Who's Behind The Desk? is a coworking and entrepreneurship podcast from Cape Town Office (CTO), hosted by founder Lizelle van Rhyn. Each episode is an informal conversation with a member of the CTO community — founders, freelancers, and small business owners — about what it actually takes to build something in Cape Town. Not all coworkers code and ride skateboards, as you'll learn from these honest, unscripted chats about the people behind the desks.
Andrew Wolhuter: cabin crew to leadership expert, following passion over the plan
Leadership expert Andrew Wolhuter shares his unconventional career path from cabin crew to consulting, revealing how passion drives success and questioning traditional education models.
28 Aug 2026TRANSCRIPT
Why Millions of Africans Can't Access Their Own Laws with Greg Kempe, Laws.Africa
Host Lizelle interviews Greg Kempe, co-founder of Laws.Africa, about digitizing African legal information to ensure access to justice and economic opportunity.
5 Jun 2026TRANSCRIPT
Buying a Cape Town Apartment? Krysia Narramore on What Nobody Tells You About Body Corporates
Independent professional trustee Krysia Narramore shares crucial insights with host Lizelle about navigating body corporates when buying a Cape Town apartment.
17 Apr 2026
Beyond the Logo: Storytelling, Ethics, and Building a Brand That Lasts with Nat Chrzanowska
Host interviews Natalia Chrzanowska, a freelance brand marketing strategist, discussing her journey, brand storytelling, and navigating the digital landscape for lasting impact.
10 Apr 2026
The Paycheck Was Good. The Life Wasn’t. So I Changed It. Who's Behind the Desk w/ Stuart Fairbairns
Host interviews Executive Coach Stuart Fairbairns about his transformative career pivots and the power of self-trust for a fulfilling life.
2 Apr 2026
Why Search Ads Beat Social Media Every Time and other insights from Andre Timms, a Google Partner and Ads Expert
Google Partner and Ads Expert Andre Timms explains why search ads outperform social media and reveals common mistakes small businesses make with paid advertising.
27 Mar 2026
Apple (nearly) Broke his Business. So he went to Cupertino. Who's Behind The Desk Thorsten Rauser
Host interviews Thorsten Rauser, founder of Binary Family, about overcoming Apple's App Store changes and securing a meeting in Cupertino to save his business.
11 Mar 2026
Building Battora: Technology, Creativity, and Africa’s Untold Stories
Host Lizelle interviews developer and entrepreneur Tanya Chikopera, founder of Battora, about building technology to amplify African creatives and their untold stories.
25 Feb 2026
Taiwan to Cape Town, journey of a content creator
Host [Host Name] interviews content creator Igarashi Harumi about her journey from journalism to building a global online community and monetizing her storytelling.
23 Apr 2025
Making Healthcare in Africa smarter with data, and a cold Coca-Cola with Jordan Levinson
In this episode of Who’s Behind the Desk, I sit down with Jordan Levinson, a digital transformation and change management specialist working at the intersection of tech, data, and healthcare across Africa.
As part of Project Last Mile (https://www.projectlastmile.com/), Jordan helps design smarter ways to deliver critical healthcare supplies from medication to equipment, serving the continent’s most remote and under served communities with smart research and data application.
We talk about how Project Last Mile leverages Coca-Cola's expansive distribution network and supply chain expertise to enhance public health systems, ensuring life-saving medicines reach even the most isolated areas. A wonderful public/private partnership
Our conversation also covers the impact of recent funding cuts by DOGE to USAID (https://www.usaid.gov/), and Jordan shares her personal journey from the fast pace of New York City to finding purpose in Cape Town.
If you’re into innovation, global impact, or just love a good story about finding your calling, this one’s for you. If you'd like to learn more about the work Jordan does or perhaps chat to her about an upcoming project, reach out to her on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-levinson-74016479/).
As always, this episode was lovingly stitched together in the editing process by VoiceNote Productions (https://voicenote.co.za/) and recorded in our coworking space, Cape Town Office (https://www.capetownoffice.com).
25 Jun 2024
If Video killed the Radio Star, is AI killing the Creative?
In this episode I sat down with Mark Risk (https://markrisk.co.za/), Storyboard artist and lifelong creative to discuss and unpack this tricky subject.
The conversation is unscripted and explorative with no agenda or specific outcome in mind. Mark and I often have these chats in the office, usually over a morning coffee and sometimes with a fresh doughnut in hand, so we decided to take it to the studio.
The question of AI, the acceleration and enormously easy access does beg the question... What becomes of our creativity when everything is instantly delivered to us visually?
We don't know the answer or indeed the longterm effects that the daily use of AI applications will have, but it is a question worth asking and exploring.
I hope you enjoy this episode and as always, please share this far and wide to help us grow our audience.
Recorded at Cape Town Office (https://capetownoffice.com): a vibrant and creative coworking community in Cape Town.
Edited and assembled by the team at Voicenote (https://voicenote.co.za/) Productions.
12 Mar 2024
Storyboard to Screen
Ever wonder what a Storyboard Artist is?
Cape Town Office (https://capetownoffice.com/), Founder Lizelle van Rhyn sits down with Mark Risk, a longtime member and Storyboard Artist.
Originally from Dublin, Ireland, and now based in Cape Town, Mark has become one of the foremost storyboard artists in South Africa, both for commercials and features. His spacial awareness background in architecture translates to a ready appreciation and understanding of camera angle and lensing, and interpretation of action sequences and
stunts.
See more on Mark's work, here https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3134497/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
This podcast was recorded and produced in our coworking space and lovingly edited by Voicenote (https://voicenote.co.za/).
https://voicenote.co.za/
Inside a recent episode
Andrew Wolhuter: cabin crew to leadership expert, following passion over the plan
Published 25 Sept 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] So you form relationships very quickly. And also, as cabin crew, when we initially join in our batches, you spend seven weeks every single day training with those people. So you get to know them. Of course. You become social and things like that. So I thought I was going to fly. And then about... the people that I started to meet started showing me that there is this. And I, I knew that there's a lot to the world, but it was always like a, Ooh, that's the world I'm here. And now all of a sudden the people that I was meeting were showing me things that I could participate in. It's the first time I've actually described it like that, but it's, Oh, I can have a piece of that. […]
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