She Didn't Wait For Permission || Masterminds Special EP60

Society tells women to wait their turn. The most powerful women never did.

In this Masterminds Special, Richie Mensah curates the most powerful insights from six unforgettable conversations with African women who built authority, ownership, and influence in rooms that were never designed for them. Featuring Theresa Ayoade, Peace Hyde, Afeafa Nfojoh, Aina Aidoo, Mary Anane Awuku, and Nana Aba Anamoah, this episode strips away the noise around "female empowerment" and reveals what it actually takes to claim your power, hold your ground, and build something that outlasts you.

This is not a conversation about equality as an idea. It's a conversation about leadership as a practice — across media, entrepreneurship, production, and global storytelling. If you've ever shrunk yourself to fit a room, waited too long to be chosen, or been underestimated because of what you look like, this episode will change how you see your own power.

In this Masterminds Special, you'll learn:

• Why waiting for permission is the most expensive mistake
• How to build authority when you walk in with no connections
• The difference between being visible and having control
• What really holds capable women back from ownership
• How to lead when people underestimate you on sight
• Why networking without relevance is a waste of time
• The lie society tells women about power

Chapters

00:00 — Intro 05:45 — Walking Into A System Not Built For You 14:30 — From Radio Sales To Building An Empire 23:20 — Leaving Security To Build Your Own 32:10 — Being Underestimated In The Room 41:00 — Networking With Relevance Not Proximity 50:15 — Leading Teams With Love Not Fear 59:40 — What Really Holds Capable Women Back 1:09:30 — The Lie Society Tells Women About Power

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Connect & Resources

Get my book & learn more: www.richiemensah.com Get Lynx Reverb headphones: www.lynx-electronics.com Instagram: @richiemensahgh TikTok: @richiemensah_

Credits Shot at Tigon Creative Studios Equipment support by Kreative5 Ltd

Disclaimer This podcast is for educational and inspirational purposes. Not financial advice.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Before the companies, before the shows, before the platforms, every woman in this conversation was once just a girl with an idea nobody had asked for. This is where power actually begins. Before we jump into the conversation, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for supporting and deciding to watch this episode. But now I have a favor subscribe to the channel. Subscribing to the channel helps me and the entire mastermind team to continue bringing you wonderful conversations and episodes that bring you closer to being the mastermind you deserve to be. So join the community.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

The media. Oh, um you know, sometimes when I'm asked this question, I like to say that it was an accident, but no, it was never an accident. It was never an accident. I knew from get-go that I wanted to do this. It's it's it it was a childhood dream, a childhood dream because I was introduced to TV and books at a very early age. Nice. Um, I I I I've been reading all my life. I've been reading all my life, and I've also consumed TV a lot. And the things I watch on TV are not your everyday stuff. And so, for instance, I would watch Cartoon Network. Okay. I'm a big fan of cartoons. I I watch cartoons a lot. Uh, but I also like current affairs. So when I was growing up, I was introduced to Larry King Live at a very early age because that's what my father was on the city. Oh, that explains a lot. Yes. And so I fell in love with current affairs. Unknowingly to my dad, and also unknowingly uh unbeknownst to me, I just realized that I knew the everyday stuff. I knew what was happening in the Soviet Union, I knew what was happening in the US, I knew what was happening in Africa. I just knew because I was set with my dad to watch TV. And so, unbeknownst to me, I developed. I developed an interesting current affairs. But when you're in a system that you feel isn't designed for you, and this is a lesson I picked up from a book I read when I was very young by one of the Kennedys. That when you are in a system that's not designed for you, you have to outgrow that system and redesign it to fit what you are interested in.

SPEAKER_10 2:37

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Yes, so that's what I did. I approached one of my teachers who was really a big fan of mine, a chemistry teacher, Mr. Incum. I I I adore that man, and I sold the idea of a campus news agency to him, CNA, that I want to read news, you know, in school. And he thought, let's see, because I noticed that he was always reading um newspapers. He had a stack of newspapers all the time.

SPEAKER_04 3:03

You could understand. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

So I spoke to him and he thought, okay, let's go to the headmistress and broach this idea to her. And surprisingly, she she she said, okay, let's see how it goes. And so the campus news agency was set up by Mr. Inkum and I. And I started reading the news at assembly every Monday morning. I will listen to Radio Ghana and then summarize every news item I had, pick up Daily Graphic, the Ghanaian Times, put the stories together, and then I'll read it at Assembly. Then I realized that the students were interested. Now people were showing interest. You know, they want to join the club, they want to, and for me, that was breathtaking for me. I felt, yes, this is it. I I had I had found a way to get people to be interested in current affairs. So getting into the media was not an accident, it was a plan from the beginning. And so when I got the opportunity to do radio that I didn't really like because I wanted to be seen, um, I felt this is it for me, you know. So I didn't have to struggle at all to get there because it was it was in it's what it was inside me.

SPEAKER_04 4:12

I've gotten so much from this story and this story. So the first thing is one thing I tell people all the time. I think you've explained it perfectly, that what you consume is what makes you absolutely. So when you're consuming something that is not meant to build you, you are wasting your time.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

Absolutely. I agree.

SPEAKER_04 4:30

Let me take you back to your childhood for a bit, right? So you grew up in Ghana and Canada.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

So I was born in Ghana. I left when I was four years old, and I turned five in Canada. So I left at a very early age, yes.

SPEAKER_04 4:41

Interesting. And how long were you in Canada before you came here?

SPEAKER_03 4:44

So I was in Canada for over 25 years or so before I came back. So I moved back to Ghana in 2009.

SPEAKER_04 4:50

2009.

SPEAKER_03 4:51

Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_04 4:52

So what what in your childhood led to building the kind of mindset to have the grades that you have right now?

SPEAKER_03 4:59

I think I must say, you know, living abroad, um pretty much early on in even in high school, you end up taking courses such as like civvies and all of that kind of stuff, which kind of help you in terms of resume writing. You know, they help you to kind of guide yourself. So for the most part, people get a job at the age of what, like 16 or so when you live, you know, North America or so. The minute you turn 16, you're like, ooh, I'm 16. I can go out and get a job and make my own money. Then I think I must also say that I realized that my mother and my father were very, very hard, you know, great work hard workers, sorry, very, very dedicated to everything it is that they ever did in Canada. So my dad is probably the more entrepreneurial one out of my parents. My mom is very safe in the sense of, you know, you work a nine to five, you get a paycheck, and you can live your life like that. Whereas, you know, my dad did so many business ventures. So I must say my parents instilled the hard work in myself and my sister or my siblings for us to be able to realize that obviously hard work does, you know, pay off, right?

SPEAKER_04 6:01

I always like to start by trying to understand the kind of mindset you had as a kid, what happened to you when you were growing up to help you develop the mindset to make you succeed the way that you have. So, what was growing up like for Mary, for young Mary?

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Not too um comfortable, but I've grown to understand that behind the uncomfortable situation is where the success lies.

SPEAKER_10 6:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

You know, if you want to be comfortable, you will not really achieve much. But the pain, you know, growing in a house where the father was basically the main breadwinner, and so all the children had to devise strategies to support him, including my uneducated mother, who was selling. So the small, small selling after school in the neighborhood was what actually built that entrepreneurial skills that I'm using today.

SPEAKER_05 6:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

So life wasn't comfortable, but now what kind of things were you selling? Everything you can think of because the capital wasn't much.

SPEAKER_05 7:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

So small money that is given my mother to sort of cater for the house. And what I saw in her was how she could multiply anything you give her, funds. So if you're giving her a hundred CDs, she has to be able to create 200 CDs out of it. And so she would buy cassava, it could be plantain, it could be fruits. So I'll go to Agwushi actually and go and buy fruits, low cost, and come and sell them and multiply that fund. Yeah, and that is how bit by bit we all learned how to trade.

SPEAKER_04 7:39

Let's let's go right back to the beginning. Okay. Campus days. How did Echo House all begin?

SPEAKER_07 7:46

So I was so I'm a civil engineer. Okay. I don't know what my classmates who watch this to say, but I um I had ended up in the civil engineering class. And well, there were 250 boys and 25 girls. And I'm like, hey, what is this? And I just I I mean, everything overwhelmed me. But I had always liked to write. So um it was sort of like a bit of an escape for me. So a friend and a friend of mine and I came together to, you know, put this um campus newsletter together. At the time, um, so um my husband Bright was in class with me, and at the time it was like we were um about dating, or we had just started dating around that time, and he felt like I was spending too much time with it, so he'd come and help with it so that he can spend time with me. So that's sort of how that's sort of how he got involved. So it became um like a magazine that came out every semester, and we'll put the the stuff that happened on campus together. I think the idea for us was that was that we're calling it echo because we said we wanted to echo K and UST to the rest of the world. Yeah, so that's sort of what we were doing for starters. Um, I'm a writer, so I was just writing a lot, and then I remember Bright and Kamina, and they were like, you know, let's put more parties, let's make it more fun. And we did that, and it became like something that people were very excited about. And, you know, so we thought that okay, this this could be a thing. Um, after doing a few editions, a team from Legon reached out and said they wanted to bring it to um Ligon. So we realized that there was that opening, you know, for it. I I think that's one of the things with us, it's always been very, very, very organic. You know, it's like this team comes together, like, oh, we want to bring it to Ligon. Okay, let's just do it, let's open up to that. So we did that and we realized that it was becoming a force. And then someone on the team suggested that we're always waiting for events to happen to print the magazine. So let's just do an event. So we did our first event called the red and white party. And we told everybody in Kumasi. Oh, you don't invite me. I don't head of it. It was like, you know, it was you know the kind of thing that just sort of comes together, you know, like, and we we actually wanted to wear red and white, and they did. I'm like, actually, they're taking us very seriously. Um, and it was a really big party, you know, people came from Accra and stuff like that. And so we we we we felt we could see that there could there was something in this, but then we were also finishing school, and so we knew that okay, we I think from the beginning there was no plan to continue it, but a team of students came together and said they wanted to continue the maximum. So then it meant that Bite and I would um while we're doing our national service, we'll be looking for ads and stuff like the business aspects of it, while um they look at the editorial. Okay, and that you know worked out well, so that that's sort of where everything um began.

SPEAKER_04 10:49

So this explains it. You know, one thing I keep trying to let people understand is that you can't start perfect. No, you know, when people see maybe Echo House at the top there, they think you wrote a 15-year plan of going to become an agency and a this and a that and that, but it just started with a magazine. Yeah, I mean a newsletter, yeah, and then grew from there. Yeah, I think a lot of people don't understand organic growth is the best way to go. Yeah, I think every story I've heard of every big company always just started with one idea and leaders who were ready to evolve. Yeah. First, I want to talk about a part of you most people don't know. They they all know you as a CEO of Charter House, but most people don't know your career in multimedia before Charterhouse. Let's talk about that first. What was it like being in radio and TV?

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Um, it was very interesting. My surjourn in radio and in radio particularly was um at a time when private radio had just been licensed. Okay. So, you know, prior to that, we only had um state-owned media houses, GBC and the whole range of GBC stations. And so um Joe FM, which was under multimedia broadcasting, was one of the first, uh the first private radio station to be officially licensed to a break. So we were a bunch of young, eager um people who were just interested in just um showing what we could do. Okay. Really, there was nothing before us to watch and observe. There was no templates to just and we wanted to be different from what already existed. So we the onus was on us to lead the innovation to drive the innovation and the creativity that would really make the impact. So I joined multimedia in 1996, which was about uh six months after they had started. I think they started in 95.

SPEAKER_06 12:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

Around July or so um in 95, or maybe a year after, or something like that. I know I know it was January 96 I joined. Okay, and um I initially I wanted to be on on T on radio as a presenter. Oh, okay. So my first interview with um Kweituchung, the the owner, was that I wanted to be an on-air personality. But at that time, at the very early stages of radio, there was nothing like on-air personality, it was about DJs. Okay, yeah. So it was either you just want to come in and play music, and music was what drove the content. So I said to him that I'm not into I'm not a music person, but I want to have interviews, I want to talk to people, I want to get to know people, you know, to discuss issues. But I think I was ahead of my time. So I'm trying to imagine you as a presenter. That would have been a good idea. Yeah, no, because I wanted to have conversations and chats, not to play music, yeah. But at that time, and it was written by music, so um, they said, Okay, um, I said I didn't want to play music, they said they tried to now box me into okay, then maybe you should do newscasting or reading announcements and those were the two options, yeah. So whether you're playing music or you are reading the news. Yeah, so they tried me with the news reading, with announcements, and they said no, I I wasn't cutting it in that space. So I said, Okay. Then he said, but why don't you try your hands at sales? And I was like, radio sales, okay. And um, so I was a little hesitant because I hadn't done it before, but I had done retail sales. I'd been in the I'd just come in from the UK and I was working in retail in the Gap store, okay, etc. So I had an idea of retail. So he said, But since you've done retail, why don't you try sales? So he gave me a whole pile of books to go and read about radio sales, and um I went home to read all through the night. And it sounded really exciting, and it sounded sounded like I could make some good bugs from that as well. So I went back and said, Great, I'll take it up. And so I was one of the first uh female uh radio sales executives um when radio started. So when I joined the team, there were mainly males. I think it was one other female, firstly, but she about a few months after moved into traffic. Okay, so I was the only female in there for years. Wow, yeah. I think till I probably left, I think. I must have been the only female um full of males. So we went out there selling the good news of radio, you know, to to to anybody who would listen.

SPEAKER_09 15:26

I wanted to be out and go and do um television and events, you know. So that's how I walked into Charterhouse in the beginning. They said, Oh, you cannot make it, you need to know somebody then. I was like, Really? Okay, let's see. I I wrote my letter, I entered Charterhouse. Then I got an interview the next day they said, Come and see the um CEO, that was um Teresa Yu Aday. I went to Teresa. Teresa, like, I like you, you're good. Potential, let's do this. And they took me from the national service. Yeah, and that was it. I didn't have any connection, I didn't know anybody. I didn't have to do anything, I just went there. That's how I got to Chatterhouse.

SPEAKER_04 16:05

I I love the story. You know, a lot of people are going through similar things where they feel you need to know someone, have some connection. You know that thing where they say in Ghana and Africa, it's about who you know or who knows you and stuff. But uh sometimes take the risk.

SPEAKER_09 16:19

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm a believer of that. You you you don't need to know people. Look, when uh I you probably uh your your workspace, you probably have everybody, you don't need to employ anybody. But if someone walks in right now, yeah, and you see the person, you're like, oh my god, this is talent. This is I don't have space, but I will employ the person. It's about you. How are you going to present yourself when you go there? And when I went there that day, I dressed up nicely. You know, I was confident, I spoke the part. It was a very in fact, I the interview I even drew my boss. My boss was like, ah, take and draw me. I I didn't even, you know, go through a difficult interview then, you know, but they just knew that okay, we'll want this person and we'll take care because they had somebody else. Why did they even need me there? And they took me. So it's about you. How do you present yourself? You're going to a place that you know that there's no space or do not look at me. Go looking the parts, feeling confident.

SPEAKER_04 17:11

I love your journey. You know, I remember hitmaker days, you know, when you would be hosting, I'll think, oh, this girl's good. And as much as I could think, I'd say she has a great career in hosting. Then you vanished. I was like, hey, where's Pete Hyde? I don't hear from Peace Hyde, I don't see Pete Hyde anymore. The next thing I see, boom, young, famous African, and Pete Hyde is the executive producer. I'm like, what? How did that transition happen?

SPEAKER_08 17:41

Um, first of all, I think it's a God journey. Um, because you can plan, but God loves. Um, I really thought, to be honest, um, when I relocated to Ghana that I was coming to try to enter in the media space and see where I fit in. There was no master plan, um, but I had a very big passion for the media industry on a whole. And I think initially working in front of the camera was very key because I needed to be able to understand how that mechanism works, what it's like to build your brand, your name, your presence. Um, but I became very intrigued behind the scenes about how the whole industry works, the team, the crew, how to actually build an organization, how to build a brand narrative, how to project stories. And so as I kind of develop my qualifications, as I develop my experiences, I started just realizing that there's so much more to it than just the fame and the bright lights. And yeah, by God's grace, it's been from one place to another, but we've managed to slowly be getting there and writing. Um, and for me, I think my ultimate passion is really just telling stories about excellent people, creating platforms for excellent people to shine. Um, I don't believe that what we do today is in isolation. Everything that you're doing are literally the droplets and the pages of the books that your children will read in the future.

SPEAKER_10 19:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 19:02

And so if I can play an active role about creating platforms and opportunities for exemplary Africans and black people to be celebrated on a global stage, then that for me would be almost like a love letter to my future children and their friends because they'll realize that we weren't great in isolation, we were great as a people, um, and we were great because it was in our DNA, and that's something that's extremely passionate to me.

SPEAKER_04 19:25

So I understand your success fully because I always tell people the only way to succeed is if your purpose is bigger than you.

SPEAKER_10 19:32

Amen.

SPEAKER_04 19:33

So hearing you talk about what you want to achieve for everyone makes me understand the journey. Because your growth is like it's incremental and it's steady. I love that. Now, when people talk about networking, most people are talking about, you know, oh, I'm a crowd champion, or you know, in my country, everybody knows me. You've transcended, like you've actually networked across continents. So, how did you start that journey from being like, let's say, from nobody knowing you yet to now having connections globally?

SPEAKER_08 20:04

Um, well, I started in the UK. I was a teacher, a science teacher. So my kids knew me. When I decided to venture into the media space, originally, as I said, there was no plan. Um, but as I got my masters in journalism, my master's in digital media and communication, I started realizing with the acquisition of knowledge, um, I needed to kind of put myself in rooms that would challenge the new skill sets that I'm acquiring. Um, so when I started working for Forbes Africa, I was a journalist in Ghana. Um, the goal wasn't really about networking, it was just really about telling stories about amazing Africans. Um, but I noticed that as I kept meeting people, as I kept building relationships with them that went beyond the interview and was more about value exchange and what business opportunities we could do, or what they were interested in doing that I could help facilitate and amplify. I just realized that there was so much more that could be done. And as I met so many people, because it was literally my job to be on an aeroplane, I used to tell people I live in my suitcase because I was always on a plane going somewhere for an interview, for a shoot, for a documentary. And so I realized that um no man is an island. And there are people who can achieve great things by bringing them together, but they're on the opposite sides of the world and have no clue each other exists. And so, by being privileged to be in contact with these types of people at different levels and different spheres, I was able to just say, Well, why don't we try and get you in this space and see what could happen? Or why don't we tell your story and see who would see your story and be inspired and say, Look, maybe something incredible can happen. And I think for me, that's been something that's extremely passionate for me. Um, connecting the dots and connecting us as Africans, but more importantly, setting the stage to let people know that Africans and black people are amazing. Individuals.

SPEAKER_04 22:01

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SPEAKER_00 23:18

It's uh finding your purpose. Okay. And for me, I think I got very comfortable with working in the bank and having really light comforts. It's quite weird, but any space where I realize it's becoming too normal or too comfortable, I try to create something more difficult for myself.

SPEAKER_04 23:42

You look for problems for yourself.

SPEAKER_00 23:45

And uh looking at how I grew up, where as I said, nine years you're on the streets at that young age, and you would go out, you sell, you have to clear whatever you have on your tree before you come back. So that was very challenging. You know, doing my undergrad, no funds coming from home, you have to figure yourself out. I paid my fees for four years. That is difficult. So when you go and sit in an office where you open accounts, you're dealing with customers, you get salary, it got boring after a while. Yeah, and then I challenged myself again to start something for myself. And the cleaning idea came because I love to work. I did a lot of house jobs. Okay, so I don't know whether that is where the best of the cleaning idea came from. But I started with that, and now we have multiple businesses out of that passion to do something. You have multiple businesses.

SPEAKER_04 24:39

So let's talk about some of your challenges starting out, especially as a female in this industry. I know these days there are a lot of women in the industry, even behind the scenes and stuff. But at that time, there were very, very few women. So, what was it like? What kind of challenges did you have?

SPEAKER_09 24:55

So, starting out for me, it was not even it didn't have to do with the fact that it was a male-dominated industry. I didn't have any men stressing me or any men bullying me, though, you know, you get that, you know. But I always have the mentality that I shouldn't say because they were men, so you know, I'm struggling. No, my struggles when I started out had to do with the fact that I was a bit naive. You know, I came from homeschool. In homeschool, they'll teach you the basics, they'll teach you um what you need to know about directing and filming. It's the applying that you know you need to do when you come out of the school. And when I came out of NATION, I really didn't know anything. You know, I just knew my books, my long shorts, my clothes up, and I I knew that you know, but I didn't know theory. Yes, I didn't know how to budget. I mean, in school, I did budgeting for I think it was a German something, you know, it was big budgeting kind of it was just it was the theory of it. Yeah, you know, though I did a lot of articles, but when I came into the industry, I came to Chatterhouse, I realized that okay, the in the Ghanaian industry is a different war game.

SPEAKER_04 26:01

Now I need to know as you were suffering, as you were going through all these literally suffering, these tough moments. Yeah, when did the light switch on? When did you notice that oh wow, this is actually going to work?

SPEAKER_03 26:16

I think that probably would have been in the early stages. Again, my faith is crazy as in oh god, if you brought me here, you're gonna see me through each and every aspect and step of the business, through the highs, through the lows. CNN did a feature on us, um, African startups. Um and I think at that moment is where I realized after after this the session aired, um, we were getting calls from like Kenya and Nigeria. Mind you, we were like a year or like two years into the business at the time, right? Had we go to deliveries. I listen, how we were even going to produce cakes alone for the next day was difficult in the sense of, you know, all of us like no one had ever started a business before. It was my first legit proper business. Yeah. I mean, selling, you know, bras and underwear in the office or selling hair or selling body splash and all of that stuff wasn't really a formal business, but that was the first ever business where you're like, listen, if the company doesn't make money, 15 people maybe at the time are not gonna eat at the end of the month. And I say it and I continue to say to the glory of God that since we've ever started the business, there has never, ever, ever been a month that we haven't been able to pay our staff members, or that somebody's like, Oh, I'm working at a company and for two or one month we haven't been paid. Never, it never happened before, right? So, again, not by my doing, it's just by the grace of God. So after that whole all the phone calls started coming in, and people were like, Oh, we want franchise. We're all kind of like, franchise, franchise. I can't even we don't even know how many gigs we're selling at this point, you know, because we hadn't formalized everything. But I think in the back of my mind, I always realized that the business would work considering the fact that every day, 365 days a year, somebody's celebrating a birthday, somebody is having a wedding, somebody is having uh a christening, somebody is graduating from school, somebody there's always something to be celebrated. And with Cupcake Boutique, our motto was that you deserve it. Why do you deserve it? You deserve it because you've done well, you deserve it because you graduated, you deserve it because you're getting married. So you deserve it just because of every day's small little life indulgence, right? You're sitting here today, you've had a long, stressful day. When you're going home, hey, let me pass by cupcake boutique. Why? You deserve it. Yeah, you deserve it for the day because you've worked so hard, you know what I mean? So I think that was when we realized that the business was going to be successful, successful. If we harnessed that aspect in the sense of, you know, the celebrations, the convenience, like I said, we we weren't selling a product, we were selling you convenience. Yeah, that was the key. In the sense of if you didn't order in advance, you could still rush over to Cupcake Boutique.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

At some point, they were assembling the team for the morning show, and it was just men. You know, at that point, I had to scream and say, What do you mean?

SPEAKER_05 29:19

That's what I like.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

These two men and in their presence. I mean, this is where people will say I'm rude. But these two men, yeah, I am brighter than them, I am more knowledgeable than them, I speak better than them, yeah, I ask questions better than them. I've done better stories than these men. Yeah, so why do you think they should go set on morning TV and not me? So they had to rope me in. And I don't even know where they are now, but I became the star of the morning show. You get it? I became the star of the morning show because initially they wanted me to do the soft sides. I said, no, I'll do the current affairs. I will do the current affairs, you know, and so I'm happy that now more women are going into the current affairs space, but even still look across, you realize that especially on radio, especially on radio, most morning shows are hosted by men.

SPEAKER_04 30:13

Yeah, not just morning shows, most serious talk.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

But it has to change. But you see, but I wonder who can do. You know what I did at GH1 in the last election, not 2024, the 2020 election. I decided to do something no channel had ever done because I wanted to prove a point. I assembled an all-female team. The only man in there was Frances Alban. Okay, only Francis Alban sat on the channel as an as a male uncle. Everybody else, Na, Bede, Sewa, Ati Win, all women. And it was beautiful to watch because it wasn't just how good they were looking, that is that doesn't even matter to them.

SPEAKER_04 31:02

That's just the change.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

It's it's it's the the brilliance, the ooze. You know, the brilliance, the ooze. And then people realize that oh, they can actually do it. And the first person, the first person who came out very excited about it was boloret. And Bola, I'm not saying Bola is a feminist as well. Uh, you know, sometimes Bola's.

SPEAKER_04 31:23

It's amazing how many of us men are feminists.

SPEAKER_01 31:25

Yes, Bola's biases are very serious. So when the opportunity comes, bola is thinking about a woman first and not a man. You know, and I love that about Bollery, you know.

SPEAKER_04 31:35

But there's something I've noticed when most people try and network, they make networking feel more transactional than actually trying to build relationships. So, what mindset shifts do you think people need to understand that?

SPEAKER_08 31:49

I think when you look at transactional versus rich relationships, you need to understand, first of all, what you're trying to gauge from that community or that connection you've created. Um, if we look at it, for example, in a business sense, a brand like a McDonald's, for example, does not need necessarily a relationship of quality. They just need a strong brand message and for you to believe in their brand message and build a relationship with their brand message. So by default, there's a lot of nuances that they would leave out. Now, if you're an entrepreneur trying to build a brand that you want to scale up and not necessarily be the face of it, then that type of method where you make sure that the relationship with your brand is solid and its consumers is perfect, but it is more of a transactional leaning dynamic then. Yeah. When you're now working with individuals, though, it's very different because people are humans. We connect with human beings. When the business is finished, we'll talk about your relationships, we'll talk about marriage, we'll talk about family, we'll talk about lovely Lulu, your son. We will talk about those things. And so I think it's really first of all about understanding the type of connection I want to have with you. If it's a purely professional connection and I just want to do my business and go, then you have to really focus on bringing value to that dynamic. Nothing more but pure, concentrated, distilled value, which means that your presence and your impact of your work will speak for you much more louder than anything else. And when you leave that room, they will need you for those opportunities, or they will need you because you are the fuel in their car. If you're trying to build and maybe you're not established enough to have as much value as you'd like to be able to offer that person, then you need commitment, you need time, you need um flexibility, you need humility, you need to be able to say, Look, do you want me to go and pick up this? Do you want me to almost like an intern? You have to be available and you have to be useful.

SPEAKER_04 33:48

Because that's still a value that you're offering.

SPEAKER_08 33:50

Precisely. You have to be useful, but almost in this the more day-to-day necessities of life. Um, so it depends really on the type of what do I have to bring to this relationship or connection, and also how confident I am I in what I have to offer. And then once you can identify which tier or which area you enter into, then that will be what can help lead whether your relationship will become more of a value exchange, more transactional. But make sure you have the underlining of the right character. I think integrity, reputation, your values and morals, um, how you navigate certain spheres, whether it's financial, whether it's when you're meeting important people, how you conduct yourself, all of those slight, slightly unspoken ways of communicating and navigating life also set the tone for you. Sometimes your value is just that you're a trustworthy person and you don't play nonsense games. Yeah. And so by default, identify that in yourself, identify what you want in that connection, and then move accordingly.

SPEAKER_04 34:52

So that's great. So now you're talking about the fact that before you go into a relationship, before you actually start networking, you need to know your value. You need to build yourself up so you have something to offer.

SPEAKER_08 35:04

But we get confused sometimes and we look at these super successful big names. And one of the most successful or one of the most powerful people you will meet, there was a point where no one would even pay attention to them.

SPEAKER_10 35:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 35:18

And they had to be intentional about how they conducted themselves and how they chose their path of growth. So I always believe as well that sometimes your mistake can be that you're just looking at the chairman, chairman, chairman, and you're not really paying attention to actually the person who has value because not everyone with the big name and big title has value for you. It actually is just a person thing. And so try to connect with people that actually have a connection and a value with you authentically, not necessarily running after the most hyped or the most um successful or perceived successful person.

SPEAKER_04 35:51

But at this point in time, weren't you scared? And I say that because, you know, when you are going to school, everybody knows, okay, I'm going to get a good job after school, continue down the you know, corporate ladder and everything. Weren't you scared focusing your energy on starting something of your own?

SPEAKER_07 36:11

Um, I think the the great thing about it is that I was not starting something of my own. I was just having fun. I actually didn't know that it was going to become a business. I feel like that is also part of what really helped me to just feel free and do. Now, when um we finished school, Bright and I were doing our service at Urban Roads because we are civil engineers. Um, and I mean, so it's almost like we are doing, we'll do the work that we're supposed to do for service, but then we would finish and go and do um the echo stuff. Yeah. You know, we'll go to Kumasi and go and do an event. So it's that that's sort of our, you know, um, and it wasn't really something that we we we had to sat down to say, okay, um, we'll do this for two years and then we'll do this for three years. Um, and then when we finished service, um we came across the Unpo Franco who had a very small office space in Osu. Okay. And offered it to us because it's like, you guys are doing well with it. And my mom, who was also very confused about what we're doing, like, I don't know what this thing is, but okay, you know, and when making money from it, so you know, in the morning, she would give um me pocket money to go and do whatever that was. And um, she she took our old furniture at home and she my favorite color was pink, so she made the pink, and she bought us a computer and a printer, and then sort of finished the place.

SPEAKER_04 37:35

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_07 37:35

And so working from there. Even at that point, we didn't know, it's like we come there every day, but what is this supposed to be? Um, then one of the engineers from Urban Roads reached me and said, Somebody has an agency. And at that time, I didn't know there was anything like an agency. Somebody has an agency and would like to employ a business development person. I should go and meet him at um Labadi Beach. Okay, so I go and meet him and he tells me about agency, and it's like, oh, he hears that I'm very industrious and da-da-da. So this is the offer, and it was good money. And I was like, Okay, I hear his pitch, but here's my pitch. I have a magazine and I do these events, and this is what it looks like. And I would rather he supported me to do this. It's like I'm offering you a job and selling me your but eventually he gave us a little space in his basement, um, in his agency um at Usu. And that's how come I realized, oh, actually, there's like this thing.

SPEAKER_04 38:27

There's a whole world, yes.

SPEAKER_07 38:29

And we had been, um, I realized that, for example, maybe if somebody wants to sponsor an event, you know, of us will send them a bill, a very small bill. But through this partnership, I realized that look, people are, it's like maybe we can do an actual proposal for this and we can, you know, share it with the client. The client can approve it, and they would actually pay the money. I remember the very first event we did, the very first proposal we sent out was to Guinness Ghana. It was for this um um twin party in um Aqua in Kumase. And you know, like the the budget we had, because we couldn't, we didn't know how to cost for things at the time. And then the agency showed us exactly how to cost. Okay. And I I was just talking to Bach, I'm like, there's no way they'll pay for this. Like, nobody will pay for this. And then they sent an email and say, Oh, approve, but you may we just make these tweaks. I'm like, they will pay us this money to do this. So that was like a big shift for me, realizing that there's actually value in it. This means that everything you did there sort of prepared you for the journey.

SPEAKER_02 39:34

Definitely, definitely, definitely.

SPEAKER_04 39:37

So, is that how it was easy to transition into starting chatters?

SPEAKER_02 39:41

Yes, yes, because while at Joy FM, I had built the network with corporate Ghana. Okay. I I was I was the account manager for um it was then it was called Ghana Breweries Limited, GBL, GBL, and um Unilever and all of them. So I had built all those corporate relationships. And so when it was time to move on, those were relationships I leveraged on to sponsor some of our new events that were coming up. And that's how we we got going. And apart from that, also because I had already been in the driving seat of conceptualizing, putting together proposals, going out there, marketing ideas, talking to people, convincing them, yeah, and then also being out there in the field, actually executing and getting these activities to happen. I was already in that space. Okay. And and my husband then was uh running a company called Multiple Concepts. Okay. And they also had been created, they had created a platform called Agro, which was uh a platform for Western Union that was being um used to promote Western Union across the country. Okay, and that platform involved um musicians and a game show, etc. So they were doing full-scale um audiovisual production and class live events because apart from it being a TV show, it was also a roadshow. So we're going around the country and all of that. So um we just kind of had a conversation around um doing something for the music industry, which as insurprisingly came out of a backstage conversation held between Ochiami Kwami and Lord Kenya during Agra.

SPEAKER_06 41:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 41:14

So he said we came back home one day and he said, Ah, I went to Agra and during this production, these two artists went arguing backstage about who was the most popular. Oh yeah. At Chiami. Yeah, at that time in Lord Kenya. So it was just watched them and just what the argument going on and on. And so if I go out there, you see the fans I'll have. I'll have more fans than you. So we watched all of that. He came in and said, I think Ghana music Ghanaian music is really growing at a very fast pace. At that time, we were far ahead of the Nigerian industry. Yeah, you know, uh hip life had really taken off. Yeah. So he was like, I think there's a really good thing going on in your in in the Ghanaian music industry and the way the musicians or whatever. So let's let's I think we should create something like you know, like the Grammys, you know, like the Ghana music award, something like that. So we came up with a name and then we're like, wow, okay, let's go with it. Okay. So at that point, I went to my bosses and said, Okay, I think I've done my bit, I want to move on. So um I I had I left the company to join my husband, basically at uh almost like one-third of the salary I was earning. Sorry.

SPEAKER_04 42:18

It was a big sacrifice, you know. How did your family and friends see that? Because it's like leaving something very stable, yeah, in a career that was on the rise, you know.

SPEAKER_02 42:27

Well, um, I think I was excited about the opportunity of creating something new. Okay. And something that could had had the potential to really be big. So that was really what was driving me. And um, I've always told my mindset, has always been that whatever you think you can do. So once we thought that this was something that was really going to be huge, okay, let's do it. Okay. So that's that's how that has always been me.

SPEAKER_04 42:52

So that means Charter House started with Ghana Music Awards.

SPEAKER_02 42:55

Yes, Charterhouse started with Ghana. But prior to that, we had multiple concepts. Multiple concepts. Which was um already running. Yeah, I remember aggro. Agro, as we try, yes, yes. It was already running, going all around the country, promoting West Union. They had already done so much, gone to Europe, they had done a Europe tour, and all of that. So um Charterhouse was was created to build contents for the creative industry. Okay. So that was what so we set up a new company. I came in. So multiple concepts was more for the corporate. It was advertising. Okay, for an advertising agency. Okay. Advertising and production. Okay, and then Chatterhouse came in for events and just to be to create um to be like cultural curators, yeah, and creators. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:42

So what was it like in the early days? You know, taking this big risk, you started, you're organizing an event for an industry which wasn't even well formed. What was it like in that?

SPEAKER_02 43:51

Oh my god, it was very challenging. I mean, the the good thing was because we were doing aggro already, which was like the biggest platform. For most of the artists to get to tour the country. Yeah. There was no other vehicle. So as soon as you released your music, the next thing you added you did was to get onto aggro. Because and if you're able to get onto a aggro for a series of shows, that means at no cost to you, really, you were being taken across the country. And so coming on TV. Okay, over and over. So we would go to a Konongo and we were being invited to all the festivals. Okay. So as soon as it's a festival, there's an aggro as part of the program. So we were already scheduled, you know, and we had it was like it had a tour lined up already for the years. So as soon as you plugged into it, we took you on tour. So that was really one of the touring vehicles for the musicians. So we had already through that build that relationship, we already had an AR coordinator who was working with musicians over the time.

SPEAKER_04 44:48

At that time, AR coordinator at that time.

SPEAKER_02 44:49

At that time, yes, we had someone who was in charge of booking the artists and you know working with them on what they were going to play and all that. So we already had that going. So it was easy to just leverage on that relationship that we had already built. Yeah. And for us, it has always been about leveraging on the relationships we've already built with the artists. So then we now had to settle the idea of the Ghana Music Awards. And it wasn't easy.

SPEAKER_04 45:14

Yes, I really want to know. I'm trying to be easy. An artist ends in the beginning approach that we want to organize an award. So yeah, nothing like that existed.

SPEAKER_02 45:23

So they had a number, they had is it aircrack or something? Entertainment and critics. There were others, sunshine, other award schemes existed. But we said we wanted to do ours differently. Yeah. And we wanted to involve the public because most of those awards were um just honorary.

SPEAKER_05 45:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:44

And ours, we wanted ours to be competitive to get the public to vote. So actually, when we started, it was 100% public voting.

SPEAKER_05 45:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 45:52

Yes. And that was that took place for a few years. Then we began to bring in other layers of voting. So we just wanted to be a people's choice award. And that's why we will always have the public voting as part of it. That was the initial concept, making it a people's choice award. Then the public votes, let us tell us who their favorite artists were.

SPEAKER_04 46:13

I mean, from the arguments that they were having. We're having backstage. That was that was the genesis of it.

SPEAKER_02 46:17

So it was always at the heart of it, has always been the fans. Yeah. The fans should be involved in telling us who their favorite musicians were.

SPEAKER_04 46:24

But did you face any challenges, especially being a female leader? Did you face any challenges where people underestimated you because they felt, you know, a woman can't do this, a woman can't do that?

SPEAKER_00 46:35

I still do.

SPEAKER_04 46:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 46:37

So it's not really about the past. I still do. But sometimes you go to places until you speak, you might not really appreciate, you know. I quite remember a situation where my company, the facility management company, won a contract with an organization. And you know, when you go into our profile and what you've done, the clients we have, you'll be very convinced. So all my procurement team and then my operations team, general manager, they went through to win this contract. So I was supposed to go and sign some documentation with the clients.

SPEAKER_06 47:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 47:14

So when I got in the office of the director, a female by surprise. And she was like, Oh, by you, what clinic can you do? What clinic can you do? Ms. Ghana or something, and you see, you don't underestimate people based on looks. And that's mostly what people do. And if you're a woman, sometimes they might feel your kids might not give you the time to do it. And so people might prevent a woman from being in a certain leadership position. Recently, I've noticed that a lot of uh financial institutions and the telcos are working with women leaders more. You have a lot of CEOs who are now women. It's starting to show.

SPEAKER_04 48:03

I think the bias is starting to reduce. So people are watching closer.

SPEAKER_00 48:07

Exactly. And I I think women move with a lot of passion and drive, are more resilient to take certain challenges, even than men.

SPEAKER_04 48:17

Okay, now let's talk about your leadership skill. So I know a lot of people, like one thing that I learned in leadership is you either lead with love or you lead with fear. The two best leaders are either those whose followers love them or those whose followers fear them. So one thing I've noticed is most people aren't able to create that balance. They are either too free and people aren't being undisciplined underneath them, or they are too strict and everybody's afraid when they're coming to work. But everyone who works with you is able to keep that balance. How do you do it? How are you so nice and so kind all the time to everybody you're working with? But everybody knows don't mess with Perfect.

SPEAKER_09 49:04

I'm not you know, I I I believe in um high quality and um humanity, to be honest with you. I believe in high quality, I I want high quality women and and but I'm inside too, I'm human, and I know that I'm working with these type of people. I always keep on come on saying that. I probably I keep on saying that I probably took my psychology class seriously because I I have allowed myself to understand human beings and people and the fact that we make mistakes and all. But then I I also have high standards that I want to set. I want to to to be here or I want to ask everybody asked because it's one goal for all of us. I want us to be here, and that's where we're going to get to. But you know, sometimes when you lash a child, the child becomes rebellious, or the child will not listen or something stuff like that. So I I I I I use a scale of um nurturing the nurturing skill and also the disciplinary skill, you know, and not being too. I'm not a I wake up and say I'm not a strict person, but people say, Oh, I wanted to say Peffi, I want to say hello to you, but I was afraid. I said, Why are you afraid? Not strict, so I'm not, you know, you know, we always come to me. But so I try to, you know, balance the two. When you are wrong, you are wrong. When you are right, I don't hesitate. In fact, even if I taught you how to do what you are doing right, or even if I probably did it with you and I did maybe 80% of it, I would go and say, Oh, Richie did it. Oh, it's all perfect. You tried, oh, yes, oh Richio. You know, in my group chat, you see in my group chat as I'm criticizing or complaining about something that you have done. At the same time, I'm also, you know, when you do something good, I come and say, guys, shout out to Richie. He he pulled through or pulled off a very good event or whatever it is, and I'm proud of you that I do a lot of that. So they they there's that respect of and that the balance, there's a balance.

SPEAKER_04 51:02

I want you to do something for me. Tell me. Look into that camera right there.

SPEAKER_01 51:06

Right.

SPEAKER_04 51:06

Imagine there's a young girl or a grown woman, whoever it is, that's watching you, right? The goal is to make her a mastermind. What mindsets do you think you can place in her mind to make her courageous and become a mastermind?

SPEAKER_01 51:22

Listen, you need to damn the consequences all the time. Every action has a consequence, everything you do would have a repercussion. But the biggest mistake you will ever make is to not try. You must try because you can try and fail, but you can also try and win. When you fail, it's just a lesson, right? You go back and you do things better. But what's the point? What's the point in not trying? What's the point in not making your dream materialize? What's the point in not taking the bull by the horn? What's the point in not hitting the bull's eye? That must be your goal every day. You must hit the bull's eye. You must go out and try and tell yourself that I'm damning the consequence today.

SPEAKER_00 52:17

What I would say is don't put yourself first. Identify your purpose, regardless of the pain you will go through. Just do it because it's your purpose. We won't be here forever, but you need to leave a legacy for your children, for your organization, for anybody watching you, leave an impact, leave a mark in the lives of people. It's the smiles that we put on the faces of people that actually matter. It's not just what you benefit as an individual, but the multiple lives that we can transform if you're able to identify your purpose.

SPEAKER_09 52:58

You believe that you are creative, or you believe that you are a talent. But in having that creativity and that talent, you need other people to be able to show that talent or manifest or put out that talent. It's always important that you need to acknowledge the fact that you cannot do things on your own. In this industry, you cannot do it, and you need people around you. You need to be disciplined, you need to be uh creative, which is most important. You need to be human, but it's important for you in this industry for you to survive. And you need to be you need to set goals for yourself. I have set goals for myself. Maybe a hundred percent of it I did not make it, but I at least I know about eighty to ninety percent, you know. I I I mean, but if you do not set the goals, you will not know where you are going. And in setting the goals, you will be going with people. And as you are going with the people, just remember that these people can make or break you. So it's important to discipline yourself, be creative, feed yourself with creativity because some people are creative, but they don't feed themselves. Read books, go on YouTube, go on social, use your social media uh wisely. Even this is a charge pity. Amazing. I've even paid for it. Wow, charge pity? You have saved my life, you know, and be human in all aspects. And I can't say you be better than me, I can't say you'll be the same as me, but be you that's most important. Be you so far as you're on the right positive path, you are good to go.

SPEAKER_07 54:38

Somebody asked me, what if all this um just went away? Went away. I'm like, then can you imagine my CV? You're laughing. Can you imagine the CV that I will have if this all went away? Yeah, I think I I love that positive why yesterday I saw something on Instagram that said you have to be so positive that when you fall down the stairs, instead of saying, Oh god, I fell, you see, like I got down so fast. And you know, it's it's almost delusional, right? And it doesn't mean you don't have the days when you're like, oh God, because I have maybe 12 times a day, I'm like, what is this? But again, you to be able to look back at all of it and see that this has worked for as long as it has. Um it's the challenges that it has had, means that you're doing something right.

SPEAKER_08 55:34

It's where you are, as you sit at home right now watching this, understand your situation, whether it's good or bad, is only temporary. It's all about a change for you. And unfortunately, it can be negative or positive. But even then, as long as the dice is rolling, your six will come. So remember that where you are today, you are building the blocks for tomorrow. It is so important for you to keep acquiring knowledge, wisdom, connections, relationships that are positive and that are feeding you on every level. But understand everything you do today is going to inform your tomorrow. Let people talk, let people criticize, let people celebrate you, let people cut you down. Whatever they do should not matter. All that should matter is most importantly your relationship with God and understanding your current location is not your final destination. And watching content like this is what arms you for your tomorrow, is what will create light bulb moments that say, I think I'm ready actually. Oh wow, I didn't know that. Maybe this is how I've been approaching the issue wrong. And your biggest breakthrough can come through in the most mundane, irrelevant, you're not even paying attention. You're probably going to listen to this while you're driving to work or to see your girlfriend that's pissed off with you, or to go and get some food from a chop bar, or even just to go to a nice night out. Wherever you are listening to this, you are actually contributing that extra grain or that extra investment into your future.

SPEAKER_03 57:05

Understanding who you are and your skill set and your strength. I mentioned to you that with my sister, I know that I'm an initiator, I'm a doer, I'm an executor. That's my skill set. And I don't want to be anything else, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_10 57:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:19

So I don't want to be anything else. But where I do well, why not harness that and continue to push that as opposed to trying to be something else, which I may struggle with. So I'll say that, you know, understanding who you are as an individual and working on that. I mentioned to you, you know, what you're doing now, you probably didn't realize it, but it's been something that you've been doing uh up until adulthood now, and you've now turned it into, you know what, hey, let me do a podcast. And you do it and you do it so well. It comes natural to you. The more you do it, the better you're gonna become at it, right? So once you realize where your strengths are, what your skill sets are, continue doing that and becoming a master of that, right? Learning, reading about, reading up on it, sorry, um, doing whatever it is that you can to then just kind of impact yourself with more knowledge is what I think one of the things that I would say.

SPEAKER_01 58:13

I like the name of your show. And I I watched uh some of your episodes on YouTube, and I just felt this is the kind of inspiration we need.

SPEAKER_04 58:24

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 58:24

Because the negativity is just too much.

SPEAKER_04 58:29

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. I really enjoyed this conversation, and once again, even if you don't know it, you are a superwoman, okay?

SPEAKER_10 58:38

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 58:39

Keep going with the same courage, the same strength, and keep impacting so many lives.

SPEAKER_00 58:44

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 58:45

I hope you watching have come one step closer to being the mastermind I know you are meant to be. Thank you for watching this episode. Now, the Mastermind's dream is about building a community of people who have the right mindset and are ready to take their success into their own hands. So do me this wonderful favor, subscribe and share with anybody out there who you believe you want to see have the right mindset to succeed so that together we can all become the masterminds we deserve to be.