Latest / Masterminds Podcast / I Quit My Job To Build My Watch Empire: Caveman CEO - Masterminds Podcast EP5

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I Quit My Job To Build My Watch Empire: Caveman CEO - Masterminds Podcast EP5 · Masterminds Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_00: So I just gave up on myself.
0:01
SPEAKER_00: Um uh I got moved from the office to the airport and I was the guy who holds a placard for the hotel, waiting for I mean guests to come in.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: Big drop from marketing defense.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: Very big drop, yeah.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: I took the big, big uh risk and I quit my job.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: I went to Cantamant to apprentice for a shoemaker for like four months, learn how to seal leather, polish leather.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: The people who taught me how to fix watches years ago have re-employed some of them and they work they work in the factory now.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: I told my mom that let's make a deal.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: Give me one year.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: After a year, if it doesn't work, then I'll agree, take my set, and do a look for a job.
0:39
SPEAKER_01: How did you build the process to create the quality and the brand that you have now?
0:45
SPEAKER_00: In the entire country, there was nobody known for nothing but watches.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: You have to be very disciplined to building all these structures within six years is real.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: Very, very good job.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: Just selling one watch to two watches.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: We've created a whole watch production ecosystem under one week.
1:08
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Masterminds Podcast.
1:11
SPEAKER_01: My name is Richie Menta, and I'm going to be your talk guide on an exciting journey to sharpen your most powerful tool, your mind.
1:18
SPEAKER_01: Every week, we aim to make sure you get one step closer to becoming the mastermind that I know you are supposed to be.
1:27
SPEAKER_01: The topic for today is uh it's one that has been argued about over and over again.
1:32
SPEAKER_01: You know, there's a school of thought that says if you are talented in many things, you should try and do all those many things and see which one sticks.
1:41
SPEAKER_01: And there's another school of thought that says, choose one thing you are great at, choose your needs and build something which is so strong that nobody can compete because that is uniquely you.
1:54
SPEAKER_01: So to discuss this, I'm bringing a young man, right, who has been able to achieve.
1:59
SPEAKER_01: Look, anybody can start a business.
2:01
SPEAKER_01: Anybody, in fact, these days, everybody's starting a business.
2:04
SPEAKER_01: But to start a business in a luxury industry, to succeed immensely so much that CNN and Forbes have actually celebrated him.
2:14
SPEAKER_01: That means this is a man who has mastered his niche and created a career out of it.
2:19
SPEAKER_01: So please, let's talk to the CEO of Caveman Watches, Anthony Jamefe.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, you got the name right.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: Ah, beach Ali.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: Not bad, bro.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: How have you been?
2:30
SPEAKER_01: I've been very, very good, you know.
2:32
SPEAKER_01: Trying to share my wisdom and learn more wisdom from others.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: You know, we keep learning every time we share.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
2:39
SPEAKER_01: I was telling somebody the last time that human beings are innately selfish.
2:44
SPEAKER_01: We are born selfish.
2:46
SPEAKER_01: But the funny thing is, the more you give, the more you earn.
2:51
SPEAKER_01: So being selfless is actually a selfish thing.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: I like that take.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: That's an interesting one.
2:57
SPEAKER_01: So, Anthony, first of all, I just want to understand how did the entire journey begin for you?
3:02
SPEAKER_01: Because, okay, can I show how I know you first?
3:04
SPEAKER_00: Let's go back.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, open the file if you have to.
3:07
SPEAKER_01: So I actually met Anthony years ago.
3:09
SPEAKER_01: Wait, what's this?
3:10
SPEAKER_01: Like, is it like 17 years?
3:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, about 17, about 2012, 13.
3:18
SPEAKER_01: Oh, then it's not that long, like 12 before that.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, it was a long time ago.
3:23
SPEAKER_01: In that time, you were in the marketing department at African Regents.
3:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so the funny thing is, let me tell you the truth.
3:29
SPEAKER_01: Your number is still saved on my phone as Anthony African Regents.
3:33
SPEAKER_01: African Regent.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: You have to change it now.
3:36
SPEAKER_01: So then the next thing I see, you know, I hear of Caveman Watches.
3:40
SPEAKER_01: I didn't even know it was you at first.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
3:43
SPEAKER_01: And then one day I saw the picture of the CEO.
3:45
SPEAKER_01: I was like, wait, you know this guy.
3:47
SPEAKER_01: I know this guy from somewhere.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
3:49
SPEAKER_01: So tell me, how how did you transition from because everybody starts out working somewhere?
3:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
3:55
SPEAKER_01: But how did you find out what was unique about you to build caveman watches?
3:59
SPEAKER_00: I think my whole time working at a hotel, um, I felt like I was suffering to fit in.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: Prior to getting to the hotel, my whole life, I'd always been in trouble with um with structures.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: Anywhere there's bureaucracy, I fall in trouble because I realized that I'm somebody who is always trying to question things, right?
4:20
SPEAKER_00: If something doesn't make meaning to me, I don't just settle for it.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: I want to know why.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: That curiosity of mine uh coupled with some kind of audacity to just do what I want to do.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: So I was often breaking rules a lot.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: And uh that let me get you in trouble.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: Too much trouble, you know.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: So I realized that um in the hotel I was just giving problems to myself and my employers, you know.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: Every day I was in some trouble.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: And then um it wasn't fulfilling for me because I went to the hotel believing that I was a very talented guy, you know, prior to that.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: So I thought I was going to get there and you know, impress and make an impact, you know, and kill it.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: But then I realized that it wasn't working.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: There were times that I would raise my hand in a meeting and bring out an idea that I thought was smart, and then people would just laugh and you know it got to a point I I started believing that I was not as smart as I thought before, you know, coming there.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: And that was one of the most painful things I endured beginning to actually believe that I was not that smart, you know, because how come everything every time I bring a suggestion up, people always laugh and really appreciate it.
5:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I just gave up on myself.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: Um I got moved from the office to the airport, okay.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: Which I knew was because of my incompetence, right?
5:48
SPEAKER_00: Always been the alleged incompetence, yeah.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: Alleged incompetence, right?
5:52
SPEAKER_00: Uh so I got moved to the airport and I was the guy who holds a placard for the hotel, waiting for I mean, guests to come.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: It was a big drop from marketing development.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: Very big drop, yeah.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: Because prior to that, I was often on TV doing interviews for the hotel then.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: The next moment I'm at the airport holding a placard, and uh it came with a lot of ridicule, but I think my whole life I had been used to you know going to the low levels to come back up if I have to.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
6:23
SPEAKER_00: So I endured it.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: I worked at a hotel um at the airport.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: They would send me food in a takeaway pack.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: I have to find cars to squat in between to eat at a car pack.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: Um then one day I was going to work and I bought a book in traffic called um Business Secrets from the Bible.
6:41
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: Out of curiosity, I just bought the book.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: So the whole time I was at the airport, I was reading this book.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: And then suddenly I started getting like um some wave of confidence again, like the former confidence I used to have.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: I was getting all these wild ideas, things were making sense to me again, and then I just took a decision to resign from my job.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: Um, I didn't have another job, but I just had a plan.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: It was not much of a plan, anyways, but it was kind of a plan.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: So I took the big, big uh risk and I quit my job.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: Stayed home, tried different things that failed properly.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: And then uh failed very well.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then one day I just walked into a shop to buy a watch.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: That was in 2015.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: For the first time ever in my life, I wanted to buy a watch.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: I had 50 CDs on me, so I went into the shop.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: The watches were all about 50 CDs.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: So I was thinking, ah, come on wristwatch, why are these too expensive?
7:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, I went back home, saw somebody online selling a watch for 50 CDs, then I called him.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: He came over to deliver the watch.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: I just took a picture of it and posted it online.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: And then somebody was like, Oh, nice watch.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: Are you selling it?
7:57
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Um, yeah.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: So the guy came and bought the watch.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: And for me, I was like, hmm, wait, I just made some profit.
8:06
SPEAKER_00: What if I do this twice or three times?
8:10
SPEAKER_00: You know, so I called a supplier back and I bought two of the watches, sold two, called him back, bought three, sold three, then I started selling watches.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: And that was how the watch business found me in 2015.
8:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:26
SPEAKER_01: So what when you were telling me the story, it reminded me of something where I had like a father gave his son um a watch and he said, Go and find out the price of this watch.
8:38
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
8:38
SPEAKER_01: So the first thing the son did was a very, very old, dusty watch.
8:42
SPEAKER_01: You can see that, you know, a cheppan.
8:44
SPEAKER_01: The first thing the son did was he went to like a nice watch shop.
8:49
SPEAKER_01: They checked it, said, This is old, I'll give you$10 for it.
8:53
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
8:53
SPEAKER_01: You know, then he kept going, went to a pawn shop, they looked at it and said, Well, it's not bad.
8:58
SPEAKER_01: I can try and sell it.
8:59
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you$100 for it.
9:01
SPEAKER_01: And then he kept going and he went to an antique shop.
9:04
SPEAKER_01: Got to the antique shop, they were like, Wow, this is a rare, this, that, that, that, that, that, that, I'll give you a thousand dollars for it.
9:11
SPEAKER_01: So he went back and he told his father, and his father explained to him that sometimes the value of an item is determined by the location.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: The location, the positioning.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
9:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
9:23
SPEAKER_01: So when CEO Anthony was in the wrong location, they sent him to hold placard and put, Charlie, somebody's boss mumpa.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: But you know, like I said, we had to pass somewhere to get where we are.
9:38
SPEAKER_01: So and and one thing I've also noticed is that failure is part of the process.
9:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you need to go through that to build the grid.
9:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, if if it had been a smooth transition, you may have faced that failure in the business instead.
9:54
SPEAKER_01: But you had to go through that ridicule to start in different things that didn't work.
9:59
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
10:00
SPEAKER_01: Get all the chaff out to build the man who's gonna be.
10:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm just imagining if I hadn't gone through those failures, yeah, the experience that I have now, yeah, I definitely wouldn't have it.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: We appreciate all parts of the journey, you know.
10:14
SPEAKER_01: So now you found your niche, you know.
10:15
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm good at selling watches.
10:18
SPEAKER_01: But how did you build the process to create the quality and the brand that you have now?
10:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, um the same attributes I had that was getting me into trouble, which is always um trying to do more, go in further.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: Uh when everybody is okay with this level, I want to go and level up.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: So selling watches was not enough for me.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: I was always looking to, you know, improve what I was doing.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: So I realized that in the entire country, there was nobody known for nothing but watches.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: There were a couple of people who were selling watches, but they would sell watches and perfumes and shoes and bags, whatever they could lay their hands on, and there was nobody known for just watches.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: That is where the the discipline comes in.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: Growing up being called a stubborn person, right?
11:14
SPEAKER_00: That's where the stubbornness became an advantage because you have to be very uh disciplined to stick to one niche, knowing very well, look, I'm a hustling guy, I needed money, but if I come and sell a watch to you and you ask me for perfumes, as much as I knew where to buy the perfumes and make profit, I refuse to sell them.
11:37
SPEAKER_01: You became the watch guy.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, to become the watch guy, you know, and that requires some level of discipline and stubbornness, as they used to call it, to just stick to that.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: People who think I'm being um I'm being uh pointless.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you just sell the perfume on the side?
11:56
SPEAKER_00: You need the money.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: I said, no.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: There's a thing about branding, you need to be known for something, you know, to carve your niche properly.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: So I would rather give you the number of somebody who sells perfumes rather than sell it myself.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: So I stuck to the watches.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: Um and then I realized that there could be an improvement.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: Apart from just selling watches, there were people who had good watches but bad leather straps.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to serve that market.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: I went to Cantamantu, apprenticed for a shoemaker for like four months.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: So I would literally go to work every day, learn how to uh sew leather, polish leather.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: I would take imported leather straps and tear them apart and show them to my boss.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: Like, what is this material?
12:41
SPEAKER_00: What does it do?
12:42
SPEAKER_00: Where can we get some?
12:43
SPEAKER_00: What is this material?
12:44
SPEAKER_00: So he literally took me around the market and bought all the tools for me and helped me to set up my first bench desk in my room where I started learning how to make leather straps.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: So for people who didn't want to buy new watches but just change their straps, I could serve that market.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: And that was working.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: Um I would spend about eight hours to make a pair of leather straps.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh, then there was another market that I realized people who just wanted to repair their watches.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: So I get close to the watch repairers by the roadside to learn their craft.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: And they gladly taught me how to fix watches.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: So I was now making leather straps, I was now repairing watches.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, I realized that there was no corporate watch repairer in the country.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: So when people come into the country with their expensive watches and they have a problem, they would wait until they travel back to the US or wherever before the watch can be worked on.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: So I thought, nah, this entire country, we are smart enough to, you know, do anything.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: So I became that corporate watch repairer who would come to your office, put his gloves on, take your watches, open my briefcase of tools, and fix your watches for you in your office.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: And that was the stage I got to where I realized that I kind of understood how the watches were made.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: Because I could at a point take like 10 spalt watches, break them down, take components from all 10 of them to form one working watch.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: So I was like, I kind of understand how these things are put together.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: So I became curious as to why, despite all the veteran watch repairers we have in the country, nobody has made one.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: You know, um, I started looking for Ghanaian watch brands online.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: I didn't find any.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: I brought in the search to Africa.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't find I found African watch brands, but when I looked at them, I could tell that they were white labeling, they were not making the watches.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: But to find one that was locally made on the continent, I couldn't find any.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: And the same attribute that always got me in trouble my whole life.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: When nobody is doing it, that's when I'm curious.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: You know?
15:05
SPEAKER_00: So I just told myself, I'm gonna try.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: Let me see why nobody is doing it.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, and then the idea came, the audacity came to just see how it will feel like to have my own watches, you know.
15:20
SPEAKER_01: Ryan, I want us to do something.
15:22
SPEAKER_01: Maureen, please go to the VIP and you see a caveman box, bring it around, quick.
15:28
SPEAKER_01: We're not cutting the cameras.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that's how the audacity came that you know, and that was after three years of selling watches.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I started selling watches in 2015.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: 2015, yeah.
15:44
SPEAKER_01: So by 2018, yeah, you had learned how to make it exactly so, but before learning how to make it now, you had to learn how to make the leather by doing it, being an apprentice there, learn how to fix the watches.
15:55
SPEAKER_01: You remind me of do you know Siler from Heroes?
15:58
SPEAKER_01: No, oh, you should watch it, it's a very old series.
16:00
SPEAKER_01: He used to fix watches and he got a superpower.
16:03
SPEAKER_01: So your superpower was creating caveman.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: I love creating stuff, you know.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: So that's how it started.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: And three years.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: It got to a point.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm somebody that when I have a passion for something, I would overdo it.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like I overdo.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: You get fixated, yeah.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: Like it becomes an obsession.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: I overdo it.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: So it got to a point that I knew watches inside out so much.
16:28
SPEAKER_01: So let me interrupt you for a second.
16:29
SPEAKER_01: Oh, bring it on, don't worry.
16:34
SPEAKER_01: So I want to show everyone this, you know.
16:37
SPEAKER_01: So I actually received this as a birthday present.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yes, I remember this watch.
16:43
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and I was amazed.
16:45
SPEAKER_01: So before I even opened the watch itself, like the box, the box, it's made from piano wood.
16:52
SPEAKER_01: I should have actually brought the whole package in, but even from the box, it's made from piano wood.
16:57
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
16:58
SPEAKER_01: So that's why I connect with it so well.
17:00
SPEAKER_01: Like, look at the packaging.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, I recall this.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: I worked on this watch myself.
17:07
SPEAKER_01: Like, this is amazing.
17:14
SPEAKER_01: Live on camera.
17:16
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, Samsung.
17:21
SPEAKER_01: Let me put this down.
17:23
SPEAKER_01: Look at this, like the quality, the leather, the leather, the precision.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: It has your name, your logo, it has my logo right here on it.
17:33
SPEAKER_01: Can you guys see?
17:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'll share a picture of it for a second.
17:38
SPEAKER_01: So, how were you able to, you know, yes, it's it's good enough that you were able to learn it and start doing this, but how are you able to advance from just having a good idea and learning the skill to building such quality that maintained, you know, such a high level of brand?
17:57
SPEAKER_01: Because someone like me, I really believe in quality.
18:00
SPEAKER_01: Got it.
18:01
SPEAKER_01: And if I get something, I'll be like, eh, it's not bad, but it can be better.
18:06
SPEAKER_01: But I remember when I received this, I was like, yes.
18:10
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm glad.
18:11
SPEAKER_01: This is somebody who took his time to make something.
18:14
SPEAKER_01: I'm glad.
18:15
SPEAKER_01: You know, what what what systems do you have to ensure such high quality?
18:21
SPEAKER_00: We've come quite a long way in a very short time.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: Uh, from 2015, just selling one watch to two watches, all the way to 2018, December.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: So technically, January 2019 was when we started Caveman.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: So if it's January 2019 till now, it's basically six years, right?
18:46
SPEAKER_00: And what we've been able to do in six years is been very amazing.
18:50
SPEAKER_01: It's epic because uh just six years, and you've reached these heights.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and currently we have a very high standard factory in East Lagoon.
18:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, about more than 40 factory workers.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: We've created a whole structure, a whole watch production ecosystem under one roof.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: Making watches is really delicate.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, the best example I can give is somebody being a chef, right?
19:15
SPEAKER_00: So imagine being a chef and you have to make a meal.
19:19
SPEAKER_00: You need to get tomatoes, you need to get pepper, you need to get salt, you need to get fish.
19:25
SPEAKER_01: And so you need a wrong ingredients or one wrong calculation and everything is all.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: So you need a whole list of suppliers supplying you tomatoes and pepper and this and that.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: But the thing about watches is that all these suppliers have high quantity um um requirements.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: So imagine you have to make a meal for one person, but the tomatoes you need, the tomato supplier is only selling 10 bags of tomatoes.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: You obviously can't buy 10 bags of tomatoes to make one meal for somebody.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: That is why we've been able to crack the most difficult thing in watchmaking, which is making one watch for one person within two, three days.
20:10
SPEAKER_01: So, how do you do that?
20:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so we've been able to put the whole ecosystem under one roof.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: So we have um, let me take you through how our departments look like at Caveman.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: So I have my personal workbench in my office where I sit down to create the samples of ideas.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: When the samples are done, we go to the creative department.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: There are about six, seven people in the creative department.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: Made out of sketch artists, um, graphic designers, 3D graphic specialists.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: So we go to that creative department and I communicate the idea, we begin to sketch it, they turn it into a mock-up, and then later into 3D animation.
20:53
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: When they are done, then we take it through a legal department.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: So we need to check the global database to make sure our design does not explain on any copyright and patents.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: So we go through a legal system globally.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: When that is approved, then the design goes to the production department.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: So there's a department for the leather straps.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: They take their work and they begin to work.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: Then the department, the CNC machining department where we machine carve the watchcases, also begin to make their watchcases.
21:29
SPEAKER_00: Um, we have a whole jewelry department now.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: We've been able to advance into machinery so much that we now literally melt scrap metal to make some very um basic parts of the metal components.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: So we're melting metal, we are creating mold, casting the metal into the shapes we want.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we do polishing of the cases, we have the movement assembly department.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: After that, everything.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: We have um the dial inking room, a black room, airtight room where we ink the dials, we bake them in an oven, we polish them to get a sun ray finishing.
22:11
SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you even more now.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: We do all that um sun ray finishing on the dials, we cut the dial to reveal the movement or the turbulence.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: Um after every component is done, it goes to the assembly department.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: Some of the people in the assembly department are watch repair veterans that have re-employed.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: The people who taught me how to fix watches years ago have re-employed some of them and they work, they work in the factory now.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: Well done.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: They would assemble all the watches when they are done.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: It goes to the quality control department.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: They would check.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: So we have a whole system.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: Like a nice process to come up with.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: They'll check the dial, sign against it, they'll check the numberings, the indices, they check the movements, they do water resistance testing and check everything.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: So before the quality control department is done, about five people would have.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: So mine is water resistance?
23:08
SPEAKER_00: It is, yes.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: So I can swim with 50 meters, yes.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: So I can swim with it.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
23:12
SPEAKER_01: Good to know.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: No, so about five, six different people will leave their signatures to ensure that they've all checked the components they need to check.
23:22
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: From quality control.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: Then it goes to um content creation.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: So we have photographers who work nine to five.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: We have a whole department for content.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: So every watch we do goes through um imagery, videos.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: We keep records of every watch that we make.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: So it's a whole process um before it goes out.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: So people come in, they get a tour in the factory, and they're like, You have all this happening here.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: How come you don't show it to the public?
23:49
SPEAKER_01: I'm actually coming for a tour.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: So you should, I'm so you know, excited by the process that you just described.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: It's a long process, and um, we have to put it through a time grapher to make sure the watch is accurate enough.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: The thing about watches is that there is some degree of imperfection in every watch.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: There are some things that cause the watch to either gain or lose some seconds, like magnetism, for example.
24:13
SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: People will keep their watches close to their mobile phones, their car keys.
24:18
SPEAKER_00: Anything that has magnets in it can transfer magnetism into your watch.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: And that can make the seconds either gain or delay by a few seconds.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: So we put the watches through a time grapher to make sure they are as close to perfection as possible.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: Before they go out.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: You get your certificates in the watch, you get the manual, it's a whole process.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: So building all these structures within six years is unreal.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: Very, very good.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: It's unreal, yeah.
24:46
SPEAKER_01: It's come a long way from you know, sewing leather.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: It's been it's been amazing.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: Sitting back and watching what we've built is is crazy.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: But how did you overcome the fear?
24:59
SPEAKER_01: Because definitely to start something that nobody else is doing, you must have had doubts that what if you are not able to succeed?
25:07
SPEAKER_00: I think what helped me was that I started early.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, I had this concept in my mind that before getting married or starting a family, um, any mistake that I make is manageable.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: You know, that is when I can.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: Oh, and congratulations, you got married.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's the stage where I can take all the risk I can take because if it backfires, it's just me.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: You know, so I made sure that I was taking all the risk I could take before I get to the stage of family.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: So I went all out.
25:42
SPEAKER_00: You know, I went all out.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: Um I became extra introverted.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: I cut out social life.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: I've never really been a social person.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: I only go out for events if I have to.
25:54
SPEAKER_00: But I cut social life out.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: I became very, very introverted.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's how the name caveman even came up.
26:03
SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
26:04
SPEAKER_02: Because you're literally a caveman.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: I was always in my room.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't come out.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: And my friends were jokingly say, Hey, come out of your cave smaller, always in your cave.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: You know, but the whole being in a cave and crafting things by hand, just like how the cavemen with no technology, they crafted things from scratch.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's what the name came up about.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, that mindset to cut the outside world off and just speed up.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: And for me, when people talk about fear, or people ask me, How did I know this would succeed?
26:40
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know it would succeed.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: You know, the example I always give is um uh there's a picture of a man at the back of a lion, right?
26:49
SPEAKER_00: Riding the lion like a horse.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: And everybody sees that picture and says, Wow, look at that brave warrior riding a lion like a horse, you know.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: But in actual sense, however he found himself at the back of the lion, he can't stop riding it.
27:04
SPEAKER_01: It's the safest place to be.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: If he gets off the lion, he's lunch.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: You know, so that guy is not a brave warrior, he has to just keep riding that lion because there's no other option.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I feel like that's the mindset I went into it with.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: Once I started and it started getting traction, look, I don't think I'm employable at the moment.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: I literally have no other option, you know, than to keep going.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: So that was the mindset I entered it with.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: It's a one-way road.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: I I think I'll die doing this.
27:36
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, it's no other way.
27:39
SPEAKER_01: You know, somebody said something very profound where they explained that bravery is not the absence of fear, but it's going through the fear.
27:49
SPEAKER_01: So when people think that a brave person is not afraid, they don't understand.
27:53
SPEAKER_01: Charlie, he's shaking in his boots just like you are.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: But I was shocked when I watched Mike Tyson's interview.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: You know, Tyson being the fighter that he was, yeah, you know, how he dominated, and he was saying every time that he was going for a fight, he was always scared.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: Imagine Tyson saying that.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: If Tyson is scared, who who am I?
28:15
SPEAKER_00: Who are we not to be scared?
28:16
SPEAKER_00: You know, so I think it's normal, but once you have the one tunnel vision attitude, yeah, what's the worst that could happen?
28:24
SPEAKER_01: Handling your fear, you did that nicely.
28:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
28:28
SPEAKER_01: But how did you handle other people's fear?
28:30
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm sure when you started the critics and the naysayers and the ONCO yeah, do something else, how how did you handle that?
28:39
SPEAKER_00: It was it was terrible.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: Um, to the point that I would go and sell a watch to somebody.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: Instead of just paying in my money and let me leave, they'll pull a chair for me and they say, young man, sit down.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, here we go again.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: Why are you doing this?
28:54
SPEAKER_00: A nice young man like you, why won't you go and look for a job?
28:57
SPEAKER_00: Why are you selling watches?
28:59
SPEAKER_00: It was difficult.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: Um, even my mom, my mom was really concerned because I was in uni at the time.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: I was in weekend school, so my mom would come and see me with leather all over me, making leather straps, and you know, out of concern, they would always advise you to take another route.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: But I made a pact with my mom.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: Okay, my mom wanted me to go and look for a job, but I had seen the bigger picture in my mind, what I was doing.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: So I told my mom that let's make a deal.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: Give me one year, one year I'm going to pursue what I'm doing.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: After a year, if it doesn't work, then I'll agree to take my set and go and look for a job.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: She said, Okay, one year, right?
29:46
SPEAKER_00: So when was this?
29:47
SPEAKER_00: This was around um 2017-ish.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: I started practicing making straps and all those things.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: So I made a deal with my mom, and then she said, okay.
30:01
SPEAKER_00: So the moment she agreed, I knew my my my time was taken.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: I had only one year to show her.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: So I feel like the best way to handle that is to be is to show the result.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: It's normal for people not to see the bigger picture in your mind.
30:16
SPEAKER_00: You are the vision bearer, you are seeing it.
30:18
SPEAKER_00: So it's normal if nobody else sees it, but if they can trust you and give you time to show them, then the the duty is on you to actually show them.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: If you can't, that means they were right.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: You know.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: So that's how I handled it.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: I made a deal with my mom.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: She gave me one year.
30:34
SPEAKER_00: And I made sure I flipped the one year around properly.
30:37
SPEAKER_01: Because if you hadn't, like I won't have a watch top.
30:39
SPEAKER_00: You will not have a nice watch.
30:43
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so even you who chose your niche and stayed there, even you still had to try a few things and fail to get there.
30:51
SPEAKER_01: So to you, what does the term finding your niche really mean?
30:57
SPEAKER_00: What it means to me is um very importantly finding a gap in the market, okay, and building a market in that gap.
31:09
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I love that.
31:10
SPEAKER_01: Um please, we need a t-shirt with that.
31:13
SPEAKER_01: Finding the gap in the market, yeah, and building a market in that gap.
31:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think too many times people just keep running to the same known industries and it's getting choked.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: Nobody wants to dare to move out of the norm.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: You know, because what I was doing, nobody was doing it at the time, and it required that mindset to see that rather as an advantage, that it was an open market that I could own and pioneer that market.
31:44
SPEAKER_00: So that's how um I think about carving a niche.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: Find something nobody is doing, have the discipline.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: The discipline is really important because a lot of times you get tempted to move out of it.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: Because look, when you're doing business for money, right?
32:05
SPEAKER_00: It is very easy to sway left and right, you know.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: But I started business not for money.
32:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm somebody who has a lot of fulfillment in seeing my thoughts become a product, right?
32:21
SPEAKER_00: That gives me more fulfillment than the money.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: So I'm very bad with pricing of my watches, and I've been banned by my company to stay away from selling watches.
32:34
SPEAKER_01: Wow, that sounds a lot like me.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: You know, I've been banned because if I make a watch for you right now and you ask me how much, look, it's like I'm shy, I don't know what price to mention.
32:47
SPEAKER_01: Because to use it's just about giving that quality to me.
32:50
SPEAKER_01: You understand?
32:50
SPEAKER_00: I might give it to you for free at the end, you know.
32:53
SPEAKER_01: But I always say every great business starts like that.
32:57
SPEAKER_01: Every great business starts with the person who was so passionate, yeah, they weren't doing it for money.
33:02
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
33:02
SPEAKER_01: And then the business elements come in and then say, okay, okay, okay, okay.
33:07
SPEAKER_01: Hold on, you've created the quality now.
33:08
SPEAKER_01: Let's, you know.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: Because you need you need to be profitable to survive, right?
33:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: So the passion does not pay the bill.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: So we've gotten to that point where I understand my strength and my weakness, so I stay in my lane.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: I produce the watches, and we have the logistics department, the marketing team, they price the watches.
33:28
SPEAKER_00: You know, so there are times that people ask me the price of a watch, and I have to call the shop to find out because I don't know the price.
33:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
33:34
SPEAKER_00: So I stay in my lane and create um creative direction, the ideas, and all that, and they give the price to the watches because that's what they are good at.
33:44
SPEAKER_01: How long will you say it took you to see some real traction after you started KP?
33:49
SPEAKER_00: I think from the first sale.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: Oh, nice.
33:51
SPEAKER_00: Right?
33:52
SPEAKER_00: Because the first sale was profitable.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: That's why I was interested in doing more.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: Uh so from the first sale, I made a profit.
34:01
SPEAKER_00: And for me, it was multiplication, you know.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: Just do it two more times, three more times, double the profit, triple it.
34:09
SPEAKER_00: Um so I think that, and also because my my focus was more about the money, uh I was getting fulfillment from other things more than just the money.
34:20
SPEAKER_00: So I always felt fulfilled doing this from the beginning till now.
34:25
SPEAKER_00: And um the doors that we are about to enter currently are even compared to what we've already done, what is pending is it's like we've done nothing yet.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, we've done nothing yet.
34:39
SPEAKER_01: But one thing about Caveband that I've noticed for a long time is you guys have been able to sell your brand beautifully.
34:46
SPEAKER_01: How were you able to do that?
34:47
SPEAKER_01: Was it through storytelling?
34:49
SPEAKER_01: Was it through quality?
34:50
SPEAKER_01: Like, what was your method?
34:52
SPEAKER_00: I think uh the most important thing for me ever is making sure people get a value for their money.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
35:00
SPEAKER_00: I would not be able to sleep at night if somebody buys my watch and I know that they won't get value for their money.
35:07
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
35:07
SPEAKER_00: I I can't sleep at night.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: That's not my my focus.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: So there are times that people say, Oh, why don't you reduce the price so that we can all buy it?
35:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling them, I don't want you all to buy it.
35:17
SPEAKER_00: You understand?
35:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't want to reduce the price and the quality for everybody to buy it when I know that at that quality the watch wouldn't last.
35:28
SPEAKER_00: That's not what I'm into.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: So I'd rather make five very quality watches for those who buy them and will appreciate it.
35:36
SPEAKER_00: And will appreciate it and be able to pass it down generations.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to do cheaper watches.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: I have to reduce the quality of the metals, use some cheaper alloys that will corrode and fade over time.
35:47
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to do that, but that's not the intention, you know.
35:51
SPEAKER_00: So um what we focus on is the quality, and um once you produce quality products, you will attract people who have an eye for quality.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, and uh branding is really important.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: We are very aware of where we want to get to.
36:09
SPEAKER_00: The people who are already in that market, they don't joke if they are branding.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: So we wake up and you know, we are in the creative department and we are watching the veteran watch brands.
36:19
SPEAKER_00: We're seeing the perfection that they have, and we want to get there, you know.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we keep improving um on the quality of our machinery, tools.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: If there's a new version, an upgrade of a machine, we are buying it, even from our visuals and our social media.
36:36
SPEAKER_00: The cameras that we use.
36:38
SPEAKER_00: Why would I have photographers working nine to five?
36:41
SPEAKER_01: Because you want to maintain the brand.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: When there's a new camera lens, we are buying it.
36:46
SPEAKER_01: There's an so we have like a whole cameras for production again.
36:50
SPEAKER_00: We have a whole production house in Caveman.
36:53
SPEAKER_00: It surprises people just for watches.
36:55
SPEAKER_00: So it is that crave for quality and to be able to um to wrap shoulders with the global brands, you know.
37:03
SPEAKER_00: So it's the quality.
37:05
SPEAKER_00: Once you have the quality, you attract the right people.
37:08
SPEAKER_00: That is why people see a lot of celebrities, big names affiliating with their brand.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: It's not because we intentionally go to them.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
37:17
SPEAKER_00: But since they are people who love quality and are attracted to it, when we produce the quality, the attraction becomes easier.
37:25
SPEAKER_01: How were you able to stay focused on your long-term vision and not let the short-term hype like derail you?
37:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, the purpose, right?
37:35
SPEAKER_00: The the why.
37:36
SPEAKER_00: I felt like my purpose changed along the line.
37:39
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
37:40
SPEAKER_00: When I started, it was basically survival, you know, making some money to survive.
37:45
SPEAKER_00: And then I started employing people.
37:48
SPEAKER_00: When I started employing people, look, I went through a lot of negative stuff when I was an employee.
37:53
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
37:54
SPEAKER_00: So employing people and seeing them come to work every day, I knew what it took, the difficulties in being in a queue to get a trotro to come to work.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: Look, in Ghana, getting to work is more stressful than being at work.
38:13
SPEAKER_00: The commuting part is more draining than what you actually do at the workplace.
38:18
SPEAKER_00: So it's very tiring, very difficult for workers to find their ways uh to work and back.
38:24
SPEAKER_00: So when I see workers coming, I felt a deep responsibility to make sure that they are okay.
38:31
SPEAKER_00: So they became like my next focus.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: Making sure they are fulfilled.
38:38
SPEAKER_00: Um they are being paid well, they are not going through what I went through in my previous company.
38:45
SPEAKER_00: It was it's a very hurtful thing for a creative to have his confidence crushed.
38:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
38:51
SPEAKER_00: When you feel like you're in a company, you don't have a voice, you can ask questions, they'll ridicule whatever you say.
38:57
SPEAKER_00: It's a very, very bad thing.
38:59
SPEAKER_00: So I everything I went through, I practice the opposite.
39:03
SPEAKER_00: So I'm somebody that when my workers come to ask me a question, right?
39:06
SPEAKER_00: How to solve a problem, the first thing I'll say is, How would you do it?
39:12
SPEAKER_00: You know, let's hear what you would do.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: To build them up.
39:16
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
39:16
SPEAKER_00: So I give them all that confidence, they became like my next purpose.
39:20
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like along the line, the purpose became bigger again.
39:24
SPEAKER_00: From me to responsible for my workers to the actual bigger picture.
39:30
SPEAKER_00: When we started um um executing CSR projects, okay.
39:36
SPEAKER_00: So we go to deprived communities, build uh boreholes for them so they have drinking water.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: The first time we did that, he it really showed me the bigger picture that look Richie can afford to put a 10,000 cities watch on his wrist.
39:52
SPEAKER_00: But there are people who have to walk five miles to fetch dirty water from somewhere to drink.
39:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, meanwhile, about three of Richie's watches can build a borehole that 5,000 people will benefit from.
40:07
SPEAKER_00: So I found some misalignment in the universe.
40:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, real misalignment.
40:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, misalignment.
40:14
SPEAKER_00: So I thought, like, well, if the rich guys won't do it, let me sell watches to them and you sell their money to go and do that.
40:21
SPEAKER_00: But you're one of the rich guys, you know.
40:24
SPEAKER_00: So that's what we've been doing.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: Uh every now and then we send a notice out, we find uh communities that need water.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so the purpose had evolved, if I should put it that way.
40:34
SPEAKER_00: And with that bigger picture, I don't think um we are stopping anytime.
40:39
SPEAKER_00: Oh, nice.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a bigger picture now.
40:43
SPEAKER_01: So, but okay, do you think other people who are running their businesses, do you think they were also like they found their niche right from the beginning, or do you think they have to do work to find their niche?
40:58
SPEAKER_00: It's like I mentioned, it's okay for the business to evolve, right?
41:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh the things that I was doing with caveman in the beginning, I don't do them now.
41:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
41:07
SPEAKER_00: So just start.
41:09
SPEAKER_00: When you start, sometimes you begin to see the picture clearer.
41:12
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
41:13
SPEAKER_00: So I think the business structure should be flexible in a way that something that was priority two years ago is no more a priority.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: Something that was a direction two years ago is no more a direction.
41:24
SPEAKER_00: So it's okay to amend your business uh mission and vision every now and then.
41:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
41:30
SPEAKER_00: Because we are in changing times, you have to be flexible.
41:33
SPEAKER_01: So basically, you're saying you should be focused but not closed-minded.
41:36
SPEAKER_00: Not closed-minded at all, because I mean the world is rapidly very dynamic.
41:41
SPEAKER_00: You have to be able to be flexible, you know, to also adapt.
41:45
SPEAKER_00: So, uh, however, you started now, it doesn't mean 20 years later, you still have to be the same way.
41:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
41:53
SPEAKER_00: You know, yourself, you know about adapting.
41:55
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we've been able to be flexible and adapt to changing times, you know.
41:59
SPEAKER_00: So that's what I strongly believe.
42:01
SPEAKER_01: I mean, and did a whole song called Changing Faces.
42:03
SPEAKER_01: You know.
42:05
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so for creatives, artists, and professionals, especially creatives, we we live in an era where everybody is having to do a lot to get noticed.
42:16
SPEAKER_01: Like, let's say you're a content creator, you you go to somebody's page, they do comedy, they they dance, they give advice, they do like 20 things on the page.
42:27
SPEAKER_01: What would you say to these people for them to be able to like zone in and find what their niches?
42:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that that's the challenge that our creatives face.
42:38
SPEAKER_00: I call it being being cursed with a blessing.
42:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
42:42
SPEAKER_00: You know, you have the ability to do so many things.
42:46
SPEAKER_00: So um it becomes difficult.
42:48
SPEAKER_00: And all these many things look very doable at the same time.
42:53
SPEAKER_00: So I remember I spoke to a mentor of mine and he drew my attention.
42:57
SPEAKER_00: He said, Tony, you know something.
43:00
SPEAKER_00: The most important part of a BMW, a one million dollar BMW, is the brakes.
43:08
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
43:10
SPEAKER_00: Because you could become that one million dollar luxury car with so much potential, so much beauty.
43:17
SPEAKER_00: But if you don't have the ability to slow down, you would crash in no time, right?
43:22
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
43:23
SPEAKER_00: So the brakes.
43:24
SPEAKER_00: So having to have that discipline to let go of some ideas.
43:30
SPEAKER_00: And uh he painted a picture of a lion staring at a head of the head of deer or antelope, however they call it.
43:39
SPEAKER_00: And he's telling me that you know, this lion can actually catch any of these antelope, but he can't catch all of them at the same time.
43:47
SPEAKER_01: So once he focuses on one, he has to focus on one.
43:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
43:51
SPEAKER_00: If he doesn't have a focus and he runs into that head and they begin to run left and right, he would wear himself out and rather become too exactly.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: Exhausted for the next chase.
44:02
SPEAKER_00: And you know, so he has to pick one.
44:05
SPEAKER_00: Even though he can literally overpower any of them, he sticks to one.
44:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
44:09
SPEAKER_00: When he's done catching that, digesting it, resting, he can chase another one.
44:16
SPEAKER_01: To another one.
44:17
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
44:17
SPEAKER_01: So speaking of that, do you have another niche that you plan on going into?
44:21
SPEAKER_00: I've had business ideas, right?
44:24
SPEAKER_00: I have a long list of business ideas, but they are just on paper currently.
44:28
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
44:29
SPEAKER_00: I need to get to a point where the business is like well, well, well established.
44:35
SPEAKER_00: You know, well established.
44:37
SPEAKER_00: Like you can step back and watch everything run, and the consistency will be there.
44:42
SPEAKER_00: Uh quality will not begin to drop because you are not there.
44:46
SPEAKER_00: It takes a lot of time to build that.
44:48
SPEAKER_00: And only after I have convinced myself that we've built that will I attempt something else.
44:54
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
44:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
44:55
SPEAKER_00: So that's how I advise creatives.
44:59
SPEAKER_00: You can do many things, but you need to do one first and make it a household name.
45:05
SPEAKER_00: When it can sustain itself, then you can move back and begin to just supervise it.
45:12
SPEAKER_00: You know.
45:14
SPEAKER_00: Then you can tackle something.
45:16
SPEAKER_00: When I see people saying they have new entrepreneurs saying they have four businesses, five businesses, I scratch my head like, how do you do it?
45:24
SPEAKER_01: I don't I don't really know your first one yet.
45:26
SPEAKER_00: How did you get the four to add?
45:28
SPEAKER_00: Because I am doing one and I'm struggling.
45:30
SPEAKER_00: Like, you need to teach me something.
45:31
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's some there's some trick I don't know.
45:34
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's it's coming from this era where everybody is excited by multiple streams of income.
45:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
45:40
SPEAKER_01: But what they don't understand is the person advising you on multiple streams of income succeeded with one stream of income over a long time and then added multiple.
45:52
SPEAKER_01: So, like when you see Richie sitting here doing a podcast, or Richie doing this, which is different from the Richie you know, I started in 2003.
46:02
SPEAKER_01: I I did the same thing consistently for about 20 years, and now I'm adding on to that.
46:08
SPEAKER_00: So see how much time it takes, but people are not that patient, yeah.
46:12
SPEAKER_00: But I also find um a reality that people do business for different reasons, right?
46:19
SPEAKER_00: It's okay to do business for money, and that requires a different approach.
46:26
SPEAKER_00: But if you're doing business to build a brand and to make an impact, to make an impact, yeah, a brand that can survive if you are not there, then the approach is different.
46:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
46:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's possible to have money, do business and make money, but not have a brand.
46:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
46:43
SPEAKER_00: And people do business and have a big brand and they don't have money.
46:48
SPEAKER_00: You know, so when you are aware of the dynamics of business, then you'll understand if I see people doing multiple things at the same time, maybe their aim is not to build a brand out of any of them.
46:59
SPEAKER_00: They are just doing it to get whatever they can get at the moment.
47:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
47:02
SPEAKER_00: Some money.
47:03
SPEAKER_00: They can be understood, right?
47:05
SPEAKER_00: But they just need to know that's what they are doing, the reality of what they are doing.
47:11
SPEAKER_00: Because to build a brand, most of the times, even one lifetime is not enough.
47:16
SPEAKER_00: So people start a brand and their children will continue it.
47:19
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
47:20
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you look at some of the successful watch brands in the world now, the people who started the brand are not alive.
47:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
47:27
SPEAKER_01: I mean, most of the successful companies, it succeeded over generations.
47:31
SPEAKER_00: Over generations.
47:32
SPEAKER_00: The company might be at its peak now.
47:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
47:35
SPEAKER_00: And the people who started were not alive to see the peak of it, you know.
47:39
SPEAKER_00: So it's the same mindset that I approach my company with.
47:43
SPEAKER_00: So I think the way I view business or success or the dynamics is just a little different.
47:50
SPEAKER_00: And it makes me very content, you know.
47:52
SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't think I should be alive to see the peak of my business.
47:57
SPEAKER_01: Just know that you put something in the world that grew to become even bigger than you.
48:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
48:02
SPEAKER_00: That's why the company has a slogan called Be Remembered.
48:05
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
48:06
SPEAKER_00: Um, the whole idea is that nobody has done it in Africa to be bold enough to challenge the status quo.
48:14
SPEAKER_00: We always know what is as Switzerland, Switzerland.
48:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
48:16
SPEAKER_00: But nobody from Africa was that bold to challenge that, you know.
48:20
SPEAKER_00: So I feel like myself and the few equally mad people who dared to do it.
48:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I want us to be the ones who set the wheel rolling.
48:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
48:31
SPEAKER_00: When we are no more, we'll be remembered as the crazy ones who started the journey.
48:37
SPEAKER_01: And you've done an excellent job.
48:38
SPEAKER_01: So if I will make sure you are remembered, because me, I'll live to be like 300.
48:43
SPEAKER_01: So please, I need you to do a favor for me, right?
48:46
SPEAKER_01: So our aim is always to make everyone watching grow to become a mastermind.
48:51
SPEAKER_01: Got it.
48:52
SPEAKER_01: So imagine you could stretch your hand through the camera into the mind of the one watching right now.
48:59
SPEAKER_01: What idea or mindset would you put in to put the person on the right path?
49:07
SPEAKER_00: What I would want to tell you, the one watching, is that um I want you to believe in yourself.
49:13
SPEAKER_00: I want you to take time and search within yourself.
49:17
SPEAKER_00: And whatever you find, have the confidence to embrace it.
49:22
SPEAKER_00: We are all different, we are not the same, we are good at different things.
49:26
SPEAKER_00: So when you find what you are good at, it might not be the usual things around you or the norm, but please have the confidence to embrace it.
49:34
SPEAKER_00: And if people don't believe it, it is your task to show them.
49:39
SPEAKER_00: If they laugh at you, you laugh at them in your mind because they don't know what you are seeing.
49:43
SPEAKER_00: But you will definitely show them.
49:45
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to believe in yourself.
49:47
SPEAKER_00: Anything is possible.
49:49
SPEAKER_00: Um, just have the the confidence, believe in yourself, be focused and disciplined, and whatever you put your mind to, you will achieve it.
49:58
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
49:59
SPEAKER_01: Anthony, thank you, thank you so much for this.
50:01
SPEAKER_01: I really enjoyed this conversation.
50:03
SPEAKER_00: It's been a pleasure.
50:04
SPEAKER_00: It's been a pleasure.
50:05
SPEAKER_01: Let's go to the airport and hold some black ads up for we should do that one day and take pictures.
50:11
SPEAKER_00: Hello, thank you so much, Ruji.
50:16
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for watching this episode.
50:18
SPEAKER_01: 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.
50:27
SPEAKER_01: Now, let's build a community of thinkers who are ready to become the best version of themselves.
50:33
SPEAKER_01: So, subscribe to the channel and the mindset that you will develop and grow every day to become a true mastermind.