Becoming all the woman she can be

By Basetsana Makhalemele

The past year has seen, communications extraordinaire Phumeza Langa’s wings opening up and allowing her the flight that she has been putting in the work for in recent years. Despite the lockdown brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, she has been flourishing in inspiring ways. Our content creator, Basetsana Makhalemele has a chat with her about her work and how she has managed to structure all that she does.

Ignited Woman (IW): Please tell us a bit about yourself and where you are from?

Phumeza Langa (PL): I am an only child, Johannesburg born and raised woman, mother to a wonderful little girl who teaches and stretches me every single day. I am married, living in the East Rand with my family. I am discovering on a daily basis my passions and purpose, and being intentional in moving towards creating, living and working in a way that allows me to be everything I can be. It is tough but I must do it, I owe it to myself to explore each and every single part of who I am and my capabilities as they unfold throughout my life journey.

IW: Can you tell us about the business ventures you are involved in?

PL: I am a Communications Consultant, specialising in digital and copywriting. I am a freelance writer and have done that for a number of years, a speaker, facilitator and now moving into the MC space. I do offer those services as an independent contractor.

IW: You are known to be in the communication and you are doing extremely well. Why did you choose that field and what exactly is your role as a communication consultant?

PL: I stumbled into communications in the best way possible, my high school guidance teacher recommended Public Relations to me based on what she knew about me. She tasked me with researching it for myself and I truly am happy about moving in this direction. It’s fascinating to me that I am still somehow doing certain elements of journalism in my work, and although it is not on the level of my childhood hero Christiana Amanpour, I am finding ways to share stories in order to try encourage, teach and open up people’s minds to new ways of learnings - whilst I learn and be inspired too!

IW: SistaHoodHour, can you tell us about it and how the business journey began?

PL: I am the founder of #SistaHoodHour - it started as a conversation between myself and the former Creative Chat SA duo, they encouraged me to use my social media platforms, especially Twitter to have those conversations and engage with other women. I just got into it and never looked back! #SistaHoodHour is a space where women can connect, learn, encourage, challenge each other and society about the things that impact us on a daily basis and in different ways, without being fearful or faced with any prejudices or preconceived ideas - we’re all in a place that allows us to be ourselves, and we hope that we each leave with something new to have learnt, experienced or shared with one another.

IW: What inspired you as a young woman to take the leap into connecting women and making an impact?

PL: I have been fortunate to have incredible women who have been amazing sources of kindness, wisdom, strength through various chapters of my life. There was a time I started to intentionally connect with more like-minded women, and some were women who were in different spaces in terms of careers, life stages, continents even. However they always welcomed the questions, conversations, insights I could share - it became about more than my own learning.

This brought me such excitement and joy to connect women to one another and watch their connection grow and move forward.

IW: What would you say makes SistaHoodHour Conversations unique from other talk shows in South Africa?

PL: I want to further the conversations we have on Twitter via the SistaHoodHour Twitter Chat - the manner in which they are real and frank, and cover diverse topics. However be able to move within different communities and have face to face town hall type of conversations - my mom pointed out that the conversations are so diverse and there are so many. She has even shared some ideas that I cannot wait to get going with!

IW: How do you see SistaHoodHour evolving in the future?

PL: I would love to see SistaHoodHour become an environment that brings women, companies and communities together to make a tangible change in people’s lives. If there is a community you want to work with, let us help you find them, collaborate and grow in that connection and service. I truly want for women to connect with each other to collaborate, share knowledge and grow as individuals. Create and nurture their own SistaHoodHour communities.

IW: How do you juggle everything that you do? And what keeps you motivated to be the woman you are today?

PL: I have been fortunate that a lot of the things that I do feed into each other, and so it never feels like work in the traditional sense, but being able to pursue my passions in ways that help me grow through learning and exploring what I do and can do. I am also choosing what my energy and time goes to, be it work, conversation I engage in, spaces that I am in -there are days that feel like a lot is happening but that’s when I know I need to take a pause and rest a bit before starting up again. It is so easy to burn out and so much harder to get into a good space again. I am motivated by the fact that I can continuously grow, and I am deliberate in doing the things that help me grow.

IW: What has been the highlight of your journey in this communication and media industry?

PL: Discovering a deeper love and appreciation for writing, learning more about it. The opportunity to learn about social media and using it for brands but then also learning about how one can use social media for the positive, within our communities, both online and real. #SistaHoodHour has helped me learn so much about where I want to go in terms of the next chapter of my life and career.

IW: What has been the most challenging part of your journey thus far as a communication consultant? How did you overcome those challenges?

PL: I count moving into the entrepreneurial space as one of my most challenging experiences. However also being one of my best learning experiences because you discover so much of yourself, what you want to do, how you want to do it, what works for you, what spaces you want to be in as a consultant. The collaborations and having your name spoken in places you never could have imagined finding yourself in - incredible. Also learning that sometimes the meeting can go so well, but the timing isn’t right to start the work, invoicing and waiting for payments(never spend money that is not in your account yet), learning to let some opportunities go because they are not the right one for you –but being able to recommend someone else for the job - that was always the best.

IW: Message to other women who are looking up to you?

PL: Follow your own unique path, it may take time to discover it but do not lose hope - it is possible. It is crucial to find a way to develop and grow your passions / skills, and channel them into areas that fulfill you, and in turn helps other women along their path.