Every one is made from what life throws at them. Their experiences made them who they are and I'm no different. Don't get me wrong, this is not about venting how hard my life has been, but rather how it made me who I am.

 

For many years, I grew up as an only child and since my single mom had to work and we had no phones back then, I found creative ways to entertain myself. I often went on fantastical experiences based on the fantasy characters which I saw in my books. Building roads in the dirt between the roots of a tree where little magical creatures lived, that kind of thing. I think in my developmental stage, this is where I developed my creative superpowers.

 

I grew up in Cape Town for the larger part of my youth, went to school at Jan van Riebeeck and did okay. To be honest, I had no solid clue of what I wanted to study after school because my only consistent interest was sports. I played Rugby, and for some reason, did pretty well in swimming. After moving back to Bloemfontein, my aspirations to play career Rugby didn't quite pan out as I wished, but I did play for the Old Grey's second team for a while, still as a loosehead prop with my meagre built. I wish I could still describe myself in that way.

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Life set in and I worked in restaurants as a waiter/cashier and in nightclubs and pubs as a barman for a while until my path found some stability at SBV Bloemfontein Cash Centre. The money was good, but in a bank, there was no room for creativity, so after 14 years, my path strolled away from the banking environment and back towards my creative dream.  My preparations for it started with taking a year-long creative writing course to see which areas of writing are possible and test my interest in them at the same time. I liked writing short stories, sports reports/ sports journalism and movie scripts. 

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This took me on my next journey where I wanted to write fictional short stories as a career, but I never seemed to have found the right publishers for my stories. My reasoning was, that if they wouldn't publish my stories, I'll bunch them together and publish my own book. That is where the "Illusion of Normal" originated from. All the stories are part of a bigger story which I used to pan out some ideas. Feel free to stroll through the website here.

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At the same time, I started writing articles for magazines and websites, and as you might have guessed, I always feel why do something for others if you can do it for yourself and your community. That is where BFN Sport Results started back in 2020. It was all about passion for creating stories and meeting the community. I didn't know much about business back then, but I had an idea that in order to help our regional sports, we needed to direct some funding for them. It was quite obvious after going to several events, that the public didn't support them as much, so how would sponsors and investors find a return on investment? They desperately needed media that focused on regional sports and not only news that would sell papers. Here, the cause outweighs the immediate money-making potential for my new business. The goal is a long-term communal benefit, and that is a story which I will back all the way.

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So my roots are firmly planted in BFN Sport Results to benefit the sports community as well as related vendors. Ever since I realized that making videos and creating graphics are related to creating stories, so they are skills that I learned out of pure interest. Consequently, live-streaming came along and I enjoyed that immensely, but it is an ongoing process as the world of broadcasting changes regularly.

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My latest projects for obtaining skills that will improve my storytelling ability are Commenting on Sundays at LMS live-streamed cricket matches, taking me out of my shy comfort zone, and 3D modelling on a program called, Blender. I feel that 3D modelling will lead to the creation of virtual reality environments in which a storyteller has more control of the environment. This project still has an extremely long way to go.

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Now that you know where I come from, I would like to know your story and discuss how we can tell it.

For a bit more detail, feel free to stroll through my personal website, The Creative Smith.​