Marilize Jacobs is a South African entrepreneur. She is the founder of two businesses, Pigs Can Fly Interiors & VocalCord Reputation Management in South Africa. Marilize is a reputation strategist with a BCom Marketing Management (UP) and a career spanning interior design, communications, marketing, and PR.
Tell Me More About Yourself and the Journey that Led You into Entrepreneurship
My name is Marilize Jacobs, I’m from South Africa. I’m an entrepreneur and I’m a mother of twins. I’m a type A multitasking creative, which is I think something quite unique. I studied BCom Marketing and then worked in marketing communications for quite a few future companies.
And then after I had my children, I wanted more flexibility. I studied interior decorating, and that’s where my entrepreneurial journey really started. Because it was that whole story of, let’s go to school, let’s do university, let’s get married, let’s have kids. And suddenly there was this whole new world that was actually opening for me.
So currently I run two businesses. I’m still in PR and communications. My company’s name is VocalCord, but I also do interior decorating and that side of the business is called Pigs Can Fly Interiors.
Now you’re gonna ask me why two vastly different businesses? Usually someone’s answer would be to listen. I need an extra income stream or whatever that might be. For me I’m a very curious person and I think that’s a very big trait of an entrepreneur is being curious.
You must want to read, you must want to have thought leadership followers, you must admire certain people and follow them and want to be like them. So my thing was now I’m doing interiors, that’s mainly left brain. Then there’s strategic communications, reputation management, which is mainly left brain.
So now suddenly I’m having a whole brain experience where I’m not just working. I’m also learning a lot about myself in the process through psychology. You know what I mean? So it’s a whole process. As I said, I need to be busy. I’m curious. And suddenly, by doing two things at one time, I almost felt like I felt more fulfilled, if that made sense.
The amazing thing is people always say to me, you can’t be directly in the middle of your brain. It doesn’t work like that, your left or right. The brain is a wonderful thing. You can train your brain. Autism can be cured. And I even bought something to show you.
The brain that changes itself. This book is amazing. Our brain is like a piece of putty. So you can learn certain skills within the left and right brain. For me, that is why I actually have two careers in one and I need to explain where it all came together, if that makes sense.
What Inspired the Creation of Your Businesses and What Problems Were You Aiming to Solve in the Market?
Suddenly I had kids, so everything in my life was suddenly finding solutions to make life easier. So might be changing a nappy or out to quickly warm a bottle because it’s two of them and the one that cries the hardest is the one that’s getting attention. I started becoming very aware about gaps in the market for certain stuff.
And I didn’t want to get involved in baby stuff. I’ve got a great mentor also, his name is Mark Bowden. You can also follow him on LinkedIn. And he calls it getting conscious about gaps in the market. Now I’m gonna throw a little bit of lingo, which is sometimes a bit unfair for entrepreneurs, but where is their value proposition?
Where can I add value that’s not yet in the market? Now, for instance, interior decorating has been around forever. There’s nothing new about it. But there are huge misconceptions about it. Everyone thinks it’s just fluffing pillows, and I’m going to be hugely expensive, and all of those things.
But for me, trying to cost defeat the fees and make your house a happy place is very important to me. And I saw a gap there where I could listen to people, hear what they’re saying, not just force my style onto them. There is actually something called the Happiness Institute. It’s an international institute. And they’ve recently released research where it shows that 15% of your happiness comes from your home environment.
Now, to give you an idea of the spectrum, health counts for 14%. So it’s even higher than health to make you happy. And that’s what I wanna do. I want to make people happy. And then the other problem I had was I wanted to identify my value proposition. Obviously I studied BCom marketing and people think public relations is getting you into newspapers, maybe me having this interview with you. It’s media coverage.
So that term, I wanted to show people what reputation management is. Reputation management is stakeholder management, it is your media relations, it’s your awards programs, it’s your speaking opportunities, it’s your social media. Traditionally, social media was part of a graphic designer’s job.
So why I started this was I wanted to find two niches within these two different markets that I knew. I wanted to address the happiness factor and the misconception about interior decorating being only for the rich and all that nonsense. And that there’s meaning to the madness it actually makes you happy when you’re home is happy hello we all know this.
And then also the misperception about PR and it’s all about bubbles and Friday afternoons that you have off to go and drink drinks And it’s not like that anymore.
You Run Two Businesses, Pigs Can Fly and VocalCords. How Did Marilize Jacobs Assemble and Build Her Team as an African Entrepreneur?
There’s actually three tiers I would like to address. The first one is mentorship. Now mentorship isn’t necessarily a professor or someone. Mentorship is sometimes family, your community, your friends, it’s people that say, hey you can do this.
Second, I’m very passionate about empowerment. To give you a practical example, 20 years ago, I met a Zimbabwean guy, Enzoni, this is your shout out. This is your moment of fame. And I saw this guy, he can do more than just cut grass. So we went through marketing school. I actually sent him to painting school. And I think at the moment, Enzoni makes more money than me.
I think he has three trucks, he employs 15 people, he works for me, but he runs his own business called Fabulous Finishes. So that was one part of the team. He works for me. And also there’s a loyalty between us. I think that no one can replace, if that makes sense.
My third building tip of building a team is to support other entrepreneurs and freelancers because we need it. It’s easy to go to the weak guys.
How Did You Come Up With the Name Pigs Can Fly?Why the Name Pigs Can Fly?
I’m a creative. For me, like I said, my value proposition is anything is possible. I’m not going to break down your house and rebuild it for you. But your vision, I can make it happen because I listen to you. Now, the same “Pigs Can Fly” is actually compared to the day pigs can fly. It’s gonna happen.
But I wanna tell you, I’m gonna make it happen. So I’m making a promise to you already that I’m gonna deliver, if that makes sense. So it’s preempting my value proposition by saying pigs can fly, yeah, I’m gonna make it happen.
Funding in Africa is a Very Big Challenge. So What’s Your Thoughts on Funding in Africa?
In South Africa we typically don’t refer to it as funding. We refer to it as almost sponsorship. So you’ll typically have a big corporation that’s got a sponsorship program for entrepreneurial hubs or whatever the whole story is.
I feel that Africa and South Africa still do not understand that concept. And I feel there is not enough support with regards to that. So what I had to do, for instance, is change that whole concept for myself to not focus on the funding of the story. But actually looking at a human investment, if that makes sense.
So I had to look at mentorship, which is not a monetary thing. And it’s actually sad. It’s good in a way, but I do feel that there’s a huge gap in the market with regards to that. I think entrepreneurship is the future. That’s it. You can say what you want to say. I mean, with the birth rates going up and all of that and, I mean, everything economically just makes sense.
I train my kids to be entrepreneurs and they’re thirteen years old. And I will agree with you that there is a gap. And I wish the corporations will listen.
I believe the Government in all the African Countries Has a Role to Play
I don’t want to speak specifically for establishments that might be there. But I was having a conversation with a big voice in an entrepreneurial industry a while ago. And we both felt that there’s not enough being done with regards to that. And especially with regards to females.
Money usually makes us feel a bit…we’re very comfortable with money. We like it a lot, but we like the shop. But it makes us feel uncomfortable if we don’t have the funding. And then you have a startup idea, which is great, but you’ll never grow because there’s no funding.
One Can’t Just Walk into a Bank for Funds Without Presenting a Collateral
That’s a loan. Like I say, you need to look at funding as a sponsorship for me more than anything else. I don’t like the term funding or a loan, or it sounds like something I need to give back at one stage and that immediately creates uncertainty for me because now I’m already an entrepreneur.
I’m putting myself out there. Is this gonna work? Is it not gonna work? Now someone is throwing another risk upon me. You know what I mean? So, the term needs to be I’m sponsoring you. I don’t want anything back. It’s like someone that’s going to a rehab. I’m sponsoring you and I’m giving this back to you. So yes, there’s a very big gap.
What Strategies Are You Employing to Attract and Retain Your Customers?
I’m gonna give it one word, consistency. My message consistently is, Pigs Can Fly Interiors. I’m gonna make it happen for you. VocalCords, I’m your voice.
Second, word of mouth. Huge. It takes time and I think that’s why entrepreneurs sometimes also get irritated or tired of the process. Because word of mouth is trust. That means someone else trusted you enough to give you a number. Now in any relationship might be a marriage, friendship, trust is not built on hi I meet you for coffee and now we have trust.
So that is the part where entrepreneurs also get a bit demotivated. They don’t want to go through those initial phases because word of mouth is your biggest, most credible marketing tool. And the other one is, you will. always stay your brand. Now it’s very confusing at the moment. You’ve got TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, what do I do?
I’m a huge LinkedIn fan. How did we meet? You know what I mean? So profile yourself. You’re your business and you are your brand. Even if you’re a surgeon, a doctor, you are a brand. And the best place to do that if you’re very uncertain about the channels to work in, for me, I found with entrepreneurs, is LinkedIn.
And it’s not like an Instagram or a Facebook or you meet funny people that want to sell you for $4 trillion, million dollars per second, that kind of stuff. You know, there is the dodgy stuff, but I mean, you know, you can work through it.
Explain More on Your Article on Inc.Africa Where You Talked About Adversity Quotient and Why an Entrepreneur Needs it
If your personal life isn’t great, not a lot of stuff is great. So I’m a single mother, I had to go through a divorce. I had to pick up the pieces of my life. And it wasn’t the easiest time of my life, I can definitely tell you that. But I was very intrigued about what happens inside that square that made me pick up stuff and gave me the motivation to go on.
And I think there’s a lot of African women that’s going through the same thing. Now let me tell you why. IQ is actually directly linked to people that desert their family. And think about how many…and I don’t really want to go into the socioeconomic thing of this. But leaving a woman with a young baby, you know what I mean? That is a bad IQ.
And then suddenly the community has to jump in. I don’t think there’s enough support like that, but there used to be with regards to that. And then it was important for me to know how I can persevere with this because otherwise I’m going to burn out. That’s a big thing. Look, we all can do it for a year and then we’re going to be totally ridiculous.
Now, for interview purposes, I think it was easy for me to put it into my body and soul without going into I believe in the universe type of stuff. Now, everyone will say self-care. That’s an easy one. It’s not just bubble baths and candles and Julio Iglesias or whatever you guys listen to in Nigeria.
It’s about actually releasing oxytocin, which is your love hormone. Now your love hormone gets released when there’s…let me give you an example. When your dog barks, this is research, and you look him in the eye and you acknowledge him, then he stops. That’s exactly where puppy-eyed dogs come from. So you know that you’ve done something wrong and then you go like this, I’m sorry. That releases oxytocin.
Human touch releases oxytocin. So no one must ever again tell me a massage is not good for you because it’s in you, it’s in human touch. So it doesn’t have to be an excuse to use the word in a sensual or a sexual way. Martial arts releases oxytocin. That is just really ridiculous.
So that for me is the mind bit of a body part of that. But the other thing that’s very important is you can’t think properly when you’ve got brain fog. Brain fog is a big problem for entrepreneurs. They come to a stage where it’s like, it’s too much, I’m too tired, it feels like there’s cotton wool in my head.
Now, the reason that happens is because again, this is facts, there’s a direct link between your gut and your brain. And usually you’ll see entrepreneurs who don’t eat well, they don’t look after themselves, they don’t take their supplements anymore. Yes, we all know we have to exercise and all of that.
Gut-brain health, very important. That’s how they cure autism these days. I mean, so it’s an amazing thing. Look after what you eat, what you feed in your gut. Do your omegas. If I can give entrepreneurs one pointer, put turmeric in anything. It’s the greatest anti-inflammatory at the best price.
Cook your pop, cook your rice, cook your everything with turmeric. I believe you, fixing your gut directly into your brain, can think clearer, all of those things. Now, your soul also needs to be fed. But that’s the things that you love. Like I told you the stats, your home needs to be your happy place.
Let’s Talk About Reputation Management. Can You Share a Specific Case Where Your Reputation Management Strategies Had a Positive Impact on a Client Business?
I don’t come from an entrepreneurial family. That’s what I also want to tell everyone out there. You don’t have to come from an entrepreneurial family. I actually come from a doctor’s family. So I also wanted to become a doctor, but I think my beat-side manners would have been very bad.
But anyways, I used to consult on the pure side for a big pharmaceutical company. But my passion, just to go back to my first sentence, is children. I love kids and education. So what happened was you know the movie, the American movie where the fat kid is running lost and he’s got asthma and everyone is teasing him and oh, Fetty, there you go. So at that time I’m not, I’m not going to name anyone at this stage.
He was an Olympic athlete for South Africa. And he actually had asthma. And no one knew this. So we used him in a PR campaign where we told, especially children, listen, you’re not a loser because you’ve got asthma. Look at this guy, he’s got asthma. It’s treatable. So the results were not only just financially rewarding, to see the psychological effect it had was huge.
Because I mean, in my years that I grew up, asthma was almost, I don’t wanna say frowned upon, but listen, you can only do anything. You can’t be in the athletics teams, you can’t be in the swimming team, because you’ve got asthma. And because I’ve got such a huge passion for children, educating them with regards to your weakness, what you might see as a weakness, that’s actually not. That was a fabulous campaign to work on.
What Approaches or Techniques Do You Employ in Managing and Improving a Brand’s Reputation?
Data analytics is the latest thing as you might know. Everyone wants measurement. They want to know where’s my money going, where’s my bank from, that type of thing. So now the thing with these big companies, they prefer RepTrak, which is an international reputation management tracking system. Everyone is welcome to Google all this stuff or just DM me and ask me about it.
But for entrepreneurs and even your medium-sized businesses, I almost want to say, ChatGPT is not your friend. Google is still your friend. So work with Google. Do your Google Docs. Get to know your Google Sheets. Get how to analyze your analytics. And people are welcome to DM me for apps that you import directly where you can see measurement for your things.
Because at the end of the day, I think you want to see it like anything. Let’s say a subject in school. You almost forget the first term, how bad you did. And then you come to the third term and you think, you know, I’m doing okay-ish, but you forgot how terrible it was in the beginning. Sometimes just for a motivational overview, see what’s going on.
I want to focus on the positive because now I can tell you, whoa, you’re looking at the sheets and it’s like, whoa, it’s a disaster. Oh, it’s over. But focus on the positive stuff with regards to that. And like I say, ChatGPT is your friend, but it can also be your foe. But Google is always your friend.
Google is Inculcating AI into their Searches. What Do You Think About That?
We’re not going to take that one away. I think you need to see it in a twofold, almost like a friend or foe scenario. There’s a lot of positive things and I speak from my experience and my industry. Look, a lot of stuff that I do is visual.
I think AI is amazing with that stuff. But then you need to be very careful, especially within reputation management or if you’ve got a small boutique PR agency. Because it’s easy to type in, do me a press release for a new energy drink or whatever you want to do. And AI is going to kick it out for you.
But what is happening automatically within the publishing industry is they’ve got screens and they own AI that picks up if you’ve used AI to compile a press release. And then that automatically kicks you out. For me, for instance, if I get an email and it goes like this. At least we haven’t had that conversation. I hope this email finds you well. Then I automatically know this person used ChatGPT. So use it wisely. OK.
Talking About Reputation Management. A Lady was Arrested by a Company for the Preview She Gave About One of Their Product
Like that you’re giving a real life example. That’s what we call crisis communication in PR. Now to avoid crisis communication there’s usually two strategies we follow. Proactive communication strategy and a reactive communication strategy. Now I think any business should have this.
Write everything down. And I’m going to do a shout out for a company in South Africa now and I hope she’s going to send me a diary for your daily planning. Go and write down certain things that you can preempt that might happen in your business.
Is someone going to accuse you of copyrighting? What support might I need at one stage? What misconceptions are there? And what are my shareholders’ problems?
Again, you don’t do this alone. You bounce it off your mentor, your sponsor, your friend, your community. So now already you’ve got a proactive plan but things happen. People are funny things. Yeah, they can pull something out of some way. So now suddenly you’re dealing with a reactive PR action.
And especially for entrepreneurs, because we’re so passionate about our business and we’re female, we knee-jerk. So we wanna put a bit of rumour in the whole story. Wrong strategy, totally. Never ever not say anything, you know, like in the movies they say no comment. Never say no comment. Say something as soon as you can and there’s nothing like an apology. Everyone likes an apology. You have to be heard. You have to be hard if someone says, listen, I screwed up.
How Do You Leverage Data Analytics to Inform Your Reputation Management Strategies?
Bigger companies work on your RepTrak. You’ve got your office 365, that type of thing. Like I said, Google is your friend. Another thing is Notion, especially for LinkedIn analytics, because I think there’s a lot of misleading stuff happening on LinkedIn, you know, your engagement levels and things like that. This is just an interesting fact.
You know, all these things that they put out on LinkedIn, like, you’re a thought leader and you’ve been chosen, you’re chosen one to give input into customer service delivery. That is not what they’re using your opinion for. They’re actually using it to create AI, ChatGPT. Where did you think they got all their answers from? Think about it.
Then another one, which is a bit more technical. But I think entrepreneurs are very good with figuring stuff out for themselves and learning stuff themselves. They don’t really have to, you don’t have to really go on a course to now figure this out is Zapier. I don’t know why I say that in a French accent. But anyways, Z-I-P-I-E-R.
Are There Any Emerging Technologies That You Believe Will Impact the Future of Online Reputation Management?
Online reputation management is an interesting one. And here again, you must be very careful about AI and ChatGPT. Keep it authentic. Keep it within your brand strategy and your messaging. And keep it consistent. Yes. A channel like Instagram is very visual.
Use your visuals, use your AI there. But stay true to your brand, especially with regards to online brand management. I think that that’s very important. And again, talking to entrepreneurs, do not underestimate the power of LinkedIn. Look, we all know Twitter, X, whatever went through this whole disastrous thing.
There’s a lot of interesting things happening on LinkedIn. I don’t know why. I’m just a LinkedIn fan at the moment. I’m having a LinkedIn moment.
How Do You Combine Your Full-time Job as a Single-mom of Twins With Running Your Two Businesses?
My support system, definitely. I wouldn’t be able to do it without the people in my life. There’s so many shout outs. It sounds like I’m winning an Oscar. Everyone always says, and for me it’s so sad sometimes that we don’t do this for each other.
That whole thing, it takes a village to raise a child and no man is an island. I’ve said it before, but we don’t live it anymore. We’ve become so isolated and selfish with regards to certain things. But I am so blessed to be part of a very supportive structure. And this is also a very personal thing for me, obviously. I’m religious, I’m a Christian, and I feel that keeps me very grounded.
What Piece of Advice Can You Give to Africans, Especially Women Who Are Looking to Start Their Business?
I’m so excited to say this because you don’t have to come from an entrepreneurial background to be an entrepreneur. Everyone thinks, oh, my father had a sewing shop somewhere so now I need to be this X, Y, Z. If you’ve got that brainchild happening in your mind, it’s happening.
Women, we are naturally more because of our motherly instincts that we’re born with. We’re very risk aversive. So what stops us from being proper entrepreneurs sometimes, even if you’ve got a great idea, or you start with an idea. Because I’ve mentioned before, startups, that’s not the problem, it’s growth and making it into something big.
Go and write it down. Good old school. This is me. This is B. What if I have this business, I want to do this new anti-coly product or whatever. What’s my risks? What’s my benefits? So manage your risk because then your process will be less stressful. And also, I tend to see that female entrepreneurs are quite shy. They feel still, you know, like I’m at a networking event, there are going to be a lot of men, are they going to try and intimidate me. Who’s going to ask me where’s your stats on your product, or whatever that is.
Shift your mindset from not being self-conscious, but under conscience. So focus on the other person and train your brain to do this. And then networking will be easier for you because I do find a big problem with regards to that. I’m actually writing an article for Inc.Africa at the moment about female entrepreneurs and networking.
Also Read: Emmanuel Kimaro, a Tanzanian Entrepreneur Revolutionizing Financial Management in Africa
Quick Five Questions With Marilize Jacobs, the South African Entrepreneur
1. What is the African country that you want to visit and why?
Definitely Kenya. I’ve travelled a lot in Africa. I’m a summer person and I like the sand, beach, and sun. I wanna see the Kenyan beaches.
2. What’s the most underrated South African food?
Everyone knows braai flies. Okay. And we’re making a braai ki and all of that. It’s actually not a South African dish, but a lot of people don’t know it’s not a South African dish, but it’s Pote.
3. How do you look after yourself in your free time?
I’m going to say exercise because I think that’s the right thing to say. Okay. But also I get a lot of energy from people. So quality time with people, definitely.
4. What has been the most humbling moment in your journey as an entrepreneur?
You know what’s always gonna happen in the journey? I don’t want to say it’s a humbling moment. It’s almost like a mixed emotions between you’re humbled, embarrassed, sad ,and mad. It’s when someone else doesn’t believe in your idea and shoots you down. And it’s someone that you actually know and trust. So then you do become humbled because you go back to the drawing board and you rethink what you are doing but at the same time there’s a lot of other emotions there.
5. What’s the one thing that you would love people to know about Marilize Jacobs, the African entrepreneur?
I can make a mean fire. I can reverse very well for a woman. And I’m very good at keeping goldfish alive.
To find out more about Marilize Jacobs and her two distinctive business. Visit the company’s website and social media platforms:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: http://www.linkedin.com/in/marilize-jacobs-35010a65
