Building Businesses That Scale in Africa: Insights from Two Marketing Masters - Paa Kwesi Folson x Blessing Onwukwe Hanson - Konnected Minds Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
One size fits all or a custom approach.

Speaker 3 (00:02):
I'm saying a custom approach I don't agree with that
Because I believe that we useourselves as the goal.
We are trying to sell toourselves instead of listening
to the customer.
We don't listen to the customerenough.
A lot of people are selling butthey're not making money.
They are posting thousands ofbags of deliveries going out,
but their business is strugglingBecause their pricing is way

(00:24):
off.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
They get stuck and consumed by the hassle and
they're not consumed by strategy.
That's the difference between alot of big companies and small
companies.
Most people are just like Ineed money to start this, you
need money to scale Like youneed a customer to start, so if
I'm zero, I'm going to spend.
There are three types ofcurrencies.
This is your most defaultcurrency.
If you don't have money and youdon't have a network, you need

(00:45):
to leverage on a currency orleverage on this capital.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Why most young businesses across Africa fail
very quickly.
Number one, I think.
Do you think entrepreneurshipis for everyone?

Speaker 3 (00:58):
I think everybody should have an interest in
entrepreneurship, so it's foreverybody.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yes, I don't think everybody is wired to be an
entrepreneur.
I don't think everybody can bean entrepreneur.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
So hello and welcome to Connected Minds podcast.
My name is Derek Abayete andthank you so much for supporting
this podcast, bringing it towhere we are at this moment.
Today, I've got somethingspecial for you, very special,
so special that I'm nervous, andwhat I have packed in our

(01:33):
studio today is that I've gottwo entrepreneurs.
They will talk about theirstory, their business, what they
do for people, and I'll letthem go through their own
perspective and what they thinkabout each person's idea.
I would want to give them rolescenarios from each and let's
see how they can turn theirbusinesses around.

(01:53):
This is definitely aconversation for every aspiring
entrepreneur.
You haven't seen this in thescreens in Ghana before, like
this never, and we're bringingthis to you because we value you
as our audience.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
So if you're not watching the video.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Please head to YouTube so you can watch it.
And if you make it to the end.
I'd love to know in my commentssection I've got Pakosi here
and I've got Blessin.
How are you doing?

Speaker 3 (02:19):
I'm excited Little nervous but excited, and I've
watched a lot of your podcastsonline and it's so nice to see
you do this in person.
Yes, I'm so happy to be here.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Thank you.
Thank you, pagosi Fawson.
Yes, how are?

Speaker 2 (02:35):
you, I'm fine how about you.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
I'm fantastic.
I mean, you saw me doing a lotof running around, Definitely
yeah.
I do this a lot, even on myconstruction sites.
I'm with the people Just theway I expect things to be done.
I always want to put myself init.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
So when the video comes out.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
I want to identify myself in the video.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
It's a pleasure doing this, especially with Blessing.
I'm excited for what we have todo today.
This is different to the space,and so we make magic.
Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
And I think this was an idea dropped from heaven.
Yeah, because we had originallyplanned to just speak with
Blessing today.
Tell us everything she does howshe helps businesses scale and
then all of a sudden, you knowit dropped in and it says nah
Pakusi must be involved in this.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
Because he's an expert in this field.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
You know he helps businesses scale as well.
Has a lot of marketingstrategies.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
So you guys do very similar things, even though you
have your own businesses, but Ithink this would be fantastic
for the audience Can't wait.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Fantastic, so let's start off with a blessing.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
I've already asked you how you do it.
The first question I've got foryou is what do you do for the
people.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
What do I do for the people?
Yes, so I come from abackground of pharmacy.
I didn't want to do pharmacyinitially, but I mean, my
parents pushed me to dosomething science related.
But I knew that I wantedsomething more.
I didn't want to get up, go andsit in the pharmacy every day
and sell drugs.
So I went into entrepreneurshipand that changed my life

(04:12):
completely.
So now I'm able to run, I'mable to sustain my life
completely on my business, and Irealized that a lot of people
want that as well for themselves, but they don't have it, not
because they can't do it or notbecause I did something out of
the ordinary.
It's just because of theirmindset, just because they don't

(04:34):
believe that they can andthey're not willing to hold on
enough to do it.
Yes, so I have.
I started something called thebusiness of your dreams, where I
impact into the lives of people, into their businesses.
I help them to launch and scaletheir businesses as well.
So that's what I do for thepeople.
I have mentors, mentoringsessions where I meet people

(04:56):
every week.
We dive deep into your business.
I have um resources for hairbusiness owners as well, because
I am an expert in the hairbusiness as well.
Yes, so, yes, so that'ssomething that I really.
It's my passion.
I love to impact.
I can speak about business allday.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah, and Pagosi yeah , fawson, fawson.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
What do you do?
Okay, so I always say I do whatI do for three main reasons.
Number one to shape thoughts,mold characters and propel the
destinies of individuals andbusinesses.
So that's what I mainly do, andso I do that through my work as
a speaker and a coachingconsultant.
And so, over the time, I've hadthe privilege of coaching and
training multi-million dollarcompanies, real estate companies
I can name a few names, but notnow and so I've been doing that

(05:46):
ever since I was a freshman,since I was 22 years old, and so
I've seen a lot of businesses,I've worked a lot of people.
I'm bringing new ideas becauseI'm young, and so I bring fresh,
innovative ideas to the table Ihelp people to to optimize
their marketing processes,especially because that's where
I'm well, that's where I'm anexpert in, and so I come there
and I build your stuff, I trainyour marketing team and I've
worked with so many businessesand there are some people that
we actually do the marketing forthem, and so, yeah, I go around

(06:08):
speaking to people, helpingthem to understand business from
a different point of view, and,yeah, that's what I do.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
You make magic, yeah, through our conversation
someone told me that you canbuild LinkedIn accounts faster
than most businesses can forthemselves.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
How do you do that?
Yeah, so I do that with anumber of strategies and
everything, but the whole thingis that on LinkedIn, I can take
somebody and take you from zeroto 1,030 days.
I've done it multiple timeswith multiple different accounts
.
People teach the strategies, andso the strategies are very much
the system that we use and onceyou just copy the system, you
have the same outcome, becausethere are some people who have a

(06:50):
lot of followers on linkedin,but they can't explain the
growth.
Yeah, like they just maybe madea post and it went viral a
couple of times and so that'show it happened.
But they can't tell you.
Okay, I pressed one, two, threeand I got here.
And so what I did was that,since when I joined linkedin,
nobody knew who I was.
I was, I came from obscurity tolimelight, and so linkedin was
my medium to come into thelimelight, and so what I did was

(07:11):
that I developed a system thatI can use, and so once I had
that system, I just got to teachit to other people for free as
a start, and once I startedworking for them, they started
telling their friends and theirfriends and their other friends
and the other friends and by thetime I realized it became a
business and that's how Istarted and I started charging
people and doing that take methrough the system step by step

(07:31):
definitely no problem at all.
So so there are a number ofthings that you need to do, so I
call you vava b-a-v-v-a, sovava starts.
Number one vision may sound,but you need to start with
vision.
Number two authenticity.
Number three, value.
Number four, visibility.
And number five, authority.
If you follow those five steps,you actually have LinkedIn

(07:51):
visibility.
Now, what do I mean?
Most people come on LinkedInand don't even know what they're
looking for, so their vision iswrong, because they come there
looking for a job.
Meanwhile, I mean, if you wantopportunities, linkedin is a
social media platform you can'tjust come and all you're
thinking about is a job.
So, because their primarythought is that they approach
everything so wrongly, youshould have a real goal, a real
outcome, a real connection.

(08:12):
What exactly are you trying toget out of this platform?
It should be properly defined.
If you don't have that, mostpeople have their official wrong
, and so every other thing nowgoes away.
Now, authenticity.
Authenticity is, I would say,the bedrock of personal branding
, and so what you want to do isthat you want to be able to find
a way to not be like everybodyelse.
You need to radiate yourauthenticity in terms of you

(08:34):
have your value.
You have your things, your coreelements, but how can I do it?
In my way, that is notnecessarily a standard procedure
for everybody within my space,so you need to be able to define
your authenticity.
Now let me go to this part.
This is where I want to godeeper into everything.
So now the value.
Now your value.
Value comes from the Latin word, or from an old French word

(08:54):
known as valoir.
Valoir means worthy.
So when we're talking aboutvalues like, what are you
bringing to the table that isworthy for someone else?
And so most people come onLinkedIn and they're just.
They're just the oh, I got ajob, oh, I just started this new
company, I just did that.
So they're just using LinkedInas a platform for updates but
you should use it as an update,as a platform for value.

(09:15):
In other words, you should useit as a platform to be able to
give something worthy to people.
And so what most people do isthat they come on LinkedIn and
they don't share content at all.
That is vulnerable.
What I do is that I spend.
When I first started LinkedIn, Iwas posting twice a day sharing
value about random things,leadership and marketing twice
every single day.
By the time I was done with myuniversity, I had over five jobs

(09:38):
reaching out to me.
I don't have a CV, and so itwas just because I was used as a
platform whereby I was sharingmy worth, and so it was just
because I was used as a platformwhereby I was sharing my wealth
.
And so when you start doingthat, especially at a very, in a
very consistent manner, withhigh volume, I'm telling you
like you are going to grow.
Because now, the thing aboutlinkedin platform is this so let
me, let me just explain thisway so on linkedin, you cannot

(09:59):
run ads on your personal account.
Now, on instagram, you canpress boost, post and yeah our
viewers have probably used thatbefore boost post, but on
linkedin you can't do that foryourself.
Now they are trying to includethat into the platform but, like
you can't do that, you can'tboost a post personally.
So the the only way you can runads on linkedin is using a
company account.

(10:19):
Now what that means is that thecompany accounts they they've
killed the reach for it.
Basically, I won't say they'vekilled it, but the reach for a
company account is not so much.
As a company, you're forced tobuy ads.
That's a strategy.
But when it's a personalaccount, the organic reach for a
personal account is so highRight, because you can't run ads

(10:40):
.
So they've optimized theorganic reach for you to be able
to get a lot of views.
And most people don't understandthat.
So they're just on linkedin andthey don't even know what to do
.
So once you start actuallyactively using the platform,
because less than one percent ofof linkedin population actually
post on linkedin, and linkedinhas over a billion members.
So, as you think, it's just anumber of people now, not to
even talk of ghana, not to eventalk of akron, how many people

(11:02):
are posting?
So the moment you start, youstart posting value.
I am telling you the platformis designed to give you a lot of
visibility.
Okay, great, yeah, blessinghere definitely your business
and the reason.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
I wanted you to take us through the LinkedIn
strategies because I knowblessing is not active on
LinkedIn, so that wasessentially for her the value
for her business and herpersonal brand.
Now listen, take me through howyou got your capital to start
your business.

Speaker 3 (11:34):
It's very funny.
So, yes, well, seven years ago,right, I've always been
entrepreneurial, so I alwaysfind a way to sell something.
When I was eight I rememberthere's this pack of jello
toffee in class.
I would say I'll buy the packand sell it one one to my
classmates.
Gss2 I was selling bags andbelts that my father was

(11:57):
bringing to the teachers, tofellow students.
So I've always been thinking ofsomething to do so.
Initially I was making wigs.
That was in my final year inuniversity.
So you don't need much capital,you just need skill, you just
need to offer your services topeople.
So I had traction because Iknow how to market.
I know how to talk about myservices to people.

(12:17):
So I got some traction.
And then, when I was doing mynational service, a friend
suggested I buy hair fromNigeria and sell.
So that was how I started.
It wasn't with a lot of money,I just bought two sets of hair,
that's three bundles each twosets of hair.
And then a friend of mine gaveme a thousand Ghana CDs to start

(12:39):
.
So that was two sets of hair Ibought, and that's how I started
my business Glamming Inches.
So it wasn't a lot of money andI know a lot of people always
ask how much do I need to starta business, and I find that
question very amusing why?

Speaker 1 (12:53):
do you think people don't need money to start a
business?

Speaker 3 (12:55):
Well, the thing is, we put so much emphasis on the
product, the product, theproduct.
When we are trying to start abusiness.
The product is really important, of course, yes, but having the
product without having themarketing skills, their sales
skills, the product doesn't move, it sits there right, so you
can even sell things that don'tbelong to you.

(13:15):
So in that case you don't evenneed money to sell it okay, how
am I gonna do that then?
okay.
So that's really interesting,because I know you mentioned
something like that in ConnectedMinds, live, right, and it's
something that I think is makingwaves now.
Right, we put too much emphasison the product, but you don't
necessarily need a product tomake money Right now.
Something like this is makingwaves.

(13:36):
Right, a lot of people haveproducts, but they don't know
how to market it.
A lot of people have a lot ofgoods sitting down but, yeah,
they don't know how to usesocial media, they don't know
how to use email lists, right.
So once you build the skill,the sales skills, the marketing
skill, you can now sell that.
So you go to somebody who hasthe product, you ask the person
what is the least amount you arewilling to sell this for, right

(14:00):
, and then you're like okay, soI'll bring you customers.
I don't want any of your, Idon't want any of your capital,
I don't want any of your costprice.
I just want a commission onevery client I bring you.
So people have used this methodto generate thousands of
dollars, and that is your seedmoney for whatever else you need
to do.
Another way to run a businesswithout using capital or money

(14:23):
is partnerships.
Honestly, we don't put enoughemphasis on partnerships.
Whenever I meet somebody, Ialways find ideas.
I always get ideas fromconversations.
Just yesterday, I was justchatting with somebody who sold
cars and I had so many ideasbecause I realized that he had a
flaw in his hiring system.

(14:44):
He has a lot of employees, butnone of them none of them is
educated.
So he struggles with sharinghis vision, making them
understand what he wants, andI'm like I know how to hire.
Why don't I just tell him I canhire for you, I can create SOPs
for you, onboard your staff,and then you just pay me.
You onboard your staff and thenyou just pay me.

(15:07):
That is how to make moneywithout money right?
Another way is um, we just spokeand then from just speaking to
him, I know he's doing so manythings he has.
He can build linkedin platformsfor people, he can do so much.
So I just had an idea.
Okay, so how do we worktogether to make money?
How?
How do we make money from ourpartnerships?
Yes, so there are so many waysto make money.

(15:28):
I think we need to move awayfrom being stuck on.
How much do I need to start abusiness?
That question is getting old.
How much do I need to start abusiness?
Yeah, we need to move away fromthat.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
So in terms of and I love it, yeah, right, and by the
way, I just want to chip inthere yeah, looking for a
product?
Yeah, and adding your markup toit.
Yeah.
And then selling it in your ownway.
It's different from somebodyasking you that they want a

(15:59):
service from you or they want aproduct from you yeah, true.
And are you telling that personthat the highest quality of
this product that they can getis 2 000 cities or 2 000, and
then you take that money?
Yeah, and then you go and buythem a substandard product yeah,
okay, and then you keep thedifference.
It's, it's yeah, that's whatwe're saying.
What we're saying is that youidentify a product yeah, right,

(16:22):
in the market.
Yeah, then you bring thatonline or you can do it
face-to-face, and then you sellit, but the person must be aware
of the markup you want to puton top.
Yeah, true, right, and then youmake your money from that.
Don't tell somebody that you'regoing to go and buy them a cup,
the highest quality, is goingto cost $2,000.
And then you go and then youget the lowest quality of $500.
And the lowest quality of 500,and then you keep 1,500.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
Yeah, You're not being smart.
I mean, that is not evenscalable.
Yeah, because how do you builda business from that, from being
dishonest from the beginning?
Nobody's going to trust you.
No integrity, yeah, nointegrity.
It doesn't make sense.
Yeah, I think Blessing has justspoken about two ways where you
can start a business.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
Partnership.
And then you know, offer yourservices to existing businesses,
whether it's product orservices now I do understand
that you speak very much aboutsoft skills yeah what sort of
skills do you think people needto be able to then?

Speaker 2 (17:09):
go sell the product.
Oh, definitely number one thingcommunication skills.
But when I'm talking aboutcommunication, I'm talking about
communication to sell.
I call it speak to sell that'swhat I call it now.
Most people do not know how tosell.
Most people think selling isconvincing, but selling is
persuasion.
Convincing and persuasion aretwo different things.
Convincing is when I get you todo something for my own reasons

(17:31):
but, persuasion is when I getyou to do something for your own
reasons, so for the customer'sreasons, not my reasons.
Most people start a businessand then they already define
their reasons why people shouldbuy the thing.
But what you should find out iswhy would my customer want this
thing?
What are their desires, theirgoals?
And so the moment you learnabout communication because
communication is this.
Communication comes from theLatin word and that's
communicationem, andcommunicationem simply means it

(17:54):
simply means it simply means amaking common.
What that means is that you'resupposed to find a way to find a
common ground with the personNow.
Find a common ground with theperson now.
When I'm talking about a commonground, I'm talking about
two-party streets.
Communication is a two is atwo-way street.
You can't just, you can't justif I'm talking to you and you're
not responding to me.
That's not communication.
I'm just the one talking, butwe're not communicating.
Communication always has alistener and the person speaking

(18:16):
, and so when I'm talking aboutsoft skills, what you need to do
is that you need to havecommunication as your prior, as
the main soft skill that you'reusing to sell all right.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
So you've just spoken about communication skills.
Yeah, right.
What do you think about thatblessing?

Speaker 3 (18:29):
yeah, so I love that.
He said that.
I really love it because I want, I have I have a perfect
example for him.
So a platform, or they weredeveloping a platform.
So their sales rep reached outto me and then she wanted me to
use the platform to book clientsfor services, for salon
services.
So I immediately told her thatwe don't offer services, we do a

(18:53):
lot of retail.
She went ahead to still talkabout how the platform can help
me to get clients for servicesand then I said it again we
don't do services, we offerretail.
And she was like, okay, thankyou.
Then afterwards, the next day,she went ahead to send me her
portfolio again for the sameservice I had said I don't want.

(19:16):
So a lot of the time we trainpeople, we train our sales reps
to just go out there and talkabout the product, so they don't
even know if the product isright for the customer, because
she could have told me that,okay, they are going to maybe
adjust this a bit or something,but she was just talking about
what she had been trained totalk about.
So that's what happens a lotwhen we get sales calls.

(19:36):
Yes, Great.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
What other skill do you think people need to be able
to sell products without owningthe products, definitely,
definitely.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
emotional intelligence is one of them,
because it's off scale, but andI think it all boils down to the
communication thing, but let meuse this in this way, instead
of emotional attention.
I love to say adaptability is asoft scale.
Most people don't know how tobe adaptive to situations.
So I mean, because you're in amarketplace with different types
of customers, with withdifferent types of wants, traits

(20:04):
, needs and everything, and sohow then can you be able to
adapt your services to somebodyelse?
So, for example, somebody has aparticular need that they want,
can you be able to find a wayto tailor that product for them?
That's what we calladaptability, because it's about
most people.
Some people don't just want aregular service, they want you

(20:30):
to be able to find a way totailor what you have for them in
a particular way.
So that is one of the thingsthat most people don't have.
They don't have the idea or thegrit to be able to be adaptable
whatever they are selling.
They are so stuck on it, sostrict, they are so cemented in
their opinion about theirservices, about their products.
But are you willing to make aband?
Are you willing to modify yourproduct offerings just for the
person you're working with?
The moment you haveadaptability, coupled with
communication, I think you'llmake a killing business.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
Most people say that that's not absolutely true.
Okay, in the sense that theythink they work hard enough and
they've tried everything, itstill doesn't work out.
Okay.

Speaker 3 (21:05):
What do you have to say?
Blessing, yes.
So a lot of people think hardwork just means you're going to
succeed.
But the thing is we startbusinesses and we use ourselves
as the goal, so we are trying tosell to ourselves instead of
listening to the customer.
We don't listen to the customerenough.
So you bring something.
Clearly there's no market needfor it, but you believe that in

(21:27):
marketing it and putting it infront of people's faces, in
waking up early every morning toshout about your product, you
are magically going to changethe customer's needs and make
the customer want your product.
It doesn't work.
So hard work doesn't meananything if you're not willing
to apply a bit of what he saidCommunication, not just

(21:49):
convincing, persuading right,and also adaptability, yes,
being willing to understand that.
Okay, this is not working.
How do I change it?
How do I shift it a bit for itto work?
And also sometimes, as thefounder of the business, I don't
believe you need to work hard.
Your job is not to be workinghard physically, because when

(22:12):
you work hard you don't makeroom for your mind to think and
come up with ideas, becausethat's your job as the founder.
You're supposed to work on thebusiness and find ways to grow
the business.
You are supposed to meet peoplewho can give you inspiration,
ideas to grow the business andfind ways to grow the business.
You are supposed to meet peoplewho can give you inspiration,
ideas to grow the business, butmost of the time we find
entrepreneurs waking up early,taking all the videos.

(22:32):
They want to be the face, theywant to do everything in the
business by themselves.
Yes, and that is not equal.
That doesn't necessarily meanyour business is going to work.

Speaker 1 (22:40):
Definitely yeah, pa what's your?

Speaker 2 (22:42):
view on that.
Yeah, completely agree.
And so I'll say when toll fails, toll feels, strategy always
works.
Let me say that again when tollfails, strategy always works.
So most people have beenworking hard, they work hard,
hard, hard, hard, but they arenot being strategic when you are
strategic.
That is where you are able towin.
Most people don't take the timeout of their busy shadows or

(23:04):
they're just.
They're so stuck with workinghard, and so they get stuck and
consumed by the hustle, butthey're not consumed by strategy
.
That's the difference between alot of big companies and small
companies, or big brands andsmall brands, and so one of my,
one of my godfathers told methis when the tough gets going,
the tough seek collaboration.
I mean the quote is when thetough gets going, the the and

(23:28):
the going gets tough.

Speaker 3 (23:29):
When the going was tough, the tough gets going.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
Yeah, but that's not true when the going gets tough,
the talk seek collaboration, andso what you need to do is that
you need to be strategic, andthat's seeking collaboration, is
being strategic, because youneed most people when they, when
they are working so hard, like,oh my god, I'll be working.
I've been working so hard, I'vebeen applying to a lot of jobs.
Have you decided to bestrategic?
Because, I see, because I do alot of, because of the LinkedIn
thing, I help people also getjobs, remote in Ghana, here in

(23:56):
Ghana, outside of Ghana, and allof that, and so you see some
posts oh, I've been applying tojobs every day.
Have you decided to bestrategic for once?
Only the one thing so you can dothis is outside the realm of
this business.
I just want to say this is thatthere's there's a feature
called because everybody putstheir school on there.
So if, let's say, I'm innashessa, I'm in cape coast
university, like it's over there, you put on your page and so
when I open the schools page, Ican literally just go to the

(24:18):
page and look at the alumni.
Now I go to the list of thealumni, just go there and just
look at this and look atsomebody and see that, oh, this
person is working over here.
Just text a person, say, oh,hello, I'm an alumni from this,
and that what happens is that,because you both share a bond,
it's called, it's calledaffinity, affinity, bias and
psychology.
Because you both share a bond,what happens is that you're

(24:38):
going to leverage on thataffinity, that common ground,
and use that because I mean,when you go to, when you're
outside of Ghana and probably inthe UK, and you see your fellow
Ghanaian, you see the way hereacts just because of that
common ground.
It's the same thing and that'scalled strategic thinking.
So I'm not just going to applyto a job, I'm just going to look
for an alumni, ask him for ajob opening.
If there's one in his company,then apply to that that company

(24:59):
and say, oh, I kind of know thisperson.
Especially if you kind oftarget somebody in the HR
recruiter space oh you're coolto go.
And to most people, whetherit's in business and career,
whatever they're doing, they'rejust doing the work without
being strategic.
And the people that always winare the people that always
prioritize strategy.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
That's a smart thing, you have helped several
businesses grow on the internet.

Speaker 2 (25:26):
Give me an example of some businesses that you took
from zero to wherever you tookthem Definitely.
So there was this one coachingcompany that we were helping and
so they weren't doing anythingat all in terms of they weren't
selling any products.
Not selling anything, I mean,the company was there, they had
their products and services onthe website, but they hadn't
made any sales, and so what wehad to do was that we had to now
.
We had to do was that we had tonow we had to realign their

(25:47):
offer.
So we restocked them, we lookedat everything and then we
restructured everything, andthen we found a way to position
that offer in front of theclient.
So what we simply do is thisand that's a type of information
business, and so what we do isthat we simply give people kind
of a free trial first, becausethere's something that from

(26:08):
master dancing okay, so he hassomething called he calls the
secret formula.
So who were bait results?
So when you're trying to sellsomething, can you find a way to
bait them to get them attractedto whatever?
So first thing that we did wasthat we simply just put up a
free something.
Free some something to taste.
So, for example, if it's, itwas a since was the coaching
business, we did a free webinar,the free webinar.
We then kind of positioned thewebinar in a particular way

(26:30):
whereby we're able to give thema lot of value but at the same
time, we sold some offers at theback.
So once we did that, the personwent from literally zero to now
having a lot of money coming ininto the coaching business for
them to now start doingworkshops and stuff like that
and doing more things that theywanted to do.
And so it's just about that,just about moving from something
, giving something out for free.
Most people are not willing todo that.

(26:51):
In ghana, they're not able toput out lead magnets.
I can go to lead magnets.
It's a whole differentconversation, but you can do
that for your business and it'sgoing to really change
everything about everything.
We've also helped a shippingcompany just move.
We've also helped people alsoin the.
We have this company that wehelp people build builders like
these, supply cranes and all ofthat, and so what we did was

(27:11):
that we simply took whatever,whatever they had combined it
with.
There's a way to get freetraffic somewhere on linkedin,
and so, instead of running freeads for them and the business
exploded.
And so, instead of gettingpeople coming, 50 000 young
businesses across africa.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
Yeah, what value do you think you can give to
businesses, should they come toyou?
Okay?

Speaker 2 (27:34):
marketing number one.
So marketing, marketing,marketing.
Most people don't understandmarketing to its core, and so
that's what I help peopleunderstand and understand.
Help people to understand howthey can market better, not just
organically but paid, becausewhen you're trying to scale to a
certain level, you can't justrely on organic marketing.

Speaker 4 (27:54):
I learned this second year in business that every
business must have a marketingbudget.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
Even as a musician, you need to have a marketing
budget.
If you're trying to reachpeople, you need a marketing
budget.
I think this is why a lot ofpeople are surprised as to how
fast Connected Minds Podcast hasbeen able to get this success.
It's because we have amarketing budget.
As I speak to you now, becausewe treat it as a business, we
have a marketing budget and wehave to keep that ad running.

(28:18):
My personal brand has got amarketing budget Right.
You help businesses scale,start and scale, especially
people from the diaspora.
Give me examples of businessesthat you have helped start.

Speaker 3 (28:27):
Okay, so I do help businesses in Ghana as well.
One of my offers is to helppeople in the diaspora to start
and scale businesses in Ghana.
It's because I live partly inthe diaspora, yes, but yeah, so
an example is actually theperson I got the suit from today
.
Okay, yes, so hers is an aspectof scaling.

(28:49):
Yes, when she came to me, shehas been running her business
for five years, but she didn'teven understand where she wanted
the business to go.
She was just running it her ownway.
So first of all, I made heridentify what made her different
, which is what I like to hit on.
What makes you different fromsomeone else selling suits?

(29:10):
Are you going to be called, oh,that lady who sells suits, or
you're going to be called thisbrand?
Yes, so this brand protects youfrom a whole lot.
You being known as a brand oryou being known for something,
it protects you from a whole lot.
An example is two years ago, Ihad issues with my hair, but
because we had a brand built up,it cushioned us from the damage

(29:33):
.
We were able to come back up.
Yes, so I made her identifythat.
And then also, I looked at herpricing.
She wasn't making profits.
So I made her increase herprices across board and then I
made her set her short-termgoals.
Her long-term goals veryimportant, because if you don't
know what you are workingtowards, you are just working,

(29:55):
so short-term goals, reallyimportant.
She set that her long-termgoals.
So I've been working with herfor close to three months now
and her short-term goal was tohave a certain revenue every
month and last month she farexceeded that revenue.
So when I had my monthlychecking with her, I was like,
wow, so the next step was hiring.

(30:15):
Now I told her she needs torefine her hires.
A lot of the time we it bothersme a lot we don't hire smart
people.
The people you hire aresupposed to be smarter than you.
That is how your business growsbeyond you.
Yes, so that's what I had torefine for her.
I told her to go back to thedrawing board.

(30:37):
Hire somebody who can do yourjob as well as you do, so that
you can, when you are not around, you know that things are going
to get done.
Set up SOPs in your business.
Set up systems structure, knowwhat you have in your shop.
So that is how I'm helping herto scale and, honestly, I was
blown away from our last meeting.
She has just exceeded herrevenue targets and I know if in

(30:59):
the next year she's going to dogreat.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
You know, I thought about something right.
I was thinking about why mostyoung businesses across africa
fail very quickly, right?
What do you think the reason is?

Speaker 2 (31:18):
okay, yeah.
So for me, number one, I thinkthey don't completely think
through.
So I mean, if it's a smallbusiness, number one, the thing
is that they never optimizetheir business for cash.
Let me say it that way.
So most people are just, theydon't think too much about cash
in hand, they're just trying tomake a few sales.

(31:39):
But the whole, the whole ideaof running a business is that
you need to be profitable.
If you are just running, mostpeople go register their
businesses or register whatevertheir entities and think it's a
business.
If your business is not makingmoney, it's just a registered
company and it's not a business.
It's just an entity, just aregistered entity with the
government.
It's not a business.
You need to figure out a way toget customers like that should

(32:03):
be your daily headache and I dothink a lot of small businesses
here in ghana prioritize thatthey.
They are just there, do you?

Speaker 1 (32:09):
really think that the young ghanaian entrepreneurs
economy in ghana they reallyunderstand the power of um
internet marketing no, theydon't.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
Not at at all, not at all.
I think most of them are veryshallow in terms of the
knowledge when it comes tointernet marketing.
They don't go deep intoeverything, because the moment
you understand, because theinternet is a revolutionary
technology, I don't think peoplecan grasp how important the
internet is, like you canliterally have 2 million or 20
million people at your disposal.
That's that's, that's the,that's the, that's the reach and

(32:44):
the massive thing that you haveright in your hands.

Speaker 1 (32:46):
The world is your head let me stop you here for a
minute.
We are on the journey ofchanging the minds and the lives
of people, so if you haven'tsubscribed and become part of
the family, please hit thesubscribe button and turn on the
notification.
Thank you.
Now let's carry on with theconversation.
When I made my first million.
I remember sitting back andtelling Ed that this would never

(33:09):
have been possible without theinternet.
Yeah 100%, and all I had to dowas take a course on Udemy, and
then I brushed over it withYouTube videos and then created
my first ad.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
That was it.
I think I said it in the eventwhere I was saying that look, I
needed only a few orders.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
We came back to work and we had over 200 orders, and
that's how the exponentialgrowth started Purely by
utilizing internet marketing.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
Most people try to figure it out by themselves, but
the thing is that there arepeople who have already done it.
Just go learn from them.
And so now knowledge has beendemocratized.
Right, it's on YouTube, it's onUdemy, but most people are also
looking for free things.
But the moment you decide totake a step further, go pay for
something I don't know.
Go find something on Udemy,Coursera, go find something on
udemy or Coursera.
Go get something, becausethat's how I did it, that's how

(34:01):
I started learning.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
I want to give you a real scenario.
Okay, blessing here.
One of her major businessesthat makes her a lot of money is
hair.
Okay, she sells hair,definitely.
Now I want you to maximize herbusiness growth with your
strategies.
Definitely, let's go, okay.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
So so first of all, can I ask you a question that
looks like what's the averageprice point of the hat?

Speaker 3 (34:27):
I would say about 5,000 cities.
Okay, will be average.
Yeah, 5,000 cities.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
Okay, what would you like to make in a month?
Hmm, I would like to make atleast a 400,000 kind of cities,
yeah, okay, so let's do the mathreal quick.
That should be, that should beclose to that should be about
right.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
So you want to make what?
Four four hundred?

Speaker 3 (34:51):
thousand four hundred thousand thousand thousand
thousand agencies.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
So that a month?

Speaker 3 (34:55):
yes, a month.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Yes, right, actually probably about 90, about 90
orders.
Yeah, at least yes yes, atleast you can do the calculation
.

Speaker 4 (35:06):
Yes, no, but let's.
I think that's 80.
If you want to find a thousand,yes, about 80 orders.
Okay, so now that we've donethe math, because that's what
most people don't do, yeah theyhave like very vague goals.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
So the first thing that you need to do when you're
running any form of enterpriseis that you need to first of all
get clear on your goals yeahclarity.
How are you like you get?
You get power from clarity, andso now we know what we are
working with, we are trying todo 400 000 kind of things in one
month, yeah, and that's onlywhat 80 orders.
Okay, now, what we need to dois that, now that we have our

(35:39):
math straight, what we need todo is that we need to figure out
do is that, now that we haveour math straight, what we need
to do is that we need to figureout how are we going to get
these 80 people?
That's our next challenge,because the money's going to
come from those people, and so80 people imagine, okay, so
let's, let's imagine you startedfrom scratch.
Yeah, is this scratch?
Yeah, yeah from scratch.
So let's say we started fromscratch.
Okay, you have probably nofollowers, just created your

(36:00):
account, but you have theproducts waiting for you, the
inventory, everything that'sfine, and so number one thing is
that you need to first of allget your branding straight,
because there are majorly threedifferent challenges that people
have on running businesses.
Number one they have a brandingchallenge.
Number two, they have a trafficchallenge.
Or number three, they havesomething called conversion
challenge I call it the btcinfliction.
So branding, traffic conversion.
And so, first of all, you needto get your page set straight.

(36:21):
I mean, like, if you, if you'rerunning a fiscal store, you
need to make sure thateverything looks good.
Same thing with the additionalpage.
You need to make sure that itlooks good.
So now that you have that, youneed traffic.
Now you need to determinebecause of how much you want to
scale.
I don't think, I don't think,organic traffic might be the way
for you, because it's going,it's going to take some time.
So what you need to figure outis that.

(36:42):
Number one, you want to find away to position your office,
have the prices down, explainthe quality behind it and then
start running ads.
Start running ads.
That's the first thing I'mgoing to do.
But what you want to do is that, first of all, you want to test
out different, different,different.
You'll do like a different testof maybe different hairs, maybe

(37:02):
the brown one, the black oneeverything.
Yeah, and put it out there.
Now, when you see how themarket is responding to a couple
of those three of them, youpick the one that is kind of
getting a lot of traction andthen you start.
You start doing everything, butmost people.
What you do is that they startwith a giveaway, as in, like I'm
not trying to say give a hellaway, but you might want to

(37:24):
start with kind of front loadingyour initial orders with giving
people either free hairs forleave I'm going to start this,
I'm going to give it to, maybelike guernado or something like
that yeah give them free, justget them to say something
because, one of the best ways tobe able to get somebody to be
able to buy is when they'resocial proof and so you want to
get that.
That's how I'm going to start.

(37:44):
I'm going to actually get that.
Run ads on the person talkingabout it and then you're going
to start get some orders aboutit.
So that's how I'm going tostart if I was running your
business, and then we see howmuch we are able to do times
that you need to put a lot ofbudgets into it because, you're
trying to get 80 buyers of aproduct, and so that's going to

(38:04):
take some time.
So that's what I can say fornow.

Speaker 1 (38:07):
Fantastic, so cool now.
And your business yeah, thathelps people start businesses,
yeah, and then scale businesses.
A man here is into marketing.
Yes, his business is to findbusinesses that need help.
How are you going to apply yourstrategies to his business?

Speaker 3 (38:22):
Okay it's funny because we were actually
discussing this earlier how hewas going to scale beyond him.
Yes, and I would leverage AI.
Yes, because AI models now areincredible.
They are incredible and theyare fast.
It's fast rising and AI learnswith data.
You have a lot of data.
You have a lot of data.

(38:43):
You have a lot of, even thoughit's unstructured.
You have a lot of data fromyour past courses.
So an AI model can actuallylearn and be like you, right?
So, scaling beyond you, havinga platform where you have all
your resources put together,right, and then having a bot
that can kind of act like youand then make people feel like

(39:05):
they have a, they have kind of aconnection to you in that
aspect yes, so then that bot cannow upsell.
So, based on the conversationthe bot has, so people can even
pay a subscription just to talkto parker c.
They can pay a subscriptionjust to talk to Percocet.
They can pay a subscription andthey don't know they are
talking to an AI bot.
Yes, so they are talking to you, paying you every month just to

(39:28):
talk to your bot, which youhave trained, and then in that
case, the bot can now recommendthings to them.
Oh, we have this resource foryou, we have this.
Are you looking for a job?
We have this for you.
So in that case, the bot justupsells and then that is how you
scale, that is how you becomebigger than who you are now,
without actively doing the workall the time, yeah I think

(39:51):
that's smart I while she wassaying it, I was thinking of
crazy but derrick, yeah, andthen.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
But derrick is gonna give people business.

Speaker 3 (40:00):
It's also personalized because the bot is
on WhatsApp, so it feels likeyou're actually chatting with a
human being and the bot has aname, so it can actually say it
can even check in with yourcustomers.
So then you can set it to goback and check in with your
customers, so hold themaccountable.
Yeah, so I mean it will feellike they're having a feel of

(40:20):
you without being you.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
Yeah definitely.
So thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (40:26):
I want to throw this to the two of you.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
Okay, you have two.
I'm going to give you twobusinesses, right.
Yeah.
I'm giving you two businessesright now.
One at zero USD and the otherat 100K revenue.
How do you approach these twodifferences?
Two businesses- yeah.
One is zero, the other is 100krevenue.

Speaker 3 (40:50):
Definitely, I'm guessing one wants to start, one
wants to scale.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
The other is struggling.

Speaker 3 (40:57):
Oh, you mean okay.

Speaker 1 (40:59):
And the other is already at 100k revenue.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
Yes, so that 100k?
What's the, what's the person,what's the challenge?

Speaker 1 (41:04):
yeah, they want to scale they want to scale okay
and then the other one wantsmoney they just want.
They want some customers in thedoor.

Speaker 2 (41:11):
Definitely, yeah, yeah okay, so, yeah, so I mean,
when you're not making money,that's like a very big issue.
So I always say that you don'tneed.
You don't need money to start abusiness, you need money.
You need a customer to start abusiness.
No money, that's what mostpeople don't do, so most people
are just so I need money tostart this.
You need money to scale, butyou need a customer to start and

(41:32):
so if you're, you're runningwhatever type of business,
you're selling buildingmaterials.
There's a time ago, one of myfriends, um, he was running a
cement business at a rfi I meanwe had no money to do anything.
We have the product, spendeverything to buy and ship our
product.
Now what do we need to do?
You need to go into the placeand then start looking for kind
of a lot of customers say, oh,you're building and so we can

(41:53):
give you cement to be to bebuilding your thing and so once
they agree, they pay us, we takeit and go, and so you need to
get the customer's money fastand you need to get the
customers money fast and youneed to start moving.
So if I'm zero, I'm going tospend In life.
There are three types of ofcurrencies, or, yes, three types

(42:20):
of currencies.
Or another way I can saycapital.
Okay, so most people, theythink they want capital.
Okay, so all capital.
Number one is everybody's mostinitial thought money.
Okay.
Number two this is actuallynumber one is time and number
three is people.

(42:42):
The number one is time andnumber three is people, and so
this is your most default.
This is your default time,because nobody was born with
money.
I don't think there's anybodywho was born with like a bunch
of $50,000 just in the hands ofthe baby.
So the only thing you're nowborn with is time.
So this is your most defaultcurrency.

(43:02):
If you don't have money and youdon't have a network, this is
where you fall, because this isyour default currency.
So these things are not default.
These things you find youaccumulate over time, but this
is your default thing.
So when you don't have anything, no revenue, you need to
leverage on a currency orleverage on this capital, and so
this is what you call sweatequity in business, and so you

(43:25):
need to be able to find a way tobe able to have sweat equity.
What that means is that youneed to go out there, do cold
calling or warm calling, calleverybody that you know, kind of
go onto the ground and go, getsome cash.
You need to first of all getcash, get cash for your business
.
Once you get the cash that needto first of all get cash, get
cash for your business.
Once you get the cash, that'swhen you can now be able to now

(43:46):
put it into things that willallow you to scale.
But most people don't even knowwhat to put into, and that's
where the challenge now lies.
So once you get the cash, thatfirst of all, your first thing
should be about cash, forexample, in my business when we
are.
When I first quit my job, Iresigned my job and all I had in
my bank account was 49 can Isee these?
No kidding.
I resigned and I said I wasgoing to do whatever I was going

(44:08):
to do with faith.
I had employees still waitingfor me to pay them and
everything, and so what I neededto do was that?
The first thing that I did wasthat I made a list.
I made on like the week afterbecause I was bent out, I was
thinking about what to do, I wasstruggling.
I had to find a quick therapistonline and I spoke to the
person.
The person said, oh relax, andall of that.
But what I did next was that Imade a list of people who I

(44:31):
wanted to work with and then Istarted calling them, ask them
when can I come to your office?
And I went to all of them and Igot two clients by like after
two weeks after I was done, andthat's how I started running.
That's how I used to pay.
Everybody that was working withme is because I knew that my
first go-to currency is time butequity.
So that's what I'll do if I hadzero over to you yes, so 100

(44:57):
agree with time.

Speaker 3 (44:59):
Yes, so you don't need money to make money, which
we've spoken about.
Okay so I'm going to take theperson at 100k who wants to
scale right.
So now you have grown yourbusiness to a hundred thousand
cities or dollars and now youwant to make more of that.
First of all, you need tounderstand your, your business

(45:19):
well, your systems in yourbusiness.
You need to leverage on systems.
How did you make that 100K inthe first place?
Was it by your own sweat?
How did you do that?
Did you document the wholeprocess?
Did you market in a certain wayin order to make the 100,000?
Write it all down.
Now hire people who can executethat and then make you 100,000

(45:43):
more.
So if you are able to documentthat and imagine you are able to
have four people to follow thatpattern, that's 400,000 coming
into your, your, your, yourcoming into your business.
Right, and also, um, like I'vesaid already, discovering your
unique value proposition.
Looking at your competition,what are they not doing?

(46:06):
What can you do better?
What are they doing but failingat, and what is missing in the
market?
Can you supply that?
If you can supply that, youhave your unique selling
proposition.
If you can look at yourstrengths okay, these are my
strengths how do I make thembetter to serve the customer?

(46:26):
That is your unique sellingproposition and also looking at
the customer's needs veryimportant.
You've already made a hundredthousand.
It means you have customers.
You have data.
Go back to your customers.
Understand what went wrong orwhat went right when you were
trying to serve them.
Understand them better,leverage on that data and then

(46:48):
use that data to now understandyour customers' need to attract
the right audience that aregoing to pay you a lot more in
order to grow your business.
So scaling is aboutunderstanding the customer,
understanding your uniqueselling proposition and hiring
rights yes, and also leveragingsystems SOPs, documentation,

(47:10):
inventory system, ai, leveragetechnology.
Technology will make your workso much easier.
Yes, so that is how you scaleand SOP is yes, so standard
operating procedures scale andSOP is yes, so standard
operating procedures, so SOPs,are just the documents that
guide any aspect of yourbusiness.
So right now, when we came here, you had to set up the

(47:34):
microphones and then the camerasand stuff and stuff.
So if you had a standardoperating procedure pasted there
where, when you come in, thefirst thing you need to do is to
, you can even be very cryptic,like very descriptive Take 10
steps and then turn on thisfirst camera, check you, turn on

(47:55):
this Make sure the cameras areall working Now, make sure the
host or the guest sits here,check, so when you're able to
document everything you do,that's when you Derek you can
decide to take a vacation andthen your assistant, who speaks
well, can host Connected Mindswith SOPs, so just want to add

(48:19):
something to the scaling part.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
So one of the ways to be able to learn about how to
scale is by looking at otherbusinesses and looking at how
they're able to scale theirbusinesses as well.
So one of the easiest ways toscale a business is to is to
upsell, but I'm not just sayingupsell, but I'm trying to say
create a higher version of yourproduct, like a premium offering

(48:42):
.
Now, how does this work?
So, for example, when you lookat it, mercedes used this.
Okay, so they realized that allof their best clients were
going to Rolls-Royce.
But even though Mercedes sellscars it's good, the cars are
quality, it's classy but all oftheir best clients, who wanted
more in terms of status, weregoing to Rolls-Royce.

(49:02):
Because they wanted some.
They wanted to feel bigger,they wanted to feel better,
richer and everything, and sothey realized that, oh, they're
losing all of their clients.
So what do?
What do you need to do?
What did was that theyintroduced what you call the
Maybach.
That was more expensive thanall of their cars, and you're
able to keep a percentage of thepeople who are actually going
to other companies likeRolls-Royce just because they

(49:24):
added something that was a morepremium offer, and so, when
you're trying to scale, alwaysthink of what can I add more to
my business that would make myclients feel like this is
something premium.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
The moment you do that, so the scaling means more
money or more clients.

Speaker 3 (49:42):
Hmm, scaling.
For me, scaling is making thebusiness grow beyond you.
Yeah, yes, so just creatingsomething that doesn't depend on
you to survive.
For me, that's what scalingmeans.
So making the business growbeyond you to grow on itself.
So maybe like weaning, like howyou would wean a child, weaning

(50:03):
your business, which isessentially your baby, off you.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
That's what I think scaling is.
Yeah that's what scaling isMore clients brings you more
money.

Speaker 3 (50:13):
Yes, of course.

Speaker 2 (50:14):
When you get more money, it allows you to actually
build the systems of scale.
Most people don't have thesystems of scale.
There are two systems whenyou're trying to scale or scale
a business.
They're either delegationsystems or automation systems.
So it's actually you arebuilding probably some chat
chatbots or ai workflow or someai agents or something, or
you're trying to hire or createa delegation system whereby you

(50:36):
don't need to be present.
You don't need to be in yourbusiness every day.

Speaker 3 (50:38):
Yeah, yeah, I want to to just say something.
You were like more clients meanmore money.
Not in my experience, because alot of people are not pricing
right.
We always think pricing likelow pricing brings in clients,
but clients don't buy based onprice, they buy based on value.
So a lot of people are sellingbut they're not making money.

(51:01):
They are posting thousands ofbags of deliveries going out,
but their business is struggling.
They are not making moneybecause their pricing is way off
.
People are really putting evenas little as 20 CDs.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
Is it because business owners don't know how
to price?
How do we price?
I think we are afraid.

Speaker 3 (51:22):
The common pattern I have seen in my coaching
experiences people are afraid.
They are afraid that once theyincrease their prices, they are
going to lose customers.
But you're not having enoughcustomers anyway.
You might as well just priceright and then use the margins
you are making.
Use the margins you are making,Leverage on those margins to

(51:42):
attract the kind of customersthat you want.
Okay.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
What is price right?
Okay, I'm just starting out inbusiness.
How do I do it?

Speaker 3 (51:50):
Okay.
So I know A lot of the timewhen we are starting businesses
we would just look at what otherpeople are pricing and then
make us lesser than theirs, butthen that doesn't always work.
First of all, you need tounderstand your business model.
Who is your target audience?
If you don't understand that,you're never going to get your
pricing right, because you can'thave middle to low income

(52:15):
earners as your target marketand then your pricing is all the
way up.
And then when I say targetmarket, it means, like he said,
it's a conversation.
You marketing to your audienceis a conversation.
So when you are marketing tothem and they are speaking back
to you, so you realize you aremarketing to middle income

(52:35):
earners, like you are in Makola.
You are trying to sellsomething, you are selling
ringing bells, but then you aretrying to price something for
somebody in Chasako, but thenyou are marketing it at Makola.
So you need to understand whoyour target market is first of
all.
And then, of course, you needto study.
Once you understand your targetmarket, you need to study your

(52:57):
competition, because you want tomake sure you have competitive
prices.
Not low prices, but competitiveprices.
Not low prices, but competitiveprices what's the difference?
yes, because people think lowprices means competitive prices,
but it's not because peopleokay, let me just use my
business as an example yes, glamin inches, I would say at the

(53:17):
moment we do have high prices,or like we do have premium
pricing.
Right, and you may wonder whywe do have premium price.
It's because of the value thatI want to give our target
clients.
Right, because in GlamourNinjas, we want people to feel
confident and look confidentwhen they wear your hair, right,

(53:39):
hair right.
So in their minds, this hair,because of the price point and
because of how she speaks to mewhen she markets the hair, when
I wear the hair, I have somekind of feeling like I feel like
, okay, I am wearing glam ininches.
And then when we do that, wealso we have something called
the glam card.
So when you buy hair above acertain amount, you have have

(53:59):
the glam card, which makes youfeel special, makes you feel
like you are part of thecommunity.
We offer tutorials, we will sendyou messages, we'll call you.
So in that case, we offer value.
So that is competitive pricingright, because you're not just
looking at the number, you'reoffering value, added value to
the price, unlike other peoplewho may just be pricing low and

(54:22):
then just throwing the producton the client come and buy, come
and buy without really givingany sense of belonging, any
sense of value, right?
So in that case our prices maybe higher, but they are
competitive because we add a lotof value to the price.
What method?

Speaker 1 (54:40):
do you use to price your hair products?

Speaker 3 (54:43):
okay, yes, so, um, this actually in uh, it's a lot.
It's a question I get a lotright.
So I do have a system where I,for hair products, I have a
number of vendors, so I justhave an excel sheet with the
vendor cost prices.
I know it sounds kind of a cake, but then the vendor cost
prices I know it sounds kind ofa cake, but then the vendor cost

(55:04):
prices and I have an average ofthem and then I use that as my
cost price, and then I.
So now you need to look at yourexpenses, right?
So initially your cost price,your expenses, and then the
profits you want to make.
So some, some people strugglewith that, the profit they want
to make.
So sometimes I ask them tovalue their time.

(55:24):
If you were working for acompany, how much would they be
paying you for a month?
Like, how much do you think youwould deserve to be paid for a
month?
And then find your hourly payand then look at the amount of
time you spend marketing orworking on that business.
That becomes your hourly pay,right, and that is what you want
to earn.

(55:45):
And then some.
So first you need to look atthe cost price, the base cost
price with shipping, packagingand everything.
And then you look at yourexpenses, your overhead costs,
everything you spend to run thebusiness trash collection, light
water, everything you spend torun the business needs to be
recorded.
And then you look at you valueyour time, value your time as

(56:07):
well.
And then you add some based onafter studying your competition,
after looking at your businessmodel and who you want to serve.
Yes, so that's how you price inyour business.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
What's your method of pricing?

Speaker 2 (56:23):
Exactly this, almost the same thing, but for me, what
I want to do is that I becausebusiness is for profit I just
want to just jump that You'renot just running a business just
because it's a business.
You are trying to make profit.
You are trying to do something.
We know you're trying to.
Some people also want to impact, but you still trying to make
profit.
You are trying to do something.
You know you're trying to.

(56:44):
Some people want also want toimpact, but you still want to
make profit.
Otherwise, impact withoutprofit is frustration, and so
you need to first of alloptimize your business for
profit.
And so, for me, I always try toput a hundred percent mark on
whatever I'm trying to do.
So I look at my expenses.
I then look at that.
For me, I don't look atcompetitors.
Why?
Because I feel like they'llinfluence my pricing and what I
become like a commodity, right?

(57:04):
Yes, because when I, when, forexample, if I the thing about,
if I was gonna buy, for example,this market, this market was
one CD and somebody else theresees a map marker at 80 best
West, all of a sudden, justbecause probably I looked at
this and said the price, thisguy looked at my product and
size price at 80 and somebodycame just buy the 80 pesos one

(57:26):
because it's cheaper, becausenow it's just like a commodity.
But when I don't look atanybody's thing and I prize at
my own price, looking at my time, what I've put into it, the
efforts, everything, and Idetermined that, okay, this is
what I want to make, then I dothat.
So I don't try, I don't, I don'tlook at other people's thing,
otherwise I become a commodity.
I want to be premium, I want tobe a person of my own, I want

(57:47):
to optimize the business formyself, for what I'm doing, and
so I want to look at my expenses.
I take account of my expenses.
Everything that is going isgoing on is going on the
teammates, the people who arehelping us do the business, the
people who who are everything,everything when it comes to the
business, and so I look at thatexpense.
I look at the profit that wewant to make.
So I work end from thebeginning, not beginning to end.

(58:09):
I determine okay, let's say,this month we want to make
100,000 Ghana CDs.
If we want to make 100,000Ghana CDs and we know our
expenses are this, that meansthat we need to price this way,
otherwise we are not going toreach this thing, and so the
moment you work, beginning tothe end, not end to the
beginning you're going to be introuble.

Speaker 1 (58:26):
Today there are over 50,000 young Ghanaians who have
just finished their nationalservices.
Majority of them are.
Actually, it's over 100,000.
Well, there you go.
Majority of these people arelooking for jobs, but I am a big
believer that Actually it'sover 100,000.
Well, there you go.
Majority of these people arelooking for jobs.
Yeah, but I am a big believerthat even if less than a quarter

(58:49):
of those numbers started theirown businesses, they can employ
half of those people in the nextfive to 10 years.
What do you think?
The young person?
has just come out of theirnational services.
What can they do as far asentrepreneurship and business is
concerned?

Speaker 3 (59:08):
Yeah.
So I think they need toleverage their time.
They have all the time on theirhands, which is more than a lot
of us.
Honestly, sometimes I wish Ihad a lot more time.
I wish I had the time I hadwhen I finished my national
service because I know you can.
you can even attest to it.

(59:28):
You are so busy now, derek,right, yeah, and you wish you
had more time, yes, so this isthe time to understeady,
understeady people.
I'm very sure if you reach outto park racy, like, even though
he may not directly respond toyou, you can.
You can reach out to him,attend some of his free events,

(59:49):
like make yourself visible tohim, right?
You have a lot of a number ofvolunteers here as well.
I don't know why people don'tvolunteer enough for things like
this.
So they have have time.
Use your time, get to knowpeople, make yourself valuable,
right, and then you get to learnsoft skills.
So that's if you want to.
You don't want to go directlyinto trading and stuff.

(01:00:10):
You make yourself valuable.
Personal branding, startsomething online.
People are making so much moneyby just sharing recipes for
simple things that they eat athome, and it's doing so well.
So you have time.
So, right now, after nationalservice, all you have is time,
so just make sure you make themost out of that time and,

(01:00:31):
honestly, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:32):
Fantastic.
What do you think?

Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
So this is what I would say If you're just coming
out from national service, Ithink everybody first of all
needs to determine what theirgoals are going to be in life.
If you don't have that straight, you're just coming out from
national service.
I think everybody first of allneeds to determine what their
goals are going to be in life.
If you don't have that straight, you're going to be very
confused okay because there'ssome people who know that they
want to work as an engineer.
There's people who they have tohave different goals most people
don't have goals and so theyhave little aspirations and so
they are not able to move upafter that.

(01:00:57):
But this is what I'll tellsomebody.
Number one you need to beexposed to different things.
You need to be exposed to thepros of the job and the cons of
the job.
You need to be able to beexposed to the pros of a
business and the cons of thebusiness.
Not only that, you need tounderstand the different types
of businesses.
I think when people think aboutbusinesses, they only think
about probably just a brick andmortar structure, but now it's a

(01:01:17):
different world, it's adifferent ball game.
Yeah, different things thatpeople can do to make money.
I've I just literally the othertime I did I put up a
three-hour training online forpeople who want to make money
with affiliate marketing.
It's so easy.
What you need to do is that.
I mean now you look at creators, modern day creators almost
every creator has an informationproduct, literally right so,
and I've sold products behindthe scenes for a lot of people.

(01:01:38):
And so I look at somebodythat's this nigerian guy called
salim king and these otherpeople.
So you look at them and say,okay, now, if you're a creator
most creators, and most digitalcreators have digital products,
and so digital products have noinventory, as you don't have to
stock up anything.
It's unlimited sales.
And so what I need to do isthat I find a way to reach out

(01:01:59):
to those people, sell theirproducts.
I don't need to create aproduct, I don't need to spend
my time, my energy.
I just need to find a way toget them to make me an affiliate
.
I sell their products for them.
So what you need to do is thatyou just need to learn how to
learn.
You just need to learnmarketing.
And so for me, for people whoare outside, and I'll tell you
that you need to learn marketing, learn how to use social media,
and then how to be able tomarket, whether it's on the

(01:02:20):
ground or everything.
But for me, start something andget cash.
That's the first thing I'lltell you.
You need to get cash because,as young people, you need to get
cash, and so for me, I'll saybe exposed to different type of
business models.
Don't just be stuck and say, ohI, since I can't start my dream
business.
Most people want to start offwith their dream business, but
first of all, you don't need tonecessarily start with your
dream business.
You need to start with asurvival business, something

(01:02:41):
that will make you survive.
Then you move on to your dreambusiness, and so when a survival
business is for immediate cash,your dream business is for
whatever you want to do.
For example, I have somebusinesses that I want I'm going
to start in the future, butthose dream businesses I'm going
to get a lot of money fromwhatever I'm doing now and put
into those businesses in thenext three years, and so that's
exactly what I'll tell anybody.

(01:03:02):
First of all, figure out asurvival business Fantastic.
Let me stop you here for aminute.

Speaker 1 (01:03:07):
We are on a journey of changing the minds and the
lives of people, so if youhaven't subscribed and become
part of the family, please hitthe subscribe button and turn on
the notification.
Thank you.
Now let's carry on with theconversation.
At this point, we are no longergoing to agree on one thing.
I want to really get deep intoyour understanding of these

(01:03:31):
questions that I'm going to askyou, and the first question I
have is starting or scaling?
Which one is harder?

Speaker 3 (01:03:46):
okay.
So I would say scaling isharder.
Starting, basically, you needan idea, you just need to
execute.
I don't.
I don't really understand whypeople struggle.
To start a business is theeasiest thing to do.
Just get it started.
Reach out to to people, testthe market, get the idea, start

(01:04:08):
selling.
But scaling is really hardbecause it's very difficult to
replicate yourself.
Hiring is really hard.
Having people to run yourbusiness the way you do it is
really hard.
If you're a micromanager I knowI am and I know you are as well
, derek being able to take astep back from your baby and let

(01:04:30):
people run it without you isreally hard.
Wanting to do your own thing,traveling abroad, wanting to be
away from the business, isreally hard because people keep
dragging you back.
For example, last week I havethe one in charge of my business
.
She's on maternity leave andthen, all of a sudden, the

(01:04:52):
second person who has to be incharge had a family crisis.
So I found myself scramblingaround just to get somebody to
be there so that the shop canrun.
That is really difficult.
So I feel like scaling isreally hard.
It's it's, that's what takes.
That's what makes or breaks abusiness scaling yeah, your turn

(01:05:16):
, unfortunately.

Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
I agree, though, but this is what I see.
Starting is also very hard aswell.
Most people don't think abouthow difficult starting is.
Starting is also very hard aswell.
Most people don't think abouthow difficult starting is.
Starting is also very hard, andso I don't want us to
trivialize starting at all,because, as I said, starting is
just easy.
But it's not that because,number one, there are
psychological barriers in termsof some people.

(01:05:40):
It's not everybody that's wiredto be an entrepreneur.
Some people just want to be to,just just to be working, just
to get paid, because why willyou take that risk and all of
that sweat and all of that,those mental bearings of paying
somebody else?
That's what it means to be anentrepreneur, to be able to do
that, because sometimes thereare times I've gone in my
business without paying myself.
I go, man, sometimes withoutpaying myself, I have to pay

(01:06:02):
other people, and that's whatbeing an entrepreneur is.
But I mean, we are starting abusiness.
You need to, first of all, youneed to evaluate yourself am I
fit for this?
Can I do this?
Can, am I going to win at this?
And I don't think starting.
Starting could be easysometimes.
But the thing is that if youwant to start well, because some
people can start, but if youwant to start well, it can be

(01:06:24):
difficult sometimes, and sothat's that's what I'll say.
You need to deal with thosepsychological barriers and so
many different things that, yeahmindset or money, which one is
the biggest barrier tobusinesses?
I'll say mindset.
Okay, why?
Because you know, anybody canget money.

(01:06:44):
Anybody can get money, butAnybody can get money, but
mindset is what maintains it.
Mindset is what's going to getit.
So people like there's a bookthat I read, the Secrets of a
Millionaire Mind by T Half Ecker, and you're speaking about how
there are some billionaires wholose it.
I'm sure that if you lost allyour money today, you'd be able
to get it back Because it's amoney mindset.

(01:07:05):
You can take all of the moneyaway from you, but the skill is
still there, and so the mindsetand you see, the thing about
mindset is this is a mindset.
Mindset.
Set means a collection ofthings.
I think when people think aboutmindset, they think about one
way of thinking.
It's not just one.
It's a collection of differentthings Because it's not just one

(01:07:26):
.
There's a connection ofdifferent things because it's a
set like in school you have thisthing called math set yeah, a
math set with the set square,the compass and everything.
Because so it's a different setof things, it's a different
mindset, so there are differentthings in our minds that
contributes to our success orfailure, and so most people they
haven't dealt with all thedifferent types of sets of minds
that they've received fromtheir father, their mother,
their school teacher, who is whois broke?

(01:07:48):
Your teacher is broke and he'steaching you something.
I'm not saying there's anythingwrong with school, but
sometimes they teach you certainmindsets or they teach certain
mentalities, because theirmindset is basically a set of
mentalities.
They teach you a particularmentality that can contribute to
the reason why you are whereyou are right now.
And so mindset is hard becauseyou, because you need to unwind
all of those things, you need tofind a way to unscrew all of

(01:08:11):
those things before you cansucceed.
And once you have that, even ifyou lose your money, you're
going to get it back.
If you are back to rock bottom,you're going to get it back.
And so mindset has always beenimportant.
Mindset precedes money.

Speaker 3 (01:08:25):
So this is contradictory, Seeing as earlier
I said, you can start abusiness without money.
I mean earlier that's what Isaid but as somebody who runs a
retail shop or a retail business, money has been one of my
biggest challenges in business,because you have the ideas, you
have the mindset ready, but youdon't have the money to execute.

(01:08:48):
That is really painful as abusiness owner.
So I found money to be a hugestumbling block in my business
growth.
Yes, even though mindset isimportant, because the mindset
of money is also importantUnderstanding money,
understanding how to utilizemoney when you have it, Because
there are some people who canhave $1 million now and nothing

(01:09:13):
changes in their lives becausethey don't know how to use that
$1 million right, but there aresome of us.
If we get that $1 million, wewill make it work.
But yeah, so I would say moneyhas been a biggest, one of the
biggest challenges for me inbusiness.
Yeah, so yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:09:32):
So the thing about mindset is that, for example, if
I put a random person in chargeof a real estate business and I
put maybe Kennedy in Japan, nomoney, but like he has all his
experience, yeah, he's gonna win, and it's not because he's
probably richer or he's, it'sjust because he has built a

(01:09:53):
different type of mentality.
And so you need, first of all,in order to be a millionaire,
you need to have a millionaire'smindset.
If you want to be a billionaire, you have to have a
billionaire's mindset.
And so what you need to do isthat you need to first of all
attack the mindset before,because money is a result.
I don't think people understand, but money is a result of
something.

(01:10:13):
So money is not, money is theoutcome.
Money is not the cause.
It's like it's an effect, not acause.
And so the cause of everythingis it begins with a mindset.
Mindset is not the only thing,but mindset is always going to
precede the effect.
So, since mindset is a causeand money is the outcome, the

(01:10:34):
word cause or the law of causeand effect, that's what we have.
So cause comes from the Latinword cause.
Cause means a reason.
Effect comes from the Latinword effectus, that means an
outcome.
So when I talk about a reason,I'm saying money.
So I'm basically saying that acause is a reason.
So mindset is the reason forthe outcome, which is money.
And so the moment your mindsetis wrong, so most people get

(01:10:55):
into many businesses and theyfail, fail, fail, fail, fail.
And they're wondering why am Ifailing?
Because it's not just about themoney 500,000 CDs and lose it
all in one day and you're done.
But once you have the mindsetof multiplying, maintaining,
everything changes.

Speaker 1 (01:11:11):
Fantastic.
So now the next point I have isone size fits all or a custom
approach in business.

Speaker 2 (01:11:23):
Which one do you think is better when people are
starting out?
For me, I'm say a customapproach.
Why?
Because when you're starting abusiness, most people are just
thinking of everybody all atonce, but I believe that you
need to start with somebody thatyou are dealing with.
So if you're running a hairbusiness, you're thinking about,
maybe, a modern young lady whowants the hair, or you want

(01:11:46):
something like that, and so forme, I believe that you need to
have a customer approach,working with a streamlined group
of people, somebody in who youare, who you're trying to you're
trying to really work with, asin tailoring your product for a
particular group of people.

Speaker 3 (01:11:59):
I feel that's how you need to start oh I don't agree
with that, because I believethat the model of starting a
business is clear you have theidea, you execute, you test the
idea.
So you have the idea, you testthe idea, you launch the idea
and then you execute.
So you execute on a small scaleand then it goes to a larger

(01:12:22):
scale.
So the model of business issimple.
So once you understand that inevery niche you find yourself,
it's a one size fits all, youcan do this.
You can replicate this systemover and over and over to start
multiple businesses and it'sgoing to work.

Speaker 2 (01:12:40):
I don't quite agree with that and my entire thing is
based on this.
Okay, a custom approach is howanything in this world has ever
grown.
Nothing ever starts big.
You can't just be working withone size fits all, just covering

(01:13:00):
everybody into your entireentire business the reason I'm
saying this is this in the bible.
That's again because I'mchristian.
When god wanted christianity tobe able to be a widespread
religion, because in mark 16 hesays go into all, go into the
world and preach the gospel.
So that means you're supposedto go to everybody inside the

(01:13:21):
world and go and preach thegospel.
Yeah, but before he got to see,before that happened, god was
only working with the israelites.
He was only working with thejews.
So it was a custom approach.
Before he moved to the one sizefits all, because he was not
working with a group of peoplecalled the gentiles instead of
working with a group of peoplecalled the jews and the
israelites.
He built a tradition with them,he built a custom approach with

(01:13:41):
them.
It was like a custom thing.
Some of the things in the bibleare just only for the
Israelites don't you agree thatwith your experience or your
expertise?

Speaker 3 (01:13:51):
because I have expertise in the hair business
but trust me, I can give solidadvice to anybody in any
industry at all, based on theexperience that I have running a
hair business right, right, so,even though you may need, sure,
you need to niche down, youneed to have a laser focus on
your customer, but in scaling orin starting, in launching or in

(01:14:13):
starting the business, youcan't change the model.
You need to start in aparticular way.
There are certain principlesthat you can't change, certain
principles of your customerbeing the focus, defining your
unique selling proposition,pricing, right.
There are certain things youcan't take away from any
business model at all.

Speaker 1 (01:14:32):
Yes, Do you think if I don't stop you here, I think
there's going to be blow?
Do you think thatentrepreneurship is for everyone
?

Speaker 3 (01:14:41):
I believe that everybody should have an
interest in entrepreneurship.
You don't need to be the oneselling or running the business,
but you should have an interestin entrepreneurship.
Nine to five is amazing.
Sometimes I'm even jealous ofthe people who have climbed up
the corporate ladder.
I'm jealous of the resourcesthey have.

(01:15:02):
They get to meet so manyamazing people at work just by
going to work.
They have so many benefits.
But after the nine to five,after 60 years, what next?
What happens to your life?
60 years is young.
What do you do next If youdon't have an interest in
entrepreneurship or in maybehaving like, a widened portfolio

(01:15:24):
and a widened investmentportfolio after 60?
Basically, your life is overbecause you now have to live and
rely on your pension, which weall know is not very reliable.
So I think entrepreneurship maynot be you essentially
marketing your business andrunning your business, but you
have an interest in it.
You can partner with people,you can invest in things, but
you should definitely have aninterest in it.

(01:15:45):
You can partner with people,you can invest in things, but
you should definitely have aninterest, because whatever
business you are working for,it's also a business.
If they hadn't set it up, howwould you be able to earn from
it?

Speaker 2 (01:15:58):
But is it for everyone?
Yes or no?

Speaker 3 (01:16:02):
So I think everybody should have an interest in
entrepreneurship.

Speaker 2 (01:16:05):
So it's for everybody .
Yes.

Speaker 3 (01:16:07):
I think everyone should have an interest in
entrepreneurship.

Speaker 2 (01:16:09):
So it's for everybody .
Yes, I think everyone shouldhave an interest in
entrepreneurship At all.
I don't think everybody iswired to be an entrepreneur.
I don't think everybody can bean entrepreneur.

Speaker 3 (01:16:15):
Maybe you are looking at it as a founder or a CEO.
Not everybody is wired to be aCEO or a founder.
But entrepreneurship isbasically making your money work
for you right, Putting yourmoney somewhere and making it
work for you right, Startingsomething that works for you.
So I believe that everybodyshould have an interest in

(01:16:39):
making their money work for them.
So you think everybody can runa business.
Everybody can learn how to runa business.
I don't think everybody can runa business.

Speaker 2 (01:16:49):
Hmm, everybody can learn how to run a business.
I don't think everybody can runa business.
Okay, make your point.
I don't think everybody can runa business how many people?
That's why they saidentrepreneurship is not for the
weak.
Not everybody has the mentalfortitude to be an entrepreneur
at every point in time, becausenow, even I didn't want to be an
entrepreneur.
Why did you become anentrepreneur?
Because this is a story that Idon't really share, but my

(01:17:11):
parents were both entrepreneurs.
I've seen us go throughstruggles just because they
decided not to work for somebodyelse.
So when I was little, I used totell people that, I used to
tell myself that I want thesepeople to just go and work for
somebody.
And so when I was growing up, Iall these people just go and
work for somebody.
That and so I, when I wasgrowing up, I was resenting
entrepreneurs.
I was resenting running your ownbusiness.
Why?
Because I just felt as though,like everybody else, all my

(01:17:32):
friends, the parents, areworking.
Why don't you just go work andjust do something like that?
And so for me, I really felt asthough, no, entrepreneurship
should not be for everybody.
I did not want to be anentrepreneur.
Just that life so happened thatI ended up being one, and just
just because of a few survivalthings and I feel like because I
also kind of helped my mom do afew things, I feel like I

(01:17:52):
already had the entrepreneurshipthing inbuilt inside of me.
But it's not for everybody,because there are times whereby
when you have to pay people andyour business is bankrupt I mean
, you look at some of the banksthat they wiped off in 2017.
Look at some of the founders upto now.
Some of them are miserable.
Some of them are in jail.
It can happen to anybody.

Speaker 3 (01:18:12):
So if you don't think , entrepreneurship is for
everyone, so you think thatsomebody should.

Speaker 2 (01:18:18):
If entrepreneurship was for everyone, who would be
working for whom?

Speaker 3 (01:18:21):
Yes, sure you think everybody, or those who
entrepreneurship is not for,should stick with their 9 to 5,
but then I also believe that youcan't become rich with one
source of income.
I strongly believe that onesource of income is not enough
to make you a rich man.
It's simple you have to cast afishing net, not a hook and line

(01:18:43):
.
So for somebody who wants to bewealthy maybe I know people
have been wealthy from theirnine to five but somebody who is
not as fortunate as um, the ceoof because I know that some of
the ceos have been really yes,same cooks, yes, but some of us
who are not as fortunate as them.

Speaker 2 (01:19:00):
How do they widen their investment portfolio so
you become an investor not abusiness owner yes, but I do
believe because we, when you'rea business owner, you are taking
almost all of the risk, quiteliterally, and you are looking
out for other people other thanyourself.
You are sharing theresponsibility.
It's like I mean when peopleare even parenting children.
Just imagine thatresponsibility.
That's what it means to be abusiness owner at the same time

(01:19:31):
Like you owner at the same time,like you have your.
You have your children that youare being responsible over.
Then you have your teammates,your employees.
It's like what is all this?
Motivation or discipline?
None of them.
Okay, talk to me I, I.
Motivation is short term.
Discipline is also a result ofpurpose, because if discipline
is like, oh, I have to do itregardless of how I feel, but
that's not everything.
For example, if I want to wakeup at 4 am every time, if I know

(01:19:51):
why I want to wake up at 4 am,that is purpose, I'm going to
wake up at 4 am.
So, motivation, discipline Idon't agree with any of them.
I agree with having purpose,the why, knowing the why,
because once you know your why,the how becomes easy I think
this works for a certain type ofmindset, right, or maybe?

Speaker 3 (01:20:12):
okay, let me just use myself as an example.
I think I'm on the spectrum ofthe adhd spectrum.
All of us are yes, so I I knowmy purpose I know what I want
from life, but sometimes Istruggle to wake up early.
I struggle to go to the.
I know what I want from life,but sometimes I struggle to wake
up early.
I struggle to go to the gym.
I know how I want my body tolook like, but I struggle to

(01:20:32):
wake up and go to the gym.
I wake up and I know I want todo it, but so to me, I think
discipline is very important.
Discipline is you can't takediscipline out of the equation
if you want to be a successfulentrepreneur.
Because I have coached people,I've coached different types of
people.
We come, the two of them are atthe same level.
Because I have a group coachingevery Sunday.

(01:20:53):
We meet.
The two of them are at the samelevel.
In four weeks I can see thedifference between this person
and the other person.
Even though this person mayfeel like their purpose is to be
this kind of entrepreneur or tobe this successful right, the
discipline that one has willalways triumph another person
who has purpose withoutdiscipline well, I think we have

(01:21:15):
to this.

Speaker 2 (01:21:16):
We have to describe what purpose is.
Purpose is not the.
What purpose is the why?
Because I mean, if you knowthat you want to be a
millionaire, that is the what,like.
I know that I want to be amillionaire, but why do I want
to be a millionaire?
That is the what like.
I know that I want to be amillionaire, but why do I want
to be a millionaire?
I feel like I need to chip inhere.

Speaker 1 (01:21:29):
Yeah, otherwise again for me, I have a formula okay
in achieving every goal, andmotivation is number one
motivation is your why for meyeah, that's your why, why you
want to set yourself on acertain course.
Then you move to the last end,which I speak about obsession.

(01:21:50):
So, for me, obsession is moreimportant than discipline and
motivation.
But, motivation is very needed,because it's your, why Now
you're saying purpose is your,why?

Speaker 2 (01:22:01):
Which essentially is the same thing.
It's different schools ofthought.
Purpose always creates profit.

Speaker 1 (01:22:06):
I agree, I agree, yeah, I agree.
But again, my model ismotivation.
First you need to find out why,because if you can't find that
motivation and the reason whyyou want to do this, then you
can't build value.

Speaker 2 (01:22:19):
Isn't motivation, more or less, how you feel about
something?

Speaker 1 (01:22:23):
It depends on how you look at it.
Yeah, it depends on the scalewhere you are Right.
So if you look at it as feeling, then we're going into emotions
.
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:22:33):
Okay, okay, if that's a discussion, fine Right.

Speaker 1 (01:22:35):
Yeah, then we're going into emotion.
But this has been amazing, yeah, but I want to ask you a
question what's the best adviceyou've ever received?

Speaker 3 (01:22:45):
Wow, the best advice I have ever received is to not
think too much about thingsbefore I do them.
It's to execute quickly.
Sometimes you waste too muchtime in research mode.
We think research is gettingthings done, but we are just
coasting.
We are just over there, justcoasting.

(01:23:05):
We are just over there, justcoasting.
So getting things done andlearning by doing, learning from
your mistakes.

Speaker 1 (01:23:13):
I think that's the best advice I've ever had.
I call it motion.
A lot of people are in motion.
You never actually get anything.
What's the best advice you'veever?

Speaker 2 (01:23:19):
received the best advice I've ever received.
A couple of years ago I used tobe the president of the Central
University Business SchoolAssociation, which is the
largest private tertiarybusiness school in Ghana, and
one time I was with a dean and Iwas confused about life, like,
oh my God, I'm about to finishschool.
I'm so confused.
And she told me this statement.

(01:23:40):
She said never leave anythingto chance, always pray about
things.
And so that has been my life.
I never leave anything to chance, pray about things.
And so that has been my life.
I never leave anything tochance, I always pray about
things.
And so, whether I feel asthough it's bigger than me,
smaller than me, I pray aboutthings.
And that, for me, has been thebest advice, because at the time
I didn't think that my careeror my business was something I
needed to pray about.

(01:24:01):
I mean, it's just like thingsthat you learn in school from
life.
But but for me, when she toldme that, that's when I really
decided to factor my career andmy business in the hands of God.
So that's for me, that's thebest advice I've gotten.

Speaker 1 (01:24:13):
That buttresses my value on.
I don't believe in luck andchance, but we can crack that
later.
Neither do I.
Those two things I don't.
I'm not a believer of it.
Just gotta work and pray forwhat you want.
Work, work, work, work, pray.
Recommend a book For us?
Okay, I can recommend A lot ofbooks.

Speaker 2 (01:24:37):
One, one, just one.
Yes, how about three?
Go on, go for it.
A businessman I negotiate, goon.
So, young person, if you're ayoung person, please read this
book cash flow quadrant byrobert t kiyosaki.
If you read that book, you knowwhat you want to do with your
life, whether you're going to bean entrepreneur, business owner
, employee or investor any ofthem.
So you need to figure out that.

(01:24:58):
The cash flow quadrant.
Number two book that I'll sayeverybody should read is that
you need to read this bookcalled the 15 valuable laws of
growth, bys of Growth, by John CMaxwell.
That book will literally teachyou how to expand your capacity
for you to be able to reach theheights that you want to reach.
And number three, I'm going tosay this this is a secret book,
but expert secrets In thismodern day.
You need to read that book.

Speaker 1 (01:25:18):
I like how you said, our secret book, that's a good
book.

Speaker 3 (01:25:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
So I also follow his lead andsuggest three books.
So the first book is Mindset,by Carol Dweck.
So it talks about the fixedmindset versus the good mindset
in every aspect of life, inlearning, as a student, as an
entrepreneur, as a sports person.
So it affects every aspect ofyour life.

(01:25:43):
Second book I just finishedreading it, it was amazing Shoe
Dog by Phil Knight.
That book spoke to me honestly.
It takes you into the mind ofevery stage of an entrepreneur.
So get ready.
It's a big book.
I think I'm even going to readit again because that book spoke
to me.
It takes you into the mind ofPhil Knight, and it's amazing

(01:26:06):
and finally Sell Like Crazyspoke to me.
It takes you to into the mindof phil knight, and it's amazing
and finally sell like crazy.
I couldn't finish that bookbecause every few pages I had to
stop and go and execute.
There was, there was every.
There was so much in that book,there was so much.
So every five pages I stop andthen I go back to the drawing
board.
So that's why I couldn't finishthe book.
But that book is loaded,sabrisubi.

Speaker 1 (01:26:27):
Yes, blessing.
Thank you so much.
You're welcome.
You've definitely been ablessing to my audience and
thank you for taking the timeout to sit here with me boring
Derek to have a conversation andPaukusi.
Thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (01:26:41):
You've been a blessing.

Speaker 1 (01:26:43):
I admire what you do and I think you're going to go
places.
They call you the Gen Z speaker, the greatest Gen Z speaker.
You're doing amazing.
Thank you so much and to myviewers and to my listeners.
It's been an awesome journeywith you guys and if you made it
to the end, if you're stillhere at this moment, leave that
comment wherever it is, thatyou're listening, whether it's

(01:27:10):
YouTube or it's Apple or Spotify.
Leave a comment and let me knowthat you're one of our champions
who made it to the end.
It's been with me.
Derek Abaiti, the only podcastin Ghana that talks about
information on how your life canchange your unconnected minds.
Thank you so much.
I'm out.

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Building Businesses That Scale in Africa: Insights from Two Marketing Masters - Paa Kwesi Folson x Blessing Onwukwe Hanson

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Building Businesses That Scale in Africa: Insights from Two Marketing Masters - Paa Kwesi Folson x Blessing Onwukwe Hanson