Latest / Masterminds Podcast / The Woman Behind Ghana’s Biggest Shows: Afeafa Nfojoh’s Untold Story | | Masterminds Podcast EP25

Transcript

The Woman Behind Ghana’s Biggest Shows: Afeafa Nfojoh’s Untold Story | | Masterminds Podcast EP25 · Masterminds Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_05: You are you are free to dream, but you must be disciplined enough to deliver.
0:05
SPEAKER_05: Take the right mentors.
0:06
SPEAKER_05: I I'm I'm what I'm not the smartest of kids when it comes to like let's say theory or something like that.
0:13
SPEAKER_05: But I'm very good with my hands and great for 10 years, you know.
0:18
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I'm supposed to set up the whole group of people called minister.
0:24
SPEAKER_05: If you have the opportunity to let the dream live on, you need to open up.
0:28
SPEAKER_05: GBC was supposed to show it, I think four o'clock, and then the editing was still going on.
0:36
SPEAKER_05: And then in the evening, when you sit down here watching, realize that there are actually rushes on TV.
0:41
SPEAKER_05: So you need to be ready.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: Hi, my name is Richie Mensa, and every day I'm going to be your excellent tour guide on the journey to mastering the most powerful tool that you have been given, your mind.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: Over here, we have good conversations, good chats, and have and discuss insights that will help you to become the mastermind that I know you are destined to be.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: So today we're talking about something which is very, very important, which is leadership.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: But not just the basic leadership.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: Leadership which combines discipline with positivity.
1:18
SPEAKER_00: So to discuss this, I brought one of my favorite people in the entire world.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: So not only is she amazingly beautiful and charming, she happens to be a veteran in the creative industry.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is one of the people that when I started out showed me the ropes.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: You know, every time I meet with her, we're doing work.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: She's so positive.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: She likes, she gives you vigor to be able to do more and want to do more.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: She has so many accolades under her belt, from working with Charterhouse to handling GH1 to handling Media General to the one behind so many productions that you see on your TV every day through APL.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: She's been the director for most of the biggest events that you've seen in Ghana, from TGMA, VGMA, GMA, whichever name you decide to call it, Miss Malaika.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: Look, if I said I was going to list the accolades, the entire episode will be about what she's done.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: But instead, let me try and talk to, as I said in the beginning, one of my favorite human beings alive, apefa and fojo.
2:24
SPEAKER_05: I have my number one fan in the clapping for you.
2:28
SPEAKER_05: Total distraction.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: Please, let me let me say the name that I call you, Pepe.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: But first, I want to pronounce it well.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: It's apefa.
2:42
SPEAKER_05: It basically means peaceful home.
2:44
SPEAKER_05: Ah, peaceful person.
2:46
SPEAKER_05: That explains.
2:47
SPEAKER_05: Exactly.
2:48
SPEAKER_05: I'm I live my name.
2:49
SPEAKER_05: I always say that I live my name.
2:50
SPEAKER_05: I am I am my name.
2:52
SPEAKER_05: So it's a means house.
2:55
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
2:56
SPEAKER_05: Efa means peaceful.
2:58
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
2:58
SPEAKER_02: Oh.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: Everything makes more sense now.
3:01
SPEAKER_05: Richie, you are the only one who can get me in.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: I know.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: I feel so honored though.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: You have never done something like this before.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: First question I have to ask.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: How do you do it?
3:12
SPEAKER_00: You see, I've been in this industry for a while.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: And everybody I know has lovers and haters.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: You are the only person I know.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: Everybody loves you.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: Not be true, not be true.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: That one is not true.
3:25
SPEAKER_05: It's not true.
3:26
SPEAKER_05: Well, well, you will not know.
3:27
SPEAKER_05: I would not know.
3:29
SPEAKER_05: I what I see, or uh the energy I get from the people around me is usually positive.
3:35
SPEAKER_05: So I want to believe it's good.
3:37
SPEAKER_05: But there will definitely be those ones, but I never concentrate on those people.
3:40
SPEAKER_05: So I keep the positive ones around me.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: Because I've never gone anywhere, mentioned your name, or heard your name be mentioned somewhere, and there was even a small negative.
3:51
SPEAKER_05: No, no, no, no.
3:51
SPEAKER_05: That one you will not you will not get it from me.
3:53
SPEAKER_05: I'm I'm not so I as I told you earlier, my name is Apefa.
3:57
SPEAKER_05: So naturally, I'm very positive, very peaceful person.
4:01
SPEAKER_05: I'll choose peace over violence.
4:04
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
4:04
SPEAKER_05: You know, though I could be violent, but I'm always choosing peace over violence.
4:08
SPEAKER_05: It it it's less stressful.
4:09
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
4:10
SPEAKER_05: And you know, I like it when people are able to say that, oh, this lady helped me, or this lady assisted me, or this lady was by my side.
4:18
SPEAKER_05: It feels better and good than you know.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: Because I remember that from the beginning.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: Like when Link started and you didn't even know who we were, you didn't have any reason to support us.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: You were one person who was always supportive.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: Whatever we did, you'd show up, you would advise, you would help out.
4:35
SPEAKER_05: It will interest you to know that your one of your songs, many, many years ago, is what actually, you know, drove me or pushed me.
4:41
SPEAKER_05: It's the Yarrow song.
4:43
SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
4:44
SPEAKER_05: Yes, that time I was pretty young, and you were also young at that time.
4:47
SPEAKER_05: And when I heard that song, I was in I was driving in my car and my small Chevrolet car, and it was one of those tough days or tough times that I had gone on production.
4:57
SPEAKER_05: I was coming, it was very tough for me.
4:59
SPEAKER_05: I remember I was around Fiesta Royal, thereabouts, and the song came on.
5:03
SPEAKER_05: They said, Abigail, but they kind of and it felt so it felt like it was talking to me.
5:09
SPEAKER_05: Wow.
5:09
SPEAKER_05: And I said to myself that yes, you know, I've had I had issues, I had problems because those days I was young, I couldn't, I didn't know my way around, and you know, but that song spoke directly to me, and it connected, it made me understand you, understand your story, where you had come from, and the fact that at that time, you know, you had a lot of people who were, for want of a better word, maybe envious or you know, wanted what you kind of spoke your mind to because you're not that kind of person that will come on radio or come on TV, and you know, no, no, you didn't have time for that, you know.
5:40
SPEAKER_05: But you spoke it through music and it was more of your achievement and what you had done.
5:45
SPEAKER_05: And it's one of the things that, you know, I draw or drew me closer to you.
5:50
SPEAKER_05: Okay, and wanted me to look it to it.
5:53
SPEAKER_05: I was listening to your intro in the beginning.
5:55
SPEAKER_05: You were saying that, oh, I did this, this, but you probably also did not know or do not know how I would Google Richie or I would check your things that you're doing.
6:05
SPEAKER_05: I'm so proud.
6:05
SPEAKER_05: I'm like, wow, I want to do this, I want to be like this, I want to, you know.
6:09
SPEAKER_05: That's why you get me texting you, you know, asking you about certain things.
6:12
SPEAKER_05: So yeah.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: I'm actually, I never knew this.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: So that means we've inspired each other.
6:16
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
6:17
SPEAKER_05: I like that.
6:18
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, positive meets positive.
6:19
SPEAKER_05: You see, negative.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's go back.
6:23
SPEAKER_00: I I always try and help people's mindsets, right?
6:26
SPEAKER_00: So, an important thing to me is not just who you are now, but how you became that person.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: So, growing up, what what what in your youth made you have this mindset?
6:37
SPEAKER_00: Did you always know you were going to charter down this path?
6:39
SPEAKER_05: Yes, I I I've always I mean, if you ask my friends, you know, of many years, especially in Oboise, uh Shantigoldfields, you they'll tell you that Peffi is doing what she set out to do.
6:51
SPEAKER_05: She's doing exactly, you know, because back in school, back in school, in Oboise, you know, I was, I think about maybe 12, 10 years, you know, here I was, I set up a whole squad of uh group of people called Biney Stars.
7:06
SPEAKER_05: Uh I my dad used to work with their minds then.
7:09
SPEAKER_05: So we used to stay at Biney Estate.
7:12
SPEAKER_05: So we, you know, I put, I gathered a couple of friends and everybody, you know, in the area, and we called it Biney Stars.
7:18
SPEAKER_05: And my mom had a restaurant then.
7:20
SPEAKER_05: So I'll tell her that, oh, Easter and Christmas, give us the space so that we can do um uh a Christmas story or uh Mary and Joseph and kind of thing.
7:28
SPEAKER_05: And my friend's mother had a school, go for the script for the Mary and Joseph, then I'll share the characters.
7:33
SPEAKER_05: You are doing this, you are doing that, you know.
7:35
SPEAKER_05: And I'd also say we'd need to do uh uh how do you call that at the uh miming where we play Carrie songs or Michael Jackson's songs, and I say you will be the one who mime, you'll be the one.
7:45
SPEAKER_05: You know, Christmas Day we'll do artworks and post it around the Bangalore, the estate, and ask people to meet us at Goldfinger restaurant for, you know, and we put up a full show.
7:55
SPEAKER_05: And you know, I did that a lot.
7:56
SPEAKER_05: I did that for a long time.
7:58
SPEAKER_05: So people were like, ah, this is really what I wanted to do.
8:01
SPEAKER_05: Back in SHS too, I did the same.
8:03
SPEAKER_05: You know, I was never the entertainment prefect, I really don't know why.
8:06
SPEAKER_05: But I was a Gunsa president, I was a drama debating president, you know, and I uh you find me putting together entertainment activities and stuff like that, you know, and I enjoy doing it.
8:18
SPEAKER_05: It's all my life, that's what I've been doing.
8:20
SPEAKER_05: Then I went to NAFTI, you know, and I I want I didn't want to be the SRC president, I wanted to be the S A, the organizing secretary, because I wanted to organize events.
8:29
SPEAKER_05: I wanted, and I would do that.
8:30
SPEAKER_05: You would have Thursday salsa night, you have Friday movie night, you have so many activities, you know, that you know, I did.
8:36
SPEAKER_05: I think I did it twice or so over there.
8:39
SPEAKER_05: So it was something yes, you know.
8:41
SPEAKER_05: I couldn't have done anything.
8:42
SPEAKER_05: I keep saying, you know, I I'm not I was, or I'm not the smartest of kids when it comes to like let's say theory or something of all that sort.
8:51
SPEAKER_05: But I'm very good with my hands and I'm very creative, you know.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: So that means you've been organizing creativity.
8:57
SPEAKER_05: Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
8:59
SPEAKER_05: I've been I'll I'll characterize people, I'll tell you you are this, you so I I mean I used to um do something like every um when I was younger, every week I'll say the best, the most gorgeous person, the most talented person.
9:14
SPEAKER_05: I'll write it in with uh what you felt pens and colored pencil, and I'll I'll put it I couldn't print in those days, so I'll go and paste it on a tree.
9:22
SPEAKER_05: So when you come this week, for this week, you are probably the most talented, you are the most gorgeous, or you're the hardworking, and everywhere people were looking forward to having to come to that tree and seeing, you know, who is what or what is what.
9:35
SPEAKER_05: So I enjoyed doing that.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: And it means you're one person who embodies when we say your passion finding your purpose.
9:41
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah, I did.
9:42
SPEAKER_05: This makes a lot of sense now.
9:44
SPEAKER_05: I I did, I did.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: But did you know I'm from Oboase?
9:47
SPEAKER_05: Really?
9:47
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, you were kidding me, right?
9:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but I never stayed there.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: You never did, yeah.
9:52
SPEAKER_05: I was there for almost 15 years or so.
9:54
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, for almost 15 years, from um primary to GSS, you know, I lived there.
10:01
SPEAKER_05: I left there, I think around 16, 17.
10:03
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, interesting, yeah, yeah.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: The city of Go.
10:06
SPEAKER_05: I know, so we see the connection there.
10:08
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, okay.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: So let's continue the story.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: So, from there to NAFTI, so I want to now understand how you started out at Charterhouse.
10:16
SPEAKER_05: So, before Charter House, I went to do my attachment at um farmhouse.
10:21
SPEAKER_05: Okay, that's Ivan Kwashiga, my big boss.
10:24
SPEAKER_05: And you know, I also looked up to him a lot.
10:26
SPEAKER_05: You know, he was that kind of person that he he he he created great content, and I really wanted to be like him.
10:34
SPEAKER_05: But then he did more of um commercials and he did more of movies and fills and shots, you know.
10:40
SPEAKER_05: And I really wanted to do that when I was, I finished NAFT, but I realized that the industry was not strong, and when am I going to get investors at that age?
10:47
SPEAKER_05: So, you know, so I wanted to be off and go and do um television and events, you know.
10:53
SPEAKER_05: So that's how I worked into Charterhouse in the beginning.
10:56
SPEAKER_05: They said, Oh, you cannot make it, you need to know somebody then.
10:59
SPEAKER_05: I was like, Really?
11:00
SPEAKER_05: Okay, let's see.
11:01
SPEAKER_05: I I wrote my letter, I entered Charterhouse, then I got an interview.
11:06
SPEAKER_05: The next day said, come and see the um CEO, that was um Teresa Yuade.
11:11
SPEAKER_05: I went to Teresa.
11:12
SPEAKER_05: Teresa's like, I like you, you're good, you're potential.
11:15
SPEAKER_05: Let's do this.
11:16
SPEAKER_05: And they took me from national service.
11:17
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and that was it.
11:19
SPEAKER_05: I didn't have any connection, I didn't know anybody, I didn't have to do anything, I just went there.
11:24
SPEAKER_05: That's how I got to Chatterhouse.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: I I love the story.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of people are going through similar things where they feel you need to know someone, have some connection.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: You know that thing where they say in Ghana and Africa, it's about who you know or who knows you and stuff.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes take the risk.
11:40
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
11:41
SPEAKER_05: I'm a believer of that, that you you you don't need to know people.
11:45
SPEAKER_05: Look, when I you probably your your workspace, you probably have everybody, you don't need to employ anybody.
11:52
SPEAKER_05: But if someone walks in right now, yeah, and you see the person, you're like, oh my god, this is talent.
11:57
SPEAKER_05: This is I don't have space, but I will employ the person.
11:59
SPEAKER_05: It's about you.
12:00
SPEAKER_05: How are you going to present yourself when you go there?
12:03
SPEAKER_05: And when I went there that day, I dressed up nicely.
12:06
SPEAKER_05: You know, I was confident, I spoke the part.
12:08
SPEAKER_05: It was a very, in fact, I the interview, I even drew my boss.
12:11
SPEAKER_05: My boss was like, ah, take and draw me.
12:13
SPEAKER_05: I I didn't even, you know, go through a difficult interview then.
12:17
SPEAKER_05: You know, but they just knew that okay, we'll want this person and we'll take care because they had somebody else.
12:21
SPEAKER_05: Why did they even need me there?
12:23
SPEAKER_05: And they took me.
12:23
SPEAKER_05: So it's about you.
12:25
SPEAKER_05: How do you present yourself?
12:26
SPEAKER_05: You're going to a place that you know that there's no space or do not look at me.
12:30
SPEAKER_05: Go looking the packs, feeling confident.
12:33
SPEAKER_05: You they might not even call you then then, but later on they say, Oh, this person came for this interview.
12:37
SPEAKER_05: I think we can get in touch with the person.
12:39
SPEAKER_05: So I'm not a believer of I need to go through the back door.
12:41
SPEAKER_05: No.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: Like I was reading the story, or actually watching her story.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, the woman who wrote either, is it um what do you call it?
12:49
SPEAKER_00: Marvel.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: Hey, which Marvel movie is it?
12:51
SPEAKER_00: Hey, me the Marvel Man.
12:52
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, the Marvel, also Marvel Person, right?
12:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Marvel Person, I'm forgetting the movie that she wrote.
12:58
SPEAKER_00: But basically, um, she was telling a story of how she got to write the movie.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: So she said she always admired Marvel, always watched Marvel.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: So she actually paid somebody on um what's that way?
13:08
SPEAKER_00: Is it up Upwork?
13:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: She paid someone on Upwork that find me the email of somebody in Marvel.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: So actually found the email of the CEO.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: So she just sent the CEO a random email saying, I am this, this, that, I have written this and that and that.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm a huge Marvel fan, and I would love to write for Marvel one day.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: Didn't get anything back for about a year and a half.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: A year and a half later, she gets an email.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: Hi, sorry it took us so long to get back to you.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: We're considering a new movie, and we checked out your work, and you look like you're one of the people who could do it.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: Let's have a meeting.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: Just like that.
13:47
SPEAKER_05: That was it.
13:48
SPEAKER_05: That was it.
13:48
SPEAKER_05: Perfect thing.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes take the chance.
13:50
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah, take the chance.
13:52
SPEAKER_05: There was a young girl who came to me.
13:54
SPEAKER_05: Um, she said she wanted a job.
13:56
SPEAKER_05: And in fact, she didn't come to me.
13:58
SPEAKER_05: I it was on Facebook that she had sent um a CV and a message, hi, I admire you so much.
14:03
SPEAKER_05: I wanted to usually I would not, you know, but I just texted back, I said, you know what, come and drop your CV with my PA.
14:10
SPEAKER_05: And the day she came in, she said she had she had dropped the C.
14:13
SPEAKER_05: I said, Why are you saying she's around?
14:14
SPEAKER_05: Stay, I'm coming.
14:15
SPEAKER_05: I have a meeting somewhere, but I'm coming.
14:17
SPEAKER_05: But before I could get to the office, about two people had called me that, oh, there's a girl who is coming to you, please.
14:22
SPEAKER_05: She's good.
14:23
SPEAKER_05: Oh, she's very easy.
14:24
SPEAKER_05: Another one person.
14:25
SPEAKER_05: So I finished my interview with her.
14:27
SPEAKER_05: I said that when you are going to interview people, believe it that you you will be successful.
14:33
SPEAKER_05: I didn't need to get a call from two different people.
14:35
SPEAKER_05: Right now, if you make it, the assumption is that because these people called you, that's why you made it.
14:39
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, but you you can't believe in yourself that, oh, I made it through my own mics.
14:44
SPEAKER_05: You know, you think that, oh, this person gave me that call, that's why.
14:46
SPEAKER_05: No, no, no, no, no.
14:47
SPEAKER_05: I think you're good, I think you are solid, and I'm taking you because of that, not because these other two people called me.
14:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:53
SPEAKER_05: And you know, she sat back, she's like, Yeah.
14:54
SPEAKER_05: I said, Yeah, so just believe.
14:56
SPEAKER_05: And I say it's a lot to these Malaika and GMB people that stop this connection business.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: Take the risk on yourself.
15:02
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
15:03
SPEAKER_05: I mean, if if you if you dare send someone to send money to me, you're out of the competition.
15:07
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, that's what I want.
15:07
SPEAKER_05: Straight up.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: You're useless.
15:09
SPEAKER_05: Straight up, because then what am I trying to raise or what am I trying to, you know, mentor?
15:15
SPEAKER_05: It doesn't work.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: People don't take risks.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: I I I read something funny yesterday.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: I loved it so much.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: I think I'm going to make it one of my new mantras.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: It said, not every lion who chased a zebra caught it, but every lion who caught a zebra chased it.
15:29
SPEAKER_05: Every lion who caught a zebra chased it.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: So you have to take that chance.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: The only way to make sure that you will never succeed is to not take a chance.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's not take a chance, exactly.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: So if you hadn't walked in there for that interview today, I wouldn't have been, yeah.
15:47
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
15:47
SPEAKER_05: And never regretted today.
15:48
SPEAKER_05: I mean, Chatterhouse shaped me.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about some of your challenges starting out, especially as a female in this industry.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: I know these days there are a lot of women in the industry, even behind the scenes and stuff.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: But at that time, there were very, very few women.
16:05
SPEAKER_00: So what was it like?
16:06
SPEAKER_00: What kind of challenges did you see?
16:08
SPEAKER_05: So starting out for me, it was not even, it didn't have to do with the fact that it was a male-dominated industry.
16:13
SPEAKER_05: I didn't have any men stressing me or any men bullying me, though, you know, you get that, you know.
16:19
SPEAKER_05: But I always have the mentality that I shouldn't say because there were men.
16:24
SPEAKER_05: So, you know, I'm struggling.
16:25
SPEAKER_05: No, my struggles when I started out had to do with the fact that I was a bit naive.
16:31
SPEAKER_05: You know, I came from film school, and film school they'll teach you the basics, they'll teach you um what you need to know about directing and filming.
16:38
SPEAKER_05: It's the applying that you know you need to do when you come out of the school.
16:41
SPEAKER_05: And when I came out of NAFTI, I really didn't know anything, you know.
16:46
SPEAKER_05: I just knew my books, my long shots, my close-up, and I knew that, you know, but I didn't know you knew theory.
16:53
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
16:54
SPEAKER_05: I didn't know how to budget.
16:55
SPEAKER_05: I mean, in school, I did budgeting for I think it was a German something, you know, it was big budgeting kind of, it was just it was the theory of it.
17:04
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, you know, though I did a lot of practicals, but when I came into the industry, I came to Chatterhouse, I realized that okay, the in the Ghanaian industry is a different ball game.
17:14
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so I made a lot of mistakes.
17:16
SPEAKER_05: And when I got there, I had my immediate lead uh producer who I was going to train under, you know.
17:21
SPEAKER_05: She trained me just for a few months and she had to resign.
17:24
SPEAKER_05: So I was pushed out there, you know, to make the mistake.
17:27
SPEAKER_05: My boss was very influential, Shell Yola Yu A Day, but he's the boss, he didn't have time to have to do the, you know, so I had to work.
17:34
SPEAKER_05: I mean, I was I will not plan.
17:37
SPEAKER_05: I'll go on location.
17:38
SPEAKER_05: There was one time I went on location.
17:39
SPEAKER_05: Guess who's coming for dinner?
17:40
SPEAKER_05: We're supposed to re um surprise a person.
17:43
SPEAKER_05: And I because I didn't plan, I didn't do my research, um, the person says his favorite artist was uh Kwabna Kwabna.
17:49
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
17:49
SPEAKER_05: So we got Kwabna Kabna to come.
17:51
SPEAKER_05: No, no, this person that we're surprising was blind.
17:55
SPEAKER_01: Oh.
17:56
SPEAKER_05: So just as we're bringing, we went there to do the surprise and cooking, we realized this woman was blind.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: How is this woman going to even be able to see that Kwabna Kabna is here?
18:04
SPEAKER_05: You know, and it was just because I did not plan.
18:07
SPEAKER_05: And Malaika in those days, stars of feature in those days, you know, we would have set a recording for 9 a.m.
18:14
SPEAKER_05: Then around 2, 3 a.m., I am still recording.
18:17
SPEAKER_05: Because I couldn't put things together.
18:19
SPEAKER_05: So those were the challenges for me.
18:21
SPEAKER_05: It was it was really hard.
18:22
SPEAKER_05: I learned the hard way, you know, because I now had to rely on the cameraman, the editor, the editor said, okay, you need to do donor clips, you need to do that, you need to do this.
18:32
SPEAKER_05: The cameraman said, You need when you take these kind of shots, you did.
18:35
SPEAKER_05: So I relied a lot on them, you know, to be able to find my way.
18:39
SPEAKER_05: And obviously, my boss, you know, who was a great influence, great influence in my, you know, my my growing in the industry.
18:47
SPEAKER_05: But in the beginning it was rough, it was tough, you know.
18:51
SPEAKER_05: But I find so it was there was no, in fact, the people who probably helped me were men who even helped me in the industry to, you know, get where I am.
18:59
SPEAKER_05: So it was challenging, and it just had to do with the fact that I was naive.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: But did you enjoy how challenging it was?
19:07
SPEAKER_05: I enjoyed, but I had too many broken days.
19:10
SPEAKER_05: You know, I had too many broken days because I just always felt that I could be better, I could do better, you know, and I was just making too many, but I was doing what I loved.
19:19
SPEAKER_05: It would have been better than me in a bank or me in a hospital because I would not know what I'm doing.
19:26
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
19:26
SPEAKER_05: So yes, I enjoyed it.
19:27
SPEAKER_05: You know, there were a lot of late nights, a lot of, you know, going to the club and I was pretty young those days, you know, going to the events, you know, the TGA, the VGMEs or GMAs those days, you know.
19:38
SPEAKER_05: It was fun most of the times, but it were moments that I yeah, moments that I I wanted to quit those those days.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: So looking back, if there's a young creative who's starting out, what advice would you give them so that it's not as challenging as you had to go through?
19:55
SPEAKER_05: So I you know, I I I I advise them that when you're in film school or you are learning or training to be in this industry, you need to take up a lot of uh um internships.
20:08
SPEAKER_05: You know, internships, internships without pay.
20:11
SPEAKER_05: You know, in those in the beginning, you don't really need it.
20:13
SPEAKER_05: You do a lot of internships, a lot a lot of practicals, and you it's good to kind of affiliate yourself with people that can assist you.
20:21
SPEAKER_05: So because I knew I had that problem in those days, I'm very passionate when it comes to people who finish school, um, film school.
20:27
SPEAKER_05: I am ready to want to bring them on or have them on.
20:31
SPEAKER_05: I've always said that I probably need like a um a YouTube or a podcast, you know, to be able to do those kinds of things.
20:38
SPEAKER_05: But you know, me and Telenor, I cannot do you know me in television.
20:43
SPEAKER_05: It's very hard.
20:43
SPEAKER_05: And I've said it for a very long time, but I've never really done it.
20:46
SPEAKER_05: But anytime that you are they are in school, I I'll go to NAFTI, I'll tell the lectures that I'm open to internship.
20:54
SPEAKER_05: Let the people come.
20:55
SPEAKER_05: And when they come and do the internship, they they learn so much because where I am right now, there's a lot of things happening every week.
21:01
SPEAKER_05: So I encourage that.
21:03
SPEAKER_05: I think young people should in their beginning stages, you know, the book is good.
21:07
SPEAKER_05: I was not an A student in school.
21:09
SPEAKER_05: But when it came to the practicals or getting a production done, I had my production selected for um South Africa, France, um, Burkina uh Fez Paco and things like that.
21:21
SPEAKER_05: Because when it came to, you know, I could do it, you know, but that was that in school.
21:25
SPEAKER_05: So I encourage them, you need to learn how to it's it's not only about the book and scoring the 100%.
21:32
SPEAKER_05: You need to go on the grounds, deliberate, it's a deliberate attempt.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: Because you know, when you're talking about your challenges, I was going to say the fact that every great person I know, like yourself, became great because of the challenges.
21:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of people don't understand that part, you know.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: Totally.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: They they look at the person at the top there, they want to get to where they are, but they don't want to go through the challenges.
21:55
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, but my my challenges have built me up.
21:57
SPEAKER_05: You know, my challenges before I came here.
22:00
SPEAKER_05: Here.
22:00
SPEAKER_05: You see, I I I kept I you know I even checked up on you yesterday before you reached that.
22:04
SPEAKER_05: And you said, is it tomorrow?
22:05
SPEAKER_05: Is it Wednesday?
22:06
SPEAKER_05: You know, I like to plan ahead.
22:08
SPEAKER_05: My challenges have has taught me that if I do not plan, I will mess up.
22:11
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
22:12
SPEAKER_05: And it's television time or it's um film time or whatever it is.
22:16
SPEAKER_05: So I like to be on time, you know, because there are days that like I told you it took me hours from 9 a.m.
22:23
SPEAKER_05: at 2 a.m.
22:23
SPEAKER_05: to people's children as are sitting down and I'm recording them.
22:28
SPEAKER_05: You know, and it's it's total disrespect for your guests, for the people you're working with, maybe for your crew.
22:34
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's total disrespect.
22:35
SPEAKER_05: And you know, you hear the people say, eh, oh Nimdia, oh yeah, oh, this is that kind of those little little talks, you know.
22:42
SPEAKER_05: I I I didn't take it personal, I took it as they were actually telling me the truth.
22:47
SPEAKER_05: You know, and I didn't want people to know me as that or see me as that.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: You know, when I started out, I think I've always said one of my biggest disadvantages has been I got a lot of things very quickly, I was able to do things very well.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: So I never really was someone who planned so much, put things down because once I'm on the job, I'll get it done.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I thought it wasn't that necessary until I started to plan.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: And then I started to realize that wait, yeah, I would have been so much better years before if I had been planning.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: Taking this route.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: You know, like for instance, I started giving speeches a long time ago.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: And one thing I used to pride myself on was the fact that I never wrote a speech.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: You call me, I'll come, I'll talk, and it'll be beautiful.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: And then after like four or five speeches, I started to write my speeches.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: And the improvements, yeah, structure.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: I was like, okay, why didn't I do this from the beginning?
23:43
SPEAKER_00: But you know, we all have to go through that.
23:45
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and you are you are you are a good plan.
23:47
SPEAKER_05: You plan like this interview, we contacted me like a month ago, Richie.
23:51
SPEAKER_05: So when you said I thought it was, you know, with this, I was gonna say, Oh, let me give him an excuse because I think I wasn't around.
23:56
SPEAKER_05: Then I checked you, it was I was like, uh-uh, that's far, you know.
24:00
SPEAKER_05: But and you reached out to me yourself, you know, and you also always on time, you know.
24:06
SPEAKER_05: When is I always tell my people, hey, I'm not reaching three o'clock, I'm three o'clock, or else, because he'll be here a few minutes ahead and he'll be saying, Beffi, I'm here.
24:17
SPEAKER_05: I'm in the car parkour.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, revealing my secrets.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's let's go into what it takes to organize very big events and very big programs, you know.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people struggle with that because it's easy to be creative and do something which is small and controlled.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: But when there are so many moving parts, like as you're talking about, like you're doing a malaika audition and it has to take so long, then what about things like VGMA and you know, now when you're organizing mentor and it's such a big event?
24:51
SPEAKER_00: How are you able to put all that together?
24:54
SPEAKER_05: So, um a program, obviously, we're using TGM as an example.
24:58
SPEAKER_05: You know, it's important for one to know that you cannot be a one-man thousand, you know.
25:04
SPEAKER_05: Let's see that let's say the events that you did um a few months ago.
25:10
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I yes, I was a director there.
25:12
SPEAKER_05: Look at the number of people that were on that production.
25:15
SPEAKER_05: It was not just Richie alone.
25:17
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, you know, it was Richie and an entire nation, army, if I should put it, an entire army.
25:24
SPEAKER_05: So it's important that if you're doing something great or something big, you need an entire army.
25:29
SPEAKER_05: And my boss, um Yola Yuade, you know, has has come to see that it's not a little family affair, it's bigger than him, and he so he gets everyone involved.
25:42
SPEAKER_05: So you'd have those who are concentrating on creating of the ideas, those who are concentrating on making the um the show happen, those who are doing the set design.
25:50
SPEAKER_05: Everybody has their role to play.
25:51
SPEAKER_05: And that's how to be able to get a massive event like that, you need to accept the facts that you need the people who can get the job done to get it done.
25:59
SPEAKER_05: Or else, Richie, you would have asked everyone to sleep and you would have done it because you are a master of it all.
26:05
SPEAKER_05: But you knew you needed this person, you needed that person, you needed this person, that kind of thing.
26:09
SPEAKER_05: And that is the secret for it.
26:11
SPEAKER_05: In Ghana, we're used to one man thousand, that this person can get it done.
26:15
SPEAKER_05: So, oh, me meeting me, I mean, we're not paying this.
26:18
SPEAKER_05: No, no, no, no.
26:18
SPEAKER_05: Let me get it done myself, you know, kind of thing.
26:20
SPEAKER_05: And you will see the results or the outcome of it.
26:23
SPEAKER_05: You saw the RNQ outcome of it, you know, it was massive, it was big.
26:26
SPEAKER_05: TGME, same thing.
26:28
SPEAKER_05: So it is you need to spread your wings, it needs you need to collaborate.
26:32
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, you need to be open, and you need to be able to have a lead that you know is able to bring everything together, or else, yes, you have the people, but everything will be scattered.
26:43
SPEAKER_03: True.
26:43
SPEAKER_05: And you know, my bot my boss does that a lot.
26:45
SPEAKER_05: So I come in as a director most mostly.
26:48
SPEAKER_05: Um, maybe in the beginning, we do the idea, you know, uh bringing the idea and the creatives and everything together.
26:54
SPEAKER_05: Um, before when I used to work with Charterhouse, I used to have a bigger role where I would be part of the producing, but now that I'm not and I'm a little busy, I come in with the ideas and the creatives, you know, with the entire team and then come in to do the directing.
27:06
SPEAKER_05: So he will now leave it to your hands that Peffi, this is what we have put together.
27:11
SPEAKER_05: Now it's left for you to give it to the people.
27:14
SPEAKER_05: So everything that we you see as, you know, do it is my responsibility to make sure that uh the person uh at home is able to see or else work done is zero.
27:24
SPEAKER_05: So it's a lot, you know, it's a lot, but uh we are able to pull through.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: I love that time.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of people don't truly appreciate the power of collaboration.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I always say if you want to go fast, go alone.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if you want to go far, go with the team.
27:40
SPEAKER_00: You have so many faces that I need to write down and post in on my because my mom, my mom used to like saying these things when I was a child.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: But I think that's one thing that me personally I learned from when I started when I entered the industry, people like you, people like Yola, people like Abraham or Hinijan, I started noticing that the people I admired the most all understood the the the act, the act of collaborating.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: You know, like I would go to OM studios and I would see the most random person there doing a project with Abraham, and I was like, okay, yeah.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: And they also have the most positive attitude.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, those who are able to get big things done.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're positive, they bring more positive people in there.
28:25
SPEAKER_05: The names you have mentioned are rightly so, yeah, yeah.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know how we're going to get more people to understand that because every time I watch somebody in their corner working on something and not willing to let anybody else in, I see that oh, this person isn't going to go far.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: How you tell them.
28:44
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
28:45
SPEAKER_05: They they they you say, What would I tell them?
28:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
28:48
SPEAKER_05: Ah, well, I would I wish I could say, ah, that's your own problem.
28:57
SPEAKER_05: You know, but I mean, that's why you are having this people.
29:01
SPEAKER_05: People like them, if they are listening to us, you know, they'll be able to take something out of it.
29:04
SPEAKER_05: And it it's it I why are you keeping it also at the end of the day when you die, we I put you in the coffin and you are gone.
29:10
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it doesn't even make sense.
29:11
SPEAKER_05: But there are people like that who really do not want to impact that much, you know.
29:16
SPEAKER_05: And so they just want to keep it to themselves and not, you know, put it out.
29:19
SPEAKER_05: And you you you are not you you the company doesn't grow.
29:23
SPEAKER_05: You don't grow.
29:25
SPEAKER_05: You you made no impact.
29:26
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, you are you are you it's a short time and you are gone.
29:30
SPEAKER_05: I mean, look at you.
29:31
SPEAKER_05: You started with something small.
29:34
SPEAKER_05: You have this, you have that, you have this, you are opening this.
29:37
SPEAKER_05: And next time you're your books, you need to give me one one.
29:40
SPEAKER_05: Yes, hey, definitely.
29:41
SPEAKER_05: It's your fault that I don't have one.
29:42
SPEAKER_05: Yes, it's your fault.
29:44
SPEAKER_05: You get me.
29:45
SPEAKER_05: So I I I don't know what advice I can give them, but if you have the opportunity to be able to assist or help people, if you have the opportunity to let the dream live on, you need to open up and and you know, impact.
30:00
SPEAKER_05: I I have impacted a little.
30:01
SPEAKER_05: I I I I get joy, you know, I get joy in uh someone say, Peffi, oh, I produced this, or Peffi, oh, I got this, I won this award.
30:11
SPEAKER_05: Peffi, I look at my work, and you know, I see a lot of work of people that I have assisted or have mentored, I've helped, and these are things I could not have done or I've not been able to do, I've not even thought of.
30:21
SPEAKER_05: There are many names I can mention, and it makes me so proud and happy.
30:26
SPEAKER_05: And there are many names in this industry who will mention you when they are saying how they're so so that's why probably you keep on saying that you've not had negatives from me because every time you keep that's that is how my name lives on.
30:37
SPEAKER_05: So if someone is mentioning someone, I'll be recommended to somebody, to a job, to a position.
30:42
SPEAKER_05: That's how it works.
30:43
SPEAKER_05: Sometimes you think you are hurting somebody, but you're really hurting yourself.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's let's now go to the negative small.
30:52
SPEAKER_00: What's what happened one time, maybe at some TGMA event or maybe like a Tv3 production that you almost thought that was the end.
31:02
SPEAKER_00: There was no way to bounce back from that during the event, but you still found a way.
31:05
SPEAKER_05: There were many things, there'd be many things.
31:07
SPEAKER_05: And you know, most of these things happened when I I was not um a planner, as I I've been saying from the beginning.
31:15
SPEAKER_05: And you know, yeah, and they're very little things that, but they are great things.
31:21
SPEAKER_05: So, for example, you go on production, and after you are done with the production, and you probably suffer to maybe like this three end productions, I'm able to pull these people, pull these people, and you realize that you did not uh roll the cameras or the cameras were really never rolling.
31:37
SPEAKER_05: I had so many of those days, and you know, we would record on Saturdays to edit quickly for Sunday T TV.
31:44
SPEAKER_05: Wow, and we get on the we are done, we get to the studio, we're about to copy cards, cards as is nothing day there.
31:53
SPEAKER_05: Then what are you going to do for the next day?
31:55
SPEAKER_05: Because you know that your boss is slaughtering you, you know, then then, and you would now have to make up, you know, probably, you know, and that's one of the things that my boss taught me how to do.
32:05
SPEAKER_05: He always taught me how to have a plan B or have a solution.
32:09
SPEAKER_05: He always says, You have to have a solution, you have to have a plan B in case of anything, you know.
32:14
SPEAKER_05: So I would now have to go and create get the presenter to do a voiceover, and I'll use pictures.
32:19
SPEAKER_05: Or are you oh Richie?
32:21
SPEAKER_00: Someone will be watching thinking, oh, that's so creative.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: They don't know.
32:26
SPEAKER_05: And sometimes, you know, the editor probably would delay in editing, and he needs to go to GBC.
32:31
SPEAKER_05: There were times that I faked that I was pregnant, and my my uh George Quay was the one who helped me with that thing because a GBC was supposed to show it.
32:39
SPEAKER_05: I think four o'clock, and the editing was still going on, and we finished editing around I think 3:30 or something of that sort.
32:46
SPEAKER_05: So, but even now it was going in packages, so we've rendered one and we say, and I put some George Quay said, put cloth in your stomach, put cloth in my stomach.
32:55
SPEAKER_05: The secret man says that and then I'm always on your baby neighbor.
33:00
SPEAKER_05: And then my minimum caught, let me help you.
33:02
SPEAKER_05: My man caught me they never come, they never come.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: Oh my god.
33:06
SPEAKER_05: Then you know, we're going through second, those days, second we didn't have that, you know.
33:10
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and so that there was a lot of traffic, so we had to struggle to you know enter and get to GBC and now we're gonna beg you, we beg you, and we're very kind, you know, and they'll slot it in, and we'll have to go for the next one and come back, and then in the evening, what when you sit down here watching realize that they are actually rushes on TV.
33:28
SPEAKER_05: Someone saying, Oh, Peppy Peppy, should I go?
33:30
SPEAKER_05: Should I go?
33:30
SPEAKER_05: Okay, I'm ready.
33:31
SPEAKER_05: Okay, okay, actually, let's go.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
33:36
SPEAKER_05: Then you know that then Monday morning they are hot meeting, chopping you.
33:41
SPEAKER_05: Your last keeper is telling him that it's just like you are just waiting for something to happen for you to get at you.
33:48
SPEAKER_05: The problems are they are major, they're major.
33:50
SPEAKER_05: Um, I think T Jimmy, one of the problems too that we had was uh you are ready and set to go, and you know, you have probably have like an uh an Obi-Van issue or a setup issue, everything is gone.
34:00
SPEAKER_05: So the set time of you to start, it's not happening.
34:04
SPEAKER_05: You would go length and breadth, and everything was on.
34:07
SPEAKER_05: I could see we could see the feed and everything.
34:10
SPEAKER_05: We're about to start the show, and the feed is gone.
34:12
SPEAKER_00: Just like that.
34:13
SPEAKER_05: Oh, just like that, you know.
34:14
SPEAKER_05: So it's been very little, little, little, little things that you know, and because you're working with people, it's bound to happen.
34:20
SPEAKER_05: I would say if I have 10 hands and ten feet, ah, Richie.
34:24
SPEAKER_05: I I would go smoothly.
34:26
SPEAKER_05: But when you work with other people, these things are bound to control every single part of it.
34:30
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, but I've not had any major thing that you know you've not been able to overcome.
34:37
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, no, no, no.
34:40
SPEAKER_05: I uh we've tried, something we didn't overcome, we let it go, and life still went on.
34:46
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, life still went on, and you know, my people always tell you that this is uh yeah, I always there's something I always say, I can't kill myself.
34:52
SPEAKER_05: I just say I can't kill myself.
34:54
SPEAKER_05: Or I say you're on you, I was like, it has happened, you know.
34:57
SPEAKER_05: It has happened, it's it can always be 100%.
35:00
SPEAKER_00: I think that's the thing about experience in events and production.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: I remember when we were organizing the the rock star concert in Kumasi some years back.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh event manager said at a point, he just looked at Albert and I and he was confused because everything was going wrong.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: Like the people the vendors hadn't brought, you know, the lights, this was delayed.
35:21
SPEAKER_00: The the guests who had come from a crowd, there was a problem at the hotel, something was going wrong with the sound, everything was going wrong, and Albert and I were just calm.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: He was like, ah, why are you guys calm?
35:33
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, no, we'll fix it, don't worry.
35:35
SPEAKER_00: We'll fix what we can.
35:36
SPEAKER_05: You actually really do.
35:38
SPEAKER_05: You actually really do.
35:40
SPEAKER_05: I was not calm like that in the past, though.
35:42
SPEAKER_05: I was not calm.
35:43
SPEAKER_05: I'm always on the but now.
35:46
SPEAKER_05: I am.
35:47
SPEAKER_05: I put a post up yesterday that I'm I'm proud of how emotionally and um um uh mentally grown I am.
35:55
SPEAKER_05: I've grown mentally the things that I'll panic and I just realized that I have really been stressing myself.
36:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think it comes from two things.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: The first one is when you actually keep achieving, you start to believe in yourself more and know that I can actually pull it off.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: And the second thing is noticing, even when I'm not able to pull it off the way I thought I wanted to, it still works out.
36:21
SPEAKER_05: It still works out.
36:22
SPEAKER_05: It's exactly what you're saying.
36:24
SPEAKER_05: You know, one of the what you I I keep I when I say this, people don't believe it, but anytime we're going to do TGME, my first few three minutes is chaotic in my brain.
36:35
SPEAKER_05: You know, there's always chaos in my brain that, oh my god, what's gonna happen after everything?
36:40
SPEAKER_05: Am I going to mess it up?
36:42
SPEAKER_05: So if you watch the first few minutes of the when they they go on the opening act, sometimes maybe the shot is just there because I'm just battling with my my enemies or my evil spirits in my head.
36:55
SPEAKER_05: Hey, you fail, eh, you know, or sometimes I'm cutting and I do not know what I have and I'm cutting on the bench.
37:03
SPEAKER_05: And it happens for just three minutes, but then I get myself to calm down, get myself to calm down, Peffi.
37:08
SPEAKER_05: You've been doing this for so many years.
37:10
SPEAKER_05: This, even this recent one, the first three minutes, toucher came, you know.
37:15
SPEAKER_05: So I was like, calm down, it's going to be fine, calm down, it's gonna be fine, especially when the act is very chaotic.
37:21
SPEAKER_05: Maybe they'll they sent remember there's an act that we bought a whole Baba built a whole um um uh what do you call it?
37:28
SPEAKER_05: Stero, stero uh tape or something.
37:30
SPEAKER_05: Yes, you know, very chaotic, chaotic act with dancers and everybody.
37:33
SPEAKER_05: You know, first we asked, I was just looking, I was like, did we rehearse, did we rehearse this?
37:37
SPEAKER_05: Did we ever was this part of the plan?
37:39
SPEAKER_05: Like I was okay, you know, but after the three minutes, I just myself and a bab because I trust the people I'm working with, or else why am I even working with them?
37:46
SPEAKER_05: I trust that they're going to give me the right shirt.
37:48
SPEAKER_05: I trust that the backstage people are going to do their work and everything.
37:50
SPEAKER_05: So I relax and calm down, then you know, and I'm able to do it.
37:53
SPEAKER_05: Even we always give me, I can't even switch with my eyes closed.
37:56
SPEAKER_05: But in the beginning, it's always chaotic.
37:58
SPEAKER_05: Always.
37:59
SPEAKER_00: You know, I have a story from RNA Q40.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: So the entire concept of RNA Q40 was to build an indoor event at the Independence Square.
38:09
SPEAKER_00: However, the event was so big that structurally, yeah, to make it to build it to be indoor was chaotic.
38:18
SPEAKER_00: To be able to go to that height and still hold everything together.
38:22
SPEAKER_00: So what we were able to do was bring it indoor to a point, and then there was a part that was open roof.
38:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was in the middle.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: And we said, no way, we will not do open roof.
38:33
SPEAKER_00: Even though we're doing the lights under and everything, we said we it's an indoor event, we are going to make it indoor.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: So we said we're covering it, so we're covering it with a black cloth.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: Engineers came, there's no way to cover it with black cloth.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: Then we tried this, then we tried that.
38:48
SPEAKER_00: Eventually, we found that we can use the black cheese, like the cheese tint to cover it.
38:53
SPEAKER_00: So we covered it.
38:54
SPEAKER_00: The first people did a horrible job at it.
38:56
SPEAKER_00: It didn't look good at all.
38:58
SPEAKER_00: The second people came, did a better job at it.
39:01
SPEAKER_00: It looked good, but it wasn't strong.
39:03
SPEAKER_00: They weren't being able to get it.
39:05
SPEAKER_00: So we called the first people back.
39:06
SPEAKER_00: Then we we had to buy the cheesecloth.
39:08
SPEAKER_05: So was it covered?
39:09
SPEAKER_00: So wait.
39:10
SPEAKER_00: So we bought the cheesecloth and everything ourselves.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: We did it, it was covered, and we said, Thank God, we've done this.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: So this is by Friday afternoon, that's the afternoon before, it was covered.
39:22
SPEAKER_00: And then that night it rained again.
39:26
SPEAKER_00: I remember, and when it rained, the rain pulled everything down.
39:32
SPEAKER_00: My God.
39:33
SPEAKER_00: So the rain was pulling the cheese tents down, it was pulling the lights down, and because the cheese tent was attached to the walls, there was a probability of it pulling the walls down as well.
39:43
SPEAKER_00: So in the middle of the rain, we had to go up there and remove it.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: So this is us Saturday morning.
39:51
SPEAKER_00: It's too late.
39:52
SPEAKER_05: We're moving.
39:53
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing we can do, so we just had to say, it's fine.
39:57
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we went into complete indoor.
40:00
SPEAKER_00: And then now on the day, when we started taking the drone shots, and from the top, you could see the lights and everything.
40:07
SPEAKER_00: We watched them, we're like, Oh, you're stressing for nothing.
40:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank God we were wrong.
40:13
SPEAKER_05: I was going to say the ad.
40:14
SPEAKER_05: Did you really cover it?
40:15
SPEAKER_05: Because I I I I mean, you can lift your heads up, you can see the sky, you can see the stars, and it was beautiful.
40:19
SPEAKER_00: It worked out beautifully.
40:21
SPEAKER_05: It were like no rains, you know, that day.
40:24
SPEAKER_05: Were there rains?
40:25
SPEAKER_05: No, not at all.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: That day, no, but it rained three days consistently before.
40:29
SPEAKER_00: And every day it rained.
40:30
SPEAKER_00: We had to start at the end.
40:31
SPEAKER_05: They always say, God will not bring you this part.
40:35
SPEAKER_00: Okay, now let's talk about your leadership skill.
40:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
40:38
SPEAKER_00: So I know a lot of people, like one thing that I learned in leadership is you either lead with love or you lead with fear.
40:46
SPEAKER_00: The two best leaders are either those whose followers love them or those whose followers fear them.
40:53
SPEAKER_00: So one thing I've noticed is most people aren't able to create that balance.
40:58
SPEAKER_00: They are either too free and people aren't being undisciplined underneath them, or they are too strict and everybody's afraid when they're coming to work.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: But everyone who works with you is able to keep that balance.
41:12
SPEAKER_00: How do you do it?
41:13
SPEAKER_00: How are you so nice and so kind all the time to everybody you're working with?
41:17
SPEAKER_00: But everybody knows don't mess with Peffy.
41:22
SPEAKER_05: I'm not straight.
41:25
SPEAKER_05: You know, I I I believe in um high quality and um humanity.
41:34
SPEAKER_05: To be honest with you, I believe in high quality I I want high quality women, and and but I'm inside too, I'm human, and I know that I'm working with these type of people.
41:40
SPEAKER_05: I always keep on keeping on saying I probably I keep on saying that I probably took my psychology class seriously because I I have allowed myself to understand human beings and people and the fact that we make mistakes and all.
41:54
SPEAKER_05: But then I also have high standards that I want to set.
41:59
SPEAKER_05: I want to be here, or I want us and put it ask because it's one goal for all of us.
42:05
SPEAKER_05: I want us to be here, and that's where we're going to get to.
42:08
SPEAKER_05: But you know, sometimes when you lash a child, the child becomes rebellious, or the child will not listen or some stuff like that.
42:16
SPEAKER_05: So I I I I I use a scale of um nurturing, the nurturing skill and also the disciplinary skill, you know, and not being too.
42:25
SPEAKER_05: I'm not a I will keep on saying I'm not a strict person, but people say, Oh, I wanted to say Peffi, I wanted to say hello to you, but I was afraid.
42:31
SPEAKER_05: I said, Why are you afraid?
42:32
SPEAKER_05: I'm not strict, or I'm not, you know, you know, we always come to me when you but so I try to, you know, balance the two.
42:39
SPEAKER_05: When you are wrong, you are wrong.
42:41
SPEAKER_05: When you are right, I don't hesitate.
42:43
SPEAKER_05: In fact, even if I taught you how to do what you are doing right, or even if I probably did it with you and I did maybe 80% of it, I would go and say, Oh, Richie did it.
42:54
SPEAKER_05: Oh, is that you tried, oh, yes, so Richio, you know, in my group chat, you'll see in my group chats as I'm criticizing or complaining about something that you have done.
43:03
SPEAKER_05: At the same time, I'm also, you know, when you do something good, I come and say, guys, shout out to Richie.
43:10
SPEAKER_05: He he pulled through or pulled off a very good event or whatever it is, and I'm proud of you that I do a lot of that.
43:16
SPEAKER_05: So they they there's that respect of and that but the balance, there's a balance, so there's that respect that comes with it.
43:22
SPEAKER_05: That okay, Peffi would, you know, but Perfe would also you know that kind of thing.
43:27
SPEAKER_05: So it's my my my I my I learned these two things from my mom.
43:32
SPEAKER_05: My mom would um I learned two things.
43:35
SPEAKER_05: One from my mom.
43:36
SPEAKER_05: My mom is my dad, you know, but my mom is very human, like she she likes to care for people, she likes to be considerate when it comes to people, she likes to, you know, listen to people, or she likes to um let you off the hook, you know, and things like that.
43:51
SPEAKER_05: And that's what I I learned.
43:52
SPEAKER_05: And I learned from the other side, the second one from my workspace, let me say my former boss, you know, where he's his standards are high.
44:00
SPEAKER_05: High.
44:00
SPEAKER_05: Yola was not a television or film person.
44:05
SPEAKER_05: He was a banker.
44:07
SPEAKER_05: He's a numbers person.
44:08
SPEAKER_05: But his quality, his standards were very high.
44:12
SPEAKER_05: And he watched a lot of television, YouTube, and things, and he knew what he wanted.
44:16
SPEAKER_05: So he would instill, you insist that you would do that.
44:20
SPEAKER_05: You know, so in those days when I started, and I was a bit okay, it's okay.
44:24
SPEAKER_05: Okay, oh, okay, it's fine.
44:26
SPEAKER_05: We can manage.
44:27
SPEAKER_05: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
44:28
SPEAKER_05: So I I blend, I will blend the two of what I learned from my dad, what I learned from my mother, blend the two, you know, and be able to manage the people because I cannot do it alone, Richie.
44:38
SPEAKER_05: You know, um I learned something years back on Miss Malaka with um Kofiya Mwabing.
44:44
SPEAKER_05: And, you know, went to his house and he was very close to his driver and things like that.
44:48
SPEAKER_05: You know, he said something that he he he treats his drivers and the people who cook for him and everything really well because these are the people who actually have his life's life in his hands.
44:58
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, you know, so um he he's always very careful because a driver will crush you, a person will feed you, you know.
45:04
SPEAKER_05: So he's very careful.
45:06
SPEAKER_05: He needs them beyond the the maybe his um HR in his office or his C CFO or whatever, he needs these people to be able to be alive to be able to get there.
45:15
SPEAKER_05: And that's what I learned with myself that no matter who you are, what you are, I need to be able to understand you.
45:23
SPEAKER_05: There are a lot of people that will stress you, you know, but I'm not that type of person and cancel you out.
45:30
SPEAKER_05: I I I'm not the perfect person, I'm not a saint, you know.
45:33
SPEAKER_05: I also make my mistakes.
45:34
SPEAKER_05: If I when I made my mistakes in the past and my bosses said that, oh, you didn't they had kicked me out, I would not have been where yeah, you know.
45:40
SPEAKER_05: So I'm very it's it's a deliberate attempt for me to keep my high standards and also be be remember the fact that the people I'm working with are human and I need to connect to their humanity.
45:54
SPEAKER_05: I even if I have to speak my language, you know, you know, away people, my people, when the moment they see that you are family, then that's it, you know.
46:01
SPEAKER_05: So if I have to speak my language to get you, you know, if I have to speak fancy or whatever to get you to get it, I'll get it done.
46:07
SPEAKER_05: But when we are getting their work done is professional.
46:14
SPEAKER_05: Yes, when you tap into that, those sides of them or their emotions, they don't know, they do not want to disappoint you because they feel like if I disappoint this person, oh I'll feel bad.
46:23
SPEAKER_05: So sometimes it's not even the fact that they're doing it because maybe I'm going to be strict, I'm going to be angry.
46:28
SPEAKER_05: It's the fact that they do not want to disappoint me because I've been good to them or I've been nice to them, I've respected them in some way.
46:33
SPEAKER_05: So it's it's a deliberate something that as a leader you need to learn.
46:38
SPEAKER_05: You need to learn to be human but keep their standards too high.
46:42
SPEAKER_00: And you do that very well.
46:43
SPEAKER_00: I mean, look, let me say it on camera now.
46:45
SPEAKER_00: Every time you guys see me sitting on mentor, it's because I don't want to I don't want to disrespect a perfect or disappointed anyway.
46:52
SPEAKER_00: But as soon as I see the call coming from him, I'm like, okay, I'll do it again this year.
46:59
SPEAKER_05: I said, Rich, Richie, please.
47:00
SPEAKER_05: I'm begging Rich, you I'll do it for you.
47:03
SPEAKER_05: I'll do it for you.
47:04
SPEAKER_05: You know, that's why when you also called me here, I just said that yeah, I would.
47:08
SPEAKER_05: I mean, anyone who sees this on be like perfect.
47:11
SPEAKER_05: So we called it my cousin was like, Hey, a rich in Kwanabu to me, you know.
47:23
SPEAKER_00: When you're saying the um what Kofi Amabin said about the cooks and the drivers, it reminded me of something which was well known in the mafia community in those days.
47:32
SPEAKER_00: Every mafia dawn, the person who needs to be the most loyal to them is their baba.
47:39
SPEAKER_00: Because you see, in those days, they used to use a blade, like it's a knife.
47:44
SPEAKER_00: That's what they used to shave your beard and everything.
47:46
SPEAKER_00: So when you are in living a life of crime, and there's one person who once a week puts a knife to your neck, that is one person who can assassinate you easily.
47:57
SPEAKER_05: I mean, you watch the godfather, right?
47:59
SPEAKER_05: I could see because I can just picture you.
48:01
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
48:02
SPEAKER_05: Don't call you.
48:02
SPEAKER_05: And everybody who has who has watched and studied the godfather, uh uh, you you can see the life they live.
48:09
SPEAKER_05: I I didn't study it, I didn't read it, you know.
48:12
SPEAKER_05: But I I have somebody in my life who he quotes Godfather 247.
48:18
SPEAKER_05: So anytime I'm I'm living my life, I'm doing something, he says the godfather will do this and do that and do this.
48:24
SPEAKER_05: He was always so I'm not surprised.
48:25
SPEAKER_05: Come to think of it, if you say it's your favorite.
48:28
SPEAKER_00: And that's the thing about leadership, I think most people don't understand.
48:30
SPEAKER_00: Most people think leadership is being on top and bullying the people beneath it.
48:35
SPEAKER_00: They don't understand leadership is actually more service than anything else.
48:40
SPEAKER_00: It's deciding that I I exist to make these people's lives better.
48:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so when you are a leader and you are backing others and just throwing your weights around, you're not actually a leader, you're just a bully.
48:52
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
48:52
SPEAKER_05: And I've been fortunate that all the places that I've been in my career, you know, um, Ivan Kwashiga, solid leader.
49:01
SPEAKER_05: And if you see Ivan will be directing himself, he'll be producing himself, you know.
49:06
SPEAKER_05: Do you not know that he's the CEO of the company?
49:08
SPEAKER_05: Very, you know, down to earth.
49:09
SPEAKER_05: You're a lot the same way.
49:10
SPEAKER_05: You know him, you know how he goes at what Beatrice, Beatrice is the same thing.
49:14
SPEAKER_05: She has, I mean, when I came to TV3, Beatrice, one of the things she taught me, she said that, look, these people here, most of them are your people.
49:20
SPEAKER_05: You've known them in the industry, and some of them even are your tribespeople.
49:24
SPEAKER_05: You need to use your power to be able to lead them or to guide them, yeah, or to work with them.
49:34
SPEAKER_05: She always says that you need to humble yourself with the people and they will be for you.
49:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
49:38
SPEAKER_05: And that's what she has done in her career, you know.
49:40
SPEAKER_05: So I was I as I'm a mediator, I keep on looking at her because a lot of things you have a lot of people who like here around her, you know, have a lot of people.
49:47
SPEAKER_05: She's it's a deliberate attempt for her to be human in the space that she's in.
49:52
SPEAKER_05: I love that.
49:53
SPEAKER_05: To be human.
49:54
SPEAKER_00: We need more of that.
49:55
SPEAKER_00: I wish we could turn everything like me.
49:57
SPEAKER_00: One thing I wish, eh?
49:58
SPEAKER_00: Sorry to say, but even government.
50:00
SPEAKER_00: I wish we could turn government around in a way that people will realize those in government are supposed to be serving us, yes, and not us serving them.
50:10
SPEAKER_05: Yes, yes, totally.
50:12
SPEAKER_00: But I always think it's it's the way we elect leaders, but that's a conversation for another day.
50:17
SPEAKER_05: Another day, which me, I don't do politics, you're on your own on that day.
50:22
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so um, let's look at something.
50:25
SPEAKER_00: Right now, you're doing a lot of live TV.
50:27
SPEAKER_00: How are you able to manage people in that?
50:30
SPEAKER_00: Because live means if anything goes wrong, it is happening in the moment.
50:36
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing you can do about it.
50:38
SPEAKER_00: How are you able to keep people professional and on top of their game during live events?
50:43
SPEAKER_05: So, with live events, it's there's it's a lot at there's a lot at stake.
50:47
SPEAKER_05: You know, there's a lot at stake.
50:49
SPEAKER_05: If you make a mistake, that means it's going live to the to the people.
50:52
SPEAKER_05: So it's not like film that you know you've scripted and you are going to shoot.
50:56
SPEAKER_05: And when you make a mistake, you can correct it.
50:59
SPEAKER_05: But life is not the same.
51:00
SPEAKER_05: And life, if you're a producer, director, especially if you're a director, that means you are responsible for anything that goes out there.
51:06
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
51:07
SPEAKER_05: So I always keep on telling my directors, and uh, what I learned from myself is that it will go back to what I said earlier, plan.
51:14
SPEAKER_05: When you plan a live event, that's why you know you'd have um um productions abroad starting at six to seven.
51:23
SPEAKER_05: They have they have planned it, they have prepared it, they've scripted it, and they have rehearsed it so that we know that okay, if we've rehearsed and we're going to go beyond this time, we know that we can cut these portions or this part of the um the production out of it so that we'll meet the the time.
51:40
SPEAKER_05: It's not like here in Ghana sometime when we say that six to seven, it's six to uh seven fifteen or seven twenty.
51:45
SPEAKER_05: No.
51:45
SPEAKER_05: So it's planning.
51:46
SPEAKER_05: When you plan, you are within the time that you are put because the audience out there, they are very demanding.
51:52
SPEAKER_05: The people, the viewer out there, they are very demanding.
51:54
SPEAKER_05: You know, even if you don't start on time, they will go on Twitter and tweet about you.
51:59
SPEAKER_05: And when you we don't finish on time to me, wait time now.
52:05
SPEAKER_05: So you need to plan as a uh as a producer director, you need to plan and make sure that you are within it, and you also have to make sure that everything that's going to go on air or going to go out, you know it.
52:18
SPEAKER_05: You see no surprises, no surprises on it.
52:22
SPEAKER_05: If probably someone something surprises you, you always have to be alert and take your backup.
52:27
SPEAKER_05: Okay, you know, it's either you're playing your commercial or you're changing your shots to maybe if there are audiences in the studio or something, you always have to be alert, you know, because again, like I said, you what you will see at home is what the people would know.
52:41
SPEAKER_05: We in a studio is a different bulking.
52:44
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
52:44
SPEAKER_05: So you need to plan and be ready.
52:47
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever had to deal with any like very difficult personalities, be it on your team or maybe somebody who was coming on to a show or something?
52:54
SPEAKER_00: How did you have to deal with that?
52:56
SPEAKER_05: Um I personally have not dealt with a difficult personality.
53:00
SPEAKER_05: I want to believe that I don't know, I but you know, I I have my producers or directors who tell me that this person is so difficult.
53:06
SPEAKER_05: But when I'm there, the person is not difficult.
53:08
SPEAKER_05: The person will be like, ah, Peffi, hey, when you're not here, the way this person is supposed to.
53:11
SPEAKER_05: I'm like, really?
53:12
SPEAKER_05: But I'm there.
53:12
SPEAKER_05: And the person, you know.
53:15
SPEAKER_05: Exactly.
53:15
SPEAKER_05: You know, I I I I keep on saying in my journey, I can't give too many negative stories.
53:21
SPEAKER_05: Maybe because I probably did something right, you know, to not be able to get the negative story.
53:26
SPEAKER_05: But I have a lot of people who I'll use the word, the three words, almost ferry me.
53:30
SPEAKER_05: You know, almost ferry me to misbehave, or more ferry me to, you know.
53:33
SPEAKER_05: But yes, they have been divas, but they're divas that I control.
53:36
SPEAKER_05: I I always believe that um TV personalities or actresses and I put them in their place as their celebrities, their personalities.
53:46
SPEAKER_05: I am not on the same level with them as in the sense that I am behind the scenes.
53:51
SPEAKER_05: So if I even have to carry your bag or your shoes to do it, that is my role.
53:55
SPEAKER_05: That's the that's a I I could have been at the opposite side, but I decide to be where I am to carry your bags or your shoes to make sure that you have you have got into the set and everything.
54:04
SPEAKER_05: So I I I'm I'm very serviceable.
54:06
SPEAKER_05: I I mean when I when I have a uh what do you call it um a celebrity who is dramatic.
54:13
SPEAKER_05: Let me use my own friend uh Nashoka's example.
54:15
SPEAKER_05: Maybe she's probably a diva.
54:16
SPEAKER_05: She's not a diva.
54:17
SPEAKER_05: She you told her to come at two o'clock.
54:19
SPEAKER_00: She came at two o'clock.
54:20
SPEAKER_05: She came at two o'clock.
54:21
SPEAKER_05: So she expects you to be done at two o'clock before you go.
54:23
SPEAKER_05: In fact, if you delay her at 2 o'clock, you need to manage it.
54:27
SPEAKER_05: Manage the delay.
54:29
SPEAKER_05: Say, oh, um, Nashoka or Justin, we are late.
54:32
SPEAKER_05: Oh, um, hey, sorry, I'm we are late, you know.
54:34
SPEAKER_05: So can I get you lunch?
54:35
SPEAKER_05: Let me get you lunch or let me get you something, you know, get someone to engage her.
54:38
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
54:38
SPEAKER_05: But somebody will leave her probably in the makeup room or changing the world, not even come and give her any update at all.
54:43
SPEAKER_05: And when this person walks away, then the person is a diva, huh?
54:47
SPEAKER_05: That kind of thing.
54:48
SPEAKER_05: So some are genuine, you know, uh genuine drama, but some are definitely not.
54:55
SPEAKER_05: But the way I'll approach you, you hardly give me drama.
54:59
SPEAKER_05: I've I've never I can't pinpoint anybody who is has been dramatic or disrespectful to me in this institution.
55:06
SPEAKER_05: Nobody.
55:07
SPEAKER_05: Not yet.
55:07
SPEAKER_00: I think it's because you're understanding.
55:09
SPEAKER_05: Yes, I am actually.
55:10
SPEAKER_05: And I don't take it personal, you know.
55:13
SPEAKER_05: I you probably it was a probably bad day, probably a bad day for you.
55:16
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
55:16
SPEAKER_05: Nashoka is a star of the moment.
55:18
SPEAKER_05: Giovanni, I I mean, how did I even miss Giovanni?
55:21
SPEAKER_04: I mean, Giovanni.
55:22
SPEAKER_04: Giorgia.
55:23
SPEAKER_05: Yes, Joe, Joe, Joe is a person, give me 12 and I want to be 12.
55:27
SPEAKER_05: Oh, you said we're going to do it this way.
55:28
SPEAKER_05: Let us do it this way.
55:29
SPEAKER_05: We've agreed.
55:30
SPEAKER_05: You've come in, you have changed it.
55:31
SPEAKER_05: You know, he can throw uh throw um tantrums and things like that.
55:36
SPEAKER_05: But he really does not mean it.
55:38
SPEAKER_05: It is for you to be able to manage their personality, manage your crew, and manage your own production to do it, you know.
55:47
SPEAKER_05: So these are people who have no personal feelings or no personal, they just want to get it right.
55:55
SPEAKER_05: I get the angle you're coming from.
55:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I believe everybody has a logic, a logical reason for what they do.
56:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
56:02
SPEAKER_00: So most of the time, if you don't agree with what somebody is doing, it just means you don't understand their reasoning.
56:08
SPEAKER_00: So if you just try and look at it from their point of view, you get it.
56:11
SPEAKER_05: You get it, yeah.
56:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and the same way I'm walking around with a lot of problems and a lot of weight on my shoulder.
56:18
SPEAKER_00: That's how somebody else is also walking around with the same.
56:21
SPEAKER_00: So maybe if somebody frowned at me today, it's not personal.
56:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I haven't done anything to them.
56:25
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they just got a call that their auntie is dead.
56:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
56:27
SPEAKER_00: Then you are now going to go and gossip with your friends that they came, they didn't even say hi.
56:31
SPEAKER_00: Like sometimes give people the benefit of a doubt.
56:33
SPEAKER_05: Of the doubt, yeah.
56:34
SPEAKER_05: And and so, and because I don't want people to disrespect me or people to not want to look at what down at my work and things like that.
56:41
SPEAKER_05: I try to make sure I'm on time.
56:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
56:42
SPEAKER_05: I try to make sure I do what I said I would do, you know.
56:46
SPEAKER_05: So I really don't get maybe in the past, okay.
56:48
SPEAKER_05: In the past, you know, when I used to misbehave in terms of, you know, my timing and things like that, you know, I had I had people who like Peffi, you you don't know your job kind of thing, you know, but I never took it personal.
57:02
SPEAKER_05: I never I I I in particular I don't take things personal.
57:05
SPEAKER_05: Personal, you know.
57:06
SPEAKER_05: It's quite draining.
57:08
SPEAKER_00: So then what's what's your like policy when it comes to discipline and creativity?
57:12
SPEAKER_05: So for me, it's more you you are you are you are free to dream, but you must be disciplined enough to deliver.
57:20
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
57:21
SPEAKER_05: Do you get me?
57:22
SPEAKER_05: You are free to dream that, oh, I want this set, and you know what?
57:25
SPEAKER_05: I want my.
57:26
SPEAKER_05: Can I make a t-shirt with that?
57:28
SPEAKER_05: Be free to dream, but disciplined.
57:32
SPEAKER_05: You you can want it or want it perfect, you know, but if you you are not disciplined to get it done or deliver it, because yeah, that dream will still get stuck in your head.
57:44
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
57:44
SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of creative people get it wrong because you know, ideas come from a lot of chaos, yeah, but delivery and execution comes from order.
57:56
SPEAKER_00: So people think the same attitude with which they're able to come up with the crazy ideas is the same way they have to execute.
58:02
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
58:03
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, but that's not the same, yeah.
58:05
SPEAKER_00: It's not the same, and that's why certain people are only people who come up with ideas, yeah, and they can't execute.
58:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so you need to have that balance, balance, yes.
58:15
SPEAKER_05: There's some people who can think but can't execute there.
58:17
SPEAKER_05: People can execute but can't think, but people who can do truth, exactly.
58:20
SPEAKER_00: You like, for example, you're one of those people who can do the truth, and you too can do either you can do four, five, six right now.
58:27
SPEAKER_05: Right now, my brain is tired of thinking.
58:29
SPEAKER_05: I want people to think and I execute.
58:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but speaking of which, how did you transition from being a doer to being a leader?
58:38
SPEAKER_05: Um, um, I think it's two things trust and vision.
58:43
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
58:43
SPEAKER_05: If I should put it.
58:44
SPEAKER_05: If I say trust, in the past I used to want to do everything myself.
58:48
SPEAKER_05: You know, Peffi will come and carry this table, come and come and do this.
58:51
SPEAKER_05: Peffi wants to their guests, you know, Peffi wants to see how the guests, even the makeup, the smallest of things I really want to do.
58:57
SPEAKER_05: And that's a sign of uh perfectionist or somebody who wants it so perfect, you know.
59:03
SPEAKER_05: But why are we training people to be able to do that?
59:06
SPEAKER_05: In my years of, you know, training young people, both male and female, into doing this.
59:11
SPEAKER_05: I've I have to trust them to get them to do it.
59:14
SPEAKER_05: What's most important than that?
59:15
SPEAKER_05: I need to give them the vision.
59:16
SPEAKER_05: If I give you the vision, that is the vision, the vision for this show is to inspire people.
59:21
SPEAKER_05: So I want you to take it from this point and this point, this point.
59:24
SPEAKER_05: You leave it to them, the people that you claim you have trained, and trust that they will get it done.
59:28
SPEAKER_05: So you are not always there.
59:29
SPEAKER_05: These days, I am hardly on my productions.
59:32
SPEAKER_05: You know, in the past, I probably will be on this.
59:34
SPEAKER_05: I'm hardly on productions.
59:35
SPEAKER_05: Chicana's most beautiful is happening on Sundays.
59:37
SPEAKER_05: I'm not in the studio, you know, and the people will be there and they'll get it done perfectly.
59:42
SPEAKER_05: But in the past, I'll be like, oh my god, if I'm not there, it can't be done.
59:46
SPEAKER_05: You find me on mentor because I love music.
59:48
SPEAKER_05: Okay, one of my favorite shows in Media General is Mentor.
59:51
SPEAKER_05: I love music.
59:52
SPEAKER_05: So you find me there, and you know, I'm I'm constantly there.
59:55
SPEAKER_05: I'm sitting by you.
59:57
SPEAKER_05: There's a chair seated next to you.
1:00:00
SPEAKER_05: Sometimes, you know, when Baba me then would be making noise, you know, you find me sitting by you just enjoying the show in jam, and I'm not even upset watching the you know, because I know my people can get it done.
1:00:11
SPEAKER_05: I know my my you know, if one or two, you know, I'll suggest, oh no, no, no, no, do it correctly.
1:00:16
SPEAKER_05: Sometimes if I'm there, it's probably maybe decision making.
1:00:18
SPEAKER_05: Okay, you know, that it needs to rest on me in terms of scorings and scores of standard, uh, scores for the voting and things.
1:00:26
SPEAKER_05: That's that's it.
1:00:27
SPEAKER_05: But to want to come and do the day-to-day, no, if then I I can't trust the people I'm working on.
1:00:33
SPEAKER_05: So it's trust and vision, give them the vision and trust that they can do.
1:00:37
SPEAKER_05: That's how I was able to transition from doing and now leading.
1:00:41
SPEAKER_00: Okay, please, there's something I want to talk about.
1:00:43
SPEAKER_00: One thing a lot of young people haven't grasped yet, that I think you did well when it was your turn to need it, and you've done even better now that it's your turn to give it.
1:00:53
SPEAKER_00: Mentorship.
1:00:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I believe a lot of young people could benefit more from mentorship.
1:00:59
SPEAKER_00: So, what role will you say that has played in your career from both when you were the mentee to now that you're the mentor?
1:01:05
SPEAKER_05: So, mentorship is very important.
1:01:06
SPEAKER_05: I always keep saying mentorship is very important.
1:01:08
SPEAKER_05: I'll give you stages of my life.
1:01:10
SPEAKER_05: Um, from the beginning of my life to maybe before um NAFTI.
1:01:16
SPEAKER_05: Sorry, after NAFTI, just to the point when I finished NAFTI, I found a mentor in my mother.
1:01:22
SPEAKER_05: My mother was my mentor because I was the only girl for her.
1:01:26
SPEAKER_05: I mean, I I have I have brothers and have sisters, but for my mom and my dad, I'm the only girl, and we're all guys.
1:01:32
SPEAKER_05: So she was it was a deliberate effort for her to want me to be good, to be a lead, to be in charge, to not be weak, to, you know, so anytime when I was young, anytime like something happens in the house and she comes, the first person she's going to is me.
1:01:53
SPEAKER_05: Bam.
1:01:54
SPEAKER_05: She deals with me.
1:01:55
SPEAKER_05: Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.
1:01:56
SPEAKER_05: Then she'll now ask, okay, what happened, you know.
1:02:00
SPEAKER_05: And I didn't understand in those days because, but she she will she will tell you that she she wants to make you responsible.
1:02:07
SPEAKER_05: You need to be in charge of your brothers, you need to be in charge, in charge of them, make sure that they are okay, they're fine.
1:02:13
SPEAKER_05: It's not you the one leading the the chaos, yeah.
1:02:17
SPEAKER_05: And I have a twin brother, my twin brother is very calm.
1:02:20
SPEAKER_05: Um, my the last born is also very calm.
1:02:23
SPEAKER_05: Maybe it's me and my the middle one who are, you know, so and and I was more, you know, I know I know the middle one.
1:02:31
SPEAKER_05: I was more, you know, chaotic and all that.
1:02:34
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, not chaotic, but I was more um out there, if I should put it.
1:02:38
SPEAKER_05: So she always wanted, and because it was a woman, she didn't want a situation where I'll get lost in the midst of the boys.
1:02:43
SPEAKER_05: I want to believe.
1:02:44
SPEAKER_05: So she was always putting responsibility in my hands.
1:02:46
SPEAKER_05: Even now, she told you that Peffi, your brothers are in your hands, or your brothers are in, and these are people who are adults and doing their own thing, but she just felt that I would unify and everything.
1:02:54
SPEAKER_05: So she built me and I looked, and she was somebody who was responsible for for chains of restaurants.
1:03:01
SPEAKER_05: One in a boise, one in woe, one in a crack at a point and things like that.
1:03:04
SPEAKER_05: And I saw her lead, you know, I saw her deal with things, I saw her maneuver, I saw her go marriage, work, and everything.
1:03:13
SPEAKER_05: So I she was basically she she guided me.
1:03:18
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
1:03:18
SPEAKER_05: Those days when, you know, I was in school and sometimes I wanted to give up and on like maybe in my beginning stages of work, she'll call me, she'll ask you a few questions.
1:03:28
SPEAKER_05: What happened?
1:03:29
SPEAKER_05: This happened, did this happen to you?
1:03:31
SPEAKER_05: Did happen?
1:03:32
SPEAKER_05: So, so what is your problem?
1:03:34
SPEAKER_05: You know, so that's it.
1:03:36
SPEAKER_05: Then when I got into my career stage or from after NAFTI when I needed to work, then I picked my boss as my mentor, which is Yola Yuade.
1:03:45
SPEAKER_05: And it's very odd for a woman to pick a man as your mentor because usually the women, women, women as a mentor.
1:03:50
SPEAKER_05: And that's what I try to tell young people that don't restrict your mentorship or your mentors to women alone, but also open it up to other people that you aspire to be.
1:03:59
SPEAKER_05: So I picked um Yola Yuade as my mentor, and he your Yola Ayuade noticed that I had something that he could uh help bring out.
1:04:07
SPEAKER_05: And in those days, he had the time, you know.
1:04:09
SPEAKER_05: So he would he would mentor me, he would guide me.
1:04:11
SPEAKER_05: He was he was a tough mentor, if I put I should put it, but he was a tough, tough, tough mentor.
1:04:16
SPEAKER_05: And you know, uh he would he would he want the best.
1:04:21
SPEAKER_05: You know, sometimes you would break, sometimes you because anything you bring to him, he'll say it's not good, but you can do better.
1:04:28
SPEAKER_05: And really, I could do better.
1:04:30
SPEAKER_05: But in those days I would nag, but I could do better.
1:04:32
SPEAKER_05: And today, everything he taught he taught me, everything I went through under his tutelage.
1:04:39
SPEAKER_05: And uh other people who worked at Chatterhouse could attest to that.
1:04:43
SPEAKER_05: But everything I is what I'm using now, okay.
1:04:45
SPEAKER_05: You know, you cannot go to your law without a solution or plan B.
1:04:50
SPEAKER_05: He probably would have it, but he'll tell you that what's your solution?
1:04:55
SPEAKER_05: Okay, what's your plan B?
1:04:56
SPEAKER_05: If you don't have, he'll tell you to go back, go and get the solution there, plan B and come back.
1:05:00
SPEAKER_05: And you go and get it and come back.
1:05:02
SPEAKER_05: And he also wanted you to think on your feet.
1:05:04
SPEAKER_05: The times I went something happens, you call him, sir, please, uh so what do you want me to do?
1:05:10
SPEAKER_05: What do you want me to do?
1:05:12
SPEAKER_05: You have to so when you call in that kind of embarrassment and then you come in the office and you come and say, And you you are calling me this, this, this, this, so you have to be so he taught me how to think on my feet, you know.
1:05:22
SPEAKER_05: In the beginning, I was a bit, you know, I thought it was hard, but I came to understand it that he is who he is because of how he he trained himself to be.
1:05:32
SPEAKER_05: And he's successful, and that is what I also wanted to do.
1:05:36
SPEAKER_05: So when I was fighting in the beginning, I allowed myself to be mentored by what he because he there is he's a perfectionist.
1:05:44
SPEAKER_05: Idea let me speak to you.
1:05:45
SPEAKER_05: Idea sorry, you won't understand this just in case you're watching it.
1:05:50
SPEAKER_05: You know, but uh it was again like I said earlier, it's because he wants you to be the best, yeah.
1:05:56
SPEAKER_05: And it's it's it trained me or it it mentored me to.
1:06:00
SPEAKER_05: you know and this stage in my life right now I decide to also now pick some a mentorship is not always somebody that you meet directly or you see directly can be somebody somebody far away you know you just make sure that you are um you are walking into the steps of this this person yeah and um Mo Abu do is the person that now I look towards Mo Abu do Ebony Live okay okay yeah okay you know she's she's doing great things as a as a as a woman you know and she started probably late in life you know but she's doing great things she's going places you know she's she's uh producing blockbuster movies she's she's doing a lot you know so I read a lot about her I research on her I follow her just to be able to say that okay this is how she's going or maneuvering things like that and I walk you know that's yeah so it's a deliberate attest so I ask young people that take the right mentors you know you probably that's the key part yes take the right mentors because there's some mentors that are not mentoring yeah you know and there's some mentors that will not have your time right now I'm probably very busy so I I dodge it but when I have the opportunity to I do and the people that I work with in at the office right now are people that I directly mentor yeah you know and I have people come for internship oh Peffi I like I have people in my DM and things like that.
1:07:24
SPEAKER_05: A lot of people in my DM so those that I'm able to reach so sometimes when I go on production I remember that oh um AC called okay AC are you available we are doing production today or something come around you know come around and the little time I have I'm able to teach you it will be unfortunate for me to get where I've gotten to and not want to to impact to impact on people and I I told you I have joy I get joy in people who you know yeah I succeed through my guidance or my my yeah so mentorship is key it really is key and I love how you said choose the right mentor.
1:07:56
SPEAKER_00: Yes you know they say if you want to buy a Bugatti get a mentor who owns a Bugatti not one who owns Corolla it is true.
1:08:05
SPEAKER_05: Yeah it's true it it you know I I there's one thing I say I say when you go to an environment and you meet people or a workplace and you meet people the friends or the people that you need to make yeah or the people that you need to have on your side are the people on the top.
1:08:21
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
1:08:22
SPEAKER_05: Don't forget the people at the bottom yes but you need the people at the top don't waste your time sitting being at the bottom and doing gossip gossiping with the bottom people about the people at the top walk with the people who are living the one and I have done that everywhere I've gone I I want I I walk with the people at the top I I deal with the people at the top and I make sure that they they like my matter yeah and they they they are ready to help me or assist me you get me I don't waste my time at the bottom with negativity oh my boss is this oh this man he did it oh the CFO did it no no no no no no no no you will never succeed you will continue yeah staying at the bottom because that's where your focus is people don't understand success is a mindset mindset.
1:09:11
SPEAKER_00: So when you are rolling with the people whose mindset is complaining and bickering and gossiping that's what you will keep getting but if you watch successful people when they come to work when they step into a place it's solution oh wait why hasn't this been done?
1:09:24
SPEAKER_05: How do we do it exactly exactly go to the Bugatti.
1:09:27
SPEAKER_00: Yes go there straight up if but if you also want to ride bicycle ah nayomata me I know one bicycle one bugatti okay let's go to some of the the dark moments one thing every creative has gone through and still going through how do you handle the moments where you just want to give up oh there they are there are days that I've really wanted to give up and again it's not because of what someone did in the industry or stuff like that.
1:09:57
SPEAKER_05: For me it was because I was tired I was um I was bored and I had a mental block I was blocked you know and this was I think when I was in charter house um I had done charter house almost eight years or so or nine years or so and I was doing the same thing every time and I knew what I was doing in the beginning of yeah I'm doing this in the middle of yeah I'm doing my life in the end I'm doing this it was the same thing you know that I enjoyed doing let me not kid about it I enjoyed doing it but I was tired of doing the same thing was monotonous now yes was monotonous and I think it got to the time where I was I wanted something new in my life and stuff like that you know so I moved from Chatters and I went to GH1.
1:10:43
SPEAKER_05: Um then when I went to GH1 I realized I actually didn't really need anything new in my life.
1:10:48
SPEAKER_05: I just wanted to break I wanted that break I wanted to to rest you know so I it I was I was struggling I was fighting with myself to the point I got to a point that I wanted to quit you know I wanted to quit it all you know and I realized no I needed to leave GH1 and take that break I probably don't want to quit it's just because I am tired and I've been doing it I mean from from the chatter house from school chatterhouse there was no break so I quit I stayed at home for about a year and a half or so okay you know I just stayed home slept air when there was a production for me to direct I I I went direct and I'll come and sleep but I hardly did any major stuff you know but it was really good for me.
1:11:37
SPEAKER_05: It was the times that I was able to do what I wanted to do I was able to go out I was able to you know it was really fulfilling and I didn't want to even go back to work it was Francis Doku who said that oh yeah oh yeah we are taking too long might have a long break let's go to come to work at Media Journals like Francis I didn't want to do he said oh come come come you know then I entered into the space and when I entered the space I entered the space with excitement and freshness and I realized that okay I really needed that break you know because it was it was driving me crazy to the point that I wanted to quit what I loved there was a problem so I keep on saying that when you get there you need to take that break and when we're talking about break we're still having like two minutes two uh two months break or sorry leave breaks like two weeks leave breaks and stuff like that sometimes when you really need to take that break you really need to take that break and in taking that break you are working on yourself you are working on yourself and that's what I did so I took that long break one and a half you know and I came back bounced bounced back perfectly so no human or no person or no job thing that said that I was no no no no I just needed to you know take that break from because nobody thought I would ever leave Chatterhouse and you know that's all there was also a problem there was no problem at Chatterhouse I mean I Chatterhouse is my family you know um all my friends everybody I know I knew were from Chatterhouse everybody I know and is my if I have a party right now it'll be full of Chatterhouse boys yeah and girls but you know so I I I I just realized that if I'd left there I left there was because I really wanted you needed to work on yes become poor from an epic yes and and and break and then mistake I made a mistake of going to another job place and it didn't work out for me mentally.
1:13:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah mentally didn't I was just tired I needed to to I think we we take for granted how important our mental health is yeah you know sometimes like someone like me who's a very big workaholic even I got to a point where I realized no I need to slow down like it's okay sometimes to slow down take a breather just relax and take care of you because it's a very big responsibility being a creative yeah because being a creative means you have to pour out consistently but how do you replenish what's from where you are pouring out from you know you need to take care of yourself.
1:14:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah yeah yeah I mean when you when we when we all die there'll be people that we have trained that will come yeah so live oh perfect so great chatting with you you know one of the reasons I called you here today is because every conversation with you is like a podcast on YouTube.
1:14:20
SPEAKER_00: You know initially I was very nervous like ah it's going to be someone was in my car telling me that oh these are questions I should forget it I should forget okay there's something I always like to do right the concept and the the theme of this entire podcast is to change people's mindsets to help them become masterminds.
1:14:41
SPEAKER_05: So if you could stretch your hand through the camera reach out to the person who is watching and implant one mindset what would that be you you you you believe that you are creative or you believe that you are a talent but in having that creativity and that talent you need other people to be able to to to show that talent or manifest or put out that talent it's always important that you need to acknowledge the fact that you cannot do things on your own in this industry you cannot do it and you need people around you you need to be disciplined you need to be creative which is most important and you need to be human that is important for you in this industry for you to survive and you need to be you need to set goals for yourself I've set goals for myself maybe a hundred percent of it I did not make it but I at least I know about 80 to 90 percent you know I I I I made but if you do not set the goals you will not know where you are going and in setting the goals you will be going with people and as you are going with the people just remember that these people can make or break you so it's important discipline yourself be creative feed yourself with creativity because some people are creative but they don't feed themselves feed themselves read books go on YouTube go on social use your social media um wisely even these days chat GPT amazing I've even paid for it like wow chat GPT you have saved my life you know and be human in in all aspects and I can't say you'll be better than me I can't say you'll be the same as me but be you that's most important.
1:16:29
SPEAKER_05: Be you so far as you're on the right positive path you are good to go.
1:16:34
SPEAKER_00: Such an awesome time to have this chat with you for everyone to watch and to the play music on this set and dance oh no no here no dancing i've i've lost my dancing skills you never dance you never sing you've never sung or danced to me before I've switched the hat to the person watching thank you so much for staying tuned and watching as always I just want to make sure that you the viewer out there get one step closer to becoming a master thanks for watching this episode 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.
1:17:14
SPEAKER_00: Now let's build a community of thinkers who are ready to become the best person of themselves.
1:17:21
SPEAKER_00: So subscribe to the channel and the mindset that you will develop and grow every day to become a true mastermind.