Konnected Minds Podcast

From teaching English in Vietnam to importing rice worth over a million dollars in Ghana, and why the brutal truth about building trust is that you need to be brought up right where your yes is your yes and your no is your no but you also need to remember that your surroundings matter because you need to surround yourself with winners and listen to their problems and provide solutions to their problems so you can gain their trust, the young man who learned from his own personal experiences that every time you meet a new person you try to find their problem and figure out who they are so you can utilize the resources they have the right way making them happy while you gain more than them, the English teacher who moved from the Philippines to Vietnam in 2019 and met new people and made friends with a very big man in the country who introduced him to his father, a 65 year old General Director of Vietnamese government companies that had never employed any foreigner since its beginning and had never explored outside their territories, the confident young man who was asked what can you do and said I can take your company across Vietnam even though he didn't even know what he was talking about but had that confidence which led to the creation of an international commercial department where he was made the lead, the department head who started searching for whatever he could do for that company making deals and transacting internationally with South Korea and Japan bringing in multiple international deals and getting commission from the company every time, the 24 or 25 year old who made his first million dollars in his personal account proving that when people say they made their first million it is real because he lived it and saw the money with his own eyes, the entrepreneur who came back home thinking he could start something like Grab the Southeast Asian motorbike Uber service and registered a company called Ryder Group with a Y and built the app before realizing it's illegal to use motorcycles for commercial purposes in Ghana only for delivery of packages, the businessman who spent a lot of money from other people on the failed motorbike venture but his own money was still there so he reached back to those people and said we will not be allowed to operate because of this and they didn't pull back because of the trust they had, the employee who came across a document of a shipment of rice from Vietnam to Ghana that he was never supposed to see but took a peak and saw a whole vessel of rice shipment and studied the numbers and something just hit him that this could be it, the young man looking for a legacy that would send his name and make his family proud and help his community even though he had the option to relocate to Switzerland and give his money to a Swiss bank and stay and enjoy the dividends every quarter like his two friends who are currently there doing exactly that, the son who chose not to be selfish and go to Switzerland and forget about everything because he knew what he was coming from and knew the home he came from and knew he had a responsibility to his family and his neighbor and his community and his country, the importer who returned with his money and turned the company and updated the activities from the original plan to importation of general goods and sought the right paperwork to import stuff and did a market research before bringing in a heavy shipment over a million US dollars as the first shipment going all in.

Host: Derrick Abaitey

From making hair oil for free on YouTube to building a thriving business with a standard black card and private banking, and why the brutal truth about self confidence is that loving yourself and believing in yourself makes people take certain risks that everybody selling includes you and includes people buying from you, the young woman who went through content creation stopping for six months when she wasn't getting gigs before coming back and continuing proving that giving up is not something you should consider easy because somebody is watching and somebody can relate with your content, the business owner who has never hired an influencer before because people come and post their own videos and reviews without being asked making her feel important when customers say oh my edges can come back again my hair can come back giving her something solid behind the content creator title, the entrepreneur who can now go into rooms and say I'm a content creator but I can handle business I've been doing this for five years and when business goes left right the foundation still stands, the first in person sale in March where people came to buy products and she made sales and people came to see her creating conversations that she's happy to show in rooms saying look at this picture this is all me and I did it in two weeks, the sense of belonging that comes from having a thriving business where you put this and this and this together and you're able to make something that gives you respect especially when it's a thriving business because when you have the influence people say oh she can influence and she has a business too, the standard black card holder with private banking who can now buy the basics she needs even though the luxury items require more thought proving that financial freedom comes in stages, the wisdom that if you feel like starting something grab that feeling and try because if you fail at least you know you tried and sometimes when you get that feeling grab it don't dismiss it try again and see because content creation for her went down she came back and tried again after six months of not getting gigs and she continued, the honest reflection that she's given up on certain things she wishes she had stayed consistent with so giving up is not something you should consider easy, the goal to give five or ten women 20,000 cedis each to start their business this year because she won 5,000 cedis from Sunlight when she was starting and got the opportunity to reach this point so now she wants to create opportunities for others, the young girls who can learn from her and the plan to help them pick themselves up because there's a real struggle and if 10 people every year set up businesses simply by listening to conversations like this in the next 50 years the country will be better because the government can't do all the job and individual people need to build businesses and employ people, the products that make people give reviews without being asked creating hope that edges can come back and hair can grow back making the business owner feel like her work matters beyond just making money.

Guest: Princess Ama Burland

Host: Derrick Abaitey

From knowing she would be rich without knowing how to becoming one of Ghana's most recognized influencers who treats life like a movie where she's the main character, and why the brutal truth about growing up with a Muslim mother who let you walk around without covering your head and never forced you to become a lawyer is that when you come from a home where conversations are balanced and there's no shame in saying I don't want rice today or I don't think this way, you grow up so confident in yourself that even when brands are bullying you online about your body and the comments are tearing you apart, the head of a major company sees that same post and thinks you're perfect to represent them because empathy works in mysterious ways and sometimes your lowest moment becomes the exact reason someone decides to give you a life changing opportunity, the young girl who lived a simple life where nothing really appealed to her and being a lawyer didn't make sense and being a doctor never crossed her mind because she's a soft girl and the only career she ever considered was being an air hostess because it looked nice and you get to travel, the daughter who could have any conversation in this world with her mother and there's no topic too crazy or too wild because her mom listens and takes time to understand why you think the way you think which is why they'll make food for everybody in the house but won't cook rice for her because it's not by force that she has to eat rice, the confident woman who thinks the way she thinks and if you don't agree that's fine because somebody will say something different and that's just how life works when you grow up in a home where your thoughts are valued and you're not being told don't do this it's like this without room for discussion, the sister from her mother's side who along with all her siblings are very open minded and very able to communicate because that's just how they were raised and it shows in how her auntie and her children also have that same great bond where conversations flow freely, the student who was forced to go to school one day even though she said she didn't want to go and a car knocked her down and the next week her leg was swollen and this whole place melted and her mother was so sad saying oh my God I shouldn't have forced her to go to school which is part of the reason but not the whole reason why her mom became even more understanding, the young woman who always knew she would be rich but just didn't know how because she has this feeling that life is a movie and she's part of the main character so things will always go well for her even if she's going through the worst things, the positive mindset that even when people were bullying her online because she said she brought a package and the comments were just people putting her in, she went for a life changing meeting and one of the heads said I know you I saw when they brought you the package and the comments were tearing you apart and he still found her fit to represent them, the philosophy that even if there's something bad it's building up to something good because the bullying she has gone through has made it easier for her to gain opportunities from people who feel empathy for what she's experienced, the realization that if you keep hitting her like in boarding school where you hit hit hit hit at first it hurts but then it starts feeling numb and you don't feel it again because that's how life works when people keep saying you are this you are this you are this you are this and she realizes it's not really affecting her life in a negative way, the wisdom that the only thing that can affect her life in a negative way is if she actually does something wrong because as long as she has not done anything wrong you can't hold anything against her it's just your feelings about her but not the feeling about what she's supposed to achieve.

Host: Derrick Abaitey

From stumbling into influencing in 2019 without even knowing what content creation was to building two businesses on the back of social media attention, and why the brutal truth about being an influencer is that you can't be popular forever because your time will pass and younger people will be more vibrant and more in tune with the culture than you are which is why you have to find something that works for you when you're sleeping and when people don't see your face, the young woman who got paid 800 cedis in 2019 to post bags for a brand thinking it was the biggest deal of her life before realizing people actually get paid serious money for this and she could step up her pricing and start talking to brands properly, the reality that influencing can be very dicey and you can lose it at any moment which is why she doesn't even know how she's been relevant from 2019 till now because usually some people are just there for some months and then they are gone, the wisdom that the moment you get that people are looking at you, you have to find something and put the influence inside otherwise you can't be an influencer forever because it's not possible to have that hold on people forever, the honest truth that just like footballers can't play for the rest of their lives and will retire, influencers also have to retire because you can't be popular for the rest of your life, the blessing of being lucky enough to be an influencer for 10 years which is a long time for people's attention to be on you and within that 10 years you should be able to build something so when you're telling your children that you were popping you can also tell them what you did within that 10 years, the biggest challenge being that she's an on the spot thinker who never asks what questions will be asked in interviews and can't write scripts because she works better in the moment looking at products and deciding what will work better but sometimes that doesn't work with some brands who want you to script it or have their own storyline which becomes difficult because it's not just bad for the brand it's bad for her brand as well when a post gets 50,000 views instead of her usual 500,000 views, the mixed reality that not every brand takes influencing seriously but some brands do and right now they are starting to take influencers seriously because it's better now than when they started in 2019 as brands are starting to understand the power that social media has as compared to traditional media, the fight that one influencer has to say this one I'm taking 10,000 so the next person doesn't settle for 5,000 which reminds her of the type of work Shatta Wale had to do fighting for musicians in the country to get what they deserve, the lack of unity in the influencing business because nobody wants to start that conversation after she went to an interview three years ago and mentioned she was paid 5,000 cedis for a brand to help other people coming up know what to expect and everybody said she was lying so now who wants to have the conversation when somebody tried and people put them down, the reality that people are afraid of sellouts because if they all agree to something somebody will go for less like it has happened to her before, the country where people don't like to talk about finances or give figures but she feels like it's a realistic conversation to know what to expect in the real world like if you have 500,000 followers how much is a good amount or a range so people know what to expect, the disagreement that influencing is oversaturated because anybody can be an influencer just like the number of lawyers that are competing or doctors so why is influencing oversaturated when brands just need to know who they want to pick.

From getting slapped by a teacher in class one and walking home alone because the school bus left to becoming one of Ghana's most recognized influencers building two businesses on the internet, and why the brutal truth about growing up protected is that when your sister is ready to slap someone for letting a child walk home alone after being punished for not having a book and your mother gives birth to you at 37 making you the patient baby with siblings in their 40s who became like three mothers watching over you, that protection keeps you from going out and socializing but it also fills your childhood with so much love that you grow up naturally being a people person even when you don't make actual friends until senior high school, the young girl who went to about 10 junior high schools before completing at Maranatha International School because when a teacher lashed her and made her stay to sweep the compound in class one she had to walk the distance from American House to Ars Road alone proving that moving schools wasn't just about her sister's protection it was about finding safety, the only child between her Ghanaian mother and Scottish father who discovered she had step siblings when she overheard a conversation in GHS one but calls them siblings not step siblings because the bond is that close even though she grew up with her mother's children and her father's children have their own mother and most of them are not in Ghana, the daughter whose father left for the UK when she was very young and didn't come back until she was already in her teens which means the relationship she has with him is based on respect and looking just like him in pictures but it's not the same as the jokes and freedom she feels around her mother who she lived with her whole life, the student who was always first to fifth position growing up and never took exams seriously because good grades came naturally until she went to St. Joseph senior high school in Legon and got 10th position for the first time which shocked her into stepping up and picking back up her performance, the psychology and information studies graduate who studied at Legon but doesn't really use her degree for anything even though people talk to her a lot and call her a lot making her think maybe she should tap into that psychology training because clearly people see something in her, the girl who didn't know what she wanted to become growing up and only thought about being an air hostess when she got to senior high school before changing her mind again proving she never had a fixed vision of the future, the naturally friendly person who could vibe with everybody in school but that doesn't mean you're my friend because being loved by everyone doesn't mean you let everyone in, the protected child who wasn't allowed to go out and socialize which she appreciates now even though she didn't see why back then because that same protection kept her safe and loved and surrounded by family who made sure she never felt alone, the last born whose big sister is 41 or 42 right now and another sister in her 40s creating this situation where she had like two mothers or three mothers all making sure she was protected and loved and never lacked anything, the young woman who made amazing friends at the end of senior high school like Frida and Pre Lakani and others she's still friends with today even though in the beginning she was just there not really making friends just existing in the space, the influencer who people keep saying the industry is over saturated but she doesn't think so because the problem with Ghanaians is everybody wants to be a food content creator everybody wants to do lifestyle when there are so many other content ideas like being unemployed that can also be content, the entrepreneur with two businesses who uses content to push all of them because she knows her brand can influence people to buy her products but also understands you can't be an influencer for the rest of your life because your time will pass, the young girl whose childhood was just love and protection and getting lashed in school and being taken out of schools because her family wouldn't tolerate disrespect, the woman who is here to inspire people with her story especially the young girls and boys who look up to her showing them that you can actually build business on the internet while creating content that you love.

Guest: Princess Ama Burland

Host: Derrick Abaitey