Mark Sham

Entrepreneur, professional speaker, and world traveler. I create content about the topics that interest me!

[Mark Sham @MarkSham]

If you are a new follower to my account, I'd like to introduce myself, explain what I post about and WHY! Please take a few seconds to read (and like the post) if you've been enjoying my content so far. I really appreciate your support so far and I'm here to create a net positive impact on Twitter / X ❤️

✅ My goal is to create travel content that inspires people to travel more. Specifically, I'm trying to get people to act like tourists in this beautiful country of ours. Despite our problems, I love South Africa and I want to be a force for good.

✅ I've been documenting my travels informally for a few years but I recently started @likeatouristza to showcase amazing places to visit and cool things to do. Just look through my recent timeline and you will get an idea of what I'm talking about.

✅ We have a YouTube channel where we upload high quality content. I would love for you to search for us and see the quality for yourself. I also use all my social media platforms to share pictures that I take myself. If it doesn't have our logo on then I didn't take it.

✅ Almost always, my posts aren't sponsored and the places I visit don't know I'm coming. I pay my own way which gives me the ability to give an honest plug. If money exchanges hands, I will always tell you.

✅ I also don't review places. If I don't have a great experience, I don't post about them. This is why my content sometimes comes across as "positive" when actually I just don't mention the negative experiences to begin with.

✅ Some travel experiences I post about are for everyone and some are high end. I rarely post prices and I ask you to do your own research.

✅ Every now and then, I post about other topics that interest me that aren't travel related. I am a professional speaker so I have a broad range of interests. Sometimes I speak about politics too, but I try limit this topic because it can be divisive.

✅ Lastly, I am a fun loving guy and I love engaging with my community but I also clap back if someone gives me a hard time. I'm ok with debating things elegantly and I am comfortable to agree to disagree.

PS. Reply to this post if you have any questions or comments, and I will always try to reply ASAP. Love hearing from you and chatting with you!

[Mark Sham @MarkSham]

Sam Skyring sold her house to buy 34 tonnes of salt. She was a newly single mom with a three-year-old son when she did it. To understand why, you need to know what happened at a salt pan in the Kalahari 🧐

Sam's marriage had ended and she suddenly needed to figure out how she was going to support herself and her son. Around the same time, she discovered a natural salt deposit deep in the Kalahari and became convinced that something most of us barely think about could become an extraordinary South African product.

She started small, selling salt and learning the business as she went. Then the salt pan flooded.

Supply was about to become scarce and Sam had a decision to make. If she genuinely believed this could become something, she needed to secure enough salt to keep the business going.

She didn't have the money to do that BUT she did have a house. So she sold it.

Sam and her son then spent almost two years living in a tiny wooden Wendy house in a friend's garden while she built the business. She packed the salt herself, worked from whatever space she could find and kept trying to convince people that they should care about something most of us barely give a second thought to.

That business was Orxy Desert Salt (@oryxsalt) 🧂

Perhaps that's the part of Sam's story I find most interesting. Salt is about as close to a commodity as you can get. It's cheap, it's everywhere and most people probably couldn't tell you which brand is currently sitting in their kitchen. Sam somehow had to convince people that where their salt came from mattered.

Slowly, it worked.

The business that started with Sam packing salt herself now employs more than 35 people. Oryx is exported to more than 20 countries, used in thousands of restaurants and has made its way onto the shelves of Whole Foods Market in America.

I love thinking about the distance between these two scenarios:

😱 A newly single mom and her three-year-old son living in a Wendy house because she'd sold their home to bet on 34 tonnes of salt.

😎 Years later, the product she was betting on sitting on the shelves of Whole Foods on the other side of the world.

Sam is also a @SuitsSneakers member and this is exactly why I want to tell more stories about the small business owners in our community. By the time we encounter their products neatly packaged on a shelf, we rarely have any idea what happened before they got there.

Next time you reach for the salt, perhaps take two seconds to look at the name on the box. If it says Oryx, you now know a little bit about the woman who put it there and what it took to get there ❤️

[Rob Moore @robprogressive]

Capital gains taxes make no sense & shouldn't exist

I invest my capital. I create the opportunity. I take the risk. I do the work. I take the chances. I accept the losses if things go wrong

So why should the government collect a slice when things go right?

They didn’t take the risk. They didn’t build the business. They just take

[Mark Sham @MarkSham]

@dramadelinquent @LadySayFuckALot @Nicole_Barlow1 I wrote the article. I just used the image and said I wasn’t sure who had made it. That’s it. I always write my own articles or tell people if I’m sharing someone else’s work.

[Mark Sham @MarkSham]

@Nicole_Barlow1 @WOOLWORTHS_SA Wow! This article looks suspiciously similar to one I wrote the other day on Facebook 😉

[Mark Sham @MarkSham]

@VolksVuur Why don't you try it first and then comment? You can tell a lot about a person that first finds fault with something 🥸

[Mark Sham @MarkSham]

Cape Town has a NEW sandwich shop that sets the benchmark in South Africa 🥪 The Focaccia Bar on Loop Street is hyper-focused on doing this one thing perfectly and I'd like to share the experience with all of you 📸

If New York, Cape Town, and Florence had a sandwich baby, this would be it 🤣 The magic comes from the three owners who traded cooking on super yachts and high pressure fine dining kitchens for a sidewalk shop.

Instead of a massive menu, they obsess over 24-hour fermented dough and quality ingredients that culminate in singular perfection. Which is why this isn't a "cheap" lunch, nor should it be in my opinion.

Not only do they bake their own bread daily, they also import their cold meats from Italy, use local high-end cheese suppliers, and make every single spread in-house.

I tried four different sandwiches and the craft was undeniable. Not only were the meat portions are incredibly generous but these are up there with the best sandwiches I've ever had. Even my darling daughter got in on the action 🤣

The only first world issue I had was with the pastrami sandwich because there was possibly actually too much meat and the pastrami overpowered the sandwich. The rest of them were heaven in beautiful packaging.

If you want to see me document the full experience at The Focaccia Bar, the latest episode of Hungry & Shameless is live on YouTube. It's also the first ever episode filmed in the Mother City. If you want to watch, search for “Hungry & Shameless in SA” 🤣

‼️ Again, please don't watch the video unless you're keen to watch the whole thing. I'm not looking for views at all costs. We want the videos to find the right audience 😎

PS. I ordered the four most expensive sandwiches on their menu but there are also a few sandwiches below R100 so don't come at me about price 🤣

[Mark Sham @MarkSham]

@mobieffect This is epic. Thank you. Please let me know what you think of your experience?

PS. Have you watched the video review on YouTube? https://t.co/t9WCGeZbUh

[Mark Sham @MarkSham]

@paddycarmody Patrick, you legend. Which sandwich did you go for? Thanks for taking the time to watch the video.

[Mark Sham @MarkSham]

@nm_ledwaba Oh boy.

[Mark Sham @MarkSham]

@punishedvoetsek You must be fun at parties.

[Mark Sham @MarkSham]

@cowboy_lockdown @WOOLWORTHS_SA Just reminding small business owners what they’re dealing with when they deal with corporate giants. Seems to be hitting a nerve?

[Mark Sham @MarkSham]

The @WOOLWORTHS_SA and Beyers Chocolates breakdown is another reminder that corporate companies will "protect their business and their growth" at all costs. Any smaller business that forgets is doomed. You can have a 34-year supplier history with a corporate but the moment you stop playing by their rules, they will cut you down to size, even if that means you liquidating your business!

From what has been reported, Beyers had been supplying Woolworths since around 1990 and at one point Woolworths made up roughly half their business. That kind of relationship could fool you into feeling secure when you’re in it. It "feels" like there’s history and trust which is already the first warning sign in this story.

Apparently Beyers acquired a second factory which was already supplying Checkers and Pick 'n Pay. According to Beyers, this was a way to increase volumes, support mechanisation, diversify the business, and reduce their dependence on Woolworths, especially because Woolworths had already started bringing in other chocolate brands years earlier.

Woolworths apparently found out about the second factory and took issue with it. The dispute centred on exclusivity. According to Kees Beyers, Woolworths wanted the second factory closed but Beyers refused.

From a business owner’s point of view, I understand why. Beyers had reportedly invested around R200 million and had roughly 75 employees at that second site. You don’t just switch that off because a major client is uncomfortable with you diversifying.

Then came the hammer as Woolworths reduced its orders. First by around R100 million and then by another R100 million a few months later.

When one customer carries that much weight in your business, they don’t have to “kill” you in some dramatic movie villain way. They just have to reduce orders and suddenly cash flow gets squeezed, your bank gets nervous, your options disappear, and the thing you spent decades building can start falling apart in real time.

The exclusivity issue itself is still disputed. Beyers says the exclusivity agreement expired in 2019. Woolworths apparently says it rolled over automatically. Woolworths has also said it cannot comment on the details of the relationship because of confidentiality 🤣

I want to personally remind you. Corporate companies are not people. They don’t operate on loyalty, memory, history, or sentiment in the way small business owners often do. They operate through systems, contracts, leverage, risk management and self preservation.

If you build your business around one massive corporate client, and that client decides you’ve stepped outside the lines, they will likely not sit down and ask how this affects your people, your factory, your investment, or your future.

If you take ANYTHING from this post, it's an understanding of WHAT (not who) you’re dealing with. Never forget this and play the game accordingly 🤓

[Mark Sham @MarkSham]

@Alicemakochieng @WOOLWORTHS_SA It’s helpful to read before commenting. Then you don’t look so silly.

[Mark Sham @MarkSham]

@jacpem @WOOLWORTHS_SA They can't. They're currently in liquidation.

[Mark Sham @MarkSham]

It's a real lesson. Just also easier said than done. Beyers wouldn't have grown the same if it weren't for the WW but it came with an exclusivity clause. When that lapsed and they tried to diversify, WW dropped them and now they're liquidating. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[Mark Sham @MarkSham]

@MarkTriesta @WOOLWORTHS_SA They're hiding behind "supplier confidentiality". It's not in their interest to speak up.

[Mark Sham @MarkSham]

Woolies had an exclusivity clause with Beyers until 2019. It's a double edged sword because Beyers wouldn't have got to where they are without the Woolies contract, but in order to get it, they had to agree to exclusivity. Years after that clause lapsed, they bought the second factory to diversify and then Woolies cut back on them. Damned if you, damned if you don't.

[Mark Sham @MarkSham]

@pstedsSA That's a top notch pizza too! Subjectively speaking, Napz edges them out by a ball hair but I can understand how people see it differently. Cafe 28 is gold.

[Mark Sham @MarkSham]

This might be the BEST PIZZA I've ever had in Johannesburg 🥳 I know that's a big statement but after visiting NAPZ in Rosebank recently, I think their Neapolitan Margherita jumps to the top of a quality competitor list🍕

I had no clue this place existed until a good friend told me about the owner, Enrico, who spent two months training in Naples under the organisation that protects traditional Neapolitan pizza. Think of it like champagne only being allowed to call itself champagne if it comes from that region. Same idea.

When someone cares enough about their craft to fly to Naples and learn it properly, I have to go visit. And obviously order three pizzas to put it to the test.

What I really liked about NAPZ is that they're not trying to be fancy. It’s a proper mom and pop shop run by Enrico and his wife Viviana.

This isn’t some pizza designed in a corporate boardroom. It’s a small family run business where the owners care deeply about their craft and heritage. And those are exactly the kinds of places we should be supporting.

Everything revolves around getting the fundamentals right. Dough fermentation, ingredients, temperature, process. All the little things that make a pizza good.

If you want to know a bit more about NAPZ, I would absolutely LOVE for you to watch the video we published recently but I’m not going to share the link. Just search for “Hungry & Shameless in SA” on YouTube and you’ll find it.

‼️ Please don’t watch the video unless you intend to watch the whole thing. We’re not chasing views at all costs. We want the videos to find the right audience ‼️

Most importantly, have any of you eaten at NAPZ before? And if you know of any soulful, owner run restaurants we should review next, drop them in the comments section below.

[Mark Sham @MarkSham]

@Mimi37223313 You literally can't compare these two worlds!

[Mark Sham @MarkSham]

@Che_4real If you do decide to eat at Napz, my heartfelt suggestion is don't order takeaway. The quality of the experience is just so much better when you eat the pizza 2min after it comes out the oven ❤️