Behind The Profile Podcast Launch | What does it really take to build a creative career? - HustleNest

Behind The Profile Podcast Launch | What does it really take to build a creative career?

7 October 2026

By Khumo Mdakane

Khumo is a digital marketing and creative professional with hands-on experience spanning film and production, script development, post-production, and PR-led digital marketing initiatives.

Behind The Profile Podcast Launch | What does it really take to build a creative career?

HustleNest has partnered with Zané to bring you Behind the Profile, a podcast series sharing the stories of South African creatives and how they’ve navigated the realities of working in the creative industry.

Episodes release every Thursday throughout October.

What does it really take to build a creative career?

There’s the version of a creative career we see from the outside: the releases, opportunities, big moments and wins.

Then there’s everything it takes to actually get there.

In the first episode of Behind the Profile, Tsakani Marholeni sits down with artist and creative professional S'bo Gyre to talk about the parts of the journey that don’t always make it onto the profile.

From identity and ambition to money, success and the pressure to “make it,” Gyre reflects on building a career across music, marketing and the wider creative industry, including a year where his music earned him just R1,250, even as international opportunities started opening up.

The conversation explores what happens when the career you imagined meets the reality of making it sustainable. It’s about learning new skills, using what you already have, building the right relationships and redefining what progress can look like along the way.

Because sometimes building a creative career isn’t one perfectly mapped-out journey. It’s learning how to make the different parts of your life and work add up to something bigger.

Listen to the full episode of Behind the Profile below👇