She calls herself a jack of all trades, but, in reality, social media influencer, travel professional and performer Queanne Southwood will probably one day serve on company boards and lead organisations.
Experience
She’s charismatic and, while still in her late 20s, already has a world of experience on her résumé. Go-getter takes on a new meaning when chin-wagging with her. In the working world, slowing down is not an option, she said. Nothing is a side hustle as much as everything is a side hustle.
“It’s many jobs, one person,” she said, adding that the kind of multiplicity that’s become her livelihood is not about chaos or indecision. It is about building her own capacity. Not that, at times, she doesn’t need 40 winks to recover.
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Career
Influencer marketing was never a job she sought out, per se. It arrived as part of the journey, intertwined with her early life as a performer.
Her career launched internationally through the South African Performing Arts Championships, which took her to the United States. She spent six weeks training at the New York Performing Academy, followed by time in Orlando at the International Arts Talent Showcase.
“They prep you to be able to do everything,” she said. “Acting, modelling, performance. The idea is that you’re adaptable.” Southwood then headed to the Middle East, where one of her first professional gigs was in Bahrain.
Digital content
There, she worked as an MC and singer at events hosted by Sheikh Nasser and the country’s royals. Hotel residencies followed soon after.
“I started creating digital content to make money,” she said, “and it grew from there.” Southwood has always had a pragmatic approach to life. She grew up in Durban and gravitated to performing arts early, especially musical theatre.
Travel
By her teens, she was already travelling regularly to Johannesburg for competitions and performances and fell in love with the city. After completing school, she enrolled at Wits University. The plan initially was performing arts.
The reality panned out differently, and she landed a degree in communication instead, all the while gigging and performing. The gigs were not glamorous, though.
“It started with singing at family weddings, then cousins’ weddings and then people just started booking me.” It paid, sometimes, but it was never consistent. Music alone, she realised early on, was not going to keep the lights on.
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Adaptability
Adaptability and agility are what power Southwood’s working life. After returning from Bahrain, Southwood’s digital work gained traction. Brand campaigns followed with the likes of Fanta, Flying Fish, Nivea, Maybelline, Batiste dry shampoo and Uniq Clothing.
The Fanta campaign, she said, was her eureka moment. “That was when I thought, okay, this is actually something I really want to keep doing.”
Presently, her niche – or as they might say in traditional media – her beat, is lifestyle. It includes fashion, dining, beauty and then some.
Global audience
On Apple Music, her music is exposed to a global audience. Southwood also works in the tourism industry for a luxury tour operator, selling bespoke African travel experiences to international markets, particularly the Middle East, Scandinavia, North America, and Ireland. It is a role that draws directly on her time abroad and the relationships she built there.
“I’m now selling my country to markets I understand,” she said. “It just makes sense. And South Africa is hot property now, especially Cape Town.”
Work
Her workdays mirror the hybrid world she’s made her home and thrived in. Some of the week is spent in an office, the rest working remotely. She enjoys the change of scenery, the people and background noise.
“There’s something inspiring about being around other people in their zone while you’re in yours,” she said. Balance matters, though, and having a home base is important too.
Reality
She is realistic, rather than romantic, about influencer culture and said the market has become saturated.
“Everybody is an influencer now,” she said. Performers, creatives, and people in corporate jobs who market themselves online.
The lines are blurred, and the space is crowded. Whether influence still matters, she said, depends entirely on intent. “You have to know your why.”
