chpter. champions
chpter. Champions is the official chpter. podcast where successful entrepreneurs and e-commerce experts share their experiences and practical advice for growing their businesses online. Each week, hosts Tesh Mbaabu and Mark Kiarie invite successful founders to share their inspirational stories.
chpter. is an African technology company. We enable businesses who sell through social platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram to manage their inventory across multiple channels, collect orders and payments seamlessly and grow their revenues through better customer engagement.
chpter. champions
#029 Pat Mahlangu of Pat On Brands | This Is Why No One Remembers Your Business
In this episode, we sit down with Pat Mahlangu, award-winning marketer, media entrepreneur, and founder of Pat On Brands. Pat shares his inspiring journey from promoting phones in a mall to leading one of South Africa’s most impactful brand platforms, while championing youth entrepreneurship, African storytelling, and the long game of brand-building.
Highlights
🌍 From Rural Roots to Brand Leader: Pat unpacks how growing up in a small South African town shaped his early drive, and how a simple promotional gig led him to discover his calling in marketing.
📚 Marketing with Purpose: Pat explains how Pat On Brands became a platform—not just a business—enabling thought leadership, youth empowerment, and brand storytelling across the continent.
🏆 The Top 16 Youth-Owned Brands Awards: Discover how Pat created an awards platform that’s now Pan-African, celebrating excellence among young African entrepreneurs while shifting the narrative around youth and innovation.
💡 “Never Average, Always Awesome”: Pat shares the mindset behind his journey, from changing academic paths to starting his own agency, and why chasing awesomeness is more important than chasing money.
🔥 Branding vs. Business: Learn why Pat believes we should build brands—not just businesses—and how branding drives long-term value, identity, and economic impact.
Key Insights
🧠 Branding is a Long-Term Game: Pat reminds entrepreneurs that branding is not a one-time event, but a consistent, creative, and culturally rooted journey.
📖 Storytelling as a Superpower: The best brands connect emotionally. Pat shows how storytelling, especially through African narratives, can differentiate and deepen brand loyalty.
🧱 Build Before You Monetize: With Pat On Brands, he led with value—not profit—building credibility and community before monetization, a powerful model for emerging founders.
🌱 Youth are Africa’s Greatest Asset: Through initiatives like the Top 16 Awards, Pat demonstrates how young people are not just the future—they’re building the present.
💬 Marketing is More Than Pretty Ads: From pricing strategy to positioning, location to perception—Pat makes a case for marketing as a business-critical function, not just a support service.
🌍 Rewriting Africa’s Narrative: Pat argues that Africa must stop blaming, begging, or borrowing—and instead, start branding. Strong African brands are key to economic transformation.
Vision for the Future
Pat Mahlangu envisions an Africa led by powerful homegrown brands—built by young people, rooted in culture, and positioned for global competitiveness. His story is a rallying cry for entrepreneurs and marketers to embrace creativity, consistency, and courage as tools to rebrand the continent.