Latest / Masterminds Podcast / From Banking to Baking: The Cupcake Boutique Story || Masterminds Podcast EP37

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From Banking to Baking: The Cupcake Boutique Story || Masterminds Podcast EP37 · Masterminds Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_02: I was born in Ghana.
0:01
SPEAKER_02: I left when I was four years old and I turned five in Canada.
0:04
SPEAKER_02: Before I came back to Ghana, I was working in the bank in Canada when I finished school.
0:08
SPEAKER_02: Ghana is the type of place where, again, there's no real format to anything, right?
0:13
SPEAKER_02: What you think will work here may not necessarily work right.
0:17
SPEAKER_02: So the mindset that you have over there, if you bring it back here, you may fail just because the environment is totally different, right?
0:24
SPEAKER_00: I love that you're saying that.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: I keep telling people there are actually more opportunities in Ghana for different as a businessmen than there are in the West.
0:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, in the West, I find that everything you think of has already been done.
0:35
SPEAKER_02: Whereas here, there's too much opportunities for new business ventures, right?
0:39
SPEAKER_02: Probably about a year into making the cakes and stuff from home, I figured to myself, hmm, why not build this thing into a business in 2014 cupcake routine with one?
0:49
SPEAKER_02: And shortly after, doom stuff happened.
0:52
SPEAKER_02: We weren't selling a product, we were selling you can be.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: Today's conversation is an amazing one because I always say I admire people who are able to go from I have a dream, I have an idea, to making it a reality.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: But to do so consistently over a decade in this tough country of ours means you have grits, you have stamina, and you have the innovation to keep gradually increasing your what can I say, your capacity as the hurdles are thrown towards you.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: So today I am seated with one of the co-founders of Cupcake Boutique.
1:44
SPEAKER_02: Hello, Richie.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: Hi, Aina.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: How are you doing?
1:47
SPEAKER_02: Hi, how are you?
1:48
SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for having me today.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: Oh, thank you for honoring my invitation.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: Before we even start, where are my cupcakes?
1:55
SPEAKER_00: Like, how could you come to the case?
1:57
SPEAKER_00: It's true, it's true, and you know, it's true.
1:59
SPEAKER_02: I'm so sorry this morning.
2:01
SPEAKER_02: It's true, it's true.
2:02
SPEAKER_02: You know what?
2:02
SPEAKER_02: I'll send over some cupcakes for you and your team.
2:06
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: So, how how are you doing?
2:08
SPEAKER_00: Like, the first thing I want to understand is how are you dealing with the everyday hustle of our country and being an entrepreneur?
2:17
SPEAKER_02: Hey, Ghana dear.
2:19
SPEAKER_02: You know, it's interesting because you wake up and you know you may have a certain plan in mind for today.
2:26
SPEAKER_02: Today's Monday, I'm gonna do X, Y, Z.
2:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:29
SPEAKER_02: And you get to work, and like I said, you end up having to do everything else other than what you actually set out for yourself to do.
2:36
SPEAKER_02: So Ghana can be stressful, but I mean, if you continue to, you know, push at it and you realize that every day the ups and downs and the journey, you you continue to just kind of you know get through everything and the struggles, yeah.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: Let me take you back to your childhood for a bit.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: Right.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: So you grew up in Ghana and Canada.
2:53
SPEAKER_02: So I was born in Ghana.
2:54
SPEAKER_02: I left when I was four years old, and I turned five in Canada.
2:58
SPEAKER_02: So I left at a very early age, yes.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: And how long were you in Canada before you came back?
3:02
SPEAKER_02: So I was in Canada for over 25 years or so before I came back.
3:06
SPEAKER_02: So I moved back to Ghana in 2009.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: 2009.
3:09
SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes, yes.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: So, what what in your childhood led to building the kind of mindset to have the grids that you have right now?
3:18
SPEAKER_02: I think I must say, you know, living abroad, um, pretty much early on in even in high school, you end up taking courses such as like civis and all of that kind of stuff, which kind of help you in terms of resume writing.
3:31
SPEAKER_02: You know, they help you to kind of guide yourself.
3:34
SPEAKER_02: So for the most part, people get a job at the age of what, like 16 or so when you live, you know, in North America or so.
3:40
SPEAKER_02: The minute you turn 16, you're like, ooh, I'm 16.
3:42
SPEAKER_02: I can go out and get a job and make my own money.
3:45
SPEAKER_02: Then I think I must also say that I realized that my mother and my father were very, very hard, you know, great work, hard workers, sorry, very, very dedicated to everything it is that they ever did in Canada.
3:57
SPEAKER_02: So my dad is probably the more entrepreneurial one out of my parents.
4:01
SPEAKER_02: My mom is very safe in the sense of, you know, you work a nine to five, you get a paycheck, and you can live your life like that.
4:07
SPEAKER_02: Whereas, you know, my dad did so many business ventures.
4:10
SPEAKER_02: So I must say my parents instilled the hard work in myself and my sister or my siblings for us to be able to realize that obviously hard work does, you know, pay off, right?
4:20
SPEAKER_00: But was it a cultural shift for you?
4:22
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you left when you were about four.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: So at that age, it's not too much of a cultural shift.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: But when you came back to Ghana in 2009, what was that like?
4:31
SPEAKER_02: So when I left at four, I didn't come back till I believe I came back, was it 1999 or 2000?
4:38
SPEAKER_02: Maybe like just around that time is when I came back.
4:41
SPEAKER_02: Um, I realized, I mean, I think for myself, if you wherever you place me, I'll do well in the sense of I'm very, very easy I'm easily adaptable to certain environments, right?
4:50
SPEAKER_02: So I always want to understand the culture, understand why people do certain things.
4:55
SPEAKER_02: Initially, maybe coming back, I must say that, you know, Ghana is the type of place where, again, there's no real format to anything, right?
5:04
SPEAKER_02: So you invented the thing.
5:05
SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes, yes, you invented as you go along.
5:07
SPEAKER_02: Seriously, you're inventing the wheel.
5:08
SPEAKER_02: Today you're gonna try this, tomorrow you're gonna try that.
5:10
SPEAKER_02: And what you think will work here may not necessarily work, right?
5:14
SPEAKER_02: So it's one of those situations where coming back and realizing that the mindset that you have over there, if you bring it back here, you may fail just because the environment is totally different, right?
5:24
SPEAKER_02: When you're under the sea, you know that you got to hold your breath to be able to survive.
5:28
SPEAKER_02: If you let your breath go, you inhale water and you end up drowning.
5:32
SPEAKER_02: So coming back to Ghana, you realize that you know you're in a different environment.
5:36
SPEAKER_02: You may have to breathe differently, you may have to walk differently, you may have to speak differently just to be able to adapt to the culture and to the changes of the people here.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: But when you came, you didn't start straight with entrepreneurship.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: You went into banking first?
5:49
SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes, yes, yes.
5:51
SPEAKER_02: So before I came back to Ghana, I was working in the bank in Canada when I finished school.
5:55
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
5:55
SPEAKER_02: And then coming back, I realized that okay, I can't come back to Ghana and like not have a job or have something to do, right?
6:01
SPEAKER_02: And obviously, job security is the safest thing.
6:04
SPEAKER_02: You get back, you work at nine to five, you know that you have a steady paycheck.
6:08
SPEAKER_02: Hated it, hated it, hated it, hated it.
6:11
SPEAKER_02: I think the business culture or the work culture environment in Ghana here is completely different.
6:16
SPEAKER_02: It's nothing like what we have in North America, you know.
6:20
SPEAKER_02: So I realized that that probably wasn't gonna be for me.
6:23
SPEAKER_02: Mind you, while I was working at the bank, I was the person that, like, I'll go to Nigeria, I'll buy hair, come and sell it in Ghana, I'll bring something from Canada, I'll come and sell it.
6:32
SPEAKER_02: So I was always, as much as I was exactly, I was the side hustle queen, literally.
6:37
SPEAKER_02: So I was always, always doing something that was entrepreneurial in the sense of like, as much as I was getting my nine to five or working a nine to five, I was still also doing that business journey on the side.
6:48
SPEAKER_02: So um I think it's one of those things that made you realize that, you know, coming back again, you get the paycheck.
6:55
SPEAKER_02: Then I'm like, uh, I don't know if that paycheck is gonna be good enough, right?
6:59
SPEAKER_02: Because there's just so many restrictions to that paycheck as well.
7:02
SPEAKER_02: It's not much, right?
7:03
SPEAKER_02: So it's one of those things where I then decided, you know what, at some point in time I really need to start something.
7:08
SPEAKER_02: What I was gonna start, I wasn't sure yet, but I knew I needed to do something.
7:13
SPEAKER_02: Again, gonna being an environment where, you know, it's an emerging economy, everything you in the West, I find that everything you think of has already been done.
7:22
SPEAKER_02: Whereas here, there's so much opportunities for new business ventures, right?
7:26
SPEAKER_02: It's very, you can be very innovative, you can be very creative with your ideas and all of that, and the and the system will absorb it.
7:33
SPEAKER_02: Whereas over there, there's a lot of red tape and restrictions to kind of limit to you or put you in a box.
7:38
SPEAKER_02: Because we obviously know that, I mean, more than 50% of small businesses in the West fail within the first one to two years, right?
7:45
SPEAKER_02: Whereas here, I find people are a little bit more um, what's the word, more enduring, right?
7:51
SPEAKER_02: And more um idea driven and have a bit more of the grids to be able to kind of see it through.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: I love that you're saying that.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: I keep telling people there are actually more opportunities in Ghana for entrepreneurs and businessmen than there are in the West.
8:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:06
SPEAKER_00: Because um business is about solving problems.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: So if you live in an economy which is trying to solve problems, then it gives you the chance to be innovative.
8:14
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
8:14
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
8:15
SPEAKER_00: How did cupcakes come about?
8:17
SPEAKER_02: Cupcakes.
8:18
SPEAKER_02: So um after I left the bank, I was working for another company as a marketing manager, hated that as well, right?
8:25
SPEAKER_02: So for me, I was like, I'm not gonna do this nine to five.
8:28
SPEAKER_02: It's just not working for me.
8:29
SPEAKER_02: I think my brain's always like thinking, right?
8:31
SPEAKER_02: Oh, what can I do?
8:32
SPEAKER_02: What's the next opportunity?
8:33
SPEAKER_02: The minute I walk into a room or I see something, I'm like, hmm, can that be a business?
8:37
SPEAKER_02: Can it be something that can develop into making money?
8:40
SPEAKER_02: So cupcakes came about.
8:42
SPEAKER_02: I was ever since I was young, I must say, I think one of my first jobs, Walmart.
8:47
SPEAKER_02: Every time I would get like my paycheck, I would be the person that's at the grocery store buying like cake mix, Betty Crocker.
8:53
SPEAKER_02: I love cooking, I love baking, I love, you know, just decorating and all of that kind of stuff.
8:58
SPEAKER_02: So I started baking from the house.
9:01
SPEAKER_02: You know, people would order, oh mom and I'm having a birthday party.
9:04
SPEAKER_02: Can you send me this?
9:05
SPEAKER_02: Or I'm doing this, can you make cupcakes 12, 4, 2, 6?
9:08
SPEAKER_02: It was one of those things that I was like, ah, this thing is so annoying.
9:11
SPEAKER_02: Imagine Friday nights.
9:12
SPEAKER_02: And those were the years where there was um, what's that place that used to be at a crowd mall?
9:17
SPEAKER_02: Um Rhapsody?
9:18
SPEAKER_02: Rap Sodis, exactly.
9:20
SPEAKER_02: So I remember, you know, going out some nights to Rhapsody and coming home maybe at like three, four in the morning, and somebody wanting you to give them an or or produce, like give them cupcakes, and by seven o'clock in the morning I have to be up to make sure I get the cupcakes ready to go and deliver to the person.
9:36
SPEAKER_02: So, probably about a year into making the cakes and stuff from home, I figured to myself, hmm, why not build this thing into a business?
9:43
SPEAKER_02: Would it work?
9:44
SPEAKER_02: Would it not work?
9:45
SPEAKER_02: Then shortly after that idea came to me, there's a company in DC.
9:50
SPEAKER_02: They were called Georgetown Cupcakes.
9:51
SPEAKER_02: Two ladies who started the business and they were literally selling cupcakes.
9:55
SPEAKER_02: There was a show on TLC that had them, you know, doing their cupcakes and the branding and the this.
10:00
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, hmm, this actually I think might work.
10:04
SPEAKER_02: Because when you actually think about it, at the time, I must say, must have only been bake shop that was in Ghana.
10:10
SPEAKER_02: That probably was the place that, you know, if you needed cakes that you didn't maybe make an order for in advance, you would be able to go to bake shop and pick up a cake.
10:19
SPEAKER_02: Even that I felt like it was still a bit of a challenge trying to get an order and maybe Karina cakes, another just one or two places that you'd be able to get a cake, not even on demand.
10:29
SPEAKER_02: It was very much like if you didn't place an order, you couldn't get a cake.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you had to order ahead of time, right?
10:34
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
10:34
SPEAKER_02: And oftentimes, how many times haven't you, Richie, been like, oh shoot, it's my friend's birthday or I need a cake or I need something to go and present to the person on their birthday.
10:43
SPEAKER_02: You know, it's sometimes it's an afterthought.
10:45
SPEAKER_02: So I engaged my sister at the time and um another business partner and said, you know, hey, you know, we're running, like, I'm doing this thing in Ghana.
10:53
SPEAKER_02: We should look at it and see if we can make a business out of it.
10:57
SPEAKER_02: Of course, we did a we we did like a whole launch thing in Canada where we invited family and friends.
11:04
SPEAKER_02: I baked cakes, I decorated it and all that.
11:06
SPEAKER_02: We set it up and then hosted like an event there just to kind of, you know, it was a small, soft launch into what we really actually wanted to do.
11:14
SPEAKER_02: At the time as well, I realized that if I wanted to do this as a business, I needed to be a master of my game, right?
11:20
SPEAKER_02: So I went back to uh school.
11:23
SPEAKER_02: I took a year off in Canada and went back to a school called Bonnie Gordon.
11:26
SPEAKER_02: It's no longer there, but it's one of the best like confectionery baking schools in Canada.
11:31
SPEAKER_02: So I took a course or courses over there in terms of confectionery and baking.
11:36
SPEAKER_02: And hence I developed the skill as to understanding the science of baking, right?
11:40
SPEAKER_02: Because baking is a science and people often forget that.
11:43
SPEAKER_02: Baking is not like cooking.
11:44
SPEAKER_02: You know, when you're cooking, if you forget salt, you can add a little side.
11:47
SPEAKER_02: If you add too much salt, even you put potatoes inside or carrots something to balance it.
11:51
SPEAKER_02: But with baking, listen, you forget one thing and you won't realize that you've forgotten the thing until you bake the cake.
11:58
SPEAKER_02: So the end result is what shows you if you did the processes right.
12:02
SPEAKER_02: Hence went back to school, did that, and then developed the mass or the craft in that.
12:07
SPEAKER_02: My sister at the time had finished university, she did marketing and um communication.
12:13
SPEAKER_02: So I was like, wow, if we really put these two things together in the sense of, you know, I'm the baking aspect of the business, the business and the marketing and the branding aspect of the business, and they merge together, what a beauty that would be.
12:25
SPEAKER_02: And hence in 2014, Cupcake Boutique was born.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: I love that story.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: So you see, um, I always say that most people see the finished product and just imagine, oh, this was well planned, and they snap their fingers and it happened.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: But no, absolutely not.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm loving the transition from working a 95 to trying so many side hustles, then leaning into something that you are naturally passionate about, then recognizing how to turn that into a business.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: And my favorite part is that even though you had the natural skills, you decided to perfect it.
13:01
SPEAKER_02: Oh, 100%.
13:02
SPEAKER_02: You had it before starting.
13:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
13:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: You had grit even before you started the business.
13:06
SPEAKER_02: I must say, no, I'm definitely again, I believe in once you want to do something, try and do it and do it well, right?
13:15
SPEAKER_02: So as opposed to, you know, trying to wing it or half-ass it because it obviously then will tell in the results, yeah.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: But when you started with your sister, you brought her in, started the marketing, started the bacon.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: And I must say, cupcake boutique for me became an overnight success.
13:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I wish.
13:33
SPEAKER_02: Is there anything as that microwave, microwave success?
13:38
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely not.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: But but let me know what that process was like when you actually entered.
13:42
SPEAKER_02: Oh wow.
13:43
SPEAKER_02: Um, so we started cupcake boutique and shortly after Doom Cell happened, and we all know what that was like.
13:50
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
13:51
SPEAKER_02: I remember trying to bake and lights go off, and you're just like, oh my God, what are we gonna do?
13:58
SPEAKER_02: Then you got to go and rent a generator.
14:00
SPEAKER_02: I remember I think for almost two months straight, we had rented a generator.
14:04
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
14:04
SPEAKER_02: So every money we were making, mind you, we started off the business with like what we had, right?
14:10
SPEAKER_02: Like put every money into developing the business in the sense of building out your kitchen, building out your storefront, your staff, your this, you're that, you're that.
14:17
SPEAKER_02: So it was never like there was some big pot of money.
14:20
SPEAKER_02: You know, people always have this perception that like when people start business, there's like some big pot of money or something that you just keep injecting into the business.
14:27
SPEAKER_02: Listen, Richie, it was a nightmare.
14:29
SPEAKER_02: Like there were some days where you're like, there's no light, the lights would go off.
14:33
SPEAKER_02: We need to call the generator, we need to do this.
14:35
SPEAKER_02: We had to buy a generator one night because I think we had, was it an event or we had an order or something?
14:42
SPEAKER_02: And we used to work night shift at the time.
14:44
SPEAKER_02: The bakers would come in in the night.
14:46
SPEAKER_02: And from like seven to probably about 2 a.m., we realized that we were not gonna have light at this point.
14:52
SPEAKER_02: We ended up driving, I'll never forget that night, driving to Isle Gon.
14:56
SPEAKER_02: I called somebody, somebody gave me a contact.
14:57
SPEAKER_02: I called the man, he gave us the generator, we lifted it up.
15:00
SPEAKER_02: Like it was listen, pure craziness.
15:03
SPEAKER_02: But at the end of the day, it was all worth it, right?
15:07
SPEAKER_02: So the business, I must say, my sister is amazing.
15:10
SPEAKER_02: Like Ruby does all the day-to-day aspects of the business.
15:13
SPEAKER_02: She, I think once you realize what your skill set in life is, it makes things a lot easier, right?
15:18
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
15:19
SPEAKER_02: I'm an initiator, I'm a dream of the business.
15:22
SPEAKER_02: Let's figure this out, let's start it up, start it.
15:24
SPEAKER_02: And then Ruby is great at you know, the management and the paperwork and the secretarial stuff.
15:30
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to deal with that.
15:31
SPEAKER_02: So for me, I'm like, that's not my stronghold.
15:34
SPEAKER_02: Let me work on what is my stronghold and harness that, right?
15:37
SPEAKER_02: So um a lot of the doing of the business, the the marketing, the branding, the communication, all of that stuff that you guys see on social media, like Ruby's the brains behind all of that.
15:47
SPEAKER_02: Like she's the person that will envision it and you know, she's gonna do a mood board and this and that and that.
15:52
SPEAKER_02: I'm the person that's like, okay, the meeting, like, let's talk about it, but she's gonna, you know, put everything down on paper.
15:58
SPEAKER_02: So I think that flow helps us in terms of the business.
16:01
SPEAKER_02: But um, yeah, I think every success that the business or the company has has achieved has been nothing but short of the glory of God.
16:10
SPEAKER_02: And I mean, I hate to sound cliche, but let me just exercise my faith here because it it is nothing short but then the glory and the grace of God.
16:18
SPEAKER_02: Um when you just see, you know, even having to go through COVID, having to go through doom.
16:24
SPEAKER_02: So every possible thing the business has probably gone through, right?
16:29
SPEAKER_02: So now and it's still standing.
16:31
SPEAKER_02: That's where you know that if it's not the God factor, it's nothing else.
16:34
SPEAKER_02: It's not by my might, it's not by her strength or whatever.
16:37
SPEAKER_02: But at the end of the day, we know that the hand of God is in the business because from the start we initi we like we dedicated it to God.
16:44
SPEAKER_02: So hence 11 years in, we're still standing strong.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: So no, I understand the dynamics because they say for any business to thrive, you need someone who's a visionary.
16:54
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: You need someone who understands the technical, yep, and then you need someone who executes.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: So when you combine the two of you, you have these three expenses.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: Exactly, exactly.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: That's how we keep it.
17:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm 100% the visionary executor.
17:07
SPEAKER_02: The in-between, I'm like, Ruby, you take that go ahead.
17:11
SPEAKER_02: Do all the technical stuff, you go ahead and do that.
17:13
SPEAKER_02: But execution, hands down, you draw it or put it, give me the paper, I will go and execute it for you.
17:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, let me dream about it, I will execute it for you.
17:21
SPEAKER_02: But then the day-to-day aspect of it, because I mean, like I said, Ghana, hey, running business here, you go to work, and like I said, with workers and with this, the every day there's something new.
17:32
SPEAKER_02: So for me, I'm like, you know what?
17:34
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I really thing about it being tough because it builds strong people.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: 100%.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: You know, 100%.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: I always love it when something is like an uncharted territory.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: Right.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: The kind of place where you need to figure things out for yourself.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: It's tough, but once you do it, you've actually built a template that you can now use to grow other things.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: 100%.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:55
SPEAKER_02: And I think the beauty of it as well is having so many people depend on us at the end of the month, right?
18:02
SPEAKER_02: Um, it's definitely a blessing, and nobody should ever take it for granted.
18:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
18:06
SPEAKER_02: That between Cupcake Boutique and then we have another company called Mana, we have about almost 40-something staff.
18:14
SPEAKER_02: So every month we know that 40-something people depend on us to m to be able to, you know, go on with their livelihoods with their children, with their families, with, you know, their schooling, with whatever it is that they obviously take their paycheck to do.
18:28
SPEAKER_02: I think that is one of the most satisfying aspects of the of the business.
18:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: Now I need to know as you were suffering, as you were going through all these literally suffering.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: These tough moments.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: When did the light switch on?
18:42
SPEAKER_00: When did you notice that?
18:44
SPEAKER_00: Oh wow, this is actually going to work.
18:47
SPEAKER_02: I think that probably would have been in the early stages.
18:51
SPEAKER_02: Again, my faith is crazy, as in oh my God, if you brought me here, you're gonna see me through each and every aspect and step of the business, through the highs, through the lows.
19:01
SPEAKER_02: CNN did a feature on us, um, African startups.
19:05
SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think at that moment is where I realized after after this the session aired, um, we were getting calls from like Kenya and Nigeria.
19:15
SPEAKER_02: Mind you, we were like a year or like two years into the business at the time, right?
19:19
SPEAKER_02: Had we listen, how we were even going to produce cakes alone for the next day was difficult in the sense of, you know, all of us like no one had ever started a business before.
19:31
SPEAKER_02: It was my first legit proper business.
19:34
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
19:34
SPEAKER_02: I mean, selling, you know, bras and underwears in the office or selling hair or selling body splash and all of that stuff wasn't really a formal business.
19:42
SPEAKER_02: But that was the first ever business where you're like, listen, if the company doesn't make money, 15 people maybe at the time are not gonna eat at the end of the month.
19:52
SPEAKER_02: And I say it and I continue to say it to the glory of God that since we've ever started the business, there has never, ever, ever been a month that we haven't been able to pay our staff members, or that somebody's like, Oh, I'm working at a company and for two or one month I haven't been paid.
20:09
SPEAKER_02: Never, it's never happened before, right?
20:11
SPEAKER_02: So, again, not by my doing, it's just by the grace of God.
20:15
SPEAKER_02: So after that whole all the phone calls started coming in and people were like, Oh, we want franchise.
20:19
SPEAKER_02: We're all kind of like, franchise, huh?
20:21
SPEAKER_02: Franchise, I can't even we don't even know how many gigs we're selling at this point, and you know, because we hadn't formalized everything.
20:29
SPEAKER_02: But I think in the back of my mind, I always realized that the business would work considering the fact that every day, 365 days a year, somebody's celebrating a birthday, somebody is having a wedding, somebody is having uh a christening, somebody is graduating from school, somebody there's always something to be celebrated.
20:51
SPEAKER_02: And with Cupcake Boutique, our motto was that you deserve it.
20:54
SPEAKER_02: Why do you deserve it?
20:55
SPEAKER_02: You deserve it because you've done well, you deserve it because you graduated, you deserve it because you're getting married.
21:02
SPEAKER_02: So you deserve it just because of every day's small little life indulgence, right?
21:06
SPEAKER_02: You're sitting here today, you've had a long, stressful day.
21:09
SPEAKER_02: When you're going home, hey, let me pass by Cupcake Boutique.
21:12
SPEAKER_02: Why?
21:12
SPEAKER_02: You deserve it.
21:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you deserve it for the day because you've worked so hard.
21:15
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
21:16
SPEAKER_02: So I think that was when we realized that the business was going to be successful successful if we harnessed that aspect in the sense of you know, the celebrations, the convenience.
21:28
SPEAKER_02: Like I said, we we weren't selling a product, we were selling you convenience.
21:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that was the key.
21:33
SPEAKER_02: In the sense of if you didn't order in advance, you could still rush over to Cupcake Boutique.
21:39
SPEAKER_02: But also with the growth of the business, obviously, you know, with business, things are changing every day.
21:44
SPEAKER_02: There's new products coming out.
21:45
SPEAKER_02: And if you're not able to transition with the with the times, it makes things difficult.
21:50
SPEAKER_02: So, of course, we started off with our core product of cupcakes um and drinks at the time.
21:55
SPEAKER_02: We had croissants and certain other things, but we realized that certain things just weren't really.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: Really doing well.
22:01
SPEAKER_02: I say that Ghana is an interesting place.
22:03
SPEAKER_02: You can have an idea and have a mindset to say that, you know, this is what I want to do for my business.
22:08
SPEAKER_02: And the business terrain and Ghana will dictate for you.
22:12
SPEAKER_02: You can say, you know what to do.
22:14
SPEAKER_02: They'll tell you what to do, where to go, what to buy, what we're going to buy.
22:17
SPEAKER_02: You're not going to tell them what you're providing.
22:19
SPEAKER_02: They're going to tell you.
22:21
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, we had the cupcakes, we had other products, but they weren't moving as much.
22:25
SPEAKER_02: And till date, cupcakes are our number one seller, right?
22:28
SPEAKER_02: As much as we have all the other product offerings, but we've introduced our cinnamon rolls.
22:32
SPEAKER_02: We've introduced matcha.
22:33
SPEAKER_02: We love the cinnamon rolls.
22:34
SPEAKER_02: Yes, thank you.
22:36
SPEAKER_02: The best in town, by the way.
22:37
SPEAKER_02: We've introduced matcha.
22:39
SPEAKER_02: We've introduced so many other product offerings, ice cream, which then doesn't just limit you when you come in.
22:44
SPEAKER_02: Because the name Cupcake Boutique, if you're just looking at the name, you may think, oh, it's only cupcakes exactly.
22:50
SPEAKER_02: But I mean, we sell so many products other than cupcakes.
22:55
SPEAKER_02: We have like again, you have cakes, mini cakes, large cakes that are available to you.
23:00
SPEAKER_02: If you did forget your girlfriend's birthday and you wanted to say, hey, I gotta run in and get something for the person, they're available for you to pick up.
23:07
SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
23:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: But how do you handle the biggest crisis I know every entrepreneur has?
23:16
SPEAKER_00: At least once a year, once a month, or once a day, every entrepreneur thinks, I can't do this anymore.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: Oh, on those dark days, how do you overcome that?
23:28
SPEAKER_02: Again, when you realize that it's not about you, is when you I I believe that your purpose has been fulfilled, right?
23:37
SPEAKER_02: As much as I want to say, Oh, it's I don't want to do this anymore.
23:40
SPEAKER_02: And there have been times where I'm like, I I really don't want to do this anymore.
23:44
SPEAKER_02: But when you don't want to do this anymore, how about all those people that God has bestowed onto you to be a custodian of their destinies, right?
23:51
SPEAKER_02: And I I mean, destiny might be a big word, but if somebody is reliant on you for their paycheck at the end of the month and you choose to not do this anymore, what's gonna happen to that individual?
24:01
SPEAKER_02: So in taking yourself outside of whatever it is that you're doing, irrespective of the highs and the lows, and just realizing that you know what, the purpose isn't about you, it's about fulfilling all other people.
24:13
SPEAKER_02: Imagine as a customer, you I remember, yes, so we celebrated our 10-year anniversary last year and we closed for a week to do renovations.
24:22
SPEAKER_04: Oh, you can imagine.
24:24
SPEAKER_02: That was the time when I realized that oh, cupcake boutique, as for this one, yeah, we've established ourselves in Ghana.
24:29
SPEAKER_02: I mean, people were driving up.
24:31
SPEAKER_02: Hey, where's Cupcake?
24:32
SPEAKER_02: We said, Oh, we're closed for a week.
24:34
SPEAKER_02: People couldn't understand it.
24:35
SPEAKER_02: How can you be closed?
24:37
SPEAKER_02: The convenience.
24:38
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
24:39
SPEAKER_02: So if I can go and get a cupcake, exactly.
24:41
SPEAKER_02: Now thank you.
24:42
SPEAKER_02: So if I get there and you're not you're closed, what do you mean you're closed?
24:46
SPEAKER_02: Why don't you have cake selling in the front?
24:47
SPEAKER_02: Type of thing.
24:48
SPEAKER_02: That was the moment where you realize that okay, you know what?
24:50
SPEAKER_02: This is this purpose is not about you, it's about the community, it's about Ghana, it's about your workers, it's about everyone else, other than you per se, as an individual, right?
25:00
SPEAKER_00: So I think that's that's I think that's one thing most people miss.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, I always say the moment your purpose is bigger than yourself, exactly, that's what gives you the ability to keep going.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: When you're doing things for selfish reasons, I say life is is very funny, right?
25:17
SPEAKER_00: To be selfish and do things for yourself, you need to be selfless and do things for others.
25:22
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
25:23
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
25:24
SPEAKER_02: 100%.
25:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
25:25
SPEAKER_02: 100%.
25:26
SPEAKER_02: And I mean, people may think, well, cupcake boutique is millions.
25:30
SPEAKER_02: And when you realize the overheads in Ghana and everything else, sometimes you will ask yourself, why are them I then really doing this?
25:38
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
25:39
SPEAKER_02: But when you take yourself out of the equation and you realize that there's a bigger purpose, there's a bigger picture, there's the the future of the more branches, the more this.
25:50
SPEAKER_02: People think that you know, entrepreneurship is a destination, it's a journey.
25:54
SPEAKER_02: So you never once arrived.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: It's a wonderful journey.
25:56
SPEAKER_02: You never once arrive, right?
25:58
SPEAKER_02: You you actually just never arrive.
25:59
SPEAKER_02: It's one of those things that it's like till infinity, right?
26:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
26:02
SPEAKER_02: Light years away.
26:04
SPEAKER_02: That every single day there's something new.
26:07
SPEAKER_02: Every single day you're learning something new, you're grabbing new aspects, you're doing this.
26:11
SPEAKER_02: So um, I think I really must say that that is the moment in time where you realize that you know what, this this is the purpose.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: And also about finding your place in community.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: That's one of the most beautiful things about entrepreneurship.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: The fact that you fit into the community and help solve a problem.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: So then it really is bigger than you.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: And you keep evolving every day to be more of service to the community.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: And now that the world is a global village, it's like you're serving even a bigger community.
26:41
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: Did you ever figure out the franchising or not yet?
26:44
SPEAKER_02: We're almost there.
26:45
SPEAKER_02: We're getting there.
26:46
SPEAKER_02: We're getting there.
26:47
SPEAKER_02: Um, I think in terms of our growth, we definitely have done an amazing job to sit here and boast that you know we're not working off of any like financing, which is not the best because obviously we know that, and this is just a segue into maybe another conversation of you know, the lack of funding that you find coming on in Africa.
27:06
SPEAKER_02: So um, in terms of our growth, we are looking at other locations.
27:10
SPEAKER_02: Or, I mean, we now have our most recent location, which is in East Lagon, which is doing, thank you so much, which is doing amazing by the grace of God.
27:18
SPEAKER_02: That opened up in December.
27:19
SPEAKER_02: So we have the East Lagon, you know, which is feeding a huge demographic of people, you know, great purchasing power.
27:26
SPEAKER_02: East Lagon, I think everyone knows it's like food, food central.
27:29
SPEAKER_02: It's like Beverly Hills of Ghana, right?
27:32
SPEAKER_02: In terms of cars, in terms of food, in terms of all of lifestyles, pretty much, yeah.
27:36
SPEAKER_02: So um, once we entered the East Lagon market, we realized that you know what, this is definitely a place that's gonna do well.
27:42
SPEAKER_02: And then we have two other branches coming up in the um in this quarter for this year.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: But I love what you've built on your own.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: I I keep trying to explain to people, you know, most people look for funding a little too early.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: And I think that culture not being in Ghana helps build entrepreneurs that when they do get the funding, they know how to handle it.
28:05
SPEAKER_02: 100%.
28:06
SPEAKER_02: 100%.
28:07
SPEAKER_02: Because I find that as you're saying, looking for funding in the initial stages, I mean, for a startup, we know that they're very, very expensive.
28:15
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
28:16
SPEAKER_02: But once you do something and you do it over and over and over and over and over, somewhat you become a master of your craft, right?
28:24
SPEAKER_02: So at that point, you then have that leverage to say, you know what, let me go to this individual or let me come to that bank or present myself to this person to be able to secure more funding to be able to grow the business.
28:37
SPEAKER_02: Because at that point in time, your your product is tried and tried, it is tried and tested.
28:41
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
28:42
SPEAKER_02: So you know what you're holding.
28:44
SPEAKER_02: I know that our business probably is probably, I shouldn't say probably, is one of the household names in Ghana.
28:52
SPEAKER_02: I mean, if you are a child and you don't know Cupcake Boutique, then maybe you live in like, I don't know, Kumase somewhere, right?
28:58
SPEAKER_02: No offense to anyone from Kumase, because I'm from there.
29:00
SPEAKER_02: Very soon those in Kumase.
29:01
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
29:02
SPEAKER_02: Those in Kumase will know of us.
29:04
SPEAKER_02: So I believe that the business has has been able to become a household recognizable name that everybody, be it male, be it female, be it mother, be it child, knows about cupcake boutique as their go-to point for you know, um cakes and uh what do you call it?
29:23
SPEAKER_02: Just desserts for the most part.
29:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: But you didn't limit your boutique name to only cupcakes.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: No.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: You know, when I was doing research on you, when I saw boutique interiors.
29:33
SPEAKER_02: I was like, hey, Richie, how did you come up with that one?
29:35
SPEAKER_02: We didn't, I didn't even talk about when we initially met.
29:39
SPEAKER_02: I never spoke about it.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: When I when I saw it on Google, I thought, okay, maybe just a similar name, not the same person.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: I went to look at the picture, I was like, hey, it's just yes, yes, yes.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: Please tell me interior design.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: How did that go?
29:49
SPEAKER_02: So again, I think it life's life is a very interesting journey in the sense of, you know, we talk about like that 360 moment, right?
30:00
SPEAKER_02: Going back to if you actually even ask yourself now, everything that you're doing now as an adult, you probably were doing it as a child, not formally, like you maybe, but you were probably very engaged.
30:12
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you were always asking questions, you were always very inquisitive, you were always doing a lot of research.
30:17
SPEAKER_04: True.
30:18
SPEAKER_02: That now is transcending into who you are as an adult, right?
30:21
SPEAKER_02: So when I was younger, I'll probably again get my paycheck from work, and then I'm like, oh, I'm gonna change the curtains in my room, or I'm gonna buy a new bed sheet, or I'm gonna do this, or I'm gonna do that.
30:32
SPEAKER_02: It's always been a part of me in terms of like interior design.
30:35
SPEAKER_02: I'm the person that I'll walk into somebody's house and I'm like, why is that picture there?
30:40
SPEAKER_02: Why is it crooked life?
30:41
SPEAKER_02: Or they didn't do why did they paint their wall like this, or why did they do that?
30:45
SPEAKER_02: I think my probably my biggest, my first um interior design project, I kind of fell into interior design in the sense of as much as I was doing it as a hobby, when we were opening up Cupcake Boutique, a friend of mine introduced me to a gentleman, a contractor, who was gonna do our first outfitting of our store for us.
31:05
SPEAKER_02: So, as you know, I mean, we were across the street where the Stambic now is in in Laboni.
31:09
SPEAKER_02: We were in a container.
31:10
SPEAKER_02: So um, we decided, you know what, let's jazz up this container and make it beautiful and do, you know, the landscaping and all of that.
31:18
SPEAKER_02: Hence, we started on that journey.
31:20
SPEAKER_02: And at some point I remember just giving the guy money, money, money, money.
31:24
SPEAKER_02: And I would go to the site and like nothing was happening.
31:26
SPEAKER_02: I was like, what's wrong with this guy?
31:28
SPEAKER_02: And I would complain to my friend, may his soul rest in peace now.
31:31
SPEAKER_02: I mean, he's no longer with us.
31:33
SPEAKER_02: Um, and I said to my friend, I'm not gonna use this guy anymore.
31:37
SPEAKER_02: Like, this is ridiculous.
31:38
SPEAKER_02: Like, get rid of him, let's find somebody else.
31:40
SPEAKER_02: And I thought to myself, why am I gonna find somebody else?
31:42
SPEAKER_02: Like, Ana, you actually can do this yourself.
31:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, because I've always had the eye and the passion for that kind of stuff, I knew exactly what I wanted.
31:50
SPEAKER_02: Hence, that was probably my first baby or my first interior project, right?
31:55
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it wasn't exactly my first, I was my own first client.
31:58
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, from the landscaping to the interiors of Cupcake Boutique down to everything.
32:02
SPEAKER_02: I mean, the aesthetics, all of that.
32:04
SPEAKER_02: I was like, you know what, I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do it well to the cap to like the greatest of my capacity at the time, right?
32:10
SPEAKER_02: 11 years ago.
32:12
SPEAKER_02: And then I did that.
32:13
SPEAKER_02: And then during the COVID pandemic, I got stuck in the US, traveled to the US, got stuck there, and I was like, you know what?
32:21
SPEAKER_02: I need to figure out something.
32:22
SPEAKER_02: Like, what am I gonna do?
32:24
SPEAKER_02: Actually, sorry, before that, I lived in New York.
32:26
SPEAKER_02: So again, I did courses online, interior design.
32:31
SPEAKER_02: So I did courses at the New York uh Institute of Design.
32:34
SPEAKER_02: And I remember like they would mail you your work and you're supposed to like do the sketches and like mail it back.
32:40
SPEAKER_02: Mind you, I'm the type of person that like I am not an online type of student.
32:44
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
32:44
SPEAKER_02: I'm the type of student that I need to be in the classroom.
32:47
SPEAKER_02: I'm like first row and asking questions, whatever.
32:50
SPEAKER_02: When they mail you your work and they're like, yeah, sketch this thing and send it back to us.
32:53
SPEAKER_02: I was like, what the heck is this?
32:55
SPEAKER_02: But you know what?
32:56
SPEAKER_02: I realized that again, if I wanted to get into interior design, I needed to understand the skill set and the mindset of an interior designer or interior stager.
33:05
SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's different aspects of design, right?
33:07
SPEAKER_02: There's interior staging, there's interior styling, but um, so I did a course that was more focused on interior styling and interior design with the again, the New York Institute of Design.
33:19
SPEAKER_02: And I would mail back in my work, and of course, you get, you know, oh, great job.
33:22
SPEAKER_02: This is great thinking.
33:23
SPEAKER_02: But I was like, nah, I need to be on ground.
33:25
SPEAKER_02: Like I need to figure this thing out exactly.
33:28
SPEAKER_02: I'm also a very much of an accessories person, right?
33:30
SPEAKER_02: I believe accessories bring a home together.
33:33
SPEAKER_02: They, they, it's like the perfume that you put on after you've dressed yourself up.
33:37
SPEAKER_02: So I thought to myself, hmm, during this COVID pandemic, like when I go back to Ghana, apart from Orca Deco, who are like the big box stores, right?
33:45
SPEAKER_02: They have the big pieces and all of that.
33:47
SPEAKER_02: There's no, there wasn't any real store where I felt like had, you know, proper home decor accessory pieces, you know, coffee, real coffee table books, mind you, not those full ones that like you lift up and it's like a hole inside.
34:00
SPEAKER_02: And mind you, I think those things are gross.
34:02
SPEAKER_02: Like they need to stop making them because why would you want a book that is not a book?
34:06
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
34:08
SPEAKER_02: So I started purchasing all of my things online, started saying, you know what, when I go back to Ghana, I'm gonna open an accessory store, you know, with books and furnishings and bed treat bed sheets and linens and all of that kind of stuff.
34:21
SPEAKER_02: And hence in 2023, I believe it was, boutique interiors was born.
34:27
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
34:28
SPEAKER_02: So that's how that was the story of how I got into, I guess, in interior design as a thing.
34:34
SPEAKER_02: And now, I mean, it probably takes up a lot more of my time than uh cupcake boutique does, just because with interiors it requires a lot more involvement, right?
34:42
SPEAKER_02: Sourcing, going from store to store, being sitting down with the client, trying to, you know, come up with what it is that they want for their home and all of that kind of stuff.
34:50
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
34:50
SPEAKER_02: So I love interior design as well.
34:52
SPEAKER_02: Oh, you managing to do all this because entrepreneurs is tough.
34:56
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you're watching this right now, let me tell you, I know we say all the time, entrepreneurship is the way to go, own your own business, but it's tough.
35:04
SPEAKER_02: It's not for everyone.
35:05
SPEAKER_02: And I think people really need to understand this.
35:08
SPEAKER_02: And I will say here and I'll say it to you that Richie society or I mean social media now, right, puts a lot of emphasis on like, oh, be your own boss, she boss, da-da-da, boss, whatever type of boss.
35:20
SPEAKER_02: Listen, not everybody's gonna be a boss.
35:22
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, honestly.
35:24
SPEAKER_02: People need to realize that if it's not in you, it's just not in you.
35:28
SPEAKER_02: Because again, you can go from a day of having zero to having some, and a day of having some to having zero again.
35:35
SPEAKER_02: Negative.
35:36
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
35:37
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
35:37
SPEAKER_02: And like trying to figure it out, like what the heck, how am I gonna, you know, make this work.
35:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
35:42
SPEAKER_02: So people should harness what their God, you know, their God-given gift is.
35:48
SPEAKER_02: If you are a career-oriented person, stick to your career 100%.
35:53
SPEAKER_02: Like, don't leave your career because society's telling you that you're never gonna get rich off of working for somebody else.
35:58
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, maybe that's just not your portion.
36:00
SPEAKER_02: Maybe that's just not your journey in life, right?
36:02
SPEAKER_02: Don't leave what you are good at to try to pursue what society's telling you that you need to do because you're then gonna fail.
36:09
SPEAKER_02: Again, entrepreneurship comes with that whole drive, you know, the whole question of are entrepreneurs born or are they made?
36:15
SPEAKER_02: I it it it it can be exactly.
36:20
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
36:21
SPEAKER_02: So um, I must say that with entrepreneurship, there's no, there's it's not like a linear line, right?
36:26
SPEAKER_02: It's not like okay, go from here, then you go from here, then you go from here, you can go from here to here to here to here, and just all over the place.
36:33
SPEAKER_02: And it it continues to be that journey.
36:35
SPEAKER_02: Hence, I said it's not a destination, it's a journey, right?
36:38
SPEAKER_00: So that's I think we just need to prepare people for that.
36:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, people don't understand that everything is hard.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: I always say, choose your heart.
36:48
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
36:49
SPEAKER_00: You know, exactly.
36:49
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to be an employee, yeah.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to be a entrepreneur.
36:53
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to be broke, it's hard to be rich.
36:55
SPEAKER_00: Just 100%.
36:57
SPEAKER_00: But I don't want people thinking that owning a business is the easy way out.
37:03
SPEAKER_00: It's not.
37:03
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, my boss is stressing me.
37:05
SPEAKER_00: Do I need to get this salary?
37:07
SPEAKER_00: Do I need to work nine to five?
37:08
SPEAKER_00: Let me open a business.
37:10
SPEAKER_00: It's not an alternative.
37:12
SPEAKER_02: No, no, no.
37:13
SPEAKER_02: And owning the business, you realize that your boss may be stressing you.
37:16
SPEAKER_02: That's one person.
37:17
SPEAKER_02: Now you got the cleaner stressing you, you have your workers stressing, you have your accountant stressing you, you have the light stressing, you have Ghana's economy stressing you, you have the air stressing, all the stressors, they just keep coming.
37:28
SPEAKER_02: You understand?
37:29
SPEAKER_02: So, as you're saying, choose your hard, right?
37:32
SPEAKER_02: Work a nine to five and get your paycheck.
37:34
SPEAKER_02: And if that's what you're good at, oh, 100%.
37:37
SPEAKER_02: Like harness that.
37:38
SPEAKER_02: But if you your your passion or your zeal is to then become an entrepreneur, just know that it comes with its ups and downs, its highs and its lows, and just be ready to go through that journey.
37:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you mentioned the economy.
37:50
SPEAKER_00: Do you feel the Daniel economy favors entrepreneurship?
37:54
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely not.
37:56
SPEAKER_02: And why do I say that it doesn't favor entrepreneurship?
38:01
SPEAKER_02: In the West, we typically see that there's a lot of funding for entrepreneurship.
38:07
SPEAKER_02: Black female entrepreneur, one-hand entrepreneur, disabled entrepreneur, you can't speak, you get a funding for being an entrepreneur.
38:16
SPEAKER_02: Uh I mean, there's just so many, there's there's such an ecosystem and a cushioning for entrepreneurship that it allows you to be able to explore the options.
38:28
SPEAKER_02: Here, I find people are not necessarily entrepreneurs by choice, but it's by what society or what the world has given you, right?
38:36
SPEAKER_02: So you're in Ghana, you finished university, you can't get a job by virtue of whatever you need to eat.
38:43
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna become an entrepreneur, I'm gonna maybe sell something on the road, or I'm gonna go and buy some phones at circle and resell it.
38:49
SPEAKER_02: So the drive wasn't in them to become an entrepreneur, but it's their environment that shaped them to then become an entrepreneur.
38:57
SPEAKER_02: So I find that oftentimes um just the whole struggles and the ups and downs and the journeys of entrepreneurship can then make it somewhat challenging.
39:09
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, right.
39:10
SPEAKER_00: But what do you think makes that happen?
39:14
SPEAKER_00: Do you think it's because of the way our system is, or do you think we're just like risk-averse in this country?
39:22
SPEAKER_02: The the the system the system is a tough one because I always say that small to medium enterprises have more of a responsibility to be successful versus the bigger type enterprises, right?
39:38
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
39:38
SPEAKER_02: If uh the Ghana or the Ghanaian government, let's say, created some type of fund for entrepreneurs that are and a company like Cupcake Boutique, who we've been doing this for 11 years, you know, we presented our case and we were looking for funding and you gave us the funding.
39:55
SPEAKER_02: We, I find are so invested in the business for it to succeed that we are willing to put any and everything into it to be able to make sure that whatever funding we get in terms of loans, in terms of repayment structures and all of that, you structure those things because if not, you end up losing your business.
40:16
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
40:16
SPEAKER_02: Whereas you have individuals, sometimes I find here in Ghana, who maybe have collateral and they have this and they have that, are willing to, you know, apply for a loan at the bank, get the funding, sorry, and maybe not even repay.
40:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
40:31
SPEAKER_02: Right.
40:31
SPEAKER_02: Because for them, they're kind of like, it's not their lifeline.
40:34
SPEAKER_02: Let's put it that way.
40:35
SPEAKER_02: It's not their lifeline.
40:36
SPEAKER_02: Whereas for small medium enterprises, it is their lifeline.
40:39
SPEAKER_02: So they have more of a responsibility to try to repay their debts to their creditors or to their borrowers or whatever or their lenders, sorry, to be able to, you know, keep the business running.
40:52
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
40:52
SPEAKER_02: Right.
40:53
SPEAKER_02: Whereas the system here just makes it so difficult.
40:56
SPEAKER_02: Like in terms of, you know, again, a business that you've been running for 11 years at this point, if we were in Canada, like the banks would be throwing money at us where we're like, stop, I don't want any more.
41:06
SPEAKER_02: But here it's like, hey, can we get money?
41:09
SPEAKER_02: Can we get money?
41:10
SPEAKER_02: Can you get money?
41:11
SPEAKER_02: Can you get money?
41:11
SPEAKER_02: And it becomes very difficult because they want your liver, they want your kidney, they want this.
41:16
SPEAKER_02: Go bring, go bring your mom and dad, go bring your father, go bring, you know.
41:19
SPEAKER_02: So it's one of those situations you're kind of like, so what's the point of doing business in this country if the environment doesn't support an entrepreneur entrepreneurship?
41:28
SPEAKER_02: Does that make sense?
41:29
SPEAKER_00: What do you think we can do about this?
41:31
SPEAKER_00: Because when you talk to the other side, when you talk from the banking sector to the finance industry and everything, they also show how risky it is to invest in Ghana.
41:43
SPEAKER_00: Um, let me let me use, I always say, for instance, I watched this video that changed my thinking, right?
41:49
SPEAKER_00: Where he explained the fact that the inflation rate every year is slightly below the amount, the percentage of treasury bills.
42:00
SPEAKER_00: So let's say if the inflation rate in 2024 was 20%, then treasury bills are about 23%.
42:08
SPEAKER_03: Oh wow.
42:09
SPEAKER_00: Now, this means if your business has a profit margin, a net profit margin less than 20%, you are losing money every year because your profit margin is less than inflation rates.
42:22
SPEAKER_00: Right.
42:22
SPEAKER_00: Which means you would have been better off putting your money in treasury bills.
42:31
SPEAKER_02: That's a tough one.
42:33
SPEAKER_02: That's a tough one.
42:35
SPEAKER_02: It's it's again, I think we realize now that in 2025, I mean, there's a 2030 agenda for the youth of Africa, right?
42:44
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
42:44
SPEAKER_02: We we sit in a position right now where more than 60% of our population is under the age of 25.
42:51
SPEAKER_02: Unmatched.
42:52
SPEAKER_02: I mean, this is amazing, right?
42:54
SPEAKER_02: Whereas in the future.
42:57
SPEAKER_02: In the West.
42:58
SPEAKER_02: And in the West, you have, you know, the baby boomers and you know, people are just kind of falling off.
43:02
SPEAKER_02: But here we have a very young and dynamic, uh, what do you call it, population.
43:08
SPEAKER_02: How do we invest into that population so that they're not then going to your Canada's, going to the Americas, going to wherever to look for greener pastures?
43:19
SPEAKER_02: Because what ends up happening is then you put a deficit back into your system, right?
43:23
SPEAKER_02: We don't have the thinkers, we don't have the innovators, we don't have the creatives here because everyone else is outside in the West creating for everyone else.
43:30
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
43:31
SPEAKER_02: So, yes, those inflation numbers and all of those numbers are amazing and they look great, right?
43:36
SPEAKER_02: But something needs to be done.
43:39
SPEAKER_02: We need to have more enterprises looking to invest in, you know, small, medium type businesses.
43:46
SPEAKER_02: We need individuals that are going to create and innovate and give people back the ability to not have or to get funding, which doesn't require, you know, again, your liver, your kidney, and your lungs.
43:57
SPEAKER_00: Patient capital.
43:58
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
43:59
SPEAKER_00: We need people.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: Put funds in this and say, okay, I'm gonna lose out for the first five years.
44:04
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
44:05
SPEAKER_00: But the trajectory means in ten years I'll be making so much money.
44:09
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, yes, yes.
44:10
SPEAKER_00: Then when you do the maths, then if it even if right now inflation is beating you, in ten years it will balance itself out.
44:19
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
44:19
SPEAKER_00: But that patient capital is very difficult for people to have.
44:24
SPEAKER_00: Especially because most of the time it's other people's money.
44:28
SPEAKER_00: What I mean is like if you go to the bank, exactly.
44:30
SPEAKER_00: It's not the bank's money.
44:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they've taken mommy's money and they're going to invest it in Richie.
44:35
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
44:35
SPEAKER_00: So you can't say, hey, I'm waiting seven years to get the money back.
44:38
SPEAKER_00: What if Richie comes knocking?
44:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
44:40
SPEAKER_00: But I think a bigger problem and me, I mean, I I wrote a book on it.
44:44
SPEAKER_02: So Okay, yes, I'll get your book.
44:46
SPEAKER_02: Yes, it's your fault.
44:47
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
44:47
SPEAKER_00: I think a bigger problem we have in our space, which is one thing I'm really trying to use my platform to change, is people have both a victim and an entitlement mindset.
44:59
SPEAKER_02: 100%.
45:01
SPEAKER_00: So I think part of the reason people don't get investment or people don't get support is because they don't invest in themselves.
45:12
SPEAKER_00: They don't support themselves.
45:14
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
45:14
SPEAKER_00: They don't take accountability, they don't understand personal responsibility.
45:19
SPEAKER_00: People don't wake up.
45:20
SPEAKER_00: Like one thing I always say is, and maybe I go on social media or I'm seeing things and oh, the government has done this, you know.
45:28
SPEAKER_00: Oh, my minister didn't do this.
45:30
SPEAKER_00: Oh, my boss didn't do this.
45:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's too much of that.
45:33
SPEAKER_02: We need to take personal, like you're saying, personal accountability.
45:36
SPEAKER_02: Nobody's coming to save anybody, right?
45:38
SPEAKER_02: You have to save yourself.
45:39
SPEAKER_02: And I always use the classic case in point in Nigeria.
45:43
SPEAKER_02: People will tell you, and people artists write songs about it.
45:46
SPEAKER_02: NEPA, no bring light to Yeah.
45:48
SPEAKER_02: NEPA doesn't bring light, but guess what?
45:49
SPEAKER_02: Everybody has a generator to because for them, they don't know when NEPA's gonna bring light, right?
45:54
SPEAKER_02: So in Ghana, like you're saying, we we we have this mentality of, oh, the government didn't do this, or this one didn't do that, or my politician or my MP or this one didn't do that.
46:04
SPEAKER_02: But what are you doing as an individual to better yourself?
46:08
SPEAKER_02: What are you, what skill sets are you developing as an individual to better yourself?
46:13
SPEAKER_02: Again, coming from outside, you know, in North America, you realize that yes, there are a lot of cushions and ecosystems to help kind of, you know, push you along or whatever.
46:22
SPEAKER_02: But when you get back to this side of the world, there's nothing.
46:25
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
46:25
SPEAKER_02: There's absolutely nothing.
46:27
SPEAKER_02: So if you don't create your own ecosystem or develop your own ideas or put in your own path, you're gonna be sitting there and the world is gonna be passing you by.
46:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
46:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
46:37
SPEAKER_00: And the moment we start to shift that from what can this person do for me to what can I do for myself or what can I even do for myself to get this person to do this for me 100%.
46:50
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
46:50
SPEAKER_00: Like when you talk about investment, one thing I say is every rich person, everyone who's made a lot of money is having the problem of how do I multiply my money?
47:00
SPEAKER_00: My money a hundred percent.
47:01
SPEAKER_00: They don't want to work more.
47:02
SPEAKER_02: Trust me, there's no rich person that's like, let me work more.
47:06
SPEAKER_02: Yes, they just want to do it.
47:08
SPEAKER_02: Less input, more output.
47:09
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
47:10
SPEAKER_00: How do I let this plenty of money sitting down money for me?
47:14
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
47:14
SPEAKER_00: If you can actually show them a way that you can do that for them, yes, they would 100% do it.
47:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
47:21
SPEAKER_00: I I watched, I watched this guy who was talking about how he he got into real estate.
47:26
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, this is not in Ghana, but I looked at the principal and I was like, that's beautiful.
47:30
SPEAKER_01: Right.
47:31
SPEAKER_00: So what he does is first of all, he finds a house, okay, a rundown house that needs to be stepped up.
47:39
SPEAKER_00: So maybe let's say the house is going to cost him about uh$50,000.
47:43
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
47:44
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes to find a contractor.
47:46
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
47:47
SPEAKER_00: And tells the contractor that I'm going to get this house, I'm going to buy this house, and then you're gonna fix it up, fix it up, take it to the next level so that maybe we can sell this house for$100,000.
48:00
SPEAKER_00: Right.
48:01
SPEAKER_00: So once he gets a contractor, he does paperwork with the contractor.
48:04
SPEAKER_00: Then he goes to the bank and shows the bank how, okay, this is my deal with the contractor, this is my negotiation with the agent.
48:12
SPEAKER_00: I'll buy the house, do this, within six months.
48:15
SPEAKER_00: We'll turn it around and sell it back.
48:17
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
48:18
SPEAKER_00: Right.
48:18
SPEAKER_00: Then he uses that to get a loan from the bank.
48:21
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
48:21
SPEAKER_00: He's able to buy the house.
48:23
SPEAKER_00: He just needs to put a deposit down of 20%.
48:26
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
48:26
SPEAKER_00: He buys the house, contractor does the work.
48:29
SPEAKER_00: When they sell it, contractor gets their percentage, bank gets their money back, he makes profit, and he goes on to the next one.
48:36
SPEAKER_02: Flipping houses is huge.
48:38
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
48:38
SPEAKER_00: So it's not actually about needing money, it's about having an idea of what to do with the money.
48:47
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
48:47
SPEAKER_00: And then following it through to a point where you can succeed.
48:51
SPEAKER_00: You know, one example I always use is my personal example.
48:54
SPEAKER_00: After running links for so many years, we came up with the idea to do cockpit buying lounge.
49:00
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
49:00
SPEAKER_00: And it was a beautiful idea.
49:02
SPEAKER_00: And we have numbers, people are always coming to us.
49:06
SPEAKER_00: So it made perfect sense.
49:07
SPEAKER_00: So we were setting up in the mall.
49:09
SPEAKER_00: Now my bank loves me because they're seeing the money.
49:13
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
49:14
SPEAKER_00: So automatically I went to the bank and said, give me a loan.
49:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm starting a new business.
49:18
SPEAKER_00: You've seen how well my business is doing.
49:20
SPEAKER_00: So I'm starting a new business.
49:21
SPEAKER_00: The bank said, Oh, yes, let's do the paperwork, blah, blah, blah.
49:24
SPEAKER_00: After going through for like two months, guess what?
49:27
SPEAKER_02: No.
49:27
SPEAKER_00: They didn't give me the loan.
49:28
SPEAKER_02: And the interest rate would have been 200%.
49:32
SPEAKER_00: But this is the funny thing.
49:34
SPEAKER_00: That business failed.
49:36
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
49:36
SPEAKER_00: The business failed because I got certain things wrong.
49:40
SPEAKER_00: The the location, the costs, like certain things didn't work out.
49:45
SPEAKER_00: And it reached a point I realized the only way to make this business succeed is to stop what I'm doing and concentrate on it full-time.
49:51
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
49:52
SPEAKER_00: And I couldn't afford to do that.
49:54
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, I realized they were right.
49:59
SPEAKER_02: They didn't see the lifeline of the business.
50:02
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
50:02
SPEAKER_00: So had they given me that money, you would have defaulted in here, we would have been back to exactly so it's more about doing your homework, being more intentional, right?
50:13
SPEAKER_00: Having the grits and going over and over again until you get it.
50:19
SPEAKER_02: I think what is also very important and to add to what you're saying is that time.
50:24
SPEAKER_02: Time will always, always, always give you the results.
50:30
SPEAKER_02: So I mean, to add to your story, you're saying that the business failed, but did you give it time?
50:35
SPEAKER_02: I didn't.
50:36
SPEAKER_02: That's my point.
50:37
SPEAKER_02: See, so you know, with the whole entrepreneurial journey, today it's high, the next day it's low, the next day it's medium, then it goes high, then it goes low.
50:45
SPEAKER_02: So if you can understand that the the journey is not, it's not a microwave, right?
50:50
SPEAKER_02: Like you don't put in three seconds, time is up, take it out, and it's ready.
50:53
SPEAKER_02: And that's what people often think, right?
50:55
SPEAKER_02: Oh, the journey should be easy.
50:56
SPEAKER_02: Let's let's speak to Dangote, let's speak to, you know, your who's of the who's who have made it in life, and they will tell you the amount of losses that they've taken, the amount of debt sometimes maybe you incur, the ups and downs, the sleepless nights, all of that then results in the success, right?
51:16
SPEAKER_02: So it's almost like, you know, you think somebody's doing this thing and then boom, the curtain goes off, and here it is, presented nicely, but you don't know what went on behind the scenes when the curtains were then also closed, right?
51:27
SPEAKER_02: So that that's the journey, I think.
51:29
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
51:30
SPEAKER_00: So thinking about all this and the personal response responsibility side of this, do you think in our country the youth have actually grasped the power that they have when it comes to making decisions and moving the needle in the country?
51:46
SPEAKER_02: I think right now we the youth of Ghana sit in such an amazing place.
51:50
SPEAKER_02: Why do I say that?
51:52
SPEAKER_02: Just most recently, with our most recent election, we realized that the Gallimsei, the whole Gallimsei movement, right?
51:59
SPEAKER_02: We saw the youth of Ghana at the forefront of it.
52:03
SPEAKER_02: The most recent election with NDC, and I keep telling everyone, and I'll stand by this, was one on social media.
52:09
SPEAKER_02: The youth of Ghana now, or of Africa, or even let's say of the world, but let me bring it back to Ghana for the purposes of this conversation, are so awake or awoke in the sense of they're aware of their surroundings, they want accountability, they don't want anyone to make decisions for them, which they feel are not the best decisions.
52:31
SPEAKER_02: They're vocal, like unlike any other time.
52:34
SPEAKER_02: So you have a kid who's sitting in King Temple, for example, who has access to a tablet or who has access to his phone or to TV, to technology, who is versed and realizes what is going on not only nationally, but globally, right?
52:50
SPEAKER_02: So everyone has access to okay, the government said they're gonna do this, there's no accountability, they didn't do that.
52:56
SPEAKER_02: So the the youth of Ghana right now are so awake and are so understanding of what is happening in the economy that we're speaking up, we're we're talking, we're doing campaigns, where you know our voices are being heard.
53:11
SPEAKER_02: SARS, which happened in Nigeria, um, we saw what happened with that.
53:16
SPEAKER_02: So there's there's a huge global shift of youth taking up the mantle when it comes to government and politics.
53:25
SPEAKER_02: I think it's huge, and it's something that really, really needs to be looked at.
53:29
SPEAKER_02: We had most recently Cheddar, who is, you know, young guy.
53:32
SPEAKER_02: And as much as people want to say whatever it is they want to say, I give him A for effort.
53:37
SPEAKER_02: Why do I say that?
53:38
SPEAKER_00: And I mean he came up third, so that shows that.
53:40
SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
53:41
SPEAKER_02: And somebody who had no political background, yeah, somebody who probably didn't have much of an understanding as to, you know, the the nitty-gritties of government and policies and all of that kind of stuff.
53:53
SPEAKER_02: But the fact that people voted for him and he technically came in third should show you what the African youth is looking for right now.
54:02
SPEAKER_02: We don't want our old leaders, we don't want the leaders who, you know, are not in in touch with technology, are not in touch with what is going on in the world globally around them.
54:12
SPEAKER_02: Now the youth are saying, you know what, we want to have a voice at this table.
54:16
SPEAKER_02: We want you to be held accountable because if anything, you're governing for us, if that makes sense.
54:21
SPEAKER_02: I mean, in my 40s, but you're you're governing the the country for us.
54:26
SPEAKER_02: The the baby boomers or the older people, they're eventually going away.
54:30
SPEAKER_02: So if you're saying that 60% of your population globally in Africa is over the under the age of 25, that that tells you that, like, I mean, it it's it's a huge, huge, huge undertaking that really, really, really needs to be looked at.
54:46
SPEAKER_02: And I feel like even, you know, local government, international, all of that, everyone needs to pay attention to the youth and let their voices be heard.
54:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
54:55
SPEAKER_00: And I love the shift that seems to be happening because I I always say that I'm not a big fan of politics.
55:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm a bigger fan of development.
55:03
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
55:04
SPEAKER_00: What I mean by that is that I don't like the bureaucracy and the campaigning and the sections and the it seems like politics from the past has become less and less about the people.
55:19
SPEAKER_02: And and more about, you know, money and yes, money and power.
55:23
SPEAKER_02: But Richie, you know, politics is everywhere.
55:26
SPEAKER_02: As much as you think that politics is limited, is limited to, you know, the democracy or it's limited to schools.
55:34
SPEAKER_02: Yes, it's in schools, it's in business, it's even in our homes.
55:36
SPEAKER_02: Listen, this whole situation when you have, let's say, a family funeral, right?
55:40
SPEAKER_02: And before you can even engage in anything, there's more politics in political than there is in government.
55:46
SPEAKER_02: Yes, you're boosting a penny says this, this one says that.
55:49
SPEAKER_02: There's all these procedures that need to be followed.
55:52
SPEAKER_02: There's politics in healthcare.
55:53
SPEAKER_02: People think that, oh, you know, politics is, oh, if I don't decide to go and vote, I don't care because my my voice is not gonna have anything.
56:00
SPEAKER_02: Like my decision is not gonna have a voice.
56:03
SPEAKER_02: But guess what?
56:04
SPEAKER_02: When you make that vote, when something is going on, you're able to speak and make effective change because you actually exercise your democratic right to vote as a as a citizen.
56:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's politics if you're a family member, exactly when it's funeral time, right?
56:19
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
56:19
SPEAKER_02: Who should whoever brings the most money gets to have a say and where the what the plans of the funeral.
56:25
SPEAKER_02: And it's crazy, you know, even in the workplace, workplace politics.
56:28
SPEAKER_02: This one has been here, seniority, da-da-da-da.
56:31
SPEAKER_02: So there's there's so many facets to politics, right?
56:34
SPEAKER_00: But I think that is what's limiting us.
56:37
SPEAKER_00: So I say that now let's even move away from country politics, right?
56:41
SPEAKER_00: Like from the family politics, office politics.
56:44
SPEAKER_00: If you watch the businesses, the families, the communities that thrive are the ones that are more development and result-oriented.
56:52
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
56:53
SPEAKER_00: Like the funerals that go well are the ones where it's not about the family comes together.
56:59
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
57:00
SPEAKER_00: Or it's about okay, this is how Richie wanted to be celebrated.
57:04
SPEAKER_00: So let's do Richie's wishes.
57:06
SPEAKER_00: Then everybody's working towards that one goal.
57:08
SPEAKER_00: The one where everybody wants to show their power are the ones that you have stalemates, you have people sitting on the same thing for so long.
57:19
SPEAKER_00: Like, whenever I walk into a company and there's serious office politics, most of the time there's the CEO, then there's like six people under the CEO who all want to show them.
57:31
SPEAKER_02: So that they have power.
57:32
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
57:33
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
57:34
SPEAKER_00: I think those kind of things limit us.
57:37
SPEAKER_00: Right.
57:38
SPEAKER_00: Because going back to what I said initially, the best way to serve yourself is to serve others.
57:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, right.
57:45
SPEAKER_02: 100%.
57:46
SPEAKER_00: And when it comes to government, family, community, businesses, it's about serving others.
57:53
SPEAKER_00: Selflessness, yeah.
57:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
57:55
SPEAKER_00: So I feel that is the part that is missing.
57:58
SPEAKER_00: Let's say, look, we have some of the most intelligent people in very powerful positions in Ghana.
58:04
SPEAKER_00: If each person said, let me take one problem we are facing and solve it, we would move the needle in one year, not four, in one year.
58:15
SPEAKER_00: If it wasn't about, okay, what can I do to maintain my power?
58:18
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
58:19
SPEAKER_00: What can I do to make my party look better?
58:21
SPEAKER_00: What can I do to make my friends more powerful?
58:25
SPEAKER_03: Right.
58:26
SPEAKER_00: Then we would start moving.
58:27
SPEAKER_00: And let's move away from the government.
58:29
SPEAKER_00: Us.
58:30
SPEAKER_02: As individuals.
58:31
SPEAKER_00: If we take the responsibility, you know, let's say you complain so much about uh bribing the police, but somebody needs to bribe the police.
58:41
SPEAKER_00: The same way here, oh, as for this school dear, you they are collecting bribes to allow people in.
58:46
SPEAKER_00: Who bribes?
58:47
SPEAKER_02: Who bribed them?
58:48
SPEAKER_02: It's people bribing.
58:49
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
58:49
SPEAKER_00: Who's crossing the red lights?
58:51
SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes, yes.
58:52
SPEAKER_00: We like every year on Twitter, one of the biggest trends will be acra floods.
58:59
SPEAKER_00: But who is throwing the rubbish in the gutters?
59:04
SPEAKER_02: I think again, a lot of this stuff that you're saying, right?
59:08
SPEAKER_02: Effective change has to come from infancy.
59:12
SPEAKER_02: It has to come from the formative stages.
59:15
SPEAKER_00: The mindsets.
59:17
SPEAKER_02: If we're not instilling these mindsets from, you know, the the the three-year-olds, the four-year-olds, the five-year-olds, then imagine when you now turn 30 and you've been throwing your bin or your trash into the gutters all your life.
59:33
SPEAKER_02: Then at 30 years old, I say, Hey, Richie, tell you it's not right.
59:37
SPEAKER_02: So you're gonna be like, What do you mean it's not right?
59:39
SPEAKER_02: I've been doing this and no one has ever told me that it's not right.
59:42
SPEAKER_02: So again, it goes back to mindset, but mindset then a lot of it is developed through education, right?
59:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, growing up, living in North America, the three R's, right?
59:52
SPEAKER_02: Risk reduce, reuse, and recycle.
59:54
SPEAKER_02: Every child in North America can tell you these three R's.
59:57
SPEAKER_02: Why?
59:58
SPEAKER_02: Because we were taught this in probably grade one.
1:00:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:00:01
SPEAKER_02: Reduce, reuse, recycle.
1:00:03
SPEAKER_02: So you know that you're if it's if it's plastic, you put it in the recycling because it can be reused again and all of that kind of stuff.
1:00:10
SPEAKER_02: It's just those type of um campaigns.
1:00:13
SPEAKER_02: There's something called DARE, drug abuse resistance education, okay.
1:00:16
SPEAKER_02: Where in grade maybe five or six, it teaches you about why you shouldn't use drugs, the effects of drugs, all of that kind of stuff.
1:00:23
SPEAKER_02: Not that people don't use drugs, but all of the things that we see is shaping the West is done in the in the infancy stages.
1:00:31
SPEAKER_00: Because they think generationally.
1:00:33
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
1:00:34
SPEAKER_02: So let's prepare the children to be able to do X, Y, Z.
1:00:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:00:38
SPEAKER_02: Again, I mentioned to you earlier on that growing up in high school, we took a course called Civis, which teaches you how to write a resume, teaches you how to dress for interviews, it teaches you how to communicate.
1:00:51
SPEAKER_02: We don't have any of those things in Ghana.
1:00:53
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:00:53
SPEAKER_02: I will call for an interview, or cupcake will say we're calling for interviews, and somebody shows up in like chalewate, somebody shows up wearing jeans, somebody shows up wearing a crop top or something, and you're like, wow, where are you really going?
1:01:06
SPEAKER_02: You can't blame the person because they just don't know better.
1:01:09
SPEAKER_02: But in that same mindset or in that same phrase, why don't you know better?
1:01:14
SPEAKER_02: Because we're living in an informative information technology era where what you don't know now is at the fingertips.
1:01:21
SPEAKER_02: We have chat GTP, we have YouTube.
1:01:23
SPEAKER_00: But they don't even know to know.
1:01:26
SPEAKER_00: You know, I I I say I find it weird that I'm from a generation where I used to have to suffer to find knowledge.
1:01:34
SPEAKER_02: Like we didn't have access, Richie.
1:01:36
SPEAKER_02: When did the internet just come around that tablets and all kinds of things?
1:01:39
SPEAKER_02: We didn't listen.
1:01:40
SPEAKER_02: If you didn't have an encyclopedia in your house or a dictionary, an encyclopedia is lettered.
1:01:44
SPEAKER_00: So like it's of France.
1:01:47
SPEAKER_02: So the or you went to the library to have access to information.
1:01:51
SPEAKER_02: Now every child sitting somewhere has access to technology.
1:01:56
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:01:56
SPEAKER_02: So as much as, again, and that goes back to your statement of we put so much emphasis on the government, right?
1:02:02
SPEAKER_02: The government should have a course in civvies, the government should do this.
1:02:05
SPEAKER_02: But if the government hasn't done that, what are you doing as an individual?
1:02:09
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:02:09
SPEAKER_02: Why are you then not doing your own research?
1:02:12
SPEAKER_02: Why are you, if you have a resume, not saying, hey, on YouTube, how to dress for my resume?
1:02:18
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
1:02:18
SPEAKER_02: Everything is gonna show up there.
1:02:20
SPEAKER_02: But people don't care because they want the government to give them jobs, but they're not prepared for the jobs.
1:02:26
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:02:26
SPEAKER_02: Does that make sense?
1:02:27
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
1:02:27
SPEAKER_02: So the government of Ghana can now come and tell you, okay, you know what, we're gonna create 50,000 jobs.
1:02:33
SPEAKER_02: We probably can't fill those jobs effectively because we don't have the skill set to be able to do those jobs.
1:02:40
SPEAKER_02: So it's almost like a double-edged sword, right?
1:02:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:02:43
SPEAKER_02: You want this, but you got to do this.
1:02:45
SPEAKER_02: You want that, you gotta do that.
1:02:46
SPEAKER_02: So it's important that we are building ourselves as individuals and our leaders are also realizing that, you know, the the people who are coming after us need to have a voice.
1:03:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:03:00
SPEAKER_02: Hence, I'm pushing and keep saying young people need to be involved in politics because it is it is our it's our journey, it's our it's our future.
1:03:11
SPEAKER_02: It shouldn't even be a future, it should be now.
1:03:13
SPEAKER_02: It's our today, right?
1:03:15
SPEAKER_02: So if we're at the table and we don't have a voice, then we leave it up to 80, 60, 90 year olds to represent us with their voice.
1:03:23
SPEAKER_02: And I don't think that's a voice we want to hear because they don't understand what's going on.
1:03:26
SPEAKER_02: Because they don't understand what's going on exactly.
1:03:28
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, the whole cheddar thing and coming in and and and coming in third place, as much as you know, certain things needed to be changed or whatever, maybe he could have come in as opposed to being a president, maybe coming in as um like an MP or something, you know, just to be able to then make more effective change because you had a whole generation looking up to him.
1:03:50
SPEAKER_02: To them, they're like, if Cheddar can make it there, maybe so can I.
1:03:55
SPEAKER_00: And it's it also starts to give opportunity for others to, you know, they say when you see somebody who looks a little more like you, yeah, it makes you realize then you can do it.
1:04:04
SPEAKER_00: 100%.
1:04:05
SPEAKER_00: So now I think other young people will see that, okay, maybe I can also contribute to the change.
1:04:11
SPEAKER_00: Because the individual contribution is what I believe is going to work.
1:04:16
SPEAKER_00: You know, like when we're talking about changing the next generation, maybe it doesn't have to do with government instilling it in school.
1:04:23
SPEAKER_00: It could be a parent teaching their kids.
1:04:26
SPEAKER_00: You know, gone are the days where you need a tutor to teach something.
1:04:30
SPEAKER_00: Like you mentioned, there's Chat GPT, there's YouTube, you know.
1:04:33
SPEAKER_00: There's so much yesterday on my way home.
1:04:37
SPEAKER_00: I I Googled, because my puppy now has a puppy.
1:04:41
SPEAKER_00: My puppy's puppy is peeing everywhere.
1:04:44
SPEAKER_00: Oh.
1:04:44
SPEAKER_00: So I Googled how to use vinegar.
1:04:46
SPEAKER_02: Exactly, to clean it so they don't smell it where they pee.
1:04:50
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
1:04:51
SPEAKER_02: I think also as successful entrepreneurs, we as individuals need to do a lot more of almost like a corporate social responsibility in the sense of let's say we had somebody who's a great entrepreneur in Ghana, who can we say?
1:05:07
SPEAKER_02: You are.
1:05:09
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
1:05:09
SPEAKER_02: So let's say I had a place called the Skills Center, which then allows individuals to come in and learn resume writing skills, which allows individuals to come in and learn interviewing skills, um, just how to present yourself, you know, all of that kind of stuff, where maybe there's a fee, maybe it's a business idea.
1:05:29
SPEAKER_02: But sometimes I feel like once you then make it a business idea, then people who don't have money then can't come.
1:05:33
SPEAKER_02: So then you lose the essence of it.
1:05:36
SPEAKER_02: But if there was some type of fund or some type of setup that allows that type of skill service center, and maybe in every region, we have our RNAQ doing um food banks now.
1:05:49
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:05:49
SPEAKER_02: So maybe Richard should see me about doing one of those, one of those skill centers in every region, which then puts tablets, computers.
1:05:58
SPEAKER_02: We do training.
1:06:00
SPEAKER_02: We do uh what is it?
1:06:02
SPEAKER_02: All that type of, you know, soft service skills to grow people's mindset.
1:06:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:06:06
SPEAKER_02: Because again, you can have all the jobs in the world if you don't have the skill set to be able to develop it.
1:06:12
SPEAKER_00: You know, people don't know that.
1:06:13
SPEAKER_00: They say there are no jobs in Ghana, but every entrepreneur is always looking for people to help you.
1:06:19
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
1:06:20
SPEAKER_02: And you can't, yes, we can't find the right people because they're most Ghanaians here at Cupcake, even our average age range is let's say between like 22 to like that 30-year age gap.
1:06:32
SPEAKER_02: That's their first time ever getting a job in their life.
1:06:34
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
1:06:35
SPEAKER_02: At 20 in North America, in the West, listen, you probably some people have even bought a house at 20, or they finished university and they're working for some big, you know, company.
1:06:46
SPEAKER_02: But here in Ghana, at 21 or 22, this is their first time ever getting a job.
1:06:53
SPEAKER_02: They don't know how to go for interviews.
1:06:55
SPEAKER_02: They don't know how to dress for interviews.
1:06:56
SPEAKER_02: They don't even know how to write a CV.
1:06:59
SPEAKER_02: They they're all of those skills that are gonna propel you to that next level are missing.
1:07:05
SPEAKER_02: So we need that gap in between.
1:07:07
SPEAKER_02: We need that that you know resource center that allows the youth or allows people to be able to say, hey, you know what?
1:07:15
SPEAKER_02: I don't know how to do this, but when I go to this skill center, I know that I'll be able to get the skills and the knowledge and the expertise to be able to then be an effective, you know, employee or whatever to the company in which I'm gonna go and get a job with.
1:07:29
SPEAKER_00: And you know, a lot of people who travel outside the company, outside outside the country looking for opportunities, and then they come back.
1:07:36
SPEAKER_00: And most people think it means it is better to succeed outside.
1:07:41
SPEAKER_00: But I always say what they don't get is it's the mindset.
1:07:44
SPEAKER_00: You know, when you are out when you are outside of Ghana, you see that hustle culture.
1:07:50
SPEAKER_02: You don't have a choice, Richie.
1:07:51
SPEAKER_02: Tell me who's gonna pay your rent.
1:07:52
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
1:07:53
SPEAKER_00: And then it makes me realize you can have that same mindset.
1:07:57
SPEAKER_02: You see, the mindset outside, and I say it, people will say Ghanaians, oh, we're lazy, we're lazy, but Ghanaian.
1:08:05
SPEAKER_02: When you're lazy, a Ghanaian outside of Ghana is working three jobs, yeah, going back and forth, doing this because guess what?
1:08:10
SPEAKER_02: The system there, there's no my uncle's house, there's no my mom's house, there's no hey, Richie, can you send me Momo?
1:08:18
SPEAKER_02: Ain't nobody sending you anything.
1:08:20
SPEAKER_00: And it's a monthly system.
1:08:21
SPEAKER_00: You're paying rent monthly, you're paying for your phone monthly.
1:08:25
SPEAKER_02: Hey, sorry, a rent is sorry, so you get your you get paycheck every two weeks, but yes, rent is monthly, okay, phone bill is monthly, all of that type of stuff.
1:08:34
SPEAKER_02: And if you don't have it, you you're gonna get kicked out of your house, you're gonna get evicted.
1:08:38
SPEAKER_00: If you slack for this one month, oh I just feel like being lazy and relaxing this one month.
1:08:42
SPEAKER_00: No.
1:08:42
SPEAKER_02: When you don't go to work, you don't even if you have a salary, when you have a death in your family, your bereavement is what, three days?
1:08:50
SPEAKER_02: Gonna hear, oh madam, oh my auntie, not even mother, not even father.
1:08:55
SPEAKER_02: Oh, son, my auntie died, so we're going for a family funeral.
1:08:58
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, okay, oh, I need like two weeks or ten days off.
1:09:02
SPEAKER_02: Really?
1:09:02
SPEAKER_02: Oh, the classic thing is, oh, my dad is sick, okay?
1:09:08
SPEAKER_02: Continue to explain, yeah, I can't come to work.
1:09:11
SPEAKER_02: And I'm thinking to myself, so your dad who's sick at home, and not to sound insensitive, right?
1:09:17
SPEAKER_02: Your dad is sick, you need money to take care of your dad.
1:09:21
SPEAKER_02: So if you don't come to work, then how do you then take care of your dad who's then is sick?
1:09:25
SPEAKER_02: Then you have two problems.
1:09:26
SPEAKER_02: You have two sick people because the fact that you think it's okay to, and I understand some people's circumstances where you know there may not be anybody around to assist with their family and all of that.
1:09:37
SPEAKER_02: But the the the the culture of it's okay, we're comfortable, it's too much of it here.
1:09:44
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:09:44
SPEAKER_02: Whereas outside, there's nobody's coming to save you.
1:09:48
SPEAKER_02: You're when was the last time you were in abroad and somebody gave you$50, Richie?
1:09:52
SPEAKER_02: $50.
1:09:53
SPEAKER_02: No, no, no.
1:09:53
SPEAKER_02: Or even$10.
1:09:54
SPEAKER_02: Even$10, listen.
1:09:56
SPEAKER_02: Somebody will save before you.
1:10:01
SPEAKER_02: I went downstairs, I think I was going to buy water and some other stuff.
1:10:04
SPEAKER_02: I took maybe like 20 pounds with me.
1:10:06
SPEAKER_02: And by the time I picked up a few things, it was, and I got to the cash register, they they um charged it all up.
1:10:13
SPEAKER_02: And I think I was at like 20 something in some change.
1:10:17
SPEAKER_02: Do you know I didn't have, I think it was like 50 pesos, not peso, sorry, 50 pence or so.
1:10:22
SPEAKER_02: The man was looking at me like, I can't.
1:10:24
SPEAKER_00: You have to get the money.
1:10:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you have to get the money.
1:10:26
SPEAKER_02: And in my head, I was like, oh, what a wicked man.
1:10:28
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Ghana said, oh, it's okay, oh dear, fuck.
1:10:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:10:31
SPEAKER_02: But in my mind, I was just like, so you can't even put your own hand in your pocket.
1:10:35
SPEAKER_02: Like 50 pence is a coin.
1:10:37
SPEAKER_02: Like, come on, like, just help me out here.
1:10:39
SPEAKER_02: I had to take something out of it.
1:10:41
SPEAKER_02: And you know, all of those types of mindsets just lets you know that like nobody's coming to save you, nobody's gonna help you anywhere.
1:10:48
SPEAKER_02: So the mindset of, oh, if I tell if I go abroad, do I go?
1:10:52
SPEAKER_02: Somebody told me if I go abroad, they go, they they'll come and buy or come and build three houses in two years.
1:10:57
SPEAKER_02: I said, Oh, so the people they are living there, they're they don't have sense.
1:11:00
SPEAKER_02: It's only you that when you get there, you have sense to come and build three houses.
1:11:04
SPEAKER_02: When you go, then you see that it's not that as easy.
1:11:07
SPEAKER_00: So it's like our biggest advantage as a country has become our biggest disadvantage.
1:11:12
SPEAKER_00: We are very nice people, we are very peaceful people, we're very helpful people.
1:11:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that is also making us very entitled, very comfortable.
1:11:22
SPEAKER_00: You know, whenever um a foreigner gets to Ghana and they get to the airport and oh, let me help you with your bag, they're like, No, thank you.
1:11:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm okay because they are not used to being helped, exactly, you know.
1:11:35
SPEAKER_02: So whereas we're like, oh, why?
1:11:38
SPEAKER_02: So you won't you won't pick up my bag for me.
1:11:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so like we get somewhere and somebody's not helping us, and we feel ah wait, why are you not helping us?
1:11:46
SPEAKER_00: I remember the first time I got to a big international airport, I was amazed at the fact that everything was only written.
1:11:55
SPEAKER_00: Don't talk to anybody, yeah.
1:11:56
SPEAKER_02: No, no, nobody's nobody wants to talk to you.
1:11:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like if you go to the city.
1:12:01
SPEAKER_00: Um, where is gate?
1:12:02
SPEAKER_00: Blah blah blah blah.
1:12:03
SPEAKER_00: Looking at you like, why are you talking to me?
1:12:04
SPEAKER_02: Can't you read?
1:12:06
SPEAKER_00: Whereas in Ghana, it is more shaped, it's it's actually friendlier to ask people, oh, how do I go here?
1:12:12
SPEAKER_02: How do I willing to give you the help?
1:12:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so how much more of that translates into into business?
1:12:18
SPEAKER_00: So that's the problem.
1:12:19
SPEAKER_00: So when we are doing businesses, we expect support.
1:12:24
SPEAKER_00: We expect things to happen for us, we expect people to be nice to us.
1:12:28
SPEAKER_00: You know, I see people posting things and saying that my friends are not supported my business, they're not reposting.
1:12:34
SPEAKER_00: Why should they repost you?
1:12:36
SPEAKER_02: Your friends won't support you like a hater will or something.
1:12:38
SPEAKER_02: You know, all those things.
1:12:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:12:40
SPEAKER_00: Why are you expecting support?
1:12:42
SPEAKER_00: Like make it happen for yourself.
1:12:45
SPEAKER_00: And once we start to think like that and start to change things, yeah, and once we start to think long term, you know, this whole mindset of how things should work and it's it being engraved in people, you see it in the small things.
1:12:59
SPEAKER_00: Like I realized something when I was in SA and the lights went off.
1:13:05
SPEAKER_00: Just like lights can go off and done all the time.
1:13:08
SPEAKER_00: The lights went off and the traffic lights were off, but all the cars were moving like the traffic lights were on.
1:13:14
SPEAKER_00: So one side would go for a while, and then they'll stop and they'll let the next side also go.
1:13:20
SPEAKER_00: So I feel that if we want to start making some of these changes, it's not coming from the top.
1:13:26
SPEAKER_00: It's not waiting for some one person to have a magical idea.
1:13:29
SPEAKER_00: It's us deciding that no, we don't want things to be like this anymore.
1:13:33
SPEAKER_00: Let's start educating each other, let's start fixing things, and let's start taking responsibility and make things happen.
1:13:41
SPEAKER_02: 100%.
1:13:42
SPEAKER_02: I think also to add to that, it saddens me when I see someone who's not a Ghanaian come to Ghana and realize the amount of potential that Ghana has.
1:13:53
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
1:13:53
SPEAKER_02: And then they harness that and then do something with it.
1:13:56
SPEAKER_02: I remember when I was marketing when I was a marketing manager for a company, um, Stella Logistics, one of the gentlemen said to me, Oh, Aina, you know, I came to Ghana here, I didn't know anybody, and I I made a business for myself.
1:14:10
SPEAKER_02: I I can't even see myself going back to I think they were from Aberdeen or something.
1:14:14
SPEAKER_02: And that that profound statement said to me that somebody who's not even from here, doesn't understand the language, is a white man, mind you, is able to come back, realize the opportunities, harness that and make it work.
1:14:28
SPEAKER_02: How much more we that the the mindset of the West, the West, the West, and this is this is in the West, where the youth think that you know there's some greener pastures.
1:14:38
SPEAKER_02: I'm telling everyone now, listen, if you didn't go to Abruce in the early 90s, 2000s, forget about it.
1:14:44
SPEAKER_02: Abruce is not what it used to be.
1:14:45
SPEAKER_00: But you're here now.
1:14:46
SPEAKER_02: Abruce is not what it used to be like then.
1:14:50
SPEAKER_02: Now, people, I mean, you see people sleeping on the streets, people get stranded, they go with the notion of somebody told to promise them a job, they get there, there's no job.
1:14:59
SPEAKER_02: And I'm thinking to myself, you had a house to sleep in in Ghana.
1:15:02
SPEAKER_02: Like, why are you sleeping in a shelter abroad, all in the name of I'm in abroad?
1:15:07
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
1:15:07
SPEAKER_02: That that may not be your story.
1:15:09
SPEAKER_02: Yes, I always say travel is the best one of the best things to educate yourselves, right?
1:15:13
SPEAKER_02: It opens up your mind, it gives you different perspectives, but the way is not there.
1:15:18
SPEAKER_02: The way now is here within our own country, yeah.
1:15:22
SPEAKER_02: Figuring out what the need is.
1:15:24
SPEAKER_02: How can I come up or create something that will allow me to slot myself into Ghana's ecosystem to then feed that need, right?
1:15:33
SPEAKER_02: That's where I think the shift should then kind of be driven to.
1:15:36
SPEAKER_02: Again, it goes back to the mindset, it goes back to the skills.
1:15:40
SPEAKER_02: If you don't have those soft basic skills, everything then becomes hard.
1:15:44
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:15:44
SPEAKER_02: I asked some painters, I was on a job and I said to them, you know, this whole free SHS education, if I give you free education, if I give you money, which will you choose?
1:15:53
SPEAKER_02: Ah, madame, we will go take the menu.
1:15:54
SPEAKER_02: And I thought to myself, they don't see the value of the state.
1:15:56
SPEAKER_02: They don't see the value of the knowledge.
1:15:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:15:59
SPEAKER_02: Meanwhile, that knowledge is what is gonna impart you through, you know, your journey in life.
1:16:04
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:16:05
SPEAKER_02: If you're a painter and you understand and learn the skills of painting and why it's important, you know, trade school is a big thing outside.
1:16:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:16:12
SPEAKER_02: Like somebody will actually go to school to be a painter.
1:16:15
SPEAKER_02: Here we do a lot of you know, hands-on practical type of learning, but they don't see the importance of the the education and what it does to you and how it reshapes your mind and your thinking.
1:16:26
SPEAKER_02: So, if again, we're able to get the children from that in like formative stage where we're able to impart that into them and let them know that you know your your mind is your power.
1:16:36
SPEAKER_02: Literally, that's what it is.
1:16:37
SPEAKER_02: Your mind is your power.
1:16:38
SPEAKER_02: You take that away and you're as good as nothing.
1:16:40
SPEAKER_02: Because you can have all the money in the world.
1:16:42
SPEAKER_02: If you don't have a mind to back it up, then you're as good as nothing.
1:16:46
SPEAKER_00: I've so enjoyed this conversation that I think I forgot to run a podcast.
1:16:51
SPEAKER_00: But do one thing for me.
1:16:53
SPEAKER_00: I like to do this with every guest, right?
1:16:55
SPEAKER_00: Imagine you had the power to drop an idea in the mind of the person watching you right now that will create a mindset shift and help get them closer to being a mastermind.
1:17:07
SPEAKER_00: What would that be?
1:17:08
SPEAKER_02: An idea as in a business idea.
1:17:10
SPEAKER_00: No, like a mindset.
1:17:12
SPEAKER_02: Okay, mindset, okay.
1:17:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think the mindset would probably then be understanding who you are and your skill set and your strength.
1:17:22
SPEAKER_02: I mentioned to you that with my sister, I know that I'm an initiator, I'm a doer, I'm an executor.
1:17:29
SPEAKER_02: That's my skill set.
1:17:30
SPEAKER_02: And I I don't want to be anything else, if that makes sense.
1:17:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:17:33
SPEAKER_02: So I don't want to be anything else.
1:17:35
SPEAKER_02: But where where I do well, why not harness that and continue to push that as opposed to trying to be something else, which I may struggle with.
1:17:45
SPEAKER_02: So I'll say that, you know, understanding who you are as an individual and working on that.
1:17:51
SPEAKER_02: I mentioned to you, you know, what you're doing now, you probably didn't realize it, but it's been something that you've been doing up until adulthood now.
1:17:59
SPEAKER_02: And you've now turned it into, you know what, hey, let me do a podcast.
1:18:02
SPEAKER_02: And you do it and you do it so well.
1:18:03
SPEAKER_02: It comes natural to you.
1:18:05
SPEAKER_02: The more you do it, the better you're gonna become at it, right?
1:18:08
SPEAKER_02: So once you realize where your strengths are, what your skill sets are, continue doing that and becoming a master of that, right?
1:18:15
SPEAKER_02: Learning, reading about, reading up on it, sorry, um, doing whatever it is that you can to then just kind of impact yourself with more knowledge is what I think one of the things that I would say.
1:18:26
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
1:18:27
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
1:18:28
SPEAKER_00: I have so much I've enjoyed this conversation.
1:18:30
SPEAKER_00: I actually feel selfish because I feel this convo was more for me than for you guys.
1:18:34
SPEAKER_00: But I hope you enjoyed it too.
1:18:36
SPEAKER_00: And I hope this convo brings you one step closer to being the mastermind that you deserve to be.
1:18:41
SPEAKER_00: Because, like Cupcake Boutique says, you deserve it.
1:18:44
SPEAKER_02: I love that.
1:18:45
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
1:18:47
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for watching this episode.
1:18:49
SPEAKER_00: The fact that you stayed all the way through to the end tells me that you're not only curious, but you have the discipline to see what you do all the way through to the end.
1:18:58
SPEAKER_00: Now, let's build a community of thinkers who are ready to become the best version of themselves.
1:19:04
SPEAKER_00: So, subscribe to the channel and the mindset that you will develop and grow every day to become a true mastermind.