Lwazi Madonsela is a being of progress, a believer in elevation and a pioneer of the next step. The business focused creative or in his words an Editor, is rooted in the purpose of serving knowledge to the community. The founder of 348 select, sneaker coast and CNR JUTA & DE BEER and as of 2022 was awarded “Mr top 10 podcasts on Spotify”, after only serving two months on the platform. His wave has become a full-fledged ocean and the people are swimming in it. Incredibly persistent and consistent with the craft, and so we brought him to BROKE.
By: Audrey T. Nyamucherera
1. What would you say is your contribution to humanity and the culture?
- I always say we were brought up to follow what your name means, and my name Lwazi means knowledge, so my purpose is to share knowledge, even my handle UMSINDISIWESIKO loosely translates to “Savior Of the Culture”. However saving comes in different tiers, and my role is to preserve through knowledge, so for me everything derives from what my name means and I believe my contribution to humanity is to keep advancing and be one of those people that move humanity forward. We’re the generation of taking it to the next step, the generation of editors, that improve. My goal is to be part of the people that takethings forward. I’m doing it for the kid in gr11, the kid about to finish postgrad, the kid who just finished first year and isn’t sure if he’s going to continue, to show them that they can do it, but I have to show them how it’s done first, so they believe it works.
2. What is the main purpose of CNR JUTA & De Beer for those who don’t know it?
- With my new and main focus CNR Juta & De Beer its literally a creative
entrepreneurship podcast, we’re gonna talk about the business of creativity the
back-office. The knowledge and gems it takes to get to the top. Hence we
sometimes go over an hour. I’d love to hear about how your childhood
influenced your creativity, but I’d hate to hear it as a viewer, and I’m here to give
the people what they want. So as a broadcaster the first thing I need to do is give you everything you want. When we were young we wanted to know about the Virgils and Demnas but there was no encyclopedia on them to read on, two, the people blogs aim to speak to, are too cool. So you have to repackage it, resell it, improve your message and aim for that to grow.
3. So now you go by Lwazi by those who know you and Usindisiwesiko online but what do they call you in the streets?
- Well at some point it was Carharrt Don, but now its Mr Spotify top 10, Mr Corner Juta & De Beer, Mr Nike just cut the cheque it’s Mr BIG AHAAAA! Mr Sneaker coast and there’s something crazy happening soon, but that’s just a blessing we await to watch.
4. When did the first thought, or inspiration on starting a podcast and documenting?the culture begin to manifest itself?
- Damn that’s a crazy one, so if you know me, you know I’m a nerd. When a
workplace hires you, they want to see if you can complete something, it’s the
simplest act but people make it seem so difficult. In 2015, 2016, 17, I had these
ideas, but now they’re coming to fruition in a more advanced form. I’ve
completed my tasks, my mission, my business is successful and now I’m moving on to the next ventures.
5. What does a day in the life of Mr Top 10 on Spotify look like?
- So by 9pm I’m in bed, particularly if I have no plans or supper scheduled with
anyone. At 3AM I wake up instinctively to edit an episode, God willing when I
wake up it’s not stage 6. Do what I got to do, check email inbox, send my emails, upload what I need to upload, make sure I’m ready for the day, next it’s my twitter hour – laughing, sending some tweets to people, after that Instagram, I’m learning, 5AM hits wash my face body, go to the gym! Do two things, Running and swimming, to maintain and gain patience. At 9AM I’m having my thought’s in the shower. I’m a man of the mountains and the waters, and that’s also why I love hiking at the beach, it’s a Luxury. The small things are everything to me.
6. What do you think is the difference between how you operate and that of other creatives?
- With me, when I do campaigns I don’t play future for me, I play future for the
business. When we do a campaign that’s reinvestment, when we do a campaign it builds a relationship, and also I don’t do campaigns where the campaign manager says please send your analytics. I don’t do that, my partnerships are different, when I come in I come in as a company, so I work not via reach but impact. I operate with call to actions, I have an audience, and I use that.
7. What’s the difference between a Crowd and an Audience?
- There’s a crowd of people in CBD but in a theatre you have an audience, that’s
the difference, a crowd will always exist, an audience is engaged. So when I look at our value proposition, we have a holding populous that listens and retains and spreads.
8. What has been your reception in the podcast community?
- The thing about that community is that we all have our niche, sobering is a music podcast, I’m not, when I ask about music it’s about rollout or the money put into it, not necessarily the culture and creative process. I mean I’m nice but I’m not Mac Gee, but that’s the beauty of it and that’s what happens when you apply yourself and that’s why I’ve managed to accomplish top 10. Treat yourself like a business plan, focus on what you sell, make it relatable. We work by
understanding our purpose and focusing that to our product.
9. What’s your ambition and vision for 348?
- I aim to sell it, everyone thinks of their business growing, no one considers their business being sold, that’s why a lot of business end up going under right. Why sell? Because you can’t find SABC, Channel O, MTV but you can sell the
competition.
10. What’s the next venture?
- Hmmm, 348Select is going to be my first successful company, but my next
company is called "Unproven Ideas". I just want to get paid for talking, I want to connect with people on a level of expertise. I don’t want to create, I’m not a
creator, I’m an editor, I make things better. So we’re a rollout agency we sit and
ask you what’s the catch word in this movie what’s the sale? We don’t go design with Archive, we say we have an agency and within that agency we have a sub-brand that touches your desired community, and that entity is called sneaker coast which gets you ROI, Interactions, content. We can get you stuff designed for your product, we’re not selling NIKE we’re selling ARCHIVE and we did it. So unproven Ideas is the next step.
11. In this growth and rise of yours what are some of the most important take aways you’ve learnt and retained?
- One, your vibranium circle the ones with you when you were broke and you can’t be around people doing what you do because they might not share the energy the ideas, because they need to keep it for themselves. Secondly, your first idea is always a brilliant idea. Finally, give credit to everyone, a lot of people don’t get that, they’re self-made or give respect to their OG’S. Like right now my biggest resource is being able to call people, when a big campaign comes I made 3 calls, Katlego, Frypan, Kabelo, 3 calls and I understood everything I needed to understand for the mission in front of me.
Stay Bless,
Stay Powerful,
Stay BROKE
