Getrude Matshe

Getrude Matshe talks with Music For Global Change. Ubuntu - We Rise By Lifting

Others“Empathy, passion and connection are the superpowers that every single human being possesses. But it starts at home when you put your family first, and the community next, then if you have something to spare, do something somewhere else in the world.

Tom: Welcome to the show Getrude. You’re a social entrepreneur, an inspirational speaker who is passionate about helping people achieve their full potential and individual life purpose. You started your career in Norway and worked within the IT industry as a project manager migrating to New Zealand in 2001. You’re journey has crossed paths with actors and directors such as Denzel Washington & Peter Jackson. We have loads more to talk about with you so thank you very much for joining us especially as early as it is over there in New Zealand at the moment for you, please do tell us more.

Getrude: It’s wonderful to be here thank you so much it's such an honour to connect with all of you. I have been living in New Zealand for 21 years and have just moved to Australia last year. My only daughter was about to have a baby so I jumped on a flight and came to Australia to be with her. The day I landed the two countries locked down, I couldn't go back to New Zealand for eight months and decided to stay with my little grandson who is now a year old and the most amazing little human there is. No way I can go back to New Zealand now. So I pitched an idea to build an application called The Diversity Connector App for the New Zealand Australian Women and Technology Awards last year in November and won the first prize.

Skyler: Wow congratulations.

Getrude: Thanks, I'm busy working on an application that will dispense stories. I curate women's stories. I believe we can change the world through our stories one person at a time one woman at a time and it came out of my personal experience having gone through a very traumatic divorce that led to a separation that led to congestive heart failure due to stress and hypertension. I collapsed in a rice field in Bali in Indonesia and it was a real wake-up call for me I realized at that point that all of my work my philanthropic work in particular would have died with me what I had created was not sustainable. I had been going around the world as an inspirational speaker raising funds for the orphaned children in my immediate family and community in Zimbabwe.

Lying in that rice field that day I realized I had to change the way I was doing things. I've been given a second chance.

Thankfully and during my recovery I came up with an idea to create a platform very similar to TED Talks (Technology, Entertainment, Design) where I could coach, mentor women to share their stories to be a source of hope, of inspiration to another woman who might be going through a similar challenge.

I launched in Las Vegas in July 2019 with the first 100 women. The second event was in Wellington New Zealand the third was in Sydney Australia and then I got an amazing Grant from the New Zealand government and went to Norway I had an event in Oslo in London went back to New York and I had 15 events that had to be cancelled at the beginning of 2020 because of Covid. Yes, yeah so I was in a terrible financial black hole all of us. Then my personal tragedies happened I first lost my mother on the 29th of April 2020 she died in Zimbabwe I wasn't able to go to her funeral, my daughter had a miscarriage three weeks later and you know how you sometimes just have to stop and take in the sadness the pain the grief. On the day of my mother's funeral, I remember the ritual in Zimbabwe, if you lose someone close, to show that you are in mourning you shave off all your hair!

Skyler: Oh wow okay.

Getrude: So that's what I did and my brother, fortunately, managed to Zoom us so we could watch the funeral online. I have a sister in Sydney Australia a brother in Edmonton Canada I was in New Zealand so we were scattered all over the world. My sister came online and took one look at me and started laughing hysterically I said Patricia why are you laughing? It's Mom's funeral today. She said to me “Gertrude have you looked at yourself in the mirror?”, I'm like what are you talking about she said you look so much like Mom it scares me oh wow and I was a duplicate copy of my mother. People used to think we were sisters. Now fast track to November, and I'm still in this sad depressive state.

I woke up in a dream and in that dream, I was brushing my teeth in the morning I looked into the mirror and the person looking back at me wasn't me it was my mother and she was healthy, vibrant and laughing the same way my sister had laughed on the day of her funeral and she said to me do you see baby do you see what I did I made you look like me so that you will remember I am in you, I am with you, I haven't gone anywhere, you need to do your work. She said so long as you are six feet above the ground the job is not done! I thought, that's right, very powerful and I snapped out of that state of depression and I put my platform online and we are scaling faster now than I could have ever imagined. I have a following of over 50,000 women in 25 countries. Covid had a lot to do with the success of this organization because people are seeking connections right now. People were in isolation, people were lonely, people were sad, and people were experiencing grief so I created a platform for these magical stories that uplift and Inspire and give hope. With the sad stories, I would tell my community that in sharing stories let's tell the story like you were talking to the younger you. I've had women who've come onto our platform who's been sexually molested as children, who've been raped, suffered domestic violence, stories like mine of recovering from different types of illnesses, but we own the story, we tell it from a position of strength so that the story doesn't define who we are and run our lives and there is a lot of healing that has come out of the storytelling you know.

In Africa, we believe that a problem shared or a story shared is a problem halved AND the minute you tell your story to another human being it's not yours to carry alone, there's a lot of healing that comes out of storytelling and that element of my work I had not seen or imagined. Now it's evolved and I was able to share my magic.

Skyler: What a blessing, you can inspire people to open up right, that’s the coolest thing. Tom, you got a question?

Tom: Well there are loads to ask really but first of all just off the back of that, how do people get a hold of what you do or get to your platform, how do people interact with what you're doing and get in touch?

Getrude: The website is the herstorycircle.com we have a YouTube channel called the Her Story Circle TV and it's really been word of mouth that has grown this community. I have asked every woman who's stepped forward to tell 10 friends so we started with one hundred and we grew to one thousand, we're now at fifty thousand and it's been absolutely incredible. What is possible when an idea spreads? You know, the TED tagline is ideas worth spreading.

I have done three TED talks but I never get access to the thought leaders. You know when you listen to an inspiring speaker and you think gosh I would love to learn more from them that's what I want to try and do with this platform,

I want it to give people access to these thought leaders. We also run workshops, have events one month and the next month our speakers run workshops so that there's a transfer of knowledge from person to person.

Skyler: Wonderful, Ryan, you got a question?

Ryan: Yeah, you mentioned your TED public speaking journey talks. I watched two of them earlier, very powerful. I am curious, how did you get involved with public speaking in general?

Getrude: Oh my public speaking journey started a long long time ago. I was one of those little girls who would be at the back of the class talking and cracking jokes. I used to be punished for speaking I tell people now I get paid to do it how about that!

One of my intuitive gifts my father and mother discovered that it was a gift and they channeled my energy and encouraged me to go into drama public speaking debate. I remember growing up in Rhodesia. If you don't know about front of white people and speak so he used to put us on a bus for all of his children from the age of sixteen we would go and stay in the city during school holidays and we were forced to apply f My dad used to say that the corporate world is white you have to be confident and stand up in front of white people and speak so he used to put us on a bus for all of his childrenor jobs and not take them.

I built my self-confidence by going for job interviews and that's how I got my first job with the London Rhodesia company and ended up becoming a Cobol programmer which led to systems analysis and design. I would never have gone into I.T. by choice, but that year my father lost his job, the bank was about to repossess our home and they needed somebody with a pay slip and I said Dad I can go to work. I had four job offers that year. I wanted to be a pilot and fly the plane out of Zimbabwe if I had to pass the aptitude test but failed as the height restriction had to be 1.7 meters and I was 1.4 meters tall.

I wanted to be a nurse and an air host desk and my father sat me down and gave me the best advice he ever gave me, he said there's this thing called a computer, he didn't even

Skyler: Now, I'm gonna switch stories because you know this is Music for Global Change and we usually talk about music. I was raised by my mom, my grandmother and my aun and they were all gospel singers. The beautiful thing is you’ve got 50,000 women on your platform. A lot of them, they got to be musicians right?

Getrude: Yes definitely. I discovered the musical part of myself when I was 37. have recorded ten songs. My children are very very musical and yes you're right the women in my community, a lot of them are musicians and some have never had the courage to sing. We have created a creativity section on our platform, we've got six broad categories it's Business, Entrepreneurship, Health and Wellness, Family and Relationship, Social Justice, Spirituality and Creativity. In the creativity section people can express themselves in any way they want if they dance they can come and dance, if they sing they can come and sing, if they do poetry etc. So, we've included that, and it has changed the dynamic. It’s intense in the most magical way because sometimes we have a story that are very sad and now we curate the program that if there's a sad story it's followed by something musical or something that makes people shift and move, the energy and dance are transferred really well Online, infusing this musical part of what we do is very interesting.

Skyler: We're looking for women who write socially conscious music

Getrude: Okay yeah I love what your organization stands for, you’re right that music is the global language, it transcends gender, race, ethnicity, and age it just breaks down all of the barriers that human beings experience. I would love to help bring as many women to your work as possible.

Skyler: This is wonderful because we want to start festivals where people just do positive music. It's not using lyrics about yourself, it’s music that can help us get out of this crab bucket together you know what I mean. There have been so many big huge songs out that help the world and we like to hear what you're doing too, you say you got an album out can you tell us more about it?

Getrude: I produced it myself, it was just a karaoke thing. I decided to leave the sound of my voice for my children, we recorded ten of my favorite songs. I plucked up the courage to do it because I remember thinking these children should have got this voice in some way, I'm pretty sure it's me.

Skyler: I love inspiring people to go at it.

Getrude: Oh I love that yeah the world needs it. You know when I look at the power of music and how frivolous some of these musicians are now going in the direction they're taking. They are generating money, getting popular but not really doing it for good. It really is something that is needed right now. You know I met a young woman called Crystal Star, she's an African-American based in California and I interviewed her for my podcast. An amazing musician, she wrote a song called She. It's an empowering song all about women's empowerment, so we've been using her story as a theme song for our movement. I know a lot of musicians I know a lot of women that I can connect you with definitely.

Skyler: Tom, you got another question?

Tom: Yeah, in addition to everything else that you've been involved in you've also written several books and you're also a book-writing coach. Can you tell me a little bit about the sort of books that you've written and how that's come about for you?

Getrude: I wrote my first book, it was a memoir, it started off as a journal really when I lived in London and ended up living in Norway.

It was a story of all of the people that I met throughout my travels who showed up like angels when I needed help. It was called Fleeting Angels originally but when I published I decided to call it Born on the Continent Ubuntu. I infused the Ubuntu philosophy into my stories to illustrate what the philosophy actually meant. A lot of people who Google Ubuntu think it is just a piece of Linux software, they think it's an operating system but it’s not…

Ryan: (pointing at himself laughing) That's what I thought.

Getrude: So I wanted to own the word, I wanted to take it back and in a small way. I managed to do that and accidentally branded myself as an Ubuntu expert because 21 years ago there were no books written, there was noliterature, it's a tradition that's passed down through oral storytelling and so that's what the first book is about. Then people started asking how I wrote the book so fast and I developed a process called How to Write a Book in 40 Hours.

How to Write a Book in 40 Hours is about just telling the story recording the audio, transcribing the audio and that's the first draft of your book out of your head quickly. Then you go back, rewrite and work with editors. So that turned into a publishing business called Black Kiwi Publishing. That's what I've been doing for the last 21 years. I write books for myself but I also go straight for other people as well and help them tell their stories.

Ryan: Wow that’s an incredible business, I saw How to Write a Book in 40 Hours on your YouTube channel and I saw some of the testimonials and I was like how does somebody write a book in 40 hours?

You and my dad Skyler were just talking and I was thinking you guys could maybe create a music album in 4 hours. You know what I mean? I'm fascinated by your journey in technology. Just so we're clear the website herstorycircle.com is the platform, it’s a beautifully designed website. I just love to hear some more about what you've got planned for the future. You are very busy with your website you've got the story coaching, got a podcast which is music to my ears, and an App, what future projects & plans have you going on next?

Getrude: I try and keep myself busy my mother said I had ADHD I just wasn't medicated yeah and so I used the energy that is in this body to do what I came on this planet to do that's right I have a vision right now to create a reality TV show. I was very fortunate when I moved to New Zealand to live and became close to Peter Jackson. In fact, his son and my son went to school in the same area we would see him on a Sunday on the soccer field and when they finish filming Lord of the Rings I'm gonna be honest with you, I started stalking him a bit.

He was giving presentations and talks all over New Wellington about how they made Lord of the Rings and I would go to these presentations and talks and one day the guy who designed the spider in Lord of the Rings was giving a lecture and I'm at the back of the room and my hand shot up and I asked the question - how can I take part in one of your movies? They were looking for African extras for King Kong which is the next film Peter Jackson made. And of course, there are not many Africans in New Zealand, I was volunteering for the refugee service, I help other immigrants who come to this part of the world to find work to use their natural gifts to make money and so I created a casting agency and a database that I sold to Peter Jackson for the making of King Kong.

I supplied all the ethnic extras for people of color. I was actually in film school at the time and I told my lecturers that I had this idea. Peter Jackson is looking for extras I'm going to create this company and one of my lecturers said go for it I will help you with anything you need I, got a few ladies together and said look if you can come Online and help me film this commercial I might get the contract to work with Peter Jackson. So six ladies said they would come and do this with me. I went and showed them this little video where I say on it “Hello and welcome to Simzi Sani Creations. We are a culturally unique talent agency focusing primarily on black African faces and personalities for the film and advertising industry. Formed in Cape Town South Africa in 1994 since the signing is now an international operator and is based in Wellington New Zealand.

We offer a wide range of talents including actors models dancers and musicians of African origin as well as from a diverse range of ethnicities. We can cater for all your onscreen Talent needs you can contact us through our website www.simsisanicreations.com We hope to be hearing from you soon”.

Skyler: Wow wow wow.

Getrude: Well, the day I filmed this I had made six costumes for six ladies to dance but only two showed up so if you look carefully I'm the third dancer [Laughter] I love it so I shot the piece to the camera. I shot the dancing scene we edited it I hired a marketing company who created this beautiful box it was a Russian woman it was gold folded up in this weird way and instead of giving them the database on a flash drive I burnt a disc with this commercial on one side the database on the other side went and presented and became a filmmaker just by participating in King Kong when they filmed Avatar the same thing happened, I took part in both films - not big parts. My acting actually started when Denzel Washington came to Zimbabwe when I was 19.They filmed Cry Freedom in Zimbabwe.

Skyler: Oh wow Cry Freedom.

Getrude: Yeah, I had a small walk-on walk-off part. I met Denzel when I was a kid and he would talk to me every day. We became really good friends during the three weeks we were on set. In the making of my own feature film, I have hand-picked all of my actors who are taking part in this movie. I've been working on the script for the last ten years. Fortunately, Peter Jackson's wife became one of my mentors and when she read the first script she said there's too big a story to do as one film, break it up into three separate films. So the first film will start from when I left Africa twenty years ago until now the second film is my backstory my childhood story and the third film is futuristic, it is a prophecy of Africa a hundred years from now.

Skyler: Wow we love you so much sister thank you for all this beautiful, beautiful spirit that you have and thank you for the inspiration. Will you come back to the show?

Getrude: Oh definitely, definitely.

Skyler: We want to ask you for your endorsement for Music for Global Change to inspire people to write positive music, that's what we're all about, blessings and namaste.

Interview with Music For Global Change founder Skyler Jett, Ryan Schewchuk and Tom Bryant.