Listen To Your Footsteps

What happens when the life you build refuses to follow a pattern?

South African writer, creative consultant, talent manager and producer Mahlatse James joins Kojo Baffoe for a conversation about fashion, identity and finding your way through a creative life.

From growing up in Lebowakgomo and attending school in Polokwane to navigating Johannesburg’s fashion and media spaces, Mahlatse reflects on learning to adapt without always knowing what comes next. He shares how conversations opened doors to writing and styling, what launching Lucky Boy Clothing taught him, and why a five-year plan could never have predicted the person he would become.

Together, Mahlatse and Kojo explore the versions of ourselves we bring into different rooms, the friendships that change as we grow, and the tension between creative enjoyment and earning a living. There is also a spirited exchange about personal style, familiar clothes and the possibility of finding more things that work.

As the questions begin travelling in both directions, the conversation becomes as much about how we live as what we do.

In this episode:

Growing up between different social worlds and learning to belong.
Building a creative career through relationships and unexpected opportunities.
Fashion writing, personal style and the lessons of Lucky Boy Clothing.
Working with image-makers and producing commercials.
Writing for money, changing media models and the value of reputation.
Returning to study and making room for another version of yourself.

Listen to Episode 148 of Listen to Your Footsteps. Follow the podcast for more conversations about African lives and creative journeys, and share this episode with someone finding their own way. If the conversation resonates, leave a rating or review wherever your platform allows.

#ListenToYourFootsteps #MahlatseJames #CreativeCareers #SouthAfricanFashion

In these Memorable Moments from Episode 92, former Bafana Bafana, Kaizer Chiefs and Sundowns legend Brian Baloyi reflects on the emotional rollercoaster of goalkeeping, the broken systems holding back black athletes and entertainers, and why retirement - not just in sports - is something we should all plan for. A conversation about failure, resilience, and leaving behind more than just money.

In Episode 147 of Listen to Your Footsteps, Kojo Baffoe speaks with Lebo Motswenyane, founder of Lucky No8 Concepts, about the relationships, decisions and unseen work behind event production.
From her childhood in Khuma, Klerksdorp, to a Rotary exchange in the United States and a career spanning Levi’s and Speakers Corner, Lebo reflects on the experiences that expanded her world and helped her find her own lane. She shares how public relations led her into events, and why becoming a mother helped shape her decision to start a business.
The conversation moves beyond the finished production: staying composed when things go wrong, working with clients and other agencies, paying people on time and giving young talent a chance. Lebo also speaks candidly about retrenching almost 30 people during COVID, winning Netflix business at a financial low point, and how those experiences changed her approach to responsibility and resilience.
Now, in what she calls her teaching era, she is thinking about the knowledge she can pass on, and how the business can grow without her being in every room.
A conversation about entrepreneurship, motherhood, belonging and the architecture of bringing people together.
Listen to the episode, follow Listen to Your Footsteps, and share it with someone building a business or finding their own way. If the conversation resonates, leave a rating or review on your listening platform.
#ListenToYourFootsteps #LeboMotswenyane #EventProduction #Entrepreneurship

In this LTYF Moments from the very first episode of Listen To Your Footsteps podcast, I look back at memorable moments from the conversation with Papama Mtwisha, founder of the children’s clothing label Butter Pudding and the ‘Africa Your Time Is Now’ fashion brand. We trace the path from dreaming of being a housewife to becoming a fashion designer, fashion editor, and ultimately an entrepreneur whose brand is worn across the continent.
We talk about the seven years an idea lived on an iPad before it became a business, the fear of walking away from a steady pay check when you have school fees and a bond, and why the name "Butter Pudding" - simple ingredients, timeless results - became the philosophy behind an entire brand.
From the "Africa is the Future" to the “Africa Your Time Is Now” movement to a deliberate decision to manufacture locally on the continent, this is a conversation about trusting your timing, defining success on your own terms, and what happens when the universe conspires to meet you exactly where you are.

There was a piano in the Yenana home in King William's Town that was never meant for Andile. It was bought for his older brother - his mother hoped music might ground a son she feared the Struggle would swallow. It didn't. What it did do was give Andile something to pick the lock of, quietly, with a pair of scissors, every time his brother left for his lessons.
Thirty years after we first met at the University of Natal, Andile Yenana - pianist, composer, band leader, educator - sat down with me to trace a life in music. From a party home in the '70s and '80s, with the aunt in the brunette wig whose month-long visits gave his first album its name, We Used to Dance. Through marimbas in a Catholic church, a reggae band in King William's Town, and the Friday nights at Gustav's that shaped a generation of South African jazz.
We talk about what it means to find your voice - and what Zim Ngqawana's wife said when he told her he'd found his. The night Bafana Bafana won the Africa Cup of Nations while he was crossing Johannesburg to fetch sheet music. A composition born on a boat moored off Tripoli. A payslip line item. And how Thembisa - a song he nearly didn't record - ended up sampled by J. Cole.
Also: why leaving Johannesburg might be the best decision he ever made, and what it means when your family is the music.