Konnected Minds Podcast with Derrick Abaitey

From understanding that you cannot just wake up and become the MP for Kasoa or expect that buying Tom Tom for somebody will make you successful to learning the brutal truth that building wealth requires going through a process and buying shares then forgetting about them for one year to be amazed by the returns, and why the harsh reality about money is that if you're not disciplined you cannot grow money and you cannot keep money which is exactly why young people need to cut down expenses like the NSS personnel who sees their boss buying 100 cedis jollof and wants to do the same when the boss has worked hard to be where he is while the NSS person is barely making enough to survive let alone spend 100 cedis on lunch, the financial literacy educator who teaches people through 30 Seats Challenge that saving money is hard and the level of discipline required for a teenager to save money is something we don't speak about enough because when you're 17 years old working in London teaching piano for 18 pounds an hour on Wednesdays doing three or four hours but never saving any money it proves that even when money comes easy it's hard to save, the young man who got 30 pounds a week from the government just for going to school but never saved anything probably sending it back home for siblings proving that without discipline and a clear purpose money disappears into Mx90s trainers and immediate gratification, the reality that in Ghana temptation is everywhere because when you're sitting in a trotro with 500 cedis in your pocket the woman selling chewing gum comes around the one selling polo comes around almost pushing it down your nose to buy it and once you get off you see roadside sellers selling plantain and by the time you get home food is not ready so you buy from the seller right outside making it incredibly difficult to save, the wisdom that because it's hard not a lot of people do it and that's the reason why people remain poor because the way people become wealthy is by being disciplined and only 5% just 5% of your habit just being a little bit more disciplined than the average person and you are winning, the phone case seller who walks into the studio without a shop but carries what she sells wherever she goes proving you don't need a shop or big capital to start a business because when someone teaches her that struggling savers just need to be 5% above the average person it's imprinted in her mind and she goes home and works within that 5% showing the power of mindset shifts, the young entrepreneur who explains that people don't start businesses because they want to start big when actually you can provide a service wherever you find yourself and clock it making 4,000 cedis profit selling phone cases without needing a storefront or massive investment, the challenge of changing mindsets when you see someone like Japan Can Be who sold six of his properties and went through the process but a normal person watching the podcast will see it as he's trying to bluff instead of asking what can I give up to make it like him proving we need to let go of our old ways of doing things, the memory of mothers saving money in handkerchiefs inside headdresses before learning about microfinances and growing their savings methods showing that your mindset needs to be able to change things because we do not sit on only ourselves we learn from people around us, the nostalgia of lifting up grandma's blue sheet on her table to find coins never more than three cedis underneath because she didn't have a bank account and mobile money was not available in her time but that's how she saved her money teaching the foundation of discipline, the stepfather who saved his money in the ceiling working as a farmer and chemical seller being smart about hiding his cash until one day somebody went to steal it.

Host: Derrick Abaitey

From understanding that savings alone is not enough to learning how to buy shares that can turn 10,000 cedis into 100,000 cedis in one year, and why the brutal truth about building wealth is that young people don't know the difference between shares and treasury bills when treasury bills are regulated by the government giving you fixed returns like water in a cup that's always there when you drink but shares are buying a part of a company like MTN or Gold or Ben's oil palm plantation where if the company does well your shares do well but you cannot determine when it's going to rise or fall, the financial literacy educator who breaks down Maslow's hierarchy explaining that self actualization is where people invest big time into shares that work for them and they do not necessarily have to do something else proving that even when Dr. McDonald says he's not where he wants to be we see him as self actualized but to him he is not showing the difference between social status and perception, the young woman teaching people through 30 Seats that in the typical Ghanaian environment if you die it is what is said about you after the death that matters because if you only had money to take care of yourself and your family and extended family but die right now they would say you didn't leave any property proving it is money it is money not just words, the reality that people comment in DMs asking why will I save my next of kin will come and chop the money when actually you need to work hard to change that perception and leave something behind, the process of buying shares starting with saving then taking a portion of that saving to investment using IC wealth app or Black Star app where you register get a CSD account buy the shares and move forward, the top three shares young people can invest in today being MTN shares which she personally invests in, Gold shares that went from 1,250 cedis last year to now being scarce, and Ben's oil palm plantation which is doing very well, the shocking revelation that one company appreciated by 1,000% meaning if you had saved 10,000 cedis last year now you're making 100,000 cedis from buying the shares proving the power of patient investment, the wisdom that nobody gets huge money in one minute and you can't just wake up and be the MP for Kasoa or expect that buying Tom Tom for somebody will make you successful because it's a process you need to go through, the discipline that shares teach you because if you're not disciplined you cannot grow money and you cannot keep money which is why young people need to cut down expenses like the NSS personnel who sees their boss buying 100 cedis jollof and wants to do the same when the boss has worked hard to be where he is, the confession from the host about working at 17 years old in London teaching a lady's son piano for 18 pounds an hour on Wednesdays doing three or four hours but never saving any money proving that the level of discipline required for a teenager to save money is something we don't speak about enough, the temptation of spending money on Mx90s trainers at 17 instead of saving showing how hard it is for young people to resist immediate gratification, the government money of 30 pounds a week just for going to school that was never saved or invested but probably sent back home for siblings proving that even when money comes easy without work it's hard to save unless you have a clear purpose and discipline.

Host: Derrick Abaitey

From interviewing coconut sellers making 300 to 500 cedis profit daily to teaching young people the brutal truth that if you do not want to be poor you have to understand that most of us are stuck on physiological needs of food shelter and clothing thinking that once we have money for these basics we are done when actually a coconut seller multiplying 300 cedis by five days by one month is making more than someone doing a white collar job in an office space proving there are no businesses better than another business but our minds are set to think certain businesses mean you are doing well while other businesses make people think you are joking when you are actually the one making real money on the streets, the financial literacy expert who has always been a money person not in a bad way but loves money because money makes a lot of things possible like buying a car or doing other things and started an accessory business right from university understanding that growing up as a typical African child you are not given money because the money is either handled by your father or given to your mother who gives it to you and even when you have to buy certain things you have to follow an adult because school fees was never handed over but you went to the bank with your father or mother just to be sure the fees was paid, the young woman who learned how to handle money by herself when entering university space where suddenly you are given your money because you are an adult kind of but made the painful mistake of lending her school fees to a friend who used it for betting and the money just got lost explaining why a lot of parents wouldn't want to give money to their children because if a friend mishandles the money who do you run to and it will be so sad if your parents struggled to get the money for you and you just mishandle it, the lesson that no money is enough which really struck her when watching an interview where someone big said he's not where he wants to be proving that even successful people feel they need more and you have to break out of being poor by venturing into businesses and understanding the lies we have been told about the way we should make money because there are businesses that immediately you mention people think you are doing well and other businesses where people do not even have time to believe it works because to them you are just on the streets, the educator from 30 Seats one of West Africa's leading digital platforms on financial literacy and youth empowerment who believes people can start businesses without money because she started by going to a friend's shop at Kasoa who sells phone accessories and after SHS the guy really trusted her so she would take phone cases go to school sell them make her profit and give him back the money proving that trust and starting small works, the conversation split into four parts taking you from not being able to save to saving a lot of money to invest covering the top three shares that young people can invest in today where one company appreciated by 1000% so if you had saved 10,000 cedis last year now you're making 100,000 cedis and why saving money is hard because the level of discipline required for a teenager to save money is something we don't speak about enough when a lot of people spend money on the wrong things but the most important thing is not how much you are saving but the discipline and the consistency.

Host: Derrick Abaitey

From breaking down the psychology of money and savings to teaching young people how to escape the betting trap and start real businesses with just 496 cedis, and why the brutal truth about why most people stay poor is because they only focus on the physiological needs of food shelter and clothing asking why do I need more money won't I die and let my next of kin come and enjoy when actually the money you're using for betting could buy a sachet of pure water that you sell and make profit and thrive because there are no two ways about betting it is wrong and addictive with people sliding into DMs telling stories about what they're going through and how they cannot stop, the social entrepreneur running 30 Seats Challenge teaching people to save one cedi on January first then two cedis on January second adding one cedi each following day so by the end of January you have saved 496 cedis which is enough to start a business but people have the misconception that you save one cedi every day when that's not how you get to 66,000 cedis by the end of the year, the young educator who explains that 496 cedis can start a phone accessory business because one phone case goes between 40 to 80 cedis so you can buy five cases wholesale or retail depending on the price and trust because the price they give a different person is not the same price they give you if you are trustworthy and you can sell it with 30 cedis profit especially now that iPhone 16 Pro Max cases are trending and people even buy iPhone 16 Pro Max camera protectors to put on their iPhone 7 Plus to make it look like the latest phone, the problem with society being so full of itself tied to social abilities where people bet with money they don't have and the benefits they get from betting are wasted and it's so addictive they cannot stop which is why the platform educates people that for the sake of your life and your future and your generation stop betting save the money start something small, the savings strategy that teaches you to cut down certain expenses and save for your future knowing that savings is just for a particular time before you move to investing, the reality that before you move from physiological needs to safety needs to love and belongingness it might look like a little step but it's not in money because if you have 50 cedis to cater for food shelter and clothing that 50 cedis is not going to cater for your safety needs when illness strikes because no hospital charges 50 cedis and when you move to love and belongingness with a wife and children what's 50 cedis going to do for you, the breakdown of Maslow's hierarchy showing that people only start thinking about investment at the esteem level after they've catered for physiological needs safety needs and love and belongingness because now they have to take care of themselves and their future before reaching self actualization where they invest big time in shares that work for them and they do not necessarily have to do something else, the opportunity for young people even in SHS or university to start growing cash flow by learning selling skills whether using social media or apps or being able to convince and speak to people because the only thing you need to learn is how to sell.

Host: Derrick Abaitey

He started as a BlackBerry campus ambassador. No salary. No guarantee. Just a free phone and a chance to serve.

Fifteen years later, they made him CEO of Red Africa.

Ayodeji Razaq is one of Africa's most quietly powerful business minds - co-founder of The People Company, CEO of Red Africa, and a man who has spent his entire career doing something most people refuse to do: letting himself be used.

In this episode, Ayodeji breaks down the uncomfortable truths about entrepreneurship, employment, money, leadership, and what it actually takes to build something that lasts in Africa - without holding anything back.

What we cover:

This is not the regular success story. This is the real one.

🎟️ Konnected MInds Live Kumasi, Sept 9th. https://www.konnectedmindslive.com/

Guest: Ayodeji Razaq

IG: https://www.instagram.com/dejizaq/

Host: Derrick Abaitey

IG: https://www.instagram.com/derrick.abaitey

YT: https://www.youtube.com/@DerrickAbaitey

Join Konnected Academy: https://www.triibe.io/konnected-academy

🎟️ Konnected MInds Live Kumasi, Sept 9th. https://www.konnectedmindslive.com/

Listen to the podcast on:

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From selling phone cases without owning a phone to building multiple income streams while still in school, and why the brutal truth about making money is that you need to be trusted because coming by money is a very difficult thing to do and if somebody has set up a business and you want to start yours by feeding from theirs you need to build that kind of trust for somebody to willingly give you something to go and sell and bring the capital back which is exactly how the journey started taking stock from someone's shop selling it and returning the profit before moving into iPhones where a campus friend gave one iPhone 7 on trust and even though the profit was just 300 cedis because of not knowing how to navigate the phone it was enough to keep moving forward, the young entrepreneur who manages a mother's fashion school handling sales marketing and social media analytics while still carrying phone cases in the bag and in the car ready to sell at any moment because at every point in your life the money you started with might not be enough to carry you to the top so you need to grow and even in this studio there are phone cases ready to go because leaving an imprint in someone's mind matters even if they don't buy today, the determination and mindset shift that is the number one skill people need to learn if they want to grow their money or make money because if you want to make money and you don't have a particular mindset towards making money you're still going to be there stuck in the same place watching businesses doing well on the streets but preferring to be under air condition taking home 500 cedis a month rather than being in the scorching sun taking home 500 cedis profit a day, the social status trap that keeps people from entrepreneurship where having a university degree or master's or PhD makes people think selling coconuts means you failed life when actually you're making more money than them but they fail to look at the aftermath and only see the outside which is why coconut sellers around 37 and parliament house wear suits to work purely because of social status and packaging, the coconut seller in a suit with beautiful makeup dressed neatly selling coconuts creating a higher probability that customers choose them over others because packaging puts you out there and some coconuts are served in nice bottles with straws making customers upset when their regular seller doesn't have a straw increasing the probability they move to the next person who does, the 30 Seats platform that focuses on savings because too many people misuse their money spending on watchy egg willy salad plantain and sausage all protein all at once knowing they don't have money for the next day teaching people to cut down spending and expenses and talking highly against betting because the society is so full of itself tied to social abilities and people bet with money they don't have sliding into DMs telling stories about what they're going through from betting which is so addictive they cannot stop, the 30 Seats Challenge that started first January where you save one cedi the first day two cedis the second day three cedis the third day adding one cedi each following day so by the end of January you have saved 496 cedis which is enough to start a business and people have the misconception that you save one cedi every day but that's not how you get to 66,000 cedis by the end of the year.

Host: Derrick Abaitey

From importing surgical masks during COVID to building multiple businesses across continents, and why the brutal truth about getting unstuck is that you can't just sit there like a pigeon waiting for someone to put you on because there's something you can put yourself on when you first stand up trust your guts and go out and surround yourself with sharks who are successful people with problems that need solving and every person on earth has a problem even God has issues trying to make children on earth not sin which is why preachers arise providing solutions to God's problems and that's why He blesses them, the young entrepreneur who discovered that to import a whole box of surgical masks during COVID cost less than a dollar but one single mask was selling for 20 cedis in Ghana proving the system does not support local produce in any sector whether health or agriculture because local products are always more expensive than imported ones, the businessman who brought masks into Ghana and watched the price drop from 20 cedis to 5 cedis then 2 cedis then 1 cedi while still making profit showing how predatory pricing works when someone enters the market with better connections and fair pricing, the founder of Mahema and Viet Star brands who considers himself a custodian of people's money because people give him money to do business with them for them and he receives calls from people in Ghana and beyond across Africa in Congo who come with their fathers wanting to do business but don't know what to do with their money, the shock who treats clients and partners fairly making all the people who have investments in his company multi millionaires who have got a lot of money and are very successful but still have problems because it is never enough for humans we need more which translates to the local dialect as even raising the sea, the wisdom that when you find that shock and you find his problem trust me it works because you're already selling and it is working when you don't have anybody younger than you who has given you money because you need to know what you're going to do with that, the advice to people who feel stuck and don't know what to do which means you don't have any source of income you don't have a job you don't even have anything like you're just there like a pigeon saying Charlie put me on put me on put me on when there's something you can put yourself on, the strategy that somebody must know somebody definitely somebody knows somebody so go step up try and build connections and when you meet a shock find out their problem personal problem or business problem because there's no successful person on this planet that doesn't have a problem, the approach to not quickly just jump on the shock saying hello my name is but instead take your time it may take you being like a month two three months because people like him when he meets new people he takes time before he gets them in and it mostly they never even come because they haven't given him a solution to something that he's facing, the value you need to bring to the shock you meet so when you get out there in search of something for yourself and you get the opportunity one time pick and ask of their problems or just try and find out in conversation what the challenge is even if you don't have the solution because once you hear the challenge your action and attempt in trying to help them will already win their trust, the relationship building where you nature it saying hello hi were you able to get this done because trust me we need each other you need someone's shoulders to stand on someone needs to hold your hands someone needs to pull you and those people they need to know the value of why they're pulling you.

From losing everything in three months to understanding why Ghana's rice business is controlled by cartels, and why the brutal truth about entrepreneurship is that when you lose over a million dollars because you trusted the wrong people and tried to help Ghanaians by giving them rice on credit thinking anyone could be a rice seller and make money, you realize you were just being robbed by sharks who knew exactly how to solve your problem of needing people to sell your rice but ended up biting you instead leaving you with no revenue no recovery rice gone company in debt and yourself in debt, the young entrepreneur who brought goods and met new people who said they were businessmen but they were actually the bad sharks who took advantage of his desire to work with Ghanaians and supply rice to anyone who wanted to sell, the business owner who thought a credit based system was a good idea where people could just sell make money bring it come take another one until he encountered dishonesty everywhere and all the rice and all the things went down in just three months losing everything, the reality that taking legal proceedings sounds good until you face Ghana's legal system which deserves much respect but is very slow and frustrating and you need to spend a lot of money to go for what you want, the recovery of only about 5% of what was lost with some people still being pursued by authorities to this day since 2022 for something that happened long ago while he has already moved on, the affliction that brought him back to his senses making him humble and going back to his roots where he began saying no I would rise but now I have the experiences, the year it took to plan the comeback because he didn't just want to jump back in after knowing how to import something and knowing the real buyers and the real people who want to do real business, the phone call to his suppliers over there where he had maintained good relationships proving that your network matters when you fall, the dishonesty in the country that every entrepreneur in Ghana knows making it so difficult to trust people that you're working with, the mentality that employees think they could build a house inside your business when they don't even know how you made it and the first thing that comes to an average Ghanaian person's mind when given an opportunity in that business field is steal, the man in Kumasi at Lancaster having breakfast when someone approached talking about how his employees put him in debt of about half a million cedis because they said they were paying the taxes but were not paying it and there were letters from GRA, the three minute conversation where another man joined in somewhere in Tema with the same story about employees killing his business proving this is endemic in the country, the shirt shop with a sign saying employees needed because the owner had sacked all of them for the same thing, the past five years where out of all the new businesses created maybe only 10% are left and 90% have gone out with one of the main factors being the people we work with, the philosophy brought up in homes that says a successful person is probably an occultist making people think whenever they get the chance to work with a successful person the first thing is hurry up and get out grab what you can and exit, the first year of doing business in Ghana where he sacked about 13 people and had people in his construction business stealing cement and being sold, the cement being kept in the bush behind the studio when they were building because there are buyers who will buy stolen goods, the comment that says oh it's because you don't pay them well when actually the price is set and they come and mention their price and you pay them so why are they still stealing.

Host: Derrick Abaitey

From losing over a million dollars in a rice business gone wrong to understanding the brutal reality of predatory pricing and foreign dominance in Ghana's food import sector, and why the harsh truth about entering the rice business is that you can't just walk in with a hundred thousand dollars thinking it's easy money because the moment you show up with your shipment the established players who own 12 brands each will scrub their prices down to cost price and even below just to frustrate you out of the market selling rice at 200 cedis when it's impossible unless they didn't pay duty or got the rice for free, the entrepreneur who faces predatory pricing where competitors intentionally lose money just to keep new players out of the market cutting prices so low that first time importers are forced to sell below cost and lose their capital before eventually quitting the business allowing the big players to raise prices again and recover everything they lost kicking you out, the business owner who warns that 80% of rice importers in Ghana are foreigners from the Middle East India and Lebanon creating a serious concern about food security when the country's food supply of rice sugar and other imports are mainly in the hands of foreigners not because they're not helping the economy or providing jobs but because no Ghanaian businessmen can survive in an environment where the people in the companies are robbing Ghanaians themselves, the realization that these foreign business owners have been here for generations and actually have Ghanaian passports and speak Twi so fluently that if you don't see them and only hear them on the microphone you might think it's a Ghanaian speaking proving how deeply rooted they are in the system, the imported rice versus locally produced rice debate where imported rice is cheaper than locally produced rice because the cost of production in Ghana is so high and all borne by the farmer while in other countries the government provides machinery fertilizers tractors and combined harvesters for free as grants supporting their agribusiness, the farmer in Ghana who has to pay for the tractor buy gasoline rent the combined harvester plow the floor and bear all those costs alone ending up with a product that's not even as fine but still highly priced compared to imported rice making it impossible for any rational Ghanaian consumer to choose local when there's Ghanaian rice at an exhibition selling for 450 cedis while imported rice is way less, the thought of growing rice in Ghana that died after research showed it would result in losses because government promises to help the agri sector never come and friends who own farms in Volta region get no help and have to call for assistance just to sell their rice, the shocking data that the entire rice harvested in Ghana is not enough to feed the people of Greater Accra for two weeks yet people still complain about not having buyers because it's not about demand it's about pricing since farmers spent a lot of money to produce and are suffering, the solution that would affect a lot of importers but could work if the government pushes an agenda for 70% consumption of local produce and 30% importation but only if the government also supports the farmers because otherwise importers would just quit and switch to farming to gain from government support, the threat to the economy when the people who control how much food comes into Ghana are foreigners who are helping the economy yes but building theirs even better sending all the money back to their homes creating a situation where if they decide they're done and leave Ghana will go hungry.

Host: Derrick Abaitey

From watching poor families struggle while having an awakening at 12 years old that no one is coming to save you to building six businesses before turning 30, and why the brutal truth about entrepreneurship is that if a thought makes you nervous it's worth pursuing because people who fear money don't get it and the things that scare you the most are exactly where your success is hiding waiting for you to be brave enough to reach for it, the young man who spent time with his grandmother selling beads in Fishy past learning that her generation would work regardless of conditions for five cedis a day to provide for their families while his father's generation would work but could switch jobs and his generation resigns when things get uncomfortable and Gen Z doesn't want to work at all, the first among six siblings who got an awakening around 12 or 13 years old realizing that no one was coming to save his family so while his siblings stayed home to play he would go with his grandmother to sell beads the waist beads and king beads that she made into chains and wrist beads, the grandson whose grandma was the one with the money in the family making beads but also having farms and animals like pigs and sheep that people would buy bringing income and always taking him along to sell teaching him the foundation of business, the pattern that grandmas and entrepreneurs share something special because those who spend time with grandma like him and others become business people proving there's something about that generation that understood work and sacrifice, the 18 year old missionary who spent two years on the streets of Lagos in Nigeria asking himself what next and didn't really believe so much in school because that's not the only way to get educated realizing school is just one of the best ways but not the only way, the young man who turned his Christian mission work into personal life lessons learning that if he could convince a stranger to leave their church and join a new church that was a big skill he could use in business and life, the philosophy that the thought that makes you nervous before you do it is exactly what you should do because that thought that comes to your mind that makes you think so much you get scared of it that is it go for it, the wisdom that if you're asking yourself questions about that thing that thought that has awakened you saying I need to do this I need to do that don't be scared because that thought you are scared of is where your success is, the shark mentality that if you are going for your dreams you are the shark of the ocean and sharks bite fishes but that doesn't mean they're bad sharks that's what they are destined to be they need to survive, the line between being the shark and being a bad shark which is going for what you want the right way by utilizing the resources in terms of people around you to get what you want but the right way, the connector who knows person A has something and person B needs that thing so he gets it from person A and gives it to person B making both happy but gaining more than each of them because that's how you conquer, the choice between being a shark or a shrimp in this world because shrimps get eaten so you have to decide which one you want to be, the business starter who had zero money when he started but just had a vision and a dream and got people to give him money that he wasn't even sure would be a success because he found out the problems people have and provided solutions, the problem solver who understands that someone's problem is they have a lot of money and don't know what to do with it so you go find a solution to that person's problem because a person who provides solutions to problems is a successful person, the reality that all the successful people in the world have always provided solutions to problems without actually using their own resources it's just people they provide a solution to the problem someone has.

Host: Derrick Abaitey