Tawanda Taruvinga
Howzit! Here’s my story…
I’ll try and keep it short and sweet. Currently, I run a Digital Marketing agency based in Durban called VingaMedia, I’ve got a podcast and I create content. Now let me tell you how I got here.
I grew up in a small town called Estcourt in South Africa, a very quiet and underdeveloped town. Many used to complain about how little ambition the town had but ironically they all got caught up in the same trap. I grew up in a middle-class neighborhood, went to school there and everything.
I moved to Durban when I was 17 and landed my first job as a waiter in a pub, I then left the pub because I felt there was no room for me to grow. I needed to find new challenges, better experiences, and environments where I’d meet influential people. I’d always had a massive drive for greatness. So I went to Umhlanga, the Malibu of Durban, in search of greener pastures and adventure. I applied at 10 different boutique restaurants and had 4 asking me to start work the next day and an offer to start work immediately (which was absurd, I couldn’t start immediately).
I chose to work at Cafe La Plage (the best restaurant in Durban in my opinion) I was attracted by their fancy ambiance, expensive liquor, and exquisite essence. “Ka-ching!”. My time there didn’t last long. Here’s why, as soon as I started working there I was in awe. I couldn’t stop admiring the place and feeling inspired by the owner, David Manal. So I thought “I’ve got to be like this guy, I can’t work for him”. So I quit.
I later got to interview Dave in my podcast after a couple of years, but that's a story for another day.
I met a friend who was entrepreneurial like me. Terry, he introduced me to Mofaya, an energy drink brand founded by Sbusiso ‘Dj Sbu’ Leope. “Ka-Ching!”. I started selling the energy drink at taxi ranks in Durban. I asked Terry for a branded T-shirt, decided to spend all my rent money on stock, and then I supplied street vendors. My whole “shtick” was that I knew DJ Sbu personally and was working with him, it worked and I ended up being the biggest distributor of Mofaya in the whole of Durban. My business grew so big that I ended up not having space to store my stock, I needed a car and my studies were getting affected, so I stopped.
I started researching and I found a jackpot! Forex. “Ka-Ching!”. I was motivated by seeing young people making boot loads of money just by sitting behind their computers for a few hours and then shoving that money in the boots of their gold BMWs. So I persuaded my father to go with me to a free seminar. We went and I was sold but he was on the fence. I told him we’d be rich, he finally agreed to give me R10 000 to pay for tuition. Long story short, we never got that 10k back.
I sat and thought “What’s my next move. Hmm, if you can’t beat them join them” so I joined a Forex “Tutoring” company as a sales rep. I started making videos with my new iPhone and posting them online. In the videos, I was teaching people the basics of trading. I then started vlogging because I had Gary Vee stuck in my head — “Don’t give a F*** what anybody says! Just F****** Do! Make content!” he would say in his unapologetically honest nature and strong New Jersey accent. So I did.
My father saw my videos, showed them to his colleagues in the media department of the company they work for. I then got hired as a videographer. My videos were shit but got better, thankfully. I then became a Social Media Coordinator, and then later the Digital Marketing Officer.
I’ve always had a hunger to learn, grow, and try new things. I was fascinated by social media, how powerful it is, and how it’s revolutionizing marketing and advertising. So I guess my ambition allowed me to scale at the speed that I did. So fast that I decided to start my own agency.
Today my agency works with multiple brands across different industries. We’ve got a great team that get’s along like family. We have fun but also work our balls off, but because we love what we do so much it doesn’t feel like work.
I love advertising, I think advertising is an art form. From creating a strong marketing campaign that persuades customers to buy products to creating an impactful advert, it's all an art form. The way you communicate with your customers, the way you brand yourself, your look and feel, the design of your print ads, and the production of your video ad, its all art. I love it, it’s fun.
At VingaMedia, we want to create remarkable advertising, not just social media campaigns. Our goal is to ultimately become a full-scale marketing and advertising company. We want to create adverts that make people look at a product in a brand new way, we want to make adverts that give people an “Ah-ha!” moment, that “ Ah-ha, I get it” moment.
So yeah, that’s my story. it’s been really exciting & fun, I literally laugh every time I think about it. I know it’s only going to get better from here on. I work harder than most people, I know my vision and I’m just eager to enjoy the journey. The process.
Alright, that’s it! Cheers!
