The Curious Cult

Leana de Beer is a social entrepreneur and the CEO of Feenix.org. In this episode we discuss hiring for diversity, taking a step back and letting other people speak first, the trauma response that is watching television how the pursuit of excellence can be exhausting. 

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Shannon Esra is an actor and deep thinker. Watch her latest show on Showmax right now!

Yossi Hasson is a tech entrepreneur and investor who has his mind on all things new, innovative and bleeding edge including crypto and NFTs. 

In this episode of the Curious Cult, I have a fantastic chat with Nik Rabinowitz about how he got into the world of comedy, his relationship with comparison and dealing with the ego.

Nik is a full-time stand-up comedian, a part-time sit-down comedian (thanks to Zoom and online comedy shows), a parent of three, and an all-round fascinating human.

In this episode of the Curious Cult, I am excited to chat with Michael Smollan about how living in Shanghai changed his life, how working in the family business has made him more hungry for curiosity and how making sure a business operates according to the purpose is crucial.

Mike is the Chief Growth & Innovation Officer of the Smollan Group, he heads up marketing, growth, and innovation in the firm after growing up in operations. With offices across 56 different countries in the world, one of the core focuses of the Smollan Group is to help improve lives and reduce their environmental impact.

In this episode of the Curious Cult, I am excited to chat with Alexandria Procter about identity, vertical and horizontal curiosity and a whole host of other topics to inspire starting something.

Alex is the founder of DigsConnect, a company that connects landlords and tenants in a secure, vetted way. Alex is a self-declared loud-mouth who challenges the status quo in what identity means but is deeply passionate about her work and loves creating and building things.

In the first episode of season 3 of the Curious Cult, I am thrilled to chat with Mike Scott about why curiosity can be difficult but how it can help you evolve, why design by committee is bad but consensus can work and a whole bunch of other exciting topics.

Mike is the co-founder of NONA, a firm that builds intuitive software for companies across the world. Mike believes strongly in habit-optimisation and is obsessed with learning and consuming knowledge.

In this episode, I chat with one of my closest friends and best-selling author Sam Beckbessinger about working through a lack of inspiration, harnessing unique personality flavours and why consistency is so crucial for output in a creative space.

On a quest to find out “how to adult”, Sam writes by trade and follows her curiosity, recording interesting things obsessively in her pen-and-paper notebook and exploring them later through her writing. From writing to entrepreneurship to enabling and tapping into her own flair and intrigues, Sam has a unique take on work titles, self-improvement and work ethic as a professional creative.

In this episode, I catch up with Rob Hope, a Cape Town-based multi-talented digital maker who goes by many labels from designer to developer to a casual surfer. With an aim is to fill his day with things which inspire him, Rob opts to take on things which challenge or offer enjoyment (like surfing).

In his career, Rob has found that when he was most comfortable in his career, he wasn’t challenging himself. It's “a very dangerous place to be” - Rob points to too much security in business or life is a “safe zone” which indicates a number of red flags. So, he started a Youtube show, which he claims as the hardest thing he has done in his life.

In this episode, I chat with Natalie Nagele, co-founder and CEO of Wildbit, a company which puts people at the forefront of businesses.

With 20 years running the company, has a wealth of experience in starting things and learning along the way. She and Wldbit are shifting the focus in business: Prioritising people and developing a business culture to support individuals and promote healthy work habits.

In this episode, I chat with Kyle Redelinghuys about how he manages to stay on top of four business ventures while maintaining a relationship and still has time to exercise at the end of the day. The perfect advocate for starting things, Kyle offers a wealth of knowledge about how to scale businesses sustainably.

In this episode, I chat with Kenyan activist Ory Okolloh, who has an active sense of chasing curiosity with an appetite to see social change in the African landscape.

With the social development in Africa a strong driving force in her professional pursuits, Ory is one of the founding members of Ushahidi, a non-profit open-source software application designed to help give a voice to marginalised people.

In this episode, I catch up with former professional rugby player Bob Skinstad who played for the Springboks. In addition to his time on the pitch, Bob also has a wealth of experience in the field of business and investments.

From Stellenbosch University, Bob spent twelve years playing professional sport internationally. During his sporting career, he had a number of investments and co-investments which trajected his interest in the world business and entrepreneurship. He dabbled in a corporate role to learn the formal side of business, “learning how to dot the i’s and cross the t’s” and managed his own portfolio of investments. He is now a partner for investment capital management firm Knife Capital and is a venture partner for a family office in the United Kingdom.

In this episode, I chat with Tashmia Ismail who has built models to combat inequality and social injustice. Born in South Africa, a remarkably fascinating but unequal country in career opportunities and the job market, Tash has an avid curiosity about democratising access to the basic chances of employment available to young South Africans.

“I’m a big fan of two types of models. One is a Robin Hood model and the other is a platform model, both of which work well together. And the idea of working with people who have the resources and skills and hopefully can build empathy to build platforms to address some of these issues.”

In this episode, I chat with Vinny Lingham about his time spent working in a corporate career and how it acted as a stepping stone to entrepreneurship. With a hunger for knowledge and an appreciation for information, Vinny is a massive advocate for skill-building experience and it’s evident in the way he talks about work and career opportunities.

Hailing from East London in South Africa, he spent time in the corporate world before branching out to start his own companies. After building his first businesses, a search engine marketing platform in 2003 and incubators in South Africa, he moved to Silicon Valley to build up more tech entrepreneur experience. In 2015, Vinny started Civic, an identity platform, which is his current focus to develop to adapt in the COVID-shaken world.

In this episode, I chat with Mike Joubert who has had a thirty-year corporate career working with brands across the world. After moving from corporate to entrepreneurship, Mike started and sold his own successful business in 2009. From there, with the love of developing companies and people, he has spent his time investing in businesses in South Africa.

From overcoming the fear of moving abroad, having the courage to turn curiosity into experimentation in the corporate companies, and starting his own business with amazing success, Mike has a wealth of business experience.

During his early career, twice Mike was offered the chance to move abroad to head up teams in Amsterdam and the United Kingdom and twice he turned the opportunity down. He pegged the reason down to one thing: He was too nervous to leave his family and support and step out into the unknown. The people he knew and loved were based in South Africa, and he was concerned about the move from comfort. When the third chance to move and work overseas came from Levi’s, he couldn’t say no.

“I had the same doubts, but I thought that I was not going to get a fourth chance. I made the leap, and you know what, it turned out spectacularly. Not only was it a great opportunity and added some real value to the business but as a human being, I just grew.”

In his early 20s, Adrian took his skillset in investment and economics and started something. Worried about job prospects out of university, and with the support of his friends who had investable assets, he was encouraged to share his expertise in economics which quickly became a useful tool, resulting in an investment club.

“I had growing anxiety and suspicions that I was turning myself into very well qualified, but unemployable.”

Once a month, the club would meet, talk about markets, economies, ideas and build an investment pool. The main idea was to “hopefully make some money” from the investment.

Within two years, the club had made some neat returns, gained some external attention and had expanded from 12 friends to 200 members with investments in the pool. Without intention, his business had grown from an informal arrangement to a licensed form.

“What it showed me is that what you dream is possible.”

David Perel started his racing career at a very young age. He's had ups and downs, he's discovered a passion for real-life racing and found success there all the while progressing as a formidable sim racer.   In this interview, David and I discuss his entrepreneurial spirit, what it takes to be the best at something, starting side hustles that become business, curiosity, hard work and sacrifice.   A riveting conversation with an accomplished sportsperson and entrepreneur.   

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