AI for South Africa

From “AI is a Robot” to Running Smarter: Mathapelo Falata’s AI Journey

• Maximillion Digital • Season 1 • Episode 6

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0:00 | 26:21

In this episode of AI for South Africa, Maxine sits down with Mathapelo Falata, founder and managing director of Mimi Consulting, author of Ready for the Marketplace, and one of the entrepreneurs who joined the HelpLink AI programme.

When Mathapelo first joined the course, she thought AI was a robot. Today, she uses AI as a practical business tool to save time, create LinkedIn content, prepare podcast questions, support presentations, troubleshoot tech problems, and build confidence in her voice as a business owner.

This conversation is honest, funny, and deeply relatable for any South African entrepreneur who has felt nervous, unsure, or even suspicious about AI.

Mathapelo shares how AI helped her show up more confidently online, create content that still sounds like her, and use tools like ChatGPT and Canva without losing the human side of her work.

The big message? AI is not here to replace your knowledge. It is here to help you enhance what you already do.

In this episode, we talk about:

  • Why Mathapelo first thought AI was “just a robot”
  • How the HelpLink AI programme changed the way she works
  • Using AI for LinkedIn articles and social media content
  • Why business owners still need their own knowledge and experience
  • How AI can get things wrong if you do not check its work
  • Using AI to prepare podcast questions and presentations
  • Why South African context matters in AI learning
  • Mathapelo’s advice for small businesses who have not tried AI yet

Guest:
Mathapelo Falata
Founder and Managing Director of Mimi Consulting
Author of Ready for the Marketplace

TikTok:
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mimiconsulting_za

FB: MiMi Consulting

Instagram:
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LinkedIn:
MiMi Consulting

mimiconsulting.co.za
mathapelofalatsa.co.za


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SPEAKER_00

Hello and welcome to AI Is for South Africa. I'm Maxine. Welcome back to the show. The person who I'm interviewing today, her name is Matapelo Falata. I hope I got that right. She's the founder of Mimi Consulting and the author of Ready for the Marketplace. We had such a good laugh in this interview and some real conversations. One of the lines that stuck in my head is, if it could work for me, a village girl, it can work for everyone. And that's so true. And I really, really believe that AI is for everybody and it really can take you to the next level. When she first heard about AI, she literally thought it was a robot, like an actual robot, that you walk into a room and you see this like BB Bop Bop robot that was gonna help her. We had a good laugh about it. But since then she's gone beyond what I expected and done so much with it. Her shift happened within the classroom from the first lesson all the way through, and now she's writing LinkedIn articles, running a podcast, preparing masterclass presentations, and really taking her business and her side hustles all the way to the next level. In this interview, we're talking about what AI really means for real South Africans in business education and in everyday life. Let's get into it. So, welcome to Mimi Consulting. Thank you so much for coming to the show. We appreciate your time and sharing your story with us. Do you want to give a little bit of a background as to what you do, who you are, and how this all started?

SPEAKER_01

Hi Max, thank you for having me. I am Mata Benopalata, originally from Eastern Kiba. I call myself a village girl. I'm a proud village girl. I'm currently a founder and managing director for Mimi Consulting. We offer accounting and tech services for small to medium enterprises. I like to sit with my clients, make them engage, understand their books and what is going on because some clients don't even know accounting and anything, but you make them understand so they can enjoy and see whether they're making money or not. I'm currently a new author of the book called Ready for the Marketplace.

SPEAKER_00

Very good book as well. I'm not finished it yet, but I'm diving in. I found like a go-to pieces of it, and it's a very good book. So well done on that.

SPEAKER_01

And I recently started a YouTube channel where we're talking all things ready for the marketplace just to prepare people because no one ever prepared us for the marketplace. It showed some of us, some things. So we just want to use that experience into helping other people and getting this young graduate ready for the marketplace.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, cool. So you were a helplink beneficiary in our course, and I remember the one thing that you said that stood out for me so much was that you thought AI was just a robot. And I mean, it's a good example of what people think of it. But from then to now, like what do you think of it now? Then you thought, okay, AI is a robot. What do you think it is now?

SPEAKER_01

It's a tool that's here to make our life easy. It's unlike any other, like they will say social media is good, it's bad. Depends on how you use it. I believe the same with AI. So it's a tool that is here to assist us and to make our life easy and save some cost and save some time. That's what I can say now. Yeah. Last year, that's time. I was not saying this.

SPEAKER_00

No, you weren't saying this. So, business of all the little things that you've done, you've kind of boomed. I mean, when we met, you weren't doing LinkedIn, you weren't doing your podcast, you weren't doing you had just started or just finished your book, okay? You were starting to get published. How has AI helped you incorporate all of that while you're still doing your main hustle?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it helped me a lot. I like it when you mentioned LinkedIn because that's what I always say to you that I never thought my English can go to LinkedIn, you know. But with AI, I'm that girl now with articles. So when I joined Helplink, honestly, I didn't know that we come here to learn about AI. It was the form. On the form, there's nothing that says we're gonna have classes for AI. It's about us getting the assets. You know, as small businesses, you're always looking for an asset. You're always looking for an extra money. Yes. And you're thinking you're gonna get funding. Obviously, I buy assets. I mean, I can give it 10k nyana extra for myself. Little did I know that my life will never be the same again since that day when we went for the onboarding. That's when we learned that we're gonna have the weekly classes for AI. And I'm like, okay, I need to test this robot. I was so blind when it comes to AI. I thought it's a real robot that you're gonna hire a robot, you know. You walk into McDonald's, you find a robot instead of finding it. I'm glad that I gave it a try. I'm glad that I had an opportunity to attend and have that time to set aside because it was easy. Just I think two hours, three hours once a week, which really helped me. And today I'm so grateful that I sat down and completed that long form because it was. It was long, it was long. It has improved a lot of things when I joined. My book was already in the hands of the publisher. So it was just yeah, so but when it comes to the advertising part right now that I'm doing on the social media, it's because of AI.

SPEAKER_00

And like, are you doing the content generation with AI? Are you are you publishing the things yourself? Do you still have some human element? So you write it with AI and then you put it on LinkedIn or is it automated?

SPEAKER_01

I like from the humanity in me to count. So then when someone is reading, doesn't catch that is AI. I would use AI and then I sit down and take time to review and just do that. So that when someone reads, doesn't read AI, can read my heart and understand. Because if you follow me, you'll understand me. You should know me by now. This is my language, this is how I speak. So I make that to align to the way I speak, the way I advertise or so myself.

SPEAKER_00

So you're using AI pretty much for your LinkedIn articles and your social media, right? And then the rest of your departments, like obviously your accounting and that. Do you use AI in your accounting space? Because I mean you're accounting gurus. Is it something that you use within the software? Is it something that you use outside? Do you use AI to guide you? Do you use it in your job? Like to actually help people with reports, things like that.

SPEAKER_01

I do. I feel like, you know, now that I understand AI, I feel like AI has been there for years, but you didn't know. Especially with the system that I'm using. Okay. The zero system. I think I was saying to a friend, AI has been there, but we're not aware. Even the GPS to come here, it's AI. So I use AI a lot, but I'm still that person who believes in manual stuff. Even my reports, as much as I don't print the reports and give it to clients, I like to write on my like on my PDF notes and whatever. Yeah. At the same time, you need to be careful and wise when you use AI. So I'm saying this to to say if you are a person who doesn't have any accounting background, you can't come up here and say, I'm gonna open an accounting fan and do bookkeeping and use AI. It's not gonna work. You need to be in that field. Let's say you need to be in HR and use the AI based on your HR report. Yes. You can't be in HR and then you say you're gonna use accounting.

SPEAKER_00

So it's almost like you gotta have your base learnings, you gotta have the base of what you do and then use AI to enhance it.

SPEAKER_01

You can't just go into another field and go things to use to enhance whatever you are doing with.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. And your clients are they asking you to use more AI? How is the world out there in terms of accounting with AI? Do you find that there's a need for it? Are they asking you, or is everyone still wary of it?

SPEAKER_01

My client has asked me to obscene on the social media. They always advertise. It's going to make life easy. You just need to learn the reporting, like a report that takes you three days, take you three hours. Yes. But in the future, it's gonna be doing work for us, which you will be enjoying to say, I'm glad I had sleepless nights of study. Now the system is working for me. You just review for and you just make money.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, one of the previous guests that we had was, and she put it so nicely, it was that you need to have had experience in the years of your job in order to pick up when AI is actually like not telling you the truth. Or when it starts to go off on a tangent, you know. And if you don't have that human aspect into it, it literally can make stuff up. She was saying she sent a proposal to a client, she didn't check it, and one of the juniors did it, but he used AI, and there was all this fake information, similar to our AI policy. And I think I agree with you, you can't just all of a sudden go, hey, I'm gonna use AI in every aspect of my job if you don't trust yourself and the basis of yourself.

SPEAKER_01

So with Drive, just to add in that we just recently had a financial year and for small businesses in EFW. So I put a prompt there to say, I need this post-diagnos to say provisional tax at you and income tax at you for vet if you want to register for that. It messed up. My friend was laughing. I'm like, I tell AL, you messed up now. Take a break and am I talking to someone here? This is not what I told you to do. It's like, oh yes, I see ma'am. I understand. I see where I went wrong. My goodness. And then if you didn't have a background, I know what I wanted, I just wanted to do it for me. Yes, but if I didn't have any background and I take and I post that, then the current client could have run away. You need to understand your work, it's just here to make your life easy, not do the work for you.

SPEAKER_00

So you might have found that when you were typing out that prompt for the posters that you were holding yourself back by typing, I want da-da-da-da. And then, you know, as humans we correct, we correct, we correct. Whereas if you just spoke it, maybe it would have got a little bit better.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I tried the voice one also. It's working. It's working better. It is working better. It is better because it's like we feel what you want to see. Yes. And I stopped thinking about my English when I go to AI, especially when I'm talking. So that lady just get it. Yes, she gets the message. It's a very useful tool. I can say that. And for me, it really worked wonders, and it's still uh working. And I can't wait to see myself five years from now because of AI.

SPEAKER_00

I can't wait to see you in five years because I feel like this last year you've just tackled everything, you just grabbed everything with it and just went. Uh and is that given opportunity? It's working for me. It is working for you. In terms of your podcast, do you use AI to create or help you through the process of creating the content? Or is it kind of like that? It's just you go there, you know what idea you have, and it's just a conversation.

SPEAKER_01

So sometimes I don't know what questions can I ask the person. I need to mention this. AI knows me now. Knows that I'm new consulting, knows that I'm an author. So when I go speak about accounting, it will say something that will make me know it understand that I'm talking now about this business. I'm talking now about the book. It will even ask me the colours of the book. Do you want this post that we have the colours of the book? So for me, for example, the recent one that I'm gonna have, this person sent me a very long buy of herself. And I just took that and I put it on AI and I said, based on this, what question can I ask this person? Yes. And based on her profile, and based on you know the vision for my podcast. Yes, so they know that my podcast is about ready for the marketplace, how to represent God, how to serve others. So it took that listen question.

SPEAKER_00

And it helps, eh? If you read those questions, it's like it's me. So are you on a paid account? Yes, on Chat GPT, and on Canva. And on Canva, okay. And you use the two together. Yes. Do you use Canva in Chat GPT or do you use Canva on its own? I use Canva on its own, I use ChatGPT. GPT on its own. Because you know you can use Canva in ChatGPT. So if you do a connector, you can actually connect it and then you can say, pull up the last poster we did. I want to adapt it, and this is the copy I want to put in, and then it does it for you. Is it? Yeah. So it's quite cool if you have, let's say, you have the same style poster every month, right? Or the same post every month. Then you can go into AI and you can say, okay, I want to brainstorm some ideas around these topics. This is my thought process around it. Pull up the last posters that we did in Canva and let's see how this works. And then you can and then you can kind of stylize how it works and make your process a little bit quicker.

SPEAKER_01

I'm going to try it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I had a client who actually did her whole social media calendar like that. So she went in and said, Okay, I want to plan for the next 30 days. But apparently it saves her so much time. I can imagine. And then you can schedule everything within ChatGPT. That'll be a cool automation for you. I'm gonna save you more time.

SPEAKER_01

I need to try it. Because what I do is every Sunday I sit and work around the LinkedIn article for the week. Yes. And so I can do that once a month.

SPEAKER_00

When she told me, I was like, wow, that's really cool. Because I knew it could connect, but I didn't know you could say to it, create me something new from something I had from the past. Yeah, so that's pretty cool. Yeah, from a functionality point of view, it definitely makes sense. Yeah. Okay. And then during this whole process, obviously you had the skeptical AI as a robot, and then you did it, and your LinkedIn articles, I mean, they're amazing. I read them as much as I possibly can. Me being a small business as well. I forget, like, I didn't know that my 501 was due. And then I read your articles and I was like, ah, I need to do my 501. But were there any points where you were like, I'm not sure this AI is actually gonna work for me? Definitely. Like, can you give me an example?

SPEAKER_01

I thought it's just gonna change everything, man. I really thought AI is coming to replace me. The minute I use it, it's gonna replace me. People not gonna get my tone. People not gonna get what I want. So it's just gonna do things. And in my mind, I always think that AI is evil. But the opportunity of me going to help make open up my eyes. And I'm glad that I used it. Because it's working for me. I thought it's just gonna mess up things and write things. I never even thought it can know that I'm in South Africa. Because you know how you taught us the prompt to give AI. You need to tell it. I used to say I run an accounting and text for small businesses in South Africa. Now I don't do that anymore because it knows you know. The minute I talk about accounting, it pulls up Mimi. Now that I introduced the book, it pulls up. So I never thought those things will happen. Like I thought it was just this evil. And when I say I thought it was robot, I mean it.

SPEAKER_00

I thought it was a robot book. I loved that. It was such a such an honest way of putting it. I loved that comment from you. I even still have my moments where I'm like, I don't know if I want to do this AI thing anymore. Not from a perspective of look, it gives me a lot, it saves me a lot of time, and it is quite a large part of my business. But just because it moves so fast. Down. And I feel like we're never gonna get to a point where we're okay with it. We're always gonna be chasing it. And then I'm like, well, I need to also chase this business, you know? So it's like you get distracted, it's a good distractor. But yeah, I've also had those moments where I'm just like, I don't know if this is gonna work. But I do think the paid accounts work well, they're definitely different to the free versions. Yeah, I think when it starts to know you it's not that expensive, and it's worth it in your business.

SPEAKER_01

It is, like recently as I was telling you as you're coming up here that I gather with my master class presentation. If I was not on a paid account, it was gonna take me, I don't know how many times.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, because you would run out of the limits every time. Did you create the presentation or did AI create the presentation for you? So, like did you say, This is my starting point, create the presentation, or did you go, I want to just double check things with you here and there?

SPEAKER_01

No, I was telling it create this. I want this, create this, yeah, so create it, and then I just go put it on my presentation.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, okay. Because you know it can create presentations for you. Isn't it? Yeah, from scratch. Oh, yes, it did. The other thing that I've learned now with Chat GPT, you don't have to go to Chat GPT anymore to ask it. There's now a system where you can actually have it in your PowerPoint. So if you're busy typing in your PowerPoint, right? There's a little ChatGPT model there that you can chat to it and talk about your presentation. With it, they've just launched it.

SPEAKER_01

We're going to Lemon.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So I want to do I want to do a course to teach people how to use those models as well within the structure. I don't know when I'm gonna find the time, but I want to do those courses.

SPEAKER_01

AI is the best, man. It helps. I never used the PowerPoint representation before. So if I want to insert this, if I want to do this, I just go on on AI and ask. And then it gives you the steps and you go there, you follow. Even with the system, the system that I'm using. There are functions on your system that you use every day. There are functions that you use once a year or once in order to cancel a client on the system. But I didn't know how to do it. I did it before years ago, but honestly, I couldn't remember. I went on, I don't waste my stamp.

SPEAKER_00

So you have two kids, right? Are they exposed to AI at all?

SPEAKER_01

I don't think so. They are just into their social media though.

SPEAKER_00

Do you think that you would introduce them into AI in terms of like the way that the future is going?

SPEAKER_01

Definitely. Definitely, and they can see what he's doing to their mother. What he's doing. Yeah, man, you can do everything. Like, I recently got my asset. One of my assets was my laptop. Then moved all my emails and everything. So I have a lot of emails. I have two IT guys. The one for the Mimi did it for me. The one for the book wanted me to pay. I said, there's no way I'm gonna pay. There's no way I'm gonna pay. Because he did it on the old laptop. Now it's the new laptop. I must pay $350. I said, no, I have all my emails there because of AI.

SPEAKER_00

You did it, you were just like, help me myself. Even in any part of your life, I want to cook something nice. I told you it's my wife's birthday. I want to cook something nice for her. And I'm not a good cook. So and I was like, I need something that she likes. She's a foodie, so it has to be good. Yeah. And I'm busy chatting to AI at the moment to help me make a really, really nice meal. And it really understands that I suck at cooking and that's fine. And it also understands that she's a foodie and what she does like. So it's kind of like making us a nice uh Greek menu. I'm really using it in every aspect of our lives. What is your message for other small businesses and people like you who haven't used AI? What is your message for them?

SPEAKER_01

Try it. In order for you to succeed, you need to take a risk. When taking a risk, it's either you win or you fail. You're not gonna die. Just try it. If it could work for me, a village girl like me, it can work for everyone. Ask proper questions. Last year, this time, I was not saying this about AI. I was not doing the way I'm doing on the socials and everything. But today I'm grateful that I tried it. I gave it an opportunity.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. And then is there anything like would you that you would suggest in terms of obviously you use Canva and ChatGPT? Are those the two tools that you would say? Okay, use these tools. Is there anything else that you've touched based on that you think that they would maybe benefit from?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I can I also use the other one, but I'm not paying Gemini. Yeah, I also use that one, the LinkedIn. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Any eye, man, it's just a beautiful tool to do it. It is. It really is. Just try it. You'll never regret it. No, I agree. You will never reverse.

SPEAKER_01

You know what, Max? I like giving people flowers when they're still alive. The way you did this thing, man, you loved it. I do love it.

SPEAKER_00

I really do love it. That was the best guess you ever had. I think it was. There were a lot of people that touched me in that class. Um, and I mean, not to say that there won't be ones in the future, but uh, yeah, I really love what I do, and I do genuinely believe that everybody deserves it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, thank you so much for what you did to us. And I believe when you see does it keeps you motivated, even if you throw it down. Sometimes you're like, if I can touch someone's life, obviously, everything that we do is about money, but be beyond money is about seeing someone that was part of your life missed and become something better. Exactly. That's more than the money itself.

SPEAKER_00

It's so rewarding for me. I would do it, even if obviously I need my money, but I would do it without it. And a lot of people were like, Your downfall is that you just want to give. And I'm like, I'm not, but it's such an amazing thing, you don't understand how. Much it can give you. But yeah, I mean I really, really appreciate you coming here and telling me your story. You know I'm a big fan and I follow all your stuff. I will put all your links and everything into the description for everybody. They can share. And please give us an update on your Canva story. I will update the audience on the progress on that. But yeah, thank you so much and I appreciate your time. Thank you so much for having me. I hope you loved that as much as I did. There's something Matapela said that just keeps coming back to me. You need to have your base, and then you can use AI to enhance it. And that's the whole thing. AI is not there to replace the years you've put into your craft, it's here to carry all the heavy lifting so that you can do what you actually know and what you love. And that you can push your business further. And if you're sitting there thinking, but you're not sure if this is for you, I want you to hear this. Last year, Matapello was not saying what she's saying today. She wasn't doing LinkedIn, she wasn't using AI, and she thought it was literally a robot. And now she's the girl with the articles and the podcast and the book and everything. And AI helped her get there. So you can do it too. And you don't have to do it perfectly, you just have to start. I always say that. You just have to start. So here's the one thing that I want you to do. Go and open whichever tool you have, Chat GPT, Claude, Gemini, whichever one. Tell it something about yourself, about your business, about your industry, introduce yourself and see what happens. That's it. Just start the conversation. Next week we're gonna dive into something I know a lot of you have been asking about how to use AI within your Microsoft environments, your documents, your Word, PowerPoint, Excel. And we're gonna go into three tools Chat GPT, Claude, and Copilot. I know I thought I'd never do co-pilot, but I'm doing co-pilot. There's some great things happening in the Microsoft space lately. So I'm touching co-pilots, and I'll show you how to get the most out of them right inside the documents you're already using every day. Subscribe so you don't miss anything. And if something from today's episode landed for you, share it with the person who needs to hear it. I am Maxine, and this is AI for South Africa. Let's go.

SPEAKER_03

Over Cape Town. New code. New tree.