Ownership, Overalls & Opportunities.

Hey Siri, where can I find reliable, trustworthy, Creative Digital Professionals? 

In a time where there’s an app for every problem and a YouTube tutorial for everything else, who is solving for trust?  

In an interview with Aubrey Masango on 702’s “South Africans Doing Great Things” segment, Credipple co-founder Kgololo Lekoma talks about the challenges, creativity, collaborative efforts, and core values that have come together to birth the online Marketplace we know today as Credipple. Taking what was once an idea, turning it into a reality and ultimately, a reality for others. 

“If there’s ever a creative spark in humanity- to create something out of nothing- Credipple is that” – Aubrey Masango

By way of introduction, Credipple is an online Marketplace that is designed to connect young South Africans to the remote working economy. It brings together Clients from various industries and connects them with creative, digital Professionals by matching their project briefs to trusted Professionals in the Credipple network.

The Credipple team is driven by impact and empowerment. Facilitating relationships and creating a platform where digital Professionals can gain access to opportunities and Clients within industries that they would not ordinarily be able to, is where the real reward is. Ownership of opportunities is an extremely important core value at Credipple.  Equipping digital Professionals to further build their brands and have a sense of ownership over their relationships is paramount to the success not only of the Credipple brand but that of the freelancer too. 

Ownership

Ownership is the relationship with responsibility 

With responsibility comes accountability. There is something about putting your name on the line and having your work seen as yours. Knowing that you will be the one to answer for your work, encourages you to move differently. 

“How you think about what you do, will magnetize the types of clients you want… what we understand ourselves and our offering to be will determine the type of content we deliver”.  

In the interview, Kgololo gives a deeper insight into the Credipple placement process and emphasizes how they encourage the Professionals to think of the opportunities as more of a partnership than a trade exchange. Reframing the work in this manner allows the Professional to take ownership of the relationship and can easily lead to client retention and more work opportunities. 

“Building a culture of excellence and credibility starts with empathy”. 

The ability to connect not only to the service you provide but also to the Client and their goals is where the real magic happens. The land truly does belong to those who work it; seeing the opportunity as more transformational and less transactional, will significantly, and positively influence the quality of work you produce. As Newton’s third law puts it, for every force/action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, that is to say, what you put in will determine what you get out. 

Though the Credipple marketplace may facilitate the initial engagement between Client and Professional, the race is yours to run! How you conduct your working relationship with your Client will pave the way for future engagements, client retention, and new opportunities.

Opportunities

“The future of work has accelerated and the working landscape is changing” 

Kgololo explains that because of this change, there is an opportunity for Clients to access a global pool of talent that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to before.

In a world where there is access to more talent, there is also a greater responsibility to do more vetting, more sifting, more verification, and ultimately more opportunity to choose the wrong candidate. At a time when our Client’s biggest challenge is finding trustworthy remote workers in the context of the internet, the Credipple Marketplace offers a solution to just that. The Credipple Marketplace is dedicated to bridging the gap between Clients and digital, creative Professionals. Ultimately, they aim to solve for trust.  

For the Professionals, the Credipple Marketplace will serve as a platform for them to establish, build and represent that trust in the context of remote work through internet channels. And for Clients, the Credipple team applies their rigorous vetting process to verify the Professional’s information and ensures they are selecting qualified and appropriate candidates. The overall aim is to aid Professionals in building a reputable portfolio made up of historical work and credible client references. 

Overalls

In a time where the internet and instant gratification have put us in a chokehold, they have also led us to forget that building something from nothing requires a lot more than some.

Aubrey shared how he believes that we have convinced ourselves that there are too few opportunities made available to us because we have forgotten what the creative process truly is. What starts as an idea for you, must become a reality for you before it can become a reality for others. Your idea needs to make it off the paper and make its way to the people. 

Trust and credibility are an output of time, and credibility is built through the consistent delivery of work. The Credipple Marketplace can be the doorway to getting Professionals connected to the digital economy, however, consistency is the real key to your success.  There is no replacement for your blood, sweat, and tears when it comes to the brand that you are trying to establish as a reputable digital professional. 

Kgololo also refers to a talk series once hosted by the Credipple Founders called “Losses and Lessons,” and speaks on how failures are what teach you the most in your career path. There are lessons you can only learn in overalls, and there is not a collared shirt in sight that can save you. 

We are often reminded to despise not humble beginnings because there are times when the opportunities come dressed as overalls. For example: 

• Projects that require more work than what the Client is paying for, but that Client reference is worth more than that. 
• Working with a challenging team where you feel you’re being paid more for your patience than your project management skills, but your professional evaluation scorecard comes with an “A+ with commendable teamwork skills”
• Providing more revisions on an article than agreed upon, but the article is being featured in TIME Magazine. 

Being a Creative can be seen as going against the grain of the traditional career path and therefore requires a different type of tenacity. The hours of sleep you lose are the hours you are investing in yourself. The gigs and projects you do for free are the prices you pay to get your name into a room. 

The Credipple Marketplace is invested in seeing both Clients and Professionals succeed, and part of that entails support. Establishing yourself as a reputable Digital Professional is not easy. Neither is finding trustworthy service providers. The reality is that Clients are looking for Professionals, and Creatives are looking for opportunities. Credipple is looking to establish a trustworthy connection between the two.

“We believe that our currency is Trust”. 

Trust yourself, trust your work, and most importantly, trust the process. 

As poet Nayyirah Waheed puts it, “even if you are a small forest surviving off of moon alone; your light is extraordinary” – reminder.

Click here to listen to the full interview and learn more about how a small seed planted in 2016 by 3 friends, grew into an inCredipple, reputable brand that stands at the forefront of the global economy within the creative and cultural economies. 

Written By Khanyisile Mngomezulu