Latest / Masterminds Podcast / How Losing It All Made Me Unstoppable: The Headless YouTuber Story | Masterminds Podcast EP19

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How Losing It All Made Me Unstoppable: The Headless YouTuber Story | Masterminds Podcast EP19 · Masterminds Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen a video of me.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: I was like five years old dancing to some Amanzeba song.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: I did a song when I was in tertiary, and that song changed everything on campus.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Somewhere in 2017, my mom was kind of worried that okay, you're doing the music, I know, you know the way our parents are.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have the finances and I didn't have anybody to invest in me.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: And a friend of mine had told me that there's money on YouTube.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: That was what triggered me to take a break from music and focus all my energy on content creation.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: That idea was actually for the music video.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as I got that figure, I was like, okay, the figure doesn't have head, so it's headless.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I got people's attention because what I was doing was very unique.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I went through that shape me into the person I am now.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't learn from your mistakes, or you don't learn from your experiences, or even learn from the things you're doing right, if you go for it, you will crash.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Masterminds Podcast.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: My name is Richie Mensa, and I'm your tour guide on this amazing journey to the mastery of your most powerful tool, your mind.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, every day when I come and sit here, my aim with my guest is always to get you one step closer to becoming a mastermind.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: So, for anyone who's read my book, there's one of my favorite chapters, is where I talk about reinvention.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you look at someone like me, from Mr.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: Singer to Mr.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: Producer to record label boss to I don't even know what I am right now, you let me know in the comments what you think I am.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: I personally believe in reinvention.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: I believe in growth, I believe in adapting and becoming more every opportunity you get.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: Now, it would have been boring for me to sit here and discuss this by myself.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I needed somebody who understands how to reinvent and build a strong brand.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: And in this country, one man who has done it perfectly, even without a head, is the man known as Kula, but everybody now calls him the headless YouTuber.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: Ohja, ohjack, ohja, oja, oja.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: Charlie, how be bro?
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm good, boss.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: Very good.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: You you when it comes to reinvent India, nobody can you.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: See, um, necessity is the mother of invention.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Invention, yeah.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: Let's let's start from the beginning, you know, where it always should begin.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Let's start from the cooler days.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, what brought you into music?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: Because me, I remember you, Pa, the you know, the singer that I used to meet at YFM those days.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, um, I I love music from from the start.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: I have I've seen a video of me, I was like five years old, dancing to some Amanzeba song and stuff.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: I like I like music, but then when when I before I got into senior high school, I used to listen to a lot of MM, a lot of Obrafo, a lot of tiny, a lot of 50 Cent G units and stuff.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I used to listen to a lot.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: But Eminem is somebody that I used to learn his lyrics.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Then when I got into senior high, I used MM's lyrics to get out of punishment.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: So anytime, hey, come and know down.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: What can you do for the seniors?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: What can you do for us?
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Senior, I can entertain you, I can rap.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Then I'll just give some Eminem lines be.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Some of them have never heard that song before, so they'll think it's me now, my lines.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: So this guy they rap, they rap.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Then I got to second year.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: I won Entertainment Perfect going into third year.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: And from there, I went into tertiary and I started recording my own songs.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that was how that was what got me into music.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Started recording my songs.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: I used to leave Dansuman, go to Adenta, a friend's place, to go and record music, and then I come back home every day during like vacation and stuff.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Then I got the software Fruity Loops back then, before they changed rebranded to FLUS.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Fruity Loops, I started learning how to play beats.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: I started using Adobe Audition to learn how to edit or sound.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Mix the songs and stuff like that.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Then I did a song when I was in tertiary, and that song changed everything on campus.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that was one of the things that really made me realize I can actually use music to cause a change to entertain people and stuff.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Then I fully went into the music.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: So if you were doing music, how did you transition to working at YFM?
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Radio has also been a passion of mine.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because that one too from childhood, my dad used to do voiceover for um all these parties and funerals.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: He's a video video uh videographer.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: So if he goes to take his videos of the funerals and stuff, he'll come home and he will come and do voiceover.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: I used to watch him doing the voiceover.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: And he also loves to listen to Kwame Sefa Kai.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I also listen to Kwame Sefa Kai automatically.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I I loved radio.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: So when I was in tertiary, I was working in the school's radio station.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that also got me that training in radio.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: So somewhere in 2017, my mom was kind of worried that okay, you are doing the music.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know the way our parents are, they don't really see music as something.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: They want you to do something like work.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: A real job.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, a real job.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: So she used to ask me, What do you want to do?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what's your plan B aside music?
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to do something.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, I would I would like to be on radio.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I went to radio school in 2017, and after that, I started working at YFM.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, nice, nice.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, but how was the music going in that period?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like, or let me ask it this way: give me a high, like one of the highest moments you had in the music.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Every year had a new high for me.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because um 2015, I released my first um mixtape, second mixtape.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's um K U L A mixtape.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and it got me to headline Accra Hip Hop Week at Alien Francais.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: So that was like a new high.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Some other times, Chalewate Street Arts Festival, I'm performing in front of thousands of people, I'm spoiling the new high.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: But the highest of highs was me performing at the um VGMAs when I won the song artists of the year 2019.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so that's the highest.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's the highest, but there were a lot of moments in there that you know I appreciated every moment.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, if you've given me the highest of the highs, what was the lowest of the lows that made you say, nah, man, this thing is, you know, it's not what it is.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, the lowest of the lows, I would say, when after I won the unsung, you know, it has given me some kind of attention.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, nationwide, everybody knows me, everybody is expecting something something from me.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and unfortunately, I wasn't under any record label.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: So the my small energy that I was using to do my own thing, right now, I've gotten a bigger platform with the same resources and everything.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it really was a challenge for me.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, people expected me to get songs with like some of the top guys and stuff, and I can't pull those strings all by myself.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: So that that was the moment where I really went through a lot in music.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what was it like?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like emotionally, what because I know a lot of people who are coming up and struggling on their own, and many talk about the fact that it's not easy on the mental health.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's not easy.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, every everybody believes they are good.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if if you listen to every artist, every artist will tell you, Charlie, I'm the best.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you're a producer, you know how the song sounds in the studio.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Every song is a banger in the studio.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: And when you record it, and yes, those first four hours.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a banger in the studio when you release it before you see.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I had a lot of songs that were very like they were great, and my stage performances were also awesome.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's I I hear that's one of the main reasons why I won the unsung because of my stage performance.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because nobody from the panel and all those people even knew me as at that moment.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: But then the way I performed, I spotted it.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew I was very good, but I didn't have the finances and I didn't have anybody to invest in me or to sign me.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: So mentally it's it's very draining.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: You get to a point where you are your own publicist, you are your own manager, you're your own everything, and it's it's it's seriously draining on the on the mind and the soul.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: So did it do you think starting the channel doing headless YouTuber was because you were crashed and gave up, or was it just something that you were trying for fun?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't it was it was deliberate.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I won on sang 2019.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: 2020, I did a song with medical.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: After that, I realized that it's it's it has now gotten very difficult.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: So now I needed Anya Yi at that time, yeah.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: But then you know, God works in mysterious ways, exactly.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: So at that time, I needed a way to make money so that I can use it to fund my music.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and a friend of mine had told me that there's money on YouTube.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, he works at me promo, so he sees all the back end of all those artists, yeah.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: So he knows how much money is on YouTube.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: So he told me that find a way to you know get on YouTube, do something on YouTube, anything you want to do.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to hide your face, you can hide your face and stuff like that.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought of just putting music aside, taking a gap year.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: I've done music at that time.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: I had done music for like 10 years.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let me just put the music aside and then focus on something else for like one year and let me see how it will go.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I make the money, I'll put it back in the music.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: So that was what triggered me to take a break from music and focus all my energy on content creation.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so how did you come up with the headless YouTuber?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, yes, I get it that you were trying to hide your face, but where did that idea come from?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that idea was actually for a music video.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: I because I'm my own everything, my own creative director and everything, I was always thinking about concepts for my music videos and stuff.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: So this particular concept came that okay, what if I'm sit I'm standing on a podium or at a podium rapping, and then there are like six people standing behind me like bodyguards and they don't have head.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, but then they are wearing suits and glasses, but no head.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so when I got that concept, I was like, yo, it's going to be dope.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: How do we achieve this?
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: I started thinking of ways to achieve it so that in case I'm doing that video, I'll know what to tell the video director on how to achieve my dream.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: So once I figured out how to achieve it, then I was like, wait, I can actually use this to hide my identity on YouTube.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: So let me put this idea for the music video aside and use it for YouTube.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: That was when I started getting everything I needed.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: I started doing research, learning about YouTube, getting all the tools I needed to achieve what's like the headless figure.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: And once I got it, I tried it out.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Physically, it was not nice because you could see the shape of my head.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, nah, anybody who knows me will know that it's this is you.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to apply some other effects until it came black and white, okay, and there was no head.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh, nice, so I can use this.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: That time my channel was called Minister of Information.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, that was that was how I created the channel, Minister of Information.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: But then as soon as I got that figure, I was like, okay, the figure doesn't have head, so it's headless.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let me just change the name of the channel to headless YouTuber.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then that was when that brand was created.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah, so many questions on so how how were you doing it?
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: Do you put like green on your head and then remove it with chroma key?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there was a chroma key involved and uh a lot of sweating involved.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: So people want me to like I don't want to give out that particular you know trade how I did it, but then so but this means that you were your own videographer, yes, when I started editor a friend of mine, I was living with a friend of mine, Sly back then.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we we used to do it together, asin he used to check my camera for me and and everything, Charlie set the lights this way, do this this way, this way.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: So you're a Batman, he was robbing, yeah, something like that.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah, and he was um, but then it got to a time where he was he got busy, so I had to do my had to do everything on my own, and that was when I was my own cameraman and everything, my own editor and everything for for that period.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: Wasn't it scary jumping into something like unknown territory, you know, putting your music aside?
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know that you've been working on this, it's developing and it can succeed.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Then you just had to put it aside.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: Wasn't it scary?
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't it wasn't scary to me because I don't not not to sound cocky or anything, but I had something be that it will work.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I knew it would work because I knew what I had and the plans I had for the channel.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, the first um the first content I created was called Epic Replies, where I just pick funny uh replies on Twitter and just do videos about it.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and the first episode, I think I shared it on Twitter and John Dumelo um retweeted because it was about him and some replies he had given to some people.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew it would work in a way, so I wasn't too scared.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: So was that your very first video?
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: Epic replies.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, epic replies.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: That was the the very first.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: I did three episodes of Epic Replies after that.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: I did um a movie trailer breakdown for some Jason Statham movie B.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then there was this video of SHS students being punished.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: I did that one to so those were like the first five videos I did.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: I was still trying to find my feet, but then I knew I had to create content, and I knew I had the um the width, and uh yeah, I knew I I would I could make people laugh, I could entertain people.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: So for some reason I knew it would work.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't too scared.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: But how are you promoting it?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: Because you are supposed to be anonymous, you can't send to your friends, you can't busy, you can't post on your social media.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: That was that was the the most difficult part of everything.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: Weren't you tempted?
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: I was, and that temptation made me make a few mistakes, okay.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: But fortunately for me, those mistakes landed in trusted hands.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so they didn't expose it.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: I was tempted because it's very difficult starting from scratch.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we all know that even those who have thousand um followers on TikTok and Instagram and stuff, right?
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't even translate exactly, but I had to create a new Instagram account, start from scratch, start following certain people, and then sending them link to my video, and I made sure I didn't follow anybody I knew in real life or anybody who knew Kula.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I was just following some random accounts and stuff, but then one guy, one random guy, as soon as I followed him and I sent him the link and everything, he went to, I think he went to watch the video.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: He just came to comment in my DM.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know you, but I I want to encourage you to keep going.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: And you like that was very, very good.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Some guy with Kratos.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: I remember him very well.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: He's he Kratos like God of War.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's he gyms, so yeah.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: I understand.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: So he he gave me like some kind of Vim.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't share anywhere.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Twitter, I had to get an account.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: I bought an account from somebody, it had 3,000 followers.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: Charlie, you took out money and bought the account.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh it's not Twitter boys, they don't sell it that that much.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I bought that account.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: I used to say Twitter boys are cheap.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no, no.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: But then some people grow accounts and then they and they sell it, and then they sell it.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I I bought that account and then changed everything on that.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'm selling my account.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: If anybody gets um, look of you.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: So starting from scratch, no shares.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to learn how YouTube works.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and that was how I got to know how the the kind of things you need, like description, the importance of a description, yeah, um, hashtags, um, tags, and title, thumbnails, and all that.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: I had to learn that.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: So if I do a video, I make sure my description is like essay.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a newspaper article.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: I type everything in there, yeah, with keywords, so that when someone is looking for information and the person searches for those keywords, it brings them, it brings them to my my SEOs, yes.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, so I I had to do all that and gradually, gradually, it started growing.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I I I got people's attention because what I was doing was very unique, and the curiosity factor of you know every human being drew people to me.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: They wanted to find out who I was, and that kept growing the channel.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: So, what moment did you realize yes, this is it?
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think Magrahebrig is one of the biggest um YouTubers when it's when it comes to trending news and stuff.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Magraheb was talking about he was doing a breakdown for Black Sheriff's second sermon.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and he was talking about the guy who was holding the catlass, the two catlasses for Dogu.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: He was talking about him, and he was like, The guy is holding two catalysts.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: If it doesn't take time, and black sheriff does this, he'll cut Black Sheriff's head and he'll become headless, like the headless YouTuber.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't even know he knew me.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: So as soon as I saw that, I was like, hey, my grahe knows me.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's nice.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: And others started noticing me where the Maya was telling people about me and sending me videos of people's reactions, watching my videos and stuff.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: So that was when I knew something was yeah, it would be big.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: So, how how long?
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: How long?
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: Because you said you gave yourself one year.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, how long did it take before you realized that it's working?
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: I I started in March, okay, 19th March.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: I like how you know the date.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: I know the dates.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: I started in on 19th March and I got monetized in July.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it was what four months, four months, and within four months I had already been monetized, and it was picking like that.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, nice.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: So when when your first video started getting monetized first July, why didn't it come back in your mind that I started this journey to invest in music?
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: Why didn't you carry the money and go back?
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: The the first paycheck wasn't that much, so I had to continue music videos.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Nah, it wasn't enough to shoot music videos.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: I had to continue small and build it small.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, but then when I built it to a certain point, I realized it's easier being a content creator than an independent artist.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's not easy.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: I realized it's it's very easy to be a content creator, and um because I was just in my room, I wasn't going anywhere.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: I was creating videos, sometimes four videos a day, five videos a day.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm an introvert too, so uh it's good for me because I can be in my room and do my own thing and I'll be making money.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, meanwhile, on the other hand, as an independent artist, you go to the studio, you record the song, you pay the guy, you you contact graphic designer, you pay the person, you shoot a music video, you pay your costuming and everything.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, aside that you release the song, it's on radio, you are paying producer for interviews, you are paying DJs to play the songs, remember you and play the songs, you are paying TV TV for sights or taking bright TV, like a lot of TV stations YouTube too.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Then you have to come and advertise, and then YouTube is paying you and imagine, and you will not make any money from like how how many people would even call you for shoes?
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I weighed the two and I realized you know what I'm getting the kind of the same fulfillment anyway, because if I'm performing, I I'm happy people you know are responding to my lyrics and they are excited and all that.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: And on YouTube too, I'm entertaining people, I can see their laughing emojis in the comment section.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's the same kind of feeling for me, but then this one pays more than this, so why not just dog this and stick with this?
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: My friend, my friend was always telling Charlie, you know, we'll do the music again.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, Charlie, why so the plan B now became plan A?
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, plan B became plan A.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if um if it's working for you, I did music 10 years, I know what I Got from music.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: I did content creation like let's say one year.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: I know what I got from content creation within that one year.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I decided to stick with content creation.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: What kind of habits and like daily routines were you able to put in place to have the consistency that you had?
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_03: If I don't eat by I think 7:30 or 8 a.m.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: If I don't eat before something starts trending, I'm not eating for the rest of the day with that unless like 7 p.m.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that was how intensive it was for me.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: I was so bent on doing it like consistently, and I had set a goal to create 100 videos before I even think about monetization or anything.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just indoors creating content.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: This is trending.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: What about it?
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: And because I was alone, if the thing is trending and you you know what it's about, you shoot while you're shooting, something else is happening.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you need like one hour or two hours to edit.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: While you are editing, something else is happening.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: You you don't have anyone to be checking those things for you.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I I was working like a robot.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: So after shooting this content, put it out, go back online, see what's trending.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, this one's trending, okay.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: You put it out.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, this one has released a song.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, put it out.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: So it was just back and forth.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes I forget to eat.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there are days that I forget to eat, and there are days that I eat like at night.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was it was very difficult uh at the beginning.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: You set a goal for 100 videos.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: So how many before you started to make it?
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like 40 something.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to 40 something.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you set the goal high, if you set your your own bar highlight and you achieve it within that, you're happy.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: My my marketing lecture will say if um performance, if if expectation exceeds performance, that's when you're performance.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: If expectation is high and then performance is low, you you you'll be disappointed.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: But then if performance exceeds expectation, yeah, then you'll be satisfied, or the customer will be satisfied.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so yeah, my expectations were very high.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: I set a I want to I'm I'm targeting 100, and then by 40, I've achieved what I want to achieve.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm very happy.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: So that was one of the things that kept me focused on on my journey.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: So as you were doing all this, I mean, one thing I can say from hearing your story is you mentioned that content creation is easy.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah but I think content creation was easy for you because of your hustle in music.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Probably.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, most people don't know what it takes to actually be a musician.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, they only see the final product, so it looks like, oh, I got a song, I recorded it and it came out.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: So were there points in time where you felt it was too difficult to be a content creator or the the shaping that the music industry had shaped you, was it strong enough to keep you going no matter what?
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the the music, the music hustle was harder than the content creation hustle, and that's why I saw the content creation hustle as very easy.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: And everything I I went through as a musician, I don't know, it's it's like it was just shaping me up to be a content creator.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because I used to design my own artwork for my my songs, I used to shoot um freestyle videos and edit it with my phone.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: I used to do all those things.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: I used to promote myself online, so I knew social media inside.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: So all these things were were things that shaped me.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: So it was like hard training, easy battle.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: So when I got to the content creation space, it was just easy for me.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: So now looking back, do you feel in on hindsight that the music journey was preparing you just to be headless YouTuber?
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's how I see it.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's how I see it.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's how I see it.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like I went through music to get to my destination or like to get to another point, which is the content creation.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know my destination yet, but then this is like the next level from music.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: So then what's your thoughts on reinvention as a concept?
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone needs to take a bold step at some point.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you're doing the same thing over and over again, yeah, and you're achieving the same results, and you keep doing the same thing, hoping for a different result, you are you are crazy.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: Only an insane person does the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I knew my kind of contacts I had in music, I knew the DJs whose name who I had their contacts that when I send the songs they play.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I knew how much I could raise financially to promote my songs, and and so if I drop a song, I know where it will reach.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: I did it and did it and did it.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the last one I dropped, which is the Mayor Year Featuring Medical, yeah, I actually overdid.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: I went to Kumase for like a seven seven radio tour and stuff.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I took a publicist along, I did, I did a whole lot.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I did like 42 versions of the same song for DJs, like with DJs, DJs, their names, like you've done everything in the in the text everything, yeah, everything an artist is supposed to do to blow.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: I've done it, but then I wasn't blowing, so I knew where it will get to.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: Before I switched to content creation, I had an EP ready with Mr.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: Drew, um, Fameye, if yeah on it.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I was like, I know where it will get to, and I don't want to, I don't want it to get to that point.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: So let me just just put it aside and then do the content creation.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: You need to be um true to yourself and real with yourself to know whether what you're doing is is good for you or not good for you.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, whether you've gotten to that point where you need to change strategy or try something else.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people sometimes are in situations, let's say they are they're working somewhere, their income they are getting, they know how much they are getting, they know it's not enough for them, but they are too scared to move out or to leave or to look for options.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people you need to be real with yourself and face that fear of the unknown.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Jump into it, but make sure you have a plan.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Once you have a correct plan on what to do on that side, do your research on how things work on that side.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just jump into it.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: Don't procrastinate.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, uh, today is uh let's say today is something something July.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let me wait till uh 1st January 2026, then I'll start.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Nah, it won't work like that.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: Just just go.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: 19th March.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very irregular day to start.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, but I started anyway.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: So your story proves that rejection is redirection.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know, one thing I always say is anytime I do something, I give it my all.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: I will do my best possible, right?
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: So that if it doesn't work, it tells me that this is not meant for me.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's not that I didn't try hard enough, yeah, it's that this isn't meant for me.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: So, like as you're telling me your music journey, as a label head, I can tell you, yes, you did everything right.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: You had the music, you had the looks, you had the artist feature, you had the promotion, right?
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: You did everything, but it didn't work.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes that's rejection is just because your path was to become a headless YouTuber, right?
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: So you may be going very far and very fast in the wrong direction.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it takes something to just turn you around and say, hey, look here.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is where the goal is.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: You are going towards the papers and then so how about those who doubted you because definitely when you were pivoted, those who doubted me in music or in content creation, in content creation, right?
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: Because, or let's say those who didn't even know you were doing content creation and thought you had just fallen off because your music was good, yeah.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of people say, Oh, yo, Charlekula, what's up?
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, go drop some music.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: I I know you know what the fans are like.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: So, how did you handle that criticism?
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I was I was using my my job on radio as kind of like a shield.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I was there one time, I saw this blogger Kumikasa on on Facebook.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: Those those things that they do, they'll just post your picture.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: So, where is Kula after winning on sang?
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: He disappeared, something like that.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there were the times.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: This guy they've done something to me, yeah, yeah.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody, some someone on radio, Sergio Manucho on radio, Kula won on sang, and he has gone to sleep.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: You should come and give us back our award.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: Let's give it to somebody who a like that there were people like that, yeah.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: It happens, but then I was too focused on the content that I wasn't really bothered on that side, okay.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I was using my job as a radio presenter to shield, oh, what's he doing right now?
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because okay, oh, he's not doing music, okay.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: He's a radio broadcaster, maybe that's what he wants to do.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm good.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really focus on the the negatives, and then in content creation, when I started, there were people who were telling me, Enfa, it won't work.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this one, oh, your voice is irritating.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: They don't know that I'm just hiding my identity.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, your voice is irritating.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: Why are you hiding your face?
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: Are you insecure?
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: We can't subscribe to somebody that we can't see your face, all those comments.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: But I knew who I was targeting, yeah.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: And no matter what you decide to do, you will get fans.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: Even the people who are insulting people online today, they have to get their fans.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: So if I'm doing something good and entertaining, what makes you think I will not get fans?
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't like my content, it means it's not for you.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: So if I see people saying I don't like your content, I'm going to unsubscribe.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: Go, go.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: You are not the one for me.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: Mr.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: Beast has so many 400 million subscribers.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that one crap, not everyone has subscribed to his channel, and he's still making it.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's the that's the beauty that people fail to understand.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think a lot of people are entitled to think that if they don't patronize what you are doing, you will fail.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: But the world doesn't work like that.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone has their community, you know.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: And one thing I say is let's say I think the last time I checked, there were about 8 million Ghanaians online.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: So if you are able to get even a million Ghanaians to like what you are doing, and you get a million subscribers, that's amazing.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's crazy.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: So it doesn't really matter that this person doesn't vibe with me, this person doesn't understand what I'm doing.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: I think people try to be generalists too much instead of being specialists and choosing those who connect with them.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_01: One man said something that was so profound.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: He said, You are not creating if everyone likes what you do.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: Because true creation must be loved by some and hated by others.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: Very true.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: Because me, I'm always waiting for ohja, ohja, ohja, ohjah.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: There are people whose children watch my videos and they are just waiting for a la tiare.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's all they're waiting for.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't wait for ohja ohja.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: Idea waiting for your heading.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yap.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_01: Look, let me tell you a secret.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_01: See, for a long time, I didn't know how to reach out to you because you don't exist.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: You're a headless YouTuber.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how to find you or anything.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_01: So when my artist released the video, I'm waiting.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: Without whether you talk, it was like a test.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: It was like a test for me to see if oh, it means the song is getting tracted.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_01: So the people I know will be doing reviews and stuff, but then I'm still waiting to see.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: You see, so if if people are saying, oh, I don't like, don't like I'm entertaining other people's even children.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not, I don't even create content for children, but because of their voice and the children watch it and they are shouting, yeah, uncle, grown-ups are shouting, yeah, uncle, and stuff.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't I'm a fan of sitcoms okay and comedy.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: What's your favorite sitcom?
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, between how how I met your mother and correct guy, correct guy, yeah.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I even put laughing tracks in my content because I'm a fan of sitcoms.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, when I was a child, if people if if I'm watching sitcoms and they are laughing, I laugh.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: And my parents, my parents will be like, Why are you laughing?
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: I laugh, and I've created something like that because I'm a fan of sitcoms.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: There are people who are not fan uh fans of sitcoms, yeah, they see it as toys or something, and it's also fine.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: How I met your mother is a a big um a big show, yeah.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: At the same time, suits, which is serious, serious, it's a big show.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody has their own.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody has their own.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: So if you don't like how I met your mother, it won't make that show drop.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: You get it?
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: So just move on, do what you want, cater to your audience, and make sure you're doing the right thing.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: Those who love your content or those who would find your content and it will attract them, it will attract them.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the rest, forget them.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody, no, it's not everybody who likes Jolof, no matter how sweet Joloff is.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: But now and if you don't like Jolov, it's you have a problem.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: But it's true, you know, just today I read a comment on under um my podcast and I laughed.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: So the comment somebody said that Richie, when you're interviewing people, keep quiet so that they can talk.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I laughed.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason I laughed is that I watch different podcasts, right?
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and for me, my favorite podcast are the ones that the host also has something to say.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, because I may have watched Kula on five different places.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_01: I've heard Kula's story.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so when I'm coming to watch Kula again, I don't just want to hear Kula's story, I also want to hear what the host has to say about it.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's the banter, the back and forth that I enjoy.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so then when I saw that, I just realized, okay, this person is not my type of person, it's not my type of person, and that's cool.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: There's a type of interview like podcast where the interviewer will just sit there, keep quiet.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's QA.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: So when where did you go to school?
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so what did you do?
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then there are people who have conversations.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody and their own, everybody and their own.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: So no grief to the person, no grief to me.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_01: Those are the mistakes that I think a lot of content creators and even entrepreneurs make.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so maybe like as I saw that comment, I think, eh, then it's true.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_01: Then next time I'm doing an interview, ask, so cooler, where'd you go to school then?
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_01: Then now the person who actually enjoys my commentary will now leave and think, oh, these days Rich is gotten boring.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's how it is.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: And when when those days, if something about, let's say something about Shattawali is happening and it's um, let's say a negative news about Shattawali, and I do the story, then you have the Shatter fans telling me, You are biased, I'm unsubscribing to your channel, I will not come here again and will insult you and go.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: I just tell them, Go, you will be back.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because I know Shattawali will do something good, and then you will talk about it.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll talk about it.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you will come and watch.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: You get so those kind of comments don't really bother me.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because I know that if if you unsubscribe to somebody's channel out of emotion, you will come back.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: You'll subscribe again out of emotion, out of emotion, because emotions are temporary, it comes and goes, yeah.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: So just I don't I don't I don't focus on them.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: Nice one.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_01: I like how you know it's like Steve Jobs keeps saying that, I mean, sorry, kept saying that drown out the noise.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: You seem to be somebody who like just drowns out the noise and focuses on.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm a tunnel vision kind of person, yeah.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: But aren't there like massive lows?
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_01: Don't you feel like you've had to sacrifice a lot to build this brand?
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I sacrificed a lot, but the incentives and also, yeah, it's it's way more.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm getting not even the financial incentive alone.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, some people may argue that headless youtuber is actually bigger than cooler.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: Let me know in the comment section if you think so.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: But then I built a brand with cooler.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: Kula had a lot of connections, had a lot of respect from you know, industry players and stuff.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then I built headless YouTuber anonymously.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: And right now that I have revealed my identity, a lot of people who love cooler and respect cooler and had links with cooler and everything, they are now they've now moved to headless youtuber.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I've not really sacrificed anything because I'm the same person, and now I'm I'm getting I'm getting it from both sides.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: Even though I'm not doing music, I'm still in the entertainment industry, I'm still interviewing uh musicians, yeah, I'm still uh um giving out news and stuff, it's still entertainment, so I have not sacrificed anything, but wasn't it a risk?
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know, first of all, it was risky to become an anonymous, you know, um influencer, let me say, and then you decided to reveal yourself, weren't you scared?
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_01: Because I know most people will feel once we know who it is, it's going to lose all the fire, pun intended.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: Some people thought that.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: But at a point I felt like that, yeah, but I didn't let it get to get to me because once again I'm a tunnel vision kind of person, and if I decide to do something that I believe is good, I'll go for it.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: Before I revealed my identity, things were not going as they should on the channel.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I felt like I had reached a limit where I've achieved everything I can achieve anonymously.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now I needed to expand.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't expand and um do interviews.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can't do interviews, I can't even employ people without risking my identity being revealed.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can try.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: There are people who are anonymous, and some people know them, but I don't want to risk it.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: I would rather reveal my identity myself so that I can shape how it will be than for somebody who knows me to go and do pillow talk with their girlfriend and oh, you know, headless YouTube, I work with him.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: Let's YouTube go and talk in the salon, and then before you know it, it's it's an open secret.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows who you are.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then one coconut person, it will get to the person, and the person will just boom.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and the way my brand was, as in the headless, the anonymous brand, the way it was, if someone draws your attention to it, that's I think it's cooler.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you will start hearing everything like, Oh, yeah, it'd be cooler, it'd be cooler, it'd be cooler.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't want anybody to cast it for me.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's how come when it got to the point where I felt like I needed to expand.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Let me shape my own narrative.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I started creating content around reveal on my own.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: I started involving all these comedians and people that others suspected to be headless YouTuber.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: The whole rollout for the reveal was just perfect.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how did you come up with that rollout?
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because it was it was amazing.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we're all sitting down just waiting to see.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_01: Mika, I thought it was loyalty at a point.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: Loyalty, you know, throughout the the years of anonymity, if if if someone comments something, I I check.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: Someone will come and say, Oh, there's the way the person said a the person said uh all this, it's loyalty, then I just mark it down.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, they think it's loyalty, and also probably because of how funny I am, they think okay, it's loyalty.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: At some point, they thought it was Clemento Suarez.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: At some point, so I kept like trying to bait them.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: It got to a point where Loyante was celebrating his birthday.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: I went on Twitter, I saw that he had posted his picture with um a message on there.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thankful for my birthday, blah, blah, blah all those things.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: I copied his message, copied his picture, and tweeted it to as headless YouTuber.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: I tweeted it.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: So now people were like, Loyanti, he has mistakenly used his headless YouTuber account to then I deleted it after one hour.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_01: Ah, nice one.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, so now everybody was kind of convinced it's him.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: So there were people that others suspected.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: I I set up Kalijay at some point for people to think it's him.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: He went to Odemaya's house and took a picture with Wodemayer's one million plaque.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: I took the picture, edited it, and made it headless.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: But then I left his hand and his wristwatch.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it's mad and I posted it.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_00: So people were like, oh, it's Kali J, it's Kali Jali J.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_00: So when it got to the rollout of the reveal, I contacted all these people that I'm about to reveal my identity.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is the concept.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to do like a mark shot kind of content where they'll ask you questions and stuff.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then, and even throughout the shooting of that content, they didn't know who I was.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: They never met me.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: I had to send people to go there and shoot.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: And they shot, edited, and everything.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then when we were just doing the rollouts, small, small, small, until the main day that we dropped this thing, which was 25th January.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_01: Your dates are in your mind.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_01: That was 25th January this year.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 2025.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I had I had planned it.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very creative.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_00: And whenever I'm like whenever I'm alone, I think about a lot of things.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: So when I wanted to reveal, I knew the concept I wanted to go with.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew how I wanted it to go.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_00: I contacted Oseekwami to do um voiceover for me for four years, the headless YouTuber.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: Did it some cinematics and I edited, put all the clips of anybody on the internet who has ever said anything about me.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: I put it in there, like it was perfect.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_00: So the rollout was perfect.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_02: Oh ja, oh ja, oh ja, oh ja, oh ja, oh ja.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it took everybody's mind away from Kula.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: So as soon as I revealed and they saw Kula, I went see phone calls.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, you trick us.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think the good part is because we knew you as a musician, yeah, we didn't know you were this funny.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_01: So when you are thinking of the people, Kula is not a name that would jump in your mind.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_01: Do you get me?
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_01: So it was completely off.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_01: But then as soon as it was announced, I was like, Yeah, it makes sense.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: Why did they do the breakdown like that?
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and some people even went to listen to my old songs, and that's when they clogged that.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: Even though I don't like they don't know this funny side of me, which is it was only my very close friends who knew.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, in my in my music, if you listen to Musical High School, the concept of how musicians are there's like you see that there's that kind of wet elements of humor in in my songs, so they they just clock the da okay, okay.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_01: Let me let me ask for a creator who wants to start out there right now, is it is it rewarding, especially financially?
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: YouTube, yeah, very, very interesting.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's actually the most rewarding platform, okay, currently.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's the most rewarding for content creators.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_00: TikTok doesn't pay as much, Facebook people are complaining, but then YouTube is very rewarding.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_01: So let's say what's the highest amount you've made in a year from YouTube?
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: In a year, or in a month, in a month, it's it's high, it's it's okay.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's high, I say.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's okay.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like you don't like it can pay the bills.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_01: You don't want GR to come after you, yeah.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_00: But it's I mean, it's it's enough to to take care of the home, the family, and also take care of the studio and everything.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, pay like four employees, pay for internet, pay for things.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's good.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_01: So that kid out there who wants to start content.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_01: What advice do you have for them?
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: Do what you are interested in, okay.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, make sure it's something that others will be interested in, because you're not creating content for yourself, even though you are the one creating content, it's others who will watch it.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: So you need to make sure you cater to their interests because if people are interested in your content, that's when they will come and watch.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so don't just say because you like this, you are coming to do this.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that one day you will watch your own thing, but create content that people want.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: Look for something that people are interested in and create content around it.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: Also, learn the rules of whatever you are going to do, learn about it and always keep learning because there are new things all the time.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, YouTube has brought new updates, yeah.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: Every single day, something there are new things all the time.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: So keep learning and keep improving on yourself.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you do something in one video and you realize people like it, double down, keep doing it so that more people would start coming.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: The first day I said oja, oja in my in my video, I didn't even know it would be this big.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, but then I saw that people started commenting, Oja, Oja.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, people like it.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_01: They like it.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_00: I said Alatiare, Yemko, and I realized someone came to my DM and told me, I like the way you said Alatiare Yemko, but put some kind of excitement in it.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_00: Someone DM'd me to tell me, okay, I like it, but put some kind of excitement.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds like it's not exciting.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_00: Then I say, Okay, so and now it's it's some people's favorite parts of the content always improve.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_00: I started doing ad ads in my videos.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_00: I realized anytime I do ad, people skip.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_00: So if I check my analytics, there's always some kind of dip because people skip that part.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I started doing some kind of put inserting it in the conversation.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_00: Talking about something, then I just chip it in because he wanted money.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_00: He called his brother who is here to use this to send money to him.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_00: I've done adverts.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_00: Product placements.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_01: This one is audio product placement.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_00: We'll do it for you to now.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_00: People are saying, Charlie, right now we can't even skip your ads anymore.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: You'll be there.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: Nah, I do enter the thing.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how keep improving yourself.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's difficult to the way it's rewarding, that's how difficult it's very difficult being doing YouTube.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_00: So if you don't give up and you keep improving yourself, it will work for you eventually.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_01: So then what's next for you?
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because right now you've revealed yourself, you've done it successfully for a long time.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_01: Or let's not say a long time, but a number of months.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_01: So, what is next for headless YouTuber SlasCula?
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, I keep bringing up new things.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, when I revealed my identity, it was the same old um trending news and then music breakdown.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but now there's a new channel for interviews, which is Talk to Cooler.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's also another when are you talking to me?
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wait.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we've done that already.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: Go and watch it.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_00: Talk to Kula.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_00: He he he spawned there on that particular he told us a lot of things.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_00: So there's Talk to Kula channel, there's a nameless pod, okay, which is my podcast channel.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, there's only one episode on there, but will be coming very soon.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's now a new show on my channel, Crime de la Crime.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_01: Where we what is crime de la crime?
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we talk about um it's a true crime podcast, okay, where I co-host with um Taylor Marik.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's very interested in these kind of cold cases and cases in courts and stuff.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_00: He actually gets up and goes to court to go and sit down and listen to cases that he's interested in.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we discuss all these things.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm still expanding, and this is just like what nine months of me revealing my identity.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and there's a whole lot of things.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, like there are more things to come.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_00: We just started.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we just started.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_01: I like that.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_01: So let's say right now you had the chance to go back and talk to young Kula, yeah, who maybe is now starting out with music and everything.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think he would have to say to you?
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_03: I think he would be uh very happy with me.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I think he would say, Give me tips so that I can do it earlier.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell him no.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm very sure if I had this idea earlier, maybe I would have made mistakes that would have made people catch me.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_00: If I if I had the financial resource I have now, if I had it earlier, it could have distorted my character, could have gotten in my head.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I couldn't have managed it well or something like that.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll he'll be happy for me and very proud of me.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd also make sure that he goes through the same process still.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_00: So that's it's it's character development.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's what I went through.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_00: Pain is part of the process.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's it's what I went through that has shaped me into the person I am now.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_00: So just go through it.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_00: And when it's 2021, you will create the channel and then you transition.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_02: Oh ja, oh ja, oh ja, oh ja, oh ja.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so there's something I always like to do, right?
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_01: The goal of this entire podcast is to help people's minds to grow and become the mastermind.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I always want my guests to imagine they could stretch their hand through the camera and drop one mindset into the mind of the watcher that would transform their life.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_03: What would that be for you?
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_03: One mindset.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_03: Alright.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_03: I would say like 10 out of 10.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_00: I won't I want the best one that I think.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_03: Alright.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_03: No matter what you're going through right now, learn from it.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't learn from your mistakes, or you don't learn from your experiences, or even learn from the things you're doing right, if you go for it, you will crash.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever you're going through, even if it's broken heart, you've gone to stake bet and you've lost money, whatever it is, learn from it.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_00: If you stick bet with somebody's money and they catch you and put you in prison, learn from it.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_00: Next time, don't do it.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_00: You get it.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_00: You're going through hard times.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_00: Learn from it.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_00: And uh once you learn and apply and change something in your life, your life will also change.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't change something in your life, nothing will change.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_00: You can't keep eating indomit at 8 p.m.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_00: And expect and expect six packs.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_00: You have to change something in your life.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you have to start going to gym, change.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if you change that thing, you'll start seeing change in your life.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_01: I like that.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_01: You're a very wise man.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_01: But a man with no head, you have a lot of brains.
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_02: Oh ja, oh, yeah, yeah, come on.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right now, you tell me it's headless YouTube.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_00: I like I like it.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_00: I like it when I meet people and they I rub off on them, like I realize how much there are some people that I meet that are very cool.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_00: Once I'm I'm around them, then they would just that I realize that okay, my brand is is good, it's a happy brand.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're impactful, yeah.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_01: And it's very good to be have a positive impact on the entire world, you know.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_01: This means there are lots of people out there who are indirectly praying for you for the smiles that you've given them.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, thank you too, and thank you so much for watching.
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I hope that this episode has brought you one step closer to becoming the mastermind that you are meant to be.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yup.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yap.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for watching this episode.
• 56:05
  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.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_01: Now, let's build a community of thinkers who are ready to become the best version of themselves.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, subscribe to the channel and the mindset that you will develop and grow every day to become a true mastermind.