You Are More Powerful Than You Think: Kafui Dey || Masterminds Podcast EP73

Download Achieve By Petra – https://app.theachieveproject.com/PSL0001000

Most people are sitting in a car with the key in their hand — and never turning the ignition. The tools are there. The ability is there. The only thing missing is the decision to start.

In this episode of the Masterminds Podcast, Richie Mensah sits down with Kafui Dey — journalist, broadcaster, MC, author, and one of Ghana's most quietly excellent media personalities. Born to a diplomat father who took his family through seven countries across Africa, Asia, and Europe, Kafui developed a rare adaptability, curiosity, and standard of excellence that has carried him through every reinvention of his career — from campus pirate radio to Who Wants to Be Rich, from GTV Breakfast to corporate MC to media trainer. He breaks down the Larry King approach to interviewing, why invisible PR decides most opportunities, why excellence is a daily choice and never a destination, and why the best time to start is always now.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How growing up across seven countries shaped Kafui's mindset, adaptability and worldview
• The audition he failed — and how he came back a year later and won the job
• Why curiosity is the single most important quality in any communicator
• The Larry King approach: short questions, listen carefully, always follow up
• What invisible PR is — and why the people you ignore are the ones who decide your future
• Why excellence is a daily choice, not a level you eventually reach
• How to reinvent yourself without losing what makes you great
• Why the best way to start is simply to start — and build the parachute on the way down

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

I went for an audition at TV3. Early days. I failed audition.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

The transition between different countries, different cultures, how did that contribute to the mindset you have that led you to excellence?

SPEAKER_05 0:13

You get to experience new things at a very early age.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

The first time I saw you was Who Wants to Be Rich.

SPEAKER_05 0:19

That's it, the game show.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Was amazing. I remember seeing that and feeling wait. Was this produced in Ghana? That show was actually my third attempt at being on television. And you started at two different models and succeeded at them. What mind does it take to achieve that? So well, you want to do well in effort.

SPEAKER_05 0:40

The work is the person. It is the work that makes the person. I didn't just dive into media because I started from when I was on campus.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 0:49

As a as student broadcasting, then when I went to Kumati, it was part-time. Then I came to Accra Choice Effect. It was full-time. So I had experienced everything.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

What kind of processes did you have to like give that constant excellence every morning at 6 a.m.?

SPEAKER_05 1:05

The best way to start is to start.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Yeah. 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. Welcome back to the Masterminds Podcast. As usual, I am your tour guide on this ever exciting journey into mastering your most powerful tool, your mind. This episode is very exciting because today the tables have literally turned. The man sitting in front of me is one of the most credible and versatile voices in the country, from journalism to being an author to being a teacher, a coach, and a music producer. This man has done so much in an amazing time, but that's not even why he's here. He's not here for his accomplishments. He's here because of his mindset, the excellence with which he does everything he does, which is why when he switched from where we all know him to be to enter a new space, he is still excellent and winning as usual. My guest today is the awesome Cafe Day.

SPEAKER_05 2:38

Richie. Charlie, how you did?

SPEAKER_01 2:40

It's awesome. I like being on the side today.

SPEAKER_05 2:43

It's great. Yeah, next we're a good switch and an interesting experience as well.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

So once again, congratulations.

SPEAKER_05 2:50

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

You know, me, I've always been in awe of everything you've done. Every time when you are interviewing me, I also want to ask you certain questions to understand it. And I have the time. But now I want to say a bigger congratulations because I remember when last year you were talking about switching to digital media, doing your own thing on YouTube, and I'm just watching the success. And I feel so proud watching someone who says I will do something and they do it. That's it. Congrats once again.

SPEAKER_05 3:18

Thanks very much. Yeah, and shout outs to you too, man. Masterminds.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Thank you, thank you.

SPEAKER_05 3:24

Yeah, master your mind.

unknown 3:25

I like it.

SPEAKER_05 3:26

I like it.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Okay, let's start. Let's start going deep into you. Okay. So I was reading about you. You you've lived in Côte d'Ivoire, in England, in China, and then back to Ghana. I want to understand the transition between different countries, different cultures. How did that contribute to the mindset you have that led you to excellence?

SPEAKER_05 3:46

First of all, it wasn't my desire to be globetrotting. This is my father's work, took him around the world because he was a foreign service officer.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 3:55

And so with his first posting, he was born, uh my big brother was born in Senegal. Then his second posting is Wakadu, West where I was born.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 4:04

And then his third posting was Côte d'Ivoire, where we spent a lot of time before he came to Ghana. Then went off to his fourth posting, which was Beijing, for five years. Then he comes back to Ghana and goes on to his sixth posting, which is England. And then I come back to do my sixth form, and he continues for his seventh and last posting in Algiers. Okay. Yeah, so this was my father's job because he studied French. They posted him to out of his seven postings, five of them were French-speaking countries. Okay. Yes. It's just England and China, which were not. And so we had a and he took his family with him wherever he went. Yes. So you get to experience new things at a very early age. Yeah. You get to adapt to change very quickly. My mother was forever packing up and unpacking bags and suitcases and cases and luggage because she was always moving. A posting is average four years, but it can be five, like our China one. It could be three years, like Algeria one. No, Algeria was even two years, 86 or 88. So you're always in a state of movement. There are downsides, you don't get to make uh fast friends, friends that last for a long time because you make a friendship and then you have to go. But the upside is that you are flexible, you adapt very quickly to new situations and you treat human beings as human beings, not as stereotypes.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 5:38

Yeah, you can't come and tell me Nigerians are like this or Chinese are like that. Yeah. Yeah. Because I I've I've gone to school with Chinese people and have experienced it. So you cannot tell me that, oh, the reason why Accra is flooding is because you've given your spaces to some people of a particular uh uh nationality and they are building anyhow. You cannot tell me that. That is not a sensible argument that I'll agree on, you know. Yeah, so so these things have shaped not just me, but my brothers as well. We all think this way, you know, you are very fluid, very adaptable, you don't hold fast to things that don't make sense. You ask questions because our father pushed that kind of narrative. Ask questions, don't assume. You know, don't assume that this is it. Ask questions if you want to know, you ask, you know, research, yeah, and and and and excel, do things well. If it must be done, it must be done well. Yeah, or don't do it at all.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

That that explains a lot. So now I'm I'm understanding why it's easy for you to be versatile. Yes, because one thing I've always admired is that even in one space which you tend to be, you've played so many different roles. It's like you never want to be boxed in.

SPEAKER_05 6:51

No, no, no, no, no, at all. No, you you you um you you're trying to it's it's it's service, first of all, because there are people who need what you do, so do it very well. Just not even for them to give you any plaudits or any fans or kudos, but do it very well because when you get back home and you reflect on the day, you say, Yeah, actually, I did this well. But then while you are bigging yourself up, you're also asking yourself, could I have done this better? You know, could I have improved this? Could I have asked a better question? Could I have done this transition in a different way that would have led to this result? Why didn't I ask this question while I was doing this interview? And now the question only pops up when I'm in my car driving home. You know, yeah, yeah. And then you solve that by having a sheet of paper or something that can capture ideas even while the interview is going on. So you don't pick my sheet of paper. Exactly. You know, so it's just that constant, it doesn't end, you know. You always you always want to do it well, and you also want to improve. You understand? That's it.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

So you told me this once before, but when I was reading about it, I was like, oh, interesting. So your father also did music.

SPEAKER_05 7:58

My father was the school organist in Motown. Interesting. My father was going to be a concert pianist, he did music at sixth form. He was going to go to Rome to go study music and become a virtuoso pianist. He was that good, and then a big brother of his said, who also went to Motown. What career is there in music?

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Yeah, the usual. The usual.

SPEAKER_05 8:28

This is happening way back in the 60s, though. Yeah. What career isn't there in music? And dissuaded him. And he also loved languages too, so he his French ended up in the foreign service, you know. But I know that he had wanted to be a uh a concert pianist. So I think it filled him with a lot of joy. Because I remember in the latter years of his life, he used to I used to come visit him in Adenta, and he would be on his bed with his hands behind his head, smiling, and listening to my youngest brother, Victor, doing his exercises. For those who don't know, Victor is one of the best pianists in Ghana. Victor Day Jr. So it's got my father was like, okay, well, I didn't get to do it, but he's doing it, and I'm loving it. You know, so um, yeah, he was going to be a things could have changed completely differently, but he may have met somebody else, and then I don't know, I've arrived. True. Yeah, yeah. So so yeah, so yeah. So there's music in the family, and I only found out recently that on my mother's side, my mother's father was also a composer, composed tunes, he played, they played the piano as well. So Victor's mix is not just from his father, but it's from his mother as well. Yeah, yeah. Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

So did it ever make you feel like because I know you produce music as well. Did it make you feel you should have explored the music side some more?

SPEAKER_05 9:49

When I look back, probably the route that I was taking, I should have just dived into it more and be more hands-on. I had wanted to go to school after, I think this is after A levels, go study it somewhere, and then but I like the way Victor went about it. Victor went to university, studied English and psychology, but while he was still university, he was performing, he was playing in all these piano bars in the hotels and playing uh session music at a very young age. And so he was doing that, and when he finished graduating, he graduated, he said, No, I'm not gonna go to an office and wear a tie, I'm just gonna continue with my music. Yeah, so that probably was the way to go about it. And I respect him for that. Yeah, and there was a lot of pressure for him to go that that way. He didn't. He he he he took his route, and I think it's working pretty well for him. For me, I guess when you you you are good at many things, you can get distracted or you can go off a um a different path from I don't think I'd have been a great musician.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Why not?

SPEAKER_05 10:57

I don't think I'd have been as great as I had wanted to be. You know, I think I was lazy with with with practicing. I I I disagree.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

I've seen you be excellent at everything you do.

SPEAKER_05 11:08

Maybe I put my mind to it and just blocked everything out, probably. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Because I I I I I produce jingles, uh, I've produced a couple of couple of friends, I've worked on people's probably I could have, yeah. But I'm I have no qualms about what I'm doing now. I think I was born to do this.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

I mean, you're still following your passion. Yes.

SPEAKER_05 11:25

Yes, yes. Curiosity is a big thing for me. Um, I'm big on curiosity. When young journalism or would-be journalism students come up to me and say and ask, what subjects should I study to become a journalist? I think you can study anything, but if you're not curious, forget it.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

True.

SPEAKER_05 11:44

Yes, you have to be curious. You have to wonder, oh, why, who, what, where, when, how. You know, yes, and you keep asking why, why, why? Get to the heart of stuff. If you're not curious, you're not gonna be a good journalist.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Yeah, and I think it shows in your interviews because you know, with certain interviews, when you're watching, it feels like maybe there are particular questions the person is supposed to ask, but in your interviews, we see that you genuinely want to know. Yes, like you are having a conversation, you want to find out.

SPEAKER_05 12:14

I don't know, I want to know, I want to dig deep. And I do have my questions and areas that I want to ask. So you see me holding a piece of paper, it's printed. My questions are there, but if the person goes on a little detour or a little tangent, I mean, I've done this long enough to know that sometimes the juice is where the tangent is. True. Yes. So, but this the scale is to go explore that tangent and then route the question back. Yes, and that's why it's good to have the map. Your questions, your question guide is your map, it will always bring you back. Yeah, yeah. If you if you don't get too so I and you would hear me say something like, okay, now back to what we're discussing. Then we finish we've explored that tangent. I've gotten something interesting from there, then we come back, then we go. So it's just a curiosity.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

So I'm learning here. If you see my interview, it's getting better, you know, it's because of it. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_05 13:02

Uh thank you, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Okay, let's talk about where we saw you first. Yes, you know, the first time I saw you was Who Wants to Be Rich. That's it, the game show. Yes, the game show, which was like um, like Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Yes, it was the same franchise, and it was amazing. I remember seeing that and feeling with was this produced in Ghana?

SPEAKER_05 13:22

Yes, yeah. So that show was gonna be called Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Okay, until they re-there is no change in value. The value is the same. When they removed, they chopped off all the zeros on our money. All of a sudden, 10,000 CDs became one CD. Oh, okay. You know, so the show was gonna be Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Because the top price, which was then 50,000, would have been 500 million CDs.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Okay. Now suddenly it's 50,000. 50,000.

SPEAKER_05 13:48

So from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire became Who Wants to Be Rich. Okay. Yes. So that show was actually my second attempt, or the third, third attempt at being on television.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 13:59

My first attempt was with Tv3. I went for an audition at Tv3, early days. I failed audition. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You failed audit. Yeah, I failed audition. Yeah, and not long after that, a couple of in 2000 and this is 2000 and no, after the failure in the audition, then I saw this ad in the paper, BFT, Business Financial Times. By the way, I still write for them. I write articles for them now every day. Big black chair, full page. And they were asking whether you want to be a host of a game show. Didn't know what the game show was, but I asked, I said, yeah, I want to be, you know. Prior to then, all my experience in media had been on radio because I did campus radio when I was a second year at the University of Ghana for a semester or two, time or two. Then I went off to Kumasi as a salesman, but in Kumasi, I was working on the side as a morning show host, as a producer, as a composer of jingles, on Capital Radio from 1997 to 1999. And then I came back to Akri 99, and then that opportunity came up in 2008. So the big gap I hadn't, oh, I was I was a choice from as well. Defunct now. I was a choice from 2000 to 2001. Yeah, as a presenter, marketing manager as well. So the opportunity comes, and I um yeah, I think I think I can do it. You know, no TV experience. I had failed audition, but I still went in. Sometimes it's good to be ignorant, you know. Yeah, and just go with okay, I think I can do it. So I I I I respond to the ad. They wanted an application letter, they wanted a demo. I had no demo, I had no TV experience. Yeah, you know, so how do I get this done? Yeah. If you remember the show, Greetings from Abroad. Yeah. So one of the assistant producers, one of the production assistants back then, a friend of mine, I was called Nana. Um Nana, we lived in Tamad then, and then Nana said, Nana, listen, Charlie, I they go audition for some TV job. They say I for produce them. I don't get them. How are we going to? And he said, Oh, you know, we need a blue screen. I said, What's a blue screen? Nana. I said, Well, uh, let's go to Telma Committee One. We're gonna buy a lot of blue material, and we're gonna plaster one of the walls in his house. Entire blue screen. Well, blue screen is also the same as green screen, I guess. Yeah, it's just a backdrop for you to put your graphics on. So yeah, plastered, went and bought committee one, plenty blue cloth, covered one of his walls, and then I stand in front of the screen and I say, I believe I'm presenting something, you know. And then he finishes, we finish, and he puts a graphics on it. Then I now understood why. Why it was blue? Yes, yeah. So I added that to my letter, but I wasn't too confident of my skills in front of the blue screen. I said, how do we make this thing extra? So I go to Photo Club, Photo Club in Usu, and I go and book a photo studio and shoot, you know, sit on a bath stool and did all kinds of poses. And so I took some photos.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

I did like a professional.

SPEAKER_05 17:20

Yes, they didn't ask for it, but I I I I put it to my package and then I sent it off. Then I got response that, oh, I should come to an audition. So when I got that, that was a cue for me to start researching. You know, so research is important, preparation. Research, I went online because now I got intelligence that this show is who wants to be a millionaire. So now I knew what we were going for. Yeah. So I Googled the show and then started watching on YouTube, watching the various incarnations. It started out in the UK, so I watched the UK once for a while, then I watched the US once, and I watched the Australian one, and I watched the Nigerian one, and I even watched a French one because I understand French.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 17:59

Yes. And then I was watching, listening to the host, but also looking at the look of the show, you know. And I realized that the hosts all dressed in a particular way. It's a monochrome kind of outfit. So if he's wearing, if he's wearing a black suit, he's gonna wear a black shirt, he's gonna wear a black tie.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Okay, I've never noticed that.

SPEAKER_05 18:16

Yeah, then if it's gray, the guy's gonna wear gray suit, gray tie, gray shirt. If it's blue, different shades of blue. It's a wow. Very, very looks very James Bondy, very smooth, you know, suave. So yeah, I made sure that when I got to the uh the audition day, I was wearing a blue suit, blue shirt, blue tie. You know, yeah. And I sat down in the room to look around at the competition. We're about 40 people.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 18:42

Presenters in that era, 2008, non-presenters, different people. So I did it, I didn't watch everybody. Then I started doing uh elimination game in my head. So the way you they look, they never pick you. You they wear white t-shirt and shorts for the game show. They were a black shirt. You were there, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was a judge before the judge. So you are wearing a nice black shirt, but it's a short sleeve, no tie, they're no gonna pick you, no matter how talented you are, because you don't look the part. TV, I know TV, a lot of TV is looking the part for a show like that. So they're playing that game to while I wait time. People were going in, coming out. Then they called me to come in. So I should put myself up in the I should, I should. I mean, when I entered in this this the reaction they gave in my mind, I was saying, okay, at least the look side, you've got in it now. Now you have to perform. Yeah, you know, it's not all just fumes and optics. You have to show them that you can present. You know, so I presented something small for them, I went home. After a couple of weeks, I got a message again. Come to round two. Interesting. I go there, we are only three.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

That means from 40 to 30.

SPEAKER_05 19:57

Brutal, brutal Darwinian survival and selection of the fittest. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And my my predictions were right.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

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SPEAKER_05 20:38

It was me and the guy who dressed like me. I mean, the third guy was in a suit, and so but he didn't wear a tie, but but they stood bought him in. Okay, so we did another round. You know, then they all went quiet. The whole thing went quiet for a year. I didn't hear from them for a year. Wow, a whole year. A whole year, 2008 to 2009. So I put it aside, and then an opportunity came, middle of 2009, then the year after the edition. I'm not hearing from the people. It was ahead. And um Mike Amon Kwafu. And then so they had they had a production team called Three Heads and a Pen. Oh, okay. Yes, it's a very interesting name. Yeah, Three Heads and a Pen and a Pen. Very creative. And then Gold was the production side of things. So the Three Heads and a Pen. They had a show that they wanted to launch on GTV. It's called In the House, interviewing members of parliament during the week and then edited together and played, aired on Sundays around nine o'clock. And they wanted a host. So I'm not getting anything right now. I mean, I started some audition last year, you know, beat, but and I told them that listen, I I wanted to do some game show, but they haven't come back to me yet. But I'm available. So we started. Started into parliament to go interview MPs, you know. That is when I realized that the MPs, maybe not even the MPs, their assistants like their titles more than the MPs themselves. Yeah, yeah, I think I referred to Honorable Bagbane. I said Alban Sumano Kingsford Bagburn. Honorable member of Parliament for no no no no no no no no no no don't do that. Put the honorable in front of his name. But the thing is the honorable member of parliament, oh that's the way to do it. You don't put the honorable is not his name. So no, no, put the honorable in front. I wanted my show to go on. I put the honorable in front. Yeah, it's quite funny to me. And the people themselves were not that bothered. It was the people around them. Who are always saying if if if you if you mention the name without the honorable, his constituents would think that he doesn't have his seat again. I said, but are you being are you being real? Are you real? Post is always carried by the people around the gatekeepers, post carriers. So we did that for about two, three months, and then I got a call from my people who had gone quiet on me for a year. So, oh Charlie, last round. It's a live uh pilot. We're gonna shoot the pilot.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 23:18

We're gonna shoot, we're gonna shoot, yes, we're gonna shoot the last now we're now down to two people. So we have to go to Nigeria to go shoot. So the production was actually done in Nigeria.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

So the pilot this time was it just you or no, me and another person. So now from three to two.

SPEAKER_05 23:34

So from 40 to 3 to 2.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

So the in the house had it aired yet, or it was.

SPEAKER_05 23:41

We've had a couple of episodes, and I told them, let's go, bro, I need to go to Nigeria to go and do this. So what of course when I got the the the the gig, I had to end in the house. But looking back, in the house was actually a little training session for me to get used to television. True. Because remember, I failed the first audition, so I didn't have any TV experience apart from the demo that I shot. So the house actually played a role for getting done what's happening. Exactly, exactly, exactly. So we went to Nigeria, we're going to the studio, it's a hundred people, and so we have to now host a show. So, in actual fact, what we we shot for that last thing was the first episode that we aired in Ghana. Oh, okay. Yes. So my competitor went first, and I was not supposed to see what he was doing, so they locked me somewhere. I couldn't watch him. You know, he goes, That's his thing, comes back. Now they put him in the room because now he's gone. He doesn't have anything to gain from watching me. Yeah, yeah. So he's in the audience there while I also go and do the show. Good one, and then come back to Ghana. Then a couple of weeks after I'm driving around Woolworths, you know, and I get a message on my phone. I shouldn't be texting, I shouldn't be watching my phone and and and driving, but so this is a confession. Don't do it. But congratulations. I was battling some malaria, man. The parasites just took me. They fled. I can imagine. Yeah, it was a great feeling, man. And then we started this journey. So three years, three seasons, wonderful. And we used to shoot multiple episodes. I mean, in the beginning, we'd I'll go to Nigeria on a Friday, we'll do some rehearsals on Friday, and Saturday we'll do two episodes, Sunday, two episodes, and I come back on Monday morning, first flight. By the time we finished the run the season three, we're doing ten episodes in the weekend.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

Wow, ten episodes.

SPEAKER_05 25:36

Yes, I'll land in Nigeria on a Friday, last flight on a Friday. Saturday morning, seven o'clock. I'm in the studio. We're doing five episodes back to back. Audience and everything. So they had for the five episodes, they'll have two audiences, one one set of audience. One audience would do three shows, and then they'll release them, and then there's another audience would come in and do two shows, and you'd all come in with change of clothing. So those of you who are in the audience with three, three, you have what you're wearing and two changes of clothing. So and then they would switch you around the hall. Yeah, so that doesn't look the same.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

This is a powerful entry into the industry.

SPEAKER_05 26:17

Shale, it it was I'm not surprised because I did a lot of research, and also I think the people were looking for a particular person because I asked them later on. I always ask every job I've gone to, I asked them, Why did you pick me? Okay, so I asked them, Why do you pick me? So well, I said, Why did you pick me? You had experienced presenters and things there. So we didn't we're not looking for somebody that people knew already. Okay, it was a new show, wanted a new face. Around that time, slum dog millionaire had launched around the world. Yeah, so they were jumping on that whole slum dog thing and launching a new face. Okay, you know, yeah, but my people in Kumasi knew me as a presenter by radio, that was radio, yes, but Accra Ghana didn't know me as a presenter, and I was very confused.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

You see, I watched Who Wants to Be Rich. Yes, and it looked like you were somebody. Yes, it didn't look like you were a new face, so I was watching and thinking, wait, is it me who doesn't know this guy? Exactly. Because your composure, your confidence, it felt like you were a big presenter already.

SPEAKER_05 27:21

The composure came from my first radio job, which was as a DJ, this jockey on campus, it was a pirate radio station.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 27:28

I thought it was like the grandfather of Radio New Universe, but I wasn't told that no, it was a pirate station. The transmitter kept moving around. And then when it got to come off hall where I was, I got a chance to be a presenter there. So I did that in my second year, possibly in part of third year. And then when I went to Kumasi in 96, Capital Radio came in 97. And I did part-time radio on Capital from 97 to 99 straight. I was working full-time, but I used to come on air to do the morning show, bits of it from six to eight, and I'll go to my full-time job, which was a salesman from eight to midday. Then on my lunch break, I'll come to Capital Radio. Wow, work there, do production, record jingles, whatever, promotions, whatever. Then go back to my office, work from one to five. After five, I'll come back and work, do a night show on Thursdays called Christ Cross Africa, or do just stuff.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

So I so you're doing two full-time jobs.

SPEAKER_05 28:19

Yes. And and my sales job too gives you confidence. You know, as a salesman, they teach you to introduce yourself every time you go somewhere. So you are used to mentioning your name. Hi, my name is Coffee Day, I'm this. And then when you go to the company, you look for the top guy. My trainer always told me if you go for the top guy and the top guy refuses you, that's it. Nobody's gonna work to you. But if you go for a middle-level guy, he he bounces you and you go above him, you've created an enemy there. Yeah, so always try and hit the top person in what wherever you're going. So so you get that confidence. Maybe that confidence of the movement. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Move in, and you have you know, you know, it's if you're not in the media, it's it's weird having to mention your name. Yeah, it's weird for a lot of people. Yeah, and looking into a camera or looking at also the camera thing, I learned that a bit from the in the house, but a lot more from Who Wants to be rich. When we're doing a recording and my intro and things were not kind of working, gelling, and then the producer comes and says, You have to put yourself in the mood that you are home, and everybody around here is your visitor. You are in the house. This is your space. Yes, this is your space. You are home. When you are home, you're relaxed. If somebody spills water on the guests, it's not a big deal, you just get someone to try and clean it. Yeah, you don't panic because you are home. I've never forgotten that advice. I said treat the stage as your home. So wherever you are, feel that you are home and make it make it smooth for people. So, you know, if you go to a home where the father of the house or the mother is relaxed, he doesn't have to shout and say that I am in charge. You know, he can he can he can be very relaxed with the house helps, with the gate man, he can respect them. He can, you know, and I got that also from my father. My father was very kind of very chill, relaxed, try to make people comfortable, no airs, you know, if there's some tension, crack a little joke to lighten things, cool things, that's yes, yes. So the people said, Um, yes, they wanted a new face, but also when we finished audition, me and my competitor were very good, so they couldn't split, so they took the decision to the crew. Okay, they went to the crew and they asked the crew of these two people, who would you like to work with? Interesting, yes, that says a lot, yes, because the crew actually are the ones who hold the show. Yeah, you go on strike, you have problems. I've heard crew members threaten to defocus somebody who was annoying them. You have a fuzzy picture, or don't put your microphone on when you're talking. Yeah, yeah, though. Yeah, I said so. The crew, the crew said, Well, we like the fact that it takes an interest in the work that we do. Come and ask you, so what kind of camera is this? How long have you been working on this job? You know, what's it like to deal with this issue? So it's all work with him. We like working with him. Yeah, so I've never forgotten that it's always good to be on good terms with the people you are working with. Yep. Because they are the people who make you shine.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

I learned it is they call it invisible PR.

SPEAKER_05 31:32

Serious.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

That most of the time the decisions that are made about you, opportunities and stuff, are made in rooms where you aren't. Yes. And it's somebody's word based on how they experience you 100% that will move you forward. That one is a fact. Yeah, yes. A lot of people, let's say they come into the studio and I see it happen all the time. Yeah, they diss everybody. Yeah, oh, I'm here to see rich. Yeah, yeah. So they walk. No, no, no, no. Beetle people, yeah. But they don't know, I'll ask people, oh, what do you think of it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 32:00

Same thing. Makeup. The makeup artists are the most disrespected in television stations. Somebody will come, oh, I have makeup already, but you see, sometimes the makeup woman just wants to take a picture with you, the superstar, to go and show her people at home that hey, this actress came around this, and okay, I didn't even make her face, but we took a photo. Yeah, yeah. So and what do you lose? Nothing, man. One moment, you know, the show will still go on, it will go on on time. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:28

I'm hearing one thing as you're talking. I'm hearing someone who always chose the hard route. Yes, you know, you always push through to go to the next level. Because, like, let's take um GH today, yeah, and um what's the other one? The morning show at on GTV. Yes, yeah. GTV breakfast. Yesterday was on GH1.

SPEAKER_05 32:46

Yes, and then the morning show on breakfast was on GTV was GTV breakfast. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

Yes. The morning show, if if I mean I'm not a journalist, but I can say the morning show is one of the toughest shows to do. It is. First of all, being live is very tough at 6. Then 6 a.m. And then the fact that the morning show is so diverse because you're talking about so many different topics and everything. And you started two different morning shows and succeeded at them. Like, what mind does it take to achieve that?

SPEAKER_05 33:16

So, well, you want to do well. Okay, you want to do well, you you just want to do it well. I think that's my credo is do it well. You know, whatever they give you to do, do it well. If they give you even MC, people just think, oh, it's oh, you're just introducing people. But the MC is like the he's the event manager while the event is happening.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

Yes, because if anything goes wrong, it's the MC who has to communicate it. Yes.

SPEAKER_05 33:48

So you don't come on and say, oh, the person who is doing the opening prayer, please, it's time for you to pray. No, you should have gone to find out who the opening prayer person is. What they give you their name, pronounce the name correctly so that you you make it sweet for the people who are coming on the stage. You know, one of the worst things that can happen to an MC is you mention the person's name and title, it's wrong. The person comes on and corrects you first.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

Oh God, that you haven't done your work.

SPEAKER_05 34:15

Yeah, you haven't done it. So you have to, and you have to be always three or four steps ahead of the program. So somebody asked me recently, so what happens if you are in the audience and all of a sudden they say, Come and host the show because something happened to the MC. I said, I'll do it. So it's like, but yes, of course. The first thing I'll ask for is the program and the person who I'm liazing with, because I take only instructions from that person. Yeah. And I look at the program and try and work out what's happening for the first three or four things. If I can work out what's happening, one, two, three, four, we're good to go. Because when one is on, I'll be looking at four. When two is happening, I'll be looking at what's happening at five. Yeah, you know, that's it. And it's about an experience for the people in the audience. They shouldn't see the moving parts. Nobody cares how many eggs you put in the omelet, they want an omelet. You know, true. Don't care how you sweat it. We want an omelet ready to eat. Yeah. So keep all the working parts invisible. The people are there for an experience. Give them the experience, you know, and that's it.

SPEAKER_01 35:07

That lesson is very valuable because you know, a lot of people watch someone like you, they watch you succeed in doing so well, and they don't see the sweat that goes into it. So they think, oh, this happens organically, it's easy. You know, oh, I can just pick up a camera and start interviewing people. They don't understand the process. Yes. So let's let's go back to the morning shows. What kind of processes did you have to like give that constant excellence every morning, 6 a.m.?

SPEAKER_05 35:35

You put your stuff aside, nobody's interested in your drama, nobody cares how you got to the place. But they if they have an appointment with you, they turn the TV on at 6, and you are the one there. You know, I remember my father died um on a Friday, on a Saturday, and I came to work on a Monday, did the work, didn't tell them I didn't announce on the air that my father had died, nothing. You know, I finished the show, finished, and then I go to my programs director and said, Bro, um I've got some information to give you, some personal issues. What happens? Oh, my father died for the weekend. Your father died, and you came to work. I said, Yes, he could have wanted me to come to work. Yes, because he there's a saying in ever, and I'll translate it a doing the work is the person. True, it is the work that makes the person, yeah. You know, so do the work. Yeah, nobody is interested in so I don't when I mess up. I've got to find out what's my role in this mess up. Yeah, yeah, I have a role in it. Yeah, it's my fault. I'm seeing that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, so, so if you have that energy, and of all the presenters, they decided that you are the person who's gonna do that show. Yeah, do the show. You've taken the responsibility, do the show, just do the show, you know. Do the show, that's it. If you don't want to do it, tell them you don't want to do it. But don't waste anybody's time. Yeah, and it's it's it's a privilege to get those opportunities to do that kind of work. And when I read, I'm I'm a lover of history, so I I read and when I was preparing for, for example, for GH GTV breakfast, I read the biography of one top American presenter, a lady who revolutionized the morning show, the morning show on TV. If I remember her name, um I'll I'll give it to you. I read her book because I think back to back. Okay, you know, so she was doing first of all, back in those times, TV was ecstatic, everything was in the studio. She introduced the idea of specials. So something's happening in a different country, then she'll go there. Oh, okay. She introduced a show from there, yes. And so when I got to GTV and it was Kwame Kuma's birthday, I said, let's go to N Crofu. Okay. And host the show, open the show from Crofu. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. That was that was inspired directly by that lady whose work I read, her book, her life story. These are her words, you know. So I I learned from that. Uh Steve Harvey's morning show. Um, I learned a lot from that. I used to listen to the morning show, Steve Harvey's morning show. They do they the show airs in the morning, American time, I think Eastern time or something, but in the evenings to have um a summary of the show where they've stripped out all the ads. So it's it's become shorter. And I'll listen to that. And I realized that the whole show was being run by comedians. The whole show. Yes, the presenter was a comedian, all the co-presenters are comedians, you know.

SPEAKER_01 38:37

Sure, the writers are comedians.

SPEAKER_05 38:39

Yes, yes. So I floated that idea, G GTV, but it was a bit too radical for the people. But but I had a vision of on a Friday, let's turn the show over to the comedians. Okay, if you can't do it every day, and I think it will work. Can you imagine all of our top comedians hosting a morning show, discussing the news, bringing their comedic angles? And comedians are very intelligent people who analyze things from angles that we don't even see. And it makes it fun. Yes, it makes it fun. It's good, it's good, it's good for the ratings, it's good for people listening, but they're also talking sense. Yeah, yeah, it's not it's not that they are fools, you know, they're actually the one of the most intelligent people. So that so that so ideas from everywhere. Uh, one of my favorite sayings is from Chairman Mao. Chairman Mao, no, no, Teng Xiaoping. Teng Xiaoping was the leader of China at the time we were in China.

SPEAKER_00 39:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 39:26

We're in China from 75 to 80. I went to China when I was four, came back when I was nine. And China started their big push to move away from this whole communist, uh, and they decide to become capitalist. And he said it's a great thing to be rich. That's one of the things he said. Okay. You know, so to get their minds out of okay, we are we are Chinese people, monochrome. In China, I never saw red or or apart from the on the flag.

SPEAKER_00 39:54

Really?

SPEAKER_05 39:55

Yeah, everybody was wearing Mao suits, these uh suits that Kwan Kuma used to wear, which were buttoned all the way to the top, and it's either green up and down, or it's almost like a kaftan, but long sleeves with cut colors buttons at the top, and you wear a cap on it. It's either brown or blue or green, no bright colors. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So Teng Xiaoping changed things around. And he said something, said, it doesn't matter whether the cat is black or white. The question is, can it catch mice?

SPEAKER_00 40:29

True.

SPEAKER_05 40:30

Yes. So forget about labels. Oh, we are communists. Oh no, we are we are left of center, right of center. Can you not be understand that stuff? But you have politicians saying we are left leaning, we're right leaning. What listen? Are you providing roads for the people? Are you providing free education? Are you providing housing? Are you providing the thing has to work? Are you delivering? You know, and and and that whole ethos was was what the um the Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Lee Li Kwang Yu used to develop his his country. That we are not interested in labels. We want to know whether the thing works. If it works, take the idea from wherever, but make sure that it can work. So I'm I'm big on ideas from different places.

SPEAKER_01 41:15

It shows for it to work. It shows that's why you are versatile because all you care about is delivering, it's doing a good job. Yes. You don't care about being labeled as and caffeine. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Am I doing the work?

SPEAKER_05 41:27

Yes. Is it working? Is the work working? You know, I remember when we did uh when we did uh 2022, that was our first Ghana month after I joined the show. I joined the show in 2021. Okay, and then 2022 March, we did Ghana month. And our Ghana month was just different. Uh so we divided the the the month into different uh we covered different regions. So we covered the northern region, we covered uh so the main ethnic groups the can, the molly da Gumba, the Eva, and the Gan. And every week was dedicated to the people. And I decided I said, listen, let's take this thing to a different level. We're not just gonna talk about Ghan culture and and ever culture and look the part. So there was the day it was Ghan, there was a Ghan day. I said, how does the traditional priest look like when he's priests? They call me the white stuff, everything. Does he wear shoes? No. So that day I did not wear shoes. I walked around GTV without shoes, man. Even after the show.

SPEAKER_01 42:32

Wow. Yes. You were you were that a method actor.

SPEAKER_05 42:35

A method actor in in in in tune, in character, in sync. People couldn't believe it. Then there was one to I think I did a I did a I came in as a as uh an executioner. Man, I had I was looking all like you know, with and I had a sword or something. I I I pressed the jig out the best into the studio. Yes, video. I bessed in the studio and then I started doing some myself in the spirit. Charlie, people actually thought that something had happened to me. So, Charlie, the guy played with the thing and not the spirit came down. I'm thinking my head, you have acting, man. But it was convincing and it worked. And then after that, we got into the news. After that, all the other TV stations, this they realized it they lose guard to this Ghana map thing. They were just playing safe in the studio. The next year we saw how everything changed. Oh, we've done something. Then follow, we lead, you follow.

SPEAKER_01 43:33

That's the thing about when you're doing something with all your energies. You inspire others to also I guess so.

SPEAKER_05 43:39

It's infectious. Yeah, infectious. Yes, energy is infectious, so it's bad energy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When you walk around with dull people, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't like complainers. Yeah, don't complain. If you can fix it, fix it. If you can't, don't keep moving, yeah, yeah, yeah. Keep moving. I don't like it.

SPEAKER_01 43:54

But you have so much experience, especially with interviewing people, you know, and I'm as I'm hearing your story. And I'm understanding how you dealt with different people from different countries. I understand because you've done over a thousand interviews.

SPEAKER_05 44:06

It's a lot. Wow. Yes. But not as much as my good mentor, Larry King.

SPEAKER_01 44:12

Well, that's the guy. 60,000?

SPEAKER_05 44:17

60,000 interviews. He started from radio, went into TV, went into cable, ended up on digital.

SPEAKER_01 44:24

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 44:24

And did 60 years he was working. He was doing a thousand in a year. Because he was working Monday to Friday on CNN for many years. Doing TV and studio and everything. He was just, and he I've read his book. He's gone, he's got a book, How to Talk to Anyone. Look for that book. If you can read only one public speaking book, look for the one written by Larry King.

SPEAKER_01 44:45

Because I always used to watch Larry King's interviews and I'm amazed at how he gets things out of people.

SPEAKER_05 44:53

So Larry King says and he did a training. It's on YouTube. Larry King interviewed it. He said, There are only three things in an interview. Number one. That's a short question. Number two. Listen carefully. Number three. Follow up. He said, research yourself no day inside. He says, listen, you can go into an interview without doing any research. Because then you are almost like the person who is at home, who is listening and doesn't know anything about the topic. So now your job is to use the tools and the questions are the tools to draw out that information from the person. So the person at home feels that ah, I have learned a lot in the 30 minutes or one hour.

SPEAKER_01 45:45

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SPEAKER_05 46:22

I mean, Larry King gave an example of how during the Gulf War, first Gulf War in 1990, with George Bush Cedar, a general came on a general came on the show to just give an update about what was happening. And Larry King introduced the show. Welcome to Larry King Live. My guest is General from whatever division of the US um army. General, tonight, what happened? That was the first question. What happened? Yes, what happened? Not a deep. What happened? Two words. What happened? General gives the thing. Oh, we deployed this. We did this. Ah, blah blah blah. Larry's there, you know, he's listening carefully. Next question. And Larry King. The guy general goes off again. He keeps ah Larry's listening. The next question, he doesn't even open his mouth.

SPEAKER_01 47:32

It's almost like the guest is doing the interview by themselves. But that's it.

SPEAKER_05 47:37

That's it. He said you must always talk less than your guest. Because you invited him there to talk. So give him the opportunity to talk. Talk. Leave him. And out of the things he's saying, because he said, listen carefully. Always there are things he will say. If the person didn't say it, there's nothing to follow up on. But if the person said it, then you have every right to follow up.

SPEAKER_01 47:59

How come how come for lessons? I always say, me here, I don't do interviews yet. What I do is I have conversations.

SPEAKER_05 48:05

And that's the good, that's a great way to think about it. So it is it's not, it's not, it's like a chat between two brothers, and people just happen to be overhearing what's happening. Like the gentleman in the white t-shirt on the camera, he's he's just listening to two people just chatting, and that's how it should feel like. Yeah, you know, it's not it's not it's not a grilling, it's not interrogation, you're not at a B and I uh giving information on the pain of death.

SPEAKER_01 48:31

No, it's it's a conversation with two two guys because me, I always look at what my strength is that can make me unique. That's it. So when I was coming to start this, I asked myself, Am I going to be a good interviewer? Maybe not, but I realized I know how to hold engaging conversations, and that's the key. So if that's my strength, that's the key.

SPEAKER_05 48:51

And people will listen. And you have a great name. Mastermind is great. Right there.

SPEAKER_01 48:55

I like it. Okay, now let's let's talk about something that you've done, which people say I've done it, but you did it better. To be able to reinvent yourself, yes, you know, because we've all seen you on TV every day, we've gotten used to that, and you know, digital media comes and it's exciting, but most people don't want to make that moves. Yeah, and you just woke up in your prime and switched. And now you are still in your prime killing. There are very few interviews that I can sit down and watch and feel so entertained yet educated. What kind of strength did it take to do that shift?

SPEAKER_05 49:36

You don't lose what you learn. Yeah, you don't lose your learn. I think I've been doing this for quite a while now, this reinvention thing. Because uh when I graduated in '93, I was not quite 22. Um while I was in school, I was a translator's assistant to my father. My father was doing translations for the FAO, and I used to translate for him. So when I finished school, um even before national service, I did a few translation gigs, even out of Accra in Abris. I did my national service at the University of Ghana. I was thinking about being an academic. And then I got a job opportunity to go work for one of my seniors in Motown as a salesperson. So sales is a great way to to it's a great way to connect with people, it's a great way to deal with unexpected things, it's a great way to learn persistence when the person doesn't want to buy.

SPEAKER_01 50:44

Yeah, you know, a lot of rejection. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 50:49

Oh, don't call me, I'll call you, that kind of thing. We'll never call you. You know, so so so that helped. Then so I did a sales career for about 17 years, you know, but I was doing radio and television alongside. I mean, who wants to be rich? I was still employed full-time as a as a as a salesman, sales, commercial manager with a shipping company in Tema, you know. So the way to reinvent, I guess it helps when you are doing, I mean, the you are doing, I didn't just dive into media because I started from when I was on campus.

SPEAKER_00 51:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 51:30

As a as student broadcasting, then when I went to Kumasi, it was part-time. Then I came to Accra Choice F it was full-time, so I had experienced everything. And then Who Wants to Be Rich came. I did it for three seasons, the show ended. But I felt that ah, Charlie, now I step somewhere and people recognize me from the show. Okay, they still do, which is something that I really am grateful for, and it still freaks me out because this show, the last episodes were aired in 2012. We're not in 2026.

SPEAKER_01 52:07

I mean, the funny thing is you've you've done so much, but when I see you, I still remember, yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 52:12

So that's 14 years. So, so I after 17 years in the sales thing, I thought this is the time for me to make a clean break and go out on my own. I was going to be like a corporate master of ceremonies because I had a corporate background 17 years, and I have this national recognition which can open stores for me. Yeah, you know, I go anywhere I go, I introduce myself. I don't assume that people know me. You know, but we know you. I said, Well, I don't know you. So you still have to do it. I mentioned my name, so you can also mention yours. Okay, does it work like that? They say yes. So I left at a good time too. They were gonna give me a new car, a new salary, and everything. But I didn't see myself being in this shipping business till I'm 60. And I was apprehensive when I went to tell my boss about leaving, you know. So when I told him, he said, Oh, cafe. I missed what I did here. If I get opportunity, I could take her. So I realized that all I had been worrying about was not necessary. Yeah, and side note that my boss who gave me, kind of said, go ahead and fulfill your dreams. He's now ambassador uh in UAE. He's not ambassador H R T Ali. He's calling Mr. Ali, he's not an ambassador, you know, serving the country, doing what he wants, I guess. He also followed his dream. Yeah, yeah. That's it. So, so so it was a so I left there and went straight into like event management, hosting. And a lot of friends were ah, Talibad, you sure say this thing will feel work. And I'm thinking, yeah, yeah, it will work. We'll make it work, man. Yeah, we'll make it work. Yeah, think about it, there are events happening every day. You just have to find them every single day. There's an event. Social, corporate, it's only weddings that are happening on weekends, but even these days, people are doing weddings in weekdays. Yeah, yes, so just depend on find your niche, deal with it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 54:10

So I like that personal responsibility you take and everything.

SPEAKER_05 54:13

Yeah, do find it, find it. Ask I remember I sent email, I I I went online and did research. I said, listen, I'm I'm leaving. There was no chat GPT, no AI. So you you you you Google things, you know. I want to set up this business. Uh, what do I need to do? You go through it, and then I just use the skills that I had. When I what in 2009, um, that's when Ben died. Um, I remember I was listening to radio and I knew very well from my research that jingles are more effective than just adverts that just talk. You have people talking. Yeah. So I decided that I'm gonna start listening to the radio just for the adverts. So I'll go to I'll listen to Atlantis. Atlantis had lots of ads in between the music and then Joy FM. So I'd have my little recorder, tape recorder, and then when it's time for commercial break, I press record and I record the entire advert. Then I'll go home, write out the script. These days, people don't even know they're so lucky now. Everything AI. We'll write, we'll listen to play. Yeah, chat GBT will just do it for you. Oh, do it for you. Everything down. Then I'd go and compose a tune. Compose a tune for it. It has to be 60 seconds because you can't go more than 60 seconds. Yeah, I remember and Interplas. Interplas had a new product called Everlast. For windows and doors. Can I even remember the home? Welcome to the world of everlasting for windows and doors, everlast. And I knew that because of my music background, don't keep the intervals too wide. Otherwise, people can't sing the song. So if you're you're playing on the piano, it's very simple. There's five notes. Then let's get a change. Then we change. Everything was in my head. So I just go to the studio, A B Studio Temple Committee 8. I said, listen, we start. Record everything. One minute, boom. Burn it on CD. Now let's go to Interplast. So I go to Interplast and my sales training tells me always look for the top guy.

SPEAKER_00 56:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 56:47

So who is a beautiful and fortunately, Interplast used to bring products on our shipping line. So I knew who the big boss was, Mr. Factory. So I'm go and some I I want to see Mr. Factory do have do you have an appointment? No, but I want to see Mr. Factory. But it also helps the sales trainer. When you charm the the receptionist, I think I was there and somebody mentioned her name. So I filed it in.

SPEAKER_00 57:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 57:13

So I mentioned her name. I said, she looked at me as if she knew me. So here to see Mr. Factory, please. Sometimes the trick I use is also use the person's first name. Okay. It's as if you were him. No. Don't use that. Don't use the mister. Then you'll know you are a foreigner. Yeah. So long story short, I gained interest into the CEO's office. I said, Well, I have something that I want you to listen to. Then I put the CD out. Put it in, and I keep quiet. Listen. When you're making a page, after you speak, don't speak again. The next person who speaks is credit card. It shouldn't be you. So don't oversell it. Give it to him. He listened to the thing. He played it again. He said, Who produced this? I said, Me. You? I said, Yes. Hold on a second. Then he calls um his marketing manager.

SPEAKER_00 58:09

Or marketing manager.

SPEAKER_05 58:10

Say, get through to Charterhouse, uh, multiple concepts. Yes. Have something I want them to listen to. Bottom line, they pay for it. A lot of money that in those days. Yes. Yeah, a lot of good money. You know, my salary times come with my salary time. My salary times four or five. Oh. Nice. One piece of art. You know. So pitching stuff is good. You have to learn these things. And if you have a sales, sales is life, really. Everything is life.

SPEAKER_01 58:37

Because we're always selling ourselves. Selling ourselves. You know.

SPEAKER_05 58:40

So so I've been doing all these little things outside of my 95. And also don't leave your 95 too quickly. Yes, because I was in my 95. I left. And and when you step out, don't think about the mistake, what will go wrong. What if it goes right?

SPEAKER_01 58:57

What if it goes right? That's such an important question.

SPEAKER_05 59:01

What if it goes right? What if it goes right? You know? Beginning, it was a bit rough because you know, people don't know that is what you can do. They see you as a TV guy. They don't know that you can also host your events. Yeah. You know, so you do a couple of, and but I also know that you see if you X excel, people will call you. So whatever gift they give you, do it well. Do it well. Somebody will come and say, hmm, I liked YouTube. Are you available on this day? Then you know that somebody's thinking about you. But I also marketed myself, I had business cards with my picture on the back. Because I knew that my image was selling. I was writing. Listen, if you have an unfair advantage, take advantage of it. You have to use it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If your father gets money, take the advantage of that asset and use it to do whatever you want to do. If you know big people, it's an unfair advantage for you. If you're beautiful, it's an unfair advantage. People do business with people who they they like to see. Don't be ashamed of your unfair advantage. Use it. I knew that I had face recognition. So I put my picture on the back of my business card, and it was a bright, it's just a red background. Red background, it stands out. It stands out. What's this red thing? Me there smiling, you know, in my suit.

unknown 1:00:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:13

And then on the front, it tells you what I do. Master of ceremonies, my telephone, everything. You know? Yeah. And it's just based on that, that Bollaret contacts me in 2014 with the opportunity to go and host a morning show on Star FM. Star FM came before GF. Oh, so you did Star FM before G. Because we're all part of the same group, yeah. But I did staff for one year. So I was the first morning show host for Star FM for a year. And then when they bought GH1 from uh Charterhouse, then said, you know what, we're going to move you there to become the first morning show host. So a lot of research. What do morning show hosts talk about? What kind of how is your intro gonna be like? Um, I decided, for example, that I was gonna wear um uh happy socks. I still wear happy socks.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:01

Oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:03

Yes, because I read we realized that um not everybody listens to the show because of the conversations. Yeah, some people just like the fashion sense, or some just want to be entertained.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:14

That's it. Yeah, you know, so I thought every time I'll change my socks. So that that's something to talk about.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:20

This is how I departed from my old man because my old man was a very conservative guy, he was wearing black trousers, he's gonna wear black socks. He's wearing brown trousers, he's gonna wear brown socks. I never saw any pair of socks that were in two colors.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:34

I'm like your old man. Yeah, black trousers. Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:38

So they drilled it into him from Matchimoto School because that's why he started wearing shoes for the first time, you know. So so, but I moved departed from that and decided to have this, and then we were thinking, okay, back then my co-host at GH1 was Beswa, the one of Hammond. Okay, so it's like we're like a couple on the show. So let's get it like an identity for ourselves. Can we name ourselves something that people want to follow? Then we're thinking, and then I said, You are Beswa, you're queen. So Queen B, Queen B works. So if you are Queen B, then I'm King what? Calf. Calf we, no, King Calf. Okay, King Calf and Queen B. Okay, yeah, we named ourselves. Nice, yes. So it wasn't the people who gave you the name. Okay, so this is King Calf is Queen B. And then me with my happy socks, and then I'll be teasing her on the show, and we had this kind of nice, friendly, because I realized that the successful morning shows and I researched them around the world. Yeah, there must be chemistry, you know, chemistry, of course, because that energy is infectious. Yeah, the hosts are having a good time, those who are having a bad time will realize that oh, you know what, it's not that bad after all. Yeah, smiling, you know. So let me wake up in the morning to this positive energy. So you leave your frowns in the makeup room. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, poor makeup artists. I think give them the frown when they start moving your face, your face should leave your frown in your car. Yeah, yeah. Sorry to the makeup artist. Leave your frown in the car. Nobody cares about your frown, you know. Yeah, so so we created those things, and then that experience was there, you know. And then when we left, I left my contract. Expired in 2018. This is time for another switch. So now I'm thinking, what can I do? I'm not no longer on television again, but we need to earn money. Okay, let's do training. Uh media, what are my skills? I I know how to interview people. Um, and public speaking, people come up to me and say, Listen, I want to be trained. I'm preparing for my PhD dissertation. I need to defend it, teach me. Oh, I'm going for a job interview. I need some tips. The fact, the first I've been I've been going there two, three times, it's not been working. Or I'm running for like an MP. I need some tips. Uh, help me out. So I thought I could go do a business around training. Yes. So then I started doing my training. My first big break was from a cousin who I introduced to Business and Financial Times, and they've been right, they've been they've been publishing every week on every Monday in BFT since I think 2016 or 2017. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, constantly. You know, so so his organization, the IIPGH, it's like an association of internet professionals and ICT professionals. They needed some training. So I went there, I did the training, and then um use that training to promote myself as a trainer on the internet, you know, and then you start getting gigs from people who want to come and train their staff or uh CEO wants like a one-on-one training. And I still do the training till now, you know. Yes, yes, and it's it's it's it's even more steady than MC because an MC gig is dependent on somebody else. Yeah, just one is dependent on it, yes, and and and I always like to drive the car to be the passenger, you know. The MC gig can swerve a day before. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:54

If someone cancels their yeah, yeah, yeah. That's your thought.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:57

So, oh you know what? Another person too went and found uh an MCO and then you are there holding an empty bag. Yeah, but if you're doing your own training business, yeah. So, like I said, I think it's my upbringing. You should be able to adapt quickly to situations. I saw how when my mother, when my father left the foreign service and he had to be on his own, he did different things. At one point in time, he drove uh um converted this um 505 estate into basically um he used to do a transport service from Tudu to Lume. Really? Yes, he would drive. He would drive, he would drive himself. Yes, he was like he was a driver, commercial driver. And then when he gets to Lume, he would take out his dictionary and start reading through his words. Oh, okay. He was practicing, he was training, he was researching, he was preparing to so that was before he became a translator.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:54

Yes, okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:55

No, he was a translator already, but but but then he was looking for the FAA job. Okay, yes, so. And there was a test coming up, so he had to be rehearsing. Yeah, he said he would you would hear the drivers saying comments, make passing comments such as ah, which can driver be this way? So if he did come by instead of him chatting, I eat a read. They didn't know that he was a former foreign service officer, they didn't know he was a former diplomat. And he didn't really care. He he he he had his goal that this is this is a means to an end. Yeah, when I get that job, I'll know I'll not need to do this again. And there's one thing I did that I'm not really proud of. Um, you know, when you register the car as a commercial car, you have to. There's a in Ghana we have there's a you paint there's a black box around the fender where you have the name of the driver, your telephone number, everything. Yeah, they still do it. I'm sure they do it on the other side. Yeah, they still do it. You know, and I used to wash the car.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:47

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:48

And then I think I don't think I was proud of my old man running a commercial one pound, one pound service. So I started using kerosene to clean off.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:59

Clean and small, small.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:01

And then one day my father found out so um you are you are wiping off the the the you don't want you don't want to why are you wiping off the fact that this is what I do, you know? Would you prefer that I wear it to steel or something to come and look after you guys? You know? I'm disappointed in you, you know, and I felt so kind of I felt that this was this was just I didn't know what I was even thinking, who I was trying to impress, you know. How how old were you at that time? Oh he started doing the FAO job when I went to university. I went to university at 19. Okay, so maybe I was about maybe 18, 17, you know, at that time you were peer pressure, you want to impress me. The world affects you more, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're now trying to fit in, exactly, you know, and so and then later on, he he got the the translator job. And guess who was his assistant?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:06

Me, you yeah, but I think even though you you feel ashamed, it was a valuable lesson, yes where you know, because like your father was saying, he was doing an honest job, you know, and leaning to something big, exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:22

And I know there are people who look down on events, but they're just an MC. Yeah, I probably get paid more than you. People look down on people look down on everything, they look down on everything if they're not involved in it and they want a fancy title, and but so I I have learned to be immune to what people think. Yeah, I'm hundred, I'm vaccinated against people's opinions.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:50

Yeah, when when I was starting this journey, people ask so many questions, so many questions that are you've gone from CEO to inspirational speaker, and then they say, Ah, now you're an interviewer.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:02

Like they just dismiss things that they don't understand, you know, and it shows you what it speaks more to them than to you. Yes, yeah. If you dismiss somebody, instead of asking an intelligent question, what pushed you to do this? Why are you doing this? And you get a very interesting response that would be completely unexpected. But people have an expected answer and they want the question to fit the answer. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. So they come with it. They come with it prepared. Yeah, no, you must come in with questions. Yes, the intelligent thing is to come in with questions like children. So a child wants to learn a word. I remember I'll never forget my youngest, I think, youngest son, one of them. I have three sons. One of them, when he was learning to speak, you were driving and then you see, what is that?

unknown 1:09:46

What is that?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:47

I love children who ask what's just what is that?

SPEAKER_05 1:09:50

They just want to know. They're trying to absorb, they're trying to learn as much as they can so they don't feel shy. Yeah, when it mentions the word and you laugh, they don't care. Don't say it again.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:58

Don't say it again, yeah, until they get it right.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:01

I don't think we should stop being children in terms of wanting to learn things that should never stop. Let the learning never ends, it never ends. Don't stop, don't stop, you know, because you have to have this childlike wonder. Oh, wow, you know, whoa, this is this is interesting. I didn't know. Tell me more. What did it feel like to do this? You know, what's it like to be a uh makeup artist? How many faces do you do a day? Yeah, you know, she's never been asked that question before. That curiosity, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:34

You know, when I say I've done a lot of things, but I enjoy this more than anything I've done. Because I love to learn. Yes, and I've come to realize these conversations, as much as I started this to educate people, but me, I'm learning so much.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:49

So much. You finish an interview and you realize that, oh, you know what, I need to go and check my this, or I need to go and listen. The kind of things people tell you, bulldog said, bull god said. You can always you you see, you can always be a great father to your children, even if you're not a great husband or a great wife. You can always be a great father or or mother to your children. Uh Grams Morgan said when a man makes a mistake, women and children suffer. His father taught him that. He was telling me. People tell you things just and then you realize that oh, this is some wisdom. It's like just having a conversation with modern-day sages and philosophers. It doesn't have to be Aristotle and Seneca and all those people.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:41

We're gonna have people people are as wise as they were. This is just written down for us to read.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:46

And people are street sense, street wise with what they how they got. Listen, listen, Blacko, Blacko, Blackout tells me, I asked Blacko, so how did your music come out? How did you come out? Konongo, sir, WhatsApp status. Yeah, he went in started, then he just was just sharing it on the WhatsApp. And one day he realized that the thing was going fast because he steps out of town, and then somebody, one of the people in the area, passing by, they didn't even stop. So good music, good music. Somebody not even in his age back at all because the status jumped and went all around, you know. So you have more power than you think, and there's a lot to learn from everyone.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:25

Once from what you said in the beginning, once you have curiosity, you are done.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:30

J Dublé, the way he raps, he tells me that there was a somebody who, a madman, for want of a better word, who used to walk around in tackrady. Interesting. That's his inspiration. That's his inspiration. That's how he raps. That's the inspiration, you know. So you can learn from anybody. Yeah. And talking even of madmen, you do you realize that our government watches sellers they always have enough food for the down and out in society that they feed. I've seen it happen so many times. You are in the queue, and then somebody who has psychological issues, you realize that he's not well, that hell matter, that doesn't look clean, everything. The person comes, and that person, even that person knows that you know what, I can't just enter the queue and look for food. So they stand at a respectful distance, you know, and they make a signal to the seller. The seller sees them too. And they will help them. I will help them when they finish, and they deserve something that they give them. It speaks a lot to the society. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:36

Sometimes we think you have to be the biggest person to help, but these people show you that anybody can help.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:42

Yeah. You know, so so so there's a lot. If you open your eyes, I mean, look at all the sunsets that we are missing just by sitting inside. Yeah. You know, lots of sunsets, lots of sunrises, you know, and there's so much art around, there's so much beauty, so much to learn from around watching animals and things, and it's and I understand why Pastor Ottobo says he he doesn't watch much television, he prefers National Geographic.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:12

Back in the day, he said it's because you learn a lot from those things, and nature is all around us, but have you realized that right now nature has become expensive rather? You know, we work so hard to move away from nature, and then when we get money, we are we are working hard to go back into nature.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:28

It's terrible. We cut down all the trees. I don't understand why we are making building roads and we are cutting down trees. Yeah, and then you travel elsewhere in the areas that are not that don't have our weather, they have trees, they have green spaces, they have packs with benches. We can just gonna sit in the park there with your books. You see students sitting cross-legged on a bench studying, yeah. Or some down and out guy who has just found a place and he's just chill eating his sandwich. You know, it creates spaces for people, opportunities, you know, and we have all the green la.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:56

Do you think we're getting lost as a society?

SPEAKER_05 1:14:58

We need to be found, man. Yeah, I don't understand this flood, the floods, we're recording this day after some crazy floods. Yeah, and it's not as if the sea, the sea rose 30 meters and we had a tsunami. It's just bolla bala boila in the gutter, and it happens every year. Oh we discuss it every year, and it keeps going on, yeah, and high areas, easily hills, you know, are looking like disaster zones. Yeah, I'm seeing streets in committee six, and you have um motor boats, army motor boats moving down the streets to rescue people. Yeah, how it's not a war zone, it's just rain, man. We should be able to fix this.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:48

I keep feeling like, and I think that's part of what this mission is. I feel so many people have been educated wrong, yeah, and it's created a mindset that makes us feel like victims. Yes, instead of being responsible and fixing things. Exactly. Exactly. And I just wish that we could let people understand that if everybody did what was good, yes, well, and did it well.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:12

That's it. We'll solve our problems.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:14

We'll solve our problems.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:15

There are people who are responsible for cleaning the streets, for making sure that we we don't put rubbish in the gutters. Do the work well, yeah. Do the work well, do the work well, drivers drive well, just do the work well, excellence, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:26

But we we've gotten so used to mediocre.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:28

Yes, mediocre is actually celebrated, it's a disaster, yeah. Oh, it's okay, yeah, it's alright. Uh I wanted a cook, he brought me Pepsi. I don't want the cook. I want I don't want the Pepsi, I want the cook. So but it's the same, it's not the same. It's not the same, it's not the same. It's different.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:46

I remember I had a uh household man, he did something that bust our mind. So one of the guys in our house really liked Armstrong Malta, yes, so he gave him an Amstel Malta bottle to go and buy Amstel Malta for him, and he came back with Malta kinness. No, why he actually convinced the shop owner because you know you can't give Amstel Malteser. No, no, no, no, you can't. He convinced the shop owner to give him a different bottle, and he brought him, he was like, Why? I said, Oh, this one is better.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:16

How? Is that what I want? You can't tell me that.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:21

He saw nothing wrong with it.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:22

It's wrong. You can't tell me that. What do you mean it's better? Better for you, not for me.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:27

You know, yeah. But what do you think about that? The differences. I I feel um a lot of the confusion in in town, if I can say that, also comes from the fact that there are so many differences and we don't like to accept each other's differences.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:42

Yeah, we should just accept people. People cannot think like you. Uh there's there's a my one of my WhatsApp platforms, I I have just exited it. Uh not physically, but I don't contribute. You have mentally I've checked out. Because I sometimes I go in when I'm on release tension, I'm going to see the conversations, the arguments. No, so somebody says something which is offensive, and then the person who has been affected says, Man, I don't like what you said. And you are it's double standards because when somebody did this to you, you didn't like it. The of the offender doesn't see anything why, and he says, You should be thinking like this. And I'm thinking, bro, you you cannot be telling people how to think. Yeah, yeah. The fact that you think like this doesn't mean other people think. That's why we have diversity. You know, we don't have all the bottles looking like this. No, you know, this is a mastermind special. Thank you. It's not the same as a coke bottle. Yeah, oh, it takes water. No, don't give me that. You see, you're on a slippery, slippery slope to now accepting anything. Yeah, you know, just you see, where was I? Yes, I was judging of public speaking competition uh two weeks ago. Not last week. The tiebreaker question was okay, the government of the parliament of Ghana has passed the anti-LGBTQI bill law. Um convince donor partners who threatened to leave or to withdraw support to stay and still support Ghana. That's the that's your job. So your job is to convince those who said if you this bill is passed, they will withdraw their support. And I was listening carefully to the people who had to come and speak in two minutes on this issue. One of them was a pastor. And immediately he didn't even listen to the question. Because the question was convince the donor partners to stay in spite of the fact that the law has been passed and they said they will leave when the law is passed. Yeah, he started talking about no, you cannot have men walk around with sleeping with men. No, no, no, no, no. We just listened to him in silence because we are the judges. And we I scored him low because he he didn't even follow, he allowed his his prejudices to get in the way of answering the question. Yeah, you know, so a lot of people need to know how to listen to an opposing view without accepting it.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:19

100%.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:20

You see, I can listen to what you are saying that I don't agree with, and the fact that I'm listening doesn't mean I'm going to accept it.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:28

There are so many people that I admire that I don't agree with. Yes, and this is allowed. Yes. I admire the person's tenacity, I admire the fact that they are bold with their opinion. I disagree with their opinion, but that's perfectly fine. Yes, you know, I've said this a lot, I won't mention his name, but if I mention his name, some people will come for me. But I've said this a lot about a public speaker who was murdered not too long ago. On the fact that there were so many things he said I disagreed with. But the fact that he would be vocal and he would debate.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:01

I agree. I can I can I can I can live with that. Yeah. Yeah. So it it it there's a quote on this thing that it it is it's a skill to actually hear an opposing view. And you see you you don't the fact that you are somebody saying something that you don't agree with should not make that person your enemy. Yes. It should not make that person your enemy. But it's something that, for example, here, if if you they know that you are of one political persuasion, they don't expect you to agree with anybody at different opposition. Politics, yes, football, they don't expect religion, yes, you know, but we see it on the backstage. You have a very heated political conversation, and the moment the cameras go off, the mics are turned off. The guy in party A will say, you know what, I agree with the party B guy, but you know, I can't say it's on the air, you know, so that's it.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:02

And and one thing I've come to realize most people do with their beliefs and their opinions is they make it their identity. Yes. So now once it becomes your identity, once somebody is talking against it, you feel they're talking against you. So I am a Man You fan. Yes. So once somebody says, Oh, Man You didn't do well this season, I feel like I'm being attacked. So now I can't analyze the fact that, oh, maybe we could have done better. But you can. And then I'll be arguing.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:31

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Me, I always in my trainings, I always ask people, listen, you don't need anybody to even tell you uh how you did when you've done whatever you've done. You can ask yourself those two questions. Uh, what did I like about my performance? First question. Answer it. What would I do differently next time to improve it? That's all. The second question is actually, what didn't you like or what went wrong? But just phrase it in a way that's positively. Yeah. So what would I do differently next time to improve it? That's all. You don't need to have somebody judging your performance. You can actually analyze your own self. You are a valid person.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:03

Yes. But it demands you stepping out of yourself and basically doing the audit. Charlie, I know force here. Okay, this one I did well. Um, okay, could do better.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:16

You know, yeah, you can. And knows you more than you. And that's what leads to growth. Yes. You can't grow if you can't look at yourself and figure out how you can improve. You'll just stay stagnant.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:28

That's it. And we didn't all start out like this. I remember my first, I was going back into my old YouTubes. We started out with one camera. Yeah. On the phone, my phone. My phone, I just reversed the camera and uh I did a chat with the late Joe Latte, great commentator, broadcaster. You know, one phone. Yes. So when I see people say, Oh, what camera are you using now? I said, What do you have now? What phone? Use it, start. Oh, I want to start a podcast. The best way to start is to start. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And don't expect that the first one will have a thousand views. If one view, one view, one person, one person has.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:04

If it's even your mother who watched it, it's one.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:06

And that person has come, was doing something else and spent 12 minutes or 18 minutes. Yeah. You know, to watch your stuff. But you have to start.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:13

And you know, Derek, connected minds, when he came here to do my conversation, he said something that was so valuable. So when I was starting Masterminds, because of what my schedule is like, I batch recorded about 20 episodes. Yeah. Right. And then Derek said, it's good. He understands what I'm doing because of my schedule. But I'll realize that I will learn more after I start putting it out. So he wishes I had just done about four or five, and then I continue shooting. And later I realized that, yeah, it's true. Because now when I go back and watch some of them, you know, I realize that oh, I wish I'd asked this question. I wish I'd done this like it come out.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:56

Exactly. Jump out of the plane and then construct the parachute as you are coming down. Please don't literally speech. Figure out speech. Or someone says jump out of the plane, you know, and construct the parachute. But that's the whole idea. You figure it out as you're going. That's what life is really. We don't have the manual. Nobody has the manual.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:16

You know, people say, show me the way. We are all figuring it out as we're going. It's my way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:20

Pick what you can from it, but it's my way.

unknown 1:25:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:24

Your professionalism is exemplary. I want you to talk to me on what you think other people can do to make sure that in everything they do, they maintain that level of professionalism.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:39

Uh, Pastor Utabu once this is a story shared by Reverend Albert O'Cran. He said there was a time Pastor Utabu was asked a question. He says, How come your sermons always sound on point? And Pastor Utabu said that anytime he comes onto the stage in in front of the pulpit, in his mind, there is somebody who has never heard of him before. Never. So you've got to keep the standard, and probably that person got a recommendation from another person that oh Charlie, you need to listen to this preacher. Yeah, he's on point, you know. So you always have to assume that this is your one and only opportunity. You may not do this job again. This is your addition. Yes, you may lose your voice forever tomorrow. Something could happen. This could be your last episode. So give it your absolute best. Today, when I was coming here, I looked at the clothes I was gonna wear. I said, let me go for blue. Because blue looks nice on television. There's something about technology which makes blue look nice. I said, let me wear my blue. So I can't, I intentionally wore this. You know, I knew I had a feeling you'd be wearing short sleeves. So I thought, well, if I can't wear shorts at this point, you wear three-quarters. Yes. Yeah. So so so do it with your Vim and keep the standards high. Because if he gave a bad, a poor sermon didn't wasn't well prepared. That person who is seeing for the first time will say, ah, it be the guy, be that. Oh I think he's overhyped. Yeah. Because today, me are not seeing a show. You know, so do the work, do it well. You don't know who is listening. Uh-huh. You know, you don't know who is listening, you don't know who is watching. But oh, I mean, why should I give off my worst when I can give off my best?

SPEAKER_00 1:27:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:46

Because excellence is a daily choice. Completely. Most people think excellence is something you attain after. It's a daily choice.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:53

No, it's every day, every day. You're doing it all the time. Yeah. If you study all these great footballers, great musicians. Great artists, but they are they are working all the time on their listen. I saw one documentary of Cristiano Ronaldo where he was practicing free kicks and then corner free kicks and just being in the right place at the right time to score goals. So they had this exercise, they had this clip where his teammate is at the corner, he's delivering corners to him, and Ronaldo is meeting the corners and scoring. And then after a couple of tries, Ronaldo says, it was an indoor pitch. Ronaldo says, turn the lights off.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:40

So just as a guy kicks the corner kick, the lights go off. Ronaldo still finds the ball.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:46

Nice. He wants to practice being in the right space even without the biggest.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:50

But then without seeing so now it means your ears have to be on point. You have to judge where the ball is. You have to hear movement and see what's happening. Do the calculations. And he still met the ball. Yeah. You know, I said, yes, this is it. These uh boxers who go and do sprints by the beach, it's not for nothing. You run, you run with resistance so that on the day wind resistance, the sand resistance. Yeah. Um, the fire service, I drive in front of their their training grounds around Lavender Hill um almost every day. They say hard on the training ground, easy on the field. It's for their war. Yeah. So the training ground is where you sweat. So that it looks easy on the day, but it's because you've done all the hard work that nobody cares to see. You know?

SPEAKER_01 1:29:38

And most people don't see that. When they see the final work, they actually think it's easy. No, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:44

They don't see all the training that they should go back to the old videos. They should go to go and see your first videos, go and see my first videos. Yeah. Then you realize that, oh, Charlie, so this is what happened. You can see the growth, you know, but don't look at the final destination and then say, hey, Charlie, I want to be like this. Yeah. There's one thing that can some Ghanaian youth say, uh, I don't know when they still say it, but I used to hear it a lot. Um, so how are you? So um I'm good. What what are what are your plans for the future? Oh, I want to be better than you. I say, good luck.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:16

Are you willing to put in the work?

SPEAKER_05 1:30:19

I was discussing with my brother Victor. How there's some this there's a lot of envy in the in the world of arts, you know, and some of that envy, I don't even know where it's coming from, but I understand it. You know, so I'll meet somebody, uh, we'll be talking, then he says, Ah, you have the same name, say, same name as Victor Day. You see, you're related to you. I say it's my my brother. I said, Hey, Charlie, that guy. Charlie, how I want to be better than that guy. And then the whole conversation becomes very uncomfortable. And you can realize that they're coming from a place of competition and unnecessary rivalry. You know, so I was chatting with Victor. This is a guy who one day I went to his house in the cantonments. I entered the room, and the guy was practicing something. And I tell you, Richie, he saw my eyes, or he saw me. I thought he saw me. He just kept on practicing for like nine minutes straight, and I was just there. Then I kind of raised my voice and said, Coshi. Ah, you've been here? He spoke. Thank you. What was he working on? Just some wrist movement that he went and did some research on. He spent a month working on how to even touch the keyboard so it gave some effect. He was he spent, he said, he spent a month doing that. A month, just wrists, nobody play anything, just wrist action. How are you going to be competing with somebody like that? Somebody who started playing piano when he was two. So my father used to put him on his lap while he was playing. And then my father realized that when this small boy is showing interest in the keyboard. So my dad thinks, okay, why don't I teach him? So he shows him, okay, this is C. Okay, this is D. This is E. Show me C. This is the born into it. Yes. Show me C. So he learned this thing before he could even read A B C D. Okay. He knew where C was on the piano. So this the man is going to be 46 this year. He started when he was two. That's 44 years of hard work. Yeah. You know, still practicing, still teaching, still composing, still learning, still trying to improve. If you do it well, you get invited to the big tables.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:38

And people don't understand this. You know, when you are trying to tell people that it's hard work, resilience, intentionality, discipline that gets you. That they say, Oh, show me the way. But that is the way you just want to work on it because it's hard work.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:52

And the thing comes disguised as hard work.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:54

You know, as I'm doing masterminds, I love masterminds so much, but I haven't stopped all the other things I'm doing. Yes. So I know that when it's time for masterminds, like I say, I'm coming to interview Kafui. I need to find hours researching on him watching the videos that he's done, like understanding him so I can have a good conversation. That's the work. Or he'll come here and the conversation will be flat. Yes. And there's no point.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:21

Then who benefits nobody benefits. Thank you. So it's just do the work, do it well. Do the work, do it well. That's it. And put in the work. It's not a microwave effect. No. It's a slow roast. Yes. You know, slow roast. You're roasting an elephant. You know, it's not a small firewave with roast elephant, though.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:38

It's a huge beast. That's why we are lacking wealth building, yeah. Especially with this generation, because I always say that social media has made people think success comes overnight.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:50

Yeah, it's very quick. Yeah. Now A has made it worse. Oh you put the prompt in there. And you can get it right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:57

Yeah. But AI can't do the work for you.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:00

No, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:01

AI is supposed to be an amplifier.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:03

That's it.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:03

So to amplify whatever level you are at. Yes. So if you're at one, it will amplify it to three.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:08

So you need to go to 80. You can amplify it to 90. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:12

Thank you. You need to learn to ask better questions. Thank you. Yes, AI is about questions now. Yes, ask better questions, then you get better results.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:18

I always tell people the way you use AI is not the way I use AI.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:21

It's completely different. Completely. You know, that's it. So I hope people are listening. Yeah, it's not a fast get up and go ready to eat kind of mentality. No, you've got to build the thing. And it over time, over time. Time is the force multiplier.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:40

It's time.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:41

Time times effort. Ah, that's it. It's the multiplier. But if you want to do it quickly, good luck to you. No, because I was watching your channel. The last time I checked your channel was about a month ago. And you were at 33,000 or something. Then I checked again, you are like 43,000.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:57

Yeah, it's growing. I like it. Yeah. Because it's it's it's just the fact that this year we said we're going to do two videos every month, every week. Last year we were doing on and off some day. Weeks we'll push. Next week we'll be off. So you know what? And then at the end of last year, we sat down with my team. So, you know what? Let's get this thing every Monday, every Friday without fail.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:22

That's it. Another one is dropping today. Today is Monday. So yeah, why don't drop?

SPEAKER_01 1:35:26

And you see, even your professionalism with this interview, guys. So let me tell you, when I reached out to him, he instantly agreed. Now I planned on reminding you three hours to time. Yes. Four hours to time. He messaged me and asked me, Are we still on? I was like, I like that.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:42

We're going, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:43

I was waiting for him to arrive at 11. So sitting here. So next thing I hear is 10:35. We said a couple days.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:52

Yes, we don't waste anybody's time. Exactly. We don't waste anybody's time. Charlie, uh, interview. Okay. Check my thing. What day? What time? Let's go.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:02

Let's go. Excellence, no matter what. Let's go. My grandfather.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:05

I'm only repaying a f I in you, you interview. I interviewed you. So it's karma coming back. Yeah. Why do I say no?

SPEAKER_01 1:36:12

So, and that's the that's the thing people don't understand. So, for instance, if when you were interviewing me, I had been difficult, I had been late, I'd been stressful. How would I? Yeah, you would also feel like, oh, let me not give my call to this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:23

So you say your grandfather was saying something.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:25

I said, my grandfather said something very interesting. He said, Let me let me translate that. So, as then, if what you are very good at is cutting fufu.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:40

Cut it well. That's it. One day they will ask, who's the best fufu cutter? And they will call you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:47

That's just his remix of the Michelangelo. They say, if you're gonna street this, if you're gonna be a street sweeper, be the best. Street sweeper. I thought that was Martin Luther King or who said it. Be the best. People must wonder and say, Wow, who swept these streets? Yeah. Then they will mention your name. Then there's a brand. Yeah, be the best.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:06

And this world that we live in, you see, everybody has a role to play. Oh, yeah. And sometimes we think one person's role is more important than the other. So let's say maybe somebody is coming here to Tigon and oh, they're coming to see Richie. Oh, yes, Richie's the boss, all that kind of thing. But when they get there, the cleaner didn't clean the front properly. Or they they left the bathroom very bad. And the whole place stinks. It doesn't matter how good the interview was, or they'll walk away thinking, oh, I don't want to be around this. You know, we don't understand how important every person's job is. So always do your best. 100%. And you will be rewarded for that a hundred times.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:50

Recently I went to um um I went to a tourist attraction. Beautiful place. I mean, they tell you about the sites, beautiful. But the place that I was going to stay in didn't match up to the the the sites around. Yeah. I didn't stay. End of story.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:05

There's a there's a restaurant that I love their food, and I stopped going there because of their bathroom.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:10

End of story. Yeah. I'll tell you a bathroom story. We're in the UK. We're UK. So the the Wade, Nigel and Christine Wade. Nigel was a journalist. Christine was a teacher. We first met them when we were in China. They were our neighbors in China when the seventh floor of uh where we lived. And when we got to China, my father took us first to a Chinese school.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:33

So in a year's time, we're speaking Chinese.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:35

Oh, nice, you speak Chinese. I'll come for lessons.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:38

Everything has iterated, half-life. Serious. Then one day we came home and we started talking about how Chemmao, who was the leader, was like some kind of a god or something. My father said, What? These people are trying to program his little black boys. So he took us out of that school, put us in another international school run by some Bangladeshi woman that wanted to do work well. So he took us out of that school. And then one day, when he was leaving home, he saw Mrs. Wade, Christine, with some little chairs going into her house. So what's going on here? Curiosity. So she's setting up a school. Enrolled my sons immediately. So me and my big brother were enrolled in the school. And uh so we went to school. Then all my all all so I'm the number two. So my elder brother Senna, me, and then Senor, we all went to that school. Then we came back to Ghana 1980, 1984, back in the UK. Christine and Nigel are back in the UK, and now Victor also entered goes to her school. So now all of us have been to her school. When we got to the UK, the Waids were coming to visit us. So we said yes, no problem. They came. But when they came, the woman went to the kitchen. So she's in the kitchen helping my mother. The gentleman, the husband, says, Victor, my father was Victor. Can I use the bathroom, please? Go to the bathroom. Can they stay? Have a nice evening. They go home. When they went home, my father said, Do you see what happened when they came to the house? The woman made a bean line for the kitchen. The man went to the bathroom. If the standards were low, they would just make an excuse. Oh, we've left the oven on at home. And we are going. We are going. They won't come back. Kitchen and bathroom, key places in anybody's house. Yeah. Attention to detail. They want to know where the food is coming from. So they went to the kitchen. Where was the food exiting to? They want to know. They want to know.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:38

The two concerns. In and out.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:42

Entrance exit. Yeah. You know, but they did it so understated in a very understated politish way. Yeah. But they were checking. True. Charlie. Trust in God, but lock your car. Yeah. Yeah. They've invited us for dinner, but can we check the standards? We've known them since 1975.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:00

But hey, let's still check the standards. And we don't know people are checking our standards every single day.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:04

100%.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:05

The way we treat them, the way we treat other people around us. You know, there are celebrities who I say are so nice to me, but I watch the way they talk to the filling station attendant or the way the person like selling something to them. You can see them like no.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:19

It's not gonna work. Yeah, people are always watching. You see, yeah, they'll check your bathroom, they'll check your toilet. I'm going to start doing it. Yeah, go check. Is the place okay? If I have a stomach, civil war in my stomach. Can that place support the civil war? Can it support the civil war? Yeah, you know, yeah. So that's it.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:39

Kavide, do something for me, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:41:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:41

I want you to take that camera, yes, and imagine that you could stretch your hand through the camera and drop one powerful mindset that could shift the person there to become a mastermind. What would it be?

SPEAKER_05 1:41:56

You're more powerful than you think. You have the tools with you to make a difference. You don't always have to look for support. You can think of you as the support to somebody else. You don't always have to beg for a handout and think that you are less than you are, because you have a lot. And in this era that we are in, you have all the tools also to get your message out there. You know, from crafting the message to distributing it, and distribution is key to get your ideas, to spread your ideas. So there's a lot more that you can do with what you have. But the key thing is to start if you have a beautiful car with a nice key, but you don't put the key into the condition and turn it, the car is gonna sit there. Oh, I have a car, but you're not moving it. So you have to start, and the start is always gonna be jerky. But that's how it is. I mean, remember how you started walking, if you can remember, or if your parents could tell you how you started to walk. You walked, you stumbled, you fell, you looked for a table, you grasped one, and you did two steps, three steps, you fell, three, four, five, and now you're running. You know, but everything big always started out small. Even you, the human being. You started out and you needed a microscope to see where the egg fuses with the sperm. But without small beginnings, there can't be great stuff. And for things to happen, you have to start. So the best time to start is now. If not now, when? If not you, who? That's it.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:32

That's so powerful. If not now, when? If not you, who? Please. I need a t-shirt. That's it. Thank you, thank you so much. You know, it's a pleasure, man. Your mind is powerful, and I'm so glad that you can share. You know, you're always asking the questions. Yes, I'm glad that now you can share your mind with other people too so they can follow you. I love it.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:52

I always wonder why don't more people ask me questions. So it's nice to sit in the seats and get questions asked at you, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:59

Because you have to do more interviews. You have to, I mean, you have to be interviewed more. Yes, you know, you have to share your mindset one time.

SPEAKER_05 1:44:05

I'm open. I mean, if I'm I'm available, I do it. Yeah, knowledge is not like bread where when you share it, it disappears. You see, it actually expands. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. So let's go. Thank you, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:14

It's a pleasure, man. And I really hope that as you watch this, you are two steps closer to being the mastermind that you deserve 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.