Latest / Masterminds Podcast / Africa Is the Future, But Only If We Change Our Mindset: MJ Jallor || Masterminds Podcast EP40

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Africa Is the Future, But Only If We Change Our Mindset: MJ Jallor || Masterminds Podcast EP40 · Masterminds Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Right after graduating from Howard University, KPMG was the first company I worked for.
0:05
SPEAKER_00: Africa's the new frontier.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: There's so much potential in Africa.
0:09
SPEAKER_01: How did you manage to keep rising?
0:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm gonna say my African upbringing, to be very honest with you.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: Education is so important in any of an African household.
0:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that the brain was made to learn.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: You have to surround yourself with people who believe in you and will push you.
0:26
SPEAKER_01: Every time you solve a problem for your child, there's an opportunity you've taken from them to grow.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: My fedshift comes from making sure that you give more than what you take in this world.
0:39
SPEAKER_01: So, what do you think should come first?
0:41
SPEAKER_01: Demand or processes?
0:44
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Masterminds Podcast.
0:47
SPEAKER_01: My name is Richie Menta, and I'm your guide on this exciting journey to sharpen your most powerful tool, your mind.
0:54
SPEAKER_01: This is a very good episode we're going to have today because we're going to be talking to someone who's had the opportunity of working at big companies in corporate America like Goldman Sachs, KPMG, done so much work and decided that she is now going to set herself on a path of helping other people in Africa shape themselves, grow themselves, build a mindset that they can scale up to become who they truly are.
1:24
SPEAKER_01: So she's a mastermind who is making masterminds, and I love that.
1:29
SPEAKER_01: Sitting here with me today is MJ Jallo.
1:33
SPEAKER_01: Did I pronounce it right?
1:34
SPEAKER_01: You did.
1:35
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
1:35
SPEAKER_01: How are you doing today?
1:36
SPEAKER_00: I'm doing well.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: How are you, Richie?
1:38
SPEAKER_01: I'm very, very good.
1:39
SPEAKER_01: I'm so honored that you decided to come sit here with me so we can talk.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you for having me.
1:45
SPEAKER_01: So, how's it like being in Ghana so far?
1:48
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I'm Sir Leonyan.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, I've been to Ghana this year four times already.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: Oh wow.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: I love Ghana.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: I love the people.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: Um, I have to say, Ghanaians have to be the nicest and most welcoming uh West Africans.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: Oh, thank you.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: I have had the pleasure of being around.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: So that's what brings me back.
2:10
SPEAKER_01: Collect your two, collect your two.
2:13
SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's let's let's talk a little about you and understand who you are before I start diving into my questions.
2:20
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
2:20
SPEAKER_01: So you are Sarah Leonean, born in the US.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: Born in the US, first generation.
2:26
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so what led you into your journey of working with some of these big, you know, names?
2:32
SPEAKER_00: Uh, like KPMG and Goldman Sachs.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: So uh right after graduating from Howard University, KPMG was the first company I worked for.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: Um, made my way up in the ranks, did 20 years at KPMG.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: Goldman Sachs was actually one of my clients at as I was a director um at KPMG.
2:52
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: I also worked with HSBC, International Bank of Qatar.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: Those are just a few of the banks that I've worked with.
2:58
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: And I had the opportunity to kind of learn how these big banks work.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, did a lot of software development, business requirements, so really understood the inner workings of some of these big, you know, large corporations.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I want to say about three, two years ago, 2023, I pivoted, um, wanted to make a change.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: I learned so much in corporate America that I needed to now be a little bit more fulfilled with what it is that I do.
3:30
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: And so I made a pivot.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: I pivoted from corporate America to um the nonprofit world and landed at an organization called the Alliance for Innovative Regulation.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: Did about two and a half years there and learned a lot.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: I mean, when I say that my I grew a lot in my personal or professional development, um, that along with another boutique company that I worked with, but they kind of pushed me out there and I had an opportunity to kind of travel around on behalf of the organization.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: And um they sent me to Ghana for 3I Africa.
4:07
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: Uh I was here for a month.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: I was in the continent for a month.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: And you when I tell people the story, they think that, you know, should I have been a little bit more apprehensive of being in Africa?
4:20
SPEAKER_00: No.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: One, I'm African.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, two, I feel like I'm at home.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: So I was in their mind braided.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: But I did 3I Africa in Ghana, then I went to Nigeria for another 10 days and did Red Tech Africa and then ended in Rwanda um at uh Africa Soft Power.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: And what was consistently being heard from main stages was Africa's a new frontier.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's an emerging market.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: There's so much potential in Africa, and this is 2023.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: That was the catalyst because it the conversations that were being had on the main stage were not comforting to me.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: It gave me the feeling of Africa being being conquered again by these big corporate conglomerates.
5:12
SPEAKER_01: Sounded opportunistic.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, a bit.
5:16
SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's let's let's go back a bit.
5:19
SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about young MJ.
5:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
5:21
SPEAKER_01: Because what you've achieved is impressive.
5:24
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
5:24
SPEAKER_01: So I always want to be able to start understanding what drove you as young MJ to start setting yourself on this path to you know becoming great.
5:35
SPEAKER_01: Like even from when you were a child, what made you take the right steps to finding the right career?
5:41
SPEAKER_01: And how did you manage to keep rising?
5:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I would say my African upbringing, to be very honest with you, education is so important in any of an African household.
5:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: Um, my dad used to say to me all the time, one thing that no one can ever take away from you is your education and your mind.
5:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: And so coming up in that type of household, we always knew that college was never an was not an option.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: It was a mandate.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: Right?
6:09
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how many people have the story of coming home and you get an 89 and they actually what happened to the the one point to get you a A, or you got a 95, what happened to the 100%?
6:23
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
6:23
SPEAKER_00: We all have had that as a catalyst to push us.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: So I've taken that same type of um zeal in everything that I do.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: Like I mentioned, I'm a graduate of Howard University, I'm a bison.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: Um and it's a school of excellence.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: And so I just have been fortunate enough to have a lot of great mentors that saw something in me and constantly pushed me.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: Even now at this age, at this big age of mine, I have mentors and a career coach that see things in me that they have to convince me of just a little bit.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: You know you can do this.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: And then I, you know, gingerly step out there and that confidence continuously grows.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: But we're only as good as the people that we have surrounding us.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: I like you.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: And I have a great village.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: I have um, I have come from a great background with the type of parents that I had, um, and just pushing and instilling that education and excellence is and success are all intertwined.
7:22
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
7:23
SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
7:24
SPEAKER_01: I like the discipline that builds you.
7:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
7:27
SPEAKER_01: You know, I would say discipline, consistency, the two things that can get you anywhere you want to get to in this life.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: I have to agree.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: So as a parent, they tell you not to tell your child, no matter how smart they are, that they're smart.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: You have to tell them they're hardworking.
7:41
SPEAKER_00: Because being intelligent uh along with being disciplined, those two things will push you further.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: But if you think you're smart, then you, you know, you you'll find yourself trying to work the system.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's that's an interesting point.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so they tell you tell your child that they are hard working.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: Of course, reward them when they they, you know, do something very well, but don't tell them they're smart because it it almost creates a child who doesn't feel like that they have to make any effort.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:11
SPEAKER_01: And and they don't have the drive to get more because they feel they've already reached exactly.
8:15
SPEAKER_01: That's a very interesting point.
8:17
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
8:17
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so someone will look at your CV, hear everything that you've done, and they just see the highlights and the beautiful parts.
8:24
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk about the challenges first.
8:27
SPEAKER_01: What has it been like in this space?
8:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so corporate America was tough, right?
8:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, 20 years at one particular company, there is a path.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: You go from being an associate to senior associate to a manager, director, MD partner.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: I was two levels away from becoming a partner.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: But my 20 years at KPMG, I saw that my career really did plateau.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't moving.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: Um, I was going out of my way to make sure that I had opportunities.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: So I moved around in the firm just to continuously learn.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't moving.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: And so I made the, you know, I made the decision that it was time for me to kind of pivot into something else.
9:14
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: I left uh that particular firm.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: I left KPMG and went to a smaller boutique firm that's minority-owned.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: And I had, you know, firsthand access to the main partner whose name is on the building, Ralph Basilio.
9:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: And he poured into me, and it goes back to what I said earlier.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: You have to surround yourself with people who believe in you and will push you.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: This gentleman pushed me.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: I worked with him for two years.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: I understood what it meant to make a deal.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: I understood, you know, relationship development with potential clients.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: He really looked at me and said, Mariama, you can do this.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: I am going to take my hand off of everything and I'm handing this over to you.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: And it was another pivotal point in my career that allowed me to grow again.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: Um we have to understand that we are a work in progress.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: The second you feel that you are complete, I don't care how old you are, there's no more growth in you.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
10:21
SPEAKER_00: Right.
10:21
SPEAKER_00: We need to continuously find ways to make ourselves better.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: And that is where I'm at now.
10:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm well, not now, but I've consistently tried.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: When I feel that I've conquered something, I I think I have ADD.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: I haven't been officially diagnosed.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: But I'm always trying to figure out ways to make myself better, no matter what it is.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: If it's not, if it's a class, if it's me finding a new mentor, if it's me surrounding myself with people who are in that space, I have to figure out a way to conquer whatever it is that I'm working on so that I can master it and move on to the next best thing.
10:55
SPEAKER_01: I think that the brain was made to learn.
10:58
SPEAKER_01: The brain was made to grow.
11:00
SPEAKER_01: So whenever you reach a point in your life where you feel you've learned enough, you don't need to grow anymore.
11:05
SPEAKER_01: I think all those are parts of what lead to depression and so many major psychological problems because you become stagnant, and that's not how we're supposed to be.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: I agree.
11:16
SPEAKER_01: I wish I could learn something new every single day.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: Now, Richie, that could be a downfall now.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing: when you go through those interviews and they say, Well, um, what's your weakness?
11:28
SPEAKER_00: That is that is something of my weakness because I feel like I need my brain needs to absorb everything.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: But you you have to surround yourself with people who are just as capable, and that is their will house.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: No, just enough, which is a big thing about being a management consultant, right?
11:44
SPEAKER_00: No, just enough, but you can't know everything.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: Like you can't be a master of everything.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: Why not?
11:50
SPEAKER_00: That's a mastermind.
11:52
unknown: I like that.
11:52
SPEAKER_01: Well, me, I'm a I'm a little crazy because I want to be a master of everything.
11:57
SPEAKER_01: I just I just know I can't be a master of everything at once, but I have a long life to live.
12:03
SPEAKER_01: So maybe every five years I master something new.
12:06
SPEAKER_01: The next five years, master something new, keep growing.
12:09
SPEAKER_01: But we'll see, we'll see how it ends up, you know.
12:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: You might have ADD too.
12:14
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I I I definitely do, but I'm never getting diagnosed.
12:19
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so you talk a lot about building under pressure, yeah.
12:23
SPEAKER_01: Right?
12:24
SPEAKER_01: But how are you able to fight that internal battle that's like you know, because a lot of people are capable of so much, but they are not able to fight themselves to get started.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
12:39
SPEAKER_01: So what do you do to defeat that inner voice that is stopping you?
12:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, to be very honest with you, it's kind of simple.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: I have a things to do list that is as long as my arm.
12:51
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: And checking those items off of that list motivates me to continuously keep going.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: I'm a very organized person, management consultant by trade, project manager.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I have all these letters after my name, but it it all is based off of being organized.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm extremely organized in a way where uh that's what really kind of has me put one foot in front of the other and to continue going.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: And as I can see the progress, that's again motivating me to continue.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, that in addition to the fact that I actually really like helping people.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: I am not a gatekeeper.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: If I know something, you're gonna know it.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: I don't believe in holding knowledge or resources to myself.
13:40
SPEAKER_00: I just don't.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: I've been fortunate enough that people have not done that to me, and I just don't see the purpose behind it.
13:46
SPEAKER_01: So I heard two things in your answer there.
13:49
SPEAKER_01: The first one is purpose, because by wanting to help people, it gives you the purpose to keep going.
13:55
SPEAKER_01: And the second one is you use the dopamine effect by moving things in levels, you know.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: That's a good way to summarize it.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: Nice, absolutely.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: So imagine those days when I don't check things off.
14:07
SPEAKER_01: You go crazy.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: I do, I do, and that finds I find myself working seven days a week on something just because I may not have gotten what I view as enough done one day that it trickles on.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
14:22
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
14:23
SPEAKER_01: With all that you've been able to do and the stages that you've gone through, were there points in time that you felt maybe people underestimated what you could do?
14:32
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: First of all, I'm a black woman.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: I have in corporate America.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: I don't have a name that's easily to uh to be pronounced.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: Um I walk in the room unapologetically, black and African and Muslim.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: My dad had to remind me one day, especially like right after 9-11.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: He's like, you have a lot of strikes against you, but you continue to keep making things work.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, so yeah, you do.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: You have a lot of people that doubt you.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you a story.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: It was really interesting.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of black women in corporate America probably have stories similar to this.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: Um, left KPMG in 2018.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: I remained friends with a lot of my colleagues that were still there.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: One in particular a Nigerian gentleman.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: He's much older than me, but we have been friends forever.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: And we continue to maintain that relationship outside of KPMG.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: We had a mutual friend who celebrated their 50th birthday, and he said to me, he said, you know, one of the partners, a partner that we both worked for, had said, Maryama doesn't recognize how smart she is.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: The second she recognized how smart she is, she's gonna be dangerous.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, it would have been great that while I was there, if you really saw that in me, that you took the time to pour into me the way they poured into my white male colleagues.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: It would have been great for if that if you really believe that in um about me, that you took the time to show me the ropes, make the necessary introductions.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: That didn't happen.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: So I think that is a struggle that a lot of black women in corporate America go through.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: Um a lot of people would just discount you immediately.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah.
16:25
SPEAKER_01: But do you think going through that also helps to shape you to become stronger?
16:32
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, because the one thing that my mom will tell you about me is that I'm a rebel.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: Don't tell me I can't do something.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: Because I will show you and prove to you that I can.
16:46
SPEAKER_01: So one one thing um I heard I heard someone say this while coaching how to teach children, and I'll I found it so profound.
16:54
SPEAKER_01: I try and exhibit it in every part of my life where they said, every time you solve a problem for your child, there's an opportunity you've taken from them to grow.
17:03
unknown: Yeah.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
17:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I uh another thing about growing up in an African household, especially being raised in the States, I had helicopter parents and they would not allow us to make mistakes.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: So can you imagine?
17:20
SPEAKER_00: I have two younger brothers, we all went to university.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: The second some adverse situation happens, you feel like the world is coming to an end.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: So while my parents did everything they could to protect us, they also kind of stifled us in that uh regard.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, I just refuse to do that with my three boys.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: Like, you're gonna fall, you're gonna realize that it hurts, or you're gonna put your hand on the fire after I told you not to do it, and you realize that it burns.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
17:46
SPEAKER_00: Because now you have that sensory reaction, you're not gonna do it again.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: You've learned.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: I think I heard in your last uh podcast, you talked about this in regards to thank you for watching my podcast.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: Of course, I told you I appreciate the content you put out.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: Um, you talked about how you have to learn from your mistakes.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: And you can make those mistakes over and over again as long as every path that you're doing, you're learning something new.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: So it's definitely necessary.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: You gotta learn, you have to you have to fail in order to be able to learn something new.
18:21
SPEAKER_01: Okay, now let's jump in.
18:23
SPEAKER_01: Are you ready for me?
18:24
SPEAKER_01: I am okay.
18:26
SPEAKER_01: So, what do you think about this?
18:28
SPEAKER_01: Every time I travel, every time I have business outside, I hear how people talk about Africa, right?
18:34
SPEAKER_01: And there's one thing that is known everywhere.
18:38
SPEAKER_01: Everyone recognizes the power in Africa.
18:41
SPEAKER_01: But it feels like everyone wants to use Africa and it's not about working with Africa.
18:50
SPEAKER_01: So, as someone who who's faced it firsthand, what do you think constitutes to that?
18:57
SPEAKER_00: I believe that they count Africa out.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: Africa is not homogeneous, we already know that, right?
19:04
SPEAKER_00: We also understand that um these outside companies or forces, what have you, don't recognize the ingenuity that exists within the continent.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: We take the bare minimum and we're able to transform it into magic.
19:26
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: So imagine if we actually have the necessary resources to do what we can we are capable of doing.
19:33
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: The continent wouldn't be in the the state that it is now.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: So I think it is a matter of people not understanding one, the 54 markets that exist, um not taking the time to understand it, and really and truly not giving us enough credit.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: It's it's a level of you asked the question earlier about underestimating.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: It's a level of them underestimating the continent.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: They underestimate our resource.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: Well, let me not say that.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: They know the resources that we have.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that one they know.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: They know.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: But the human capital, they underestimate it severely.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: They underestimate the ingenuity that we have, the tenacity that we have.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: I say this uh when I talk to fine founders, I say that there's an IRT factor that every founder has to have that I'm looking for.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: You need to have ingenuity, okay, you need to um have uh resilience and you need to have tenacity.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: Those ingenuity, resilience, tenacity, the IRT factor.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm gonna coin that.
20:39
SPEAKER_01: If you see me walking around with a t-shirts with I IRT, just rubbing my coins, but yeah, but the Gen Z, it doesn't mean in real time.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so you that is the problem.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: They underestimate us at every turn, yeah, but now they're recognizing that there's a market in Africa, and we appreciate that.
21:07
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we do that.
21:08
SPEAKER_01: We appreciate seeing the the potential in our continent, but also see the potential in the people.
21:15
SPEAKER_02: Yes, absolutely.
21:16
SPEAKER_01: And that's the that's the problem.
21:17
SPEAKER_01: The problem, and okay, do you think this problem is a let me say, a branding problem?
21:22
SPEAKER_01: When I say that, what I mean is, do you feel our stories have not been told well enough for them to understand the power we wield?
21:30
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, yes, yes.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: I just had a conversation earlier about this.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: Okay, the story is not being properly told.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: The story, and black Americans could can attest to this too.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: We were somebody before slavery.
21:43
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: We were Africa, the 54 countries in this continent existed before colonialism.
21:50
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: Before the colonial era.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: Those stories are not being told at all.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: The stories are not being told.
21:59
SPEAKER_00: And so.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: That is where the problem is, the story, so that we know who we were before colonial masses set foot in this in our countries.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: And if you think about generations who do not have an understanding of who we were before, it doesn't give them hope.
22:19
SPEAKER_00: They're coming into a space that may be in some sort of turmoil.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: They're coming into a space where they have no idea that we come from kings and queens, and chiefs are, again, a made um, it is a what is the word that I'm looking for?
22:41
SPEAKER_00: It was developed.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: Chiefs come from colonial eras because no one could be a king and queen when your queen Elizabeth is the person who's supposed to be head of state, right?
22:51
SPEAKER_00: So a lot of young children don't know that.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: When I think of Surleon, we went through 10 years of uh civil war.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: We have a population, unfortunately, that had um no access to education.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: So we have a population that is illiterate.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: I mean, 10 years, no school, nothing.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: 10 years of no school.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: Years.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: So you can imagine um what that looks like.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: They don't have an understanding of what Sierra Leone was.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: Sierra Leone was known as the Athens of the West Africa.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: Ghanaians, Nigerians, uh, Cameroonians, they're all selling their kids to the universities in Sierra Leone to be educated.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: Doctors, lawyers, engineers, that system doesn't exist like that anymore.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: Right?
23:40
SPEAKER_00: And so if you're not aware of that, you would think that the system that exists now is how it's always been.
23:46
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: How does that give the girl child or the boy child any type of foresight to see what they could possibly be?
23:53
SPEAKER_00: Right?
23:53
SPEAKER_01: And and I think history too is a part of it.
23:56
SPEAKER_01: When I say history, I mean the history that is given to us makes us feel that we started.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: We are inept.
24:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:04
SPEAKER_01: We started from slavery.
24:06
SPEAKER_01: You know, when you go back to African history, it starts in the 1400s.
24:10
SPEAKER_01: Despite the fact that science has confirmed that life, humanity started in Africa 300,000 years ago.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: The Eve gene, Eve.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: It's here.
24:20
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
24:21
SPEAKER_01: So then, how is it that our history has been wiped out and only starts from the 1400s?
24:26
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that something?
24:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that something?
24:29
SPEAKER_01: It really is something.
24:30
SPEAKER_01: And it's I think the easiest way to make someone feel they will never become anything is to make them know that the ones before them were never anything.
24:39
SPEAKER_01: So you have nothing to look up to.
24:41
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
24:41
SPEAKER_01: You know, um I realized something when I start talking about wealth and the mind and all these kinds of things.
24:48
SPEAKER_01: Every African can understand that Elon Musk has over$300 billion.
24:54
SPEAKER_01: You know, Jeff Bezos runs a global empire.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: You know, Mark Zuckerberg invented something that the entire world loves.
25:02
SPEAKER_01: But when you talk about an African doing great things, it's like, oh no.
25:06
SPEAKER_01: And that's because we don't associate greatness with Africa.
25:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
25:11
SPEAKER_01: But greatness is birthed here.
25:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
25:14
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm going to go into conspiracy theory a bit, but I analyze this from a different point of view.
25:20
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
25:20
SPEAKER_01: I believe that Africa was so great, we got comfortable.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
25:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
25:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
25:28
SPEAKER_01: We have it.
25:29
SPEAKER_01: We have the resources.
25:30
SPEAKER_01: We have the power.
25:31
SPEAKER_01: We have everything.
25:32
SPEAKER_01: So we got comfortable and we allowed ourselves to be taken for a ride.
25:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
25:38
SPEAKER_01: So I think it's time we we decided that no, no, we're not doing that anymore.
25:45
SPEAKER_01: If you want to be with us, if you want to have part of what we have, sit at the table that we built.
25:51
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
25:53
SPEAKER_01: Why is it that you see potential here and you want to come and tap from it?
25:59
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you want to work with us for it?
26:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm with you.
26:03
SPEAKER_01: Why are you telling our African stories?
26:05
SPEAKER_01: Like I'm a huge Marvel fan.
26:07
SPEAKER_01: But why are you doing Wakanda?
26:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
26:10
SPEAKER_01: You know, why don't you find an authentic African to tell the story and sell that to the global market?
26:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
26:17
SPEAKER_01: Why do you have to create your own fake story and pedal it back to us?
26:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I have to agree.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: I have to agree.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: The storytelling is really important.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: Not just, as you mentioned, not just the historical part, but essentially where we could possibly be.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: And if we do not take hold of our be the authors of our own story, it will be continuously written by those who want to keep the ingenuity, keep the tenacity, the resilience of our people.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: They want to continue, they'll continue to keep us in a box.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: It cannot.
27:03
SPEAKER_01: No one can have their story told by another culture.
27:06
SPEAKER_01: They won't understand it.
27:08
SPEAKER_01: So if another culture is telling your story, they're either telling it wrong unintentionally or intentionally.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: Years ago when the African-American Museum opened in Washington, D.C., if you've never had an opportunity to go to this museum, it's absolutely amazing.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: When we think about young minds and the things that they put on TV and how we're absorbing it, there was an exhibit that talked about stereotypes.
27:36
SPEAKER_00: And it is not by accident, it's all by design that you see shows like Love and Hip Hop and Basketball Wives that paint us in such a negative light.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: And then the latest one, Married to Medicine, I had a very interesting conversation with my younger brother.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: And he said, doctors are one of the most respected professions.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: This reality show around black doctors.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: And you know, sometimes they they act a fool on the show.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they, you know, they talk about, you know, the good work that they do in the community.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: But guess what gets ratings?
28:19
SPEAKER_00: It's the showing the one of the most respected professions acting up and acting just a complete ass on TV.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: So what does that do?
28:30
SPEAKER_00: That really does start to make it puts out stereotypes.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: And so we have to be very, very cognizant of the type of material that's being produced, put out there for our young people to see.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: And we just have to be careful that that story being told and being told in a in a way that is not productive and not pushing us forward is so dangerous.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: It's so dangerous.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: And and in that in the museum, they talk about stereotypes and how stereotypes were used as propaganda.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: The lazy Negro, all we do is eat watermelon and fried chicken.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: People don't understand where that stuff came from.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: Again, I I'm um going to Howard.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: I was exposed to a lot and understood um African American splight.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: So it's just a matter of the stories that are being told.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: And we have to be really, really careful about that.
29:22
SPEAKER_01: We need to tell our own stories.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: We have to tell our own stories.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: We have to be the things of it.
29:26
SPEAKER_01: Something interesting happened.
29:27
SPEAKER_01: It's like 2010 or so.
29:29
SPEAKER_01: I think a time, um, was it Obama who came to Ghana?
29:32
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, I can't remember, but a president came to Ghana, and then there was an event that they were doing, and the musicians were performing.
29:38
SPEAKER_01: So CNN came ahead of him to come and interview the musicians.
29:42
SPEAKER_01: So they came to Lynx, they came to interview us on the compound, so most of us and everything.
29:47
SPEAKER_01: And we have a very, very nice compound, right?
29:49
SPEAKER_01: Now, the night before they came, it had rained.
29:53
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
29:53
SPEAKER_01: So now they came, they looked at the compound, they chose where to set up their cameras, and then they set up.
29:58
SPEAKER_01: And then Ochama come and one of the musicians tapped me and was like, Richie, notice something.
30:03
SPEAKER_01: You guys have a beautiful compound everywhere.
30:06
SPEAKER_01: Look where they set the camera.
30:07
SPEAKER_01: There's a puddle of water behind where they put the chair.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: To show this is Africa.
30:15
SPEAKER_01: This is Africa.
30:16
SPEAKER_01: So when you look in the camera, you don't see the beautiful compound, you see the chair in front of like muddy water.
30:25
SPEAKER_00: I can't say I'm surprised.
30:27
SPEAKER_00: To be very honest with you.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: And if it's not until you are aware how they want to continuously make Africa look, it's amazing to me.
30:39
SPEAKER_00: I mean, when I came to Ghana the first time, I was able to visit a couple of homes at Cantonment.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, this see, this is what they don't see when you think about Africa.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: Like this, this area, this, these homes, the way we uh we live, they think we still live in huts.
30:58
SPEAKER_01: And trees.
30:59
SPEAKER_01: And trees.
30:59
SPEAKER_01: Slinging from the trees.
31:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
31:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
31:02
SPEAKER_00: Come and imagine Tarzan in the 70s, what that really did for us.
31:06
SPEAKER_00: People really, really thought that we walked around with bones in our nose.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: It's just it's baffling to me.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, it's just it's baffling to me.
31:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's amazing because Mansa Musa was touring the world and dashing out gold to communities before slavery even began.
31:26
SPEAKER_01: So we forgot.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was just watching another documentary on Mansa Musa.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: Like the name continuously comes up.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: They keep saying that they're gonna do something in Hollywood.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: You know why they don't want to do a stuff in the world.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: No, they can't do that in Hollywood.
31:38
SPEAKER_03: No, they can't.
31:38
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's been proposed, shot down a million times.
31:42
SPEAKER_00: We have to continuously tell the story from civil rights or from slave periods.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're not connecting.
31:49
SPEAKER_01: Because anything about Mansa Musa in Hollywood will now challenge it Rockefeller versus Mansa Musa.
31:55
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
31:56
SPEAKER_01: And that'll be an eye-opener for everyone.
31:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:58
SPEAKER_01: For those who don't know, Mansa Musa is officially, you can't challenge me.
32:02
SPEAKER_01: I say so.
32:03
SPEAKER_01: Officially the richest man to have ever lived, an African.
32:07
SPEAKER_01: But of course, if you Google right now, they'll tell you Rockefeller.
32:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
32:12
SPEAKER_01: So I'm a strong believer in it's not the other person's fault, it's always your fault.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: I saw that too.
32:19
SPEAKER_01: So, what do we do to change the narrative?
32:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
32:24
SPEAKER_01: Because we can't wait for someone to come change the narrative for us.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I agree.
32:28
SPEAKER_00: I miss a couple of things.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: So we need to one start to rely on ourselves and not necessarily look to our governments.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: The government should be held accountable for what it is that they do.
32:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, but we also need to have an attitudinal change.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: We need to recognize that we have the power when we wake up every morning to make a difference.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: Um, that mindset of us not being able to accomplish things because we weren't born in the right family or born in the right tribe.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: We there's so many stories within the continent of people coming from nothing and making something of it because they saw a problem and they just thought through a solution.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: Right.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: You have to make sure that you um are built in a way that you don't take no for an answer.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: Right?
33:23
SPEAKER_00: Um Yeah, you don't take no for an answer.
33:27
SPEAKER_00: You don't look at life's obstacles as a as a reason for you or uh not to be able to move forward.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: Wake up, look at what it is that could be done to make your life better, to make your countryman's life better, and figure out a way to do it.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: Surround yourself with people who may be in that space already.
33:51
SPEAKER_00: African pride, it will kill us.
33:56
SPEAKER_00: It will kill us.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: We have to learn how to raise our hand and ask.
34:00
SPEAKER_00: And I'm as much as I'm saying this right now, as much as I've had to do that, say maybe five years ago, I just really, really knew that I need to raise my hand.
34:11
SPEAKER_00: I don't know all the answers.
34:12
SPEAKER_00: I may have, I may not even have someone in my network that can help me.
34:16
SPEAKER_00: But the person that I know that I'm really cool with or close with, they know someone who can get that answer from me.
34:22
SPEAKER_00: I'll ask, can you make a soft introduction?
34:25
SPEAKER_00: Ask our African prize sometimes is a major obstacle for us.
34:29
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: Um our governments, please start to think about ways that there is some sort of connectivity among our 54 countries.
34:39
SPEAKER_00: I'm a pan-Africanism at part.
34:42
SPEAKER_00: Harmonization, interoperability with our policies have to be um have to be a mandate.
34:49
SPEAKER_00: Um industrialization, stop putting out policies that reward raw goods being exported out of our countries.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: Those resources need to stay within our countries, transformed, last mile, yeah, and sent out.
35:06
SPEAKER_00: Belgium is not known, they don't have one single uh cacao plant in their country, not one.
35:12
SPEAKER_00: But when you think about chocolate, what do you think about?
35:14
SPEAKER_04: Belgium.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: When you think about diamonds, you're either thinking about Belgium cutting it.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: And I just found out recently that India is the number one cutter and polisher of diamonds.
35:23
SPEAKER_04: Interesting.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: India has no diamond mines, and neither does Belgium.
35:28
SPEAKER_00: Those come from, I mean, I'll put a plug, shameless plug, but it's early on.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: It's early on.
35:34
SPEAKER_00: We have one, you know, the corner district is known for like diamonds.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: My dad, my grandfather used to be a diamond dealer.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: My father used to say, tell me that you could just rub your foot on the soil and you'll find a rough, rough diamond there.
35:49
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know that.
35:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but you we don't polish, and the money is in the finishing of the stone.
35:53
SPEAKER_00: We don't polish, we don't cut.
35:55
SPEAKER_00: We we don't have artisans that have been trained properly.
35:58
SPEAKER_00: They hold on to that craft.
36:00
SPEAKER_00: Um, we need we need to uh focus on creating those policies that make sure that things are being transformed and exported in our countries and not just the raw goods.
36:11
SPEAKER_01: Because I think when you think about African international trade, we mostly think about important.
36:17
SPEAKER_01: For finished products, it's always important, then we just export our raw products, our raw materials.
36:24
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: I think I I will tell you, you know, you talked about conspiracy theories.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: You know what makes me very uncomfortable now as of late is the climate credits that they're getting.
36:34
SPEAKER_00: The carbon credits.
36:35
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: A lot of countries are coming in and purchasing carbon credits, which, if you're unaware of, they're purchasing major swaths of land for the purposes of saying that I own uh acres and acres of like forestry land so that it's going to stay untouched.
37:01
SPEAKER_00: We're not going to go in and develop it, and that is going to balance out all the pollution that I've put out in the earth.
37:09
SPEAKER_01: So explain carbon credit to me.
37:10
SPEAKER_01: So does it basically mean that I can pollute as much as I want here?
37:14
SPEAKER_01: Once I do this thing, which is supposed to help the, I mean help the environment, I'm suddenly doing good now.
37:22
SPEAKER_00: It's I feel like realistically that is how it is happening, but it's supposed to be a governance type thing where you are more aware of what it is that you're doing to the environment.
37:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
37:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so you're minimizing that, but you're also adding by having these carbon credits.
37:40
SPEAKER_00: The problem is that a lot of the carbon credits are the land is being purchased in the continent.
37:46
SPEAKER_00: Um and so that moves resources again.
37:51
SPEAKER_00: I mean, land is being held and just sitting there.
37:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we may not be developing it now, but I will let them know what those carbon credits happen will uh happen to them years from now when our population gets extremely big.
38:04
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: So that to me, that's my conspiracy theory right there.
38:09
SPEAKER_01: Let's move from conspiracy a bits before they cancel me.
38:14
SPEAKER_01: You talk about MVP.
38:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
38:16
SPEAKER_01: But yours isn't most valuable person, yours is maximum viable products.
38:20
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
38:21
SPEAKER_01: Explain that to me.
38:22
SPEAKER_00: So when you think about MVP when it comes to like startups, it's a minimal viable product.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: It you are taking somewhat of a prototype.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: It's not a prototype because prototypes generally don't work.
38:32
SPEAKER_00: It's just like mock-ups.
38:33
SPEAKER_00: But you're taking, you're moving, it's one step above a prototype.
38:36
SPEAKER_00: It's a functioning minimal amount of function.
38:38
SPEAKER_01: Oh, so it's minimum viable product.
38:40
SPEAKER_00: That's that's a typical.
38:42
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: But I am proposing that uh in the emerging markets that we do maximum viable product.
38:48
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
38:48
SPEAKER_00: Right.
38:49
SPEAKER_00: And it's because in this day and age, AI, artificial intelligence is is is making things move at warp speed.
38:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
38:58
SPEAKER_00: And so you need to be able, if you're putting out a product or a service, you need to put out a product or service that can gain um customers, it gains trust.
39:10
SPEAKER_00: Um, and you're not just putting out just the minimum.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh that maximum viable product allows you to be able to quickly test and learn within the market because you're putting in features that your clients or your customers actually want.
39:26
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
39:27
SPEAKER_00: So not utilizing the lean um framework, but going in and doing the necessary research, pulling data points, research on the ground, and then creating um a product that makes sense.
39:41
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: So that's the maximum viable product.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: Not just putting out just minimal features, but putting out features that actually speak to your customer base.
39:50
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
39:51
SPEAKER_01: So that means basically like be excellent with the creation of your product.
39:55
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
39:55
SPEAKER_01: And as you mentioned, AI is a very important factor.
39:58
SPEAKER_01: I know a lot of people who are afraid AI is going to replace them.
40:03
SPEAKER_01: I personally think if you are afraid AI is going to replace you, it probably is.
40:08
SPEAKER_01: Probably means you're not doing enough.
40:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
40:10
SPEAKER_01: Because what AI is starting to do is it gets about 70% of the work done very easily.
40:17
SPEAKER_01: You know, what would have taken weeks to do, AI can do in seconds.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
40:22
SPEAKER_01: But it can only get to that 70%.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: I agree.
40:27
SPEAKER_00: I believe in the multiplying factor of AI.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: Um, I tell people, you know, it's this fear that AI will make us dumber.
40:36
SPEAKER_00: It takes a lot of good critical thinking for you to be able to put in a great prompt.
40:41
SPEAKER_00: Because if you put a garbage prompt in, you're gonna get garbage out.
40:44
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: So for me, I it I'm very, very distinct with my prompts.
40:49
SPEAKER_00: If I show you one of my prompts, Richie, it's long.
40:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
40:52
SPEAKER_00: Because I need to make sure that one, AI is not hallucinating.
40:56
SPEAKER_00: Um, two, that's which it does a lot of.
40:58
SPEAKER_00: It does.
40:59
SPEAKER_00: It does.
40:59
SPEAKER_00: You know, that it is pulling sources that I know that are verifiable and it has the necessary steps.
41:06
SPEAKER_00: Now, I will say this.
41:07
SPEAKER_00: If you're uncomfortable with AI, agentic AI has already come in.
41:11
SPEAKER_00: If you're uncomfortable with regular AI, agentic AI is really about to eat your lunch because agency.
41:17
SPEAKER_03: What is that?
41:17
SPEAKER_00: So agency AI, you don't have to intervene.
41:22
SPEAKER_00: So you give it 10 steps and it will go through all 10 steps without you having to continuously prompt it.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: For instance, I'll give you an example of what I used it for recently.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: I wanted it to go through my Instagram page and find every Instagram um profile that speaks to my um my constituencies, my followers.
41:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, see what's the best, um, how how well their posts performed, what were the hashtags, um, what worked?
41:53
SPEAKER_00: Was it a video?
41:54
SPEAKER_00: Was it a carousel?
41:55
SPEAKER_00: Give me 10 different ideas from that.
41:58
SPEAKER_00: This thing went in, it logged in, it prompted me to log into my IG.
42:03
SPEAKER_00: It went in, it searched.
42:05
SPEAKER_00: You can see it doing this.
42:06
SPEAKER_00: So it's not doing it behind a a black, you know, black box.
42:10
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: I can see it go through IG, I can see it doing a search, I can see it pulling up different profiles, I can see it clicking into the it'll go through the grid and say, okay, this one had 5,000 views.
42:23
SPEAKER_00: Click into it, play the video, and then it came back about 20 minutes later and gave me a full report.
42:29
SPEAKER_01: Nice.
42:30
SPEAKER_00: So that's a gentic AI.
42:31
SPEAKER_00: And that's just one example.
42:32
SPEAKER_01: So that's the agent AI.
42:33
SPEAKER_01: So agentic AI, I get it now.
42:35
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
42:36
SPEAKER_00: So it has agency to move on your behalf.
42:40
SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
42:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
42:41
SPEAKER_00: So if you're not comfortable with AI, agentic AI is about to really blow things away.
42:47
SPEAKER_01: But that's what that's what that's what the world is about.
42:50
SPEAKER_01: It's about developing, growing.
42:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
42:52
SPEAKER_01: And what AI is now going to do for most people, those who use it effectively, is you can increase your capacity.
42:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
43:00
SPEAKER_00: That's that multiplying factor.
43:02
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
43:02
SPEAKER_01: 10x.
43:03
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
43:04
SPEAKER_01: Hmm.
43:04
SPEAKER_01: Do you think AI is caught on in Africa yet?
43:09
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm about to do a blog post on that.
43:11
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm researching it now.
43:14
SPEAKER_00: I know that Google just invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Ghana.
43:19
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
43:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm still trying to figure out what their motivating factor is.
43:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
43:23
SPEAKER_00: I suspect that there may be something else behind it all, but the fact that they're actually willing to put the money here tells you a lot.
43:31
SPEAKER_00: Um some of the countries have data um data laws that won't let you offshore your data.
43:43
SPEAKER_00: So that means we need more data centers in the continent in order for us to really harness the power.
43:50
SPEAKER_00: If we can't have our data is leaving our shores and the data centers are not available, then yes, we will be limited.
43:58
SPEAKER_00: So we have to figure out either requirements.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: Going to build the data centers in Africa, or we're going to have to change some of our laws so that our data can be offshore in other places.
44:08
SPEAKER_00: I subscribe to the fact that we need to have our data centers in the world.
44:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we need to have ours here.
44:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
44:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
44:13
SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
44:14
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
44:15
SPEAKER_01: So along your path, there have been different days that you've had, let's say, the early days of finance, you had to carve your path into success, right?
44:25
SPEAKER_01: What are some of the most difficult things taking your background, knowing how difficult it's been for as an African who is now living in the States?
44:35
SPEAKER_01: What do you think are some of the challenges you were able to overcome to keep going?
44:40
SPEAKER_01: I asked this before you even answer.
44:42
SPEAKER_01: I asked this because I feel like most people get stuck in these are my challenges, this is my situation, and I can't do anything about it.
44:52
SPEAKER_01: I want to understand how you overcame those challenges to keep going.
44:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I have always um worked with, especially in my line of business, um, within the big four accounting world, um, champions.
45:12
SPEAKER_00: And again, I like I said, I've been uh been very fortunate that I've had mentors and individuals that saw something in me to and continuously push me forward.
45:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you have to have champions in a space that will be able to kind of push and propel your career.
45:29
SPEAKER_00: Um but it is the level of just really kind of believing in yourself and recognizing where there are um some things about yourself that you need to work on and then making a plan and working that plan.
45:47
SPEAKER_00: Um I take criticism very, very well.
45:51
SPEAKER_00: Um I can take criticism that I know that is very relevant, and then criticism that I may feel just may not, depending on what the source, who the source is, right?
46:04
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
46:04
SPEAKER_00: And you ha some people can't take criticism.
46:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, I mean it has to be done with radical candor when you do that.
46:12
SPEAKER_00: But um I take criticism well because I will take it and I will make sure that I'm making a plan to be better.
46:21
SPEAKER_00: And you have to be open to that.
46:23
SPEAKER_00: You have to be nimble nimble, you have to be able to um roll with the punches in corporate America.
46:31
SPEAKER_00: And when it is no longer there for you and you don't see a path forward, and you know in your hearts of hearts that you have done everything in your power and consulted the right people, if it's that's not that space, we have to get up from the table.
46:48
SPEAKER_01: That's that's very true, especially about criticism, because it's very difficult to get both leaders and followers to understand that being criticized is the only way to improve.
47:02
SPEAKER_01: You know, sometimes it comes from yourself, sometimes it comes from someone else.
47:06
SPEAKER_01: But you have to always look at is there any truth in what's being said?
47:09
SPEAKER_01: Is there any way I can use that to improve?
47:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
47:13
SPEAKER_01: But in saying that, it makes me realize also that there's a bit of emotional weakness that doesn't allow our leaders to become what they are supposed to be.
47:25
SPEAKER_01: Let's go.
47:28
SPEAKER_01: Because I see so much fear and doubt.
47:32
SPEAKER_01: You know, I know people that people seem to think they are not afraid or they're so sure of themselves because maybe they're arrogant or maybe they're shouting on people.
47:42
SPEAKER_01: But I rather see it as the inverse.
47:44
SPEAKER_01: Because anyone who's most insecure.
47:47
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
47:48
SPEAKER_01: Because a true secure person is very calm.
47:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, it's like someone who fights martial arts rarely fights.
47:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
47:57
SPEAKER_01: So, what do we do to get our people to learn that emotions are actually supposed to be a superpower that you use to guide yourself and not something you cave into?
48:10
SPEAKER_00: Ah, that's a difficult one.
48:12
SPEAKER_00: That's like almost like you're about to take me into a place.
48:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna come across like I'm a male basher.
48:19
SPEAKER_00: It's ingrained in in our people.
48:22
SPEAKER_00: Like, um, we tell our our our our men one thing and we tell our women something different.
48:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
48:29
SPEAKER_00: I think it is a cultural shift that needs to happen.
48:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
48:34
SPEAKER_01: Um we say bemens, that means men don't cry.
48:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
48:42
SPEAKER_00: Imagine, but imagine the stress that a man carries because they are emotionally pent up.
48:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
48:49
SPEAKER_00: Because we have raised our boys that crying or showing emotion is a sign of weakness.
48:54
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
48:54
SPEAKER_00: We have got to do better with that.
48:57
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it it really starts as, you know, with me as being a parent.
49:02
SPEAKER_00: Any parent that can understand that that is at the detriment of a child, fathers knowing their plight and what it is that they've dealt with, not passing on that same type of um thought process and trauma to their own boys.
49:19
SPEAKER_00: Um, but you have to be enlightened, Richie.
49:22
SPEAKER_00: Like we have, we as Africans, we tend to say if this is what the former gen, the previous generation went through, why can't you go through it?
49:31
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
49:32
SPEAKER_00: So how do we move away from that?
49:34
SPEAKER_00: I I don't know if I really have an answer, other than um there's a level of enlightenment that needs to happen and awareness.
49:41
SPEAKER_01: Because everything is evolving, so we should be able to evolve too.
49:45
SPEAKER_01: You know, certain things came with survival instincts.
49:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
49:49
SPEAKER_01: You get it?
49:49
SPEAKER_01: Like fights or flights.
49:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
49:51
SPEAKER_01: There's certain things that maybe our fear would come in because there's probably a wild animal that's about to attack you.
49:59
SPEAKER_01: So when you you get scared, you need to act a certain way.
50:02
SPEAKER_01: But things have changed now.
50:04
SPEAKER_01: So maybe we can also change now.
50:06
SPEAKER_01: And when you talk about the training of men versus the training of women, I think that is one of the biggest things that has led to the separation of the genders.
50:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I agree.
50:16
SPEAKER_01: I think if we reach a point where we realize that men could benefit from some of the training that's given to women.
50:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I agree.
50:23
SPEAKER_01: And women could benefit from some of the training that's given to men.
50:26
SPEAKER_00: I agree.
50:27
SPEAKER_00: I have to agree.
50:28
SPEAKER_00: I have to agree.
50:29
SPEAKER_00: I agree wholeheartedly.
50:30
SPEAKER_00: I think one of the other things, not to get well, I say this all the time with my group of friends, the war of the sexes that you see that is so prevalent on social media, I really feel like that's by design because it's one destroying the fabric of uh marriage in the black community.
50:57
SPEAKER_00: Um and we can only grow with numbers.
51:01
SPEAKER_00: We can only be strong together.
51:03
SPEAKER_00: And if the narrative is the black man hates the black woman, we'll never be able to join and do what we need to do to raise healthy families to, of course, two-income home is better than one income.
51:16
SPEAKER_00: And that's the reason why you constantly see, and this is this is more US-based, but that's why you see that um white homes have a much higher income than black homes.
51:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
51:26
SPEAKER_00: It's because black homes generally, I don't want to avoid generalizing, but the statistics show that um white homes have a higher income because it's it they're led by two families, I mean a two-parent home.
51:41
SPEAKER_00: And that's just that's what the statistics are telling us.
51:44
SPEAKER_00: But there is a conservat on social media that the black woman and the black woman, uh, black woman and black man hate each other.
51:52
SPEAKER_00: And I'm having conversations with a group of friends that I've been friends with for over 10 years.
51:56
SPEAKER_00: And the conversations we have, do I hate you?
51:58
SPEAKER_00: Do you hate me?
52:01
SPEAKER_00: That's not the case.
52:02
SPEAKER_01: What are these getting why are they getting these thoughts from?
52:05
SPEAKER_00: Exactly, exactly.
52:06
SPEAKER_00: So, and AI is another thing.
52:09
SPEAKER_00: These bots are really, they're real.
52:10
SPEAKER_00: So, what I've been doing as of late is I will double-click into the most egregious comment.
52:16
SPEAKER_00: And guess what, Richie?
52:17
SPEAKER_00: It's a brand new profile that's just set up.
52:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no followers, no posts.
52:22
SPEAKER_00: So, what does that tell you?
52:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we sound like conspiracy theorists right now.
52:28
SPEAKER_00: I know.
52:28
SPEAKER_00: I said I was gonna try and stay away from it, but it's definitely something.
52:31
SPEAKER_01: Maybe conspiracies are true, so maybe okay.
52:36
SPEAKER_01: Let's let's go to money.
52:37
SPEAKER_01: Let's keep it safe.
52:38
SPEAKER_01: Let's keep it safe.
52:40
SPEAKER_01: So, a lot of people right now are chasing funding.
52:44
SPEAKER_01: What's your concept of funding versus freedom?
52:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I advise um startups when you are looking for funding, you need to understand one capital stack.
52:58
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
52:59
SPEAKER_00: All money is not good money.
53:02
SPEAKER_00: You and whatever investor, be it an angel investor, being an accelerator, an incubator, a VC, you all need to be on the same page, one accord, on what scaling up looks like and if there's an exit strategy.
53:17
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
53:17
SPEAKER_00: There's too many stories about how investors have pushed startups to go or founders to go in a direction that did not align with the company's values or was even in play for what they saw their company, you know, what they uh projected or sought for saw of their company.
53:37
SPEAKER_00: Um there is a young lady, and I believe um the founder is from she's from a West African country, and I want to say Sunacal, but her Ami Kollet, a beauty brand, by all means, this company should have been um Fenty Beauty, Rihanna's company, because she, I believe, came out before Fenty Beauty did.
53:57
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
53:58
SPEAKER_00: During um the pandemic, she received at least two or three million dollars.
54:05
SPEAKER_00: She received a significant amount of money in a small amount of time.
54:09
SPEAKER_00: And she also got a major deal with Sephora.
54:12
SPEAKER_00: So her product was supposed to be in a significant number of Sephora stores.
54:19
SPEAKER_00: She didn't have enough capital, enough operating capital to actually produce the product.
54:24
SPEAKER_00: And she was being pushed by the investors to scale and scale quickly.
54:30
SPEAKER_00: Her and the investors weren't aligned.
54:32
SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, Amikol I'm Ami Kole's company has sent shutters.
54:37
SPEAKER_00: There's no reason.
54:37
SPEAKER_00: Her product was top notch.
54:40
SPEAKER_00: Um she provided a product that uh spoke to women of color, um, which had been ignored by the beauty industry for years.
54:54
SPEAKER_00: And there was no reason why she shouldn't have been very successful.
55:02
SPEAKER_00: So you gotta uh you and you the founders and the investors need to be on the same page and what that looks like.
55:09
SPEAKER_00: And you can't just take money without understanding what that money, how that money needs to be spent and what it what the strings are attached to it.
55:19
SPEAKER_00: Um Uber.
55:21
SPEAKER_00: That's another one.
55:22
SPEAKER_00: They push the CEO out.
55:24
SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
55:25
SPEAKER_00: Right.
55:26
SPEAKER_00: He was pushed out.
55:28
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, so you have to make sure that when you're getting, when you're looking for funding, that it makes sense.
55:36
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
55:37
SPEAKER_01: You are just you're just talking about scaling up and the fact that she wasn't ready to scale up.
55:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
55:43
SPEAKER_01: I think that's a term that is thrown around, but a lot of entrepreneurs don't actually understand what is scaling up and what does it take to scale up your business?
55:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
55:53
SPEAKER_00: So with a product, it is making sure that your entire value uh chain is completely defined.
56:04
SPEAKER_00: You need to make sure that you have all of your um the raw goods, um, whether it is being sold out on the market, the marketplace, all of that needs to be in line um in order for you to scale.
56:22
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you get a huge order of a thousand units and you're only used to putting out 10 units a month.
56:29
SPEAKER_00: Your operational um uh processes need to be in line.
56:36
SPEAKER_00: You need to be ready, not just with the the funds, but the processes need to be in place.
56:43
SPEAKER_00: Um scaling up can look like on the service side, you now have picked up more clients.
56:50
SPEAKER_00: That means you need more resources, you need more bodies to actually provide that service and provide that service at the level that if you only had one client.
57:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
57:01
SPEAKER_00: So that's what scaling up looks like.
57:03
SPEAKER_01: So, how do you know that tipping point when you're ready to scale up?
57:06
SPEAKER_01: Because I've seen a lot of businesses, let's say your favorite restaurant, you know, and everything is good.
57:12
SPEAKER_01: Then they open a second branch and a third branch.
57:15
SPEAKER_01: Then you go to the there was this particular restaurant, I won't mention their name, but they had a branch far away from me, and I would drive all the time to go and eat it.
57:24
SPEAKER_01: And I kept saying, if they open the nachimota, I will eat it every single day.
57:29
SPEAKER_01: And they opened an achimota.
57:30
SPEAKER_01: And I still used to drive to the father branch because it never tasted the same.
57:35
SPEAKER_00: You see, you see, processes have to be in place in order for it to be replicated.
57:41
SPEAKER_00: And what does that do?
57:42
SPEAKER_00: That kind of you were still loyal to the original one, but it kind of just messes up their brand because if they were to open up a third one, so they closed that branch eventually.
57:51
SPEAKER_01: See, they couldn't maintain it.
57:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and imagine how much capital was lost because they decided to go into a will scale up without the proper processes in place.
58:00
SPEAKER_01: So, what do you think should come first?
58:03
SPEAKER_01: Demand or processes?
58:05
SPEAKER_00: Oof.
58:06
SPEAKER_00: It's not the chicken or the egg, to be very honest with you.
58:09
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
58:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, there is a level of assessment that needs to be done.
58:13
SPEAKER_00: You in the consultant world, we used to sell business and didn't have a bench to actually deliver it.
58:20
SPEAKER_00: You have to have the tenacity and the know-how and recognize when you don't have the know-how to bring the proper people in.
58:28
SPEAKER_00: So my answer is one or the other don't need to come first.
58:32
SPEAKER_00: You really just need to make sure that you have the mindset of growth and you understand what it takes to scale.
58:41
SPEAKER_01: So okay.
58:43
SPEAKER_01: So, what do you have to tell that person out there right now who is desperately trying to scale up their business, but it's not looking possible because they can't find the right processes?
58:56
SPEAKER_00: You need to take a look at at this point, if you're scaling up, you need to make sure that your company is structured in the right way.
59:03
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
59:04
SPEAKER_00: So, do you have a chief operating officer who knows how to scale?
59:10
SPEAKER_00: Um, if you already have a COO and that COO has been with you from the very beginning, it's time for a hard conversation.
59:18
SPEAKER_00: Is this person the right person for us to move into the next level?
59:23
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
59:23
SPEAKER_00: Um, and if they're not, are they willing, do they have the capability to be trained and learn?
59:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm not, I don't believe in pushing people out.
59:33
SPEAKER_00: I really don't.
59:34
SPEAKER_00: I don't believe if we started this journey together, I don't think that you should be pushed out.
59:38
SPEAKER_00: But you do need to, and that's another thing that I look at when I'm looking at um startups.
59:43
SPEAKER_00: Who, who's your your main team?
59:45
SPEAKER_00: Who's your C-suite?
59:47
SPEAKER_00: And do they have the tenacity to be able to learn, to grow, to stretch themselves?
59:53
SPEAKER_00: Because if you're trying to scale, they need to have their mindset to be able to move you into the next phase.
1:00:00
SPEAKER_00: Um so that's really important.
1:00:02
SPEAKER_00: Looking at the processes um and ensuring that at the end of the day that you have the right people around you to be able to move you into the next phase.
1:00:10
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
1:00:11
SPEAKER_01: Um, one thing I know for certain is that success is defined differently in every culture.
1:00:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:00:18
SPEAKER_01: So as someone who's lived in different cultures, what do you think the definitions for you are aspect of the different cultures and how do you marry them together?
1:00:29
SPEAKER_00: Well, to be honest with you, success is what I've def how I define it.
1:00:34
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
1:00:35
SPEAKER_00: I really, you know, you can see success being a superficial or physical thing, you can see it being a a piece of paper from a prestigious university.
1:00:53
SPEAKER_00: For me, success for me is me accomplishing what I set out to do and my goals.
1:00:59
SPEAKER_00: And I honestly feel that that should be the success of how we all define success.
1:01:04
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
1:01:05
SPEAKER_00: Um because how you define it and how I define it, it's gonna be two different things.
1:01:10
SPEAKER_00: And we to your point, you talked about it in two different cultures.
1:01:13
SPEAKER_00: But for me, success is me making sure that I am constantly moving and I've accomplished what I set out to do.
1:01:19
SPEAKER_01: So do you feel successful?
1:01:21
SPEAKER_00: I do.
1:01:22
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
1:01:23
SPEAKER_00: I do, I absolutely do.
1:01:24
SPEAKER_00: I know there's so much more.
1:01:26
SPEAKER_00: So check me in about five years.
1:01:29
SPEAKER_01: So then does that mean that success is a moving target?
1:01:33
SPEAKER_00: Oh, absolutely.
1:01:34
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
1:01:35
SPEAKER_00: It goes back to what we talked about earlier.
1:01:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the day that I stay stagnant, I must be six feet under.
1:01:44
SPEAKER_01: Even then, I'll be back to still be more successful.
1:01:49
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be around when that happens.
1:01:54
SPEAKER_00: The ghost of Richie walking around.
1:01:56
SPEAKER_01: It's like, hey, what else?
1:01:57
SPEAKER_01: What did that mean?
1:01:58
SPEAKER_01: What did that mean?
1:02:01
SPEAKER_01: Okay, Emmy, do something for my audience.
1:02:03
SPEAKER_01: I always say you have before you leave here, you have to look into that camera there.
1:02:09
SPEAKER_01: Choose a mindset shift that you can implant in the person watching's brain to take them one step closer to being a mastermind.
1:02:22
SPEAKER_00: I would say mindset shift comes from making sure that you give more than what you take in this world.
1:02:32
SPEAKER_00: If you can be an individual who offers more than what you take, you can open so many different doors for yourself, but then also provide value.
1:02:47
SPEAKER_00: So that would be my my I love that.
1:02:51
SPEAKER_01: I love that so much.
1:02:52
SPEAKER_01: MJ, thank you so much for being here.
1:02:54
SPEAKER_01: It's been an amazing conversation.
1:02:56
SPEAKER_00: It's been easy to talking to you, Richie.
1:02:58
SPEAKER_01: And I hope we really did take you a step closer to becoming the mastermind I know you are meant to be.
1:03:07
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for watching this episode.
1:03:09
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.
1:03:19
SPEAKER_01: Now let's build a community of thinkers who are ready to become the best version of themselves.
1:03:25
SPEAKER_01: So subscribe to the channel and the mindset that you will develop and grow every day to become a true mastermind.