In this profound and quietly powerful episode of Listen To Your Footsteps, Kojo Baffoe sits down with Dr Sizakele Marutlulle, a creative strategist, leadership guide, brand thinker, educator, and diversity scholar, for a conversation that transcends labels and dives deep into the essence of human growth. What begins as a gentle reflection on bios, branding, and the evolution of personal tone slowly unfolds into an expertly guided walk in curiosity, courage, and self-definition.
Sizakele’s journey defies neat categorisation. She's led advertising agencies, lectured at Africa’s top business schools, mentored future female leaders, launched her own strategy firm, and earned a PhD in Critical Diversity. Yet, as this episode reveals, her greatest pursuit is not professional, it’s personal. She speaks of learning for the sake of humility, of returning to fear as a teacher, and of becoming “a reformed cow” with laughter, honesty, and grace. With each insight, she invites listeners to reimagine leadership not as dominance, but as deep listening.
Together, Kojo and Sizakele explore:
What it means to live a multi-dimensional life, without apology.
How personal branding has been distorted by social media, and why integrity matters more than performance.
The idea of being “mentally obese but spiritually anorexic”, and the daily work of restoring balance.
The influence of boarding schools, migration, under-fathering, and parental sacrifice on our sense of identity and belonging.
Curiosity as a spiritual compass, and creativity as a way of thinking, not just producing.
There is something disarming about this conversation, its refusal to rush, its permission to wander. As Sizakele reflects on how her Dominican nun teachers shaped her worldview, how she navigated South Africa's cultural codes after studying in Eswatini, and how she continues to challenge herself to swim in new waters (both literal and metaphorical), the listener is offered a rare portrait of someone who has embraced contradiction as clarity.
She speaks candidly about burnout, bruising in corporate life, and stepping away to reassemble herself piece by piece. Her honesty about failure, fear, and her deliberate return to vulnerability, will resonate with anyone feeling trapped in performance and yearning for transformation.
This is a dialogue of mutual recognition. Kojo, in his signature style, offers his own stories of fatherhood, migration, literature, and spiritual reparenting. The result is an emotionally textured conversation that speaks to the parts of us that are still becoming, still breaking, and still learning to soften.
Whether you are a strategist, parent, teacher, artist, or simply a seeker, this episode offers language for the journey, questions for the silence, and a reminder that being curious enough to be afraid is often the first step toward something extraordinary.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
How to reframe fear as a gateway to growth.
Why embracing multiplicity is more powerful than pursuing polish.
What it means to show up as a whole human, at work, at home, and in the world.
How curiosity, compassion, and creativity form the triad for conscious leadership.
This is not an episode to rush through. It is one to return to, on quiet walks, during moments of doubt, or when the path ahead feels uncertain. Because what Sizakele teaches us is not how to be right, but how to be real. And in a world obsessed with noise, her clarity cuts through like still water.
You can find the latest from Sizakele on the following digital spaces: LinkedIn | Instagram or sizakelemarutlulle.com
For more on my book Listen To Your Footsteps, go to https://kojobaffoe.com/book/
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Recorded at Spotify Africa Joburg Studio
Show Music by Kweku 'Taygo' Baffoe
Produced by Ayob Vania
