Inspirational Interview With Dentsu School of Influence 2026 Overall Winner Ndyebo Lurayi
Inspirational Interview With Dentsu School of Influence 2026 Overall Winner Ndyebo Lurayi.In partnership with CSA, Dentsu South Africa invited creators to apply for the Dentsu School of Influence a couple of months back. The initiative is a Youth Month programme designed to help young talent turn creativity into sustainable careers. Ndyebo Lurayi, a Johannesburg based content creator, entrepreneur and student pilot came out as the overall winner of 2026.
We recently sat down with her as she took us through her work as a photographer, her amazing brand partnerships and being the overall Dentsu School of Influence 2026 among other things.
1. You started your creative journey through photography in 2015. What inspired you to pick up a camera, and how has photography shaped the person and creator you are today?
To be honest, the first time I picked up a camera was because of my older cousin, who I really looked up to. She’s my grandmother’s first grandchild, so I guess she set the standard for what the rest of us as grandkids (her cousins) perceived as “cool”.
Photography is the one skill that taught me that I can learn “complicated” things from scratch. It also humbled me enough to be teachable. I never claim to know everything about any topic; I always leave room to learn from others. Sometimes I even pretend to hear about certain subjects for the first time, just so I can hear them from a different angle.
I’ve used that perspective as a lens to view every other aspect of life, whether it’s flying planes, riding a bicycle (I am yet to learn lol), speaking in front of a crowd of people or whatever it may be.
2. You have worked with major brands such as Pep, MTN, Telkom, Samsung, Uber, and Nivea. What do you believe makes a successful collaboration between a creator and a brand?
As a creator, I’ve had to make the conscious decision to present myself as a brand. In comparison to the major brands I’ve worked with, I may be at the bottom of the food chain, but what matters is that I am on the food chain nonetheless, which means I matter enough to bring value.
With that said, a successful collaboration between a creator and a brand is one where both entities communicate their vision and values authentically. As cliché as it sounds, being myself is my strongest currency.
I’ve been put on Earth to fulfil a certain assignment, and my chapter 3 may look completely different from someone else’s chapter 3, even if we have the same title.
3. Your content is described as authentic and relatable while maintaining strong visual storytelling. How do you balance authenticity with the creative and commercial expectations of brands?
I’ve had the privilege of working with brands I’ve actually used, and if I have not used them, I always look at how I can incorporate them into my truth and my reality.
I come as I am because I feel people relate mostly to people who live their truth. If it means I incorporate brand work into my aviation or work routine, then so be it. That’s what people know me for anyway.
A lot of the time, people think being authentic means showing up as less than who you are or appearing less privileged than you actually are, but that’s false. Authenticity looks different for everyone; it’s simply living YOUR truth.
4. You were recently named the Overall Winner of the Dentsu School of Influence 2026. What did winning the programme mean to you, and what was the biggest lesson you took away from the experience?
Upon receiving the acceptance email from the Dentsu School of Influence, I had no expectation of walking away with anything but knowledge on how to be a better influencer/creator. Not only did I receive a wealth of knowledge, but I also gained business insight, met the most incredible group of people, got to engage with really cool brands, and walked away as the Overall Winner, which is something I absolutely did not see coming!
My biggest lesson was to treat my creator journey as a business. In as much as I was invoicing brands and ensuring my taxes were up to date prior to attending the programme, I still wasn’t running my journey as a business.
I have now put certain practices in place to ensure I set realistic and attainable goals and reach my KPIs (lol) as a creator.
5. The Dentsu School of Influence exposed you to campaign reporting, influencer marketing, creator-brand alignment, and agency expectations. How has this changed the way you approach your work as a content creator?
I have positioned myself as an employer at Ndyebo Lurayi. I have gone as far as re-registering one of my old companies to ensure the brand is able to grow as its own entity.
I have also started working towards putting structures in place to run it similarly to my actual business. I walked into DSOI as me, but I walked out of it as a brand, which for me is absolutely life-changing!
6. You are also the founder of Balleriia, a branding and customisation business that received an NYDA Grant in 2020 (it was actually 2021-apologies if I got the dates wrong on my end). What inspired you to start the business, and what has been your biggest challenge in building it?
Back in 2019, my mom bought me a Cameo 3 vinyl cutter because she thought it would be nice for me to print my own T-shirts. So I started doing that, and I would print faith-based statements on T-shirts. People at church started enquiring about them, so I started selling them, and that’s what propelled me to register the business. It took off from there.
Building a business comes with a lot of challenges and requires resilience, and I believe that’s where I thrive. Every year and every season varies, and I guess that’s what makes it interesting.
The greatest challenges right now are building and establishing a corporate and government client base that brings consistent revenue streams into the business, as well as having to swim in an ocean with the big fish.
7. You are simultaneously pursuing content creation, entrepreneurship, photography, and aviation. How do you manage such different passions while maintaining focus and consistency?
I honestly will not lie to you, I don’t know how I do it. What I do know is that my faith keeps me anchored.
There’s a verse that says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” and it really is that simple.
My name also means prosperity. The day I discovered what that ACTUALLY means, I ran with it. For me, prosperity isn’t just about wealth in terms of monetary value, but it also means prospering in whatever assignment I have, prospering in society, showing up for people, etc.
Every idea that comes to a human’s mind and camps there for years will come to fruition.
8. You were selected as a Top 30 finalist for Miss South Africa in 2023. What did that experience teach you about confidence, representation, and using your platform to inspire other young women?
I remember during that season I faced opposition because I wasn’t your typical pageant girl, and it was my very first pageant. But on the contrary, I had a lot of women who looked just like me — dark-skinned, curvy with short hair — come into my social media DMs and comments to tell me how they found what I was doing inspirational.
In as much as we’re encouraged not to take what people say to heart, that really did contribute to boosting my confidence.
During my Miss South Africa journey, I also bagged my first campaign, which was with Nivea, a brand that personifies beauty, radiance and confidence. This took my confidence from 100 to a million real quick!
9. You volunteer your photography skills and also visit high schools in Tembisa to give Grade 9 learners advice about careers in aviation. Why is giving back important to you, and what impact do you hope to make through this work?
Giving back to me is important because I always believe that whatever I give will be given back to me tenfold.
Not only is it for my gain though. Sharing knowledge means empowering someone who was once discouraged and hopeless.
If I can change, inspire or influence even just one life positively in a day, I know that many other lives, through that one life, will be changed too.
10. Looking ahead, what is the bigger vision for Ndyebo Lurayi across content creation, Balleriia, and your aviation career, and what would you like people to remember about your journey?
I always tell people that they need to dream big, and I always say whatever they think is big, God has bigger in mind for them. I obviously remind myself of the same. I just need to make sure I am locked in, and locking in for me looks like setting goals, spending time getting to know God, asking Him to guide me, and also working towards fulfilling those set goals.
For content creation, I am looking to work with brands, but to build long-term relationships and not just one-off campaigns. This is also one key aspect I learnt at DSOI 2026. I also want to work with more aviation brands because that’s what I absolutely love, and that’s what my community loves too. I will always love working with beauty, skincare, fashion and hair brands too.
Balleriia is the one baby I have been entrusted to raise. It is the one “platform” I want to use to create sustainable employment for the people in our country. It is also the part of my life I will use to create impact in our society. We’re in trying times, and where I can make people’s lives easier, Balleriia is it. So I really need her to grow old, grow strong and live through generations to come.
Lastly, aviation, my “first love”. This is a career path I have dreamt of and also one of those big tasks I have been given to make sure it works out.
I want to one day tell my children’s children that I flew for the biggest airline in the world. Hey, who knows, I might start one myself.
