memory that scares the living daylights out of me!
Tlou: Technophile!
Tlou: Chats, silly pictures, tons of selfies (one has to self-love, right?!), and pictures of loved ones. Food pictures too and dream destinations to add to my bucket list.
Tlou: Start. Always start. It may not be where you want to be, but I believe the ability to start is one of the most powerful things anyone can do. And always, always be excellent.
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Read more about Tlou by clicking here.
*Interviewed by Leigh Andrews.