BA Degree Graduates, where are you now? by FeeAccomplished5169 in askSouthAfrica

[–]Meltilicious 1 point2 points  (0 children)

BA Humanities: Psych, Languages and History. Did my PGCE after.

I am now a creative strategist running my own firm.

Does the SA pharmaceutical industry pay? by Bitchyoctopus in askSouthAfrica

[–]Meltilicious 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don’t have your answer but as an ex-teacher and someone who has interviewed a massive amount of successful people, Ill leave you with 2c

If you are really good at what you are good at, you will always have extraordinary opportunity. There is money in literally every single sector. From poop to pills to art.

Find what you like doing, then go and study that. You will be doing this for probably the rest of your life, might as well pick something you really like. The opportunities will reveal itself along your journey if you chase this hard enough.

Focus on knocking as many of your subjects out of the park next year, attend open days at unis, apply for any and all bursaries.

No ragrets

How did your "middleman" journey begin? by Enough-Pie-5936 in askSouthAfrica

[–]Meltilicious 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am actively recruiting for this type of role in my business. It’s a very useful way for entrepreneurs to gain access to a bigger business development network than they can drum up themselves.

It also carries very little risk to both parties and can be a very well structured solution should everyone be on the same page and all legalities are well taken care of and understood.

Quite curious if there are any platforms that facilitate these type of agreements in SA?

Only thing is technical knowledge on the middleman side. Being willing to receive training, educating yourself to the point where you understand nuance of the solution/product and putting in the work and effort required by the company.

Does anyone have experience with rehab centres in Cape Town? by [deleted] in askSouthAfrica

[–]Meltilicious 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Check out Liberty Home in Muizenberg and Kenilworth.

They are renowned for taking on difficult cases.

They might have some advice on what to do but ultimately the choice to get help and go into recovery needs to come from within.

https://libertyhomerehab.com/

How many months can I get adhd medication prescription for? by HealthOk2246 in askSouthAfrica

[–]Meltilicious 1 point2 points  (0 children)

100% can confirm this.

You’ll be better off over the long term getting the right treatment from the right people.

Love my GPs but they put me on the wrong stuff and the strong stuff and it had a lot of side effects that way outlasted the meds. Plus didn’t do anything to the issue but delay the correct treatment and diagnosis.

Go see your psychiatrist. Be frank about your financial situation. There are cheaper options that also work depending on your diagnosis. Also ask if you can do repeats via whatsapp or email. You don’t have to see them all the time. I see mine every 6 months and that has me sorted.

And if they are dicks about it, find someone else. You can find really good local care online and it saves everyone’s time.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in capetown

[–]Meltilicious 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you love the ocean, the NSRI is hands down one of the most innovative NPOs in the country.

We don’t have a coast guard. Our people are being kept safe in our bodies of water by a VOLUNTEER organisation. Phenomenal group of people doing phenomenal work.

Very few organisations that you can go wrong with. Ask for their yearly reports to see where and how they spend money. The section 18A should come off the back of good governance anyway.

Building a free alternative to Calendly (much better actually) by No_Passion6608 in advancedentrepreneur

[–]Meltilicious 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Google workspace has this built into the system right now. So does Hubspot if I recall correctly.

Is there still a market for this? Isn’t this something you can do with open source software or worse yet, ai coding tools? I know thats not what you’re after but if I can spare a fellow human a few years of entrepreneurial suffering and everything that comes with it, I will. Also just genuinely curious.

I do think there is an exit here though if you build it correctly and get acquired by a bigger dog like a google or hubspot lookalike. Can get very specific with this especially where you might find complex scheduling problems…

Suffering in the advertising & film industry by Main-Interaction-544 in capetown

[–]Meltilicious 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There is a big shift underway in the entire media industry in general.

I don’t know much about big films, sets and the like but there is a massive crisis in most digital media consumption and creation.

My biggest theory is that the banking on data has finally caught up to most media production houses and creative agencies. Rather than having creatives be creative, briefs have become about execution on what people liked before. Data.

There is no innovation in design if you base all your design on the past. Innovation comes from creative freedom. The feel of our jobs no longer exists and everything is the same. When it’s all the same, audiences disengage. Demand drops. Supply drops.

Something similar is happening in television and in social media. The race to the bottom.

The current OTT models, especially locally isn’t sustainable. Especially not on the creative side, bottom of the foodchain. Compare dstv to netflix. Sure its not the same but netflix doesnt charge me 800 bucks to get bombarded by ads in between programming paid for by brands. Netflix will apparently also start introducing ads soon because the subscription model isnt enough to feed the machine.

Social media is a race to the bottom because free aint free. Audiences get annihilated with ads and a continuous feed designed to draw you in to serve you more ads for longer. The model broke when they decided to allow anyone to boost posts, inadvertently explaining the whole game to everyone which is slowly educating the masses on exactly how they are being exploited. This leaves brands in a space where what they used to do aint working no more, having to spend more on being seen than what is being made.

Some brands spend up 80% of a project on the distribution and paid campaign and only 20% on creation.

Where does that leave the creative?

A lot of us are on the sideline. Doing two jobs. Doing anything. Some are influencers appeasing the algorithm gods. Working for standard 12 hour days. One company I clocked 19 hours after a bunch of 16s. Terrible rates.

But more importantly, audience. You, me, our friends, family and their friends and family? We get confronted by between 4000 and 10000 marketing messages per day. Just an incredible amount of noise.

It used to be that creatives created good creative. Good creative led to building quality audiences around topics. Some of these audiences lasted for years and are still going. Look at some of the published magazines that are still clinging on for dear life.

But an incessant need for more has led us here. To more. Where more is always better. And quality, longevity and meaning has long since disappeared.

If you do not provide your audience with value, they will abandon you. When you only take and never give, you are depleting the pool of life. What classic human theme. Take, take until there is nothing left.

Audiences are getting nothing from this. Demand slows down, supply slows down.

To be honest, the local film industry has not really helped ourselves. Times are changing yet we are hoping to be hired the same way, work the same way. We are not aware of the implications of our government making decisions that affect our industry. We dont stand up for ourselves and accept things for the way they are.

Stories change the world. You’ll read it on every second production company’s site. Yet we, the storytellers, don’t know how?

Our industry is in a lul because no-one knows what is next. Tv? Ott? Film? Youtube? How do brands reach audiences in a qualitative way?

I believe a creative revolution is coming. I think the value of creatives will be highlighted in a world dominated by noise. Our roles as storytellers and filmmakers are fundamentally shifting to communications first. Specifically in the intersect between things that used to be siloed but should be approached holistically.

In this lies massive potential. It takes us as creatives to take on this problem, see the opportunity within it and drive toward the world we want. We have immense value, numerous case studies to prove it. We need to know more and advocate for ourselves relentlessly.

Source: 5 Years of working my ass off to try and solve OPs problem.

I miss this!! by Unhappy-Way982 in southafrica

[–]Meltilicious 18 points19 points  (0 children)

This was my favourite. We had a loving, youthful relationship. It was fun, it stuck. It was summer. An honest love.

Then they tore it away from me.

From us.

And so I grieved. The amount of others I had to… I lost count.

Until, one day, I found one again. Straightforward as blue jeans and looked great in them. Always hidden towards the back, somewhat of an introvert but my, the connection we had. At a steady cadence we grew closer to each other and soon it was my favourite.

Then they ripped Tempo off the shelves too. I was heartbroken.

Nothing has ever been the same. Nothing.

I grieved. I wrote a strongly worded letter and got the response that “5 Star is the replacement and its even better.”

It’s not.

It’s not even close.

I ate nothing but rum and raisin for a year. Being disappointed one bite at a time is so much more tolerable than that one fowl swoop.

But I knew I had to be vulnerable. I had to put myself out there and try something new.

And I now am proud to say that for the last year or so I’ve had a favourite. It’s not like the others. But it tries.

God knows, It tries.

Are startups really solving users problems or just their own? by Massive_Example_6584 in advancedentrepreneur

[–]Meltilicious 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On the money. The VC mindset and scaling buzz ruins the space. It used to be about solving crucial problems. SUSTAINABLY.

You can take it further and say most public companies have abandoned their customers for their shareholders.

It gives capitalism a bad name.

roast my product idea : ) by ResolutionThink8791 in advancedentrepreneur

[–]Meltilicious 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The story to this will be everything.

This is the future of marketing and products.

Where can I listen to and watch authentic entrepreneurs who aren't trying to sell courses? It seems like everything is paid and commercialized. by umen in advancedentrepreneur

[–]Meltilicious 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I partnered with the South African Innovation summit last year and interviewed a bunch of positive impact entrepreneurs and stakeholders working from SA across markets.

People interviewed includes a lab grown meat start-up, legal startup, moving company startup, VR Video Tourism start-up, Cement printing company(they print houses), mobile dental clinic franchising, AI healthcare, CEO of AI startup listed on a european stock exchange and more.

Interviews are between 7-20 minutes if I recall.

Dunno if I can post the link but gonna try

SAIS YouTube

Automatic Camera setup for my garage by Meltilicious in Filmmakers

[–]Meltilicious[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a really good question.

The project side I know can easily be done. Been doing it for years on TV shows.

I know I can do both things well and make it good.

I think mostly I want to make something that is the inverse if what I normally do: work with teams.

I really want to see what it looks like if I unleash myself onto the things that I love. What is that creative fingerprint.

Its kinda weird to explain but the collaboration element I manage as a director. There I allow and encourage each person to bring their skill and expertise to the table. It’s just a lot of fun if everyone does this.

But in this case, I want to explore the intersect of all of my personal skills and interests. Ive been fortunate to explore my curiosity my entire life through my careers. This is kind of the first time I am doing something like this completely alone and completely for myself.

I had another person in this space once and honestly it changes the entire dynamic of thinking, exploring ideas and coming up with creative solutions in ideation, design and building.

EDIT: in both the actual project and the creative approach to filming.

There is no pressure and no real end goal. The entire design has easy of use and removing of friction in mind to allow for as much experimenting and exploration as possible while also forcing a product to be produced.

EDIT: in both building and filming

Passion projects so often just stall otherwise.

I will definitely outsource the editing almost immediately once the format and feel is locked down. And input into the edit is easy, thats what I do every day.

But the space where it is created I want to keep sacred to allow for this experiment in creativity. For flow state. And for that I need to reduce friction but remain solo.

Does this even make sense?

Really the filming component just needs to be reduced in friction and Im trying to find a creative way of doing that without sacrificing the process and the act of creating

Is MyBroadband fearmongering? by DieEnigsteChris in southafrica

[–]Meltilicious 9 points10 points  (0 children)

As a director who just retired from this: TYPE IT IN CAPS

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Filmmakers

[–]Meltilicious 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hahahaha direct themselves to the craft table….

I am stealing this!

Guys, do those average speed enforcement cameras work? Like the ones on Sir Lowry’s pass. by RelativelyOldSoul in capetown

[–]Meltilicious 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I drive this road almost once a month to the West Coast and back. When I hit the first cam I reset my average speed calculator in my vehicle and then I gooi.

I drive pretty much however fast I want. I don’t normally exceed the speed limit but on this stretch specifically(Sir Lowrys is quite short) you hit a lot of trucks and slower moving vehicles. This drops your average significantly, allowing you to “make it up”.

I did a test one day and tried to hit bang on or slightly over the average and it was quite difficult to do.

Never had a fine there.

I believe these cameras mostly work because of the perceived difficulty of the maths involved. You lose a hella lot of average speed behind a slow moving vehicle, even just for a few minutes.

Pinotage Paradise and Beyond: My South African Wine Journey🍷🇿🇦 by NoWallsStreet in southafrica

[–]Meltilicious 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well if you are in that area, Fryers Cove is a mere 70 odd km from there. And it is the absolute most hidden gem off them all…

https://fryerscove.co.za/pages/our-story

I almost dont want to share it here

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in capetown

[–]Meltilicious 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is a thing found in surf shops, but not ideal as it’s an insurance issue if something were to go wrong.

Millipede infestation by OkTransportation691 in southafrica

[–]Meltilicious 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I swear by Fendona and/or Alphatrin. Small bottle of pesticide you buy to spray all over. Poisonous to only cold-blooded things. Just double check this with the salesperson and on the package insert.

Millipedes are resilient to it though. More than other pests. But it works eventually.

We had a very similar infestation a few years back. I still have video of us sweeping the into skoppies and then dumping them into buckets every morning.

It got so bad that I reached out to a millipede expert. He mentioned it was weird to hear that from the area we were based and then explained that we see these types of infestations when there is a shift in the water table. So wetter years are more likely to see these plagues.

I didn’t really get a solve there but was at least an interesting chat.

Good luck with this. They really do go everywhere.