Mastering Public Speaking and Interviewing: Insights from Kafui Dey

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
People who are nervous and shy think that it's
all about them.
And it's like looking on yourphone the person who sees you
focus your attention on youraudience.
And Sena was like a big guy.
His death was like a deep shockto me.
My wife was going to do anevent there.
We went to check out the place.
When we got to the Dodowa RoadI was thinking should we just
drive down to Adenta to sayhello to the old lady?

(00:20):
And myself I said you know?
Ah well, no problem, we cantalk to her another time.
We went back the same route andthen in the night of that day
when we died, when I have to dosomething, I do it now what was
the?
plan growing up.
What did you want to become?
I wanted to be a pilot when Iwas a small boy and then at some
point when I got to secondaryschool, I wanted to be a doctor.
But then my results came outafter the O levels.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
My best grade it was a D in chemistry top five tips
for someone who is trying to gointo interviewing people the
first three come.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
If you're calm, you're less likely to be nervous
.
How do you relax?

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Hello and welcome to Connected Minds Podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
My name is.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Derek Abaite, and yeah, I'm glad to have you here
again, and if you make it to theend of this episode, don't
forget to leave a comment belowand let me know you are one of
the people that are connected.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Remember, on the 29th of.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
August at the British Council, we have our first live
event coming up.
This seminar is not just forpeople who have businesses.
Everyone can attend the sessionand it's happening at 3 pm at
the British Council in Accra.
So I'm going to leave all thedetails in the description so

(01:44):
you can get yourself a seat atthe event.
It's going pretty fast, so don'tmiss out.
So today I'm speaking tosomebody who has well over 20
years experience in broadcastinghost event journalism.
Look this man.
I don't even know what sort ofquestions I'm going to ask,
because there's a lot of nerveshere.

(02:05):
He's done it.
This is what he does for aliving.
I mean, what question am Igonna ask this man that he's not
gonna have a quality answer to?
He spends his life alsointerviewing people, but today,
who is interviewing theinterviewer?
Let's make it happen.
Stick with me and stay here.
If you have been a lover ofwhat mr kafu day does, then you

(02:28):
need to be here to watch thisepisode from now all the way to
the end.
And I'd like to say welcome himto connected minds podcast.
My name is derrick abaiti andyou are welcome to my studio
it's a pleasure der Very happyto be here.
I have to say this story If Idon't say it.

(02:48):
I'm not being appreciativeenough.
You've been very receptive tomy phone call, to my messages,
and you've advised me so muchsince you've been here today.
Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
It's a pleasure.
I really appreciate it, Thankyou.
Thank you for the opportunity.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah and I'd like my viewers to know that you didn't
make it as hard for me as it hasbeen for other people.
You know you made me understandthat yes, little one, you also
need to learn and I'm here tosupport you.
So I appreciate that.
Let's start from the beginning.
That young man growing up howwas home like?

Speaker 1 (03:30):
So my earliest memory is playing with my big brother.
My father bought us a car and Iwould sit inside the car and my
brother would push me.
The age gap between me and mybig brother was one year five
months.
I say was because he passedfive years ago.
And so my mother says when Iwas in the stomach, my brother

(03:55):
refused to walk.
He walked on the day I was born.
On the day I was born, mygrandma was living with us.
She said hey, young man, yourtime is over, your kingship is
over, get up.
Born On the day I was born, mygrandma was living with that and
said young man, your time isover, your kingship is over, get
up.
And then I got up and hestarted walking.
I mean, when she said, get up,then he walked.
That was the day I was born.

(04:15):
We lived in different places.
My father worked in Senegal.
My big brother was born inSenegal.
He worked in Burkina.
I was born in Burkina.
We lived in Abidjan and cameback to Ghana for a while.
So a lot of movement.
I remember a lot of movementwhen I was growing up, a young
man.

(04:38):
Another memory I have is aschool in South Labadee Estate
and it's still there.
I remember there were tiresthat had been stuck into the
ground and the children wouldjump over the tires to play.
And those tires are still there.
In fact, I'm going to take aphoto one day and just post it
on my socials.
So happy moments.

(05:00):
We always had a piano in thehouse.
Our father was a musician.
He played organ in school andhe composed as well.
I always had a piano in thehouse.
Our father was a musician, heplayed organ in school and he
composed as well.
I always had a piano.
So everywhere I lived, therewas always a piano in the house.
And guess what?
Now, everywhere I go, I have apiano in my house because, my
father taught us you know all ofus so good memories.
movement music, I would say.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
How was your relationship with your brother?
Like my big brother.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
He always looked out for me, even when I was older,
and there's a picture of me andhim standing.
He's holding my hand and I'mwearing girls shoes let me give
you the story.
So I think my mother wasexpecting a girl, right.
So she bought the stuff readyfor a girl and then I popped out
and I'm sure the headman sayswhat, you are still going to
wear those shoes.
So I'm wearing these girl'sshoes, looking kind of cute, and

(05:51):
he's holding my hand.
He looked out for me, and notonly for me, he looked out for
so many other people, becausewhen he passed, first of all I
got a couple of surprises.
I realized that a lot of thefriends that I had were common
to him, and then the people whoexpressed like pure grief.

(06:13):
It just overwhelmed me.
And then I found out that he wasdoing all kinds of things to
help people out.
You know he'd jump on a bus andtravel all the way to Wa to go
and visit one of our familyfriends, auntie Mary Bapuru.
She's a retired nurse.
So Santa would do that.
Santa would turn up atsomebody's party, help these.

(06:36):
There's a charity that looksout for premature babies and
Santa was like a big guy who waslike part of the fundraising
activities and things.
So his death was like a hugeguy who was like part of the
fundraising activities andthings, his death was like a
huge shock to me.
I remember when he died we werecalled over to the house,
carried his body to the morgueat the teaching hospital, and

(06:57):
then I got back home and thencouldn't sleep, woke up in the
morning I said Sana died.
Really, how?
It's something that, um, Idon't understand and it's still.
I get memories of them becauseI'll be on a walk and then
somebody comes up to me and says, ah, Sana.

(07:19):
I said no, it's not Sana, it's,it's Kafui, because we looked
alike and we spoke alike andeverything.
And I get reminders every day.
You know, if there's a songthat will end, then it reminds
me of him.
There's a particular cool Ngansong.
Time I hear it, I think ofSenna, yeah, and he had a lot of
impact on people.
A lot of impact on people and,yeah, I think he was.

(07:40):
I think I appreciate him evenmore after he passed, which is a
crazy thing to say, but I mean,that's how it is.
Sometimes I feel guilty that,oh, charlie, I could have, and
he was very proud of me, youknow, very, very proud of me,
because anywhere I went and thenI was with him, he said, oh,
that's my kid brother, you know.
And I kept thinking, but why,I'm old enough, why are you call

(08:01):
me a kid brother?
But I realized that a youngerbrother is always a younger
brother to an older brother, youknow, and that was his way of
showing his, like, the love forme and everything.
A great guy, a great guy, yeah,really, really great guy, yeah
yeah, those are really beautifulmemories that you

Speaker 2 (08:18):
have of him, but something that really, you know,
hit me hard while you werespeaking was the fact that you
are a very nice man, in thesense that you know the things
you do for people, and he seemedto also be that type of a
person.
Where did you?

Speaker 1 (08:35):
learn that from Our parents our parents, our parents
, my mother, my father.
Apart from us, I have two otherbrothers.
Yeah, I was number two out offour our parents ever since we
were young, when we were inGhana, we always had somebody
staying with us.
It could be our auntie, itcould be our grandma, it could
be relatives who come to stayfor the holidays, and I guess

(08:59):
that comes from the old style offamily where you had not just a
nuclear family but extendedfamily, always part of you you
know, and just my mom was kindto people you know,
There was a young girl who cameto live with us when we were in
Adenta who got pregnant by oneof the boys around, and all my

(09:24):
mother's friends in the snitflats told her to let the girl
go.
She's gotten pregnant, let hergo.
And my mom says, no, I'll keepher and when the baby comes we
will look after the baby.
That baby is now in the firstyear of university.
Yes, my mother has passed now13 years, 12 years.

(09:46):
I was able to help her motherthe pregnant one who had a child
go to school.
She's now a caterer, you know,and my mother just made sure
that we supported her all theway to now, you know.
So she was a very kind person,and my father too was.
He respected everybody.

(10:06):
Remember, on the day of hisafter he died, I would meet
people who would say oh okay,they've been listening to me on
GTV and they're wondering am Irelated to Mr Day, foreign
Affairs?
I say yes, oh, they almost likebreak down.
I said, that man was a good man.
He used to say hello to us atthe security gate.
You know, when he comes to workhe has time for us and he helps

(10:29):
people out.

Speaker 5 (10:30):
And so I think it's all that.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
My parents were wonderful people.
They showed you how to dealwith human beings.
Remember one?
Rasta friend of mine, may herest in peace came to visit us
at home in Adenta.
When he knocked on the door, myfather was in the hall.
So he tells me that.
So my father says, okay, comein.
Who are you looking for?
He says Khafi.

(10:52):
So Khafi's in the room, sohe'll be here soon.
I spent like 10 minutes when Icome out, my father having a
hearty chat, you know.
And so we leave and he says, ah,charlie, you're old man, I
don't know.
Say be, be Charlie, cool likethat.
I said, why so Charlie?

Speaker 5 (11:08):
me and I I feel like I should enter the room and he
go.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
he go sack me because of my dreads.
I said no, my father is notlike that.
You know my father deals thekind of people they were and I'm
sure it affected us, because mybrothers are all very outgoing
Senyo after me, and then VictorKoshi the musician they're all
like that.
Yeah, I think Senyo was like anextreme version of my parents

(11:33):
together.
You know, like pro max, pro max, pro max.
You know.
But we're all very people,people.
So I'm not surprised that I'm ahost, a TV presenter, an
interviewer, because we likepeople.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah yeah.
You know, when you're growingup, probably before the age of
eight or nine, when people inthe family pass away at that age
, you don't feel it as much.
No, you don't, In fact.

(12:03):
Nothing comes to your mind.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
You can't understand death at age, at that age.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
And you think it's only old people who die.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
But as you're growing up, it gets closer and closer
and closer and closer to you.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
How does that change your perspective about life?
I never knew anybody who dieduntil, okay, so I was nine.
I was nine when my grandfatherdied.
My father's father died, I mean, we went to the village for the
funeral.
I don't remember anything.
And I was nine, okay, so thatwas probably the first person I
knew who had died, but it didn'tmean anything to me because I

(12:40):
had known him barely a year, Imean, between the ages of four
and nine.
We went off to China.
My father was posted to Chinaand we came back in 1980 and he
died in 1981.
You know, I don't reallyremember him.
I only remember stories myfather told me about my father,
about his father.
So the funeral was a blur.

(13:02):
When our grandma died in 89, Iwas then 18, went to the village
.
I don't remember feeling sad oranything.
The person whose death reallyshocked me was my mom, because
then, in 2013, I was 41, goingto 42.

(13:24):
And on the day that she wasgoing to choose dying, she was
going to die.
I didn't, of course, I didn'tknow that she was going to die.
That day.
We lived in Afenya, so we tookthe back route from Afenya to to
Dodowa.
There's a hotel on the Dodowaroad, I think Dodowa Forest or
something, cause my wife wasgoing to do an event there in

(13:46):
the coming weeks, so we went tocheck out the place.
When we got to the Dodua Road, Iwas thinking should we just
drive down to Adenta to sayhello to the old lady.
Then me myself I said you knowwell, no problem, we can talk to
her another time.
And we went back the same routeand then in the night of that

(14:08):
day mommy died.
Yeah, so now when I have to dosomething, I do it.
Now you think of somebody.
You call the person.
Oh Charlie, the last time I seethis guy, he cheers more go
visit the people because youdon't know really.
I mean, God willing, thesethings will work out.

(14:28):
He chases us.
The last time I see this guy,he chases more.
Go visit the people Because youdon't know really.
I mean, God willing thesethings will work out.
But things can also not workout, you understand.
So yeah, that changed me.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
So I remember when I spoke with you, I think
yesterday yes, I WhatsAppped you, and then the message I got
back was God willing yes.
Always.
He just said it.
Yes.
Always.
And then I heard I read Godwilling.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yes, it kept me thinking, yeah, always, for a
very long time, always.
We don't even know whetherwe're going to eat for supper
tonight.
At least I don't know.
So we don't know the futurereally.
So, god willing, god is acontroller of time.
He holds the time in his hands.
You know, we're just passingthrough.
There's always a beginning,there's an end.
You know, when they write your,your birth date and your death,

(15:12):
they're like my father is 1940to 2015.
So 1940, he didn't even know.
He just came to.
He came as a result of hisparents coming together.
But your life starts.
The dash between the two datesis your life.
Yes, 1940 to 2015.
The dash what are we doing withthe dash?
You know, because the end datewe don't know.

(15:33):
You know, the end date we don'tknow and the beginning date we
had no control over, you know.
So what we can, we can work onis the dash, you know.
So do what you can.
Do it well.
Father of a good friend of mine, this is Vincent Assise.
He used to be like acommunications person for the

(15:55):
NDC many years ago.
And his son is my very goodfriend.
He says it is better for you todo something and forget that
you have done it than for you tonot do it and then suddenly
remember that, eh anu duamu.
It's better for you to do itand forget that you have done it
than to not do it and thensuddenly remember that eh anu

(16:20):
duamu.
And so do it now.
I like the Nike slogan just doit, just do it, yes.
And I do it now.
I like the nike slogan just doit, just do it yes.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
And I'll add now you can just do it later on, but
just do it now, yeah, and thenyour career?

Speaker 1 (16:37):
at what point did you think this is what I want to do
?
I have done different things inmy life.
Um, let me see my first job.
What I got paid for this isgoing way back, okay.
So so I finished university in1990.
I was no 1993, so I was 21,going to 22.
And because I play piano, Iwent up to various hotels.

(17:02):
So I've played in varioushotels.
I've played in the GoldenChilli, which is now Lancaster.
I've played in various hotels.
I've played in Golden Chilli,which is now Lancaster.
I've played in Labade BeachHotel.
I've played in a little Thairestaurant in airport
residential area.
It's now a residential area, nolonger a hotel a residential
spaceyes, so I just play.
You know the kind of musicwhere you play in lounge on.
I just play.
You know the kind of musicwhere you play in the lounge, on

(17:24):
the lounge, in the lounge, onthe piano where people are
having their drinks.
You don't play too loud so youdon't disturb them, but you play
something that is recognizableso that people can enjoy
themselves with their drinking.
So I did that.
God paid for that.
Okay, let me back it up a bit.
When I was in university, I wasa translator's assistant to my
father, my father.

(17:51):
My father was a translatorfrench to english.
Okay, yes, and so he would getthese documents from fao and I
would help him to translate them, and this is the interesting
thing.
So we translate, he sends itoff to the people, they bring
the check to him and then hecomes and says, okay, so, um,
I've been paid.
How many pages did you do oftranslation?
I said, okay, I did 50 pages.
Okay, so the rate is $10 perpage.
So 10 times 50 is what I said500.

(18:11):
So that was my dad.
Yeah, he'd pay you for the workyou have done because you've
worked with him.
I assisted him.
He was very open about it.
So I think that was probably myfirst job and I was in
university too.
I used to sell shit off of mymother.
So my mother was a caterer andshe made shit off, you know, and

(18:32):
would put it in the bottles andI would go to come over and put
it on the pot as large and thenjust market it, you know.
So I used to sell shit off forher and that was purely
voluntary.
I think I was paid in Shito orgood meals from the old lady,
you know.
Yeah, so for the cash that camefrom my dad with the
translating job.
And then when I finisheduniversity, I finished national

(18:55):
service, I think I did someinterpretation work in Ibri.
So some of us languagegraduates who spoke French
because it was an internationalconference One of my friends
also spoke French and Spanish,but I did French and we went off
to Ebrie and we didinterpretation for the guests
there and got paid, and then Iadded a piano staff to it as

(19:16):
well, before I got my first job,which was a salesman with a
building maintenance companycalled AccuWorks.
My boss was my senior in school, when I was in Form 1 in 1983,
he was in upper sixth, so sixyears gap and I remember I had,

(19:40):
after university, after nationalservice.
I did national service at theFrench department, University of
Ghana.
After I decided, you know, Iwant to service at the French
department at the University ofGhana.
After I decided, you know, Iwant to go into the corporate
world.
So I wrote letters.
I wrote at least 100 letters,100.
And back in the day, in 94, 95,that means I didn't have a
computer.
So you go to the comm center,communication center, and then

(20:03):
you would have written yourletter in longhand.
You give it to the person,they'll type it.
You look at it, it's good, youprint it out and then you
envelope them and you go to thepost office and you post, and
you post, and you post, and youpost, and you post, and you post
, and you post, and you post,and you post, and you.
So for me it's reallyinteresting and funny when I

(20:24):
hear people somebody gets mynumber, my number is everywhere,
it's on Instagram.
They'll call me and say,charlie, I'm looking for a job.
I want to tap into your network.
If you can recommend me for ajob, I say, fine, yeah, it's
okay, I can do that.
But what have you done?
How are you also looking for ajob.
The guy says, oh, I got laidoff in April, yeah, so we are in

(20:48):
July now.
So how many applications haveyou sent out?
A grand total of one, two,three Between April and July.
The person sent out threeapplications.
In an era where you haveLinkedIn, you have internet, you
have your own, I'm sure youhave all the technology and you
sent out one letter a month andyou are looking for a job.

(21:09):
I sent out a hundred in a month.
Guess how many responded?
Three, three percent.
Some of them responded after.

Speaker 5 (21:25):
I got my first job Right.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah.
So I was sending out theseletters and my senior comes up
to me and says oh, what are youdoing?
I said, well, I'm looking for ajob, so I'm sending out
applications.
He said, well, I've just openeda company, so if you're
interested, I'm looking for asalesman to train.
That was my first job.
I was a salesman, a traineesalesman with with two other
guys, another fellow vandal,commonwealth Hall, and then
somebody from tech, katanga.

(21:45):
So two vandals and a Katagi inthe office stressing out our
boss.
So it was a partnership ourboss, my senior and his partner,
a lady.
And that was the first time Iwas actually working for a woman
and we didn't understand whythe woman should give me as
orders.
How old were we?
Like 24 years, years, 23, 24.

(22:06):
Yeah, uh, we stressed it a lot.
I crashed my first car.
It wasn't actually my car, itwas a company car.
I hadn't learned how to drive.
Well, wow, went and crashed thecar.
I think my boss gave me a royalknock on my head.
I think he was scared that Iwas going to kill myself, so he
was relieved that I didn't die.

(22:27):
But I also learned how to use acomputer for the first time, how
to make a sales call, and thisjob was quite dangerous looking
at it, because we had to climbbuildings and look for faults on
the roofs.
What we saw was a roof system,a system that took care of
cracks in the roof, so you'dpaint over the cracks like a
paint and then it kind of sealedthe cracks.

(22:49):
Product was called Swepco, yes,so we learned how to make
proposals, look for clients, govisit them, make presentations
and then when we get the job,we'd supervise those who are
going to do the installation.
Yeah, so it meant climbing alot of roofs.
I don't think there's any tallbuilding in Accra that I haven't
climbed.
I see the Golden Tulip roof.

(23:10):
When I climbed it I was on topof the Golden Tulip roof, which
is now Lancaster, and I waswatching the trotters going by
from Adelta to Accra and I wasthinking what if mommy, on her
way to Accra, just passes by,looks to the right and sees her
dearly beloved son on the roofwhen she had a heart attack when

(23:32):
her asthma come back?
We climbed the post office roof, climbed the roofs at Sakomono,
all those estate roofs, kiseman.
We climbed those.
I fell through one in NorthIndustrial Area, yeah, but
didn't get to the ground.
Yeah, good adventure, though,and meeting people, just getting

(23:58):
into the whole corporate world.
That was my first job and thatlasted for about six months, and
I got a new job at a shippingcompany that took me to Kumasi
so this shipping company, whereI was trained in Takaradi for
six months, and that was great.
My father sent me off toTakaradi and I had to go and
stay with one of his classmates,so I had this beautiful place

(24:21):
in the residence in Westernregion where, when you get up in
the morning, you open your door, you can see the sun coming out
of the sea.
It's beautiful.
What a beautiful sight.
The second day was beautiful,and I was working in Takarade
for six months and I came backto Temma, did six months, and
then I was shipped off to Kumasito go and open the new office,
and that's how come I got mybreak into professional radio

(24:51):
commercial radio because I gotto kumasi september 96 and then
capital radio opened in in july97.
But really, what was the plangrowing up?
What did you want to become?
I wanted to be a pilot.
When I was a small boy, everyghanaian boy my age wanted to be
a pilot.
I think even now.
And then at some point when Igot to secondary school I wanted
to be a doctor.
But then my results came outafter the O levels and I don't
think I did very well in thesciences.
My best grade, I think, was a,b in chemistry and I had Cs in

(25:15):
biology and physics.
And we came back.
I did that in the UK.
We came back to ArchimedesSchool.
Archimedes School didn't wantto give me science because it
wasn't competitive.
And the UK we came back toArchimedes School.
Archimedes School didn't wantto give me science because it
wasn't competitive.
And so I ended up doingeconomics.
Literature and French Economicswas a new subject entirely for
me, but because I was good atmaths, it kind of worked.

(25:36):
Wanted to be a doctor, so thatthey changed.
And then when I finishedUniversity of Ghana, I flattered
the idea of being like alecturer.
And then, when I finishedUniversity of Ghana, I fled with
the idea of being like alecturer.
But then, when money is runningout, you have to look for a job
that will pay you money.
So I started applying for everycompany in Ghana all the banks,
all the airlines, all thegovernment institutions.

(25:59):
In fact, vra accepted me afterI had gotten my second job in
Takaradi.
Oh right, yeah.
But I ended up in Kumasi, whichwas great.
I was in Kumasi for three yearsand that exposed me to radio,
because I joined the radiostation.
But I was a salesman as well,traveling as far as Sampa.
Sampa is where you can look outand see Cote d'Ivoire.

(26:21):
And I was chasing cashewexporters, because as a salesman
, you're looking for businessfor the ships that call in Temma
and Takradi.
So for the exporters, you'relooking at Cashew people, you're
looking at Coco people, you'relooking at Timber people.
For the importers, you'relooking at people who are
bringing in used cars, usedclothing from the Far East.
So a and it was a multinationalFrench company.

(26:42):
So yeah, so I was doing myradio part-time with that job.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
How did you get into the radio, like what happens?
Yeah, I went for audition.

Speaker 1 (26:52):
I mean, my background came from university.
Second year university somebodyset up a pirate station on
campus.
We thought it was legit, butlater on I found out it was a
pirate station.
So the transformer kept moving,the transmitter kept moving.
If the authorities felt that itwas here, then they would come,
then the people would move.
So when it got to CommonwealthHall I volunteered to be a DJ on

(27:12):
the show.
So I had a show where you dorequests for people, so somebody
from this hall wants a song forthis person from this hall now
play music.
So I started out as a music DJ.
Okay, yes.
And then when I got to Kumasi in96, 97, we heard that there was
a new radio station coming totown.
So I went for an audition.
So Capital Radio went for anaudition and I passed the

(27:34):
audition and so I got a job.
But I was working full time asa shipping guy, so I used to
work maybe six to eight on theradio station, Go and do my work
At lunchtime.
I'll come at the radio stationbetween 12 and one, do whatever
I had to do.
Then I'll go and close from theoffice at five and then come
back to the office at thestation again and come and do me
two or three hours.

(27:55):
Yeah.
So I was doing about maybe sevenhours part-time in addition to
my full-time job.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
Your part-time job as a what as full-time job, your
part-time job as a what as a?

Speaker 1 (28:03):
I was a presenter on the morning show.
Okay, I composed jingles forthe station, ids for Capital
Radio.
I composed like commercialmusic for brands.
So I remember Latex Foam had anadvert.
I needed an advert, we did itfor them.
Daku Farms I wrote the music,composed it, sang, composed it,
sang it, put the message in it,sold it to them.

(28:24):
They took it.
So I was doing that.
We were doing promotions,presenting promotions, music for
the station.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
Yeah, so that was what I was doing and you learned
all of this on the job.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yes, on the job, also my presenting.
I'll never forget Dr Fox.
So Dr Fox was a presenter ofthe UK Top 30.
This is a chart show from theUK and Kapita really subscribed
to Dr Fox, so they would sendthe CDs to Kumasi.
We would play the show onSaturdays in the afternoon.
Then I would go to the librarywith my friend, kosi Asise and

(28:56):
we would take the CDs that wehad just played.
Go back home, listen to the guy.
How did he introduce his show?
How did he blend the music?
How did he get interestinginformation about the people
that were singing?
So my education on presentingcame from Dr Fox.
I'm telling you no lie If Imeet that guy I'll buy him a

(29:17):
beer.
Wow.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
So that still used to work in those days where you
were basically learning based onexperience.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
So I found a mentor and I keep telling young people
who really want your.
Okay, can I have your number?
I want to talk to you.
You don't need to have a mentorwho is even close to you,
because this Dr Fox guy I don'tknow him, we don't know him.
All we had was that the CDswith him presenting his show is
what we listen to, and then wecan do this, and then we'll

(29:47):
apply whatever he did on theshow, like there was something
that was so nice.
So you'll be talking, say thesong.
You know you speak before thesinger starts singing, otherwise
you're speaking over lyrics.
You don't do that.
You shouldn't speak over thelyrics.
A lot of our DJs just sing overpeople's songs.
It's not good.
So maybe the song starts withlike an instrumental intro, and

(30:08):
so we would time it and Dr Foxspeaks during that instrumental
break and then he finishestalking and the music starts
singing, the guy starts singing.
So we tried it as well and it'sperfect.
Perfect.
So you have to be very, very,very technical and precise.
And we learned all those thingsfrom that guy, you know.
So that's where I learned howto present yeah, not just a
radio, not just a talk, a musicshow, but also talk show, how to

(30:29):
interview, how to discuss, howto get interesting information.
This was like the early days ofthe internet, you know, where
you had dial-up services.
You know, dial up your beforethe thing goes through, before
you connect, yeah, yeah, yeah,slow connection, yeah, but we
did all that, you know, in thosehard, we didn't think they were
hard, we thought those wereexciting times actually, but
compared to now those were likehard times, but we still.
I wanted to be a really goodpresenter and look for the best

(30:52):
person and just copy him.
Copying is allowed in the world.
It's only in school that theysay if you copy, you copy.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
Then they beat.
You got the name of this man,but he's an Indian
multi-millionaire and hisstrategy is very simple he just
copies Warren Buffett's tradingstyle, but the guy has done it.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
What a game.
Toyota copied Jeep for a longtime before they became.
They were copying Jeep cars andJeep was suing them.
They would pay the money andthen they would go and copy
again.
Pepsi copied Coca-Cola, we know, yeah, pepsi copied Coca-Cola.
We know, yeah.
Yeah, the Chinese car companiesare copying the Japanese guys
who are on top now.
The Japanese copied theAmericans.

(31:33):
Yes, you know who?
Probably copied the Germans orwhatever.
Yes, it's allowed.
So, yeah, I learned from Fox,and so that was my Kumasi time
96 to 99.
Came to Accra with Choice FMfor 2000, 2001.
That's when we were going froma music station to a talk
station.
So when it's a talk station,then you start interviewing

(31:53):
people.
Wait, hold on.

Speaker 2 (31:55):
At this point, you had made up your mind that you
want to be on radio.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
No, I was doing all this part-time.
Wow, it was a passion that Iwas just exploring.
I see I hadn't made my mind upthat I was going to be on radio
or be a presenter or interviewpeople.

Speaker 5 (32:10):
Because I had a shipping job.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
I was a good job, so you still maintained that job
while moving from station tostation.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
Yes, Good job.
It was paying me good money.
Nice car, you know New car.
You know new car.
You would drive it when theychange it.
They'll change it, you know.
So that was just doing this onthe side.
It's a side job, yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
Let me stop you here for a minute.
If you've been watching thisshow, I want you to subscribe
and become part of the family.
We are on a journey of changingthe lives of people on this
channel and we appreciate youfor being here, but if you
haven't become part of thefamily, connect with us.
Hit the subscribe button now.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
Let's carry on the conversation I hadn't decided I
was going to be a real presenter.
You know, I thought I was justgoing to be a commercial, a
shipping guy, um, and then, Ithink, and then, after the
choice job, I, I, I got theopportunity to host who wants to
be rich?
The game show.
Yes, so that was just an advert.
I saw in the paper while I wasstill in the shipping.

(33:09):
Yes, wow, I had written BFTbusiness, financial times yeah,
big black chair on the front.
I think they took a whole page.
I remember there was a blackchair.
They said would you like to bethe host of the International
Game Show?
In my mind I said, yeah, ofcourse.
Audacity.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I just applied, applied forthe audition and did something

(33:32):
extra.
I think I did a little.
They said they wanted me to, inaddition to your letter and
your CV, show a demo of youpresenting something.
I didn't have any because Iwasn't in TV yet, you know, but
I had a friend called Nana.
He used to work with GreetingsFrom Abroad.
He's one of the productionassistants.
He says oh, I can set up astudio for you.
We need a blue screen.

(33:52):
I said, what's a blue screen?
He said, well, we have to goand buy some plenty of blue
cloth from Thermal Market.
So we went to Thermal Market,come to one, bought blue cloth,
covered the screen, covered thewhole wall like this, your wall
here, end to end up to down.
So that became our blue screen.
I stood in front of it and thenI presented something.
And then at the end I realizedwhy he needed a blue screen.
Because because he was going toput graphics on it.

(34:13):
It's like a green screen, yeah.
So he put graphics on it and Isent it off.
Then they called me for theaudition.
I get to the audition.
I'm dressed very sharp, lookinglike a host.
40 people are there.
They all want the same job.
Oh, no problem.
So I sat down and I startedeliminating my competition.
So I look at this man and Isaid, okay, this man is not, he

(34:35):
hasn't dressed like a in my head.
He hasn't dressed like a TV host, because I knew what the host
looked like.
I used to.
I did a research online andyou're supposed to wear like
monochrome color.
So if you're wearing, if you'rewearing a blue suit, your shirt
will be blue, your tie will begray, your tie will be gray,

(34:58):
monochrome one color.
So I look at this guy he's yeah, he looks looking good, but
it's not a monochrome thing.
I said don't take you anotherguy.
I see him.
He's wearing like um jacket, notie.
So no, then it would take you.
Another guy is wearing like at-shirt.
I said, no, you, you won't dothis show.
You go wear t-shirt.
Everything is happening in myhead, so I'm just going through
eliminating.
Then they call me to come intothe room, to come, and you know,

(35:18):
show them what I can do.
I go and show them, go backhome.
After a while they call us backfor the second round.
Now we're only three Eliminated37.
And I said, ah, I knew it.
All these guys.

Speaker 5 (35:31):
So I wasn't surprised .

Speaker 1 (35:32):
I was surprised with the two who had left because I
knew that these guys, theylooked the part.
Yeah, so second round, we doanother audition and then they
go quiet for like a year.
So in that year another friendsays you know what?
I'm starting a new TV show inparliament.
It's called In the House.
The company was called ThreeHeads and a Pen Interesting.

(35:55):
And then so I'm the host forthat show and we go to
parliament, we interview MPs andthen they edit it together.
On Sundays after 9 o'clock theyair it on GTV.
So I did that for two monthsand then the people called me
and said ah, we have a finalaudition we have to do to
determine who hosts the show weare going to Nigeria to go and

(36:16):
do it, no problem.
So they fly me to Nigeria withmy second, my other competitor.
Now we are only two andbasically we have to do the show
with a live audience.
Never presented anything to alive audience before.
So he goes first and as he goesI'm not supposed to see what
he's doing.
So they come to me in a roomwhere there's no TV.
I'm there twiddling my thumbsand waiting for my temp to come,

(36:38):
so he finishes.
Then I also go inside.
Now he doesn't have to go inbecause he's done it already and
he's not going to learnanything from me.
So he watches me and I do myshow, and then it's quiet for
like a month or so.
And then one day I get a calldriving around Woolworths and
then I think I had some malaria.

(36:59):
B, and so you, congratulations,you are the host of the show.
Malaria just disappeared, yeah.
So that began a beautifuljourney.
That was a three, three seasonsof who wants to be rich.
Oh man, that that show opened,I think like it was like pivotal
to my career.

(37:20):
Yeah, because at some point intime I asked the producers but
you guys, why did you select me?
What was it so, first of all,we wanted somebody who was not
on television already, so like anew face.
So I paid the bill because Iwasn't on television.
Then he said, oh, both ofalready, so like a new face.
So I paid the bill because Iwasn't on television.
Then he said, oh, both of you,the finalists in the audition,

(37:42):
you did really well, so wecouldn't separate you.
So we took it to a tiebreaker.
We went to the crew and weasked the crew, of these two
guys, who would you like most towork with, and the crew voted
for me.
And I said why did they votefor me?
Because I wanted to know.
He says well, they like the vibeyou had with them.

(38:02):
You know, because for me it'sjust, it's the natural thing.
So I come into a new place.
I try and connect with you veryquickly.
As an emcee.
It's a skill that you have tolearn very fast, because it's a
room of strangers and you arethe person who's supposed to
hold everything together.
You're supposed to connect themvery fast, otherwise the event

(38:23):
will be flat.
So I come to the studio andbefore we are on, I'm talking to
the camera guy.
I say Charlie, so how long haveyou been?
And I speak PJ.
Charlie says so, this job, howlong are you doing for so?
So, in this camera, how you do,I mean how you learn I'm going
to talk to the editor, I'm goingto talk to this guy.
So I'm kind of forming likelittle friendships, and I still
do it when I'm emceeing.
So if I'm emceeing an eventthat starts at nine, I'll be

(38:46):
there at maybe 8, 30 or 8, andwhen the guests come in, I'll be
introducing myself to them, sayhi, my name is kafi, I'm your
emcee, what are you expectingfrom today's show?
And your name is.
Then they tell me their name,then we have a little chat about
what they're expecting.
You will see it when we do theConnected Mass.
Wow, that's incredible, right.
So you get them on your sidebefore the event starts.
It's just.
It's just icebreakers.

(39:07):
I think I learned it from mydad.
Let me tell you my dad, thestory of my dad, so story of my
dad.
So I used to.
We went out somewhere in Accra,it was a very hot day, and on
the way back he says you knowwhat?
Would you like?
An ice cream?
I said yeah, of course, yeah,please.
So we entered this ice creamparlor on the ring road and the

(39:28):
attendant was very, in a verybad mood, very mood, very silly,
unresponsive, not smiling.
My father says hello, goodafternoon, good afternoon.
Father was in phase.
He said well, can I have twoice creams?
Please Make them as beautifulas you.

(39:49):
Hey, you should have been thereto see the transformation.
Man, the woman's face, justit's like a sunflower opening up
.
She had this gorgeous smile andshe started heaping the ice
cream Vroom, vroom, heap, heap.
She went.

(40:09):
She probably gave us two icecreams for the price of one.
Then my father gave that to me.
Then she heap, heap, heap, heap, give that to my father.
And then we decided to sit downand eat the ice cream.
Just as I was about to take myfirst group, my father said hold
on a second, what did you justsee?
I said, well, I see ice cream.
What about myself?
I said, well, never forget this.

(40:30):
People will do just aboutanything for you.
If you make them feel the rightway, they can do anything.
They will lie down, they willroll, they will go with you to
the ends of the earth if you canmake them feel the right way.
And then I never forgot thatlesson.
Connecting with people issomething that I think is one of

(40:51):
my strengths, and I learned itfrom observation and I practice
it too.
I can get people to open up,yeah, and it helps as an
interviewer, because you getpeople talking.
They'll talk and they say but Ididn't even mean to say all
this stuff, but you said it, youknow, but I said it it's
because of the questions, youknow, yeah.
So so, so, so that was anexperience never to forget and,

(41:15):
since you've mentioned your dadin this conversation here, I
want to understand when you hadthat full-time job you were
still doing

Speaker 5 (41:23):
radio trying to get yourself to be a presenter.
What were they thinking?
What did they tell you?

Speaker 1 (41:29):
Who Wants to Be Rich was because I was in Kumasi.
They didn't hear me when I wasin Kumasi.
So when I came to Accra and Igot the audition, I won it.
I became a host of who Wants toBe Rich from 2009 to 2012.
My mother would let everybodyknow that her son is on national
television.

(41:50):
They were proud, you know.
They were very proud.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
They didn't think.
You know, kafu, you want you tobe this, that, that, that.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
You see, I'm involved in stuff that people look down
on, music.
Okay, I remember I was inuniversity one day and I went to
Groovy Club.
Groovy Club used to be inAsalam Down where my father and
his age mates used to hangaround.
So when I got to the GroovyClub, I greeted the people and
my father.
One of them said ah, is thatyour son, the band boy?

(42:19):
My father said, excuse me, he'snot a band boy, he's a musician
.
Yes, my father himself was amusician and he knew that the
people were trying to demeanwhat he did and I did, you know.
So he's not a band in school, areggae band at University of
Ghana.
It's called Local Crisis.
Rocky Dawoni was in that band.
He was our lead vocalist, andthen Amaziba's younger brother,

(42:42):
yofi Brew, wasn't it?
At some point in time, nanaFinn was part of the group.
Yeah, kofi K, adeyobo Yobai, somany people.
So, so, so, so my father was anartistic person.
In fact, I found out later on,after he died, that when he
finished he did music up to Alevel and his plan was to go to

(43:03):
get a scholarship and go to aroom or somewhere in Venice and
go and become a concert pianist,I see, and one of his brothers
thought that it wasn't.
It wasn't a wise choice.
So my younger brother beinglike a professional jazz
musician, I'm sure my father waslike living his dream through

(43:24):
him.
And I came to Adenta, where helived, and I would find him in
his room on his bed and then mybrother would be practicing in
the hall and you would see thisbig smile on my father's face.
You know, that's how I producedthat guy.
So my father had no problemwith the arts.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
No problem.
So your parents were veryopen-minded.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
Very open-minded.
As long as it's legal, there'snothing wrong with being a
musician it's a perfectly.
And I used to create jingles.
I used to make money from easystuff.
I remember there was a time Iwanted to enter the jingle
business and the jingles arelike the music that you put for,
like it's a good life, open upa club, it's a good life.

(44:08):
Or I love vitamin C.
You put the advertising messagein music because people listen
to music and remember it longafter the product has gone.
So I decided I was going to bea jingle composer.
So I listened to Joy FM and forevery advert with my recorder
on, for every advert that didn'thave like the original music,
they just had a voiceover andsomebody's music on it I

(44:30):
recorded it and then I create asong out of it.
I will never forget this one.
This was from Latex Latex no,this is Interplast.
Interplast had a program, aproduct called Everlast.
They still have it, yeah.
So I did a jingle for Everlast,like one minute, went to the
studio in Temma, recorded it.
Can I remember?

Speaker 5 (44:52):
it.
Welcome to the world, everlastwhere windows and doors everlast
.
The right choice for windowsand doors.
Everlast, everlast, everlast.
The right choice for windowsand doors, everlast, the whole
song with the message in it.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
Put it on CD.
And then I went to visit the MDof Everlast.
There's one thing I was taughtas a salesman.
Then I went.
I went to visit the MD ofEverlast.
There's one thing I was taughtas a salesman.
I said as a salesman, when yougo into an entire company, look
for the top guy.
Okay, If he says no, nobody cansay yes.
Wow, it happens with ourinterviews too.
When we talk to the top guys,we get the result.

Speaker 5 (45:32):
That was supposed to happen we get the results
Because the guys at the bottomcan frustrate you.

Speaker 1 (45:41):
So I went to Interplus and I think his name
is Mr Haissam Fakhri, md, topguy.
I enter his office.
He's sitting down by hiscomputer.
I introduce myself.
I said I'm a jingle composerand I have something I would
like him to listen to.
I give him the CD.
He pops the CD into his machine.

(46:02):
One minute I'm quiet listeningto him, him listening to the
music as well.
He finishes, he looks at me andsays you did this.
I said yes, and then he makes acall.
He calls the guy in charge ofadvertising and says I like it.
I see they used it.
I charged 9,000 Ghana CDs backthen.

(46:25):
Okay, when the dollar was oneto one.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
So that's $9,000.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
For me it was ridiculous, because what did I
do?
I listened to Joy FM.
I recorded an advert that wasalready there with all the
information that was.
I do.
I listened to Joy FM.
I recorded an advert that wasalready there with all the
information that was there.
Then I went to the studio, paidfor some small studio time,
recorded this thing, sangeverything myself, played all
the keyboards, put it on CD andtook a trip to Interplast and
basically sold him.
It was just ridiculous.

(46:54):
And people need it.
People need their messages tobe in people's brains all the
time.
So that's, and I was doing allthis stuff and I was
contributing to the housebecause I remember when I
started working, my mother saidalways buy something small.
When your salary has come, bringit home, whether it's bread or
some yellow.
Yes, your salary is not for youalone, you know, you know.

(47:15):
Yes, your salary is not for youalone.
You know it's not for you alone.
Make yourself, let people knowthat there's a worker in the
house, you know.
So, buy something, buy a gift.
Remember the first salary?
I bought a gift for my people,my parents and things.
Yeah, so my parents had noproblem at all.
No problem, no problem.
They supported my career.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
I think that was very much different to some of us
growing up.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
Yes, I know that's not the norm.

Speaker 2 (47:39):
I hear stories that some parents but do you think
it's because your dad was soeducated as well?

Speaker 1 (47:49):
I think he was frustrated from his career.
I mean he enjoyed his career asa foreign service officer
because it took him around theworld.
He did it for 20 years.
He learned career.
I mean he enjoyed his career asa foreign service officer
because it took him around theworld.
He did it for 20 years.
He, he lent french so he couldjoin the foreign service and he
served in senegal.
I served in burkina, sevencould have served in china,
served in uk, seven, algeria.
You know it took us all aroundwith him, you know.
So I'm sure he he enjoyed hiscareer.

(48:11):
But I'm sure you'd have, you'dhave been to have been on a
higher level if he had done whathe wanted to do, which was the
music.
The music, yeah, yeah, so, andmy parents were.
I remember one time before Igot married I asked my mom what
if I come home with a Chinese?
Girl.
She says no problem.
If that's the woman you want tomarry, go ahead, I'm going to
marry the woman for you.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
No, no, no.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
They're very so.
I think it's the not eveneducation in school, but the
exposure to different cultures,right, different systems.
Because my mother lived indifferent places.
She went with my father onevery single posting, which is
rare for a lot of foreignservice people.
They don't go with theirfamilies, they go on posting by
themselves and then theirfamilies are back home.

(48:55):
But my father went with mymother every single posting.
Maybe he wanted to be sure thathis Akpelen would be served
every day.
Can't go to China and beexpecting Akpelen.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
But now, at which point did you let that full-time
job go and say, now I want todo?

Speaker 5 (49:11):
radio TV all this full-time 2012,.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
I've done like 17 years as a shipping guy and one
day I'm like, I'm reflecting,I'm thinking so I'm now 41?
, 40.
Yeah, I was 40, going to 41.
I was 40.
Can I see myself doing this foranother 20 years, chasing
secondhand clothing importers,chasing timber exporters to put

(49:39):
cargo on a ship or bring cargofrom wherever?
I in no way disrespect thosewho are in those fields, because
we need we are an import-drivencountry we need secondhand
clothing, all that stuff, but Ijust didn't see myself doing it
for the next 20 years, you know.
And then I also realized that,because of who wants to be rich,
all of a sudden I became morerecognizable.
You step somewhere and I alwayshave a policy of introducing

(50:02):
myself and I hear people say butyou don't need to introduce
yourself.
I say, well, I do need tointroduce myself because I also
need to know who you are,because I'll say hi, my name is
Kafi and you are so, but youdon't need to know, huh so so I
don't even know, I said well, Ineed to introduce myself.
I cannot assume that you knowwho I am.
I don't, for once, do that atall.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
Let me stop you here for a minute.
If you've been watching thisshow, I want you to subscribe
and become part of the family.
We are on a journey of changingthe lives of people on this
channel and we appreciate youfor being here, but if you
haven't become part of thefamily, connect with us, hit the
subscribe button and let'scarry on the conversation.

Speaker 5 (50:41):
Your mindset is very interesting.
I don't assume it.

Speaker 1 (50:45):
I don't assume it.
I remember dealing withsomebody who thought I should
know her.
She was a government officialback in the early 2000s and I
came into the room.
It was a studio.
I'd come to do some work in theearly 2000s and I came into the
room.
It was a studio where I'd cometo do some work in the studio.
I greeted everybody and I alsogreeted her and I said my name
is Kafu and you are, and she wasvisibly shocked because she was

(51:07):
expecting me to.
Yeah, no don't assume thatpeople know you.
Yeah, do not assume that peopleknow you, you know so.
I decided in 2012 that, okay,now I'm getting a lot of
recognition, I can actually gofull time as an MC Because I

(51:27):
have a corporate background too,I can do corporate MC work
instead of weddings.
Weddings you can only work onSaturdays and Sundays.
Most weddings now they're evendoing Fridays.
Back then it work on Saturdaysand Sundays Right, Most weddings
.
Now they're even doing.
Fridays Back then it was justSaturdays and Sundays it's just
Saturdays.
The reception is on Saturdays.
But if I do corporate work, Ican work every day.
I can do a launch today, I cando a conference tomorrow, I can

(51:49):
do a seminar the next day.
You know, the beginning washard, letting people know that
this is what I wanted to do.
But once you get a gig with anevent planner and the event
planner likes you, they willeither call you back from that
event or recommend you to otherpeople.
Yeah, so in 2012, I decided Iwas going to go straight into
full-time, going to be in theevents industry, because who

(52:11):
Wants to Reach had ended afterthree years, and so I did that.
I remember somebody coming upto me months after I left my
shipping, my job.
They were about to give me anew cow.
They said Chalisa.
But how, how?
How are you doing?
How are you able to?
So these events you do, do theypay you money?
How are you going?

Speaker 5 (52:29):
to do it.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
I said, yeah, I very well my time.
Listen, an event is three hours, four hours.
I wake up in the morning on myown time, go to the event,
finish by 12, I'm done.
Sometimes I have two events, soone in the morning, one in the
afternoon.
But of course there are dayswhen there are sometimes maybe
for weeks, you don't haveanything to do and all of a
sudden it comes plenty, so youhave to learn to live with.

(52:52):
So I think I can live with.
I'm not worried aboutuncertainty.
Okay, yes, because in thenature of that work you don't,
you don't book every day, sothere are days where
everything's quiet.
But when the things are quiet,that's when you do your
marketing.
So I was.
I used to write like articlesin the BFT, business Financial
Times about public speaking,because I realized people kept

(53:12):
coming up to me and say sayinghow do you, how do you become
less nervous on stage, or how doyou deal with stage fright, and
so I was writing these articlesin the BFT and then I would
sign my name.
He's an MC, corporate MCtelephone number and people were
calling me from those articles.
It's kind of indirectadvertising, yeah, so yeah, 2012
was a big year for me.
I just turned 40.

(53:33):
I was 14, 2011.
2011, I was 40.
And then, january, I resignedfrom my shipping job and then I
went full-time.
I was there till Bulari met mesomewhere in 2014 and invited me
to come and be the host of Star, the morning show on Star FM.

(53:53):
So I was with the EIB group forfour years, to 2018, went back
to my mc and my training exists.
So now when I, when I left eibin 2018, in addition to the mc,
I also added training.
So I said and I remember mycousin david he gave me like the
first opportunity he he got meto come and train members of his
association, the Institute ofInternet Professionals Ghana,

(54:16):
ipgh.
So I did a whole training forthem and then I started training
people one-on-ones group.
I still do that, you know, Istill do that.
Just two days ago I was withanother client one-on-one
training.
Yeah, so I've been doing that.

Speaker 2 (54:30):
So I had a message from a young man.
Mm-hmm.
And he said he's always nervouswhen approaching people, always
.
As a matter of fact, that guycame to my first mentorship
class and even when he shook myhand, it's wet.
It's sweaty, he's not alone.
So he said I told him I put ina group that I've got you coming

(54:55):
in, yes, and they said they,you coming in yes.
And they said they want sometips.
Okay, I'll give them five, notjust one five, all right.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
If you can spell the word stage and I use it for my
training you can get the tipsS-T-A-G-E.
So S in stage stands for shiftyour focus.
You know people who are nervousand shy, think that it's all
about them, but and it's likelooking on your phone, your

(55:23):
camera mode, and it's always inselfie mode it's the person you
see is you.
So they focus on themselves toomuch.
You need to switch the focus tonow the camera is facing your
mental camera is now facingother people.
So instead of thinking aboutyourself and how you're going to
fail or you're not good enough.
Focus your attention on youraudience.

(55:43):
So I'm going to speak at I'm aspeaker at Connected Minds on
the 29th of August, instead ofthinking about myself.
Okay, so who is the audience atConnected Minds event on the
29th?
What do they want from mypresentation?
How long is my presentationgoing to be?
How do I make it interestingfor them so that they will
remember it?
Because if you speak in publicand they don't remember, you've

(56:05):
wasted your time.
They must remember.
It always seems impossibleuntil it is done.
That's my guy.
The independence of Ghana ismeaningless until it is linked
to the total liberation ofAfrica.
That's another of my guys.
These are my two guys who arehere.
I'm happy to be in good company.
You and this you and this too,you know float like a butterfly
sting like a bee.

(56:25):
He's back there Another of myguys.
I'm surrounded by my people.
Man, this is my home, you know.
So if you focus on the audience, then now you're not thinking
about yourself.
God has done it in such a waythat you can only think about
one thing at a time.
You can't hold two thoughts inyour mind.
Try it, it won't work.
You only think about onethought, then you focus on
another.
You can't think two thoughts atonce.

(56:45):
So shift your focus fromyourself to your audience Now.
T in stage stands for trainyour brain.
Okay, naturally, human beings,we are pessimistic.
We always think that somethingwrong is going to happen.
When my school calls a teacherfrom my school, my children's
school calls me, the first thingin my mind what has happened to

(57:07):
my son?

Speaker 2 (57:07):
Oh, my God.

Speaker 5 (57:08):
That's exactly the same thing Because my parents.

Speaker 1 (57:10):
The worst thing for a parent is for something to
happen to your child.
Yeah, that's the worst thing.
I always feel so sad for andcrushed for parents who lose
their children, because it's thenightmare of every parent.
So when the call is comingthrough, I'm thinking what has
happened to my son?
My mind, you know.
So that is us just thinking theworst.

(57:30):
But you have to train your brainto focus on the positive when
you're on the stage.
So it's a bit like you go tothe cinema to go and watch a
movie.
So you buy your popcorn, yourdrink, you enter the place, it's
dark, they play the adverts,the movie starts rolling.
You don't expect the movie tobe a bad movie.
I've never gone into a cinemahall expecting a movie to be bad
.
So that is the same way on thestage.

(57:51):
Stage, when you get up to speak.
Don't expect the outcome to bebad.
Expect that people willunderstand what you're saying.
They will give you a standingovation when you're done.
They'll clap.
At least They'll askintelligent questions.
They'll remember what you'vesaid long after you've done it.
So that you train your brain tofocus on the positive instead
of the negative.
So that is the T part, andremember God made it that we can

(58:14):
only think one thought at atime.
If you think positive, youcan't think negative.
Okay, so shift your brain,train your focus.
A in stage achieve calm.
You have to be calm.
If you are calm, you are lesslikely to be nervous, so you are
relaxed.
How do you relax?
It's not the end of the worldgonna die.

(58:37):
Nobody died because we're aboutto go speak.
You're not going to be thefirst person, okay, if that
doesn't help.
Breathe deep through your nose,out through your mouth.
If you do that 10 reps of that,you actually feel your pulse
slowing down.
You're becoming more relaxed.
You know, visualize a positiveoutcome.
You know you can do your tonguetwisters Pick the pepper, pick

(58:58):
the pepper, pick the pepper.
Make yourself smile.
When you're smiling, you'reless likely to be nervous, okay.
So those are three tips.
You have not even startedspeaking yet because you have
shifted your focus.
It's all mental.
You are training your brain.
It's still mental.
You are achieving calm.
It's also still mental.
G in stage, dealing with stagefright nervousness is how do you
get prepared?
Get prepared.
So four ways to get preparedGet prepared early If they give

(59:20):
you a presentation.
Don't wait till the nightbefore.
If it's one month ahead of time, start as early as possible.
So get prepared early, getprepared often.
So practice as often as you can.
How long should I practice?
Well, practice until, and I'lltell you why you should do that.
So get prepared often.
So get prepared early, getprepared often.

(59:42):
Get prepared with an audience,always rehearse with an audience
.

Speaker 2 (59:49):
Mental audience, no, a real audience, physical
audience.

Speaker 1 (59:51):
Get two or three people in front of you and let
them listen to what you'resaying.
Yes, and then video yourpresentation every time, because
if you video it, then you willsee how people will see you on
the stage People standing infront of mirrors and talking.
It doesn't work, because whenyou get on the stage, you're not
standing in front of a mirror,you're standing in front of an
audience.
So get get prepared with anaudience on your presentation

(01:00:15):
and you're presenting and alwaysrecord your presentation.
So that's G, now E.
You've done all four Now.
You've shifted your focus,you've trained your brain,
you've achieved calm, you'vegotten prepared the right way
and now you are going to expressyourself.
So get a good introduction.
That also includes you beingintroduced.
So give you the way you want tobe introduced to the MC, right,

(01:00:38):
yes, so that they focus on whatyou want them to focus on.

Speaker 5 (01:00:42):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
Give that to them, they'll introduce you.
Remember that when you'resitting down, once they start
doing the introduction, yourtalk actually starts from where
you are sitting to go.
You know yeah, I see somepeople be relaxed You'll be
doing your visualization andthings.
You know.
You get on the stage and thenyou start powerfully.
Don't start with.
My name is Derek Abayete again,because the MC has said it

(01:01:04):
already.
I hear it too often.
They introduce the person, thenhe goes.
My name is I'm going to talkabout this, but they said it in
the intro.
You come in and you can startwith how many of you would like
to beat stage fright once andfor all?
That's a good question.
You even noted other peoplewill be answering the question
in their head.
So questions are a good way tostart.

(01:01:24):
Um, statistics, yes, statisticsis a good way to start, and
humor, but it has to be relevantto whatever you're saying.
Okay, it has to be relevant towhatever you are saying.
I'll give you an example ofrelevant humor.
So, if it's, it's customerservice you're going to talk
about, once upon a time therewas this student, there was this
teacher who always enjoyssaturday watch in dance woman.

(01:01:45):
So on one fine saturday he gotout of his home, went to the
nearby corner watch.
A lady stood in the linepatiently waiting for his turn.
When he got to his turn he madehis order boache, talia,
everything.
They packed it for him, butsomething told him to look at
what he had been packed.
When he opened it, in theleaves, he found out there were

(01:02:06):
extra proteins in the form ofworms in the food and, being a
polite person, he goes back tothe woman and says Madame, mami,
sorry, this is what I found inthe food.
The lady was not very happywith this feedback and she
proceeded to blast him and sayget out of here, you just want
my business.
The guy is shocked.
He goes back to the corner, hestands at the corner, he opens

(01:02:28):
his watch and anybody who comesby he shows them the watch, as
if to say this is what you arebuying.
Fast forward one week thewatching woman shuts down.
She's now selling oranges.
The moral of the story is thatgood customer service involves
responding to feedback, whetherpositive or negative.
Otherwise your circumstancescan change.
That was a story I told inabout two minutes, so I could

(01:02:50):
start a lecture or talk oncustomer service with this story
.
So for me, my habit iscollecting stories that I can
use in my presentations.
Okay, so you start with a story, you start with statistics, you
can start with a question,because I would silence.
So they introduced me and Icome on the stage and I did it
at Asin Fosu on Monday.
I just stand there, theaudience starts smiling.

(01:03:13):
Some of them are wondering isthis guy crazy?
But I've gotten the attention.
And then, boom, we go, you know,and then you do your
presentation.
Listen, if you had four slidesand you'd went from one, two,
three and you went to five andto four, no need to apologize,
they don't know your slides.
Yeah, so don't apologize foranything.
Just go and practice speaking.

(01:03:39):
You cannot just sit at home,pray about it.
Do your exercises and don'tspeak.
You have to speak, and if youhave a bad presentation, that's
motivation for you to get thenext presentation so you can do
it better.
Yeah.
And those are your publicspeaking anti-nervousness tips
Shift your focus, train yourbrain, achieve calm, get
prepared the right way, expressyourself.

(01:04:00):
I hope your person will behappy with the tips.
That's amazing, so that's foryou.

Speaker 2 (01:04:05):
This is beautiful and people pay hard dollar oh yeah,
for this session.

Speaker 1 (01:04:12):
This is stuff I give to people you've actually got a
training coming up.

Speaker 2 (01:04:16):
Yes, I think I saw the flyer yeah, you've got a
training media interviews yeah,yeah, yeah coming up, so people
actually pay him for this.

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
They pay money for this, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
And you've just gotten this.
Yeah, thanks for the question,man.

Speaker 1 (01:04:27):
Yeah, that was incredible.

Speaker 2 (01:04:28):
So I saw him and his hands were very sweaty yeah,
yeah yeah, as a matter of fact,I think people that are so
nervous when they're in it's nota joke, it's not a nervous
energy and it's contagious.
Yeah, because people were linedup to come speak to me and from
the corner of my eye I couldsee the guy and he was letting
everybody come.

Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
Yeah he didn't go.
Another tip I have is that ifyou are nervous, you are shy.
You go to an event.
If you come to Connected Mindson the 29th of August and you
are shy, you're never sitting inthe front, of course not in the
reserve seats that they mayhave reserved, but right after
the reserve seats.
Sit in the front.
This is why, if you sit at theback and you've enjoyed the

(01:05:10):
presentation and you have aquestion to ask, the moment you
raise your hand and the emceesays, oh, the gentleman in the
green batakare at the back,everybody would turn around and
look at you.
And then the thing you wereafraid of is what will happen,
because all the eyes are goingto be on you.
Why don't you go and sit in thefront?
It's just me and the presenterand everybody's looking.
All they see is the back of myhead.

(01:05:31):
So sit in the front, sit in thefront.

Speaker 2 (01:05:35):
I wish someone told me this when I was at university
it's the best place to sit,yeah how is it at the back?

Speaker 1 (01:05:40):
no, and the sound.
If there's no amplification,you're not even going to hear
much at the back.
But in the front it is you andthe lecturer, you and whoever is
there.
If you ask your questions,there's nobody giving you
attention.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
I also think you are less likely to even be caught if
you are sitting at the front,exactly because we look at the
people at.

Speaker 1 (01:05:57):
Yeah, yes, but another thing too if you are
nervous, apart from sitting inthe front when it's question
time, raise your hand.
Be the first person.
Brian Tracy said it.
You read his books, he said.
He said he said if you have twofrogs to eat, a small one, a
big one, eat the big one first,because you're going to eat the

(01:06:17):
frogs anyways.

Speaker 2 (01:06:17):
Yeah, In case you get full quick.
So you don't get, you don't geta chance to get the other one.

Speaker 1 (01:06:21):
So the thing you are afraid.
Do the death.
Do the thing you are afraid of,and the death of fear is
certain.
So do the thing you are afraidof, and the death of fear is
certain.
Say in the front.
Say in the front.
In the beginning you may writeyour entire question out on a
card and then read it out.
But after a while a lot ofpeople are nervous because they
don't understand how the voicecoming out of the PA system

(01:06:43):
belongs to them.
When they speak in a microphonethey hear it amplified.
It's like whoa, is that me?
I don't sound like that.
I don't like my voice.
I hear people say that it'syour voice, man.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
You see, these days people are podcasting.
There's that there's a lot ofinterviews going on.
When you go on YouTube, almosteverybody is doing interviews.
You've done it for years.
Top five tips for someone whois trying to go into
interviewing people.

Speaker 1 (01:07:10):
The first three come from Larry King, who is my
mentor.
Okay, yes, another mentor whoI've never met.
I only experienced himpreviously through TV.
Larry King, for those who don'tknow, was one of the greatest
radio and TV hosts.
He was on CNN for 25 years.
He had a 60-year career,starting out in radio and moving

(01:07:35):
into television, ending uponline.
I'm mirroring it actuallybecause I've done radio TV.
I'm now online 60 years.
He interviewed over 60,000people.
If we break it down, it meansevery year he was interviewing a
thousand people.
If a year has 50 weeks minustwo for the holiday, it means

(01:07:56):
every week he was doing 20interviews.
If he has a five day week, itmeans every day he was doing
four, four.
If he has a five-day week, itmeans every day he was doing
four.
Four interviews five days aweek every year for 60 years
equals 60 000.
Now, if a man like that isgiving me advice, I better will
take it.
He's more than qualified.
More than qualified he had.

(01:08:17):
He had three rules.
Number one ask short questions.
Larry King says listen.
You have one mouth, two ears,so talk less, listen more.
Okay, so ask short questions.
I've seen interviewers online,offline, wherever, they'll ask

(01:08:40):
such a long question that whenthey land the interviewer will
say interviewer will say whatwas the question.
Again, it's because the questionwas too long.
There's a temptation to showoff that you know the subject as
a host that you must avoid, andshort questions, short
questions cure that temptationRight, Because listen to, I mean

(01:09:01):
kids.
Short questions cure thattemptation Right, because listen
to.
I mean kids one of my youngestyounger son was growing up what
is that?

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
That's it, that's it Right.

Speaker 1 (01:09:19):
What is that?
He was trying to learn thelanguage.
What is that?
What is to learn the language?
What is that?
What is that?

Speaker 5 (01:09:24):
very short question.

Speaker 1 (01:09:26):
I remember Larry King .
Larry King interviewed ageneral, a US general, gulf War
I, which was in the early 90s.
So CNN was covering the GulfWar.
They had reporters embeddedwith the army in Iraq, yep, and
every year, every week, everynight, larry King would talk to

(01:09:46):
a US general to give an updateon the war.
So Larry King starts the show.
Good evening, welcome to LarryKing Live.
Tonight we have US Army General.
So so, so, so.
So in the studio, general,what's happening?
That's?

Speaker 5 (01:10:04):
it.
Okay, that was the question.

Speaker 1 (01:10:08):
And the general thought okay, so we've done an
assault against the enemy, wehave done this, we've
commandeered these troops fromhere.
These planes are coming over.
He gives a full.
Then Larry King's next questionand Wow.

Speaker 5 (01:10:28):
Okay, the journalist is going, he's going, he's going
.

Speaker 1 (01:10:30):
Larry is listening very carefully, you know.
Then the last question hedoesn't even open his mouth,
just raises his eyebrows.
Man, larry King, he's a master.
You should watch any of hisinterviews online with Prince
Michael Jackson.
He talked to everybody.
Gaddafi, he talked to everysingle body.

(01:10:52):
He talked to simple people aswell, the high and the mighty,
the low and the good.
He talked to all of them.
He says ask short questions.
Number one listen carefully.
That's number two, listencarefully.
A lot of them.
He says ask short questions.
Number one, listen carefully.
That's number two, listencarefully.
A lot of times, you see, mytheory is that when somebody
sits in front of you, like I'msitting in front of you, that
person wants to talk.
If I didn't want to talk, Iwould have said I'm not free

(01:11:12):
today.
So ask the questions.
After you ask a question,listen to the person's response,
because sometimes the responsewill take you to.
Maybe you're going from A to B,but the response is like a
detour, going towards X.
Follow it and then find a wayto come back because maybe the

(01:11:32):
news is there.
Maybe the news is there and youcan only get that if you are
listening very carefully to whatthe person is saying.
So ask short questions, listencarefully.
Third one is follow up.
This one happened to have acolleague of mine.

(01:11:53):
I'm sure she'll watch this andshe'll smile so she interviewed,
I think, a man of God slashmusician, whose wife died as a
result of medical negligence.
But throughout the interview, Imean he mentioned it that my

(01:12:16):
wife died because of medicalnegligence.
Some doctor messed up orsomething.
Somebody doctor or nurse,whoever messed up His wife died,
bottom line.
When he mentioned it, I senther a message, Follow up, Ask
him something how did it happen?
How did you feel about it?
She didn't see it.
So that's, if I had an earpiece, if she had an earpiece, I

(01:12:39):
would have probably spoken toher, but I wasn't out in the
control room.
So I think I am alsoresponsible because I had a good
question that should have makesure she got it.
So she finishes the interviewand the guy is still around and
then I go up to him and say ohgood interview.
By the way, how did you feelwhen you lost your wife?

(01:12:59):
I, when you lost your wife, Ifelt like burning down Ridge
Hospital.

Speaker 2 (01:13:06):
Was it being recorded ?
No, this is after the interviewhad ended.

Speaker 1 (01:13:11):
That was the headline .
He changed and he became veryemotional and you would not
expect a man of God to say athing like this.
They are the ones who tell youto shedding.
Oh, God is in control, Godknows.
God gives, he takes, he gives,he takes.
I didn't like hearing thosethings when my mother had died
that God gives and he takes.

Speaker 5 (01:13:33):
My mother is dead.

Speaker 1 (01:13:34):
If you have nothing to say, don't say anything.
That's Archbishop Palmer Buckle, that is his philosophy.
See, sometimes people who aregrieving, they just need your
presence and your silence.
Don't come and start quotingscripture to me.
I've just lost my mom.
You're telling me that Godgives and God takes.
Yes, intellectually I can thinkabout that, but now I'm feeling

(01:13:55):
it.
He said I felt like burningdown a rich hospital and I said
oh, you lost the headline.
So those, those are goodquestions to ask.
What's it like being and BBC?
If you listen to BBC, they askthose questions a lot.
How do you feel about?
They're always looking.
I realize that they're alwayslooking for the emotional yes
angle to every question.

(01:14:15):
Yes, you did it too when youasked my brother in the
beginning.
Yes, you remember yes so they'realways looking for an emotional
angle.
What's it like being?
I even missed that I was cominghere and I realized that
recently I interviewed GeneralAnidohu.
I never asked him that questionwhat's it like being a general
in a war zone?
He would have told me things.

(01:14:35):
He would have told me things.
What is it like so, thosequestions?
What's it like?
What is it like so, thosequestions?
What's it like?
What's it like Anybody in anyfield?
What's it like being a middlebrother?
You know?
So, yeah, I'm in the middle.
You know what's it like being ayounger brother or a last
brother?
Do they bully you?
Oh, no, no, you see, don't Imade a mistake?
So, open questions, emotionalquestions yes, you get people

(01:15:01):
say things.
You know what.
He might have wept on our showon GTV.
We started talking about hisfather.
In fact, for like four weeks,anyone, when he came in front of
me, ended up crying yeah, causeI was asking questions that
were really entering the core.
Samini, too, wept when hethought about his friend Sonny
Bali.
Yes, that, when he thoughtabout his friend Sonny Bali.

(01:15:22):
Yes, that was a very emotionalinterview.
Kafi Danku also.
She was talking about thepeople who send crazy stuff into
her inbox Girls who are beingabused and it really affects her
so much, you know.
Yeah, so those ask shortquestions, listen carefully,
follow up, then ask stuff thatfollow, follow.
Ask short questions carefully,follow up and then what's it

(01:15:46):
like?
Questions are really good.
What's it like?
What's it like?
How do you?

Speaker 2 (01:15:49):
feel.
How do you feel?

Speaker 1 (01:15:50):
that's right.
It's like good questions now.

Speaker 2 (01:15:52):
Thank you, um.
Is there anything we could havespoken about today that I I
should have asked you that Ididn't?

Speaker 1 (01:16:01):
That's a broad question, I don't Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:16:12):
Something you still think we can talk about
Relevance to this conversation.

Speaker 1 (01:16:16):
Depends on what the audience wants.
What do your audience want fromme?
Mindset money.
My son was asking me recentlyhow to negotiate.
You know he's in university.
He's 20 years old.

Speaker 5 (01:16:33):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:16:34):
And he's taught himself how to DJ, how to
produce music.
So he started producing.
Now he's doing DJing and hewanted to know how to negotiate
to set his fees, you know, andso I read a lot around that.
The one that I saw that wasquite interesting was that if
you're going into like a newfield, say your charges, you

(01:17:02):
want to charge 10,000 CDs, butpeople don't know you, and if
you charge the 10,000, they willask for a discount all the time
.
So he says, give yourself 10clients to get to what you want
to charge.
So start, give them your andthis one.
I always tell people, even ifthey are working for free, let

(01:17:23):
them know how much your cost is,and discounted by 100 if you're
doing a free job okay, if Icharge 10 000, I'll say my fee
is 10 000, your discount is 100,your what you pay is zero.
So you know my fee.
This is what I'm worth.
If you tell people that I'mgoing to do it for free, they
disrespect you and disregard you.
Let them know that if they hadpaid so then they can actually
say that they were saving 10,000CDs.

(01:17:44):
So for the new client, I don'tsuggest that you go free.
So start with a 90% discount.
So my fee is 10,000, but I'mgiving you a 90% discount
because, well, give whateverreason.
So 10,000 minus 9,000 is 1,000.
Second client comes I'm goingto give you an 80% discount,
right?
Third client 70%.

(01:18:05):
Fourth client until you get to0%.
Now it's 10,000.
After that, increase your fees.

Speaker 2 (01:18:13):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:18:14):
After that, increase your fees.
So now go to 12,000, or 15, or20, whatever.
At a point in time, I wasincreasing my MC fees every
quarter.
Every quarter I push it up likea thousand.
Yeah, that's incredible yes sothat's a pricing, because people
worry about pricing.
Know what your target fee isand start from the bottom right.

(01:18:38):
Start with a 90% discount, goup, just like that.
It also teach you patience.
Yeah, you won't charge yourfull fee at the beginning and
get rejected because people havea way of just slashing your fee
.
But if you let them know thisis my fee, I'm giving you a 90
discount.
Nobody who is in the same rightsenses will reject a 90
discount yeah, motivation ordiscipline both but, you can

(01:19:02):
motivate yourself.
Yes, give yourself.
You don't need anybody to giveyourself feedback.
I read of this famous personwho spent some time in prison.
When he came out, he was aconcert pianist, no piano.
He drew the keyboard on thefloor and then imagined the

(01:19:22):
notes.
He came out, he was a concertpianist, no piano.
He drew the keyboard on thefloor and then imagine the notes
, came out and was givingconcerts.
Man, so it's not impossible.
Discipline is doing what youdon't want so that you can
finally get what you want.
It's as simple as that.
So the hard work now.
You either enjoy now and sufferlater, or suffer now and enjoy

(01:19:45):
later.
You choose.
I don't like to give advice, Ijust tell you what works for me
and there's some principles.
So, enjoy now, suffer later, orsuffer now, enjoy later, you
choose.
Yeah, you choose what's thebest advice, motivation.

(01:20:06):
So my yeah, yeah, you choose.
What's the best advice?
Motivation, motivation,motivation.
So years ago my kids came up tome and they were excited
because this guy was second,this guy was first, this guy was
third.
So I said, okay, fine.
It's good, it's good to top yourclass, it's good to be in the
top five or whatever.
I'm more interested in whetheryou're progressing.
So, are you improving from lastterm to this term?
I mean, if you got 65, which islike a C, last term, but this

(01:20:29):
term you got 66 or 67, I applaudyou.
You've gone up.
The only thing I demand of youis that next term, improve again
.
Just keep going up.
Improve again so that when youget to the top, it would have
been not you, not youbenchmarking yourself against

(01:20:50):
some other person, but you'reactually benchmarking against
yourself, and then you are lesslikely to be more arrogant
because you're on top or youfeel small because you are at
the bottom.
You know so always.
Am I improving?
Am I improving?
Am I improving?
I finished my previousinterview and I said no, I

(01:21:11):
forgot this question.
Man, I should have asked thisquestion.
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
So, so it's.
It's always improving, yes, andand benchmarking against
yourself.
There's a reason that athleteshave personal bests.
So Usain Bolt of course, hispersonal best would have been
the world record, because that'sthe best in the world, but

(01:21:31):
before that he got the worldrecord, I'm sure his times were
slower and anytime he goes tothe race.
Okay, I ran 9.73.
If I ran 9.72, I've improved.
If I ran 9.72, I've improved.
If I ran 9.71, I've improvedagain.
If I ran 9.85, I've gone back.
How do I get forward?
So I take inspiration fromathletes, because they are
always benchmarking themselves.

(01:21:52):
And if you work on yourself soI currently work at GTV, I run
right across the road, rightacross the wall is TV3.
And I find a lot of my.
Some of my colleagues arealways interested in what they
are doing, so they go and lookat their Facebook and say, oh,
they are doing this.
I said focus on yourself focuson yourself.

(01:22:14):
Yeah, yeah, you can't controlwhat somebody else is doing?
You can't control you.
What about this?
Somebody like, can you alwayscontrol you?
What about this somebody like,can you always control stuff?
I said but what if the personinsults me?
He said, well, the personinsults you, it's your reaction
that you can control.
You cannot control the insult,but you can control the reaction
to the insult.
But dad always said, listen,there are two types of insults
one you, one you.

(01:22:35):
You disregard the other youwork on.
If somebody says, look at hisbig head, what can I do about my
head shape?
Nothing.
I can't shave it like apineapple, I can't, okay.
But if he says, hmm, your mouthsmells that one, you can change
, do something about it.
Maybe you have some serioushalitosis or you eat too much

(01:22:58):
garlic.
You can change.
You can maybe change yourtoothpaste, chew gum, yeah.
So disregard the insults thatare going nowhere and focus on
what you can change.

Speaker 2 (01:23:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:23:16):
What's the best advice you've ever received?
If it's worth doing, it's worthdoing.
Well, fantastic, my dad again.

Speaker 2 (01:23:22):
Your dad.
Wow, if it's worth doing, it'sworth doing.

Speaker 1 (01:23:24):
Well, fantastic, my dad again your dad.
If it's worth doing, is whatthey will.
And no excuses.
Either you've done it or youhaven't done it.
Nothing was built with anexcuse.
Nothing in this room was builtfrom an excuse.
Nothing, nothing, nothing.
Watch, no shoes, no bottledwater, nothing.

(01:23:44):
The way you're looking is notfrom an excuse, it's intentional
.
So excuses are just like oh, Idon't want to do the work, do
the work.
If my father gave you work todo and he came for feedback,
there were only two responsesyes, I've done it or no, I
haven't.
Yes, I've done it, great.
Yes, I've done it or no, Ihaven't.
Yes, I've done it, great.
No, I've done it.
You need to follow up and thisis what I'm doing no, I haven't

(01:24:04):
done it and this is what I'mgoing to do to do it.
Not I was going to, I was aboutto, or somebody prevented me.
It's an excuse.
Yeah, no, no, no, wow, no.
You should see the people, theinterns who work with me.
I'm always asking them whathave you learned?
And somebody says I haven'tlearned anything.
Really, the whole day youhaven't learned anything.
It's always learning.

(01:24:26):
We are learning machines,amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:24:29):
Recommend a book for my audience.

Speaker 1 (01:24:33):
Same as ever.
It's by Morgan Housel and hetalks about the things that stay
permanent while other thingsare changing.
It's a very interesting way oflooking at life and while I was
reading it I was kind of puttingquotes on my status and people

(01:24:54):
were connecting with it.
Same as ever.
He's the same person who wrotethe Psychology of Money.
Yeah, so same as ever.
Same as ever as ever, wonderfulbook.
That's the last book.
Who wrote the Psychology of?

Speaker 2 (01:25:02):
Money, yeah, so same as ever.
Same as ever.

Speaker 1 (01:25:03):
Wonderful book.
That's the last book I read.
I see, yes, my kids ask mewhat's your favorite food?
I say well, the last meal I ateis my favorite food.
So the last book I read isMorgan Housel's book Same as
Ever.
I read it two days ago.

Speaker 2 (01:25:18):
Amazing.
Yes, thank you so much.
It's a pleasure.
I've enjoyed this conversationfrom when you walked in.
As a matter of fact, I'veenjoyed it from when I contacted
you, oh my man.
I've learned so much.

Speaker 1 (01:25:36):
What's one thing you've learned?

Speaker 2 (01:25:37):
Wow, short questions yes.
And then I take you all the wayback to the stage.

Speaker 1 (01:25:44):
Questions yes and then I take you all the way back
to the stage preparation.

Speaker 2 (01:25:46):
Yes, yeah, stage.
Yes, it's amazing.
I'm actually going to applyeverything for the event.
You can't forget it.
Yeah, I can't.
Yes, the way.

Speaker 1 (01:25:52):
I struck it.
You can't forget it, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:25:54):
And also your simplicity.
Yeah, you know you're verysimple and I admire that.

Speaker 1 (01:26:03):
Once again, it's my folks Put all the responsibility
on my folks.

Speaker 2 (01:26:07):
Yeah, they've done an incredible job.
They were simple people.

Speaker 5 (01:26:10):
My brothers are all like that?

Speaker 1 (01:26:11):
Very simple, nobody's flashy.
Everybody knows how to relatewith people.
One of the questions that I canalways predict from my younger
brother right after me whatbooks are you reading?
What are you reading?
What are you reading?
Years ago, my dad said if youwalk into somebody's house and

(01:26:32):
you see more video cassettesthan books flee.
You have nothing to learn fromthose guys.
See more videos than books.

Speaker 5 (01:26:44):
You say flee man, there's nothing.
When.
I came in.
I was looking at your books.

Speaker 1 (01:26:48):
Yeah, and there's more.

Speaker 2 (01:26:49):
So a few days ago I picked up.
I went to one of my friend'soffice and when I went there
there were so many books and Isaid you have like three or four
copies of these books, can I doshopping?
And then she goes yeah, so Ipicked up five books and then
the top one which I've read manyyears ago and I've still read,
is Rich Dad, poor Dad, but thereason.
I picked up that book wasbecause I wanted to give it to
my seven-year-old son.

(01:27:10):
Thank you, so I came home.
I mean he reads a lot, right,I'm driving out and then when I
come back tell me whether yougot everything.
I came back and then he saidDad, I really like the book, I'm
really enjoying it.
And I said really, do youunderstand the language?

(01:27:30):
Do you understand?
He says yes, and I said do youwant to carry on?
I said yeah, yeah.
Daddy.

Speaker 1 (01:27:34):
He took it upstairs.
That's great.
It's a good foundation.

Speaker 2 (01:27:39):
Telling you it's beautiful.

Speaker 1 (01:27:40):
I'll tell you a book story.
So you know, these days thechildren are not writing legibly
, and I don't think it's theirfault.
They are doing a lot of computerstuff, they don't really write
much.
So I had a complaint from mychildren when we were in primary
school.
The teachers were sayingCharlie, my people, your guys,

(01:28:15):
copy book.
So I went to the bookshop,looked at my first copy book and
I was not inspired by what wasin the book.
Who are my heroes?
Um, that's mandela, kwame,kruma, yep, which I agree.
So I went and bought threebooks offered by these three.
I distributed the books to mychildren.
Elder son got mandela.
I distributed the books to mychildren.
Eldest son got Mandela.
Second son got Nkrumah.
Third son got Agri.
And I said every day, just copyout a page from these books.
I'll come and inspect yourhandwriting.

(01:28:36):
Because I was thinking, man, Idon't want them to just write.
Amar went to eat Wachi.
I want you, while you arewriting, you are also learning
something.
Because I was thinking, man, Idon't want them to just write.
Am I going to eat?
wachi While you are writing,you're also learning something,
yeah yeah, yeah 20,.
Mandela died 2013.
I think December, around thattime, we're watching the news on

(01:28:56):
Mandela's death and then a guycomes up and my son, who by that
time is nine years old, says Iknow that man, cnn.
You know that man, and theguy's name is Ahmed Kathrada.
So I know him.
So where do you know him from?
So with the book he gave me, Ifound him in the book.

(01:29:19):
I said it just worked In mymind.
I said it worked.
It's not just me, I found himin the book.
I said it just worked In mymind.
I said it worked.
It's not just writing, butyou're also learning something.
I was so pleasantly surprised.
So books, books are it's a free, free travel man, free travel
to anywhere in the world.
Yes, yeah, yes.

Speaker 2 (01:29:36):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:29:37):
Derek, it's a pleasure, derek, it's a pleasure
.

Speaker 2 (01:29:39):
Thank you To my people.
If you made it to the end, byall means tell me in the
comments, and thank you so muchfor staying all the way up to
this point.
My name is Derek Abaiti.
Stay connected, I'm out.

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